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Chapter 286: The Bat's Interrogation
Axel Walker, codenamed the Trickster, was one of Central City's villains. He excelled at pranks, possessed a pile of high-tech equipment that seemed playful but was actually dangerous, and had a signature pair of air-walking shoes.
Of course, none of these sounded like things that could pose a threat to the fastest man in the world.
Although he caused The Flash some trouble with his pranks during their first encounter, he was inevitably caught in the end. He nearly escaped during the recent Iron Heights Prison riot but was ultimately captured and brought back.
But that wasn't the point. More importantly, he had supposedly seen the person who attacked the prison. An inmate on the scene testified that the attacker had come face-to-face with Walker, and they had even exchanged a few words.
This was the information The Flash and Green Lantern needed now.
According to their agreement, Green Lantern would play good cop today. So, he had to go in first and set the stage for his good buddy, The Flash.
"I know you don't want to talk, Walker, but I strongly suggest you start now."
Chains formed from Green Lantern's energy restrained Walker's body, while Green Lantern floated beside him with his arms crossed.
"Look, we're all in a hurry to get off work. To be honest, The League's business here is already over. You can't imagine how much I want to just leave a note on you for the authorities that says, 'A gift from the Justice League.' But I can't."
"Why not?" Walker asked.
"Because of The Flash, of course. You've pissed him off. You know, even in the Justice League, we have our jurisdictions. This is his city, and you are, to put it mildly, a cancer in his city.
"You have no idea how hard I just had to work to hold him back. Otherwise, he would have already used his high-speed vibration to phase his hand into your head and rip the answers out along with your brain matter."
Walker was horrified, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "The Flash can do that?"
"Of course, but the poor slob it's done to has to wear diapers for the rest of their life—if they're lucky. So do me a favor and just confess to The Flash. I really don't want to have to clean up his messes every time."
As he finished speaking, a red shadow flickered over with an electric arc. The Flash appeared in an instant, popping up right in his face, which made Walker scream "Ah!" and instinctively shrink back, bumping his head on the wall.
Barry tried his best to look fierce, even vibrating his vocal cords to sound a bit like Batman. "Talk! Are you going to talk or not? If you don't, I'll... I'll..."
Walker swallowed hard. He tried to look as fearless as a villain, but he couldn't stop trembling. "You'll what?"
"I'll..."
Barry held it in for a long moment.
"...I'll be very angry."
Walker: "..."
Green Lantern: "..."
A few seconds of silence passed, so silent it was almost awkward.
"You know what? Nice try. But I'm not telling you anything."
Walker crossed his arms and leaned back tactically, letting out a long sigh of relief inwardly.
*Damn it, this light-show-loving idiot scared me. He really is the same old Flash I know.*
Barry looked at Hal innocently, blinking as if to ask, *He's not talking. Now what?*
Hal covered his face.
"I knew it..."
Seeing this, Orin Vale floated down, smiling. "Looks like the interrogation isn't going so smoothly?"
The two turned their heads in unison.
"Huh? What are you doing in Central City?" Barry asked, pleasantly surprised.
"Just passing through. I'm heading to the Watchtower in a bit." As Orin Vale spoke, he glanced, intentionally or not, at Walker, who was trussed up by the Green Lantern ring. "I'd say you two should stop messing around. Take him to an interrogation room, and all your problems will be solved."
"I guess that's the only way."
Hal sighed, shooting a look at The Flash.
"This is the last time you're playing bad cop."
Barry looked innocent. "My fault?"
"..."
The Justice League's Watchtower was built with all sorts of situations in mind. They not only had a Central Control Room, a conference room, a restaurant, recreational facilities, and so on, but also a Dangerous Goods Containment room, a high-tech temporary prison for various metahumans and aliens, and of course, an interrogation room.
Naturally, only three people in The League usually specialized in interrogations: Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Batman.
"Wonder Woman's not here?"
Arriving at the Watchtower, Hal muttered with his arms crossed.
"Great. Every time you need her Lasso of Truth..."
"Diana is on Mount Olympus. It seems she has something to discuss with a god of war," Kara said.
"Then what about the Martian? I thought he was always around," Hal said, looking around.
"He recently got a job and isn't off work yet..."
"Fantastic. Then we'll just have to see what the Bat's got." Hal glanced at Batman. "Speaking of which, are you not on the clock yet?"
Batman ignored him, walking expressionlessly to the door of the interrogation room. "I only need three minutes."
"Hey, wait a minute!"
Superman flashed in front of him.
Batman frowned. "What?"
"Well, I was just thinking... we've always had you play the bad cop, right?" Superman stood tall, hands on his hips. "Why can't I do it?"
"You?" Batman's expression became somewhat indescribable.
Hal also raised an eyebrow.
"I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this."
One minute later.
The interrogation room door was thrown open domineeringly, and Superman strode in with the aura of a tyrant. "Alright, I don't have time to waste on you, Walker. My friend needs answers, and he needs them now!"
As he spoke, he casually slammed the door behind him. With a tremendous crash, the door he'd slammed collapsed. The force of the impact sent cracks racing across the entire wall of the interrogation room, which rumbled and crumbled into a pile of rubble.
Walker, inside the interrogation room, was scared silly.
However, Superman was also scared silly.
He turned his head stiffly and saw the entire wall he had shattered with one slap. His super-brain quickly calculated the cost, which amounted to several years of his future salary as a reporter...
"Ah, s-sorry, Batman," he said, scratching his head. "I didn't mean to. I just..."
Meeting Batman's disapproving gaze, he suddenly remembered the role he was supposed to be playing.
"Ah!"
Superman quickly turned his head back, fixing Walker with a fierce glare again.
"What I mean is, this... this is nothing compared to what I'm about to do to you, Walker!"
Walker, sitting behind the table, blinked in a daze, his expression asking, *Big Blue, are you okay?*
Batman followed him in, saying coldly, "If I were you, I'd start talking right now. My partner has a bit of a temper."
"You mean Superman? A bad temper?" Walker looked at Superman blankly. "Are you serious?"
Superman looked as if he had been offended.
"I think you should step outside for some air, Batman. I need to be alone with this guy for one minute, and then he'll know what my temper is like."
He grabbed the hanging lamp and turned it towards Walker. The latter instinctively shut his eyes against the glare.
"Ah, sorry," Superman quickly moved the light away. "Did I hurt your eyes?"
A second later, under Batman's disapproving gaze, he remembered his role again.
"Ah, no, I mean... this bit of light is nothing compared to my heat vision!" Superman tried hard to look vicious.
Batman handed him a cup of coffee, still expressionless. "Coffee? It's good for you."
But the moment Walker saw his Bat-face, a shiver ran down his spine, and he instinctively moved away. "Y-you can't fool me! This definitely isn't coffee! What did you put in it?"
"It's just coffee," Batman said coolly.
"St-stay away from me!"
Walker shrank back behind Superman in terror.
"I'll talk, I'll talk! Just don't let that Bat make me drink... whatever that thing is!"
Superman looked at Batman, his expression complicated.
*The interrogation seems to have been a success, result-wise... but why do I feel so defeated?*
*Between the two of us, who was the bad cop here?*
Outside, Green Lantern and The Flash looked at each other.
After a moment of silence, The Flash said, "See? Batman gets him to talk even when he's playing good cop."
Hal raised an eyebrow.
"So this is my fault now?"
"..."
"That's all I know," Walker said loudly.
"That guy, he came to find us... He spoke to a lot of us supervillains. But he didn't need us, and he wasn't planning on letting us out.
"He went into our minds. He stole our memories and thoughts. He needed the key information inside—information about you."
"About us?" Superman frowned.
"He's going around looking for supervillains, all of whom have fought with members of your team before," Walker confessed. "Because he wants to understand you, to know how we managed to defeat you in the past, or at least cause you trouble.
"He wants to understand your patterns of operation, to find your weaknesses."
The members of The League looked at each other.
"Who? Who's looking for our weaknesses?" Hal asked.
"I don't know. I've never seen him before," Walker said. "But he calls himself... the Tomb Demon."
(end of chapter)
Axel Walker, codenamed the Trickster, was one of Central City's villains. He excelled at pranks, possessed a pile of high-tech equipment that seemed playful but was actually dangerous, and had a signature pair of air-walking shoes.
Of course, none of these sounded like things that could pose a threat to the fastest man in the world.
Although he caused The Flash some trouble with his pranks during their first encounter, he was inevitably caught in the end. He nearly escaped during the recent Iron Heights Prison riot but was ultimately captured and brought back.
But that wasn't the point. More importantly, he had supposedly seen the person who attacked the prison. An inmate on the scene testified that the attacker had come face-to-face with Walker, and they had even exchanged a few words.
This was the information The Flash and Green Lantern needed now.
According to their agreement, Green Lantern would play good cop today. So, he had to go in first and set the stage for his good buddy, The Flash.
"I know you don't want to talk, Walker, but I strongly suggest you start now."
Chains formed from Green Lantern's energy restrained Walker's body, while Green Lantern floated beside him with his arms crossed.
"Look, we're all in a hurry to get off work. To be honest, The League's business here is already over. You can't imagine how much I want to just leave a note on you for the authorities that says, 'A gift from the Justice League.' But I can't."
"Why not?" Walker asked.
"Because of The Flash, of course. You've pissed him off. You know, even in the Justice League, we have our jurisdictions. This is his city, and you are, to put it mildly, a cancer in his city.
"You have no idea how hard I just had to work to hold him back. Otherwise, he would have already used his high-speed vibration to phase his hand into your head and rip the answers out along with your brain matter."
Walker was horrified, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. "The Flash can do that?"
"Of course, but the poor slob it's done to has to wear diapers for the rest of their life—if they're lucky. So do me a favor and just confess to The Flash. I really don't want to have to clean up his messes every time."
As he finished speaking, a red shadow flickered over with an electric arc. The Flash appeared in an instant, popping up right in his face, which made Walker scream "Ah!" and instinctively shrink back, bumping his head on the wall.
Barry tried his best to look fierce, even vibrating his vocal cords to sound a bit like Batman. "Talk! Are you going to talk or not? If you don't, I'll... I'll..."
Walker swallowed hard. He tried to look as fearless as a villain, but he couldn't stop trembling. "You'll what?"
"I'll..."
Barry held it in for a long moment.
"...I'll be very angry."
Walker: "..."
Green Lantern: "..."
A few seconds of silence passed, so silent it was almost awkward.
"You know what? Nice try. But I'm not telling you anything."
Walker crossed his arms and leaned back tactically, letting out a long sigh of relief inwardly.
*Damn it, this light-show-loving idiot scared me. He really is the same old Flash I know.*
Barry looked at Hal innocently, blinking as if to ask, *He's not talking. Now what?*
Hal covered his face.
"I knew it..."
Seeing this, Orin Vale floated down, smiling. "Looks like the interrogation isn't going so smoothly?"
The two turned their heads in unison.
"Huh? What are you doing in Central City?" Barry asked, pleasantly surprised.
"Just passing through. I'm heading to the Watchtower in a bit." As Orin Vale spoke, he glanced, intentionally or not, at Walker, who was trussed up by the Green Lantern ring. "I'd say you two should stop messing around. Take him to an interrogation room, and all your problems will be solved."
"I guess that's the only way."
Hal sighed, shooting a look at The Flash.
"This is the last time you're playing bad cop."
Barry looked innocent. "My fault?"
"..."
The Justice League's Watchtower was built with all sorts of situations in mind. They not only had a Central Control Room, a conference room, a restaurant, recreational facilities, and so on, but also a Dangerous Goods Containment room, a high-tech temporary prison for various metahumans and aliens, and of course, an interrogation room.
Naturally, only three people in The League usually specialized in interrogations: Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Batman.
"Wonder Woman's not here?"
Arriving at the Watchtower, Hal muttered with his arms crossed.
"Great. Every time you need her Lasso of Truth..."
"Diana is on Mount Olympus. It seems she has something to discuss with a god of war," Kara said.
"Then what about the Martian? I thought he was always around," Hal said, looking around.
"He recently got a job and isn't off work yet..."
"Fantastic. Then we'll just have to see what the Bat's got." Hal glanced at Batman. "Speaking of which, are you not on the clock yet?"
Batman ignored him, walking expressionlessly to the door of the interrogation room. "I only need three minutes."
"Hey, wait a minute!"
Superman flashed in front of him.
Batman frowned. "What?"
"Well, I was just thinking... we've always had you play the bad cop, right?" Superman stood tall, hands on his hips. "Why can't I do it?"
"You?" Batman's expression became somewhat indescribable.
Hal also raised an eyebrow.
"I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this."
One minute later.
The interrogation room door was thrown open domineeringly, and Superman strode in with the aura of a tyrant. "Alright, I don't have time to waste on you, Walker. My friend needs answers, and he needs them now!"
As he spoke, he casually slammed the door behind him. With a tremendous crash, the door he'd slammed collapsed. The force of the impact sent cracks racing across the entire wall of the interrogation room, which rumbled and crumbled into a pile of rubble.
Walker, inside the interrogation room, was scared silly.
However, Superman was also scared silly.
He turned his head stiffly and saw the entire wall he had shattered with one slap. His super-brain quickly calculated the cost, which amounted to several years of his future salary as a reporter...
"Ah, s-sorry, Batman," he said, scratching his head. "I didn't mean to. I just..."
Meeting Batman's disapproving gaze, he suddenly remembered the role he was supposed to be playing.
"Ah!"
Superman quickly turned his head back, fixing Walker with a fierce glare again.
"What I mean is, this... this is nothing compared to what I'm about to do to you, Walker!"
Walker, sitting behind the table, blinked in a daze, his expression asking, *Big Blue, are you okay?*
Batman followed him in, saying coldly, "If I were you, I'd start talking right now. My partner has a bit of a temper."
"You mean Superman? A bad temper?" Walker looked at Superman blankly. "Are you serious?"
Superman looked as if he had been offended.
"I think you should step outside for some air, Batman. I need to be alone with this guy for one minute, and then he'll know what my temper is like."
He grabbed the hanging lamp and turned it towards Walker. The latter instinctively shut his eyes against the glare.
"Ah, sorry," Superman quickly moved the light away. "Did I hurt your eyes?"
A second later, under Batman's disapproving gaze, he remembered his role again.
"Ah, no, I mean... this bit of light is nothing compared to my heat vision!" Superman tried hard to look vicious.
Batman handed him a cup of coffee, still expressionless. "Coffee? It's good for you."
But the moment Walker saw his Bat-face, a shiver ran down his spine, and he instinctively moved away. "Y-you can't fool me! This definitely isn't coffee! What did you put in it?"
"It's just coffee," Batman said coolly.
"St-stay away from me!"
Walker shrank back behind Superman in terror.
"I'll talk, I'll talk! Just don't let that Bat make me drink... whatever that thing is!"
Superman looked at Batman, his expression complicated.
*The interrogation seems to have been a success, result-wise... but why do I feel so defeated?*
*Between the two of us, who was the bad cop here?*
Outside, Green Lantern and The Flash looked at each other.
After a moment of silence, The Flash said, "See? Batman gets him to talk even when he's playing good cop."
Hal raised an eyebrow.
"So this is my fault now?"
"..."
"That's all I know," Walker said loudly.
"That guy, he came to find us... He spoke to a lot of us supervillains. But he didn't need us, and he wasn't planning on letting us out.
"He went into our minds. He stole our memories and thoughts. He needed the key information inside—information about you."
"About us?" Superman frowned.
"He's going around looking for supervillains, all of whom have fought with members of your team before," Walker confessed. "Because he wants to understand you, to know how we managed to defeat you in the past, or at least cause you trouble.
"He wants to understand your patterns of operation, to find your weaknesses."
The members of The League looked at each other.
"Who? Who's looking for our weaknesses?" Hal asked.
"I don't know. I've never seen him before," Walker said. "But he calls himself... the Tomb Demon."
(end of chapter)
