Bruce Wayne set the communicator down, before sighing and putting his hand on his face. Alfred stood to the side, trying to look neutral. However, he knew Master Bruce well enough to know that the idea of Emmet having to be Batman was disturbing to him. And he had to agree, hearing Emmet go through Batman's duty. The man was just too...light for him to take up the role of the Batman.
"...I really shouldn't have made a electronic copy of that list of replacements." He bemoaned. Alfred frowned.
"I'm afraid you did, sir. Unfortunately, the power shut down the computer, so I couldn't access it." Bruce was silent, only frowning as he leaned back on his wheelchair. He looked down at his lower body and scowled. That giant penny was going to pay someday. However, he had bigger things to think about, namely Emmet's new job.
Admittedly, he should not be worried. After all, even if the whole 'special' thing turned out to be a fake, the fact still remained that he came up with a plan that came more closer to defeating Lord Business than anyone else, cleared a whole room of robots firing lasers at him by himself, and even managed to talk Lord Business out of the plan that he had been coming up with for the past 8 1/2 years. Now that he thought about it...
'Note to self: see if Emmet would be interested in working at Arkham.'
All in all, Emmet could take care of himself, and knew how to beat up major butt, which was weird considering Lucy beat him up plenty of times during the sparing that they did. In short, the only real problem that Bruce had with Emmet was that...He just was too bright. He was too naive. He was too happy-go-lucky. He could go on and on. Either way, Emmet just didn't seem like Batman material.
Well, he was going to make sure that he did or die trying. Well, he would die trying, and even so, it would be less 'dying' and probably more hair tearing from frustration. Boy, did he have quite the long month ahead of him.
The sound of the Batmobile coming closer caught Bruce and Alfred's attention. Alfred came up to push Bruce, only for him to hold up his hand and shake his head. Alfred looked concerned, but nodded as he kept his distance. The two walked, or rather one walked and one rolled, over to the Bat parking lot. The Batmobile appeared at the Bat driveway, before opening and revealing Emmet, wearing the Batman costume.
Well, at least he knew how to pull off the look, Bruce thought to himself as he appraised Emmet's appearance. He didn't look too ridiculous, and actually looked pretty well like him, at least in terms of general body shape and musculature. Then Emmet accidently slammed the door on part of the cape, and tried to walk up to them, only for his cape to snag and him to fall to the ground.
...They would need work on that.
Getting the cape out of the car, he took off the mask, revealing his messy hair. Blinking, he ran his hand through it, trying to put it into some semblance of order. Bruce merely leaned back in his chair.
"That's the best part of being Batman, you know?" Bruce said dryly, before Alfred wordlessly handed Emmet a hairbrush.
"Hey, are you alright?" Emmet asked as he brushed his hair back into place, his lips twisted in concern.
Bruce waved it away, as he turned the wheelchair around. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Should have put the giant Penny on a stronger base anyway. Besides, we got more important things to worry about."
"Really?" Emmet asked dumbly as he fell in step with Alfred and Bruce, before the three of them reached the Bat computer. Upon reaching it, Bruce began to type on it, bringing up some files on the screen before turning to Emmet.
"Emmet, can you tell me what exactly is happening here?" He said as he opened the files, revealing them to be recordings of his conversations. Emmet fidgeted, not exactly sure of what he did wrong. Yet hearing from the tone of Bruce's voice and the expression he had on him, there was something wrong, and as the time passed on, the feeling of discomfort lingered.
Why did it seem like Bruce was more intimidating on a wheelchair rather than out of it?
"What's wrong? I sound normally..."
"YES! That's the problem!" Bruce shouted excitedly as he rolled up to Emmet. "You...sound normally. That's not my voice I hear, that's your voice. That's you trying to sound like me. Well, we're going to work on that."
Emmet blinked as Bruce just expressed his plan to train him in doing a better Batman impression. "Um...not that I don't think that's important, but shouldn't you like...train me, or something like that?"
Bruce paused in his planning before looking at Emmet. "Do you spar with Lucy?"
Emmet looked confused at the question. "Not sure why this applies...but yeah, I do."
"Good enough." Bruce said, before settling in his chair.
"Alright, Emmet. Talking like Batman 101: first, say this. I'm BATMAN! Now you say it."
Emmet gave a mild frown, before nodding and clearing his throat.
"I'M BATMAN!"
Bruce shook his head.
"No, too little growl, try a little bit more."
"I'M BATMAN!"
Bruce shook his head and waved his hands.
"NO! Too much growl, too much growl. Try for a middle ground."
Emmet cleared his throat as he tried to imagine the 'middle ground', as Bruce put it.
"I'M BATMAN!"
Bruce smiled as he gave a thumbs up. "Perfect. Practice that for the next week or so."
Emmet couldn't help but be confused.
"Wait...is that it?"
"What's it?" Bruce asked, already typing away at the Batcomputer.
"I mean, is that all the training I'm getting? I thought, you know, I would have more."
"Oh, don't worry. There's more. See?" Bruce said as he gestured to the screen. Looking at it, Emmet felt his stomach drop as he saw the training regimen that Bruce was going to put him through. Looking back at Bruce, he couldn't help but take a step back seeing the evil glint in his eye.
"For the next week, I would suggest you reschedule, Emmet. For the night...BELONGS TO BATMAN!"
"...You mean, like night sessions?"
"...Yeah, night sessions."
Monday
"Hmm...According to this here map, the treasure should be around here somewhere...
"ZZZ..."
Hearing someone snore, Metalbeard looked at Emmet, who had his eyes closed as a bit of drool leaked from his lips. The map dangled from his fingers, and he seemed to wobble like he was going to fall to the ground any minute now.
"Emmet?" Metalbeard asked as he poked the construction worker on the shoulder, only for Emmet to fall over onto the sand.
Monday Night
"Alright, hold that position for the next five minutes!" Bruce called out as he activated the watch.
Emmet could only grunt as he tried to find the best position to continue heaving the barbell attached to his shoulders.
"Here you go, Mr. Brickowski." Alfred said as he gestured for Emmet to open his mouth, before squirting some water into his mouth.
"Thanks, Alfred."
Tuesday
Benny smiled as he rolled out from under the spaceship, getting himself a rag to wipe away some oil on his cheek.
"I got everything done down there. How it going up there, Emmet?" Benny called out.
"..."
"Emmet?"
"ZZZ..." Emmet snored as his face rested against the windshield of the spaceship, his drool running all over the glass.
Benny blinked at the sight.
"Wow, Emmet. You really need to cut back on all those late nights. Don't worry, I'll get you to your house in no time."
Tuesday Night
Emmet was sweating up a storm as he ran on a treadmill. Bruce rubbed his chin as he and Alfred observed Emmet. Then Bruce decided that Emmet could work harder, starting to turn up the knob a bit.
"Come on, Emmet! Feel the burn! Batman doesn't get tired, and neither should you!"
Emmet couldn't even reply, as between the thirst and the beating of his heart, his legs were a blur as he tried to keep up with the speed of the treadmill.
Wednesday
"So the other day, this guy was really mean, saying that Cloudcuckooland made no sense, and he actually tried to tell me how to make it 'better' by changing it."
"Uh-huh."
"I mean, so it doesn't look like other places, it's fine the way it is."
"Hmm..."
"So I might have gotten a little angry at him and mighthavegottenalittlecrazy...But I apologized!"
"AUGH! IT BURNS!"
Unikitty looked up from her cup of tea only to see Emmet scream, covering his face as the spilled tea flowed over the table.
Wednesday Night
"Hey, I thought tonight was when you were going to teach me how to use the batarangs?" Emmet looked at Bruce with a confused look as he fiddled with the gym clothes he had on.
"Yeah, that's actually tomorrow." Bruce replied as he looked over a machine that had multiple barrels and a box full of tiny rubber balls attached to it.
"For today, you're going to learn how to dodge bullets."
Emmet blinked.
"Wha-"
Bruce smiled at him.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I heard from Business that you managed to clear a whole room of his robots while they tried to hit you with lasers. You should be fine."
Emmet wanted to tell him that he was kinda in the zone for that one, but it was the whirring of the machine that cut him off.
Thursday
"Alright, contestant number #102, let see what the judges think. Mr. Brickowski, what are your thoughts?"
"ZZZ..."
"Wow, Mr. Brickowski. That's kinda harsh, isn't it?"
"No, I think he's actually asleep." Business said as he poked Emmet, only for Good Cop and him to scramble out of their seats when it looked like Emmet was going to topple over.
Thursday Night
"Uhh...Are you sure I need to learn this?"
Emmet asked as he hanged upside-down, in a straightjacket while the tank he was in was filling with water. Bruce nodded as he checked all the safety precautions.
"Sure, Batman needs to know how to escape from anything."
"...So when would you have gotten out of that chair?"
"...Hey, it worked out in the end, didn't it?"
Friday
Emmet grunted as Lucy flipped him onto the ground. Part of him wanted to just lay there, but he forced himself up and get into a stance.
"Hold on there, Emmet." Lucy said as she dropped her stance and shook her head.
"What? I'm okay." Emmet said, slightly relieved that he got a reprieve.
"I didn't ask if you were, but now I'm wondering if you are. I was watching the show, you know."
Emmet tried his hardest not to sweat or look nervous. "Really, how was it?"
"Honestly, you looked half-asleep during the whole thing. You even slept during one audition. And that's weird, seeing that you're always energetic. So, I called everyone up, and I'm surprised to find out that you've been like this all week. So let ask you something, what's up? Is there something wrong?"
Emmet was quiet, debating to himself whether he should tell Lucy about his 'Batman' training. On one hand, he wanted to quit. The training was hard, difficult, every synonym for challenging he could think of. Part of him actually regretted agreeing to take over as Batman.
But the other side regretted being enough of a klutz to get Bruce hurt, and felt like he owed him that much to at least take over the role until he got better. Besides, who would have protected Gotham during Bruce's recovery? Would the Police have found Egghead anyway or would they have been stumped while he got away with the valuable thing?
Eventually, he made his choice.
"Honestly, just a couple of late nights at work. No big deal, honestly." Emmet said, trying his hardest not to give himself away.
Lucy looked at him for a while with scrutinizing eyes. Emmet stood still, as if the slightest movement could reveal the truth. After a while, Lucy sighed.
"Alright, Emmet. I believe you. Just try not to overwork yourself."
Emmet nodded, before turning around and falling on his face, snoring. Lucy shook her head, sitting down before taking Emmet and resting his head on her lap. The dojo was silent as Emmet slept and Lucy looked down on him. A small smile bloomed on her lips as she brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes.
Friday Night
Emmet yawned as he descended the stairs that led to the Batcave. Hopefully whatever exercise that Bruce had planned for tonight wasn't going to be too hard. And thankfully, saturday was free for him. For the first time in his life, he was planning to sleep the whole day. However, voices stopped him and he pressed himself against the wall to listen in.
"Master Bruce, don't you think you are being a little hard on Mr. Brickowski? After all, you took years in order to learn those skills, and you're expecting him to learn those skills in a week!"
"Anything else, Alfred?
"Yes, do you know 'Bricksburg's Next Idol?'"
"Alfred, you know I don't watch TV."
"Well, Mr. Brickowski was a judge on it, and he fell asleep during the show! I believe you're pushing Emmet too far, Master Bruce."
Emmet leaned in closer, a small part of him hoping that Alfred could convince Bruce to lessen the training.
"Alfred, I got two things for you. First, I've seen the guy basically become a Master Builder in 2 minutes, so I think he can pick it up fast enough. And second...I don't think that's important right now."
"Excuse me, sir?"
Emmet blinked. Bruce honestly thought that his other life was unimportant? For the first time, Emmet felt a burning inside of him, an emotion he never felt before.
"Alfred, for the past two weeks, things have been quiet. Too quiet. I think something's coming up."
Emmet's anger cooled, as he listened in.
"Alfred, I know I might be pushing Emmet too hard. But I have no choice. We have no way of contacting other help, we can't endanger the others... Right now, it falls to Emmet to do this thing alone, and I'm trying my best to make sure he's ready. Sure, he may be half-asleep when he's with his friends, but I think that's better than him not showing up at all."
"Besides, it's Emmet. He'll pull through, and he can surprise you. Trust me, I know."
Emmet was silent, absorbing all this information, as he walked into the light, ready to begin the next exercise.
Meanwhile, in some unknown lair...
"PLEASE, please let me be part of the team!" A man dressed in green clothes covered with question marks begged, kneeling before five shadowy figures.
"Why should we? You're a joke, Riddler. You just run leaving around leaving 'riddles' for Batman to solve. You'll probably lead him right to our hideout." One shadowy figure, much more built than the others, said.
"Oh, lighten up, man." One shadowy figure turned to the other. "This team is so serious, we could use some more comic relief."
"That's assuming if we had any in the first place..." One shadowy figure replied, though being much more slender that the others.
"Maybe we can use him..." One shadowy figure said, a calm, neutral tone.
"Alright then, Riddler." The center figure said. "We'll give you something."
He brought out a piece of paper, before throwing it out to Riddler.
"Get your men, and steal something from this place. We'll tell you what it is."
Riddler looked at the map, and nodded, before realizing something.
"Wait, what about the Batman?"
The five were silent.
"Stall him, either way. Just get us that part."
And thus the main plot begins.