Gotham City, like Metropolis, is a city unique to the DC universe. It is located on the east coast of New Jersey in the United States, facing Metropolis across the sea.

Gotham City is a very "accommodating" city. Its architectural style incorporates elements from almost all major countries around the world, including famous European cities like New York, Los Angeles, London, and Sydney, and even Asian and Japanese styles.

However, despite being a city with scenic spots and historic sites, this city is perennially shrouded in dispellable gloomy clouds. Beneath the flashy surface lies cruel sins hidden in dark alleys - it can be said to be glamorous on the outside but rotten within.

Gangs, criminals, freaks, lunatics - all kinds of chaos you can imagine plays out in Gotham. This is Gotham City, the city with the highest crime rate in the world.

However, just as Metropolis is protected by Superman, Gotham City also has its own Dark Guardian - Batman.

Outwardly a playboy, privately the Batman vigilante. Whenever the Bat signal shines through the clouds, all the criminals in Gotham fall into terror, because they know the vengeful specter has descended. He will take on the form of a bat to punish all evil in this city.

He has no superpowers and isn't a metahuman. Relying solely on his own arduous training over many years and outstanding intellect, he challenges all the evils of Gotham alone. He is Batman - in most people's eyes, he's just a story, an urban legend.

Batman's real identity is Bruce Wayne, the owner of the Wayne Group, he has been fighting evil all his life. But in this universe, the old Bruce has been retired for a long time.

Austin and Pietro sat in a taxi, traveling from Metropolis all the way to Wayne Manor in Gotham. Throughout the journey, Austin's mood remained unsettled as he watched this city that didn't need Batman's protection. The look in his eyes was extremely complex.

Bruce Wayne had retired, and this city didn't need Batman anymore, because, at this point in time, Gotham City had become one of the cities with the best law and order in the world.

And the reason attributed to this was that the Batman of this world didn't enforce any no-kill principle, nor did he send criminals to the police station or Arkham Asylum - he directly killed them!

*All the lunatics like Joker, Riddler, Two-Face; the organizations like Black Mask, Court of Owls, League of Assassins; the supernatural monsters like Man-Bat, Killer Croc, and Solomon Grundy.

In Gotham, which is known as the city of crime, any criminal with a nickname can't escape Batman's punishment. All of them died directly or indirectly in Batman's hands.

And that was why Gotham City has gone from being full of crime to excellent law and order.

It's just like the old saying - As long as you kill all the criminals, then there won't be any more criminals in the city.

Looking at the approaching Wayne Manor, Austin also couldn't help but shake his head slightly. Judging from Batman's actions and the results, this was not a normal universe at all. This Universe had obviously come to the brink of collapse as well.

It wasn't that Batman couldn't kill people. It was just that everything that happened here had clearly deviated from the trajectories of most universes. If this wasn't a universe destined for destruction, Austin believed that the Batman of this universe would probably have transformed into a villain himself after killing all of those villains.

It might not even be necessary to kill all the villains - just a Joker or Riddler, choose one of the two. The death of either of these two in Batman's hands could plant the seed of darkness in Batman's heart.

"Here it is, sir. It's private property up ahead so I won't be able to drive further." The taxi stopped at the gates of Wayne Manor. The driver smiled and glanced back.

Although he didn't know why these two kids had to come all the way from Metropolis to Gotham, he knew that anyone who could come to Wayne Manor wasn't an ordinary person. Even though the place had looked abandoned for a long time, and the old guy inside hadn't been around for a long time, the Wayne Group was still a highly prestigious and wealthy corporation.

"Thanks." Austin nodded and took out a large handful of cash from his arms, that's Pietro's 'hard-earned money'. He didn't know how much more he had been given, but, judging from the smile on the driver's face, he must have made a lot of money.

Getting out of the car and watching the taxi disappear down the road, Austin turned around and nodded at Pietro, and then he climbed onto Pietro's back.

"Oh right Austin, there are so many buildings here - which one are we looking for?" Pietro looked around at the majestic castles past the front gate. 

"The one in the very center, this gate is so high that it requires you to run all the way through in anti-gravity. But just to be careful let's go to the entrance of the old castle. Even though the Old Batman is retired, we can't guarantee there won't be..."

Whoosh—

"... Any Traps." 

Austin blinked and suddenly felt his body rapidly vibrating for an instant, before finding himself already at the castle gates. Beside him, Pietro was looking at him with a smile on his face.

"What now? Should we ring the doorbell?" Pietro pointed at the old-fashioned doorbell.

After shooting Pietro a white glance, Austin didn't answer. Instead, he directly walked up to the door and pressed the Wayne mansion's doorbell.

It was very obvious no one had visited here in a long time. There was even a layer of dust on the doorbell's button. After pressing it, Austin rubbed it with two fingers, getting rid of the dust on his fingertips while waiting for a response from inside.

After about five or six minutes, the old castle was still quiet, there was no feedback from inside, as if no one had been living there for a long time.

"There's no one here?" Pietro said.

"Not possible. At this time of day Bruce Wayne should definitely be inside," Austin licked his somewhat dry lips, then looked up at the blinking red monitoring light above the door.

Taking two steps back, so that his body was in the center of the monitor, Austin raised his head and looked straight at the monitor, saying word by word.

"Bruce Wayne. I know you're here. I also know you can see me. This world needs your help. I believe you understand what I'm talking about, so can you open the door to talk?"

After Austin finished speaking, the atmosphere instantly quieted down. Austin calmly watched the monitor, knowing Bruce would surely open up - ever since they arrived at the Wayne Manor gates they were already under surveillance, so Pietro's high-speed movements would naturally have been seen by Bruce.

And the fact that a person with powers came to the door meant that there must be something important to discuss. Even more so, it meant that the matter was of great seriousness.

Even though Batman had retired, he wouldn't just leave them hanging outside, because he was Batman.

As if proving Austin's thoughts right—

Ka-chunk.

There was a click.

The doors of Wayne Castle opened with a completely disheveled old man opening them in an extremely impatient manner.

"A second surprise visitor for today...I'm just 'so happy'. Please, come in boys."

(End Of The Chapter)...To be continued.

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( T/N:

Joker (Prime Earth): The Joker is a homicidal maniac and the arch-nemesis of Batman. Though his precise origin is unknown even to him, he is known to have been forced to swim through a vat of chemicals which turned his skin white, his hair green and left his face permanently locked in a rictus grin.

Riddler: Edward Nigma, Edward Nashton, or Edward Nygma, also known as The Riddler, is a supervillain enemy of Batman who commits crimes revolving around an obsession with riddles. His mental psychosis results in a deep inner need to prove that he's smarter and therefore better than others, which causes him to leave behind clues in otherwise perfect crimes. This psychological compulsion has resulted in him being repeatedly imprisoned in Arkham Asylum. Despite this obvious flaw, he is otherwise an extremely intelligent criminal mastermind. He has been associated with the Legion of Doom and the Secret Society of Super-Villains.

The Riddler was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, first appearing in Detective Comics #140 (1948).

Two-Face: Two-Face is a supervillain obsessed with duality and the number "two." He is one of the most notable members of Batman's Rogue's Gallery, as well as being one of the most dangerous and ruthless criminals the caped crusader has faced in his career. Before Two-Face's life of crime, he was Harvey Dent, Gotham's district attorney and a personal friend of playboy Bruce Wayne. The mobster Sal Maroni burned half of his face with a bottle of acid during the trial. His psychosis leads him to believe that right and wrong don't matter, as everything is ruled by chance. To prove this, he makes decisions of good or evil based on the flip of a special coin. This makes him highly unpredictable as a criminal mastermind. He has been a member of the Injustice Gang and the Injustice League. There have been several others to use the name Two-Face including the butler Wilkins, the actor Paul Sloane, and the criminal George Blake.

Two-Face was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, first appearing in Detective Comics #66 (1942).

Black Mask: Roman Beauvais Sionis was a nightclub owner in Gotham City, who ran criminal activities under the alias Black Mask. During his time as a mobster, Sionis befriended Victor Zsasz, saved Dinah Lance from the streets, and formed a rivalry with the Joker. Sionis planned to get the Bertinelli diamond to get a lot of money, but when Cassandra Cain stole the diamond, he threatened Harley Quinn and several criminals to get Cain, after several failures, Sionis took matters into his own hands and tried to kill Cain to obtain the diamond, however, he was killed by a grenade from Quinn and Cain.

Court of Owls (Prime Earth): The Court of Owls is an aristocratic secret society that is centuries old with immense power and influence embedded into the very architecture and history of Gotham City. The Court of Owls was created by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo and made its first appearance in Batman (Volume 2) #1.

League of Assassins (New Earth): The League of Assassins was a secret organization founded by Ra's al Ghul (exactly when is unknown) to be "the fang that protects the head".[15] The Members of the League were extremely skilled killers, having mastered every known martial art in the world,[16] who demonstrated a willingness to die at a word from their leader, Ra's. They have included some of the most dangerous assassins in the world including Lady Shiva, David Cain, and master archer Merlyn. For much of its current history, any member to failed in an assassination was in turn targeted by the League. In more recent years, this policy has apparently relaxed somewhat.

Man-Bat: Man-Bat is Kirk Langstrom, a scientist who developed a serum that transforms him into a bat creature. This has made him a formidable adversary to Batman. Langstrom hates turning into a monster and constantly works to cure himself. Bruce Wayne has become close friends with Langstrom and helps fund his research. His wife is scientist Francine Lee, who has also been She-Bat. He has also been a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains and the Justice League Dark.

Man-Bat was created by Frank Robbins, Neal Adams, and Julius Schwartz first appearing in Detective Comics #400 (1970).

Waylon Jones (Prime Earth): Killer Croc

Waylon Jones is Killer Croc, a misunderstood man with a congenital disability that gives him some of the traits of a crocodile. Because he was treated like a monster for most of his life, he became very cynical and dangerous, making him an enemy of Batman. However, he's made multiple attempts to show his kinder side when given the opportunity.

Solomon Grundy: Solomon Grundy is an immortal zombie super-villain from the 19th Century with several origins. Originally murdered in the mysterious Slaughter Swamp, he resurrects and regenerates there every time he is killed again in his zombie form. This cycle of reincarnation also gives him different abilities every time, so over the years he has varied drastically in strength and intelligence. He has been a member of the Black Lantern Corps, Injustice League, Injustice Society, Legion of Doom, Secret Society of Super-Villains, Suicide Squad and the Fatal Five.

Solomon Grundy was created by Alfred Bester and Paul Reinman, first appearing in All-American Comics #61 (1944). )

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