"Listen to me before asking questions."
Batwoman sharpened her tone slightly. She did not mind Deathstroke and Green Arrow interrupting casually; the problem was that whenever those two smart men started letting their thoughts run wild, Arthur and Diana looked eager to join in as well.
Not today. This was not the time for training.
"When Gotham City was first founded, its major founding families gave it a beautiful vision. They saw it as the political, cultural, and economic center of this country."
"But as Gotham developed, its growing population brought all kinds of problems: infectious diseases, drugs, parasites, harmful creatures, and more."
"The founding families began to worry that the heart of the nation in their eyes would become a burden on the nation. They swore they would not let Gotham become the source of darkness."
At that point, even Batwoman found it hard to continue, because as those who came later, everyone present knew perfectly well what Gotham was like now.
Forget being the chief culprit behind America's corruption. On a global scale, aside from a few places ravaged by warlords, there was nowhere darker or more chaotic than Gotham.
Back then, the founding families had actually already been infiltrated by the Court of Owls. Everything they did while holding onto those beautiful ideals was really preparation for hatching Barbatos, the God of Darkness.
But Batwoman only stumbled for an instant, making it sound like an ordinary pause in her speech, before continuing.
"They established a system called the 'Final Laugh.' Based on the literal meaning of the term, it was a system that would sever all contact with the outside world whenever Gotham faced problems, whether external or internal, while keeping Gotham's people pure."
"Perhaps, in their minds, the Final Laugh had two meanings. One was that