In the old town, a cosmic spectacle appeared—two "Batmen" were being pursued simultaneously.
To be precise, it's two non-Batman Batmen being chased together. The one running ahead looks like the Primary Universe Batman, but is actually Elliot; slightly behind, looking like Batman, is actually the fusion of Batman and Joker, the Laughing Bat.
The one chasing Elliot is the Main Universe's Joker, and naturally, the one chasing the Laughing Bat is Shiller.
Elliot initially ran away following the direction pointed out by the Laughing Bat, just one step away from joining the security forces arriving from that direction. But as he ran, he heard footsteps behind him, turned his head, and saw the Laughing Bat running over as well.
Elliot really wanted to ask him, "Why are you running?" but then he saw the Joker, who had been knocked away earlier, coming after him again. He didn't have time to ask, so he started running quickly. Whoever runs slower would be in the front row.
Fortunately, the main forces were already ahead. Elliot quickly ran under the legs of a bipedal robot without caring whether the Laughing Bat made it over, pointed at the street he had run from, and shouted angrily, "Open fire! Fire now!"
Numerous robots, drones, and security forces began pouring firepower. But things were obviously not that simple. The pursuers were fast, and just as Elliot arrived, the opponents had already jumped into the formation.
Laughing Bat heard Elliot's order to open fire and cursed angrily, "Do you have any basic tactical sense?! Why open fire now?!"
The Primary Universe Batman, watching the live broadcast in his office, couldn't help but shake his head—a pursuer less than ten meters away, with speed almost matching yours, essentially in the same approach sequence. Ordering the forces to open fire forward has two possible outcomes: either you miss, or you get shot too.
The crux is that the order to "fire forward" effectively distracted the soldiers. They were busy aiming and firing, not noticing what was charging into their formation. That momentary distraction meant they couldn't stop the intruders.
By the time they holstered their guns and awkwardly tried to tackle Shiller and the Joker, who had rushed into their ranks, it was too late. Shiller didn't slow down, directly crashing into a soldier in front and the Laughing Bat hiding behind this soldier, sending them flying together.
The first line of defense supporting the troops wasn't thick enough, with soldiers not even reaching three deep. The Laughing Bat was directly thrown through from the first line of defense, and Elliot was also forced out of the formation by the Joker's mad knife swings.
The second line did raise their guns, but since the four were already entangled, they didn't dare to shoot. The large and cumbersome bipedal robots also dared not approach lightly.
Elliot was stabbed again by the Joker, letting out a scream. He used his last strength to toss the Joker off, stumbling away from the defensive line. The Joker was still chasing him.
At this moment, a nimble figure leapt down from above—a group of bodyguards from the Assassin's Union led by Talia arrived. Elliot was almost in tears, stumbling toward Talia.
Talia hesitated for a moment, then waved her arm forward. The assassins of the union surrounded Elliot tightly.
"Sorry." Talia took a step back, arms slightly open, saying, "Bruce Wayne is back. My father was right, he's better than you."
Elliot was frozen in place, hardly believing what he heard, staring blankly at Talia: "…What did you say?!"
"I know it's hard to believe, but Bruce has indeed freed himself from the predicament you put him in. Being trapped in the insane asylum for years hasn't diminished his aura. He is the true master of Wayne Enterprises and Gotham, and the one the Assassin's Union desires," Talia said coldly, "Take action."
Elliot hadn't recovered at all, but the assassins were already closing in. The cold gleam of blades flashed close. Just as he was preparing for a desperate struggle, another figure descended from the sky.
Elliot was suddenly knocked down but felt someone grab his cloak, pulling him up, rapidly removing him from the encirclement. He looked up to see a young man with owl goggles grabbing the grapple, frowning as he looked back at the ground situation.
The Laughing Bat got hit again, flying out directly. The good news was that Shiller had no weapon in his hand; the bad news was that Shiller seemed to have taken a liking to the Laughing Bat's weapon.
He yanked the chain from the Laughing Bat's hand forcefully, pulling the Laughing Bat back. Seeing Shiller so close, the Laughing Bat shivered, quickly letting go. The chain fell into Shiller's hand.
However, Shiller's understanding of chain usage clearly surpassed the Laughing Bat's. He didn't use the chain as a ranged weapon to whip like the Laughing Bat but instead took a step forward, seizing the chain with both hands as the Laughing Bat got up, wrapping it from above his head and tightening it sharply around his neck.
"Uh…"
The Laughing Bat only managed a brief syllable, limbs flailing, scratching his neck with sharp nails until it was bloody and raw, yet unable to resist the immense force.
The Laughing Bat wouldn't truly suffocate to death but could feel the agony of suffocation. Feeling the intense pain emanating from his lungs and waves of dizziness, he flailed and convulsed like a fish on a chopping board, powerless to resist.
Under such circumstances, the only plan he could think of was to play dead.
He pretended to pass out from lack of oxygen, expecting Shiller to loosen the chain around his neck. And that's what happened—suddenly, he felt the chain on his neck slacken slightly, as if being pulled away to the side.
The Laughing Bat didn't move, planning to make a counterstrike once Shiller fully removed the chain. But suddenly, he felt the slackening chain whip back, or rather, move towards another direction.
The chain was initially leaning to the left, but soon it began to move to the right, and then left again, and then right.
A terrifying thought started to pop into Laughing Bat's mind. He had to abandon the thought of playing dead and began to struggle desperately once more.
He felt a kick right in the center of his back, knocking him to the ground, and then a foot stepped on his back. The iron chain pulled upwards again, and began rubbing back and forth incessantly, this time with even greater force.
The rough iron chain was itself jagged, not much different from a saw. Shiller moved the chain back and forth like a saw, gradually sawing Laughing Bat's head off.
The Main Universe's Joker, who was pursuing the direction Elliott had been rescued, only saw Shiller's back. He hesitated for a moment, turned around to leave, but Shiller had already turned around—holding Laughing Bat's head in his hands.
The Joker bolted.
"How did I forget," Arrogant said, "If the morbid one all went out, perhaps the id also went out. He likes to play with balls the most."
"Do you think Laughing Bat is still alive?" Greed was clearly more curious about practical matters, saying, "But back then, even when there was only a brain left of Broken Bat, he could survive. Laughing Bat should survive too, right?"
"He's not that easy to kill," Arrogant said confidently, "Even if there's only a piece of brain left, he can still survive."
"That's really sick," Greed clicked his tongue, "But he didn't seem that strong, doesn't seem as divine as depicted in the comics."
"Of course. He was just a Batman infected with the Joker virus, but Batman plus Joker is a weakening. Apart from the predictive ability provided by the setting, the later capabilities were all given by other beings. Without those beings granting them, naturally, he doesn't have them."
Arrogant thought for a moment and said, "Initially, Barbados granted Laughing Bat the ability to alter reality to open a passage to the Light Universe—by collecting various metals. But now, without such ability, it shows that Barbados didn't give it."
"Of course, because now Bruce is the Pope for Barbados." Greed chuckled, "And now Barbados is trapped by Uriel, his control over the dark universe is very weak, he's nowhere to be found."
"Later, he seized Doctor Manhattan's body," Arrogant continued, "He managed to possess the body of a Batman who could become Doctor Manhattan, also due to schemes and his powerful dark strength. Without immense power to support him, he wouldn't even be able to meet this Batman, let alone seize his body."
"Then he reconfigured the Mobius Chair, stole the crisis energy to become the Blackest Knight. But now the Goddess's whereabouts are unknown, and it's impossible to even think of stealing her power. One mistake leads to another."
"You say he has predictive abilities, how come he didn't foresee Bruce becoming the Pope for Barbados?" Greed questioned, "If he foresaw it, he should have taken precautions to prevent this situation."
"Perhaps he doesn't lack the desire to foresee, but the ability." Arrogant said, "Perhaps he has no way of foreseeing Bruce's actions."
"Why?"
"Anatoli," Arrogant uttered a name, "He went to that universe once and brought me there, how could he not make any preparations?"
Greed suddenly realized: "So Anatoli created a Batman that lies beyond Laughing Bat's predictive scope."
"I'm not within it either," Arrogant said, "To be exact, Shiller is not. Otherwise, he couldn't be so battered by the morbid."
"But why? Isn't Shiller a local in DC? Logically, he should be within the predictive scope."
"God sent me to a very distant real universe because of Lucifer. He must have removed me from the original universe and changed my domicile to the real universe. Because only in this way could he completely break Lucifer's fate and let his stubborn son gain freedom."
"That's indeed possible," Greed nodded, "Our names are not in the Book of Destiny, so Laughing Bat can't accurately predict..."
Suddenly enlightened, Arrogant said, "I seem to know why I turned into the Joker. My name is not in the Book of Destiny and can't be predicted. If I am the Joker, then the name of the Batman I anchor might also be removed from the Book of Destiny, naturally preventing Laughing Bat from predicting Bruce's actions."
"I see," Greed said, "No wonder the timing of your return was so coincidental. It seems Anatoli has long been guarding against Laughing Bat."
"I'm just thinking," Arrogant continued, "Since Anatoli didn't die and it's very likely he's here, to confirm his plan succeeded, he must come back to verify. When did he return, and how did he verify it?"
"His distance to us might be closer than we imagined," Greed said, "It can be seen from that letter, he has ways to reach us."
"I seem to know," Arrogant suddenly said, "An answer to a question from long ago that went unanswered."