The dazzling light emitted by the activation of the Mother Box instinctively stunned those present for a moment. When the light faded, they found themselves inside a spaceship.
Quickly, Little Bruce reminded, "Shock, keep the look of shock... three seconds is about enough, and... relax!"
Helen rubbed her slightly stiff cheeks and said, "I'm not good at this, you might as well just tell me where to go and how many to kill."
"Hey, look at that guy over there." Harley pointed in Weiman's direction as the light from the Teleportation Array gradually dissipated, revealing the looks of Weiman.
Upon seeing his starched military uniform, which was utterly contrary to the guards' armor on the ship, and the single-pane glasses on his face emitting a cold light, Helen nearly emitted a wail, exclaiming, "Isn't this too outdated?!!"
"I bet he's one of those schemers in a heroic group who suddenly appear after a minor villain has been defeated." Harley, pushing up nonexistent glasses, remarked, "The kind of person who will clap his hands and walk out of the shadows, saying things like 'You've actually defeated xxx, not bad at all.' or 'What a splendid fight, didn't expect xxx to lose to you.'"
"Batman actually killed Kant, I admit he's quite impressive." With his hands behind his back, Weiman slowly approached the teleport station, separated by a layer of transparent glass. Adjusting his single-piece glasses, he added, "You must be Batman's descendants? I can feel the similar power in you."
Helen was left speechless, not even wanting to exchange another word with this antiquated villain. Harley also signaled Little Bruce with her eyes to push the plot forward, while Weiman's gaze indeed shifted onto Little Bruce.
"You must be Batman's biological son." Weiman looked at Little Bruce and then turned to Aisha, asking, "So he has a daughter too? So the rest of you are the rumored Robin, his aides?"
Helen snorted and, lowering her voice, said to Harley, "Should we be acting shocked now, then yell at him 'How did you know!? Where did you get the information!?', afterwards, frantically guessing if there's a traitor within Batman's team?"
Harley yawned and replied, "From the way he didn't recognize Aisha, it's clear he's got outdated intel. Even if there's a traitor, it's likely just a minor underling that Batman and Robin beat up before. Otherwise, if he wanted to shake us up, he could just ask us which universe we're from."
Helen sighed, "The stereotypical villain."
Harley nodded, "Too traditional, too typical."
Then Harley began speculating on her own, "The most unconventional villain I've ever met was Professor Shearer. If he were here, the first words out of his mouth would be 'Your homework'... Damn, that's terrifying!"
Helen nodded, "Indeed, the most unique villain has to be Doctor Schiller. If he were here, he would probably say 'Your consultation fee'... That's really scary!"
The two girls looked at each other and declared with lingering fear, "We prefer traditional villains!"
On the other side, Weiman was already having a back-and-forth conversation with Little Bruce.
"As I said, His Majesty Darkseid admires Batman's talents. He believes that someone as genius as Batman deserves to share the glory of ruling the cosmos with him..."
"In what way does he plan to share?"
"Uh... what did you say?"
"In what way does Darkseid plan to share the glory of ruling the cosmos with Batman?" Little Bruce repeated, somewhat impatiently.
"Of course, of course, he would grant him the greatest power, endless wealth, the strength to defeat all..." Weiman came up with words hastily since his superior only hinted at the requirement to recruit Batman, without giving him specific conditions.
Weiman had never imagined that Batman's son would ask such a pragmatic question. Shouldn't he be denouncing the idea of ruling the cosmos as evil or something?
"Oh, I see, so he'd just be a lackey, getting bossed around, running errands across the universe. When he's in a good mood, he might offer some praises, when he's not he might just kill him for fun. Why be a dog when you're human?"
"You..." Weiman was taken aback. He glared at Little Bruce, "You don't understand His Majesty Darkseid's greatness at all!"
"What does his greatness have to do with me? Can he give all his greatness to me? Either give me his seat at the top, or piss off!"
This Young Bruce's temper seemed to be even worse than the adult Batman's. He looked up and down at Weiman with his cold eyes, as if looking at a pile of unrecyclable trash.
Weiman almost choked. But suddenly, his expression calmed down. Squinting at Little Bruce, he said, "I've heard that Batman's own son has a bad temper. Master Wayne, do you really want to make decisions for your father?"
Weiman let out a cold laugh, a trace of cold light flashing across his lens. He looked at Little Bruce from a high position, saying, "Or do you actually have the right to make decisions for him? Wouldn't you want to hear Robin's opinions?"
"I'm not making decisions for him; even a child understands this principle. If he doesn't, he shouldn't be Batman. He should just roll back into bed and cry!"
Weiman took a deep breath, looking at Little Bruce's blue eyes identical to Batman's. He thought, do I finally have an opponent in verbal fights after all these years under Darkseid's command?
"Such a low-level attempt at provocation, but it might actually work on those little birds." Harley sighed, "Even with our brief interactions, I can tell their biggest concern is who's most important to Batman…"
"Robin from this universe?" Helen asked curiously. "Does your universe also have a Robin? Are they all like this?"
"No, our Robin from the other universe is quite the opposite."
"Why?"
"Because they all agree that Batman is not very important."
The verbal standoff between Weiman and Little Bruce continued. Weiman was using all sorts of tricks to stir up animosity between them, probing for more information about Batman, or trying to intimidate them by showing his deep knowledge of them.
Little Bruce simply resorted to personal attacks, relentlessly using cold language to hit back against every living being Weiman referenced in his speech.
"He's been holding back for a while." Harley shrugged, holding Aisha, with Spider-Man holding Barry. Helen sat in place and the group chatted quietly in a corner. Harley continued: "Our Batman in our universe has a much better temperament, at least he does not curse."
At this point, she felt something stir within the Necronomicon in her arms. She glanced at the battlefield before turning away to open the Necronomicon from an angle that Weiman could not see. A line of text read, "Ask that Weiman what his qualifications are, he speaks like a desperate illiterate."
"You remind me of a professor," whispered Harley. "Whenever someone spoke to him without making any sense, he'd describe them as desperate illiterates."
"At least it's not as bad as how Doctor Schiller reacts," added Helen. "He would kindly listen to their arguments, then charge them by the minute for psychological counseling and mental damage fees."
"Enough of this arguing," Harley closed the book and stood up. She was about to join the fight when Helen grabbed her arm, pulling her down to sit again.
"Believe me or not, within a minute someone hot-tempered subordinate or colleague will mess things up not following his plans, then he'll curse out loud 'This idiot!', then look at us coldly, telling us 'you'd better think carefully and send someone to inform me once you figure things out'. Also, he'll emphasize that we should not think of escaping as the place is heavily guarded..."
"My Lord Weiman! My Lord Weiman!! Something's gone wrong!!!" A guard suddenly panicked and ran into the room shouting at Weiman: "Lord Savage Wolf wants to find Kant, he thinks that useless Kant must be dead after not coming back for so long, he's going to capture Batman's descendant himself!"
Weiman's infuriation at this was enough to darken his complexion, he growled through gritted teeth, "This idiot!"
Helen spread her hands at the others.
"He definitely wants to attack Batman, quickly send someone to find him, I shouldn't have agreed to bring him in the first place!!!"
Weiman took a few deep breaths, then turned and scowled at the group: "You stay here and think carefully, you'd better think of a way to persuade Batman, or Savage Wolf will surely cut off his head, I'm going to handle some minor trouble, I'll be back soon!"
Weiman quickly walked towards the door, then turned to the others: "You better not think about escaping. The prison on this guard-class escort ship has the same level of security as the Apocalypse Star Prison. That level of security means even if you die, you can't get out!"
"Guards, keep an eye on them, if anything happens, you'll be the first to be fed to a Type Demon by Lord Desaad!"
Harley took a deep breath and sighed heavily, looking at Helen: "Okay, you are right, he's so cliché at every word, every move, he's like a comic about a hero fighting the Demon King from a decade ago."
Helen rubbed the goosebumps on her arm: "This can also be considered a form of attack, I was so embarrassed my toes curled."
"What on earth are you guys talking about?" asked Little Bruce, frowning.
Helen was about to explain, but she realized that Bruce's era was probably the predominance of similar plot comics and novels, a daunting explanation task.
The era in which Helen and Spider-Man lived was after the year 2010. By this time, the bad guys' cliché punchlines such as," I only need five seconds to finish you off" had evolved into "Life is meaningless, but if you keep living, you might discover something interesting, like you meeting that flower, me meeting you".
In short, the corniness of this basic depiction of evil gives them one word - tacky.
"So what are we going to do next?" Spider-Man asked, gazing outside the glass: "If one were to divide this chapter of a comic book, at this point we would collaborate to escape from prison, causing chaos on the ship, successfully overthrow that guy called Weiman, then during the life-and-death battle between Batman and the so-called Savage Wolf, we would receive heavenly help."
Helen smoothly continued: "Then, we will save Batman, but before Savage Wolf dies, he will say 'His Majesty Darkseid will not let you go!', and at that moment, a pair of wicked eyes flash deep in the cosmos, ending the season and leaving a bunch of furious spectators."
"So, you're not planning on doing that," asked Harley. "What are you going to do? What are we going to do now?"
Helen flashed a bright smile and said: "We do need to see Batman, but we must bring some gifts when visiting our seniors."
"Do you mean..."
"Tsk tsk, the material of this room isn't bad, and so is the layout, and the lights are particularly bright, the windows are square... oh dear! Why is there an Earth symbol here?! Could this be a lost heritage of ancient Earth?!"