**Chapter 2: Ah, It's Batman! I Thought You Went on Vacation!**
"If I remember correctly, in the DC universe setting, Metropolis and Gotham face each other across the sea, connected by a large bridge."
To confirm his direction, Ben relied on XLR8's speed to run up the wall of a building to the rooftop.
Standing on top of the skyscraper, Ben looked around and saw a cross-sea bridge in the distance over the water.
Having determined his direction, just as Ben was about to leave Gotham, a scream accompanied by a dark shadow rushed past his eyes, leaping rapidly across the rooftops.
"Someone needs help! Wearing a cape... does that look like the kidnapper impersonating Batman from the news?"
The criminal was fast, but to XLR8's eyes, it was no different from slow motion.
Looking at the strange body and appearance under that cloak, it was clearly not human.
"As expected of Gotham, it has all kinds of monsters and demons. I wonder if the watch can scan its DNA normally."
Looking at the inhuman monster before him, the corners of Ben's mouth raised. While saving people, he also wanted to see if he could harvest a new alien hero.
Since he wasn't fully proficient with XLR8's speed yet, to avoid falling off the high-rise while jumping between rooftops, Ben slowed down slightly, but still gradually caught up with the criminal.
At this moment, a figure surrounded by green light streaked across the sky. Upon noticing the figure jumping between the skyscrapers, he immediately stopped.
"Earth has really been lively lately!"
Hal Jordan, who had just returned to Earth, was wearing the black and green Green Lantern uniform, his green domino mask obscuring his true face.
The Green Lantern ring on his hand flashed with dazzling brilliance. Relying on willpower to drive the green lantern energy, he descended quickly, blocking the path of the cloaked monster that had abducted the girl.
"Hey! Buddy, that's enough! This is Earth, not your playground!"
Ignoring the Green Lantern blocking his way, the monster simply changed direction and jumped away.
Seeing the Green Lantern suddenly appear, Ben skid to a halt.
"Batman is on a business trip? Are you covering for him?"
This was Gotham City; logically speaking, this wasn't really this guy's main area of activity.
However, even with the mask covering his face, judging by his skin tone, hair color, and height...
This Green Lantern should be Hal Jordan, who was shelved by DC's greatest enemy—Warner Bros—because of a box office flop.
"I don't know that vampire bat who only comes out at night. I am Green Lantern; the entire Earth is within the sector I'm responsible for!"
Hearing Ben's words, Hal Jordan expressed disdain for Batman.
As the Green Lantern protecting Earth and its surrounding sectors, he alone could protect Earth's peace!
"I know you, the famous Hal Jordan, the greatest Green Lantern! But shouldn't you focus on dealing with that bad guy?"
From Hal's words, Ben gathered that Hal didn't know Batman at this point.
Perhaps Hal Jordan hadn't joined the Justice League yet, or maybe the Justice League hadn't even been established.
But this wasn't the time to dwell on these things. Pointing at the monster that was about to fly away, Ben reminded the legendary Green Lantern before him that if he didn't act, the kidnapper would escape.
"I don't need you to remind me of such trivial matters! Leave it to Green Lantern!"
As soon as Hal finished speaking, the right hand wearing the power ring flew out.
The light on the ring flashed, and a giant dragon formed by the ring's energy bared its claws and fangs, wrapping around the monster that had kidnapped the woman.
Floating forward in the air, looking at the trapped monster, Hal smiled.
"Surrender, you have the right to remain silent..."
Before Hal could finish, the monster, having nowhere to run, raised the hostage in its hand.
"Wait, don't..."
Realizing the monster's intention, Hal tried to persuade it, but the enemy directly threw the hostage from high in the air.
"Damn it!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Hal cursed under his breath and immediately concentrated his will, controlling the ring's energy to rush down and rescue the woman thrown by the monster.
Watching Hal Jordan's battle from a distance, Ben also quickly slid down the building wall to the ground.
Seeing that the woman held hostage by the monster had been saved by Hal Jordan, Ben pondered how to use XLR8 to attack an enemy flying in the sky.
"Right, I can use that move."
In the animation, Ben once used XLR8 to do this; running in a circle at sufficient speed can create a tornado.
Going full throttle, identifying the direction the monster was heading, Ben rushed ahead of it in the blink of an eye on the ground.
"Believe it, I can do it too!"
Taking a deep breath, Ben got ready.
One lap, two laps, three laps... As XLR8 spun rapidly, Ben lost count of how many laps he had run.
But as the whirlwind formed, the flying monster in the sky was successfully sucked into the tornado created by Ben.
"Did it work?"
Watching the monster in the sky get swept into the wind, the gale only blew away the cloak on its body.
"Is this thing cosplaying Iron Man? That's a character from the studio next door! This thing is really ugly."
Looking at its grotesque face and the metal armor that gave off a high-tech vibe at a glance, Ben didn't recognize which villain from the DC universe this was for a moment.
"Roar!"
The Parademon from Apokolips, having revealed its true form after being swept into the whirlwind, let out a roar.
The wings on its back vibrated rapidly to accelerate. It aimed at Ben on the ground and dived down from high altitude at high speed.
A Parademon's dive might be impossible for an ordinary person to dodge, but for XLR8, it was a piece of cake.
Lightly dodging two body lengths away, looking at the large crater it smashed into the ground, Ben couldn't help but exclaim.
"Whoa, this guy is really strong!"
Before Ben could step forward to check, another dark shadow fell from the sky, walking straight toward the monster in the crater.
A black cape shrouded a tall body, and the half-face exposed under the bat cowl outlined a serious and cold expression.
"Oh! Batman! I thought you left Gotham for a vacation!"
Batman walked toward the Parademon, ignoring Ben's quip from the side. According to satellite monitoring, this thing that looked like a blue velociraptor was actually just a 15-year-old boy, not a dangerous criminal.
But the thing in the pit was different. According to his investigation and eyewitness testimony...
The monster currently lying in the crater had been planting some kind of bomb-like devices all over Gotham recently.
"Where did you plant those things in Gotham?"
...