civilwarnovels Chapter 3773 Rapid Pursuit (8)
Chapter 3773 Rapid Pursuit (8)
Chapter 3773 Rapid Pursuit (18)
An agent's loaded gun will never fire even half a second late.
He slowly lowered his arm as he watched Elliott fall, struck in the heart. The shareholders who rushed in after Elliott, Talia, Harvey Dent, Jason Todd, Oswald Copperfield, and finally Dick, all stared at Schiller in shock.
“FBI Special Investigator Schiller Rodriguez,” Schiller said expressionlessly, “The FBI suspects Thomas Elliott of murdering the Elliotts, and I was assigned to investigate. During the standoff, he refused to cooperate and assaulted an officer. I will charge him with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. Do you have any questions?”
"You killed him!" Dante stepped forward, staring incredulously at Elliott's body lying on the ground. "Even if you wanted to investigate, you couldn't just kill him!"
“I told you, he assaulted a police officer.”
Dante stared at Schiller in disbelief, trying to find even a trace of guilt on his face. But unfortunately, Schiller, like every FBI special agent, was ruthless and merciless.
"Wait, Agent, you just said that Thomas killed his parents?! My God, how is that possible?"
“How old was Thomas when the Elliotts died? How could he do something so cruel? I never imagined he was this kind of person…”
"Could it be that the Wayne couple's case back then was also..."
"Jesus, I knew something was wrong right then and there. We had actually worked with a murderer for so long; just thinking about it sends chills down my spine!"
"Didn't you hear what the detective said? He even dared to assault a police officer! I saw him throwing things in the preparation room during the bridge bidding process. He's a violent maniac!"
The shareholders were abuzz with discussion, seemingly unable to believe what Elliott had done. But their back-and-forth quickly sealed Elliott's guilt, and incidentally confirmed that he had assaulted a police officer.
“Alright, everyone calm down,” Batman said. “When the agent showed me the evidence, I didn’t believe it either. I never imagined my good friend Thomas could be this kind of person. The Elliotts took me in when I was homeless; they were like my own parents, but Thomas killed me. I really don’t know how to express how I feel right now…”
"Oh my God, Bruce. You're the biggest victim. This must have been terrible for you. Are you okay?"
"I'm sorry, I just recovered from depression not long ago, and my doctor told me to avoid any stress. I might need to rest for a while."
The shareholders wisely withdrew, leaving only a few stakeholders who refused to leave, including Jason, Dante, and Cobbler, as well as Talia and Dick, who represented the League of Assassins and the Court of Owls, respectively.
Schiller looked at them with hostility.
“You will all be subject to an FBI investigation,” he said before the others could speak. “If I were you, I would be rushing to destroy the evidence instead of standing here foolishly trying to revive Elliott through your eyes.”
"What on earth is going on?!" Jason was clearly in a state of panic; he had no idea what had happened.
Batman from Arkham glanced down at Elliott's corpse, then at the gun in Schiller's hand, and said, "No safety."
The others looked at him. Jason asked, "What?"
"The gun in his hand was not on safety."
"so what?"
"From raising your hand to firing, it takes less than a second; no one can stop you."
The group silently took a few steps back.
“Okay, Bruce. If he did it back then, then he deserved it. But we still need to talk about the presidential nomination.” Talia extended her hand to Bruce and said, “We think you’re a better partner. We’ll support you the same way we supported Elliott, and I guarantee it’ll all be legal. We’ll also help you resolve the negative impact of Elliott’s death. Don’t act impulsively, okay?”
“You should consider the Court of Owls more,” Dick said, arms crossed. “The League of Assassins’ influence in the Americas is far less than in Asia. The Court of Owls is the right choice for Gotham.”
“I just want to ask,” Cobbert said, extending a hand, “that no matter who takes the helm of Wayne Enterprises, our cooperation will remain the same, right? If that’s the case, I’d be happy for Wayne Enterprises to return to its rightful owners.”
“That’s what I think too,” Jason said. “You have to ensure the continuation of the business partnership between Wayne Enterprises and Red Line. You can’t break the contract just because someone’s changed. As for Elliott, who cares?”
"How could you do this?!" Dante looked at them disapprovingly. "There's clearly something wrong with what happened today, how could you..."
"How much do you know about the Wayne couple's deaths?" Schiller suddenly asked. "What about the Elliott couple? Why haven't the murderers of these two prominent business couples received the trials they deserved, Your Honor?"
Dante's face turned very ugly.
Talia and Dick struck almost simultaneously. With two swift movements, darts slit throats and claws pierced hearts.
“Let bygones be bygones,” Dick said, looking at Dante’s body. “Dredging up old cases does no good for anyone. Mr. Wayne, if you can’t swallow this, the Court of Owls can help you kill the murderer.”
“We don’t need you.” Talia walked over and put a hand on Batman’s shoulder. “The League of Assassins is at your service, Mr. Wayne.”
“I’m a little tired,” Batman said. “Let’s talk about business and past cases tomorrow.”
Some of them were unwilling to give up, but they looked at each other and none of them dared to be the first to do so. Instead, they all left.
After Batman was left alone in the office, the door to the lounge slowly opened. A thin, hunched figure walked out.
“Good evening, Alfred,” Batman said. “Is he here?”
The aged Alfred nodded slowly.
Batman heard a noise on the windowsill. He turned his head, and a bolt of lightning ripped through the Gotham rainy night, revealing a terrifying figure standing outside the window.
A strange man covered in bandages walked in.
“Why make yourself like this?” Batman sighed. “I know what you want to ask. Why do those cold-blooded and cruel shareholders, those heinous criminals, seem to have suddenly changed their ways and are all on my side?”
A strange man covered in bandages stepped into the light. His uniform was somewhat like Batman's, but all his exposed skin was wrapped in bandages, making him seem like a combination of Batman and Silence.
"No, they didn't side with me, they just side with the benefits I could bring them. I did a better job than Elliott."
The other person didn't speak, but Batman, as if he could read minds, continued, "You want to ask, I only made an appearance at the shareholders' meeting, how did I do any better than him?"
Batman suddenly sneered and said, "In their eyes, Elliott locked me in an asylum for decades and couldn't kill me, while I killed him just hours after I got back. That's a clear difference in skill."
Batman turned around, looking into the silent Batman with his blue eyes, and said, "If you hide in the shadows like a demon and take them out one by one, you will indeed have avenged them. But what will become of Gotham?"
“Elliott’s authoritarian rule is not a long-term solution. To restore true order to the city, we need a wise ruler to govern it for the long term. Who else but you has that ability?”
"Yes, you have no obligation to do so. But shouldn't the people who helped you survive in the mental hospital for decades be enjoying a better life? Don't you want to repay them?"
“Believe me, Bruce. The best way to repay them is to restore order to this city and make people’s lives better. That’s what your parents would have wanted too.”
"...Who exactly are you?" The bandaged man's voice was so hoarse that it was almost impossible to recognize Bruce.
"And you?" Batman countered, "A demon seeking revenge, or an angel repaying kindness?"
“Neither,” he replied. “I am silence.”
Arkham Batman and Schiller walked out of the office together. On their way out of Wayne Tower, Arkham Batman said, "Do you think there's any hope for Batman in this universe?"
Schiller walked forward in silence. Once inside the elevator, he seemed to only just realize what was happening and said, "Sorry, I was just wondering why the Laughter would come to this universe. Is there anything special about this place?"
“Although he seems a bit desperate, I don’t think it’s that simple,” Arkham Batman said. “He has some ability to foresee the future, and may have already guessed his failure in the previous universe. So coming here is very likely to make up for that failure.”
"Make amends? Make amends with what?"
"The Batman of this universe is special."
"for example?"
"He was put in a mental hospital."
"what do you mean……"
The two walked around the corner of the corridor together. Arkham Batman said in a low voice, "Almost every Bruce Wayne in every universe lost his parents in the same way. Have you heard of any who were driven insane by it?"
"That might be Elliott's scheme."
"But the shareholders' attitude has proven that Wayne Enterprises has people protecting him. If they were able to keep him from being killed all these years, they must have been even more vigilant back then. If he wasn't truly mentally unstable, they wouldn't have sent him to a mental hospital."
"You mean, he's really gone mad?"
"At least that was the case during that period. Whether it is now or not, he must have shown some abnormalities during that time, which led even his butler and shareholders, who wanted to protect him, to have him receive treatment first."
"But you're not that fragile."
"Yes. This proves that what caused his mental problems may not have been the death of his parents, but something else."
Schiller suddenly remembered Bruce from the universe where Pride resided. The reason Pride and the Joker wanted to enter his mental world was because his mental state was somewhat unstable.
Schiller paused.
Could the Silent Batman be one of the backups of the Laughing Maniac? Does he also have the Laughing Egg inside him?
Schiller turned and walked towards the elevator: "Quick! Go back and find Batman!"
Arkham Batman had no idea how much he had deduced in that instant, so he asked, "What's going on?"
"The Batman Who Laughs cannot predict my actions. So even if he foresaw the failure in the previous world, he would assume it was you who was hunting him down. And you would never kill anyone."
"so what?"
“Since you won’t kill him, he has no reason to activate the backup. So the only reason he lured you here is that he wants to transfer the backup.”
Schiller's mind raced, and he quickly pieced everything together. He said, "The Laughing Manifesto first caused your mission to fail in the previous universe, knowing you wouldn't give up easily, so it deliberately revealed its presence to lure you in, then pretended to be defeated and fled to this universe, luring you here as well. Then, it transferred the Egg of Laughing into your body."
"why?"
“Because you’re strong enough,” Schiller said. “You’re probably one of the strongest Batmen in the multiverse. He wants your body!”
Let's begin!