Chapter 57 Meeting... Meeting... Meeting...
This matter is temporarily closed. Although there is still one question, it is clear that this problem can only be solved by Batman. Bruce Willis, the "Playboy," would never have the time or inclination to ask about such things.
Moreover, if they don't hurry up and get Elliott into the GCPD, Thomas will probably send him straight to the crematorium.
Thomas was furious today, as evidenced by the pile of fire axes Bruce found under his desk.
Yes, a whole bunch.
A pile of fire axes with their blades gleaming coldly.
Well... it seems Wayne Enterprises really takes fire safety regulations very seriously.
So the main task for the second day was... to calm Thomas down.
"Alfred, do you have any suggestions?"
Dick asked Alfred with a worried expression.
This was a small meeting they held while Thomas had just left home and Dick was not yet ready for school.
The main attendees were Alfred, Bruce, Jason, and Richard (in no particular order, listed alphabetically by first name).
“To be honest, I don’t know.” Alfred poured him a glass of milk. “I don’t even know why young Master Thomas is so angry.”
"Didn't you see what happened in Thomas's office yesterday? Was the computer broken?"
“No, the Batcomputer is certainly fine,” Alfred replied calmly, “but I think it’s better to forget some things.”
It seems that Alfred does not want to participate in this meeting as a key participant.
“Jay, what about you?” Dick flipped himself over.
"Me?" Jason was jolted awake from his thoughts. "What does this have to do with me?"
"You didn't recognize Thomas either?"
“We’re not even close, we’ve only known each other for less than a week,” Jason replied cautiously. “If even I can recognize that it’s not him, your situation will be even more dangerous.”
Thomas might actually put into practice the second piece of advice he gave Jason about family.
Well, Jason wasn't a major attendee either.
“That makes sense.” Dick leaned on the table. “Bruce, what about you?”
Bruce sat up straight and defended himself: "I recognized it too."
“But Elliott obviously knows so much about Thomas because of you.” Dick refused to face Thomas’s rage alone and tried to drag Bruce into it as well.
“We were on good terms back then, and I thought we'd both been through things together... I thought he'd understand me, but after he badmouthed Thomas, I cut ties with him... Okay, what should we do?”
Bruce gave up the struggle too.
"Do you have any relevant experience, Bruce?"
"No, Thomas rarely gets angry."
It's a bit better now. When Thomas was a child, he almost never showed his emotions to anyone. You could never see him angry or happy; he was like a mannequin.
This resulted in their family having only one group photo where everyone was smiling.
“Well,” Dick sighed, “it seems we have to ‘learn the ropes (1)’. I thought I would never need to relearn how to manipulate ropes in my life.”
“I don’t think it’s that difficult,” Bruce said optimistically. “Thomas has a good temper; as long as you’re sincere enough, it’ll be fine.”
Jason looked at Bruce in disbelief.
Good temper? What makes you have a good temper?
“Indeed,” Dick surprisingly agreed, “He was probably really angry yesterday… You’ll know once you spend more time with him.”
“Actually, I already have an idea,” Bruce said, picking up the glass, “but I need someone’s help.”
He looked in the direction of Alfred and Jason (clearly, the two non-essential attendees were now standing together), Jason met his gaze with a puzzled look, while Alfred was blunt: "So this is the reason you specifically asked me to attend the meeting?"
“Thank you, Alfred.” Bruce even used the expression of Gotham’s sweetheart Brucey.
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Bruce eventually convinced Alfred and Jason to join their plan.
Alfred didn't say much, but decisively gave the recipe for a strawberry milkshake.
Jason then whispered something to Dick, which ended with them reaching some unspeakable agreement.
“The operation plan is as follows: Bruce and I will be in charge of making the strawberry milkshakes this afternoon,” Dick emphasized at the door. “Jason will be in charge of keeping Thomas occupied, and we would also like to thank Alfred for his generous donation of the recipe, kitchenware and ingredients.”
“Don’t forget what you promised me!” Jason emphasized.
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Thomas is still very busy today.
But he wasn't busy with Wayne Enterprises' work; he was mainly searching for Joker's whereabouts.
This matter took precedence even over creating the quantum bomb. Thomas didn't want him to experience the peaceful death that the quantum bomb would bring.
Thinking about it this way, aren't there a few too many things ahead of the quantum essential state bomb? Should we eliminate one or two...?
Just as Thomas was deep in thought, Jason walked in.
Thomas sat up straight. "What brings you here?"
“Didn’t you say you wanted me to help out in your lab?” Jason replied. “So here I am.”
“Okay,” Thomas stood up, “but I’m not in the mood for experiments right now… I have a bigger problem now—you can sit on that sofa over there, yes, right there.”
"What's the problem?" Jason followed his instructions and sat obediently on the sofa, quietly observing his surroundings.
He arrived at this office in the evening yesterday and didn't even have a chance to properly observe it.
The main problem was that Thomas's axe was too eye-catching, leaving him with no extra energy.
Thinking of this, he looked at the bookshelf, and sure enough, the marks left by the fire axe were still there.
"Interpersonal relationships," mainly Bruce, Dick, and that damned Joker, "I've never thought about these things before."
Thomas walked to the bookshelf next to the sofa and, under Jason's watchful eye, fiddled with it for a few moments.
Then, a wall was slashed open.
"Is this your lab?" Jason stood up curiously.
"?" Thomas snapped out of his daze. "No, how could that be?"
How could he possibly have placed the quantum bomb, the quantum starter, and the central computing system here? It would be too easy for Batman to discover.
"What's that?" Jason leaned over from behind him, trying to see what was inside.
This is a red standing freezer filled with plenty of Coke and a few lonely, symbolic, dull, dogmatic, healthy bottles of mineral water.
“A Coke smoothie maker, so you can have Coke smoothies anytime.” Thomas opened the freezer, took out two bottles of Coke, and put them in the small box that came with the machine. “Alfred thought the freezer didn’t match the style of my office, so I added this hidden cabinet and put it in there.”
"That's so cool!" Jason exclaimed. "If I ever have my own house, I'll definitely install one there."
“I’d like to install one in my own house too. I’m sure Bruce and Dick would welcome it, but Alfred obviously wouldn’t allow it.” Thomas handed Jason a bottle of Coke. “If you manage to install one in your own house later, you can throw a party.”
Thomas seems to possess a magical power: when the fear of those around him reaches its limit, he performs some miraculous actions to clear away that fear.
Take Jason, for example. The cola smoothie had numbed his senses, so he started asking Thomas, "Do you also have interpersonal problems? I thought you would send people you don't like to prison."
“I’d like to solve it that simply, but it’s obviously unlikely,” Thomas sighed. “I’ve never dealt with such an elusive interpersonal relationship problem before.”
“Can you tell me?” Jason suggested. “Maybe I have a solution.”
“That makes sense.” Jason was indeed a relatively good person to confide in. He was the only family member Thomas hadn’t met on Earth 3, and other people’s perspectives were somewhat valuable.
He decided to start with Bruce. "Here's what happened: I had someone I knew, someone I used to be an ally of. I tried to persuade him to do something with me, but he betrayed me."
"Betrayed you?"
“Yes, he changed his mind,” Thomas replied, omitting some of the more obvious implications.
Jason, clearly understanding Thomas's "normal thought process," immediately asked: "How did you handle him?"
“I killed him with my own hands,” Thomas sighed.
I thought they were going to jail!
Jason snapped out of the pleasant atmosphere created by the iced cola: "Wait, you were just talking about interpersonal relationship issues, weren't you!"
"That's right."
"...You just said you killed him, right?"
"Yes, I personally sent him to his grave."
That's where the problem lies.
"Why would you want to associate with the dead?" Jason was somewhat incoherent. "No, wait..."
“I can’t help it,” Thomas replied. “Once you start something, you have to keep going. As for why I should be thinking about relationships with the dead…”
Thomas put down his Coke bottle: "Of course it's because he came to see me again."
This sentence made even the summer sun feel cold.
Jason put down his iced cola: "Are you... are you sure it's not Elliott or something?"
“Of course, I’m absolutely certain it’s him,” Thomas said seriously. “Although I only recognized him recently.”
Thomas continued, "As soon as he returned, he joined my enemies in completely ruining the plan that had taken me years to build—of course, I didn't recognize him at the time."
Jason appeared completely calm, but in reality, he was already trying to recall what the disease Thomas had told him was called.
“I recently discovered his true identity,” Thomas said, completely absorbed in his memories. “To be honest, I was devastated. He was actually someone I was very close to, and even after I killed him, we were still on good terms. What do you think I should do with him?”
“Wh...oh!” Jason almost bit his tongue.
What the hell is this?!
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The author has something to say: (1) Slang, which means to learn something new or to get the hang of it (I guess, my English is terrible, but I want to play with puns). The literal meaning is to learn about ropes or something, and it seems to come from sailors.
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Don't worry, neither the kitchen nor Thomas will be in danger.
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I'm so bad at writing Dick's dialogue (struggling) (wriggling), I'm a stutterer, a super gloomy, socially awkward person! Wings are so sunny (at least compared to me, although everyone is pretty sunny compared to me)! They're melting me! Puns are so hard!
Looking back at the earlier parts now is simply unbearable... It will probably be heavily revised after it's finished, as some parts are written terribly.
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