Gordon's Shock

"We don't have time to explain. Get in!"

Lynn was delighted. With a solemn expression, he patted the empty swing seat beside him.

Gordon took a step back, his hand already reaching for the gun at the small of his back.

"What kind of person carries a gun around on his own turf?"

Lynn was very displeased, and Batman was even more displeased.

With a shake of the rope in his hand, Batman firmly took control of the situation amid Lynn's cries of pain.

"Gordon, this isn't the place to talk. Let's go to the rooftop."

"Why do people like you always like talking on rooftops... Ow, damn it, stop shaking it! We're more than twenty stories up here!"

Although Gordon had no idea what had happened to his partner recently, he could tell that Batman and that lunatic seemed to be working together.

That would not do...

A friend of a friend was a friend. At that moment, Gordon even considered cutting ties with Batman.

"Bring me a coffee. The most expensive one... Ow, damn it! I said stop shaking it!"

Gordon nodded silently and stepped away from the window.

He absolutely had to watch out for that lunatic!

On the rooftop, Gordon and Batman were engaged in an intense discussion off to one side. Batman had clearly condensed everything about the Court of Owls—their existence, their deeds, and the true identities of those people—and told Gordon all at once.

For a man determined to change Gotham's rotten status quo, someone resolved to protect Gotham with his life and passion, it was a blow straight to the heart.

Lynn sipped his coffee nearby, and he honestly felt sorry for Gordon.

No one could handle something like this.

A police officer had fought his way up to the commissioner's position, using immense willpower, ruthless methods, and unwavering resolve to purge the darkness within the Gotham Police Department. He had thought better days were finally within reach.

But what happened? Batman, the punisher of evil, Gotham's guardian in the dark, his old friend and partner, suddenly told him: Gotham was rotten. Rotten to the core. It had been rotten for a hundred years, and it was still rotten today.

You thought Gotham's police system was terminally ill. In reality, everyone in Gotham—from tycoons to beggars, from the elderly to the young, from high-ranking officials to ordinary workers—was fucking corrupt.

The Court of Owls had been feeding on Gotham for over a century. Yet their members were either former mayors, current officials, or members of some ancient Gotham family. The lady hosting a charity gala yesterday would step offstage and head to Gotham's Underground Labyrinth to watch a killing game.

The shock of that reality and the suffocating sense of helplessness made even Lynn's throat itch. Gordon had it far worse.

But Lynn had underestimated that frail old man, Gordon.

Gordon actually endured it! He quickly accepted reality, forced his reason and emotions back under control, and began discussing how to fight the Court of Owls with Batman.

Lynn practically wanted to applaud Gordon.

His nerves really were tough. No wonder he could be friends with someone as formidable as Batman. He was practically a warrior who could never be knocked down!

Clap! Clap! Clap!

That was what Lynn thought, so that was what he did.

The sudden applause on the rooftop made Gordon somewhat uncomfortable.

For more than three years, whenever he lit the Bat-Signal, only he and Batman had spoken here.

Now there was suddenly an amateur audience member, applauding at every crucial moment of their conversation. It was truly a little...

"He..."

Gordon struggled to find the right adjective. After all, the person in question was standing right in front of him, so it was hard to say it directly.

"It's fine."

Batman understood Gordon's concern and what he wanted to say. He explained directly, "His way of doing things differs from both yours and mine. For now, I don't know whether I'm right or he is. Time will give us the answer.

"At least for now, he is someone worth trusting and relying on."

As he spoke, Batman pointed at himself. "Those Undead Assassins I just told you about nearly killed me.

"He saved me."

With Batman's explanation, Gordon was finally willing to reconsider the saying that a friend of a friend was a friend.

Batman did not trust people easily. Even Gordon himself had gone through many twists and turns before becoming Batman's partner.

"All right. Time is the best teacher. It will tell us what is right and what is wrong.

"Hello, Lee En. I'm Gordon."

Gordon extended a hand, just as he had when he and Batman first began working together.

"Hello, I'm Lynn, not Lee En."

"...Huh?"

"And time is the best teacher, but it killed all its students.

"I had no choice before. Now I want to be a good person. Please believe me. I know you're a cop."

Gordon tugged his hand twice with all his strength, but could not pull free.

The other man's hand was like a pair of pincers.

This did not feel like making friends. Why did it feel more like escorting a prisoner?

Still unaccustomed to Lynn's personality, Gordon turned a pleading look toward Batman.

"All right, Lynn. Stop scaring him."

Batman walked over and said in a low voice, "I want you to stay here and protect Gordon."

Oh? Was this guy planning to go solo again?

But after thinking about it, Lynn could understand.

He turned to glance at Gordon, then finally released his hand. "That's no problem, but...

"Are you sure?"

Batman was not injured, but his current condition was definitely not good.

Batman shook his head and walked to the edge of the rooftop. In his signature low voice, he said, "The night is my domain."

With a flourish of his cape, Batman grabbed the Nimbus Cloud and jumped off. Before leaving, he said only, "I'm borrowing this for a day!"

"Wait!"

Lynn rushed to the edge of the rooftop, grabbed Kitty, and threw him after Batman. "Take him with you..."

"Meow—! Lynn! You'll come to a bad end—!"

Kitty's voice echoed through the night sky for a long time.

"Tsk. I wonder if he caught him."

Whatever. Lynn quickly stopped worrying. In truth, he had never really worried at all. Kitty would be fine.

Cats had nine lives.

When he turned around, only Gordon was still standing there in the bleak night wind, staring at Lynn in an especially awkward silence.

"Uh... Ahem! I'll turn this off."

With nothing else to say, Gordon walked over to the Bat-Signal, preparing to shut off the device used to summon Batman.

Unexpectedly, Lynn grabbed his hand again.

"You..."

"Don't turn it off. Otherwise, those things won't be able to find us."

Things? What things?

Facing Gordon's puzzled gaze, Lynn raised one finger and pointed upward.

Then, a huge number of Talon Assassins with owl faces crawled up from every direction around the building, scaling the rooftop's drainage pipes and anything else they could grip.

"Heh, I don't know why these things came up this way either. They have wings, but they don't use them. Very stylish."

As he spoke, Lynn released Gordon's hand, lifted the hem of his shirt, and reached inside.

Reflected in Gordon's widened pupils, Lynn grabbed a handful of something like sand and scattered it across the rooftop of the Gotham Police Department.

The next second, Vine Demon Frenzy!

"No wonder... they call you Thorn Vine Man..."

PS: Here it is! Third chapter! Seven thousand words today. Please vote!