Chapter 2119: Superman's Gotham Adventure (Part 10)_1

A rather peculiar scene emerged within Gotham.

Peter's science team, seeking to isolate the mysterious components of plant toxins, dissolved hallucinogenic drugs in orange juice and distributed it extensively to Gotham's lower-class citizens, with the hope that they could swiftly recover from their madness.

The Joker Gang, represented by Harley Quinn, pursued their consistent principle of revelling in the chaos. They believed that the masses had the right to indulge in unrestricted madness, so they constantly attacked the teams distributing the orange juice.

At first, the scientists were at a serious disadvantage since the Joker Gang mainly consisted of Gotham's bottom-tier thugs, who had the advantage of fighting on their home turf and targeted the trucks transporting the orange juice.

The Joker Gang members were also very intelligent. They often made swift strikes, not wasting unnecessary time to silence witnesses, only seizing the orange juice to delay the detoxification.

The science team responded accordingly, replacing their original road transport method with the use of vines and roots controlled by Poison Ivy, utilizing Gotham's sewer system to transport orange juice.

However, members of the Joker Gang then turned their attention to the vulnerable retail segment — the children who were recruited temporarily due to a shortage of hands. They attacked several welfare homes, stealing the juice there.

If it were just these two conflicting sides, it might be tolerable. However, within this chaotic city, there was never a clean stage. Nobody consciously made room for the duellists, most instead seizing the opportunity to add fuel to the fire, fearing that they were not causing enough chaos.

First, there was the Robin Gang, who were somewhat tranquilized and thus not wholly lucid. Their main morale stemmed from Batman not being home, and their tactics were a match to the Joker's trickery.

Their main targets were the super-villains residing within Gotham — Batman's old rivals, including Penguin Man, Riddler, Two-Face, as well as the Mad Hatter and Hugo, who were previously locked up, and the Ventriloquist, in short, all the usual suspects from Arkham.

Since their minds were also somewhat compromised, their methods to enshrine good and eliminate evil were quite innovative, making these super-villains, who wanted to shine in Batman's absence, utterly miserable.

But super-villains are not pushovers. Once they had had enough, they also retaliated against the reckless birds, using all their skills to search the city for them.

The struggle between the Robin Gang and the criminals of Arkham Asylum also affected the science team and the Joker Gang. This mangled mix of people created a scene of utter chaos, too disastrous to behold.

After a fist destroyed the welfare home, Clark, who was finding other accommodations for the children, took to listening to the children telling tales excitedly for a long while before he understood what was happening.

Essentially, the group making them sell orange juice was at odds with the Joker Gang, and for some reason, the Joker Gang chose to seize their merchandise.

Clark wasn't very familiar with Gotham's villains, so he didn't guess from the children's description of roots that Poison Ivy was the one providing the children with orange juice.

However, the roots were indeed essential clues, so Clark decided to delve into the sewers to investigate just what the culprit supplying drugs to the children was planning in this dreary place.

The history of Gotham's sewers is long, and in Gotham, 'historic' isn't exactly a complimentary term. It usually means that such a thing has been thoroughly marinated in the city's darkness.

Common knowledge declared that Superman's power comes from the sun. But there's no sun in the sewers. Being unable to replenish energy anytime and anywhere equates to a significant endurance problem, and Clark understood that he must resolve the matter quickly.

His plan was to return to the ruins of the welfare home and enter the sewers through the entrance the children used to take the orange juice out, and proceed to the east, reaching the center of the slums via the sewers.

This way, not only could he discover the secrets of the sewers, but he could also take an alternate route to go straight to the heart of the matter, avoiding encountering troubled Gothamites along the way to Gotham slum.

The plan was good, but there would always be a gap between the plan and practice. Clark, from Metropolis, was unconscious that the Gotham sewers weren't merely a public welfare facility — they concealed much darker secrets.

Indeed, without mourning for a second that Batman had abandoned Gotham to head to Washington to become a commendable president, from Gotham came worriers for its people's chaotic and frenzied mental state — the Court of Owls!

In truth, it wasn't as if they didn't want to mourn. Theoretically speaking, the faction that least wanted Batman to leave Gotham would be the Court of Owls, but for them, the events of that long night moved too quickly.

Though a country may be mighty, forgetfulness towards battle courts disaster. The Court of Owls was accustomed to long-term planning, leading to them lacking the skills to deal with abrupt disasters. The calamity of the fear gas was followed swiftly by the disaster of the plant toxins. Then came the three-way struggle between the military, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Wayne Enterprises, after which was Bruce's departure for Washington, and finally, as soon as Wayne Enterprises found itself cornered, Batman was invested in a yellow robe.

This series of operations didn't grant the Court of Owls any time to react. By the time they woke up from their prolonged slumber, it was all over.

Moreover, it wasn't that they wished to worry about the mental condition of Gotham's people, or that they were the primary culprits behind Gotham's madness, after all, the dark metal in Gotham was added by them.

But now they had a problem. They had tampered with Gotham's buildings to keep Batman busy fighting crime, plunging him into self-doubt, his resolve wavering, providing them with the perfect opportunity.

However, now it was the Court of Owls whose resolve wavered.

They didn't get why the group above them changed overnight from violent, mad criminals to jesters, putting their lives on their games.

In the past, Gotham's dark atmosphere was oppressive, with most people apathetic and numb. But in the recent two months, it was as though that taut string suddenly snapped, and things started veering towards dark humor.

Suffering is never worth celebrating, yet those ordinary people who can still find joy in the face of substantial torment, although often ridiculed as obliviously content, aren't they another meaning of "contentment brings happiness"?

Recognition beyond their grasp, changes they are powerless to make, they bow down to fate, yet can surprisingly dig some worthy courage-testing adventures out of this humble and painful journey of life, and, regardless of the result, can sincerely feel joy. It seems more like a pilgrimage to verify human vitality.

But this is not what the Owl Court wants.

So, these elusive nocturnal creatures hunkered down in their old lair again, attempting to figure out what the hell was going on.

Of course, they realized that the Gothamites could not have changed so drastically out of the blue. Most likely, someone else had been drugging them, pushing their madness so far beyond the limit that basic logic had vanished, making it impossible for them to commit crimes effectively. The fertile soil for darkness was gradually disappearing.

But back to the matter at hand, how come there are still those trying to steal their business after all these years?

There is always a cognitive inertia, when guessing others' actions, one would include their own experiences, a sort of empiricism.

The Court of Owls suspected someone else was planning and mixing a different kind of poison into Gotham's buildings or other things simultaneously, causing the toxin to burst forth at this critical moment, leading to the current situation.

However, guesswork aside, they had to find a solution. The Owl Priest, getting more and more upset about the current situation, slapped his forehead, suggesting they capture some guinea pigs and see if they find an antitoxin.

But the fact that Bruce Wayne had just become president was also a factor to consider, after all, members of the Owl Court were all Gotham's elites. Their first priority was to cozy up to the new president, at least they couldn't offend him openly.

Luckily, the Owl Court had their own tactics; their trained Talons could leap between attics, using the interlayers hidden in various skyscrapers to cover their tracks.

Based on past experience, the Court of Owls sent a team of Talons to catch some people in Gotham.

They quickly realized they had underestimated the capability of the Gothamites' trickeries this time.

If you heard strange noises in your attic occasionally, how would you react?

The old Gothamites would at most bring a gun to check it out, shooting anything they saw alive, but obviously, the Talons were immune to bullets, hence their actions remained clandestine.

But this time, a Talon who took the suburb's route just jumped into an attic of a house, only to find a pile of excrement almost a foot deep.

The talon's leg twitched slightly when lifted; their uniform might be completely waterproof, but their spirit was not.

According to the Talon's investigation, the house owner had connected the outlet of his wastewater pipe to his attic.

The reason was simple; he claimed someone was stealing from his latrine. By connecting the wastewater pipe to the attic, the thieves would think the toilet was on the attic. If they went searching, they would step into the animal trap.

The most bizarre thing was, someone did come, they did step on it, and they were indeed assassins.

The homeowner easily captured the unfortunate Talon who had stepped on the animal trap.

You can't entirely blame the Talons for this; any sane person's first reaction after jumping into a window and stepping into feces would be to retreat, and the animal traps were placed under the curtains.

This incident lead to a terrifying result; the homeowner's theory about the latrine thief had been validated, and the whole community had connected their wastewater pipes to their attics and filled them with traps underneath the excrement.

By the time the members of the Court of Owls found out, it was too late. They had already lost four or five assassins, not realizing they needed to take a detour until then.

Don't ask why it's a 'real' loss; sure, a Talon can get resurrected, but fishing a dead body out of excrement and reviving a Talon drowned in excrement were all a bit too avant-garde for the Court of Owls.

The second route they chose was through the commercial street, which meant using the interlayers hidden in the skyscrapers, observing the targets they wanted to capture.

Fortunately, the company employees were not crazy enough to connect their wastewater pipes to their interlayers, and most of these companies were on good terms with the Court of Owls, they could ask the employees to leave early after work so there would be plenty of space for the assassins to work with.

However, that was the ideal situation, in fact, the inhabitants that had connected their waste pipes to their attics weren't oblivious to the smell, but they carried on as they hardly return home.

To avoid becoming a target for 'shitstorms', they stay at their companies.

The Talon's influence, led the inhabitants to believe a latrine thief was a real thing, and using animal traps under the waste pipes connected to the attic was an effective tactic. As a result, they emulated this, turning their homes into septic pits.

To avoid a decrease in their living standards, they chose to live at their companies, which resulted in the Talons, who had to abandon their operation in the suburbs, being reunited with them in the skyscrapers.