Volume 2 Honoring Robin Chapter 32 Now that the Bat Family has decided to launch a Jedi counterattack...
Watching the huge Batmobile speed away in the burning street with agility that was inconsistent with its size, Mason got out of the car and released his beloved blue motorcycle while observing a few seconds of silence for Nightwing, who was destined to be heartbroken tonight.
He had already guessed who the traitor in the Bat Family was when he picked up Batman from the trash can in Crime Alley.
Although each member of the Bat-family has their own psychological trauma, to be honest, although the old man doesn't know much about family atmosphere, he does take good care of his children.
Even in the Bat-family, there is only one person who has experienced such a painful experience that can make a child decide to betray his "father".
Well, there should be two of them now.
"Beep Beep"
The flying motorcycle beeped twice, and then it soared into the sky with a whoosh as the throttle was twisted.
Mason was in no mood to appreciate the chaotic Gotham at night, so he decided to rush to Batman's hideout as quickly as possible. The flying motorcycle was so fast at supersonic speed that even the chaotic night scene around it turned into a psychedelic flying light band in Mason's eyes.
“This city is ugly enough when it’s quiet, and now it’s boiling like a pot of bad medicine, and even the smoke from the fireworks has a sickening smell.”
He complained in his heart and stepped on the accelerator again, then found himself flying over the car with embarrassment.
It's almost flying over the sea.
There's nothing I can do, it's just too fast.
It is difficult to control the details accurately, and one can never stop where he should, especially for young people who are impatient.
He spent a few minutes to disguise himself at night and landed at the edge of the abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. Then he put away his beloved motorcycle, put on an invisibility cloak, and headed towards Batman's hiding place.
But before he had taken a few steps, Mason saw that the pin on his collar was glowing faintly.
There's a Hidden One nearby!
Mason narrowed his eyes and continued forward expressionlessly, pretending that he hadn't noticed. When he turned a corner, he quickly covered his head with the hood of the invisibility cloak and disappeared in an instant.
He was very suspicious whether the warriors from the Assassin's League had approached the area.
Or has this place been exposed, and the psychopaths who escaped from Arkham are planning to form a group and rush directly to the Bat's hometown to give their "old friend" a big surprise?
With such doubts, Mason climbed to a commanding height under the protection of the invisibility cloak.
He took out his explosive shotgun and turned on the safety. With the sound of bullets being loaded, combat assistance was turned on, and the floating aiming frame quickly moved in Mason's field of vision.
He had just discovered this.
The combat assist function can be turned off in the character card. To be honest, after the shooting skill reaches Lv3, except for long-range sniping, the free aiming frame of the combat assist will affect Mason's "shooting experience" while moving.
However, it is still very useful for catching mice.
Especially in such a situation of poor visibility, the young man lay on a high place and poured a mouthful of "cat's eye" medicine into his mouth.
The world under the night sky suddenly became clear and turned into "black and white mode", and everything hiding in the darkness was visible in his eyes.
Soon the free aiming frame captured two guys crawling inside the abandoned factory.
Those two guys were very professional! They knew how to use cover and shadows to hide, and it was obvious that they were well prepared. They seemed to know that there was a fire defense line specially set up by Batman near this hiding place, so they walked very cautiously.
This made Mason, who was aiming at them, narrow his eyes, because he found that the figure of one of the guys looked very familiar...
Gordon?
He escaped from the League of Assassins' attack on the police station?
But who is that person next to him?
Could it be that the Assassin's League is blackmailing his spy?
We don't know who is the enemy yet, so let's fire first.
"Whoosh"
The muzzle of the gun equipped with a hand-made engineering silencer made a harsh sound that was definitely much more concealed than a normal gunshot. The person next to Gordon fell down and rolled on the ground, holding his calf.
Gordon seemed frightened.
But he didn't run. Instead, he stood up and stood in front of the knocked down guy, raised his hands in the direction of the shooting and shouted something.
"Are they friendly forces?"
Mason curled his lips, put away his gun, put on an invisibility cloak that would become ineffective at any time after entering combat mode, fired his grappling gun and landed next to Gordon. Then, with malicious intent, he suddenly took off his hood in front of Gordon and performed a "magic trick".
This scene almost gave the old director a heart attack, but after seeing Mason's face, Gordon immediately relaxed.
There were still blood and wounds on the director's face, and his police uniform was tattered as he hadn't had time to change it. It was obvious that he had just rushed out from the battlefield.
But Mason motioned him to be silent.
He pulled out his double-barreled hand cannon and pressed it against the guy who was trying to suppress the pain. He put the cold muzzle of the gun against the guy's forehead and asked loudly:
"How did you find this place?"
"Mason! This is Tim! Tim Drake."
Gordon hurriedly explained:
"He's the third Robin! He's believable."
"No, he cannot be trusted yet. "
Mason said without looking up:
"There's a mole in the Bat Family, and Batman was nearly beaten to death in Crime Alley. Why do you think he didn't show up for two days in a row?
explain!
Tim, how did you find out about this base? Did you betray Bruce Wayne?
"I knew it."
Tim, who was pinned to the ground by Mason, was a very young man, but still larger than Mason.
He looked to be about twenty years old. He had short black hair like Nightwing, and a slender figure with prominent muscles. It was obvious that he had been exercising for many years.
He was pinned to the ground but did not resist. He just gasped and said in pain:
"I knew something was wrong when the Bat Network was first paralyzed, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. Mason, although we have never met, we have fought together in Blackgate Prison.
Could you give me a shot of painkiller first?
Your shot nearly broke my leg."
"The bullet passed through my calf, grazed the bone and flew out, going all the way through. There won't be any sequelae except pain and scars, Tim, I aimed carefully before I shot!
Don’t play tricks.”
Mason said coldly:
"You haven't told me how you found this place?"
"I'm the best private investigator in Gotham!"
Tim gasped:
"After I realized something was wrong, I immediately activated the plan I had been preparing. I observed the movements of the people around Batman and compared the movements of Dr. Leslie and Mr. Lucius, and found this place.
Apart from installing a locator on their car, the rest of the reasoning and judgment process is not difficult at all.”
"That sounds like a good reason."
Mason retracted the pistol, took out a blood tonic from the medicine belt on his chest and handed it to Tim.
The latter looked at the strangely colored medicine in his hand suspiciously, and at Gordon's signal, pinched his nose and drank the sticky potion.
"Orange flavor, I like it."
The young third-generation Robin pursed his lips, was helped up by Gordon, and followed Mason towards the base.
A minute later he was able to limp back on his own, and as he got into the elevator, Tim looked in amazement at the healed calf wound.
It was obvious that this young man's scientific worldview had also been shattered by this magic potion.
And that's exactly what Mason wanted to see.
"Click"
The heavy door of the secret base thirty meters underground opened. When Mason and the other two walked in, Batman had already changed into the black titanium alloy mechanical-style battle suit, but without the helmet.
He was standing in front of the wall covered with monitors. Alfred, holding a cup of coffee, was operating the backup and independent Batcomputer.
The current chaotic scene in Gotham can be seen on the surveillance cameras scattered throughout the city.
Although he didn't see the man's face, Mason had already guessed how cold his expression must be, as if anger was burning in his eyes.
Even though Gotham is recognized by the world as a cesspool.
But this is Batman's shithole, and he won't allow these vandals to run rampant in his city.
"Shh!"
Catwoman, who was standing nearby and had also changed into her battle suit, made a silencing gesture to Mason, indicating that he should not speak at this time.
But Mason shook his head and said softly:
"I just came back from Arkham. The bad news is that the Assassin's League has reached an agreement with the mentally ill there. With their efficiency, the super villains in Arkham Asylum are estimated to have become the vanguard of the Assassins to wreak havoc in the city.
They may soon enter the city and Gotham will be destroyed.
But that's not the scariest thing.
The Assassin's League released these bastards just to attract the attention of you and your warriors. They are secretly preparing something more dangerous.
That 'Advent' plan..."
"Barbara has been responsible for cracking that information."
Butler Alfred said softly.
The old man, who had experienced war and was a top spy, had obviously guessed some terrible truth. He glanced at Bruce Wayne and chose not to continue.
After nearly ten seconds of silence, Batman finally spoke.
He turned his back to Mason and the other two and put on his helmet. After the helmet, which was made of special titanium alloy, was buckled on his head, its mechanically driven armor plates moved to adjust the specifications to better fit Batman's face and neck.
Finally, with a slight snapping sound, the gloomy helmet and the armor body were completely connected together to form an unshakable whole.
This action also seems to represent a certain choice for Batman.
The master said in his characteristic hoarse and indifferent voice:
"Tim, I need you to risk leaving Gotham City and heading to Central City. Enter Star Labs as quickly as possible to find Dr. Silas Stone and use his professional equipment to reset the secure communications with the Justice League's Watchtower.
I need the Justice League to intervene in this situation."
"Don't you have a special response mechanism or something?"
Mason said suspiciously:
"Even with Superman's super hearing, he should be able to rush here as soon as something happens in Gotham, right? After all, you two have such a good relationship..."
"I can't tell you the answer yet, Mason."
The master shook his head and said:
"All I can say is that the Justice League is responsible for something very important. Compared to the seriousness of that matter, what is happening in Gotham is nothing.
We reset our team behavior a few months ago.
Unless a member actively requests it, other members will not intervene in similar situations. But now it seems that this new behavior pattern has been exploited by Lei Xiaogu."
"How am I supposed to get there?"
Tim Drake, the third generation Robin, was not afraid, but he said with a headache:
“The original Bat Network has been infiltrated by the League of Assassins, and they are already monitoring the entire city. There is no way to leave here using ordinary means of transportation.
Unless you use the Batplane.
But the Batcave... I guess that's occupied, right?"
"Thirty minutes ago, elite black-clad assassins entered Wayne Manor."
Butler Alfred sighed and said:
"They've imprisoned all the servants at the manor and destroyed my favorite car, and you're right, Tim, the Batcave has been taken over.
They are breaking the security procedures there.
If we do nothing, in two hours at most all the weapons there will be at their disposal.
In addition, the Scarlet Knight who attacked Young Master Wayne also attacked Wayne Building before, and Lucius and everyone in that building were held hostage by them..."
At this point, the old butler glanced at Mason with a strange look and said:
"However, because the laboratory of Wayne Industries and Technology R&D Department was robbed not long ago, all the combat equipment of Batman stored there was looted, which indirectly led to the failure of the raid of the Assassin's League.
This is actually an unexpected good thing.”
The young man shrugged.
He and Catwoman looked at each other and almost laughed.
"We have to split up!"
The master looked at the images captured by the surveillance cameras on the wall.
He tried hard to suppress his inner anger and keep himself calm. He turned around and projected a three-dimensional sand table of Gotham City on the high-tech console.
Say to everyone in front of you:
"When Grayson comes back, he, Tim, Selina, and Alfred will move together to retake the Batcave. Gordon, I will go with you to Wayne Building to rescue the hostages there. You need to gather as many police officers in the city as possible and contact the nearby National Guard to enter Gotham.
After retaking the Batcave, Tim immediately set out to Central City for help.
After leaving Gotham, we can send a signal to Star City, which is closer to us, and Green Arrow should be able to come to support us at the most critical moment.
We must advance our respective tasks as quickly as possible, this chaos must be ended tonight!
If it drags on until tomorrow, more people will die once the super villains from Arkham Asylum join in on the 'party.'"
“I have two questions!”
Mason raised his hand and said:
"First of all, you haven't fully recovered yet! You should go back to bed so as not to waste my bottle of medicine to strengthen your body in the final stage.
Start at least an hour later to make it as effective as possible.
I know you are in a hurry.
But don’t rush.”
The young man glanced at the silent master and asked a second question:
"I've come here with a gun, and you're not going to give me a mission? Is it because of the massacre I did at the Iceberg Bar that you hate me?"
“There are reasons and concerns in this regard.”
The master raised his head, and his eyes under the more textured metal helmet stared at Mason who had no guilt at all.
He said:
"Grayson had the situation under control, but you killed them anyway. This wasn't self-defense, Mason, you were just committing massacre.
but……
I still invite you to join the action tonight!
My personal likes and dislikes cannot be placed above the lives of countless people in this city, and your behavior over the past period of time has also proved that you follow your own more radical standards of good and evil.
At this moment, you can be trusted.
I very much hope that you can restrain the murderous intent in your heart, Mason.
But if the situation demands it, I won’t force it.”
The young man looked at the Batman in front of him in surprise.
He had already prepared himself to be scolded or even kicked out.
He was well aware of how hard-hearted the man in front of him was, and how determined his will was comparable to that of the most hopeless psychopath.
But he didn't expect that the master tonight would be so calm and accept the massacre he just caused. In fact, if you think about it carefully, Batman just told Tim to seek help from Green Arrow.
Green Arrow's style... well, apart from the humane and quite unique boxing glove stun arrow, any of the rest are much colder and darker than Mason's actions tonight.
Maybe it's really as the master said, the situation forced us?
Mason didn't expect Batman to take the time to explain this to him. At the same time, Alfred put down the coffee cup in his hand, and the old butler looked at the surveillance screen in front of him.
He whispered:
"Master Wayne, Master Dick is back, and he brought back...Barbara."
