"Who are you?" the man on the stage asked, drawing his pistol. He was one of the high-ranking officials of the Court of Owls, and he knew very well that the man before him was not the Laughing Bat they worshipped. The people in the audience were merely peripheral members and knew very little, so they had mistakenly believed it to be true.
"Hehehehe…" Alan raised his arms, holding up his black cape, and announced loudly, "I am the Comedic Bat."
Who? Who is the Comedic Bat?
For a moment, all the rich people fell silent. It seemed the joke had fallen flat.
"Where is the applause? Where are the flowers?" Alan asked, not caring at all about the fierce looks he was receiving.
Boom!
Boom!
Suddenly, two explosions were heard outside the hotel. At the same time, the round clock struck nine. Looking out the window, the ninety-ninth floors of Gotham City's iconic twin towers were ablaze. No one present found it strange at all, as if they had known it would happen.
"The ceremony begins," the man holding the gun said with a satisfied smile. "We begin to control the gears of fate." It seemed everything was going according to plan.
"Why are you pretending?" Alan said disdainfully. "Isn't this all just to trick Batman into drinking five special metals and then summon the cute, white-stockinged drunkard boy, Barbatos?"
Cute, white-stockinged drunkard boy? Don't be an asshole. We are summoning Barbatos, the Bat God.
"Who are you, and how do you know the name Barbatos?" the man's eyes turned gloomy. Only the top leaders of the Court of Owls and their hidden allies knew the true purpose of the ritual.
"Because I play Genshin Impact."
"…"
Bang!
Seeing that the other man was talking complete nonsense, the man shot without hesitation.
Alan clenched his hand and said confidently, "The only martial art in the world that cannot be defeated is speed. Believe it or not, I have already caught the bullet."
The man was so embarrassed that three black lines appeared on his forehead. The bullet had clearly hit Alan's shoulder, but it hadn't penetrated, bouncing off with a flash of sparks that everyone saw. Stop trying to be brave.
"I didn't fool you," Alan said sternly. "I can only reveal my identity. I used to be Bateman, and I also used to be the Whip Woman. Now, I am the Comedic Bat. You will be shrouded in the shadow of comedy and shiver in fear."
Suddenly, a white light flashed past. Alan took a step back and found a dart stuck in the stage in front of him. Looking up at the source of the attack, he saw a man wrapped in a black battle suit with a hood mask shaped like an owl. The Talon assassins had arrived.
"And which hero might you be?"
It was obvious the Talon had no interest in talking to Alan. He dodged and swooped down to attack.
Bang!
Alan raised his foot and kicked him away. The Talon rolled several times on the ground and stopped moving.
Suddenly, the guests at the banquet began to flee in panic. They were wealthy people who lived lives of luxury, and the sight of fighting filled them with fear. In the chaos, more Talons appeared one after another.
Alan raised his hands and said softly, "Righty, Lefty, we are fighting side by side again. Aren't you excited?"
At that moment, a group of Talons surrounded and attacked him. The full-level thief profession gave Alan the physical fitness to fight all his enemies alone. In the blink of an eye, several shallow tears appeared on his Batsuit.
Alan forced the enemy back, retreating violently to create distance. "My comedic suit!" he said, distressed. "I feel the comedy value dropping like crazy!" As he spoke, he pulled a soft sword from his tactical belt. The suit that could defend against bullets couldn't withstand the Talons' weapons, so Alan could no longer engage in close combat.
The man with the gun watched the battle and said, "The Talon Legion is immortal, and their weapons are made of Promethium. Nothing in the world can resist them."
There was a bang as weapons clashed. The soft sword in Alan's hand broke. Even with the Shadow Blade skill, it still couldn't compete with the Talon's weapon.
"Shit!" After saying this, Alan vanished.
The Talon Legion was injected with the Dionysus factor and an Electrum immortality serum, and they were equipped with Promethium metal. Alan had to retreat. You could call him a madman, but you could never call him a fool.
"It seems he escaped," the gunman smiled faintly, thinking that the other man was overestimating his own abilities to fight against the Court of Owls.
"Who said I left?" Alan quietly appeared behind him, grabbed his neck, and said proudly, "They may be immortal, but you are not."
The man's face filled with horror. Now he suddenly remembered that he was an ordinary person.
Bang! Bang!
Alan punched him twice, hitting his eye sockets hard and giving him two black eyes. He left a final word and jumped out of the window. "Don't act so pretentious next time you see me."
The man held his eyes with both hands, lying on the ground in agony and shouting, "Catch him alive! I will torture him to death with my own hands!"
The next moment, the Talon assassins chased after him.
The twin towers had exploded, and fire trucks rushed to the scene. At the same time, the five young heroes who were investigating the case without any clues temporarily put down their work and rushed to the accident site. Fortunately, when the twin towers were first built, great attention was paid to fire-fighting facilities. Teams of firefighters carried water guns and successfully put out the fire after more than an hour of effort.
At this moment, on the rooftop of another building, Dick received internal police communications through a miniature radio. "Nine charred bodies were found on the ninety-ninth floors of the two buildings. There was no sign of a struggle. It was obvious they were burned to death while unconscious."
"Then it seems to be a premeditated plan. The same ninety-ninth floor and the same number of deaths cannot be a simple coincidence."
"But the question is, who is so bored as to commit a meaningless murder?"
The five young heroes were confused. They usually hunted down criminals who at least had a motive. What good could this explosion bring?
"What if it wasn't a criminal, but a cultist who did it?" Damian said.
The four of them looked at Damian at the same time, hoping to know more.
"I have read about evil rituals in my father's collection of books," Damian explained. "Ninety-nine floors plus nine people is exactly three nines. When turned over, it becomes three sixes, which symbolizes the mark of darkness." He added thoughtfully, "The story takes place in the Twin Towers. From a distance, doesn't it look like a gate?"
"So, the cultists are trying to open the door to another world through rituals, or perhaps they are trying to establish communication."
After hearing Damian's description, they fell silent. When facing criminals, even if they had special abilities, they could still find their weaknesses and defeat them. But when you meet a superstitious person, you are really helpless.
It was said that Bruce's study of the occult was all inspired by his experiences in Silent Hill. He had originally held materialistic ideas, but after seeing the child of a demon and the ghost Sadako, he couldn't help but believe. He had collected many books on the occult to study, so as to avoid being blinded when encountering such enemies. He had even contacted John Constantine and asked him many questions about mysticism. It was a pity that Bruce couldn't learn magic and was purely a physical warrior.
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