DC: I am Bruce Wayne

Chapter 149: The Origin of a Failsafe

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"If you only face forward, there is something you will miss seeing."

- Vash the Stampede, (Trigun)

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<(Bruce Wayne POV)> 

"Five years of imprisonment for the Killer Moth and thirty years for the Firefly, huh? That is a long enough sentence for a city with a corrupted government like this. Of course, if they try escaping their cells and returning to their life of crime again, their punishment won't be mere imprisonment anymore. I believe in giving second chances where there is due but not third or fourth ones. However, that being said, Firefly won't be able to escape or do anything whatsoever in his current condition, although I have a feeling that Killer Moth won't try it either." I gave a knowing smile as I observed the case details of the two former criminals. 

"You know, Killer Moth would have gotten a longer statement too but the fact that he pleaded guilty and that he hadn't actually killed anyone till now played in his favor. He was extremely lucky that he hadn't become a true villainous criminal yet, otherwise, this could have gone very badly for him, either in the form of a very long sentence in court or worse, a very agonizing punishment from you." Cortana agreed with me as she showed me the various petty crimes Killer Moth had been committing to try and start his career in the Gotham criminal underworld. 

"Anyway, have you finally decided what type of body you want? I have been thinking about it for a while and I think you should go for a body that you could disguise as a human through hologram projection technology. If you want, I could even give it some unique abilities like elemental manipulation." I asked while imagining EDI from Mass Effect with the wind or magma manipulation powers of Red Tornado or Red Volcano. "Or I could also build you a body like the Terminator X, fitted to the brim with high-tech weapons and an advanced nano-tech mimetic poly-alloy. That could be quite versatile especially since this would be your first ever body." I advised her, trying to help her in choosing the most effective physical body for her. "But if you can wait just for a few more years, I think I can even build you a body that can change and adapt to anything," I muttered while picturing Amazo from DCAU or the Super-Adaptoid from Marvel. Hell, even the adapting Sentinels from Days of Future Past were OP. 

"... Actually, I had been thinking about this for a while, Bruce. As much as I love your enthusiasm..., I think I have a better idea for my body than just simple mechanical androids. I remember that you once mentioned the concept of a synthezoid where one can merge an organic body with that of a machine using artificial tissue grafting and nanotechnology to create something... much greater than the sum of its counterparts. I think I would like something like that... with a little twist of course." She responded with a mischievous voice like she knew something I didn't. 

"... A partially organic body? What do you have in mind exactly?" I asked while raising one of my eyebrows with some confusion. 

"We still have that Kryptonian woman's body in one of our freezers, don't we?" she asked, trying to give me a clue as to what she really wanted. 

"You want a dead Kryptonian as your new body," I questioned in a tone of absolute surprise. "How is that an upgrade? Why would you want someone else's dead body? Even if we don't consider using the dead Kryptonian's body as illegal organ harvesting or some type of necrophilia, the fact remains unchanged that the woman wasn't special in any way nor was she that good-looking. She was just an average female Kryptonian warrior. Taking her identity would be useless for you." I expressed my doubts. "Also, if you are doing this to gain the powers of a Kryptonian, then believe me, the power to adapt and copy other powers is much more useful." 

"It's not just about the power, Bruce. Once I become a synthezoid, you can always make changes later to my body to give me the super-adapting powers that you are talking about. The reason why I want her body is because I want to be an... organic being. I want to feel exactly like you, Alfred, Vicki, Helena, or Selena feel. I want to feel the wind in my face and smell the aroma of food. I want to taste Alfred's cooking and experience true emotions while feeling different hormones racing inside me...

Her body will let me feel all those things. And the best thing is that while we turn her biological body into a synthezoid, we could always change her face and the rest of her physical body traits to what WE desire. So, she will be practically new once we are done with the operation. I know that you have already successfully developed red-sun solar lanterns to weaken Kryptonians into being powerless. We can use those to complete the procedure without any difficulties." She answered with an excited voice.

"But why do you want her corpse exactly? Why not just use her and Clar's Kryptonian DNA to make a brand-new clone body? You know very well that I have the technology to do that. Hell, with some changes, I could even make a brain-dead Kryptonian female even stronger than her or Clark. You won't even have to be a synthezoid to inhabit her body. All we will need to upload your consciousness into a newly cloned body is a couple of micro-brain implants. That would be the most effective way for you to have an organic Kryptonian body for yourself and I am sure that you have already thought of that too. So, despite all that, why do you insist on trying to take over her lifeless carcass?" I questioned her with a frown.

"... Because I have already started working on her dead body a few months ago. You see, after you were done extracting samples of her tissues and organs, you gave me the authority to store her body away since you had no more use for it. However, I thought that storing or disposing of such a valuable specimen would be useless. So, I started a new project of my own. I call it Failsafe. It was supposed to be the ultimate protocol in case you were ever in mortal danger, the ultimate weapon that I could use to rescue you if nothing else worked. But sadly, the project wasn't as easy as I initially imagined it to be. I tried to introduce several changes inside the Kryptonian dead body to make it better and stronger while parallelly trying to nullify the weaknesses that their race inherently possesses but quite surprisingly, those weaknesses never went away completely. Even the... extra abilities that I tried to incorporate into them weren't too successful. The only reason the body didn't completely deteriorate was because of the Kryptonian birthing-matrix technology we copied from the space pod that Clark arrived in." Cortana revealed with a downcast voice. 

Of course, that would be the case. Kryptonian DNA is extremely unstable to work with since it reacts differently to different energies. Making their clones or changing their genetic structure is extremely difficult even though not quite impossible. I remember hearing once that there were a lot of failed clones of Superman over the years but as time went by, some were indeed successful in cloning him without defects. So, it was not a surprise that Cortana failed to complete her "Failsafe" since she just didn't have enough data about Kryptonians yet. Maybe she could have been successful in doing this on her own after she got access to the data of the Kryptonian Genesis chamber in the Fortress of Solitude but unfortunately for her, she has no knowledge of it right now. 

"The weaknesses of Kryptonians can't be removed as easily as you think, Cortana. If it was that simple, I would have already converted myself into a perfect Kryptonian by now. I am smart enough to concoct a serum that could make me a Kryptonian even if it is for a day if not permanently. However, the reasons stopping me from doing exactly that are their multiple apparent weaknesses. For example, theoretically, green Kryptonite should make Kryptonians as weak as normal humans since it destroys the unique solar energy stored in their bodies, right? But why do you think that they struggle to even stand up while near those glowing pieces of green rocks? It's because they are going from being planet-destroying powerhouses to ordinary humans in less than a second. 

From a human perspective, it's like going from zero gravity to normal gravity in a single beat. The stored solar energy in their bodies depletes so fast that to them, it is like going from an abundance of oxygen to barely having any. That's why they can barely even move under the effects of Kryptonite or Red Sun. And of course, I hope that you haven't forgotten that many more forms of Kryptonite also exist which can cause other unexpected effects on Kryptonians that might be even worse than the green one like making them evil, creating their twisted clones, or giving them multiple personality disorders... Heh, I do not need that many weaknesses in me. To me, being an enhanced Superhuman is better than being a normal Kryptonian. But I do see where you are coming from. A failsafe which could take on a Kryptonian level being in a fair fight could certainly be useful in a universe as dangerous as this one." I revealed with a face full of apparent distaste. 

It was true. I could indeed become a Kryptonian if I truly wanted. The formula I had come up with could make anyone a full-fledged Kryptonian for a day and I was positive that with some tweaks, I could even extend it to weeks or months. I could even make it permanent if I could just gather more data about Kryptonians somehow. But I wasn't keen on doing it because I simply had better plans in mind. 

I do want the powers and strength of a Kryptonian. Every person who has ever watched a Superman movie does. But I want them without any baggage. Or I should say I want their ultimate versions without any weaknesses whatsoever. And I even had a plan for that. I wanted to use Kryptonian DNA to perfect a certain serum that once made a drug addict into the unstable Golden Superman of Marvel. Yes, my ultimate plan was to perfect the Golden Senty serum... although honestly, I was still far from that goal since I couldn't even figure out the first step to make the said serum. But still, one can dream, right? 

"Fine, I'll help you shape that Kryptonian's dead body into an appropriate vessel for you. I'll make you a synthezoid and get rid of those petty weaknesses as well. Since you will be half machine, doing it will be monumentally easier. In fact, I think we can actually use Kryptonite to our advantage for this. We could even try and use the eighth metal we got from the Olympians to make the nanites for your synthezoid body. I am pretty sure it will be even better than Vibranium if we are successful." I thoughtfully uttered as I remembered the Eighth metal chunk I had stored in one of my lockers.

Initially, I thought that Hephaestus had only sent me fifty kilograms of the metal but it turns out that the term lighter than air wasn't just for sounding cool. The volume of metal that Hephaestus had sent me was HUGE. Its mass did add up to only fifty kilograms, but the chunk of metal he had gifted me with was more like the size of a massive pillar or boulder. The only reason it was able to fit inside the gift box was because of the magical cloth the metal was wrapped in. The cloth seemed to be some kind of magical item that could decrease the size of the boulder into that of a big rock when wrapped around the metal. Of course, I tried to spam it for various other functions too when I first learned of it but unfortunately, Hephaestus had already expected me to try to abuse it and had thus charmed the cloth in such a way that it only worked when wrapped around Eighth metal. As I mentioned, I had an ample supply of Eighth Metal for constructing Cortana's synthezoid body, with a significant amount remaining to create my own items. 

"However, the only thing we will have to worry about is a power source strong enough to power a Kryptonian's body in case of an absence of yellow sunlight for extended periods, but I guess we can worry about that later when it comes to that." I nodded while contemplating if I could ever find something as powerful as one of the infinity stones for her in the DC universe, just like Vision had the mind stone in the MCU.

'Although, now that I think about it, I could build an energy source for her too. An arc reactor would be useless in her case since the energy it could produce at its peak would be like a drop of water in a well when it comes to the amount of energy a Kryptonian would need to function, but I could theoretically make a mini sun for her, much like Dr. Octopus once tried in the original Spiderman movie. A source of infinite yellow solar energy for a Kryptonian... Gosh, I am getting goosebumps.' I thought to myself with a dreamy smile. 

"Thank you for respecting my wishes, Bruce. I promise you that I will do my absolute best to protect and serve you with my body." Cortana declared in a passionate voice as her hologram jumped in delight. 

'I should start using hard-light technology in the cave as well. She will be of much more help that way especially since we will have to work overtime to make her new body.' I made a mental note to myself.

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