"Where's the car?"
"It exploded."
Sitting in the two-door supercar, Connors said awkwardly to Xue Xi's puzzled look.
"It seems you're just like those Avengers, constantly destroying your vehicles," Xue Xi realized.
But she quickly dropped the topic; a mere muscle car was nothing to a big star like her.
Looking at the supercar's interior, she seemed quite knowledgeable, reaching out to operate a series of buttons while saying:
"Did you know? This car's shock absorption is excellent..."
As she finished speaking, the car windows completely became opaque to the outside.
With nearly an hour until the circus performance, the unmarked luxury car soon began to vibrate gently and rhythmically in the underground parking lot.
...
"A round of applause for the upcoming exciting performance! Taking the stage are the owners and operators of the World-renowned Grayson Circus—"
"The Flying Graysons!"
Xue Xi's concert stage had been modified into a circus stage. As the spotlights lit up, two agile figures descended from above with the help of ropes, performing one breathtaking act after another.
Since the spotlights were constantly focused on The Flying Graysons, no one noticed the seeds sprouting, growing, and strengthening beneath the stage.
These plant changes were naturally related to Connors.
He was sitting with Xue Xi in the audience seats below the stage, unnoticed by anyone.
After a series of warm-up acts, the Flying Graysons couple on stage were about to begin their formal performance, and their eight-year-old son, "Dick Grayson," was also about to make his appearance.
Just as Dick Grayson was about to tie on the rope to join his parents on stage, a barely audible "rip" sound rang out.
The aerial rope, which had been clearly checked at the lighting rig and confirmed to be secure, snapped at that moment, and the Graysons couple, suspended in the air, immediately plummeted downwards.
This was ten meters above the ground; falling down meant a certain death by impact.
"No—"
The eight-year-old Dick Grayson cried out, letting out a shriek.
Meanwhile, inside the Stadium, countless spectators also let out various exclamations. Gotham City's famous "Flying Graysons" family had always been known for their spectacular performances and had never had any safety incidents.
But precisely at this moment, it happened!
Connors sat next to Xue Xi, his gaze fixed on the performance on stage. The moment he saw the Graysons couple fall, a large number of plants spread wildly, shooting out from under the stage and quickly forming a large net to try and catch them.
But Connors only possessed 1% of the "Green"; he could control plant growth, but he couldn't completely defy logic like Poison Ivy.
This meant that no matter how the plants Connors controlled grew, their essence remained relatively fragile.
Knowing this characteristic, he had specifically scattered a large number of seeds around the stage, hoping to achieve a qualitative change through quantity.
But an accident quickly occurred. The Graysons couple's bodies were still in the air, before they had fallen into the plant net, the broken rope, affected by elasticity, quickly whipped the net from a strange angle.
Crack!
Its speed was so fast that it even produced a sonic boom at the end of the rope.
And the plant net that Connors controlled also had a large hole torn in the middle because of this.
Damn it!
Connors' heart tightened. Was he still unable to save this couple, unable to change this family's fate?
Even though he had mentally prepared himself beforehand, seeing the two following their destined path unable to live because of him, he couldn't help but sigh.
With two loud thuds, the Graysons couple died on the spot, and the audience members in the front row were splattered with blood.
Screaming, vomiting, fleeing.
The Stadium instantly descended into chaos. Only Dick Grayson stood frozen at the high platform, staring at the two corpses below, then frantically rushed down the stairs.
The corpses others feared were his parents. He directly pounced on the bodies, desperately trying to imagine the two who had fallen into eternal sleep.
"It seems changing this predetermined history requires stronger power," Connors muttered to himself with some regret.
Fortunately, he quickly adjusted his mindset and walked step by step from the audience seats towards Dick Grayson.
Before he could speak, a staff member who had rushed from backstage handed him a phone:
"Sir, your call, from Bruce Wayne."
On the other end of the phone, Batman was still lying on the operating table, but in front of him was a monitor displaying the surveillance feed from the Stadium, which was originally used for concerts but was now set up for the circus performance.
"I've seen what happened," Bruce Wayne said on the other end of the phone. "Please bring him to me. I want to adopt him."
[Today's Gossip: Crazy Laughter Event (Ongoing) - The Birth of Nightwing]
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...
Inside Wayne Manor, Connors and Wayne, who was standing on the floor as if nothing had happened, stared at each other.
This silent atmosphere didn't match Connors' personality, so he took the initiative to break it:
"Weren't you paralyzed?"
Bruce Wayne looked at Connors expressionlessly:
"Do you really want to see me lying on a hospital bed, on the verge of death?"
Connors didn't reply. He was very curious how Batman, who was undergoing surgery that morning, managed to stand perfectly fine in front of him within half a day.
Seeing that Batman wouldn't say, he simply walked around behind Bruce Wayne and saw that it was an exoskeleton-like brace supporting him.
Judging by the number on the brace, this was clearly not the first one, and it was likely something Batman had prepared in advance to deal with situations where his bones were broken.
Bruce Wayne turned around, unwilling to let Connors continue staring at his back, and said:
"I saw the Stadium's surveillance. You scattered seeds around the stage even before the performance began, seemingly anticipating the Graysons couple's misfortune."
This couldn't be hidden from the other party, and Connors hadn't planned to hide it, so he nodded directly in admission.
"So, what you said before leaving this morning, even if I didn't want to believe it, I have to now..."
Connors continued to nod, then saw Bruce Wayne take a step back.
Immediately, the room, which was originally just a living room, was filled with clattering sounds as hundreds of guns of various designs pointed at Connors from all angles.
"To make me believe the lie of the World's destruction, you would kill other innocent people, is that right?"
"You seem to have a strong anti-surveillance awareness, even going through the whole act, creating a scene of trying to save but failing."
"Surrender, Mr. Connors."
Bruce Wayne produced a Rocket launcher from somewhere:
"You might be able to dodge ordinary bullets, but in such a confined room, how will you dodge large-scale damage?"
Being pointed at by so many guns—at least a hundred simultaneously—even Connors, who possessed Grandmaster-level Little Trick, couldn't help but feel his scalp tingle.
"As expected of Wayne, but..."
As if anticipating this, Connors smiled and, halfway through speaking, pulled out a constantly flashing red Bat-arang from his pocket.