The three Spidern t Harley at the orphanage.
Harley had plumped up by then, holding her cute, red face up to the director, she pleaded, "Please, Mr. Pence, stop trying to find adoptive families, I can't stand them!"
"The couple who ca yesterday fought like parrots, the two ladies the day before told too many bad jokes, and one family to adopt already has five kids. Maybe you should just send back to where I was."
The director, Mr. Pence, said: "You're so lively and likeable that everyone wants to adopt you."
"Cut it out. They all just don't want to adopt the skinny kids. They never consider that, if I can put on 30 pounds in the slum, can they manage to keep up?"
Director Pence breathed a sigh of relief, patting Harley's head, "I really wonder how you do it, the children who ca with you run away as soon as they see you, as if you would eat them up."
Harley rolled her eyes and said nothing. Then she turned and saw the group of Spidern. She recognized Damian, who she'd spent the most ti with, at first sight. No one could imitate his brooding deanor.
Harley imdiately jumped up and ca over, hands on her hips, her voice high, "The shelter staff said they went street sweeping today, and I wondered who the unlucky ones were this ti. Turns out, it's you."
She gave several clicks of her tongue, looking up and down at the Spidern, "How did you manage to starve yourselves like this? You didn't go wandering over to the streets in the east, did you? There's hardly any food there."
Damian felt both embarrassed and angry and turned away without a word. As Spiderman, he was reminiscing about the hearty al he had just eaten. Only Little Bruce calmly said: "We were indeed in the east, because other than there, we can't survive anywhere else."
"Bruce!" Damian gave a high-pitched shout, signaling for Little Bruce to stop talking.
Harley giggled a couple tis, staring at Damian, "One of you is a skilled assassin, the other the world's most brilliant brain. These talents aren't hindered by your physical condition, yet you've fallen to snatching food with disabled or congenitally defective children. Is that fun?"
"Harley Quinn!" Damian shouted at Harley, but she only dug at her ear and replied, "Or perhaps, with your skills, you've made it to the lowest rung of Gotham. How bad has this city beco?"
"You're right." Little Bruce said, incredibly calm and unemotional. When Damian turned to look at him, he felt a chill down his spine. A familiar feeling ca over him. He horrifyingly realized he was seeing the shadow of the Batman in the young Bruce.
"This city is unimaginably rotten. Before witnessing all this, I would never have believed such places existed in the city I call ho," Little Bruce said without emotion. "And you're also right, to think that we with the mories of the reincarnated could end up amidst the weak, sick, and crippled, I don't know how to describe our stupidity."
Damian's face turned red with anger. anwhile, Little Bruce turned to him and calmly said, "You think we're saved, right? Ever think about who saved you?"
"Of course... Of course, it was just our luck!"
"Are you really lucky?"
Damian was lost for words. He thought about it: his luck had reached rock bottom recently.
"What we've been through isn't because of bad luck. You'd better wake up and stop lowering my opinion of your intelligence," Little Bruce said indignantly.
Damian's face turned from green to white in anger. He could never outsmart Batman, and now even a young Batman managed to ridicule him.
"As if you're so smart. Then why haven't you turned the situation around?" Damian managed to pull out a retort.
"I certainly didn't have the ability to effect change before. But at least now, I see the truth," Little Bruce said, steadily staring at Damian. "Soone saved Gotham, but it wasn't the mob."
"Then who was it?"
"Batman."
Little Bruce turned to look at a small TV in the hall. The news was playing on it. Damian followed his gaze, and saw the anchor on the TV introducing the news.
"...Wayne Enterprises is carrying out a new round of economic rescue financing. The person in charge of the corporation stated that, while developing the economy, it's also important not to forget about human livelihood. The latest twenty-seven orphanages have been completed in the East District. The corporation also calls on the public to visit and make donations, and those who et the conditions can adopt..."
Damian was totally stunned by the TV news.
"Wayne Enterprises?! But isn't that our..."
"He is doing it for you," said little Bruce with a sigh. "Probably also expressing his dissatisfaction with you, only in a fatherly, subtler manner."
"You guys used the reversed na of Wayne without his approval. And you haven't really done anything with that na. Batman is Batman, but both of you share the last na Wayne. This is the most important bond between you. He probably doesn't want you to treat this surna as a joke."
Damian clenched his fists. He rembered how Batman hesitated the first ti he addressed him as Damian Wayne. He had felt angry and humiliated because he thought he did not need soone to na him.
But when he was with the Batman Family, he often found himself pleased for this. Only he and Batman shared the sa last na. They were father and son, they represented the traditional sense of family.
Damian stared at the television with red eyes, unsure of the emotions swirling within his heart at that mont.
Perhaps it was the humiliation of being rescued by Batman, despite his previous insistence on correcting Batman's errors. Perhaps it was confusion over how Batman managed to achieve it. Or maybe it was the feeling of resentnt for Batman having overco his struggles, yet not rushing to rescue him or give him any special treatnt.
Damian did not understand why he felt resentful whether Batman saved him or not.
"Because you believe Batman has no right to instruct you," Harley pointedly stated. "Because he hasn't successfully saved Gotham in the real world, because he's also a failure. You see his attempts to lecture you as assertions of his authority, not because he's superior than you."
"He hasn't successfully saved Gotham, and you haven't even attempted to. Thus, you naturally assu that if you did, you would do better than him."
"But now that you're both at the sa starting point, he succeeded and you didn't. This proves that he's right and you're wrong. Any of his educative actions would seem to you as the humiliation from a successful person imposed on a failure."
"But in the real world, you know that you bear a heavier responsibility than the other Robins. You believe others can find any excuse to avoid taking this path since they have no blood relation to Batman and are not Gotham natives. You believe they can simply walk away, but you can't."
"Batman gave you his surna, recognizing you as his kin, which ans you're compelled to carry on his mantle. You believe it's your responsibility to deal with the issues he couldn't overco."
"You feel that having taken on more responsibility, you should receive more love from Batman. If he doesn't give it, you feel aggrieved. You foresee having to give more than anyone else in the future, but you're not receiving any special treatnt now. This seems utterly unfair to you."
"Stop it!" Damian roared, "You don't understand anything!"
"I know Batman will never give up. He'll never cease trying to save Gotham. Even if it kills him, which ans, if I'm to take on his mantle, it must be after his death!"
Damian said with a trembling voice, "None of them care if Batman dies, but I know I would. I would despise this city that kills him. I would want to destroy it rather than save it. But in doing so, I wouldn't be able to take on his mantle, though I'm indeed his son..."
"Of course, you are."
A figure appeared in the hallway. His voice was not low and gruff, and he didn't look as towering as usual, but it was clear who he was.
Damian couldn't hold back anymore. He turned and slumped into a corner, sobbing. The anger and grief accumulated over ti, the psychological shadows cast by the grim realities he's faced, all erupted, but he still refused to approach Batman.
"Your mother had instilled in you a strong sense of honor, but you're still just a child."
Batman glanced around the room, taking note of Little Bruce and Spider-Man, then implied,
"Your pain stems from the responsibilities you want to bear, but in fact, you don't have to bear any because you're just children."
"The failure in ensuring a peaceful and joyous childhood for children is the fault of society and those who established its order, not the innocent children."
"Any acts that jeopardize a group's future can't be explained away as inadvertent mistakes. This is the sole reason I couldn't save Falcone back then. He has to take responsibility for the cries of children in Gotham."
As Spider-Man looked up at Batman from where he sat on the floor, he thought, Batman is full of darkness. Yet because of it, the fleeting rays of light that seep through his interstices are exceptionally dazzling.
Despite the nurous dark veils draped over him and the heavy shackles tethering his limbs, he did not appear captive. Instead, he looked like a hero heading to his execution.
Spider-Man finally understood the ridiculousness of Joker.
Only a clumsy actor would attempt to bring laughter to a tragedy. Indulging and understanding tragedy is a choice each perforr and audience has to make.
Seriousness, compassion, profundity are indispensable elents in human arts – cody isn't the savior of tragedy.
In a world devoid of mysterious powers, Batman saved the city in a way everyone hoped for. Yet, it wasn't just a fairytale dream.
He made Batman realize that his failure in the real world had specific reasons. More so, it made him soberly aware that if these factors could hinder him for twenty years, they could do so for a lifeti.
The Batman Family that he assembled with utmost effort need not be hindered for centuries. His Robins were all very young. They shouldn't rejoice in receiving a ticket to a dead end. They deserved a broader stage.
Batman sighed inwardly. He felt he finally found a way to resolve the problems with both the children and their parents — by bringing them together. All conflicts would be resolved.
Just when Batman planned to bring the children to tour the newly completed headquarters of Wayne Enterprises, he suddenly heard chaotic screams from the streets.
A massive shadow covered the sky. Batman looked up to see a familiar, massive battleship.
The next mont, Darkseid's voice echoed.
"Damn humans!! Die!!!!!"
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