The dark corridor is like a big mouth that chooses people to eat, and where the darkness spreads is an endless abyss.
With a click, the room lights came on.
The edge of the light was extremely sharp, as if it had cut off a piece of the overwhelming darkness, but as the door slowly closed, the heavy shadow swallowed up the light again with an unstoppable attitude.
A hand covered in pitch-black gauntlets let go of the doorknob, and the pitch-black figure once again placed his hands in front of the sink. When he opened his eyes, what he saw in the mirror was not the serious version of himself, but a man with... Green hair, pale face, grinning madman.
"Do you think this is an hallucination caused by the fear gas? Batman, stop being so naive. You know that this has nothing to do with that idiot's ghost. I never died."
Batman just listened to him quietly.
The clown in the mirror tapped the glass with his finger, as if he really existed and could break through the barrier of the mirror and return to the real world at any time.
"I will always be in your heart. There is nothing you, I, or anyone else in Arkham Asylum can do to change that. Accept it, Batman."
With a crash, the faucet was turned on. Batman took off his mask, leaned down and washed his face with cold water.
When he raised his hand, he felt the pain in his right arm. He turned around and saw a cut on his right forearm in the hazy vision with splashes of water. The wound turned abnormally black. He knew it was the blood of fear poison gas. Result of infestation.
"scarecrow……"
The low voice echoed in the small space. When Batman looked in the mirror again, except for his slightly tired face, everything that just appeared seemed like an illusion.
Boom, boom, boom.
The sound of the door being knocked was like a sudden heartbeat. Batman suddenly turned his head to look, feeling a vague pain in his injured arm due to tight muscles.
"Are you okay? Batman."
The voice that came was slightly unfamiliar, at least not the childlike voices he had often heard. It contained a hint of impenetrable rationality, but was often naive and unexpected.
"It's me, Peter Parker, I saw the Batmobile parked outside the door, so I came to ask if you were okay."
"I'm fine."
An answer that is not unexpected at all.
But the conversation ended unexpectedly, at least beyond Batman's expectation. The person outside the door left without even asking more questions.
Batman, who was standing inside the door, took a deep breath, lowered his gaze, and scanned the dark crack in the door. He knew that Peter had really left without seeing another shadow there.
He came just in time, Batman thought, and the situation got worse. The Joker was not dead at all, and had been trying to interfere with his brain in some way. The fear gas spread by Scarecrow further caused chaos in Gotham City. He was running out of time.
At the end of what could be called a rest period for Batman, Batman pushed the door open and walked out. When he pushed open the door of the laboratory, his movements paused because his eyes were not used to the sudden light.
He vaguely saw a figure standing busy in front of the experimental table, and he knew that there would be no one else here except Peter.
But Batman didn't care. He took out his communication device, answered a call and said, "Prophet, repeat to me the current situation in the city. I need to know the extent of the chaos."
"It has deteriorated even more than two hours before Scarecrow made the broadcast, and now police are tracking the suspicious military vehicle, which passed through Chinatown in an unusual manner and lost track of it."
"Gordon and I are fully deploying police officers, but we are always short of manpower. Batman, you responded to the bat light turning on later than expected. Have you encountered any trouble?"
In addition to being intellectual, the female voice opposite also carries an unusual sense of power. This firm emotion can appease anyone, even Batman.
The slightly confused thoughts caused by the clown in the mirror returned again. Batman said to the communicator: "I'm fine, Barbara. The last group of criminals I solved were also affected by the fear gas. The arm they gave me It caused a little injury, but it’s not a problem, I’m just dealing with it.”
"He's not dealing with it." A strange male voice sounded in Barbara's ears, causing Barbara to frown slightly while sitting in the dark police station office.
"Is there someone else next to you? Batman."
"Yes, I am Peter Parker, Batman's new assistant. I have just been here not long, but I think we don't have time to chat. Please give me five minutes. I need to take care of Batman's wounds. You can Take this opportunity to tell us what's going on in the city right now."
Peter spoke very quickly, and neither Batman nor the prophet Barbara had a chance to interrupt. Barbara calmed down a little and thought this was a good decision, because if she told Batman what he needed to do now, then Bat Xia certainly didn't take the time to treat his wounds and headed straight for his destination.
No one wants Batman to do this, because everyone knows that this is bound to be a busy night, and that small injury that was originally inconspicuous will worsen due to several neglects.
Peter snatched the communicator directly from Batman's hand. Batman tried to hold the lower part of the communicator, but failed. Peter's hand was stronger than he thought.
But Batman didn't insist anymore. Peter walked to the experimental table with the communicator, threw the small machine aside, and tapped the test tube in his hand with his finger.
"You didn't lie to me. The city you live in is much worse than New York. I saw the water quality test report you put in the drawer. With all due respect, humans here can still walk on two legs. It’s such a rare gesture.”
"It's not that rare." Batman's unique cold humor.
"Okay, this lady who is called a prophet, I won't say anything anymore. Please tell me what's going on here."
"You sound much more mature than your voice, Mr. Parker, please allow me to call you this. No matter which city you come from, coming here is not a good choice."
"As you can see, another disaster has occurred, and it's probably bigger than what you're used to seeing in the newspapers."
Barbara's voice had a faint electric sound, but it was still very smooth and calm. When it echoed in the slightly empty laboratory, it had an inexplicable divinity.
"Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon personally attended the cremation ceremony of the Joker. The super criminal leader who made the city terrified was still burned to ashes, but everything is far from over."
"Two hours ago, Scarecrow, who is also a super criminal, detonated the fear gas he had hidden in the city and hacked into Gotham's public media to announce that the city would usher in his horrific revenge."
"The people are in panic, the police are at a loss, we have almost no clues, no one knows what we will experience this night, but there is no doubt that we need Batman."
"Very well, please continue, ma'am, I'm listening."
Peter broke off the iodophor cotton swab, sandwiched it between the two fingers of his right hand, and used his other hand to press the button of the shadowless flashlight to illuminate Batman's wound, carefully but very quickly cleaning the edges of the wound.
"You can call me codename Prophet. This is more important than you think, because the super criminals in Arkham Asylum will monitor our communications at any time."
"About an hour ago, the vehicles transporting Gotham citizens left Gotham City, but I think you should understand that most of the citizens of this megacity cannot be evacuated, and those who left are mostly tourists and wealthy people."
"Half an hour ago, I observed through the Sky Eye system that a suspicious military vehicle disappeared after driving out of Chinatown. Its trajectory showed that it was unusual, but the Sky Eye system could not give me any more information."
"Now I need someone to investigate where the vehicle appeared and figure out why it appeared there and where it has gone now. I have uploaded the coordinates of the last location where the vehicle appeared to the Batcomputer. Please go back quickly. Pay attention. Safety."
"The Prophet will be offline for the next twenty minutes, Batman. I know it's going to be a long night, but please hang in there as long as possible. Goodbye."
There was no more sound from the communicator, and Peter had already finished treating the small wound. Batman didn't feel any pain throughout the process.
When he put the armband back on, he glanced at Peter, but Peter went to pack the medical equipment, so he tied the armband tightly again and said, "I will track the suspicious vehicle next."
Before Batman could say the next sentence, Peter turned around and said, "Give me two minutes. I have three points to say. It won't delay the progress of your mission."
Batman paused slightly, but nodded.
"First of all, I just took a sample of the special substance on your wound. I need to stay here for sample analysis, but there are not enough samples now. If you can get more samples in the next operation, I am sure to crack this A mysterious substance called fear gas.”
As soon as Batman opened his mouth, Peter interrupted him and said, "I know this sounds incredible, but I have experience with this, and you can't find anyone else who can do this job."
Batman didn't speak, and Peter continued: "Second, I need your permission to use the Batcomputer, but I don't have time to explain the detailed reasons to you now. You just need to answer yes or no."
Batman paused again, then nodded slowly, and then added: "I will give you basic permissions and permission to use the Sky Eye, but you'd better not disturb the prophet, she has more important things to do."
And Peter continued: "Finally, I hope you can keep the military vehicle intact as much as possible. Whether you leave it where it is or tow it back, I need that vehicle."
Batman frowned and looked at Peter. In the past, people who were looked at by him would take the initiative to explain the reason, but Peter took a deep breath, looked at Batman with a focused look and said, "I'm sorry. But I really don’t have time to explain.”
"Please believe me, I am more nervous than you are right now. I hope that what I have seen and learned can come in handy at this time. It must come in handy."
And what Batman saw in Peter's eyes against the light was not the sincerity in his tone, but an extremely terrifying storm.
When Peter looked away from Batman's leaving back, his attention returned to the spider-sense alarm that thundered in his ears.
At this time, an unexpected voice sounded in Peter's ears.
"Peter, are you okay? I am Dr. Schiller. I am watching you in the fighting world and testing our new spectator mode. How do you feel?"
Schiller's voice was almost drowned out by the storm in Peter's mind.
Peter raised his head slightly and sighed softly, feeling the raging heat flow in his body caused by the overclocked spider sense.
That made his vision cast a layer of blood, as if his brain was flying out of his body and his soul was hanging above his head, and everything became clearer and clearer.
"I feel fine, doctor."
