Fear the Batman

"What... when?"

Zombie Bane rolled his gray-white eyes. "Just when did you..."

Chen Tao ignored him.

He forcefully sank his teeth deep into the other's body, trying to bite down for as long as possible.

His fangs became long and slender, razor-sharp. Zombie Bane felt them pierce him like syringes, sinking deep before injecting some unknown liquid.

Was it poison?

Ridiculous. What kind of poison could affect The Black?

Even the most lethal toxin in existence couldn't poison a corpse to death. By its very nature, the word "death" could never appear in The Black's dictionary.

Loneliness. Indifference.

Chen Tao's heart was ice-cold.

The indecision and hesitation unique to a transmigrator from a peaceful era faded from him. Bane's brutal dominance and Batman's calm composure merged with the dinosaur's massive body. Strengthened by venom, they erupted into a chemical reaction beyond ordinary imagination.

"Foolish bastard. How dare you get so close to me... Let The Black corrode him. After all, when all is said and done..."

Zombie Bane's eyes shifted. "This Batman guy, no matter what special abilities he has, is ultimately just a mortal. And mortals absolutely can't resist The Black..."

"Wait. Why didn't it work?"

Zombie Bane froze. He couldn't parasitize Killer Croc because the other was an agent of The Red. Nor could he control Poison Ivy, because Poison Ivy and Plant Master belonged to The Green.

Solomon Grundy was a zombie who was neither alive nor dead, but this person before him—even with superpowers—should absolutely have been unable to resist him!

Wait...

Zombie Bane's gaze shifted downward. Starting from the tips of Chen Tao's teeth, the dinosaur muscles that had originally been dark green were gradually turning over into gleaming silver metal.

The power of The Black had encountered nothing but lifeless matter. It was as helpless and bewildered as a frog trapped inside a glass jar.

The insect-like limbs extending from Zombie Bane's back struck Chen Tao's face with a clang.

Chen Tao slowly opened his mouth and gradually backed away.

"Phew..."

Zombie Bane looked somewhat helpless. Poison Ivy hadn't known that monsters who had already died, like them, could still experience an emotion like "helplessness."

"Well then, dear Ivy."

Poison Ivy had wanted to say, "We're not that familiar," but decided not to provoke him for no reason. Batman was standing there quietly and hadn't launched an attack.

She had already vaguely guessed what Batman had done.

"Are you still unwilling to join The Black? I value you highly, Ivy. Why do you think I didn't kill you, but instead let you play with me for so long? But playtime has to end eventually."

Zombie Bane looked Batman the giant bat-dinosaur up and down. "Is he your reliance? Do I have to defeat him before you'll abandon your vain hopes? Just like that zombie lying over there? Oh, little girl."

He said, "You really are troublesome."

But he felt that Poison Ivy's expression was strange, as though she were looking at a dead man, even though he was one already.

He heard her say with unmistakable pity, "You've never lived in Gotham, have you?"

"What does that have to do with what we're discussing?"

"It does. Of course it does."

Green plants gathered behind Poison Ivy, weaving themselves into a vine chair. She slowly sat down, like an audience member waiting for a movie to begin.

"Let me teach you a few rules for living in Gotham, a few basic facts. How can a supervillain living in Gotham not understand these things?"

Poison Ivy raised one slender, jade-green finger and said,

"First."

Pfft!

Zombie Bane's body suddenly jerked to a halt. A thick green color spread from his back, and half his body was uncontrollably transformed into living green plants, forming a stark contrast with the rotten, foul-smelling half beside it!

"How is this possible—it was you! When you bit me just now—"

Poison Ivy's cool voice rang out.

"First, Batman cannot fail, and he must not fail, because the moment he does, countless people will die because of him.

"Therefore, Batman never fails. He will win. He won in the past, he will win now, he will win in the future, and he will keep winning forever."

With a thud, Zombie Bane fell to his knees. He frantically tore at the half of his body covered in plants. Countless pieces of rotten and fresh flesh were pierced by the growing vegetation, and every time he ripped away a section, it dragged out a stream of black blood.

"No matter what kind of opponent he faces, no matter how seemingly invincible the enemy is, Batman will win. Even if it's a narrow victory, even if it costs him anything. And when Batman wins... the criminal loses. That's why Gotham's criminals fear Batman, because they can never defeat him."

Poison Ivy's voice lowered slightly. Those youthful years... that Golden Age when even Poison Ivy had only just begun her career.

"You'll try again and again, exhausting every bit of wisdom in your life and every method you can possibly imagine, like Sisyphus pushing his boulder—but you'll never win! That's Batman. He'll always be one step ahead of you. He always has been, and he always will be."

Glug, glug, glug, glug...

The venom canisters on Zombie Bane's back suddenly began operating on their own without warning, continuously pumping venom into his body.

Zombie Bane let out a loud howl. "No! You're already under our control, damn it—get out of our heads!"

"Second, Batman does not die. That is a fact."

"Shoot Batman, and he won't die."

"Watch him vanish in an explosion with your own eyes, and he still won't die."

"You can't kill Batman with a knife, and you can't kill him with a tank."

"Poison can't kill him either. No matter how lethal the attack, no matter how many people claim they killed Batman or produce whatever convincing evidence they have, as long as crime continues, Batman will appear. He'll stand before them and end their criminal careers with his fists."

"Even covered in wounds, even after taking several bullets, he'll still appear before the criminals."

"No! What did you do to me!"

Zombie Bane rolled across the ground, screaming in agony. His two voices resonated at the same frequency, producing a shrill, ear-piercing screech. "Spare me!"

Poison Ivy's voice continued to echo.

"Third, Batman possesses the firmest convictions. No matter what you say or what you try to use to bribe him, it will be useless. No one can shake his beliefs or make him abandon his cause and his identity.

"He is taciturn and won't listen to anyone's nonsense. All he needs to know is whether you intend to surrender."

Poison Ivy said sincerely:

"That is Batman. Difficult, even impossible, to communicate with; completely impossible to predict from the outside; sometimes like a shadow, and sometimes infinitely close to human; difficult, even practically impossible, to kill."

Her tone held a trace of pity:

"Batman is that kind of monster. Impossible to defeat, impossible to persuade, impossible to bargain with. He only wins...

"He never loses!"