JB: Chapter 20

The first friend Clark took me to meet was fairly predictable. We met up the day after the thing with the Atomic Skull at the Daily Planet building, and then he flew me across the bay to Gotham City. We touched down on the roof of Wayne Tower, and I received a sudden ping on my Ki Sense, even though my scouter failed to register anyone showing up. I turned around to see a gargoyle, frowning for a moment just before Clark's friend stepped out from behind the leering stone statue. Dressed all in black, with a cape and cowl bearing pointed ears, stood the man I had already figured we were here to meet. Bruce Wayne, aka the Batman. The World's Greatest Detective and king of prep time glared back at me as he emerged from behind the Gargoyle.

"You knew I was here. How?" Questioned Bruce.

"You may have been able to hide your presence from my Scouter, but I could sense your Ki all the same." I answered.

"Interesting. Redundant detection methods. Superman said you showed promise." Frowned Bruce.

"Wait, you could sense him?" Queried Clark.

"I could. You mean you couldn't see him?" I asked.

"I've had countermeasures to his X-ray vision built into my suit for a couple of months now." Explained Bruce.

"Come on, you don't need to be that paranoid." Huffed Clark.

"Don't I? Have you heard of Poison Ivy? She can take control of your mind with her pheromones. What happens then?" Questioned Bruce.

"Still, if you have so many contingencies it makes it hard to be around you." Pressed Clark.

"You'll thank me when they pay off." Insisted Bruce.

"Can we get to the reason we're here?" I queried.

"Right. Rugulo, this is Batman. We met earlier this year when we were both working a case on a cruise ship and have teamed up a couple of times since. Batman's the best detective and martial artist I know. You could learn a lot from him." Introduced Clark.

"Nice to meet you." I nodded.

"I've heard about you. That Cat Grant article didn't mention how young you are." Mused Bruce.

"Is that gonna be a problem?" I asked.

"No. I've been training a sidekick for a month or so now, who's about your age. This should be doable." Informed Bruce.

"You know not all teenagers are the same, right?" Questioned Clark.

"I know, but they tend to have similar thought patterns. Especially teenage boys." Smirked Bruce.

"Right, well. I'm going to leave you here with Batman for the night. You'll be working with him for now, then I'll take you to meet with Doctor Fate in Salem to help you out with Magic. Once you're done with that, we'll take you to meet Wonder Woman to finish out your training." Informed Clark.

"How long am I supposed to be in training for?" I queried.

"Four to six months." Answered Clark.

"I was told you were previously trained by monks in an alien Monastery. You should be used to patience by now." Intoned Bruce.

"Oh, I am. I just didn't expect this to last for so long." I shrugged.

"Get used to it. You showed potential against the Atomic Skull, but potential is only good if it's fulfilled. I have every confidence you can handle this." Opined Clark.

"Yes, there were at least three ways I could think of off the top of my head that you could have neutralized the Atomic Skull without needing Superman's help. Hopefully, by the end of your time with me, you'll have seen them as well and be able to fix your mistake in the future." Nodded Bruce.

And with that, Clark lifted off and flew back across the Delaware Bay to Metropolis, leaving me with Bruce to begin my training period. I watched him leave before turning back to Bruce and cocking an eyebrow at him. The Caped Crusader didn't give me any indication of what he was planning. His face and body language were annoyingly devoid of tells, especially with the cape hiding part of his body. That may have been why, when he tossed down some kind of smoke pellet that I hadn't seen him palm thanks to the cape, I'd been taken off guard. The smoke pellet exploded into a hissing greenish-yellow gas, and I realized it must have been some variant of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin. I held my breath as best I could and flew up out of the cloud, but as the cloud dissipated, I realized that I was still being affected as my Ki Sense was being thrown off.

I alighted back down on the rooftop and found it deserted. To the best of my capabilities, I was unable to sense or spot Bruce. This variant of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin must have been formulated to throw off psychic powers and other such methods of extranormal perception, likely as a way for Bruce to even the playing field against psychic or magic villains. King of prep-time indeed. Only Bruce would think of something like this. Just as I was beginning to wonder what reason Bruce had for doing this, though, Bruce's voice rang out across the rooftop, sounding like it was coming from different places with each sentence.

"This is your first lesson. You won't always be able to rely on your Ki Sense or Technology to ferret out an opponent. You will have to actually investigate. Use context clues to find my hiding spot. Then we'll proceed with your next lesson." Intoned Bruce, throwing his voice to confuse me.

"All right. You want me to think like a detective? I can do that. Let the games begin, I guess." I agreed.

And with that, my training period had officially begun, not with a combat challenge, like I'd thought it might, but with an investigation one. I guess I should have expected that from the World's Greatest Detective, if I were being honest with myself. Looking around, I tried to ferret out clues. Ironically, it was the shadows that gave away Bruce's hiding spot. In the fading light of the setting sun, the shadows thrown off by one of the other gargoyles on the rooftop, further away from where Bruce had made his entrance, were not how I'd expected them to be. It had a subtle difference from the shadows given off by the other gargoyles that were the same size and shape as this one. That had to be it, but I was ashamed to say that it took me some time to figure it out. At least ten minutes and probably closer to eleven. Not my best moment, I had to admit. When I finally found him, Bruce couldn't help but agree.

"You took too long. For all you know, your opponent could have accomplished his objective in that time. We'll have to work on that going forward. Now, follow me." Intoned Bruce.

I could only groan at that, as Bruce began to roof-hop his way across town. It seemed I was in for a hell of a time in training. Hopefully, Bruce would mellow out a touch as we continued training. I wasn't holding my breath, though. The Guy was a pretty strict taskmaster, after all, not that I could argue with the results. After all, Dick turned out really well. So did Tim, come to it. Jason not so much, but Jason was always Jason. Meanwhile, Steph, Cass, and Damian had all had prior training, so Bruce couldn't take sole credit. Still, you could do worse than to be trained by the Batman. A lot worse, now that I think about it. If the next two months showed me anything, it would be that this was far from the worst setup I could have had for training and trainers.

By the time that I had completed Bruce's training course, I would learn to be a far better detective and strategist than I had been at any point in my life. I had even learned a bit more about piloting and gadgetry, building on what I had learned from Tros Karn and Darl Veld back when I'd been a part of Shayera's Bounty Hunting Crew. I'd even picked up a couple different Martial Arts styles once Bruce had realized that Saiyan Brains were effectively sponges when it came to learning fighting techniques. Muay Thai, Shotokan Karate, Wing Chun, Western Boxing, and Wrestling were all added to my repertoire. I just couldn't spar with Bruce too often because of the differences in power. I'd used the scouter on him once when he'd disengaged his sensor-baffling tech. He topped out at one-hundred-ten Arcosian Power Level Units. Meanwhile, after the Zenkai from getting wrecked by the Atomic Skull, I was sitting at twenty-nine-thousand-five-hundred Arcosian Power Units. There was just no way for me to lower that enough on a regular basis while sparring to avoid hurting Bruce if we sparred more than was necessary to ensure I'd learned everything.

By the time my training with Bruce was up, I felt like I was ready to take on the world. Of course, I would be swiftly proven wrong on that front by my next trainer. After all, Doctor Fate was the foremost Archmage on the planet, the Champion of Nabu, and Chosen Sorcerer for the Lords of Order.

And he was quick to demonstrate to me that he didn't get all those titles for no reason, the second I acted too cocky. . .

XXXX

Lex Luthor was puzzled. He'd gone to all the trouble of hiring a magical expert, even using his own resources to purchase the Ebontome and Magdalene Grimoire for Blackbriar Thorn at the Dealer's Auction, but then swiftly found his Mystical Opponent had seemingly left town. Furthermore, he had a clone brewing of an opponent that now no longer seemed to be interested in his City. While on the one hand, Lex was thrilled at that, on the other, he had poured a large amount of resources into this for relatively little gain. Oh, certainly, the LexCorp Building and his Penthouse both were now mystically warded, and he would have a powerful combatant at his beck and call. Those things were not as useful generally as you might think.

For one thing, there were no other Mystical Opponents to deal with in Metropolis. His City had a dearth of such Sorcerers and Mystics, largely thanks to being a City founded on Science. It seemed to repel those sorts of practitioners. Accordingly, the mystical wards would be just as useful as a mundane security system, and a mundane security system would have certainly cost less. Even the Clone would not be as useful as Lex had thought. It was still gestating, after all. Even when complete, it was looking like it wouldn't be powerful enough to take on either of the Aliens without training it. Lex was working on a way to do so effectively and efficiently, involving artificial gravity. However, that would be some time coming. In the meantime, he would have largely wasted those resources poured into these projects. Wasted resources were not something that Lex Luthor enjoyed. No businessman truly did, after all.

However, there was one section of the plan that was going largely the way that Lex wanted it to. Mercy Graves. The Young Warrior was, if anything, exceeding Lex's expectations. He'd even had her moved from the Cairo facility here to LexCorp Headquarters in Metropolis so that Alan could finish her training personally. Once she had done so, Lex was considering assigning her to his personal bodyguard detail. Mercy was just that gifted, it seemed. Reports from Alan showed that she exceeded expectations in Hand-to-Hand, Marksmanship, and Tactical Courses, and was more physically fit than some of his Men who had been Marines. Her leadership course scores weren't quite as outstanding, but they didn't need to be for Lex to begin molding her into a strong right arm. It helped that Mercy was a teenager, and thus, her brain was still plastic enough to learn at an accelerated rate.

"Yes, I think Miss Graves is going to be an excellent number two. If only all the rest of this plan had worked out like her." Sighed Lex.

He was seriously considering cutting his losses with Blackbriar Thorn. There was no need to keep the Druid on retainer now. Lex would keep working on the Clone, however, as that project could still bear fruit. Still, Mercy was clearly the standout of Lex's three-pronged plan to defeat this new Alien. She would work out regardless of whether or not this Rugulo returned to Lex's City. If he did, then Lex could revisit employing Blackbriar Thorn. If not, we'll, at least the Clone might be useful against the so-called Superman once properly trained, and Mercy would work out regardless. Either way, she had turned out to be a win-win for Lex.

And really, that was just the way he liked things to turn out. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. Rugulo undergoes training with Batman, and we begin his training arc. At the same time, his sudden absence has left Lex scrambling with a bunch of wasted resources. Remember, we're still in Year One, Lex doesn't know Supes is weak versus Magic yet. He's going to find out soon, though, now that he's had Blackbriar Thorn ward the LexCorp Building and Lex's own Penthouse. You'll see how that works out in the future, for now, though, Rugulo is going to be training under Bruce, Doctor Fate, and Wonder Woman. That will effectively give him connections to each of the JLA's Big Three, along with the JSA via Doctor Fate.

At any rate, the next chapter will finish out Rugulo's training with Bruce and begin his Mystical Training under Doctor Fate. Then we'll have him finish his training with Doctor Fate and begin his training with Wonder Woman. I'll also have a few images out before then as well.

Stay tuned. . .