Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Batman was looking at the chemical analysis report, but there wasn't much to see as his sophisticated equipment had detected no elements except the usual components found in red wine. The capsule retained from Shiller seemed to contain nothing out of the ordinary.

Of course, Batman couldn't believe this was just an ordinary bottle of red wine. He suspected his equipment wasn't advanced enough to detect any mysterious ingredients.

Batman pondered why Shiller would switch the pale knight's medication and why the pale knight hadn't taken enough of his medicine, yet hadn't reverted back to being the Joker.

Could it be that the bottle of red wine was some kind of special medication that suppressed the Joker?

In the laboratory of Charabang Chemical Pharmaceutical Research Co., Ltd., Rose's face looked awful. She said to the researchers in front of her, "You mean to say, I spent a lot of money hiring you to study the drug formula, and all you can tell me is that the capsule contains ordinary red wine?"

"Sorry, ma'am, it might also be an issue with the equipment, but indeed, we haven't discovered any component in the capsule that could affect mental illness, including the psychiatric drugs you suggested we check for," replied the researchers.

"How can this be?!" Rose cursed, then called Old Gun, who then called Catwoman, who was packing up to go to Hawaii.

"What? Are you questioning my professionalism? I told you, it was stolen from Inside Wayne Manor. Evidence? Don't you find it absurd to ask a thief for evidence?!"

Catwoman's face darkened as she replied, "Old Gun, it's because you have a good reputation that I accepted the job. You know how hard it is to get into Wayne Manor—besides me, you wouldn't find anyone else willing to do it."

"Now you doubt I actually did the job and just grabbed something random to fool you, demanding that I provide proof. I'm really disappointed in you."

"I can't give you any proof," Catwoman said. "Why don't you ask Bruce Wayne if he saw me that night? You're crazy! Don't call me again!"

Catwoman ended the call, angrily tossing her phone onto the bed. She took a deep breath, then went to the bathroom to pack her toiletries.

About 15 minutes later, she packed up all her things, grabbed her plane ticket, and walked out the door with her luggage.

But the moment she stepped out, she faced the barrel of a gun, held by a figure in black who blocked all her escape routes.

Catwoman's eyes widened in shock as she saw the figure emerge from the stairwell corner and cursed, "Old Gun! Are you crazy?! How dare you betray me!!"

"Who's to blame for not doing the job properly?" Old Gun stood behind Rose and said, "You didn't even go to Wayne Manor, did you?"

Catwoman was on the verge of breaking down, "The thing you asked me to steal was in Wayne Manor, how could I possibly not have gone there?!"

"Are you sure it was the capsule you stole from there?" Rose asked. "Or did you just find any capsule, fill it with red wine, and try to fool us?"

Catwoman was taken aback—it turned out they had already figured out something was wrong with the capsule.

Catwoman wasn't foolish; she knew their intentions when she saw the red wine and the capsule placed on the island platform by Shiller.

It wasn't that she wanted to cooperate with Shiller to trick Rose. It was that from the moment she got hit by an ice sculpture and got caught, she had no choice. The fact that someone was coming to steal was known, and stubbornly keeping silent meant nothing.

Catwoman had hoped, if they used the medications to be consumed, that it would take days to realize something was off. But to her dismay, they weren't using the capsules for consumption; they sent them for analysis, which promptly gave the game away.

Catwoman couldn't help but curse herself inwardly. If you're going to forge a capsule, at least put some other medicine inside. Putting red wine was bound to be discovered!

Wait a second, did that guy deliberately set me up?

Catwoman suddenly realized, if they intended to swap the medicine for poison, or something else, they would have at least added some drugs, making it not so easy to detect something amiss.

But they didn't add any drugs, instead, they filled it with red wine, which is vastly different from drugs; an examination would surely reveal the disparity.

And the person who would immediately be endangered by the discovery would be Catwoman, who hoped to use the reaction time to escape.

Damn it! It was a trap!

Catwoman took a deep breath. She couldn't admit she collaborated with Shiller. Even though betraying Shiller and teaching him a lesson would be gratifying, she could also be silenced.

Especially if they found out she followed Old Gun to a secret laboratory and met the researchers there, she would surely not survive.

But to admit defeat was also unacceptable; it would ruin her reputation forever._ENTITY_NO_ENTITY would hire a con artist for work.

Catwoman steadied herself and said, "I'll say it again, I stole the capsule from Inside Wayne Manor. As for any issues with the capsule, you should look into your own and the other party's faults, not come after me, a mere thief."

Rose listened to her firm tone and felt a wobble inside her heart. After all, her adversaries were Batman and the pale knight, and the drug was especially important for the pale knight. If the other party was cautious, switching them out was not impossible.

"Where did you steal the capsule from?" Rose asked.

"From a bedroom on the second floor, in the drawer of a bedside table, unlocked. I got it quite easily."

"Was it the master bedroom?"

"I don't know, but it looked like a very luxurious bedroom," Catwoman shook her head.

"Did you encounter any obstacles along the way?"

"There was a trap near the back door; I fell for it but fortunately, it was not lethal, so I managed to free myself."

"Were you hurt?"

"No, I was just hung up." Catwoman continued, "When I was trapped, I thought I was done for. I didn't expect Wayne to be such a wimp, he didn't set any serious traps."

Rose began to believe Catwoman's words.

"You didn't retrieve what I wanted," Rose stepped forward and stared at Catwoman. "You've wasted my time and caused me to miss a valuable opportunity."

"It's not my fault," Catwoman retorted. "You asked me to get something, and I got it; it's your fault for being naive and getting caught by the other party."

"That's not a good attitude, miss," Rose narrowed her eyes, and in the flicker of her fingers, Catwoman pulled out a smoke bomb from her waist and smashed it on the floor.

Instantly, smoke filled the corridor. Amid the chaos, two shots were fired but hit nothing. The experienced Old Gun shouted in panic, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! You'll hit our own people!"

By the time the smoke cleared, Catwoman and even her suitcase were gone.

Rose darkened her face and ordered, "Set it up, catch this damned thief. We can't let her leave Gotham!"

After finishing, she picked up her phone and called Gordon, before saying, "A thief has stolen important research documents from Charabang Chemical Research Company and is now planning to leave Gotham with them. You must… what? Insufficient police resources? Why is it that whenever I present a case, there's a lack of police resources?"

"I don't care how you do it, but you must… James Gordon!" Rose raised her tone: "Are you telling me that if I don't invest in your GTO, you can't handle any cases? What use do I have for you as a police commissioner then?!"

"What? A protest at the Natural Forest?!"

Having left the house, Rose couldn't help but look at the television in a furniture store window broadcasting the news.

"… A large-scale protest has erupted near the Charabang Chemical Factory. Protesters claim that in the past five years, the factory has caused irreversible pollution to Gotham's most important natural forest in the eastern part. They have presented a soil test report, which shows…"

Rose fixated on the news channel, watching many protesters holding signs surrounding the chemical plant while police maintained order, preventing the agitated group from storming into the factory.

Rose clenched her teeth in frustration, but her phone soon rang; angry yelling came from the other end, and Rose, barely hiding her impatience, said, "I apologize, sir, I had no idea this would happen. I'll handle it right away."

After ending the call, she was about to phone Gordon to order him to disperse the protesters when she thought, if she asked Gordon to focus police forces there, then who would go after Catwoman?

Rose felt immensely troubled.

The current situation was that Gotham only had one police station, and there weren't enough capable police officers. If something needed attention at the front, it would be ignored at the back.

Gordon insisted he didn't have the manpower; if Rose pressured him into catching Catwoman, which resulted in him withdrawing police maintaining order at the natural forest, letting that mob rush into the chemical factory, then Rose's role as manager would be untenable.

But if she did not catch Catwoman, Rose would have no way of knowing what exactly happened that night Inside Wayne Manor, unable to determine if the pale knight was already on guard against her, nor be able to use Catwoman to steal the actual drugs to make the pale knight lose control, dissolving the alliance between Batman and the pale knight.

In short, she felt like being trapped at both ends of a situation, with no right choice in what to do next.

Standing at the crossroads, Rose, for the first time in a long time, felt something slipping out of her control, as if she was the fly tightly wrapped in a web.

As the web slowly quivered, the terrifying Spider was inching closer, she was unable to resist or even struggle, only able to watch helplessly as her body was gradually dissolved by the Venom, trickling into a puddle of remains.