The night in Gotham was growing darker. Savage stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of Sokolov's Grand Hotel, watching the lights of the city gradually extinguishing. Yet, there were a few places where the lights remained on all night, the construction sites buzzing with activity.
Gotham was undergoing major construction, and Savage didn't miss it. He thought he had chosen an excellent timing. If he caught Gotham in the midst of refurbishing public facilities, the city would definitely be more chaotic, which presented an opportunity to him.
The Pied Piper had already been dispatched by him to investigate the situation around the construction site. If it was feasible to sabotage the city's infrastructure, it would give him additional leverage in negotiations with the mob.
Just as Savage was about to return to his room to rest, he discovered a shadow by the window. Instinctively he sidestepped, and with a quick "whoosh", a Batman dart whistled past his neck.
Savage turned around, seeing a dark figure with pointed ears appearing behind him. Just as he was about to speak, a fist had already advanced towards him.
Batman didn't plan on having any discussion with Savage. When a man was driven by money, excess words were unnecessary; Bruce Wayne was no exception.
Savage flung his body backward, attempting to grab Batman's wrist, but the moment he touched the bat suit, a sizzling sound emanated and sparks erupted. Savage withdrew his hand, his fingertips starting to smoke.
The intense pain sparked his adrenaline. His left foot retreated back to stabilize his balance. He launched a spinning kick towards Batman's neck. Batman was unyielding, bending to dodge the attack and pushing forward, cornering Savage to the corner of the room.
Savage snorted coldly, throwing a false punch to the right. Batman evaded to the left, consequently Savage turned around swiftly positioning himself now to Batman's back, now attacking instead of defending.
Batman deftly ducked and evaded Savage's punch as if he had eyes in the back, a trio of Batman darts were thrown, further driving Savage to another corner of the room.
In the brief moment of eye contact, they both understood that they had met their match.
Batman's fighting technique was polished, but Savage was no pushover either.
His long life coupled with various combat experiences compensated for any inadequacies he might have had. The exchanges between a gifted fighter and an experienced one were filled with mindful calculations and deadly intent in their every move.
Neither was a talkative man. Thus after a few trades of blows, they hadn't even exchanged names. Although Savage was proficient in combat and had more experience, he was falling behind in terms of equipment.
The mysterious figure in black was equipped with a suit that could generate electricity, boots with spikes, brass-knuckled gloves, and Batman darts for long-range attacks. Savage felt he had descended upon him unethically, ambushing a comrade of fifty thousand years old.
Despite Savage's best efforts, he found himself gradually losing ground and his body was marked with wounds caused by Batman's brass-knuckles.
It was not that Savage showed weakness willingly, but ever since his arrival in this city he found the weather peculiar. The sun rarely shone, it rained incessantly, and the rainwater would inevitably infect any cuts, leading to fever. His meteor-radiation affected body was of no help either.
Slow healing wounds meant low tolerance for error. Once this thought crossed his mind, he would naturally lean towards a defensive strategy, reluctant to trade wound for wound. However, the more defensively he fought, the more disadvantageous it was for him. After several rounds, Savage was already contemplating retreat.
"Batman! What are you here for?!" Savage coldly asked, "We have neither hatred nor grudges; why are you probing me?!"
"No resentment, no grudges?" Batman's deep voice echoed, "You have intruded into my Batcave. You call this having no grudges?"
"Intruded into your…" Savage started, startled into a pause, and then boundless fury surged on his face. In a flash, his neck turned red, and he became furious.
"That was your base?!!!" Savage roared, "You deliberately set a trap!! You despicable man!!!"
Savage's anger baffled Batman. Why was Savage so angry? Was there a trap? Where?
Were there traps in the Batcave? Batman was oblivious to this.
Actually, Batman hadn't even noticed that his plan was lost.
It was because too much had changed over the past three years, and so many things had taken place. Batman had never considered reusing the discarded schemes from the past. As they were not important to him anymore, he had completely forgotten about them.
But, Savage was screwed over by this plan.
The plan against Alberto didn't succeed. That didn't bother Savage too much since Alberto was busy with his internship and didn't bug him. So, Savage switched his target to Shiller.
Lately, Shiller was occupied with supervising students ready for their internship and the ones from the vocational school, thus barely spent any time at home. He was mostly commuting between Gotham University and Arkham Asylum, spending most of his time at Gotham University.
To target Shiller, one had to enter Gotham University. The information in the data folder described Gotham University as a common university; easy to enter and exit, just an average location in Gotham city.
At least that's what Savage believed. Hence, he entered Gotham University without any precautions. The closest building near the east gate, through which he entered, was a laboratory. So, within three minutes of his entry, Savage ran into Victor.
When Batman wrote this data, Victor was not around, hence there was no record of such a professor in the data. Savage assumed Victor was a common man.
However, since he thought Victor had witnessed his infiltration, Savage had a strong urge to silence him, and then...he was frozen completely.
At that moment, there were only five minutes left until the start of class, Victor realized he had left a lecture notebook behind. He rushed back to the lab block to retrieve his things.
After freezing Savage, he didn't look closely at him and mistaken him for just another student wandering around aimlessly.
At Gotham University, almost all the students knew that Victor's Freeze Gun could freeze people without making them feel cold, and there were no after-effects. Thus, they got used to being caught doing bad things, being frozen for a few hours and then released.
In Gotham, there isn't an established rule about reporting to parents. These students wouldn't dare go back and tell their parents, who are mob bosses, about their wrongdoings and the consequent freezing. Whining about it would only earn them a beating.
Knowing that there wouldn't be severe consequences, Victor didn't dwell on this and planned to unfreeze the student after class.
But just by chance, that day Cobblepot was doing experiments with Victor. As soon as he stepped out of the door, he saw this ice statue.
The way Savage provoked him and Alberto was still fresh in his mind, Cobblepot's memory was much better than Shiller's and Batman's.
He just called over a few newsboys who often made deliveries at Gotham University and had them load the ice statue onto the university's garbage truck.
The truck carrying the Savage's ice statue disappeared into the sunset. It was a reflection of Savage's long-lost youth.
Eventually, the truck unloaded at the dump and Savage was dumped in the trash mountain along with all sorts of kitchen waste and foul-smelling dirty water.
At that time, he hoped someone would unfreeze him, but also hoped desperately that no one would.
Unfortunately, Victor knew he had a poor memory and might forget about a frozen student, potentially starving them to death, so the Freeze Gun he used at school had a time limit -- it could only freeze for up to four hours before it automatically unfroze.
Savage could never forget the sound of the sculpture shattering. That sound was louder than the trembling steps of wild beasts, the whooshing of the Roman Eagle in wind, the rumbling of French Iron Cavalry, or the cry of eagles over the large grassland.
At the moment the sound of the Batman dart cutting through the air sounded, Savage was once again reminded of the horrific scene that day. His rage was drowning all reasoning, and his roar was echoing above Gotham:
"Batman!!!"
Although Batman had no idea what he was angry about, he followed the original plan, feigned defeat, and lured him away from his room, scampering down the hall of Sokolov's Grand Hotel.
The two of them going head to head has devastated the hotel. Smashed furniture wasn't the problem, but they fought without any restraint, damaging doors, knocking down chandeliers, and terrified guests scattering in the lobby.
The security rushed in, but they were helpless against these fighter aces. Batman was a man who even an Omega ray would avoid. Bullets were useless against him.
They fought and ran, completely ruining the once exquisite Sokolov's Grand Hotel.
Not until he managed to lead Savage out of the hotel did Batman accelerate according to the previously planned route, leaving Savage far behind on the rooftop of one of Gotham's skyscrapers, impotently raging.
And when he wanted to go back to the hotel, he found that he couldn't return. The owner of the Sokolov's Grand Hotel may have a bad brain, but he wouldn't allow him to stay again.
And because he had been out for a while, the Sokolov's Grand Hotel had assembled significant security forces, all armed, strongly deterring him from creating a ruckus.
This hotel had secured its foothold in Gotham not merely with marketing and gimmicks, but also with assemblance of martial power. Wounds healing slow and easily getting infected had a certain deterring effect on Savage, so he thought about it and decided to switch to another place.
His second choice was the Wayne Hotel, which he succeeded in checking into but checked out again after just one night.
The room he stayed in seemed haunted. The faucet was running non-stop, the bed creaked, there were sounds of a drilling machine from the ceiling and arguing from downstairs.
Savage doesn't fear ghosts, but he does need to sleep. Before the situation got out of hand, he had to leave.
Afterward, he stayed in several other luxury hotels, but they either ended up in chaos from Batman chasing him down or were plagued by inexplicable disturbances, preventing him from getting any rest.
Three days later, Savage understood that this city was working against him.
But he had no intention of giving up. In his long life, he had experienced countless failures. Waterloo was the most famous one, but it wasn't the last one. He firmly believed that a great king does not fear failure, and he could still build a great empire with his bare hands.
Savage then turned his sights onto rent. If he couldn't stay at a hotel for the short term, surely he could rent something for the long term?
After several comparisons, Savage found a fabulous location with a great strategic position.
This location was in the southern part of the East District, surrounded by construction sites, with dense pedestrian and vehicular traffic and excellent commercial supporting facilities. As long as he could secure a foothold here, he could radiate throughout the East District from the vibrant human activity here.
As Savage's silhouette disappeared down an alley, an old, dilapidated mailbox swayed in the wind behind him. The faintly visible handwritten letters spelled out "Living Hell".