DC: I am Bruce Wayne

Chapter 39: Kryptonite & Preparations

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"Every journey begins with a single step. We just have to have patience."

-Milly Thompson, (Trigun)

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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>

"Hey, Bruce. How is the little stupid dog doing? Still alive?" Slade asked while munching on some popcorn.

"Yeah, I gave him some proper treatment after administering first aid back in Kansas, even took him to one of the best vets in Gotham to get advice on his diet and stuff. He should be alright in a couple of days." I answered with an annoyed scowl on my face while carefully and slowly petting the sleeping puppy lying beside me.

Ace as was his name was a high-pedigree puppy of the German Shepherd breed also known as an Alsatian. What I had deduced from its blood, whoever had bred him had done so in an effort to make him some form of combat dog instead of a normal working dog or just a fancy pet. According to the vet's expert opinion, one of his parents was probably an East European Shepherd which was mostly a Russian military version of the German Shepherd breed. So Ace was definitely not some run-of-the-mill mutt.

But the thing was despite his amazing praiseworthy lineage, he was a severely abused puppy who had somehow escaped its fate by running away. He had bite and scratch marks everywhere, even wounds on his legs caused by a whip of some kind. Presumably, his last owner was some kind of dog breeder for an illegal dog-fighting ring according to the veterinarian's hypothesis. But he wasn't sure, he could only guess since we didn't find any sort of information on the owner from Ace's collar.

Regardless, the little puppy was much better now and had even regained consciousness. At first, he was a little hostile toward us due to trust issues because of his rough history after waking up but after doing some trust-building exercises for a few days and giving him proper treatment and nourishment, he has been slowly warming up to us, especially me and Alfred since we look after him the most because Selina according to her own admission was more of a cat person and Vicki could only be present for a few hours in the mansion since she had her own home and family.

"That's good. Maybe I could train him as a military dog for you. I know most of the methods that the current various military organizations use to train expert combat dogs. Also, I always wanted to train a dog to bite someone's balls off, maybe he could finally fulfill that long-standing dream of mine." Slade said with a dreamy expression on his face like he was imagining the puppy trying to chew on a pair of balls.

"That's not happening Mr. Wilson. I have already decided to train Ace in the ethics of a proper and gentle dog with perfect manners as what would be expected from a pet belonging to the only Wayne heir. There will be NO ball biting in my presence, at least not those attached to any living being." Alfred said as he walked in with a big fancy plate in his hands that had a single large bone on it for Ace to chew and play with when he woke up.

"Oh come on, you lovable English bastard, you suck the fun out of everything in my life. It's only because of you that I realized my wife is not the ultimate evil, you are." Wilson grunted and huffed like an annoyed teenager.

"A gentleman dog or a combat dog biting off balls. It sounds to me like you would have to live a double life like me due to all the expectations. I wonder if I could train you to be a Bat-dog to put even Clark and Krypto to shame. Although I might have to work on that name a little. Bat-dog doesn't exactly seem to roll off the tongue or sound all that threatening or cool, does it?" I smiled and rubbed the head of the sleeping puppy as it released a happy sound of contentment from its mouth like it was having a beautiful dream.

***

*Boom* Another explosion rattled my laboratory as a bunch of kryptonite samples blew out everywhere with so much force that some of them even got stuck on the walls.

"Is that what you meant when you said you were having a blast in your lab while working? Because I can definitely see it." Selina gulped as she got back up from the ground, thanking god for still being alive since there was now a sharp knife-like Kryptonite impaled into the wall just behind her head.

*Woof woof* Ace yipped as he ran all over the room with excitement around the shiny-looking crystals probably wondering if he should replace the ordinary bones in his collection with Kryptonite.

"Hmm, maybe adding Kryptonite in my arc reactor was a dumb move. You aren't hurt, are you kitty?" I asked worriedly as I saw her dusting her clothes.

"No, plus it's mostly my fault that I expected you to be doing something fun and safe in your lab. I should know better than to come play in the lair of a mad scientist." Selina sighed.

"In both my and Bruce's defense, we had no idea about the energy feedback that Kryptonite might cause when exposed to nuclear energy that the ARC reactor generates continuously." Cortana tried to defend Bruce's respect as a genius but unfortunately failed spectacularly as Selina just looked at both of them with narrowed eyes, refusing to believe that they weren't 'stupid' to try out dangerous experiments like that.

"Whatever. I am going to my room. I'll have to work on my hair again since my hairstyle just got ruined. Also, tiger, remember what I said. Don't say yes if that bitch Silver St Cloud asks you on a date. I am telling you, I don't like her. She is only after you for your money. Even Vicki agrees with me on that." Selina said with a look of annoyance and frustration embedded on her face.

"And I told you that I would do what I think is right kitty. If she truly is after me for only my money, there is no way I will even associate with her. But as I have said before, men being rich is the same as women being pretty. You don't like or fall for someone just because of that but it does make it a hell lot easier. So, I will at least have to get to know her better and confirm that she only intends to use me before I distance myself from her. Who knows maybe she could even be a good friend to me like you." I said resolutely without leaving any space for an argument.

"God, you are so stubborn. Just don't come to me after she breaks your heart. I am sure that she will show her true fangs after she gets a couple of expensive gifts from you." Selina walked away while grumbling to herself and cursing the girl in question with words so toxic that even Bruce did not know some of them.

She is so cute and childish sometimes.

"Why didn't you tell her that you already know the Silver girl is trying to honeypot you? You yourself told me yesterday that you hated people who used you especially for your money, didn't you?" Cortana asked in curiosity a little while after Selina left.

"Yeah, I do hate such people and Silver St. Cloud of this universe is definitely one of them. But Selina doesn't need to know that. After all, if she knows that I don't intend to socialize with St. Cloud at all, then she won't act so cutely anymore. She has been really frustrated since she met Silver, even more than when she met Vicki for the first time. And I love seeing her behave so cutely due to her frustration, although I'll probably be going to hell for that." I muttered the last part to myself.

Nevertheless, as I was saying Silver was a budding gold-digger through and through. I don't remember the original character from the comics or if I had seen her before in some show or movie but this particular Silver even though young was not much better than the Onlyfans girls in my previous life who used to brag about their body count to everyone.

I am sure that no matter how well I treat that girl or satisfy her in bed if I ever date her, someone like her will still find some stupid reason to sleep around or cheat on me even if it is just to feel special unless I have some sort of mind control harem tool or something like most harem protagonists. Of course, there is still a chance that I am wrong and this is just my childish stupidity and paranoia talking but I'll be damned if I am gonna take that chance.

No, I would much rather stick to the dark-haired (and one red-haired) beauties I have been making friends with. I am sure at least one of them will grow up to be one of those childhood friends who wants to marry you like in those anime I used to watch.

"Now Cortana, as we were carrying out our experiments, what did you find out from the explosion? Please tell me you found out something useful from the energy readings of that huge energy release." Bruce asked his trusty AI. He had no intention of causing another huge explosion in his cave because he was sure it damaged at least a couple of million dollars worth of equipment the first time.

I should make a bomb containment zone or something here to carry out my more... dangerous experiments safely.

"Of course I did. The energy that the green Kryptonite produces has readings very similar to those of the sun, only it is in the opposite wavelength. The radiation is much harsher and almost harmful compared to our yellow sun's. It has an intensity of such a degree that it can even cancel out the solar radiation trapped inside a Kryptonian's cell which I found out after I ran the simulations comparing them to the data we gathered from Aethyr's body stored in one of the preserving tubes.

As for the other red, green, and blue kryptonites, they are just byproducts of the original green kryptonite created due to nuclear decay over a prolonged time period. The crystals have massive amounts of energy stored in them and are extremely radioactive. The enormous amount of unique radioactive energy in them is probably the very reason why they can cancel out the equally immense amount of stored solar energy in Kryptonians or affect them in other varying ways just like our solar radiation affects normal humans." Cortana explained.

"I see. That actually might perfectly explain why pure kryptonite can only be naturally found in Krypton and affects them so much no matter how powerful they grow. They are the crystallization of Krypton's soil and rocks, most probably their planet's core if my observations are correct under the effect of its red sun. It stores the unique harsh radiation of the red sun of Krypton and thus develops some of its properties. It then uses this red solar radiation and weakens Kryptonians by eliminating normal solar radiation from their bodies, thereby making them mortal just like on their home planet." I murmured to myself as realization struck me.

"And nuclear decay under certain conditions or some other artificial methods only change this unique energy slightly giving the crystal some unique attribute that affects Kryptonians in different ways, mostly harmfully but affects them nonetheless like blue or red kryptonite." Cortana completed my observations.

"Yes. But that also means we can use this energy inside Kryptonites. We can study it and maybe even replicate it for our own weaponry. That's why they do not seem to be compatible with a nuclear fusion reactor like the ARC reactor. Why would they work with a technology that produces energy since they are themselves a source of such unique immense energy? Also, I think we might have found our replacement for Vitarays Cortana." I smiled as gears began turning inside my head and my intuitive intelligence began to work again.

"Woof" Even Ace barked infected with my own renewed excitement.

Kryptonite might just be the thing I am looking for starting my own super soldier project. I was considering using Vitarays as an energy source to kickstart the Compound V and Supersoldier serum projects but now that I have this unique energy, there is a good chance that I can use this. After all, if Metallo can feed off Kryptonite energy, then why can't I? Although, I'll have to be real cautious about this since I'll be entering some uncharted territory of science if I continue with this project.

But still, I can't leave this area of power unexplored especially since I now have basically complete unrestricted access to the formula of mirakuru (which by the way was most probably derived from either Electrum or Dionesium or some other unique element along those lines) after I got my hands on Slade's DNA samples. Truthfully, it was too easy since even though he is very careful to never leave his hair or blood samples intact, he still jerks off sometimes and just throws away the tissues like nobody's business. Maybe he thinks nobody is nasty enough to collect them but unfortunately, he has no idea what I am truly capable of.

I smirk as I cannot help but take a peek at the disposed Wall-E droid at the corner of the Bat cave, the ten thousand dollar state-of-the-art cleaning droid I had to sacrifice to collect his 'trash' from the trashbin.

Yeah, there was no way I was going to touch them with my own hands even if I was wearing ten pairs of gloves and doing it in the name of science. Hell, even the tests were completely run by the machines and everything was handled by Cortana's 'tentacles'.

Now, since there is no way I can make a risk and side-effect-free Kryptonian serum to give me Superman powers in the near future, I'll just have to focus on the compound V and Mirakuru-enhanced super soldier serum although even that will take me a couple of years to perfect especially since I intend to use both on myself. I'll only be focusing on the Extremis once I perfect nanotechnology. But maybe I could add some spider-themed stuff in it too or maybe the OZ serum that gives immortality. Yeah, that would be OP.

Imagine a Batman with spider powers. I think I'll be quite a unique Batman if that happens. I could not help but laugh as I continued to picture myself slinging through the city. But unfortunately, at that time, I had no idea what the twisted humor of the multiverse had planned for me.

I had no idea that for me, it was soon gonna be Batmin' Time.

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