hotmtlnovel Chapter 2445: Battle for the Cloak (1)
Chapter 2445: Battle for the Cloak (1)
Chapter 2445: Battle for the Cloak (I)
"President Bruce Wayne was assassinated - the most horrific large-scale terrorist attack in American history! Please listen to our detailed analysis below..."
"At about 2:30 a.m. yesterday, the U.S. Capitol was attacked by terrorists. President Bruce Wayne, who was working, was unfortunately killed. A spokesman for the U.S. Congress said that this was an extremely terrible terrorist act that could never be tolerated."
"The Daily Planet is reporting exclusively that bodies are frequently appearing on the streets of various places on the East Coast. It has been confirmed that most of these bodies suddenly appearing in tights are street heroes from various places. The cause of death is currently unknown."
From the constantly lit street screens in the busy commercial streets to the flickering televisions in the shop windows, countless news reports are repeating the terrible and sad news that their best president ever, Bruce Wayne, died in an unspeakable terrorist attack.
With a click, Jason pressed the remote control and the TV screen switched to another program, but the news banner below continued to broadcast the news of the president's assassination.
Several Robins from Schiller's universe were standing in front of the TV, watching the news seriously. Before Bruce went on a business trip to the dark universe, he specially handed over several Robins from his side to the Batman of the Arkham world. They have been here for a while.
During this time, they actually didn't interact much with the Batman of this universe, because the Batman of the Arkham Knight universe had become president and was regarded as the best president in American history in just a few months.
Of course, it is not easy to achieve such results, so the Batman of the Arkham Knight universe has been very busy recently. Except for the two Robins who chatted with this Batman when they first came here, there has been no other communication.
On the contrary, Nightwing, Red Robin, Barbara, and even Jason the Arkham Knight from this universe all have a good relationship with them. Although the Robins don't understand why these people don't live in Wayne Manor, they still often get together to eat, chat, or maintain equipment.
Bruce's Robins also have their own equipment because they have grown up. Dick is in high school, and Jason and Tim are in junior high school. Although Bruce did not teach them any fighting skills or tactical thinking, he did get them a lot of strange equipment.
These include but are not limited to a small version of the Ark Reactor that Bruce took the time to make, a set of nano-folding arm armor that he powered, a staff from Kamar-Taj, a small freezing pistol that can freeze people in dense ice, a small Darkseid Near Earth Defense Force spacecraft, a large number of usable yellow and green lantern rings, feathers dropped by Michael and Uriel, and so on.
What? You're asking about the equipment that comes with the Bat-title? All Bruce has left is the Bat-armor and a few bat darts that are only of ornamental value.
Just as the Robins finished reading the Defense Minister's analysis of the terrorist attack, the cell phone on the coffee table rang.
"Hello, this is Barbara. I am communicating with you from the clock tower base. I will soon connect the other three lines. Their code names are Nightwing, Arkham Knight and Robin. Please call me the Prophet."
"Okay, ma'am, but I don't think there's any need for us to hide our names, and I believe this communication line is safe," Dick said.
"I'm trying to use artificial intelligence to build a firewall." Tim said while typing quickly on the computer. "But I'm not a very professional hacker. This is the artificial intelligence that Bruce used to calculate the Gotham building renovation plan. Its specialty is calculation, not security protection, but it should be enough."
"Thank you very much for your help, Mr. Drake."
"Just call me Tim, Madam Prophet. I believe you have collected all the information about the assassination of the president. Can you briefly tell me the important situation?"
"Okay." Barbara said on the other end of the communicator, "I guess you are packing your equipment. I just received a communication message from the Fighting Ring System. This time we will have many powerful helpers, and they are on their way."
"Before you are ready, I will try my best to collect and refine the information from all sources, but it is not yet complete and there are no clues to the truth. But I can take this opportunity to tell you what happened."
"At 2:32 a.m. last night, a major explosion occurred on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol. At the time, a photography team was shooting a promotional video for the upcoming National Day, so they filmed the explosion. Judging from the performance of the explosion, the detonation point should be in the corridor on the right hand side, where the President's office is located."
"Within three hours of the explosion, all systems were constantly spreading news to calm the public's panic, and at 6 a.m. this morning, the U.S. Congress and the Union Bureau of Investigation jointly issued a death notice, officially announcing to the world the death of the current U.S. President Bruce Wayne."
“How do they report the murderer?”
"They only emphasized that they would arrest the murderer as soon as possible, but they didn't mention a word about his identity, not even a guess. Nightwing and I both think this is extremely abnormal."
“That’s bad news,” Jason said as he zipped up his jacket. “But I guess we’re going to have more bad news soon.”
"Don't be so pessimistic." Dick said to him, "I don't think Batman is really dead. This may be his plan."
"Also." Barbara's voice came again with an electric sound. "In the footage shot by the promotional filming team, Superman appeared behind the exploding Capitol. In just a few seconds of video, you can see him flying towards the Capitol at the fastest speed, but he fell."
"I processed the image specially and magnified it about 60 times, and found that there was an extremely tiny luminous object that hit Superman's chest like a sharp sword."
"Just this once?"
"Just this one time." Barbara gave an affirmative answer and said: "Superman looked very painful and fell down almost immediately. During the fall, he still tried to fly towards the Capitol, but failed."
"Where is he now?"
"No one knows." Barbara's tone lowered and she said, "He's missing, but we can confirm that he's still alive. When Superman came to Gotham, Batman monitored his physical condition. His incredibly strong body is almost indestructible."
Jason's uneasy feeling grew stronger. He said, "The body cannot be destroyed, so what about the soul?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know much about this," Barbara could only say, "but if you have any guesses, you can tell us."
"This could be another bad news."
"We are never afraid of bad news." Another voice appeared in the channel, and it was obviously Nightwing from the Arkham Knight universe.
"Well, if this terrorist attack is aimed at Batman, then I think the situation can still be controlled because it could be an accident caused by his political enemies or some extremists."
"But the news reports say that many superheroes have died one after another, and Superman has been attacked and is currently missing. So we can infer that the enemy is targeting all the superheroes in this universe."
"There are too many superheroes. The ideas they uphold, the scope of their activities, and the people they have befriended or offended are completely different. Who on earth would target all of them indiscriminately?"
This question caused silence in the channel for a while, but soon Robin joined the channel and said, "Even the craziest criminal in Gotham would not indiscriminately target all the heroes in a city. If someone does this, it means that he hates superheroes very much, and it also means that he is extremely evil."
"One explosion is not enough to kill Batman." A deep voice sounded in the channel. It was obviously Arkham Knight who joined in. He said, "Even if he is not wearing bat armor or carrying any equipment, after becoming president, he has set up protective measures in all the areas where he often moves. Those cannot be broken by ordinary explosions."
"That's right, kid, this explosion is not ordinary." A shrill voice suddenly interrupted: "Batman was not defeated by this explosion, but by something more evil."
All the members of the Bat Family were stunned. Barbara raised her voice and said, "Who are you? How did you join our channel?"
"The firewall is fine." Tim said immediately: "This guy seems to have been here forever. He even joined earlier than us."
"Who are you?" Dick said, "and what's your relationship with Batman?"
"Of course I came earlier than you." The voice said, "But it doesn't matter. Batman is in big trouble now. He is not dead yet, but he is dying soon."
Everyone stood up, and Nightwing's voice was filled with worry. "Where are you? How do you know all this?"
"Of course you know where I am. Not long ago, each of you hugged me."
Everyone in the channel was silent for a second, but Barbara suddenly said, "Jason! Your big doll!!"
Footsteps and rustling sounds were immediately heard from the other end of the Arkham Knight's communication channel, and it was obvious that he was looking for something.
"Aha! Congratulations on finding me!" The voice from the gap came again from the Arkham Knight's channel. Because of the distance, it seemed a little blurry.
Soon they heard a bang, as if something had fallen heavily to the ground, followed by a crackling sound, and a scream and curse from the Arkham Knight.
"Jason, Jason, are you okay?" Barbara kept asking.
After about a few dozen seconds, Arkham Knight returned to the communication channel and said breathlessly: "I caught him. Damn it, I don't know how to describe it, he's like a bat doll that has turned into a spirit!"
"I just want to hide in the bat doll and give you a hug, but I'm not a doll. My name is Bat-Mite, and it's nice to meet you!"
(End of this chapter)