"Hey! What are you doing?"
Seeing the children being knocked unconscious by the needle, a homeless man who had been curled up nearby stood up and shouted at the traffickers.
Bang!
One of the traffickers pulled out a pistol, intending to kill the homeless man. Suddenly, a black shadow dropped from the sky and slammed the gunman to the ground. The muzzle of his gun tilted outward, sending the bullet through the homeless man's clothes and into his makeshift shelter.
The black shadow was Marcus. He'd just wanted to say hello to the little cat thief and ask her a few questions. Who would have thought he'd land right on top of this gunman?
Blood gushed from the man's mouth from the impact of Marcus falling from such a height. He'd clearly suffered internal damage from the crushing weight.
"Hey, little cat thief, is this your friend?"
Marcus stepped off the man's back and greeted Selina with a smile. Selina's eyes lit up when she saw him.
"I guess so," Selina nodded, looking at the unconscious children. "We heard someone was handing out food."
She shrugged and spread her hands. "Obviously, it's the human traffickers' routine again."
For homeless teenagers like them, while they didn't often encounter such situations, they'd heard stories about people using food to lure and traffic homeless kids.
Compared to the casual attitude of Marcus and Selina, the traffickers seemed irritated. Were these two really ignoring them?
The woman pulled another long needle from her collar and lunged at Marcus.
"So you've been struggling to get by on the streets?"
Marcus said as he grabbed the needle and twisted it back to stab the woman.
In an instant, her entire body went limp and she collapsed to the ground.
"Wow, is this elephant tranquilizer or something?"
The drug's effect was so powerful that Marcus was genuinely surprised. Was this really just a sedative and not some kind of poison?
Seeing the woman fall, the other two traffickers rushed him, but they were just slightly stronger than average with no real fighting skills. Marcus dropped them with three punches and two kicks.
With all the traffickers subdued, Selina took the needle and syringe from the woman's collar and injected each of the traffickers.
The four traffickers quickly joined the woman in unconsciousness.
However, the man with blood oozing from his mouth would need medical attention soon. If he didn't get to a doctor quickly, he might actually die.
"Not bad," Marcus nodded. "Pretty smart. Be careful with that needle though—don't use it carelessly."
The drug was extremely potent. If the little cat thief used it for self-protection, it would certainly be effective.
"By the way, do you know where I might find an owl?"
This girl had lived here long enough that she should have spotted traces of owls.
"Owl?"
Selina thought for a moment, then pointed toward Gotham's suburbs. "There should be more out that way."
Looking in the direction of Gotham's outskirts, Marcus nodded slightly. Perhaps he really would find traces of owls there.
"Goodbye then, little thief!"
Ruffling Selina's hair, Marcus used his void dash again and vanished instantly before her eyes.
"How did he disappear like that, Selina?"
A homeless boy who had escaped the traffickers asked. This man was amazing—he'd taken down these traffickers so easily.
"How should I know?" Selina tucked away the syringe and pulled out the kunai strapped to her leg, waving it at the homeless boy. "First time I saw him, he embedded half of this throwing blade into a wall."
Her words shocked both the homeless boy and man, especially the homeless man, who whistled.
"I never saw anyone that powerful before I ended up on the streets."
Selina didn't contradict their amazement. How could she possibly keep track of Marcus without him knowing? She didn't have that kind of skill.
As for Marcus, following Selina's directions, he did indeed find an owl in the suburbs of Gotham.
Hoo... Hoo...
The owl hooted on a branch, observing its surroundings.
Suddenly, the bird spread its wings and flew away.
Following the owl's flight path, Marcus arrived at an iron gate and fell into deep thought while reading the words above it.
"Arkham Asylum? Are the Court of Owls' talons here?"
He recognized the name Arkham Asylum, but he couldn't quite connect this madhouse with the Court of Owls' assassins.
"I've never heard of this. Could they really be here?" Looking at the asylum before him, Marcus considered his options. "Maybe this is where those little birds train their talons. I should take a look inside."
Although he had some knowledge of Arkham Asylum, in his recollection, it had no connection to the Court of Owls.
Entering Arkham, Marcus walked through the haunted house-like facility and observed many patients with disturbing behaviors.
Some thought they were pendulums and repeatedly smashed their heads against walls; some were large men who acted like innocent children; others sat cross-legged on beds with closed eyes, completely motionless.
"Nothing seems particularly special. Arkham probably only became famous after Batman started stuffing criminals in here."
There wasn't much difference between this place and a typical mental hospital. The main distinction was the ancient decor—the asylum was housed in an old Gothic building. The furnishings inside were dilapidated, creating a gloomy, terrifying atmosphere.
Walking down an Arkham corridor, Marcus discovered a basement blocked by iron fencing at an abandoned staircase.
"Is this where Arkham hides its bodies?"
The basement had obviously been sealed for a long time. The iron grating had become a spider's nest, covered with thick layers of webbing.
He'd explored most of Arkham Asylum and found nothing unusual. It seemed the owl had simply come here to hunt.
But it was strange that an owl would come to Arkham Asylum for food for no reason. This was Gotham's outskirts—rats were everywhere. The owl shouldn't need to travel this far to find prey in the asylum.
Climbing over the iron fence, Marcus entered the underground chamber.
What he found in the basement was beyond his imagination. The place was essentially a cold storage, with corpses hanging upside down.
"This really is a body-hiding place!" Looking at these suspended corpses, even though Marcus was accustomed to death, he couldn't help but be surprised. "What the hell is the Arkham director doing?"
There were only two reasons why so many bodies would be frozen in a basement.
Either the asylum director was deliberately preserving these bodies to get more funding—using them to fake patient numbers—or someone had sinister intentions and planned to profit from these corpses in some way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Support me at [email protected]/goldengaruda and check out more chapter of this or more early access chapter of my other fanfic translation.
New Fanfic
Marvel x Star Wars: Avengers in the Clone Wars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~