Chapter 292: Sinestro in Danger

Dick sat with Aisha at a breakfast stall, Jason shoving a sandwich into his mouth, while several older children gathered around the cart placing orders. Jason looked at Dick and said, "So the rich guy really plans to send you to boarding school? That's no place at all!"

"It's a normal boarding school—the kind wealthy kids go to—not one of those kid prisons."

"That's better. If he sends you into one of those prisons, you'd be better off running away right now. The kids there suffer terribly."

"I heard they sell kids sent to boarding schools to the cruelest little bosses, or maim them and ship them off to other cities to beg."

Everyone picked up their food and came over, then gathered again around the small table.

Just then, Jason sighed, looking gloomy. The others asked him, "What's wrong?"

"I still don't know what to do about the thing that guy in the bat costume told me to do."

"He made it sound easy—tell me to investigate the 'mom and dad' figures controlling the kids—but I can't just walk up to the kids' bosses and ask, 'What's going on here?'"

Behind the red truck, Cobblepot walked over carrying a tray. He set it down, sat on a chair, and adjusted his collar. Rocket fired back, "You always dress like some old aristocrat—does that make your food taste better?"

Cobblepot ignored her and said to Jason, "You're young enough to just blend into another street. Get a job there among the kids—then you can meet those bosses without raising suspicion."

Tire thought for a moment and said, "True—we're all too old and too bulky. The little bosses won't take us. But you, oh… and you, Dick—your age and build should let you slip right in…"

Dick shrugged and said, "In a few days, I might be heading off to school."

He turned his head and saw Jason staring at him. Dick sighed, "Fine. I'll hang out with you guys for the next couple days."

After some discussion, Jason and Dick decided to head to the edge of the East Side, to Green Street, and find work as a cigarette vendor to see if they could squeeze out some intel from the little bosses.

After eating, Dick took Aisha back to Wayne Manor. Alfred said to him, "Master just came back—he's looking for you."

Dick nodded and took Aisha up to Bruce's study on the third floor. Once inside, Bruce said, "Pack your things. You're starting school next week."

Dick opened his mouth, looking resistant. As Bruce looked at him, he felt a deep sense of nostalgia.

When a person faces the same situation through a different identity, they realize their younger self was reckless and impulsive. Bruce, watching Dick standing at the door, felt as if he were seeing his own younger self standing in that psychologist's office.

He always suspected the professor had some hidden secret, some kind of power—he desperately wanted to learn mind-reading from him and tried to skip all theoretical study to jump straight to the ultimate truth of psychology.

What had the professor done back then? Bruce's memory was already hazy. He hadn't understood why Schiller refused to teach him. He thought he had a natural gift for psychology—he should've been the kind of student every teacher loved, grasping everything instantly.

But later, Bruce realized psychology wasn't just about "what the other person is thinking right now." In fact, that was one of the shallowest, most surface-level aspects of the discipline.

The core of this field lay in exploring the inner world, personality structure, and fundamental causes of human behavior—knowledge found only in dense, complex tomes, and mastered only through years of application and analysis.

Clearly, Dick now wanted to skip school, practice, and experience—to learn Bruce's "superpower" instantly. And now, standing as an elder trying to dissuade him, Bruce felt Schiller's helplessness with startling clarity.

Did Bruce have superpowers? From a normal person's perspective, he did—not just his immense wealth, but his innate high IQ, rapid learning ability, and exceptional physical coordination, flexibility, and strength. In a sense, these were already superhuman.

But Bruce knew perfectly well that his current level wasn't just about talent—the learning and practice could not be skipped.

"Listen, Dick. I could let you skip school entirely, run wild on the streets like any other kid in Gotham, or keep practicing your acrobatics and avoid the languages, math, and dance you hate…"

"But because I believe you have talent, and shouldn't be limited to being just a circus performer, you need broader, more systematic education to find the path you truly want to walk…"

Perhaps because Bruce had once played Dick's role before Schiller, he was more patient with Dick—even unusually explaining his reasoning. Normally, Bruce never explained his actions to anyone.

"Really? You actually think… I have talent?" Dick asked Bruce.

Bruce struggled to recall his own interactions with Schiller, then said to Dick, "Yes, so far it seems so. But what you ultimately achieve will depend on your grades at school…"

"Of course, don't forget—your parents have returned to Bludhaven, but I can still call them. If your grades are poor, I might just invite them to come to Gotham…"

"I'll go pack!" Dick set Aisha down and bolted off. Bruce stood where he was, letting out a long, thoughtful breath. He realized: being called in by a teacher was awful—but using it to threaten someone else? It was incredibly satisfying.

That morning, for the first time as an elder, Bruce suddenly understood, in a subtle way, his college professor Schiller. Indeed, perspective shaped attitude.

After lunch, Dick took Aisha out to play on the manor's lawn. He swung lightly on the horizontal bar, extended his arms, landed smoothly on top of it, gripped it with both hands, flipped over, and landed gracefully on the ground. Aisha clapped and laughed nonstop.

Dick walked under the bar, preparing to swing again, when he suddenly noticed a patch of grass near Aisha looked flattened—as if blown down by wind.

He was about to go investigate when a violent whirlwind surged around him. He raised his arms to shield his face, stepped back a few paces, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Aisha also blown onto the grass.

The Star Treader

He moved to pick up Aisha when a golden light descended from the sky. A man in a tight yellow suit floated within the glow, suspended midair.

Dick stared at him, eyes wide. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

At the same time, Sinestro, hovering above, was equally frustrated.

The lantern's navigation only reached Earth's atmosphere. The exact city where Parallax had landed was still up to him to find. But as soon as he arrived near Earth, a Green Lantern named Hal stopped him.

That Green Lantern, seeing Sinestro's yellow aura, punched him immediately. The two clashed violently above Earth.

Sinestro hadn't expected Hal—a rookie, unknown Green Lantern—to be so absurdly strong. He nearly drained his ring's fear energy before finally knocking Hal into the ocean.

Seizing the opening, Sinestro circled the globe, and finally found the target resonating with fear energy: Gotham, on the East Coast.

He landed expecting to see Parallax's rampage reduced the city to rubble. Instead, the city was eerily quiet—buildings intact, residents unmoved, as if nothing had happened.

In Sinestro's memory, this was impossible. Parallax was a chaotic entity, incapable of understanding order, and thus destroyed without restraint. When it possessed him before, it had shattered entire cities on multiple planets. Earth should have been no exception.

Even more puzzling: after searching, he found Parallax's aura emanating from a human house. But when he arrived, the monstrous, fanged beast wasn't there. Instead, there was… a human girl?

Sinestro looked down at his yellow lantern ring, then up at the girl, then back at the ring—repeating this several times—until he confirmed: this was truly their Yellow Lantern's beast, Parallax.

Sinestro landed and spoke to the girl, "How did you become like this? What are you doing here? Come with me."

Aisha stared at him with wide eyes, clearly resisting. Dick, seeing Sinestro approach her, ran forward without hesitation and blocked him. "What are you doing? This is Wayne Manor!"

Sinestro had no interest in human chatter. He waved his hand—Dick was blasted away by a bolt of yellow light. Aisha watched his flying form, eyes wide, then turned back to Sinestro.

Aisha opened her mouth, revealing a row of sharp teeth. Sinestro now confirmed: Parallax had disguised itself as human.

Sinestro reached out—then in the next instant, he saw the girl step back two paces, inhale deeply, open her mouth wide, and tilt her head upward…

Instantly, an unimaginably deafening scream tore through Gotham's sky—

"DAD—DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

——————Extra Notes——————

This is the 17th.

Regarding chapter titles: those without "Up," "Middle," or "Down" are setup chapters; those with "Up," "Middle," or "Down" are main plot chapters; those with numbers are major events.