Ultimate DC and YoungD16 Presents…

ULTIMATE BATMAN

RECAP: Bruce Wayne AKA The Billionaire Boy was found four years after his parents' murder and currently runs WayneTech as CEO. Mr. Wayne was doing a fine job of running things, considering he was only eighteen, despite his personal distaste of a fellow co-exec Jack Hart. Bruce however made a wrong move by being too argumentative with Jack who secretly is responsible for Bruce's parents' deaths. Jack wants Bruce dead and almost got his wish, but with the help of Alfred Pennyworth the Jokers and Harley Quinn do not succeed. Meanwhile a number of WayneTech's chief execs are turning up dead and with the sudden absence of CEO Bruce Wayne people will soon be looking for him, which is just how Jack Hart wants it.

CASE 2: Redemption

For the longest time nothing could sooth the pain left that night, not the night Bruce was shot but the night his parents were murdered. Nothing felt good to him, Bruce had been trapped inside. He walked among the rich and selfish, he ignored the countless cries of the poor and hungry, and in return he lay wounded. Everything started to gradually fade to black, nothing mattered. The life Bruce Wayne lived was at its climax and the repercussions of his actions would have to be great or non-existent. The life Bruce Wayne left behind at the WayneTech apartment complex was one that would shame Bruce forever.

Bruce was weak, something that he tried his hardiest not to be, and he didn't know what to do with himself. He had been shot at, he had been hit and he had passed out. Recovering was not the hard part, redeeming himself would be the CHALLENGE. Apparently he is the main suspect of a crime he did not commit. Bruce Wayne is not just CEO of WayneTech, he represents the youth of Gotham, he represents young authority and many people look up to him. Now he is a wanted criminal…but strangely enough he couldn't have it any other way…

The life Bruce lived was wrong he wanted to help people for all the wrong reasons, he wanted to control an industrial empire that he knew nothing about, and he was searching for something that was sitting right in front of him. To know that the first eighteen years of his life was spent wrongly was hurtful to him.

Bruce needed to figure out why he truly wanted to the things he desired. Why did he become the Batman or better yet what is Batman? Who does he represent? Who is Bruce Wayne and what does Bruce Wayne have to offer the people of an unjust world?

The pain that came from his wound had spread to his whole arm he couldn't move it. Alfred had cleaned the wound well and removed the bullet effortlessly. Bruce knew little about Alfred's past but he was sure that removing bullets from bodies was not a job a butler would have.

"Where'd you learn to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Remove bullets, I thought you were a butler in your day."

"I was a butler and I served my family well, but I was also a medic in my late teens before I came to Gotham."

Alfred took a look at Bruce's arm again.

"How come you don't talk about your past Alfred? There's many things I know thanks to you but I don't know much about you before you met me."

Alfred paused then began to work on something on his table nearby. Alfred had taken Bruce to an abandoned building near the train station, far from Gotham Heights or the UNDERGROUND. Finally Alfred spoke.

"It was 1973, I was young around twenty, after I served the military, and I had met this woman at a train station. I was on my way to Gotham for the first time in my life, I was excited and there was this woman that had APPROUCHED me. Back then it was odd for a woman to do the talking first, to you know, make the first move but she was incredible. She had a racing personality, always had that glitter in her eyes, that fascination with the world in her eyes. She was going to Gotham too and we ended up sitting together on the train.

"Well as things progressed we sought each other's affection everyday while in Gotham, eventually we married. Me, I had no family and hers couldn't keep up with her. Everything went well but Gotham is a dangerous place now and it was then…she was killed where the UNDERGROUND stands now.

"I guess I wanted to be closer to her in some way so I decided to live with her family, to try to get the warmth that she had once got from them. I wanted to see why she had always been so infatuated with the world. I served her family as a butler, they told me I didn't have to do that but I felt I owed it to them."

"What happened after that?" Bruce asked

"Working for them was nice but not worth it. I felt her presence in them and I thought it would sooth the pain in my heart, I thought I would have some closure but instead it hurt me even more. I left one day and decided to reside in the resting place of my loved one, I've been there in the UNDERGROUND ever since."

There was silence between the two men.

"I'm sorry."

Alfred was silent, he had never let anyone take advantage of his emotions but Bruce was the closet he had ever had to a family. He didn't save Bruce because he was just a friendly boy, he saved Bruce because he was family."

"You know you and me aren't that different, Bruce, I spent a long time trying to find closure in all the wrong places. You've done the same."

"And did you ever find any closure?"

Bruce needed hope, he needed something to look forward to in an uncertain path.

"Yes, I found closure in you" Alfred paused a second, "You are like family to me, I found family in Emilla, just as I found it in you. But don't go looking for a reason to live, because it'll come to you sooner than you think."

"I want to help people Alfred, but all I've done is proven that I'm not trust worthy, that I'm not responsible, and that I'm selfish. Everything my father wanted me to be I'm not."

"Sometimes you have to experience hardships in order to be the great man that you should be and I do believe you will achieve greatness. Gotham doesn't need a hero; it needs hope and a future. Can you be that future Mr. Wayne? If you truly desire to help can you sacrifice all that is important to you, all that was once precious to you, in order to protect those who have no hope left?"

Bruce was silent, for the first time he felt relief. He knew that everything up to this point had been a test and so far he hadn't known the answers. He had tried to cheat but a person with any dignity would not be ashamed to fail. Bruce had a choice, give up or prosper.

"I'm willing to go beyond my capabilities and become more than a man…I want to become the much needed hope that the people of Gotham rightfully deserve."

"Good, time to redeem yourself and what better way to that than a FIGHT."

Alfred went the closet in the corner and returned with a poster in his hands. He handed Bruce the poster and Bruce read aloud.

"Friday January 13th, Barnamer's Sideshow of Freaks, Mutants, and Supernatural Beings are coming to the Gotham's docks to host their very popular cage fight, THE CELL, and anyone who can bet the reigning champion KILLER CROC will win a grand prize of $25,000."

Bruce paused for a second, "That's crazy, look at this guy he's an animal. That has to be the craziest idea ever…I'll do it!"

"Yeah we could sure use that money. We got two days to make you into a beast. Let's not waste anymore time."