章節 3142: Chapter 2290: The Golden City in Late Autumn (43)_1
Batman was changing his clothes.
Batman had arrived in formal attire for the party, but that was precisely one of his plans: to create the illusion that everything was going to progress smoothly with the tidy appearance of having already prepared for the party before it officially started.
This couldn't really be called deceit, but rather a kind of misdirection to suggest that he was just there for the party and had no other intentions.
But when someone deliberately displays a certain attitude, it proves they're definitely planning to do the exact opposite.
Batman intended to take a tour around Gotham.
Batman had heard of this sunlit Gotham; his first glimpse was when he entered Shiller's Tower of Thought through Bruce's psyche, catching a corner of Gotham's development at that time.
Batman was shocked, but unlike others, he wasn't completely unable to comprehend how it was achieved. Deep down, Batman knew better than anyone how to change Gotham; the only problem was that there had always been irresistible forces hindering him from doing so.
However, it seemed that the irresistible forces troubling the Prime Universe had now vanished, but Gotham in the Prime Universe didn't seem to need saving anymore.
Still, Batman was determined to see the Gotham of Shiller's world, as it hadn't been completely torn down and rebuilt but rather had undergone improvements and modifications. There were bound to be many interesting details in the evolutionary process that were worth observing as novel spectacles.
Therefore, he deliberately wore a somewhat conspicuous colored suit, taking a stroll around the banquet hall just as the party was about to begin. In effect, he left behind an impressionistic afterimage; when one's impression of a person is very strong, they inherently ignore the time and environment of the encounter. Later, when recalling the event, the details of when that person appeared and disappeared blur, a tactic often used to create an alibi.
Five minutes before the party started, Batman left the banquet hall. He found a guest room to change into his bat suit, making his exit while everyone else gathered together, delving into the city to explore, and intending to return before they noticed his absence.
Of course, Batman had prepared his gear. Though it seemed that order had been restored in this Gotham, it was no less dangerous than the City of Darkness, and perhaps made even more dangerous by wayward tourists and delirious teenagers.
Changing into the bat suit was a meticulous process. Unlike the skintight outfits of most superheroes, which are akin to a sharkskin swim suit and simply require putting on the legs followed by the torso and then zipping up, Batman's costume was a modular armor, comparable to medieval attire, with each piece needing to be worn separately, including undergarments, straps, a belt, bodysuit, armor, weapons, and a cape.
Even the most good-looking person cannot strike a heroic pose while squatting, and Batman had to dress according to fundamental principles, from the inside out, piece by piece.
He armed himself quickly, but Pamela was overexcited and hadn't considered the possibility of a defensive attack from Batman as she appeared suddenly. She didn't use the door, but instead directly had vines lift her to the balcony of the guest room.
The moment she landed, Batman heard the noise. But Batman wasn't an average person; while a normal person might choose to cover their exposed areas at such a time, Batman would always unhesitatingly prioritize safety over embarrassment, his first action being to grab a Batman dart.
Why else would they say that hotheaded teenagers are a scourge on the human race? When Pamela landed, she hadn't considered the possibility of Batman attacking her and didn't even bring her vines with her.
Batman was in the midst of putting on his pants, specifically the equestrian pants that Clark described to Lex as relatively sparing in fabric at key parts. Although underwear is worn beneath such pants, his powerful thigh muscles caused Pamela, even if she were a living saint, to freeze for a few seconds.
Batman had also considered the possibility of accidental harm, so he deliberately delayed his response for a few seconds to give the other party a chance to clarify their intentions, but by then Pamela was clearly lust-struck, the Hobgoblin of Lust...
The three Batman darts flew towards Pamela, who was still frozen in place.
"Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The three Batman darts completely blocked the space Pamela could dodge to. Once she realized what was happening, she could only opt to throw herself to the right, but one dart still penetrated her abdomen directly.
In an instant, blood surged.
Then an endless sea of green drowned the entire world; vines surged onto the balcony and shattered the glass door, lashing crazily in the room like tentacles, clearly reflecting the pain of their controller.
Pamela had never suffered such a serious injury. Batman's dart had sliced open her abdomen; her organs spilled out along with the blood, and as she kneeled, her intestines dragged on the ground.
The moment Pamela's scream was heard, Batman knew he had struck the wrong person. But he had no choice but to dodge the assaulting plants out of self-defense. Barely escaping the first wave, he saw Pamela had already fallen.
The Parliament of Trees arrived in shock.
What? How did you two start fighting? Was it that difficult to create a green space for Gotham?! Really?!?!
But as stunned as the Parliament of Trees was, they had to hurry to save Pamela. They quickly tried to drive the vines into Pamela's arms to provide her with Healing factors, but by then, Batman had already reached Pamela's side, shouting at the vines, "Back off."
Inside, the Parliament of Trees wanted to curse. Even if you're Batman, you can't just injure someone and then so self-righteously tell others to back off, can you?!
Batman plunged an emergency needle into Pamela's neck, finally managing to stop her bleeding, but her screams tore through the air like a hot knife through butter, instantly sending the mansion into an uproar.
At this time, the banquet in the front hall had officially started, with Shiller introducing Lex to the guests; most of them listened quietly, offering smiles and applause at appropriate moments to praise Lex's excellence.
As soon as the scream rang out, everyone familiar with Shiller had the same thought at the same moment—something's gone terribly wrong.
And then all the superheroes who were even more familiar with Shiller took several steps back towards the walls, making sure to steer clear of the courtyard above.
It was as if they were playing a game where whoever got hit by the falling corpse would be the unlucky one.
Indeed, there was bound to be a body; they had seen this scene too many times before. As expected, soon a dark figure would fall from the courtyard above and land with a thud, a crimson bloom of blood unfurling beneath them.
But after waiting for more than ten seconds, there was no sign of anything happening. Shiller kept turning his head to look at the corridor on the second floor, seeming to search for the source of the noise.
Now things had really gone south.
The crowd began to rush upstairs as fast as they could.
If this was just another murder scene meticulously orchestrated by Shiller, no one would be afraid, but if even Shiller didn't know where this murder scene had come from, then things were truly troublesome.
However, there was a lot to be said about engaging in strenuous movements during a banquet.
Everyone was dressed to the nines—women with dresses clinging to their buttocks, men with suit trousers hugging their groins, men's pointed leather shoes nearly cutting into their feet to fit, and women's high heels which were nothing short of torture devices. Ordinary people in these outfits couldn't take a proper step.
On the other hand, the fact that those who could move without concern for their attire in their hurry to reach a certain destination were anything but ordinary, Superman was indeed fast, but the Supreme Magician was on a whole other level.
Strange had his suspension ring ready, and the moment he comprehended the situation, he opened a portal right in the face of the source of power.
This was also an instinct of the Supreme Magician; never mind where the screams were or where the chaos was, the strategy was to ride through the portal toward the densest concentration of energy and punch first—it was a defensive trick for Earth handed down from The Ancient One.
Because generally speaking, most of the trouble that shows up in front of the Supreme Magician is due to Demon Gods stirring things up behind the scenes, and if a Demon God wishes to transmit its power, there must be an epicenter where energy erupts. Once the portal opens there and you smack a palm on the perpetrator's face, the troublemaking Demon God vanishes, and naturally, the chaos subsides.
If you ask what happens if he strikes the wrong target, one can only say that, given Marvel's ecology, there's a 99% chance of being right, and the remaining 1% aren't human anyway. Gods that die don't lodge complaints.
Following his instincts, Strange executed his combo move, the portal opened, and he only caught a glimpse of a large green shadow.
"Get out of the way!" he yelled.
All Things Green thought, who are you and why should I get out of the way? Batman is one thing, I can let that slide, but who do you think you are? Should we settle this?
This thought barely lasted a second before an intense glow descended, and two beams of heat vision skimmed past the vines, striking near them—Superman had arrived.
This opponent was not someone All Things Green could afford to challenge. Right on the spot, it wanted to flee, but given the mood that had been set, would this crowd really let it escape so easily?
Then, many people rushed in, not to mention Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Captain America. Unfortunately for Constantine, being vocal was his thing.
"Parliament of Trees?!"
There, with a name like that, it clearly wasn't human. Not many people knew that Pamela was actually the emissary of All Things Green. Now here Pamela lay, with Batman holding her while vicious traces of the whipping vines marked the whole house. Who else but such an oddly-shaped special creature would be the chief culprit?
Not that no one noticed that the wound on Pamela's abdomen was actually made by a sharp weapon, but the bad part was the momentum brought by Strange and Superman when they landed—it turned the murder scene investigation game into a boss battle royale.
Watching the crowd baying for blood, All Things Green certainly wasn't daunted; it was one of the elemental forces of the cosmos, born from the Parliament of Trees. All spirited plants join a collective consciousness after death, known as the Parliament of Trees, which presently uses the green elemental force, also referred to as All Things Green.
Such a conceptual existence actually doesn't fear mundane attacks very much, as long as there are plants on this earth, it can't die, and its power is almost limitless.
All Things Green weighed the options of whether to fight or not. Considering the composition of the petty humans in front of it, the odds weren't entirely against winning, and if it couldn't win, it could still escape.
All Things Green harbored a grudge, or rather, it had never gotten over the upset since its encounter with Shiller. Even plants have tempers, and it had to show these people a thing or two.
In an instant, All Things Green went all out, countless vines burst through the soil, and Rodriguez Manor was transformed into a lush forest of towering woods in the blink of an eye.
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