PFC Chapter 4148 When the Pumpkin Ripens (3)
Chapter 4148 When the Pumpkin Ripens (3)
Chapter 4148 When the Pumpkin Ripens (Part 30)
boom!
Gunshots shattered the stillness of the night. A sniper bullet hurtled through the air. Blood splattered on the wall. The man slowly fell. Even in his dying moments, he twisted his neck, as if trying to spot his killer.
Jason and Tim sped through the narrow streets, glancing back down at the sewer opening. Their hair and eyebrows were covered in ice.
“Those cultists are incredible,” Jason said, panting. “They’re having a gathering in sub-zero temperatures wearing only light clothing. My God, they’re the real Yetis!”
Tim was also leaning against the wall, panting heavily. The low temperature was affecting their cardiopulmonary function. They had to expend much more energy to maintain their body temperature. If they hadn't just eaten a large meal, they might have frozen solid by now.
About two hours earlier, they arrived near Austin's house. Barry had already discovered something suspicious in the sewers behind Austin's house: the manhole cover under a lamppost not far from their backyard showed signs of being moved. Although the security cameras hadn't captured anything, something was definitely wrong.
So they went down and searched the sewers. At first, it went smoothly; they quickly found suspicious footprints and signs of activity. Following the tracks, they continued searching, unknowingly going deeper and deeper. By the time they reached an area outside the map's designated area—a passage most likely created by cultists—the temperature was already close to freezing.
Barry quickly ran out and brought them clothes. But the problem was that moving around in thick clothes was very inconvenient. These cultists seemed to be like rats, digging holes that were narrow and small. The two men weren't thin to begin with, and wearing cotton-padded clothes made it even more difficult for them to move forward.
They applied some heat patches and put on an undershirt as well, then continued walking. By the time they finally reached what appeared to be the cult's meeting room, the temperature was already below -10 degrees Celsius.
Even more shockingly, when they kicked the door open, these cultists seemed to have evolved, holding a meeting in an abandoned cold storage room while wearing pajamas.
These guys all had guns, and they seemed to be drunk, acting incredibly crazy. There was even a superhuman among them. Jason and Tim only had two small pistols; they couldn't possibly fight off so many people, so they had to run away as fast as they could.
The cultists chased after them. The two ran all the way to the ground. Fortunately, there were snipers outside providing support, and with more space to maneuver, their hand-to-hand combat skills came in handy, allowing them to skillfully take down five or six cultists.
Jason stepped forward to examine the cultist whose head had been smashed open. She was an ordinary-looking woman, like a saleswoman in a department store or a waitress in a restaurant; there was nothing particularly special about her.
However, Jason was certain she wasn't an ordinary person. Firstly, the fact that she could move so freely in such a cold place meant she must have some skill; secondly, this girl knew some fighting techniques, although not as good as him, and she didn't seem to be wary of snipers, but she was clearly trained.
“These guys aren’t just a rabble.” Tim also found it a bit strange. He went to check on the other two people they had taken down and said, “I thought they were the kind of ‘underground rebels’ who just gather together to brag.”
“Those kinds of people couldn’t pull off a child abduction,” Jason said, shaking his head. “This must be an organized crime, but the average skill level of the members is just too high. They must have been preparing for a long time.”
Just then, a commotion suddenly erupted from the street ahead. The two rushed over and found Batman, Pamela, and Sivana all bursting into Austin's house.
Jason and Tim rushed in. Then they saw Paul Austin's father holding a knife to his son's neck, taking him hostage.
"Don't come any closer!" He was clearly nervous, but not exactly fearful; he was practically seething with rage. "You damned bastards! You ruined my life! If it weren't for that damn Brainiac invading Earth, my return on investment would have been 2000%! You destroyed everything!!!"
The room fell silent; no one responded, and the atmosphere grew cold. Clearly, those present weren't negotiation experts who didn't understand finance; on the contrary, they were extremely knowledgeable about it, which explained the startling effect of their outburst. The people who had rushed in were momentarily at a loss for words.
If I don't comfort him, I'm afraid he'll hurt the child; if I do comfort him, it seems like I'm blatantly ignoring common sense. Just based on what he said, I couldn't even bring myself to make up a lie like, "You still have hope, you will definitely succeed."
“Put down your weapons,” the main universe Batman says. “Don’t put up a futile resistance.”
"Very well," Tim thought. "Even the main universe's Batman has given up on appealing to emotions and reasoning, resorting to threats directly. This guy really has no hope."
"You all know absolutely nothing! I was almost there! I'll be the hero who saves the world!!!"
Jason looked at Paul. The moment Jason saw him, he knew this was a quintessential Gotham kid, practically a younger version of himself. Who was whose hostage was still uncertain.
“Dad,” Paul suddenly said, “my Halloween candy is still on the table.”
This statement seemed rather strange, but Paul's father suddenly paused for a moment. Then he pulled Paul towards the table. Coincidentally, the table was right next to the window.
boom!
Paul's father slowly collapsed. Paul's eyes, however, remained fixed on the basket of candy on the table. Tim walked over, reached out and touched the candy, then found a round ball at the bottom.
"What is this?" Tim asked, squinting.
“Alien equipment,” Paul said. “The people who kidnapped me and my father both used this kind of equipment. My father was a very afraid of death. He didn’t actually want to die with anyone. Even at the last moment, he only thought about escaping. So he would definitely want to get this equipment.”
“Good boy,” Jason said, “have you seen this device before?”
"Yeah, the kidnappers showed it to me and even wanted me to help them set it up. But I threw that thing into the water."
Jason understood. Paul must have suspected his father all along. When he was kidnapped, he saw the sphere in the kidnappers' hands, and when he was rescued, he saw the exact same one in his father's hands. He realized that his biological father and the kidnappers were in cahoots. So, he betrayed him without hesitation.
However, how he managed to trick the kidnappers into handing over such important equipment is a question worth exploring. But this is Gotham after all; back in the day, he could pry off the tires of the Batmobile with his bare hands, so it's not surprising that this boy managed to fool a kidnapper or two.
“Then why didn’t he take the device in the first place?” Pamela asked.
“Because he’s an idiot,” Paul said, no longer pretending. “He thought this stuff was amazing, but he was afraid it was radioactive, so he put it in my sugar and wanted me to be his guinea pig.”
While Gotham has many anthropomorphic creations, this one is quite rare. Jason patted Paul on the shoulder and asked, "Where's your mother?"
"He killed him and buried him in the backyard."
Jason had intended to ask him what his plans were next, but then it suddenly dawned on him that he was now being socialized. His parents were gone, but Brainiac would support him and even provide him with a job in the future. Losing such parents was, in a way, a good thing.
The police arrived quickly, first disposing of the father's body, then exhuming the mother's remains, and then took Paul to receive psychological treatment. Meanwhile, many more people went to the cult's meeting place.
Two hours later, Gordon emerged from the manhole cover, sighed, and said to Jason and his group gathered around the streetlights, "It's an abandoned cold storage facility, the work of the Twelve Families. It was abandoned due to planning issues with Gotham's redevelopment project. Actually, there was a direct entrance two blocks away, but it was converted into other shops a long time ago. The road they're on now has many sections that they dug themselves, which is why we can't find it."
"What about those cult members?"
"Most of them were caught at the forks in the road. They weren't really clear about the underground structure, and they didn't know where the other entrances and exits were. They ran and ended up in dead ends, and they were basically all caught."
"How could they stay in such a cold place for so long?"
“Some of them are superhumans, and some could be cyborgs, but we’ll have to do an autopsy to find out the truth,” Gordon said. “The rest is up to the police. You’ve done your job, now you can go back.”
They all nodded. They were all quite tired after a busy day. They had originally planned to go home separately, but after some discussion, they realized that everyone seemed to be staying at Wayne Manor, so they decided to go back together.
But as soon as I got back, I heard a loud alarm, followed by a completely destroyed laboratory and the missing mother box.
"Oh my god!!" Sivana cried out in despair, "I knew this thing couldn't just be left like this!!! Brainiac's security system? What kind of security system does he even have?!"
Those who rushed to the scene all looked grim, except for Pamela, who glanced at the main universe's Batman. However, the main universe's Batman usually had a poker face, and Pamela couldn't discern anything amiss.
Immediately afterward, their phones rang at the same time. As soon as they picked up their phones, they saw the Brainiac app launch, the entire screen turning red.
Not only their phones, but everyone's phones in major cities across the East Coast were flashing red emergency notifications—"A vital human experimental base has been violently invaded, suspected to be the work of alien invaders. Earth has entered a Level 2 alert state! All citizens, please follow the following guidelines..."
"Martial law has been declared!" Pamela shouted. "Quickly!"
Then, the main universe's Batman watched them run out one by one. Jason went to the gate of Wayne Manor, produced a remote control from somewhere, and lowered the iron gate, and even an additional security door resembling a vault door. The windows were sealed up in the same way, and the entire Wayne Manor instantly became a closed, secret room.
Before the window closed, the main universe's Batman saw outside that everyone who had received the notification, though somewhat shocked, had all calmly entered the nearest buildings. Those buildings, in turn, sealed their doors and windows, and in the blink of an eye, the entire city became a ghost town.
The main universe's Batman walked downstairs, looked at the group who were taking inventory of supplies, and said, "I only have one question—how come you guys are so skilled?"
“If your universe had fought a solar system war that lasted for over a year, you would be just as skilled,” Tim said, stacking up the medical kit. “We’ve only recently recovered from wartime, it’s just a matter of returning to global martial law.”
“Ah, wait a minute, it didn’t just last a year,” Tim shrugged. “It probably lasted for hundreds of years.”
A question mark slowly appeared above the main universe's Batman's head. "I assume you used hyperbole..."
“I didn’t,” Tim smiled at him.
Then the main universe Batman remembered his alien identity and said, "That alien invader probably wasn't referring to me, was it?"
“No,” Brainiac replied. “If it were you, it would be more than just Level Two martial law.”