"Oh my god!!!! Rhino, tiger, rabbit, turtle, hedgehog, kitty, gorilla, lion, elephant, monkey, beetle, dinosaur, watermelon, banana, apple, blueberry, gray-clothes robot, cowboy, policeman, construction worker, nurse, doctor, sir!"
"Stop fighting, all of you!!!!"
"Stop it, I said stop!"
Mark crouched calmly to the side, watching as the Ventriloquist wore a plush toy on each of his ten fingers and ten toes, all of them locked in a chaotic brawl. A pile of additional toys was spread around him, joining in the mass personality free-for-all.
He could even see smoke starting to rise from the Ventriloquist's balding middle-aged head. The man looked like a human speaker, with countless jumbled voices booming from his short frame, turning his entire body into a cacophonous mess.
"AAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
The Ventriloquist let out a shriek. What had started as a puppet-on-puppet battle had now somehow escalated to include Arnold himself. One bird puppet seemed to have successfully convinced several of the other finger puppets, and together they formed a fist—bam—and socked Arnold square in the eye.
"Help! Someone help me!"
Mark just shook his head, looking at him like he was trash.
Definitely insane. Beyond saving.
Originally, the reason the Ventriloquist was able to calmly select the policeman puppet as his newly formed alternate personality during the invasion of the Gotham City Police Department's evidence room was because Mr. Socky, a relatively strong persona, had been there to keep order.
But things were different now—Mr. Socky had been completely eliminated by Mark. Every newly created persona had roughly equal strength, so how could a dominant one emerge quickly?
With all of them equally matched, it was like dozens of viruses trying to run on the same computer at once.
"Ahhhh ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh…"
As time passed, the personalities kept arguing loudly, while the Ventriloquist's own facial control began to break down. His eyes rolled in different directions, drool dribbled from his mouth, and he let out incoherent howls like "abba abba."
"..."
This was just about enough. It was time to initiate the next phase of treatment—if his brain's CPU really burned out, that would be a problem.
So Mark stepped into the pile of puppets and picked out… a Batman plush toy.
It was a cartoon-style baby Batman, with a pacifier in its mouth, a black cape, a diaper, and a fabric utility belt sewn around its waist. It looked absolutely adorable—the kind of thing little girls would love at first sight.
Mark had even embedded a wireless voice module inside, allowing him to control the doll's speech remotely—further ensuring his control over the Ventriloquist.
"This one's it!"
Mark walked up to the Ventriloquist and, with a few swift motions, yanked off all the puppets from his hands.
"?"
The Ventriloquist immediately lunged forward and clung to Mark's leg, rubbing snot and tears all over his pants. "Oh my god, what are you going to do to Rhino, Tiger, Rabbit, Turtle, Hedgehog, Kitty, Gorilla, Lion…"
"Get off!"
Mark rudely stripped the balding old white man from head to toe—didn't even leave him with a pair of underwear. Then he gathered the pile of puppets the man had just been clutching and threw them into a heap.
He pulled out a lighter.
"No! No!"
The Ventriloquist struggled violently, so Mark tucked him under his arm like luggage, and lit the pile of plush toys on fire.
Whoosh!
The flames roared up instantly—those things were all highly flammable.
Yeah, even the plush toys that hadn't yet become vessels for personalities couldn't be spared.
So Mark tossed in the rest of the stuffed animals from the duffel bag and lit them up too.
"Noooooo…"
Arnold collapsed helplessly to the ground, completely naked. He didn't even have underwear left to slip over his hand and create a new persona.
"Arnold? Arnold?"
No response. The Ventriloquist bawled like an oversized balding baby, sobbing uncontrollably while slapping himself across the face.
"Take me away! Take me away!"
If Mark hadn't stopped him, he would've thrown himself straight into the flames in despair.
Mark was quite satisfied with the reaction. He pulled out a vial of serum and sprayed a thick cloud of mist directly onto the poor old man's face.
"Cough cough cough… AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The Ventriloquist didn't wail anymore—he started convulsing as if in a seizure.
Fear Toxin. A compound created by Scarecrow, designed to amplify fear.
"Do you see now? No matter how many new friends you make… I'll kill them all. Kekekekeke!"
Mark leaned in close, grabbed him by the neck, and forced him to lock eyes with him.
The Ventriloquist started howling again, so loudly Mark half-expected him to cough up his own throat. He didn't know exactly what the Ventriloquist was seeing, but from Arnold's perspective, the whole world was probably engulfed in flames.
Fire. The Batman he feared most. The panic of being without a protector persona. And the fear toxin—boiling together into a thick stew named pure terror.
And the flavor? Just right.
"This—this Mini Batman Baby—is the only friend I'll allow you to have," Mark said.
He shoved the plush Batman toy into Arnold's hand. "He represents my will. He'll be watching you at all times to make sure you follow my orders."
"You're not allowed to throw him away! You're not allowed to leave him! He won't make you kill like Scarface did—he'll make you listen to me! He won't hurt you! I won't hurt you! This is all for your own good!"
Mark roared into the Ventriloquist's face at full volume, spraying spit with every word. The sonic and psychological shock landed hard on the already dazed Arnold.
Clutching the Mini Batman Baby plush, a single clear tear rolled down the corner of the Ventriloquist's eye.
And then… nothing.
Uh-oh. Did I break him?
Mark, looking worried, gave him two slaps across the face. "Say something. Come on, give me a smile."
The Ventriloquist still stared blankly, saying nothing.
"Arnold, don't be afraid. As long as you listen to Batman, you won't get hurt," said a deep voice—completely different from Arnold's usual tone, vaguely resembling Batman's own.
A smile slowly spread across Mark's face.
Success.
"Remember, from now on, you're Batman's dog!"
"Woof!"
…Huh? That didn't sound quite right. Whatever. Not important.
Mark's attention was suddenly drawn to the flashing silvery text pulsing in his mind.
[Warning! Warning! Anchor item detected!]
[Acquired: Tear of Persona Destruction – Ventriloquist]
[Description: A tear shed after the complete collapse of the Ventriloquist's alternate personalities. It can only be obtained through extremely unethical and brutal means. You may be able to use it to summon a Batman from a parallel universe.]
[But... would a being summoned by something so immoral really be powerful?]
["Yes, you got him—but you lost your morality in the process."]
["Was it really worth it?"]
Mark suddenly looked down at his hand. The Ventriloquist's tear was slowly drying up.
[Converted into Crisis Energy Units: 10]
[Batman's memories are now available for synchronization]
Mark's heart surged with excitement. Was his cheat finally kicking in?
[Protocol activated. Now taking effect... Activation complete. New Batman detected. Assigning serial number...]
[Your designation: 52]
[Alfred Protocol initialization complete.]
[A mortal body, yet rivaling the Monster Kings.]
[With human strength, equal to the Sacred Emperors.]
[In a world shrouded in darkness, he stands as its watchman.]
[The Shadowed Bat-Knight remains unmatched to this day!]
[Evildoers and traitors tremble before my divine light.]
[No ghost or demon can withstand my path.]
[Where the Bat's light shines, brilliance endures through the ages!]
[Honorable Batman No. 52, welcome to the Bat Corps!]