In the night, a black motorcycle swept down the street. There was a red figure that sat atop the ride. The wish of Tim Drake, the third-generation Robin, was to become the best detective in the world. In terms of setting, he was slightly weaker than the first-generation Dick Grayson, but his investigative skills surpassed his predecessor’s. In reality, he was not weak in combat. In the comic, Battle for the Cowl, Jason Todd had to admit, “The kid is a real fighter. He is good at balancing strength and intelligence.”
But in the end, he lost to Todd because he was fighting according to the way Bruce taught him, holding onto the set of morals, so when faced with Todd, who had no bottom line, it was unsurprising that Tim lost. Realizing that it was this kind and gentlemanly young man who had come after him, Feng Bujue relaxed a lot.
“God… this is like the site of a missile strike…” Tim stood on the roof of a building and looked at the ruins of the factory before him. Some firetrucks stopped around the nearby area, and the firemen were busy putting out the fire. The police set up a long police line to stop the reporters and citizens that had gathered. Even though the explosion was huge, the aftermath of the fire and the damage was not that great. It had been brought under control.
“That is…” Suddenly, Tim spotted something. On the roof of another building about two hundred meters from him, there was a figure dressed in purple. From the person’s appearance, it made the description given by the hostages of ’John Doe’ in the bank robbery.
Twenty-five seconds, that was how long it took for Tim to get behind Feng Bujue.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Tim.” When Feng Bujue spoke, he was facing away from Tim, but it looked like he had eyes on his back. When the man was within certain distance, Feng Bujue said that to stop him.
“You are the madman who shot out thousands of dollars into the street, right?” When Tim said that, there was already hostility in his eyes. “You are also the murderer of the three police officers.”
“I think that your accusation is completely baseless, unless you have enough evidence to prove my ties to whatever you’re talking about,” Feng Bujue said calmly as he turned around.
“There are testimonies given by more than twenty different people at the station, and your appearance matches the physical description perfectly,” Tim answered.
“Tim, there are many people who look similar,” Feng Bujue argued. “You can’t charge me for looking like another person, can you?”
“After I arrest you and take you to the station, I am sure those witnesses will be glad to point you out,” Tim answered quite confidently.
“Arrest me? Take me to the station? Haha… That is interesting, but who gave you the power to arrest me?” Feng Bujue said with a smile. “What kind of crime have I committed? Or has my visual image shown on the wanted list at the station?”
He shook his head. “Tim… Tim… A good detective should know that the law… speaks with evidence.”
“Humph… I knew you’re a cunning character. Do you think that by blowing up the bank’s surveillance room there will be no evidence left behind? Give it some time, and the police will be able…”
Before Tim could finish, Feng Bujue cut him off. “Then come and arrest me after they have recovered the video and have obtained actual evidence. For now… I am just a perfectly legal citizen enjoying the night view from the top of the building.”
“Enough! This conversation is going nowhere. You and I both know that you are John Doe!” Tim roared back.
“Even if I admit that, so what?” Feng Bujue said with a sigh. “Tim, I can even go back with you ,but what will happen next? The testimony from those hostages can only prove that I have killed three bank robbers.
“What I did was perfectly acceptable actions of self-defense. You could even say that I have helped society clean up the vermin, exactly the same thing as what you and the other members of the Network are doing.”
He extended a finger and then shook it like a teacher lecturing a student.
“I have no idea how much of the video footage can be recovered, but I do not think that you will be able to procure any image of me in any relation to the death of the three police officers. In fact, I have a feeling that before you recover the footage, I will have been granted parole already. With regards to how much the parole fee is, I do not really care.
“Other than that, be it the police officers or the hostages, no one saw me shoot the money out into the streets with their own eyes. Even if you can check every single bill that is out on the street, you will not find my fingerprint on any of them.
“There is not even one officer who can say that they have seen my face before.”
Obviously, Feng Bujue had already planned everything. Every step that he made at the bank had its own purpose behind it.
“Assuming this case is brought to court, the only negative accusation that might harm me that the hostages can provide to the police is… after killing the three bank robbers, I used a gun to force the hostages to cover their own heads with money bags and tie them up with plastic locks.
“Actually, with regards to that, I have a perfect explanation as well… ’When I killed the three robbers out of the need of self-defense, I was afraid that there might be a hidden accomplice among the other hostages, so to better cooperate with the police, I took control of the situation as fast as I could and hinted at Inspector Clapton that there might be accomplices of the robbers among the hostages and told him not to lower his guard.”
“Humph… Do you think anybody will believe a bold-faced lie like that?” Tim scoffed coldly.
“Of course, there will be some. This is a free country, Tim. The jury are supposed to be neutral, aren’t they? Furthermore… everyone has their weakness, do they not?” Feng Bujue smiled darkly. “As long as I can provide the court with a reasonable explanation, the final verdict on me will be not guilty due to a lack of evidence.”
“Ha!” Tim also laughed. “Just based on what you have told me, I can…”
“Take me to court?” Feng Bujue cut the young man off again. “Then feel free and go ahead. After all, at court, I can deny everything that you say fully. At that time, your testimony will be viewed as lies made to send me into prison due to prejudice.”
Like a lecturing adult, he wagged his finger. “Ah, ah, ah. What are you doing, Tim? You subtly turned your body to the side and reached your finger to your waist. Don’t tell me you are trying to quietly switch on some kind of recording device.”
Tim’s trick was seen through by Feng Bujue, and he cursed internally.
“You only thought to do that after my reminder. That proves how young you are,” Feng Bujue said. “If it was Bruce who was standing here today, I believe he would have started the recording when I mentioned anything related to ’evidence’.”
“How do you…” Tim said darkly, “You not only know my name but also Bruce’s…”
“Hahaha …” Feng Bujue suddenly opened his mouth to laugh. He laughed for more than ten seconds before he stopped. “From how I see it, the hidden identity of batman has always been a joke. He is wearing a suit that is military grade and costs more than a billion to produce and drives a vehicle that costs more than eight million. He is seen to be Caucasian and aged from between twenty-five to forty-five. He is about six foot and two inches. How many people do you think fit all that criteria? If you compare that to the entire nation of America, I can narrow the list down to fewer than twenty people, much less when you consider it is just within the small city of Gotham.”
“Who exactly are you?” The way that Tim looked at Feng Bujue had changed. He realized that the man before him was definitely not the kind of supervillain who could be taken down with mere strength. He had to be dealt with intellectually, and that was the worst kind of supervillain.
“Who do you think I am, Tim?” Feng Bujue tossed the question back.
“If your so-called claim of traveler from another dimension is true,” Tim replied, “my preliminary assessment is that you are the Joker from another dimension.”
“Haha… Not bad, kid. If I were in your position, perhaps I would think that way as well…” Feng Bujue explained. “But I am not Joker. The real Joker would not have shown up at this time because a Gotham City without the Bat, for him, is a bit too boring.”
“Looks like you know that crazy man very well,” Tim commented. At this point of the conversation, Tim already understood that he would not get any information from this man before him from conversational tricks, so he slowly approached Feng Bujue, attempting to take him down by force.
“And I know you very well too, Tim Drake.” As he finished, Feng Bujue undid the two buttons that bound his vest together and revealed an explosive…
Tim instantly stopped moving, and a jolt passed through his heart. “What are you doing? Do you plan to die together with me?”
Feng Bujue laughed and took out a small remote control from his shirt pocket. He raised it up in one hand. “Who knows? Hahaha…”
Then he pressed the button.
Bang!
A loud explosion signaled that the remote had activated the bomb, but the bomb was naturally not the one tied around Feng Bujue but somewhere else. When Feng Bujue pressed the button, Tim was shocked, and he grabbed his cape to shield himself as he rolled backward. He did not expect that the explosion did not happen before him but somewhere even further away.
“What is happening?” Tim steadied himself and focused his eyes to look. Behind Feng Bujue, more than one hundred meters away, there was another skyscraper. That was where the bomb was set. After the explosion, the outer wall of the building had a large gap left in it, and it looked like a smile from a far. From Tim’s perspective, this flaming smile floated in the sky behind Feng Bujue, and it matched the smile on the madman’s face perfectly.
“Even now, Tim, you do not have enough evidence to send me to jail.” Feng Bujue opened his fingers and dropped the remote on the roof. “You saw that I pressed something during the explosion, but that does not mean anything. You might be able to find a ruined remote control on the street, but you know that you won’t find my fingerprints.”
With a wicked laugh, he said, “You see… when everything needs evidence and proof, it becomes so much easier for the criminals to slip away. The laws of this country are a joke, Tim. Many real criminals escape from the law unscathed, but it has ruined the lives of many innocent and kind people who have made one tiny little mistake.”
“What is it that you are up to!” Tim shouted. But he still did not step forward. After all, the bomb strapped on Feng Bujue’s body was still a threat…
“I don’t think you will understand my goal.”
“I can try.”
“There’s no need to waste your time, and I do not plan to share it with you anyway,” Feng Bujue replied and used his finger to point at the bomb on him. “Now, what you should realize is that… these bombs are not for show, and there is no way for you to arrest me this time.
“Do not talk about the law with me; behind you is not law but justice. Even Batman cannot deny that justice requires power to support you, and you, Tim, are currently not powerful enough.”
As Feng Bujue spoke, he retreated to stand at the rail by the roof.
“There are two more things that you need to know.”
He took out a phone from his pocket and tossed it to Tim. Tim’s eyes followed the movement of the object through the air. He was sure that it was not some kind of weapon, so he reached out to grab it.
“Open the note pad, and there are three group of numbers in the first document. Those numbers mark the location of one of the bombs,” Feng Bujue said. “And the bomb is placed inside an apartment building that is one kilometer away from here. It will explode in another ten minutes.
“The second thing is, if you or other member from the Network run into the other travelers from another dimension, do not believe a single word that comes out from their mouth. When they show no hostility or pretend to surrender, you should be on your guard… because that is the moment before they start to kill.”
With that, Feng Bujue opened his arms wide, leaned back, and fell off the roof. Tim rushed to the side and saw Feng Bujue open a rectangular gliding parachute in the air as he flew toward the horizon.
Tim instantly opened his communicator. “Oracle, can you hear me? This is Tim.”
“Hey, Tim, what’s up? I heard you’ve gone to chase after…”
“Barbara, there’s no time. Listen to me.” Tim cut her off. “I need to go and disarm a bomb set up by a crazy man. Please inform the other members of the Network.”
As he said that, he started to move. Using a grapple, Tim easily returned to the building that he had stood on earlier and started to glide downward. He then hopped onto the ride that could go up to three hundred kilometers an hour.
“Tell Dick to be careful about the two travelers from the other dimension. Their surrender might be fake. We have to keep them in the cell designed for supervillains and watch over them carefully!”
…
Five minutes later, Feng Bujue landed several streets away and gathered up the parachute. He walked with ease down the alley and entered the backseat of a limo that had stopped by the road.
Inside the car sat a large, middle-aged man. The right side of his face looked normal and had a normal haircut, but the other face was ruined and scarred, and the hairstyle looked like a dragon. The suit that he had on was special, too. The right side was black in color, stable and elegant, but the left side was filled with colorful swirls, similar to the pattern used by gang leaders.
Feng Bujue did not hesitate to sit across from Two-Face and took out a bottle of whiskey from the mini bar. He poured himself a glass. “He’s hooked. Have your men ready.”