Chapter 595: Who Is the Bat, Who Is the Cat (Part 2) (Patreon)

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A few minutes ago, Bat Cat emerged from his Batcave, intending to confront Schiller on the road, and unsurprisingly, he encountered Bane and the group of mad cats released from Mad Cat Asylum.

Bat Cat had always believed that Bane Cat had a dependency on the substance inside the tube on his back. Therefore, the cell designed for Bane Cat contained equipment for excessive fluid infusion. Periodically, the fluid supply would be cut off, subjecting Bane to prolonged withdrawal symptoms.

However, what he didn't anticipate was that Bane had long overcome this dependency and no longer experienced severe withdrawal symptoms.

So, when Bat Cat executed his plan as usual, targeting the tube on Bane Cat's back and causing the fluid to leak, he fell victim to a feigned weakness and ambush by Bane. In response, he had to deploy the floating aircraft he had intended to use against Schiller and activate its weapons.

After weighing his options, Bat Cat had to choose between dealing with Schiller first or facing Bane and the mad cats. He chose the latter because the destruction this group of mad cats could cause upon entering the city would far exceed Schiller's threat. As a result, he altered his route to Mad Cat Asylum and followed Bane and his gang here.

What he didn't expect was to encounter Clark on the way, who damaged his floating disc, leaving Bat Cat stranded.

While he worried about the situation at Mad Cat Asylum, Bat Cat knew that the group of mad cats had already been led out by Bane. The remaining empty Mad Cat Asylum should not pose a significant issue. Therefore, Bane Cat decided to deal with this group of cats first and address Schiller later.

However, what he didn't foresee was that once Schiller understood the situation in the city and recognized Bat Cat's presence, he formulated a multifaceted plan.

First, Schiller gained Bat Cat's trust and then proposed a seemingly advantageous suggestion: to improve the patrol routes of the surveillance robots. The patrol routes Schiller provided were indeed superior to the previous ones, covering almost every blind spot, except for a few intentionally left unmonitored.

If Schiller had randomly left blind spots in the surveillance, Bat Cat would have surely noticed. Thus, the so-called blind spots Schiller left were not true blind spots. They were more like prioritizing between two simultaneous monitoring targets, choosing the lesser of two evils. For example, prioritizing monitoring high points and areas with a broad field of vision over the sewer entrance, for the time being.

When Schiller arrived in the city, he knew that Batman would come looking for him. So, he designed a whole chain of events to lead Batman to explore areas of his plan that he wouldn't have time for otherwise, such as the bank where a murder had occurred.

Using the same blind spots in surveillance, Schiller staged a murder, killing the bank's manager cat, and timed it perfectly to leave the corpse at the bank's entrance. With Grey Mist's help, all of this was not difficult to achieve.

Batman saw the manager cat's corpse, and Schiller was well aware that Batman, with his detective instincts, wouldn't ignore this murder. Batman had to investigate.

Batman was the king of the night, only operating from late evening to early morning. Thus, the surveillance vulnerabilities Schiller arranged coincided with his peak activity hours. This way, Batman was led to the bank by Schiller's surveillance gaps and simultaneously infiltrated the bank.

Meanwhile, Schiller did not linger at Mad Cat Asylum since it was merely a prison for the mad cats, and there wasn't much to investigate there. He intended to investigate Batman's former residence, the Manor.

Schiller didn't need confirmation; he was well aware that there must be a place in Gotham City called Wayne Manor. Just like the infamous crime alley, it was a Gotham landmark, a fixture in every incarnation of the city. This was a part of Batman's origin story, a constant in the DC Comics universe.

In his Grey Mist form, Schiller conducted a large-scale search despite all the buildings having been transformed into steel cages by Bat Cat. Bat Cat no longer lived in the Manor but in Bat Cat Tower or the Batcave. Still, Schiller managed to find a distinctive building in what used to be an affluent area.

This building had also been converted into metal, but unlike the other structures, it wasn't part of a row of houses or an apartment building. It stood alone as a single villa.

Upon entering the villa, Schiller found an even denser array of monitoring equipment compared to the outside, even though Bat Cat had been called away by Schiller, and the group of released mad cats would keep him occupied for some time. Even if the surveillance was destroyed, he couldn't return immediately.

Schiller factored in all the timing, and when Bat Cat was busy fighting Bane's group of mad cats, he disabled all the monitoring equipment in the Manor.

As he began to investigate, he found that the entire Manor had been emptied of its contents, with no furniture or belongings left behind. This was beyond Schiller's expectations. He couldn't fathom why Bat Cat, even in his paranoia, would strip his childhood home in such a manner.

Schiller had come here to search for traces of another person: the butler, Alfred.

Through his analysis of Bat Cat's personality, Schiller concluded that Batman had grown up without guidance, which had exacerbated his paranoia and uncontrollable desire for control. This raised a question: Where had Alfred gone?

Even the original Batman, the mature and dark vigilante, wasn't so paranoid as to turn all of Gotham into this. In fact, it was more foolish than paranoid. The original Batman had a strong sense of obsession, but his mind remained clear. He certainly knew that such measures wouldn't eradicate all crime.

In other words, this wasn't merely a mature version of Gotham; something had occurred that altered the life trajectory of this so-called Bat Cat. The most significant change Schiller observed was Alfred's absence.

So, Schiller devised a roundabout plan, drawing Bat Cat away and then conducting his own investigation into the former Bat Cat Manor.

When Schiller arrived in the underground room, he heard a noise. His cat-like keen hearing allowed him to detect it as soon as it happened. With quick steps, he ascended the staircase he had just descended, slipping into the adjacent room like a wisp of smoke.

There, he saw two cats emerging from the basement, one of them walking with a gait that seemed elderly. It was a gray cat, slender and frail, with a weary expression. Even part of its tail was missing; unmistakably, this was Alfred the cat.

What was even more important was the collar around Alfred's neck, an obvious monitoring device placed by Bat Cat. At present, it was sparking, having been damaged. It seemed that Alfred had been rescued from the basement by another cat, but what puzzled Schiller was that the cat who had rescued Alfred was now walking alongside him.

He was green and laughing at the moment.

Looking east along the path of Bat Cat's Manor, then beyond the central battlefield where Bat Cat and Bane were locked in combat, one arrived at the easternmost Gotham Bank in this Cat City Gotham.

Unlike the Gotham of reality, the buildings in this Cat City Gotham were all in different locations. However, it was evident that this particular bank was originally something else before being transformed into a bank. Some details from its previous incarnation had been preserved.

Observing these details, Batman deduced that this place might have been the former Gotham Police Department. Lifting a metal wall panel, he could see bullet holes and scars on the old walls behind.

Batman proceeded deeper into the bank, speculating on which room might hold clues based on the specifications of the surrounding buildings. He discovered that all the rooms on the ground floor had been converted into the bank's offices, but there was one hidden door leading underground.

After opening that door, Batman heightened his vigilance and descended slowly down a staircase. As expected, the underground room had a completely different style from the one above, resembling an archives room, and some documents that hadn't been damaged were still there. Batman walked to the desk, hopped onto a chair, and examined the words on those documents.

Cats in Gotham, of course, had their own written language, or else they couldn't have developed such a civilization. The problem was, Batman couldn't understand their script.

Nevertheless, there was a substantial amount of documents here, combined with the words he had seen on signs earlier, Batman could piece together some of the content.

Under the cold light, Batman's fur was highlighted in blue. He stared intently at the text, his blue eyes filled with a unique radiance.

Meanwhile, in the central battle of Gotham, Bat Cat was engaged in combat with Clark.

No matter which world's Batman, his combat abilities in hand-to-hand combat were limited, especially when facing Superman Cat.

Needless to say, the fighting style of feline combat was vastly different from human combat. The focus of Superman Cat lay in his superhuman abilities rather than cat-like techniques. He possessed all of Superman's powers, except he had to limit his strength to avoid collapsing the dreamworld, his only vulnerability. So, he was nearly invincible.

Clark had no intention of learning cat attack techniques. He merely floated in the air, using his eye beams to force Bat Cat to dart around chaotically. Even without using his claws, a single punch would send Bat Cat flying far.

Finally, Bat Cat, battered and bruised, couldn't take it anymore. He activated a controller beside his neck, and in a moment, a thunderous roar echoed from the ground. The walls and foundations of countless buildings began to change, forming into a colossal machine monster...

Even a person of normal stature would appear tiny when compared to this enormous defense mechanism cat. Let alone several ordinary cats.

During the transformation into a machine form, they scattered in all directions. Clark had to raise his altitude to observe the situation.

Bat Cat controlled his wings and flew overhead the giant machine. Clark's expression turned serious. Dealing with such a huge creature with restricted power wasn't an easy task. He shouted down, "Cooperate with me! Attack its legs!"

A full moon hung high in the sky. The terrifying machine monster leaped onto the rooftop. The shadows of the few cats, compared to it, seemed minuscule. All the cats knew that a fierce battle was about to commence.

However, at that moment, a cat's shadow leaped over the moon. With a streamlined body, it exuded the unique elegance of a feline.

It landed on the shoulder of the giant machine, then swiftly leaped overhead. For a cat, the overhead of this colossal machine was like a small square.

Two identical blue-eyed black cats stood face to face in the moonlight.

"Who are you? Why are you here?!" Bat Cat cautiously took a step back, looking at the cat identical to himself. Suddenly, as if he had recalled something, he said, "Aren't you the rat that crawled into the sewer earlier?!"

"You're the rat here," Batman took two steps forward. He wasn't insulting Bat Cat but stating a fact. He lightly sniffed the air, sensing a familiar scent. This didn't exceed his expectations. He continued, "You and the cat that died at the bank's entrance are both rats."

"What are you talking about?" Bat Cat involuntarily took another step back. The cat in front of him was exerting immense pressure, as if an endless dark tide were crashing down upon him.

"I became a bat because bats represent my inner fears."

"And you, you became a bat because someone hoped that the one ruling Gotham would be a winged rodent and not a cat with sharp teeth and claws."

"Because, they fear cats."

Just then, maniacal laughter echoed from the distance. A green cat leaped onto the machine's overhead.

In the moment when Bat Cat's attention was drawn to Joker Cat, a shadow shot out like an arrow in the moonlight.

Batman leaped into the air, his figure blocking the moonlight, casting a shadow onto the building's rooftop, resembling a bat gliding through the night sky.

Just when all the cats thought that Batman was attacking the green Joker Cat, the flying Batman bit into Bat Cat's neck.

A strange and eerie scream echoed, like the cry of an owl in the dark forest.

In the background of a full moon, several feathers soared into the air, twirling in the dark night before gently drifting to the ground.

Green Cat extended his nose, getting close to one of the feathers, and displayed a disgusted expression, saying, "Ha, it still smells of that disgusting bird poop."

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 596: Hail to the Cat! (Part 1)