Another loud bang echoed as another side of the orphanage's wall was dug open by a massive excavator. Members of the Joker Gang hung onto the machine, smirking slyly at the people below.
"Ha, ha, ha, got you!"
Harley Quinn dismounted from the hippopotamus she was atop, skipped over to Clark, put her palm to her lips, then tried to smack her lipstick-marked finger onto Clark's face. As she raised her hand, Clark grabbed her wrist.
Clark flicked Harley Quinn's hand to the side and she let out a sound of disdain. She turned to Clark, pulling a face at him, then exaggeratedly cleared her throat, thumping a chair armrest with her wooden hammer. She announced,
"Officers, it's time to apprehend these cowardly drug peddlers in Gotham. Any objections?"
"What are you up to?" Clark asked, somewhat bewildered.
"No objections? I guess you all agree then. Let's get them. And I'll become the greatest hero in Gotham. Let's go!"
The members of the Joker Gang who had infiltrated the orphanage were about to move in on the children when Clark flew up, declaring, "Stop."
Several shadowy figures behind him thought they could sneak up on the kids unnoticed, but the moment they reached the back of the staircase, a red light flashed, slicing off a portion of their trouser legs and leaving a deep mark on the floor.
Clark's eyes emitted a red glow as he stared coldly in that direction.
Superman hardly ever used heat vision on humans. A piece of parental advice he always adhered to—Dangerous weapons should be used with caution, lest they hurt innocent people.
However, these people reminded Clark of a criminal he detested: The Joker.
Clark's primary issue with the Joker was not the man himself, but the people he manipulated, and it was those people that left the God of the World especially exasperated.
Admittedly, when faced with a dilemma, not everyone could make the perfect decision. Those without enough power to save themselves or others were not at fault.
But, there was a group of people who, even at their last breath, blamed their fellow citizens for their fate instead of the Joker.
Was there a chance that the only one guilty, wrong, and deserving of blame in the entire incident was The Joker himself?
If Superman was merely dissatisfied with the twisted logic of the first group, the second group—the ones who blamed Batman during these ethical dilemmas—really irked him.
Did they really believe the Joker when he said it was all Batman's fault he had them tied up, that he was just playing a game with Batman?
The Joker was a ruthless kidnapper, not a judge. How could he possibly tell the truth? Even if he did, he was insane—he'd say whatever he wanted. Why would anyone believe the ramblings of a madman?
Sometimes Superman wondered, humans could remember all the lyrics and melodies of a singer's 50-year discography, but they couldn't engrave anything useful into their genes—like inscriptions in a human survival guide that said, "Don't listen to the babblings of a lunatic."
What irritated Superman the most was that even Batman believed in the Joker.
Let's talk about the recent incident involving Batman and Jason for instance.
To put it bluntly, Batman, hailed as the smartest and most powerful human in the world, was caught squabbling with another victim. Instead, he could have stormed into hell, dragged the Joker's soul back, and slapped him right in front of Jason, right?
And as for Jason, instead of blaming Batman, why didn't he dig up the Joker's grave? Even if the Joker didn't have a grave, he could have dumped the Joker's ashes in a manure pit, right? When he was living on a farm, he'd even carried manure from the porch—were the people of Gotham afraid of this?
Did Superman not fancy visiting Gotham, where Batman was? He was well aware that Earth did not have the medical conditions to treat high blood pressure in Kryptonians. The less he saw, the less he'd worry about it.
However, even the few times Superman deigned to visit Gotham, instead of the official Joker, he ran into the damn Joker Gang. He firmly believed that one punch from him would bury them all in the ground, unable to dig themselves out—a way of venting his long-standing frustration with the absurd news reports out of Gotham that he followed from Metropolis.
Many people felt that Superman maintained a much higher moral grounding and a more justified approach than Batman. However, logically speaking, the truth was exactly the opposite. Superman had far fewer concerns than Batman.
Superman stuck to his absolute sense of justice, never doubting himself. If he deemed something as right, it was guiltless. If he deemed it wrong, he would apprehend the wrongdoers. He had no qualms about what was right or wrong.
His reasoning process was incredibly straightforward: the passengers on boat 1 were innocent victims of the Joker, so they were cleared. The passengers on boat 2 were forced to press the button under coercion from the Joker, so they were cleared. The Joker had kidnapped two whole boatloads of people and even forced them to kill each other. Had any of them ever heard of a technique that smites criminals from above?
Thinking back on all the bizarre cases in Gotham and then seeing each face resembling the Joker on the front page of the newspaper, Clark's anger surged.
Meanwhile, Harley Quinn prattled on.
"What brings you, a foolish outsider, here? Oh, don't tell me Batman abandoned Gotham and told you about all the poor kids needing rescue here?"
"Can't you see that he's actually kidnapping you? Furthermore, what gives you the right to judge that these kids are worth your protection? Just take a look at what they have stashed by their feet."
"Oh, I forgot, you're a purebred Metropolis dweller, probably unfamiliar and never seen how dangerous this can be. See the hippo behind me? It only takes three bags of orange juice to make it see you as the hottest stripper in the entire hippo world."
"These kids have distributed it to at least 2000 people, they are your most detested drug dealers, and we are here to administer justice, we will confiscate their criminal tools."
"So, what will you do? Do you decide to protect these drug-dealing children based on appearances, or do you always stand on the side of justice…"
Clark blitzed into the sky like a shooting star.
Boom!!!!!!!
Peter inside the Stagg Airship Chemical Laboratory looked confusedly at the mushroom cloud rising outside the window, scratching his head and said, "What happened? The military is bombing Gotham again? It's not going to be a nuclear warhead this time, right?"
"No need for more radiation!"
An angry and manic voice sounded from behind the laboratory table, a disheveled Poison Ivy stood up, brushing her hair and asked, "Is the 3.0 component ready yet? Can it be disseminated directly using the weather equipment?"
"What's the rush?" Another familiar voice, Scarecrow, poked his head out from behind a rack and said, "The first round of experiments isn't even finished yet, do you think I'm as improvised as you?"
"Jonathan Crane, shut your mouth or I will stuff the pothos behind you into your nostrils!" Poison Ivy turned her head and cursed.
"That's all you can do." Scarecrow snorted, then mocked in a sarcastic tone, "Who was it that anesthetized the entire city with plant toxins without any legitimate and scientific clinical trials, leading to a mutation in the anesthetic component?"
"Shut up."
It was Peter who said this. He turned his head and stared at Scarecrow, "You better keep quiet, Professor, remember that while Batman can't stop you from being released on bail on grounds of mental illness, the President can."
"If you keep running your mouth and not working, Bruce Wayne will collapse at your doorstep tomorrow, claiming that you assassinated the President. Even if you have great power, you will still spend your life behind bars."
Scarecrow mumbled and stopped talking, because he knew Peter was telling the truth. He could plot against Batman, but not the President. Regardless of how Bruce Wayne became President, the mere accusation of attempting to assassinate the President would land him in jail forever.
"Has anyone told you? You really are like a villain." Poison Ivy said while giving Peter a thumbs up.
However, looking at the data on the analyzer, she seemed a bit worried. She knew the disaster hadn't ended yet, but never expected that in the end, her brilliant self who always picked the right side, turned out to be the real culprit.
The story goes back to when Peter dragged Poison Ivy to the Weather Control Center in Wayne Tower to poison the city.
At that time, Peter stated his requirements, which were to anesthetize the entire city without causing any harm to their bodies. It sounded like a very cruel and demanding task.
But Poison Ivy knew that it was not difficult to do so, because what she used was not a chemical method, but a mystical method.
The so-called plant toxin, besides its name being somewhat similar to a certain classification in human science, its actual principle has nothing to do with chemistry.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, considering Poison Ivy's level of toxin control, it's not a difficult task to anesthetize everyone safely and painlessly.
But it was not until two or three months after Wayne was elected president, that they belatedly realized that the mental state of Gothamites had become too fantastic.
Of course, it's not that they weren't crazy before, but most individuals in Gotham were not artistically mad, they were mostly involved in violent crimes.
But recently, Gothamites have been suffering from a major brain freeze.
Before, their minds contained a bit of madness, whereas now, in the middle of their craziness, remnants of sanity could be detected.
And as it's said, madness and artistry can be the same thing. Poison Ivy found a way to lower Gotham's crime rate before Batman did - as long as everyone is completely high, no one can logically commit a crime.
In the past three months, Gotham's theft crime rate has decreased by 30% year-on-year, murder and intentional injury crime rate has declined by 50%, and large-scale bombing crime rate has declined by 70% year-on-year.
Isn't it strange? Gotham was actually saved.
And what's even more bizarre is that it had nothing to do with Bruce Wayne. It's purely because the Gothamites finally broke their mental state's bottom line once again with the help of drugs. The madness turned from accelerating crime to hindering it.
In the past three months, crimes such as stealing the fourth wheel from a tricycle have topped the list of theft cases at the Gotham Police Department. The situation is similar in other crime areas.
It's not that actual explosives are unaffordable, but the empty boxes that have all the professional equipment and parts except for the bombs have a much higher cost-performance ratio. Five-Star General MacArthur once said: If you give him a brain that bursts with wisdom but lacks an actual brain, he gives you a flourishing crime world with no crime.
Fact proves that complete illogical chaos is certainly not the primary condition for crime. If one lacks basic cognitive ability and memory, then they're really incapable of anything.
Reality is just this absurd, after the long night, it wasn't the supervillain Scarecrow who destroyed Gotham, and it wasn't the superhero Batman who saved Gotham.
At this point, Poison Ivy, who doesn't really have any fan filter regarding either side, can be credited with the biggest contribution, sweating bullets at the moment.