While Superman was still scanning the area for the massive city, Batman's attention was already drawn to the vast maze lying ahead.
It was hard to ignore. Any monstrous maze appearing anywhere would serve as a landmark. Batman prides himself on knowing Gotham is his city, the realization that there are parts of it he was unaware of truly shocked him more than Gotham being sent to the sky.
Suddenly, he once again had a flash of insight born from his exceptional wisdom. He decided to momentarily set aside questioning the purpose of the maze and consider if it could be utilized somehow.
There are times when the thought process of geniuses align; the Marvel scientists had decided to abandon investigating the source of the Dark Power and focus directly on its practical usage—Batman was thinking in the same terms.
Although he usually preferred to investigate things to the root, no current threat was more significant than Darkseid. After a moment of contemplation, Batman reluctantly suppressed his skepticism and turned to Superman, asking, "Could you find a way to cover this thing up?"
"Huh?"
Approximately ten minutes later, the fledgling team of Super Seven—Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Aquaman—all gathered under a street sign at the junction of Gotham.
"My god, I never imagined it would be this magnificent. Batman, are you serious? You built such a vast maze beneath Gotham?" The Flash couldn't help but inquire.
Wonder Woman sighed and commented, "From the degree of wear on the floor material, it's clear it was not built by Batman. This thing might even be older than his grandfather."
Aquaman frowned, walking to the edge of the maze. Peering down, he said, "Something's off. The water here is filled with a dark aura, devoid of any life... Something is very wrong..."
"I think I know who built it." Batman glanced at the distant maze and said, "We are all aware, the darkness of Gotham didn't emerge out of nothing. Perhaps this is just the tip of the iceberg of dark forces working behind the scenes."
"If this is just the tip of the iceberg, what kind of beast are we up against?!" Green Lantern raised his voice saying, "Don't tell me a giant dragon will crawl out of this thing!"
"Could you find a way to cover it up?" Batman turned to look at Green Lantern.
Seeing Batman's unusually intense gaze, Green Lantern swallowed, sensing a grim premonition.
Twenty hours later, Green Lantern fell to the ground like a dead dog. His Green Lantern Ring no longer emitted light. Collapsed on the ground, he wailed, "Damn you, Batman, the Green Lantern energy has its limits! I can't possibly manifest a labyrinth ceiling as big as a city within a day! And you're asking for structural integrity at the material limit! There's a limit to exploitation!!!"
"I've brought you some helpers." Batman's voice echoed above Green Lantern's head. As Green lantern looked up, he saw a chain of people tied up behind Batman.
"Hey, Hal, long time no see." Harley Quinn, her hands tied with hemp ropes, was doing her best to stretch her arms to wave at Green Lantern. On closer look, Green Lantern saw that these were all members of Batman's fan club.
After Batman explained his plan to cover the maze to Green Lantern and left him with "I want to see it finished within a day," he and Superman went off to the Gotham located in outer space.
Since the maze had shaken Batman so much and caused him a few minutes delay, the Owls that Joker had the chance to catch were already cooked by him into a dish.
To Joker, a psychotic killer, giving his victims elaborate deaths and turning their bodies into art was the highest form of respect. Obviously, the Owls did not deserve his respect, so Joker did not personally kill them.
Joker threw the members of the Court of Owls to the madmen inside Arkham Asylum.
These lunatics, who led the Gotham independence project, obviously did not want their city to fall. But the summoning formation created by Wizard Felix could not make the gods on the other side answer the call. They urgently needed to know if there were any other contact numbers; hence these members of the Court of Owls were doomed.
Torture was more brutal than slaughter. It just so happened that many of these super-villains were adept at rifling through other people's brains. Hugo and Mad Hatter were among them. More frighteningly, Harley Quinn could peer outside the dialogue box to verify their truthfulness.
By the time Batman arrived, few members of the Court of Owls were still in human form. When he was arresting these super-villains he found out, the ones still alive were not because they hadn't had the time to kill them but were left after getting information through torture— the Court of Owls had a ritual in their lair to infuse the darkness into the metal.
So now, Batman had new things he needed to understand; his torture skills weren't inferior to those of the super-villains. The problem was that his questions were too abstract, the Court of Owls couldn't offer concrete answers.
What Batman wanted to know was, did this darkness shape Gotham and its people? In other words, he wanted to know if being sullied by this darkness would make anyone as crazy as Gothamites.
The supervillains that Batman captured have provided some assistance to Green Lantern, mainly by taunting and mocking him with Gotham's unique dark humor and bitterly sarcastic remarks, pushing Green Lantern to the edge of rage and causing his productivity to rise sharply. He didn't complete the cover within a day, but he finished the job in less than two days.
"We need a fake Gotham City to confuse any enemies that may be spying on Earth." Batman turned to the Green Lantern again, who let out a wail, saying, "This is impossible! I can't recreate an extra-large city in such a short time, I can't do it!"
"Wait, you just need a false city, right?" Wonder Woman, stroking her chin, said, "I think we can use illusion to create one that looks fine from a distance."
"You want to use it to deceive Darkseid's vanguard?" Superman frowned slightly, looking at Batman and asking, "Are you sure they will choose Gotham as their landing point?"
"I will make them choose Gotham." Batman didn't explain further, he just lifted his chin slightly, pointed to the labyrinth, and said, "Now all we need to do is continuously reinforce the cover of the labyrinth, create a fake city to confuse the enemy, and then wait for their arrival."
What Batman didn't explain was that the Green Lantern Corps had been studying Darkseid's method of transportation. Darkseid mainly used mother boxes to open sonic channels for invasions. In essence, it's a form of scientific teleportation.
Ever since Batman got the relevant research materials from the Green Lantern Corps through Green Lantern, he had been secretly studying them. But because he had not had the information about the invasion for long, he couldn't block the portals directly for now. However, he was capable of pulling some tricks to slightly offset the location of the portals.
When invading planets, this high-tech super-civilization tends to see a planet as a unit, not caring to distinguish its cities. For humans, distances of dozens to hundreds of kilometers are very distant, but for them, these are just nanoscale measurements, even within the error requirements of some of their devices.
Of course, Batman's original plan was to create a large refuge, evacuate all the remaining humans in Gotham there, and then use the city, which had been virtually ruined, as a battlefield to deal with the vanguard. However, it now seemed unnecessary. This giant labyrinth, created by mysterious dark powers, would be the best welcoming gift.
Still floating in the geosynchronous orbit around Earth inside the sky fortress, Red Robin hung up the phone and said, "Batman just asked where we are. I told him we're not far from Gotham, but I think he might have misunderstood. I think he only considered the x-coordinates."
"That works too." Tim raised his head from a pile of blueprints and said, "Batman has been gone for so long, he must be planning something. I suspect something big is about to happen soon. We need to get that big guy out."
"Isn't this too risky?" Nightwing muttered, "I really wonder what kind of crisis would call for such a big guy."
"We obviously pray we'd never have to use it, but if there is ever a chance it's needed, it better be ready." Jason gently tapped the table, "This is the culmination of the combined efforts of all the genius scientists on the Earth of another universe. On top of that, it's the most cutting-edge, pioneering result of their research. It can surely disable the enemy in one strike if necessary."
Standing by the window, Nightwing sighed, slowly turning his head to look outside. In the center of the fortress, they had put an object—the nuclear warhead they had previously taken, but it was more than that.
"Alert, alert, maximum crisis warning for Sector 2814, mother box signal detected, Green Lantern in charge, please respond immediately! Repeat one more time…"
Inside the temporary base, an image flickered from Green Lantern's ring. A young Green Lantern Corps communications officer with a serious expression told Green Lantern, "Thirty-two seconds ago, we detected a signal from the mother core of Apocalypse Star. The signal carrier has been classified by the Green Lantern Corps as an extremely high-risk entity. Please, the Green Lantern responsible for Sector 2814, respond…"
"Hello, this is Green Lantern Hal Jordan, please send the detected signal information to me immediately, the source signal number is…"
In front of a giant machine with sixteen screens, Batman's mask turned silver under the glare of the data stream. He quickly picked up the walkie-talkie on the side, and Superman's voice came from it.
"The edge of the galaxy just flashed with the engine flames of a battleship! I'm absolutely not wrong, they are here!"
"Diana!! Get Ready!!"
Wonder Woman hovered above the massive Gotham labyrinth, her black hair fluttering in the wind. As the light filled her eyes and her bracelets gleamed brilliantly, divine power shone like a brilliant sun. A huge city phantom gradually emerged behind her.
Meanwhile, Batman quickly typed on the keyboard. Then, his hand, covered in a black gauntlet, moved to pull a lever.
"Click!"
Accompanied by a roar that shook half of the Earth, a tunnel spanning millions of light-years slowly opened in the underground labyrinth of Gotham. The tunnel was like a devouring abyss.
A horrifying scene appeared on the surveillance equipment —infinite demon-like half-biological and half-mechanical creatures were emerging from a giant portal, echoing with the roar of battle.
"I am the new God; all is one, all belongs to Darkseid! Fear! Beg for mercy! Die! Die for Darkseid!"