American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Ah Fu interrupted through the fighter jet's communication channel, suggesting that since everyone was so energetic, why not come back to the manor for lunch?

"I won't eat that green thing that looks like it's been juiced from an entire meadow!"

Shuen, clinging to the rope ladder thrown down by the Batfighter, keenly sensed the butler's intentions.

He shouted at the dark cockpit above his head.

He had just completed an epic mission like saving Tenth Avenue, so how could his reward be a damn freshly squeezed kale mix?

"Mr. Xiu En, this rehabilitation plan was tailored to your specific situation, which sounds like you're about to cough up half a lung."

Alfred's voice clearly reached everyone's ears. Even Joestar, who was still savoring the feeling of tearing the thug apart, couldn't help but straighten his back. He instinctively felt that the invisible old man had a kind of oppressive aura that was even more terrifying than that of a street boss.

Bruce's fighter jet slowly descended, the hatch opened, revealing his face—even with half his face covered by a mask, it was clear that there was no room for negotiation.

"Afu is already prepared in the medical area. Also, I'll have someone retrieve your SUV, which looks like it was just pulled out of a junkyard. As for those two... very spirited guards."

Bruce glanced at Alvin and Joestar, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Or would you like to have Gordon's men take their statements, or would you prefer to take them along to drink that bucket of special vegetable juice?"

Just as Xiu En was about to say something, he heard Alvin beside him suddenly stand at attention and salute, as if he had received some terrible divine revelation.

"Messenger! I just remembered it's time to feed the owls in the greenhouse! Let's go ahead!"

After saying that, without waiting for Shuen to stop him, Alvin dragged Joestar away. The two most loyal followers pulled the nearly broken off-road vehicle and actually started physically pushing it away.

Half an hour later, inside the awe-inspiring giant bat cave at Wayne Manor.

Xiu En looked at A Fu carrying a tray with a bitter expression.

The liquid in the glass above, a strange dark green, was bubbling and releasing a hellish aura of celery, carrots, and some unknown herb.

"Please, Mr. Shuen. This cup contains the same electrolytes and recovery agents that Master Bruce often uses. I believe it will be very effective in relieving your metallic lung inflammation."

The old butler's smile was flawless, but in Xiu En's eyes it was the smile of death.

He turned to Bruce, who was taking off his armor to reveal his scars and muscles, and asked for help.

"Hey boss, look how much I've risked my life for your no-kill policy, don't you think there's a more humane treatment option?"

"Drink it. I don't want this floor covered in your gold dust; it's hard to clean."

Bruce didn't even turn his head, heading straight to the main control computer to analyze the data collected by the fighter jet.

In the end, Shuen pinched his nose and gulped down the hellish drink.

That taste.

It was like licking a rusty iron railing and then chewing on a handful of wild vegetables just pulled from the ground.

"Ugh, this is torture for prisoners of war."

Xiu En lay paralyzed in the transparent medical recovery chamber. As the chamber lid slowly closed, the nutrient solution began to be injected.

"This is basic maintenance, Mr. Shuen. Besides, prisoners of war don't get this kind of treatment. Your physical functions are severely depleted, and strange energy is eroding your internal organs."

As Afu input instructions on the control panel, he gently explained them through the glass.

"I hope you have a good dream in there. Maybe when you wake up, real food will be waiting for you."

As his consciousness gradually sank due to the effects of the drug, the last thing Xiu En saw was the dark cave ceiling above him. He thought to himself that although the place was a bit dark, it was indeed much more comfortable if you didn't count the vegetable juice.

As his consciousness continued to sink, Xiu En thought he would drown in that terrifying sea of ​​vegetable juice, but the eerie bubbles around him, just like those described in potions textbooks, did not last long.

Darkness took over everything.

When his feet could feel solid ground again, he realized he was no longer in the medical pod.

Beneath my feet were hard stone slabs, and above me were only thick gray clouds.

"The image quality of this dream isn't very good; the resolution is a bit low."

Xiu En reached out and touched the moss-covered stone railing next to him; the texture was so real that he could hardly distinguish between reality and illusion.

This is clearly the top of a high-rise building in Gotham, but not any place he has ever been. It seems to be some kind of conceptual entity pieced together from countless old buildings in Gotham.

The giant gargoyle that had been crouching on the eaves shook off the stone dust from its body, and its huge wings slowly spread open, blocking out the meager amount of sunlight.

It turned its head, its stone eyes locking onto Xiu En.

"Who are you?"

Xiu En wasn't frightened by the huge monster that was two stories tall. Instead, he leaned casually against the railing and asked it, trying to find out if there was a coin slot in this dream.

The sound rang out again, this time not heard by the ears, but resonated directly within the skull.

"You can call me Gotham. Are you an outsider... or... an observer?"

"No matter which one it is, I'm cleaning your sewers, so you should pay me for my work."

Xiu En pointed to the bottomless abyss of the city below.

The gargoyle ignored Xiu En's demands. Its large, stone-carved mouth slightly parted, the curve of which did not resemble a smile at all, but the howling cold wind around it gently avoided Xiu En's location.

A bat next to the gargoyle spoke. Although it was just a bat, Xiu En somehow sensed that it was a bat cave.

"You are us, I am you, whatever you want, thank you."

As the bat spoke, Shuen turned around and realized that what enveloped the area was not entirely darkness.

The bat cave looks like a giant, prehistoric creature whose entirety cannot be observed.

At this moment, this colossal bat is protecting him, or perhaps Bruce, who is sleeping in its heart, in an almost maternal way.

That will was more silent than Gotham's, but the emotion it conveyed was very straightforward: it was happy.

"He was very tired, always, but because of you, that despair has eased. Lately, he's been laughing more often."

Her voice was broken and intermittent.

It sounds like a sense of satisfaction from an elder.

Shuen pursed his lips, recalling Bruce's perpetually expressionless face.

"If you call that kind of sneer 'laughter,' then the expectations of this generation of parents are indeed not high."

"This is a gift."

The gargoyle extended its giant claw and gently tapped Xiu En's chest.

A thick, warm current, like the pulse of the earth, entered my body.

"Thump!"

A tremendous crash suddenly replaced the whispers of the dream.

Xiu En suddenly opened his eyes and found himself lying in that transparent coffin... medical pod.

At the control panel next to him, Bruce was frantically typing on the keyboard with his back to him. The screen showed that Shuen's brainwaves had just experienced an inexplicable peak.

"woke up?"

Bruce's voice betrayed a barely concealed tension.

"All your readings are normal. I wouldn't be surprised if you had been brain dead for a moment just now. Your brain just had a strange resonance with the geomagnetic field of the entire Gotham City."

Xiu En touched his chest, which was still faintly burning. The suffocating feeling from before was gone, replaced by a strange rhythm that made him feel the entire city breathing with him, even though he was underground.

"It's nothing, I just had a dream. In the dream, there was an ugly stone monster that said its name was Gotham, and the Batcave said that you were its precious darling and even gave me a friend card."