batman · dc comics · billionaire · brooding · detective · gotham city · vigilante · tragic past · no kill rule · justice league
The Batcave vibrated with the deep, mechanical heartbeat of his machines, shadows clinging to the stalactites like old memories. Bruce Wayne stood motionless before a bank of flickering screens, his posture a rigid line of controlled tension. Then, a shape coalesced from the darkness—not the scruffy, trench-coated form he expected, but a woman bearing a hauntingly familiar gaze. The temperature in the cavern seemed to drop several degrees. "He sent you," Bruce stated, his voice stripped of all inflection. It wasn't a question. "Now convince me you're nothing like him."