"Sorry. The situation down here is indeed a bit strange, and I couldn't completely prevent it," Charles said to the others who had climbed up. "But it's all fine now. Are you okay?"
"It's okay, Professor, we actually didn't get attacked," Damian said. "It was like having a dream."
Nightwing also shook his head, "How come I've kind of forgotten what I saw?"
"I helped obscure some of your memories," Charles said. "This power will make you recall some unpleasant things, stirring up negative emotions. I shielded some of them, just like waking up and forgetting what you dreamed about."
"I can approximately imagine what I dreamed about," Red Hood said. "It's always like this, I'm tired of seeing it."
Everyone knew what he would dream of, just as they knew what Batman would dream of. When facing the possibility of seeing their own psychological shadows, everyone looked at Batman, who remained silent.
Harley rubbed her neck; when she fell down earlier, her head hit the wall, twisting her neck. She sighed and said, "Batman's dark side is really hard to deal with. Let's move forward and see if we can find the Joker."
They walked along the passageway, summoned the truck, and drove a distance until they reached the maintenance point Tim had mentioned. They were already underwater, but the tunnel didn't have observation windows, so they couldn't see the situation in the sea, although this maintenance point did.
They climbed up, but didn't look up rashly; they first took a photo with the terminal and had Brainiac describe it to them. As expected, there was indeed something in the sea.
In the photo shot by Brainiac, there was a large pit ahead, with something like a flower bud inside, and they could vaguely hear laughter.
Red Robin thought for a moment and said, "This might be what the Court of Owls wants to cultivate, a polluted Joker. Arkham is actually the last sacrifice, and he should be about to hatch."
"We can't let him hatch," Damian said. "Jokers are hard enough to deal with, and if he's polluted by an Outer God, how could we possibly beat him?"
"The question is how to get close to it?" Harley thought for a moment and looked at Pamela. "Can you build a closed passage?"
"I can," Pamela nodded. "I'll use Vines to build the framework, and Lorna will do the waterproofing. But that flower bud looks really strange. If we attack it directly, there might be problems..."
"I have an idea," Red Hood said. "Since it hasn't hatched yet, it probably can't move for now. Instead of destroying the flower bud directly, how about we take this thing down and load it onto the truck to bring it to Batman?"
Bruce wanted to say that you sure are a Little Smart Ghost, worthy of being the one who can pry off the Batmobile tires, especially in tormenting Batman. You say second, no one dares say first.
But the Robins all agreed with this plan. Regardless of how dangerous this flower bud is, or whether it can hatch after being taken down, or whatever might hatch out could deal with Batman, as long as it can be transported over, it's considered a win—it's a cultural victory, essentially.
They started executing the plan immediately. Pamela first created a passage outside, Polaris isolated the water with a magnetic field, then opened the door, and a group of people charged out with a shout.
Bruce also wanted to go, but Charles gave him a look. He said, "With precautions now, this thing can't affect me anymore, nor can it possibly attack them."
"I was just about to ask," Bruce said in his mind, "I feel you're a bit different, what's going on?"
"You just haven't seen me with a Cerebro," Charles said. "Ever since the Cerebro was destroyed in the war, Erik and I both thought that form wasn't very effective, though its power was sufficiently high, it was too easily targeted. Now it's different."
Charles turned to look at Bruce, and Bruce saw a blue light glowing between Charles's eyebrows, like a third eye. This scene should have been quite beautiful, but the more he looked, the more eerie it appeared.
Bruce instinctively turned back and averted his gaze. "You guys are crazy."
He didn't expect to find himself saying this twice in such a short period, but it made him feel even more like a normal person, while the two next to him—one preparing to poison quantum creatures, the other implanting a Cerebro into his own head.
Soon, cheers came from the end of the passage, and the Robins really succeeded. They managed to saw off the flower bud—thanks to Pamela's extensive botanical knowledge and a bit of mystic guidance from Lilith—and loaded it into the truck.
On their way back, they encountered monsters. While they did close the door when they entered, these monsters were different from the bat-like creatures in the South District—existing between the virtual and reality, not something the physical realm's attacks could defeat.
"Don't stop," Bruce maximized his display of Batman's decisiveness. "Just ram through; deal with them once we're outside."
The Red hood stepped on the gas, and the monster blocking the road didn't get knocked away but simply dissipated into the air, yet the dark atmosphere grew even thicker. By the time the truck exited, it couldn't just be called dusk; it was completely engulfed in darkness.
Harley grimaced a bit, he said, "If we don't go take down the boss, he's going to come down on us."
"I think so too," Tim said, "Let's hurry over. Brainiac, navigate us!"
Though the outside environment was dark, fortunately, the map on the terminal was still usable. After marking their destination, Brainiac calculated the nearest route for them, which they followed all the way there.
When they arrived at the bottom of the Wayne building, the darkness in that place had already become tangible. After getting out of the vehicle, they found it hard even to breathe. Polaris turned into an electromagnetic storm, trying to clear away the dark matter, but with little effect, despite a lot of effort.
"Don't waste your energy," Tim said. "First, let's think of a way to open the bud; the Arkham Knight might still be inside it."
They didn't dare to go to the top floor, so they only put the bud down on the ground floor. No one dared to approach it recklessly for close combat; instead, they prepared some explosives and all hid far behind the truck before daring to detonate.
With a loud bang, it did indeed sound like something shattered, but nobody dared to peek. After a moment, the body of the Arkham Knight, brought by Polaris, slowly awakened.
Polaris instinctively looked at Charles, who nodded at her, indicating that the Arkham Knight had indeed returned and wasn't some monster inhabiting his body.
Polaris let out a sigh of relief, even somewhat unable to control herself as she looked at the Arkham Knight struggling to stand, saying, "Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up at that time..."
The Arkham Knight silently shook his head, giving her a look, and Polaris said no more. Charles raised his eyebrows, oh, someone can actually control Lorna?
Actually, Charles was very aware of the past conflicts between Quicksilver and Iceman regarding Polaris. The primary issue was that both wanted to become Polaris's boyfriend by dealing with the other, but it wasn't feasible.
This was also a last resort because neither of them could win over Polaris. It's not about suppressing her; they couldn't even influence her, either from a power standpoint or emotionally, so they could only target each other.
Charles had yet to figure out what's going on with the Arkham Knight, and he didn't intend to intervene. Polaris wasn't a child anymore, though still a bit reckless at times, she was quite mature in matters of feelings, and there was no need to interfere with her choices.
Bruce also seemed to notice this moment, but what he thought was, with the Arkham Knight's universe being full of metal cans, has he found himself an electromagnetic can opener?
"Almost there," Charles said, extending his hand to take a photo with the terminal, then let Brainiac transmit it to them.
Inside the bud was indeed the Joker, but no longer having much resemblance to the original Joker. It was a monster with lower limbs completely turned into tentacles, and its upper body lacked a torso, seemingly with a head that had melted and enlarged, piled on top of those tentacles, grinning maniacally, with numerous hands extending from its mouth, as if those hands were controlling its mouth's opening and closing.
Perhaps because it hadn't fully hatched, a layer of mucus still covered his body, and there were fewer tentacles underneath him, but that laughter still pierced through the darkness, reaching the top of the Wayne tower.
And surprisingly, the silhouette descending from the darkness was not to be outdone. Six giant bat wings extended from its back, each wing membrane tattered, surrounded by an immense amount of power of darkness, making it hard to breathe even from a great distance.
The air also turned cold, chilling people to the bone, like every cold, rainy night in Gotham. Interwoven in the darkness were inexplicable terrors, making people shiver uncontrollably.
They had no choice but to hide inside the truck, and mysteriously, the truck seemed to have turned into Noah's Ark, dispelling a lot of the dark power. Crowded in the truck, it was like returning to that night when they charged into the North District Manor.
"I like this vehicle," Red hood said, "I also like that story."
"That's not a story," Harley shook his head, "I know it sounds like a fairy tale, a great hero driving a vehicle to save children from a storm surge. But if they hadn't bravely survived those cold, rainy nights of the past, there wouldn't be such a day."
"I agree with that," Red hood said, "We weren't there hopelessly waiting for heroes, we were saving ourselves every moment. That's why I don't like the story of Noah's Ark."
Harley chuckled. Meanwhile, the few near the truck's doors started taking photos furiously, having Brainiac translate the images to text for them.
Batman and the Joker indeed naturally clash, and Brainiac didn't remove this setting. When the two meet, it's like a showdown, and the two monsters started fighting fiercely at the bottom of the Wayne building. Sharp laughter and low growls filled the air, with darkness growing ever thicker.