DC: I am Bruce Wayne

Chapter 16: The Court of Owls

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"It is possible to make no mistakes and lose. That is not failure; that is life."

- Cpt. Jean-Luc Picard,  (Star Trek)

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<(Unknown pov)>

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, since all of us are already here, we should officially start the meeting." A man in a suit wearing a golden owl mask said as he entered a room with a dozen people wearing white owl masks sitting around a luxurious big table.

There were also about half a dozen people wearing black skin-tight body armor and weird black owl masks looking like monsters guarding the doors of the room.

All of the attendees said nothing as they just nodded at the man's words.

"As all of you know, some days ago we were successful in eliminating the biggest hurdle in our path, Thomas Wayne after he denied our invitation to the court and threatened to expose us to the public. Although we had decided to eliminate the entire Wayne family, the person we used to complete this job failed to kill the youngest member of the family, Bruce Wayne. We had let him live after confirming that he had lost his memories to amnesia and was no threat to our plan.

But a few days ago I was informed that he was able to recognize the face of the person we used to complete the job indicating that he had either gotten his memories back or he had never lost them in the first place.

Now, rest assured I have made sure that the man we used to kill the Wayne couple died the same day in police custody before he could reveal anything about us, but the main topic of discussion today is what to do with Bruce Wayne."  The man with the golden eagle mask who seemed to be in charge asked as he looked at the people sitting around the table.

"I think he is no danger to us. He is just a spoiled little innocent boy. I doubt he knows anything of value about us or the incident. Also, if he does become a problem later on, we can always just remove him and make it look like an accident." A woman with an owl mask on said carelessly.

"Hmm. What do you think Mr Twelfth? You are one of the board of directors at Wayne Industries. So you might have an idea about the boy right?" The golden owl mask-wearing leader asked as he looked at another man at the table.

"I agree with Miss Fifth. I think Bruce Wayne is just a spoiled kid. According to my intel, he is just a kid who doesn't even like to go to school and just lazes in his room all day. He is extremely anti-social and is just wasting his family's fortune by donating expensive research equipment to charity as part of his Martha Wayne Foundation efforts.

The pipsqueak even thinks that he can run a company at his age as his little caretaker had the galls to request the board to hand over control of a company that is not doing well to him to practice his leadership and business skills." The man laughed smugly as he said his piece.

"Also the League of Assassins would like you to leave that boy alone as well. This was a 'request' directly from the Demon's head. That boy might be important to our plans. We hope that you can respect this small 'request' of ours." A man with a similar white owl mask but with a different demeanor than the rest of the members present said as he seemed to look directly into the leader's eyes like he was threatening him.

"I see. It is decided then. We will leave Bruce Wayne alone for now unless he becomes a thorn in our side in the future." The leader said with an expressionless voice as he didn't react to the member's thinly veiled threat. None of the other members there did.

The League of Assassins might be extremely strong but the Court of Owls wasn't a pushover. It had its own power and fighters. It didn't want to directly make the League an enemy but it also wouldn't cower in fear if it ever came to a fight.

Now onto more important matters, the recent political and criminal hierarchy of Gotham City is undergoing a major change. The question is do we actively take part in it or do we leave them to their fate and let things play out naturally and then vaguely influence the winners of this battle royale for our benefit in the future?" The leader asked as he looked around the table.

"This prestigious organization was established to control Gotham and put its members at the top of the economic class of the city. Involving ourselves with criminals and petty politicians directly will be degrading to not only our image but also the image of the organization. I think we should just let things play out and support or recruit the winners into our outer circles." A different man spoke out from the end of the table with a gruff voice.

"Thank you for expressing your view Mr Third. So, all in favor of not involving ourselves with the political and criminal underground turmoil in the city, please raise your hands." The leader said in a raised voice.

All the hands around the table went up at the call for a vote.

"It is decided then. We won't interfere in the city politics and underworld for a few years until things cool down... Now that all of the more important topics are done, let's move on to our businesses..." The leader said as he began to discuss the other different projects and business-related opportunities, some of them even directly related to them taking some business away from Wayne Enterprises.

They were drawing up a rough plan for how they were going to grow their own companies and strengthen the Court while making sure to weaken and slowly drain projects and contracts away from Wayne Enterprises. In their eyes, the once mighty company was already gone due to the recent death of its most important leaders. It was only a matter of time before the company crumbled without powerful leadership under the Court's combined pressure.

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<(Bruce Wayne pov)>

"How could they do this? They know that I am the largest single-person shareholder of the company right?" Bruce asked angrily as he looked at the official document in Alfred's hands.

"Yes, they very much do young master. But sadly, most of the members of the board of directors think that you are too young to be involved in company operations at this age. So they are legally making sure that you even with my permission as your guardian can't get involved in the administrative duties of the company. They even got a governmental permit using their connections with the excuse that you are too immature and young to be involved in intricate company dealings." Alfred said with a hint of anger leaking from his tone.

Bruce was really angry. The one thing he had no shortage of was being taken away from him. Although he would still have full access to all his liquid assets and personal properties as well as the two foundations under his name, Wayne Enterprises would completely be out of his reach. This would mean that a lot of resources and influence he would be getting for free would now no longer be available to him until he came of age.

He knew that this was probably done by his enemies, someone with huge power and influence, even more than the Wayne family's. Whoever this was also controlled his board of directors as well since without his the company board agreeing to it, this wouldn't have been possible.

The worst thing about this was that he couldn't do anything about this. Right now he lacked enough influence, connections, and power to fight against this decision. He couldn't even sell off his shares in the company since that wasn't allowed until he was an adult under the eyes of the law. The only 'help' he would get from the company was the annual dividend which he was free to use any way he saw fit.

Normally any person would be extremely happy with this since the dividend alone was in hundreds of millions each year but Bruce wasn't. He needed Wayne Enterprise's huge access to resources and global connections to achieve his goal faster. This new development would slow down his plans. After all, there was a difference of power between a person having a billion dollars in cash and a person having a billion-dollar company under him.

"What about the request you had for them? Would they be willing to let me take control of at least one company?" Bruce asked, hopeful that he could still milk this somehow.

"Sadly no. They were adamant about not letting you even near the company. However, I was able to make a deal with them. They although would not allow you a single company to manage would however consider selling you one if provided the market valuation for the company. They had given me a list of which companies you would be allowed to purchase." Alfred said as he passed Bruce a thin bundle of papers.

As Bruce looked at his own companies that he would be able to purchase from HIMSELF, he felt his teeth clench in anger. Those businessmen were blatantly robbing him. They were not only taking advantage of him but also mocking him in a way. These people were the same parasites that his parents had helped or worked with once upon a time.

The worst part of this all was that Bruce could not fight this off, at least not legally since he was too young and underage to almost do anything concerning his rights to his own company.

There were several companies that Wayne Enterprises were ready to sell to him. However, the ones that caught his eye were Wayne Capital an ailing capital investment company, and Wayne Entertainment, a movie and music production company that wasn't doing well at all for the last few years making more flops in a year than it had hits in the last decade and finally Wayne Electronics, a subsidiary that made consumer electronics for the general public but was struggling and making huge losses due to direct competition from Queen Industries as well as its Japanese and Chinese competitors.

"How many of these can we buy?" Bruce asked Alfred sounding like he was talking about buying watches and not entire companies.

"They wouldn't sell more than two or three companies since they would still have to answer to the other shareholders. The main areas of business for Wayne Enterprises have always been medical, pharma, food, heavy industries, energy, and weapons development. Selling two or three of these loss-making subsidiaries wouldn't affect their public image at all." Alfred said as he informed Bruce.

"Now, the main question. How much money do we have in personal accounts? Can I even afford to buy one of them?" Bruce asked as he looked at Alfred's displeased face.

"Unfortunately your parents normally didn't keep liquid assets much. Some ranches, international residential properties, and houses are all bought as fixed assets under their name. As for liquid assets, you only currently have about two billion dollars..." Alfred said with a bit of regret.

Bruce was almost heartbroken. Each of these companies would cost about double or triple that even though they are all loss-making ones being sold to him at market value.

"However the two foundations do have some money that we can use since we have complete control of them," Alfred asked as he looked at Bruce like he remembered something.

"How many liquid assets do they have?" Bruce asked without much hope.

"Not a lot. About thirty-five billion in cash and bonds." Alfred asked after thinking for a moment.

"..."

"..."

"You couldn't have told me about it sooner. And I was almost worried that we had money problems." Bruce sighed as he relaxed. He was ultra-rich again as the money in the two foundations under him would alone make him the richest person in his previous world in this era.

"Well, your parents were always extremely charitable," Alfred said as he seemed to grow nostalgic with a smile on his face.

"Whatever. Inform the board members that we will be buying Wayne Entertainment, Wayne Electronics, and Wayne Capital from them. Buy it under the foundation's name since I don't want this 'I am too young to manage a company' fiasco to repeat. Oh and also make sure that we complete this entire process as silently and quickly as we can." Bruce ordered.

"Sure young Master it will be done," Alfred said as he nodded and left, determined to not let Bruce down again.

'The Board of Directors, huh? They are probably in cahoots with the Court of Owls or some other nefarious organization since if they were alone they would not have the nerve to do this to me. After all, even they know that once I reach my adult age, I could effortlessly take back control of my company again and easily take revenge against them. I promise you, whoever you guys are messing with me, you will be in a hell of pain soon. Nobody takes my money away from me, NOBODY.' Bruce thought grimly as he clenched his fists tight until they became white and then silently went back to making his drones again.

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