Real Batman Faces Off Against Fake Batman

Bai Lang's figure streaked through the night.

Dark clouds blanketed the sky above the city. Even though it was already past ten at night, the moon remained nowhere in sight.

Smack!

Raindrops fell from the sky, striking the ground and splashing in every direction.

Though the two black-clad figures were headed in the same direction, they parted ways at one point.

Batman Bruce hurried toward the abandoned newspaper printing plant on Painter Street. He needed to find out Scarecrow's whereabouts and save the little boy.

Bai Lang, on the other hand, knew the plot and headed straight for an abandoned private school on Dearborn Street.

"Scarecrow should be at the printing plant right now, preparing to monitor Batman. This place is where they produce the Fear Toxin and its antidote."

Bai Lang suddenly exerted force through his legs, and spiderweb-like cracks instantly spread across the concrete in every direction.

His body shot into the air and landed directly beside one of the windows.

Several people could be heard talking inside the room.

"Hurry up! Load all this stuff into the trucks!"

"These goods are some serious chemicals. Be careful!"

"..."

Bai Lang looked inside and saw several people in blue Scarecrow masks carrying boxes of cargo outside one after another.

"Looks like these are the Fear Toxin and antidote they've produced."

"As long as I destroy these, Gotham will be spared, and I can earn Ability Points too."

Once he was certain, he smashed the window with a punch.

His tall, muscular body crashed into the group of men who had been talking with lightning speed.

"Looks like there's quite a lot of it." Bai Lang raised his head and looked at the chemicals that nearly filled the entire room.

"Batman? When did he get here? Shoot him!"

A man's panicked voice rang out behind him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Several gunshots followed.

Bullets flew from the handgun barrels, ripping through the air with powerful momentum as they shot toward Bai Lang's back.

But before they could hit him, the red current on the surface of his body melted them into molten iron.

"Th-This... this..."

Everyone present was dumbfounded, including Eli, the young leader in a white lab coat.

Was this Batman?

Since when had Batman become immune to bullets?

Was this even human strength?

Still unwilling to believe it, they gripped their guns tightly and fired wildly at Bai Lang.

Bullet after bullet surged toward him.

Red currents swirled around Bai Lang's body, enveloping him completely.

Without exception, every bullet was melted into molten iron by his powerful electricity and dripped onto the wooden floor.

Some even threw grenades at him, but they too were blasted into countless fragments by the terrifying current.

He slowly turned around and looked at the group before him.

Every face was filled with shock and horror, as if they had never expected Bai Lang's methods.

"Handguns and grenades can't do anything to him..."

"Shouldn't we run?"

"Y-You're Super Batman!"

Eli recognized that red lightning. It was the same kind of power as Superman from neighboring Metropolis—enough to drive people to despair.

His expression gradually darkened. His father had sent him out to take charge of this matter, yet he had never expected to encounter this inhuman Super Batman!

Bai Lang controlled the current within his body, using it to create the same deep voice as Batman Bruce Wayne.

"Since you recognized me, why not hand over all your chemicals?"

If he ignored this, the Fear Toxin would probably be released throughout Gotham later.

Bai Lang did not want Gotham to become a complete mess. After all, he had only just resolved to change this city.

"In your dreams!"

Eli's face darkened as he exchanged a glance with the subordinates beside him wearing Scarecrow hoods.

Then, they turned and ran for the door at the back of the room, scattering in different directions as they fled.

But Bai Lang had already sensed their intentions. He burst forward, whipping up a violent gale.

In less than ten seconds, he had knocked all of them unconscious.

[Ability Points +4]

"Ring! Ring!"

The phone in the pocket of the young man in the white lab coat began to ring.

Bai Lang took the phone from his pocket and answered it.

On the other end was a bald middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

"You are... Batman?" The middle-aged man looked rather stunned.

"Wrong. I'm Super Batman," Bai Lang corrected him.

"Wrong! He's a fake Batman!"

A deep male voice came from outside the room. Immediately afterward, a Batarang shattered the window and landed at Bai Lang's feet.

The Batarang embedded itself firmly in the floor. Then, a figure dressed in a Batman suit leaped inside—it was Batman, Bruce Wayne.

"Where's the boy, fake Batman?" Batman Bruce Wayne asked anxiously.

He had just learned from Scarecrow where the boy who was about to die was, so he had rushed here in a hurry.

But all he saw was this fake Batman and the people lying on the floor. It seemed that none of them had been killed by this demon.

Piercing police sirens sounded from downstairs.

Clearly, the police had arrived as well.

Director Gordon gripped his gun and swiftly led his men out of the police cars, approaching the building before them.

Somewhere inside the building, the two Batmen faced each other.

"He really is that boy... but we need to talk!"

"You killed everyone in the Red Rose Gang, then killed a deputy sheriff at the police department. After that, you killed Bane and his men, and later the first Joker, Deathstroke..."

Bruce Wayne's face was grim, his tone stern.

In merely one month, the fake Batman before him had killed more than a hundred people.

Before this, Gotham had only seen around five hundred innocent people murdered in an entire year.

Under his efforts, that number had dropped to four hundred, and he had been confident he could reduce it to three hundred—or even zero.

Yet this impostor had killed over a hundred people in just one month. His crimes were truly unforgivable.

"They deserved to die," Bai Lang said expressionlessly.

The Red Rose Gang had wanted to kill him, so after gaining his powers, he had destroyed them.

Deputy Sheriff Mark had wanted to kill him and had even killed Andy, so Bai Lang had sent him straight to hell.

Bane's gang had bombed the police department. If Bai Lang had not awakened his superpowers, he would have died on the spot.

The Joker was the same. He had set up a nuclear bomb to destroy Gotham, threatening Bai Lang's life, so naturally Bai Lang had reduced him to ashes.

Only Deathstroke had been an exception. He had been careless at the time, which was why one of them had been injured while the other died.

He had not originally intended to kill him.

"Heh... that isn't a reason for you to break the law. They should have been judged by a court and received the punishment they deserved!"

Batman Bruce Wayne wore the Anti-Batman Armor, his gaze locked tightly onto Bai Lang.

The supercomputer inside his helmet analyzed where the powerful figure before him might evade or launch an attack.

"Not slaughtered by a butcher like you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he stomped down hard. The concrete floor instantly shattered beneath his foot, rubble scattering as a small crater more than ten centimeters wide appeared.

With the help of the powered armor, he turned into an afterimage and charged at Bai Lang like a cannonball.

Bai Lang had no intention of tangling with him. He moved his feet, tearing apart the air around him at high speed with terrifying explosive booms as he abruptly retreated several meters.

Seeing this, Batman Bruce Wayne fired the miniature missiles on his arm at Bai Lang, trailing white smoke.

The current inside Bai Lang's body immediately shifted, wisps of red lightning gathering around him.

The electricity coursed through his cells before converging in his eye sockets.

Then red electric light erupted. A straight bolt of crimson lightning shot from Bai Lang's eyes and struck the missiles.

The missiles were hit by the current, and the high temperature ignited their gunpowder, causing a violent explosion.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!

Dense explosions rang out in succession. Steel melted away inch by inch, while the air was continuously blasted apart, creating violent turbulent currents that swept in every direction.

The five or six fully armed Police Officers who had just rushed in took cover by the wall, all staring wide-eyed in shock at the two Batmen fighting in the middle of the room.

Batman Bruce Wayne froze at the sight.

He had only seen the other man use this move before at Gotham Reservoir.

But now that he was truly facing that terrifying red current, he realized just how insignificant he was before such power.

His heart sank slightly as an ominous thought surfaced in his mind.

Perhaps this fake Batman was Metropolis's... Superman!