"Who?"
Adrian paused slightly when he heard that name.
"Joker."
Wonder Woman repeated it again, watching his reaction closely.
"Where did you hear that name?" Adrian asked, his tone showing a rare trace of curiosity.
He did not expect Diana to bring up that name here. Their worlds of concern rarely overlapped in this way.
He had seen how Batman and Joker's conflict unfolded repeatedly. Joker constantly harassed Batman, occasionally even causing trouble for Superman, but his interaction with Wonder Woman was almost nonexistent.
"So you do know him," Diana said calmly.
Adrian remained silent for a moment.
He did know the name, more than most people would understand.
"I have heard of him," Adrian finally said. "But in Gotham, his focus has always been Batman. Most of his actions are centered around that obsession, so it is not unusual that he has not appeared here."
Diana narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Earlier, at the Justice Society briefing, I saw your Gotham threat list. You ranked Joker at the very top, even above Penguin and Falcone. Why is that?"
"Did I?" Adrian responded, expression unchanged. "You might have misremembered."
"Do not use that tone with me, Adrian," Diana said lightly. "I know when you are deflecting. I have been around you long enough to recognize it."
Adrian did not deny it.
"Then you must have misread it," he said casually. "He is just an ordinary human. No special abilities."
"Batman is also an ordinary human," Diana replied immediately.
Adrian exhaled lightly.
"Diana, I do not know why you are focused on him, but you need to understand something. Gotham produces people like him. If you remove the environment, he loses relevance. He is not worth overanalyzing."
Diana studied him for a moment.
"So you are afraid of him."
Adrian blinked once.
"Afraid?"
He sounded genuinely puzzled.
"There are very few things I fear. He is not one of them. He is just annoying."
Diana tilted her head slightly.
"Your classification of him as Gotham's highest threat, combined with your restructuring of the city, suggests fear. That is the most logical conclusion. My intuition also supports it."
Adrian looked at her briefly.
"You are reaching."
"I am observing," Diana replied. "And my observations have rarely been wrong."
Adrian turned his gaze toward Gotham's skyline.
"Then tell me, Diana. What is pure evil?"
Diana frowned slightly.
"Evil does not come in pure forms."
"It does in stories," Adrian said. "Most villains are defined by reasons."
He spoke evenly, as if analyzing a report.
"Two-Face is a lawyer broken by injustice. Penguin is a man shaped by discrimination. Poison Ivy was altered by chemical exposure. Mister Freeze is driven by a desire to save his wife. Even Selina Kyle, depending on the day, shifts between thief and benefactor."
He paused.
"But Joker is different."
Diana listened quietly.
"You cannot predict him. He does not operate under normal motivations. He once killed a man in a cinema simply because he felt like it. He destroyed buildings for meaningless reasons. He invaded a home, killed an elderly couple, and slept in their bed afterward."
Adrian's voice remained flat.
"There is no pattern of desire. That is what makes him dangerous."
Diana asked, "So you believe absence of purpose is what makes him a threat."
"That is not entirely accurate," Adrian replied. "If I had to define him, it would be madness."
He continued.
"He was once a normal man. He had a wife, and a child on the way. He worked whatever jobs he could, even dealing with criminals to survive. Then one bad day broke him completely."
Diana stayed silent.
Adrian went on.
"Unlike others, he does not hate a system or a person. He seems to hate reality itself. So he responds with chaos. Not strategy, not ideology, just instability."
He glanced briefly at Diana.
"If he heard this analysis, he would probably laugh at how seriously I am taking him."
"Why?" Diana asked.
"Because you cannot explain someone who commits atrocities for no consistent reason and fully commits to it every time."
He paused.
"Even during the Night of the Owls, he removed his own face in the name of 'seeing truth.' Even he does not understand himself."
Diana exhaled slowly.
"So you consider him significant."
"I consider him inconvenient," Adrian corrected.
Then a voice interrupted.
"Adrian."
Adrian stopped.
Clark Kent stepped forward from the edge of the crowd.
Diana immediately became alert.
If a conflict escalated now, the situation would become far more complicated.
Clark approached slowly, his gaze fixed on Adrian.
"Are you… doing well?"
The question came out awkwardly.
"I am fine," Adrian replied. "Martha is fine. Rachel is fine too. If you actually went home instead of watching from a distance, you would already know that."
Clark's expression tightened slightly.
He had visited. Just not directly.
He had watched from afar, unable to step in.
"I am sorry," Clark said after a pause. "I should not have attacked you before. And I should have gone home earlier."
Adrian looked at him for a moment.
"At least you are not like Lex," he said. "That alone is something."
Clark lowered his gaze briefly.
"I cannot agree with what you are doing in Gotham," he said. "Deploying troops, enforcing control, this will only create resistance."
Adrian tilted his head slightly.
"So your definition of wrong is making a broken city functional?"
Clark's voice grew firmer.
"Father taught us responsibility. Power should be used to help people, not control them."
Adrian gave a faint smile.
"And your interpretation of that is to do nothing while everything collapses?"
Clark shook his head.
"That is not what I am saying."
Adrian stepped closer.
"You are an adult now, Clark. Father's protection is no longer your shield."
Clark frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Adrian continued.
"You still see the world through his lens. That is why you hesitate."
Clark's expression darkened slightly.
"I am trying to protect people."
Adrian's tone sharpened slightly.
"And I am doing the same, just without hesitation."
A brief silence followed.
Then Adrian suddenly struck.
A burst of energy slammed into Clark, sending him crashing into the ground. The impact cracked the pavement and sent dust spiraling into the air.
Gordon and Harvey both flinched instinctively.
"Already fighting?" Harvey muttered.
Clark pushed himself up slowly. He was not seriously injured, but the force had clearly surprised him.
Diana immediately noticed movement on the side.
A young woman attempted to rush in.
Diana stepped in front of her.
"Do not interfere."
"I am not stepping back," the girl replied.
Diana drew her blade.
"Then I will stop you."
Across the battlefield, Adrian ignored the side conflict entirely.
He walked toward Clark.
"You gave them countermeasures," Adrian said. "Zinc screens, encrypted relay systems, all of it."
Clark did not deny it.
"Yes."
"I will bring you back to the right path," Clark said. "You are not yourself right now. This is not who you are meant to be."
Adrian stopped.
Then he sighed.
"So in your mind, I am the one who is lost."
Without warning, Adrian moved again.