The two of them led the way, with three others trailing behind, none of whom were particurly combat-ready. Barbara carried her ptop, Vicky held a microphone, and Peter, pale as a ghost, lugged the camera, bringing up the rear.

  His footsteps were uneven, his expression bnk, and in the rain-soaked night, he resembled a zombie.

  Su Ming had a bad feeling about it. It was as if the moment they opened the underground research facility, a horde of flesh-eating monsters would spring out.

  He drew his twin bdes and sshed them across the barbed wire fence, sparks fshing briefly in the rain before fading. He carved an "X," then bent the wire, creating a hole wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through. He motioned for Barbara to go first.

  Barbara gave him a nervous smile, then immediately turned her attention to the pitch-bck surroundings.

  The junked cars were nothing but empty shells—engines, spark plugs, batteries, or anything valuable had been stripped out, and the remains were piled here like discarded corpses, forming small hills.

  In the darkness, these bck mounds cast shadows that surrounded them from every direction. No matter the angle, they all looked identical from afar.

  Neither Barbara, Vicky, nor Peter had ever ventured into a pce like this at midnight.

  Any Gothamite knew that dark pces like this hid dangers, some sought it out, while others kept their distance.

  Su Ming felt the weight of someone’s gaze on him. He looked up and saw a homeless woman in one of the abandoned cars, peering out from the empty driver's seat, observing them.

  At first, he didn’t think much of it, until the woman began making strange noises.

  "Cooh... cooh..."

  Bang!

  Su Ming immediately raised his hand and fired a shot, shocking Barbara and the others. This sudden, unprovoked violence—was this the true face of the mercenary on their team?

  However, what should have been a direct hit missed, the woman dodging in an impossible manner. It was as though her neck had no bones; she rapidly curled it downward, her head sinking into her body. The bullet whizzed harmlessly over her head.

  When she reappeared from behind the junked car, the figure of the homeless woman had transformed. Now, she wore round gsses, and her entire appearance was that of a masked figure.

  In a swift motion, she leapt onto the car's roof, cd in a bck leather outfit adorned with gold patterns and incongruous ce trim, resembling something a medieval noble might wear for a hunting excursion.

  Her round gsses, reminiscent of an owl's eyes, gred down at Su Ming and the others from above.

  "Keep them safe," he muttered, tossing the words over his shoulder before pulling out his twin bdes and jumping onto an adjacent junked car, facing off against the strange figure.

  "I always thought they were just a legend..." Cindy drew her weapon, positioning herself protectively in front of the group. "Seems like Su was right. Gotham is hiding way too many secrets."

  Of course, Vicky wasn’t one to miss an opportunity. She immediately instructed Peter to hold up the rain poncho to shield her from the downpour. Pulling out her notebook, she pnned to document the situation using the camera’s light.

  "Well then, Miss Cindy, it looks like you recognize our masked friend over there. Can you tell us who she is?"

  Cindy shot her a gnce. She knew that Su Ming's companions weren’t ordinary people in any universe, but here, Vicky was just a regur human. Her excessive curiosity might end up being her downfall.

  "All you need to know is that they’re assassins from one of Gotham’s oldest and most secretive factions," Cindy replied. "If you learn too much, you won’t live long enough to tell anyone."

  Vicky wasn’t deterred. As a reporter, she was prepared for danger. With a flush of excitement on her face, she leaned in, lips tightly pressed together, eyes wide with anticipation.

  "I don’t mind," she said eagerly. "As a journalist, I’m always ready for the truth. Tell me. Tell the public what’s really going on!"

  Unexpectedly, the threat of death seemed to trigger something inside Vicky. She eagerly pressed for more, her gaze filled with fascination.

  Cindy shook her head, unsure if she was agreeing or simply giving up. She then recited a well-known nursery rhyme from Gotham, one that had circuted among children for decades.

  "Beware the Court of Owls, they watch you as you roam.In the dark they spy on Gotham, hiding atop rooftops low.Where you are, they are too, beneath your bed they will follow you.Never say their name aloud, or their talons will sever your throat."

  Vicky blinked in confusion but, with a reporter's instinct, quickly noted down the rhyme. If she got the chance, she would dig into Gotham's history—maybe she'd uncover something important.

  Su Ming was the first to react. As someone who had crossed over into this world, he knew Gotham and its dark secrets well. Hearing the ominous "cooh, cooh" in the stormy night, he instantly realized something was off.

  The woman disguised as a homeless person wasn’t just any ordinary person. She was a Talon—a member of the Court of Owls, an assassin.

  Before Su Ming had crossed over, DC comics had never fully expined the origins of the Court of Owls, but he knew it was an alliance formed by Gotham's oldest families, influencing the city through hidden means.

  Their identities were unknown, but all members wore white owl masks, and each bore a unique ring as a symbol of their allegiance.

  The Talons were the assassins they trained, dispatched to eliminate those who opposed the ruling elite.

  Gotham had once been under the Court's rule, before the Falcone crime family and other criminal overlords took power. The internal strife among the Owls had driven them back into the shadows.

  Batman or Falcone might know some of this, but Su Ming, coming from another world, knew even more.

  The Court’s origins stretched back much further—possibly all the way to humanity’s Stone Age. There were tribes of birds, wolves, bears, and bats—considered the foundation of European civilization in the DC Universe. Batman was a descendant of the Bat Tribe, while the Court of Owls hailed from the Bird Tribe.

  Most importantly, the members of the Court were all brainwashed and controlled by their Chi Hu priests, sworn servants of the dark god Barbatos, the bat god of the Dark Multiverse. From one perspective, Barbatos was the true god, while his followers were merely his tools, discarded once used.

  But Su Ming had no time for comfort. The Talon’s appearance meant the Court would soon learn of their presence, and Barbatos would be close behind.

  When that happened, danger would escate at an uncontrolble speed.

  He had to keep the Talon here as long as possible, to dey the Court's discovery of their activities.