I, V, Gotham Legend

Dick's eyes widened as he was held by the owl's waist, with its strong arms pressing him tightly like a vise around livestock.

He was so frightened that he dropped his stun gun. He just kept struggling and looking at the shrinking world.

Owl held Dick in his arms and shuttled between the tall buildings, with the neon lights of Gotham at night illuminating the direction he was heading.

However, just as he jumped up with Dick in his arms and was about to cross a street in the air, a blue figure flashed out from the side and bumped into him directly, pushing him onto the roof of a building nearby.

The owl fell onto the concrete roof holding Dick. For a moment, he lost control of the boy and accidentally dropped him.

Dick rolled several times until he hit a water tower nearby and stopped.

The owl rolled over on the ground a few times, then immediately stood up, drew its weapon and got ready.

Valerie slowly landed on the roof railing. Although she still had blue hair, she rarely wore David's jacket, but a blue windbreaker instead.

"I didn't expect there were still sharp claws. I thought I had cleaned them all up long ago." Valerie raised her head and stared at the owl that was on high alert.

"..." Like the other claws Valerie had seen, this one said nothing.

"Is it the Court of Owls? Do they still have remnants? Or is it reinforcements sent by the so-called Parliament?" Valerie asked like she was pouring beans. She didn't expect the claw in front of her to be able to answer at all.

Finally, she looked at Dick who was lying on the ground and said, "Are you still catching children? Even children this old?"

Although he has a sturdy build, Dick looks no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, not much different from an ordinary high school student.

As expected, Claw said nothing. He raised his knife and rushed towards Valerie with all his strength.

Valerie had fought against various claws many times, and the enemy this time was not that strong. She didn't even draw her weapon, but just stretched out her hand and pulled the sword in the claw's hand aside.

Then he raised his leg and pressed his knee against Claw's chest, sending him flying.

The sharp claws drew an arc in the air and finally fell right from the edge of the tall building. Valerie could already hear the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

She scurried to the edge of the roof in two or three steps, and looked down. All she could see in the distance was a corpse lying on the broken floor, blood splattering all over it like a mosquito.

However, Valerie did not let down her guard. As far as she knew, the only thing worth mentioning about the biological weapon called the Claw was its unparalleled vitality.

Valerie stepped onto the wall and was about to jump down, but before she could do so, Dick, who had already climbed up from the ground, suddenly called her.

"V...Are you the legendary V?" Dick asked cautiously.

"...Of course it's me." Valerie saw the admiration on Dick's face and couldn't help feeling proud.

Miss V is a big star now.

"Thank you. I know that Gotham's superheroes are real." Dick was emotional for a moment, just like meeting his idol. "You saved me! From that Penguin thug!"

"No, I'm not a superhero." Valerie denied this first, then she looked at the ground in surprise, the wrapped man was still lying there in a twisted posture. "The Penguin can now command the claws? Does he have this ability?"

Although Valerie had always despised the Court of Owls, she was well aware of how much these guys loved to be mysterious.

But she also speculated that maybe a fish that slipped through the net took the few claws and joined the Penguin? This was also possible.

Dick saw that Valerie was really thinking about it, and he couldn't help but feel anxious. He quickly said, "I was just guessing. He killed a few thugs under the Penguin, and then took me around. I suspected that he was trying to steal the credit... and I think that in Gotham, only the Penguin had the motive to attack me."

Valerie turned her head to look at Dick's childish face, she narrowed her eyes, and had a lot of questions to ask, but at the same time, she noticed that Claw had climbed up.

"We'll talk later. You can find me at the Laisheng Bar." Valerie took out a business card from her pocket, picked up a stone and put it on it. Then she stood on the eaves with her legs and jumped down with a leap of faith.

Dick ran over and looked down from the eaves, but saw no one. There were only bloodstains on the broken road on the ground.

He silently picked up Valerie's business card, and looked blankly at the strange city of Gotham.

Dick was unfamiliar with the place and couldn't find his way home.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally decided to call Alfred, one of his guardians, and ask him to pick him up.

The weapon was lost and such an accident happened. Dick's case-solving work tonight can only stop here.

……

The smell of burning filled the slums, and there were many more people here than Dick had seen before.

People dressed like homeless people gathered around a fire and threw any small animals they caught into the fire.

Batman, disguised as a blind homeless man, was pushed to the back of the crowd, his wig covering his ears and hiding his communications.

"I have already properly placed Master Dick back in his room. It looks like he is not going to go out again tonight." Alfred's nagging voice came, "and the electric shock toy you left for him seems to have been lost."

"I saw what happened with my own eyes." Bruce lowered his voice very low, "He was captured. It should be V who rescued him."

"Yes, I heard him talking to me all the way about how cool superheroes are, and he seemed to want to meet Batman."

"..." Batman heard the hidden meaning in Alfred's words, "I won't take him with me on the operation."

"Of course, I can understand that we don't want the child to be in danger, just like I once had the same feeling towards you." Alfred said, "But this is not the same thing. The child needs to vent the depression in his heart, and we live together, and your secret will be exposed sooner or later."

Alfred hopes Bruce can train Dick and take him to send the Penguin to prison.

It was not only to help Dick recover from the shadow of his parents' death, but also to prevent Bruce from being so withdrawn.

"You are a family, young master, and you will have a lot of support for each other in the future." Alfred persuaded like an elder in a movie.

"...You're a little wrong." Batman rubbed his hands pretending to be cold, his lips twitching under the fake mustache, but he didn't say the second half of the sentence.

"You're right, Master." But Alfred knew him very well, "We are a family."

Batman, disguised as a blind old man, did not show any expression. He stood up and pretended to stretch his muscles.

But someone held his shoulder and said, "What are you doing? The deacon will be here soon!"

"Sorry... I don't know anything... Butler." Bruce said in a hoarse voice, then squatted down obediently.

These people who suddenly gathered together and the butler they mentioned were the targets that Batman was investigating this time, even disguising himself as an old homeless man.

A cult that has recently sprung up in Gotham that's fond of human sacrifice.

NO24. Line of Defense Fishing

In the intricate streets of the slums, he used his hands and feet to move around using his inky claws.

All the joints in his body were abnormally dislocated, causing his running movements to be unstable and he knocked over a lot of things along the way.

But Li Claw seemed to feel no pain and remained silent. His face was hidden under the owl mask, and outsiders could not see whether his expression was distorted by pain.

Valerie was always using her mantis blade to climb the wall, biting her claws tightly behind her. The buildings in the slums were completely unplanned, which made it easier for Valerie to move.

Sharp Claw jumped onto the trash can again, then climbed over a wall. Due to injuries all over his body, his movements were not very agile, and he fell heavily to the ground after climbing over the wall.

He twisted his disobedient body and struggled to get up. There was a demon chasing him from behind, and he had to leave.

But when Claw raised his head, Valerie had already jumped in front of him.

"I finally understand. You really can't speak." Valerie couldn't help but sigh as she watched Li Claw's body tremble instinctively but he didn't even utter a groan of pain.

With trembling claws, he pulled out a small knife as sharp as an eagle's beak from his waist. He breathed heavily and rushed towards Valerie in a crooked manner.

Valerie dodged the Claw's attack easily by leaning sideways, and then the mantis knife popped out from her left arm and pierced through the Claw's lower back from behind.

Claw raised his head, still without saying a word, but blood could be seen flowing from the cracks in his mask.

Valerie pulled out her knife and let the Talon fall to the ground.

After shaking off the blood and wiping it twice with a handkerchief, Valerie put away the mantis knife, turned around and walked towards the exit.

Of course, Claw wouldn't just die like that. Valerie deliberately spared his life because this Claw was different from the others.

It's not like she had never dealt with claws before, but those biological weapons would fight to the death one by one, and it was rare for them to run away when they couldn't win like this one.

Either this Claw is more maneuverable, or the boss behind this guy gave him instructions with higher priority.

As far as Valerie knows, the latter possibility is more likely, but this claw is as resistant to blows as a zombie, and it is difficult to get an answer through simple torture.

So Valerie stabbed Claw's body with her mantis blade, leaving the locator inside him.

After this claw regains its mobility, whether it is to continue the mission or go back to see his master, it can all be considered Valerie's goal.

"Huh... let's go to the place Marlon mentioned first." It takes time for the claws to recover and even to move, so Valerie plans to continue with her original mission.

The next day after returning to Gotham, Malone sent a text message to Valerie, saying that there had been further progress in the investigation into the human traffickers.

An underground cult has recently emerged in Gotham, and like barbaric primitives they enjoy blood sacrifices.

At first it might just be some rats or purchased live chickens and dogs, but then it gradually escalated and now it even involves human trafficking.

Four days ago, the Gotham Police Department sealed off a cult base, and they dug up countless bodies underground that had their abdomens cut open and buried alive.

The hellish scene scared the battle-hardened veterans of the Gotham Police Department into a trance.

There is a cannibalistic cult in Gotham's underground. If this matter were published, it would surely cause quite a stir. In order to avoid panic, the police blocked the news of the cult's stronghold.

Having said that, the police and government propaganda still intentionally suggest that citizens beware of cults, and have also stepped up investigations into such cases.

However, there is no impenetrable wall in the world, and urban legends of cult sacrifices have existed for a long time. Malone still used his own methods to collect information about such cases.

Although the cult is becoming more and more rampant, it is not yet so rampant as to be open and aboveboard. After their base was closed down, their vitality was severely damaged. If they still want to continue the sacrifices in the next few days, they can only choose those marginalized people who no one would care if they disappeared.

The scope was narrowed a lot, and Valerie plunged into the slums, which was the place where Gotham's control was least obvious and where there were the most pitiful marginalized people.

The discovery of the claws was a completely unexpected coincidence. Valerie almost suspected that the Court of Owls was also involved in the cult. If this was true, things would only become more and more troublesome.

Valerie climbed to the roof with a mantis knife. She squatted on the edge of the house and overlooked the entire slum.

She thought it was another inspection without any incident, but this time, Valerie saw a crowd gathering in the distance.

Homeless people in different costumes gathered together and performed a strange dance around a brazier that was burning more and more fiercely.

Valerie's telescope-like zoom eye noticed that at the bottom of the fire they were surrounding, there were several bodies that were clearly humanoid being burned.

"I finally found it." Valerie stood up and jumped off the tall building.

……

The body of the penguin gangster, whose head was chopped off cleanly by sharp claws, was thrown into the brazier by the believers, and it roasted and gave off a burnt aroma.

The cultists were not satisfied, they continued to sing and dance. It was obvious that offering unprocessed corpses could not satisfy them.

Batman, disguised as an old man, continued to act timid, waiting for the people around him to take him away.

A blind homeless old man, no one would notice even if he died miserably, what a perfect sacrifice.

The cult's sacrifice collection plan has been thwarted countless times due to the cooperation between him and Gordon and others. In order to maintain his prestige, the leader behind the cult will definitely handle this blood sacrifice personally.

At that time, Batman will come face to face with the cowering leader.

The sound of bricks being crushed was heard, and a van emerged from the narrow alleys of the slums.

Batman sensed that the men next to him were ready to tie him up, and he prepared himself too.

Just before the homeless man behind him was ready to stuff the handkerchief soaked in anesthetic into Batman's nose, a sound of breaking wind suddenly sounded, and Batman heard the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground behind him.

Adhering to the setting of a blind man, Batman shook his head pretending to be confused, but he had already seen what happened.

The homeless man who was trying to knock him out fell to the ground with his head tilted back, with a dagger stuck between his eyebrows.

A breeze blew by, and the dagger suddenly disappeared from its original spot.

Batman has seen this kind of situation that is difficult to explain with common sense countless times. For a moment, he didn't know whether to be worried or relieved.

The sudden death of their companion threw the cultists into confusion, but they did not waste much time looking for the murderer.

The blue-haired woman had stepped out from the shadows behind the group of people as gracefully as if she were walking on the breeze.

NO25. Why aren't you quarreling?

"The human traffickers don't even let go of the dying elderly?" Valerie stood in front of the group of cultists openly, with an attitude of "I'll surround a group of you all by myself."

"It's that V!" The cultists had already recognized Valerie, and the group of people who were already nervous about doing something bad became even more terrified, "How did she find this place!"

Valerie is no longer the unknown person she was at the beginning. Now, just by standing out, she is enough to scare people.

Batman's fishing plan was disrupted, but he still wanted to seize this opportunity. He stood up and pretended to be scared.

"What's going on? I seem to smell blood." As he spoke, he backed away from the van.

The blind old man's action finally made the cultists react: "Quick! Take him to the deacon!"

Several people ran to Bruce, lifted him up, and dragged him towards the car.

Bruce calmed down a bit, but he still shouted professionally, "Where are you taking me?"