Chapter 88 Birds prey on each other, yet Chiroptera emerges as the ultimate winner! ...
“I don’t quite understand,” Thomas Jr. said with a gloomy face as he sat on the sofa in the meeting room. He had just lain down in bed when the Penguin suddenly arrived and woken him up with a commotion, without even having time to fix his hair. “I rarely see anyone choose to suddenly visit an adult with a stable job on a weekday morning. I’m sure Gotham has never had this custom.”
The penguin sat opposite him, and the two bodyguards standing behind him were chased out the door.
Who knew you wouldn't go to Wayne Enterprises today? I just wanted to intimidate that good-for-nothing Bruce Wayne, gather some information, and leave a letter for Thomas Wayne Jr....
If the Penguin had known that Isaiah Thomas wasn't going to Wayne Enterprises today, he definitely wouldn't have come like this.
“And with so many people,” Bruce asked innocently and “fearfully” from the side, sitting down. “Are you here to rob us? It’s still daytime, and Gotham’s security is this bad… Is this how you usually live?”
"Should I call the police, Mr. Bruce?" Alfred served them coffee. "Just in case."
“No, not yet,” Bruce openly observed the Penguin, since he was now a notorious good-for-nothing anyway. “You’ll protect us, won’t you, Alfred?”
“That’s right,” Alfred said calmly without leaving, “Even Batman himself wouldn’t be a match for me.”
Yes, Batman himself was just dragged out of bed by him.
The penguin took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.
The Wayne family are all mentally unstable. Why bother arguing with a bunch of mentally unstable people?
“I think you should know that I am an ally of Night Owl.”
“Probably,” Thomas said, holding his coffee cup in silence for a moment before putting it down. “Although I think the relationship between the two of you is more like that of potential enemies… So you’re now planning to switch sides and betray Night Owl?”
“Night Owl has gone mad,” the Penguin finally decided to abandon all communication skills and the desire to uncover the truth behind the Wayne couple’s resurrection, and instead told the whole story in a straightforward manner, “He says he wants to destroy the world.”
How did he know?
Thomas frowned in thought, then said nonchalantly, "What's wrong with that? I believe everyone in the world has thought the same thing..."
Bruce kicked him in the dark.
"Okay, except for Bruce."
Seeing Thomas's nonchalant attitude, Penguin suppressed his anger and explained to him, "I'm not kidding. Owl has completely gone mad. He announced to my face that he's going to blow up the whole world with something."
"When did this happen?" Thomas was absolutely certain that he had never said these words in front of the Penguin. "Halloween? The Night Owl has only appeared on Halloween recently."
Although the one that appeared was a fake owl.
Bruce and Alfred both looked at Thomas.
“That’s right,” the Penguin said, not at all curious about how Thomas knew so much about Nite Owl’s movements. “He suddenly claimed in front of me, his men, and Batman that he was going to destroy the world… I now suspect that Batman has gone mad too, for he didn’t fight him on the spot.”
Batman was also present, which means that Batman and the fake Night Owl were temporarily working together to "smear" him.
Thomas Jr. secretly kicked Bruce.
"What's wrong, Tommy?" Bruce looked at Thomas with an innocent expression, taking advantage of his "good-for-nothing" persona to say recklessly, "You kicked my foot, is there a problem?"
“I’ve said it before: Batman is a hypocrite,” Thomas Jr. said dryly. “There are no good people who can get along with Nite Owl.”
“That’s right, so I’ve decided to give up idolizing Batman today. Gotham doesn’t need an absolutely perfect idol anyway,” Bruce’s performance was clearly much more dedicated than Thomas’s. “I’ve decided to expose the hypocrisy of Batman to the people of Gotham.”
"Do you have to be so flamboyant?" Thomas asked, tapping the sofa with his finger.
It's okay, no matter how stupid Bruce Wayne is, the Penguin will think it's perfectly normal. Bruce replied in the same way.
That makes sense.
“In any case,” the Penguin interrupted the bizarre conversation between the two, “I think we should act quickly, strip Night Owl of his armor and put him in jail. He’s a complete dangerous man, a total madman, and most importantly, he might actually have the means to destroy the world.”
“Okay,” Thomas said politely but perfunctorily, adopting the same attitude he used with salespeople, “Thank you, we’ll consider the suggestion, you can go now.”
“How could I just leave like this?” The Penguin glared at them, desperately reminding himself that Thomas was the only important person who had survived for many years after being an enemy of Nite Owl. “If I leave like this, Nite Owl will know tonight that I’m going to cooperate with you.”
"Then why did you insist on coming during the day? The reporters around here have already taken pictures of you; you certainly couldn't hide it from Night Owl," Bruce asked with a smile. "Is it because owls can't see anything during the day?"
“Some owl species can see right through arrogant humans,” the penguin argued for some diurnal owls. “Besides, there are crazy reporters all around Wayne Manor right now. What difference does it make whether I come during the day or at night?”
"So you deliberately chose to come here during my work hours... You really want to rob Wayne Manor to show you have no intention of cooperating with me?" Thomas became wary. "Do you think I would agree? I also need to maintain my position in Gotham."
“Of course not. My plan is intimidation and blackmail,” the Penguin denied righteously. “Of course, we have no need to make this a real show. It’s enough to make outsiders believe that we are not cooperating.”
The reason is that Thomas Wayne Jr. is sitting across from him now; otherwise, the Penguin wouldn't find it difficult to intimidate and blackmail Bruce.
“You can’t succeed in blackmailing me no matter what, it will weaken my influence in Gotham,” Thomas said arrogantly, looking down at the Penguin with his height advantage. “Whether the Night Owl can destroy the world is still unknown, and I will not allow anyone to use that unknown to step on my head.”
"So you've never been able to outdo Nite Owl all these years. Gothamites fear him more than you, Thomas Wayne Jr.," the Penguin said with a hint of disdain. Compared to Thomas, even Nite Owl seemed friendly and polite; at least Nite Owl knew to put on a show for his partners. "At a crucial moment like this, you're still thinking about those useless face-saving issues?"
"What if word gets out that the CEO was blackmailed by criminals and Wayne Enterprises' stock price drops? Are you going to compensate me?" Thomas Jr. said to him bluntly. "I advise you to understand the situation. I am the one who has been going up against Night Owl for years without being at a disadvantage, Cobblestone. You are just Night Owl's nominal partner, but in reality, he is his subordinate. Now you are asking for my help. You know I am a businessman, and the law of supply and demand is the truth. If you need my influence, you will have to pay a higher price."
“A businessman, well, a businessman,” the Penguin stood up, trying to suppress his anger and calmly “comply” with Thomas’s words. “In that case, I’ll just pretend I was kicked out by the security system.”
Penguin is always good at tolerating these incomprehensible people. He initially relied on his outward compliance, inner desire for power, and clever mind to bring the Copport name back to the top of Gotham.
"Once I kill Night Owl," the Penguin thought to himself with a smile, "I'll kill you next, you damn Wayne! I'm going to stuff you into the meat grinder at the pet food factory and let every dog in town bite you!"
You don't even deserve to be fed to the birds!
“That’s right, Cobblestone, you made the absolutely right choice.” Thomas looked away, as if the Penguin across from him was completely unimportant. “I’ll have the professionals handle the Night Owl issue, you don’t need to worry at all.”
The penguin managed to maintain his polite smile.
So all that I said was for nothing?
If you could easily deal with Night Owl by finding a "professional," would you have had to kill off one after another those who were close to you in the past two years?
The Penguin took off his coat, smoked himself by the fireplace, smeared ash on his face, and stomped on his top hat before leaving Wayne Manor looking disheveled.
Loud laughter came from outside.
"Why were you stepping on my foot?" Thomas turned to Bruce. "Six times in total."
Bruce sat in the corner of the sofa, covering his face tightly with his hands: "Why did you have to deliberately provoke the Penguin?"
“Is it really that big of a deal?” Thomas Jr. put away his previous arrogant attitude. “I need to verify the credibility of what he’s saying. If the Penguin insists on cooperating with me even in this situation, then it proves that the Night Owl matter is really that urgent.”
Of course, the more important reason is that Nite Owl doesn't want to lose a fairly useful ally, and the more strained the relationship between the Penguin and the Wayne family, the better.
“Night Owl could very well really destroy the world, and you have to take this seriously,” Bruce said, pulling his face away from his hands. “You know, I was with the fake Night Owl the other day, and he told me about Night Owl…”
"And then, for some reason, you decided to run up to the Penguin and yell that you were going to destroy the world?" Thomas interrupted him. "What exactly happened? Of course, I'll take this very seriously, but you should tell me about your and that fake owl's plan, or we might end up hurting each other."
“Well,” Bruce replied, “I and the fake owl tried our best, and now the Court of Owls probably can’t tell which one is the real owl.”
Isaiah Thomas tried hard to keep his expression straight.
You're something else, Bruce.
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Author's note: After a stomachache all day, I suddenly had a newspaper idea.
Cyber Gotham!
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