Comments: Yes, please.
Full Circle
Chapter 4:
The cave echoed dully and mutedly with fervent typing and clicking. The low drone of a faraway generator added to the mix of noise. And still, it would be considered quiet.
Shea blinked tiredly.
She had noticed the computer's power cable frayed and unusable the first time she'd seen the computer, and when John had checked up on her, asked if they could go shop for one.
He drove them around Gotham, Alvia and her hooking up visor-scans to the car's wireless network connection that was itself drawn from Ithel Communication Towers.
In the end, she had to search on the internet for any old models of the power cable. She didn't even know the name for it: the thing was that old. John and Alvia helped with scrolling through numerous sites to dig up pictures and archives of the types of computers used in the nineteen hundreds.
They'd finally found out that the type of computer found in the cave came closest to a CRAY.
The cable cost them three hundred and fifty credits. Excluding the express freight from England to Gotham.
"This better be worth it," Shea muttered, referring to the credits spent, and to the time she was cutting down on sleep. Thank whoever-was-somewhere vacations were in a few days. At least she could make up for the time they had wasted waiting for the power cable to arrive, and for her to focus on her homework.
The machinery within the CRAY protested as they hummed to life, complaining from the long disuse. The booting up took a lot longer than Shea was accustomed to waiting, and she got up from the console chair to explore the cave further, casting frequent glances back to the screen.
She searched around for more light switches but found none. Either that or they're in the shadows. How convenient.
A soft beep made her turn, and she saw that the CRAY had finished its booting up, and hurried over, raising her brows in disgusted annoyance when she saw THE OPENLY SECRET FILES OF MAX.
If I spent one hundred creds on this…I'll burn it up.
Sighing, she reached for the console and re-settled herself into the chair. Call her a delusional idiot, but she refused to believe she spent creds on that. So, she was going to squeeze this thing dry, extract every single bit of information she could out of it.
Unless it could spit creds back out, which she really doubted so. So…
"I'll just call in sick tomorrow for school or something," she announced to the CRAY in a promise to keep at it until it yielded.
Max saw the Batmobile leave, and turned back to the computer with an evil grin. This was gonna be fun.
She accessed the DOS of the computer, and added in a few mazes just in case anyone who shouldn't be trying tried to access it. She took her time, knowing Terry would be gone for a large part of the night.
As a final cheeky finale, she added the boot-up defense of what seemed like a rubbish message: THE OPENLY SECRET FILES OF MAX.
If Terry ever shut down and booted the computer up again, he'd be so surprised.
Two hours later, Shea had only passed one of the defending walls that had been set up on the CRAY. Whoever had set those up was really good, much better than she was. But hey, she could always argue that the codes were so old she had never needed to learn them before.
She debated whether to head to the Old Gotham Library to dig out information on navigating that damned maze set up in the CRAY (and God, they were hard copy information, which really sucked), but decided to keep at it for another hour more. Besides, she remembered that this late, the library would be closed already.
After entering a few automated maze-crackers (as she liked to think of them), Shea reached into her bag for some snacks, and thought she would explore the cave more this time, instead of just focusing on breaking into the CRAY.
The pair of night-vision goggles that John had passed her was helpful, and so was the high-powered flashlight she brought out, though the fact that she kept seeing the green images annoyed her to no end. The first thing she searched for was for more light switches. She didn't think the stuff in the cave would be voice-activated, since she felt the place terribly outdated.
"Switches…switches…" her self-murmurs seemed to echo, emphasizing the empty desolation which she stood in at that point. And then, as if the cave finally pitied her lonely state, it conspired with fate to make her move her hand over one particular area of the cave wall, and felt an out-of-place bump there. "Yes, switch!"
Somewhere in some distant portion of the cave, another generator hummed to life. How many generators does this place have? Shea wondered as the lights flickered on, gaining in intensity until it hurt her eyes. Then she remembered the goggles and almost-ripped them off. And only then did she see—after a few minutes of letting the temporary blindness pass—that the cave looked even more dismal in light so dim.
She scanned the areas where the few lights had exposed, and glints to her right caught her attention. And, when something catches my eyes, what to do but to check it out, right? She laughed at her internal monologue and approached the glints, which were cylindrical glass cases containing…some costumes, she thought.
"Don't look like normal costumes," Shea commented to herself as she walked around one of the cases to stand at the front of it. What she saw was a grey bodysuit with a large black bat emblazoned on its chest. A black cowl that had been modeled after bats' ears rested upon the suit. Scalloped gloves, heavy black boots and a stylish belt completed the whole image.
Mouth slightly agape, she glanced at the other costumes, some as strikingly vibrant in color as others were dark and dull.
"God, what is this?"
"Might I ask what these cases are for, Master Bruce?" Alfred stood to one side, his face admiringly deadpanned. "After all, I should not think that you would consider it wise placing more strange objects on display here." He looked pointedly at the mementoes of Batman's villains placed in one section of the cave.
"I need to remember, Alfred." Bruce strode out from the suit-and-weaponry vault, one costume draped over each arm. "I need to remember all whom I've lost, and those who caused the loss." The last came out as a low growl, full of anger, hiding the pain he felt.
With calloused carelessness, he started to place his own suit in the first display case: it was a symbol and epitome of the endless crusade that he had started, and others had taken on. They were responsible for their own choices; he was responsible for their lives.
The second suit he treated with a care that few would know he was capable of. The vibrant colors seemed a stark reminder of his own darkness, and the death he had caused. Gritting his teeth, he arranged that suit in the second glass case, and then stepped back.
"Master Bruce—"
Bruce glared at his longtime friend with an anger Alfred recognized was turned inwards. The gentleman's gentleman understood that, and merely nodded and turned, exiting the cave, leaving the younger man gazing at the display cases, lost in memories of sorrow.
The vid-phone gave a soft chime and John glanced at it for a second and waited for another chime to make sure it wasn't any accidental calls. Then he answered it.
"IfoundsomethingnewandIdon'tknow—"
"Shea? Slow down, slow down!"
John heard her stop completely for a few seconds. "Don't think you can come to Wayne Manor now, can you?" she asked in now-understandable speed.
"There's school tomorrow, Shea…don't tell me you're still there…"
"Yeah, I am. Nevermind. Meet me at the cave after your classes…what time?"
"One."
"Okay, just meet me there."
John stared at the vid-phone in annoyance, then flopped back to bed and went to sleep.
"Shouldn't you be going out already, Terry?" Max asked without turning around, continuing her maintenance of the Batcomputer's database.
"In a few."
Now that was strange, even to Max. She stopped her work, swiveled around in the console chair, and found Terry already in the suit, save for the cowl. He was staring at the glass cases that contained all the suits the Bat-team wore in the past.
"S'up, Ter.?"
He seemed to shake himself and drew his gaze away from the displays. "Nothing, Max. See you later." He pulled the cowl on and vaulted into the Batmobile's seat.
"Yeah, laters." She watched the Batmobile's exit, as she had done for countless times before.