It always rains in Gotham.
Batman, blending into the night, stood expressionless on a gargoyle statue, looking at Gotham through the rain.
This was something he did 360 days out of 365, but today there was an unexpected turn of events.
Without warning, the surrounding World became a dizzying kaleidoscope, spinning rapidly, and scenes flashed before Batman's eyes like a slideshow.
Catwoman, Harley, Zatanna, Wonder Woman, Talia... hours or entire nights spent with them in different places and at different times;
Judges taking bribes, psychiatrists on the payroll, Police downplaying crimes, officials colluding with the Gang;
Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Scarecrow... criminals endlessly repeating the cycle of crime, arrest, and escape.
His head reeled from the rapidly flashing scenes, but Batman remained unmoving, only secretly raising his guard.
The scene changed again. In a crowded, old apartment, a stranger, an old man, spoke to Batman in a stern tone:
"If you have the ability to help others, then you have the moral responsibility to help others. This is not a choice, but a responsibility. With great power comes great responsibility!"
But in the blink of an eye, a gunshot rang out, and the stern old man fell in a pool of blood, weakly grasping Batman's hand:
"Peter..."
"Peter!"
A call pulled Batman back to reality. Although it wasn't for him, he instinctively looked towards the source of the voice.
It was a somewhat overweight middle-aged man in a White lab coat, looking at Batman with concern, his eyes full of worry:
"Peter Parker, are you alright?"
Peter Parker?
Batman quickly scrutinized the middle-aged man, his keen vision allowing him to read the name on the man's lab coat badge:
Otto Gunther Octavius.
Who is he?
Question after question rose in Batman's mind. Looking down at himself, he found he wasn't wearing his battle suit made of Kevlar and titanium, but just an ordinary plaid shirt.
This wasn't a rainy outdoor scene either, but a brightly lit laboratory.
"Scarecrow's fear gas? Or Mad Hatter's mind control?"
Batman didn't panic at suddenly being in an unfamiliar environment. He quickly surveyed everything around him:
A clean, bright laboratory, with portraits of famous scientists on the walls, including the Otto Gunther Octavius before him.
Batman recognized some of the other scientists, like Einstein and Newton, but there were also a few he had never heard of or seen, such as Bruce Banner and Hank Pym.
Various experimental equipment lined both sides of the laboratory, and at the very front was a large device resembling an inverted octopus, with a Whiteboard next to it covered in calculation formulas.
"Otto, a World-renowned nuclear physics expert? Is this device a tokamak?"
Batman ignored Dr. Otto. He quickly made his judgments in his mind and turned his gaze to the formulas on the Whiteboard.
Wayne Group had once attempted to develop nuclear fusion energy to benefit Gotham.
Unlike Dr. Otto's small tokamak device, Wayne Group used a magnetic confinement fusion device, and the scientific formulas applied by the two were completely different.
Batman had studied the nuclear fusion project on his own for some time after halting it, and he was quite knowledgeable about nuclear fusion using a tokamak. He found that apart from an inconspicuous parameter error, the rest of the formulas on the Whiteboard were flawless.
Although the parameter error led to a deviation in the final calculation results, the existence of the formulas themselves had already led Batman to overturn the possibility of being in an illusion.
Neither Scarecrow nor Mad Hatter possessed the ability to create knowledge they didn't master within an illusion.
"Peter, you don't seem to be in the right state. I suggest you go home, get a good night's rest, and come back another day."
Dr. Otto frowned, seeing that the young man opposite him hadn't responded, and he felt that this fellow seemed unreliable.
If it weren't for Harry Osborn, the Osborn Group's young master, personally introducing him, Dr. Otto would have already kicked him out of the laboratory.
Before Batman could speak, a sharp prick on the back of his neck! It felt like a cold needle, and then this chill instantly exploded, coursing through his entire body along his spine.
The surrounding World seemed to instantly freeze and stretch, all subtle sounds: the friction of clothing fabric, the slight movement of experimental equipment, even his own heartbeat... every sound suddenly amplified and distorted in his ears, and the chill in his heart also pointed to the tokamak device, as if it were the source.
At this moment, a beeping alarm sounded in the laboratory, and the White lights flickered to flashing red warning lights.
Dr. Otto quickly turned and fiddled with the control panel next to the tokamak device. In less than two minutes, the laboratory lights returned to normal, and the alarm disappeared.
"As you can see, my nuclear fusion experiment is not yet successful. I need to re-examine the experimental steps to see where the problem lies."
Dr. Otto smiled at Batman, his expression showing no trace of defeat from the failed experiment.
Experiments always have failures, and each failure provided him with enough experience. Dr. Otto was not discouraged by this.
"That feeling just now seemed to be an instinctive reaction to some impending danger..."
Batman looked at Dr. Otto:
"Dr., I'd like to borrow your computer."
He didn't state the purpose of borrowing the computer, and Dr. Otto didn't care. He was busy troubleshooting the cause of the recent experimental failure and readily agreed after hearing Batman speak:
"No problem."
With Dr. Otto's approval, Batman immediately sat down in front of an idle computer, opened it, and quickly typed on the keyboard with both hands.
Whether he was in an illusion or something else was happening, the first thing to do was to gather information about his current identity. Batman immediately hacked into the local Police system to search for information related to "Peter Parker."
This included his identity information, rental information, and school information.
"This is my identity? A junior at Empire State University in New York, an orphan who has lived with Uncle Ben's family since childhood?"
Batman expressionlessly exited the webpage and cleared all his operation records, then stood up and bid farewell to Dr. Otto.
According to the rental information recorded in the New York Police system, Batman walked for nearly an hour to reach the apartment.
Locking the door and drawing the curtains, Batman sat cross-legged in the living room with his eyes closed.
The hour-long journey, with the crowds and buildings along the way, gave Batman ninety-nine percent certainty that this was not an illusion, but he had to make one last attempt—meditation.
He had learned meditation from Zatanna, intending to resist mental attacks, and it also had a certain restraining effect on illusions.
Three full hours passed, and it was late. In the dark apartment, Batman's eyes suddenly opened.
"It's not an illusion. But I can't rule out that Flash Barry Allen did something that caused a chain reaction leading to a timeline change."
"I need to find out why my consciousness appeared in this unfamiliar young man's body and find a way to return to Gotham."