"Sally," Bruce said, turning on the personal A.I.
"Hello, B-1." Sally replied, the main computer screen filling up with a deep blue color.
"Activate the Mother System and receive all camera feeds near 44th Fredrick's Street." he continued.
The A.I. went silent for a moment until a tab popped up showing sixteen camera feeds all around the Monarch Theater. Sally's display box slid in from the bottom right corner and her audio levels were the only evidence of her existence. Bruce looked at each one and found two feed displays that gave a clear view of the spot where Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered. Bruce took a deep breath as he installed the live feed recordings and ran a separate program that would analyze the environment and create a 3D interpretation of the real scene. He pressed the 'enter' key and watched as the program scanned the area for ten seconds until an error message flashed on the screen.
"Error. Scan could not be completed." Sally said.
"Why did the error occur?" Bruce asked, staring intently at the large LCD screen.
"Obstructing objects are interfering with scan. Augmented reality model will not be to scale or mathematically correct."
"Options?" Bruce asked.
"Scan physical area with Overseer program X2."
Bruce spun slightly in his chair and bowed his head. He didn't want to go back to 'Crime Alley' as the murder site was called. He hadn't been there since that night. But, in order to find out the truth behind their murders, he would have to take a trip down Painful Memory Lane and find the truth.
He felt comfortable in the Batsuit again after a painful and intense night of impersonating a criminal. As he neared 44 Fredrick's Street, he looked below and checked the thermal scanner. There were no signs of life in the deserted area besides the sewer rodents that roamed on the cold ground. Batman looked around and put the Batwing in stand-by mode, leaving it to hover in the freezing and polluted air while he unclicked his safety restraints. As he looked out the cockpit window one last time, the first snow of the season began to fall ever so slightly. Small snowflakes hit the opaque black exterior glass and slid off with a small stream of water behind it. Batman looked around and even felt sickened at the beautiful gift of snow. Anything in Gotham, no matter how pretty, elegant, and impenetrable... everything in the city was eventually reduced to nothing but disappointment and darkness.
He activated the quick-drop and soared to the ground, seeing the dim streetlight as he unfurled his cape and glided the rest of the way down. He landed silently and looked around for the exact spot where his parents were shot down. He saw the disheveled bricks that he recalled from hazy memories and struggled not to break down as he removed the small computer from his belt and looked at the GCPD crime scene photograph with the covered bodies of the Waynes. He stood in front of their death space and immediately felt saddened. He folded the computer back into his belt and pulled out the spherical scanning device 'stolen' from WayneTech's top-secret rooms. It could scan an area of 120 or more feet and capture every detail; blood spots, bodies, trashcans, brick imprints, even the type of precipitation involved. A three-foot collapsible pole shot out from the bottom of the chrome sphere and Batman placed it firmly against the asphalt of the alley. He climbed the rusted catwalk and looked from dozens of feet above as the sphere shot out hundreds of cyan blue streams of lights that ran up the walls, slipped into between the cracks of the street, and flew across the various objects; calculating unseen exact mathematical measurements need for the crime simulation needed.
16 years after their murders and the pain remained the same. The sinking of his heart, the tears about to drip off, and the blood becoming hot in his veins. He could hear the revolver fire three twice. Thomas first, one in the leg and another in the chest. Martha was dead after the bullet went straight through her left lung and her heart. Batman looked down and watched as snow fell slowly on the former crime scene. Thirty seconds later, the Overseer X2 stopped its scanning and beeped briefly. Batman jumped down and slammed the sphere shut and held it in his left hand as he bent to one knee and looked at the cracked asphalt. He put one hand down on the ground and shut his eyes for a moment, hearing nothing but distant cars on the roads ahead.
I'm sorry...I failed you. I swore to uphold the law and devote my life to justice. Now, I've been abused by it and... and I'm lost. I need you.
He stood back up and called the Batwing to his level. The large craft barely fit inside the alley and the soft rumbling of the twin engines stirred the snowflakes and newspapers that blew back from it. He climbed inside, setting the Overseer back in its metal container and slowly climbing back up to the open sky. The snow kicked up a bit as he hovered a 100 feet and made a 180 degree turn toward the main section of Gotham. It was a risk. He could lose everything and even now, he knew what his duty was. He turned on the police radio and listened intently. There was crime out there. And he was going to kick it in the ass.
