By the time Batman clambered out of the car, visibly flustered, his understanding of the vehicle's emergency safety system had escalated significantly.
He shook his somewhat dizzy head, opened his eyes, walked to the side of the car, intending to fish Joker out as well.
At this moment, he realized that the rear car door had flown off during the explosion, leaving an opening suited for a person to crawl out. While he struggled with the safety airbags, Joker had slipped away from the back.
Batman took a deep breath, and through the Batmobile, he looked at the crater blasted by several rockets in front of the stairs.
Then he looked up, glanced at his surroundings, and confirmed that this was indeed the waiting room of Arkham Mental Hospital, and not Gotham's Elizabeth Street or the Living Hell Tap Room.
In the time it took him to extricate himself from the vehicle, the situation in the entire Arkham Mental Hospital had shifted once again.
Since the ghosts appeared on the third floor, the patients there started it first, and when the fourth and fifth floors were disturbed, they all provided firepower support for the third floor. That poor ghost didn't last long, it turned into a faint green light, disappearing on the spot.
But the Gothamites' instincts to land the final blow are always strong. To ensure that the ghost was truly dead, they used some safety-compliant weapons to thoroughly eliminate it.
Most of the patients here aren't educated, they don't understand things like load-bearing walls and building mechanics, so they kept attacking the corners of the walls, which led to the collapse of the corner of the third-floor corridor due to their use of explosives along with guns.
Fortunately, Arkham Mental Hospital is not a high-rise, and the overall building is very large and stable. It didn't collapse entirely because a corner cracked.
However, those who were unlucky were mainly the ones in the corresponding rooms on the fourth floor above the collapsed portion. They fell into the third floor, and they were injured by the falling floor.
Among them, there were many who were under the injured people's command. They saw their boss was injured and rushed to defend him, angrily accusing others of being too vicious.
"Fisherman! Are your eyes on your nose?! Can't you see that the wall has already cracked? Still daring to throw grenades?"
"Shut up, Lawrence! You and your dad are both softies from the West District, who the hell cares about the wall cracking when they're fighting?!"
"The Pelican gang is just looking for trouble! When allocating water sources, you took two of our pipes, I let that go for Doctor Schiller's sake, I didn't cause you any trouble here!"
"I will blow your dog head off with a single bullet, Antonio! Do you forget how your uncle died?"
"Shut your smelly mouth, Fisherman! Bang!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Dada Dada..."
In an instant, the entire corridor erupted into chaos, everyone grabbing their closest weapons and firing. The whole corridor lit up like daylight, the scene could neither be described as peace talks nor friendly communications. Instead, it was more of a revenge-seeking battleground.
Once the third floor started their fight, the fourth floor couldn't escape. Soon, the leaders from all four districts of Living Hell started their intense confrontation, the four giants of Elizabeth Street joined the melee, and the heads of the twelve families also tried to join in on the action, turning the entire Arkham Mental Hospital into a mess.
In an office at the very edge of the second floor, a scrawny figure was on the phone saying:
"Yes, I'm looking for Cobblepot... Right, could you tell the boss that things are a bit messy here, it might be best if he comes over himself..."
"Yes, at first, it was that Fisherman from South District, you know him? That bearded guy, he suddenly started shooting and then said that there was a ghost, everyone on the third floor says they saw a ghost..."
"...I didn't know about it personally because I didn't see it firsthand, they only had me call others after they started fighting..."
"Exactly, I was thinking the same thing, if they fight too intensely, the doctors and nurses will get mad..."
"If he's coming, he better hurry..." the freckled boy turned his head to look out the window and said:
"Given this weather, I'm afraid it's going to snow again."
Looking out the window, the dark sky was full of crystalline snowflakes slowly falling down, followed by even more.
When the snow falls, everything is quiet and silent, but when the breeze rises, the fluttering snow turns into sharp blades. With an alarming slicing sound, it sweeps up the thin ice on Gotham's roadway that hasn't melted yet, rushes all the way to Gotham Manor.
Inside Schiller's manor, the atmosphere is still peaceful and harmonious. The flames in the fireplace danced, casting various shadows on the wall behind them. Hal watched these dancing shadows for a moment, lost in thought, but then Schiller came down with Dick and Aisha.
Merkel stepped forward immediately and said to Schiller, "Mr. Hal has been waiting for a while."
"Oh, no problem, I just arrived early." Hal hurriedly said.
"No." Schiller patted Dick's back and said, "The topics we discussed today were quite important, so I kept them a bit long, I hope you don't mind."
"But why were you the one to pick them up?" Schiller asked with some confusion, "Where's Alfred?"
"Oh…" Hal gave a slightly awkward expression, rubbing his hands before saying, "This is the Wayne Family's business, and I think I can't..."
Schiller looked at him over the rim of his glasses, and Hal sighed, then said with reluctance,"Okay, Alfred has gone to find trouble with Constantine."
Schiller gave Merkel a look, and Merkel immediately stepped forward and said to Dick and Aisha, "Miss, Master, Mr. Rodriguez has recently bought two new picture books, shall we go see them in the study?"
After the two children left, Hal sat back on the sofa, leaning against the soft backrest, and sighed, "You should know, Batman has been investigating this Constantine..."
"His method of investigation is to spend all his free time following him, and it seems he's been tailing him especially closely lately."
"Alfred had some objections to this. At first, I didn't understand. I thought that Bruce, being an adult, should have the freedom to decide what he wants to do. But then I found out..."
Hal showed a somewhat speechless expression, full of helplessness mixed with a hint of disdain, saying, "Constantine is playing a bit too recklessly. If I were Alfred, I wouldn't let Bruce get close to someone like him."
"So, does Alfred plan to warn Constantine?"
Hal pursed his lips, recalling Alfred's expression as he left and the shotgun in his hand, he said:
"Warning may not be the accurate word..."
"But why is he planning to do that today?"
"I didn't dare to ask. However, on the radio, it seems that the Joker plotted another bombing. He will probably keep Batman occupied, and Alfred knows this. He will have enough time to 'warn' Constantine."
"Moreover,..." Hal hesitated for a moment, saying, "I don't think the old Alfred would be this reckless. But ever since he returned from Metropolis, his mood seems a bit off. Do you know why?"
Shiller was studying the pattern on the table. Hal gave him a suspicious look. But without Shiller speaking up, there was nothing he could do.
"Oh, by the way." Shiller suddenly seemed to remember something and said to Hal, "Actually, I've been meaning to invite you over. Since you're here to pick up the kids today, it's perfect."
"What is it?"
Shiller reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a glowing green stone.
Upon seeing the strange stone, Hal instinctively dodged it, but soon, he widened his eyes, staring straight at the stone, and then said, "This is... Green Lantern energy?"
"Yes." Shiller nodded in acknowledgment, and said, "This trip to Metropolis turned out to be quite fruitful. Most notably, I got my hands on this kind of mineral."
"This mineral was originally aimed at certain superheroes to weaken their powers. But after my treatment, they became... like this."
As he spoke, Shiller pulled out a transparent, colorless crystal from another pocket. He twirled the crystal and said:
"Some glutton swallowed the power from inside here, but spat out the mineral itself, thinking it was a peach pit."
"The radiation here was green before, and the Green Lantern's energy is also green. So I wondered, can this mineral carry the energy of the Green Lantern?"
"After some experiments, I found out that my speculation was correct. This kind of mineral can indeed serve as a carrier of Green Lantern energy."
Hal wanted to speak but hesitated. After thinking for a moment, he asked doubtfully, "Nevermind that for now, where did you get the Green Lantern energy?"
"Oh, you mean that. I have a rare mental illness, multiple personality disorder. One of my personalities just happened to be able to summon the Green Lantern Ring, so I summoned one and did a small experiment..."
Hal looked at the mineral filled with Green Lantern energy. He had been a Green Lantern too, so he knew the properties of the Green Lantern energy. He shook his head and said:
"The volume of Green Lantern energy carried inside that thing in your hand is not something a single Lantern ring could provide."
"I didn't say it was provided by one ring."
"But..." Hal extended his hand and said, "Fine, let's say you have a mental illness and have many personalities. But the Green Lantern is assigned based on the number of bodies, not personalities. There won't be two Green Lantern Rings finding the same Lantern."
"Also, the Green Lantern Ring has a safety lock. The Green Lantern energy can only stay inside the ring or be infused into the body of the Lantern. There's no way it could be extracted. If everyone could draw Green Lantern energy from the ring, wouldn't it be chaos by now?"
"Indeed."
To Hal's surprise, Shiller did not deny his statements but seriously admitted to them. He said, "Everything you said is correct. But to explain how I accomplished all this, we have to start talking about you."
"Starting from me?" Hal was completely confused.
Shiller fondled the green crystal in his hand, casually saying, "Do you remember what happened after you broke into Wayne Manor?"
"I remember, but how did you know? ...Oh, I got it. That little traitor Dick told you everything!"
"Yes, including your awkwardness when you begged with a shotgun pointed at you."
Hal slumped, mumbling under his breath. Shiller continued: "Do you remember how the ring slipped from your hand?"
"Aisha attacked me and then bit my arm. I tried to shake her off, but she flew away along with my ring...Wait, you're not thinking of..."