signingbooks Chapter 20 The First Appearance of the Court of Owls
Chapter 20 The First Appearance of the Court of Owls
Chapter 20 The First Appearance of the Court of Owls
Dead silence.
The door opened automatically.
No, not the more refined and gentle method of unlocking the door.
Instead, someone grabbed the doorknob and used tremendous force to forcibly push the wooden door open!
The lock emitted a teeth-grinding scream as its metal cylinder forcefully broke through the cheap plywood door, stubbornly meeting the twisted and deformed metal frame.
A gust of wind blew in, bringing the chilling air from outside, like that of the underworld, into the room.
Beep.
Hey.
Harley Quinn shuddered involuntarily. She regretted being so captivated by the skeleton that she hadn't even noticed someone approaching the door.
During the countless days and nights in Arkham, she should have already honed her hearing to its limit.
It was just the end of evening. The last rays of the setting sun streamed through the broken door, illuminating the room in a dim light. It was as if this light itself gave meaning to the darkness.
Then... it went out.
Harley Quinn slowly picked up her handbag.
The tall figure stood in the doorway. The light dimmed suddenly, and evening was about to end at that moment.
Harley Quinn sighed heavily.
"You're a rare find."
She heard Batman say that.
silence.
Harley Quinn looked at the person who walked in, and the corners of her mouth slowly began to turn up; she had an urge to laugh out loud.
"Ah!!!" she screamed hysterically, "Oh God, it's you again!!!"
She walked to a nearby tree—a miniature dragonblood tree that had been cultivated by Poison Ivy—and then slammed her head against the trunk repeatedly.
"Aaaaaaah, damn it, God! Batman, forever, will find, Harley Quinn!"
I have some questions to ask you.
She heard Batman speak in his familiar, deep voice:
"For example, where can I find your good friend Poison Ivy?"
Harley Quinn stopped hitting the tree.
She tilted her head.
"I need your help..."
"Save it, honey. In a way, I'm starting a new life."
Harley suddenly became perfectly normal, as if she hadn't been the one who had just gone crazy.
"Listen, Ivy's hanging out with some bastards. She and the Botanist are plotting to turn the whole earth green. I need to stop them. They're a deadly duo, Harley."
Many people will get hurt, and even... never mind, maybe it's pointless for me to say all this. You just need to know one more thing: Ivy, too, could very well get hurt, or even killed.
She heard Batman say that.
Harley had to admit that Batman knew a lot about his relationship with Poison Ivy, and when he heard that Ivy might also be injured, she did have some impulses... but it was just an impulse.
"No. I don't want to get involved in your mess anymore," Harley replied. "I've said goodbye to the cloak, the bodysuit, and the mask. I just want to be a normal person in peace and quiet."
"Really? What a pity you're not."
Harley Quinn followed Batman's gaze and saw the four skeletons lying on the ground. She grabbed her two braids and let out two more hysterical screams, acting strangely.
She turned around and grabbed Frank, the man-eating flower that stood in the flowerpot like a real plant.
"You bastard, you bastard, you bastard, you bastard, you clearly killed him—"
"Blaming your murders to plants won't reduce your sentence, Harley Quinn."
Harley Quinn slapped the plant twice, once on the left and once on the right.
"I advise you..."
Harley Quinn jumped around on the carnivorous plant.
"Your emotional outburst..."
With a crash, Harley Quinn slammed into the window. If she could break the window, she could escape the room!
Harley calculated the distance; even Batman, unless his arms could grow...
"!!!"
"Okay, I surrender."
Chen Tao withdrew his arm and placed Harley on the ground. The enormous dinosaur arm retracted in an instant, like a collapsed sponge, and soon returned to normal human size without even tearing its clothes.
Such a spectacle, which directly violates the law of conservation of mass, would be enough to shock 90% of the world's scientists. But for the people of Gotham, whatever Batman does is commonplace, and whatever method Batman uses to win is inevitable. Harley is already used to it.
After all, Batman will always win, and he will keep winning.
……
……
……
This is Bane's hiding place.
People always thought that a conspiracy expert like him should have set up his lair in some mysterious submarine or a military base flying in the air.
But none of them are true.
This is just an ordinary hotel in Gotham.
At this moment, Bain was sitting on the sofa in the room, his massive 2.15-meter frame completely filling the single sofa.
"...The city government's decision to deploy the National Guard this time is entirely based on morality, justice, and responsibility..."
"Batman? I must say, masked vigilantes who break the law like this can't be compared to true heroes at all..."
"Let us welcome our true heroes, Mayor Caro, and the commander of the National Guard, with warm applause and heartfelt gratitude..."
The experts and bloated officials on TV were still babbling on and on. After introducing the situation, he quickly began to desperately denigrate Batman and then lavishly praise the city government's achievements.
The muscular monster was deep in thought.
To be honest, he would have almost felt sorry for him if he hadn't intended to destroy the bat.
Batman is working himself to the bone for the city, but the city hall and Gotham's upper echelons are a bunch of complete idiots.
He simply couldn't believe that anyone would be so foolish as to broadcast their military movements on television.
Batman? Nobody seems to care about the most dangerous character.
Those guys on TV right now, all dressed up, only care about how much traffic they can get by slandering Batman to elevate themselves. They're more like vultures fighting over carrion than the lunatics in Arkham.
They mocked the Dent Act, belittled Jim Gordon, denied Batman's power, and downplayed everything Batman had done for the city over the past decade.
They say that Batman's presence attracted those drag queens and queens, and they describe today's chaos and madness as madmen attracting each other. They claim that only the military can maintain order and only City Hall can bring about change.
But they never thought of it...
Why did Harvey Dent become so disillusioned with the justice system?
Why did Edward Nigma go insane?
Why was Arnold, who was once honest and unassuming, arrested and imprisoned?
Gotham is rotten. Bane knows this better than many native Gothamites—he realized it the day he arrived in the city.
"Batman, like his so-called supervillains, is a bunch of lunatics and psychopaths. This time, we'll seize the opportunity to completely eliminate them..."
Bain frowned; the television was becoming increasingly irritating.
Those who talk eloquently on television, expressing their "insights," are greasy-haired and rotten from head to toe; even Bain finds them disgusting.
So he gave up torturing his ears and turned down the TV volume.
Boom!
A muffled thud above his head made him frown.
Boom!
He sighed.
"That's enough, can the three of you hurry up and finish this?"
The moment he finished speaking, the ceiling collapsed with a deafening crash. His three henchmen, "Zombie Man," "Caveman," and "Birdman," along with an enemy dressed like an owl, crashed through the wooden ceiling and tumbled down.
"Stop, Bane! City Hall has already mobilized tens of thousands of National Guard troops to deal with you, and the Court of Owls intends to..."
Bain sighed.
"What are you? Never mind—"
(End of this chapter)