[Zhongyingmei] The clown is actually me

Woke up and fell into a coma again, I don't know how long it has passed.

Batman opened his eyes.

The ceiling was the color of pitch-black marble, and pale lights flickered on and off.

The stabbing pain came quickly, and there were bursts of pain in his arms, thighs, and abdomen. In his sleep, he broke out in cold sweat all over his head and face. Now, big beads of sweat condensed on his forehead and flowed into his eyes.

Seeing that he woke up, the man standing by the hospital bed hurriedly held him down and motioned him not to move: "Don't move, you have a broken bone, and the wound hasn't been fully sewn up yet, if you move too much, you'll bleed."

He is still dressed in the same way, with a purple striped tuxedo trench coat, an acid green vest with a pale yellow French shirt, and a plain white camellia pinned to his chest.Coupled with the upturned smile on his face, everything made Batman feel damn familiar, and he knew the veins on his forehead were thumping: "Joker?"

"It's Jack." Jack licked the corner of his mouth, and habitually swallowed a bit of lipstick, "The infirmary was half destroyed by the bombing, and there is not enough anesthetic, so you bear with it."

To escape the Scarecrow's fear gas, he flees into the sewers with Batman and Harley.He can't swim though, and if Batman hadn't been jolted awake by the water and swam him to land, he'd have drowned with Batman and Harley, Batman was too badly wounded to be comatose after all this In the past, it was Jack who walked the two of them to the infirmary of Arkham Asylum.

"Why are you dressed like this?" Batman realized that he was cleaning his wounds. Before he came to Arkham to face the Scarecrow, he was already bruised and bruised. Blood loss and fractures made him not conscious enough to face the Scarecrow.Now he's lying in a hospital bed, Jack has removed part of Batman's armor - damn, how does he know how to disassemble the armor - the shadowless lamp was shattered by the explosion, he couldn't find a good light source, only I can bring a desk lamp and put it on the bedside, and debride, stop bleeding and suture in such a crude environment.

"Arkham has a lot of eyes, I have to dress like this, otherwise people will think I have a problem." Jack puffed on the cigarette.

A bitter taste in the mouth, an antidote to the poison of fear.Batman grabbed his hand and stared at him: "How did you get through the fear gas?"

"I didn't wear it. You and Harry fell at the door at that time, and I dragged you out in one breath."

"Jack," Batman called his name for the first time, "I remember where I lay, you can't fool me."

Jack tied the suture, put down the blood-stained tweezers, and sighed a long time: "Bat, I saved you anyway, you should say thank you."

Batman's lips were tightly pressed together for a long time: "Thank you.—So how did you deal with the fear gas?"

Jack put the cigarette in his mouth and took a deep breath. Half of his face was immersed in the darkness, showing completely different and even two extreme looks.

Batman finds his eyes shifting, sometimes like a desperate lion, sometimes like a scarred stray dog, part cowardly engineer, part lunatic everyone fears, part comedian unpopular , and the most terrifying criminal in Gotham history, that kind of separation that is hard to ignore makes people ignore his appearance. Even Batman can't help but feel a sense of confusion, the illusion that there are two faces under the same face. individual soul.

"Did you see him?" Jack said suddenly.

"Who?"

"Joker, he's sitting right there next to me."

Batman looked in the direction he was looking, and there was no one there: "There's no one there."

"I know he is just a phantom. The fear gas made me see the clown. He is the source of my fear." Jack exhaled the smoke in his lungs, and the haze curled up, "But here is the problem. I should be afraid of him, but I forgot why I was afraid of him."

Batman was silent.

Jack raised his head and stared at him, but his eyes passed through him far away, looking into the depths of the void: "Bat, do you think I am him?"

"No."

Jack looked at the task bar, where it was still "Let anyone trust you, believe that you have changed your mind and stopped doing evil. (1/2, unfinished)".

He was not surprised, it was difficult for Batman to completely trust anyone, even his best friend, "World's Best Partner" Superman, for whom he prepared a warehouse of kryptonite.Jack didn't think it would take Batman half a month to trust him, and he didn't expect this "anyone" to be Batman.Even though he knew it was fake, when he heard Batman say "no", he couldn't help but smile and flick the ash out of his hand.

"I know what you think, two identical peptide chains, different folding methods make them different proteins. Maybe I am the projection of the clown, and his way of thinking is integrated in another way, which becomes me , you think me and the clown are one person, we show different, just like the moon has different sides, but it is still the same moon." Jack said while bandaging Batman's wound, "but in my eyes Come on, I am me, I am an ordinary chemical factory employee, I have a wife, she was pregnant not long ago, my life is day after day work, rest, play, sleep, and repeat... I never do evil, I not him."

Batman no longer answers the touchy question: "Where's Harley?"

"The bed next door, she was too poisoned, I injected her with a tube of stabilizer, it should be fine." Jack realized that it was too sensitive to talk to Batman about this issue, Batman would not let his guard down, and the crime committed by the Joker Enough to make him die of old age in Arkham, so he rode downhill and bypassed the subject. "The scarecrow was handcuffed by me at the corner of the corridor where you were poisoned. No one goes there, so there shouldn't be a big problem."

Although his physical skills are not very good, it is enough to deal with scarecrows.

"You know how to make an antidote."

"I know." It was exchanged at the Arkham store for 450 system common currency.

"You said you didn't share memories with him."

"But I just know."

He finished smoking a cigarette, and flicked the butt of the cigarette to the ground, with a ring of lipstick on the cigarette butt.Batman watched him pick up the sweet tea, took a sip with his eyes closed, and suddenly said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome, and thank you for saving me."

"You can't swim?"

"It's not a question of not knowing, it's just..." Jack talked about the past very casually, "My mother drowned, dying in front of my eyes."

Batman paused, "Sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Bat, it's the same for everyone. People these days don't seem to have the right to talk without a bad past or something. You surprise me a lot. If you can be honest-- ok. No kidding Now, let’s get down to business.” Jack sneered, “Someone deliberately blew up the walls of Arkham, and someone else air-dropped arms and weapons to arm us, let us burn here, or go to Gotham City Killing and looting. Don't look at the suspension bridge rising, when did the suspension bridge stop us? And the target of the person who did this is definitely you."

Batman expressed his doubts with silence: How do you know?

"Don't ask me how I know, I have a special hunch that you may be at a disadvantage this time. Let me guess, cast Arkham's lunatics to wear you down, and then kill you when you are most tired Sounds like a great plan, right?" Jack shrugged, "I guess, if I were him, I'd definitely do it while you're relaxing, like... when you get home."

"you mean?"

"The other party has guessed who you are."

"impossible."

"Nothing is impossible, Bat, you have created an identity blind spot in Gotham, but this set may not work for people outside of Gotham. It would be better to say that Batman's true identity has not been recognized until now. Discovery is a miracle."

Batman suddenly sat up from the hospital bed, grabbed his collar, and lifted him up, his blue eyes were terribly bright: "What do you know? How much did you participate in?"

...I know it's drama.

Jack laughed, and magically took out a bottle of sprayer that looked like a soda can, and threw it to Batman, who took it. The sprayer was only the size of a palm, and several labels on the bottle were corroded and tattered by the chemical liquid. After confirming that Jack didn't do anything with this thing, he asked, "What is this?"

"Don't look like that, as if I made some dangerous toy again. It's not laughing gas. It's just an anesthetic gas. Do you need me to teach you how to use it? Spray it on someone, and even a cow will fall down." Jack made a gesture.

"Why give it to me?"

"Maybe I want to help you?" Jack laughed. "Maybe I've changed my mind and just want to be nice."

nice guy.Jack's smiling face was reflected in Batman's eyes, and the curved lipstick was painted all the way to the bottom of the ear, like the slit woman in the oriental legend.

It was an ordinary man's face, thin, pale, a little haggard, and when he wasn't smiling, he wasn't scary at all.But when he grinned and laughed, the ghost-like soul awakened in this man's body, and everyone who faced him saw hell.

This man is full of crimes. He slaughtered guards, shot unarmed old people and children, distributed loaded forcibly to mental patients, and let them shoot freely in downtown; he drove his psychiatrist crazy, and threw innocent people into chemical In the pool, he peeled their skins to make paintings; he tied the timer/bomb/bomb to the girl, and forced her to walk towards the center of the crowd with a gun.He tried to poison the reservoir, and he planned to gas all the citizens of Gotham.He left fatal trauma to Batman's relatives and friends, and once pushed the latter's family to pieces. He committed evil without any psychological burden and never repented. He should be hanged a hundred times and his body should be hung on the gallows Let it dry, and someone should spit on his bones a century later.

Now he says he wants to be a good guy.

"Don't get too entangled, Bat, I'm not him." Jack put a hand on his arm, "Now put me down, don't you feel sore just holding your arm like this, save some effort."

Batman was silent for a while, but he still put him on the ground. He touched the universal belt, took out two bottles of medicine the size of little thumbs and handed them to Jack: "Take medicine on time."

As soon as Jack reached out to take it, Batman suddenly grabbed his wrist, opened his hands, and handcuffed them to the bedside of the hospital bed. Jack, who did not expect that he would suddenly turn his face without warning, stunned, and yelled. :"Hello!"

"Sorry." Batman said as he walked to another hospital bed, and also handcuffed the unconscious Harry, "Stay here and don't move, the police will be here soon."

"You are..." Jack thought for a while, but couldn't find an accurate adjective.He watched Batman straighten his clothes, and knew that he was going to fight again: "Wait a minute, Gotham flying mouse, you have to rest, you have broken several bones, and you haven't slept for several days, you can't use this It’s a physical challenge, and things can really happen.”

It's a funny moment, the Joker is worried about Batman.

"Sorry." Batman finished all this, hung the sprayer on his belt, and pushed open the door of the infirmary, "Gotham needs me."

Jack turned his back to him, wondering if he was gone or not.Both his hands were handcuffed, unable to wave goodbye, he could only sigh regretfully: "Forget it, next time you see me, remember to bring a cup of milk tea. Add more pudding."