Cursing, shouting, chaotic hollering, the mob drew their friends together, causing more chaos, an agonizing mayhem. They blasted rocks and broke the ground, digging downwards where the beams of light rose, until they opened several artificial abysses in the city's surface.
They were fearless, undeterred by the rain pelting down like arrows or the wind cutting like a blade. Madness was both the poison and the armor of the Gothamites.
With the construction of more structures, rainwater that fell from the sky onto the ground of Gotham began to be artificially directed underground.
Cobblepot stood on the rooftop of the living hell, watching the glow of fire rise in the rainy night. He did not hold an umbrella and did not care to. His eyes, deep-set in their sockets, were filled with madness. He laughed coldly, muttering to himself, "You rats will never understand. Gotham is Gotham, and will only ever be Gotham…"
The collected surface water in Gotham began to be channeled underground, and in a dark meeting room somewhere in the Gotham underground, a man wearing a white bird-shaped mask sneered disdainfully.
"They're just trying to save themselves, after all, even idiots have brains." A masked woman taunted.
"Isn't it a bit too risky for us to have started the water plan so early? We've prepared for this for years, we even modified the sewer system since the city was founded…" another, somewhat younger, voice asked.
"They have already discovered us and are using such despicable means to deal with us. We must make them pay! They dare…"
Everyone let out angry voices, and then together fell silent, as if recalling the scene that day, trying to suppress the nauseating impulse in the midst of their disgust.
"We can't give up on Gotham," an old voice said. "Retreat and relocation are only temporary. We will not willingly surrender everything we've built here over such a long time."
"This is our most secret base," the woman said. "As long as they can't find us, no matter how much a monster rages on the surface, it has nothing to do with us."
When she finished speaking, she turned to a man next to her and said, "Check all of our sealing devices again, do not let the rainwater leak in."
"They might want to drain the rainwater into the sea through the underground water system. But this is impossible to accomplish. The drainage speed of the sewer system is not fast enough. Gotham will eventually be flooded."
"After this rain, chaos will once again seep into every corner of Gotham, just like what happened ten years ago."
"The owl will forever watch over this place. Fear it, scream at it, for it will be our sustenance…"
In the dark meeting room, there was a burst of laughter, like the hooting of night owls in the woods.
The rain continued unabated, with more and more water being channeled underground, at a slower and slower rate. Standing next to the fence at one of the construction sites, Gordon shouted, "The sewer system is at its limit! The entire underground of Gotham should now be flooded."
Brock, sitting on a motorbike, shone a flashlight in their direction. The dazzling light made Gordon shield his eyes with his arm. He heard Brock calling out, "They say everything is set up! We're making preparations to evacuate!"
Gordon turned back, waving his arm and shouting, "Everyone prepares to evacuate! Retreat to high-rise buildings!"
He then picked up the phone and spoke into it, "Sector 5! Can the person in charge of Sector 5 hear me? How are you guys doing? Has everyone left the first and second floors?!"
"Have you not relayed to them that this is the Godfather's command? How many times have I said to obey the evacuation orders? Does Falcone himself need to call and have a talk with them?"
Brock, holding an umbrella, shouted, "All we can do is hope that the method they've come up with really works. Otherwise, Gotham will truly be flooded."
Gordon hung up the phone saying, "We have to believe in Batman... That's all we've got left!"
Soon the lights in the upper floors throughout Gotham began to illuminate, while the lower floor lights went out, as everyone moved upwards.
The members of the Court of Owls, who received the news from their surveillance equipment, did not take it seriously. To them, this was only a stalling tactic. The flood will eventually wash away everything and no matter how high they hide, it will be in vain.
But soon, they couldn't laugh anymore.
Members of the Court of Owls sitting in a dark meeting room suddenly felt a blast of intense cold sweeping over their entire hideout. This icy blast erupted from the source and instantly swept over every corner of the Gotham underground.
The raging rainwater was frozen into ice. As raindrops fell from the sky, the splashing droplets were frozen into crystal-clear ice.
Looking from above Gotham, massive snowflakes bloomed from a tiny device, and in an instant, the ground and surface of Gotham, every bit of liquid, solidified, as if time had paused.
Next, multiple devices were launched into the sky and exploded in the cloud layer. The water accumulated in the clouds also froze and shattered as it descended, turning into lumps of ice by the time it fell to the ground.
Between the accumulated clouds over Gotham, shrouded in layers of frigid currents, the falling rain transformed directly into floating snowflakes.
Within just a few minutes, the entire sky above and ground below Gotham was frozen over. The whole city seemed to have hit the pause button, not only was the aquarium frozen, but so too were the hands reaching out to grab the fish.
The hardness of the ice layer created by the freeze generator was no less than that of rock. Surrounding the Owl's hideout, thousands of meters of ice had condensed. Everyone was directly frozen in a massive, solid ice cube.
"Is this the work of Victor · Fries?" In a ward in Arkham Mental Hospital, Batman asked Shiller.
"You ought to show a little respect for your professor and never call him by his full name. And even if you do ask, I can guess that you've prepared hundreds of contingency plans to deal with him."
"Who can freeze all of Gotham…" Batman murmured to himself.
"Actually, freezing it won't solve the problem of the real storm clouds." Shiller shook his head. "The fact that the freeze generator is so effective means that these rain clouds have indeed been tampered with."
"Alright, forget about your anti-freeze Gotham plan. I think you should be able to see some truth…"
"What truth?"
Batman saw Shiller walking towards the window, stopping by the floor-to-ceiling glass. He stared into the icy night outside. The cold glow of ice reflected on his face. Shiller casually said,
"When I don't have an umbrella, nobody will get to make it rain."