Phantom Kid in the World of American Comics

Chapter 158: The Riddler and Bane’s Conspiracy

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Edinburgh District, Knightsdome Arena.

Harley Quinn, who came to Bane’s door for the Joker, finally left. The Joker escaped from Arkham Asylum long before Bane arrived, no one knows where he went now. 

But bearing the Joker’s character in mind, he should have long caused havoc after escaping. Since he didn’t do so, the other villains thought that he had probably left Gotham. 

Nonetheless, Harley thought that the Joker would not leave Gotham for no reason, so she returned to the ACE chemical factory with the hope to gather members of the “Joker Gang.” And so, she kept searching for the whereabouts of the Joker everywhere in Gotham. 

The Penguin and Black Mask left immediately as well.

The villain alliance that Bane had always wanted to achieve was barely formed. 

Bane thinks that, once he delivers the promised mass of Wayne’s new weapons to the two, they’ll acknowledge his hegemony in Gotham. 

At this time, only Bane and the Riddler remained in the arena. 

“Is the fusion reactor hidden yet?” 

Bane suddenly asked. 

“Don’t worry, no one in this world can find it unless he cracks my riddle, and this is absolutely impossible, because the person who can crack it is no longer in Gotham, hahaha…” 

The Riddler let out a weird laugh. 

“However, is this really good?” 

After laughing, the Riddler asked Bane. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Are you really so comfortable leaving the greatest reliance on your control of Gotham to me to arrange, hide it, and then kill everyone whoever knows about it?” 

“No one, including yourself, knows the whereabouts of the nuclear bomb except me.” 

The Riddler stared meaningfully at Bane. 

“Do you really trust me so much that I won’t secretly give the nuclear bomb’s location to the other gang bosses? You must know that they also want this nuclear bomb.” 

“You did hide the nuclear bomb, didn’t you?” 

Bane’s expression didn’t change. He didn’t care about the threat implied in the Riddler’s words. 

“That’s right.” 

The Riddler gave an affirmative answer. 

“That’s enough.” 

Bane smiled without warning. However, the bleak expression on his face could only be seen under his respirator. 

At least, the Riddler could sense Bane’s joy. 

“It’s unbelievable that you are still happy when I say that. Do you like being threatened by others?” 

“Nigma, do you know why I had to release so many people from Arkham Asylum only to find you?” 

The happy look on Bane’s face disappeared after a few seconds. 

“Oh? I’m a bit interested in that, probably because I’m smarter than all of them?” 

The Riddler has extreme confidence in his IQ. 

Although he is often beaten by Batman, he always thinks that Batman is not as smart as him. 

In his opinion, the only reason he lost is because he always leaves too many clues for Batman. 

“No.” 

Bane certainly didn’t seek the Riddler’s cooperation because of this latter’s high confidence in his IQ level. 

“Because you are fundamentally different from them.” 

“Be it Cobblepot or Sionis, their forces and families are tied to this city. Deadshot’s daughter goes to school here, and Scarecrow’s research base is in Gotham.”

“What they have in common is that, for whatever reason, they will not give up Gotham, and they will not leave this place easily.” 

“Only you and Deathstroke are different. You are not obsessed with Gotham, or rather, you are obsessed with Gotham because of that ‘particular person.’”

“It’s a pity that Deathstroke doesn’t want to cooperate with me. Yet, It’s enough to have you there.” 

Listening to Bane’s narrative, the Riddler gradually frowned. 

He seemed to understand exactly what Bane wanted to do. 

“You’re crazy enough, the Joker might have a lot in common with you.” 

The Riddler’s interest was instantly piqued. Bane’s thoughts are too interesting. 

“Well… my original riddle was too simple for this level of madness, I have to upgrade it.”

“It’s not madness, it’s discipline.”

Bane shouted with open arms. 

“Nigma, I don’t care where you hide the nuke or who you give it to, I just need to make sure it doesn’t get found by anyone outside of Gotham.”

“Because I believe that, if Cobblepot and Sionis got the nuke, they will keep it safe too. As long as it’s in Gotham, it doesn’t matter if it falls in anyone’s hands.” 

“Humph, just rest assured. How can I let others interfere in such a fun thing, no one knows where it is except me.” 

The Riddler laughed mysteriously. 

“Just one more thing I want to know, Bane, why do you want to destroy Gotham?” 

“In order to cleanse our sins, we have created a plague to sack Rome, razed cities to the ground with fire, and since the beginning of time, no land covered by sin has escaped our sanction.” 

“It’s Gotham’s turn today.” 

At this point, the Riddler has seen that Bane would definitely detonate the nuclear bomb, so Bane needn’t hide his motives. 

The Riddler was always under Bane’s nose anyway, and he could kill Nigma at any time. 

“We are the League of Shadows.”

Free prisoners, create chaos and keep the whole city on alert. It seems that Bane wants to isolate Gotham and become its master.

In fact, it’s all just a trick to convince others that, as long they obey the rules he dictated, Bane won’t detonate the nuclear bomb to destroy Gotham. 

Why not destroy Gotham in the first place? 

Part of the reason is that Bane wants the sin-blooded citizens of Gotham to fully enjoy despair. 

The other reason is that he couldn’t detonate the nuclear bomb. 

That’s right, the remote in Bane’s hand is actually useless right now. 

The fusion reactor developed by Wayne Enterprises was never intended to be weaponized. Even if Dr. Pavel forcibly transformed the reactor into a nuclear bomb, it would take a long time to realize this transformation. 

It is conservatively estimated for the conversion to take a month to be complete. 

And the moment of completion is when the nuclear bomb automatically detonates.

Although this nuclear bomb is also designed to explode remotely, it needs to be transformed to a certain extent at least for its power to reach the desired effect.

It will take about five days before it could be detonated by the remote control, and it will be far weaker than after the full reaction, making it impossible to kill everyone in Gotham. 

Therefore, Bane will not take the initiative to detonate the nuclear bomb unless it is a last resort. 

Bane did not tell anyone this information, not even the Riddler knew about it.

“It turns out that Batman was one of you before, and then he betrayed you. Funny, it’s so funny.” 

After listening to Bane’s story, the Riddler became more and more interested. 

“If you don’t mind, I should work with you for a long time until Batman dies…” 

Bane and the Riddler came to a final agreement.

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