A Long Easter (III)

"Now it seems they're angry." Cobblepot sneered, looking out at the heavy rain. Schiller said to him, "I think you already know that Gordon has brought in many patients with similar symptoms to yours. Your symptoms are probably all related to getting caught in the rain."

Schiller shook his head and said, "In mental illness, it is rare to have two cases with completely identical characteristics, but now there are more than two."

"We are discussing how to deal with this. The drainage situation in Gotham is not optimistic. If this continues, flooding will occur tonight."

Batman's voice accompanied the sound of rain. Suddenly, the room was illuminated by a flash of light that turned everything a ghastly white. Then, a deafening clap of thunder came from afar, and all three looked out the window.

Schiller looked at Batman and said, "I have a bunch of patients to deal with, I don't want to get involved in this..."

Batman stared at him, seemingly unfazed by his excuses, as if certain Schiller would continue. Sure enough, Schiller went on, "But they made me spend a fortune on a cheap, doomed umbrella, and then, when I had no umbrella, it started pouring rain..."

The rain outside the window was getting heavier and heavier, and the booming thunder drowned out the conversation inside. Closer to the thunder on the horizon, Gotham University seemed to be shrouded in a dark fog, with only one office light on, and it was very noisy inside.

"Are you sure this distance is enough to divert all the rainwater in this area to the designated height?"

"Look here... We must pay attention to the water pressure here. If we don't add supporting structures, it could very well lead to the complete collapse of the underground sewer system..."

"A directional blast is needed here, yes, I'm sure..."

The professors were gathered around the desk, discussing how to solve the problem of excessive flooding in Gotham City.

Most people can't last more than three minutes in this kind of discussion, because they keep spouting a lot of engineering and mechanics jargon, which makes people dizzy.

But in reality, this was no small-scale theoretical exercise. One after another, terms related to explosives engineering came out of their mouths, clearly indicating that this was another discussion full of Gotham style.

At the Gotham Police Department, Gordon, who had just dealt with some somewhat disoriented criminals, took a cup of hot coffee from a young officer. He raised his arm, drank the coffee in one gulp, walked behind his desk and sat down. Just as he was about to rest for a while, he noticed a shadow behind him.

Gordon looked back and sighed, saying, "Batman, you don't have to make your entrance ceremony so Shocker every time."

"I need your help, Detective Gordon."

Gordon didn't answer; he was listening to Batman speak. Batman continued, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings, "Next, I'll be lighting up Bat-Lamp at several locations in Gotham City. Then, a gang's construction crew will arrive and begin digging. You'll need to send people there to protect them."

Gordon opened his mouth, unable to answer for a moment. He said, "You mean, get the police to send people to protect the gang?"

He turned to Batman, extended his hand, and said, "Okay, if you need our cooperation to deal with that mysterious organization, then I can understand. But are you sure those gangsters need our protection?"

Batman's tone was serious as he said, "This is to prepare for possible surprise attacks; the police need heavy firepower."

"Can you tell me the plan? I have to be responsible for the safety of my subordinates."

Batman shook his head and said, "Remember that nursery rhyme? 'The Court of Owls, always watching your every move...'"

Gordon felt a chill run down his spine. He instinctively glanced around his office, but he couldn't refute Batman's claims. When it came to mysterious forces, Gordon couldn't be certain that he wasn't being watched.

"I can assure you that this plan is effective."

Gordon looked at him, and finally, Batman said, "Because I am Batman."

The dark clouds grew thicker and thicker, and the raindrops fell to the ground with tremendous force. The rain was heavy and torrential, but amidst this continuous downpour, a slight humming sound came from the city, and then several blinding lights shone from Gotham City.

Schiller stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of his ward at Arkham Asylum and saw several bat patterns projected into the dark night sky.

Amidst the deafening thunder of spring, the still Bat-Lamp seemed to come alive in the refraction of the rain, transforming into something like a petrel soaring through the storm, displaying an astonishing momentum as it breaks through the darkness.

Before this, the cacophony of rain almost drowned out all other sounds, and the dark clouds swallowed up all the lights. The enormous city seemed to have been placed in an aquarium, sinking into the icy water, continuing to sink into the Abyss.

The instant the Bat-Lamp came on, Gotham, which had been submerged by the rain, suddenly came to life, like a drowning person who suddenly transformed into a giant whale that was not afraid of ocean currents and waves. Boiling voices shattered the darkness, and the lights, like flames, ignited things that could not burn in the water. Bubbles rose up, broke through the frozen surface, and created countless ripples.

In the turbulent rainy night, the explosions were louder than the thunder. Several construction teams drove various kinds of construction machinery, roaring forward. The headlights of the truck convoy cut through the rain like Blade, and the horns sounded like sharp kettle whistles, proclaiming the boiling of this night.

Shouting, yelling, and chaotic cries filled the air as gangsters rallied their friends, creating chaos beyond measure and madness beyond madness. They blasted rocks, smashed the ground, and dug downwards where beams of light rose, until they carved several artificial Abyss into the city's surface.

They are fearless and indifferent to the rain like arrows and the wind like knives. Madness is the poison of the Gotham people, but also their armor.

As more structures were built, rainwater falling from the sky into Gotham began to be artificially guided to flow underground.

Cobblepot stood atop the Living Hell, watching the flames rise in the rainy night. He didn't use an umbrella, nor did he care. His deeply sunken eyes were filled with madness. He let out a cold laugh and muttered to himself, "You rats will never understand. Gotham is Gotham, and it will always be Gotham..."

The water on the surface of Gotham began to be diverted underground, and in a dark conference room somewhere Gotham, a person wearing a white bird-shaped mask let out a disdainful sneer.

"They're probably just trying to save themselves; after all, even idiots have some brains," a masked woman said sarcastically.

"Isn't it a bit too risky for us to start the Water Source Plan so early? We've been preparing for this for many years, and we even renovated the sewers from the very beginning of the city's construction..." another slightly younger voice asked.

"They've already discovered us, and they're still using such despicable methods against us. We must make these people pay! How dare they..."

Everyone uttered angry shouts, then fell silent as if recalling the scene from that day, forced to suppress the urge to vomit.

"We cannot give up Gotham." An aged voice said. "Retreat and relocation are only temporary. We have been here for too long, and we will never give it all up."

"This is our most secretive stronghold," the woman said. "As long as they can't find us, even if the monsters go berserk on the ground, it's none of our business."

After saying that, she turned to a man next to her and said, "Go check our sealing devices again, make sure no rainwater leaks in."

"They may want to drain rainwater into the ocean through the groundwater system, but that's simply impossible. The sewer system doesn't drain water that quickly enough, and Gotham will eventually be flooded."

"And after this rain, chaos will once again seep into every corner of Gotham, just like it did ten years ago."

"The owls will always watch over this place. Fear it, scream it, for it will become our food..."

A series of snickers, like birdsong, drifted from the dimly lit conference room, like the calls of night owls in the forest.

The rain continued relentlessly, and more and more water was being channeled underground, at a slower and slower pace. Gordon stood beside the fence at one of the construction sites and shouted, "The drainage system has reached its limit! The entire underground of Gotham must be filled with rainwater now."

Brock sat on his motorcycle, waving a flashlight in their direction. The blinding light made Gordon cover his eyes with his arm. He heard Brock shout, "They said everything's set up!! Get ready to evacuate!!"

Gordon turned around, raised his arms, and shouted, "Everyone, prepare to evacuate! Get everyone to the upper floors!"

Then, he picked up the phone and said to the other end, "District 5! District 5 manager, did you hear that? How's it going on your end? Has everyone left the first and second floors?!"

"Didn't you tell them this was the Godfather's order?! How many times have I told them to evacuate on command?! Do you expect Falcone to call them personally to discuss this?"

Brock, holding an umbrella, said loudly, "We can only hope that their method actually works, otherwise Gotham is really going to be flooded."

Gordon hung up the phone and said, "We have to believe in Batman, and we can only believe in him!"

Soon, the lights on the upper floors of the Gotham buildings began to come on gradually, while the lights on the lower floors went out one by one, and everyone moved to higher places.

The Court of Owls members, who received the information from the surveillance equipment, dismissed it as nothing more than a delaying tactic. They believed that the flood would eventually wash everything away, and hiding high up would be useless.

But soon, their smiles faded.

Sitting in the dimly lit conference room, the members of the Court of Owls suddenly felt a violent gust of cold wind sweep across the entire stronghold. This icy storm exploded directly from the point of origin, instantly engulfing every corner of Gotham's underground.

The torrential rain was frozen into ice, and when the raindrops fell from the sky, the splashing water was frozen into crystal-clear ice crystals.

Looking down on Gotham, a giant snowflake burst forth from a small generator, and almost instantly, all the liquid on the ground and surface of Gotham froze, as if time had stood still.

Then, several generators were launched into the sky and exploded in the clouds. The water in the clouds was frozen into ice, which broke apart as it fell and turned into ice blocks when it hit the ground.

The dark clouds that clung to Gotham were enveloped by a low-temperature zone formed by layers of cold air currents, and the rain that fell turned directly into fluttering snowflakes.

Within minutes, the entire sky and underground of Gotham City were frozen solid, as if the city had been put on pause. Not only were the aquariums frozen, but the hands that reached in to scoop up fish also perished.

The ice generated by the Freeze Ray was just as hard as rock. Hundreds of meters of ice formed around the Owl Outpost, freezing everyone inside a solid block of ice.

"Did Victor Fris make this?" Batman asked Schiller in a ward at Arkham Asylum.

"You need to show some respect to your professor and not call him by his full name. And even if you ask, I can guess that you already have hundreds of plans to deal with him."

"The one who can freeze Gotham..." Batman muttered to himself.

"Actually, freezing can't solve the real problem of rain clouds." Schiller shook his head and said, "The fact that the freezing device is so effective means that the rain clouds that accumulate rainwater have indeed been tampered with."

"Alright, stop thinking about your anti-Frozen Gotham plans. I think you should be able to see some things more clearly now..."

"What?"

Batman saw Schiller walk to the window, stop by the French windows, gaze at the cold night outside, the icy light reflecting off his face, Schiller say casually:

"When I don't have an umbrella, nobody can expect to get rained on."

A 10,000-word story is being delivered today! Please vote!

Revising the manuscript took a bit of time today; I wrote six thousand words of scrapped draft, so I'm a little late. Please forgive me.