DC/Marvel: This Guy is Insane

The sun shone brightly, a rare sight in Gotham, as Bruce and his team deliberately chose to act during the day. This timing was crucial: ultraviolet rays were fatal to vampires, offering a decisive advantage if they encountered resistance. Their opponents would be forced to retreat into the shadows, unable to pursue them in broad daylight.

Eric broke the lock of the warehouse door with a swift sword stroke, then pushed open the heavy wooden panels. Large warehouses in the suburbs were few, making suspicious targets easy to identify. At this moment, the team of four—Bruce, Eric, Oliver, and Alan—decided to stick together. While sunlight contained the vampires, the Talons possessed no such weakness. Acting alone risked ambush by too many Talon warriors, which could prove fatal.

The newly arrived Green Arrow, Oliver, followed, a quiver strapped to his back. He had arrived well-prepared, carrying a generous supply of silver-tipped arrows. After all, as one of the wealthiest second-generation heirs, he had access to specialized weapon-processing machines, sparing Bruce the trouble of preparation.

Inside, the warehouse appeared empty, as if long disused. Yet, it was spotlessly clean. Oliver produced an arrow, embedding it into the floor. A faint electromagnetic wave rippled outward, and the microcomputer on his wrist began to calculate a three-dimensional model of the space.

"Found it." Oliver walked directly to a specific floor tile and, with a subtle pry, revealed a narrow crack.

"Green Arrow, your equipment is truly impressive," Alan remarked, glancing at the quiver with a sly curiosity, wondering at the myriad types of arrows it might contain.

Oliver replied calmly, "Times change, and equipment must keep pace. The enemy certainly embraces high technology."

It was true; in this era, a super-criminal without specialized skills would quickly find themselves a prisoner. Firearms were far more practical than relying solely on traditional compound bows and alloy arrows against such foes.

"Do you know the Avenger, Hawkeye?" Alan asked curiously. The resemblance between Hawkeye and Green Arrow was striking: both masters of the bow, both skilled in close combat.

"We've crossed paths a few times," Oliver conceded. "It's usually a fifty-fifty split." Of course, their encounters always ended before either could truly be harmed; had they fought to the death, the outcome would be unpredictable.

As they chatted, the four had already descended to the basement level. Total darkness enveloped them. Vampires, naturally preferring shadowed environments, possessed innate night vision. Bruce donned his night-vision goggles, while Oliver touched his temple to activate the night-vision function embedded in his mask. Eric, however, required no such aids; his vampiric abilities granted him perfect vision in the dark, rendering his ever-present sunglasses purely for aesthetics.

Snap!

Suddenly, the space was flooded with light.

"You can't just turn on the lights." Alan, having located the light switch, flipped it on with a flourish.

The other three stared at him, speechless. Hadn't he just announced their presence to the enemy?

Alan posed a soul-searching question. "Everyone here is a well-known figure: Bruce, Gotham's Dark Knight; Eric, the Daywalker; Oliver, the Emerald Archer; and me, the Comedic Bat. Shouldn't they be afraid of us?"

A pause.

It seemed to make sense. Why bother with stealth when their very names struck terror?

"I think the description 'quivering porcupine' is a bit inappropriate," Oliver grumbled.

"The enemy's body will be bristling with arrows, making him look just like a porcupine," Alan explained, striding forward.

They entered a spacious tunnel, its construction so vast it defied imagination. It was likely built by the Court of Owls. Vampires were foreign invaders; they wouldn't invest in such elaborate infrastructure in Gotham for no mere reason.

"Hey, here comes the Comedic Bat!" Alan called out to the distant end of the tunnel. "Come out and show yourselves, little darlings!"

Bruce, Eric, and Oliver instinctively distanced themselves. What had begun as a covert operation had swiftly become an active provocation.

"Why don't we leave him behind next time?" Oliver suggested in a low voice.

"Don't bring him along for minor issues," Bruce mused. "Only call him when we're in big trouble."

"I agree," Eric concurred. Alan's sheer boisterousness was simply too disruptive to their operations.

Suddenly, arrows shot out from the wall. Alan, leading the way, rolled mid-air and landed in a practiced, fluid motion. He casually opened his hand, letting the arrow he had just snatched drop to the ground.

Pooh!

He spat out the arrow caught between his teeth.

"Let's make this a little more challenging," Alan mumbled. As if on cue, a massive, spinning chainsaw wheel swung back and forth across the passage, a clear response to Alan's taunt. One touch, and it would carve a bloody mess.

Alan stood still, surveying the situation. Then, he raised a hand and punched the wall, sending concrete fragments flying with each impact. After a few powerful blows, he finally located and ripped out a wire.

Instantly, the passage plunged into darkness again.

"Oops, I cut the wrong wire," Alan confessed. He flicked a lighter, reconnected the original wires, then frantically tore into the wall again, pulling out a different wire.

The mechanism shuddered to a halt.

"I am the last of the great trap-busters," Alan declared, striding safely past the now-inert mechanism. "Traps and mechanisms are nothing to me." An electrical trap, driven by power, naturally required electrical wires. Simply cutting the power supply would paralyze it.

The three men behind him fell silent. When the mechanism had first activated, they had all been focused on how to use their agility to dodge it, never considering the fundamental solution.

In the monitoring room, a first-generation hybrid witnessed the entire process. "The Court of Owls' mechanisms are just for show. They look intimidating, but a madman can crack them with ease."

"Batman, Green Arrow, Blade, and the Comedic Bat. They stand no chance of winning," he added, referring to the combined force. The Comedic Bat's reputation had been cemented during Alan's last raid on the Court of Owls' nest, earning him a spot on their list of dangerous targets. Alan's previous rampage through the vampires in the Starlight Building had already caused the Court to regard him as dangerous as Batman.

"Don't worry about this place. Let's evacuate immediately." The first-generation hybrids unanimously agreed to retreat. They pulled out UV-proof clothing from a safe, donned it, and slipped away through an escape passage. In truth, the creation of the vampire army was not the primary goal; it was intended to be unleashed into Gotham City during the Blood God ritual, ensuring Batman and the others would be too preoccupied to interfere. Once the Blood God ritual was successfully completed, Batman, Blade, and their allies would be mere annoyances that Frost could easily handle.

Roar, roar, roar…

A cacophony of frenzied roars, like the cries of hellish spirits, echoed through the underground. Alan and his three companions had found the area where the citizens were imprisoned. The scent of living people was like a drop of water falling into a pan of boiling oil, instantly igniting the primal emotions of the vampires confined within the iron cages.

From the day of their transformation, these converted citizens, now vampires, had been deprived of blood. Their remaining sanity had long since vanished. The moment they saw living people in front of them, they reacted like ravenous beasts discovering fresh meat, eager to devour them at any cost. With bloodshot eyes and distorted faces, they gripped the iron cage fences with both hands, shaking them madly, desperately trying to break free and satiate their hunger.

"It's hopeless," Eric stated calmly, having witnessed countless such scenes. He had become utterly stoic.

"Collecting a blood sample might offer a chance for recovery," Bruce insisted, always refusing to give up. He had accounted for hundreds of missing persons; he couldn't simply abandon them. So many vampires could not be allowed to flood Gotham. Once unleashed, they would cause a devastating disaster. Their only hope now lay in the successful development of the reversal serum.

***

(End of Chapter)

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