"Thank you all for coming to Wayne Enterprises."
His voice carried through the venue over the loudspeakers.
"For the past century, humanity has searched for cheaper, more stable, cleaner energy. We have mined coal, burned oil, and built nuclear power plants, paying for them with pollution, wars, and countless lives."
The big screen lit up.
Gray smog blanketed the sky above a city.
A black slick floated on the sea.
An oil pipeline stretched across the desert to the horizon.
Then the image changed.
The Underground Laboratory at Wayne Enterprises.
A fist-sized metal ring hovered inside the Containment Chamber.
"Today, what we bring you is not a more efficient battery."
Bruce turned toward the reactor behind him.
"Nor is it a new kind of fuel."
"It is an entirely new way to produce energy."
Quiet gasps rose through the venue.
Lucius walked up to the Control Console and pressed the activation button.
Inside the Containment Chamber, the metal ring lit up.
Blue light spread from within the ring like a drop of ink falling into clear water. Every instrument on the workbench came online at once, their needles climbing rapidly.
[Power output: 300 megawatts.] [Fuel input: zero.] [Heat loss: 0.03%.]
The data appeared on the big screen.
An energy expert in the front row shot to his feet.
"That's impossible!"
"No fuel input?"
"Try a different measuring instrument!"
"Is its output stable?"
The exclamations grew louder.
Bruce did nothing to stop them.
He raised a hand, signaling the staff to activate another set of equipment.
The enormous display overhead lit up instantly.
A model of a Wayne Enterprises research campus appeared before the audience.
Across the campus, which covered dozens of square kilometers, every light, production line, and piece of laboratory equipment switched on at once.
No cables