American comic book: My Father is Superman, am I just an NPC?

Chapter 253 The Joker is the Only Hope!

The young Batman is not as wise and suspicious as the middle-aged Batman.

Therefore, he probably only came up with more than 10,000 possibilities, and then stopped thinking about them, selecting the one he felt was the most likely and focusing on it.

Inside the bat cave.

Time seemed to stand still after Ian left.

Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight who had just experienced blindness and regained his sight, was still firmly bound to a heavy chair by rough aircraft carrier arresting cables.

Industrial tape tightly sealed his mouth, allowing only muffled sobs to escape from deep within his throat.

His brand-new blue eyes, which had just been "hot-swapped" back, gleamed in the dim light with shock, anger, humiliation, and a thoughtful expression as he tried to analyze the situation.

"Crackling, crackling~"

The Batcave is now a mess, as if it had been through a major battle. There are broken equipment sparking with electricity all around, and the air is filled with the smell of burning and a heavy pressure called "the unknown".

"Waaaaah—! Ugh! Ugh—!"

He struggled desperately, trying to make a louder noise or find a way to break free, but the specially made restraints and professional binding techniques rendered all his efforts futile.

Batman can defeat everything.

But it's hard to defeat yourself.

This binding technique can be considered a kind of "boomerang" of his own skills. Sweat mixed with dust and blood from the previous explosion slid down the forehead of the Gotham King.

"Master?"

Just then, Alfred's slightly anxious voice came from the communicator that Ian had thrown on the ground, its screen shattered but still stubbornly functioning.

"Young Master Bruce? Are you alright? Please respond! That voice just now... didn't seem to be yours. Has that... 'visitor' left yet?"

Butler's keen insight remains as strong as ever.

Even through the distorted voice from the communicator, he captured the quality beneath Ian's falsetto that didn't belong to Bruce—the incongruity hidden beneath the imitation.

"Waaaaah! Waaaaah~! Ugh—!"

Bruce grasped at a straw and tried to make his voice out even louder, but his gagged mouth only produced louder, meaningless nasal and guttural sounds.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the communicator.

Just as a sense of despair rose in Bruce's heart, Alfred's voice rang out again. The butler was as reliable as ever, and this time his voice carried a sense of sudden realization and certainty.

"I understand, young master. You mean you can't move freely right now, your mouth is gagged, and the intruders may have left, but the situation is still unclear. You need me to come down and provide support immediately, right? Please hold on, I'll be there soon." That's why the title "Butler Hero" includes the word "hero."

This ability to decipher Batman's "baby talk" demonstrates that he too possesses extraordinary abilities. Of course, it may also be due to his profound understanding of Batman.

I've watched Batman grow up from a child.

When it comes to understanding Batman, Butler knows him even better than Batman's biological father, making him practically Batman's second father on earth.

"Ugh!!!" Bruce responded with almost grateful force, his tense body relaxing slightly. Alfred really understood him!

He stopped speaking, conserving his energy, his chest rising and falling slightly with worry and unease. At this moment, the paranoid man's mind was uncontrollably replaying the image of that three-headed, six-armed, erratic, and unpredictable figure, along with the strange sensation brought on by those eyes that had been forcibly "installed" back into him.

after a while.

It might only be a minute, but for the trapped Bruce, it felt like an eternity. As the door opened, the hidden elevator in the Batcave finally began to make a soft, rhythmic sound.

"Young Master, are you alright?"

Alfred strode out, his gaze immediately fixed on Bruce, who was tied to a chair, without even putting down the silver tray he was carrying.

Seeing that Bruce was unharmed, the butler breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately stepped forward, placed the tray aside, and then reached out without hesitation, carefully but forcefully tearing off the industrial tape covering Bruce's mouth.

"I noticed a broken, human-shaped hole in the door... What's going on?" The butler turned around and looked behind him, his expression full of confusion.

"hiss--"

The tape stung his skin as it came off, but Bruce ignored it and immediately began to gasp for breath.

"That guy is a lunatic. He hasn't even learned how to use resonance to pass through objects. No, maybe he thinks that physically passing through objects is also mastering the [passing] skill."

As expected of Bruce Wayne, the brains of the DC, he was able to construct a mental model of Ian after only a brief encounter with him.

"Young Master, are you alright?" Alfred didn't quite understand what Batman was talking about. He asked with concern while quickly checking the ropes binding Bruce, looking for a way to untie them.

"I...it's okay."

Bruce's voice was unusually hoarse from being blocked for so long. He moved his jaw, which was finally free, and looked at Alfred's busy figure with a complicated expression.

"Ah Fu... help me untie this first."

Bruce felt like his testicles were being squeezed so tightly they were losing blood.

"it is good."

Alfred didn't say much, focusing intently on finding the key points of the knot. The butler's movements were practiced and precise, clearly prepared for all the tools and possible situations within the bat cave. A few minutes later, as the last lock was released, the heavy barrier rope clattered to the ground.

"That damn monster!" Bruce jumped up from his chair, swaying slightly due to poor blood circulation, but was immediately supported by Alfred.

"Young Master, who has invaded the Batcave?" Alfred asked in a deep voice, his confusion even greater than before. He looked at Bruce's blood-stained suit and those seemingly unfamiliar eyes.

I was also very uneasy.

"It's a catastrophe."

Bruce steadied himself with Alfred's help, took a deep breath, and tried to suppress his turbulent emotions with reason. His voice was low and hoarse: "I made a mistake, Alfred. A potentially very serious mistake... I released a monster... a monster that has been imprisoned in the Speed ​​Force for who knows how many years."

"Or perhaps a deity?"

His tone was very serious.

"God?!"

Alfred was stunned.

The arm supporting Bruce tightened unconsciously. In this era where Superman had only recently appeared, the word "god" brought a revolutionary shock.

After all, not that many monsters and demons have emerged yet.

Even the Amazonian princess is someone who lives hidden among mortals. Seeing Alfred's reaction, Bruce himself felt that this statement was too alarming. He frowned and changed his words, his tone filled with deep uncertainty: "Perhaps... a human. A human from the future."

This was also a guess he made after careful consideration.

"Time travelers?" Alfred's brow furrowed. "Speedsters like that Flash from Central City? Can they really... travel through time?"

“Theoretically…yes.” Bruce broke free from Alfred’s support, stretched his stiff and sore limbs, and glanced at the messy Batcave.

"But the monster I encountered... was different."

Bruce recalled the fleeting glimpse of the essence he had caught in that brief moment.

His expression grew increasingly serious.

Alfred pondered for a moment, then offered a guess that was more in line with Batman's way of thinking: "Young Master Bruce, the monster you encountered... could it be the situation you once worried about, the Flash Barry Allen who might turn to the dark side in the future? After all, you said that the Flash's lack of a proper family is his biggest weakness."

I can tell.

Butler had also participated in many of Batman's analyses and plans for competing with other superhumans. "No," Bruce shook his head directly, his tone unusually certain, "Barry is very intelligent... but he can't develop such technology."

The so-called technology naturally refers to the unbelievable "hot-swappable biological organs".

He paused, then raised his finger to his eyes, which were now perfectly intact and even felt better than before, and continued his analysis, his voice still low and bubbly.

"That guy... my feeling is that he might have been trapped in the Speed ​​Force, a place beyond time, for too long, to the point that he's developed serious mental problems—jumping thoughts, illogical thinking, and unpredictable behavior. This... is extremely dangerous." Batman had already labeled Ian a madman.

Well, the main problem is that he lacks a lot of information and can't think from Ian's perspective. Otherwise, he would definitely have discovered that Ian is actually very logical and rational.

"Is it the kind of danger that could threaten the world..." Alfred's expression turned solemn. "Then, young master, should we initiate... 'that' plan?"

He was referring to contingency plans for extremely powerful, uncontrollable superhuman threats, which include some unconventional, even brutal, methods.

Bruce hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, choosing not to make a decision immediately: "Let's observe further. I can't draw any definitive conclusions yet."

He walked to a pile of rubble and began to pull at the still usable wires and components with his bare hands, skillfully assembling a simple testing device.

"The other party used the same binding method I use when dealing with high-risk criminals, and seemed to have some knowledge of the layout of the Bat Cave... Perhaps, in the future... they will recognize me."

This is why Bruce hesitated.

This speculation made Alfred's heart sink.

A speedster from the future who knows Batman, is incredibly powerful, and mentally unstable... this combination sounds like a recipe for disaster.

“Young Master,” Alfred didn’t press for details about the attacker, but instead focused his attention on Bruce himself, his tone filled with unwavering concern, “Don’t you really need to go to the hospital for a proper check-up? I see you have a lot of blood on you, especially around your eyes…”

"I'm fine." Bruce interrupted the other person's concern without turning his head. He focused on assembling the parts in his hands, and soon a simple testing instrument pieced together from the wreckage with exposed wires took shape.

Batman connected the machine to a monitor that only had half a screen left.

He then picked up a similarly crude helmet, put it on his head, and said in a complicated tone, "But I really need to see how I am doing."

It was accompanied by Batman's ambiguous voice.

The instrument emitted an unstable hum, and the half-screen stubbornly lit up. After a few flashes of static, it displayed a real-time scan of Bruce's brain activity.

"really……"

Bruce's expression changed abruptly the moment he saw the screen. His newly acquired, sharp blue eyes stared intently at the screen, his pupils dilating violently.

this moment.

Alfred immediately sensed the unusual atmosphere.

"What's wrong, sir?" He stepped forward, asking anxiously.

However, Bruce did not respond. He simply stared intently at the display screen with his new eyes, as if trying to imprint the image into his mind.

The test results clearly showed that at this very moment, extremely subtle yet clearly discernible arcs of electricity were occasionally seen across the surface of his cerebral cortex!
That's the residual energy of the Speed ​​Force!
Clearly, in the moment he started the machine and tried to glimpse the future, it wasn't just his eyes that were overloaded.

His consciousness, his brain, at that moment strayed into the raging speed field, and the impact was far more than just the loss of his original eyeballs.

The energy of the Speed ​​Force, like a tiny virus or a brand, has already infiltrated his neural network!

No one could say for sure what the consequences of this unknown situation would be, and even Batman, who immediately sensed that something was wrong with him, felt a chill.

……

Meanwhile, in the 21st century, in the Justice League Hall.

Due to the drastic changes and continued instability in the timeline, the remaining Alliance founders in the hall were all in poor condition. Wonder Woman, Diana, sat in a corner, her once-fit figure now unusually bloated, as she attempted to use Amazonian meditation to control the restless divine power within her.

But the effect was minimal, and her complexion looked quite bad.

"Why do I suddenly feel like jellyfish are all quite pretty? Hmm? Wouldn't octopuses be even prettier?"

Aquaman Arthur stared blankly at a huge aquarium filled with bioluminescent jellyfish. The iridescent scales on his arms and neck shimmered faintly in the dim light, and although his lower body hadn't yet transformed into a fish tail, he felt an uncomfortably tight feeling in his pants, as if they might tear at any moment.

"Huh? You're in worse shape than me? I can't even tell if I'm white, Asian, or Black anymore. Damn it, there's blue and purple too!" Cyborg Victor is in the worst situation. The Mother Box technology from Apokolips is continuously degrading and peeling off his body, revealing more human tissue.

The body parts that Mother Box Technology originally maintained have now been almost entirely replaced by other random parts, making Cyborg seem like a real cobbler.

Ian is a master of this technique; he's reassembled corpses numerous times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since the full effects haven't yet manifested, Cyborg is still essentially a cyborg.

However, the system would occasionally crash with a blue screen, requiring his full effort to maintain basic functionality. In contrast, the Flash, Barry Allen, was surprisingly the least affected. His Speed ​​Force not only didn't weaken, but actually felt even stronger, with his speed and stamina seemingly improved significantly.

He looked at his reflection in the gleaming metal walls of the hall and pinched his suddenly developed, explosive thigh muscles.

"This feels...like overuse, like I've developed frog legs from overuse? What's going on?" However, what puzzled and left him speechless was his battle suit.

The classic red battle suit has somehow transformed into an indescribable, aesthetically displeasing, and simply a bright yellow battle robe that looks like the color of "Oli Gei" (a popular internet slang term for something out of a good way).

Even more outrageous, there's a cute, muscular blue kangaroo printed on its chest and back! The kangaroo is even holding a box, looking eager to try it out.

"This aesthetic... what parallel universe is this disaster from..." Barry was on the verge of tears, feeling that his lifelong reputation and fashion sense were about to be ruined.

Just then, a piercing alarm sounded from the main control console of the Hall of Justice.

"Guys! Something's happened in Gotham!"

Barry immediately shouted, trying to gather his teammates.

Diana merely lifted her eyelids and waved her hand weakly. Arthur remained staring blankly at the aquarium. Cyborg, busy stabilizing his own system, had no time for anything else.

"Alright... looks like I'll have to go myself." Barry sighed, adjusted to the bouncy "frog legs," and transformed into a yellowish-brown bolt of lightning to reach the control panel.

The color made him feel incredibly uncomfortable, but soon, the Flash's attention was drawn to the screen, which displayed live surveillance footage from Gotham.

However, what Barry saw stunned him. It wasn't a typical bank robbery or gang shootout, but a... seemingly incredibly tragic protest.

In the video, dozens of people dressed in bizarre ways, but all sharing the common characteristic of looking miserable, are seen limping down the street, holding signs.

They are all Gotham villains familiar to The Flash.

Among these people, some were missing arms or legs and wore crude mechanical prosthetics; others had their faces wrapped in bandages, revealing only dull, painful, and terrified eyes.

Even more extreme are those with obvious animal parts sewn onto their bodies—such as orcs with cat ears, fox tails, or arms that have turned into crab claws.

They are all Gotham villains with names and identities, the big shots, but now they are in a miserable state, with bandages on their backs, holding IV stands, or being pushed around in wheelchairs.

What was even more striking were the flags and banners they were holding.

The image of Batman was spray-painted on it, but not in his usual Dark Knight form. Instead, he was depicted wearing a papal robe, a triple crown, and sitting on a magnificent papal chair.

On the portrait, which is clearly in the style of AI, a huge red cross has been painted over with bright red spray paint!

"Gotham cannot be without the Joker! Support the Joker to take power! The Joker is our only hope!"

"Down with the bat tyranny! Down with Arkham Palace!"

"Gotham doesn't need a mad king!"

The group screamed hysterically, as if they were a group of old, weak, sick and disabled people resisting a tyrant, while the clown, in their portraits, was a savior riding an "angel".

“What…what the hell is this?!” Barry stared at the protest of the “disabled” group on the screen, and the flag that was full of distortion and accusation.

Everyone was confused.

Gotham's chaos seems to have taken a more absurd and... tragic turn due to the shift in the timeline? What exactly did Batman do to them?
(End of this chapter)