Gordon to the Rescue

Gordon to the Rescue

As the dust settled, visibility returned.

A red Santa hat had been jammed onto Bane's head, making his angry square face look ridiculous.

Li Zu, meanwhile, crouched half-squatted on Bane's shoulder like an agile monkey.

But judging by the way he rubbed his shoulder, Bane's earlier punch had not completely missed without effect.

"Hiss~" He sucked in a breath. Blood still stained the corner of his mouth, but his smile was bright.

"Get down!" Bane raised a fist and grabbed for the "skinny monkey" on his shoulder. Green liquid seeped beneath his skin as his muscles and veins bulged explosively.

With a leap, Li Zu narrowly evaded Bane's grasp. He grabbed the iron bar overhead with both hands, bent at the waist and swung himself hard. Like the Flying Graysons' dazzling Acrobatics act, he spun and hurled himself into the air before landing steadily in front of Joker.

"Wow~" Joker made no effort to hide his surprise. He held a pistol in his right hand, his grin stretching wide enough to pull the scars on his cheeks toward his ears. "What a delightful surprise, Toyman~"

"You too. You're equally surprising," Li Zu said pointedly.

Joker had actually returned to Blackgate Penitentiary for Batman. Not only that, he had dragged Li Zu back to Blackgate Penitentiary to deal with Batman.

Should Joker be called a genuine mad dog, one who never considered the consequences and only wanted to make things more entertaining? Or was he a mad strategist, leaving no stone unturned to defeat Batman?

In Li Zu's view, Blackgate Penitentiary was absolutely not the best choice for destroying Gotham and Batman.

The city's most terrifying bastards had gathered here. All anyone needed to do was open a door for them. Once those bastards swarmed out, all that remained was to watch as unexpected stories unfolded.

Everything would become impossible to control.

A pack of wolves freed from their cages would not spare the people who had raised them out of old affection.

On the contrary, their bites would be even more vicious.

And from the start, Li Zu had not believed Bane was the one who had summoned him to deal with Batman. With Bane's personality, he would never have taken Li Zu seriously. Only Joker, who loved "jokes," would be more willing to drag Li Zu—who had deliberately tried to leave this game—back to the center of the vortex.

Dragging everyone into a pitch-black abyss was Joker's idea of fun, even if Li Zu found that fun unbearably twisted.

"Bane doesn't seem to like you~" Joker pointed at the furiously roaring Bane below, as though he were watching a roaring lion through an iron cage.

Though Bane possessed a terrifyingly powerful body, it was still somewhat difficult for him to jump up to a platform two stories high.

For the time being, Li Zu was safe.

"What a pity. The kids like me~" Li Zu sounded somewhat regretful.

"Warden Joseph, we meet again~"

Li Zu walked around Joker and approached the Black warden trapped off to the side. He bent down, raised his right hand beside his face and gave it a little wave, flashing a strange grin. "How fortunate that you're still alive~"

"So it was this lunatic who sent you in here!" Joseph glared at Li Zu, his voice certain.

A person had appeared in Blackgate Penitentiary for no apparent reason. Combined with everything that had happened tonight, it was not difficult to guess Li Zu's "real reason" for being here.

"Hahahaha!! Batman, you've finally arrived!" Joker's sudden laughter interrupted the small talk Li Zu had been about to continue.

A black shadow moved beneath the dim lights like flowing water, trying to slip inside without a sound.

"Roar!!" But Bane had already pounced.

Wrapped in IV tubes, Bane's ever-swelling fist smashed toward Batman.

When the dust rose again.

Batman spat blood as he rolled repeatedly across the floor, only stopping when he crashed into a wall.

Everything before his eyes blurred, and ringing filled all his hearing.

His head swam.

Bang. A foot landed before Batman's eyes, slowly bringing him back to awareness.

"Now you have two choices~"

Joker's theatrical laughter echoed through the room. "Bane was very unwilling to accept his loss to you~, so this time, you have two choices. One: kill Bane. Two: let Bane kill you."

Batman's neck tightened as he was seized by the throat and slowly lifted into the air.

His gaze shifted from Bane's hideous square face, swollen with veins, following the voice until he found Joker above him.

He also saw Li Zu beside Joker.

Joker raised a third finger, gave two creepy chuckles, then continued, "2.1, I have a bomb detonator here connected to Bane's heart. Within five minutes, you must find a way to make Bane's heart rest for a while. Put simply, you must kill him! Otherwise, the explosion will go off somewhere, and the ones who die will be... hmm~"

Joker scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Those rioting bastard prisoners in Blackgate Penitentiary, along with the police officers who have already sneaked in."

"And there's 2.2!"

Joker raised his voice again. Clearly, his rotten ideas did not end there.

Bang!

A gunshot cut Joker off.

Commissioner Gordon stood in the doorway, his gun aimed at Joker. His eyes remained wary of Li Zu, who stood beside Warden Joseph.

"Hello~" Li Zu waved to Commissioner Gordon in greeting.

"You bastard!" Gordon's face shifted from surprise to fury.

"Neither of you move. If you do, I can't guarantee where the bullet will leave a hole in you!" Gordon said as he slowly approached them with his gun raised.

Joker obediently raised both hands.

Li Zu slowly raised his hands as well, though he still held a toy gun in his right hand.

When he lifted the toy gun over his head and pointed it toward Commissioner Gordon, Joker began laughing maniacally.

"Don't move!"

Gordon instinctively sensed that something was wrong. Batman, still being held aloft by the throat, was beginning to lose consciousness, yet he was also watching what unfolded above.

Ratatatatatata—!!

The toy gun spat rubber bullets, and the impacts made Gordon's body ache.

Anger made him ready to endure this meaningless prank, rush forward, and fire a shot into that Asian bastard's face.

Pfft.

But the bullet hole that appeared by his feet made Gordon calm down.

The toy gun that had been spitting rubber bullets a second ago transformed, in the next instant, into a life-reaping machine that unleashed a rain of metal bullets!

Flames burst from its muzzle.

Bullets blasted hole after hole into the ground beside Commissioner Gordon!

He retreated, and after Li Zu had emptied every round, he was fortunately unhurt.

"Oh dear, I think I missed~" Li Zu said with amusement in his voice.

Gordon broke out in a cold sweat. If not for that bizarre body-outlining marksmanship, there would surely have been nothing but a bloody corpse on the ground by now.

The other man's gun was empty. Gordon pulled himself together again.

My chance has come!

"Don't move!" He charged forward, kicked Joker away, and pressed his pistol to Li Zu's head.

Thanks to "Pen to You_You Do It" for the 100 Qidian Coins donation.

(End of Chapter)