"What? Take students over there with you? No, that might be impossible. I have a pile of troublesome things here... You certainly know. Previously, when Batman was not around, the madmen in Arkham Asylum were quiet and didn't cause trouble. But now, Batman has returned, and each of them is excited. I'm helping Director Gordon investigate the Riddler case, so I can't have the time to go to another universe; only Barry can go..."
Shiller put down the phone and sighed. He turned his head slightly, looking at the downpour outside the office window. Eight hours had passed since the hurricane landed on Main Universe Gotham, and Primary Universe Batman also successfully brought back a large amount of energy to Gotham, but the matter is far from over.
The hurricane this time was especially fierce, with rainfall within 12 hours almost breaking records. Gotham's upper city area and lower city area were completely flooded, neither the rich nor the poor escaped the fate of watching the sea at home.
Moreover, the disaster caused by the storm was far more than these. Many of the long-neglected houses collapsed, the poles and trees on the roads were blown down, and even cars were directly blown away. In short, it was chaos, and everyone was overwhelmed.
Just about two hours ago, Gotham Police Department's lighting power suddenly went out. Half an hour later, after power was restored, a dead body floated out from the already flooded underground parking lot. Unfortunately, this person was one of Penguin Man's newly bribed informants.
A riddle was carved on the chest of this corpse, but because the body had been soaking in water for a while, the exact words were already unclear. The evidence division and medical examiners were at a loss, so Gordon had to invite the arrogance remaining in the Prime Universe, which felt akin to praying to gods.
Shiller had just checked the corpse and hadn't come to any conclusions when the agent's call came, hoping he could go to Arkham Batman's universe to teach. But Shiller wasn't planning to leave the Prime Universe because, obviously, the appearance of this corpse wasn't an end but a beginning.
While Shiller was pondering the corpse's condition, a commotion suddenly echoed from downstairs. Shiller walked to the staircase and looked down, seeing two young officers anxiously talking to Gordon downstairs.
Shiller walked down; Gordon saw him coming and sighed, saying, "Wayne Hospital lost power. I just hope there aren't similar corpses..."
"The hospital lost power?" Shiller frowned slightly, "Don't they have backup power?"
"The backup power is down. Already 80% of the upper city area had lost power four hours after the hurricane landed. Places like hospitals rely on backup power to sustain them until now, but it seems they can't hold on anymore."
Gordon seemed worried, but his subordinates quickly brought more bad news: Another dead body floated out from the hospital's underground parking lot. This time the victim was a chief doctor, still unclear whose person he was and why he was harmed. It's evidently another serial murder case.
But now is clearly not a good time for investigation. The police station's office is a decent place to look at the sea. Shiller stood on the second floor, looking out; the water had completely submerged the first floor, with a vague tendency to flood the second floor.
Suddenly there was a sound coming from the rooftop, seemingly a helicopter landing. Soon, Red Robin Tim, wearing a Robin suit but blown unrecognizable by the storm, rushed down like a wet-headed dog, shaking his head to throw off the water on his head, shouting at Gordon: "We need to restore hospital power first, patients on the operating table can't wait!"
"Of course, I want that too." Gordon said, "But now there's large-scale power outage in the upper city area, and all roads are flooded. Where to find the power supply? How to reconnect the circuits?"
"We can only get electricity from the Batcave." Red Robin sighed, "Although the Batcave is underground too, it's definitely not flooded. We need to pull a cable out of there to supply essential living facilities; otherwise, many people will die needlessly."
"Does Batman know about this?"
"He's too occupied at the moment. The first base point of the Magical Defense Network is being set up in Gotham City; he's busy with it, and the signal there is all blocked, so we can't reach him. But patients really can't wait."
Gordon hesitated a moment and said, "If you have a way, go ahead and do it."
"Wait a moment." Shiller spoke up, "I think I shouldn't need to remind you, this is very likely the conspiracy of electronic life. Batman's defense of the Batcave is very thorough; he has always been unable to invade. He's cutting off power to places like the police station and hospital to force you to pull a cable out from the Batcave, so he can take advantage and control the extensive weapons inside."
Red Robin opened his mouth and then said, "Of course I've considered this possibility, but I believe, if it were Batman, he would make the same decision. Patients waiting for rescue in the hospital are innocent; we can't just watch them die."
"Alright, there's one more issue." Shiller said, "'Final Laugh' System."
Red Robin immediately became a bit wary. Shiller shook his head, saying, "You don't need to ask me how I know, just consider I have Mind Reading Technique. If Batman placed this control system inside the Batcave, and the invading electronic life mastered this powerful weapon and used it to destroy Gotham, what would you do?"
Red Robin shook his head and said, "No one but Batman can control that thing, not even electronic life. Moreover, Batman set a long startup delay for the 'Final Laugh' system; you can't destroy the world immediately by pressing the button, enough to wait for Batman to come back."
"What about Alfred?"
"I've already taken the old housekeeper away," said Red Robin, "He's now staying with the people at Drake's house, so there's no immediate danger."
Shiller nodded without saying more. Red Robin said to Gordon, "I've prepared the plan and materials, but I'm short on manpower. You need to lend me a few people to go with me on the helicopter..."
Although Gordon was also short-staffed and extremely busy, restoring the hospital's power was indeed important. So he selected a few reliable people and sent them to go with Red Robin.
"What do you think?" Gordon asked Shiller.
"I'm afraid they won't succeed, so you'd better have a second plan." After pausing briefly, Shiller continued, "The electronic life form is sure to try to infiltrate the Batcave, and thus cut off the hospital's power, forcing Red Robin to make that choice. But once it successfully infiltrates the Batcave, it won't restore the hospital's power, because it wants Robin to be preoccupied with restoring the hospital's power, allowing it time to crack and control the weapons in the Batcave. What they are doing now is doomed to be in vain."
This wasn't hard to understand, and Gordon obviously got it. The problem was that this electronic life form was too powerful; even if it wasn't so strong, a single wire in the wet weather was not hard to destroy, nor could a stable power supply system be built amidst the storm, inevitably turning out to be a losing proposition.
However, this must be done because the Robins always believed "doing is better than not doing." Even if it might lead to bad results, at least there's a glimmer of hope; otherwise, there really is no way to restore the hospital's power.
"It sounds like you have a way." Gordon looked at Shiller and said, "If you do, it's best to implement it quickly. I heard there's a 7-year-old kid undergoing surgery at the hospital; I don't want to see any more innocent lives lost."
"The only solution now is to restore power internally. No matter what, the electronic life form will find a way to cut off the power, so we need to find a way to restore the hospital's power from inside."
"You mean to repair the hospital generator? But they should have already tried, and if the power hasn't been restored by now, it proves the generator might be difficult to fix."
"Then build another generator," Shiller said, "and it should be fast, clean, and efficient."
"You mean..."
"Do you have The Flash's number?"
Gordon took a deep breath and said, "I do. Are you thinking of converting the Divine Speed into electricity? Can that actually work? Even if it does, it should require conversion equipment, right?"
"Of course it does, but Batman just happens to have it." Shiller lightly tapped the ground with the tip of his umbrella and said, "There should be a wheel in the Batcave; Tim can grab it along the way."
"What? A running wheel?" Gordon said in surprise as he rummaged for The Flash's number, "You mean like the thing a hamster uses? What's Batman doing making a running wheel... Oh gosh, it's exactly what I thought, isn't it?"
"Exactly what you thought. He originally planned for The Flash to use it to generate Divine Speed, but later he had better options, so it was never used. But since Batman could build it, it must have a use, and now it's perfect for generating power for the hospital."
Gordon immediately grasped the idea. He quickly called The Flash, and it was fortunate whether Batman foresaw this or not, The Flash wasn't with Batman setting up the Magical Defense Network's pillars; he just happened to be on Earth. Gordon made a call, and he arrived immediately, now waiting at the city express highway entrance in Gotham.
Then Gordon called Red Robin. Red Robin successfully found the gigantic running wheel in the Batcave warehouse, and together with some police officers, they loaded it onto the Bat Transporter and delivered it to the hospital.
Now only the last step remained: to put The Flash, the "hamster," into the running wheel. But this was actually the hardest step, because The Flash couldn't run on water, and Gordon had to figure out a way to get him into the city and then to the hospital.
It's not hard to imagine that the electronic life form absolutely wouldn't allow this to happen; the journey would surely be fraught with sparks flying everywhere, and who knows how many challenges and difficulties they would face.
But the good news is, Gotham's streets are all flooded now, cars can't be driven at all, and only boats could be used; except for the docks, there weren't any real speedboats. Gotham Police Department had only two rowboats older than Gordon along with a few small paddling boards. That's all the police had for transportation.
Because of such backwardness, there's no room for electronic infiltration. Just rowing slowly might still get a person back, but it would be too slow, delaying the patients.
Gordon thought for a long time and couldn't come up with any good solution. While pacing around anxiously, he saw Shiller standing by the window making a call, and Gordon slowly walked over.
Not long after, he saw at the end of the road, a truck braving the waves came, seemingly unaffected by the water that could submerge a floor—a perfect Savior if the driver wasn't a green-haired, smiling teenager.