Colt was dragged away by the Flying Skateboard.
Timothy watched the receding figure.
Ghost had a built-in external light; not only did it look like an albino under sunlight, but its nearby objects also emitted a glow. The light wasn't dazzling, appearing like a moon fallen into the sea in the dark underwater.
Timothy pulled a waterproof evidence bag from beneath his bodysuit. Inside the waterproof bag was a crushed paper airplane, which he smoothed out after reading its contents, then tucked back into the bag and slipped into his bodysuit. It was all driven by a detective's instinct to always remember to protect evidence and clues.
The paper airplane glowed just as it did in Ghost's hands, but the light vanished when it landed at his feet.
No, the cause and effect must be reversed.
Because the light vanished, the paper airplane could be seen by the naked eye and captured by surveillance. Was the light a type of energy controlled by Ghost? Or some kind of invisible force field? It could pass through walls and dive into the sea; it seemed more like a spatial-type ability..
Timothy's mind was active, his thoughts changing in an instant.
Alright, now is not the time to think about these things.
Timothy withdrew his gaze and notified Batman over the comms: "Red Robin is expected to arrive at the target location in 150 seconds.."
On the other side, Colt was being dragged away rapidly by the Flying Skateboard. Looking back, the Diamond Princess was already out of sight, he felt a sense of regret that he hadn't captured Timothy's transformed appearance on video.
[Quick Recording Function enabled by default upon recognizing Timothy Drake.]
The Flying Skateboard carried Colt into the Iceberg Club, passing through an electronic door with password verification, followed by palm print verification, voiceprint verification, iris verification.. After thirteen layers of security doors, he entered the underground vault.
Stacks of US dollars, mountains of gold bars, unknown antiques, Vibranium under the spotlight in the center.
If not weighed, the Vibranium looks quite ordinary, like silver bricks that have turned somewhat black due to oxidation.
There were twenty small bricks in total, each palm-length and three fingers wide, weighing fifty kilograms each. The seller's original price was 6 billion, but after a discount, he only charged 3 billion. 2.99 billion came from found cryptocurrency, another 10 million was scraped together by selling intelligence and designs, essentially selling everything he owned.
Why shouldn't they belong to me?
Colt carefully compared it with the seller's shipping video.
The shape hasn't changed, looking at the label on the display case, the weight is the same too. It is his Vibranium, but he can't touch it, his mental power can't reach it, he is even more unable to pull the Vibranium into his own Ghost field.
This is unreasonable.
Colt circled around the Vibranium.
The Flying Skateboard can carry a thousand kilograms, but once it leaves the Ghost field, it will be exposed to surveillance, security will definitely intercept it. Moreover, the vault is over a thousand meters below ground with thirteen layers of doors; trying to force it would create too much noise.
Colt marked the location, deciding to temporarily store the Vibranium here.
Even if sold piece by piece, a single piece of Vibranium would be worth hundreds of millions. The grudge between Penguin and Black Mask couldn't be settled just by one beating from Batman, with Black Mask watching, Penguin likely wouldn't be able to spare the time to deal with the Vibranium for a while.
Colt headed home, feeling curious: Why did Timothy coordinate so well with the Orphan? And why did Red Hood call Timothy Little Red?
Author's Note:
----------------------
Chapter 8
Joseph wasn't asleep yet. He was sitting on the study windowsill in his pajamas, a book in his hands, but his eyes were fixed outside the window. Beside him, a computer was playing the news about what had happened on the Diamond Princess tonight.
Colt hovered outside the study window, leaning in to wave a greeting.
Joseph put down the book, pointed at Birdie who was sleeping soundly in the nest nearby, made a shushing gesture, then pointed upstairs.
Colt returned to the room from the window, put his things down, took a shower first, then came out after changing into pajamas.
The door wasn't locked, yet Joseph didn't enter the room himself; instead, he was pacing at the doorway.
Colt poked his head through the door and reached out to tug on Joseph.
Joseph frowned: "Don't run around the house like that."
Colt let go, pulled his head back, opened the door, stood at attention in a respectful posture.
Joseph walked into Colt's bedroom like a lion patrolling its territory, hands clasped behind his back. He spent a moment looking at the display wall of Batarangs and Robin Capes in the living room, then spent some time flipping through the physics journals on the desk.
Is the nightlife in Gotham fun?
Colt nodded.
Although Penguin had stolen his Vibranium, seeing Timothy in disguise was still very amusing.
Joseph: "Did you kill him?"
Colt shook his head like a rattle.
Joseph: "Are we going out again next night?"
Colt thought about it for a moment and nodded heavily.
Joseph rolled up the physics journal and tapped his own ear. "Put on your Sound Auxiliary Transceiver, don't act like you're deaf."
Colt picked up the hearing aid that had been tossed carelessly on the sofa and put it on. A clear, youthful voice came through the speaker: "Dad, it's almost three, aren't you going to sleep yet?"
I see you're still full of energy.
Joseph had no intention of leaving; instead, he walked to Colt's bedside and picked up the picture frame from the nightstand. Inside the frame was a child's hand-drawn stick-figure family portrait, with a small bird drawn on top of the child's head in the center. The ink of the bird was darker, added later.
Joseph murmured, "Do you miss Alisa?"
"Sorry, Dad, I don't remember, but I know Mom must have loved me very much." Colt took off his glasses; on the back of the family photo, there was a line of delicate, small handwriting.
Colt, sweetie, Mommy loves you. Wishing us eternal happiness and joy.
Look, she left this to me.
Joseph's lips trembled slightly, but he made no sound.
Colt put the family photo back in place and hugged Joseph. "Dad, it's been almost ten years. If you find someone you like, I'll support you remarrying, Mom will bless you too."
"No, I have no intention of remarrying, that's not our focus tonight." Joseph patted Colt on the back, turned to pour two glasses of water, handed one to Colt, assumed a posture for a long talk.
Cole, do you ever feel like Dad is too useless?
Colt tilted his head in confusion.
Dad holds three doctorates, works at one of the top three companies in the world, has a starting annual salary in the tens of millions, with bonuses that can even exceed his annual salary, even has his own home laboratory.. If all of this is useless, then what counts as useful?
Many of my former classmates have already achieved fame and success. They have their own teams and can influence the ecosystem of Gotham, while I can only work for others, you even feel the sting of using a little Vibranium.
A hint of madness flickered in Joseph's eyes, Colt instantly became vigilant.
Are you talking about classmates who ended up in Blackgate Prison? Or classmates enjoying private hospital rooms in Arkham?
Colt didn't want to end up visiting family in Arkham one day, so he began speaking at 1.5x speed.
“Dad, don't let the hormones of the night affect your brain. If you leave Wayne, our laboratory will be unable to sustain itself, we'll lose our social security, medical insurance, car allowance, housing allowance, meal allowance, education allowance.. The government won't stop collecting our property taxes just because this place turns into a haunted house, the various bills from the bank won't stop coming either. We haven't even finished paying off the loans for our LCMS, high-end microplate readers, centrifuges, analyzers. Once we choose freedom, the next step is becoming homeless. Just look at Mr. Freeze; he has such a grand reputation, yet without a stable job, he can only rely on robbing banks or working illegal jobs to earn money to maintain his wife's freezing chamber.”
The madness in Joseph's eyes receded, replaced once more by the weary middle-aged man burdened by pressure and responsibility.
Colt looked at Joseph with an expression of adoration, the speech rate from the loudspeaker returning to normal. "Dad, in my heart, you are better than anyone else. It's not because of your brilliant IQ, but because of your upright and kind character. The reason I didn't turn into a destructive bad Ghost is all because I had you as my role model."
Oh, thank you. You are the angel who saved me, Xiao Ke'er.
Joseph looked at his son's sparkling eyes, his face flushing with excitement, reined in his restless urge to approach his classmate from Arkham.
I just wanted to ask if there's any gift you want? Red Robin's cape doesn't count; he designed that himself, I didn't get the relevant parameters.
Colt wanted to say that he didn't lack anything, but he was also afraid that his father would think he was too incompetent, so he said expectantly, "I like the fruit from Wayne Dining Hall."
They are premium fruits picked and air-freighted that very day; they're hard to find elsewhere. I'll have my assistant send a few more over tomorrow," Joseph said enthusiastically, recording it on his phone so he wouldn't forget. "Do you want to sleep with Daddy? I can go over some problems with you while we're at it.
I'm eighteen, not eight.
Colt met Joseph's expectant gaze and found himself unable to say no.
Joseph used to be a professor, he was even better at teaching students than Stark.
Joseph supported his son in making friends online, but he was very dissatisfied with his son's preference for Stark's field of research. He used every trick in the book, attempting to make his son's interest in Quantum Physics surpass that of the so-called Iron Man armor.
Isn't the Bat-armor just as cool as the Iron Man armor? The Batmobile also uses a super energy source, it's just not as green and eco-friendly as the new element used in the Arc Reactor! And the Justice League's Watchtower is a space station; isn't that cool enough?
Joseph told Colt about the wonders of space, about the world beyond worlds, the universe beyond the universe, the higher dimensions beyond dimensions.
Take you, for example. You exist in the gap between two dimensions, your body caught in a state of equilibrium. You are not a Ghost; your state is closer to that of a god. If I can confirm the coordinates of the other dimension, I can pull you back completely..
It was a high-dimensional world, it wouldn't be that easy to find.
Colt didn't want his hometown to be found either.
That's right, Colt was still a transmigrator from a high-dimensional world.
That didn't matter; he only remembered living in Peace Land and being a high school senior facing the college entrance exam; he had forgotten everything else.
Colt always felt that if the balance were broken, he wouldn't stay in this world, but would instead return to his hometown. He studied under Iron Man because he also wanted to bring advanced technology back to his home.
Colt fell into a deep sleep amidst his father's incessant chatter.
In his dreams, there were particle colliders, the massive ones, said to be able to trigger a Big Bang with a single collision, they even knocked out the coordinates of Colt's hometown!
Those madmen from Arkham are treating his hometown as a new battlefield!
It's too terrifying!
Timothy wasn't sleeping.
He took off the Red Robin uniform, wearing Dick's old T-shirt as pajamas, lay on his stomach under the covers, flipping through the files of the employees in the company's R&D department.
Wayne Enterprise's Research and Development department has a total of 6,500 researchers, distributed across hundreds of laboratories of various sizes.
The backpack Ghost is carrying tonight is a travel backpack customized by the company's logistics department for researchers. The bag bears the logo of the Quantum Teleportation Project and belongs to the Wayne Advanced Laboratory at headquarters.
The white knee-length long-sleeved lab coat Ghost wore had subtle patterns on the collar, also exclusive to the Wayne Advanced Lab, featured an embroidered ID badge on the chest.
Unfortunately, the nameplate was obscured by the backpack straps, so Timothy could only make out the letter R.
A researcher whose name starts with R, a senior researcher at that. This is because there are subtle differences in the material and style of the lab coats worn by research assistants, researchers, senior researchers. A senior researcher in charge of a project would have a lab coat with a suit-style lapel and a Gotham River pattern.
Out of 6,500 files, 286 were screened, based on the customization year of the backpack, those who had left headquarters or resigned before this year were filtered out.
There were 127 left, only 12 had surnames starting with R.
Timothy went through them one by one until he picked up the last one.
Joseph Reed, Chief Researcher at Wayne, 48 years old, 9 years of tenure, former Physics Professor at Gotham University.