"Hello, Dick."
Wonder Woman stepped lightly out of the Teleportation Gate, walking toward the two people drinking tea by the little white table in the garden, her face all smiles as if she was very happy.
"Hello, Wonder Woman, it's really nice to see you again." Dick smiled and nodded in greeting. He was also a man in his forties now. "Coffee or tea? Everything here is free."
Diana saw Batman sitting there with his eyes closed, half‑reclining in his chair in an extremely lazy posture; she had never seen Batman like this before.
If Su Ming were here, he would definitely tell her this pose was called the "Ge You Sprawl."
He seemed to have completely lost all ambition, just an ordinary old man at this moment, sunbathing together with his son.
A summer afternoon, lazy air, everything moving at a slow pace, the world very safe.
But upon hearing Diana's voice, Batman, though he didn't open his eyes, still directly issued an order: "Robin, go help arrange our rooms for tonight's lodging. Let me and Diana have some time alone."
Robin stood up with a smile, giving his seat to Diana. "Okay, Batman."
After speaking, he pulled up his Mask and strode away.
The smile on Diana's face instantly vanished. She looked carefully to both sides, quickly walked over to sit down by the chair, and lowered her voice: "Bat…..."
"Shh, I understand. Wait for someone, hehe…... ahem!"
A strange smile appeared on Batman's face; Diana didn't know if it was her imagination, but he seemed to be smiling a bit like the Joker.
Wonder Woman frowned and drew in a sharp breath. "Your Joker Poison is acting up? The Antidote didn't work?"
"No, I'm fine." Batman pulled up his Mask again, returning to his expressionless look. "I understand everything you want to say. No need to say it out loud. We wait."
"Do you have a plan?"
Diana knew Batman was worried about someone listening in or monitoring them, but she still couldn't be at ease.
Not only about whether everyone could escape and return to their own world, she was also worried about Batman's mental state. If he really went mad at a time like this and became another Laughing Bat, that would truly be adding frost to snow.
"...."
Batman only nodded in silence, and that very gesture actually made Diana feel a bit more reassured.
She quickly noticed Batman's gaze losing focus, then, after just a few seconds, clearing again. The mottled sunlight printed on the Batman Uniform looked so out of place.
Just now Ron must have contacted Batman. Diana knew the Mars Hunter would also notice that something was wrong.
Arthur hadn't come here, so the Justice League's average IQ level was all online now.
Just as the two of them were about to pretend to drink coffee, Barry came back with John. Barry was about to say something, but Diana directly covered his mouth.
"Don't ask, don't say."
"I've never been in the army, and I'm not gay either." Barry looked at Diana with a very puzzled face. Why did she have to stress 'don't ask, don't say'?
He'd come here to talk about serious business. This was another timeline; maybe the Dimension really was higher, but this was definitely not their world!
"I know, Barry. Sit down now, drink coffee."
From under Batman's Mask shot out a cold gaze. There was a lot packed into that look, but Barry knew Batman had already taken control of the situation.
So he puffed up his cheeks in exaggerated fashion and blew out a breath. Since Batman had a plan, there was nothing to be afraid of.
He also pulled John down to sit; the four of them just filled the little white round table.
Honestly, in front of all these people, four of them in uniform sitting around a delicate little table drinking coffee and eating snacks—this feeling was beyond strange.
You could practically call it hair‑raising.
This wasn't something they would do; anyone who would do something like this was definitely not really them.
Batman, in fact, was thinking more than any of them.
From the moment White Superman said that line, "Coming up with plans is your usual job"…... Batman knew that was a fake.
He couldn't even remember how many times Superman had argued with him. Clark, though he followed orders most of the time, was also a very opinionated and extremely stubborn person.
The reason Batman had seemed to breathe a sigh of relief back then, and had even used self‑suggestion Hypnosis on himself, making his own heart believe it too, was because the other side also had the Mars Hunter present, and it wasn't out of the question that his thoughts might be read.
Only by fooling himself could he fool others.
Any loophole others might perceive, Batman had pretty much spotted them all. And after coming to Gotham, from his conversations with Dick, the number of flaws he picked up on was simply countless.
First of all, the future Batman absolutely would not be Dick.
What it takes to become Batman is not just abundant financial resources, nor a high level of personal combat skill, nor some particularly dark past.
Batman requires a sufficiently smart brain.
Only with meticulous enough thinking can one ensure Gotham and the Justice League run properly, and ensure the people around him are safe enough.
So Batman knew that if anyone was going to inherit his position, it would undoubtedly be the current Red Robin Tim.
Even though Tim had supposedly died in battle against those drones of unknown origin, those drones took his body and then retreated. That abnormal move made Batman believe he wasn't dead—or rather, had already been resurrected.
So Tim should be trapped somewhere in the Cosmos for the moment and unable to get away.
He was the Robin Batman loved most, because like Batman, he was one of the world's top human Detectives.
Of course, that condition excluded Detective Gorilla, since Bo Bo was already an animal. If he put on the Batman Uniform again, wouldn't that make his animal attributes overlap…...
At nine years old, Tim was at home watching the news when he saw Dick—then still Robin—perform the Grayson Circus Flying Man move while chasing a criminal, a move that only three people in history had ever been able to pull off.
And that move was the signature skill of the circus family, the Grayson family. From that, he deduced that Robin was Dick Grayson.
And at that time, the entire Grayson family had been killed in a shooting, leaving only one Orphan. So, on the government registry, the legal guardian of Dick back then—Bruce Wayne—was Batman!
A nine‑year‑old child, relying only on a few clues, deduced that Bruce Wayne was Batman, and he also filtered out all of Batman's various Blinding Techniques, directly locking onto the Truth.
This level of deductive ability, plus the mature rationality he showed in keeping both identities secret, made Batman appreciate Tim greatly. He had never expected to be seen through by a kid.
And there weren't many things in this world that Batman couldn't foresee.
Tim was born to eat from the Detective bowl. His parents were both alive, he was optimistic and cheerful, and his commitment to justice and Truth was unmatched—he was practically Bruce's Light version.
Red Robin's Martial Arts came from Lady Siva; his staff work was extraordinary, able to use a long staff to block close‑range bursts from a submachine gun. In the past, that kind of thing was the specialty of Modified Warriors like Deathstroke, yet Tim did it as an Ordinary person.
If Batman really had died in some battle like Dick just said, then Bruce believed he would have made preparations beforehand.
Faced with a mission that meant certain death, he would definitely have been aware of it, and thus would inevitably have left last words naming Tim as the new Batman.
If someone said Batman was dead but had left no last words, then it had to be a fake death.
And later, when Dick said Gotham's Villains had all been cured, Batman was the first not to believe it. Even if what he meant by "cured" was "executed," the Joker would never be cured.
As long as the world still existed, the Joker would inevitably exist, just like now—the Joker's laughter in his heart was growing clearer and clearer…...