(Uncle Philip POV)
Bruce woke up. Finally, after more than a week of being unconscious, he woke up. I can't say I wasn't hoping to get all of Wayne Enterprises, but I am still happy that my nephew is alive and awake now. I never had much of a bond with him, but now that he is awake, I will have to change that. We will grow closer ... somehow. I have no idea how to raise a child. I will hire someone to do that for me. A new butler and a maid as well. Some teachers... yeah, that could work. Then I don't have to deal with him.
I walk to his room and knock.
"Come in," I hear Bruce's voice say on the other side.
"Hello Bruce, how are you?" I ask him as I step inside his room.
I look at him and see ... nothing. There is nothing left of the young boy I knew fleetingly. No emotion at all. I was expecting him to be sad and grieving, but apparently, that is not the case. He looks like some of the more dangerous men I sometimes deal with, those who have nothing left to lose.
"I'm alright," he says.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that. I am here to take you with me. Now that your parents ... well... aren't here anymore, I ... well I am planning to take care of you. Is that alright with you?" I ask him.
I don't know how to talk to a child. I want him to feel comfortable, but I just don't know how to make that happen. How do you mention the passing of his parents, without mentioning it? Eh, this is annoying.
"... It's ok. As long as I get to leave this bed now," he says.
I smile at that and nod.
"Yeah, let us leave here."
He doesn't have anything here in terms of clothes. He was brought there in an emergency. But it doesn't matter; the little he does have can be carried in one hand. I do that for him, and I always want to make a good impression. We finally leave the hospital and enter the limousine that is waiting for us. I instruct my driver to drive us to my house, but Bruce stops me.
"I wanted to ask whether we could make a stop at home ... just for a short moment. I ... would like to get something from there," he says.
It takes me a lot of willpower not to groan in annoyance. I already lost enough time. He doesn't look at me right now, and I can tell that it pains him to go back there. So the thing he needs has to be important. And if it's important to him, it's important for me as well ... at least on the outside.
"Of course, we can, Bruce. Euwin, please get us to Wayne Manor."
"Yes, sir."
.
The ride is very silent. Neither Bruce nor I say anything. He, for obvious reasons, and I, because I just don't know what to say. Anything I have to say would be awkward, and I just don't want to be in such a situation.
After 20 minutes, we reach Wayne Manor. Bruce steps out and looks at his home. He doesn't move for a few minutes and only looks at it. I stand next to him and look at the house too. I put my hand on his shoulder and tell him.
"Shall we try it? You don't have to go in. I can have Euwin get your stuff if you wish."
"No. I only want you to come with me... I ... have something to tell you," he says.
"Alright then. We can do that. Euwin, please wait here for me to come back," I say to my driver, and he nods.
Bruce and I walk into the house, and he looks around. He has a goal, I can tell. With purpose, he walks upstairs and into the bathroom. Normally, I wouldn't follow him there, but he calls me in. What is with this child? Did the experience mess up his mind that badly?
I enter as well, but what I see makes me stop dead in my tracks. There stands a man in a ... costume? An Owl costume ... the Court of-----
"Farewell Uncle..."
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(Bruce POV)
"Do you have the tools?" I asked the Talon. He nodded and handed me everything I needed. In a bag, I found surgical tools as well as the technology I created last night. The new and improved version of the Mind Control Pin was already in use, of course. Now we only needed to do the rest.
"The driver?" I asked.
"Knocked out," the Talon confirmed.
"Good. That gives me all the time I need," I said and got to work. I put on my Surgical gloves and lay my uncle on the floor. I made sure to work as sterilely as possible. But it didn't matter either way, as I've already prepared for that eventuality. I made a special gel I call 'healing gel'. The name was as bad as the gel was effective. But it did exactly what its name suggested.
What it did was literally in the name. It healed wounds of many different kinds and worked as a disinfectant as well. So no matter how much dirt, microbes, and bacteria got into the wound when I worked, it wouldn't matter in the end.
I begin with the surgery. For the thing I have planned, I need to open the man's skull and lay his brain free so I can work on it. It is not a very elegant but effective solution for the task. I was thinking about leaving my uncle and just forging my parents' testament to name another guardian I would create, but I refrained from doing so. Too much work for too few results like this.
I created a receiver and a transmitter last night. The receiver will go into my uncle's brain, and once I wire everything correctly, it will function on the electricity generated by the cells. This is good material for a movie.
The transmitter is for me to keep, as it will allow me to control my uncle. Of course, I won't implant it into my brain as I don't trust anyone to operate on me except myself. And something as crude as this would never get anywhere close to me, let alone my brain.
I spent a bit over one hour doing this. I had the Talon use my uncle's phone to tell all of his appointments that he was spending time with his nephew. Isn't that sweet of him? And that wasn't even a lie. He was spending time with me, and I was helping him get better. What a kind nephew I am.
.
After the second hour had arrived, I was finally done with my work. I double- and triple-checked everything, then made sure none of this technology would show up in a security scan at the airport. You never know if he has to fly at a moment's notice. On the other hand... my uncle had a private jet, so that would not have been necessary. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
I reattach the upper part of his skull and close him up, then apply the healing gel to the wounds. It works as intended, and after a few minutes, everything heals. Quite a handy thing indeed. We would have been thankful for this through the Imperium. Hell, this would have been priceless. Now, imagine if I had good materials to work with.
I leave my uncle there and check on the transmitter that I built yesterday. It's not a bad piece of technology, but, like with everything I've created in the last two days, it can still be upgraded. It doesn't matter, though. It works fine. In the meantime, when I wait for Uncle Philip to wake up, I address my 'slave' right now. The Talon, belonging to the Court of Owls that is now under my control, has a purpose. I will use him until this order is complete.
"Alton, listen up. You have a task that I want you to complete. You will make sure that you are not found out. I want you to observe every member of Wayne Enterprises' board of directors. I want to know everything there is to know about them. I want to know their likes and dislikes, how much money they have, and where, and I especially want you to bring me evidence of any wrongdoing on their part.
No matter how minor it might seem, I want a copy of anything that could be illegal. Make sure not to be seen or found out. I don't care how you do it, but get it done. As for the Court of Owls, you will tell them the truth about me. Tell them that my Uncle Philip picked me up and that we went to Wayne Manor first. Tell them that you think something is going on that concerns the future of Gotham and me. But make it very vague so that they don't have a clue about what is going on.
And finally, I want you to create a list of all members of the Court of Owls. I don't care how you do that either, but get it done. You have two weeks for that. Report back to me in two weeks, and we'll see what you have. Is that understood?" I ask the Talon.
"Yes."
"Good, then go!"
.
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(3rd Person POV)
That left Bruce alone with his uncle and the driver. But that wouldn't be a problem for him. He started to walk through Wayne Manor. It was a very big mansion as well, and he could use it for his work. The Batcave, or the headquarters Bruce would use, will still be built; however, he won't sleep there. Now that he was alone in this house, he might change a few things. It wasn't necessary to have all of these bedrooms. But considering the so-called Batfamily from the comics, Bruce guessed there was a chance it could come in handy. He would still change a few things and make it more functional. But keeping up appearances was vital now.
After another half an hour, Bruce's Uncle finally woke up and could see how his experiment had gone. Bruce walked into the bathroom and saw him trying to gather his bearings. When he saw his nephew, Bruce could tell he understood his situation to some degree. The technology was working flawlessly, much to Bruce's satisfaction. He had made sure to install a CPU and a rather small SSD to save commands for situations he foresaw in the future.
The most important thing was the self-destruct function, in case Bruce's uncle was ever compromised or said anything about what had happened today. Should the circuitry fail, it would quite literally blow his brains out. That was something Bruce made sure would never fall into someone's hands. The value of such technology, no matter how crude he thought it was, was invaluable and could do unimaginable damage. Bruce was paranoid, so he had to install failsafes. He guessed that came from being all those people and the experience he now held.
"How do you feel?" Bruce asked him.
"It is good. No abnormal feelings from what I can tell. All my cognitive functions are slightly better than they were, though," his uncle answered.
"Yeah, I had to make you smart enough to at least understand when I'm talking to you. Not that you're stupid, but next to me ... you might as well be a microbe. Now do you understand the mission?" Bruce continued.
"Affirmative. Lead the company, Wayne Enterprises, legally and correctly. Make sure others don't take advantage of us and keep the vultures out. Also, make sure that I am not discovered, or I will die."
"Perfect. I can see the promise here. I have installed all sorts of surveillance devices. I can communicate with you through the receiver as well, so make sure not to hit your head too hard. However, it would be good data to find out the limit of the technology's survival. Anyway, that is all for now. Take your driver with you and send me the papers about my new butler. You know which ones I'm talking about," Bruce told him.
"Yes."
"Good, you may leave now. Also, send me everything related to the financial situation. And make sure not to waste money. Now leave."
Finally, Bruce was alone and ready to begin his new life as Bruce Wayne. He had so many plans, and as things stood now, he also had adequate time. Although now that he thought about it ... he didn't have that much time. He had much to research before he left on his training journey. But that made it interesting.
The training trip was still in the balance, but most likely, he would do it. He didn't want to alert his enemies too early on.