The Batman Who Laughs, You're Ugly

When the blade pierced his back, The Batman Who Laughs thought of many things in an instant.

Everything he had overlooked surfaced in his mind one by one, like reflections. Yet no matter where he examined his own actions, he had never found any omissions.

The Batman Who Laughs's plan had accounted for every possible occurrence, whether it happened or not. No matter how things changed, he was capable of responding.

But the person before him was still enough to give him a small surprise.

Someone who should not have appeared before The Batman Who Laughs.

Or rather...

Someone who was dead.

"What... Murder Machine?"

The Batman Who Laughs stared in shock at the enemy behind him, whose hands had transformed into metal blades and stabbed into his back.

He had considered that it might be Batman Dragon. He had considered Barbatos. He had even considered that World Forger might have returned to give him a tremendous surprise.

The Batman Who Laughs had thought of everyone. He had prepared plan after plan for any possible interferer, but—

No way. Were these plans supposed to deal with Murder Machine?

What kind of worthless nobody was this? Bruce, the Batman fused with Cyborg in the Dark Multiverse? It was laughable. He spent every day running that so-called Alfred Protocol and talking to the Alfred mother he had imagined into existence.

Compared with the other characters who could at least be called useful tools, Murder Machine was a mama's boy among Batmen. He lacked talent and creativity. The Batman Who Laughs had never thought highly of his fellow Dark Knights—especially Murder Machine.

From the moment Murder Machine had scrambled around trying to show his face before Barbatos, then foolishly attempted to seize leadership of the Dark Knights, The Batman Who Laughs had never