"Ugh..."
After the Inverted Man disappeared, Su Ming hadn't had time to contemplate what it meant when he heard the continuous sounds of dry heaving, and someone actually threw up.
It turned out it was members of the Justice League trapped among the tentacles.
Over there, after Diana collided with the X Metal, she was naturally noticed by White Superman and the others, which led to a battle between two Justice League factions.
Batman and his team were always one person short, even though Diana had a decisive upper hand over Old Cassie, and Barry had Old Wally in the bag. But letting Batman handle both Fake Dick and White Superman alone, despite being prepared, was overwhelming.
White Superman had no reaction to the 'Five-Finger Death Punch.' Despite the 11 types of Kryptonite in the Multiverse, Batman only had the common five types.
But these five types of Kryptonite have universal applicability; most Supermen in the parallel worlds would react to them, possibly becoming stronger or exploding immediately.
But it's impossible to have no reaction at all.
Diana had to fight while occasionally tapping the X Metal, like fiddling with a drum during the fight, annoying as it was. Deathstroke initially thought she was messing about, even responding by striking the metal, almost making her vomit blood from anger.
Fortunately, he realized it later, and just when White Superman was about to catch Batman, teleportation gates accurately appeared under everyone's feet, instantly sucking them in and taking them away.
The Inverted Man's teleportation gates were already bumpy, not only shaking sideways during teleportation but making one feel like their insides were turning inside out.
And this dimension-crossing travel only intensified the situation.
Not to mention appearing right into a pitch-black, slimy tentacle-filled Hell upon exit, with a corpse that had molted full of tentacles flying nearby, making it unbearable.
Besides Batman and Barry, who were relatively okay, the rest were dry heaving repeatedly, while Hawk Woman outright vomited. At this moment, the superiority of a half-covering mask was evident, with the mouth exposed, it was extremely convenient.
Barry, possibly having encountered the Ancient Divine Attendant last time, had already developed antibodies against vomiting, simply turned his head away, his complexion slightly pale.
It was Batman who seemed to have seen something intriguing, quietly standing in place, staring in the direction of the Ancient Divine Attendant.
He wasn't just looking at the indescribable creature; his focus was more on the Hellbat Armor.
He guessed it was Mad Laugh, with the equipment resembling his own, except with numerous colorful decorative patterns, appearing very strange.
The Joker's phantom stood beside him, tilting its head from side to side, commenting on that thing: "The color coordination of the Laughing Bat is pretty mediocre. I think changing the base color to purple would be better, purple is a versatile color, don't you think, Bat?"
"...."
This is an illusion, Batman continuously reinforced a psychological suggestion to himself, yet the Joker stood vividly beside him, babbling like before.
The Joker's eyes turned, letting out a chuckle, leaned close to Batman's ear, and whispered with a hand cupped over his mouth.
"Bat, you have a plan, don't you? You always have backup plans, there must be something left on the little robot toys that only Batman knows, quickly utilize them, let's break open the turtle shell and eat the meat inside, alright? Barbecue? Stir fry? I'm all ears, hehe..."
Batman closed his eyes, wishing he could shut off his brain, the Joker's voice echoing directly within his mind, for some reason stirring hunger within him.
But for Batman's current situation, naturally, he had foreseen this; the laughing gas crafted from the Joker's blood, the Joker Poison should be similar.
Inducing hallucinations is precisely what the laughing gas excels at, although most times those poisoned would see humorous hallucinations until they laughed themselves to death, seeing the Joker beside them isn't funny at all.
Secretly, Batman searched under his cape for his utility belt, retrieved a syringe and jabbed it into his lower back, only then did he open his eyes, sighing slightly.
The Joker by his side pursed his lips, bored: "Again, alright alright, I'll just watch and not speak, hehe..."
Even though the Joker still hadn't vanished, having him shut up was at least a good thing, allowing Batman to focus entirely on the Laughing Bat.
Quickly, he realized the exceptional attributes of the armor, Laughing Bat had undoubtedly gathered all ten kinds of metal, insanely using them to enhance his armor.
And even though Deathstroke was equally adept in martial arts and magic, facing such a super turtle shell, he could only stall.
But creating such a grotesque monster to attack Laughing Bat mentally was indeed a good strategy.
As someone plagued by Joker's thoughts, Batman was acutely aware of his unstable mental state, whereas Laughing Bat in this regard must be even more fragile than him.
However....
Batman turned to glance at the people beside him; except for Barry who still had fighting capacity, the others found it hard even to stand steadily for now.
Deathstroke's indiscriminate psychic attack might work in one-on-one battles, but in team combat, it's feared the enemy would be fine, while allies might succumb first.
And what's the use of these black tentacles around? If the sole purpose is to restrain Mad Laugh's actions, wouldn't it be enough to use magic to manifest ropes? Why bother unnecessarily?
Batman looked helplessly at Deathstroke who landed beside him. This Deathstroke is even more unpredictable than the one from Earth 0; sometimes the things he does seem to have no reason at all, yet somehow they lead to falling into a trap.
"Is everyone okay?"
Su Ming landed between Batman and Barry, casually rubbing Barry's head. His insulation combat suit felt pretty nice, like touching a red bald head.
"No, no rubbing, I'm so dizzy, uh...ugh."
A pale-faced Barry was still trying hard to endure, but as soon as Su Ming touched him, he couldn't resist the feeling of the world spinning and immediately crawled to a corner, covering his mouth.
It turns out sticking to the ground and squirming like a caterpillar can also activate Divine Speed. Somehow, Barry had quickly found a way to crack the Greasy Technique — just as expected from Barry!
Su Ming looked approvingly at the red figure, nodding his head, and quietly signaled Inverted Man to cancel the duration of the Greasy Technique and tentacles.
He then looked at Diana and Hawk Woman; because the Ancient Divine Attendant on their battlefield was perfectly clean, the third tentacle leg was still wildly swinging around. She didn't want to look at that battlefield at all; she was just supporting Kendra and walking toward the edge of the field.
However, Ron had his mouth open like a black hole, appearing to have suffered a huge psychic shock, and was stunned on the spot.
But thankfully, everyone, although with soot-covered faces and some injuries, at least no one was more injured than Su Ming.
"Your dimension travels didn't seem to go smoothly." Su Ming asked Batman beside him.
"Oliver told you? When we left, he didn't catch up, so I guessed he must have come to find you." Batman took out a terminal and tapped a string of parameters on it: "I just didn't expect him to tell everything."
"Ha, is this really the time for this discussion? Not to mention he's the employer and I'm the mercenary; sharing intelligence is only right. I just want to know where Superman has gone."
Su Ming leaned on the great sword, pretending to look around with interest.
Batman wasn't angry but instead spoke truthfully. In such a situation, indeed, he needed Deathstroke and Green Arrow to help strategize; his mind was currently too active, unable to control the wild thoughts.
Beside him, Joker, although keeping silent, stood with a smiling expression, listening to the two talk, looking quite suspicious.
"We've been tricked by the Troublemaker; Clark is now missing. Let's first solve the Laughing Bat's problem together, then find a way to retrieve Clark."
Su Ming slightly provoked Batman, discovering he hadn't gone mad, so the situation was much better than expected. Thus, he put away his casual attitude and nodded seriously: "Simple, catch the Troublemaker, let me interrogate him, and naturally we can learn where he placed Superman. Not long ago, Barry helped me gather a massive amount of torture tool information from Asia, but it's yet to find a suitable practice subject."
Batman didn't object, seemingly quite in agreement with the idea of tough interrogation: "Our four-dimensional tools might not be effective against five-dimensional people; what are you planning to do?"
"I don't know if others remember, but you ought to remember some things from the past. Do you remember how Joker dealt with the Troublemaker?"
Su Ming cautiously guided, thinking, if he was correct, Batman indeed had a Joker in mind now.
Batman saw Joker beside him with wide-open eyes, showing the eager smile of a child expecting Christmas presents, nodding crazily, mouthing, the red crack revealing yellow teeth, indicating he always wanted to say one word.
"Name."
"Yes, it's the Troublemaker's name." Su Ming wasn't surprised by Batman suddenly uttering a word; it was the concise style of the bat: "I just don't understand, you have grasped the Troublemaker's true name, yet still got fooled by him? Couldn't you simply strip him of all power and use it yourself?"
Batman shook his head, firmly looking at Su Ming and said, "Higher-dimensional power cannot be possessed by any entity in our world. I will not allow anyone to manipulate the world at will or become the transcendental God of Mankind, at least not while I live."
"Alright, you're morally noble, making yourself suffer; nothing to say about that. But if you don't want to deceive the Troublemaker into divulging his true name, taking advantage of snatching his power... then we can only find the bat spirit to repair him, or I can think of a way to find you a Tenth-Dimensional Demon to perform eating Little Demons alive?"
Su Ming innocently spread his hands, knowing Batman was warning him not to target five-dimensional power.
And Su Ming displayed a yearning for five-dimensional power but backed down in light of Batman's warning. In this way, Batman wouldn't suspect that the Troublemaker's drawing board was actually in his possession...
It's merely a petty trick, and currently, Batman doesn't have time to pay attention to this; his focus isn't here, and even if Su Ming is beaten all over by the Laughing Bat, he hasn't taken out the drawing board.
Such behavior brilliantly cleared his suspicion, and now that drawing board just quietly rests in his waist pouch, as if it changed its surname...
"There's even Tenth-Dimension?"
Batman's attention was indeed caught by the information Deathstroke casually threw out. He furrowed his brows; having just the five and six dimensions was troublesome enough — is there even more upwards?
Su Ming watched Artificial Wade execute an Old Tree Root move on the Hellbat Leg Armor, then use the 'Monkey Stealing Peaches Continuously' ultimate skill on Mad Laugh, couldn't help but take a small breath.
"Hiss~~~The five-dimensional people are almost omnipotent in this world, but why are they called five-dimensional 'Little' Demons? Did you never think about what 'Big' Demons might be?"
Batman didn't respond, but through Lighting Technique, Su Ming could see both corners of his mouth droop downwards.