Laughing American comics, I am becoming more and more like a clown

"Signal jammer—this isn't the first time I've stumbled here. Do you know who the last one was?"

He asked himself and answered, "Your father... when he was a few years younger than you are now, he got me into trouble with this—it wasn't even a bomb with a TNT equivalent of a few."

"That's a nuclear bomb that could blow up all of Gotham."

Perhaps it was because Lucian was talking about Bruce, and Damian was curious and patient enough about the topic.

"Do you know what he said to me at that time?"

A laugh escaped his throat. "He told me to be cautious, to launch it myself, to be there, rather than standing at a distance and trusting that the bomb would go off on time."

“I’m standing there right now.”

He completely ignored the knife blade that might fall behind him and unbuttoned his suit - the bomb was strapped to his body.

He turned around, looked directly into the eyes behind the goggles, and raised his lips:

"Guess, will I succeed this time?"

Chapter 145 Patch

Lucian originally wanted to blow him up when he was with Arthur, but Damian reacted too quickly and the water made the gunpowder damp. In short, it failed. (He suspected that it was not his fault, but the plot or the aura that caused the failure.)

After that, they calculated Damian's possible escape routes, laid out the plan, and set off an explosion, but he still wasn't killed.

Finally, now.

……

Damian looked at him. "You'll die too."

"I'm looking forward to this. What's that saying? Death is the beginning of another journey."

"what do you want?"

"Maybe you're going to die?" Lucien looked at him for a moment. "Well, no."

"I just wanted to rescue Batman, who was imprisoned by his own children... I was angry and sad about it, so I fought for it."

Damian was speechless for a moment.

Or maybe speechless.

……

The battlefield below, which cannot be called a confrontation or a one-sided massacre, has come to an end. There is no suspense about who will fail and who will succeed, and of course it is meaningless.

There was a rumble of a building collapsing in the distance, but no one looked.

"I've always wondered - where have the superheroes in this world gone? And how did Paul and you manage to govern Gotham without being disturbed by the government?" Lucian asked a question that had nothing to do with the current situation.

"If the superhero you're talking about is the former Superman or Wonder Woman, they're dead." Damian put down the knife and stopped pressing it against his neck... It was useless:

"And the reason Paul and I were able to do this was because of a trade."

What kind of deal would allow a country to practically sell an entire city to a private organization?

The Court of Owls? Those white-masked people who acted as the upper class and controlled the lifeblood of the city? Lucian first thought of it, but quickly rejected it. Paul and Damian did not allow capital to expand at will; they could even be called suppressing it.

……

Damian named someone he hadn't thought of. "This is the President's plan for metahumans."

“Who is the president?”

"I thought you weren't so ignorant." He taunted her, but without any real pain: "Lex Luthor."

……

Lex Luthor.

This is a very old and impressive name.

The last time Lucian heard of him was when the -22 nuclear bomb exploded in Gotham.

But since.

"It's him, that makes perfect sense."

Damian scoffed and said impatiently, "What then? If that's your only problem, it's not worth all this trouble."

"My original plan was just to kill you, not to ask questions," Lucian corrected him, spinning in circles, relaxing his muscles, and slumping back in his chair. "But this is the only way. Is there a better way?"

"This stalemate is the best. Do you want a real explosion?" he said. "I don't want to hurt the enemy by a thousand and lose myself by eight hundred."

"But if I want to leave, you can't stop me." Damian stood still. "You can only prevent me from killing you."

"Yes, that's right. I cherish my life very much. I do this just for a peaceful and equal dialogue."

Lucien was lying, but it was far more convincing than the truth. He looked up at Damian and said, "Now that you're Batman, you have to learn to have fun with the Joker."

"You're not a clown."

"If I'm not, then you're not Batman... Don't break that. We're all just kids wearing size 40 clothes pretending to be adults. Let's be considerate of each other - we need to role-play."

"The previous one's line still wasn't role-playing," Damian said, referring to what Arthur said.

"That's just the script. You have to understand that the characters in the script should have their own special personalities... Saying that makes you look more like a clown."

That's why Damian was tricked by Arthur. He sneered, "If that's all you want to say."

Lucian's delay in getting to the point was clearly annoying him.

……

They were three meters apart, one sitting and the other standing. There were no candles, and the light came from the already dark sky.

"Honey, put down what you are holding." Lucian suddenly spoke, his eyes falling on Damian's palm.

He couldn't see anything from his angle, but there was indeed a thin piece of flying knife there.

"The bomb's spring isn't just the one I have in my hand—it's monitoring my heartbeat in real time. If it stops, it will still explode. Also, a reminder: this room itself is filled with explosives... For your own safety."

Of course it's a lie. An undead bomb monitoring heartbeat, what a joke.

In fact, there was no bomb in the room. If there was, and the TNT equivalent was enough to kill Damian, Lucian wouldn't mind pulling the fuse.

but no.

But that didn't stop him from saying this, and after he finished speaking he looked at the listener leisurely.

Damian dropped the blade, which landed on the ground with a sharp ding. He searched the room, trying to find a chair for himself, but unfortunately there wasn't one. He just stood there. "Go ahead."

He used honorifics.

……

Lucian was ready to kill him, and to ensure this, they had to be close enough to each other, so close that Damian had no means or time to react.

And he also had to ensure that his injuries were minor... Without the Dionysus factor, immortality would only be undead, and paralysis of the whole body or being in a vegetative state could also be immortality.

……

"We don't have any core conflicts of interest or contradictions, at least not a life-or-death struggle." Lucian said, "I just want Batman. You understand. The power of the bond. That's what I need."

"Impossible." Damian denied.

"Of course I know. That's why I went to such great lengths, even wanting to kill you first." He sighed, lamenting, "But I underestimated your strength... You're far more powerful than I imagined, but you also underestimated my caution. I was more prepared than you thought."

He muttered quietly, "It should be the other way around."

Unfortunately, Lucian is too weak. He can only be a planning clown and learn to be steady.

……

"So now, how about we both take a step back? I won't kill you, nor will I cause any trouble for you... and you'll help me chop off your limbs, gouge out your mouth and nose, and torture you to pieces, turning you into a human pig... Then I'll imprison you in one place, and let me be with him every day."

……

Damian had expected him to make some unreasonable demands, and had also expected him to look around and talk to buy time... but he hadn't expected it to be this request.

He was puzzled.

……

Lucian looked at him and smiled: "You don't understand... This is called a bond."

"You could have made this request earlier, and I would have fulfilled it."

"But I always have to fight for more rights. What if I can kill you? What if he can fall into my hands?"

Chapter 146 Damian's Death

Arthur crawled out of the sea of ​​fire, shook his head, and stood up chokingly.

He thought of his unfinished conversation with Lucien.

……

"Your decisiveness really surprised me." His expression didn't mean that at all.

"You will succeed if I die in your place, and I will do it with pleasure," said Arthur.

This is not a selfless spirit of sacrifice. Arthur feels that the Joker is a thing without self, and he is far more likely to become the Joker than Lucian - he has to make Lucian succeed, he has to make Lucian become the Joker.

What's more, he may not die from it.

"I understand what you're relying on—a little cutie that will pull you back from the brink of death. You may not know its name, but you won't die, right?"

"..." Arthur didn't know whether to admit it or deny it. He also found it difficult to determine whether the eyes looking at him were tentative or determined.

He did discover that he had the ability to be immortal, which was obvious. The Joker didn't care about him and killed Arthur several times intentionally or unintentionally.

Starved to death, thirsty to death, fell to death, bled to death...but Arthur survived them all, and he thought it was his own secret.

"This is a gift from your father," Lucian said. "Perhaps he gave it to you the moment he brought you home."

"..." Arthur still didn't speak. He didn't know what he should say. Should he sigh about the old clown's fatherly love?

My throat is very dry.

"Don't be silent, dear. If you really can't argue, why not listen to what I have to say?"

So Arthur listened to what he said next.