Black hair, blue eyes, a handsome face, a proportionate and strong body, and wise eyes - these were the typical traits of Batman's appearance, and the man in front of him must be Batman, or at least Bruce Wayne.
Due to this, Joker now felt as if he had been slapped in the face by how casual Batman's demeanor was.
The scream that he swallowed seemed to stick in his throat like chewing gum, causing Joker to cough loudly a few times.
Batman stared at him.
Joker, wheezing for quite some time, eventually brought himself to spit out at Batman: "What are you looking at? Going to take a blood test or what?"
Batman turned and walked towards the equipment.
Joker shouted again, "Come back!"
Batman turned to look at him, and Joker pointed to the side, "Test his blood!"
"I'm not high!"
"I'm fucking not high either!"
They both turned their heads to look at each other, with surprisingly similar expressions on their faces - "How the fuck can you not be high?!"
They both turned their heads to glare at Batman again.
Batman paused, but went over to the equipment, took another syringe, and started to draw Bruce's blood. Bruce looked at him with an incredibly pained, incredulous stare.
"The anesthesia that Tim injected into you will partially remain in your bloodstream, I need to carry out a blood test to ensure that you can metabolize it safely within a certain time frame."
"What did I say! What did I say!!!!" Joker immediately became arrogant, stuck his head through the bars, and called out to Bruce across, "I told you that you were high!"
Bruce snorted, shook his head, and said, "You don't understand pharmacology at all. IV anesthesia does not contain hallucinogenic components. Even if I have 80% anesthesia in my veins now, I am not even half as high as you, you Doper!"
Joker was shocked.
He was actually being scolded by Batman!
And it was because of drug use!
Most incredibly, it was because of drug use!
You could scold me for being evil because of the city-wide bombing I caused, you could even accuse me of being a madman for the art I've created, but how could you accuse me of drug use?
Most importantly, I didn't fucking do it!
Joker glared at Bruce and said, "Isn't this our pharmacology overachieving detective?! Didn't your studies teach you that real drug users, apart from seeing hallucinations, also present physical reactions? Want me to dance for you?"
"You're too ugly, don't pollute my eyes!"
Batman couldn't resist sneaking a glance at Joker.
Joker covered his own eyes with his hands.
Then he turned his attack on Batman, "Where the hell did you find this clueless teenager? Or did you father him?!"
"Ha, you think he's my dad? Apart from being uneducated, are you also visually impaired? Or do you believe that having a crooked mouth like a scoop is helpful for inclusion under the Romeo Law?"
Joker glared at Batman, while Batman stared at Bruce.
Bruce, acting just like a typical teenager, blew out a breath, shrugged and brushed his hands in a dismissive gesture, turning back to say, "Alright, alright, you two just take it as me preparing a rap program for the opening of the music festival, you two shovels."
Joker took a deep breath, decided to ignore him, and shook the prison bars vigorously, yelling, "I am not joking with you, Batman. From the results of my blood test, you should be able to see that I am not on any drugs, everything I said is true!"
"But whether or not there are any exaggerations, we don't know yet." Bruce intervened again: "You should pay more attention to his blood alcohol level. I'll bet that at least ten people at a bar contributed their exaggerations to what he described to you. They're trotting along after dark, they see this, they see that."
Bruce shrugged, "If you believe him, then you should also believe the legends of Mothman and Bigfoot. After all, it's all drunken gibberish. Now wouldn't that be more fun."
Joker didn't know that Batman was capable of being this annoying.
Again, it is universally accepted by both the Batman Family and the Joker that Batman is silent and doesn't talk much. But if he eventually changed, how many people could out-talk him?
For super-geniuses like Batman, thinking at a high speed means they experience time differently from the average person. If they intended to go on a passionate verbal spree, they might even be faster than rappers who improvise and have more rigorous logic.
"Look, he was originally trapped in an alien's dome, right? There is a war ongoing over there, with roaring gunfire, and it's dark and chaotic. How could he just happen to run into the Court of Owls' ceremony?"
"Even if they were not hidden well, I'm afraid Mister Joker does not possess any magical tracking abilities. Forgive my bluntness, but he does not seem to have anything to do with magic. How would he happen to see the true face of the evil god at the moment of its arrival?"
"The rest is just too dramatic. What does he think these evil gods are, a middle school field trip? If these gods truly need to team up to come up with a plot against you, I'd say they're ridiculously incompetent. What's there to worry about?"
Bruce's talking up a storm, while Batman is checking the lab results in front of the equipment.
As expected, both of them aren't on drugs. Batman already knew Joker wasn't an addict, and Bruce has been under constant surveillance, leaving him no chance to use any chemical substance.
Of greater importance, Batman knows this is just how Bruce usually behaves, he doesn't need to be high to be this annoying, and the same goes for the Joker.
Conducting a blood test on the Joker was just a cover, Batman had already examined the Joker's blood numerous times. Bruce's blood was the real object of interest, since Batman sensed something fishy.
Logically, there should be a door in the shield below and it shouldn't be hard to find. Joker might have stolen their aircraft and flew out through the door to return to Sky Island Gotham.
Perhaps that's how Bruce got the native Batman back then. But something feels off to Batman.
The cameras in the sky island and the aircraft hangar didn't capture Bruce's flying process. Ideally, they should inquire the native Batman, but he's currently hospitalized with Thomas and Martha watching over him.
Batman suspects that this may have been orchestrated by Bruce. Bringing the native Batman back on purpose, exploiting the vulnerability of Thomas and Martha to bar Batman from talking to the only witness.
Another suspicious thing, it's true that Tim shoved Bruce off the cliff under Batman's orders, successfully incapacitating and bringing him back to the Batcave.
But according to the monitor on Tim, Bruce almost put up no resistance. Even if being pushed off was unexpected, Batman's reflexes should be more than enough to do something in mid-air.
Moreover, Bruce's recovery ability is a tad too astonishing. He was shot in Penguin Man's office and underwent surgery for over 20 hours, yet he soon appeared in Wayne Manor in livelier spirits than ever.
The most irrefutable evidence, however, was that Batman once visited the hospital where Bruce had his surgery. The hospital consultation records left behind radiographic data of Bruce.
The neurological images showed that Bruce had five pairs of abnormally developed thoracic nerves. The doctors believed this was the cause of Bruce's prolonged unconsciousness, but Batman deduced that the tangled mess of nerves served a purpose.
Upon closer inspection of the data, Batman noticed a detail that the doctors didn't care about. The five pairs of abnormal thoracic nerves were continuously extending toward the epidermis, branching out into 140 pairs of peripheral nerves.
Given the distribution state of the peripheral nerves, it seems likely to be functional evolution, meaning it's not a disease but a newly evolved organ to adapt to something.
This reminder Batman of the situation on Apocalypse Star.
The Hell Bat Armor he was wearing back then was powered by his blood and rage, which led to a different perspective compared to his usual vision, or rather, he almost lost his vision entirely, seeing nothing but a world of crimson red.
But he vaguely remembers, he wasn't fighting alone.
Batman was already inclined to believe what the Joker said, not solely because his understanding of the Joker made him realize that the Joker wouldn't bother to lie about such things.
He had already noticed that the Joker was tailing something recently. If the Joker rushed to Batman, it meant the Joker has found his target, and picked the right person.
But Bruce's demeanor is rather odd, he is vehemently rebutting all that the Joker said, attempting to portray him as a charlatan or a drunkard.
In fact, Bruce's inexplicably antagonistic behavior is even less convincing than the Joker's bizarre account, only making Batman suspect that all this could be connected to him.
In order to discover more truth, he must take more risks. Batman, more than anyone else, understands this. So, he made a bold decision - one that had absolutely no ulterior motive, purely for the pursuit of truth, not directed against anyone.
He planned to have the Joker and Bruce search for the owl together.
The Joker has always been a man of many expressions, and Batman has seen his wide grin far too many times. Even so, Batman realized today that ironically, the Joker could exhibit an even wider range of expressions.
For the sake of scientific curiosity, Batman decided to see if the Joker could reveal more varied expressions in the upcoming adventure, and where his limit lies. Therefore, this plan is firmly grounded in scientific exploration, or at least the spirit of exploration.
"Both of you go down." Batman began, "Find the members of the Court of Owls. Bring them to me, then I'll decide whether to work with either of you."
The Joker shook his head more vigorously than a rattle drum.
"See, I told you he was lying!" Bruce immediately burst out.
The Joker looked at Batman, who decided to sit on the fence. The Joker's eyes were filled with sadness and betrayed anger, he could hardly believe that his Batman decided to let him and this damn teenager gather evidence together.
"So be it." The Joker angrily glared at Bruce, the moment they land they will part ways. No one could use him as a verbal punch bag, even if he were a spade, he would bury Bruce to the point of no return with a single scoop.
"I don't mind." Bruce rested his elbow on the cage bar, propping his head on his hand. Then he talked.
"But as we all know him, this lunatic will do everything he can to shake me off and tamper with the evidence."
Batman and the Joker were both staring at him, seemingly curious about what brilliant idea he has.
"So, my suggestion is..." Bruce pointed at himself and the Joker and said, "you should operate on both of us. Plant a bomb in both our hearts that will explode on the spot if we are more than ten meters apart, so nobody can run away."
The Joker stared at him wide-eyed.
Bruce laughed with his head down, then looked up at the Joker with a mischievous gaze, "Why so serious?"