I, V, Gotham Legend

Nearly an hour had passed since we entered the Pioneer Bridge, and I had slept for half an hour of that time.

"Alfred... Alfred?" Batman shouted into the communication device, but the old butler's elegant voice did not sound.

Suddenly, there was a busy tone from the communication device, followed by a voice that Batman didn't want to hear.

"I'm at your house. Wayne."

"Bane..." Batman recognized who he was. This guy was not dead.

"Go home, Wayne, and come back to me when you turn your sorrow into anger." A broken voice came, and Batman couldn't imagine what he was doing.

"If you're fast enough, maybe you can still make it in time for the last words." Bane's voice on the communication gradually faded away.

"Alfred!"

The Batwing drew a lightning-like arc in the sky high in Gotham late at night.

……

When Batwing crossed the waterfall and returned to the Batcave, Batman saw only devastation.

Computers with dozens of monitors were smashed and the mainframe of a supercomputer was destroyed.

The training ground was littered with rubble, and the half-finished Batmobile was burning.

Fortunately, it looked like only Bane had entered this area, but unfortunately, the old butler was nowhere to be seen.

"Alfred!" Batman yelled out of control, and then he immediately rushed towards the host.

As long as the computer host is repaired, the sonar can be restarted, and using the detective vision that can grasp the entire situation, we will definitely be able to find where Alfred is.

The host was assembled by Batman himself. Although it can be completely repaired, the situation is urgent now, and it is enough to ensure the operation of detective vision.

Batman quickly fixed this part, and through the principle of sonar, the world became transparent in his eyes.

The Batcave is a karst cave. Batman usually only works on a high platform that can be reached from the manor. However, under the detective vision, Batman clearly saw a weak man lying at the bottom of a valley about ten meters deep.

Apparently he fell down while resisting, and Alfred was covered with several huge pieces of rubble.

"Alfred!" Batman shouted again, he jumped off the platform and rushed to the pile of rubble.

"Hold on! Alfred, I'll rescue you right away." Batman moved the stones off the old butler with force, he was extremely anxious.

The rocks must have been blown down and were so heavy that even Batman had a hard time moving them, but he still tried his best to move them all away.

"Cough cough..." Alfred coughed weakly. He tried hard to open his cloudy eyes and look at the Batman in front of him.

"I've always been proud of you... Don't treat me as a burden to you..." There was no trace of disappointment in the old butler's weak voice. He had held on until now just to say these words to the young master.

As if he had used up all his strength, Alfred closed his eyes peacefully.

Batman could feel his heart weakening.

He knelt in front of the old butler's body, feeling as if he was back to the night when he was eight years old, when young Bruce Wayne also knelt in front of the bodies of his parents.

"No...no!" Bruce slammed his fist on the ground in anger.

There's this feeling of powerlessness again, and I'm a step slower again!

Bruce raised his hands, helpless like a child. He couldn't accept that Alfred left him like this.

He felt a sour feeling rising in his stomach and a dizzy feeling coming on, and it wasn't just because of the anger and stress, but the extreme emotions that made the suppressed toxins in Bruce's body raise their heads again.

toxin?

Bruce pulled a white syringe from his belt.

This was given to him by Valerie. She said it was a therapeutic medicine. She used it to suppress the poison in Bruce's body.

Bruce remembered that a few hours ago at the Royal Hotel, after Valerie used this needle, the wounds on her body healed as if time had gone back.

Although he didn't know Valerie yet and didn't trust this medicine of unknown origin, Bruce no longer cared about that.

He injected the white Forrester V into Alfred's body.

"Bah!"

Accompanied by a sound that sounded like a gas embolism, the abrasions and swelling on Alfred's body disappeared visibly.

Under Bruce's detective vision, he could clearly see Alfred's heartbeat becoming stronger again.

The spark of hope ignited in Bruce's heart.

"Cough...Huh!" Alfred trembled as if he was pulled out of the water, then opened his eyes and started coughing continuously.

"Alfred..." Bruce happily hugged the old butler, then shot out his grappling hook upwards to bring him up.

……

A clearing was cleared in the mess of the Batcave, and Alfred was lying on a hospital bed. Bruce took off his mask and sat beside him tiredly.

"I never understood you in the past, but now, I finally understand. Go, young master, they still need you." Alfred looked at Bruce with soft eyes.

Bruce Wayne shook his head. He stood up and turned his back to the old butler: "I can't save Gotham. I can't even protect my own home."

He had taken off his cloak and was looking down at the floor, his figure slumped as if he had become shorter.

"Zizi..." The radio of the Gotham Police Department sounded again, "Blackgate Prison was attacked. Repeat, Blackgate..."

Bruce reached over and turned off the radio.

NO45. Solitary Island

"They need you." Alfred climbed up from the bed. In fact, he felt that he was completely well.

Bruce shook his head in resistance: "I can't do it... I can't stop them."

Memories flashed through Bruce's mind, and he remembered the bank employees he saw suffocating to death with twisted smiles on their faces in the bank.

Reminds me of the gangster who was beheaded on the roller coaster at the Royal Hotel.

And Alfred, who was dying right in front of him.

He can't stop everything, he's always one step behind.

The old butler slowly walked behind Bruce and gently stroked his shoulder: "Yes, you can't do it alone. Like I said before, do it within your ability. No man is an island. A person's ability does not only depend on his strength and wisdom."

With his other hand he placed something on the table in front of Bruce; it was Batman's mask.

"It also depends on his companions."

Bruce stared at the mask, his blue eyes thinking.

"Flutter..." With the sound of flapping wings, a large group of bats flew over their heads.

Alfred turned on the radio.

"The Joker has escaped, and he now controls Blackgate Prison alongside Bane! I repeat, the Joker has escaped..."

"They need you." Alfred looked at Bruce's face which was gradually becoming resolute.

"No." Batman put on his mask again, "We are needed."

The superhero was fully armed again, he swung his cape and walked towards the Batwing parked on the platform.

Alfred put on the communication headset and a relieved smile appeared on his face.

The Batwing burst out of the waterfall and rushed into the night sky of Gotham.

"Master, although I said that before, how do you plan to deal with the clown now?"

Alfred's voice came over the comms.

"I know a reliable ally."

Batman said confidently.

……

Valerie sat at the bar and drank a tequila with a scoop of ice in one gulp.

Although it was still dark, it should be the early morning of Christmas Day and the bar was full of people celebrating the birth of Christ.

"I didn't expect you would still care to visit an old man like me." [Good Man] Ma Long wiped the wine glass.

As the boss, Malone didn't need to mix the cocktails himself, but after all, he and Valerie were friends.

"The base you found for me has been targeted by a pervert." Valerie thought of the illusion she was pulled into not long ago.

"You didn't kill him?"

"He runs faster than a rabbit."

Speaking of rabbits, Valerie seemed to remember something and she took out a rabbit mask from her pocket.

"Can you help me investigate this?"

Marlon nodded and put away his mask. Not to mention Valerie, his friend who was like a daughter to him, even if an ordinary girl was targeted by a pervert, he would take care of the matter.

"How's the Black Mask job going?" Malone asked again, looking up.

"Don't mention it. The guy who hired me wasn't Black Mask at all. I thought about what you told me, so I terminated my cooperation with that guy." Valerie motioned for Malone to pour the wine. "He should be in prison now, right?"

"You mean, someone pretended to be Sionis? What about Black Mask himself?" Malone was a little surprised.

"I don't know, maybe he was killed." Valerie wasn't very interested.

Just then, she suddenly froze.

"What's wrong?" Malone asked.

"A client called me." Valerie curled her lips.

Malone knew that Valerie seemed to have some superpowers that allowed her to make phone calls without a cell phone.

But he still had mixed feelings, because V took the job without me as a middleman. He felt both happy that his child had grown up and sad that his child no longer needed him.

Valerie was surprised to see Batman's phone invitation, but she answered it anyway: "What's up? Boss."

"The Joker has escaped from prison. Come with me to Blackgate Prison."

"Huh? No." Valerie was a little surprised, mainly because they were already home and she didn't want to move.

What's more, we have to go to Blackgate Prison.

"What does this have to do with me? You haven't paid me yet." Valerie refused.

"money is not a problem."

The heroic speech made Valerie's heart shamefully moved, but she had already refused before, wouldn't it be embarrassing to agree now?

"I don't work for money. It's time to get off work..."

"V." Batman's tone was very serious. "I need your help."

“…” Valerie was silent.

That man, that Bruce Wayne, the famous Batman.

He is begging me!

Valerie felt so awesome that she could make Batman say "need", which was equivalent to a request.

"Okay, now that you've put it that way... ten billion dollars, okay? Just consider it as overtime pay." Valerie made a big request.

Ma Long, who was eavesdropping at the side, couldn't hold it together; his hands were shaking as he wiped the glass.

A billion? Did you travel through time to save Bruce Wayne's dad?

"Not a problem." One billion is not a small sum for the richest man in Gotham, but Batman doesn't care about it at all.

Valerie was ecstatic: "Okay! Boss, leave it to me."

"Where are you now? I'll pick you up." After confirming the cooperation, Batman felt relieved.

"No need. I have plenty of ways to get in myself." The main reason was that if I had to trouble the client for such a small matter, I would not feel at ease with the ten billion.

"Understood. Meet inside the Black Gate." Batman hung up the phone.

Valerie also prepared to get up and leave.

"V." The middleman called Valerie.

"You're not really being hired by Bruce Wayne, are you?" the middleman expressed his doubts.