Batman thought that they should split up at this time.
Dividing forces was not always a foolish decision, especially when three out of the four individuals had superpowers, and they knew almost nothing about the current state of the cosmos, with a plethora of clues requiring investigation.
The final decision on the grouping was Clark with Batman, and Hal with Arthur, although Batman had originally intended to team up with Hal. Green Lantern's abilities were more versatile and flexible, making it easier for him to implement some of Batman's ideas.
But Clark stubbornly refused to let Batman go with anyone else, leaving Batman somewhat helpless. This younger Superman of the universe had indeed more determination, was more independent in thought, but he was also much clingier, seemingly unwilling to leave Batman's side even for a step.
Ultimately, Hal and Arthur went after the Queen of the Sea of Atlantis, hoping to stop them before they reached Gotham, while Batman and Clark took advantage of the emptiness of Atlantis's main base to investigate the anomalies occurring in the ocean.
Arthur gave Batman the location of Atlantis. Actually, it wouldn't take long for Clark to take him on a few laps around the entire Earth, but Batman didn't mind if the former King of Atlantis was willing to cooperate.
After the two teams set off, it didn't take very long for the group consisting of Batman and Clark to find Atlantis, a massive city located deep in the ocean, its architecture and cultural features faintly revealing its past glory.
The reason for its faint visibility was that both Batman and Clark felt that the city before them, no matter how, could not compare to the previous land-based, most glorious and grand civilization mentioned by Arthur.
The city's peripheral structures had basically collapsed, but they were protected by a mysterious power and had not been eroded into powder by the seawater. Instead, they were overgrown with algae and crevices home to some deep-sea crustaceans.
This had essentially become a paradise for ordinary marine life, with no signs of humanoid life. Venturing further, Batman was surprised to see things resembling the tents of the homeless.
Such a sight was rare outside some developed cities in America, so its presence in the vast and once-glorious civilization of Atlantis with its small population was quite unreasonable.
As they went deeper, it became even stranger. Instead of grand palaces, sparkling magic devices, and strong Atlantean guards, they saw wall after wall with huge cylindrical devices, weak and listless wanderers with a glazed look, half-dead giant seaweeds, and moribund giant sea-animal mounts.
"My God, their situation is really bad," Clark floated mid-air, gazing at the massive city and said, "Atlantis should not be like this."
Batman remained silent, but he knew in his heart that indeed, Atlantis should not be like this, at least not the Atlantis of his universe. Although Batman had never truly been there, from Arthur's description, he knew that despite being submerged, Atlantis might not have been very advanced, but given their small population and access to all oceanic resources, they surely wouldn't have fallen to such a state.
"Can you feel the abnormality in the seawater?" Batman asked.
Clark blinked and said, "The average water pressure here is slightly higher than in the universe I come from, the water moves slower, but it's not due to a lack of ocean currents; rather, it seems thicker, requiring more force to move it."
"There is a mysterious power pervading the ocean," Batman sighed, "This force has a polluting nature, slowly eroding everything here and the living creatures. We also should not stay here too long, or we might be contaminated too."
Batman's gaze once again fell on Atlantis below. He continued, "That wall is probably some sort of filtration system. They spent a lot of resources building it, but it still can't completely block the contamination."
"Does this force make them weaker and weaker?"
"Maybe it makes them increasingly chaotic," Batman frowned, able to discern from certain clues left by damaged structures that more than one conflict seemed to have erupted here.
"The entropy here is much higher than in our universe, and it must have increased sharply in recent times, causing the order that could have been maintained to completely collapse, forcing the Atlanteans to seek a solution on land."
"Do they believe they are unaffected?" Clark showed his disapproval, "The sea is no longer habitable; they want to move to the land, even to take over the land. This decision may also be made after they were contaminated."
"So, we have to stop them," said Batman, pointing downwards, "Take me down, we need to see how this filtration system works in order to understand what that mysterious force is."
The two quickly made their way into the city of Atlantis, already weak and now unguarded due to troop deployment; no one noticed them.
While Batman inspected the machinery, Clark stayed by his side, silent, almost invisible, and Batman was still surprised at how clingy this Superman was and how he could reduce his presence to such a low level.
Superman hadn't made any comments on these machines or the way he investigated them, which made Batman somewhat uncomfortable.
"What do you think?" Batman initiated the conversation.
"About what?"
"These filtration devices."
"They're fine," Clark replied with a shrug, then looking at Batman's expression, he said, "Do you want me to comment on this? That would indeed be unique, as all the Batmen I've encountered didn't want my opinion on their investigation process."
"So you just don't say anything," Batman had intended this remark to stay in his head, but perhaps feeling some discomfort, he voiced it out loud.
As the words fell, Batman knew this was a bad sign, the prelude to an argument.
Batman was thinking about something else at this moment. Such a situation would never have arisen in the past; in fact, his tolerance towards Superman was unimaginably huge. An alien who surpassed 99.9% of the human race in capabilities and ethical standards—what higher expectations could Batman have of him?
Besides, there were matters of varying degrees of urgency, and the current situation of the cosmos was certainly far more special than Clark could be. Batman was able to rationally judge what was more important.
Yet, he found himself unconsciously paying attention to Clark's condition, probing time and again, until a slight moment of lost control appeared imperceptibly.
It was just a sentence, after all, many would think, but Batman would not be so hasty. He anticipated the worst-case scenarios: What if Clark got angry over this comment, what if he left, leaving Batman alone here, or even worse, what if the two of them got into a big argument, accomplished nothing, and were then discovered and expelled?
His actions were pushing things in the wrong direction, something Batman absolutely could not accept.
But now that things had come to this, Batman could only make up for it in the most efficient way possible. He said to Clark, "From now on, I won't talk, and you don't ask me any questions."
"One last question—are you okay?" Clark asked.
Batman nodded, and Clark really did stop talking. Batman returned to his examination of the filtration devices.
He found that these devices shared a common trait: they lacked chemical filtration capabilities, completely different from the filtration systems developed by humans. This further confirmed Batman's suspicion that the mysterious power was some form of Magic Energy.
Next, they needed more concrete evidence. Batman gestured to Clark, indicating that they should head a little deeper in.
Clark, without a word, led them deeper until they arrived at the most splendid palace, which Batman guessed might be the Queen of the Sea's palace.
The guards here were indeed stronger than those outside, and there were magical weapons that could be activated, but with Clark, Batman easily bypassed all alarms, harming no one, and smoothly infiltrated the Queen's private chamber.
In there, Batman found the Queen's diary, which he considered a major clue, so he found a spot and began to read.
However, as he read, Batman found the diary of the Queen of the Sea exceedingly dull and boring, mostly filled with accounts of the unchanging state of Atlantis.
Then Batman dismissed some of his earlier conjectures, because the diary revealed that Atlantis had always been restless and did not suddenly become polluted and then erupt into chaos, leading the Queen to land.
The diary mentioned that the Atlanteans were naturally aggressive, fierce, and chaotic, continuing endless strife even after sinking beneath the sea, with several kings of Atlantis dying in office due to this.
The attitude displayed by the Queen of the Sea in the diary was also quite negative. The various measures she had taken since assuming the throne appeared not so much aimed at salvaging the situation as they were about procrastinating as long as possible.
"But what if you can't procrastinate any longer?" Batman didn't find the answer in the diary, but he had his guesses. He immediately turned to Clark and said, "Find Hal, something's wrong on his end."
When Clark and Batman found Hal, the fight had already begun: Atlantis was controlling the sea to form raging torrents, sweeping towards the Queen of the Sea and the Atlantean army, with Hal also attempting to use Green Lantern energy to suppress the charging Atlanteans.
"Clark, stop them," Batman shouted.
Clark instantly descended into the center of the battlefield, took a deep breath, and a dazzling array of Ice Crystals burst forth from his mouth. Within a fraction of a second, an ice storm swept over everything.
All things were frozen, ice shards stopping mere inches from Batman, with the confronting Atlanteans and the Queen of the Sea turned into miniature figures inside a Crystal globe, frozen in their prior poses, only their eyes able to twitch slightly, unable to move anywhere else.
What puzzled Batman was that Green Lantern couldn't move either, but he was better off than the others, still able to make anxious expressions at Clark with his eyes.
Clark emerged from the ice and said, "I learned a trick from Victor. Although I still can't turn the ice made from my Freezing Breath into the dense ice that blocks out all energy exchanges, its properties are already quite similar."
Batman gave him a mental thumbs up.