The Institute

Boom!!!

As the explosion rang out, a dust dragon surged from the entrance, leaving everyone behind the barricade filthy. The dust mixed with the rainwater still on them, turning into mud.

A sign from who knew where was blasted right in front of Su Ming. Only the word "Laboratory" remained on the fragment.

"Looks like Falcone never cleaned up after moving in. His New Rome isn't as clean as Ancient Rome." Once the dust settled, Cindy looked around and brushed the dirt from herself. "Still, this really does feel like an archaeological dig."

"Are you sure his men took Commissioner Gordon this way? This place doesn't look like it." Su Ming raised his pistol and peered into the institute from outside. All he could see through his lenses was red.

"Not sure. I couldn't find any footprints from today. There might be another entrance in the junkyard." Cindy stepped forward and leaned against the doorframe, the debris beneath her boots crunching.

The helmet's night vision had always been extremely useful. But looking inside from the doorway, all they could see was garbage. The place still looked as it had during the evacuation—scorched documents, smashed typewriters. In short, everything that could be destroyed had been destroyed.

"That works. At least we've got the right place."

He knew this was most likely Vicki Vale's luck at work. She wanted to film the news program Su Ming had promised her, so fate had brought them here.

No need to think about it. If they took this route, there would definitely be plenty of fighting inside—maybe enough for her to edit into a "news blockbuster." And under such bizarre circumstances, if they tried to find another route, they definitely wouldn't be able to. That was how her luck worked.

If she wanted a Gas Mask, she could casually find one in the Batcave. If she felt short of money, she could pick up gold.

Vicki was like an uncontrollable Causality Weapon. It was a double-edged sword, and Su Ming naturally found himself burdened by her luck at times.

But for now, he had to make use of it. Su Ming didn't think his own luck was very good. He had been suddenly thrown from his rental apartment into Gotham to face a hail of bullets, with the end of the world already counting down. That was downright cursed luck.

If he brought her along, then should anything happen that was beyond their strength, perhaps mysticism could save their lives. He would treat her as a lucky charm for now. Once they found Bliss, the Child of Destiny, whose effect would be even better than Vicki's, he could decide what to do based on the situation.

For now, Su Ming just hoped there weren't too many monsters inside.

"We're going in. Protect them." Su Ming put away his gun and drew the long blade from his back again, preparing to enter the institute.

Cindy quickly extended a finger and pressed it against his armored chest. Shaking her head, she pushed him behind her, drew her twin blades, and entered first.

What a joke. If she let a man scout ahead, how could she ever show her face again?

Su Ming shrugged. Since she wanted to lead the way, he would bring up the rear. In truth, they were only a few steps apart.

Both of their helmets had night-vision systems, so the dim interior posed no problem. The other three, however, had to rely on the camera's light to see their surroundings.

The power supply here was still functioning, but the lighting system on the first floor had been destroyed. The lighting panel and its wires had been ripped from the wall, dangling limply like the spilled entrails of a dead animal.

Barbara felt as though the place had been swept by a typhoon. In the glare of the camera light, she saw that most things had been reduced to fragments.

Gotham's history lay shattered before her. A place like this should not exist in Gotham.

Vicki had already begun recording, though she only had Pete film the surroundings as background footage. She had not started narrating yet.

This was the first level of the underground institute. Logically, it should have been relatively safe, but judging by the state of the place, Su Ming felt that something had probably escaped from below.

Just then, Cindy, scouting ahead, swung her weapon. A cold flash of steel flickered through the air, slicing a black shadow that had leaped at her cleanly in two before it fell to the ground.

The thing was not completely dead. It kept writhing on the floor. Cindy looked down and saw a black maggot about the size of a palm.

"What the hell is this?" She raised her foot and crushed the wriggling thing into a puddle of thick sludge.

"Looks like an oversized maggot." Su Ming had seen the little thing too. It was really just a byproduct of genetic experiments.

"I'm starting to hate this place."

Cindy wiped her blade against the wreckage of a nearby desk. Some green, jelly-like viscera clung to the back of the blade. Then she continued onward, while insects occasionally sprang out of the darkness at the group.

"We need to find a way down, cross the experimental area, and reach the dormitory section." Su Ming cut down another insect and spoke to Cindy.

"There's a passage two hundred meters away at eleven o'clock." Cindy glanced up, and her equipment and experience allowed her to make an immediate judgment.

The group began moving in that direction. As they advanced, more and more black insects appeared along the way, densely packed together. Cindy began using her shotgun to speed up their progress.

These things seemed impossible to kill completely. There was no telling how many lurked in the darkness, so it was better to pass through quickly.

The closer they got to the passage, the denser the monsters became, confirming her judgment. These things had escaped from the testing area, and that was the route leading there.

But that also meant something had breached containment. Those madmen would not have played only with creatures this small.

Under the protection of the two of them, the group safely reached the door. With a light push, it opened.

A black shadow suddenly lunged from the ceiling beyond the door and pounced on Cindy, relentlessly clawing and biting at her with the sound of metal striking metal.

But Cindy did not panic. A world-class Mercenary had seen countless emergencies. She immediately drew a blade and drove it straight into the creature's head, stabbing through its eye socket and out the back of its skull with a crack as bone shattered.

The corpse fell to the floor.

The thing looked like a hairless monkey or gorilla. Thick carapace had grown around its joints, as though it wore crab shells.

It should have been a hunter that fed on leeches. Unfortunately, it had picked the wrong prey this time.

Cindy simply cut off its head. Even if it had a Healing Factor, it would need a great deal of time to recover, giving everyone time to pass through.

"What do we call this one? A beetle monkey? A longhorn gorilla?" Cindy picked up the strange creature's head. Its teeth grew sideways, like an insect's.

"Who knows what it's called? It probably only has an experiment number. But I'm guessing it used to be human." Su Ming spoke calmly as he led the three through the passage door.

Cindy shrugged and continued leading the way. Now that they knew it was a military experiment, there were plenty of humans available as primate test subjects. Why would they need monkeys?

"This was human?" Barbara was stunned. Aside from the vaguely human shape of its facial features, there was no way to guess it had once been a person.

"Just a guess." Su Ming shut the door behind them and glanced at the corpse on the ground again.

Barbara had no response. She felt a little sorrowful, once again witnessing humanity's madness. This tendency toward self-destruction had always accompanied mankind.

Vicki nodded instead. This confirmed her suspicions about Deathstroke's origins. She immediately wrote it down in her notebook while directing Pete to film the thing on the ground. Whatever it was, get a close-up first, then some wider shots of its corpse.

She felt that once viewers saw this special program, they would fall madly in love with her.