Thus, Constantine hurried towards Rodriguez Manor at an extremely fast speed. He was afraid if he was any later, Shiller would be leaving Gotham. If that should happen, everything he did would be meaningless. His goal was to rush there as quickly as possible to mock Shiller.
So, when Constantine saw Shiller in extremely poor condition, looking as if he was at death's door, he was taken aback.
Constantine turned to look at Batman and said, "What's wrong with him? Why do I feel like his pupils are slightly dilated?"
Batman gazed at Constantine, with an indifferent look and said, "You're asking me? Only three people have seen that giant broccoli plant. Excluding Zatanna and me, who is left?"
Constantine opened his mouth, then began to argue: "Why exclude you and Zatanna? All three of us were witnesses. Maybe you wanted to take revenge on Shiller because of your paper..."
Constantine deliberately raised his voice in the latter part of his sentence, clearly trying to shift the blame onto Batman. But Batman didn't fall for it, he said: "Zatanna and I vouch for each other. During the time the soul returned to the body, neither of us left the Batcave, only you had the time to do the deed..."
"But you have no evidence." Constantine retorted: "If you didn't forbid me from smoking in the Batcave, why would I leave? Besides, you said that you and Zatanna were in the Batcave, who knows if that was just some projection you created, or something else? Your alibi is also not solid..."
Just as they both tried to shift blame onto each other, suddenly, the manor's front door was pushed open. Jason rushed in and exclaimed: "Oh! My God! Professor, I knew it!"
"When I saw all those broccoli plants, I knew something must have happened to you!"
Jason quickly ran to Shiller's side, first he touched his forehead and found it was a bit hot, then he took his pulse and found it to be normal, just that his breathing was a bit rapid.
He looked up at Merkel and said, "Mr. Butler, do we have any tranquilizers in the manor? If not, sleeping pills might work. Can you fetch them?"
Merkel instinctively was about to fetch the drugs, but then he paused and said with a tinge of confusion: "But shouldn't we use allergy medication for allergic reactions? I'll get the antihistamine…"
However, Jason shook his head, "This is not a physiological allergic reaction, it seems more like a stress reaction caused by psychological stimulation, so tranquilizers are needed…"
Constantine walked forward to Jason and asked, "Can psychological allergies be so severe?"
"This is not a psychological allergy." Jason stressed again, "There is no such disease as psychological allergy. It's only symptoms of stress response caused by mental stimulation or reassessment, totally different from normal allergic reactions."
"For example, something that has caused you great harm before, when you see it again, you will associate it with that harm."
"These associations and memories can cause a certain amount of mental stimulation at that moment. You might trigger a stress response which could easily make you look like you're allergic to that thing, but in fact, your body's weakness originates from your psyche, not your physical organs."
Merkel turned and left to fetch the tranquilizers. Batman turned to look at Constantine. Constantine cleared his throat and said, "Don't blame me, I've never studied psychology. Okay, I will take care of this."
He shrugged and said, "Although I've never studied psychology, I can solve the problem through mystical means. Give me some time to prepare the Magic Array…"
Just as he turned away to leave, Merkel, with a frown on his face, walked down holding a box, "I remember, there used to be some tranquilizers here, but it seems that they have been used up…"
Jason took the box and rummaged through it, "These drugs are all ineffective, let's send Professor Shearer to the hospital first."
Merkel suddenly thought of something and quickly walked to the phone, "I'll call Dr. Brand, ask him to send over some drugs. He is an old classmate of Mr. Shiller's, he should be willing to help."
After hanging up the phone, Brand and Victor both arrived shortly after. As soon as Brand arrived, he complained, "What on earth is going on in this city? What kind of bizarre disasters are these?"
"I've seen Shades and Lonely Souls invading on a large scale. I've seen Devils trying to devour the city, but I've never seen broccoli invading a city. What's their demand? Do they want humans to not dip them in sauce when they're eaten?!"
Victor bent down to feel Shiller's forehead. As Brand walked forward and fed Shiller a tranquilizer, he opened his mouth with a bit of helplessness, "Having been around Shiller for so long, haven't any of you realized that he's actually mentally ill?"
He scanned everyone in the room, and then sighed, "This is the consequence of being uneducated."
"The emotions of those with autism are often inconsistent with normal people, and the things that stimulate them are also different from adults. They may be stimulated by very mundane things in daily life that no one else would fear, and suddenly get excited."
"In some schools that admit students with autism, you can see many children suddenly screaming and exhibiting strong emotions. You might think it's ridiculous, but in truth, they might have simply been stimulated by something ordinary in daily life."
Constantine was still trying to argue, but seeing Batman's increasingly intimidating death stare, he waved his hand, "Fine, it's because I'm uneducated. I thought it was a joke. Anyway, I'll deal with it."
After he finished speaking, he was about to set up the magic array, but just then, with a "bang", the mansion door was kicked open. A group of fully armed federal agents stormed into the manor. The leader, a black man, marched in, flashed his badge at Shiller, and said,
"Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Then he put his badge back into the pocket on his chest and said to Shiller:
"Schiller Rodriguez, according to our investigation, you have violated the Espionage Act and are formally arrested for multiple crimes including espionage, illegal surveillance, endangering federal security, and more."
Everyone was stunned, but at this moment, Shiller seemed to come to his senses. He stood up weakly, placing both hands on his umbrella to stabilize his body.
After a few seconds of silence, Shiller said hoarsely:
"I'm an action agent from the Soviet National Security Committee..." Then, he looked at the federal agent leader and said word by word: "…and also the organizer and leader of the revolution in Central America, I request witness protection."
As his words echoed, everyone in the room, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, was dumbfounded.