The Great Detective sat stiffly, watching as the ice cream truck drove Baia into the darkness. As the glow of its taillights disappeared around the corner, it began to lower its head, sniffing around the garden, moving slowly. Its steps were heavy, panting heavily like a large dog, its black nose emitting white mist.
A red monitor was embedded in the frozen soil.
The Great Detective was disobedient, independent, aggressive, and had a bad temper, making it difficult for him to get along with other cats.
But every one of Selina's cats had been trained to search for valuable items in rooms, to silently appear and disappear like fallen leaves, and to find monitors like ghosts. He was literally Selina's best cat.
In a sense, the Great Detective knew what it was for.
Tim's monitor would automatically activate when it detected a sound above a certain decibel level. That's why when he connected to the monitor, he heard a flurry of cat noises, and Tim even momentarily didn't realize it was a cat because of the excitement in the other end.
He immediately accessed the several cameras that Matches Malone had disguised as fire starters in Baia's apartment, and saw the frost covering the entire room.
"Red Robin calling Batman," Tim connected, "Do you know our little witch is in trouble?"
"I know." Batman's voice, processed through a voice changer to sound even deeper and hoarser, came through, and Tim sensed his subtle anger.
In fact, he knew right away that something had happened to Baia, even heard the whole story, as Baia had opened the communicator Selina gave her in time.
But that was Selina's communicator.
Catwoman had made it clear to Bruce that she didn't like wearing bells.
And she was familiar with how tracking devices were placed. Once discovered by her, she would immediately find a way to make Bruce regret it in a troublesome way.
This meant that the communicator was really just a communicator.
And Matches Malone's actions had also encountered some obstacles.
Although his tracker was very small, it was sometimes discovered.
When the Great Detective tried to lick it off Baia's clothes, he accidentally ate one.
Although Baia herself was unaware of this, her reaction to the communicator showed that she did not reject the help.
Maybe letting her live with Selina was really a wrong idea. Selina was excellent and had character, but protecting others was not her habit.
By the time Batman arrived on the scene, there was no living creature left in the building, so he could only try to follow the tire tracks to infer where Mr. Freeze might be staying.
Unlike other Gotham criminals, Mr. Freeze was to some extent a scientist and would need a base that could serve as a laboratory, not just any old warehouse, and at the same time, the equipment he used to freeze his wife Nora needed power to maintain.
Batman knew that Nora's cryogenic equipment might be malfunctioning. Mr. Freeze had shown a lot of abnormal reactions recently, but he had other things to worry about, some more urgent and serious, like a legend, like the League of Assassins.
Actually, Tim had been busy with his own little group lately and didn't often stay in Gotham. Moreover, while juggling studies, he also had to take care of some Wayne Enterprises affairs, so he happened to have time to stay in the Batcave today.
And Tim, who was good at summarizing patterns, found that every time he came to the Batcave, he couldn't sleep all night, which was great.
Nevertheless, he still knocked on the keyboard and sent several possible locations to Batman's terminal: "There are some broken cameras along Mr. Freeze's driving route, but I can still roughly infer several routes. You need to speed up. They may have driven more than a dozen kilometers away, and there may be a possibility of changing cars midway."
A holographic screen rose from his forearm, marking several locations on the Gotham map. Tim was an excellent detective, and Batman trusted his judgment.
The rest of the matter was either waiting - but danger could arise at any time, or he could only rely on intuition.
Baia's voice continued to sound in the communicator, and for some reason, it sounded particularly calm, perhaps because of the distance.
"I guess I can figure out how you found me," Baia was allowed to put on a coat to prevent her from losing consciousness from the cold before seeing Nora, and she rubbed her reddened fingertips, sitting in the passenger seat.
They had switched to a less conspicuous small truck on the way. Because of the armor, he couldn't even fit into a regular car's driver's seat.
"The person you saved betrayed you," he didn't mind revealing this.
"The world is strange like that," Baia said, "Actually, I had a premonition when I saved him, but I still did it. Why?"
Mr. Freeze focused on driving. "I didn't 'invite' you here to listen to your self-analysis."
After a moment of silence, he continued, "Good people don't live long. There have been plenty of rotten good people here, either dead or insane."
Baia didn't know if he was referring to the Waynes or Harvey Dent, but that didn't stop her from understanding his meaning.
After some thought, she puzzled, "Although humility is a virtue, I think I'm still decent. If you brought your patient to me, I wouldn't refuse. Why resort to this method?"
He glanced at the girl. "Because I'm a madman who escaped from Arkham Asylum," Mr. Freeze said, "No one cares about my wife's life except me, and actually, they don't care if I can be cured or not. Putting hope in others is foolish. But you don't seem so scared—haven't you heard of Arkham?"
"How could I not? It's in the newspapers every day, okay?"
"Is it because I look friendly?"
"Come on, I don't want to lie."
Mr. Freeze didn't seem to mind others joking about his appearance. They both laughed, and the atmosphere in the car relaxed slightly.
"Mr.—"
"Mr. Freeze. Or Dr. Fries. You still haven't answered my question from earlier."
"Okay, Dr. Fries. I just feel," Baia said, "You have a loved one, and people with loved ones have vulnerabilities. For her sake, you wouldn't kill me."
"That means you only have two fates, cure her, or die."
Baia clicked her tongue. "Is that why there are so few doctors in Gotham?"
Mr. Freeze retorted, "Aren't you a local?"
"I don't know enough about Gotham yet," Baia turned her head, "Obviously, otherwise I would have been dead long ago. Is that the Gotham Opera House? So beautiful. But it's hard to see clearly here. What do the letters blocked by the track say?"
Bruce immediately seized on this keyword and ruled out two possible locations.
"I hope you still have the chance to visit attractions," Mr. Freeze didn't answer her question, "We still have a journey ahead."
Another location was ruled out.
Baia leaned on the car window and immediately exhaled a white mist. She drew a swallow with her fingers on the glass and said desolately, "Can't see the moon anymore."
Very good.
Batman leaped into the Batmobile. He had to act quickly.
The surroundings became increasingly dilapidated. Gotham was a city of stark contrasts, with world-class bustling districts, all sorts of nightlife, but at the same time, the city also had ruins. This was almost unimaginable in Metropolis.
Burning trash cans, dilapidated signs painted with green spray-painted question marks, explosion and scorch marks on building facades, and even rows of bullet holes. Deep blue ivy grew wild on the streets, out of control, sprawling on the asphalt.
They eventually stopped in front of a building.
A huge GCPD sign hung above it, but it was covered in dust.
This was the abandoned old building of the GCPD, and Mr. Freeze had commandeered the laboratory here. He pushed Baia inside and then turned back to seal the gate with ice.
System: We're screwed.
Baia felt it too. She had originally planned to use [Cat's Steps] to sneak away as soon as she got off the car, but she didn't expect the gate to be sealed shut.
The system started to panic: What do we do? We're screwed!
Baia reassured the system with a stiff upper lip: It's okay, there must be a back door or something. Let's see how the situation unfolds first. What if that patient can really be cured? Then there's no need to worry about running away.
The refrigeration machine emitted a low hum. Behind the translucent blue glass, a woman in white lay sleeping deeply, frost covering her jet-black eyelashes.
Baia placed her hand on the glass and leaned in for a closer look.
She really looked like Sleeping Beauty.
"What's her name?" Baia turned around and asked.
Only when answering this question did Mr. Freeze's voice soften slightly. "Nora. Her name is Nora."
"Such a beautiful name," Baia said, "I need to take another look, don't rush."
The system said: Don't bother looking, she can't be cured.
Baia was puzzled: What's going on? Explain it to me.
The system replied: Currently, your skills still have many limitations. Like the lunatics at Arkham Asylum, or Mrs. Burton's Alzheimer's, you can't cure them yet. This is because mental issues don't lend themselves to percentage-based treatments. A mentally ill lunatic, for example, still has 100% health.
System: Hmm... and there are genetic mutations, which require repairs at the genetic level, but I won't go into detail about that. Like Nora, she has cancer.
System: If you were to measure her life force, it might even exceed 100%, but she would still die. Because while percentage-based treatment boosts the activity of normal cells, it also increases the activity of cancer cells. Host's skills, not great.
Baia: I understand. Next time, just tell me to run away.
The system, feeling angry, retorted: Weren't you the one who asked me to explain?!
Mr. Freeze was almost losing his patience, about to interrogate Baia, when the girl suddenly disappeared from his sight.
[Cat's Steps]: Enter stealth mode in non-combat situations, undetectable by Earth organisms.
It was as if everything before was an illusion, as if no one had ever stood there. If it weren't for the small handprint left on the glass, Mr. Freeze would have almost suspected he had dreamt it all.
The kid said she was a mutant, and she was. Mr. Freeze suddenly realized that her mutant abilities weren't just about healing; he had been careless.
However, he had already sealed the door, so even if she had wings, she couldn't fly out.
"You can't escape," Mr. Freeze's voice was strangely calm in his anger, cold as snow, "Come out now, I won't kill you."
He paced slowly in the laboratory with his freeze gun, trying to detect any subtle movement, but Baia seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Meanwhile, the girl was hiding behind a large lab cabinet, heart pounding as she watched Mr. Freeze's legs appear and disappear in front of her, not daring to even breathe.
In the past, Baia didn't think the cooldown of Cat's Steps for a minute was a big deal, but now she realized it was truly deadly.
She disappeared, and Mr. Freeze sealed the laboratory door as well. She could only play hide and seek with Mr. Freeze in the lab now.
The system sighed heavily: This is really a disaster.
If the system had a physical form, Baia would really slap it.