After the first domino toppled, Batman watched the chaotic game laid out before him, almost instantly discerning the true intent of the Robins from the complex facade.
They were driving Gotham's powerful families to take up arms once again, to become gangster families grounded in violence.
Indeed, Batman had only traversed the tail end of a gangster era. When he first emerged, Falcone was already an old man. The godfather had unified Gotham decades earlier, and after transformations through the years, the structure of gangster families had long since become stagnant, devoid of any benefits.
Having debuted in such an era, Batman never believed that the gangster structure was of any good. It was simply not a system that could be sustained in the long run. Batman couldn't believe that the Robins didn't see this.
They had invested so much effort, progressively forcing Gotham's interest groups into their trap, consistently directing them down this path. What had given them the confidence to believe that this was the correct course?
By using the process of elimination, clues could be found. Amid the Robins' constant mundane routine, the single variable was their journey to alternate dimensions.
Batman considered how Shiller brought light back to Gotham in his universe. He was aware that the timeline in that world was ahead of his own, as the Bruce Wayne he met there was younger.
However, amongst all the answers that Batman had gotten, gangster systems were conspicuously absent, because it simply wasn't the key. If the problem with Gotham could be solved so easily, then why would it have deteriorated to its current state?
Indeed, the gangster system could not save Gotham, and it would even have trouble maintaining tranquility for a century. A system built on violence and power had to follow the law of dynastic cycles and would eventually collapse.
But now, Batman couldn't ascertain if his Robins understood this. Were they planning to revert to earlier times, and slowly seek a solution, or were they just shallow, copying only the visible signs?
To know this answer, Batman needed to first figure out whether the Robins knew that the darkness of Gotham had esoteric factors. If they did, they might take this matter more seriously, rather than naively hoping that a certain regime could completely change Gotham.
To determine whether the Robins were aware of Gotham's esoteric elements, Batman naturally had to focus on whether the Robins, amidst these turbulent waves, could see beyond the fierce winds and heavy rains to find the fish swept up in the spray.
Meanwhile, Batman realized that aside from Harley, another little one had been absent for a while. Where was his son Damian Wayne, and what was he up to?
Batman found Damian in a secret base in the lower city area, or rather, he thought he would find Damian there, but instead, he found only his uniform—because the tracking device was attached to it.
Damian had taken off his uniform. Batman thought it was fascinating, as most members of the Batman Family rarely took off their uniforms, but Damian seemed to be the one most dependent on his.
Of course, Damian would dress up for covert operations, but such missions certainly wouldn't happen in the lower city area. Here, the method of dealing with things was kicking down the door, no detours.
The apartment also didn't seem to be a shared secret base for the Robins, but rather seemed like a stopover prepared by Damian himself, just to store a few temporary supplies.
What was he doing?
Batman seemed somewhat puzzled, but without the tracking device, he couldn't stop him from using his detective skills to track Damian's steps.
Soon, Batman found some clues around the building. He followed these leads around the city several times.
Then he found that whatever Damian wanted to do seemed excessively secretive, as the way the little devil usually operates was just looping twice around the city to finish a Robin's mission.
In the end, the clues directed Batman to Gotham City's largest… sewage plant.
Yes, this plant was also owned by Wayne Enterprises.
Perhaps many people are not aware, but modern city sewage treatment has developed very well. Sewage plants are mainly for fermentation. After being processed, a large amount of waste is decomposed into residue and sewage. The residue usually goes into fertilizer plants while the sewage goes to the sea after being treated.
As the owner of the largest fertilizer plant in Gotham City, Wayne Enterprises, naturally, also controlled eighty percent of Gotham's sewage plants. The one Batman found following Damian's trail was the largest sewage plant in the city.
Modern sewage plants don't smell that bad unless you enter the chamber that stores the pollutants. Batman circled this building a few times without spotting Damian anywhere.
However, he did find some unusual traces near the surrounding transport ducts.
On the eastern side of the sewage plant were the sewage discharge pipes. Batman usually didn't pay attention to this area, but thanks to Spider-man's meddling, he had to work extra hours checking each chemical plant for violations on wastewater disposal.
So, almost like he was used to it, the first thing Batman noticed was the sewer pipe. He didn't find any violation on waste disposal, but instead, he found signs of excavation near the pipe.
Batman checked it and found that this was not the result of Spider-man's patrol team's previous cleaning. Instead, these traces were recent—strictly speaking, made within the last few hours.
Considering the previous facts about Damian's whereabouts, Batman could not discard the suspicion that Damian had tampered with the sewer pipe.
Batman knew his son had some engineering experience. For Damian, altering a pipe would not be a difficult task, especially considering the Robins had been plotting for a long time and most likely had all the necessary materials ready.
The question was, why tamper with the sewage outlet of the plant?
Batman figured the only way to know what Robin and his team were up to this time was to dig into the places they had filled.
Of course, Batman couldn't possibly dig manually, especially not by himself.
About half an hour later, The Flash and Spider-Man were brought to the side of the septic tank.
"You, shut up, I haven't got to the part where you simply throw strangers into Gotham yet. And you, keep silent, or leave Gotham. Now, both of you, start working."
Flash Barry and Spider-man Peter exchanged glances. They couldn't start their usual banter in front of Batman, fearing they would face the music later.
Mainly, these two incredibly curious "Babies" were puzzled. Why on Earth was Batman trying to dig up the septic tank pipeline?
The process of a septic tank handling feces and city sewage is primarily sedimentation, then the solids and liquid are separated. The liquid goes to the sewage treatment plant for further treatment, so the septic tank's sewage pipe should lead to a sewage treatment plant.
But as The Flash and Spider-man were digging, Batman noticed something off. The pipeline of the septic tank, located between the upper city area and Midtown, had been tampered with and clearly diverted towards the upper city area.
Batman had a bad feeling about this.
Meanwhile, in the basement of a mansion in the upper city area, a woman wearing a bird-beaked mask slammed the table and said, "Even if March is unreliable, he is better than those useless birds you've raised. Who sent a reconnaissance team to take a tour in Midtown and got shot eighteen times per person on average when they returned?"
"Humph, Doris, the candidates you've nurtured can't even surpass a mob boss who came from humble beginnings. How many votes are you trailing now? At least twenty thousand, right?"
"So what? I just haven't had my mainstream media outlets push their efforts yet. A gap of twenty thousand votes means nothing once the word is spread properly. As for you…"
"Enough." A voice came from the front of the table. Accompanied by a sigh, an elderly man sitting in the main seat said, "We have gathered here today to discuss why Gotham has recently been plagued by many uncontrollable events. Share your thoughts, but it's best not to waste time blaming each other."
"Our people have found out that the so-called 'Naiwei' family is actually from the reverse spell of the Wayne Family. We suspect that Batman is behind all this."
"Do you need to check for something that obvious?" Another voice immediately responded with disdain, "Members of the Naiwei family all used voice changers, but it wasn't hard to find out that they are young. They are probably the kids from the Batman Family."
"Just by a few kids, Gotham has been stirred up like this? Batman has clearly grown a lot. We should've never let him live in the first place."
Suddenly, a person in a long robe wearing a bird beaked mask coughed a couple of times and said, "Batman is useful to us… Forget this for now, we should think about how to quell the chaos in Gotham City. Continuing this chaos is no good for us either."
"We certainly cannot count on… wait a minute, did you hear anything? Is someone knocking on the door?"
Everyone collectively turned their heads to look at the basement door. "Bang" the door was kicked open, and Batman walked into the meeting room. Before anyone could say anything, he spoke rapidly.
"Get out of here now, you have less than ten seconds."
"Batman?! How are you…"
"Move!!"
All the Court of Owls members swore they had never heard Batman roar like that.
Next, a flash of gold, Batman stepped into the realm of Divine Speed, disappearing instantly. His exit was so urgent it looked like an utter retreat.
Suddenly, a gurgling sound emanated from the basement exhaust vent. A thick, chemically-infused stench filled the room, and in a blink, the unprocessed septic tank sewage flooded the entire room like a deluge.
What's worse than shit hitting the fan is when the liquid gets everywhere. It rushed into the enclosed room in such a short time that even the best swimmers struggled not to choke.
Remodeled pipelines discharged enough septic tank sewage to fill the entire room in just a few dozen seconds.
What does it feel like to be submerged in filth that has been pooled from all over the city, and has been fermenting for several days in a septic tank?
The members of the Court of Owls answered — overwhelmed by impending doom.
They were desperate to die, yet there was no time to do so because they needed to find a way to open the submerged door, or else they would actually drown in the sewage.
Then, the Court of Owls members discovered that the unparalleled synchronization of Batman and the Batman Family once again came into play — Batman had welded the door shut before leaving.
In fact, it wasn't Batman who had done it, but The Flash and Spider-Man.
The Court of Owls members who were trying to pry open the door to save themselves finally understood what it meant when people say — Spider-man never slacks off when he works, he's a trustworthy neighbor in New York.