Wayne Manor.
Bruce and Hush were in a standoff.
To the side, Barbara had already been ambushed and knocked down, lying nearby.
Alfred fell into a coma, and Nightwing, he fell into Hush's hands.
"What exactly do you want to do?"
Hush held Nightwing, saying nothing.
Suddenly, he fired a shot without warning.
The bullet hit Batman's suit, making him stumble back a step.
"That's tough armor," Hush "tsk"ed, putting down his pistol.
He shifted his gaze, fixing it on Barbara, then suddenly chuckled.
"I didn't expect you to be able to stand up again, Miss Barbara Gordon."
This tone, this demeanor!
Barbara looked up in disbelief, staring intently at Hush's bandage-wrapped face.
She murmured, "It's impossible, this is impossible, you should have died long ago..."
"Too bad, Honey, I'm back from hell!"
"Did you miss me? Hahahahahaha!!!"
Hush laughed maniacally, and at this moment, his figure completely overlapped with Joker's.
Barbara, due to psychological trauma, involuntarily began to curl up.
At this moment, she should have been stronger than before her injury, but her strength couldn't be fully utilized.
But Batman was not swayed by Hush's words; he was constantly looking for an opportunity.
Now, he found it.
While Hush was laughing, he unexpectedly threw a Batarang, hitting Hush's wrist.
In pain, Hush's pistol fell to the ground.
Dane, watching from the shadows, shook his head inwardly. Do all villains especially love to ramble?
Batman immediately stepped forward, launching into a quick combo.
Whether it was Hush or Joker, their fighting skills were at the level of street brawling.
They relied on ruthlessness to win, how could they compare to a combat master like Batman?
So within a few minutes, Hush was taken down by Batman, so easily that even Batman himself couldn't believe it.
He had been played for a fool by Hush for so long, and it ended just like this?
Batman couldn't help but rip off the bandages wrapped around Hush's face, but the face beneath them shook his mind.
"Bruce? How are you here?"
Thomas looked around "blankly," then at himself.
"Wait a minute, why am I here? Damn it, it hurts!"
Thomas's face twisted, then quickly adopted an evil grin.
"Xiao Bian Fu, big surprise! Hahahahaha, didn't expect it, it's me!"
"Joker?"
Batman was filled with doubt, unable to determine for a moment whether the person in front of him was truly acting.
"No, Bruce, what's wrong? What's wrong with me?"
The person in front of him seemed to possess two temperaments, two faces.
One moment it was his dear friend Thomas, the next it was his arch-enemy Joker.
Batman couldn't tell the difference, but he quickly forced himself to calm down.
"No matter who you are, just be quiet for a while!"
With that, he moved to stun Hush.
"Is that a good idea, Xiao Bian Fu? Don't you want to know what's in that poor little guy's head?"
Batman's movements froze.
He fiercely grabbed Hush, demanding, "What did you do?"
The Joker persona pretended to think for a moment before saying:
"What did you originally hire the brain Doctor for?"
Barbara, hearing this, no longer cared about her fear of Joker.
She quickly pulled out an X-ray scanner to examine Nightwing's brain.
A moment later, her face filled with despair, she told Batman: "There's a high-energy reaction inside!"
Joker gloated: "A miniature bomb. I went to great lengths to find a place to put it..."
Batman roared, punching him in the face, just as he did when he thought Jason had died.
"Ah~ This nostalgic feeling~!"
Joker felt no pain, instead, he just laughed.
"Xiao Bian Fu, how many times will you try before you understand? Your fists have no effect on me."
That smile made Batman instantly realize that the person in front of him was indeed the genuine Joker.
That deep-seated madness was exactly like the one who had died.
"What do you want to do?"
"Do you know how I was resurrected?" Joker answered with a question.
"You'd never guess, it was my blood, which I call the joker virus."
"As I've said before, Joker is a virus this city can't eradicate, Xiao Bian Fu."
"I, and this city, coexist. Can you eradicate the World's flu? So you can't get rid of me either."
"Now, I'm no longer limited by a physical body!"
joker virus!
Batman's face was extremely grim. If Joker's words were true, then he was virtually immortal!
But Joker's goal was clearly more than that; he suddenly grinned slyly at Batman:
"When I discovered how important my blood was, I suddenly remembered Scarecrow."
Batman's heart skipped a beat.
Joker's tone was not without regret: "He died too early, so I had to do this myself."
After a feigned moment of remembrance, he continued:
"I took that... what was that device he messed up back then?"
Batman enunciated each word: "Rainstorm Device!"
"That's right, that's it! I fixed it."
"Don't you think it's perfect for spreading my blood throughout the entire city?"
"Just thinking about it is incredibly exciting. Gotham will have countless versions of me; it'll be so lively, hahahahaha!"
Batman shivered at the thought of such a scene, and Barbara was also stunned by the plan.
At this point, Joker revealed his fangs, extending two fingers:
"Now, you have two choices, Xiao Bian Fu."
"You can go shut down that machine and save the city again."
"Or..." he sneered, looking at Nightwing beside him: "You can choose to save this poor little boy."
"In fifteen minutes, one of them is going to explode."
"A reminder, the remote control that can stop the bomb in his brain is hidden in this Manor. You don't have much time left."
"Come on, Batman, make your choice!"
Batman was in an internal struggle. Barbara pushed Nightwing into the Batcave.
"Bruce!"
Barbara's voice startled Batman awake. This time he was completely flustered, instinctively saying, "What?"
"Dick, we can't possibly remove the bomb in his brain with our abilities!"
The Batman family had no Doctor, and even the best Doctor couldn't perform a craniotomy and remove something within fifteen minutes.
Oh right, now there weren't even fifteen minutes left.
And that amount of time might not even be enough to find the remote control; Wayne Manor is very large.
Batman closed his eyes wearily; he had made his choice.
"Barbara, retrieve all the surveillance footage from the Manor, try... try to find the remote control."
Barbara's body trembled at his words, her voice a little hoarse: "Then, what about you?"
"I must stop the Rainstorm."
This is Batman; he will always make the right choice.
Although it seemed a bit ruthless, in the realm of humanity, this was the best outcome he could achieve.
Dane applauded Joker's plan; he seemed to have that kind of ability.
Every time, he could precisely hit Batman's pain points.
Joker hadn't misjudged Batman; he had already guessed this would be the outcome.
But seeing Batman's heartbroken expression, he still couldn't help but burst into laughter.
But Dane knew that Joker's objective wasn't limited to this.
Rainstorm and Dick weren't the only choices he had presented.
Before Batman intended to leave, Dane suddenly appeared.
Joker saw him, an expression of disgust on his face.
Dane blocked Batman's path, "Where are you going?"
"To stop the joker virus from spreading," Batman said firmly.
"I found that remote control."
"What did you say!" Batman turned sharply.
Dane didn't bother to be mysterious; time wasn't that plentiful.
He pointed his finger at Hush, who was controlled by the Joker persona:
"That thing is installed on his heart. As long as his heart stops, Dick can be saved."
"And you'll still have enough time to destroy the Rainstorm."
Now, it was Dane's turn to give him a choice. His secret cooperation with Hush was for this very purpose.
"Now, you can choose the best outcome; both can be saved."
"And the price is merely killing this madman, this antisocial criminal."
"How will you choose, Batman?"
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