Joker and some villains gathered around a round table, chatting and playing poker, surrounded by smokers and underworld villains.
"I bet I can get Dark-Dragon to kill," said the clown prince of crime.
"The hero is the one who benefits from this, not us," said Mr. Freeze, "besides killing for money."
"I don't see Dark-Dragon killing people around here, not even for money," said Mr. Freeze.
"Actually, I only see a Dark-Dragon, but I don't know if this is the original," said Penguin.
"Even if he needed to," said Penguin.
"But did you notice something, Joker ?" Poison Ivy asked.
"What, darling?" the clown asked.
"We haven't seen him for weeks," said the green woman.
"You, like all of us, know that what we have here isn't the original," Poison said.
"And you know he doesn't kill," said Crocodile.
"But we don't know about this new one," said Riddler.
"He had thousands of opportunities to kill you and he didn't, and it was free," said Penguin. "Why would he kill an innocent person, even now, for money?"
"Power corrupts, doesn't it?" asked the Riddler. "And greed makes you do crazy things."
"We can play around a bit, make them angry enough to cause a complication and drive them crazy to the point of killing and taking it out on an innocent person," said the Riddler.
"Does murder by mistake count?" Riddler asked.
"Come on, let's see who the biggest lunatic is, the one who caused so much chaos that they drove them insane. That would be you," said the Riddler.
"Since we're not doing anything," said Riddler. "Why not?" asked Nygma.
"You wouldn't do it for money?" he said. "Did you see that amount?" Two- Face asked. "It's 700 billion dollars and 30 gold bars," he said. "That would make anyone greedy," he added.
"What would we gain from him killing?" Joker asked. "Besides, of course, seeing him kill an innocent person," he said. "Come on, folks, let's watch the circus burn down."
"He could split the money with us if we found the victim," Nygma proposed.
"Since when would any hero share money with us?" Crocodile asked.
"Why not?" Nygma asked.
"Because if someone kills an innocent person, since when would they care about not killing us?" Harley Queen asked, appearing.
"What if we kidnapped an ally of a hero?" Nygma proposed. "If we had any hostages," Riddler tried.
"He wouldn't care about a villain," Harley Queen said. "And he'd kill everyone in his path."
"How about we at least have some fun and forget about that part?" said Joker . "How about chaos for chaos' sake?" said Joker .
"Yes," they said around them, clinking their glasses.
Yes, they would try to get the gold.
While the most idiotic, in every sense, all to a greater or lesser degree, were transformed into animals, in addition to being electrocuted, a mountain of pigs walked back trying to retrieve the boxes of money from that pointed tower.
Among the villains, bets began to be placed on who would kill first.
Leticia Lane was looking for a story, ignoring most of the shouting and craziness of heroes.
During that week, reporters were approaching the heroes about those issues.
Crime levels soared in each of the cities; they took several hostages throughout the week, and each time they appeared and a hero emerged, the villains used children as shields.
Then, there were several cases of kidnappings throughout the week.
Leticia Lane was covering a story about superheroes murdering innocent people.
"Leticia," Perry said, standing in front of her in the Daily Planet newsroom.
"Your off work for the rest of the month," he said.
- What...? – Leticia said.
"No..." Leticia said. "No..." she said again. "It's not right."
"You are the source of all of Astro-Star's problems; some imbecile villain could use you to force him to kill an innocent person," he said.
"Don't come back here before the end of the month," Perry said.
"Who said Astro-Star kills?" Leticia shouted.
"The informants on the streets," Perry said. "They stole a shipment of helionite and fear gas."
"Who said that?" Leticia asked.
"Me," Jimmy said. "I found an informant who leaked that they stole something coming to Golden Valley."
"Men in fits of rage have done worse," Perry said.
- About that.
The stories of gods and drugged aliens, hallucinating and killing even unintentionally, are what he said.
"He might think you're the Apocalypse," Perry said.
"Besides doing a story about his death, I'll also do a story supporting Luther," Perry said.
"The rules are clear, Perry, he can only kill an innocent person of his own free will," Leticia said. "And no, thank you," Leticia added.
"That's not what I heard," Perry said. "If you stay, I'll call the police and you'll be escorted out of the Daily Planet." "I'll claim national security," Perry added.
"Boss, please," Leticia tried.
"If you prove to me," Perry said, "that you won't be killed by Astro-Star, who thinks you're a supervillain." Perry proposed, "I'll allow it." Her boss said.
Fuming, Leticia went to her desk, grabbed her things, and went down to the street in the elevator.
Tsuki Miki , following Leticia, with his sunglasses on, bumped into her even though he was coughing and feeling unwell, almost falling. The woman almost got angry, but turned around in time when she realized the man was unwell; it was a good disguise for a leper, making him unrecognizable.
"Oh my God," Leticia said. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'll get better," he said, sitting on the bench, a little unsteady and unsteady.
She let go of him when he stood up, not realizing that he had placed a tracker on her, observing her, and then following her the next day, monitoring her actions throughout the day and over the course of the week.
Some of them bet on the Dark-Dragon, even though they hadn't seen him for a long time, since the previous month, they thought they could induce him to kill.
There were several press delegations that Luther made, or did not find, almost no one arguing that Astro-Star was as fallible as anyone else, that he would be a danger to the world, and should be detained throughout the week until the trial period ended.
The Miraculous Woman was about to break a villain's neck, and her sword nearly pierced the shoulder of an innocent person caught in an ambush and used as a shield.
Each of the heroes, at some point, was caught in the crossfire between villains who resembled an assault group; they would appear, drive Astro-Star and Miraculous Woman crazy, launch an attack, and then disappear as soon as they acted.
That week, Miraculous Woman was restrained by Astro-Star, who was trying to prevent her from killing one of the criminals who had used a hostage as a shield, in addition to bombs strapped to him.
After they calmed down, Astro-Star also lost control due to the revenge and assault that followed.
"Do you think they would actually give us money if an innocent person died?" Barry asked.
"Even if they offered money, I wouldn't do it," said Astro-Star.
"Even so, it's a lot of money, and besides losing my soul, I'd be rich, but my soul is very important to me, Barry," said Astro-Star.
"Yes," said Barry. "Me too," said Barry. "But what if it were by other means, like winning the lottery, what would you do with 700 billion dollars, plus 30 gold bars?"
"What a dream, Barry," Artemis said, laughing. "That's a lot of money, indeed," Artemis added.
"I have no idea," said Astro-Star, sitting down in the tower's recreation room.
"I, at least, would distribute a portion," he said. "There are many hungry and penniless people in the world," said Astro-Star.
"A scout, as always," said Artemis. "That's a good idea," said Artemis.
"You wouldn't do that with that kind of money," said Astro-Star. "If there were another way."
There was the element of attraction and seduction inherent in sin itself; once, he was almost tempted, the temptation was there.
All the heroes almost killed an innocent person, even if it was just an "almost," they were drawn into a chase.
Investigating and following heroes took its toll on his body; everyone thought he was drinking or feeling unwell in corners, but in reality, he hadn't slept for four days.
They had constant fights, Astro-Star, Wonder Woman, various speedsters, among the representatives of Hermes, when a contingent of mediators and representatives of werewolves were accused of persecution, then there was a long discussion between accusations.
His lack of sleep was approaching five, he was drinking energy drinks and eating a lot, which is why he saw several heroes being cornered, and villains surrounding Artemis.
Those wretches were giving some heroes double the trouble, and on the sixth day, Luther showed up and invited Tsuki Miki out. The man managed to reschedule three times, four times, until he couldn't come up with an excuse to avoid meeting them.
Meanwhile, as they were being observed by curious and spying eyes, at the very moment when Tsuki Miki and the gamblers were watching them...
The heroes stood in the watchtower, while the silence was heavy.
After a period of silence, they began to talk, exchanging accounts of a tiring day of humanitarian aid; they had almost killed or let die children who had been kidnapped by a villain, and Astro-Star had almost dropped a child towards a precipice.
"I can't keep fighting," said Astro-Star.
"What happened?" Artemis asked.
"I need to go to the fortress," said Astro-Star.
"What's going on, Kal?" a hero arriving there asked.
"I'm not as made of steel as I think," said Astro-Star.
Among their missions, they were unaware of the spies and gamblers.
Meanwhile, Tsuki Miki Delphos was following them, while Astro-Star, Artemis, and various heroes of varying degrees were being tempted and tested.