Chapter 2483: The Battle for the Cape (Part 50)

The Robins were all gathered around the bed, while Barbara stood to the side, clutching her head, her eyes filled with confusion.

"I really can't figure it out. How could they both fall into a coma during just a nap?"

Barbara's tone carried an inescapable sense of self-reproach and anxiety. Tim stepped forward to comfort her, saying, "This means the enemy pinpointed your weakness and took advantage of the situation while you were resting."

Nightwing was bandaging his wounds nearby. Having heard that the Arkham Knight was in trouble, he had rushed back in a hurry. Unsurprisingly, he had encountered monsters in the thick fog on the way. After a struggle, he managed to escape, but his arm was dislocated and his neck had been slashed.

The group of Robins from Schiller's universe weren't faring well either. Although they had decided to remain still after receiving the information, the fog clearly wouldn't let them have their way. Another attack followed, and since Jason was already injured, all three of them had nearly been wiped out.

Furthermore, after waiting for a long time, the fog showed no signs of dissipating. They realized that the patterns of the fog might have changed, and even with all three of them acting together, they were still a bit thin on the ground; they should return to rendezvous with the others first.

Needless to say, the journey to the rendezvous was filled with all sorts of bizarre events. If not for their firm willpower and quick reflexes, it would have been difficult for them to return to the Zhong Lou in one piece.

Besides the troublesome gash on Jason's leg, Dick had been tripped during a chase and sprained his foot, while Tim had an arm abrasion and was currently disinfecting and bandaging it.

The three from the main universe were the least injured, as they had received the most comprehensive training and were equipped with the best gear. Working together, only Nightwing had taken a hit from an Alien's tail, leaving his back swollen, while the others remained unscathed.

Even so, with only two people left with full combat capability, they couldn't accomplish much. They simply gathered at the Zhong Lou to rest, hoping to proceed with the next step of the plan once the fog cleared.

But as soon as they went upstairs, they saw Barbara's panicked expression.

Barbara had a habit of taking a nap, and since the Arkham Knight didn't need constant monitoring, she had planned to sleep for a short while to replenish her energy before continuing to provide remote support for the Robins.

But when she woke up and tried to call Spider-Man to eat something, while also feeding the Arkham Knight some water, she discovered that no matter how she called them, there was no response.

Barbara immediately realized something was wrong, so she quickly called up the Robins who had just rushed back, intending to investigate what was going on.

The other Robins might not have known what was happening, but the Red Hood and Red Robin from the main universe had read many magical texts and had some understanding of this. After conducting an examination, they could only confirm that the souls of these two people were gone.

The Robin from the Arkham universe also brought over detection devices and used scientific means to reach the same conclusion: there was nothing wrong with their bodies, but there were no brainwave changes; their brains had stopped working.

The Robins began their own deductions. Both the main universe and the Arkham universe believed they might have been attacked by the fog, causing their souls to be forced out of their bodies, or perhaps the evil god behind the fog had absorbed their souls.

But the Robins from Schiller's universe had a different idea. Jason stroked his chin and said, "If the fog found our souls useful, it wouldn't have waited until now to absorb them. It could have devoured every part of us back during its first descent, when we were completely unprepared."

"Before the fog changed, the two of them were fine, but after the fog changed, their souls disappeared. This shows that this disappearance must be related to the change. The question is what caused the change, and what happened after the change."

"I returned from around Wayne Tower and did indeed discover some anomalies," Nightwing spoke up. "Remember those crazy Robins with the wide grins? They were acting a bit strange."

"How strange?"

"They seemed lost, without goals. Some were wandering in groups, while others were just standing there in a daze. Could it be that something happened to their master?"

"Right." At this moment, everyone suddenly realized, "Where is the Robin King?"

"He blew up the Capitol Building, gave a speech on television saying he was going to crown himself king, and led a huge group of monster Robins to Gotham. Why has there been no movement since?"

"It seems something happened to the Robin King," Red Robin speculated reasonably. "The fog wasn't created by him, but it has been interfering with his plans. Perhaps the Robin King and the fog had a confrontation, and they both perished together."

"I don't feel they would perish together, but they must have both been affected by this confrontation. The Robin King doesn't know where he went; he might be severely injured and recovering, and the fog also underwent a mutation—perhaps it was also injured by the Robin King."

"Could it be that the fog needs their souls to heal?"

Once this speculation was raised, everyone felt a bit horrified. Could the fog have eaten the souls of Spider-Man and the Arkham Knight?

"But why them two?" Jason asked again. "In terms of soul energy, we should be much stronger than them, right?"

Everyone's gaze focused on the Arkham Knight's face. Without a doubt, the person on the hospital bed could in no way be called healthy. If it came to soul energy, everyone present was stronger than him.

Batman and Batwoman in the police station office also deduced this point. If souls were useful to the fog, then since the fog had the ability to silently devour people's souls, it could have gone after healthier ones with more energy, rather than targeting a patient.

Batman knew one more piece of information than the Robins: the hole he saw at the original portal location that might lead to the Dream World.

This clue was crucial. Once the keyword "dream" was added, it wasn't hard to deduce why the ones who had lost their souls were Arkham Batman and the Superman of the Arkham world.

Because they were both very weak and needed to recover. Arkham Batman himself was on the verge of a coma due to excessive blood loss. Under Batman's treatment and care, he needed sleep to replenish his strength. He knew this himself, so it was impossible for him to resist sleep.

As for Superman, he had been attacked by Kryptonite. Although it wasn't clear what so many colorful Kryptonites were for, it was obvious that Superman had also fallen into a semi-dreaming state due to extreme weakness.

Sleep was a prerequisite for entering a dream. These two people lost their souls, likely because they fell asleep.

After Batman stated his deduction, he was immediately refuted by Batwoman. "Look at all these anesthetized people lying all over the streets. Why are their brainwaves normal? Aren't they sleeping too?"

Batman shook his head and said, "I haven't stated my conclusion yet. Precisely because everyone is sleeping, yet only these two lost their souls, it proves that this is not a large-scale dream entry."

"So..."

"So this might not be the fog's doing," Batman deduced. "Although I suspect the citizens being anesthetized might be related to the fog, judging by the nature the fog currently displays, it doesn't target any specific individual. All the abnormal phenomena it produces are large-scale, and it hasn't yet shown the ability to pull people into dreams."

"On the contrary, that hole that appeared at the portal location," Batman drew a circle on the map in the police station office and said, "This thing appeared much earlier than the fog. According to Poison Ivy, she first discovered that kind of energy months ago."

"This hole likely leads to the Dream World, which means that months before the fog appeared, someone had already made plans to pull people into dreams, only it happened to coincide with the fog."

Batman paused, then quickly overturned his previous conclusion. "No, it might not be a coincidence. He wants us to think so, to think that the fog's eruption is the culprit behind these people entering dreams, to cover up the dirty work he's doing behind the scenes."

"How did he know the fog would erupt?" Batwoman asked.

"I'm afraid he didn't know," Batman tapped the table lightly with his pen. "I'm afraid he's the one who triggered the fog's eruption."

"Think about it. Before the large-scale eruption of the fog, these people were fine, but after the eruption, they fell into a coma one by one. Following common logic, what would you think?"

"Perhaps the fog absorbed these people's souls," Clark said. "Anyway, if it were my deduction, that's all I could think of."

"This is likely the goal of the true mastermind," Batman frowned and stared at the map. "He first buried a mass of energy in the city's underground, guiding Poison Ivy to detonate it. It seemed like he blew open a portal, but the portal and the Robin King who came through it are likely decoys."

"What Poison Ivy truly blew open wasn't a portal connecting to other universes, but a passage to the Dream World. It's just that the Robin King acted so high-profile, and the death of Batman attracted everyone's attention."

"At this moment, the mastermind removed the disguise of the portal, revealing the Dream World passage that had been there all along, while simultaneously stimulating the fog through some unknown method, causing it to erupt."

"The fog itself obscures vision and blocks communication, and also causes people with superpowers to have their senses significantly reduced. This is the best protection for infiltration. He could completely appear in the fog without anyone noticing, secretly steal the target's soul, and transport it through the passage into the Dream World."

"And what people see on the surface is just the sudden eruption of the fog, and for them, important people falling into a coma at the same time. Combined with the bizarre state the fog previously displayed and the dangerous situation in the fog after the eruption, everyone will treat the fog as the true enemy."

"And the true mastermind can sit back and watch the show," Batwoman followed his line of thought. "He can even make this group of people fight to the death with the mysterious existence behind the fog."

"Do you think they will do that?" Batwoman looked down at the unconscious Arkham Batman. She knew that "this group of people" referred to Batman's Robins. If they knew Batman was in a coma, they would definitely try every possible way to find the mastermind who harmed Batman.

Actually, Batman wasn't sure. He didn't have absolute certainty that the Robins wouldn't do so, because he had actually seen the secret competition among the Robins.

When Batman was present, hindered by his majesty, the Robins didn't dare to act rashly. But once he was absent, even if it was just to fight for his cape and inherit his legacy, this group of birds was very likely to fight until they were covered in blood.

A debate indeed broke out in the Zhong Lou. The Robin from the Arkham universe believed that this was likely the fog's doing, and in order to save the Arkham Knight and find the now-missing Batman, they should seek out the secrets behind the fog.

The Robins from the main universe weren't so sure, but they also felt they had to find Batman.

Only the Robins from Schiller's universe proposed a different idea. He said, "Since you are so concerned about Batman, you might as well care about Batman's purpose. Remember that phone call earlier? Batman wanted us to find the cape. As Robins, shouldn't we complete the task Batman assigned first?"