Chapter 2529: Cape Contention War (50)

The Robins all gathered around the bed, while Barbara stood beside it, clutching her head, her eyes filled with confusion.

"I really can't figure it out, how could both of them have fallen into a coma just during an afternoon nap?"

Barbara's tone was tinged with undeniable guilt and anxiety, Tim stepped forward to comfort her, saying, "This means the enemy targeted your weakness and struck when you were resting."

Nightwing was on the side, bandaging his wound. Upon hearing that the Arkham Knight was in trouble, he hurried back, encountering the monsters in the dense fog on the way. After a struggle, although he escaped successfully, he dislocated his arm and cut his neck.

The Robins from the Schiller Universe didn't fare well either. Although they decided to stay put upon receiving the message, the fog clearly had other plans, and another attack soon hit them. Jason was already injured, and the three almost didn't make it.

Moreover, after waiting for a long time, there was no sign of the fog dissipating. They realized that the fog's pattern might have changed. Even moving together felt inadequate, so they decided to regroup with the others first.

The journey to regroup was fraught with strange events, one after another. If not for their unwavering determination and quick reactions, they might have struggled to return to the Bell Tower in one piece.

Apart from the troublesome cut on Jason's leg, Dick tripped and twisted his foot during a chase, and Tim had a scraped arm that he was disinfecting and bandaging.

The three from the Prime Universe were the least injured, because they were the most comprehensively trained and had the best equipment. Working together, only Nightwing took a hit from an alien's tail, causing his back to swell a bit, but the others were unharmed.

Although this was the case, with only two people at full fighting strength, there wasn't much they could do. They decided to convene in the Bell Tower for a temporary rest, hoping to plan their next step after the fog cleared.

But as soon as they got upstairs, they saw Barbara's somewhat panicky expression.

Barbara had the habit of napping. Looking after the Arkham Knight didn't require constant vigilance, so she planned to sleep a little to replenish her energy before continuing to provide remote support to the Robins.

However, when she woke up and tried to get Spider Man up to eat something, and at the same time give the Arkham Knight some water, she discovered that neither responded no matter how much she called.

Barbara immediately realized something was wrong and hurriedly called all the Robins who had rushed back to figure out what was happening.

The other Robins might not have known what was going on, but both the Red Hood and Red Robin from the Prime Universe had read many magic books and had some understanding. After a check, they could only confirm that the two's souls were missing.

And Robin from the Arkham Universe brought a detection device to scientifically reach the same conclusion: there was nothing wrong with their bodies; it was just that their brainwaves were no longer active, and their brains weren't functioning.

The Robins began to reason. The Prime Universe and the Arkham Universe both believed they might have been attacked by the fog, forcing their souls to leave their bodies—or perhaps the fog's master, the Evil God, had absorbed their souls.

But the Robins of the Schiller Universe had a different idea. Jason, stroking his chin, said, "If the fog needed our souls, it wouldn't just be absorbing them now. From its first arrival, when we were completely unprepared, it could have devoured every part of us already."

"Before the fog changed, those two were fine, and their souls vanished after it changed. This indicates that the disappearance must be related to the change. The question is what caused it and what happened after."

"I came back from around Wayne Tower and noticed some anomalies," Nightwing spoke up. "Remember those crazy Robins with wide-open mouths? They seemed strange."

"Strange how?"

"As if they were bewildered, without a purpose, some were wandering in groups, others were simply standing still, lost in thought. Could it mean that their master is in trouble?"

"Right." Everyone suddenly had a realization at that moment, "Where is King Robin?"

"He blew up the Capitol Building, delivered a speech on TV announcing his coronation and led a gigantic legion of monstrous Robins into Gotham. Why such silence now?"

"It seems King Robin ran into trouble," Red Robin logically speculated. "The fog wasn't his doing, but it's been disrupting his plans. Maybe King Robin struggled against the fog, and both met their ends."

"I don't think they perished together, but they were undoubtedly affected by this confrontation. King Robin has disappeared, perhaps severely injured and recuperating somewhere, and the fog has changed, maybe also wounded by King Robin."

"Could it be that the fog needs their souls to heal?"

With this conjecture, everyone felt a shiver of dread. Could it be that the fog devoured Spider Man and the Arkham Knight's souls?

"But why those two?" Jason asked again. "If it's about soul energy, shouldn't we be much stronger than them?"

Everyone's gaze focused on the Arkham Knight's face; there was no doubt that the person lying in the hospital bed was far from healthy. If it was about being full of soul energy, anyone present had more than he did.

In the police station office, Batman and Batwoman were considering this point as well. If the soul was useful to the fog, then since the fog could quietly consume people's souls, it should look for healthier individuals with more energy, rather than specifically targeting the sick.

The piece of information Batman had over Robin was the hole he saw at the original portal site, which might lead to the Dreamworld.

This clue was key. With the addition of "dream" as a crucial word, it wasn't hard to deduce why the ones missing their souls now were the Arkham Batman and Superman from the Arkham Universe.

Both of them were in a weakened state, needing to recover. The Arkham Batman was on the brink of unconsciousness due to excessive blood loss. Under Batman's treatment and care, he needed sleep to regain strength, and he was aware of this, so he wouldn't resist sleep.

Superman, on the other hand, was attacked by Kryptonite. Although it was unclear what the multicolored Kryptonite was for, it was obvious that Superman also fell into a half-asleep state because of severe weakness.

Sleep is a prerequisite to enter dreams, and these two losing their souls was probably because they fell asleep.

After Batman shared this hypothesis, Batwoman immediately countered, "Look at all the people lying in the streets anesthetized; their brainwaves are normal, aren't they? Aren't they also sleeping?"

Batman shook his head and said, "I haven't gotten to my conclusion yet. The fact that everyone is sleeping but only these two lost their souls proves that this isn't a mass dream state."

"So..."

"So it might not be the fog's doing." Batman inferred, "Although I suspect the anesthetizing of the citizens may be related to the fog, from what the fog has shown so far, it doesn't target specific individuals. All the anomalies it causes are on a large scale, and it has not yet demonstrated the ability to pull people into dreams."

"On the contrary, the hole that appeared at the location of the portal." Batman circled an area on the map in the police station office and said, "That thing appeared much earlier than the fog, according to Poison Ivy. She first detected that type of energy several months ago."

"This hole likely leads to the Dreamworld, meaning someone was ready to pull people into dreams several months before the fog appeared, it's just that it coincidentally collided with the fog."

Batman paused for a moment, quickly overturning his earlier conclusion, "No, it might not be a coincidence. He wants us to think so, to believe that the outbreak of fog is the main culprit behind the dream entries to cover up his surreptitious deeds."

"How could he be sure that the fog would erupt?" Batwoman asked.

"It's probably not anticipation." Batman tapped the desk lightly with a pen and said, "It's likely that he facilitated the eruption of the fog."

"Think about it, before the mass eruption of the fog, these people were fine, but they all collapsed into unconsciousness after the outbreak. Using common sense, what would you think?"

"Maybe the fog absorbed these people's souls." Clark said, "Anyway, that's all I can think of if I were guessing."

"This is probably the real purpose of the mastermind behind the scenes." Batman furrowed his brows and stared at the map, "He first planted a mass of energy underground in the city, leading Poison Ivy to detonate it. It seemed like a portal was opened, but the portal and the King Robin who passed through it are probably diversions."

"What Poison Ivy truly unleashed was not a portal to other universes but a pathway to the Dreamworld. However, King Robin's high-profile actions and Batman's death turned everyone's attention away."

"At that moment, the true mastermind removed the portal's disguise, revealing the pathway to the Dreamworld that was already there, and somehow stimulated the fog to erupt."

"The fog itself obscures vision, blocks communication, and significantly drops the senses of superpowered individuals; it's an excellent cover for infiltration. He could easily appear in the fog without anyone noticing and stealthily steal the target's soul, transporting it into the Dreamworld through the passage."

"And what people see on the surface is just the sudden outbreak of the fog, while at the same time, important individuals fall into unconsciousness. Considering the eerie behavior of the fog before the outbreak and the dangerous state within the fog, everyone will view the fog as the real enemy."

"And the real mastermind could just sit back and fish." Batwoman followed his train of thought, "He could even have those people and the mysterious entity behind the fog fight each other to the death."

"Do you think they would do that?" Batwoman looked down at the unconscious Arkham Batman, knowing the 'those people' she referred to were Batman's Robins. If they knew Batman was unconscious, they would certainly do everything possible to find the real culprit behind Batman's plight.

Actually, Batman wasn't sure either; he didn't have full confidence the Robins wouldn't do that, because he had noticed their quiet competition.

While Batman was present, out of respect for his authority, the Robins dared not act rashly, but as soon as he was absent, even if it was to vie for his mantle or to carry on his legacy, these birds might well end up fighting each other till they bled.

An argument indeed erupted in the Bell Tower. The Robins from the Arkham Universe believed it was probably the fog's doing; to save the Arkham Knight and to locate the now missing Batman, they should search for the secret behind the fog.

The Robins from the Prime Universe weren't as sure, but they also felt they had to find Batman.

Only the Robins from the Schiller Universe had a different idea. "If you care so much about Batman," one suggested, "why not care about Batman's objective? Remember the call earlier? Batman wanted us to find the cape. As Robins, shouldn't we complete the task Batman assigned first?"