"It's just a case of gangs fighting gangs. Apparently, they were doing some kind of illegal business here, and then a conflict broke out. One side won, the other lost.
This kind of thing happens every day in this city. The only problem is, these people who died were members of the Ronnie Gang. The leader of the Ronnie Gang just put pressure on me through a certain congressman. It's really interesting that a police officer like me has to work for a gang.
Veteran police officer Jim Gordon looked at the crime scene and shook his head slightly. The only thing that interested him about the scene was that, judging by the battle reconstruction, the number of victors was extremely small, and it was most likely a lone individual. The weapon used wasn't a firearm, but some strange cold weapon.
There were many bullet casings and bullet holes at the scene, all from the deceased's side.
"Could it be that guy?"
A black, bat-like figure that always lurks in the dark flashed through Gordon's mind.
…
In a detached house on the edge of the city, a shabby-looking truck stopped in front of the door, rumbling with exhaust fumes.
A sturdy man stepped out of the truck and lifted the tarpaulin. A ring on his finger gleamed, emitting streams of light that covered the instruments and materials beneath the tarpaulin like flowing water. Then, as the man turned, the light pulled them into the air, defying the laws of physics, and led them into the dark room.
There was no light inside the house, and behind the thick curtains, not a single ray of light from outside could penetrate the windows. When one's vision suddenly shifts from visible space into pitch-black darkness, there is a brief period of adjustment, akin to blindness.
However, the man seemed to be unaffected. He walked around the messy items on the floor of the living room as if he knew the place well, and came to a coffee machine to grind coffee beans for himself.
The pitch-black darkness seemed to have no effect on him. After making himself some coffee, the man carefully walked around with the cup in his hand, bypassing the scattered items placed around him. He stepped on the wooden stairs in the corner, went upstairs with a creaking sound, and then entered a bedroom upstairs.
The room fell into a long silence again.
The man seemed to enjoy the quietness of the darkness. The only sound in the entire space was the sound of him sipping his coffee.
"You followed me all the way here, just to stand on my balcony like a sculpture?" After an unknown amount of time, the man put down the coffee in his hand with a little regret, and glanced towards the balcony blocked by heavy curtains.
"I'm just observing what you want to do." A slightly mechanical voice sounded outside the balcony. It seemed that it had been adjusted and the original tone of the man's voice could not be heard.
"Me? I'm just trying to find my way home." The man stood up, pulled aside the heavy curtains, and opened the balcony door. In the faint night light, a handsome face was revealed. The man had already taken off his hood.
"Lost person?" Standing outside the window like a sculpture was a man in a black suit with black skin on the back, looking like a human-shaped bat costume.
"Batman? I've heard about you. Would you like to come in and sit down?" Captain Rogers stepped aside and invited.
"Okay." Bruce Wayne, in his Batman form, pondered for a moment and nodded. He was also very interested in this man who had suddenly become active in Gotham.
The other party was not like the Gotham people he knew, who were keen on fighting for territory, recruiting people, selling various contraband to make money, etc. The other party seemed to have a purpose, just to collect some precision instruments and materials that were not generally circulated on the market.
Bruce Wayne once thought that this would be a technological criminal like Scarecrow or Freezer, but after observing him, he found that he seemed to have a stubborn bottom line like himself and was accustomed to fighting criminals.
This incident once surprised Batman Wayne, because he could hardly imagine that in this already dark city, there would be such an alien.
The other party did not actively violate any laws. Even if he had a conflict with someone, it was the other party who attacked him first, or the other party was doing something illegal and he stopped him.
Even if there were some minor flaws, in the eyes of Wayne, who was used to seeing darkness, he was a moral role model. He even felt that such a person should not appear in a city like Gotham that was already rotten to the core.
"Would you like a cup of coffee or hot water? I don't have anything else to drink here." Rogers gestured to him with his empty cup.
"I don't need it." Wayne refused in a firm tone.
"Then please sit down." Rogers pulled over two chairs and placed them side by side. After sitting down first, he motioned Wayne to take a seat.
"I've heard some things about you. Your behavior reminds me of a friend of mine. He had just reached adulthood and gained extraordinary powers due to an accident. I'm glad that he didn't get lost in his own power. Instead, he was like a lone ranger, concealing his identity, standing up for justice and fighting criminals. In his spare time, he maintained the security of his surrounding areas and a city." Rogers looked at Batman, who sat upright, and said with a hint of nostalgia in his tone.
"Superman?" Batman thought of a famous character in another city.
"No, no, no, that's not him. He's called Spider-Man. Look, one of you is an insect, and the other is a beast," Rogers said jokingly. But Batman, standing opposite him, still exuded a calm and icy aura that kept people at a distance.
"Never heard of it." Batman gave his answer concisely.
"Alright, alright, since you're not interested in this topic, let's get down to business. Why are you targeting me? Do you want to fight me and then throw me in front of the police station like those criminals you captured before? Honestly, I'd probably put up a fierce fight if you did that, because I don't have the money to pay my own ransom." Rogers shook his head, suddenly feeling a little bored. The emotional turmoil caused by Batman's superheroism also subsided.
"You've bought a lot of expensive things in Gotham recently," Wayne said.
"That's not my money. I came here penniless. I don't even have a normal job." Speaking of this, Rogers' face was filled with helplessness. He had never seen such a chaotic city before. Criminals seemed to be the only normal people in this city. People like him were like outliers among outliers!
"You want to go home?" Batman pondered for a moment and suddenly asked.
"Yes, I'm eager to go home. Maybe you won't believe it, but if I go home late, there might be some chaos and trouble in my house," said Rogers.
"I can provide you with transportation." Batman looked at Rogers.
"You think I need transportation to get home?" Rogers smiled wryly. "I don't need that. Going home is a complicated and troublesome matter that can't be explained in a few words."
"Really? Where is your home?" Wayne asked.
"Do you believe in the existence of the multiverse?" Rogers asked.
"Are you referring to the parallel universe theory that there are other universes outside of this universe?" Wayne answered based on his own understanding.
"almost."
"Are you trying to say that you are from another universe?"
"Look at your expression, full of disbelief. But that's the truth. I don't want to find an excuse to deceive you, and as for whether you believe it or not, I don't really care."
Rogers looked at Batman's suspicious eyes and spread his hands.
"So you are looking for these instruments and materials to prepare for your return home? What can they do?" Batman asked carefully.
"If I use a more understandable metaphor, it's an amplified version of a signal device. It allows my partners to locate my coordinates in the vast multiverse," Rogers said with his famous gesture.
"You want your universe to invade our universe?"
Wayne's words made Rogers feel powerless. "No, of course not! My partners are all superheroes. Superheroes, you know? Just like you! They have their own boundaries. They won't invade your universe."
"You mean, they come to pick you up and leave, never to come back?" Batman still had a skeptical look and tone.
Rogers opened his mouth, about to say that, but the faces of Luke and Nick flashed through his mind. He could tell Stark and the others were okay, but Luke and Nick's train of thought did seem a bit dangerous.
"You see, you can't guarantee it." Wayne keenly grasped Rogers' hesitation and pointed it out coldly.
"Believe me, we are not bad people. Even if my companions come to this universe, they will definitely not harm you. I believe they stay here with the intention of communicating and helping each other." Rogers had to emphasize after Wayne pointed it out.
"I hope you can stop your actions for now, at least until I'm sure there's no risk in your behavior." Batman stood up and asked as if to end the conversation.
"How do you know there's no risk?" Rogers asked.
"I need to know the information, abilities, weaknesses, etc. of your companions. If you can tell me everything honestly, then when I'm ready, you can continue your journey home." Wayne gave his answer without hesitation.
"That really sounds like something my other partner would say. He's just like you, always wanting to solve everything, take on everything, and perfect everything on his own. He always wanted to have everything under his control. That doesn't work." Rogers shook his head.
"But this is the only way I can feel at ease." Wayne walked towards the balcony.
"Is there no other choice?"
"Maybe you can try to defeat me." In response to Rogers' question, Batman turned around and said while standing on the balcony.
"To be honest, I've always been good at fighting." Rogers said, and saw Batman spread out his black cloak and jumped off the balcony like a bat hunting in the night. A black car came quietly and quickly from a distance, and opened the car door like a skylight downstairs. Batman, who jumped from the balcony, landed right on the spot, and then the car door closed again, started, and quickly disappeared into the night.
"Looks like another troublesome character. But his mind..." Rogers sighed softly as he watched Batman disappear onto the balcony. He understood Batman's choice, but in order to return home, it seemed he would have to confront him in the future.
During the conversation, Batman was observing him, and he was also observing the other party. The difference was that the other party relied on his own eyes, psychological knowledge, and various sophisticated instruments on his body to observe him and determine the truth of his words, while he used the ring to directly feel the other party's heart.
After being immersed in spiritual energy for a long time, the ring on his hand had already shown signs of activation. The ring itself could convey some strong emotions to him to remind and warn him.
In the ring's induction, Batman has both a powerful mind that attracts the ring and complex emotions that make the ring happy and disgusted.
From the emotional information conveyed by the ring, Rogers can judge a person's general mental state and personality. The other person is undoubtedly a candidate with the potential to master customized rings. The ring that makes him feel happy represents that the other person has a side that is highly similar to him, but at the same time, the dislike conveyed shows that the other person also has a side deep in his body and mind that is opposite to his outward personality.
This is a person whose personality can change drastically at any time. It's like schizophrenia, with two different personalities.
With strong emotional control, the other party may always remain on the side of justice, but due to some unexpected factors, the other party may fall into bottomless darkness at any time.
Rogers rubbed the ring on his finger, a hint of worry in his heart. This city felt alien to him, and he couldn't even recharge the ring. If the device couldn't be manufactured, he would have to face an awkward situation in the future: the ring would gradually run out of energy and fall silent.
Even if the instrument is manufactured, Rogers still has to face problems such as the conflict between the darkness in the hearts of the people in the city and the energy properties of his ring.
…
"Wow, this mask makes me feel extra refreshed today. I feel full of energy." In a dark laboratory, a man wearing a scarecrow-like sack mask stood at the window, staring at his own reflection in amazement. He felt a constant flow of energy flowing through the mask into his body. A layer of reddish-yellow energy, like liquid, poured down the mask around him, covering him completely.
After being wrapped in this red and yellow energy suit that gave people an uncomfortable feeling, Jonathan Klein felt that the world in his eyes had changed. He saw all kinds of colors in the city, each of which represented an emotion or feeling.
And what he represents is fear!