"Black Manta was killed? Just like that?" Roland watched the news on TV, finding it hard to believe, then called Batman. "Have you seen the news—did Arthur suddenly turn ruthless?"
"It probably wasn't Arthur," Batman said. "It's not his style. It seems more like Mera—"
"That explains it." Roland nodded. "So that's what happened—"
"Let's leave this to the two of them. We shouldn't meddle."
"I agree."
"I've been pretty busy lately—there have been several more murders in Gotham City, and we still haven't found the killer in one of them," Batman said. "If you have time, you could come help me."
"When does Gotham City ever go a day without a murder?" Roland yawned.
"This one's a little different," Batman said. "The method was unusual. The victim was hung upside down and bitten to death by a cobra."
"Pretty creative," Roland said. "Still a far cry from Joker and the others, though."
"And the strange thing is that the victim was Chinese. He came to Gotham with a large sum of money—
"But after he was killed, the money was left untouched."
"Sounds like the killer was above such vulgar pursuits." Roland shrugged, checking on the students in class as he chatted with Batman.
Then he caught Kara squeezing her pencils into diamonds to play marbles, Jason sneaking a look at an extracurricular book, Roy making weapons by hand at the back of the classroom, Astra reaching into another dimension to pet an animal, Raven getting lectured by Trigon while chatting with her older brother—and Gla watching a dark web livestream during class.
"Every last one of you has some special talent, huh?" Roland lined them up and spoke to them one by one.
"We know we were wrong!" They all answered obediently, very eager to admit their mistakes.