Clatter!
The Black Cat had barely finished speaking when her silent subordinates uniformly pulled out handguns and aimed them at Joseph and his burly men.
At the same moment they drew their weapons, Batman's figure slowly descended from the gantry crane.
He couldn't twist and swing on webs like Peter Parker; it wasn't that he lacked the ability, but it felt too flashy and awkward for him.
However, before he had his grapple gun, the web-shooter could still serve most of its purposes and was quite effective.
Using the web-shooter, Batman approached the two Gang factions without alerting anyone.
"You've misunderstood, Ms. Black Cat." Joseph was being aimed at by seven or eight handguns, but he didn't seem flustered. "You see, we came empty-handed, carrying no weapons. Doesn't that demonstrate my sincerity?"
He spread his hands, allowing the Black Cat to clearly see that he wasn't holding a gun.
"Your sincerity is indeed abundant, but you kept calling me 'Miss Black Cat' earlier, and now it's 'Ms. Black Cat.'"
"I'm very unhappy. Can I fire a shot?"
The sweet smile on the Black Cat's face vanished instantly. She flicked off the safety of her pistol, ready to pull the trigger.
"I will use your name to offend all the underground forces in New York, Kingpin. This is the first step of my revenge," the Black Cat whispered in a voice only she could hear.
A gust of wind blew, and an acrid, fishy smell permeated the air, unnoticed until now. At the same time, the Black Cat's subordinates looked around, unsure where this strange smell was coming from.
Joseph and his men clearly smelled the strong, fishy odor, but compared to the Black Cat's bewilderment, Joseph looked confident:
"Little Black Cat, trying to play a double-cross like in the movies? Good thing I hired a judge specifically for tonight's deal... Squid Man!"
As his voice fell, the ground beside them suddenly cracked, and a stream of Sewer Water shot out, seemingly from a broken underground pipe, spraying Joseph, who was closest, in the face.
"Come on!" Joseph exclaimed, annoyed.
The Black Cat took a deep breath, watching as a Squid tentacle emerged from the mud soaked by the Sewer Water.
Tentacle after tentacle emerged, and soon a Squid, greenish in color and the size of an adult, burst from the ground and slowly stood upright, supported by two tentacles.
Four tentacles mimicked arms and legs, while the extra four flailed menacingly behind it. A terrifying humanoid Squid thus appeared before everyone's eyes.
Bang!
The Black Cat fired a bullet, but it ricocheted off the Squid Man's body, causing him no substantial harm. It only made the Squid Man pause his steps.
"Volley of bullets, aim for his eyes."
No one behind her responded, while a hint of terror appeared on the faces of Joseph's burly men opposite her.
The Black Cat knew very well that her subordinates behind her were also looking terrible in the face of the Squid Man, who was beyond normal human comprehension, so she turned her face, preparing to give new orders.
Catching a glimpse behind her out of the corner of her eye, the Black Cat couldn't help but feel a chill down her spine, her hair standing on end.
There was no one behind her. The subordinates who had been silent and orderly, aiming their guns at Joseph just seconds before, had collectively vanished.
The dark Abandoned Shipyard was like an abyss, silently devouring them completely.
"No, that's not right. The Squid Man was clearly hired by Joseph, yet their expressions just now were terrified... What are they afraid of?"
The Black Cat recalled the terrified expressions mixed with bewilderment on the faces of those burly men she had just seen, realizing that events were unfolding beyond her expectations.
Before she could think further, a Shadow, moving swiftly from a distance, quickly pounced on the Black Cat. In the nick of time, the Black Cat pulled the trigger, firing several shots.
Unfortunately, there was no sound of bullets hitting, so the Black Cat stopped wasting ammunition, quickly turned her gun, and fired a shot at Joseph.
She knew she couldn't escape, but she had to take someone down with her before she died.
Joseph, a recently notorious killer in New York, was known for his ruthless methods, often smashing enemies' heads with a hammer.
Whether out of disgust for this perverse killer or for using Kingpin's name to offend New York's underground forces, the Black Cat felt no psychological pressure in firing this shot.
Joseph also felt none. Under the Black Cat's precisely aimed bullet to his forehead, he fell to the ground very cleanly, with no time to feel any psychological pressure.
A headshot. Just as the Black Cat was searching for that invisible, intangible, eerie Shadow, a huge force struck her wrist.
The handgun fell to the ground with a clang. The Black Cat was tightly bound by the Shadow and flew into the air, her voluptuous bosom, prominent in her deep V leather attire, compressed into two thick snow cakes.
In her panic, she tried to grab the Shadow, but her hands were tightly restrained. She could only use her long, elastic legs to entwine the guy who had carried her into the air.
Hiss!
A faint sound, and then the Black Cat found herself tightly bound and suspended in mid-air. The briefcase full of cash in her hand was snatched, and the Shadow had disappeared.
Joseph fell to the ground, hit by a bullet. His subordinates immediately panicked. One of them stepped forward, reached out a hand, and shouted:
"Boss is still breathing! He can still be saved!"
So several burly men swarmed him, lifted Joseph, and ran off without a trace, not even bothering with the guns in wooden crates they had intended to buy.
The Squid Man, hired by Joseph to double-cross and kill the Black Cat's group, stood rooted to the spot, stunned. The situation on the field had changed too quickly; he hadn't understood what had happened at all.
However, the Squid Man had clearly seen the scene of the Black Cat's subordinates mysteriously disappearing one after another. He now looked around, and the huge industrial equipment in the Shipyard had all turned into Shadows, as if something even more terrifying than him could pop out at any moment.
As a monster in the eyes of ordinary people, the Squid Man was not afraid of other possible monsters, but this unknown presence still made his heart flutter.
Especially when the Squid Man tried to move his feet but found that at some unknown point, an invisible chain seemed to have firmly shackled him.
Fortunately, the "Squid Man" lived up to his name; he possessed almost all the characteristics of a Squid, including a slippery body.
So he struggled to lift his feet to break free from the invisible restraint, and he succeeded with the help of his slimy body.
Joseph had only hired him as a thug, and now the burly man himself was fighting for his life.
Between fighting to the death and fleeing for his life, the Squid Man unhesitatingly chose the latter.
"I need to go back to the Sewer... No, something is rushing towards me!"
He was about to dive into the Sewer pipe when he caught a glimpse of a Shadow swooping down on him from above and to the side.
At the crucial moment, his body's instincts took over thought. The Squid Man threw his neck back, exposing the funnel organ beneath—the organ a Squid uses to squirt ink.
Splurt!
Large amounts of thick, black ink were sprayed out. The Squid Man didn't even look, took off running, and kept going until he was outside the Abandoned Shipyard, as if a moment's delay would cost him his life.
"Damn! What was that?"
A couple, jogging and taking selfies with their phones on the street, saw the Squid Man and couldn't help but exclaim loudly.
The Squid Man glanced at them and quickly rushed towards the manhole cover next to the couple, forcefully lifted it, and dove in, leaving the ignorant couple standing there.
"Did you, did you get it on camera?" the woman stammered to her boyfriend.
"I got it... But who would believe we actually saw a humanoid Squid?"
"Idiot! Sell the photos to the Daily Bugle! We might make a fortune!"
The man and woman pulled up their pants and cheered as they left, completely oblivious that in the Shadows of the Abandoned Shipyard, Batman was intently staring at the manhole cover the Squid Man had disappeared into.
He chose not to continue the pursuit. The webs sprayed by the web-shooter could only temporarily trap the opponent, and the Squid Man's slippery body could easily break free.
He needed to make some preparations for that, and before that, Batman had to deal with the Gang members he had tied up with webs and left hanging in various places around the Abandoned Shipyard.