What bad thoughts can Batman have?

Chapter 570 Batman's Vacation Never Begins

"Hey."

"Hey, Batman, it's me, Oswald. The Penguin."

Chen Tao, who was sitting on the chair, was stunned for a moment. To be honest, he hadn't remembered this name for a long time.

At this time, he was waiting for lunch in a restaurant in Paris, and not far away, the old butler Alfred was asking the waiter to serve the dishes himself.

Chen Tao confirmed that the other party had not noticed this, and then he said: "It's Oswald, what's the matter?"

Along the way, he faced General Zod, Darkseid, the Anti-Monitor, Barbatos...

He has been away from Gotham for too long, and in his impression, many people's lives are too far away from him and have been stagnant for too long.

When you leave a place, the people and things there become blurred, like watching people coming and going on the street from behind frosted glass, but you know that you are no longer one of them.

Chen Tao almost forgot when he left an emergency message to Penguin Man.

"Honestly, old Bat... We haven't seen each other for a long time... I turned over a new leaf, and now I'm the largest burrito distributor in Gotham. My penguin burritos are sold all over the United States... I've made a lot of money. Although it's not as good as when I was selling arms, it's still good. At least there's no need for gunfights... I know about those cosmic crises. You're doing big things now, right..."

The Penguin said a lot of things, and then said: "I have never dared to call you... To be honest, before dialing this number, I was not sure whether the number you left me could still be used to contact you..."

Then the Penguin stopped talking, as if he was suddenly stuck.

"What's wrong? Oswald?" Chen Tao asked.

"You've really changed, Bat." Penguin sighed, "In the past, when I talked so much nonsense, you would usually interrupt me and let me get to the point..."

"But now you are willing to listen to me quietly. I feel respected, which is something I have never felt when I was a criminal. I am very grateful to you, Batman."

Chen Tao: "..."

Well, actually he didn't interrupt the other person just because he happened to be free at the moment, and he didn't think that Oswald the Penguin could bring him any help or get involved in anything that could threaten himself.

Even Oswald the Penguin before he turned over a new leaf, although he was the most powerful of Gotham's second-tier characters, he was never the leader of major events.

He was a criminal who was only concerned with making money, that's all, and now he is a black-to-white businessman who is only concerned with making money, it's all the same.

When Chen Tao was still dealing with issues at the level of Gotham affairs, under his coercion, Penguin Oswald might have been a good assistant, but once things were magnified to the cosmic level, Penguin, well...

So when Chen Tao was extremely disrespectful to Oswald the Penguin, he gave him the illusion of respect, uh...

Just leave it at that.

"I've always respected you, Oswald. You have sinned in the past. But overall, you've given a lot to this city."

As soon as Chen Tao's upper lip touched his lower lip, nice words came out of his mouth for free.

"Well, I guess I have to get to the point. That's rare, I used to be the best at changing the subject. I came here to tell you something."

Penguin took a deep breath.

"The Joker came to see me."

Chen Tao stood up from his chair in the restaurant and then sat down quickly.

"The last time I went to Arkham Asylum was about 43 hours ago." Penguin said, "Some old friends who were unwilling to cooperate with us were locked up there, and Two-Face and I took turns to make sure no one escaped. We were all masters of jailbreaking, and the jailbreaking skills of old and new friends may be better than ours, but it is difficult to hide from our inspections every two days."

The Penguin said: "I... I'm not sure... but at least the last time I checked there everything was normal. And the prison guards went home normally that night. But the Joker was here, he just came here."

Penguin said: "He turned my lamp and burrito ledger into a smiling saber-tooth tiger right in front of me. Luckily I had my umbrella full of weapons with me."

"Then the Joker told me a story that was worse than I expected, about a madman who had taken over an insane asylum. The killer sent the guards, who had families, home every night and forced them to pretend that everything was fine. Does this mean that when I thought everything was normal, the Joker had actually started to act?"

"…I didn't tell Jim (Gotham Police Chief Jim Gordon) about this. His daughter Barbara is missing and he is very worried now. I know if I tell him about this, he will definitely put aside his daughter's affairs and focus on his work, but this is too cruel for him…"

No, of course not. Chen Tao realized that the Penguin was doubting his own abilities. He suspected that the Arkham Asylum that he had examined was actually a trick of the Joker.

But in fact, Chen Tao already knew that the three clowns seemed to have some ability to modify reality. If they had this ability, it would not be difficult for them to change the perception of the prison guards or to build what he needed to build in a very short time.

The Joker said this to the Penguin on purpose. He used this method to intimidate the other party, which made it seem like he had been preparing for a long time.

It's just a clown's trick.

Chen Tao told this to Penguin Man.

Oswald was silent for a while. Chen Tao thought he would care about being suppressed by the Joker again, but he didn't think about it. Instead, he continued: "But even so, Arkham is now closed. No one knows what its interior has been transformed into."

Then he paused.

"But from what I've gathered, there are several miles of wire being brought in, as well as generators and cables, as well as plaster and paint."

"My people claim they've heard screaming and seen carts with bloody towels passing down the hall. There's the sound of bodies being thrown into the incinerator. There's the thumping of metal and then a thump from above, smoke, smells and laughter...always laughter."

"Whatever he was going to make it into, he said it was for you. He said he was going to make that place your castle, your home."

The Penguin said: "I know you have sent the Justice League to handle this matter. I am also worried that what I say now seems to be too much nonsense, but in fact..."

"I don't think the Justice League can handle the Joker. They might be able to guess some of the Joker's actions... but they are not you, Batman, they are not you."

He said: "Gotham needs you, the people need you."

Chen Tao knew that Oswald felt that he could not handle it, so he wanted Batman to take action.

"understood."

He replied briefly and hung up. He looked up and saw the old butler Alfred standing in front of him.

Chen Tao sighed.

"Alfred, you know what? When I fly between the dark multiverses as the Dark Multiverse Dragon, I always remind myself that there are trillions of people in this world who have their own lives in different universes."

Alfred didn't say anything. He looked at Chen Tao, and Chen Tao also looked at him. "Everyone says that the dark multiverse is a hopeless and broken universe, a defective world where evil must prevail over justice, but this is not the case."

"The truth of life is the same everywhere. Here you can find mothers telling their children bedtime stories, three generations living together enjoying the family life, and loving elders supporting each other through thick and thin."

He looked at Alfred.

"I need to prove that what I have been doing for so many years is not in vain. I believe that my original intention is right and my pursuit is correct."

The sound grew louder and louder in Alfred's ears, like the rumble of a train, or like the sound of gunfire in Crime Alley, deafening.

"The dark multiverse is also a part of this world. They pursue those simple and common feelings and imagine those unexpected beauties..."

"Alfred." Chen Tao said, "I'm sorry that I couldn't stay with you longer."

He took a deep breath and said, "But the journey..."

"It's not time to reach the end yet. So you can only rest here, but you can't stay here. I expected this." Then Chen Tao heard Alfred's voice.

The old man's voice was dull and no emotion could be heard.

But Chen Tao heard him say, "Let me help you put on the bat suit. I also made you a sandwich."

……

……

……

"The Joker left us clues in his toxins... the blood thinners he used on those laughing sharks, the company that made him also provided the chemicals for the reservoir's water treatment, and the reservoir was also the site of Batman's first fight with the Joker, Batman's first real confrontation with him."

"Yes, that's where Batman first saw the Joker and saw who he really was. There Batman understood the nature of his opponent, and that's also where the Joker saw Batman. This place means a lot to the Joker."

"So fellow Riddlers, where is our next step?" Shazam called out, "Climb into the ventilation duct and open the treasure chest?"

"It's the Gotham Reservoir." Diana said: "I have deduced what the Joker will do next."

Ten minutes later. Gotham Reservoir.

"Hello dear."

Clark Kent, dressed in Batman's uniform, jumps off the Batmobile.

He looked at the Joker standing on the bridge not far away, with his hands spread out to him. He didn't know which of the three Jokers in the intelligence provided by Batman was this Joker. They had previously caught the Joker who was responsible for attracting their attention.

And who could this be?
"Where is Barbara Gordon?"

Clark said, imitating Batman's tone.

"What? No hug? Not even a batarang to my head?"

Superman looked down at his hands.

"You hold the remote control, and if I move you will pour poison into the reservoir--"

"Yes, that's what happened last time."

Wonder Woman, who was eavesdropping remotely, kept breaking out in a cold sweat. It was so disappointing. In the whole set of information Batman gave them, the part about the Joker didn't even mention his confrontation with the Joker in the early days of his career!

The Joker suddenly said "last time", which confused Wonder Woman.

This can't be blamed on Chen Tao. The Joker in this dark multiverse was fought by Batman before he traveled through time. How could Chen Tao have backed up such memories?

"Ah, yes, you remember! We did exactly that last time, when we were still full of energy, two youngsters!"

"What is this? Jokers? All of this?"

Then the Joker softened his tone and raised the explosion controller in his hand and rubbed it against his face: "You see, it's like this. We've been talking about formulas, formulas, formulas lately, so this time I have to take care of everything in advance so that we can relax and have a nice chat, face to face."

“What did you deal with?”

"Oh, of course it's our business! Something that would have happened here."

"What did you say?" Superman disguised as Batman asked, "What else do you have..."

Batman, the incarnation of Superman, pounced on the Joker, but then he was pounced on by a holographic phantom. The conversation he had just had with it was actually done remotely by the Joker using the phantom.

"Hey, in a few moments you'll get that call you're waiting for, and then you'll make a decision, and you'll decide to act, right? You'll throw that batarang you've got behind you, just like last time!"

The Joker gets more and more excited as he talks, and Clark's Batman does a great job of showing what the original Batman would become if he didn't encounter any problems.

And the clown was still jumping around crazily.

"And then bam I get hit and whoops but I'm gonna quickly, quickly, quickly press the key and poison the water and then you call your little friend, the one that used to be Robin, Nightwing, right… He's gonna blow the bridge down."

With a loud bang, Clark turned his head sharply and saw that the bridge not far away was blown into two pieces.

The clown raised his palm, he was not holding a stick or anything else.

"Then we'll fight, and you'll save the city, but I'll kill some more people, just like I did last time with that handful of people who diverted the water back to their homes before it got to the city."

"It's funny, you know, they tore down that generation of affordable housing and built apartments for those arrogant young people, they looked like the kind of people I would kill, so I went and... um... killed them."

When Clark looked down at the bridge where they were, he saw corpses floating there one after another.

"You disgusting lunatic!"

Then he heard the clown's laughter:

"Look, it's all done, the water's been poisoned, the aqueduct's blown up, people are dead, and now we can talk!"

(End of this chapter)