Chapter 2482: The Battle for the Cloak (Part One)

"President Bruce Wayne assassinated—America's most shocking mass terror attack in history! Up next, stay tuned for our in-depth analysis..."

"Around 2:30 AM yesterday, the United States Capitol was subjected to a terrorist attack, and the working President Bruce Wayne unfortunately died. The U.S. Congress spokesperson stated that this intolerable and terribly frightening act of terror cannot be allowed."

"The Daily Planet exclusively reports that, on the streets of the East Coast, bodies in tight-fitting costumes have been frequently found, the majority of which have been identified as local street heroes, their causes of death currently unknown."

From the street's giant screens that brighten the busy commercial districts to the flickering televisions in store windows, countless news reports were repeating a terrifying and tragic message—their best president in history, Bruce Wayne, had died in an indescribable terror attack.

With a click, Jason switched off the remote, turning the television screen to another program, but the news ticker at the bottom continued to broadcast the message of the president's assassination.

The Robins in Shiller's universe, who all stood solemnly in front of the television watching the news, had been entrusted to the Batman of Arkham's world by Bruce, who had gone on a business trip to the dark universe. They had been staying there for some time.

During this time, they hadn't interacted much with the Batman of this universe, as the Arkham Knight Universe's Batman had become the US President and within just a few short months had been evaluated as the best President in America's history.

Accomplishing this was certainly no easy feat, so the Batman of the Arkham Knight Universe had been quite busy lately. Except for the initial chat that the Robins had with this Batman when they first arrived, there hadn't been much communication with him since.

Instead, the Nightwing, Red Robin, Barbara, and even the Arkham Knight Jason of this universe had good relationships with them. Although the Robins didn't understand why these people didn't live in Wayne Manor, they still often gathered to eat, chat, or maintain their equipment.

Bruce's Robins had their own equipment now too, as they had grown up; Dick was in high school already, and both Jason and Tim had entered middle school. Although Bruce hadn't really taught them any combat skills or tactical thinking, he had indeed acquired a heap of strange and unusual equipment for them.

This included, but was not limited to, the Miniature Ark Reactor that Bruce had created in his spare time and a set of Nanofold Armguards he had driven, a Magic Wand from Kamar-Taj, a Miniature Freeze Pistol capable of freezing people in lethal ice, a small Darkseid Local Defense Fleet's Spaceship, a bunch of usable Yellow and Green Lantern Rings, feathers dropped by Michael, Uriel, and so on.

What about those bat-themed pieces of equipment? It can only be said that the only remnants of the Bat Equipment that Bruce himself had were the Bat Armor with only ornamental value and a few Batman darts.

Just as the Robins finished watching the Secretary of Defense's analysis of the terror attack, the mobile phone on the coffee table rang.

"Hello, this is Barbara. I'm communicating with you from the Clock Tower Base and will shortly connect the other three lines. Their respective codenames are Nightwing, Arkham Knight, and Robin. Please refer to me as Prophet."

"Sure, ma'am, but I don't think there's any need to hide our names. I trust that this communication line is secure," Dick said.

"I'm trying to build a firewall with artificial intelligence," Tim typed rapidly on the computer. "Though I'm not exactly a professional hacker, this AI used to be what Bruce used to calculate Gotham's building reconstruction plans. Its strength is in calculation, not security protection, but it's probably good enough."

"I really appreciate your help, Mr. Drake."

"Just call me Tim, Prophet ma'am. I believe you've already collected all the information about the assassination of the president. Can you briefly outline the important details?"

"Okay," Barbara's voice came through the communicator. "I guess you are packing equipment. They have also just communicated with me from the Gladiator Ring System, and this time, we will have many powerful allies on the way."

"Before you're ready, I'll gather and refine the information from every source of news as much as possible, but so far it's not complete, there's no clue about the truth, but I can take this time to tell you about what happened."

"Last night at around 2:32 AM, a significant explosion occurred on the second floor of the United States Capitol. At the time, a photography team was shooting a promotional video for the upcoming National Day, so they captured the explosion. Based on the characteristics of the explosion, the detonation point seems to have been on the corridor to the right, where the President's office is located."

"Within three hours after the explosion, all systems were continuously spreading the news to calm public panic. At 6 AM today, the US Congress and the League Investigation Bureau jointly issued a death announcement, officially informing the world that the current US President, Bruce Wayne, has passed away."

"How did they report on the killer?"

"They only emphasized that they would arrest the killer as soon as possible, but they did not mention any details about their identity, not even speculations. Both Nightwing and I think this is extremely unusual," she said.

"That's bad news," Jason said, zipping up his jacket. "But I think, soon, we will be dealing with even more bad news."

"Don't be so pessimistic," Dick told him. "I don't believe Batman really died. It could be part of his plan."

"Additionally," Barbara's voice crackled again, "the promotional team's footage shows Superman's figure appearing behind the exploding Capitol Building in the video, spanning only a few seconds, he can be seen flying toward the Capitol at high speed, but he fell."

"I processed the image specially and magnified it about 60 times, and I found an extremely small glowing object, like a sword, striking Superman in the chest."

"Just this one hit?"

"Just this one hit," Barbara affirmed, then added, "Superman looked to be in great pain, and almost immediately started to fall. During his descent, he still tried to fly towards the United States Capitol, but failed."

"Where is he now?"

"No one knows." Barbara's tone grew grave as she went on, "He's disappeared, but what we can confirm is that he's still alive. When Superman came to Gotham, Batman had monitored his physical condition. His unbelievably strong body is nearly indestructible."

Jason's uneasy premonition grew stronger, and he said, "The body may be indestructible, but what about the soul?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know much about that area," Barbara could only say. "But if you have any guesses, you're welcome to share them with us."

"This might be yet another piece of bad news."

"We're never afraid of bad news," another voice emerged in the channel, clearly that of Arkham Knight Universe's Nightwing.

"Well, if this terrorist attack was aimed at Batman, then I think the situation might still be under control, because it could be the work of his political enemies or some extremist faction."

"But the news reports said that many superheroes have died in succession, and Superman has been attacked and is currently missing. So we can infer that the aim is at all the superheroes in this universe."

"There are too many superheroes, their ideals, their range of activities, and the people they have befriended or offended are completely different. Who could indiscriminately target all of them?"

This question brought a brief silence in the channel, but soon Robin joined the channel, saying, "Even the craziest criminal in Gotham wouldn't target all the heroes in a city indiscriminately. If someone did, it means he has an intense hatred for superheroes, and it also shows he's incredibly evil."

"An explosion can't kill Batman," a deep voice sounded in the channel, evidently the Arkham Knight had joined in. "Even if he wasn't wearing the Bat Armor, even without any equipment. But after becoming president, he had installed protective measures in all areas he frequents. Those aren't something a regular explosion could breach."

"You're right, kid," a nasal voice suddenly interjected. "Batman wasn't defeated by the explosion, but by something far more evil."

All the members of the Batman Family were startled, and Barbara raised her voice, "Who are you? How did you get into our channel?"

"Firewall's fine," Tim immediately said. "This guy seems like he's always been here, even joined earlier than us."

"Who are you exactly?" Dick asked. "What's your relationship with Batman?"

"Of course, I came earlier than you guys," the voice said. "But that doesn't matter, Batman's in big trouble right now. Indeed, he's still not dead, but he's about to be."

Everyone stood up, and in Nightwing's voice was deep worry, "Where exactly are you? How do you know all this?"

"You guys should know where I am, not so long ago, each of you held me in your arms," the voice replied.

The channel fell into collective silence for a second, but then Barbara suddenly said, "Jason! Your big puppet!!"

Footsteps and rustling sounds immediately came over Arkham Knight's comm channel, indicating he was looking for something.

"Ah-ha! Congratulations on finding me!" the voice came from the Arkham Knight's channel again, sounding somewhat muffled due to the distance.

They soon heard a bang, like something heavy had hit the floor, followed by a cacophony of noises and a pained curse from the Arkham Knight.

"Jason, Jason, are you okay?" Barbara kept asking.

After what seemed like several seconds, the Arkham Knight returned to the comm channel, out of breath, "I caught him, the damn thing, I don't know how to describe it, he's like a Batman puppet come to life!"

"I just wanted to hide inside the Batman puppet and give you all a hug, but I'm not a puppet myself. My name is Bat Mite, pleased to meet you all!"