"He... he's in that room."
Falcone pointed, his expression stiff.
It was his former bedroom, but now it looked like it had been attacked.
He couldn't understand if the world had changed, if there were so many monsters now, that his gang's headquarters, which used to scare children into stopping their crying, was now treated like an amusement park, with people coming and going as they pleased.
"Batman?"
Upon seeing the figure gliding down, David's eyes narrowed slightly, only to be drawn to another figure.
Near the shattered window, a bare-chested man with a grim expression waved away the choking smoke in front of him, looking down contemptuously at the fleeing figure, as if watching a bug destined not to escape his grasp.
It was Avery.
David glanced back at Falcone.
Batman was likely here to cause trouble for Falcone, but he had the wrong target.
"Suddenly discovering that it wasn't an old and frail mob boss, but a monster that even a batarang couldn't pierce."
Whoosh!
The wind whistled past his ears.
The cape, made of memory material, had become bat wings after being electrified. Bruce, wearing the cowl, glided down, his eyes serious as he looked back.
Gotham was filled with gangs and villains. He felt he should target and eliminate the most notorious ones to curb the darkness in Gotham.
So today, he had broken into the estate of one of Gotham's biggest crime lords, Falcone, intending to beat him up and take him away, leave him in his underwear, tie him to the Bat-Signal, and show Gotham's villains their role model.
"But why is there a stranger in Falcone's bedroom?"
Batman frowned, a painful discomfort in his throat.
Just as he had opened his mouth to question, the young man had appeared before him in the blink of an eye, grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him off the ground. His strength was greater than an elephant's.
"When I struck that guy's neck with my hand, it felt like hitting high-density rubber. My hand recoiled with pain."
As the other man pressed him for his identity, he quickly used his Bat-belt's tear gas dispenser to spray the guy before jumping out the window to escape.
He even threw a magnetic batarang with gunpowder attached.
The batarang, originally meant to blast open buildings, had not caused even a scratch on the man.
As he glided towards the ground, Bruce's gaze searched the man for any sign of injury, but found none.
Suddenly, the defiant, bare-chested figure before him vanished from his sight, as if a frame had been removed from the world. He was there one moment, and gone the next.
"Why did he disappear?"
Bruce's heart tightened. He landed, rolled to dissipate the force, and was about to leave, as there was important, unconfirmed information here, such as the young man's identity.
But a figure suddenly appeared before him like a ghost. A strong hand grabbed him and lifted him off the ground. Avery's voice was disdainful.
"Where are you trying to escape to, freak?"
The hand gradually tightened, leaving Bruce gasping for air, his face turning red. He reached for his waist.
Avery's other hand lightning-fast snatched away his tear gas device. With one hand gripping him, he toyed with the spray-can-like tear gas launcher, a mocking smile on his face.
"The same trick again, you want to play that on me twice?"
Bang!
A muffled thud.
A figure plummeted from the fifth floor without any cushioning, like a heavy object falling from the sky. The stone slabs cracked, debris flew, and dust billowed.
Both of them looked towards the direction of the sound.
"How can this be?"
Avery's brow furrowed.
Ever since he gained his abilities, smoke could no longer obstruct his vision.
Within his sight, a tall, slender skeleton stood upright. Lean, powerful muscles clung to the bone. He had jumped from the fifth floor and seemed completely unharmed.
The estate already had streetlights. After the previous commotion, floodlights, as if installed on watchtowers, illuminated the estate, making it as bright as day.
A figure stood in the dust. Bruce felt as if he had seen this scene before.
"Who are you?"
As the dust settled under the lights, David's figure appeared.
"It really is you."
Bruce felt that Gotham couldn't possibly hide so many terrifying raptors.
Avery and David were classmates. He should have known David, but David looked different now.
"How did you do that?"
Sensing that David's physical condition far surpassed that of ordinary people, Avery's expression turned grim. He casually tossed Bruce aside.
"My back..."
Smashing into a corner flower bed, Bruce winced in pain as he staggered to his feet, clutching his aching back.
"Grab him."
Avery casually ordered the approaching mob killers to seize Batman. He, however, was focused on David. Compared to the bat-costumed freak who had barged into his room, he was far more interested in the man before him. He asked in a deep voice, "You, like me, possess abilities beyond mortal men.
How did you achieve this?"
Hearing Avery's tone, which was condescending as if he were a god yet betrayed an undercurrent of unease, David scoffed.
"It certainly wasn't from being struck by lightning!"
"How do you know that?"
For some reason, Avery felt a sense of familiarity with this stranger. As he discreetly appraised David from head to toe, his expression drastically changed.
This was his greatest secret. How could this stranger possibly know?
Could it be that more than one person had gained powers through lightning strikes?
Woof, woof...
Bang, boom!
Batman, clad in his battle suit, clashed with the mob killers and hounds swarming him like a tide. Though injured and in a precarious situation, as he dodged and struck, he finally detected a familiar scent.
This was the Gotham he recognized as normal.
Those two over there were like intruders from another world.
"You stole someone else's abilities and came here to cause chaos."
Looking at Avery, who lived in a castle, had a gang of thugs at his beck and call, and seemed to be living quite comfortably, David's voice was as cold as the wind whistling down a snow-capped mountain.
"You've dragged me all the way here too.
If you weren't still useful, I'd have loved to deal with you right here and now!"
It was a shame he had to keep him, to try and transfer the abilities back to Clark. Otherwise, dealing with him directly would be so much simpler.
Screech!
A grating sound of tearing metal.
"What are you talking about?"
This man treated him as if he were a mere nobody, easily killed by his subordinate. Enraged, Avery ripped a streetlamp from nearby and hurled it violently at David.
"These are my abilities."
The streetlamp flew through the air with a fierce whistle, breaking the sound barrier. David remained rooted to the spot, his hands still.
Hiss!
Two beams of highly concentrated energy shot from his eyes. In mid-air, they melted half of the streetlamp into molten iron, which fell to the ground. The other half spun past him, narrowly missing, and smashed into the castle wall behind him.
As if merely brushed by a gentle breeze, his expression remained unchanged. His eyes narrowed, and he unleashed another thick beam, scorching the air and instantly appearing before Avery.
This beam was several times thicker than the previous one that had fused with the steel, emitting terrifying energy fluctuations.
Hum!
Avery's face contorted in shock. He crossed his arms to shield himself. Under the immense impact, his legs were pushed forward as if by a bulldozer, digging two deep trenches.
Ever since he gained his powers, except for the meteorite, he believed no one or nothing on this planet could harm him. But now, he realized he was wrong.
The astonishing heat and high temperature distorted the surrounding air. After a few seconds, as the energy waves surged, his arms began to feel a slight burning pain, and he couldn't help but cry out.
"Aaaahhh..."
Like the pain of sparks splashing onto his body, Avery hastily retreated from his spot.
Realizing he wasn't as invincible as he thought, and not knowing where this guy came from, he could actually harm him, Avery was in a state of utter panic. For a fleeting moment, he considered turning and fleeing. But then he noticed that David's reaction was slow; his head hadn't turned to follow his movement.
He stopped, standing dozens of meters away in another direction, looking at David with a sinister, cold smile.
"You're strong, but not strong enough.
I've discovered your weakness!"
"Oh?"
David chuckled.
"What is my weakness?"
"You're too slow!"
Time seemed to slow down. Avery unleashed his super-speed. At this moment, even the wind flowing between heaven and earth became incredibly sluggish. In less than one-hundredth of a normal person's blink of an eye, he appeared before David, his fist, imbued with terrifying speed, hurtling towards his face.
"Speed is power!"
Although his strength was already considerable, his most powerful attack was his punch delivered with the enhancement of several dozen times the speed of sound.
Avery was confident that even steel several meters thick would be torn apart like paper in his lightning-fast punch!
The air was compressed by the violent force, almost solidifying. White shockwaves rolled in. David, with his hands behind his back, clenched his fist and struck out, accompanied by berserk cosmic energy!
Boom!
The ground collapsed. The earth rolled like it had been struck by a meteorite, with cracks extending over ten meters, as if from an earthquake.
The entire manor shook, the shockwaves like a raging tide.
The glass in several ancient buildings shattered. Falcone and the others standing by the window upstairs were blown backward, tumbling head over heels.
Within the manor, the mob assassins and hounds fighting Batman were all sent flying like weightless paper by the savage shockwave. Batman, seeing the danger, nimbly shot out his grapple, latching onto a lamppost and swinging behind a flower bed to narrowly escape.
Under the purple energy tidal wave's shock impact, Avery was sent flying backward, his body glowing red as if scalded by hot oil. He flew dozens of meters uncontrollably, crashing to the ground in a sorry state. Clutching his chest, he looked at the figure standing tall on the earth with disbelief, blurting out.
"This is impossible!"
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