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Chapter 158: Gotham Avengers (1)

In the office of Arkham Mental Hospital, Gordon stood with his arms crossed, watching Schiller playing with his umbrella.

Schiller had dismantled the entire umbrella surface, leaving only the frame. He lowered his head and removed the handle before forcefully pulling one of the umbrella bones.

That umbrella bone snapped with a "click," and the middle part flew out with a "whoosh." Gordon cried out in pain, covering the left side of his face. Schiller stood up and looked at him helplessly, "I told you not to watch me fix things. I have no education in mechanics or engineering. Accidents are inevitable."

Gordon stood up holding his face and handed him the part through his fingers. He said, "I told you earlier that you couldn't fix this thing. It looks common but it's actually complicated."

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Schiller lowered his head and continued to tinker with the umbrella frame. He then looked up at the window and said to Gordon, "Are you police officers always so idle?"

"I am solving the problem at its root." Gordon held his arms and looked at Schiller. "I found a pattern. As long as we keep an eye on you, there won't be any trouble finding us."

Before Schiller could reply, Gordon continued to ask, "So, the secret society that invited me last time was established to combat the mysterious organization that Copperpot talked about, which poisoned Gotham's rainwater?"

"That wasn't an invitation. Once you knew this fact, you joined and had to join because even if you didn't fight them, they would come looking for you."

Gordon's brows were tightly furrowed, and he said, "Are those supernatural powers real? Like... magic, witchcraft, and so on?"

"Of course..."

"If God exists, why can't magic and witchcraft exist?"

Gordon opened his mouth, feeling that Schiller made sense, but he wasn't a very devout believer, he could only be considered a pantheist, so he had no concept of those religious things.

Schiller twisted the handle of the umbrella, but the handle fell off directly. Gordon heard him curse, then picked up the handle and threw it away.

Gordon couldn't stand his amateur repair method any longer, he walked over, picked up the handle, and said, "How about this? If you give me a detailed introduction to that organization, I will find someone who can repair this thing for you. How about it?"

"Don't joke around. Gotham's only umbrella maker is already dead, and even if people from other cities know how to do this, they wouldn't dare to come to Gotham. Do I have to go to Metropolis to repair an umbrella?"

"Actually, even if you went to Metropolis, it might be faster to have someone else repair it." Gordon and Schiller both lowered their heads and looked at the umbrella that had been dismantled.

Schiller had to admit that Gordon was right. He had no talent in this area and was just messing around. He should have realized this since Stark's laboratory. He could twist light bulbs, but that was all he could do.

"Where are you going to find someone who can fix umbrellas?"

"I can't find anyone who can fix umbrellas, but I do know someone who can modify traffic lights," Gordon said as he dialed his phone.

"Do you remember that kid who messed with the traffic lights during Traffic Safety Day?" he asked Schiller.

"Oh, I have a vague memory of him. He made only the right intersection out of four intersections smoothly passable, and then there was a shootout there..."

Gordon picked up the phone and said, "Hey, go to the East District and bring that Little Slick here. I need him for something."

Not long after he hung up the phone, a young officer walked in with a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy. The boy was grabbed by the back of his collar, cursing under his breath, but when he saw Gordon, he wilted like a frost-bitten eggplant.

Gordon patted him on the back and said, "This is Little Slick, a genius kid who knows how to do electrical work, manipulate wiring, and even invents some mechanical devices himself."

"What's your name?" Schiller asked him.

"I don't have a name, people just call me Little Slick."

Although Gordon was considered well-behaved and civilized among Gotham's police, his frontline work had given him a tough demeanor compared to Schiller, who was a gentle university professor. Little Slick quickly ran behind Schiller and made a face at Gordon.

"This little guy is the ringleader who tampered with the Central Roundabout's traffic lights. At that time, he was hired by a Gang boss on Madrid Street to make the gang's trucks go faster. He broke open the traffic light's shell in the middle of the night and rewired it," Gordon explained.

"He's not a native of Gotham, he came from the countryside of Brooklyn. His parents died, and his uncle, an electrician, brought him to Gotham to work and make money. However, his uncle's health was not good, and he died of illness a few months after coming to Gotham, leaving him alone."

"This kid is very clever," Gordon praised Little Slick.

"He actually survived in Gotham alone, and he lived well. With the electrical skills he learned from his uncle, several Gang bosses treat him like a VIP. If it weren't for my face, I wouldn't have been able to get him to come here," he said.

Schiller turned around and looked at Little Slick. He was a white boy with messy red curly hair and wore glasses.

He didn't look much like a child from Gotham's slums. Although he looked young, he wasn't thin and weak at all, and he was even stronger than Copperpot. His complexion was rosy, and his eyes were very agile, without the numbness of other children.

There weren't many children in Gotham who wore glasses because they didn't read books or go to school, and their parents didn't have many nearsighted ones either. Little Slick's image was therefore quite out of place.

Schiller handed the broken umbrella to Little Slick and said, "If you fix it for me, I'll give you a super cool toolbox."

Little Slick took the umbrella and looked up and down, surprised, and said, "How did this umbrella break so badly? Did you take it to the battlefield?"

"I saw this umbrella last time, and it wasn't broken so badly, but someone who didn't know how to fix it tried to fix it..." Gordon said gleefully.

Schiller rolled his eyes, dragged a chair over, and sat down, saying, "It's all because of Fish and Copperpot. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have to..."

"Wait!" Little Slick suddenly exclaimed, "Isn't this umbrella too amazing? Why are all the parts different?"

Schiller stood up and said, "Wait a moment, I'll go get you a toolbox."

He walked to the door, called a nurse, and said a few words. After a while, the nurse brought in a toolbox.

As soon as it was opened, there were three or four levels of tool display stands inside. Little Slick exclaimed, "Too cool! I've always wanted a toolbox like this, but unfortunately, my uncle's toolbox is too small..."

"If you can fix this umbrella, then this toolbox is yours."

"Watch me." With that, Little Slick picked up the umbrella and dismantled it in just a few moments. He worked for a while, while Schiller and Gordon watched, but they didn't understand anything.

After a while, Little Slick stopped at the table and rubbed his chin, saying, "This is a bit of a problem."

"This thing should be handmade, right? Casting parts, polishing, and then assembling them together, right?"

"Indeed, this is a custom-made handmade umbrella."

"Then why don't you go find..."

Seeing Schiller's face turning black again, Gordon stepped forward, covered Little Slick's mouth, and said, "Don't ask about this, just fix it for him quickly."

"But this umbrella is very strange, I'm afraid only the person who made it can fix it." Little Slick shrugged and pointed to a small pile of parts, saying to Schiller, "Look at this, the original number of parts should be six, but now there are only five."

Then he picked up a broken part from the side and said, "This is the missing one. This screw looks like it has been burned, and all the threads are destroyed."

"It caused a whole umbrella bone to not be able to support it, but to fix it, you must find an identical screw."

"Originally, I could replace the nut together, but this material is strange. The welding pen is completely unusable..."

Little Slick said to Schiller, "I really want that toolbox, I did my best, but the material used by the maker is too special, and it's completely different from the factory's assembly line products. I can't do it."

Schiller and Gordon looked at each other, obviously thinking of something else. Schiller asked Little Slick, "Are you sure only the umbrella maker who made this umbrella can fix it?"

"Most likely, I'm not bragging, but when I couldn't even walk, I could already screw in screws."

He picked up a screw and showed it to Schiller, saying, "You can see some manual marks on the threads, but more importantly, his design for the threads is very special. Standard screws cannot be screwed on."

"Can you recast one?"

"You can try." Little Slick shook his head and said, "But I think the hope is not great. This fit is very special. If the material is not consistent, it may not fit."

Finally, Schiller still gave the toolbox to Little Slick and said to him, "If you want, you can go to the vocational school in Living Hell and learn. There is a mechanical engineering professor from Gotham University teaching there. With your talent, he will definitely be very surprised."

After Little Slick left, Schiller picked up the phone and dialed a number, saying, "Yes, it's me. Are you free to come over now? What? You were just about to come? Okay..."

About 20 minutes later, Batman appeared in the office. Gordon, Schiller, and Batman were all around the table, looking at the umbrella.

"So, you're saying that this umbrella made by the Court of Owls' umbrella maker, Vicin, can only be repaired by them?"

Batman picked up one of the parts, squinted at it, and didn't say anything.

"Well then," Schiller threw the handle he was holding onto the table and looked at Batman, asking, "You spent a long time in Copperpot and Evans' hospital room last night, what did you guys talk about?"

While fiddling with the parts of the umbrellas, Batman said, "We three were planning to join forces."

Gordon also looked at him and asked, "Join forces? For what? To deal with the Court of Owls?"

"That's right, we're all interested in that mysterious organization, so we plan to investigate it from different angles."

"You said you were coming over today? What's up?"

"I was originally just here to discuss a question, but now I have an answer." With that, Batman took out another part, almost identical to the damaged one, and said, "This is what I found last night, on another umbrella."

As Batman spoke, time rewound back to last night.