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Chapter 9 The Phantom of Gotham
🕑 Added 2025-10-12 11:21:45 +0000 UTCBruce Wayne had never had such an awkward time.
By day, he was a playboy, perfectly at home hanging out among the flowers. By night, when he turned into Batman, he was always a loner. Today was special, of course; he'd put on the Batsuit in broad daylight to catch the clown, but he was still acting alone.
But now, as he was capturing the clown, he didn't know when an extra man and woman had shown up to provide commentary.
"Uppercut! Handsome, Batman! The clown pulls himself together and seizes the opportunity to fight back!"
"Red, how do you think I'm doing today? Did that give you a handsome enough appearance?"
"Punch! Joker, attention, flash left! Batman's gonna hit you on the right waist!"
"Red, you have to reward me tonight!"
"Batman, squat! The clown is digging for his bomb! Oh, good waist strength!"
"Red, I bought a very sexy swimsuit~"
Connors alternated between alerting Batman and helping the Joker anticipate danger, with Harley Quinn next to him, hanging from his arm like a large koala. The battle was supposed to be fierce and angry, but at this point, Batman and the Joker felt as if they were performing a stage play.
However, they had to listen to what Connors said. Several times, even the Joker or Batman had failed to notice the other's actions, but Connors actually saw it and called it out. In this way, what should have been a rapidly changing battle turned into a stiff, predictable boxing match with Connors's intervention.
Batman couldn't stand it. "Enough!"
The clown also felt as if he had become a pet in a cage. "Shit!"
Finally, the Joker and Batman, who were in the middle of battle, both stopped and glared at Connors.
"Which side are you helping?!" they demanded in unison.
Connors waved his hands repeatedly and laughed. "Passing by, pure passers-by. You two continue."
Batman suppressed his anger. He prepared to run over the Joker with thunderous force and capture him, before catching the fellow who was causing trouble next to him and forcing him to explain his purpose.
Another guy who gives Batman a headache, the Joker's thoughts spiked in his mind. How come I've never heard of this guy in Gotham City? Well, I gotta try to see if I can work with him.
The next second, the thought of working with Connors was thrown out of his head.
Because next to both him and Batman, a scoreboard made of plants had just sprouted from the ground. Connors himself sat atop it, controlling the growth of the plants to form a chair beneath him.
CRUNCH!
Connors sat comfortably on his plant-chair, holding Harley Quinn in his arms, and even took a bite of a piece of fruit grown by his "Green of All Things" power. That extremely pleasant look on his face was like that of a tourist who had come here for a vacation.
"Batman versus Joker, the score is already 3-to-1," Connors announced. "Brother Ugly, you have to work hard."
Harley Quinn laughed so loudly from the side that the two men in the fight wished they could kill the two melon-eaters watching the play at once.
Batman now only wanted a quick victory, but the Joker already had the idea of escaping. He reached into his coat, took out a smoke bomb, and threw it to the ground. Thick white smoke instantly covered all four people present.
However, the next second, plants that had unknowingly reached the ceiling above their heads acted like a sprinkler system, constantly sprinkling a sap-like rain downwards.
The Joker's smoke bomb failed.
The clown, who had just turned and made a break for it, had to turn around in embarrassment. Having exhausted all his means, he could only raise his hands and declare his surrender.
With little effort, Batman tied the Joker up with a rope, used the device on his wrist to call in the Batwing, and looked up at Connors's location.
However, there was no one there. Even the plant that had grown into the shape of a chair had now morphed into the words "CLOWN OVER."
"Alfred, help me turn down tomorrow's schedule. I'm going to find Poison Ivy," Batman said in a low voice, sitting in the cockpit.
"Master Wayne, you sound a little angry. Did something happen in the operation to catch the clown?" the butler at the other end of the intercom, the person who got along with Bruce Wayne day and night, easily judged the slightest thing wrong from the other person's tone.
"I only doubted it last night, but today I witnessed the guy on the 19th floor of Lake Street's ability to control plants. I have to talk to Poison Ivy. This matter is probably related to her."
"OK… I'll see. Your plan for tomorrow is to have dinner with star singer Shayna, who is coming to Gotham for a tour…"
"Cancel it, Alfred." Batman only wanted to get to the bottom of Connors as soon as possible. He would never allow such an unheard-of character to appear in Gotham City.
During the fight with the Joker just now, his moves were seen through by Connors several times, who then came out to remind the Joker. This was something he had never experienced since becoming Batman. Except for Barry, the Flash, but he only achieved that effect with amazing speed, and Barry was a positive character. This Connors, who helped both himself and the Joker at the same time, was impossible to classify as good or evil.
[Today's Melon: The Laughing Man Incident (ongoing) - Batman captures the Joker] [Submit?]
The Laughing Man incident isn't over yet? Eating melons today is just part of the incident?
Rushing to clear out before Batman could turn his hand against him, Connors, who had taken advantage of his Spider-Sense to leave the scene first, sat doubtfully on the edge of the roof of a building.
According to the comic's plot, this was the end of the affair after Batman caught the Joker and stopped the laughing gas from spreading through the reservoir to the city. However, the Melon-eating System clearly displayed "The Man Who Laughs Incident (ongoing)."
This confused him to some extent, but Harley Quinn next to him said to herself, "Batman catches the Joker again—but this time, where is he going to lock up the Joker?"
"Arkham Asylum was bombed and is under reconstruction, and so was Williams Medical Center. That only leaves the Gotham Police Department to hold the Joker."
"But as an old rival, Batman must know that the Gotham Police Department has no way of shutting down the Joker…"
Her words were like a lightning bolt. Connors now knew why the "Laughing Man" incident was not over.
Maybe, being caught by Batman was originally part of the Joker's plan. Although there was an extra person like himself who ate melons and watched the show, the ending did not change. And Batman, in his style of preparing for everything, may have already added the Joker, the guys who escaped from Arkham Asylum, and even himself to his capture plan!
In the Gotham Woods, inside a hidden space covered with heavy plants, Poison Ivy, Pamela Isley, lay in a bathtub. But even the icy water in the bathtub seemed unable to extinguish the ever more restless heat in her heart at this time. This was the first time she had had this strange phenomenon since her body's chemistry had been fundamentally altered. A pair of beautiful eyebrows frowned more and more, and she couldn't help but let out a soft, frustrated snort.
