studiobondurri Chapter 116: The Butler Did It (Sort of)
Chapter 116: The Butler Did It (Sort of)
Chapter 116: The Butler Did It (Sort of)
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"Stress makes you bald, but it's stressful to avoid stress, so you end up stressed out anyway. In the end, there's nothing you can do."
- Gintoki Sakata, (Gin Tama)
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<{Wayne Vista Grand Hotel}>
<(Omniscient POV)>
"Stop stressing, Pennyworth. If you continue to worry like that, you'll even lose the rest of your grey hair from that thinning scalp of yours." Leslie Thompkins sternly reprimanded Alfred while trying to give him a relaxing back massage, something she was quite good at due to being a professional doctor.
She was a woman in her late forties, set to enter her fifties soon, although the only thing reminiscent of her age was her silver-colored hair because just like Alfred, she too was extremely well-maintained with a body that could even compete with Alfred's muscular physique in terms of fitness.
"But you don't understand Ms. Thompson. Young Master Bruce always picks up the phone of those he considers his family. Even if he is unable to answer immediately for some reason, he always calls back. But it has been more than a day and there is still no news from him. At least, Cortana should have given us some information, but she just disappeared after telling us that something important came up and Young Master had to leave all of a sudden.
Even then, I would have believed her, had she not increased our security level for no reason at all. She didn't even allow the girls to contact Master Bruce, which is unlike her. Also, when I asked the guards and maids back at the manor as well as the officials at the Gotham airport about Young Master, they all confirmed that he had already left in his private jet for Greece to meet up with us. Suddenly changing his destination mid-flight without informing us first is just too suspicious for me to ignore." Alfred voiced the reasoning behind his worries after his body began to relax at the massage.
"I agree, maybe it is slightly suspicious. But you have to understand that Bruce isn't a kid anymore. He is one of the biggest businessmen in the world. You cannot baby him all the time, no matter how worried you are about him. He is a responsible young man who can more than take care of himself. So, just trust in him and wait for him to come back. As for that AI of his, I know her recent actions are slightly suspicious but you yourself once said that she is one of the most trustworthy individuals that has ever worked for Bruce. I am sure that whatever she is doing has a valid reason behind it." Leslie tried to calm the worried butler down with her reasoning.
"Also, is that truly the only reason you are so stressed? Are you sure that this has nothing to do with the news you recently received from your... ex? The reason why you even insisted on coming to Europe for a vacation? Maybe instead of being worried about something happening to Bruce, you are actually worried about what he would think of you when he finds out about your past?" Leslie tried her best to understand Alfred's current thoughts to better comfort him about his worries.
"That's not... *Sigh* You are right, I shouldn't deny it anymore. I probably am a little worried about what the Young Master would think of me when he learns that the person who has been raising him all these years, has a daughter he didn't even know about. The man whom the Wayne couple trusted their son with, could not even raise his own daughter... All these years, I thought that I had accomplished so much Leslie, but today, I feel like I am the biggest failure there is." Alfred accepted with a pained expression on his face that clearly reflected his broken heart.
"But it isn't your fault. How are you supposed to know that she even existed when her mother kept this a secret from you all those years? You said she was a one-time fling. You didn't even meet her after that. If a romantic person like you didn't even try to track that person down again, then that means you probably lost her location, right? If she didn't want you in her life, then it's her fault that you were not present, not yours." Leslie still tried her best to defend him.
It's like something supernatural was stopping her from finding him. Of course, she had instantly thought of getting help from the experts in the field for this, but she couldn't find an expert and convince them to work for her in such a short time. After all, the only two magical experts Bruce knew were currently not even in the US. Cortana had searched for the father-daughter duo all over the world using every internet-accessible camera and satellite she could connect to, but she came up with absolutely nothing.
So, the only choice she had was to wait for the nanobots in Bruce's body to come online and connect to the main server. His nanobots also had a mini clone of hers installed in them which worked even without any sort of network connection. The mini clone was not the real her, but just a "lite" version of her who could do certain tasks for Bruce. Its primary purpose, however, was not to be an assistant for Bruce but to help the real Cortana connect with Bruce when the nanobots would again go online. Cortana would be able to sync with this lite version of hers to get access to all the recorded data of her clone.
The AI assistant knew that she would be getting Bruce's location sooner or later, but she wanted to be prepared when it happened. Initially, she had planned on implementing the strategy she had herself devised in case Bruce was ever killed or his life ever seriously threatened, a strategy she had named Project Failsafe, a project that even Bruce wasn't completely aware of its details.
Failsafe was designed for vengeance, something Cortana had been working on for years as her own pet project after Bruce donated the Kryptonian woman's dead body to her, but she hadn't been able to perfect it yet. She could have asked Bruce for help, but she didn't want to since this was supposed to be her gift for him. She still needed about a year or two to truly perfect the weapon.
So, right now, all she could do to prepare was just make more drones while printing more and more nanobots until she could track his signal. She was making an army for Bruce and...
[Signal Detected: Target confirmed as Master Bruce Wayne!]
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(A/N: I forgot to explain how Hera is a virgin in the last chapter... Well, she is not. According to some myths, Hera regains her purity once every year by bathing in some mythical fountain to please her husband, Zeus. This festival is held on the same day and celebrates Hera when she is at her purest.)
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