Chapter 1

Batmaid, Delay Com

Bruce Wayne

"Alfred, I'm not sure this is the wisest idea." I said, looking at the screen displaying the new hire currently cleaning my office upstairs.

Well, 'new hire' is a bit of a denigration. I know who she is – Tanya Pennyworth, Alfred's niece. I believe I'd met her a few times in my youth. She was a few years younger than me, and had come to several Christmas parties as well as other events. However, we haven't spoken in a decade, ever since I went on my journey of self-discovery and training.

But I'm back now and about to begin my new project: the Gotham cleanup. I've grown tired of putting money into charities and law enforcement; it didn't seem to actually do the job. They're taking a while to get everything ready for this new operation, but I have a cave under the mansion completely stocked with equipment now, as well as the supercomputer I'm sitting in front of, which is currently monitoring the new maid as she cleans my office.

"Thankfully, nothing has any branding on it yet. So, if she somehow finds her way down here, I could either say it's just my personal study or meet her on the stairs and redirect her elsewhere, perhaps even fire her to make sure."

Alfred shook his head. "Nonsense, Master Wayne. If you're going to be working down here on your crusade, you're going to need someone to try and keep the house in order. I can do it most of the time, but if I get ill or we have extra work, it would be nice to have another pair of hands. As far as I'm concerned, my niece Tanya is more than qualified for the work required."

I shook my head, turning to him. "Maybe, but I would be very concerned about her finding her way down here and exposing all this."

Alfred shook his head, saying, "She won't do that. I can guarantee you that. Besides, it's good to have someone you know around the house. I think you've been away too long, in my opinion. Having some people from your old days to talk to would be good for you."

I turned towards him, asking, "Are you saying I'm too much of a loner and I need to have more friends?"

"I would never say that out loud Master Bruce. Besides, I know that your current plan does require you to take on the appearance of a more outgoing individual eventually. and You've been away for 12 years. A lot can happen in that time. Having someone to speak to and get you back up to speed on the current state of Gotham will probably do you well too, so that you can act as the outgoing individual you want Gotham to think you are."

I nodded. I hate it when Alfred makes sense Alfred. I mean, I don't like it when we're on the same page, but we're not exactly on the same page here, and he's making enough sense that I'm being convinced to go along with him.

Letting out a sigh, I said, "And this isn't because me and her used to know each other."

"Of course not, sir. I would never hire someone because Mr. and Mrs. Wayne always thought you two looked like you'd make a cute couple from the way you interacted with each other."

I let out a laugh before giving him a look, saying, "That is one of the reasons, isn't it?"

Alfred chuckled before saying, "I'm just doing my part to make sure that Mr. and Mrs. Wayne's son has a normal life some of the time."

Shaking my head, I looked at the screen. Tanya was currently dusting the grandfather clock, which concealed the entrance to my underground base.

"I don't know, Alfred. My crusade is going to be a dangerous one. I don't think taking on dates with a girl I knew 10 years ago is really going to be something I do over the next few years."

"Perhaps, but at least the option will be open. And that's not the only reason I hired her. She wanted a job at the Wayne Estates. She made it quite clear to me that she was in need of work after getting out of college, and I knew you were coming back this year. So, I decided to do my part as a proper butler and hire her on the spot. Having an extra pair of hands will be useful, I think. Plus, I think she might be useful in the long run, keeping the estate secure."

I asked, leaning back and turning towards him again, "Why is that?"

"Well, as I said, she's just gone out of college, but during her time there, she was quite intrigued with self-defense courses. Whenever she was not learning, she was training on how to defend herself. Understandable considering Gotham is rather unsafe these days. Anyway you look at it, she can help defend this household if any problems occur as a result of your crusade in the streets of Gotham."

"That's interesting, not bad," I mused. I managed to stifle a chuckle, warming up to the idea. At least that must mean I wasn't going to say no to hiring her, but there was still the concern of her wandering down here.

Said concern was quickly brought to the forefront as a small chime went off next to me on the console. My eyes returned to the screen, seeing that the grandfather clock had slid out of the way, revealing the entrance to my underground bunker. I turned back to Alfred, giving him a look that said, "Here we go."

However, he smiled rather confidently, and the chiming stopped. Confused, I looked back at the screen, seeing that Tanya had, in those few moments, looked at the grandfather clock and found the switch that had moved it from its position. She flicked it back, moving it into place.

I watched her for a bit, but she didn't appear to make any move to open it again. Instead, she finished cleaning and moved to another segment of the room.

"As you can see, Master Bruce, another reason I decided to hire her is she is rather good at not snooping around. She's been in this house before and done various tasks for me while you were away. She never snooped around. Going by the security footage I've seen, she probably knows where a few of the secret doors are in this household, but she has never entered them or done anything that would make me think less of her character. She is the perfect person to hire as a maid. She won't delve into your secrets unless you invite her into them."

I leaned back in my chair, looking at the screen again, watching her clean for a bit before saying, "All right, Alfred, we'll let her keep her job then."

"Wonderful. I'll let her know that you will be continuing to use her services," Alfred said, stepping away from my chair before adding, "By the way, you should try and talk to her at least a few times. She's a rather intelligent girl, my niece. Perhaps she could be a good sounding board for some ideas."

I looked at Alfred, saying, "I'll consider it, Alfred, though still, now in the back of my mind, you're just trying to set me up with your niece."

Alfred smiled before saying, "I would not look down on such a situation happening," before walking away, leaving me to sigh and lean back in my chair, thinking glumly about many things.

I wasn't exactly a fan of dating anyone right now. Too much was wrong with the city, too much was wrong with what happened nearly 20 years ago. I couldn't really pursue a relationship until the harm that had been done to me all those years ago was fixed. That wouldn't be fixed until I felt the city was no longer devouring people alive. When would that happen? I don't know. Maybe when the mafias were forced out, when crime reached low enough numbers that a person could walk in the street at night and not be concerned they'd be mugged.

I shook my head, looking back up at the screen at Tanya cleaning away on my knee-fake desk in that maid uniform. Her brow furrowed in that way it always did whenever she was taking something absolutely seriously – something I'd kind of liked about her back in the day.

What Alfred said about my parents possibly pushing for me and her to get together was kind of true. Back in my youth, she'd been a year younger than me, but we got along just fine. She had been on the smart end of things. I thought she was a cute, dumb kid; that's what I'd been. But hey, that's what dumb kids do. It had probably gotten to the point where we were going to go on our first date. It was supposed to be a movie date – "The Mask of Zorro." She didn't come; she had gotten sick the day before, and the tickets were non-refundable, so I decided to go see it nonetheless.

That whole event had sent my life on a spiral and in a direction that would not take me into the possibility of a childhood romance. Oh sure, I met her again in intervening years, but we never really clicked again like we had in our youth.

That's not the same; we didn't click at all, though I did explain to her once my hatred of crime and what it had done to me. She explained to me something rather interesting: how crime worked, how the failure of economic systems meets the requirements of the community. Ultimately, that conversation would help plant the seeds of my crusade, planning to attack the problem from two angles: fight crime at night and be a billionaire who gives to the people during the day through charities.

Granted, she didn't know everything I know now about the depth of the corruption, but it had been the start of a plan. So maybe Alfred was right; maybe I should speak to her now and again. After all, the last time I talked to her, she hadn't even finished high school; now she's in college. She might have more things to talk about; maybe we'd have more things to talk about. Shaking my head, I tried to think away from those sorts of things, turning back to my cave. I had a lot more work to get done down here; the car still needed a little bit of work. Even if I grabbed it from Wayne Tech's disbanded military vehicle section, it was not complete, and it still needed a few more modifications to make sure it would be considered the Batmobile and not something that easily implied it was from Wayne Tech. They wouldn't want to use equipment that the military could quickly figure out who was behind the superhero in this city.

That would put an end to my mission rather quickly, and I couldn't let my mission be thrown off track or destroyed. I was the only hope for Gotham to return to some semblance of a normal city, not be a crime-ridden, corrupt hellhole that it currently was. I could not let the authorities outside the city interfere with my operation; I could not fail. That was the simple way to say it. If I failed, the city would never have a chance at returning to something of normalcy; it would just be a violent hellhole, slowly grinding life down year after year, breaking people until there was nothing left."

Tanya Pennyworth

Talk about a miscommunication; this is not at all what I had signed up for. I'm used to it as I clean the windows as best I could; it looks like no one had dusted this place in nearly 2 years, but again, wasn't that the last time I was hired to do this.

Letting out a deep and concerned sigh, I shook my head, annoyed by the way events had unfolded.

Three weeks ago, I had finished college. I had a degree, and now it was time to find a job. So, I thought to myself, "I know, I'll use my connections with the butler who practically ran Wayne Tech to get a high-paying bureaucratic job within the company. That's a great plan," I told myself and immediately went to my uncle Alfred Pennyworth to try and get him to give me a job. After all, I worked for him before, several years working and cleaning this house whenever I needed a little spare cash for rent at my apartment.

As you might imagine, that's when things went wrong. Instead of getting a job at a bureaucratic position within Wayne Tech, he'd given me this job again, though this time on a permanent basis, which, on one hand, was internal screaming, as this was not the plan. This is not the high-paying job within Wayne Tech I wanted. On the other hand, this was a high-paying job. Seriously, I hadn't realized how much money I could make if I did this full-time. I was probably making enough that I would be set for life, as long as I didn't cause any problems. I'd been in personal contact with the CEO of Wayne Tech, Bruce Wayne, childhood friend. What better way to reason my way in, to be in his good graces and to be working here? Maybe I could get a part-time job at Wayne Tech while working here, handling finances or something. It would be better than being forced to clean this place for a lot of money, being forced to clean this place, managing another company's money, and making even more money. It was a plan, not the greatest plan, but hey, with the communication issue that had led me here, I was going to make the best of the situation. Won't even call it a bad situation.

Sighing, I finished cleaning the window and stepped back, smiling at my mirrored reflection outside. I could just see Gotham in the distance across the land that the Wayne family owned. I'd been on this piece of land a dozen or so times, probably more. I got to admit it was a beautiful patch of land, a small forest, field, walls, a heavy mansion, the kind of place I'd like to live in if I made it to retirement.

Which prompted a small voice in the back of my head to mention, "Hey, you could always go for this piece of land," causing me to shake my head in annoyance.

This was my third life, so I was somewhat understanding of the female form at this point, having spent more years as a woman than a man now. So, I did consider the possibility of trying to wend my way into the man of the house's life. After all, if all I wanted was a good retirement, being the wife of a billionaire was an easy route to it.

And it wasn't that hard of a route to take, considering I had already kind of laid the groundwork over the years just by being a friend to him in a bad hour. Granted that I'd been a friend to him before then, but the point was I had attempted to try and get his head on straight after his parents had died, to get him to grieve properly. I don't think I've been that successful, considering he spent the last 10 years off trying to find himself. Today, I attempted, which was a lot more than some people had.

Most people seem to have avoided him after his parents had died. I think I was the only one who tried to keep contact with him. Perhaps I was just used to death by that point; that encouraged me to do it. Maybe it's just the fact that he'd seemed so broken. I don't know. I did tend to try and fix my employees before I fired them in my first life. Maybe it was a little of that shining through — me trying to fix something that was broken before ending any connection with them. But they never worsened or got better, so never broke the connection, probably for the best now considering the possibilities before me.

Finishing, I stretched my back out, carefully cracking it as I raised my hands above my head, doing the same to my fingers and arms before relaxing and letting my hands fall to my side, looking down at the maid dress.

I should consider myself lucky on this account, Master Bruce, as I was told I should refer to him, at least not sprung for some sort of fetish dress for his maids. This outfit was rather conservative, and I'll admit it, a bit on the cuter side. Nothing too insane, nothing too anime, and again, I don't think Mr. Wayne watched anime. Probably for the best; he'd probably get it in his head that he should go on some sort of crusade against crime if he watched some of those animes, get himself killed fighting the gangs.

Shaking my head, I got to work on a nearby countertop, taking a duster off a cart in the hallway and dusting it well, making sure that it was thoroughly cleaned. I didn't want any of this debris to cause an asthma attack or anything of that nature if some unlucky patron entered this place.

After all, I imagined there would be quite a few more people entering this place in the coming years. Wayne was back in the manor for good, apparently going to take his company and try to help others. He also mentioned having galas and other kinds of parties here at the mansion to raise money for charities. I hoped he was actually going to do that and not just be one of those people who collect money and then never donate it. You'd be surprised how many charities get away with that kind of crooked thing and then pay themselves a bunch of money to look after that money.

It's a despicable practice, one of the reasons the public didn't trust charities like they used to, thinking the government was a better option, which was a dumb thing to think. Making the government take care of social issues just meant that bureaucracy and corruption would grow within the government. It was a simple fact, not to mention government interference in any public field always tended to drive out its competitors.

It's always better for a government to be monitoring a situation, not competing, and the situation becomes a rigged game at that point.

Then again, that was the whole problem with lobbyists; they would attempt to rig a game in their company's favor. But that was getting a little too political. Granted, I guess having multiple lifetimes, I've seen the government do this over and over again, somewhat affecting my opinions on things.

Well, Gotham was a prime example of a government that had gone too far. It had taken on more than it could handle and created social ills that were now being profited by mafias, gangs, and insane people with a dominion of power. Not to mention, it was pretty much an open secret that the police force must be corrupt. Some of those people that got off for heinous crimes should not have been able to get off, but here they were, living free since the day they were born inside Gotham because it was practically a criminal state, at least the inner city of it was.

Which was why I was trying to get an apartment in the outer city, since the police force there tended to be less corrupt, or at least, they were better at making sure that people didn't realize they were corrupt.

Hopefully, I can find one in the area of my job. Though the shorter distance I had to walk to the bedroom, or if I could get a car. My money wasn't that good yet; I needed to build up a stockpile before I started thinking about luxuries. Instead, I'll have to rely on a bus or probably a ride from my uncle now and again. Oh, he tended to live on the property, so that would require me to bug him to come pick me up, which was not exactly a good look for wanting to maintain your job. Better to show your independence so that they know that you can do it on your own than to show your need for others and be considered possibly more expensive than it's worth.

Finishing dusting, I got up again, walked over to the grandfather clock, looking at it with curiosity. Why did they have a tunnel leading down into a basement here? I know there's a wine cellar; I'd seen it. I don't think that once I was on the side of the house, I wasn't curious. But I knew my job required me not to ask such questions. Why was it just popping up in my head? Were there other hidden passages around the house? Perhaps it was just an emergency feature. Perhaps he had gone a little bit crazy after all; he'd lost his family when he was young. Maybe he was worried that someone would try breaking into the house and kill him. Perhaps this led to some sort of panic room underneath the house; that would make some sense. Though for all I knew, this was a nuclear bunker dating back to the fifties, and it's never been shown to me. Maybe both, who knows what lies underneath this house, past the wine cellar and the pantry.

Shaking my head, I turned from it, walking out of the office with brisk movements over to the cart. I still had a lot of work to do before the day was over, and I needed to get it done so tomorrow would be an easier day. After all, if I could get the work done down here to a point where I only needed to do heavy work one day out of a week, it would give me time to do other things, like read a book, do a little bit of day investing over the internet, or even watch Netflix if this place had it. Maybe I could get permission to watch it once in a while, which would save a bit on my bills back at home. Granted, I didn't have Netflix back at home, but that was the point; I wouldn't need to spend money at home if I could watch some stuff here once in a while.

Living in the modern age meant that I could enjoy things that I had lost in my first life, such as anime that had my interest before I'd been thrown in front of a train. I wonder if they ever made more seasons of Jojo. I should give that a look when I get a chance online, but I'm always just so busy with work.

Shaking my head, I turned the cart heading towards the laundry area. I had a bunch of stuff to clean for Mr. Wayne; might as well get that done while I'm thinking about it. After all, if I was going to be a maid, I'd be a damn good maid and make sure all jobs were handled on time and to perfection.

Batman

Gotham was cold tonight, the winds coming off the ocean were bringing a chill, probably a sign that winter was going to be harsh. Thankfully, my suit was designed for that, not to mention I'd trained in the Himalayas, so I was somewhat familiar with dealing with cold temperatures.

Standing on top of a building, I watched as the new Wayne Manor employee made her way home. She had to use the Metro system, I found out before she left, and knowing she was new, that would be running through a part of town I needed to do a patrol of anyway. I figured I'd follow her just to make sure she got home safe. This area wasn't great for people, animals, or criminals, so the fact that she had to travel through it to get home was somewhat concerning. I would say I need to make sure she gets a bonus, but then she just started working, and may need a while to get money to get out of this area. I wonder what happened there. I didn't actually keep up with her family history after we sort of went our separate ways. The last thing I heard, her family had given her enough money to go to college, but beyond that, I have no idea why she was living in a rather bad part of town, in my opinion, or at least having to travel through it to get to where she was living. Perhaps she had some sort of argument with her parents, and they fell on hard times. If it was really bad, I'd probably have to tell Alfred to give her an option to live on the property. We've already been shown that she didn't poke around unnecessarily. That was an invaluable asset, especially with the work I was going to be doing. Having someone who was not going to poke around was someone who would keep a secret. So if they ever did stumble on my secrets, say I come home battered and bruised from my particularly bad night, forget to use the Batcave door, and they see me, well, they'd probably be willing to keep the secret.

In the line of work I was going into, I needed to keep an eye on people who could keep secrets. Granted, I didn't want to use as many people as I could, but having them have access to him was preferable than not having access to them. It was going to be a dangerous career, that was for sure.

Shaking my head, I focused on Tanya as she turned a corner, heading down what appeared to be an alleyway. That was a bit concerning. She was trying to get from the rail station, going above a street, to a bus station on the other side of said block. I was using a shortcut through an alleyway. Not smart, not good; an easy target for anyone who wanted to do a little bit of crime. I better get into place, just in case, I thought, moving quickly across the rooftop, using my grappling cord to move from one building to another before I found myself over the alleyway, looking down. Fine, I shook my head in annoyance as my theorized worst outcome was coming true. There, Tanya stood between three individuals, two in front and one behind. They appeared to be threatening her. Fine, I tapped my cowl, learning what was going on. Turning up the mic so I could hear what was going on down there. Sure, I could take a good guess from what I was seeing, but you never know; what you see is not as good as what you hear. It could be that she was stealing property from my manor, and I would have a reason to fire her come morning.

"Listen, girly, you're on our property, crossing our land and our territory. Give us a little bit of cash, and we'll let you pass. Try and resist, and, well, you get a few scrapes and bumps, and we take our cash. On the last, make it a normal thing, we break some bones so you don't have to come across our territory anymore. Your time in the hospital will help with that repairing, and you'll learn to stay off our streets. So, little Miss Maid, why don't you tell us the sweet words of 'here's all my cash,' and we'll be on our way."

Tanya tilted her head to the right before saying no and dropping down into a low duck, dropping her purse. She channeled a fist right into the talker's groin; he screamed rather girlishly as she put all the weight of her body into the entire motion. The one next to him looked on in shock only to miss as she ran forward behind him, putting her hands around his neck.

Tanya was a rather short woman, as I saw when I first saw her, but apparently, beneath the maid costume she was wearing, she had a good understanding of not only self-defense but also how to apply pressure and quickly suppress his breathing ability. It only took 30 seconds for him to turn blue, and by the time she released him, he collapsed, wordless and done, leaving only the one who had been blocking her path still standing.

With the sound of metal on metal, he pulled out a knife that ejected its blade forward, the switchblade—an illegal weapon. Something I had more than enough grounds to interfere in, though I held back. So far, Tanya had taken on two men, each twice her size, just by skillfully using her own abilities. How would she deal with a bladed weapon?

"Come on, girlie, come at me," a man said, stabbing at her. She simply turned her body to the side with a swift motion, elbowing him hard in the chest. By the sound of it, she grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and forced the blade out. Then, she grabbed the side of his head and smashed it into the concrete wall. He staggered a bit before collapsing onto the ground, unconscious.

"Interesting," I noted as she leaned over, picked up her bag, and got back on her way. Interesting like that, again and she left, only to pull out a phone designed to be untraceable. I typed in a text message to the police, letting them know where three scumbags were currently lying unconscious.

They'd come and take a look. Even at their most corrupt, they would always come and take a look at anyone who said that there were three people on the ground, possibly murdered. Although I doubted they were dead, it would do the job, and police resources were needed for such a situation. Three criminals getting their asses beaten were always a highlight of their day. Leaning back, I watched as Tanya arrived at the bus stop just in time for the bus to arrive. She stepped on quickly and put in a little bit of money into the fare, not saying a thing about what she had just been involved in. A very interesting potential maid—one who would keep secrets quite readily and could defend herself. This might be the right girl for my Mansion after all.