I, V, Gotham Legend

"..."

Elliot took a deep breath. He knew that he had left a very bad impression on V. At this point, he could only bite the bullet and ask, "What do you think of Bruce Wayne?"

"?"

Valerie's eyes drifted slightly, looking under Elliot's butt.

Although Bruce was not eavesdropping at the door, he had already installed a lot of eavesdropping devices here in just the few minutes of communication.

Valerie ignored it and agreed with Batman's behavior, which meant that he could hear everything Valerie said now.

So Valerie deliberately raised her voice and said in a very polite tone: "Bruce Wayne is just a lecherous idiot with a chin as square as a brick. He likes to show off his little money. He is a complete fool!"

As she spoke, Valerie imagined Bruce's gloomy face after hearing what she said, and she couldn't help laughing out loud.

Elliot's mood gradually calmed down after hearing Valerie's comment and mocking smile, and he smiled as well.

"Ms. V, Bruce is my friend since childhood. Although he still has some shortcomings, he must be a good person."

"I don't care. Don't you want to discuss medical technology with me?"

Elliot shook his head: "Technical exchange is just an excuse, but I have something important to ask you for help. Please tell me the truth, what is your relationship with Bruce?"

"ATM? He gave me money." Valerie deliberately answered like a gold digger. She was becoming more and more confused about what this guy wanted to do.

"So you only care about his money?" Elliot believed it. He looked around again, and seemed to think it was enough, so he secretly stood up. "I can get Wayne's property."

Hearing this thunderous statement, Valerie showed an interested expression and sat up straight.

She knew that Batman was listening, and she really wanted to see how Bruce would react when he heard his childhood friend say this to him.

"What are your plans?" Valerie asked.

"It's simple. Kill the real Wayne and let me become Bruce Wayne. I will transfer his property." Elliot moved closer and closer to Valerie. "I've seen your prosthetic surgery cases. You can even repair severe burns to make them look the same as before. It should be okay for you to replace my face, right?"

"Do you hate him or admire him? I've never seen anyone treat his friend so badly." Valerie deliberately acted a little angry.

"Friend? Stop kidding, his father destroyed my family!" Elliot showed a look of disgust.

"You can't blame them for this..." Valerie couldn't bear to watch it any longer, "Your father died in a car accident, and the doctor couldn't do anything... And didn't he save your mother?"

"...Did Wayne tell you a lot? He is as hypocritical as ever." Elliot lowered his head with a sad expression on his face, "But I am sure that they were the ones who did it."

His expression was sincere, his eyes were honest, almost like the real thing, but unfortunately Valerie could see Elliot's heartbeat directly, and she knew at a glance that this guy was lying.

He knew that Wayne had nothing to do with his father's death, but his hatred for Wayne did not seem fake. Why?

Even if it's simply a matter of inflexibility, he should have figured it out after twenty years or so.

Valerie decided not to think about this guy's psychology anymore. She simply refused: "One-sided statement, I am a righteous superhero, I will not do such a thing."

"Think about it...we can split Wayne's property in half."

"..." Valerie was moved for a moment, but she immediately strengthened her conviction, "Please go back, I don't care about the money."

"I..." Elliot's face was terribly sour, and the fingers hidden behind his back kept shaking.

In the end, he still didn't say anything, but just took a step back: "Excuse me, Miss... Can today's communication be kept confidential? Just keep... silent."

"Don't worry, I won't say a word." After all, Batman already knew.

Watching Elliot push the door and walk out of the room, Valerie looked up at the ceiling, then slowly closed her eyes, using this hard-earned time to catch up on some sleep...

……

Elliot had just walked out of the trauma team and was still looking for Wayne's car when he suddenly felt his collar being grabbed and a sense of weightlessness under his feet.

"Ahhhhhh!!" he screamed as he was lifted up, looking at the bat in the sunlight in disbelief.

NO5. You have to meet the new lunatic

Valerie seemed to have returned to the past. She was sitting in front of her computer desk, which was cluttered with books and snacks.

The computer was still on, with a classic prairie wallpaper and the various icons arranged as Valerie remembered them.

This was obviously a dream, and Valerie even knew clearly that she was dreaming.

She is a person who doesn't dream much, and this happened today. It seems that she is really too tired.

Valerie reached out her hand and wanted to touch the computer she hadn't seen for a long time, but the next moment she touched the monitor, the screen went off as if it had run out of power.

Valerie clearly saw a delicate and pretty face reflected on the LCD screen that suddenly turned black due to the loss of the picture...

……

The sun was still high in the sky, but it was almost time for a large patch of fiery clouds to appear from the position of the sunset.

Valerie woke up and found that only ten minutes had passed. She stretched, stood up, walked leisurely to the window and pushed it open.

The scene outside was still familiar, except for a police car parked at the door.

Valerie was silent for a moment. She was wondering if she had committed any crime recently. It was impossible that she had sneaked into Arkham City and blew up a park and was discovered.

She jumped out of the windowsill and turned invisible to maintain her mystery until she found an acquaintance among the busy policemen below.

She walked behind Cash, who was still on the phone, and tapped him on the shoulder: "What happened here?"

"...It's you." Cash was startled, but when he turned around and saw Valerie, he immediately smiled in relief. "There is an anonymous tip saying that a serial killer has been found."

"..." Valerie had a subtle expression. If she was a murderer, she had killed quite a few people. However, judging from Cash's attitude, he was probably not talking about herself.

Cash pointed at the police car next to him. Valerie looked over and saw Elliot, who had just been chatting with her, sitting dejectedly in the back seat.

"To be honest, I thought it was you, Miss V, who called the police. After all, it's daytime now." Cash also looked at Elliot.

If it weren't for the customer's demand or my own luck, few of those who are hostile to me can be arrested alive.

The above words only circled in Valerie's mind. She still gave her police friend some face and did not say them to his face.

Cash didn't chat much with Valerie. After being promoted to the captain of the criminal police detachment, his work became visibly busier.

He shook hands with Valerie one last time and then drove away from Valerie's company.

Valerie watched the police car drive away, then raised her head and looked around.

She did not return to the company immediately, but deliberately walked into a dilapidated alley. After walking a few steps further, she saw several gangsters lying on the ground.

These thugs all had bruises on their faces and noses, their teeth were broken like glass and were bleeding.

"You're in a bad mood." Valerie could understand.

Batman, wearing a cape, walked out from the darkness, and his face, which was already forbidden to strangers, became even gloomier.

"Tommy... Elliot has hated Wayne and been jealous of Bruce since he was a child." Batman usually doesn't tell people so much.

"Don't worry about it, he just has a childhood trauma," Valerie comforted.

"No... He was dissatisfied with the surgery my father performed on his family." Batman's tone was as calm as the sea before the rain, "Because my father saved his mother."

"I don't quite understand the logic. Isn't it that..." Valerie got stuck halfway through her sentence. She understood what it meant.

Elliot wished both his parents had died in the accident.

"He wanted to get away from his parents, so when he was about seven years old, he planned a car accident that took his parents' lives," Batman explained.

He wanted to kill his parents and inherit the family property directly, but Thomas Wayne saved Mrs. Elliot, which is why Elliot hated Wayne.

Mrs. Elliot lived for seven years, including the Waynes' funeral, before dying of kidney failure, having spent the last four years of her life in bed.

During her lifetime, his wife spent a considerable portion of her assets on medical treatment, and the Elliot family also fell into decline due to disruptions within the group and from competitors.

Although he was still wealthy compared to most people, Thomas Elliot himself blamed the Wayne family for the fact that most of the property he should have inherited was reduced.

The above is what Batman heard from Elliot himself in the past few minutes.

His heart, which had been polished like steel, was still hollowed out.

He had been prepared for the possibility that his friend might become a bad guy, but he didn't expect that this friend not only wanted to kill him, but had also been a villain since he was very young.

Valerie hadn't asked any questions since she entered the alley, but Batman had already told her everything that had happened.

"Relax, do you want me to kill him?" Valerie asked.

"No...he's been arrested." Batman shook his head.

"You're just a weird person... But can a murder case from twenty years ago still be prosecuted? He was still a child at that time, right?" Valerie scratched her chin.

"That's another thing that put him in jail," Batman said with a sigh, pulling a dozen photos from his belt.

Valerie could see that in several of the photos the faces of the people had been torn off.

The horrible and bloody scene made Valerie's temple jump subconsciously.

"These people were disfigured, including people from Gotham. Their identities were identified a few days ago and they were sent back to Gotham," Batman said.

This incident caught the attention of Batman, who even visited Central City in disguise.

The results of this investigation left him exhausted, as a lot of evidence pointed to his childhood playmate Thomas Elliot.

The filter he had for his childhood made him unwilling to collect evidence violently, so he returned to Gotham, gathered a group of people under the identity of Matchstick Malone, and hired Elliot with money under the pretext of wanting the Riddler's property.

This may be an inspection, Batman's last chance for his childhood friend.

He called Elliot to Gotham and asked Robin to go to Central City to investigate all of his residences.

To his great disappointment, Robin found a secret room in the basement of Elliot's mansion, where dozens of human facial organs were soaked in chemicals.

Elliot fully exposed his ambitions shortly after meeting Valerie.

Just like he said, he was going to replace Wayne, so how could he put all the pressure on V, whom he didn't know? He had already been preparing for the identity change plan.

Elliot's plan was to capture and kill his victims, then remove the skin or organs from their faces that most resembled Wayne's and build himself a face that looked exactly like Bruce's.

The evidence found was enough to convict Dr. Elliot.

Now, Elliot has been caught, but the disappointment from all sides still makes Batman a little out of control.

Valerie felt something was wrong. Before she woke up, she was still receiving psychological guidance from Batman, but in just a short while, the two of them switched positions.

She could only wave her hand and say: "Don't be too sad, you can make some friends who are okay, just like Superman, he is a pure good person."

Batman raised his head and stared at Valerie in silence: "I'm not angry about making careless friends."

"Don't be so stubborn. You must not have many friends if you are so stubborn." Valerie said something very hurtful. "Is it because the Joker died that you are so emotionally unstable? Well, it's time for you to meet some new crazy people."

"..." Batman lowered his head. Although he still felt a little complicated, Valerie's inexplicably humorous words still made him feel much more relieved.

"Let's end this topic here. It's time for us to prepare for the plan of the Superhuman Alliance." Batman changed the subject.

Although Batman's expression didn't change much, Valerie could feel that he had perked up a lot, and she couldn't help but nodded: "Yeah, contact me if you have anything."

Having said that, she turned around and was about to leave the alley.

But Batman called her again: "V."

Valerie turned around in surprise, only to see Batman taking off his mask, revealing a tired face.

"I have a question I've been wanting to ask." Batman looked like he had given up in some long-running battle, "Who are you?"

……

It was getting dark quickly. There might have been some kind of problem on this section of road, and the street lights on both sides were out of power. The police car carrying Elliot turned on its high beams on the highway.

This place is quite suburban. After all, the trauma team's location is quite remote. There was no one on either side of the road at this moment, not even a passing vehicle.

Elliot was sitting on a private jet worth millions in the morning and eating the most exquisite breakfast, but in the blink of an eye he became a prisoner escorted by a police car.

"Officer, can you please be flexible? I was just a child when I did the crime." Elliot said to the two policemen in front of him.

He originally thought that V had informed on him, but his conversation with V was not enough to cause him to be tortured like this.

Therefore, he felt that he was arrested because he planned his parents' car accident and Batman told the police.

Cash, who was sitting in the passenger seat, heard Elliot's defense and couldn't help but sneer and look back: "Almost thirty years old kid?"

"What..." Elliot realized that the recent incident had been exposed.

How is that possible? He had clearly asked...

Elliot wilted as if struck by lightning, and he felt that the road ahead was bleak.

At this moment, the detective who was still driving suddenly said to Cash beside him: "What is that?"

Cash looked back and saw a giant standing in the middle of the road right in front of the car.