It wasn't until they were practically running into Canada that Arthur learned Bruce had come to find him because he wanted him to perform stand-up at the music festival's opening ceremony.
Arthur hadn't taken that promise seriously at all. Obviously, in any universe, Arthur would never be a comedy master. Why would Bruce Wayne invite an unknown nobody like him? Yet Bruce had actually come.
Awkwardly, Arthur couldn't go back to the asylum now either. Publicly shooting a comedian might still have earned him lifelong treatment, but attacking the Federal Reserve System would get him eight bullets in the back and a ruling of suicide.
Arthur could only be glad he wasn't Thomas's illegitimate son. It was hard to imagine how the little runt he'd seen at Wayne Manor had gone so insane after twenty years.
But Arthur knew he had to go this time, whether he wanted to or not. Otherwise, the Federal Bureau of Investigation would chase him to the ends of the earth, and without Bruce's help, there was no way he could escape alone.
So he followed Bruce to Battleworld's transfer station. There, however, Bruce suggested that he see a psychologist, which Arthur naturally refused.
But that led Bruce to tell Arthur about his college major and academic history. Only then did Arthur learn that Bruce had nearly failed to graduate from college.
To persuade this crazy teenager, Arthur had no choice but to reveal some of his own past. He hadn't expected Bruce to understand, because people that age saw everything as though it could still be saved.
Unexpectedly, Bruce didn't press further. Arthur had assumed the matter would simply pass, and it wasn't because he lacked vigilance. In the era of Arthur's film, Bruce Wayne was still a child. Batman had nothing to do