"Oh, of course, darling, but I heard from this guy that the people of Gotham have almost forgotten their old friend? That's terrible, I hate that, so I thought I'd help them remember."
The Joker grinned.
Black Mask's suit and underwear had long been stripped off, leaving him in just his briefs.
His clothes were tied into a rope and lowered, pulling Harley Quinn and the little mouse up.
"Listen, darling."
The Joker tossed the mouse, Bobby, aside.
"I need your help. I need to know what happened in this world. For example, how did the other me die? What did this world become? And what about the inheritance the other me left behind? I really need it. Right now, you're the only one in this world who can help me, aren't you?"
The Joker gently caressed Harley's face, speaking softly.
She burst into tears, hugging the Joker, seemingly releasing all the grievances she'd suffered from Batman's beatings and Black Mask's bullying over the past two years.
...
...
Two days later.
Gotham City Harbor.
The dusty Batman finally returned to his loyal Gotham.
Alfred, the butler, and Lucius, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, who had received the news in advance, quickly escorted Bruce Wayne into a luxury car.
"Master Wayne, your hand..."
In the back seat, Lucius looked at Bruce Wayne's prosthetic arm, his expression one of awe.
He couldn't imagine what terrible things Batman must have experienced in other worlds to lose an arm.
In all the years prior, aside from the time Bane broke his back, Batman had never suffered such a severe injury.
"It's fine, Lucius. This prosthetic arm was made by a Bruce Wayne from 2079. You know, in that future world, an elderly me is like you and Alfred are now, providing logistical support for the young, new Batmen."
Bruce Wayne extended his hand, quickly made a few gestures, and then demonstrated the prosthetic arm's features like electric discharge, telescoping, and suction, indicating that the hand was very useful.
"Master Wayne, as for the functions of this arm, I think we could also make a glove for you to wear, instead of a prosthetic."
Alfred glanced at the rearview mirror on the car roof and said.
"Uh, I understand what you mean, Alfred, but my hand is already gone, and the original part can't be recovered. We don't have limb regeneration technology yet, so it can't be fixed."
Bruce Wayne said, shrugging.
"It's fine if we don't, but Watt does."
Alfred held the steering wheel with his left hand and pulled several newspapers from the glove compartment with his right, tossing them to the back.
He had already prepared these print and electronic media publications to quickly inform Batman of what had happened during his absence.
"Today is November 14th. Look at the newspaper from two days ago. Watt Group's new technology can help disabled people achieve limb regeneration. It was commercialized directly from the lab the moment it appeared."
Batman curiously took the newspaper and began to read it.
"Did our group get a quota?"
"Of course, and quite a few. In order to get Mr. Watt to occasionally impersonate you to placate the board members, we had to cooperate deeply with Watt Group, and we also sold them the electron beam etching nanobots technology in the process."
Alfred replied.
"First the Arc Reactor, then this Regeneration Serum. I never expected Watt to be hiding so many good things."
Bruce Wayne looked at the familiar, yet slightly changed, Gotham City, rubbing his chin, a mysterious glint in his eyes, clearly plotting something.
"Master Wayne, Mr. Watt told us that if we found you, we absolutely had to relay a message."
Lucius interjected.
"If he ever finds you secretly stealing his technology again, he will not hesitate to beat you to a pulp, then strip off your Bat-suit, not even leaving your underwear, and hang you under the American flag in front of Gotham City Hall for all of Gotham to admire your sexy body."
Batman: ...
"So, if I don't steal it myself, it should be fine, right?"
"You really haven't changed, but I truly don't recommend that you do that. Because of the Fault Insurance incident, your credit within the Justice League has declined, and Lucius, Dick, Tim, and I have had to go apologize on your behalf one by one.
And I believe Mr. Watt is definitely looking for an excuse to hang you up. Believe me, most of the League wouldn't object."
"Alright, if it's not necessary, I won't do it. By the way, where are Dick and Tim?"
"They had planned to come, but a murder case suddenly occurred, and they went to investigate immediately."
Bruce was about to ask another question when he suddenly noticed the massive promotional screen hanging in the center of a building on the street flicker. It quickly switched from black and white static to a room painted in red and green, covered in comical smiling faces.
His remaining normal hand clenched into a fist.
This familiar feeling... it couldn't be!
"Hello! Gotham!"
The Joker, in his purple suit, once again returned to the sight of Gotham's people through the television screen.
"Did you miss me during the two years I was gone? Don't tell me you've forgotten me; that would make me very sad. But it's okay, to deepen your memory of me, I've placed one hundred bombs in Gotham—just kidding! Only one! But..."
The camera shifted from the wildly gesticulating Joker to the other side of the room.
A tall man in a Bat-suit and a Robin in red tights were currently bound to the wall.
At their feet was a bomb with a countdown ticking away.
"Are you scared? Even Batman and his little bird have been caught by me. Clearly, my old pal's skills and vigilance have dropped quite a bit because I wasn't around. But that's okay, isn't there another hero in Gotham?
Hello, War Warrior, we haven't fought yet, and I'm looking forward to your arrival. If you can't find this place within an hour, then I'll take off their masks first and then detonate this bomb…"
*BEEP—*
The TV screen went black as the remote was pressed.
Qingshui shook his head, tossed the remote onto the table, and looked at a Puppet on the other side that was still undergoing testing by Mr. Freeze.
It was a Human Puppet that looked ninety percent similar to Qingshui.
"The plastic surgery was a success. Even after being enhanced by radiation from a yellow sun, there haven't been any changes."
Mr. Freeze looked at the Human Puppet, which had been modified from the Kryptonian warrior Nam, and nodded in satisfaction.
After Qingshui personally killed Nam, his body had been frozen in an ice coffin until Sasori developed Puppetry, which could inherit a Puppet's abilities from its previous life. Qingshui then personally modified him into a Human Puppet, changing its face to resemble his own, to be used as a kind of Avatar.
Unfortunately, Nam was just an ordinary Kryptonian. Although he had warrior genes, he was far inferior to Superman, who embodied the excellent genes of a Kryptonian, or to Zod, who was the pinnacle of Kryptonian warriors.
Therefore, even when the Fault Insurance incident erupted, Qingshui didn't bring him out. At that time, this thing had absorbed sunlight for too short a time, and its combat power was slightly insufficient. Plus, Fault Insurance had Kryptonite weapons, which were fatal to Kryptonians, so Qingshui didn't use him.
But this was also good.
Nam's weakness made the strength of his body more conducive to Qingshui's modifications and processing.
"By the way, aren't you going to deal with the Joker? I didn't expect that lunatic to return to Gotham."
"No need, the real Bruce Wayne is already back in Gotham. The Joker hasn't realized that the Batman he caught is just Nightwing. Clearly, he's not the Joker we know, because he lacks a bit of understanding about our Batman here.
Just this one piece of intelligence provides Bruce Wayne with enough room to maneuver."
Qingshui said, looking at the message Alfred had sent him on his phone.
This was a game between Batman and the Joker, two lunatics.
He didn't need to meddle in it.
"Alright, what if Batman asks for help?"
"Then we can let Lightwalker give them a surprise."
Qingshui patted Lightwalker's shoulder.
Lightwalker was the Puppet made from Nam. Its name was a combination of the English word "light" and the first two letters of Qingshui's English surname, "wa."
This was because its ability relied on absorbing sunlight.
Batman and the Joker probably weren't aware of Lightwalker's existence yet.
To deal with these lunatics who have paranoid delusions or whose actions are so unpredictable, you need to have a trump card.
And it had to be a trump card that no one could guess.
All your abilities, connections, and resources—they could find out about them if they wanted to. They could deduce any trump cards you might have based on their investigations.
Qingshui was able to constantly acquire new methods from his Avatars in other worlds, which allowed him to always surprise these people.
"Brain chip working normally, signal connection normal, Arc Reactor heart function normal… What about your superpower that uses your own bio-energy to drive devices?"
Victor asked Qingshui, looking at the test results on the scanner.
The latter extended a finger towards Lightwalker.
Lightwalker slowly raised its hand and made a few somewhat awkward movements.
A Kryptonian is a Kryptonian, after all. Even after death, and after being processed to retain the ability to absorb sunlight for enhancement, it only took a few months of sun exposure for its body's performance and strength to surpass most of the Puppets Qingshui had currently created.
Only the White Knight, due to having a Speed Force Dagger and Promethium, could surpass Lightwalker in speed and defense.
In terms of conventional strength, speed, etc., even with several Arc Reactors installed on the current White Knight, it was only comparable to Lightwalker after a few months of sun exposure.
Of course, even so, Lightwalker's speed was comparable to a supersonic missile, and its defense almost exceeded all supernatural metals. Even with a Promethium dagger, it could only break the skin, causing superficial wounds.
Unfortunately, Lightwalker's speed of absorbing sunlight and getting stronger had significantly decreased. The reason it could absorb so quickly before was that it had never been exposed to the sunlight of a yellow sun in its entire life. It was like a thirsty sponge that quickly soaked up water upon contact.
Further improvement would be much slower, and it wouldn't be able to achieve the universe-destroying power of Superman through willpower.
Just think, the sun is just a tiny, insignificant star in the vast universe. How could it possibly have such power by just absorbing the energy it emits?
However, even if Lightwalker could only consistently perform at its lowest potential, it would still be of great use to Qingshui.
"Why, is it because of its high muscle density?"
Victor asked Qingshui, looking at Lightwalker's somewhat stiff movements.
"Something like that, but it's nothing to worry about."
Two more Chakra Threads popped out and connected to Lightwalker.
Now, as long as Lightwalker was within the range of Qingshui's Chakra Threads, it could fully unleash its power.
Perhaps in the future, he should devote more energy to the Divine Mechanism Art in the One-Man World, integrating Materialization, Object Manipulation, and Sealing Jutsu with Puppetry to allow Puppets like Lightwalker to reach their higher potential.
After another half-hour of monitoring Lightwalker with Victor, Qingshui's phone suddenly rang.
It was Captain Cold calling.
"Snart, what's up?"
"Watt… sir, Old Man Martin just said he detected some abnormal, jumbled signals with the department's equipment. He said it might be like the alien invasion from two years ago."
Qingshui: ...
He almost forgot, while Captain Cold was a highly intelligent criminal who understood human nature, he hadn't actually received a higher education.
He was a master of deception, capable of using tactical setups to outwit The Flash's team, who held multiple doctorates. But asking him to be a scientist or engineer, to explain highly technical things, was somewhat asking too much.
"Put Professor Stein on the phone."
"Mr. Watt, I advise you to immediately convene the members of the Justice League. I've just detected anomalous gravitational waves outside the solar system, and not just once. The gravitational wave signals are extremely regular, which strongly suggests they're caused by distortions in spatio-temporal wormholes. I believe aliens are heading our way!"
Qingshui's expression gradually grew serious.
"How long until they reach Earth?"
"Based on their trajectory, they're likely calibrating for accurate spatial teleportation. They're expected to arrive in the solar system in three minutes and land on Earth within four minutes!"
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