"Enjoy your life today. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow might never come."
- Takeshi Yamamoto (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)
...
"Who dares to attack me!"
The Man-Bat only had time for this one thought before he couldn't think of anything else.
He was already drowsy from the effects of the sedative, and he was hit on the back of the head suddenly. His eyes went dark immediately, his body trembled, and he couldn't even stand straight.
Thud!
Just then, the attacker saw that Man-Bat had taken a hit but hadn't fallen, so he thought he had hit lightly.
Then he hit Man-Bat's head again with a heavy blow.
Plop.
This finally caused Man-Bat to lose consciousness completely and fall to the ground.
'This guy looks tough on the outside, but I guess he can't take a punch after all?'
Dean looked down at the fallen Man-Bat and thought to himself.
Obviously, this was a joke since the Man-Bat had already looked drowsy when he walked into the lab.
Man-Bat didn't even bother to see if there were any intruders inside the lab.
Man-Bat went straight to the table filled with chemicals and started searching, just like someone poisoned and desperately looking for an antidote.
If Dean hadn't noticed this, he wouldn't have considered coming over to knock Man-Bat unconscious.
Dean had used a table leg he had just taken off as the weapon to hit the Man-Bat's head from behind.
The quality of this table leg was decent—a solid steel rod that was quite thick. It bent after hitting Man-Bat's head twice, but it didn't break.
"But, seeing him stumble when he flew in, he must have fought with Batman and Robin not long ago."
Dean casually tossed the table leg aside and shifted the Man-Bat's body to face upward.
'Naloxone? He was looking for a wake-up drug just now. I see. Batman used a sedative on him, so that's why he had that reaction.'
Seeing the chemical in Man-Bat's hand, Dean suddenly understood everything that had happened before.
'There's less than a minute left until the Reverse Man-Bat Inhibitor is available in the system store...'
Dean looked down at the unconscious Man-Bat on the ground and pondered.
'Should I just try it out now?'
Looking at the 1100 amazement points in his balance, Dean immediately gave up on this idea.
Spending five hundred points for a potion that can directly eliminate Man-Bat, a supervillain, was actually quite a good deal, but it would be too expensive to buy just to see if it works.
There was really no need to do that.
"Speaking of which, since the system can generate a Reverse Man-Bat Inhibitor, can it also generate inhibitors for other metahumans? Like an Anti-Reversion for Killer Croc or a Plant Inhibitor for Poison Ivy?"
Dean thought it was possible, and this function of this system might be his trump card when facing countless superhuman abilities in the future.
A while ago.
In the air hundreds of meters outside the laboratory, Batman and Robin swung over from the opposite building using their Grappling Gun.
When approaching the lab, Man-Bat felt a surge of hope as he sped towards it, leaving Batman and Robin behind.
But for Gotham's dynamic duo, this small distance meant nothing as they quickly caught up.
Kirk's laboratory was not located on the ground but rather on the rooftop of a building. It looked like a huge cabin, not very big, around seventy to eighty square meters.
After landing gracefully, Batman and Robin stood perfectly in front of the entrance to Kirk Langstrom's lab.
"Kirk probably did a lot of damage to the front door. He's definitely inside now."
Robin spoke confidently while looking at the broken door.
"Kirk came to the lab in a hurry. I guess he was looking for an antidote to resist the effects of the sedative. But he surely didn't possibly know our sedative was different from the ones commonly used. The usual antidotes won't work."
"Now that he's trapped himself in the closed laboratory, it's like he's caught in his own trap."
At this point, Batman's gaze slightly strengthened as he said, "It's too quiet inside."
Hearing this, Robin paused for a moment. Indeed, the lab was completely silent. It was a bit too quiet.
Then he made a guess, "Perhaps he's already asleep."
Batman's expression remained unchanged as he said, "Don't underestimate him, Robin. We never underestimate any opponent in battle."
"Yes, I understand. I didn't mean to underestimate that Man-Bat, especially not while we were fighting. I was just stating a fact."
Robin shrugged.
Batman didn't comment on that and proceeded to walk into the laboratory first.
However, as Batman and Robin entered the lab, the first thing they saw was the unconscious form of the Man-Bat lying on the ground.
"See, I told you he might be asleep..."
Robin immediately started speaking, but before he could finish, Batman, who had already pulled a batarang, suddenly said in a cold voice while looking into the depths of the laboratory, "Stop! Who are you?"
At the end of the lab, by the window, a shadowy figure opened the window and seemed to be preparing to jump out.
Swish!
The shadow was looking surprised when a batarang hit the window frame.
The shadow turned around, allowing Batman and Robin to see the person's true face.
It was... Batman?
Robin's brain seemed to have crashed for a moment.
The shadow in front of him was wearing a batsuit that resembled Batman; even the height was quite similar, but without Batman's muscular build.
"Who do you think I am?"
The person in front of them slowly spoke, his voice deep and rough, carrying a strange roughness.
Behind him, the dark cape moved in the night wind, giving off an indescribable sense of loneliness.
"I am vengeance, I am the night, I am—"
As he spoke, his tone grew louder, and his voice grew stronger.
"Stop!"
But just as he uttered his final words, Batman jumped out of nowhere, clenched his fist, and charged forward.
The imposter Batman wasted no time and quickly escaped through the window.
As he jumped out of the window, Batman caught up, his hands gripping the window frame, and he looked outside.
He saw a black glider flying into the distance.
"Why... are you so angry? I mean, Batman imitators have appeared in Gotham before."
Robin approached, his voice filled with curiosity.
"I'm not angry."
Batman replied with a blank expression.
He turned away from the window and headed towards the unconscious Man-Bat. The top priority now was to find a way to restore him to normal.
"Not angry?"
Robin glanced at the window frame that Batman had forcefully grabbed, seeing two clear handprints...
...
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