Chapter 4951: There Is No Batman Here (56)

"The Court of Owls?" Bruce frowned. At this moment, he was trapped in a crimson chamber, his entire body pinned to the wall by countless black tendrils, unable to move.

Fortunately, he wasn't alone in this prison. Polaris was fixed to the opposite wall. She nodded and said: "Yes, we went after that little boss. We thought it was just a simple bat monster, but it turned out more like a claw. After defeating it, we obtained some item. Arkham Knight said we might need to check the eastern district, so we came here."

"We hadn't planned to go this deep. But when I shifted forms, a claw nearly scratched me. I got angry and chased him inside. Guess what? We stumbled upon a cult ritual site!"

"Those Court of Owls members acted like cultists, gathered there. The place was a mess, piled with strange things that looked filthy. I wanted to kill them all, so I charged forward and fired an electromagnetic cannon. Unexpectedly, it activated the formation and teleported me here."

"I don't know why, but my superpowers don't work well here." Polaris shook her head. "To be precise, they're completely unusable. Brainiac said it's not a system error, so I probably fell into some trap."

Bruce was truly speechless. Honestly, he's just had bad luck. He never imagined this central purifier was designed as the pollution source of the eastern district. Moreover, the pollution made no sense. He merely glanced at that heart-like purifier and was dragged in.

Yet Polaris, with so many chances to act correctly, still ended up like him—trapped here. These mutants are forever young, forever forgetful. They chase whatever displeases them, fire at anything they don't understand without asking. Sometimes you can't blame ordinary people for disliking mutants.

"I never expected to see Batman here." Polaris actually retorted first, "I admit I fell into the trap due to my impulsiveness. But what's your deal, Batman my lord?"

Bruce didn't know how to answer. Batman wouldn't fall into this trap, but he isn't—he's just pretending. He merely acted like a normal person, wanting to stop by and pick up scraps. Who knew his luck would be this bad?

"I found the pollution source." Bruce decided to use some rhetoric, since Polaris seemed not too bright. "I hadn't intended to adventure or explore, but this thing's pollution power is too strong."

"That's true," Polaris said, "I really can't figure out how they're suppressing my mutant abilities. These are genetic superpowers..."

"No choice," Polaris sighed, "I can only wait for the Professor to rescue me. Based on my previous 282 rescue experiences, he should arrive within half an hour."

Bruce slightly widened his eyes. Has Professor X rescued Polaris alone over 200 times? How many X-Men are there?

Indeed, his past mutual torment with arrogance wasn't anything serious. After leaving Gotham, outside was heavy rain, yet they seemed normal by comparison.

However, Polaris has the Professor to rescue her, so he should be fine. Arrogance already recognized him, so it's impossible for him to come now and ruin his disguise plan. Though the Professor should have already greeted Charles.

All I can say is, it's fortunate Polaris rashly came here; otherwise, Professor X truly wouldn't have a reasonable reason to come. It's also a slight stroke of luck.

But afterward, Bruce pondered. Mutants indeed love impulsiveness, because their powers come too easily, almost no survival anxiety, so they disregard life. But Polaris isn't young, and the cosmic mutants she knows often operate in the universe; logically, they should be more mature than those from other universes. Why is she still so impulsive?

"What happened between you and Arkham Knight?" Bruce asked bluntly, mimicking other Batmen.

"Nothing to do with you." Polaris said, "Compared to my relationships with other men in my life, mine with him is just a minor quarrel."

Bruce really wanted to retort "You're quite self-aware," but now wearing this skin, he could only play mute. He didn't know how many times he'd cursed the classic Batman's taciturn persona in his heart. He now wanted to chat, but didn't know how to start.

Batman rarely chats idly; talking to others is usually for gathering intel. But Bruce isn't like that—he genuinely wants to chat to pass time. After all, here he can't move or do anything else. Yet to maintain his persona, he can only force himself to stay silent.

"But I'm not entirely empty-handed." Polaris skipped her emotional topic and said, "At least I know this definitely relates to the Court of Owls. You should know quite a bit about them, right?"

"A conspiratorial organization secretly controlling Gotham." Bruce said in a low tone. Actually, adding another sentence would be impossible—he truly doesn't know much about the Court of Owls. His universe doesn't even have this thing.

"I knew that." Polaris narrowed her eyes, "Will the eastern district's pollution be their doing?"

Bruce also felt that if he didn't speak up with some reasoning, it would indeed clash with Batman's persona, so he vaguely said: "I think so. They've always been plotting something in Gotham's underground. Perhaps to counter Batman, they actively brought in certain pollutants, turning the eastern district into this."

These situations are obviously true, not really reasoning. Bruce thought and said: "The eastern district's final boss is modeled after the Joker. So perhaps, the Court of Owls wants to use the polluted Joker to deal with Batman."

This reasoning is still too shallow, lacking substance. Bruce thought again: "However, judging by the Court of Owls' modus operandi, this doesn't look like a clever plan, but rather like they dug a pit for themselves and had no choice but to jump in."

"You mean using pollution against Batman is actually a last resort?"

"Exactly," Bruce nodded, "They'd only think of this if they couldn't handle Batman. But why would Batman need this tactic? Probably because something abnormal happened to him."

Polaris recalled the southern district's final boss, clearly not a normal Batman. So she said: "So Batman became stronger, they couldn't handle him, thus sought pollution to strengthen his opponent?"

"I think so," Bruce nodded, "Moreover, Batman's strengthening must relate to them. I believe they might want to remodel or exploit Batman, but lost control. To suppress the rampaging Batman, they resorted to this foolish move."

"Remodel Batman? Is that really possible?"

"Nothing's impossible," Bruce said, "In the multiverse, many Batmen have followed their path. The Court of Owls is backed by Barbatos."

"Who is Barbatos?" Polaris truly didn't know the details. She asked, "What's his relation to Batman?"

This is Bruce's professional domain. He of course wanted to spend two hours explaining the dark dragon and Batman's origins to Polaris, analyzing Barbatos's pros and cons, and comparing their combat strength.

But the problem is, classic Batman wouldn't reveal so much intel, let alone give it away for free to someone from another universe. Bruce's urge to confess had no outlet. This is another meaning: only after not being Batman did he realize how hard it is to be Batman. How did he used to hold himself together?

"Barbatos is the source of cosmic darkness. Batman's body holds his power." Bruce still tried to simplify: "Their relationship is complex, but undoubtedly, Barbatos needs Batman to invade the light universe."

"Ah, that's it," Polaris said, "The Court of Owls are Barbatos's minions. They wanted to trigger Batman's inner dark power, but messed up. So they had no choice but to bring pollution, remake the Joker, hoping the two could be evenly matched."

"How to put it," Polaris entered the critique segment, "If you say this is the act of a brain-fried supervillain, it's somewhat understandable. A secret organization ruling Gotham, just this level? Do they even rule clearly?"

Bruce very much wanted to join the critique with two sentences, but couldn't speak. The Court of Owls' setting is indeed strange. Originally, it should be a group of old, cunning foxes secretly manipulating the government, like a federal shadow government.

But these conspirators don't do politics; they favor mysticism. Their way of controlling Gotham isn't manipulating elections, economy, or stock markets, but trying to adulterate buildings, poison Batman, and pollute Gotham's water supply.

On the surface, these methods seem fine—after all, many still work. But upon closer thought, it's wrong.

These people are ordinary humans, no superpowers. Without any talent or superpower, forcibly entering the mysticism field, the best outcome is mutual destruction. Fact proves it's true. When the Court of Owls' plan succeeds, Batman gets nothing good, but they might die even faster than him.

The Court of Owls' motives have always been strange. If you say they want to conquer Earth, sit atop power, but completely disregard their own safety and lifespan, this Gotham pollution plan, even if executed perfectly, probably can't guarantee no self-harm. Yet they don't care, only chasing profit, utterly disregarding whether they have lives to spend.

If you say they're just blinded by faith in demons, willing to pay any cost to fulfill Barbatos's command, then using ordinary human methods would actually be most efficient. You don't bankrupt Wayne Enterprises—poisoning and assassination aren't that easy to succeed.

Brainiac seemingly also can't understand the Court of Owls' internal logic, but he perfectly replicated their chaos-inducing methods and matched their level. Failing to grasp Batman, they tried making a Joker to counter him, ending with both losing control, pollution swallowing the eastern district, and the Court of Owls clearly not escaping unscathed.