Chapter 297: Great Responsibilities Fall Upon Such a Person (Part 2)

Recently, the biggest truth Bruce understood was that there are only bad news and worse news in this world, and all unlucky things always happen together.

Batman still chose to find the Joker first. It was very clear that the "big surprise" from that lunatic Joker usually only had surprise and no joy, and would be very shocking.

Sure enough, when Batman arrived, he discovered that the Joker had set a fire on the commercial street in the center of Cat Getan. At this time, the crowd was screaming and fleeing. Over a dozen cars splashed with gasoline were piled into a heap. The debris flying out during the explosion shattered almost all the shop window glass, and for a time, thick smoke billowed.

Batman, standing on the roof, narrowed his eyes to search for the target. And at this time, another stream of black smoke rose in the distance. Batman turned his head and saw that it seemed to be the slums of the East End.

Just at this time, the siren of the fire truck sounded. The firefighters arrived. They carried water faucets to put out the fire, cleaned up the wreckage of the explosives, and searched for those trapped in the narrow gaps of the burned buildings.

The efficiency of Cat Getan's fire department wasn't high, but this was the most prosperous commercial street in the city center after all. Most of the shops here were industries of the Twelve Families. If they caught fire, they still had to come to save them.

In Batman's judgment, the central commercial street still belonged to a wide area, and it was fire first and then explosion. When the smoke started at the beginning, the vast majority of people ran out, so the difficulty of rescue wasn't high.

But the slums were different. The buildings there were dense, and there were many sundries. Once they caught fire, it was very likely that there would be heavy casualties. So, after seeing the firefighters arrive at the commercial street to rescue, Batman rushed toward the East End.

The sequelae of overdrawing energy hadn't completely disappeared, and Batman's head was aching very severely, so he didn't notice that at the intersection at the end of the commercial street, the reporter who had just arrived happened to take a picture of his back as he left.

The fire in the East End slums was very troublesome. The residences here were too dense, there were no fire-fighting measures at all, and there were no fire-fighting passages. Many people were trapped in the fire. Batman spent a lot of effort to solve the matter here.

By the time he headed to the police station, Gordon was already a bit overwhelmed. He saw Batman as if he saw a savior and said: "You finally came!"

"What exactly is going on?" Batman's voice was as hoarse as if it had been burned by fire. Gordon had a belly full of words he wanted to say, but seeing Batman's visibly pale face, he hesitated again and said: "Your face is too bad. Otherwise, go back and rest for a while?"

"It's okay, tell me, what's going on?"

Gordon took a deep breath. He led Batman to the morgue, then pulled out a corpse from the morgue cabinet. After lifting the white cloth on the corpse, the face revealed made Batman feel a bit familiar. It was the leader of the Lawrence family among the Twelve Families.

Old Lawrence already had white hair, and his figure was slightly fat. At this time, there were wounds on his limbs and chest. Batman narrowed his eyes to observe, but his attention was a bit scattered, so he only asked Gordon: "What was the scene like?"

Gordon opened his mouth, paused for a moment, and seemed not to know how to describe it. He said: "This afternoon, young Lawrence called the police chief and said his father was dead."

"When I arrived, Lawrence was dead in the study. He was lying flat on the ground, head facing the window, arms spread out, the whole person presenting a cross shape. Wedges were nailed into his limbs, chest, and head. The coroner judged his cause of death as his heart being nailed through..."

"What about the murder weapon?"

"In the evidence room. If you want it, I can bring it over. In addition, the coroner told me that anesthetic drugs were detected in old Lawrence's body. He should have been anesthetized first, and then nailed to death."

"Nailed to a cross..." Batman muttered to himself. Gordon didn't hear clearly. He said: "What? What cross?"

"This is a way used to execute Christians, which is nailing to a cross, or rather, nailing upside down to a cross..."

"The first Pope, which is one of Jesus's disciples, Saint Peter, died in this way... Wait, Jesus? How many disciples did Jesus have?... Twelve... Twelve Families... Twelve Families..."

Batman immediately said to Gordon: "Let your police chief contact the Twelve Families immediately. This might be a serial murder case..."

As soon as the words fell, a young police officer ran down from the stairs, saying loudly to Gordon: "Chief, the younger brother of the Hawk brothers is dead, he..."

That young police officer swallowed and then said: "His head was cut off, the chief has already gone over..."

Gordon covered his forehead and explained to Batman: "The Hawk family is also one of the Twelve Families. Their leaders are a pair of brothers. The older brother is the big leader, and the younger brother helps him manage the family..."

Batman covered the white cloth on old Lawrence's body and then said to Gordon: "Can we go to the scene this time?"

"Uh, we can, but we have to wait. We have to miss the chief, otherwise, I can't explain why I want to bring you in?... You know, the chief is a bit... about your existence..."

"Okay, I know." Saying that, Batman had already walked to the window. He said to Gordon: "You shouldn't clean up the crime scene tonight, right? We'll meet there at midnight. Now I have other things to do..."

After speaking, Batman's figure disappeared. Gordon rubbed his temples, his whole face wrinkled together. He asked that young police officer: "Are you a believer?"

"Ah, yes, what's wrong?"

"Do you know the story of Jesus and his twelve disciples? Can you tell me about it?"

That young police officer choked. His expression was a bit difficult. Gordon looked as if he had expected it early on. He said: "Fine, everyone here says they are believers, but not many people know Jesus, let alone the disciples. I'd better go back and flip through the Bible..."

Batman, who had left, opened the communicator on his wrist and asked: "How are things over there?"

Slippery's voice sounded over there, saying: "It's okay, we are trapped in a basement. This seems to be an abandoned wine cellar. They haven't found this place yet, but you'd better come over quickly. Jason is injured..."

Hearing Jason was injured, Batman frowned and said: "Why didn't you say so earlier? I thought there wasn't much of a problem over there..."

Slippery's immature voice continued to sound in the communicator: "Actually, there really isn't much of a problem. He just sprained his foot. We jumped down from a very high place. He jumped first and was bruised by the sundries underneath. Now he can't move, but there's no danger of bleeding..."

"Tell me your address, I'll come over immediately."

About twenty minutes later, in a basement not far from Green Street in the East End, Batman was fixing Jason's ankle while asking them: "What exactly is going on? I just let you investigate, how could you be hunted down?"

It seemed to be to distract from the pain in his ankle, Jason opened his mouth and said: "At first, we really just wanted to investigate. A friend of mine and I found a job as cigarette peddlers on Green Street. At first, everything went smoothly. We contacted the small leader responsible for this block and his superior, which are the 'mommies and daddies' of these children..."

"That person is called 'Lame Daddy' by the children here. He lives in a shack at the end of the first alley. You know, my skills are not bad. I would climb onto his shack at night to eavesdrop on his conversation..."

"That time, it should have been his superior who came here. I heard them mention the Big Boss between their words. They said that the situation of the Twelve Families has been a bit tense lately... something like that, and then said that the Big Boss wanted them to hurry up and raise funds. In short, it was these words..."

"But Lame Daddy's superior was too vigilant. I just moved slightly, and he discovered someone on the roof. I had to escape hurriedly. But that superior looked like a formal gang member. He brought bodyguards and a shotgun. Fortunately, my target was small, and they didn't hit me..."

Slippery continued: "Originally, I was just responding to him at the intersection of the street, but those few people pursued relentlessly. The two of us could only run into the alley. Fortunately, there was an abandoned wine cellar here, otherwise, we would have been caught up by them soon."

Jason said somewhat sulkily: "When I jumped down, I didn't see there were wooden boards or something underneath, otherwise I wouldn't have been injured so easily."

When Batman was fixing the splint for him, Jason bit his fist and refused to cry out. Batman glanced at him and said: "You've done well enough. Now we go up. Don't come here recently."

Jason wanted to stand up with Slippery's support. Batman picked him up directly. Jason struggled and said: "Put me down! Damn it!"

But his foot was swollen, and when his leg moved, it brought the pain to his ankle. He let out an "ouch" in pain, bit his fist, and didn't speak.

After arriving on the ground, Batman asked them: "Did those people hunting you down see what you looked like?"

"I'm not sure, but they had flashlights, they should have seen Jason."

Batman carried Jason to the car, then put him in the back seat, saying: "You go hide in my base for two days first, there is everything there."

Saying that, he ignored Jason's opposition, started the car directly, and sent Jason and Slippery to one of his temporary hideouts in the southern suburbs.

Batman's base could be said to be fully equipped, which opened the eyes of the two children, especially Jason.

Originally, being carried like a child by Batman, he was a bit awkward, but after seeing those advanced equipment and sufficient supplies, his eyes began to shine. He turned from his initial reluctant attitude and began to excitedly look at this and touch that.

Slippery turned to ask Batman: "Is our intelligence useful?"

Batman nodded and said: "At least, I know the Big Boss isn't some street thug. He is related to the Twelve Families, and might even be someone from the Twelve Families."

"And just now, two high-ranking members of the Lawrence family and the Hawk family among the Twelve Families were murdered one after another..."

"In addition, Jason said he heard that superior urging them to raise funds for the Big Boss as soon as possible. The Big Boss might have known something..."

Speaking of this, Batman said to the two children: "Don't go out these few days. It might be very unsafe outside."

After settling Jason and Slippery, Batman couldn't rest after returning to Wei En Manor. He flipped out the Bible and the Gospels and began to look up stories about the Twelve Disciples.

If it is said that not many people know the story of Jesus and the Twelve Disciples, then the matter of Jesus and Judas is almost a household name, and Judas is exactly one of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus.

Reading until late at night, Batman wrote down all the information and dragged his extremely exhausted body upstairs to sleep.

And after a pitch-black darkness, when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that he had arrived at the entrance of Wei En Manor again, and in the alley outside the door, stood four familiar figures. ===== CHAPTER 298 =====