Bats must have taken a couple of good blows to the head in the maze, if he was so candid, and the offer to show me a couple of moves was not in the spirit of Gloomy Mouse at all. But who am I to refuse such gifts of fate?!
"Now I will show you how to speed up the recovery of the body, but first listen very carefully to what I will tell you, - my happy thoughts were interrupted by a serious voice.
Without getting off his bunk, the superhero sat down in lotus pose and, covering his eyes, spoke.
"All living things on the planet have "inner strength". Usually, it does not manifest itself in any way, but in moments of mortal danger, even an unremarkable person, without a gram of superpowers, can step far beyond his capabilities. A fat, heavy man who has only seen dumbbells in a picture suddenly becomes able to pull himself up on his hands to get out of a bus hovering over a precipice. A mother whose child is crushed by a fallen concrete rubble weighing a couple of hundred kilograms, literally tearing her veins, lifts him up, allowing her child to get out. A young guy, running away from a pack of angry dogs, in one jump swings over a three-meter fence, even though he clearly had not previously demonstrated the qualities of an Olympic champion. And there are thousands of such examples.
He sighed heavily.
"Obviously, such short-term reinforcement does not go away. These people will then spend many months, maybe even years, recovering from the consequences, or simply "burn out" in a couple of days, as if their body had completely used up all its resources. And here even the most advanced medicine will not help much, and drips with nutrient solutions will only slightly prolong the agony of the dying body...
I listened intently to the "sensei", realizing that all of this reminded me of one thing incredibly.
"Wait, you're talking about prana right now!" I finally figured it out.
Bruce shrugged.
"It has different names. Prana, Qi, body energy, but the meaning is the same: there is a certain "inner power" which, through exhausting training and self-discipline, you can take under your control, going beyond the capabilities of the human body," he looked at me very attentively. - Only one must remember that overconsumption of this power absolutely always leads to severe consequences. You can't spend it recklessly on dubious things. You can only use it carefully and not too often.
Bats continued to glare at me with a frown, as if expecting something.
"Uh, thank you, Master Po," I bowed deeply to the panda. - Your wisdom and depth of knowledge know no bounds.
"Hmph..." he sighed very heavily, rolling his eyes a little. - You need to get a little more serious if you don't plan on dying in the next couple years.
"What? What couple more years?
"You think I haven't noticed how much you've changed since your time in Arkham? If I compare your pictures from a month ago and now, only a blind man would notice the difference. Your scars are almost gone, your complexion has become more natural, you stopped writhing periodically as if in pain, your manhood has returned... You must understand that uncontrolled use of "inner strength" is harmful even to metalmen. At first the symptoms are not noticeable, but the further you go, the worse it gets until your body goes into a sudden breakdown, followed by an agonizing death. After all, think of Harley, she can't live without you and she'll go with you.
I stared at the superhero in shock.
Holy shit... So this was all meant to help me?! Damn, that's so touching. Although it would be much better if it was a pretty girl with long dark hair, ample breasts, and even a bat cosplayer to take care of my health.
For a moment I even felt a little sorry for letting Harley make a mask for Bruce, but that feeling quickly evaporated when I looked at the scowling panda again.
"Thank you for being so concerned about me, but I use other methods, and I'm not likely to die my own death in the next hundred years. Well, show me your magic and let's go upstairs to meet your adopted son.
"Son?
"Oh, yeah, you don't know. When we were tactically retreating to escape the imminent explosion of the labyrinth (you understand that no decent supervillain is without a self-destruct system, and here is a whole secret organization), we were joined by my friend, who brought us the missing Richard Grayson. Turns out he too was kidnapped by the Owl Ninjas to brainwash him and make him one of the Claws. They'd already changed his body, so bringing him back to the orphanage wasn't an option, so Alfred and I decided to bring him straight to the manor.
The Grim Raccoon sighed once again and began his explanation, which wasn't very detailed. In fact, he really just showed me how to speed up the body's recovery, briefly explaining the main points, like the importance of proper breathing and mental control of the "power" that is usually concentrated in the solar plexus area.
Finally, Bruce demonstrated how the relative fresh wound on his arm was very slowly healing under the influence of prana.
"It works on scars too, even old ones, but it takes a long time," the man commented, getting off the couch. - Mh..." he swayed a little, rubbing his tired eyes, and then looked at his fingers stained with goutaline. - J-e-e-ey... - the owner of the bat cave stretched dangerously.
"Oh, I have to go, Harley's calling," I grinned cheerfully and retreated to the elevator. - By the way, before I forget, you have a date with Cat tomorrow, on the roof of the Clock Tower at nine o'clock sharp. Don't be late, or she'll eat you alive.
Now we have to get out of here fast-quickly before one hero gets to the computer and blocks the elevator to shake me out of all the details.
Upstairs, in the guest room, I found Harley and Alfred standing next to the bound Richard, who was chewing furiously on the rug, unable to get out of his restraints. Yeah, my favorite knotter, Babs could tell you that.
"The brainwashing from the Court of Owls was quite effective," I regarded the snarling fellow with interest.
"I'm sure Master Bruce can deal with the effects of hypnosis, but it will take time.
"Kill!
"A lot of time," the elderly Briton corrected himself nonchalantly.
"I don't doubt Bats's abilities," I smiled, taking my lovely companion under my elbow. - Well, we should go. See you tomorrow, Alfred.
After saying a warm farewell to the butler and taking with us another delicious cake prepared especially for us, our friendly tandem went home to report on the completion of the mission and receive the deserved reward.
***
While one billionaire in a super-secret secret lair, clutching his head, taking a report from his loyal associate and checking the data through a supercomputer, in another gloomy hideout located in the northwest of Gotham, the most important villainous villain sat at a round table and, palms folded, looked intently at his subordinate, who brought not the most happy news.
"So the First managed to capture Batman?" He asked, looking at the green-haired man's grinning face.
"That's what I'm talking about, boss! Several eyewitnesses had to be personally questioned, and they all said with one voice that it was the First and his bedmate. Even as the acid slowly melted their bones, they still insisted on that option. Ha-ha-ha!" The man's face turned serious, as if a toggle switch had been flipped. - What do we do now? Batman is out of the game again.
"Hmm..." the man at the table covered his eyes, thinking. - The first one had lost his safe haven by blowing up the catacombs. So now the bastard's in a bad position, which means he can be taken by surprise," he opened his eyelids sharply, his heavy green eyes fixed on his subordinate. - We need to accelerate the plan, tell Cliff to start phase three.
"Uh, are you sure? I think the formula needs a little tweaking or it'll be like Jeff. Ha-ha-ha, although he did squirm funny when his brain started leaking out of his ears, ha-ha-ha-ha!
"Don't worry. "He" can take it, and if he can't, then he's on his way.
"Heh, got it, boss, I'm gonna go make our friend happy.
***
We didn't see anyone at the mansion, but that wasn't surprising. Mouse had gone off to her studies, as usual, after making sure the humans were out of danger, and Abby wasn't likely to show up for the next couple of days. Even though we had successfully helped the Revenant to rest, the swamp at the place where it had been lying had become heavily saturated with Death emanations, which we needed to get rid of by slowly replacing them with the energy of nature. I would even say very slowly, at the pace of a true Ent, so as not to accidentally provoke the Rot.
I wasn't too worried about the transfer of the "rights" to the forest area. In fact, to be honest, I didn't really need it anymore. It was a hassle to get there without a teleporter, and there was no point, because Natalie was going to call me any day now and report on the completion of my secret lair, which was right under the mansion, and from where it was much easier to get to Gotham. Hmm, though a backup base under the protection of a Nature elemental might be a good idea, given my and Harley's less-than-quiet lifestyle.
As I changed into my home clothes and emptied the pockets of my purple suit, I remembered that it wasn't just the wetlands that were supposed to be my reward. I had the System, which occasionally presented me with interesting quests.
A quick check and I almost dropped the napalm grenade I pulled out of my pocket from shock.
A whole hundred points! Of course, it's not the level of a fake Doomsday, but it's pretty close.
Out of interest, I scroll through the web of messages, ignoring the level ups, until I come across the quest to rescue Gloomy Mouse. Wow! Fifty-three more points. That's not bad at all. I've gotten back everything I spent on Jim and I'm even on the plus side. But I'm not planning to spend them yet: the development is already slowly but surely going, and the opportunity to pull a man from the other side of the world will not be superfluous.
I looked doubtfully at the two hundred and twenty-three free points. Well... I guess I'd better keep it a round number. I threw some ba-hion into magic, and the rest into the fourth beginning, and immediately collapsed to the floor. I felt as if a red-hot crowbar had been shoved into my stomach and twisted clockwise a couple times.
"Kha... Bitch. Ha-ha-ha-ha," the memories of the interworld took away the pain for a moment, but almost immediately it reemerged, twisting my insides again. - Oh, fuck. What was that?
The universe chose to ignore my question, though I'd probably be pretty fucked if she did deign to answer.
I felt like a balloon that had been filled with xenon. It was hard and a little painful. I felt like I was back in the time when I first came to this world. And with the conversion, it was only four points. Hell, I couldn't even imagine what would have happened if I'd thought to throw in even a hundred.
"Well, fucked," I said in a hoarse voice, struggling to stand upright, leaning on the table.
Why the fuck is my system so crooked? It's not like all normal trainees to just improve their physical, mental or energy characteristics. Almost every time, some bullshit happens.
Uh, okay, Jay. You've been in a lot more pain for a month, you'll get over this one.
I quickly shook through my pockets, coming across the two vials Leroy had handed me. Hopefully, exploring their contents would keep me interested enough to stop feeling the crowbar in my belly.
Obviously, Harley had to analyze the composition, since she was more competent, but I assisted, mastering the chemical equipment and stoically ignoring the waves of pain.
My beloved used various methods, and some of them took time to get a reaction. At such times, we began to discuss the gift for Zee again.
In the course of the lively discussion the obvious options like clothes and lingerie sets were discarded, although the blond cutie assured that she had memorized all the parameters of the illusionist and could easily find the right one, or even order it from the master, but this step was too intimate. We needed something more down-to-earth, but useful, and that it would often flash in the field of vision of the sexy enchantress, constantly reminding about us, like a hat.
In my opinion, the ideal gift is one made by my own hands, but I could hardly make the same protective magic amulets better than one of the most powerful sorceresses on Earth. Most likely, they'd be many, many times worse, since all I have of normal materials are Hound's remnants, and maybe some magic plants, if Abby agrees to grow them.
In short, creating a defense is a total bummer, but maybe we should look at the other side. They say, "The best defense is an offense." So we should create something offensive.
I shared my thoughts with my beloved, providing a few sets of attack runes I had sketched out while another reaction was in progress.
"It's not a bad idea," the girl looked at the amulets carefully. - But don't you think that Zee is already full of such things, and most of these amulets are disposable and not very powerful. I'd rather give you a box of grenades...
"That's right!
"Uh, are you sure? It's just that I'd love a gift like that, but, uh, Zee.
"Oh, no!" I looked at my faithful assistant with satisfaction at having come up with a great idea. - We should get her something like my gun. And some ammunition with several effects. Still, casting a spell takes time, and hardly any enemies will expect such a primitive from a powerful sorceress.
"Hmm, that's a really good idea, except you don't give a hand howitzer, but something more elegant.
"Naturally.
I strained my memory to see if I had anything interesting from the night raids. There was some odd model of a thirty-eight-caliber revolver, but it looked pretty flimsy.
"I'll be right there," I warned the girl, and then I ran to my workshop and, after rifling through a drawer of knick-knacks, soon brought out a weapon that looked like a toy pistol.
"Oh, it's an M&P Bodyguard 38 revolver!" the blonde identified it instantly. - Self-loading, five-round capacity, and it's also quite effective. It's a nice machine, but it needs some decorating.
"I'm going to do it right now," I said, but before I could even cross the threshold of the lab, I was distracted by a vibrating smartphone.
The program Babs created just noticed the remote logs with the alien connection. Heh, there's a reason the redhead set up a separate server after all.
"We've got company," I warned my beloved, launching the broadcast from the video cameras.
The devices persistently demonstrated that everything was normal and there was no danger. I had to rack my brain, activating an additional protocol through one of the wall-mounted tablets, to see the doctor's escaped patient wandering toward the house, dragging a heavy cart covered with a dirty sheet.
Eh, I wish it was the First, but this asshole would do just as well. I grinned contentedly as I watched Regel make his way toward the south end of the building, not realizing he was walking straight into a trap. Heh, minus one psycho. I check the ammo in my revolver just in case, putting the non-lethal versions on.
A green-haired man in a hideous Joker cosplay walked to the mansion, and then threw a sheet off the cart, revealing a large copper-colored coil hidden underneath. Pausing to pat his pockets, he pulled out a detonator and suddenly grinned at the camera and pressed the red button.
~Bah~
For a moment I thought I was blind, but then my vision cleared and it was just the lights going out.
"What was that?" I fumbled with the unresponsive tablet's buttons, and then pulled out my smartphone, finding that it had also shut down.
"It looks like an EMP. Very powerful," Harley replied, checking her phone as well.
"And why? He's alone, and even if he isn't, he's not going to be able to attack us," I twirled the revolver on my finger, heading toward the south end of the mansion to give the uninvited guest a proper greeting.
"I... Oooh," the girl yawned widely, "I don't know... Something's making my eyes water.
"Oh, shit! Sunshine don't sleep," I tried to walk over to my favorite, feeling my muscles go stiff.
My faithful assistant slowly sank to the floor, unable to resist.
Shit, shit, shit. Fucking security systems! The tanks are filled with nerve gas mixed with sleeping gas, and the EMP made the stupid automation go off. Fuck!
My thoughts began to jumble, but I ran toward the greenhouse, gritting my teeth and knocking down corners as I went. I should call Abby...
My strength left me quickly, and soon I collapsed in the corridor like a sack of potatoes, only a few meters from the door.