Chapter 2022: Knight's Nightmare Night (1)

The pitch-black corridor was like a giant mouth waiting to eat people, and the darkness spread into an endless abyss.

With a click, the room's light turned on.

The edge of the light was extremely sharp, as if it had hard-scraped a piece off this thick, inseparable darkness, but as the door slowly closed, the heavy shadow swallowed the light again with an unstoppable posture.

A hand covered in pitch-black gauntlets let go of the door handle, and the pitch-black figure supported his hands on the sink again. When he opened his eyes, what he saw in the mirror was not his serious self, but a madman with green hair, a pale face, and a wide-grinning mouth.

"Do you think this is a hallucination caused by fear toxin? Batman, don't be so naive anymore. You know this has nothing to do with that idiot's ghost. I have never died."

And Batman just listened quietly to him speak.

The Joker in the mirror tapped the glass with his finger, as if he really existed and could break through the barrier of the mirror and return to the real world at any time.

"I exist in the bottom of your heart forever. You, me, or anyone else in Arkham Asylum, are powerless to change this. Accept reality, Batman."

Swish, the faucet was turned on. Batman tore off his mask, leaned down, and washed his face with cold water.

When he raised his hand, he felt a faint pain in his right arm. Turning his head to look, in the hazy vision with water splashes, there was a cut on his right forearm, and the wound was abnormally black. He knew that was the result of fear toxin blood infection.

"Scarecrow..."

The low voice echoed in the small space. When Batman looked at the mirror again, except for his slightly tired face, everything that had just appeared seemed like a hallucination.

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound of the door being knocked was like a sudden heartbeat. Batman turned his head sharply to look, and the injured arm sent faint pain due to muscle tension.

"Are you okay? Batman."

The sound that came was slightly unfamiliar, at least not the childish voice he had often heard, with a trace of inscrutable rationality, but also often unexpectedly naive.

"It's me, Peter Parker. I saw the Batmobile parked outside, so I came to ask if you have anything."

"I'm fine."

An answer that was not unexpected at all.

But the conversation ended unexpectedly, at least unexpectedly for Batman. The person outside the door left, not even asking another question.

Batman, standing inside the door, took a deep breath, his gaze falling down, sweeping across the dark door crack. Not seeing an extra shadow there, he knew Peter had really left.

He came at a very inconvenient time, Batman thought. The situation had become worse. The Joker hadn't died at all and had been trying to interfere with his brain in some way. The fear toxin spread by Scarecrow was further creating chaos in Cat Getan City. He was running out of time.

Ending the time that could be called a rest for Batman, Batman pushed the door and walked out. When pushing open the door of the laboratory, because his eyes were not used to the sudden light, his movements paused for a moment.

Vaguely, he saw a figure standing in front of the experimental table busy, and he knew that there would be no one else here except Peter.

But Batman didn't care. He took out his communication device, connected to a phone, and said, "Oracle, repeat the situation in the city to me again. I need to know how bad the chaos has reached."

"It has worsened more severely than two hours before Scarecrow broadcasted. Now the police are tracking a suspicious military vehicle. It passed through Chinatown in an abnormal posture, and the police lost its trail."

"Gordon and I are trying our best to deploy police officers, but we are always short of manpower. Batman, you responded to the lighting of the Bat-Signal later than the expected time. Did you encounter any trouble?"

The female voice on the opposite side, besides being intellectual, also carried a kind of uncommon sense of power. This firm emotion could soothe anyone, including Batman.

The thoughts that had been slightly messy due to the Joker in the mirror returned again. Batman said to the communicator, "I'm fine, Barbara. The last group of criminals I solved was also affected by fear toxin. They caused a small injury to my arm, but it doesn't matter. I was just dealing with it."

"He was not dealing with it." A strange male voice sounded in Barbara's ear, making Barbara, who was sitting in the dim police station office, frown slightly.

"Are there others next to you? Batman."

"Yes, I am Peter Parker, Batman's new assistant. I haven't been here for long, but I think we don't have time to exchange pleasantries. Please give me five minutes. I need to deal with Batman's wound. You can take this opportunity to explain to us what is happening in this city now."

Peter's speaking speed was very fast. Neither Batman nor Oracle Barbara had a chance to interrupt. Barbara calmed down a little and thought this decision was good, because if she told Batman what needed to be done now, Batman would definitely not spend time treating his wound, but would go straight to the destination.

No one wanted Batman to do that, because everyone knew that this was destined to be a busy night, and that small injury that was originally inconspicuous would also worsen due to several neglectings.

Peter grabbed the communicator directly from Batman's hand. Batman tried to pinch the lower half of the communicator, but failed. Peter's hand strength was greater than he imagined.

But Batman didn't insist anymore. Peter took the communicator to the side of the experimental table, threw the small machine aside, and tapped the test tube in his hand with his finger.

"You didn't lie to me. The city you are in is much worse than the situation in New York. I read the water quality test report you put in the drawer. To be honest, it is very rare for humans here to be able to keep walking on two legs."

"It's not that rare." Batman's unique cold humor.

"Alright, this lady called Oracle, next I won't speak, please trouble you to introduce to me what exactly is wrong here."

"You sound much more mature than your voice, Mr. Parker. Please allow me to call you that. Regardless of which city you come from, coming here is not a good choice."

"As you can see, another disaster has occurred, and it may be more serious than what you have seen in the newspaper in the past."

Barbara's voice carried a faint current sound, but it was still very stable and calm. When it echoed in the slightly empty laboratory, it carried a kind of inexplicable divinity.

"Cat Getan Police Commissioner James Gordon personally participated in the Joker's cremation ceremony. This super criminal leader who made this city terrified was still burned to ashes, but everything is far from over."

"Two hours ago, Scarecrow, who is also a super criminal, detonated the fear toxin he had ambushed in the city, and hacked into Cat Getan public media, announcing that this city would usher in his terrifying revenge."

"The public fell into panic, the police were at a loss, we almost had no clues. No one knows what we will experience again tonight, but there is no doubt that we need Batman."

"Very good, please continue, lady, I am listening."

Peter broke the iodophor cotton swab, clamped it between the two fingers of his right hand, and then pressed the button of the shadowless flashlight with the other hand, illuminating Batman's wound, carefully but extremely quickly cleaning the edge of the wound.

"You can call my codename Oracle. This is more important than you imagine, because the super criminals in Arkham Asylum may monitor our communication at any time."

"About an hour ago, the vehicles transporting Cat Getan citizens had left Cat Getan City, but I think you should understand that most of the citizens of this megacity cannot be evacuated. More of those who left were tourists and rich people."

"Half an hour ago, I observed a suspicious military vehicle disappearing after driving out of Chinatown through the Sky Eye system. Its movement trajectory explained its unusualness, but the Sky Eye system could no longer give me more information."

"Now I need someone to investigate the location where the vehicle once appeared, figure out why it appeared there, and where it went now. I have uploaded the coordinates of the last location where the vehicle appeared to the Batcomputer. Please go and return quickly, and pay attention to safety."

"Oracle will go offline within the next twenty minutes. Batman, I know this will be a long night, but please persist as long as possible. Goodbye."

No sound came from the communicator again. At this time, Peter had already finished dealing with the small wound. Batman didn't feel any pain during the whole process.

When he put on the arm armor again, he glanced at Peter, but Peter went to clean up the medical equipment, so he tightened the arm armor again and said, "I will go to track the suspicious vehicle next."

Before Batman could say the next sentence, Peter turned around and said, "Give me two minutes, I have three points to say, it won't delay your mission progress."

Batman's movements paused slightly, but he still nodded.

"First, I just took samples of the special substances on your wound. I need to stay here for sample analysis, but the samples are insufficient now. If you can get more samples in the next action, I am sure I can crack this mysterious substance called fear toxin."

Batman just opened his mouth, and Peter interrupted him: "I know this sounds incredible, but I have quite a bit of experience with this, and you can't find a second person here who can do this job."

Batman didn't speak, Peter continued: "Second, I need the usage permission of your Batcomputer, but I don't have time to explain the detailed reasons to you now. You just need to answer yes or no."

Batman paused again, then nodded slowly, and then added: "I will give you basic permission and Sky Eye usage permission, but you'd better not disturb Oracle. She has more important things to do."

And Peter continued: "Finally, I hope you can ensure the integrity of that military vehicle as much as possible, whether leaving it in place or dragging it back, I need that vehicle."

Batman frowned. He looked at Peter. People who were looked at by him like this in the past would take the initiative to explain the reasons, but Peter took a deep breath and looked at Batman with a focused gaze and said, "I'm sorry, but I really don't have time to explain."

"Please believe me, I am more nervous than you now, but I hope that what I have seen and learned can come in handy at this time, it must come in handy."

And Batman saw in Peter's eyes against the light, not the sincerity as his tone, but a terrifying storm.

And when Peter withdrew his gaze from Batman's departing back, his attention returned to the alarm of the spider-sense roaring like thunder in his ear.

At this time, an unexpected voice sounded in Peter's ear.

"Peter, are you okay? I am Dr. Schiller. I am watching you in Battleworld now, and testing our brand-new spectator mode. How do you feel?"

Schiller's voice was almost drowned out in the storm in Peter's brain.

Peter looked up slightly, sighed softly, and felt the surging heat flow mobilized in his body by the overclocking spider-sense.

That covered his vision with a layer of blood, as if his brain had left his body and ascended, his soul hung above his head, and everything became clearer and clearer.

"I feel great, Doctor." ===== CHAPTER 2023 =====