Chapter 23: A magical Birthday (1)

Chapter 23: A magical Birthday (1)

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"Today I will live in the moment unless it's unpleasant in which case I will eat a cookie."

– Cookie Monster

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"Are you sure young master that you don't want to invite some of the richer members of the upper echelon of Gotham to your party? Establishing a good relationship with them from early on might give you lots of benefits in the future when you take over Wayne Enterprises and kick out the board members." Alfred asked with a straight face making it clear that he hated most of the board members of the company with every bone in his body.

"No, Alfred. Not on my birthday. I can barely tolerate those stuck-up people who think that they are the most important and powerful people in the world at normal times. But inviting them and listening to their stupidity on my birthday is a big no-no." Bruce answered with a smile which Alfred returned with one of his own and left for the preparations.

It was Bruce's ninth birthday. It has been almost a year since Bruce and Selina started their training under Richard. In just one year they had improved so much that Richard still had trouble believing that two little children could really be that talented.

To Richard, Selina was a natural martial art prodigy while Bruce was a once-in-a-generation genius who was fated to dominate the martial art world one day. Of course, what he didn't know was that both of their successes were not because of their talents but because of their diligent practice through the NerveGear and Bruce's Walmart Sharingan power.

After about a month, Vicki too found out about their martial arts training when she came to play with them one morning and saw them practicing their techniques with Richard. After that day, she began pestering Bruce and Selina to let her join in too during their training sessions. Bruce had of course denied it at first but after an entire month of constant nagging, he had no choice but to agree to Vicki's request and ask Richard if he could train her as well.

He had expected Richard to deny training her but quite on the contrary, the martial art exert readily accepted her as a student the moment he brought up the topic without even asking her any of the questions he had previously asked Bruce showing that his master was a sexist of a sort.

Helena however according to Richard's harsh opinion was an average talent in the DC world meaning that her martial art talent was not as good as his or Selina's. But that didn't stop the little girl and she made it her life's mission to be as good as Selina at least. But every time she thought she was doing well, it turned out that Selina and Bruce were doing way better than her, mainly because of their constant practice with NerveGear.

She had almost fallen into depression when Bruce could no longer bear to see this and finally revealed to her the existence of the NerveGear after making her promise not to ever tell anyone else. So, Vicki too started training in the digital simulation with time dilation and even though she wasn't as good as them, she could still be called a rare talent after she began to spend a hundred hours a day practicing.

This of course made Richard question his entire existence. He wondered if geniuses and prodigies were really that common nowadays or if Gotham was a home of hidden dragons. But then he just decided not to waste his brain cells on those thoughts and go along with the flow. He even thought that it could be fate guiding him toward a better future.

"Vicki should be coming soon. She promised that she was not gonna miss your birthday for the world. Will you finally tell her about the helmet thing? I mean she is a friend of ours too. Also, we could play games together in it like the realistic racing game we played that day." Vicki said while she did her stretching exercises in her white martial arts clothes.

"I don't know Vicki. I might, since I don't think she would be telling anyone about it." Bruce said as he tried to do pushups with his childish body.

"Of course, she won't. She is a part of the Gotham Knights remember? The first rule of the pact was that we don't betray each other, no matter what. Also, snitching on Tiger would probably be the last thing she would do in this life." Selina said while eyeing Bruce discreetly.

She had an inkling of what Bruce had done that day for Helena even though he always refused to talk on that subject. But that only increased her respect for him in her heart as she knew that he would do the same thing for her as well if she was in Helena's place. That's just how Bruce was, the BEST friend someone could ever hope for.

"I agree," Vicki said as she nodded with a sagely look on her face at which Selina just snorted.

The three just continued doing their respective exercises in silence after that as they waited for Helena to arrive as well as all of Alfred's preparations for the party to finally complete.

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"Alfred, when I told you to make preparations for a small party, I really did mean a small party. This looks like it's the birthday of the Prince of Arabia or something." Bruce said as he looked at the over-the-top decorations adorning the walls of the 'ballroom'.

"I am sorry young master but this is the smallest party I could prepare for your birthday. Any smaller than this and your parents would start cursing me from their graves." He said with a small smile at the corner of his lips.

"Haha. Very funny" Bruce said, not able to control his own smile from leaking onto his face.

***

The entire party was quite enjoyable for everyone who attended it. Bruce had greeted everyone that had come to his party with the utmost respect because to him they were the few people who were currently worthy of being friends with him.

He even met with Lucius' pregnant wife who was a kind and compassionate woman just like her husband. She was also a successful lawyer and had her own legal firm which handled all of Wayne Solutions' legal matters.

Jim Gordon on the other hand had visited him with his little daughter Barbara but had left soon after just about an hour when he was informed that some psycho had killed and eaten his victim. But even within that short hour, Barbara had become famous among the girls due to her cute doll-like appearance and smart responses to their questions. So they were quite sad on seeing her leave so soon. But in return, they made Detective Gordon promise that he would bring back Barbara again to meet them in the future if he had time.

'I guess Lolis really are famous among everyone' He thought as he looked at the girls' sad expressions while waving away at the leaving Barbara.

"By the way, why didn't Cortana come today? We used to talk on the computer all the time back when I was in Europe. I thought she would be coming since it's your birthday. You didn't forget to invite her, did you?" Helena asked as she looked at Bruce with a raised brow.

Bruce didn't know how to tell her the fact that Cortana wasn't even a real human. Selina and Vicki already knew about her but Helena didn't since he hadn't yet revealed to her about his inventions, even though she had her own hunches ever since she saw his bat drone that night. So, he could do nothing but smile wryly wondering how to begin explaining everything.

"Master Bruce, there is a friend of your father's, here to see you along with his daughter. You should probably meet him, he was quite close to your parents." Alfred said as he came up to him from behind.

"Sure Alfred. Let's go. Oh, and you two should explain to Helena about Cortana and NerveGear. I am sure that you two are enough to clear all her doubts and answer the hundreds of questions she might have about them." He smiled at them as he quickly began to follow after Alfred without waiting for them to answer.

"Did he just?" Vicki started.

"Yep." Selina sighed as she glanced at Helena who looked like she could burst into a flurry of questions at any time. Her expression clearly said that she was annoyed and angry that she didn't know something that the rest of the members of the gang were obviously privy to.

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"By the way, who is this family friend Alfred? Do you know his name?" Bruce asked after they were out of the girls' sight.

"Yes, I do. In fact, I have met him quite a couple of times and had even invited his family to your parents' funeral but sadly they couldn't attend due to their own personal problems at that time. His name is Giovanni Zatara." Alfred informed as he continued to walk like everything was normal.

Well, everything was normal except for Bruce who had an expression on his face that clearly said that he was having trouble processing Alfred's words.

"What the fuc...?"

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