American comics: Starting in Arkham, a system-based Batman

Chapter 112 A person who has nothing can have nothing taken away.

Alfred immediately grabbed the pager on the table. "Young Master Dick, where are you now!"

He switched channels, blocking out Zheng En and Batman who were still fighting, and directly connected to the communication device on the Batmobile.

A furious shout came from the other end: "I'm going to help Bruce!"

Dick pressed the accelerator hard, his hands gripping the steering wheel.

Bruce has been poisoned by nitrous oxide; he has to go help him!

Even though he knew that Alfred and Bruce would not agree with his actions, he couldn't just stand by and watch Batman be isolated and helpless in the Batcave; he couldn't do that.

The only one who could possibly help Batman, Jung Eun, was entangled in the claws and couldn't break free for a while, while Batman didn't know how much longer he could hold out.

He dared not gamble.

The roar of the engine echoed through the Batcave through the loudspeakers, and Alfred fell silent.

He understood Dick's feelings.

Countless times I saw Bruce's wounds, countless times I felt powerless to help.

The Batcave's large screen is rarely used like it is today. If it weren't for providing comprehensive monitoring of the surrounding environment and offering real-time assistance to Batman and Jeremy Lin, Alfred would usually just be quietly waiting for Bruce to return at Wayne Manor.

After each night patrol, he would prepare hot tea and snacks for Bruce before he returned, and pick them up from behind as Bruce took off his bat costume, handing him his ironed robes.

Alfred knew that Bruce didn't want him to be too involved in Batman's affairs. Even with the codename Penny One, the other would only seek his help as a last resort.

Just like a child who knows their parents don't approve of their actions, they will stubbornly continue on their own.

Alfred often felt like a father who wanted both sides: he wanted Bruce to turn back when faced with insurmountable hardships, but he also wanted Bruce to suffer less and have fewer scars.

He hates Batman.

He loves Bruce.

So he could only remain silent.

"Good luck, Mr. Dick." After a long pause, Alfred finally managed to utter a sound from his throat.

He didn't tell the other two about it, and the battle on the screen continued.

Two more gangsters remained at the other end of the villa. Zheng En tried to break free but was held tightly. The gangsters brought in rocket launchers and bombarded the villa, causing a small portion of it to collapse in the ensuing three-way battle.

In Miller Harbor, the police who went to investigate after receiving the news were all wiped out, and the sparks from the explosion instantly turned into clusters of fireworks.

Maniacal laughter echoed through the harbor. Gordon, who was confronting the Joker, burst into laughter, his gun slipping from his hand and falling to the ground. Everyone was insane, laughing like zombies, their eerie laughter bordering on sobbing, sending chills down one's spine.

The clown smiled, opened his arms, tilted his head back, and swayed his body, revealing an expression of utter rapture.

Batman looked at him and jumped off the top of the stacked shipping containers.

He excels at ambushing from high places. Due to the inertia of thought, few people will be wary of attacks coming from above. The original weight of the body plus the speed of the fall can cause great damage even to an ordinary person, let alone Batman who has been specially trained.

However, he focuses more on controlling his strength than on attacking. Batman doesn't kill; even subduing someone is often less simple than killing them, even if that person is the Joker.

A cloak, billowing in the cold wind, swooped down from above, its target the clown leaning against a shipping container, smoking.

Almost at the same instant the dark shadow loomed overhead, the opponent suddenly rolled to the side.

The heavy sole of his boot slammed onto the concrete ground, but the excellent shock-absorbing material meant that Batman wasn't greatly affected. The moment he landed, he spun around and swung his arm blade, only to shatter the smoke bomb thrown by the Joker.

The green mist exploded, and a pungent, sweet smell wafted into Batman's nose and mouth along with the gunpowder smoke.

He took a sudden breath, and even though he held his breath immediately, his mind still felt foggy. His eyes, hidden behind the mask, were fixed on the clown, and the clown's face appeared as a double image on his retina.

"Wow!" 7

The Joker made the gesture of Xi Shi holding her heart, and looked at Batman with rapture, "I've finally, finally met you."

This was his first time meeting Batman.

He sidestepped Batman's punch, then gracefully circled behind him, revealing a sharp blade on his cane after removing its outer shell, and thrust it straight at Batman's back.

But he failed.

Batman swiftly turned and retreated, grabbing the Joker's wrist with his other hand. The Joker was in pain from the grip, hissing as he inhaled, but laughing even more maniacally.

"I'm falling in love with you."

He suddenly let go, causing the cane knife to fall, and then twisted his wrist. Taking advantage of Batman's momentary daze, he forcefully pulled out his wrist, which had been dislocated and repositioned. He then used his waist and abdomen to generate power, kicking his legs towards Batman's face.

The attack was blocked by the forearm, and the Joker didn't pursue the matter further after failing to land a blow.

He used the brief moment he was upside down to retrieve his cane knife, and after creating some distance, he made a thrusting motion at Batman like he was wielding a rapier, hopping lightly on his feet.

"Come on, little bat, let me see your strength."

He laughed wildly, but Batman didn't respond; he simply prepared to fight.

The two fought back and forth, the cane knife piercing the side of the clown's suit, and bruises appearing on the clown's face.

Batman ran out of the antidote he carried before the fight with the Joker, and he fought on, barely managing to overcome the hallucinations before him. In his hazy mind, all he could remember was that grinning red mouth and his playful expression.

The mouth moved, "Let's play a game, little bat."

"This world is a ridiculous and enormous dream, and the first fool to wake up is called the clown."

He grabbed the neck where the Adam's apple was moving, the sound of the trachea being squeezed.

"And when we wake up—the world will be turned upside down."

Those dark green eyes, reflected in Batman's eyes, resembled a bottomless whirlpool.

In a daze, he seemed to see the world turning upside down.

The scene before them shifted from the laughing clown and the ground beneath him to an upside-down night sky, with an assassin wearing an owl mask standing respectfully to the side.

"You are—a member of the Court of Owls—"

The pain in his head roused Batman's last shred of sanity, and his question provoked the Joker's displeasure.

"What? How dare you compare me to those boring idiots!"

He pinned Batman down, grabbing the man's head and demanding, "Do you think I'm such a shallow person?"

Blood trickled down the wound, staining the white goggles on the mask a pale pink. Batman looked at him with his only remaining, functional left eye, and the Joker seemed genuinely enraged, displaying an even more agitated emotion than before.

"I am your other half; we are two sides of the same coin!"

After roaring, the clown's expression changed instantly, turning disdainful. "As for them—just some stolen toys, mere decorations in our game."

When Dick arrived, this was the scene he saw.

He shifted the Batmobile to its highest gear and used the shortest route and fastest speed to get here, but he was still too late.

Batman lies on the ground, and the scene is filled not only with the Joker but also with claws.

How can he save Batman?

The roar of the Batmobile echoed through the empty harbor. Dick tried to stop when he spotted the Joker and Claws, but it was too late.

"A new toy has appeared."

The Joker released his grip on Batman's head, a grin spreading across his face. "Let me guess, which little bird is it?"

Claw immediately leaped in front of the Batmobile, and Dick instinctively jerked the steering wheel to turn. The next second, the creature appeared directly on the hood of the car.

The orange-yellow eyepiece stared directly at Dick, with a sharp bird's beak positioned in the center of the eyepiece.

The man held a long knife in his hand, pointing it downwards and raising it high. In an instant, he shattered the bulletproof windshield.

Dick immediately picked up the freeze gun from the passenger seat. He wasn't one to act rashly without preparation; he had taken the freeze gun from Bruce's test bench before arriving.

He is confident in his physical skills, but that doesn't mean he's arrogant.

If even Batman couldn't handle the enemy, he couldn't possibly defeat him with such a short training period, especially since he's not even an adult yet. Dick was prepared to be a support from the start; the Freeze Gun would definitely be more effective in Batman's hands than in his.

He just didn't expect to see such a scene.

Shards flew into the car as the broken pieces flew. Dick reacted quickly, shielding his head with his hands and simultaneously pulling the trigger of the freeze gun. Claw reacted faster, but the close-range shot still froze his entire arm.

With his other hand, he snatched the freeze gun and flung it out the window, grabbing Dick from his seat and jumping to the side. The out-of-control Batmobile crashed into a pile of shipping containers, slamming them to the ground with a deafening roar.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

Dick, grabbed by the claws and brought before the clown, struggled desperately, grabbing and kicking, but he couldn't budge the clown no matter what he did.

Dick knew he was very strong, to the point that even Batman would praise him, but compared to a professional killing machine, he was still too inexperienced.

"Aha!" The clown leaned forward with great interest. "I knew it would be you!"

"How's it going? Getting along well with Batman, huh? Hurry up and thank Uncle Joker for his contributions." He grinned smugly, but his words sent a chill down Dick's spine.

"The claws that wanted to kill my parents were sent by you—"

He had anticipated this possibility when he saw the Joker and Claw appear together, but he simply didn't want to think about it. Now that the Joker has torn away this veil of pretense, he doesn't know what to do.

He was more terrified than angry.

He couldn't help but shudder at the memory of the clown calling out "little bird" in front of the camera.

After so much time had passed, the initial anger was no longer enough to overcome reason, so Dick realized that the Joker had always known about his past and even planned his present and future accordingly.

If the Joker knows him, then he will naturally know Bruce and Wayne Manor.

This means that there is no safe place at all.

Why did you do that?

Dick stared at the Joker in disbelief. Everything about the man was a mystery; he couldn't understand why he was doing what he did. Why kill his parents? Why force him to Wayne Manor? "What good does this do you?"

The clown hesitated for a moment, then said, "Because I had a dream."

"I always feel that there should be a little bird next to a bat, all colorful."

He laughed, his cane knife lightly tapping Dick's clothes. The hand-sewn clothes had some rather rough stitches, showing that the other person was very inexperienced and had not gained Batman's approval, and did not even have a decent uniform.

"How boring is a little bat that has nothing," the clown chuckled. "A person who has nothing can have nothing taken away from them."

His smug expression sent a chill down Dick's spine.

"So—I give him a little bird, and then twist its head off." The clown moved closer to Dick's face, asking him with great interest, "Isn't that interesting to think about?"

The two were only half a fist's width apart, so Dick could clearly see the wrinkles on his face and the white greasepaint when he smiled.

Dick was prepared to die.

But the Joker did nothing.

Once again, the person he wanted to protect was taken away from him, and there was nothing he could do.

When Zheng En escaped the claws and arrived at the port, it was still a scene of devastation: embers from the explosion, collapsed ground and containers, and gangsters and police laughing hysterically.

The only good news was that they were laughing so hard they didn't have the energy to draw their guns.

Zheng En ignored them and ran straight towards Dick.

After dealing with the claws on the other side, Alfred told him everything. Although he still had a lot of questions, now was not the time to think about them; focusing on the present was the most important thing.

It had only been about ten minutes since Zheng En took the superhuman drug. He tried his best to get there as quickly as possible, but he was still too late.

"Dick————"

Seeing this scene, he understood everything without asking; Batman couldn't win every confrontation with the Joker.

The boy, dressed in red and green, knelt on the ground. His bright yellow cloak was stained with dust and drooped down. His elbows were pressed against the ground and were bleeding.

Zheng En squatted down and hugged Dick.

"I...I couldn't save Bruce—"

As if he had finally found an outlet, his tears suddenly burst forth, soaking the clothes around Jung Eun's shoulders and neck.

The wet sensation spread from a small patch, and Dick cried out in anguish, his loud wails jarringly mingling with the surrounding maniacal laughter.

Zheng En patted his back repeatedly. At this moment, Dick couldn't listen to anything anyone said. Only when he had vented his emotions and cried out all the grief in his heart could he hear what others were saying.