Capítulo 2881: Chapter 2063: Knight's Frightening Night (V)_1
The lights of the truck shone on the dark street and curved around a corner, making a standard arc. As the light on the rising barrier was switched on, a soft glow highlighted the carved name on the factory gate- "ACE Chemical Factory".
Urgent raindrops relentlessly battered the top of the vehicle. In the corner of the sealed cargo hold, two figures huddled, their arms tied behind their backs. The uneven movement of the vehicle caused the light from the crack of the door to sweep across their faces, round and round.
"What the hell did you feed him?" Poison Ivy asked Peter with a complicated expression, adjusting the position of her bound arm so that blood could flow properly.
"You could understand it as a sort of live drug," Peter said, eyes fixated on the light peeking through the crack of the door. His eyelashes, when lit, looked like a sharp blade, "At first, it lays low in a person's body, totally undetectable, then gradually influences your mind with its unique characteristics."
"So is it a creature or a drug?"
"A creature," Peter said, facing Poison Ivy, "It's an intelligent creature called a Symbiont, capable of communication. Its primary method of survival is parasitism."
Poison Ivy shuddered. Peter continued, "The most specific characteristic of this life form is that it perfectly inherits the personality traits of the previous host, and silently influences the next one."
"The Red Bee has been in my body for a long time now, so even if the opponent is a wicked villain, given some time, they will surely experience a change of heart."
"Do you even have a heart?!" Poison Ivy exclaimed in anguish, "You just destroyed Gotham a few minutes ago. You make Scarecrow look like a conservative, and Joker seems sluggish compared to you!"
Peter blinked, the light in his lashes vanished. He shifted slightly before whispering, "Shh, we're almost there."
The truck slowly pulled into ACE's Chemical Factory underground parking lot, turned in a tunnel full of caution signs. When the red traffic signal lit up, the truck came to a halt.
The driver left the vehicle and it was quiet for a while before the sound of the garage door opening echoed out, the voice of the defeated getting closer.
"......they fell down in an instant, completely insane. I don't know how it happened; it must've been that damned Stagg's conspiracy! It's a good thing I gave them face masks in advance to protect them from the fear gas."
"But this is completely illogical. He couldn't possibly open the door of the laboratory and execute his plan all by himself. What did he use to bring the entire city to its knees?!"
"Are you scared?" The low voice echoed again.
"Of course not." The other party raised his voice, saying, "But this wasn't in my plan. I gave Batman a twenty-four-hour buffer just to buy time; it was nothing more than a feint."
"I needed time to wait for the final completion of the cloud burst device, and time to punish Batman by taking out the people who matter most to him."
"But now that Gotham is on the verge of destruction, Batman is sure to go mad, and if all the people he cares about die, he won't let us live!"
"You sound like a coward who's afraid to die."
"You... okay, smart Arkham Knight, tell me where you nabbed Batman's sidekick from. How did you get into the Batcave?"
"I didn't go in; they ran out on their own."
"Hmm, they're as foolish as I expected." The man opposite sighed.
"If everyone else in Gotham City falls into a coma, their life or death uncertain, Batman will not be distracted by anything else. He will focus on hunting us down, and we must find a way to protect ourselves."
"Open the door. They're our last chance."
With the click of the lock, the cargo hold door opened. Peter squinted his eyes to adjust to the sudden influx of light. As the dazzling light dissipated, he saw a man wearing a sackcloth mask.
"Scarecrow..." Poison Ivy softly spoke his name and then, in a cold tone, said, "Long time no see."
"Hahaha, Poison Ivy, why are you here again? How can your old beau, Batman, bear to let you fall into my hands again?" Scarecrow's tone was always grim, his body emitted the scent of real straw rotting.
The men that came with Scarecrow pulled the two from the vehicle and threw them onto the ground. Scarecrow walked towards Peter, using his withered hand to lift Peter's face.
"Look, another fresh flower. Honestly, does the rich man have some kind of special hobby? The boys he picks are pretty hot. If given to Penguin Man, they'd earn a fortune at his strip club."
By this time, Peter had shed his youthful innocence and was really starting to mature, both in appearance and physique, beginning to exhibit the charm of a mature man.
He exuded a unique temperament. The rationality of a scholar and the wildness of a beast overlapped in him, and when he lifted his eyes to focus on someone, there was an inexplicable mysterious chill.
Scarecrow flung his hand, Peter's head tilted to the side, leaving a shallow cut on his jawline.
Poison Ivy's mouth twitched. She said, "I didn't expect you to have this hobby. Did you fool a lot of students when you were at university? Do you plan to make me watch your romance all night?"
Even though he was wearing a mask, you could clearly feel Scarecrow's expression darken; he said grimly, "You should be talking more, because very soon, you'll never speak again."
"What a weak threat." Poison Ivy turned her head to the side.
Scarecrow turned to look at the man known as the Arkham Knight and asked, "Did you inform Batman?"
"Of course, he should have received the message by now. Have you and your men set up the clues?"
"I'm quicker than you." Scarecrow turned to look at the solution tanks lined against the wall and said, "Batman will soon follow the tire tracks here, and then realize he's been tricked again. There's nothing here beside a bomb."
"Even though I would like to see his disappointed face, we have to quickly take the hostages and leave to keep buying time."
"Of course." Arkham Knight nodded, then said, "But I don't think you'd mind if I left a message for the old man. Maybe he'll get so angry he'll call you."
After a sneer, Scarecrow said, "As you wish, let's go."
With that, he and his men took Poison Ivy and Peter onto another car, leaving the Arkham Knight behind. The Knight then walked over to a wall, dipped his finger into a mysterious glowing solution, and wrote a line on the wall.
"I once trusted you so much."
As he finished writing this line, Arkham Knight stood there, scenes flashing one after the other before his eyes.
Suddenly, he heard a voice questioning him.
"Then why not tell him directly?"
"Stop joking, he's Batman," Arkham Knight heard himself answer.
He shook his head briskly, took one last look at the empty underground garage, pressed his mask to confirm the anti-fear gas filtration device was still functioning, then turned and walked away.
As one dark figure exited, another arrived. The brakes screeched abruptly, splashing water around the corner. Heavy footsteps echoed in the vacant underground garage.
There was nothing left behind, but when Batman turned his head, he saw the glowing line of text amidst the darkness.
"I once trusted you so much."
Batman walked up to the words, gently touching the glowing liquid. His finger picked up a bit of the glowing pigment. Unbeknownst to him, the red spots in the pigment gradually turned fluorescent green, sinking into his glove, and disappearing into his body.
The next second, the bright explosion in the rain night became the last light of the night.
The military jeep sped through the streets, and in the back seat, Peter and Poison Ivy exchanged a glance. Peter blinked several times at her, nudging her arm gently.
Poison Ivy turned to see Peter gesturing out the window. She raised an eyebrow, Peter shrugged and pointed at the window again.
Wait, his hand was free?
"Ugh!!!"
The driver was being choked by Peter, and thin vines instantly unlocked the car door. With a bang, the door was kicked open, Poison Ivy felt as if she was flung out by someone grabbing her arm.
Peter followed suit and chose door over window in his escape, using the door as a shield to block the bullets fired by Scarecrow's men from the caravans.
The two dashed into a building, leaving behind only braking sounds and Scarecrow's furious curses.
Due to the defunct electrical maintenance system, they had to rush upstairs. They made it about ten floors up before stopping in the stairwell to catch their breaths.
"Good boy, Batman really struck gold with you as his assistant," Poison Ivy gasped, "In just an hour, you've managed to offend both the good and evil sides. What's our plan now?"
Before Peter could answer, he heard Schiller's voice in his ear, "Peter, how are you? What are you doing now?"
"Running away, Doctor."
"Good, remember to run fast."
Poison Ivy cast a quizzical look at Peter, who was momentarily lost in his thoughts. After he snapped back, he let out a breath and asked, "If I told you that anesthetizing everyone in the city with plant toxins was only step one of my plan, would you want to fight me?"
"Honestly, I really, really want to beat you up right now," Poison Ivy continued gasping for air, "Why don't you try dropping that damn shield for once."
Peter immediately lifted the shield in front of him, "I'm not that stupid, and you definitely wouldn't be able to beat me. I've seriously practiced using the shield as a weapon."
"Can you talk about something serious?"
"The second step was to drug Batman."
Poison Ivy started coughing violently.
"And it was successful."
Poison Ivy almost choked herself to death.
"This amazing symbiote race can produce offspring by dividing themselves," Peter sat on the windowsill behind him to rest and continued, "They only need to divide a few factors to create a new offspring, and as per my research, direct descendants of the symbiote often harbor a strong animosity towards their parent, or what can be understood as appetite."
"It can also be interpreted that they want to return to the main body and merge back with the parent. The more energy they consume, the stronger this desire. This intense desire, incomprehensible to humans, subtly influences the host's state of mind, making them blindly pursue."
"So?"
"I placed the symbiote inside Arkham Knight, and let the symbiote leave its dividing factors in the underground garage. If all has gone as planned, the descendant of the symbiote should be inside Batman by now,"
"Huh?"
"So for the coming period, Batman will follow the symbiote's instinct to pursue Arkham Knight. They will probably have several rounds of fights, giving us a chance to catch our breath."
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