Capítulo 3027: Chapter 2183: Battle of the Twin Cities! (24)_1
Joker was wandering around New City.
He had a goal unknown to all the lunatics in Arkham – he wanted to investigate a matter that had always puzzled him.
Joker felt like he had lost something.
This Joker could be considered the darkest and most insane of them all, due to his lack of origin story.
When the Joker of the New 52 universe debuted, he was Red Hood number one, not Jason, but the boss of Red Hood Gang, the leader of a mob organization.
The Red Hood Gang targeted Bruce Wayne numerous times, leading him into peril until Batman appeared.
Batman defeated Red Hood No. 1, who fell into a vat of chemicals and turned into the Joker. That's all the backstory of the New 52 Joker.
Without the worst day of his life, New 52 Joker had an unfortunate childhood. However, you could say he was just born to be bad, shaping his own evil and choosing his own path.
The moment Joker appeared, he became Batman's arch-nemesis, causing numerous high-profile cases in Gotham. Everything was normal until one day when it wasn't.
Lately, Joker had been having a dream in which he shattered into tens of thousands of pieces, drifting among the galaxies, then reassembling.
In his dream, he saw that his present self wasn't truly him, neither was his past self. There was an even older past, which was now entirely elusive.
Unnoticeable traces of it remained. No one around seemed to realize this, but Joker's genius and sensitivity, equivalent to his madness, made him aware that he must have lost something.
The next step was simple. He needed to find the differences between the two universes, between him and Batman in the two universes, between him and the Joker in this new city.
Joker wasn't exactly sure what stage the Joker of this universe had reached, whether he had yet to emerge, or whether he had already become Batman's mortal enemy.
To find the first clue for his investigation, the best method was to read the news, for if Joker had appeared, the news would certainly cover the major incidents he caused.
Joker casually walked to a newsstand on the street, knocked on the window, bought a paper, and sauntered into an alley to read it.
The cover of the newspaper surprised him - the Brooklyn Bridge had collapsed. Even though Joker didn't know the Brooklyn Bridge, he knew this must be a major event.
Was it a bombing incident caused by his alternate self in this universe?
Joker read every word on the newspaper carefully, then realized, he might be illiterate.
He knew what each word meant individually, but when combined, they became incomprehensible.
What does "S.H.I.E.L.D witnessed the Green Goblin who once enraged the Hulk kidnap the Hulk causing the collapse of the Brooklyn Bridge with the mage assassin Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on it flying into the Stark Building only for a mysterious superhero to return the Stark Building to Gotham Dock" even mean?
Even though he could not figure out the specifics of the incident, Joker knew it might not be a bombing incident he caused. He then turned to an article about a mass power outage on Ger Street.
After a careful read, it seemed irrelevant to him. He saw news about a large amount of sand piled up at the port and a sugar factory being attacked, which didn't appear to be his handiwork either.
As he continued flipping, more strange cases appeared in front of Joker. There were explosions at parking lots, underground tunnels, television station rooftops, ice cream trucks, totaling over 50 incidents, but no sign of Joker.
Great, it seemed that Joker hadn't become Joker yet. That was his first thought, but he quickly realized that conclusion might be inaccurate, considering the competitive intensity of the city.
Joker was a human. Theoretically, he needed to do groceries, cook, eat, sleep, and watch TV when he wasn't causing explosions.
This was why Spider-Man had given Joker such a hard time previously. He only needed to disrupt Joker's leisure activities, which were a significant part of Joker's life.
But if over 50 large-scale explosion incidents occurred in a city in a single day, Joker, who could cause a maximum of three meaningful incidents if he spent the entire 24 hours executing his plans, would probably be drowned in the sea of explosion news. Reporters might not even have time to cover his stories.
From the descriptions of the culprits in the explosion incidents reported on the newspaper, none of them had any financial demand or tragic backstory. About half of the occurrences were related to the loss of mutant control, another half involved superpower criminals seeking attention, and a tiny part were caused by conflicts among superhero teams.
Joker had had enough of the dull paper. Since he couldn't find any clues on the news, he would have to stake out the spots where Joker usually emerges.
When it comes to Joker, many people might think of a chemical plant. But in reality, Joker neither lives nor often visits a chemical plant. That was just a fleeting moment in his life.
Putting himself in his own shoes in this universe, Joker believed that he should be living in a slum. So, he headed in the direction of the most densely populated area.
However, judging by the style of nearby buildings and the cars parked by the street, this seemed to be a wealthy neighborhood. The slums were still some distance away.
As soon as he rounded a corner, Joker saw a police car marked with a familiar badge, obviously from the Gotham Police Department, and another unrecognizable car next to it. It probably belonged to a special agent organization.
Staring at the shield-shaped logo, Joker squinted his eyes. By the looks of the agents standing by the car, this organization wouldn't be easy to deal with - the agents seemed more like a pack of hungry wolves eyeing their prey rather than the messengers of justice.
Joker stood in the shadow of the alley, peeking at the situation on the street. Amid the blaring sirens and loud noises, he heard someone say.
"Who would've thought this place was hiding their killer too. If it wasn't for that... what was it... Mutant? Going crazy out of the blue, we may not have been able to gouge them out."
The Joker spotted a burly man in a suit standing behind a car. His hair was combed impeccably. He heard a nearby cop refer to him as Detective Brock.
Another man, dressed more casually, leaned against the guard rail. He was also muscular, with very short hair. He said to Brock, "Mr. Brock, I must correct your views on the mutants. They are indeed somewhat unstable, but if it weren't for that bat-embossed fighter jet that suddenly fell, he wouldn't have gone berserk from the shock."
"But our people spotted the Mecha, from... Iron Man? Is that what he's called? Perhaps they had a minor skirmish in the air. Mr. Coulson, maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. should enact some new air safety regulations."
"We will." Before stepping on the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle, Coulson turned to Brock and said, "And that toy-related murder case that took place here, it's probably not the work of a mutant."
As the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle drove away, Brock's face fell. It's not that he necessarily wanted to contend with S.H.I.E.L.D. on city security, but if the problems they both faced got tangled up, one of them had to take primary responsibility.
Brock waved at his subordinates. The assassin hit by the tranquilizer dart was carried onto the transport truck. The man had a talon tattoo on his arm, evidently from the recently discovered and under investigation, the Court of Owls.
Once the transport carrying the assassin was off the street, Brock called over another subordinate and asked, "What about the criminal called Toy-man? He's got some bad luck, encountering such chaos while being transported. How long has he been waiting for?"
"His prison truck has been waiting here for half an hour, Detective." The district's sheriff looked at his watch and continued, "The road ahead has been sealed off by S.H.I.E.L.D., no vehicles can pass, he's just been waiting."
"What did he do again?"
"He can create movable toys. He used these toys to sneak into his neighbors' house, killing their newborn baby and their dog. But when we went to arrest him, he didn't resist."
"He stayed in his seat spouting nonsense, saying he was the best toy designer in the world, and his neighbor's kid deserves to die for giving his toy to the dog to play with."
With a headache emerging, Brock clenched his forehead, stopping the officer from speaking more and said, "Alright, we know about this, but S.H.I.E.L.D. mustn't know. Remember, chaotic as New York might be, when it comes to psychos, Gotham still takes the cake."
After saying this, he waved his hand, indicating for the officer to quickly sort out traffic ahead so that the prisoner vehicle with the Toy-man could pass. Due to the sudden crash of the Batplane, the provoked mutant, and the exposed Talon caught in the chaos, the Toy-man's transport had already been delayed by half an hour.
Serving criminals had to queue now, Brock sighed in his heart, but didn't take it seriously and turned to walk towards the other side of the street.
"No!!!!!!"
An officer's scream echoed in the air. Brock ran over swiftly and all he could see was the wide-open prison truck door, the empty inside, an officer bleeding profusely nearby, and a blood-soaked pitchfork.
Bang!
An explosion echoed from the other side of the street. Jittery from the recent events, Brock glanced at the crime scene before deciding to head towards the explosion site first. The crowd there hadn't dispersed yet, and an explosion would endanger many more people.
The Police Chief and the surviving officers also pulled out their guns and ran towards the scene. Soon, the figure of the Joker appeared at the prison truck door. He bent down to pick up a strand of hair from the back of the officer's body.
He gently twirled the strand between his fingers. Under the streetlights, it blinked for a moment. With the faint reflection, the Joker saw that it was a long, green hair.
A playful grin appeared on the Joker's face. It seemed that another version of him had become the Joker. He then looked down at the corpse on the ground again. Was this his debut fight?
Just as the Joker was about to take a closer look at whether the footprint was intentionally left by the person, he heard a noise on the roof of a nearby building.
The Joker instinctively ducked, crawling into the prison truck and pulling the door halfway shut. He shrunk into a corner and peered out.
A familiar figure landed. It was Bruce Wayne.
Of course, Batman couldn't possibly leave the Joker alone. He must've been tirelessly pursuing the Joker and found evidence of his crimes here again.
Found evidence of the Joker's crimes.
Found the Joker's crime…
Found…
Batman didn't find it.
Batman turned and walked away.
The Joker was left stunned.
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