PFC Chapter 2323 Gotham Music Chapter (62)
Chapter 2323 Gotham Music Chapter (62)
Chapter 2323 Gotham Music Festival (Sixty-two)
Batman thinks they should split up at this point.
Splitting up the troops is not always a stupid decision, especially when three of the four people have superpowers, they know almost nothing about the state of the universe in front of them, and there are a lot of clues to investigate.
The final grouping was Clark and Batman in one group, and Hal and Atlan in one group. In fact, Batman originally planned to be in a group with Hal. Green Lantern's abilities were more varied and flexible, making it easier for him to put some of Batman's ideas into practice.
But Clark just wouldn't agree to Batman going with others, which made Batman feel helpless. This young Superman in this universe was obviously more opinionated and more capable of independent thinking than the one he knew, but he was just more clingy and wanted to follow Batman closely.
In the end, Hal and Atlan go after the Sea Queen of Atlantis together, hoping to stop them before they get to Gotham. Batman and Clark take advantage of the Atlantis base being empty to investigate the anomalies in the ocean.
Atlan pointed out the location of Atlantis to Batman. In fact, it wouldn't take long for Clark to take him around the entire earth a few times, but Batman didn't mind if the former king of Atlantis was willing to cooperate.
After the two teams set off, Batman and Clark's group quickly found Atlantis, a huge city located deep in the ocean. The city's architecture and cultural features can vaguely show its former glory.
The reason why it is vaguely visible is because Batman and Clark both feel that the city in front of them now is in no way comparable to what Atlan said was the most glorious and grand civilization on earth.
The buildings on the outskirts of the city have basically collapsed, but due to the protection of a mysterious force, they have not been eroded into powder by the sea water. They are just covered with algae, and there are some crustaceans that can live in the deep sea in the cracks.
This place has basically become a paradise for ordinary marine life. There is no trace of any humanoid activity. Going further in, Batman actually saw something similar to a homeless tent.
This kind of wonder is rare in cities except for some developed cities in the United States. It is really unreasonable that it would appear in Atlantis, which has a vast territory, brilliant civilization and a small population.
The further they went in, the stranger it got. Instead of magnificent palaces, glittering magical devices and strong Atlantean guards, they saw iron walls with huge barrel-shaped devices, weak, scattered and slightly lifeless wanderers, half-dead giant seaweed and sea fish mounts.
"My God, their situation is too bad." Clark floated in the air, looking at the huge city and said, "Atlantis should not be like this."
Batman remained silent, but he knew in his heart that Atlantis was not like that, at least not the Atlantis in his universe. Although Batman had never actually been there, from Arthur's description, although the civilization of Atlantis was not very developed after sinking to the bottom of the sea, after all, they had a small population and could enjoy all the resources in the ocean, so they certainly would not have ended up like this.
"Can you feel the abnormality of the sea water?" Batman asked.
Clark blinked and said, "The average water pressure here is greater than that in the universe I live in. The sea water flows more slowly, but it's not because there are no ocean currents, but it seems to be thicker, and it takes more force to push it."
"There is a mysterious force that permeates the ocean." Batman sighed and said, "This force is polluting in nature and will slowly erode everything and all the creatures here. We can't stay here for too long, or we might get polluted."
Batman looked at Atlantis below him again. He continued, "That wall should be some kind of seawater filtration device. They spent a lot of resources to build it, but it can't completely isolate pollution."
"Will this power make them weaker and weaker?"
"Maybe it's getting more and more chaotic." Batman frowned. He could tell from the clues of damage to some buildings that more than one fight seemed to have broken out here.
"The entropy here is much higher than our universe, and it must have skyrocketed in the recent period of time until the order that could have been maintained completely collapsed, forcing the Atlanteans to go to the land to seek a solution."
"Do they feel they are unaffected?" Clark disagreed. "The ocean is no longer habitable, and they want to go to land, or even occupy land. This decision may also be made after they are polluted."
"So we have to stop them." Batman pointed downwards and said, "Take me down. We need to see how this filtration system works so that we can figure out what that mysterious power is."
The two of them soon arrived at the city of Atlantis, which was already weak and had weak defenses due to troop movements, so no one noticed them at all.
While Batman was checking the machine, Clark always followed him, saying nothing, as if he didn't exist. Batman was still amazed at how clingy this Superman was and how he could reduce his presence to such a low level.
Batman already felt a little uncomfortable that Superman hadn't made any comments about these machines or his method of investigating them.
"What do you think?" Batman asked.
"What are you looking at?"
“These filters.”
"They're fine," Clark replied with a shrug. Then he looked at Batman's expression and said, "You want my opinion on that? That's pretty unique. All the Batmen I've met don't want me to comment on their investigation process."
"So you don't say anything." Batman originally said this in his heart, but he may have felt a little uncomfortable, so he said it out loud.
As soon as these words came out, Batman knew that something was wrong. This was definitely a prelude to a quarrel.
Batman was thinking about another thing at this time. This kind of situation would never have happened in the past. In fact, his tolerance for Superman was unimaginable. An alien whose abilities, qualities, and moral integrity surpassed 99.9% of humans, what higher requirements could Batman have for him?
Besides, things have their priorities. No matter how special Clark is in front of him, he is no more special than the current situation in the universe. Batman can rationally judge what is more important.
But he couldn't help but pay attention to Clark's situation, and tried again and again, until a tiny bit of loss of control appeared at a certain small node.
It was just a sentence, and many people would think so, but Batman would not be so hasty. He anticipated the worst case scenario. What if Clark was really angry because of this sentence? What if he left and left him here alone? Even worse, the two of them had a big fight here, and not only did they not do anything, but they were also discovered and expelled.
His actions made things take a turn for the worse, which Batman absolutely could not accept.
But now that things have come to this, Batman can only make up for it in the most efficient way. He said to Clark: "I won't talk from now on, and you don't ask me any questions."
"One last question, are you okay?" Clark said.
Batman nodded, and Clark really stopped talking. Batman began to check the filter device again.
He discovered that these devices had a common characteristic: they did not have the function of chemical filtration, and were completely different from the filtration devices developed by humans. This further confirmed Batman's conjecture that this mysterious power was some kind of magical energy.
Then they needed some more concrete evidence, so Batman gestured to Clark, indicating that they should go deeper.
Clark said nothing and led him deeper into the cave until they came to the most magnificent palace. Batman guessed that this might be the palace of the Queen of the Sea.
The guards here are indeed stronger than those outside, and there are some magical weapons that can be activated, but Clark and Batman have a smooth journey without triggering alarms or hurting anyone else, and they successfully reach the Queen's bedroom.
Batman found the Queen's diary here. He thought it was a major clue, so he found a place and started reading it.
But as he read on, Batman discovered that the diary of the Sea Queen was extremely boring, and was basically just a record of the unchanging status quo of Atlantis.
Batman then denied some of his previous speculations, because the diary showed that Atlantis had never been peaceful, and it was not because of sudden pollution and chaos that caused the Queen of the Sea to go to land.
The diary mentioned that the people of Atlantis had always been aggressive, brutal and chaotic by nature. Even after sinking to the bottom of the sea, they were still engaged in endless fighting. Several kings of Atlantis even died in office because of this.
The attitude shown by the Queen of the Sea in her diary is also quite negative. The several measures she has taken since taking office are not aimed at saving the crisis, but more like delaying the situation for as long as possible.
What should we do if we can't delay any longer? Batman didn't find the answer in the diary, but he had a guess. He immediately turned to Clark and said, "Go find Hal. Something is not going on over there."
When Clark and Batman found Hal, a fight had already broken out. Atlantis controlled the sea water to form a violent torrent, sweeping towards the Sea Queen and the Atlantean army. Hal was also planning to use the green light energy to suppress the Atlanteans who were charging bravely.
"Clark, stop them," Batman yelled.
Clark instantly landed in the center of the battlefield, took a deep breath, and a bright ice crystal burst out from his mouth. Within a few tenths of a second, the ice storm swept across everything.
Everything was frozen, and the ice stopped just in front of Batman. The confronting Atlan and the Sea Queen turned into little people in the crystal ball, maintaining their previous postures, but except for the slight movement of their eyeballs, no other part of their body could move.
What surprised Batman was that Green Lantern was also unable to move, but he was better than the others and could still wink at Clark with an anxious expression.
Clark flew out of the ice and said, "I learned a trick from Victor. Although I can't turn the ice produced by the icy breath into dense ice that isolates all energy exchanges, the properties are almost the same."
Batman gave him a thumbs up in his heart.
(End of this chapter)