Eating pineapple in a wide and dark burial chamber was a new experience for Green Arrow.
But no matter how good the fruit is, it's tasteless in his mouth now; he can't just sit by like Deathstroke and watch the Justice League get deceived without doing anything.
"I have to find a way to save them."
Su Ming nodded, then shook his head: "You're right, but it's not just you, it's us."
"So you have a plan?" Green Arrow was overjoyed. If Deathstroke was with him, then the combat power was at least guaranteed.
Which long-ranged shooter wouldn't want a meat shield in the front row to absorb damage?
What kind of plan could Su Ming have?
He hoped Batman's thinking would become more open under the Joker toxin's influence and recovered Thomas as insurance. But now Batman had run off to the Otherworld; do these people just love traveling across universes?
"Hmm, I have some ideas, but first, let's solve the Mad Laugh problem... If you had clung to Batman's leg and not let him go, maybe we could have stopped it in time. But since they're already gone, I'll have to use a backup plan."
Su Ming wouldn't say that he didn't have a plan, but the so-called backup plan was actually about something else.
As long as it's executed well enough, it could completely turn the disadvantages around.
"So is that why you're here? Mad Laugh is here?" Oliver immediately caught on; it seemed like Deathstroke had foreseen this.
And the Laughing Bat was always trouble; he acted recklessly, yet slightly irrationally, as he was still a Batman, always capable of causing problems at crucial moments.
"Not necessarily here, but this is Owl Court's collective cemetery." Su Ming also sat on the coffin; the pineapple breakfast was over, and it was time to smoke a cigarette to digest. The two puffed clouds together in the darkness: "Don't you think Final Laugh and cemetery are a great match? Laughing eternally underground makes the longest-lasting laugh, and those who laugh the longest laugh the best."
"Are you suggesting Gotham City's first Final Laugh system is here?" Green Arrow examined the surroundings constantly; aside from the passageway leading here in the distance, this seemed to be the main burial chamber, which was a dead-end: "I thought you had Arthur flood the first system."
"That's what I thought too, but despite all we did, Laughing Bat hasn't abandoned his plan, right? So maybe my analysis was off. I suspect he killed Penguin to find the map and sought the way here, and our flood merely blocked the path; as you can see, it's dry here, with no water inside."
Su Ming took a puff of his cigarette and gently exhaled, seemingly having discovered something.
Oliver widened his eyes: "Then the statue you knocked over?"
"Yes, just like the giant statue in the Owl Maze, surrounding a statue with a fence wasn't to separate it from the corpses, but to preserve the liquid Amber Gold. It was a fountain, and maybe decades ago, it was drooling endlessly from the owl's mouth."
Su Ming said with a joke, casting his gaze towards the ruins.
Oliver excitedly took a deep draw from his cigarette, putting it out once done. He walked to the original base of the statue and tapped on the ground.
Though there was only a broken water pipe emerging from the ground, he could hear a hollow echo beneath.
"It's hollow underneath." Green Arrow turned to Su Ming, as if discovering a new continent, despite wearing a mask, his eyes were wide.
"Of course it's hollow; all fountains have hollows underneath, not only for piping but also for easy maintenance. Sound equipment might be necessary as well. The fountain in front of the Hall of Justice has a secret chamber beneath it too." Su Ming smiled, leisurely crossing his legs.
Green Arrow was momentarily frozen, his expression filled with confusion: "How do you know things I didn't? What's under the fountain at the Hall of Justice?"
"You'd have to ask Batman; trust me, it's definitely not a simple maintenance room."
Su Ming stood up, put out his cigarette, walked to Green Arrow, and used the Giant Sword to draw a circle on the ground.
With a thud, the concrete cover fell, revealing a dark, deep hole.
"There's no dampness; the airflow is dry." Oliver quickly assessed, as an archer, he was highly sensitive to airflow.
Su Ming leaned in for a look: "It's not too deep; the lack of echoes shows there's a problem. I might have an idea what's down below."
"How did you find the Owl burial site?" Green Arrow, finally snapping out of the scattered conversations, realized this for the first time.
"Regardless of why Mad Laugh killed those two Bruce's and sent his followers to die, he always had a goal to spread toxins or bacteria in Gotham, destroying it; you agree with this, right?"
Green Arrow nodded, aware that Mad Laugh's actions hardly ever changed. After brief interactions, he realized Mad Laugh was like any Batman, unwilling to easily abandon plans.
"I may not be sure what toxins relate to these Bruce's, but Bat Owl's presence reminded me. He said Mad Laugh had him locate Bat Gold and Amber Gold." Su Ming jumped into the hole; landing about two seconds later indicated a roughly twenty-meter drop, revealing a spacious area.
"So?" Green Arrow used Flash teleportation to quickly join him.
"Let's not mention Bat Gold; that's Owl Court's ancestral item and might still exist in Egypt. But Amber Gold is different; it's a Gotham specialty. The ones infused into buildings can't be reused, and the spring in the Owl Maze was destroyed by Batman afterward. So I deduced there must be another secret site in Gotham with Amber Gold."
"Here?" Green Arrow nodded: "But this still doesn't explain how you found this place."
"I mentioned earlier, didn't I? This is Owl Court's Final Laugh site established around 1850, when Gotham City's size was not as expansive as today."
"Thus, by calculating the map's shape of the old district, connecting the longest East-West points, and forming a circle using it as the diameter, I could guess the location of Final Laugh. Just like Wayne Tower today, it's at the center of Gotham because it acts like a lawn sprinkler."
"Owl's Final Laugh plan involves using airships to spread antidotes or toxins. With airship mobility being relatively slow, if they can't reach every corner of Gotham before being detected, some 'poisoned ones' might escape Gotham, which isn't what Owl desires."
"Thus, the airship base had to be at the central point of Gotham at the time, ensuring roughly equal travel time to any distance. Conveniently, in Bat Owl's layer, I found an old map while chatting with Thomas, sneaking glances whenever possible."
"Moreover, to rule out other possibilities, I already sent the Humiliation Squad to Indian Mountain, which turned out clean in the Main World. Now, does my answer satisfy you? Even if you didn't comprehend it, I won't explain further; just lie down and cooperate."
As Su Ming led quickly wielding the Giant Sword, he sped through explanations to Green Arrow before his face got covered by the Mask again, clearly showing disinterest in further discussion.
If he sensed correctly, Laughing Bat was possibly waiting in the darkness ahead.
His explanation to Green Arrow was something an average person can understand, but Su Ming's actual method tied back to the Nightfall Greatsword obtained from Cindy.
Metal resonance had helped find Batman in the Dark Multiverse originally.
Mad Laugh collected various metals to replace Bruce as the Door; his escape from Wayne Tower was possibly a teleportation capability, indicating he had accumulated the necessary metals.
Therefore, the current resonance target was him.
After all, not everything should be disclosed to the consumer, right?
Green Arrow played a minor role in Barbatos' invasion event; matters regarding metals and Door were crucial intelligence, never offered freely.
How does one cultivate dependency if consumers grow wings? Su Ming certainly had plans and arrangements for Oliver...