"The Court of Owls?" Bruce furrowed his brow. At this moment, he was trapped in a blood-red chamber, his entire body anchored to the wall by countless black tentacles, unable to move.
Fortunately, he wasn't alone in this prison. Polaris was also fixed on the opposite wall. She nodded and said, "Yes, we went after that small leader. Initially, we thought it was just a simple Bat Monster, but who would have known it was more like a Talon. After defeating it, we picked up some tools. Arkham Knight said we might need to check out the East District, so we came."
"Initially, we didn't plan to go this deep. But when I was switching forms, a Talon almost clawed me. I got pissed and chased him inside. And guess what? We stumbled upon a heretical ritual site!
"Those so-called members of the Court of Owls were gathered around like cultists. The ground was a mess, filled with a ton of creepy stuff. I wanted to take them all out, so I rushed in and fired an Electromagnetic Cannon. But unexpectedly, it activated the Array, teleporting me directly here."
"I don't know why, but my superpower doesn't work well here." Polaris shook her head and said, "To be precise, it's completely unusable. Brainiac said it wasn't a system error, so I guess I fell into some trap."
Bruce was truly speechless. To be fair, his luck was indeed bad. He never imagined that this central purifier would be designed as the source of pollution in the East District. Moreover, the pollution was completely illogical. All he did was glance at that purifier, which resembled a heart, and he was dragged right in.
But this Polaris, with so many operational opportunities, if she had gotten it right even once, she wouldn't be stuck in here with him. These mutants never grow up, always young. They chase anyone they don't like, never question things they don't understand, and go in guns blazing. Sometimes you can't blame regular people for being annoyed with mutants.
"I never thought I'd see Batman here." Polaris surprisingly fired back, "I admit it, I fell into the trap because I was impulsive. But what's your excuse, Batman?"
Bruce didn't know how to respond. Batman wouldn't fall into this trap, but he wasn't Batman; he was just pretending. He was simply visiting like a normal person, hoping to pick up some scraps. Who knew he'd be so unlucky.
"I found the source of the pollution." Bruce decided to use some rhetoric, as Polaris didn't seem very smart. "I didn't initially plan to explore, but the pollution from this thing was too severe."
"That's true," Polaris said, "I really can't figure out how they stripped away my mutant ability. It's a superpower from my genes..."
"No choice," Polaris sighed. "I can only wait for the Professor to fish me out. Based on my previous experience of being rescued 282 times, he should arrive within half an hour."
Bruce's eyes widened slightly. Had Professor X rescued Polaris alone over 200 times? How many members are in the X-Men?
Indeed, his past struggles with arrogance seemed trivial now. Leaving Gotham, outside was pouring rain, making them seem normal.
However, Polaris had the Professor to rescue her, while he didn't. Arrogance had long recognized him and wouldn't come to disrupt his disguise plan now. But the Professor must have already notified Charles.
Luckily, Polaris impulsively rushed here; otherwise, Professor X wouldn't have a reasonable excuse to come by. It was a slight benefit.
But soon, Bruce pondered again. Mutants were indeed impulsive because obtaining superpowers came so easily, leaving them with little survival anxiety and thus reckless. But Polaris wasn't young anymore, and those mutants from the Greed universe often moved through the cosmos, supposedly more mature than those from other universes. How could Polaris still be so impulsive?
"What's going on with you and Arkham Knight?" Bruce pretended to be other Batman, asking sharply.
"None of your business." Polaris said, "Compared to other men in my life, my issue with him is just a little quarrel."
Bruce really wanted to retort, "You're so self-aware," but he was in this skin, portraying a mute. He silently cursed how classic Batman wasn't talkative. Now, he wanted to chat and didn't know how to start.
Batman rarely engaged in idle chat, usually talking to extract information from others. But Bruce wasn't like that. He genuinely wanted to chat to pass the time. After all, being here, unable to move, there wasn't much else he could do. But to maintain the character, he had to hold it in.
"But I'm not entirely without gain." Polaris skipped over the topic of her feelings and said, "At least we know all of this is definitely related to the Court of Owls. You probably know a lot about the Court of Owls, right?"
"A secretive organization conspiring to control Gotham." Bruce said in a low tone. In fact, he couldn't add more to that. He didn't know much about the Court of Owls. This universe didn't even have them.
"I knew it." Polaris squinted her eyes, "Could the pollution in the East District be caused by them?"
Bruce also felt that if he didn't speak up with some deduction, it really wouldn't fit Batman's character, so he said somewhat perfunctorily, "I think so. They have always been conspiring in the Gotham underground. Perhaps to resist Batman, they deliberately attracted certain pollutants, causing the East District to become like this now."
These situations were obviously apparent and didn't count as real deductions. Bruce thought for a moment and said, "The final boss of the East District is modeled after the Joker. So maybe the Court of Owls wants to use the polluted Joker against Batman."
This deduction was still a bit too simplistic, without much content. Bruce thought a bit more carefully, "However, from the Court of Owls' way of doing things, it doesn't seem like they came up with a good plan, it seems more like they had no choice after creating a mess."
"You mean using pollution against Batman is actually a last resort?"
"Exactly," Bruce nodded and said, "They surely couldn't deal with Batman, so they thought of this. But why does Batman need this trick to counter them? I'm afraid something has changed in him."
Polaris thought of the final boss in the South District, which was obviously not the normal Batman. So she said, "So Batman has gotten stronger, and they can't face him, so they try to bring pollution to strengthen Batman's opponents?"
"I think that's it." Bruce nodded and said, "Moreover, Batman's growth must be related to them. I suspect they might want to transform or exploit Batman, but accidentally lost control. To suppress the rampaging Batman, they resorted to this blundering move."
"Transform Batman? Is that really possible?"
"There's nothing impossible." Bruce said, "There are many Batmans in the Multiverse who have fallen for their tricks. The Court of Owls is backed by Barbados."
"Who is Barbados?" Polaris was not very clear about the specifics. She said, "What is his relationship with Batman?"
This was Bruce's area of expertise. He certainly wanted to spend two hours explaining to Polaris the origins of the Dark Dragon and Batman, analyzing the pros and cons of Barbados, and comparing his combat power with Batman's.
But the problem is, classic Batman wouldn't divulge so much information, nor would he give it away for free, especially not to people from the neighboring cosmos. Bruce's urge to explain was nowhere to vent. It's another kind of realization of how hard it is to be Batman after not being Batman. How did he manage it before?
"Barbados is the source of darkness in the cosmos. Batman has his power within him." Bruce still tried to simplify his words. "The relationship between them is very complicated, but there's no doubt that Barbados needs Batman to invade the Light Universe."
"So that's how it is," Polaris said, "The Court of Owls are Barbados's pawns. They wanted to stir the power of darkness within Batman, but ended up playing it wrong. So they had to bring in pollution, modify the Joker, and hope the two can be evenly matched."
"How can I put it," Polaris entered into a sharp commentary phase. "If you say this was done by some brainless Super Villain, it's somewhat understandable. But a conspiratorial organization secretly ruling Gotham, at this level? Does he understand his own rule?"
Bruce really wanted to follow up with sharp commentary, but unfortunately couldn't speak. The setup of the Court of Owls was indeed quite strange. They were supposed to be a bunch of cunning old foxes, secretly manipulating the government, like the Federation's shadow government.
But these conspirators don't dabble in politics, they love dabbling in mysticism. Their way of controlling Gotham is not by manipulating elections, the economy, and the stock market, but by finding ways to add ingredients into buildings, poison Batman, and pollute Gotham's water sources.
On the surface, these methods seem okay, since many of them are effective. But upon careful consideration, something doesn't add up.
This group are just ordinary people, without any Superpower. In the absence of any talent and Superpower, forcibly venturing into the field of mysticism, the best result is mutual destruction. Facts have proven that this is indeed the case. Even if the Court of Owls' plan succeeds, Batman doesn't end well, but they themselves might die quicker than Batman.
The motivation of the Court of Owls has always been bizarre. If you say they want to rule Earth and sit at the pinnacle of power, but totally disregard their own personal safety and lifespan. This pollution plan for Gotham even if executed flawlessly, might still not ensure no impact on themselves. But they just don't care, only keen on making money without considering if they have the life to spend it.
If you say they are simply zealots mad with religious fervor, willing to pay any price to fulfill Barbados's orders, then actually using ordinary means would be the most efficient. If you don't drive Wayne Enterprises bankrupt, poisoning and assassination aren't so easily successful.
Even Brainiac doesn't seem to understand the internal logic of the Court of Owls, but he excellently replicated the meddling tactics of the Owls, and perfectly replicated their level. Failing to deal with Batman, then going on to meddle with the Joker only for both to lose control together, polluting the entire East District, the Court of Owls obviously did not escape the disaster.