"If it's heads, you're still my good subordinate. If it's tails…"
Harvey Dent slowly lifted his left hand.
"What a shame. It's tails."
Harvey Dent shook his head.
"Mr. Puppet Master, consider this man my apology for dropping in unannounced. Now, would you be willing to have a chat with me?"
"What do you want to talk about?" Hardy asked Harvey Dent.
The latter elegantly opened the car door and gestured for Hardy to get in.
"Shall we talk in private?" Harvey Dent said.
Hardy pondered for two seconds, then placed his left hand behind his back, flicking out a few chakra threads to ensure he could summon the modified pneumatic arm from Heijin at any time. Only then did he get in the car.
The window was open, so the chakra threads could pass through easily.
Harvey Dent sat beside Hardy, motioning with his hand.
The car slowly drove a short distance away from the crowd. The driver soon got out, ensuring their conversation would not be overheard.
"There was originally only one thing I wanted to discuss, but after seeing you in person, there are now two. The new question is: what's your relationship with Ra's?"
Ra's, also known as the Demon's Head, is the leader of the League of Assassins, whose Chinese name is Lei Xiaogu.
Harvey Dent probably thought Hardy's ninja skills meant he was from the League of Assassins.
"I have nothing to do with him. My skills are just similar to those of the League's members."
Hardy looked at Harvey Dent's twisted face as he spoke.
Whether Two-Face really believed him or not was unclear. He simply nodded, then took a newspaper from the front seat and handed it to Hardy.
"For this matter, you were there in person. I want to know if there's still any of that stuff left—the kind that can turn people into monsters like that."
The newspaper's front page was a striking image: Batman facing off against the Titan Joker on the rooftop of Arkham Asylum.
Hardy did, in fact, still have a sample of the improved Titan formula.
Back then, the Joker needed some powerful cannon fodder to keep Batman occupied, so he gave Hardy and the other Arkham inmates each a vial of Titan II.
To escape from Arkham, Hardy injected his Titan II into a guard to distract Nightwing and managed to get away. He still had about half a vial left—maybe only ten or twenty milliliters.
"The Joker already proved for us that this stuff can't take down Batman or his little bat-brats,"
Hardy leaned back in the leather chair, raised the newspaper, and said,
"But that doesn't mean it's useless, does it? At the very least, the monsters it creates can definitely hold Batman up for a while. That alone makes it a pretty good card to have."
Two-Face toyed with his coin, locking eyes with Hardy.
If Hardy didn't say anything, he couldn't be sure whether Hardy actually had any left.
All the improved Titan formula was destroyed by Batman that day. The only people who might still have some were those who escaped Arkham that night.
He'd done his homework. The Puppeteer had used the Titan formula to draw Nightwing and the guards' attention, then slipped out of Arkham during the chaos of Batman's showdown with the Joker. So, he was the most likely to have any left.
But Hardy's strength made him wary—not just the power of that black metal robot he'd heard about, but Hardy's own abilities were also an unknown factor to Harvey Dent.
Otherwise, he'd have just taken it by force.
Hardy was weighing his options as well.
Keeping the Titan formula for himself was of little use in the short term.
You needed a certain level of expertise in biology and chemistry to even attempt to crack the sample. Hardy didn't have those connections, nor the time or energy to study it himself.
But Harvey Dent might.
As Gotham's former district attorney and now a crime boss and supervillain, Harvey Dent's network and influence far surpassed Hardy's.
But Hardy wasn't bound to choose Harvey Dent—unless the latter made it worth his while, meaning a better offer than anyone else.
And Harvey Dent clearly understood that.
"I don't know if you really have the stuff, but let me lay out my terms."
Two-Face pulled out a map of Gotham and laid it in front of Hardy.
"I know you've got two streets now, but that's too small. From here to here—two streets, a small neighborhood—it can all be yours. Your turf will be connected. How you manage it after that is your problem."
Hardy remained silent.
Given enough time, he could easily take that territory himself.
"I'm confident I can get Victor to help us study this stuff. When it's done, the results will belong to the three of us. And in the meantime, I'll draw attention away from you."
Victor?
Hardy quickly searched his memory and soon matched the name to a notorious Gotham villain.
Victor Fries, the infamous Mr. Freeze—a renowned cryophysicist and biochemist in the DC universe, with a solid grasp of engineering as well.
The fact that he could build his own cryo-armor and freeze weapons spoke to his scientific prowess.
If it was him, it might actually work.
"Not enough."
The moment he heard Mr. Freeze's name, Hardy had already made up his mind.
Not just because of Harvey Dent's offer, but because Mr. Freeze was a top-tier scientist, even by DC standards.
Harvey Dent's scarred face twisted into an ugly grin.
"Not enough, but not impossible. That means you really do have a sample of the Titan formula—and that there's room to negotiate."
"One million in cash. It's all from yesterday's bank job, so you'll have to launder it yourself. Plus, a batch of second-hand firearms from the GCPD, and two armored, modified cars. With that, you'll be able to hold your new turf."
Hardy still shook his head. As Two-Face's expression darkened, he spoke:
"I want you to make the introduction—to Victor."
"You can't go behind my back to deal with Victor directly. I'm funding his experiments to revive his wife. That's the only reason he agreed to work with me.
As for you, I doubt you have that kind of capital."
Harvey Dent flipped his coin, staring at Hardy and speaking in a low voice.
"No, no, Mr. Dent. I'm not that interested in the Titan formula. It's nowhere near as strong as my own creations."
Hardy's left hand, hidden behind his back, clenched tight.
Two seconds later, with a thunderous crash, Black Gold smashed through the wall and stepped out amid a cloud of dust.