From behind the mask came a hoarse, chilling voice, echoed slightly by the mask itself. "Wearing armor doesn't make you strong, Batman."
Facing Batman's powerful strikes, Bane neither dodged nor blocked, letting Batman's fists hammer his abdomen. His solid muscles were like a fortress wall, completely unmoved.
"Oh my God," Thomas couldn't help but whisper. Just the first exchange, and the gap was already clear. Bane was too strong. Batman's punches might as well have been caresses—they didn't even make a dent.
"Yah! Ah!" Batman threw two more punches, but it was useless.
Bane finally moved. One shove, and Batman staggered back several steps.
The difference in strength was overwhelming—like a child fighting an adult.
With a single punch, Bane sent Batman flying through the air. "Your body is far weaker than you believe."
Boom—
Another punch landed hard against Batman's ribs, lifting him clean off the ground. He felt the sickening snap of ribs breaking under the brutal force. Bane's strength was beyond human.
"You want to protect this city, but you don't even know the right way. Hiding behind your foolish disguise is a fatal mistake."
His words hit just as hard as his fists.
Liu A'dou finally saw the true horror of Bane's strength. Batman didn't even have a chance to fight back.
Years of harsh growth environments combined with Bane's natural talent had forged unimaginable power.
"Look closely. Everything you tried to protect—I will destroy it all."
Batman was caught from behind in a chokehold. He bit his lip, grabbed Bane's thick arm with one hand, and fumbled through his utility belt with the other, pulling out a smoke bomb.
Boom—
Thick smoke filled the air.
Within it, Bane's voice echoed coldly.
"Hiding in darkness won't save you. You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. I bring the darkness."
The moment he finished speaking, there was the sickening crunch of impact—Batman flew out of the smoke, slammed into the wall, and slid to the ground like a rag doll.
It was a trap. And Batman realized it far too late.
Bane was stronger than even Kid had warned.
He had thought he could catch Bane tonight. Instead, he now understood—he simply wasn't strong enough.
But Batman wouldn't give up so easily.
He pulled out a stun ball from his belt, capable of unleashing a forty-watt electric shock—enough to incapacitate most people.
Summoning the last of his strength, he threw it at Bane's shoulder.
Sizzling—
Electricity danced across Bane's exposed skin, but he didn't flinch. He casually brushed the stun ball off his shoulder, like flicking away a speck of dust.
Batman's whole body ached, but he forced himself up against the wall. He couldn't fall yet.
Thomas's hands trembled.
Even so battered, Batman still stood up—for people like him.
Thomas felt a surge of pride. Proud that Gotham City had Batman.
Unable to hold it back, he shouted, "Batman! Hang in there!"
Batman pulled out his final trump card from his belt—the sonic emitter, capable of unleashing a brain-piercing ultrasound.
He switched it on and dropped it into the water.
He didn't even have the strength to aim anymore.
The sewage water rippled violently.
All around, people clutched their ears.
Though the sound was inaudible, the pain was excruciating—like blenders tearing through their brains.
Even Bane staggered a step, covering his ears.
But that wasn't enough to defeat him.
The towering figure strode forward, each step like a grizzly bear bearing down, closer and closer to the struggling Batman.
Batman had no strength left to dodge.
Splash!
Bane stomped down into the water, smashing the sonic emitter underfoot. The horrible ultrasound stopped instantly.
"You think childish tricks like that could stop me? Foolish."
Batman didn't answer.
The endless heavy blows had blurred his vision—he could barely see Bane now, just a cluster of shadows.
Bane lifted Batman's battered body high into the air, one hand gripping his head, the other his legs.
Batman looked like nothing more than a sack of broken bones in Bane's hands.
Thomas couldn't bear to watch.
Batman had met an enemy he couldn't overcome.
Thomas prayed silently for him—but no help came.
"Batman," Bane growled, "you never even understood who your real enemy was."
Then he struck—driving his knee with brutal force into Batman's spine.
Crack—
The sickening snap echoed through the sewer, piercing everyone's ears.
"Kill, kill, kill, kill—" Bane's death squads roared in wild celebration.
The broken Batman was tossed aside like trash.
In Bane's hand, only half of Batman's shattered cowl remained.
Bane stood over the wreckage and declared coldly,
"Gotham City has no Batman anymore."
Declaration made, Bane threw the ruined cowl into the filthy water.
"No!" Thomas couldn't accept it.
He couldn't accept that the Batman, who had protected Gotham City all this time, was finished just like that.
But reality was cruel.
Batman lay there, half submerged in filthy water, half sprawled on the sewer floor, his life or death unknown.
Liu A'dou slowly lowered the camera.
Batman had been defeated.
And what was even more shocking—Batman hadn't even managed to break through Bane's defenses.
Bane was stronger than A'dou had imagined.
Even if Liu A'dou used Ripple, he wasn't sure he could win either.
The brutal battle had been captured on film without missing a single detail.
But the reporters' work wasn't finished yet.
They were forced to retrace their steps and keep filming.
"So, are you two still capable of working?" Bane asked coldly.
Thomas and Liu A'dou, choking down their grief, nodded.
Liu A'dou handled the camera.
Thomas handled the reporting.
The interview's topic—Penguin introducing the giant black sphere.
Penguin's twisted, hunched figure was terrible on camera.
Thomas had to half-kneel just to fit them both into the frame.
Penguin rubbed his deformed hands together, his two beady little eyes locked on the camera as he said,
"As you can see, this device is a weapon called the Neutron Bomb."
Penguin cackled, repeating the name for emphasis.
"Neutron Bomb."
"And how powerful is it?" Thomas asked nervously.
"Hehehe," Penguin giggled, covering his mouth like he was sharing a dirty secret.
"Very powerful. Just one detonation will turn Gotham City into a giant crater. Hahahaha! And it's my masterpiece—my creation!"
"What is your goal?"
Thomas's forehead was dripping sweat, but he forced himself to continue the interview.
It was Bane who answered from the side.
"To return Gotham City to its people.
That's all. Interview over."
As soon as the filming was done, the memory card was confiscated.
The group immediately started moving again—leaving the underground and returning to the surface.
"What's going to happen to us?"
In the moving vehicle, Thomas was utterly lost.
Batman had been defeated, his fate unknown.
Terrorists now held a nuclear bomb.
What future could possibly await them?
Liu A'dou wanted to tell him, Batman will come back. Bane will fail. Justice will prevail.
But even if he said it now, no one would believe him.
They didn't yet know that their footage would soon ignite a storm.
Commissioner Gordon was mobilizing every available officer to search the sewers and tunnels.
They had to recover that nuclear bomb.
And Gordon was determined to rescue Batman—he would not allow anything to happen to him.
But what awaited the police would be bombs.
Bane planned to lure them in, then blow the entrances, trapping them underground.
Then he would destroy Gotham's bridges—the city's main connections to the outside world.
Without police, without army intervention—because the government would be too scared of the bomb—Gotham would fall into complete anarchy.
Gotham would drown in chaos.
And Batman would be forced to watch it all.
"Where are we now?"
Thomas and Liu A'dou were shuffled from place to place like cattle.
Thomas had long lost his sense of direction.
But Liu A'dou guessed they were probably under Gotham Stadium.
Soon after, the two were locked up again.
A glance at his watch—it was noon.
They were given a simple lunch.
Liu A'dou finished eating and immediately lay down to sleep.
Thomas thought Liu A'dou was way too carefree, but honestly, what else could they do?
He didn't know that Liu A'dou was actually diving into Pandora's Magic Box, searching for knowledge from alternate worlds.
Treasure hunting in a sea of trash.
To find gold, you had to sift through endless dirt.
Each alternate world contained oceans of knowledge.
Countless worlds meant infinite data.
And most of it was useless.
Even if useful and useless knowledge were split half and half, probability theory would suggest Liu A'dou had a fifty percent chance of finding something good.
But real-world probability wasn't so kind.
Choosing between two options wasn't the same as choosing fifty out of a hundred—
And this wasn't just hundreds. It was billions upon billions of choices.
Every time he entered, it felt like plunging his hand into a box full of needles, trying to blindly feel for the one right thing among endless pain.
The experience was almost unbearable.