## Chapter 20: The Court of Owls Emerges
Silence.
The door opened automatically.
No, not the refined and gentle method of unlocking the door.
Someone grabbed the doorknob and used immense brute force to push the wooden door open!
The lock let out a teeth-grinding scream, the metal lock core ripping through the cheap plywood door, stubbornly meeting the warped metal door frame.
A gust of wind blew in, bringing the icy chill of the underworld into the room.
Click.
Tick.
Harley Quinn shivered involuntarily. She regretted being distracted by the skeletons, completely oblivious to anyone approaching from outside.
In the countless days and nights at Arkham, she should have already honed her hearing to the limit.
The evening had just reached its end. The last rays of the setting sun shot through the broken door, casting the room in a shadowy gloom. As if this faint light gave meaning to the very existence of the darkness itself.
Then… it extinguished.
Harley Quinn slowly picked up her tote bag.
The tall figure stood at the doorway. The light suddenly dimmed, and the evening was about to end at this moment.
Harley sighed heavily.
“You’re a hard girl to find.”
She heard Batman say.
Silence.
Harley watched the man walk in, her lips slowly curving upward, an urge to laugh bubbling up inside her.
“Ah!!!” she screamed hysterically: “Oh my god, it’s you again!!!”
She walked over to a nearby tree—a miniature dragonblood tree sprouted by Poison Ivy—and banged her head against the trunk repeatedly.
“AAAAAAAH, damn it, God! Batman, always, able to find, Harley—Quinn!”
“I have some questions for you.”
She heard Batman say in his familiar low voice:
“For instance, where can I find your good friend Poison Ivy?”
Harley stopped banging her head against the tree.
She tilted her head.
“I need your help…”
“Save it, dear. In a way, I’ve started a new life.”
Harley suddenly became perfectly normal, as if the previous fit of madness wasn’t her at all.
“Listen, Ivy and some bad guys are in cahoots, he’s scheming with the Plant Master to turn the whole Earth green, I need to stop them, they’re a deadly combination, Harley.
A lot of people will get hurt, maybe… never mind, maybe I’m not saying anything useful. You just need to know one other thing, Ivy, could also get hurt, or even killed.”
She heard Batman say.
Harley had to admit, Batman knew their relationship well, when she heard Ivy might get hurt, she did have some impulse… but it was just an impulse.
“No. I don’t want to get involved in your mess again.” Harley replied: “I’ve said goodbye to capes, tights, and masks, and I just want to be a quiet ordinary person.”
“Really? It’s a pity you’re not.”
Harley Quinn followed Batman’s gaze to the four skeletons lying on the ground, she grabbed her two braids, nervously letting out two hysterical screams again.
She turned around and grabbed Frank, the man-eating plant that looked like a real plant in the flower pot.
“Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, you clearly killed them— ”
“Blaming your own murder on a plant won’t reduce your sentence, Harley Quinn.”
Harley Quinn slapped the plant twice on each side.
“I advise you…”
Harley Quinn jumped up and down on the man-eating plant.
“Your emotional outburst…”
With a bang, Harley Quinn slammed into the window, if she broke the window, she could escape from this room!
Harley had calculated the distance, even Batman, unless his arms could turn…
“!!!”
“Okay, I surrender.”
Chen Tao retracted his arm, putting Harley on the ground. The giant dinosaur arm retracted in an instant, like a collapsing sponge, and soon returned to its normal human size, without even tearing the clothes.
Such a scene that directly violated the law of conservation of mass would be enough to make 90% of the scientists in the world drop their jaws, but for Gothamites, it was commonplace for Batman to do anything, no matter how Batman won, it was inevitable, Harley was used to it.
After all, Batman would always win, he would always win.
…
…
…
This is Bane’s hiding place.
People always feel that schemers like him should have their nest in some mysterious submarine or flying military base.
But no.
This is just a regular motel in Gotham.
At this moment, Bane was sitting on the sofa in the room, filling the single sofa with his six-foot-five frame.
“…This time, the city government decided to deploy the National Guard, purely out of a moral, just and responsible…”
“Batman? I must say, a masked vigilante who violates the law in this way is simply not comparable to a true hero…”
“Let’s give a warm round of applause and heartfelt gratitude to our real hero, Mayor Caro, and the commander of the National Guard…”
The experts and those bloated officials on TV were still chattering, after introducing the situation, he soon began to fiercely belittle Batman, then lavishly boasted about the achievements of City Hall.
The muscular monster was thinking.
Frankly, if he hadn’t intended to break Batman, he almost felt sorry for him.
Batman was running around for the city, but those at City Hall and the upper echelons of Gotham were all complete idiots.
He couldn’t believe that anyone could be stupid enough to broadcast their military moves on TV.
Batman? The most dangerous character no one takes seriously.
The guys on TV right now, all dressed up, they only care about how much traffic slandering Batman and raising themselves can bring them, they’re more like vultures fighting over carrion than the crazies at Arkham.
They mock the Dent Act, denigrate Jim Gordon, deny Batman’s power, and belittle everything Batman has done for this city in the past 10 years.
They say that Batman’s existence attracted those costumed maniacs, they describe today’s chaos and madness as a mutual attraction of maniacs, they advocate that only the army can maintain order, and only City Hall can bring about change.
But they never thought…
Why did Harvey Dent become so disillusioned with justice?
Why did Edward Nygma descend into madness?
Why was the once honest Arnold arrested and imprisoned?
Gotham is rotten. Bane knows this better than many Gotham natives – he discovered it the first day he came to the city.
“Batman, like all his so-called supervillains, is a bunch of crazies, freaks, this time we’ll take this opportunity to put an end to them all…”
Bane frowned, the TV was getting more and more annoying.
Those who were talking eloquently on TV, expressing their “true insights”, they were oily and stinking from head to toe, even Bane felt disgusted by them.
So he gave up torturing his ears and turned down the volume of the TV.
Thud!
A dull sound from above made him frown.
Thud!
He sighed.
“Enough, can you three hurry up and get this done?”
The second his words fell, a loud bang, the ceiling collapsed. His three men, “Zombie Man”, “Troglodyte”, and “Birdman”, rolled down with an enemy dressed like an owl.
“Stop, Bane! City Hall has mobilized tens of thousands of National Guard troops to deal with you, the Court of Owls intends to…”
Bane sighed.
“What are you? Never mind…”
(End of Chapter)
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