ISSUE 22:
The effects of the Battle for Metropolis had been catastrophic and left deep scars in all of the participants. Superman had done his best to collect all the destroyed robots, deceased corpses and rebuilt most of the buildings. Ryan and Tim had to strip Bruce of the Bat suit and dress him in his suit and then make it bloody so it looked like he had been killed in the chaos. Lex Luthor had disappeared and the strange Princess Kal-El encountered had disappeared too. Superman had buried Superboy's body in secret and had a service on his own while Ryan and Tim went back to Wayne Manor where they had to organise Bruce's funeral.
The whole event after the rooftop battle was a blur for Ryan. He'd taken off the costume, given a statement to the Police who seemed to disappear the night before, and then got on the Wayne Private Jet and gone back to the Wayne Estate.
He just felt empty. Bruce was now his life and without him he was nothing. Even their investigation was pointless as their only lead had disappeared and all the criminals who were linked to them had gone too.
How would Wayne Enterprises continue, though Ryan had the feeling it would be handed over to Tim or Lucius Fox as they had already been working for the company.
And the worst bit was when he had tried to sleep, he couldn't stop repeating Bruce's death over and over again and he still felt that if he had taken down Harley quicker then Bruce would still be alive. But he wasn't...Bruce was dead.
Ryan watched as a Gotham priest read from his small bible as Bruce's expensive looking coffin was lowered into the ground. Alfred, Tim and Ryan stood around the grave; Clark couldn't make it as he was still fixing Metropolis and Ryan understood that; though he had a feeling he was avoiding the small funeral as he didn't want to get angry again and go off and try and kill someone. Tim and Ryan threw a single rose into the grave and then plucked up the shovels which they used to push dirt on top of the wooden box containing the dead corpse of a once great man.
Ryan adjusted his black suit tie as the rain began to fall and they ended the small service. As Bruce had got older he had lost friends due to his obsession with stopping criminals; so they were the only ones who attended the funeral.
As they finished Ryan noticed that Alfred was making his way over to two other gravestones nearby. Tim turned off with the Priest, escorting back to his car in the rain, while Ryan followed the old manservant.
Alfred starting crying. "I'm so sorry, you trusted me and I failed you. I failed you."
Ryan knelt down and put his arm around the elderly English gentleman. "Are you okay?"
"Yes Master Connolly," Alfred snivelled, stopping himself from weeping.
Ryan read the gravestones. Thomas Wayne, Father, Husband and Fantastic Doctor. Martha Wayne, excellent mother and wife. This was Bruce's parents; that's when Ryan remembered why Bruce's story was so tragic, when he was eight years old his parents were killed in an alleyway, shot by some goon.
"Is that why he became the Bat?" Ryan asked. "Because of his parent's death."
"Yes," Alfred snivelled. "I feared for him for a long time but I realised that this was his coping mechanism, Master Wayne was in permanent mourning; the event deeply scarred him."
The rain began to increase. "Come on, let's go indoors," Ryan told the man, rising to his feet. Alfred spun his electric wheelchair around and went back to the house. Ryan looked at the two gravestones and then at Bruce's.
Was this the legacy of the Bat, the death of two loving parents and the death of a psychotic man who had taken the symbol of animal to defend the weak from criminals?
"I'm so sorry," Ryan told the three head stones. "I'm sorry you all had to die."
He sombrely turned around and walked back towards the house as the rain became near torrential.
Ryan had taken off his wet jacket and his muddy shoes; loosened his tie and headed sadly towards the large wooden grandfather clock which doubled as an entrance to the Bat Cave. He pressed the switch and entered the elevator. It took him down and Ryan exited the pod and into the spacious, wet walled, cave system under the large estate.
Ryan walked on the platform, contemplating Bruce's final words. 'Ryan, Protect Gotham.'
"But how?" he thought aloud. "How can I do what you did? You were more than a man, you were more than human; you were a superhuman."
Ryan sat down at the large, expensive, chair at the Bat Computer and stared at the blank screen. "What do want me to do Bruce, give me a clue?"
He heard the sound of the elevator and saw Alfred navigating himself out of the Pod and into the Bat Cave. He'd only seen Alfred down there a few time, he made it obviously he didn't like the Cave system and the Bat persona all together.
Ryan leaned on the console, his head pounding with different thoughts.
"Master Connolly," Alfred said softly.
Ryan spun around in the chair to face the elderly man bound to a wheelchair.
"We need to have a talk," he sighed. "Now you may have known that I hated Master Wayne's endless endeavour to become the Bat. But I let it go, I believed it was his way of not turning into a psychopath and killing hundreds of people. For years I feared they would put him in Arkham, but he suffered a worse fate." Alfred took a deep breath, he was shaking slightly. "I would never force the identity of the Bat on anyone; it is a hard life but over time I have come to realise that Bruce didn't just need the Bat, Gotham and the world did. Now he's gone, I want you to consider finishing Master Wayne's crusade on crime. I want you to consider taking permanent residence here, becoming the sole heir to the Wayne fortune and taking up the Mantle of the Bat."
"Alfred I can't," Ryan told him. "I'm not Bruce, Tim's closer to being the Bat than I am."
"I knew that I couldn't persuade you," Alfred mumbled. "I didn't want to show you this but maybe his words will work better than mine."
Alfred manoeuvred himself towards the large computer system and activated it. He moved the cursor rapidly along a set of files and then punched in a code with his weary hands. As he wheeled himself backwards, away from the console, the screen went completely black and Bruce appeared.
Bruce was wearing the same clothes he wore on the night he first visited and trained with Bruce on computer hacking and programming. Had he recorded it after he left?
"Hello Ryan," Bruce said. "Now either you've found this by mistake or Alfred has activated Protocol Alpha Six. If it's the latter then that means I have been killed and not of old age. I am dead and buried and right now you are considering what your next move will be."
"Yep," Ryan said, knowing that Bruce couldn't hear him.
"Well I need you to understand the gravity of your situation. Gotham and the world need a Bat to keep them scared and to keep them in line. Without a Bat, the criminals will flow back into the streets and take over; they will destroy what I have fought so hard to stop from happening. In you I see potential, I see a Bat, in you I see me. Dick and Tim can't carry the Mantle because they are too much like me but you, you aren't. The Bat needs someone stable, not someone who is broken by tragedy. I could handle the strain and the others couldn't. I believe that you are my successor, I believe you have the real drive to make a difference; after all that's why I took you on in the first place."
Bruce paused and suddenly a window popped up in the corner. "If you press the 'enter' key then this program will transfer you to become the heir to the Wayne fortune, the house, land, money, everything will be in your name. Don't worry about the company, I have placed it in the capable hands of Lucius Fox and Tim."
Ryan's finger hovered over the enter key. Should he do it?
"Once you have the funds, I want you to become the Bat; take on my mission and continue it on. Because without you, the legacy of the Bat ends here and now."
Ryan felt the words hit home. His finger pushed down on the key and the window's loading bar began to be filled with green. With every second that passed Ryan was coming closer and closer to gaining the Wayne Fortune.
When the window finished loading, the image of Bruce flickered; clearly there were two different pre recorded messages to relay at that point, and he then reappeared fully.
"Now you have everything placed in your name," Bruce told him. "And please don't morn for me, I spent my whole life mourning my parents and that had driven me onwards but you aren't driven by vengeance, you're driven by your strong moral compass and your hate for evil. So good luck on your crusade, Bat." At the end of the message Ryan saw a miracle, Bruce Wayne actually smiled before the image cut away and the screen was reset back to the usual desktop image.
"Well done Master Connolly," Alfred said. "If Master Wayne were still alive today, he would be very proud of you."
"Alfred if he was alive I wouldn't have to make this choice," Ryan sighed, once again emphasising on Bruce's death. "And I'm not Bruce, what drives him every day; I don't have that. I can try and be the Bat but that's just not who I am; I'm not a monster out there looking for scum to punch in the face."
"Well of course you're not Master Wayne," Alfred smiled. "The Bat was his title but the Mantle can still continue. You're not a monster, you are a man who wishes to save the world from himself. A Batman."
Ryan smiled, coming to a realisation. "I'm not Bruce, I'm not the Bat, I'm the next best thing; I'm the Batman."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Issue 22, the funeral and final message from Bruce Wayne. I hope this issue finally put to rest any confusion to why I called Bruce the Bat and not the Batman; that's because it's Ryan's title; to show that he isn't Bruce and he doesn't have his cold and logical mind; he's a human with a heart and emotions. This Issue hopefully clears the air of Bruce's death, which will plague Ryan for much longer, and makes way for the rest of the series. As always, a review, a follow or a favourite would be great and stay tuned for the next Issue. :)