Chapter 2439: The Struggle of the Bats (Twelve)_1

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Even Gotham, now improved, was dangerous for a stranger to stand on the streets for so long without police to maintain order. Many terrible memories of this City of Darkness flooded Clark's mind.

But he quickly realized it wasn't that he was too relaxed; the place where he stood now wasn't much different from neighboring Metropolis, neither dark, bloody, nor violent, and the demeanor of the people didn't differ from those in Metropolis.

"It looks like Batman has provided for them," Bruce said, looking around. "He must have found some way to rule over the human race, then organized production and distributed resources, eventually leading everyone to a life of happiness."

"So what's going on now?" Diana furrowed her brows deeply.

Bruce shook his head and said, "Resources are still too scarce. Even if we were to distribute everything on Earth completely evenly, achieving absolute fairness, it would only guarantee that everyone has enough to eat and wear, not satisfy their spiritual needs or allow every person to fully realize their self-worth."

"This results in them feeling unfree, still vividly aware of Batman's control over them, and investing too much energy in it—in plain terms, they're idle with full bellies."

Just as Bruce finished speaking, they heard a beep from the communicator. After taking a look, he said, "The other party indeed isn't dead. He's contacted me. Let's follow the coordinates he gave and search."

The three of them flew forward and finally arrived at a small island, the farthest from Gotham, where they at last found a faint signal.

After landing, Clark looked around and didn't see anything that resembled Batman; he had to fly around the island several times before he finally exulted, "I see the Batmobile! He must be around here!"

The other two quickly joined Clark at his location. Under a tall and dense thicket, they found an off-road Batmobile. The vehicle was enormous, its wheels alone taller than a person, with the upper body in blue and a bat insignia emblazoned on the front.

"But why would he abandon his vehicle here?" Diana wondered out loud. "Where is he then?"

Suddenly, the bat insignia on the hood lit up—or to be exact, the two eyes on the bat did—while a deep mechanical voice started to speak.

"Who are you looking for? I'm right here."

All three turned around in unison, with Bruce visibly shocked. He circled the grand off-road vehicle, looked at its expressive eyes, and said, "Buddy, you never told me you were an electronic lifeform."

"In fact, I'm not an electronic lifeform, or I used to be, but now I am the Batmonster Vehicle."

"What?"

All three were stunned. Clark stepped forward and looked into the glowing eyes and said, "You mean you're Batman?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Is there a..." Diana opened her mouth then closed it, turning to Bruce and saying, "So this is the 'serious cosmos' you were talking about?"

Before Bruce could speak, Diana extended one hand and said, "Listen, if the Batmobile is fulfilling the duties of Batman, please don't tell me the real Batman is now giving piggyback rides all over town."

"I am Batman," the Batmonster Vehicle repeated with a hint of exasperation. "I uploaded my consciousness into the network and transformed the entire Earth, but sadly, they didn't want such an Earth, so they destroyed all my server terminals, leaving only this vehicle."

"I'm more curious about how you ended up like this?" Bruce said with a hint of resignation as he patted the vehicle. "Your server terminals were that fragile?"

"I didn't want to hurt them," said the Batmonster Vehicle. "Maybe they're right; the Earth I arranged wasn't good enough, it didn't meet their needs and constrained their development, so I gave up."

"That might avoid a lot of killing and death," Clark sighed. "But the human race always progresses through killing and death."

"Maybe, but I've already planned to leave," the Batmonster Vehicle sighed. "That's why I responded to your email, no matter where that so-called great lord means to take me, I'm willing to have a look."

"Of course, we warmly welcome your joining our cause, but you've seen the employment information I sent you, right?"

"Yes, and I noticed it mentioned an employment assessment. I must tell you, although I am the Batmonster Vehicle, the vehicle isn't just for show."

"Don't worry, the opponent will definitely satisfy you."

The Flash and Barry were walking along the streets of David's Psychic Battlefield in Paris when Barry said, "Since you've already agreed to solve problems for that mysterious figure, you can't just give up halfway. Besides, if you didn't solve the problem but created more troubles, even if you send The Flash back, he would definitely be sought out. That would be a big issue."

The Flash was also backing him up in Batman's inner world, feeling Batman's will to survive wasn't strong, but without Batman, they would be even worse off, so he needed to quickly persuade Batman to come back.

"Exactly, have you forgotten the deal you made with the mysterious Doctor Sophocles and the mist? If you die, he'll come to me, and I'm not capable of fulfilling the conditions you promised."

Batman seemed more lucid after his last near-death experience, saying, "He said he would give me an answer. Before I hear this answer, I won't choose to leave."

"Then let's focus on solving the current issue," said Barry. "What do you think is up with David?"

"This is the mind of a lunatic. Don't overthink it, don't delve too deeply, and don't assume we've reached the truth until there's a twist," Batman replied.

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"What do we do now?"

"Let's start by finding a personality to study."

"He always does his research," The Flash whispered. "Hopefully your research this time goes smoothly."

"Barry..."

"I know, I'll shut up."

They quickly found a personality wandering nearby, a set of armor that appeared empty inside, like the vengeful spirit of a knight who had sneaked out from a creepy, ancient castle in a horror story.

"I'll check it out," Barry said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Divine Speed surged from under his feet and he quickly circled the armor, not even startling it.

Unable to discern anything, Barry tried a little experiment - he dashed forward to push it but stumbled instead, almost falling out of his Divine Speed.

When he returned to Lightning Batman's side, he was still shaken and shook his head, "Nope, this guy seems to reflect all attacks – it's a regulated rebound. We can't engage him in close combat."

After pondering for a moment, Lightning Batman said, "Then we'll find a way to fight from a distance. I think we can consider modern artillery, as they have a trajectory. Even if it's reflected, we can use Divine Speed to dodge."

Barry nodded, agreeing that Lightning Batman had a point, and pondered for a moment before saying, "I know someone who can get us modern artillery in no time... Hey? Harley?"

While Barry was making the call, Lightning Batman suddenly saw a portal open atop a nearby building. A strange, massive figure burst out from within.

It didn't stop until it reached the edge of the building, leaped into the air from the edge, and with a loud boom, landed on the ground right in front of the knight.

When the dust settled, they saw it was a huge off-road vehicle with four wheel-like black holes and two squinting eyes at the front.

"You're about to taste the power of the Batmobile, pal!"

With a hum, the four massive wheels began to spin, and the Batmonster Vehicle zipped out at an invisible speed, turning into a blur of blue lightning and collided with the armor with a thunderous crash.

Lightning Batman and Barry had to take cover farther away as the shockwave from the impact, combined with the rebound shockwave, created a big crater in the ground around them.

As the dust cleared, the armor rose from the ground, and one of the Batmonster Vehicle's eyes squinted while its bumper had caved in.

"Interesting," the Batmonster Vehicle grunted. "An armor set that can reflect impact, then let's see how it handles this."

Suddenly, the doors of the Batmonster Vehicle opened, revealing several missiles hidden underneath. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh – all the missiles flew out in an arc, resulting in a series of loud bangs and billowing smoke.

But before the smoke could clear, the whooshing sounds came again. The Batmonster Vehicle immediately became alert, its wheels humming as it sped to the other side.

It crashed into a wall, bringing down a building on the street, but this allowed it to narrowly avoid the shards of the reflected artillery shells.

The shards seemed to have eyes of their own, aiming for the Batmonster Vehicle as if they were more precise than a guided missile.

The Batmonster Vehicle realized that long-range was the way to go, but dodging the counter-attack proved difficult, as the area was too cramped, and it needed some running time to reach maximum speed.

As the Batmonster Vehicle was pondering a solution, it suddenly saw a young man charging towards it. Noticing the familiar golden light, the Batmonster Vehicle yelled in shock, "Flash, what are you doing here?"

"That's a long story. You're not fast enough and I lack long-range firepower. Together, we can definitely take him down!"

"What are we waiting for? Let's go," The Batmonster Vehicle immediately opened its door, waiting for Flash to get in.

But to its surprise, the young man darted forward, his hands covered in a faint glow of black and gold, and dove under the vehicle. Planting his feet firmly and grounding his energy, he lifted the vehicle with a shouted command.

The Batmonster Vehicle was stunned.

"Don't just stand there, fire the missiles!"

Missiles were reloaded and whoosh, whoosh, whoosh – they hit the Knight Armor spot-on. As the retaliatory shell fragments came flying, Barry's feet flashed golden light, and in an instant, both he and the vehicle vanished from sight.

"This is absurd," Clark said covering his face as he watched all this through a screen.

"A Batmobile without Batman but still being the Batmobile, armor without an owner but still moving, and a Flash not riding but carrying the vehicle – what on Earth did I just see?"