Not having a crowd of reporters and photographers waiting for him this time, Bruce had Alfred drive around behind Wayne Enterprises and park in the employees only parking garage. He and Alfred took Bruce's private elevator up to his office. Alfred busied himself with looking over the available books on the shelves lining the walls while Bruce picked up the phone and dialed the number for an office extension.

"Hello," Bruce said when his call was answered. "I need to speak with you in person. Would you drop by my office? Good. See you in a few minutes."

Bruce hung up the phone but couldn't bring himself to sit down behind the large desk by the window. The same nervousness he'd felt before jumping out of a plane was coming back to him. He was about to take another dangerous leap of faith, but this time, he didn't have a parachute. If his trust was misplaced, everything he'd worked for could fall apart. It all depended on the loyalty of one man.

A buzzing sound emitted from the intercom on his desk, and Bruce pushed the button to answer it. "Yes?"

"Mr. Fox is here to see you, Sir," the feminine voice of his secretary reported.

"Thank you; send him right in," Bruce instructed. "Hold all calls and see we are not disturbed."

Bruce released the button on the intercom and turned to face the door as Lucius Fox entered the office.

"How can I help you, Mr. Wayne?" Lucius asked, closing the door behind him.

Bruce pulled out his small disruptor and switched on the hockey puck shaped device to jam any listening devices that might either be in the room or on his guest.

"Worried about bugs, Mr. Wayne?" Lucius questioned.

"I need your help with something," Bruce admitted. "I can't take the chance of an information leak. Have a seat."

Lucius glanced over at Alfred before taking one of the two chairs opposite Bruce's desk. Bruce stood behind the high back chair of his desk, leaning his forearms on the top of it.

"Don't worry about Alfred," Bruce assured Lucius. "He knows what I do about this. Mr. Fox, I'm planning to clean up Gotham of crime and corruption, and I need your help to do it."

"Exactly what did you have in mind, Mr. Wayne?" Lucius asked. He folded his hands in front of him and propped his elbows up on the armrests.

"I have a device similar to a combination between a grappling hook and a harpoon gun," Bruce explained. "I can fire the grapple gun and ascend up multiple floors, but getting down is a problem. Alfred and I tried to put together something like a gliding cape, but the tech is a little beyond our available skill set."

"I think I can help you out," Lucius agreed. "Follow me to my office. I want to show you a few things."

Bruce was slightly stunned at how easily Lucius accepted the information Bruce had imparted to him. When he reached to pick up the disruptor, Lucius shook his head and waved him away.

"Don't bother with that, Mr. Wayne," Lucius told him. "I've got more advanced stuff in my office. I can even give you a better listening device than the one you left under the table in the board room."

Bruce's eyes widened at the offhand comment.

"I have to compliment you on its placement, Mr. Wayne," Lucius continued. "Didn't notice you put it there, but I found it afterwards. Ever since I discovered the bug, I've been considering what you might really be up to with the money you've been spending. Someone who bugs the board room of his own company isn't likely to engage in frivolous activity, so I've been wondering what your true objectives were."

Lucius started for the door, but he paused with his hand on the knob and looked back at Bruce who hadn't moved.

"Your father put me in charge of his company," Lucius reminded. "Do you think he would've done so if I was an idiot? Come on; I think you'll like some of the stuff I've got to show you."

Bruce and Alfred exchanged bewildered looks as they followed Lucius out of the office and toward his.

                                                                                                 ***

Lucius closed the door behind them and locked it. He stepped over to the expansive shelves behind his desk and lifted a small globe with both hands. The base of the globe was attached to a mechanism built into the shelf, and when the globe was raised, it released a latch behind the wall. The entire shelf slid aside on hidden rollers in the floor, revealing a small elevator.

"Your father and I put this in during a remodel of the building," Lucius explained. "We had the space built and the mechanics delivered, but we put it together ourselves to keep it off the books."

"What were you trying to hide?" Bruce asked.

"WayneTech R&D has designed some revolutionary equipment, Mr. Wayne," Lucius told him as the three of them stepped into the elevator. "Some of it is so advanced, we didn't think the world was ready for it, but others were just too dangerous to become public knowledge."

"You were concerned about possible misuse," Alfred concluded.

"I still am," Lucius confirmed.

The elevator arrived and opened into a massive concrete structure under Wayne Enterprises. The ceiling, walls, and floor were all made of the same gray slabs of bare concrete. Rows of light bulbs lit the subterranean local in pools of orange light. Crates and boxes bearing the logo of Wayne Enterprises were stacked everywhere, on shelves, along the walls, and piling up to block side passages.

"This was an old fallout shelter built many years ago," Lucius told them. "During the remodel, your father found it and repurposed it. This is some of the equipment I told you about."

Lucius opened a small box and removed the item stored inside. It had a handle grip with a trigger on the front and a single button on the back. A pressure valve pointed out of the front of the handle like a gun, and a small canister resided atop the entire unit at a forty-five degree angle. A window in the side of the canister showed it filled with a gelatinous substance.

"I think you'll understand why your father and I agreed never to let this one go public," Lucius said.

Lucius took a left turn and entered a hallway covered in impact absorbing pads and sound dampening insulation. Kneeling down in the middle of the passageway, Lucius pulled the trigger and the device sprayed a line of expanding, bluish-gray foam. As soon as he was finished, Lucius let go of the trigger and stepped over to where Bruce and Alfred were observing.

"Fire in the hole," Lucius warned before pressing the button on the tail of the unit. The line of foam detonated in an explosion sizable enough to make both Alfred and Bruce jump.

"What is that?" Bruce asked in shock.

"Explosive gel," Lucius told him. "The gel is mixed with a coagulant as it's sprayed, creating a more rigid and foam-like material. It's extremely unstable when exposed to certain frequencies. Broadcast the right one and boom. The container on the unit is insulated to block anything from accidentally setting off the gel still inside."

"Demolition teams or mining companies would find it very useful," Alfred suggested.

"So would bank robbers, terrorists, and convicts trying to break out of jail," Bruce added. He turned to Lucius. "In the wrong hands, this could be devastating. I can understand why you chose to keep it secret."

"Here's something else," Lucius said, giving them the guided tour after putting away the explosive gel. He opened a different box and removed a square plate of clear material the size and general shape of a lens from a set of eyeglasses.

"This is an advanced optical chip," Lucius told them. "It can be modified with the equipment in the case to see through things. Try the prototype."

Bruce picked up a pair of frames already fitted with the clear lenses and put them on. He didn't notice anything until Lucius switched on the battery pack. Everything Bruce saw turned blue; Alfred and Lucius were no exception, but although they maintained their standard form, he could see their bones better than an x-ray. It startled him at first, but as Bruce got used to the living skeletons walking around in the room with him, Bruce turned his enhanced gaze toward some of the crates and was able to see the equipment stored inside them, depending on the construction materials used.

"The optics can be wirelessly linked to a computer, allowing for remote communication and data access through an augmented reality interface," Lucius informed Bruce. "The augmented reality of the optics project holographic images you will see in front of you as if they were real."

While he was speaking, Lucius switched on a small computer and gave Bruce a demonstration. A series of transparent red markers lit up on the concrete floor every three feet, leading back to the elevator.  Additionally, a compass appeared and hovered near the top of his vision.

"Wow," Bruce said as he took the glasses off. "I'm going to want some of these."

"Your father did a lot to help Gotham, but if you're taking a more hands-on approach, you will also want this over here," Lucius said, pointing into a different hallway. A target dummy had been stationed at the end of the passage, clad in a dark gray shirt. Lucius took a gun from a weapon crate, loaded it, and fired at the dummy. "Have a look."

Bruce and Alfred approached the dummy for a closer inspection. The bullet had torn through the exterior cloth, but a ballistic type fabric underneath had completely negated the force of impact, rendering the bullet harmless.

"Incredible," Alfred said in awe.

"You're right, Mr. Fox," Bruce admitted. "We're going to need some of this too."

"The armor can take an enormous amount of punishment, making the wearer impervious to all but the heaviest of attacks," Lucius stated. "The only problem was the cost. We could either make it for a decent price, or we could make it work, not both."

"I don't think money will be an issue," Bruce assured Lucius.

"If a criminal got a hold of this armor, the police would have a hard time bringing them down," Alfred commented.

"Exactly," Lucius agreed. "Everything hidden here has the same problem; they're too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. I hope yours are the right hands, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce swallowed hard as he realized the leap of faith Lucius had taken in handing over an entire storeroom of powerful gear to him. Bruce had been so concerned about his own security, he'd never thought about Lucius being in a similar situation.

"I'll keep it safe," Bruce promised.

"Good," Lucius accepted. He nodded toward a side passage jammed with boxes. "The material you need for your gliding cape is back there, I'm afraid, but if you leave me the specifics of what you want, I'll put something together when I dig it out."

"Okay," Bruce agreed. He turned to Alfred. "Depending on how soon we can get everything together, we're going to need a list of places where criminals are operating in Gotham, something suitable for a trial run."

"I'll compile a few choices for you, Master Bruce," Alfred replied.

Bruce thought about the equipment stored here in addition to the gear he and Alfred had assembled at home. In spite of his disastrous last mission, Bruce couldn't restrain the feeling of excitement. Attired in the armored suit and carrying an array of specialized tools and gadgets, it was looking like the criminals of Gotham would be no match for him.