""Ha, if it isn't the mighty Arkham Knight? What happened? You got thrown around by Batman once and now you're like this?"
The Scarecrow's voice drifted from the doorway, causing Arkham Knight, who was busily repairing his arm armor, to pause. He spoke in a hard, icy tone, "How did those two hostages escape?"
Having said that, he turned his gaze onto the Scarecrow, who seemed taken aback, taking a small step back as he said, "Are you suspecting me?"
The newcomer that old man brought in and Poison Ivy don't have the guts, don't argue with me, I know them better than you do."
The Scarecrow muttered under his breath before stepping forward and retorting, "Not capable of much? That kid ripped a car door off with one hand without bending his elbow! I thought the Metropolis retriever had come!"
Arkham Knight narrowed his eyes slightly. "Are you implying that youngster named Peter Parker is a superpower user?"
"Why else would I let them escape?" Biting his teeth, the Scarecrow added, "And Poison Ivy, do you think I didn't try to control them with fear gas? She's simply immune to any toxin."
"I sprayed a small amount of fear gas on myself, yet the kid didn't freak around me. That means he's not an ordinary person. He is a Gotham freak, just like you."
"He's not a Gothamite at all." The Arkham Knight said, his expression shifting as he turned away.
He began to recall the details of his fight with Peter Parker. He remembered arriving at Wayne Manor to see two figures emerging. He knocked Poison Ivy out first before landing a blow on Peter Parker's face.
No, he seemed to recall seeing some blinking threads up close, yet also so far away when trying to recollect this.
His memories were getting foggy again. The Arkham Knight shook his head, aware that his mental state had always been fragile. His experiences over the year had brought him close to a complete mental breakdown, memories feeling faraway and confusing, with no clear line between then and now.
Peter Parker and Tim Drake were totally different - the Arkham Knight was certain of it. Did Batman not see the strange malevolence in the boy?
With a crack, he broke another part on his arm armor. Tossing the ruined parts in frustration, he felt more and more uneasy as he thought. Leaving only a message for Scarecrow to wait for the heat to die down, he disappeared once more into the rainy night.
In the bell tower of the Oracle System's base, Poison Ivy stood behind Peter, watching him typing on the computer. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Deleting surveillance."
"What surveillance?"
"Don't you remember? I used that Living Drug to alter Arkham Knight's memories, making him believe that he knocked us both out and captured us."
"But no memory manipulation is foolproof. My symbiont isn't especially good at it either. He'll realize something's wrong eventually, which is why I need to erase the surveillance from around the Batcave."
"But if you only delete surveillance around the Batcave, isn't it obvious something's wrong?"
"That's exactly what I want him to realize." As Peter hammers out his next move on his keyboard, he adds, "I also have to leave some clues for him to draw his attention."
Poison Ivy wore an expression of surprise.
Ten minutes later, Arkham Knight stood looking at the force-opened door. He bent down to examine the distorted part of the door, where the shape of the fingers that exerted force could still be seen.
Not too strong, no armor, the size of the hands didn't fit Gotham City's infamous supercriminal strongman. Besides breaking open the door, there was no other damage. Suspicious.
Arkham Knight had to crouch down to crawl through the damaged door, indicating that the perpetrator wasn't too large of a build. If the person wasn't very muscular and didn't have the help of gadgets, yet could inflict such damage to the bell tower's security door instantly, that person had to be a superpower user.
Was Barbara kidnapped by a superpower user?
Entering the room, Arkham Knight found the computer still on. There were no signs of struggle, no bullet holes, and Barbara's wheelchair was also missing.
This indicated that Barbara either left on her own, or she was subdued in an instant. Arkham Knight leaned towards the latter.
Arkham Knight bent down to look at the computer screen. It was the interface of the Oracle System, indicating that Barbara had indeed been kidnapped. Otherwise, she wouldn't have left the computer on when she left.
Arkham Knight started searching within the Oracle System for the surveillance footage of the Batcave at that time. After scrolling through a whole list of files, he finally found the surveillance files of the relevant time period.
After a more detailed search, Arkham Knight found that there were about fifteen missing minutes in the surveillance footage of that time period. The missing footage was very neatly deleted, clearly by human hands.
Arkham Knight started to recall the access log of the Oracle System, and past events filled his thoughts.
Barbara was handing herself a hot cup of tea then. She turned to everyone behind her and said, "I added a special access permission for myself in the system. Just type in your own name, and you'd be able to call the underlying interface for access and operation records."
"But considering your memories, I must ask again, does anyone not remember their own name?"