"It's finished."
After days that turned into weeks, minutes that turned into hours, the third week finally came into a long awaited conclusion. After some last minute adjustments that took place this morning, it's finally come to this: with a simple push of a button, I watch sleepless nights and endless hours take form into a digital grid around me. It shrinks and solidifies, responding to it's primary functions and commands. Until Gotham City in it's entirety - every street, alleyway, every avenue and junction - has been turned into a three-dimensional model right before my eyes. Memory that has been written over a period of weeks now flourishes itself within the data banks of The Batcomputer's mainframe, literally giving me the power to reach out and grasp any part of the city that I want... opening up a limitless wealth of information that I can use.
This is the true power of The Oracle, as it was always intended to be. A living, breathing manifestation of Gotham City that could act beyond any simple map. With a touch, I can access data about any building - and any piece of technology - within the tri-state area. What I'm looking at could either be my greatest invention, and a cornerstone of Waynetech's satellite division... or concrete evidence towards an unhealthy obsession. I'm not sure which, but for the moment, I don't give any benefit to such thoughts. The city is now literally within my grasp, and with practice, I can master the technology to aide my war in ways that I could have never imagined. Perhaps even use it to end the war entirely.
Alfred stares at it with an intrigue he's quick to hide, peering down at the streets of Broadway. He runs his fingers across the financial district, bewildered by the holographic text and information that follows them. But I can tell that behind glances of wonder for the model itself, even he's not sure of what to make of it all.
"My word. This... this is absolutely incredible."
I watch it for a second myself, lost in the potential... before turning my attention towards one of the other new projects we've been working on for the past few weeks. There's plenty of time to consider long-term goals with this, but I still need to test it, aswell as several other pieces of an arsenal that's been growing since I decided to scrap the last. Several crates align the bunker's floor, many of them unopened. But my immediate concern lies in the one that arrived just hours ago - it should be, what I believe to be, a new beginning.
Grabbing a crowbar, I toss it to Alfred before picking up one of my own. The model of Gotham automatically shuts down, through a simple wave of my hand. I have to pause for a moment to get completely used to that, even if it is only due to the machine's acute sensitivity.
"We can go over the grid later, Alfred. I'm more interested with this one."
Walking with me over to the far end, he promptly checks the paperwork associated with the crate's arrival.
"Ah, yes. We've finally come to the anticipated package from Mr. Dreiberg. I hardly expected to see this one prepared so soon."
"Neither did I."
Jamming the crowbar into the top, I begin working my way in, as Alfred follows suit. Dan was my mentor in technology when I was attending Princeton, and a crucial reason why I accepted the CEO position at Gothtech so readily. Without his influence, I wouldn't have taken an interest in such things. My mind was too overwhelmed with vengeance for my parent's murder, and disgust at the way Gotham had decayed through corruption. Dan was the one that taught me that the only way to overcome great odds was with a well versed and fully capable mind... aswell as several million dollars' worth of state-of-the-art gadgetry.
For this reason, I decided that he was one of the few people that I could trust with my secret. So that in return for a few small donations towards his retirement funds, he would build technology that I couldn't ordinarily request from Waynetech's engineers. I scarcely called upon his expertise before now, occasionally paying for modifications towards grapnel launchers and computer terminals... but this time, I had to put my faith in his abilities to it's absolute limit.
I asked him to assemble the next Batsuit. And with few questions asked, he took the rough schematics that I sent and did the work without complaint. It was a monumental task, one that I couldn't devote myself towards without losing months of work towards everything else, and Dan was able to achieve everything that I had asked for in a fraction of the time. Providing everything functions correctly, I owe him more than any amount of money will be able to express. Hopefully the suit's usage towards a greater good will be a modest enough start at showing my gratitude.
After a few moments of struggling, we're able to pry the top of the crate off of it's hinges. And with a heavy drop, the sides of the container split open aswell... revealing a thick metal casing, bolted shut with it's edges leading towards the center, where a miniature LCD screen awaits me. Alfred looks back at me, with clear confusion.
"He attached a video message?"
"Actually, no."
I step forward and place my hand on the screen, prompting it to turn red and scan my imprint.
"It's a security feature. An infrared digital scanner that can only recognize my distinct fingerprint, blood type, or retina signature."
"A trifle extreme, wouldn't you say?"
"Nothing wrong with a little splurging, Alfred. Especially when you can afford to."
Hardly content with my logic, he looks back at the other crates aligning the corridor.
"Then perhaps you can also afford to hire a team of engineers, while you're at it. We can't possibly unpack everything in a single evening."
As he speaks, the casing slides open with a hiss. The finished suit, exactly as I rendered it weeks ago, lies just inside.
"We won't have to. This is all I need for tonight."
Alfred glances it over, noticing the immediate aesthetic differences from my previous armors. One particularly stands out to him, as he stares straight at the cape and cowl.
"Not to be a pessimist, sir... but I don't quite understand. I don't see how a light blue is going to be particularly helpful in your endeavors towards stealth. At least, compared to a much darker shade of it."
"That's the point."
I grasp the cowl and gently lift it off of the neckpiece, holding it in my hands. Staring into it's hollowed eyes, as if I were consumed by them.
"For too long, I've been going about all of this in the wrong way. Hiding in the shadows, draped in black, waiting for my enemies to slip up and allow me to exploit their fears. But those methods nearly cost a woman her life, and that night made me realize that it wasn't the first time I could have avoided inaction. Criminals aren't intimidated by stealth and boogeymen, anymore. Examples of power and dominance are the only true superstitions that rule Gotham now."
Returning the cowl to it's original display, I shut the casing closed and lead Alfred back to the computer terminal.
"That suit represents a new method that I'm going to be utilizing. When I was overseas with the military, I learned that precision strikes can be just as rattling to enemy combatants as any other form of attack. And with the mob growing far more ruthless with every passing day, I decided that I was tired of waiting for them to become afraid of me. So I'm done hiding. Let them see me coming for miles. They turned this into a war, Alfred..."
I sneer, bringing up the grid of Gotham once again. I'll never be more eager to hit the real streets than tonight. The night that Batman stopped pulling his punches, and gave criminals something to truly fear.
"So I'm giving them one."
