Part 1 – Origins
Gotham City Sky Tram…
A six foot two Caucasian male with black hair and blue eyes sat on the tram by himself.
It wasn't a normal sky tram, it was octagonal in shape, made almost completely of bulletproof glass.
The TV above him flashed another headline, Gotham City's hottest reporter Vicky Vale came on, her head story went, "In other news, Gotham Billionaire Bruce Wayne has made no comment to the popular and frequent rumors of him running for the office of Mayor."
Bruce sighed, being Mayor of Gotham?
He loves and hates Gotham at the same time, the city had swallowed up so many things, and give him so much else.
Gotham's corruption had gone so deep the infection in the wound was almost incurable, the city's corruption had swallowed his parents, some of his friends, and one of his ex-girlfriends.
(Flashback)
He still remembered his parents' murder as if it were yesterday, he had seen his favorite movie in the theatres for the second time.
"I can't believe you insisted on going to see that movie again," Thomas Wayne said as he put his hand around his son's shoulder.
Of course, he was kidding, but Bruce looked up to defend himself as if his father had just scolded him, but before that could happen, Martha defended him.
"Stop it, Tom, you know Bruce loved that movie," Martha said.
"We're running late," Tom said as he checked the pocket watch his father gave him when he returned from Vietnam that his father gave him when he returned from Korea, he pointed to a single alley, "We'll cut through here."
"It's dark," Bruce said, "We can't go down there."
"Don't be afraid," Martha said, "We're here."
The three of them walked down the alley, Tom adjusted his suit as it started raining.
"It's starting to rain, let's hurry," Tom said as he sped up.
"Keep up Bruce," Martha said as she dragged Bruce along.
It was right then that he came out of the shadows, he wore a large dark brown trench coat, black shoes, pants, and shirt.
In his right hand was a .357 Ruger revolver, "Don't move!" He exclaimed.
"Easy," Tom said as he held up his hands, "There's no need for this."
"I want your money," he said.
"It's right here," Tom said as he went into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and handed it to the man.
The man snatched it from Tom's hand, and looked over at Martha, "Give me those," he said as he pointed to Martha's pearl necklace, Martha frantically tried to get the necklace off her neck, when Tom tried to help her, he shouted, "I SAID DON'T MOVE!"
He must have panicked because the gun when off, and Tom fell forward.
"DADDY!" Bruce shouted.
"TOM," Martha yelled, "OH GOD, TOM!"
"Shut up and give me the pearls," he said as he tried to grab the necklace.
"Get off me," Martha said as she swatted the man's hand away, and scratched him across the face, drawing blood, "RUN BRUCE!"
The second shot went off, and Martha fell on top of her husband.
"MOMMY!" Bruce yelled.
The man got the necklace off Martha's neck, and held the gun on Bruce, "Consider yourself lucky kid," he said, "See you later."
Bruce knelt there crying before a uniformed officer a few blocks away came running with his police-issued Sig-Sauer drawn.
The officer ran up to Bruce, "Hey," he said as he put his hand on Bruce's shoulder, and put away his pistol, he pointed at Tom and Martha, "These your parents," Bruce nodded, sniffling, "What's your name?"
"Bruce Wayne," Bruce said.
One hour later, the alleyway was a crime scene, and Detective Jim Gordon was the one assigned to the case.
Jim walked up to Bruce, "Bruce Wayne," He asked, Bruce nodded, he was wrapped in a towel, the rain had stopped, he was soaked, but he was primarily shaking because he was in shock, "My name is Jim," Jim sat next to Bruce, "I'm sorry about your parents. I know you don't want to talk, but it's the only way we're going to catch him."
"Why'd he do it, officer," Bruce asked, "Why?"
"I don't know," Jim said as he looked at the Gotham Skyline, "It's something about this town," Jim looked down at Bruce, "I promise you right now, I'm gonna find the man that did this."
Bruce threw himself against Jim, Jim simply wrapped his arm around Bruce.
The Gotham City Times had gotten a picture because the next morning as Bruce was back home, the Gotham City Times newspaper headline read, City Shocked! Wayne Parents Murdered! The front page of the paper had a picture of Bruce hugging Jim, and Jim hugging back, the tagline read, "Detective Sergeant Jim Gordon hugs Bruce Wayne, the sole survivor of the Wayne Family after a lone mugger gunned down his parents, Tom and Martha Wayne in an alleyway behind the Monarch Theatre.
(End Flashback)
That day was seared into Bruce's memory for the rest of his life, it was like a bad mistake he couldn't forget.
He still blamed himself for their deaths, he kept running it over and over again in his head, he knew there must have been something he could have done to stop him, but he couldn't find it.
The police caught the man, it took them ten years, when Bruce was in his sophomore year of high school, they didn't really get a confession out of him because he killed an Atlantic City police officer, and was gunned down himself.
The police, however, had no doubt in their minds it was him, Jim had tracked him down like a hawk when he and his partner went to arrest him, he resisted, and Jim shot him as he tried to flee.
Following the shooting, Jim found the room full of receipts, it took the police a week to sort through them, but they eventually came across a pawn shop ticket from 1999, one week after Bruce's parents' murder for a 20 karat pearl necklace, and a .357 Ruger.
The tracked the ticket to a pawn shop in Virginia, the necklace and the gun had yet to be sold.
The police showed the gun, the necklace, and a picture of the man to Bruce, he confirmed the gun was the one he saw that night and ballistics confirmed it was the gun. The necklace was unquestionably his mother's, but the man in the picture didn't look like the man in the alleyway, then again it was ten years, Bruce was six then, and he was sixteen and it was 2009 when the man caught with the receipt died.
The case was considered closed, but Bruce wasn't satisfied.
Even as he went off to West Point to college, he couldn't get his parent's murder out of his head.
He graduated in four years as Valedictorian, and returned to Gotham City, he was 21 and had become the head of Wayne Enterprises, becoming the youngest Billionaire ever.
But growing dissatisfied with his life, his last resort was in a uniform, leaving the company in the hands of Lucius Fox, he shocked Gotham and America when he hung up his suit for a set of brass bars and an Army Uniform.
In 2015, he shipped out to Afghanistan in the 18th Engineering Brigade.
In 2018, at the age of 25, he was applied to the Green Beret School and passed with flying colors.
What set him in motion the events that would lead to him leaving the Green Berets was one deployment into a hostile situation.
A group of Army Rangers went down in a Knighthawk, and were stranded in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, Bruce's squad's job was to fly to Ghazni Province, find the Rangers stranded in the ancient ruins they went down in, call in extraction, and leave.
They would take a V-22 Osprey in, get the Rangers, or what was left of them, and hightail it to safety.
"Alright," Lieutenant Colonel John Wyatt said over the rumbling of the engines, "We just entered Ghazni Province! The Rangers on the ground are waiting for us! Our objective is to get them the hell out of there! He looked up at Bruce, "Wayne, you're on point?"
"Damn right I am sir," Bruce said.
"Good man," Wyatt said, "Grab your weapons! We're half an hour out."
Bruce grabbed his weapon from above his head, his weapon of choice was a WayneTech SCAR-L CQC 10-inch barrel version fitted with a Sightmark Mini Shot reflex sight, plus he always kept six fresh layers of duct tape tapped around the stock that he painted a black bat onto, and a piece of cloth wrapped around the forend so his hand wouldn't get burned if he had to remove his gloves.
His sidearm was a Colt 1911 with a blued finish, fake ivory grips, and the etching of a bat laser-engraved into the slide.
Twenty-five minutes later the red light went on symbolizing it was about time to go, but as it did go on, several holes appeared in the wall.
As the team dove to the ground, a small explosion shattered one of the windows, and Corporal Michael Lance codenamed 'Camelot' fell to the ground holding his stomach screaming, "I'M HIT!"
Bruce crawled over to Lance, "Hang on Lance," he said as he checked Lance's wounds.
"Am I gonna be ok sir?" Lance asked.
"Some tearing wounds," Bruce said, "So long as none of them hit your spine, you should be good!"
Bruce signaled the team's medic, 'Bandages' toward him.
"What've we got?" Bandages asked.
"Some tearing wounds," Bruce said, "Get him bandaged up!"
As Bandages wrapped the gauze around Lance's stomach as tight as he could, Bruce was handed his 1911 by his best friend since he had joined the unit, Staff Sergeant Nicolas (Nick) David Moore, but everyone in the squad called him 'Robin'.
"Excuse me, sir," Nick said as he held out Bruce's pistol, "You might need this."
"Thanks," Bruce said as he took the gun, slid it into his holster, and locked it in place.
As the back of the Osprey opened, the team rose to their knees, then the green light came on, and the team charged out the back.
The team made a jump from seven feet out the back of the Osprey and ran into cover.
Peeking out of cover, they could see the Rangers were pinned down, taking cover behind their chopper, and shooting at the hostiles just above them on a small, rocky hill.
"Range," Colonel Wyatt said as he pointed to the team's sniper, "What're we looking at?"
The team's sniper Jack Richardson, AKA Range pulled out his MacMillan TAC-338, aimed at the hostiles, held the middle-finger on his left hand down, and gestured twice: sixteen hostiles armed with AKMs, he then held up his thumb, index, and middle finger: three hostiles armed with RPKs, then held up one finger, formed a cup with his hand, and held it over his right eye: one hostile armed with a PSL sniper rifle.
"Wayne, Moore," Wyatt said, "You up for a little run?"
"Always," Bruce said as he turned toward Nick, and nodded.
Nick's main weapon was an M4A1 painted a very dark red with black accents with an attached M203 Grenade Launcher, a dual-stage flip-up scope, and he always kept a piece of dark green duct tape around the grip.
Bruce and Nick readied their weapons, and after Nick picked up the ammo crates full of M4 magazines, the two ran as fast as they could for the chopper.
As they arrived at the chopper, Bruce looked at the Rangers, "Heard you guys could use some help," Bruce said.
"You're Captain Wayne aren't you," the first Ranger said as he did a quick magazine change, "I hope you guys have full magazines in those guns! We're almost out!"
"We're here to correct that," Nick said as he opened the ammo cases to reveal the spare magazines.
As the Rangers gathered the magazines, Nick popped out from behind cover and fired at the hostiles before seeing a hostile pull an RPG, "Oh shit," Nick exclaimed before turning toward the soldiers, "DOWN!"
As the hostile fired, the Rangers ducked behind cover, the RPG slammed straight into the side of the Knighthawk's tail and sent several Rangers and Bruce flying.
Bruce was dazed, but as he looked up, Nick shook him back awake, "Nick," he said as he sat up, "How many?"
"No one got hit," Nick said as he handed Bruce his SCAR back, "Come on, let's get these guys out of here!"
Bruce reloaded his rifle, and turned toward the Rangers, "Alright," he said, "We'll cover you," he pointed at where the rest of the squad was, "Get over there and double-time it!"
Bruce and Nick popped out from behind cover to lay down a steady stream of covering fire toward the hostiles.
It didn't take long for the Rangers to arrive with the other Berets.
"Think we can make it," Nick asked.
"We'd better," Bruce said, "You owe me twenty bucks from the Super Bowl."
"That's one upside," Nick said, "If you die, I don't have to make your blue-blooded ass twenty bucks richer."
"Then I'm going to make sure you do survive so I can get my money out of you," Bruce said.
As Bruce and Nick ran towards the area their squad was, and upon arriving, they found the squad was still exchanging gunfire with the hostiles.
"We got them," Nick said as they joined Wyatt, "The chopper's pretty much gone."
"Good," Wyatt said as he reloaded his M14, "Frequency! Get us that chopper!"
The team's communication's officer, Sergeant Richard 'Frequency' Malone grabbed the radio, and immediately contacted the chopper team, "Big Bird this is Alpha-One-Echo! We have the package and need extraction!"
"Big Bird copies all," the chopper pilot said, "Be advised we are twenty five minutes out, but you need to be on board when we arrive, we're stretching out fuel as it is."
"Roger that," Frequency said, "Boss! The chopper is twenty five minutes out!"
"Then we hold out until they arrive," Wyatt said, "Let's fight out way out!"
He quickly popped up and let off several shots toward the hostiles: one of the shots was high, but caught the hostile high in the neck.
Bruce got a few shots off, he even managed to hit one of the hostiles.
Nick fired off one round from his M203, the explosive shredded three hostiles, and disoriented several others.
The fighting continued, the enemies' numbers seemed relentless, and the bricks they were taking cover behind was slowly degrading away to almost nothing, worn away by the hostile's bullets.
"Sir," Range exclaimed, "We're in danger of being overrun!"
"I know that," Wyatt said, "Frequency, get on the horn, and call those birds!"
"Roger," Frequency exclaimed before turning on his radio, "Big Bird, we are heavily outnumbered, and in danger of being overrun! Where are you?"
"Alpha-One-Echo," the chopper pilot said, "We are about three minutes out. We'll try to go faster, but we're trying to save fuel."
"We might not have three minutes," Frequency said, "We need extraction or we're not going to make it!"
"We'll try to make it," the chopper pilot said, "We'll get there when we can."
"Sir," Frequency said as the signal went blank, "Big Bird is still a few minutes out!"
"Then we hold the line," Wyatt said before kneeling up to fire, "Keep fir…" it was then that the right side of his stomach exploded.
"Colonel," Bruce exclaimed as he crawled over to Wyatt, and pulled him against the wall.
"Oh fuck," he exclaimed, blood slowly turning his uniform a dark red, "How bad is it?"
Bruce checked the wound, "Not so bad," he said, "Just nicked the top of your liver. We're going to get you out of here!"
"Captain," Wyatt said, "If I don't make it…"
"Don't say that," Bruce said as he grabbed Wyatt's jacket, "We're getting you out of here!"
"If I don't," Wyatt exclaimed, "Take care of the squad! It'll be in your hands!"
"You'll be fine," Bruce said, "No one left behind!"
Bruce then raised his rifle, and continued firing: the hostile he hit was spun sideways because of the impact of the bullet.
Nick managed to get off three shots from the remainder of what was left in his magazine before ducking into cover, and exchanging the magazine.
Bruce then heard the roar of an Osprey's engines, "Chopper's here sir," Bruce said as he reassured his CO, "You're going home."
"Alpha-One, we have visual conformation," the pilot said, "Be advised this has to be a very quick dust-off."
"Roger that," Frequency said, "Captain Wayne, we need to move!"
"Got that," Bruce said, as he held out his hand to Nick, "Robin, give me a smoke!"
"Smoke," Nick exclaimed as he retrieved a smoke grenade, and tossed it to Bruce.
Nick retrieved his own they both pulled the pins, and gave them a quick chuck over what was left of their cover.
The smoke grenades went off, leaving a nice cover for the team who ran towards the Osprey with the Rangers.
Bruce heaved Wyatt onto his shoulder, and took off running toward the chopper.
As soon as he made it onto the back-gate, the Osprey took off, leaving the hostiles in the dust.
Jalalabad Airport…
The team sat in the operating room, waiting on the news on Wyatt when the head of surgery walked out of the operating room, blood smeared on the front of his coat, and on his sleeves.
"Well," Bruce asked as he walked up to the surgeon.
"We did all we could," he said, "But the bullet opened a small hole in his liver's central vein. When we tried to go in and repair the damage the hole opened up. We couldn't get him back," the surgeon held something out to Bruce, "You might want this."
In his hand was Wyatt's challenge coin.
Guess what happens…