"Batman turned around, and the little light seeping through the towering warehouse door was almost completely obscured by his tall figure.
Lord Superman only saw him resolutely turning his back, but Bruce noticed the stiffness of his ankle as he took that step.
Batman still left, and Lord Superman followed. Wonder Woman sighed deeply behind them.
'This isn't the solution, no one can replace his position.' Wonder Woman picked up her tools again, starting to repair the broken car in the warehouse.
Bruce quietly stood watching their retreating figures, then turned to Wonder Woman and said: 'His coming to find me is not to replace your universe's Batman.'
Wonder Woman paused in her work. She lightly tapped the ground with her wrench and said: 'Perhaps he saw another possibility in your younger self, but Clark has never believed, nor wanted to believe that Batman shaped himself.'
'He has no regrets, no remorse, never thought about starting over, or about if, from the beginning, he was not a mistake to be redeemed, but Superman never realized this.'
Bruce walked over to Wonder Woman, squatted next to her, and said: 'Perhaps he came to find me because he has come to understand.'
Wonder Woman finally showed some puzzlement in her eyes. She slightly moved her body to the side, further away from Bruce, inspecting this young Batman.
From this perspective, there was quite a difference between Bruce and Batman. As his body had not fully recovered, he was thinner, which naturally made him look younger, with a stronger sense of youth.
Europeans and Americans mature faster and pursue mature sexiness, so many twenty-somethings already look like they're in their forties, but Bruce was clean-shaven and not as muscular, seeming more naive than the American young men in Wonder Woman's memory, just like a child.
Furthermore, his gaze was completely different from the Batman she knew. Although they both had blue eyes, Batman's eyebrows appeared higher for some reason; the shadows under his brows were heavier, and his pupils were always half-covered, revealing no expression.
Yet, Bruce looked her in the eye under the light, his blues whitening in the direct illumination. She could see every detail in his irises, and when he focused on Wonder Woman, she felt he had no secrets from her.
And most importantly, wasn't this Batman unusually talkative?
In the past, for Batman to speak so much in such a short time, it must have been due to a major alien invasion of Earth, or they must not have seen each other for at least three months – including hellos and goodbyes , even coughs and sighs, would hit this same word count.
'Do you believe me if I say I can instantly bring them back?'
Under Wonder Woman's shocked gaze, Bruce presented a sincere smile.
Elsewhere, Batman had already passed through the dense bushes, reaching behind the house, on the vast green lawn.
The clouds were low, the wind sweeping over the wilderness lifting Batman's cloak. The air gave off a grey, dreary hue, reminiscent of the cold rain in November in the Scottish Highlands.
'Batman.' Lord Superman landed. Batman halted, but not because Lord Superman had called him, but because he had one last thing to say to him.
'This is your solution.'
With that said, he no longer hesitated and strode forward. Although Lord Superman was faster and had landed in front of him after flying over his head, he said: 'You have misunderstood. I did not bring him here to replace you.'
Batman silently watched him, his face saying 'you got it all wrong,' but he remained silent even in defense.
'Listen, Bruce, we will always be a team, you, me, and Diana, I brought another Bruce here just to change our current situation.'
'You just want to change me.'
'I just want to understand you.'
Batman's head moved slightly, as if he were shaking his head, but it wasn't so dramatic.
Suddenly, he stepped forward. This aggressive action scared Lord Superman, and Batman stared him in the eye and said, 'You have corrected the world's mistakes, and now, you think it's time to correct mine.'
As I said, I just want to understand you.'
'You think I am not normal, so you found a Batman who you think is normal in order to understand why I am not normal.' Batman took a light breath, and continued: 'You think I'm a broken machine, so you bought a new one to see which part had problems.'
Lord Superman opened his mouth, unable to refute Batman's words, because he used to think in the same way.
No matter how powerful Batman was, how prophetic, how much of a genius, how much people tolerated his quiet nature, Lord Superman always felt he was problematic.
It was not because Batman was different from others, but Lord Superman's super intuition always made him feel Batman was like a machine with issues.
The machine didn't have any operational issues, it didn't make strange noises, the appearance was still new, but Lord Superman always felt that there was chaos inside the machine, in areas they had not noticed.
But this was just an intuition, even a delusion. Lord Superman had no evidence, nor could he convince anyone to prove this with him.
But after encountering the other Batmans in the game, Lord Superman found out that it wasn't his Batman who had problems, it was all the Batmans in all the worlds. His own was a relatively minor case.
Although in the last round, Bruce was closer to him, and Beihan was more active, Lord Superman did not forget to pay attention to the other Batman, that is, the Batman of the Prime Universe.
Lord Superman thought of him as a coffin.
A corpse could not describe the feeling this Batman gave him. He was like a coffin placed at a funeral, only for people to pay their respects. No matter how strong he was, he couldn't shake a single screw on top.
This sparked a surprising despair in Lord Superman. He didn't know how the Superman from that cosmos would've dealt with a Batman like this. All he knew was that he couldn't let the Batman he knew turn into this.
Having resorted to violence, Lord Superman finally cast aside his pointless sentimentality. He became more extreme but also more resolute. He vowed that even if he died today and was buried, he would still manage to stretch out a hand from his coffin to throw the Batman next door out of the ground and up into the sky.
"You can't leave here," Lord Superman's eyes started to glow red. "Come back with me, Batman. We will solve all the problems. Just the two of us."
"There's no 'us' anymore," Batman turned away again.
Lord Superman finally exhausted all his patience. He once again soared into the sky, flying diagonally above Batman. Between his breaths, an chilling coldness surged within, and the frightening red glow in his eyes intensified.
Batman bent his body, ready to attack.
The fight was about to start.
"Bang!"
The loud noise did not come from the grass.
Lord Superman and Batman jerked around just in time to see the...roof?! It had abruptly lifted into the sky and then crashed back down with a bang!
Immediately afterwards, there was another "Boom!" The warehouse windows shattered into pieces. One silhouette burst out of the warehouse, promptly followed by another.
Wonder Woman held the Lasso of Truth in her hand and yelled at Bruce who was running in front of her, "Stop right there! You good for nothing rascal!! Stop!!!"
The Lasso of Truth flew out from Wonder Woman and traced a fluid arc in the air, heading to bind Bruce.
From their angle, Superman and Batman couldn't see what was happening below at all. The warehouse blocked their view of the fight, they could only hear Wonder Woman's angry roar followed by a series of crashes and thumps.
The two had no time to talk. Like a low-flying bird, Lord Superman zoomed back to the house at the fastest speed, followed closely by Batman.
Bruce was already pinned down by Wonder Woman. Lord Superman hurriedly shouted, "Diana, stop!"
Then he turned to Bruce, "What did you do?!"
"I didn't do anything!" Bruce countered.
"He kissed me!" Wonder Woman roared in indignation.
Lord Superman and Batman were stunned.
"I only kissed her on the cheek!" Bruce argued. "Besides, you dodged it!"
"That doesn't hide the fact that you're a pervert!"
"It was a polite kiss! You're misunderstanding!"
Furious, Wonder Woman reached for the Lasso of Truth to tie up Bruce. She lifted a hand and the lasso that had just been sent flying returned to her. But just as she lifted her hand to bind him, Bruce took advantage of the moment to flip over, knocking Wonder Woman down and scrambling away.
"Clark, save me!" As he called out, Bruce darted behind Lord Superman.
Neither Lord Superman nor Batman had time to react. Just as Lord Superman was about to look over his shoulder at the retreating Bruce, the incoming Lasso of Truth had already bound him and Batman together.
After dusting off his hands, Bruce came out from behind them, high-fived Wonder Woman and said, "You see? That wasn't so hard, was it?"
"What on earth are you doing?!" Lord Superman cried in disbelief.
"Didn't you want to hear Batman's truth?" Bruce shrugged and said, "Surely your original plan wasn't to make me a translator? Is your brain tangled up or something?"
Lord Superman was stunned speechless.
"Moreover, you're not implying that Batman is the only one with a problem, right?" Wonder Woman stood with her hands on her hips, flicked her wind-blown hair and said, "Bringing in another Batman to translate, is that something a normal person would do? Clark? You're hardly any better than him!"
Having finished, she went and stood to their side, watching them from another angle.
No matter how prescient Batman might have been, he could never have anticipated the existence of such a trendy Batman in the universe. Much less that this Batman would persuade Wonder Woman to cooperate with him in less than ten minutes of his arrival.
Thus, the armor he was wearing couldn't counteract the Lasso of Truth, nor did he have any equipment to resist it.
Lord Superman could attempt to use brute force to break free. But the problem was that now he and Batman were tied together.
The Lasso of Truth could withstand tugging, but Batman could not withstand squeezing. The body strength of Batman was that of a normal person. The armor he was wearing today did not seem like heavy armor. Even if it was, if Superman were to exert his real strength, Batman would be turned into mush.
Consequently, Lord Superman couldn't escape either.
The two just stood there, bound together. With a wave of Wonder Woman's hand, the rope was pulled tight, and they were forced to sit back-to-back on the ground.
A brilliant smile lit up Bruce's face.
As the saying goes, family disputes are the hardest for a clean official to resolve, primarily because individuals unconsciously tend to embellish their own actions in conversations while judging others. Even the most seasoned judges cannot make people tell the full truth. Thus, it often happens that everyone seems to have a justified point of view.
Determining who's in the right becomes exceptionally difficult and both parties, being well aware of this fact, can comfortably lie without any fear of repercussions.
However, in the DC universe lies a divine artifact assigned to sorting out familial disputes - the Lasso of Truth.
Ever since Bruce learned about this valuable tool from Diana in his own universe, he frequently borrowed the Lasso of Truth to mediate family disputes.
For instance, disputes like who stole whose belongings between Jason and Tim, whether Aisha chewed up Dick's homework, and who got the school principal sent to the hospital by carrying Fightin' Cabbage to school.
Through extensive use, Bruce found that the Lasso of Truth was not very effective for answering overly complex questions. Even if one does not lie, the truth can be interpreted in many ways.
However, for yes or no questions, the effectiveness of the Lasso Of Truth was beyond imagination. With only 'yes' or 'no' as possible answers, ambiguity wasn't an option. So, as long as the question was asked properly, an almost 100% accurate answer could be achieved.
Wonder Woman indicated Bruce with her eyes, and he prepared to start asking questions.
"Do you both understand each other?"
"Yes." "Yes."
Lord Superman answered first, followed by Batman, who seemed to show slightly more resistance to the Lasso of Truth.
"Do you both think the other party understands you?"
"No." "No."
Immediately, Wonder Woman furrowed her brows.
"Are you both willing to understand each other?"
"Yes." "Yes."
"Do you both think you're capable of understanding each other?"
"No." "Yes."
For the first time, their answers diverged. Lord Superman answered 'no' to the question, implying that although he had the intent, he felt he lacked the ability to understand Batman.
However, Batman was both willing and confident about understanding Superman.
Seeing the crux of the problem, Bruce turned to Wonder Woman and asked, "Do you find Batman hard to understand?"
Wonder Woman pondered seriously, then replied, "I think, for anyone, Batman is not easy to understand."
"Have you tried to understand him?"
"I have tried to understand him, but rarely come to any helpful conclusion. Most of the time, Batman's actions baffle me."
Hence, Bruce asked again.
"Batman, have you ever tried to make them understand you?"
"Yes."
This answer left both Lord Superman and Wonder Woman dumb-founded.
"When?" Wonder Woman asked incredulously.
"All the time." Batman replied calmly.
Wonder Woman glanced at the Lasso of Truth on them, as if trying to confirm the authenticity of the reply. But she lost against her knowledge, knowing that one cannot lie under the sways of the Lasso of Truth.
"You all would naturally think it's an expression problem," Bruce sighed, "Because Batman does have a unique way of expressing himself."
Lord Superman and Wonder Woman exchanged glances, finally opting to accept this young Batman's beautification of Batman's actions and his imprecise words.
However, when a message fails to transmit, checking only the senders isn't enough, one must also check the receivers.
After snapping his fingers, Bruce looked at Lord Superman and asked, "Have you ever felt that Batman is trying to make you understand him?"
This time, Lord Superman remained silent for a long time. Yet, the Lasso of Truth didn't tighten, seemingly acknowledging that he was genuinely considering the question.
"Perhaps. I have a vague intuition, a very unclear feeling, which I always attributed as a misperception."
"Did you respond to it?"
"Of course, but it seemed to bear no fruit."
As Bruce stroked his chin, studying the two, Wonder Woman came over and nudged him with her elbow, saying, "Why don't you ask them whether they consider each other as friends?"
"Because the answer to such an obvious question doesn't need asking."
After some thought, Bruce mumbled to himself, "Why didn't this situation occur in that universe?"
This was his core reason for concluding that Lord Superman and Diana also had issues. The Batman of the Prime Universe hadn't encountered this problem.
He had heard about the general situation of that universe from the experiences of the children who had visited the Prime Universe and from Shiller. By observing the Batman of the Prime Universe, Bruce was certain that he was far sicker than this universe's Batman.
But the Justice League of that Universe, although in its infancy, had experienced one major Darkseid event. There hadn't been any disagreements afterward, and despite co-operation amongst them needing some adjustments, they surprisingly had no issues in getting along with one another.
Bruce replayed what Lord Superman had said along with the overall circumstances of this universe. He felt he was onto something but fell short in pinpointing the key issue.
This was the critical case study for his PhD application; failure wasn't an option. Bruce pondered over where the problem might lie.
Despite reviewing all actions, detailing each sentence's tone, movement, and eye contact of Lord Superman and Batman, analyzing and refining them over and over again, he still felt he was missing the last piece of the puzzle.
In the end, Bruce still had to resort to psychoanalysis, an area in which he had no expertise. Realizing upon analysis that he didn't even know the basics, he couldn't claim to be proficient or conversant in the subject but rather had to admit he needed to return to the beginning and learn from the teacher.
Bruce thought about seeking external help, but Owen was currently not with the team and there was no way to contact him. Moreover, making this phone call would surely result in his doctorate application getting rejected more than 70 times.
Suddenly, Bruce thought of a solution.
He said to Wonder Woman, "You stay with them and keep them from moving. I'll be back soon."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to look through some books."
Having finished speaking, Bruce walked into the house. Once he was out of sight from the trio outside, he began to chant a spell.
Those outside the house saw a holy light descend from the heavens, but it disappeared in an instant, leaving them all staring agape in surprise.
Bruce was back in Heaven.
Bruce has realized that Battleworld is a place caught between two worlds. However, it didn't have definitive authority over the highest beings of the two worlds. It rather only got permission, hosting a friendly gathering
Sinice the superpowers of the heroes from both realms could be used here, Bruce's angelic status remained valid in heaven. No one could stop an angel from returning to heaven.
Bruce returned to Heaven, not to dwell there, but to go straight to the Sanctuary. Using the portal in the Holy Spring, he arrived in Dreamworld.
Then, he located the Dreamworld and began summoning Constantine, who was now the ruler of Dreamworld.
Constantine, who had apparently also entered the Battleworld, felt weak at first but eventually received Bruce's summoning, and returned to Heaven.
Bruce had located Constantine, who was surprised to see him. He didn't know who had summoned him, and was about to leave after seeing Bruce.
"Don't leave. Help me."
About 5 minutes later, Bruce arrived inside Shiller's subconsciousness. The Dreamworld is a world submerged beneath the subconscious mind of every person. Theoretically, it can grant access to anyone's subconscious.
Upon entering the subconscious, Bruce navigated towards the surface. Instead of entering the Tower of Thought through the hole in the floor, he entered the Abyss, and began crying out for help.
After a while, a figure with mid-length hair appeared next to Bruce. He stared at Bruce and asked, "Didn't you just complete your postgraduate studies? Are you having trouble finishing your thesis again?"
"It's not about the thesis this time."
Mid-length haired Shiller let out a breath of relief.
"This time it's about the PhD application."
Shiller turned around to leave again.
"There's no need for you to help me write." Bruce held on to him, saying, "Just take me there once, help me avoid Arrogant, is Greed in?"
"You expect him to write for you? Do you know how much that would cost? Besides, if you go in your usual form, you'll easily be detected by Arrogant, and then we both are screwed!"
"I need to look into the Memory Archive. I need a guide." Bruce tugged at Shiller's arm again.
"Just say it earlier, I will take you there."
After a while, Bruce arrived at Shiller's archive for professional knowledge; a complete psychology information database in the world, which is also attached with countless psychoanalysis experiences.
Bruce began to look for similar cases at the fastest speed. He found too many, it was impossible to go through all of them, so in the end, he had to pick up a textbook instead.
After flipping through several pages, Bruce suddenly stopped at a few lines of text.
"The period of self-exploration, also known as the period of psychological transformation, refers to the time when a person gradually completes self-improvement due to age growth or significant life changes...."
Bruce suddenly understood. He thought of the universe where Lord Superman lived, where they had just experienced the death of The Flash. Superman killed Luther and established Justice Lord, to clean up the criminals, uniting the entire Earth.
For Superman and Batman, these were significant changes in life. The death of a good friend, changes in the way justice was carried out, and significant achievements would all make them self-reflect. They also start to understand others through their own reflection and likewise, understand themselves through others.
"During this period, people's views on things and people will fluctuate unpredictably, sometimes even to opposite extremes. The process of rebuilding and improving the new self inevitably accompanies mental depression and pain."
Hence, they tend to introspect more, ignoring contact with others, exhibiting excessive self, being distracted, and appearing irritable, moody, and unstable due to the pain of self-instability."
"It sounds like a period of rebellion." Bruce muttered, "But this should be where the problem lies."
Then he continued to read. The following text mentioned various adverse outcomes that might result from people's bad guidance or excessive stimulation during the psychological transformation stage, as well as the proper ways of guidance.
Bruce read for a long time, making sure to remember all the details in his mind, before once again returning to heaven.
But this time, as soon as he returned to heaven, Bruce encountered Uriel, who was inspecting appearances. Uriel pointed behind him.
Bruce looked back. There was no one there. When he turned to look at Uriel again, Uriel flapped his wings.
Then Bruce remembered that in heaven's dress code, all angels must properly wear wings and halos. Bruce, inheriting Gabriel's status, is also an Archangel, just like Uriel.
With a swoosh, Bruce displayed his wings, and Uriel, satisfied, nodded and walked away.
Bruce then stepped into the Holy Spring and, using the signs he had marked before, returned to Superman and Batman's base.
As soon as he landed, Bruce saw three figures standing in front of the door, staring at him.
The next second, Bruce saw three shocked faces. Lord Superman, Batman, and Diana all looked surprised as they looked at Bruce's back.
Bruce, somewhat puzzled, looked back. There was no one behind him.
Then he saw his three pairs of large, holy wings.