"Sorry, Peter, we just checked the program records of the Spectator Mode, it perford pretty well. But could you help us test a feature again?"
Shiller's voice echoed in Peter's ears, and upon hearing the familiar tone of the doctor, he cheerfully responded, "Of course, what do I need to do?"
"We want to test the Mission System, and there happens to be a relatively extre project in this city, are you interested..."
"What exactly is this project?" Peter asked curiously, not understanding what type of project could be referred to as extre by the doctor.
"You caught the Riddler before, right?"
"Yes, he should still be in Arkham Asylum, unless sothing unexpected happens."
"Well, the unexpected did happen." Shiller sighed, "We found out that the Riddler has resurfaced in Gotham, leaving over 100 trophies hidden around the city."
"We will provide you with a Map System, and you will need to use all kinds of tools and thods to find all the trophies. Off you go, Peter."
Jason, standing in the cage, watched as Peter stared at the sky for a while, then began to tinker with his arm again, and then left the Batcave without looking back.
Jason could feel the discomfort in his body disappearing, primarily the deep old wounds weren't hurting so badly anymore, and he began trying to communicate with the strange organism in his brain.
"Are you there? Can you understand what I'm saying?"
"Hello, I'm here. I can communicate with humans, but I'm a bit busy now. Your physical condition is not optimistic, to put it more precisely, it's a total ss."
Jason let out a huff, sat down in place, and quietly experienced the changes happening in his body. Then he tried to say, "Alright, Batman's choice is indeed bold, will you tell Batman all the things I'm thinking about?"
"No, I can't." the gentle voice answered him, "If you don't allow to start the connection mode, no information about you will be leaked out."
"I don't buy it." Jason said.
The other party didn't respond, but Jason clearly wasn't so easily subdued. He continued, "If I disturb you now, will you ruin my body?"
"No, compared to my previous host, you're quite the introvert. I don't mind having a little chat."
"You must be trying to lead on, right?"
"Your record for longest ti without changing socks is one week and three days, because you really liked those orange stripes..."
"Stop it." Jason covered his forehead and said, "I know you can read my mories, don't keep emphasizing that point. Parasite."
"I don't mind being referred to as a parasite, but I'm not an insect. I'm not in between your cells, but within each cell. I am you."
"Stop babbling, aren't you just a talking dical pod?" Jason curled his lips and said.
"Actually, I have many amazing abilities, but I don't recomnd you using them. Obviously, sitting here quietly waiting for your wounds to be healed is the best choice for you."
"I don't need soone to tell what the best choice is." Jason's voice sunk again, then he said, "Don't just wait here stupidly, figure out a way to get out. I've got things to do."
"I don't recomnd that you... alright, but if Batman cos looking for you, you'll have to take all the responsibility."
Jason waved his hand impatiently and stood up from the ground. He felt his muscles getting stronger. Or perhaps, he hadn't felt this strong in a long while.
"Put your hand on the railing," the voice told him.
Jason first touched the railing, actually, he already knew the railing wasn't electrified, but it was just an instinctive reaction. After all, he couldn't be sure if Batman had set up any surveillance or remote controls.
"Both hands on the railing." He asked, "What's next?"
As he was speaking, the jarring clang of tal deformation sounded in his ear. The sturdy tal bars of the bat jail were forcibly torn apart to create a large hole that a person could pass through.
After stepping out, Jason looked back at the deford railing and swallowed hard, "I take that back. You'll be responsible for half of it, no, at least two-thirds."
"Are you worried about Batman getting angry?"
"No." Jason raised his voice and said, "I'm just stating a fact. Now I know he had ample reason to lock you up."
"That's unfair, my host."
Jason turned to pick up his mask from the table nearby, looked around, and when he didn't see the red light of the cara or hear any warning voices, he walked out of the prison with large strides.
Jason returned to his base, opened his equipnt cache which contained a nearly completed new armor, having a tallic dark-red mask.
Jason took a deep breath, stroked the mask with his fingertips, and spoke to himself, "The most important thing I've learned over this year is not to rely on anyone, especially Batman."
"I can take my own revenge, right? I'm Jason Todd. Not an anonymous sidekick to so superhero. Not anymore."
"I should have a codena of my own, I..."
Jason's voice trailed off, with no actual interruptions, just that he ran out of prepared lines. His head was full of things Batman and Peter had said.
"Damn it, my feud with the Joker is not over yet!" Jason clenched his teeth and said, "Am I supposed to let him off like this? Why should I let him off like this? Of course, I will kill him."
"What do you think?" Jason asked the air.
"You don't need my opinion." The voice responded calmly.
This, however, was what made Jason feel extrely agitated. He picked up the red mask and sat down in a chair, as if convincing himself, "I'm not, nor am I emphasising that I am a fragile baby, just crying incessantly when kidnapped. I'm not saying how much I can't stand his torture."
"The fact is that I've held on, I'm still alive, I'm just reinforcing my original idea, those criminals deserve to die."
He paused there, rembering the look in Peter's eyes when he said the last few sentences to him.
If you set the bottom line as not killing, then crossing the line is just shooting the criminal, but if you et soone whose death would not even atone for their sins...
Jason shook his head hard. He thought, no, at his most painful, he just wanted to kill the Joker, and that was that. Just go kill him.
The sturdy young man stood up from the chair, removed his original mask, put on a new dark red mask, grabbed the pistol at his waist, and walked out.
He went to the base where Batman kept the Joker virus-infected individuals.
Actually, this wasn't a secret, especially now that Batman and Oracle are both gone, and Jason still has the original access rights to the Oracle system.
If the Joker inside Batman died, then the Joker's backup plan would co into play. Now, the Joker is inside this base, at least a part of the Joker is.
But when he arrived at the base, he discovered that it had been attacked at so point. The prison cell doors had huge holes in them, and the ground had traces of being bombed by so unknown weapon.
Jason checked carefully and found that it was likely Harley Quinn, but this was not unexpected, it could be the Joker's plan or simply that crazy woman acting out again.
After making a round, he finally chose to investigate the Bat computer. As expected, Batman made localization tags for all the infectees. Jason found that they were all in a film factory called Panisar.
What were they doing there?
Just as Jason was pondering, a sharp sound ca from the table beside him. Jason turned his head abruptly and found that a communicator that he had left there was ringing.
Jason walked over and pressed the answer key. He did not expect to hear Batman's voice, but the voice from the other side was a bit too unfamiliar.
"Hello, Jason, I hope you could co over here, I'll wait for you." The voice on the microphone was too low.
"Who are you? Where are you?"
"You will find ."
The call was hung up, and after Jason hung up the phone, he felt a bit baffled. He checked the call history, but found nothing. Obviously, this was an internal call. The other party was also using Batman's system.
Jason sarcastically thought, is Batman's system a public network now? How could anyone hack into it?
Jason raised his guard, but he still intended to focus on what he was doing. First, he had to find the map of Panisar Film Factory, then go there to catch those Joker virus infectees, kill the one who has turned into the Joker, and imprison the others again.
Batman is bound to be busy for the next 24 hours. Jason knew clearly that if this incident got involved with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the military, Batman could easily wiggle out, but Bruce Wayne could not.
If Jason did not guess wrong, after imprisoning Scarecrow and Penguin Man, Bruce Wayne would have to go to Washington. Just that woman, Amanda Waller, could find him plenty of trouble.
So if he wants revenge, he needs to act fast. That group of people could only make trouble for Batman at most, and it can't be dragged on for more than 48 hours. He had to kill the Joker before Batman returned.
On the way to Panisar Film Factory, images of the Joker kept flashing in front of Jason's eyes. But sohow, these scenes were also mixed with others that he had only heard about but not seen with his own eyes.
A pair of parents scread and attacked each other, then attacked the air like madn, numbly and hopelessly muttering, and finally indulged in filth and jumped off the rooftop.
These scenes replayed over and over in Jason's mind, even surpassing the Joker's ugly face when he was torturing him.
The forr always aroused a lot of emotions in him, anger, resentnt, grievance, but the latter always made Jason feel a sense of chill. That inexplicable coldness made his heart heavy and sinking, as if a piece had been hollowed out of his chest.
He kept recalling these scenes like a compulsion, ntally coloring in the details of this mory that he had not witnessed, including their looks and outfits, and the way they jumped off the building.
And the figure standing at the window staring at them.
Standing in front of Panisar Film Factory, Jason closed his eyes in so pain, forcing himself not to think about these sses. The Joker won't be that easy to deal with.
But he wouldn't stumble twice on the sa error. This ti he brought enough equipnt. He believed that he could end the Joker, once and for all, just as he envisioned.
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