"I just think, Mr. Wilson, that the shareholders will be in favor of Wayne Incorporated selling weapons again." Mr. Jacobs, one of the board members of Wayne Incorporated said to me.

"For the last time, we are not starting weapon sales again." I said. "Thomas Wayne cut back on the weapon production, and Bruce completely stopped it. This is not the vision the Wayne's had, and, as prime shareholder and CEO, I am saying no."

"No offense, sir," he protested, "but you're not a businessman. You're a trust-fund br- kid. You haven't been to college. The only reason you're CEO is per Mr. Wayne's request."

"You seem to forget, Mr. Jacobs, that Mr. Wayne was not a college graduate either. And Thomas Wayne was not a businessman, he was a doctor."

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, you will think it's an idiot." Lucius Fox, head of the R&D department at Wayne Inc., added, "Albert Einstein said something like that. We would do well to remember that at this company. I can definitely attest to Mr. Wilson being one of the most intelligent people I know. Even though he's not officially a Wayne, Bruce Wayne chose him as the principal heir for the Wayne estate, including the many shares of the company that he owned."

In reality, Bruce had made two wills. In the other one, nearly everything went to Dick rather than me. It was all dependent on who chose to be Batman after his death.

It had been three years since he died. That was hard to believe. I had been Batman for a little more than two of those. It had been a good run, so far. No criminal knew that Batman had even died or disappeared. They all thought I was the same guy. They thought I was Bruce.

My phone started to vibrate. It was Barbara Gordon. She knew I was in a board meeting, why was she calling now?

"Will you excuse me?" I said to the members of the board, "I need to take this."

There were a couple of eye rolls, but no one said anything. I exited the board room and answered my phone.

"Hey Babs" I greeted, "What's up?"

"There's an emergency." She said, seriously, "Down at the Gotham United Bank HQ. Some guys are robbing the place. Military trained."

"Stay right there, I'm on my way. Is Jason with you?"

"No. He should be here any moment though."

"Ok, stand by for my arrival. If anyone makes a break for it, stop them."

"Ok, see you!" She said.

"See you soon! Love you, bye!"

Now, I know what you're thinking. I'm a horrible person for leaving Ms. Martian and moving on to Batgirl. That is not the case. Officially, to the eyes of the public, Barbara Gordon and I were in a serious relationship. We even lived together. But for us, it was just a Batman thing. It gave us an excuse to spend an excess amount of time together. I couldn't pull off the whole "Playboy billionaire" thing that Bruce had. I loved M'gann M'orzz too much for that. But I could pretend to be in love with Barbara. Don't worry, she didn't feel for me anymore either. We were just friends. We had never had sex, and the only times we'd ever kissed were in public with people watching. We only slept in the same room when the situation called for it. Honestly, our "relationship" was very convincing. So that "Love you, bye" I had said was purely for aesthetic purposes. While I did love Barbara, it was purely platonic.

I went to my office in Wayne Tower, and pushed a hidden button underneath my desk. A private elevator opened, and I pushed the basement level -5, which officially, did not exist. This was an extension of the Batcave. A "lair away from lair," if you will.

There, I suited up and hopped in the Batmobile.

It never felt normal, to be in the Batsuit. Although Bruce never wore the one I used, an advanced suit, which advanced technology and better armor, I felt like a ghost followed me in the suit. It was something that I never could get used to.

I sped out of the sewer, through the narrow streets of Gotham City, maneuvering the Batmobile with great skill. It was dusk. The sun was going down. The earliest Bruce had usually operated was now.

Since I put on the suit, which was significantly more advanced than any other Batsuit, criminals had began to do things earlier and earlier. I don't blame myself at all, I blame the suit. Not only did it allow me to move faster and hit harder than Bruce, but it also caused more fear than he did. I guess there was something about black and red that was scarier. Not to mention my eyes were not visible, but covered with red lenses that could glow if I needed them to. I was a metal hunk of terror in the night.

So, as the criminals started operating earlier and earlier, so did I. I would go out sometimes during the day, as early as noon, if needed. It had gotten worse in the past few months though. Crime had skyrocketed, and we weren't really sure why.

Eventually, I arrived at the bank. I drifted the batmobile to a stop, and ejected out of it, high into the sky.

"Batgirl," I said over comms, "I'm here."

"Got it. I am detecting movement on the 30th floor. Should I breach?"

"31st floor. Robin, you here yet?"

"Yes sir!" Jason Todd said lightly over comms, "Making my way up the stairs now."

"Good. Stop at 29. If they go down, intercept them."

Jason was 13 now. Just a few years younger than when I started this. He was nearly just as good as I was now though. Certainly a better fighter than Dick Grayson was at his age, judging from the recordings from when he was Robin. He missed Bruce, who was like a father to him, but he was loyal and someone I could trust to do things right. He had a bit of an anger issue, but we were working on that.

I glided quickly up to the 30th floor window and smashed through the glass, kicking over a guy holding a cigarette in one hand and a shotgun in the other.

"Shit!" Another yelled, who was some distance away, "It's Batman!"

They all started to open fire on me. Most of the shots bounced off my armor, but one penetrated and lodged itself in the Bat-shaped insignia on my chest. I threw down a smoke bomb and dove for cover.

"Master Daniel," Alfred's voice chimed in, "Please do be careful. You know how hard it is to remove bullets from the suit."

"Sorry Alfred," I groaned quietly, slightly bruised from the shot, "i can't react as fast in the new suit. Even with the new upgrades."

"I will send a new diagnostics report to Mr. Fox. In the meantime, please try not to get shot as much…"

"Did we get him?" I heard a guard say from behind my cover.

"I don't know," another answered, some distance away, "I don't see him anywhere."

I jumped out from behind my cover, springing on top of one of the guys. He let out a small scream, but I bashed him in the face before he could say anymore.

"Matt?" The last guy said, nearby. I heard the sound of a walkie-talkie activating, "Guys, Matt and Lenny are down. Batman's here, we need to abort."

"Got it." Another guy said over a walkie-talkie, "Firing up the chopper. Get out of there."

I heard the last guy running up the stairs.

"Batgirl, got one headed your way. Stop him. I'm headed up to the roof."

I ran towards a window and crashed through it. I spun around and shot my grapple gun at the roof. I zoomed through the air and landed on the edge.

"Crap! It's Batman!" A guy in a helicopter said. He shot at me with a shotgun. I tried to dive away, but the motors in the suit couldn't go fast enough, and so most of the shot hit my helmet.

I woke up in a moment to see the chopper flying away from me, too far from my grapple range.

"Sir, shall I send the Batjet?" Alfred asked me.

"No. It won't get here in time. I have another idea. Oracle, activate thrusters."

"Oracle" was the Artificial Intelligence that Barbara had developed to control the suit. At this point, Oracle 1.0 was basically just a fancy siri, but 2.0, which was currently in development, would be much more advanced, and able to help me out a lot more.

"Activating thrusters," I heard a woman's voice in my helmet say.

"Sir, we haven't tested the thrusters nearly enough. And you have never used them in actual flight!"

"This is the only option. We've done the math. It's going to work."

"Sir-"

"Oracle, disable comms." I said, cutting Alfred off. Kind of childish, but there was no other option. I felt the thrusters activating on my boots, and leaped off the roof.

I heard the rush of the wind in my ears. I was falling down, closer and closer to the ground. I held my breath. They had to work…

As I felt a forward thrust, I activated my wings. I rocketed up through the air, high above the buildings.

"Woohoo!" I yelled. I was flying! "Oracle, Target that helicopter."

"Targeting helicopter." She said, as the chopper began to glow blue on my helmet display. I dove towards it. I heard them talking through my amplified microphone.

"What the… Batman can fly? Since when?"

"Shit!"

I smiled in the suit. When I got close, i deactivated the thrusters, flipped through the air, and kicked the side of the tail of the chopper. The helicopter spun through the air. I grabbed the edge of the door and tore it open. One of the men in the chopper was in the ground. I soccer-kicked him in the head, and slammed his friend's head against the side of the chopper.

I made my way to the cockpit. The pilot drew a pistol on me while trying to regain control. I covered the end of the barrel with my left hand, and grabbed his arm with my right. He tried to fire, but the bullet couldn't penetrate my armor, so the gun exploded. He cried out, clutching his hand to his chest. I slammed his head against the dashboard.

The helicopter started to beep. I threw the unconscious pilot from the cockpit into the cabin. I jerked the handle, trying to regain control. A light started flashing, indicating we were losing altitude fast. As we were about 200 feet up, I got control of the spinning. I was about to pull the handle to make us go up, but the chopper came to a sudden stop.