Red X Ch01

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HumanX

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Edited By HumanX

Red X

Ch01


Superheroes are stupid. One man attempts to change the world by taking his specific gifts and moving against the natural flow of the world. Not that it doesn't help. Ask any semi-good looking reporter girl whose ever fallen from a twenty story building and got swept away by a man in flashy undies. But it's like putting a band aid on a bullet wound to the heart. Einstein said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." If so, does that mean that superheroes are insane? And if that is true then that means that the normal people who rely on them and expect them to protect us are also insane. Has the world gone nuts? Maybe. And maybe it's not such a bad thing. Perhaps human kind needs to be insane to live with what it is. Perhaps we've lost what we needed to keep our lives and our sanity. Perhaps we where simply born into this world so that we could slowly loose ourselves to the madness that requires a saviour in patriotic garbs to fly in and hand us what we have become to violent and stupid to find ourselves. Or I could be over thinking it. The world has clearly lost its mind. Humanity has lost its soul. The insane are more understandable than the sane and the heroes fight a pointless battle to no avail against the forces deemed evil by a flawed system. To me there is only one possible reason; The world is flawed so one must make their own "justice" make their own decisions and break the man made rules when it seems right. There is no right or wrong so you have to make your own and live by it, no matter what obstacles lie in your way. Even if they have a big letter or an animal on their chest.


A bright glare reflects against intensely focused eyes, the eyes of a man looking for justice in the insane world. One of the insane attempting to achieve the impossible. This particular individual is named Bruce Wayne but the night streets of Gotham know him by a different name. They witnessed his life, his growth and his rebirth. They are a part of him and in a way his creator. He is the Batman and he is continuing his search for the remedy to his pain. The cure to his moments of sanity. "Have you located any information about the robberies?" A wrinkled old man in a suit walks out from the dark corridors with a saucer of drinks in his hands. "Not yet Alfred." The caped crusader takes a steaming cup from the saucer and sips from it as his eyes move from monitor to monitor. "It has been a month since the latest technology was stollen from Wayne Enterprises without any trace of the perpetrator. "We only have this as a clue but there are no finger prints or any sign of who made it or how it was manufactured." Bruce rubs his eyes and holds up a small red X that had been sharpened as if to act as a throwing star. "There should be some sort of clue in how it was made or in the design that could lead me to whoever created it, but there isn't." "Could it be one of your regulars sir?" Alfred asks him. "No. It doesn't fit any of my enemies styles. Anyone I could think of is already in Arkham." "It has to be someone new." The newest Robin, Damien Wayne walks out from the shadows alongside his partner Dick Grayson, the second Batman. "We found one as well." Grayson tosses his X to Wayne who looks the item over. "And what did you loose?" He asks the former acrobat who takes a seat beside him at the Bat Computer. "One of my old Nightwing suits. Didn't even know it was gone until I found the X laying by my hiding place. What did he take from you? Plasma cannon? Teleportation ray?" "Invisibility belt." "Spiffy." Wayne looks over the X's again. "Are you he left nothing else?" "Nadda." Grayson shrugs. "But it's disturbing." "How so?" "The costume was being kept at my house. That means he knows I'm Nightwing and that means all of our identities may have been compromised." "He does." Bruce holds up another X. This one has the words "That's two I owe you" written on it. "This time he took a Bat suit." "He was in the cave!?" Grayson asks. "He escaped with one of my Bat suits and left without triggering security or leaving ay evidence." Wayne tosses the X. It stabs the ground and pierces straight through. "This is no ordinary criminal and it seems to have a thing for Wayne related merchandise." "More like Batman related." Damien says, looking over the crime scene himself. "Think he used the belt to get the suit?" "Inferred would have picked him up." Wayne shoots the theory down. "But whoever this is I will find him."


The next few weeks pass with no leads. Eventually it becomes time for one of the many Wayne charity funds to hold an annual ball in Wayne manor. "Having fun?" Grayson asks as he shakes Wayne's hand. "Honestly I'd rather be working right now." Wayne sighs. "I know what you mean, but you can't win them all." Grayson looks around the room. "If I where you I'd relax a bit while this is going on and try to look like you've had some sleep in the past few days." "Right." Wayne goes to get something to eat. "Bruce Wayne." Wayne looks up at a familiar face he'd rather forget. "Richard Jeffries." He puts on a smile and shakes the mans hand. "Haven't seen you in a long time." "Well, you know." The blonde man smiles, his blue eyes looking over the spread. "You know me. No will power." "You never could resist anything you could get for free." "Odd thing for a man born into money." Jeffries takes some of almost everything and starts chomping down. "Careful or you might end up putting on wait." Wayne smiles and hands him a serviette. The man is huge, clearly a result of his lifestyle. "Well, I got my ways of keeping fit." "Maybe you could send some of that good fortune my way." "Yeah, I heard about that little break in. Tough luck." "Well, I just wish I could just forget the whole thing and go to some tropic beach, but I did that last weekend." The fat man laughs at the joke, dropping some of his food back into his napkin. "That's what I like about you Bruce. No worries. Hey. Have you met my assistant?"


Jeffries waves over to a young man who walks up to them. The man has a dark look to him. His hair is dark black and his blue eyes seem to pierce through whoever he looks at. "This is my boy Kyle." Richards grabs the boy by the shoulder. "Kids a little wiz when it comes to technology. I got him working on some special projects." "Oh." Wayne hides his shock. "Who's the mother?" "One of my employees." Jeffries smirks. "Sadly she ended up dying a while ago. A little after this guy was born." "That's too bad." Wayne looks over to the boy. "I'm sorry to hear that." "This kid's great though." Jeffries pats the boys shoulder. "He got my whole plan for the next few months set up. We may be blowing your sales out of the water. That is if we weren't stationed in different cities." "I don't know." Wayne tells him. "Gotham isn't that far from where you are. If you moved closer to us then you could get some good business, that is if you can actually put my company under. Anyway Richard, I've got some things I need to take care of but enjoy the party. Nice meeting you." He says to the kid before walking off. The two who are left exchange serious look and part.


Wayne walks through the crowd of people but accidentally bumps into someone. "Sorry about that." He says to the person who he now notices is a girl. "No problem." She says in return and he helps her back to her feet. "Ohmygosh! You're…um sorry!" She says excitedly. Wayne smiles and holds out his hand. "Bruce Wayne." "Yeah, I'm Bruce Wayne. No, you're Bruce Wayne. I'm Kenny. Penny! Hi. Can I start over?" She asks. "No no. Please continue." Wayne smiles charmingly. "I'm Penny Turman." She holds out her hand to shake. She's very pretty. Her Dark brown hair flows down to her shoulders and the curls she did for this party bounce with her every action. Her grey eyes are wide with excitement. "Nice to meet you Penny." Wayne shakes. "Sorry, but I've got some things I need to take care of. Enjoy the party." "I will!" She calls out nervously.


Wayne finally gets through the crowd of people and to one of the uninhabited rooms. He flips a hidden switch and heads inside. He makes it to a door that requires a pass key and reaches into his coat pocket. "It's not here." He hears a noise from behind his already closed secret door. He quietly walks up to it and peeks through one of the hidden holes. A young man with dark, almost black, brown hair and brown eyes looks around. "This dude is freaking Bill Gates rich." "Alex." A girl walks in behind him. "We're supposed to stay at the party." She's got long orange coloured hair down to her mid back which has also been curled like the girl from before but hers is far better done, as if by a professional. "I invited you as my date. Not as my tour guide." "Check it out Charlotte." He calls back to her. "This dude's got a major thing for armour. The whole room's full of it. This is so cool." "Come on. I want to go back to the party. You can look at weird stuff at your dad's asylum." "Not after he went postal." "Alexander Arkham, if I'm not being swept off of my feet and surrounded by music and fancy food in three minutes I will scream my lungs out." "Fine." The guy leaves the room and takes the girl out to her party. "And I thought I had lady problems." Wayne walks out from the hidden door. He looks over at one of his armoured suits. "Pretty cool."


It's not long before Wayne sees the kids again. Alfred had found his card key but Wayne isn't convinced that he'd simply dropped it. The Batman wouldn't make a mistake like that. He greets his guests one by one, looking for anyone he could see as a suspect. He starts to think he's just been spending too long in the Bat Cave. "Hello mr.Wayne." Charlotte says with a short curtsy when he gets to her family. "You're looking very pretty this evening." He does a bow. "Had to pretty myself up for my boyfriend. He's never been to a party like this before." "Charlotte Sullivan with a boyfriend? Aren't you only in high school?" "I graduated three years ago and I'm twenty one." She gives him a look and he laughs it off. "So, who's this mystery man?" "Here he is." She excitedly grabs on to the arm of guy behind her who is looking around the room, not paying attention. He looks over and holds out his unoccupied arm. "Hey, I'm Alex Arkham." He smiles and Wayne shakes. "Bruce Wayne." "You own all the armour." Arkham realizes and suddenly puts more into his side of the shake. "I've got everything from ancient samurai to modern warfare. You should see the tank I keep in the garage." Wayne smiles, feeling that the first lively conversation of the evening had just started. "You got any crazy stuff? Crazy samurai swords or like, dragon helmets?" "I've got suits that would blow your mind." After that he runs into Penny Turman again and as it turns out she's working for a small newspaper in town and is doing a story on him. Wayne answers her stutter filled questions and eventually sets up a time for the two of them to talk more thoroughly about her story.


Later in the Batcave, Wayne continues to rummage through both videos of the break in and his latest party. "I wouldn't just misplace my key like that." He mutters aloud. "If my hunch is correct then someone at this party was the culprit." "Yeah." Grayson walks down the stairs and looks over the screens as well. "I'd say we've got Richard Jeffries on our list of suspects. He's had it in for your company since I was still flying in red and green tights." "Shouldn't you be somewhere?" Wayne asks Grayson who shrugs. "I've got some time to kill so I thought I'd help you bag this thief." "I don't need the help." Wayne examines the X's again while Grayson rubs an aching shoulder and sighs. "You know where to find me." He says before leaving. Wayne looks through the screens once more before he writes a note to himself and shuts down for the night. "Quitting sir?" Alfred asks as he opens the door for him. "I've got a date tomorrow with ms.Turman."

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TypingKira

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#1  Edited By TypingKira

This is great! I'll read the next chapter tomorrow, promise ;} 
 
One thing, maybe thing about putting each line of dialogue on a separate line, so that it's easier to read?  
 
Other than that I love this!

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The Impersonator

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#2  Edited By The Impersonator
@HumanX: This is an awesome chapter. I love Batman. I felt like I was in the Bat-cave with all the familiar characters. A good mystery as well.. I wonder who is the Red X. Hmmmmm.  
 
I'll be reading chapter 2 soon.