"Yes, Jason, I've heard. My thoughts are the same as yours; now is not a good time to leave town," Peter said, pacing back and forth in the room with his phone in hand. "The roads will definitely be jammed, and if that lunatic comes running over with a bomb, we won't be able to escape."
"I suggest you guys get a first aid kit ready. Even if the bomb doesn't go off, there could be injuries if it causes a riot. Alright, I understand."
"No." Peter's face shifted slightly before he continued, "After my illness got better, that strange surge of strength and precognition disappeared. I guess the sickness might have unlocked my muscle constraints, but it was definitely not normal."
"Yeah, I was thinking, if only I still had that ability, at least I could protect Gwen and all of you. Well, we're indeed too old to dwell on such fanciful things. Stay safe, goodbye."
Peter hung up and sighed. Jason's words had made him think of the past. It was indeed a coincidence; both Jason and he fell ill one after the other. Jason suffered amnesia because of his illness, whereas he had acquired great strength, which vanished shortly after he recovered.
But these two bouts of illness brought them closer, becoming best friends. For decades they watched each other grow up, get married, have children, and lead stable lives.
After hanging up, Peter also listened intently to the news on the TV in the living room. He stayed indoors because he was feeling a bit unwell, an anxiousness creeping over his heart. But he couldn't quite pinpoint the reason for his restlessness.
Joker appeared on the screen.
At that moment, he stood on the rooftop of a building. The camera didn't give him a close-up; it was always like this—always keeping a distance, as if terrified of revealing his true face.
Yet even from afar, people could see his mad, hysterical smile—so insane, cruel, and indifferent.
He was about to announce the location of the second bomb, but whether due to some error, the map he had prepared ended up with several red dots on it.
There was an unexpected development during the live broadcast. As Joker rambled on, a homeless man suddenly rushed in and tackled him, clutching his throat in a death grip.
Not until Joker broke free, pummelling the man with several vicious punches and stunning him with an Electric Shock device did the camera turn off.
"Did you see that homeless guy just now?" Peter called Jason back and said, "He looked somewhat familiar. Is he from our block?"
"I think I've run into him a few times," Jason said. "My daughter even had some trouble with him once; I got so mad I beat him up."
"Are you sure it's that lunatic? You didn't mistake someone else?"
"No mistake. He's always mumbling things like 'this isn't real, it's all a dream', telling me to 'wake up quickly'. I called the police and even the psychiatric hospital, but it was no use. He would always come back, a real persistent nutcase."
"But he's a hero, too," Peter said, his head lowered. "Anyone daring to mess with Joker nowadays is bound for a grim end."
Then the two fell into a prolonged silence.
"Honestly, I'm feeling a little sick," Jason said, his voice dropping. "I don't know how to put this, but I really want to punch that Joker... I even... I even want to kill him."
"I feel like going to save people," said Peter, looking worriedly at his family members organizing things in the yard. "I know it's irrational because I wouldn't be of much help anyway, and I'd be better off staying here to protect my family. Gwen and Annie need me."
Another stretch of silence followed before Jason suddenly laughed and said, "Isn't it just like us to be friends? Our sympathy hits at the same time."
"Do you think this is just plain sympathy?"
"What else could it be? But right now, we can only take care of ourselves. Let's not overthink it."
Jason ended the call, but his mood wasn't as light as he implied. When the homeless man rushed to punch Joker, possibly because he was too close to Joker's microphone, Jason heard him say something about "Batman" supposed to be.
The word "Batman" also felt oddly familiar to Jason.
He couldn't remember more, yet he kept repeating the word to himself, until he saw a figure in the next live broadcast by Joker—a figure with pointed ears.
The second bomb still exploded, again killing countless people who couldn't escape in time. But this time, people realized that the red dots on the map during Joker's announcement for the second bomb might represent the third, fourth, and fifth bombs.
Releasing the location of a bomb only every hour, if they could learn about the next one in advance, they'd have at least an hour to escape—an hour was plenty for four kilometers, even if there was traffic, they could walk out.
The residents of the areas marked with red dots started to move out, adopting a better-safe-than-sorry attitude.
Joker appeared on the screen for the third time, laughing as he reminded everyone not to forget another rule of the game.
But before he could repeat the rule, a figure rushed in and knocked him to the ground with a punch. The figure with the pointed ears roared, "Shut up! Do you want to destroy the world?!"
"Batman, you've finally arrived!" A voice sounded from the side. A homeless man with disheveled hair and a Big Beard rushed up, shouting at Batman, "Quick, subdue Joker! Make him reveal the bomb's location, we need to defuse it!"