Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4549 - 3631: Edge of Tomorrow (40)

Harley's heart was a bit unsettled.

Originally, she was quite confident about this plan. After all, she's supposed to be defeated and captured, not necessarily to win. Winning is hard, but losing should be easy, right?

Now it seems it's not the case.

It's like in a game, when you find yourself with overpowered teammates and you don't want them to win, so you intentionally try to lose, only to discover the opponents are even more outrageous. You can't give away defeats as fast as your teammates can get kills.

Actually, to ensure the authenticity of the act, Harley did put some effort into designing the scenario. After all, she wants Batman to recruit her, so she needs to show some skill.

Otherwise, if she lost immediately, it would make her look very weak, and there'd be no value in turning her.

So even if the final outcome is a loss, the process should involve a few back-and-forth battles. So even calling Jack is mainly to give his new car a run and also to add some difficulty for these guys.

But the part where Joker drives the truck in is just for the entrance, not to defeat anyone.

According to the original plan, Joker drives in, swerving past people, then lets out a series of maniacal laughs and heads towards the factory, drawing everyone there.

Who would have thought someone couldn't dodge!

Harley was perplexed. It wasn't a high speed, and within hundreds of meters, there's only one truck and no obstacles for avoiding it, so how could someone fail to dodge?

But as soon as the truck appeared, it scored a double kill, taking out two team members, and even injuring Batman.

Harley stood on the scaffolding above the factory, sighing internally. In the plan, she'd teamed up with Joker to fight Batman. Now Batman can hardly walk; how lousy must she perform to be captured by him?

Of course, Harley's close combat skills are not great, practically gym level. To cover this flaw, she prepared a gun, while Batman doesn't use guns.

Originally, Harley had the weapon advantage, Batman had the advantage in physical strength and skills, leading to a draw, and Harley, exhausted, barely losing. This way, she could show her prowess while being captured by Batman.

But now Batman's advantage in physical strength and skills was gone. If Harley charged in with a gun, what if she really took them out?

Upon discovering Batman was injured, Harley frantically started hiding her gun. But the factory area was barren, and she wasn't in the mood to make a startling entrance later. There were just a few bare poles and slabs without doors or windows, where could she hide the gun?

Harley held onto the submachine gun, looking around, and couldn't find a suitable place. Eventually, out of options, she tied the gun with a rope, hanging it from the nearby pole.

Though it was an unreasonable spot, once she jumped down, it would surely catch Batman's attention, preventing him from looking up. It shouldn't be discovered.

Just as Harley finished tying it, the special ops team arrived. Harley immediately let out a laugh:

"Hahaha, you really came?! Did you bring my little pudding?!"

Harley agilely flipped and jumped down using the grapple to swing on the pole, then rolled onto the ground, clapped her hands, putting on a familiar posture.

Though it seemed easy, she actually practiced this move quite a lot. Unlike most of the cosmos Harley Quinns who excel in gymnastics, she often steps on others' feet when dancing. Perfecting this took help from senior members of the Gotham University Cheerleading Squad.

Having completed the hardest part, Harley sighed in relief and said, "Are you here to save these idiots?! Too bad, you stand no chance. Hahaha!!"

With that, Harley pulled out a remote control from her pocket. She pressed the button, and the ropes holding those people began to slowly descend.

Of course, knowing there wasn't a Deadshot in the new team, and the others weren't great marksmen, unlikely to break the braking device, the descent speed was slow. At this pace, it'd take about half an hour for the people above to reach the chemical pool's edge.

And to make them notice the braking device, Harley specially made what was originally a palm-sized box into something half a person's height, painting it a striking yellow-purple, nearly adding arrows all around it. With Deathstroke and Pamela as insiders, rescuing the hostages should be easy.

It's not that Harley was soft-hearted; it's crucial Batman is obsessed with moral purity. If she melted these people in front of him, he probably wouldn't consider recruiting her. So she spared them.

As expected, Pamela stepped forward and pointed to the braking device above, saying, "The braking device should be there! Shoot it!"

Deathstroke had already aimed his gun. Just as he was about to fire, Batman shouted, "Wait!"

Deathstroke nearly sprained his finger. Doesn't he know yelling to stop midway can lead to a slipped disc?

Pamela secretly glared at Deathstroke in annoyance: If he tells you to stop, do you just stop? Just shoot! After shooting, he won't be able to hit you, right?

Originally, Deathstroke didn't want to mind Batman, but he felt his persona wasn't that righteous. If he really shot the braking device and saved these hostages, it would be too heroic, not fitting the obedient mercenary persona, so he held off urgently.

"That's not a braking device, it's a trap!" Batman said, "The axle and braking device for carrying this few people can't be this big. He must have planted a bomb inside!"

At this moment, Joker Jack, who was eavesdropping from outside the second-floor window of the factory, said over his headset, "I told you so, you made that thing so obvious, he definitely won't take the bait!"

Harley scoffed internally. She also anticipated that Batman's suspicious nature wouldn't make him fall for it so easily, so she had a backup plan.

She gave Pamela a look, and Pamela immediately turned to Victor and said, "Then freeze the hostages first, so if they fall into the pool, they won't be corroded by chemicals!"

Victor raised his gun, just about to pull the trigger, when a voice behind him said, "Wait!"

Victor nearly cramped his finger. He couldn't help but glare at the voice's owner, Injustice Batman.

"How can you ensure the chemicals won't corrode the ice blocks? Many chemicals react with water to generate high temperatures, which would cause severe harm. You can't do this!"

Victor was not amused. He glared at Injustice Batman and said, "Didn't I say it before? This isn't ordinary ice blocks, it's dense ice, dense ice doesn't participate in heat exchange with the outside..."

"There's nothing in this world that doesn't participate in heat exchange; that's a principle of physics." Injustice Batman said decisively.

"That's because your knowledge is limited, and your vision is narrow!" Victor stood his ground.

Scientists are like this, they absolutely don't allow others to question them in their field of expertise. Dense ice is Victor's proudest invention, he absolutely won't allow anyone to question its effectiveness.

Even practically speaking, he still has another boss here. If Batman talks nonsense and Harley believes it, what about his job at the Tomorrow Alliance?!

That's a $500,000 annual salary!

Under the spirit of science and the motivation of money, Victor burst out with astounding potential. To refute Injustice Batman's "principle of physics" statement, he started explaining the principles of Dense Ice Technology on the spot.

Harley couldn't help but frown, turning her head aside. Is there not one normal person here?! Can't you see the occasion! Is this the time for a lecture?!

But at the critical moment, Deathstroke was the most reliable. The main reason is that he was the one most in need of money; he desperately needed that $500,000.

The argument between Victor and Injustice Batman hadn't stopped yet; Deathstroke swiftly rushed towards Harley. Harley didn't know what he intended to do, hurriedly ducking back. Deathstroke pretended to engage in hand-to-hand combat with her, but when he reached her, he lowered his voice and said, "Pretend you're getting beaten and run away."

Harley immediately understood what to do. So she started play-fighting with Deathstroke, but Harley's hand-to-hand combat skills were just too poor, her moves were ornamental. Deathstroke couldn't bear watching, gesturing for her to run away quickly.

"You damn bastard!" Harley cursed before she turned and ran. Deathstroke chased behind, but not too fast, fearing Harley might fall.

Running to the equipment at the back, Harley followed the pre-selected route, climbed onto the tallest water pump, and then suddenly flipped up the waterproof cover on the machine in front.

Under the waterproof cover, the machine frame was densely packed with bombs.

"Hahahahahahahaha... cough cough cough..." Harley was supposed to let out a triumphant laugh, but after all those moves just now, she was so out of breath she almost choked herself.

The original plan was that after they successfully rescued the hostages, Harley would shut the warehouse door, reveal the bombs, force Batman to come up and duel for the remote, then pretend to lose and be captured.

Now rescuing the hostages seemed unlikely, but the planted bombs couldn't be wasted, Batman must be forced up.

So Harley stood atop a huge pile of bombs, like in the script, waved the remote below, and said, "I'll blow you and these idiots up together! If you have the guts, come and stop me!"

Deathstroke pretended to be shocked, retreated to Batman's side, and said, "This lunatic is truly insane. With so many bombs, it could flatten half the factory district!"

Pamela reached out and the vines wrapped towards Harley, but Harley dodged them nimbly. She appeared anxious and said, "I don't dare to provoke her, if she presses the button we're all finished!"

Then she looked seriously at Batman and said, "Batman, now we can only rely on you!"

Those words instantly returned him to a familiar domain.

But unfortunately, Amanda and the task force members didn't think so. Amanda's voice came through everyone's earpiece:

"Wise Man calculates the projectile trajectory, transmitting it to the Polka-Dot's combat visor using the communicator. Polka-Dot, use your dot bombs to take her down!"

"Wait!" Two Batmen exclaimed in unison.