Short chapter just to not leave you with nothing ;)
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I was already used to lonely nights. I used them to train, study, and perform rescues. But that night, something felt off.
A new shadow was starting to circulate through international headlines. Too small for the general public to notice, but clear enough to the right eyes. And I knew exactly what it was.
[Hooded vigilante intercepts armed traffickers in Chicago.]
[Masked figure prevents museum robbery in Chicago. Police deny involvement.]
[Witnesses describe a creature resembling a bat. Investigation ongoing.]
It didn't take long for my mind to start connecting the dots.
Bat. Shadow. Silence. Precise tactics. No one saw him arrive. No one heard him leave.
"Batman."
The name hadn't been made official yet. But the actions were there, hidden in the fine print of local newspapers and obscure forums. I used my restricted access to comb through public and private data. Ballistic analysis, movement patterns, combat tactics.
And then, one article caught my attention:
[Bruce Wayne quietly returns to Chicago after years abroad.]
Too much of a coincidence. The last appearance of the vigilante had been in Chicago.
Bruce Wayne. Heir to one of the nation's largest fortunes. Declared missing for years, he reappeared as a quiet, reserved man, with deep eye bags in every recent photograph.
'That lowers the odds of anyone else being the Bat. Now I just need to find him to be sure'
That night, I didn't sleep.
I sat atop my building, legs crossed like a monk, eyes closed. I pushed my hearing to the limit. Not the sounds of Japan — but of Chicago. The world became a sea of whispers, heartbeats, footsteps, and distant sighs.
I filtered frequencies.
Underground noises. Hidden doors opening. Muffled grunts in alleys. Screams that stopped before becoming cries for help.
Sudden silence. As if someone was cutting through the chaos — cleansing the underworld with no audience.
I found a sound.
A deep, rhythmic whisper. Careful footsteps of reinforced boots on metal. Controlled breathing. No radios. No chatter. Just a highly trained body in action, fighting in the shadows.
I heard the sound of a grappling hook firing, followed by the soft echo of a glider deploying.
I focused harder.
His heartbeat was unlike the average person's. Not calm like a monk, nor frantic like someone on the run. It was… disciplined. As if each beat was preprogrammed.
"I found you."
[CHICAGO – INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT – 01:37 AM]
The clouds concealed the moon, leaving the city drowned in shadows broken only by pale lights and distant headlights. The wind sliced across rooftops, whispering old secrets between rusted warehouse beams.
Atop one of them, a figure moved through the night with lethal precision.
Batman.
His new suit was the pinnacle of stealth and combat engineering — a fusion of reactive nanotech and intelligent polymers. Matte black dominated, accented by red energy lines that pulsed softly when internal systems activated. The classic bat symbol — now stylized with sharper edges — glowed on his chest. Retractable wings emerged like crimson blades on mental command, allowing him to glide silently between buildings.
The visor displayed multiple holographic interface layers. On one side tab, red markers scattered across a 3D map of Chicago: hideouts, entry points, escape routes. Data received from patrol drones and the suit's own thermal scans. Every point was a lead.
Tonight's target: a gang trafficking high-tech weaponry.
Armor parts, energy rifles, wiped tracking chips — all stolen from military facilities and sold to criminals with destructive quirks. Smart. Lethal. But not invisible.
With a silent boost, Batman landed atop a building adjacent to the main target: an abandoned warehouse at the edge of the harbor zone. The movement inside was visible only through thermal sensors — nine individuals, two trucks, one central case. Transaction in progress.
He activated stealth mode. The suit turned invisible, projecting an active distortion field that blended him into the environment.
Silence.
One step. Another. He slipped through a side window and positioned himself on a high beam, just meters from the ceiling.
Below, the deal was heating up.
"This wasn't the model we agreed on, Diego !" one of the buyers shouted, activating his quirk — a metal arm glowing with blue energy.
"Not my problem, supply's dried up. Take it or leave it !"
Batman narrowed his eyes. Voices rising. Emotional triggers flaring. Someone was about to make a mistake.
And someone did.
A shot.
Chaos.
Shouts, flashing lights, quirks activating in panic. Bullets ricocheting. One of the trucks caught fire partially.
Intervention initiated.
Batman dropped like a black thunderbolt, landing in the middle of the group with brutal precision. The suit absorbed impacts and emitted sonic pulses to disorient the targets.
Two went down before realizing what hit them. A third tried to run — a sticky grenade on his chest launched him against the wall, non-lethal but precise. Another activated a magnetic field quirk — neutralized by a pulse dart that silenced circuits.
In under a minute, the warehouse was silent again.
Dust in the air. Echoes of tense breathing.
Then — a new voice.
Deep. Calm, in a strange way.
"You're hard to find."
Batman spun automatically, visor switching to offensive mode.
At the top of one of the shattered windows, Superman floated like a living statue.
The boy with silver hair, glowing blue eyes, and the golden stylized "S" on his white suit. His cape fluttered with the city wind, but his body remained still, arms crossed, watching.
The two locked eyes for a moment that stretched beyond time.
Raw power versus absolute control.
Superman slowly descended without a sound, feet touching the scorched concrete. His gaze never left the Dark Knight.
"You're real," Superman said in a neutral tone.
Batman didn't answer. His visor scanned, plotting escape routes, reading heartbeat frequencies — no signs of hostility. But there was power. An absurd amount of power.
"I'm not your enemy," Superman continued, now a step closer. "But I figured… it was time we had a talk."