While Jonathan and Hugo were discussing their plan, they suddenly heard a noise outside the door. Both of them immediately looked towards the door with caution.
Hugo walked to the door and opened it, but as soon as he did, he quickly stepped back. He saw a somewhat familiar man standing outside the door. The man extended his hand to greet him and smiled, revealing eight teeth.
"Sorry, my roommate. I didn't mean to track you. Has anyone told you? Your acting skills are really poor. I couldn't help but notice," the man said.
Hugo's face immediately darkened.
With a muffled sound, the silenced handgun went off, but it wasn't Hugo who fired the shot. It was Jonathan, who was standing behind him.
Looking at Constantine lying in a pool of blood, Jonathan expressed his dissatisfaction to Hugo, "You actually brought a tail with you?! You repeatedly make me doubt your professionalism, Hugo. I think I should reconsider the necessity of working with you."
Frowning, Hugo looked at Constantine's corpse. He was about to say something when suddenly, there was another sound behind Jonathan.
Both of them turned around and saw Constantine standing behind them, saying, "My friend, your marksmanship is as rotten as his acting."
When Hugo looked back at the corpse, he found that it slowly turned into ashes, and the blood disappeared.
Before he could ask, Constantine spread his hands and said, "As you can see, I am a magician.""You know how people have a bias against magic. When I say I can do magic, they think I'm crazy and lock me up here. I heard that you want to escape. How about taking me with you?" Constantine asked.
Jonathan put down the handgun and looked at Constantine's smile. He lowered his gaze and said, "It seems that you are a better partner than him."
"Do you plan to trust him just like that, Jonathan? Trust this guy with an unknown background?" Hugo asked.
"Aren't you also of unknown origin?" Jonathan replied.
Jonathan put away the handgun and stood by the window, saying, "The three of us are all outsiders with unknown backgrounds. No one can truly trust anyone."
"But we can temporarily cooperate, can't we?" Constantine approached Jonathan and said, "Do I need to prove myself to join your organization? Like, killing someone?"
"Have you killed someone?" Jonathan asked Constantine.
"Of course not. I'm a law-abiding good person. I enjoy making friends, but unfortunately, my friends always meet unfortunate accidents," Constantine replied.
"I wander the world with poetic sentiments. The journey is long, and accidents happen frequently. Sometimes, I feel like I'm cursed. But now, I realize it's just bad luck," Constantine rambled on.
His words were incoherent, but Jonathan's expression relaxed slightly. He said, "I feel the same way. I thought I was cursed, but now it seems that this curse is called talent and wisdom."
"It's clear that we are kindred spirits," Constantine said, crossing his arms. "We show the world our utmost goodwill, but the world doesn't reciprocate. In that case, what harm can a little mischief do?"
"Now is not the time to discuss this, is it?" Hugo interrupted. "Our plan..."
Suddenly, a ghost with a faint glow appeared in the center of the room, grinning. It reached out its arms and captured Hugo, pushing him against the wall, then tightly gripping his neck.
"I think he's not one of us. What do you think?" Constantine turned around, watching Hugo struggle and scream in pain. "He looks like an evil bad guy to me. I think it's necessary for me to rid the world of him..."
Jonathan also turned his head and said, "He's a foolish, self-proclaimed psychologist. He gets scared by a few illusions and can't even escape from a regular hospital room. He's a complete idiot and waste."
"But..." Jonathan's tone suddenly changed. "He still has his uses. Let him go."
As soon as Jonathan finished speaking, Hugo was released, and the ghost disappeared. Hugo fell to the ground, coughing uncontrollably.
Jonathan's face showed a hint of satisfaction. In his eyes, this new stranger seemed to be a better match for him.
Jonathan, the scarecrow, who was captured and sent to Arkham Asylum since Batman's debut, missed out on all the exciting events.
Of course, he wasn't entirely unlucky. After all, he was safe inside Arkham Asylum.
What's more fortunate was that his hospital room was located on the higher floors of Arkham Hospital, and he had never encountered Evans, Copperpot, or Jack, who lived on the lower floors. These people didn't even know that there was someone on the top floor. Otherwise, his safety would be questionable.
As a well-known villain in DC comics, Jonathan couldn't accept his current situation. He definitely wanted to escape. However, the security measures in the hospital room where dangerous patients were held were quite strict.
As a newly emerged villain, Jonathan, a university professor, lacked physical strength and the ability to execute plans perfectly. Therefore, it was difficult for him to escape on his own.
While he was still observing the situation, someone approached him voluntarily. It was Hugo Strange.
Hugo had been brought into the dream by Schiller as a tool, but after the appearance of the Yellow Lantern and the Egg of Madness, he had nothing to do with it. As a result, he was kicked out of the dream. Due to the rough handling, Hugo fainted in the examination room and was carried back to the hospital room by Brand.
At first, he was a bit crazy because the process of severing the dream connection was too rough and damaged his mind. However, he quickly recovered. It was just that Brand, who selflessly treated him as a patient, didn't give him a chance to escape.
After enduring humiliation for a while, Hugo gradually figured out the routines of the nurses and doctors. Then, he started to explore at night. His goal was clear: the tightly guarded hospital room on the top floor.
He had worked in many mental hospitals and knew that such hospital rooms housed dangerous individuals. He thought that the process of seeking cooperation would be very difficult, and he even prepared himself to use them as cannon fodder. However, he didn't expect that the first person he found was willing to communicate, and they successfully reached an agreement... He didn't expect this, but suddenly Constantine appeared, and these two lunatics seemed to get along well. Hugo himself seemed somewhat unnecessary now.
But there's nothing we can do; the friendship between the three of them is always like this, with no specific reason for the order in which they come.
Constantine stepped forward and helped Hugo up, saying, "Oh, I apologize to you. My little pet has a bad temper."
Hugo glared at him fiercely but ultimately said nothing. Now it seemed that Constantine would be their important source of strength. Hugo took a deep breath and suppressed his anger.
"Continue talking about your plan," Jonathan walked up and looked at Hugo.
Hugo's face darkened as he said, "If we just go out like this, we will definitely attract Batman. Maybe we can escape, but it will come at a cost, and Gotham is Batman's territory. We won't get far before he catches up to us."
"So, we need to create some mess first to attract his attention before we can implement our plan."
"How do you plan to do that?" Jonathan asked.
"It's simple. We release all the patients here."
Hugo began pacing around the room as he spoke, "I have stayed in mental hospitals all over the place. Most of the patients there don't have strong aggressive tendencies; they just can't take care of themselves, so they need to be hospitalized."
"But there is also a group of people who are not like that. They are natural criminals, irritable, indifferent, and brutal. They have committed multiple crimes causing harm to others, but they are not imprisoned because they have genuine mental illnesses. These people are often kept in local mental hospitals."
"Most of them don't think they are sick and are filled with anger and revenge towards society."
"Of course, even so, they can't create much mess once they leave here. After all, they are just ordinary people without any special abilities." Hugo glanced at Constantine as he said this.
"But Gotham is different, right?" Jonathan keenly grasped the point, and Hugo nodded, saying, "One of the main reasons for the high crime rate in Gotham is that there are far more lunatics here than in other places, and they are more dangerous."
"Although I don't know the exact reason, the residents here are not mentally normal. When I was still a doctor, I reviewed the medical records from previous years. The probability of Gotham citizens suffering from mental illnesses is about 1500% higher than in other cities, and the probability of them engaging in violent behavior or developing anti-society personality disorders is almost 100%."
Hugo glanced at the wall and said, "Unless something unexpected happens, the patients locked up in this mental hospital are the most dangerous ones. Once we release this bunch of lunatics, it will be enough to give Batman a headache."
Constantine opened his mouth but didn't say anything. His reason told him that Hugo had a point, but his intuition also told him that something unexpected was bound to happen.
"Alright, how do we execute it then?" Constantine crossed his arms and flipped the hem of his coat to the back, asking.
Hugo confidently said, "This mental hospital was built a long time ago, and the rooms still use key locks as the structure."
"The reason I was able to come here is that I have already found where they keep the keys. However, just to be safe, I only took one key, which is the key to this room. But actually, I can get all the keys..."
"Then do we go door by door to open them? Won't they attack us when we open the doors?" Jonathan asked.
"Originally, I had some other methods in mind, but now it seems that our new friend who just joined us should have a way." Hugo turned his head and looked at Constantine.
Constantine raised his hands and gestured, saying, "Well, I can send my little pet to open the doors. It's very fast, and it won't take long to open all the doors. But are you sure the patients here will create enough mess?"
"Don't worry, those most dangerous lunatics will definitely rush out first," Hugo said confidently.
"And then, we'll add fuel to the chaos in this city."
Hugo turned his head and looked out the window. The night in Gotham was still dark, but the lights in the city center were like the sun in the darkness.
In the flickering light and shadow, the wind howled through the streets. Two dark shadows swept across the rooftops of buildings, several throwing knives flew, and a grappling hook shot out from the arm of the dark figure, entangling the fleeing person.
Batman grabbed the grappling hook and swung it fiercely, throwing Joker, who was hooked around the waist, onto the ground beside him. Joker fell unconscious, bleeding from his head, and the remote control for the bomb in his hand flew away.
Batman approached, captured the grappling hook around Joker's waist, and lifted him up, slowly walking into the night of Gotham.
Looking in the direction he was heading, three sinister figures stood in front of the only lit window of Arkham Asylum.
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