Having successfully secured the weapons and locked up the native Batman of this universe in jail, the next natural step was to meet up with his teammates.
Deadpool had already caused quite a stir upstairs. When Tim and Shiller rushed upstairs, all they saw was a mess of overturned tables and chairs, with Minifigure parts scattered everywhere.
Tim regretfully looked at the spilled coffee, while Shiller took the opportunity to enter Barbara's office. Barbara must have gone out in a hurry to chase after the escaped Deadpool and didn't even have time to close her door, creating a perfect opening for Shiller.
As soon as they entered, Tim didn't need Shiller to say anything, he began to rummage through the place, pulling out drawers from top to bottom, taking out the files to see if they contained anything about important cases.
Shiller first scanned the notice board pinned with various notices, then proceeded to check the nearby bookshelves, and sure enough found a mechanism on the second shelf.
Shiller pressed a book into the mechanism, and with a clattering sound, the bookshelf swung open sideways. Tim turned around and saw a dark passage, with some light visible on the other side, seeming to lead to another room.
Tim followed Shiller with muted footsteps, and after they passed through the passage, they entered a secret room. On the opposite wall of the room hung a large screen filled with dense text, but Shiller only caught the most important part.
"Raw Material Recycling Plan - ??? noticeably insufficient, must add extra in ???, plan shows obvious effectiveness after implementation..."
Tim casually picked up a block of Minifigure from the desk in the secret room, ran his hand over the uneven surface of the Minifigure, then said, "In this universe, who could be behind the appearance of Minifigures and using them to construct the entire universe?"
"Do you think they might have a Minifigure study, like anthropology?" Shiller seemed to remember something amusing as he said, "Minifigure sociology, Minifigure psychology, oh, no, psychology would be the same as ours, so maybe Minifigure medicine?"
Tim also started laughing, saying, "Spending ten years learning how to properly reattach parts to a Minifigure?"
Shiller, stroking his chin, said, "What do you think this raw material recycling plan is?"
"Hard to guess," Tim said sarcastically, "I really don't know who would redact the plan's summary rather than the specific data."
He pointed at the screen and said, "It even says there that the molecules making up acrylonitrile butadiene styrene are noticeably insufficient, and this formula actually just means 'plastic'. Although I don't know what synthesizing plastic has to do with molecules, I guess it means there's a shortage of raw materials for plastics."
"And this one, although it's a coined word, you can tell it must be some kind of factory. It also provides the exact coordinates of the factory, and here's the deployment time, let me see, oh, in three days."
"Problem-solving genius!" Shiller and Tim high-fived.
"So the raw materials for synthesizing plastic in this universe are running low, and something needs to be deployed at some factory for recycling to get new raw materials for producing Minifigures. Looks like this factory will be key."
"Can these coordinates give us an exact location?" Shiller asked.
"No, it's not that specific, it's a range, but it shouldn't be very large, I think we can look around there," Tim replied.
As they were talking, they walked back toward the passage and suddenly heard noises from outside, quickly hiding beside the wall in the secret room's passage.
The bookshelf had already closed automatically, so they weren't worried about being discovered, just listening as the footsteps indicated more than one person approaching, suggesting a conversation was about to ensue.
"...Really, such an identical clone? This isn't their best timing, we have the raw materials deployment in three days, these spoilers might give us trouble."
The voice sounded like a man's, Shiller guessed it might be Gordon's. He looked at Tim, who spread his hands and said, "You can't expect me to judge his height and weight from the footsteps of a Minifigure, all I can tell you is, he's made of plastic."
"I can control the situation," Barbara's voice sounded, saying, "The only trouble is the extra Batman, but no matter, he won't escape the police station jail, everything will proceed smoothly."
"I'm afraid you underestimate Batman too much, no matter which one of them is a clone, I fear they all..."
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Beep beep—Warning! Warning! Warning! Someone's escaping from jail!"
"I told you not to underestimate Batman!"
By the time Shiller and Tim emerged from the passage, the two people had already left, and Tim sighed, saying, "'Don't underestimate Batman'? Please, what kind of lock can that stop?"
"Everything here is as sloppy as play-acting," Tim said. "Although the other me from another universe told me that my universe is somewhat sloppy too, but not like this."
"You'll get used to it, but if I'm not mistaken, our teammates will make them realize what 'Don't underestimate Batman' really means."
"Whew! Ha!"
With a snap, Gotham Police Department's window shattered, a pitch-dark grappling hook caught the equally dark tail of the Batplane, and Batman burst out of the window, soaring into the air.
He laughed triumphantly, turned to Barbara standing by the window and said, "You can't catch me, because I am Batman! ... And by the way, velvet striped pajamas are not tacky at all!"
"I agree." A cold voice sounded, Batman swiftly turned around, and saw another figure of himself.
As Batman opened his mouth to speak, he realized he was mid-air, and the other..."
Swish!
The rope of the grappling hook was cut.
Batman's head slowly turned back, facing forward, and pointing to the side with his finger he said, "You know, I never wanted to agree with him, but what can we do when we are one and the same person?"
"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!"
Bang!
Batman did not crash onto the ground, but was caught by an air cushion, as Joker retracted the air pump, a crowd surged forward and carried away the struggling Batman.
Dressed in a jetpack, the Primary Universe Batman slowly landed, his appearance had some differences from the Batman of this universe, especially his cape, which was much longer, and when spread out, it resembled the real wings of a bat.
He walked slowly from behind the Joker, and in a voice not hoarse but as smooth as string music, he said, "I fulfilled my promise; you got Batman. What else do you want?"
"I... I..." Joker's chest heaved violently, tears welled up in his eyes, he placed his hands over his mouth, choking up as he said, "I want him to hate me, I want him to see me as his greatest enemy, I want him to hate only me..."
"Very well," Batman paced to the other side and said, "What do you think will make him hate you? Creating more crimes? Releasing more criminals? You know, of course, that won't work."
"Why not?!" Joker stretched his arms straight at his sides, shouting loudly, "I will prepare the world's most explosive surprise for him! This is my unique gift, no one else has anything like it, he will eventually understand my..."
"How soon will 'eventually' be?" Batman whispered in Joker's ear, "So soon that you and he have known each other for over a decade, yet when asked about his greatest enemy, he still instinctively answers 'Superman'?"
"I... I..." Tears nearly spilled from Joker's eyes as he spoke in a tearful voice, "I don't know why he does this, he always fails to see that in my eyes there is only that damned big guy, even though I should clearly be his best opponent, the one he hates most, yet he never wants to..."
"Of course, you should be," Batman suddenly walked up to Joker's face, but then quickly moved behind him, making a series of movements that caught Joker's attention and made him unconsciously turn his head.
"I believe you are just using the wrong method. Although you create many explosions, they are not a spectacular trouble for him; in the end, doesn't he always handle them easily? It's not so simple when it comes to Superman's matters."
"The criminals you release are numerous enough, but besides taking up the already scarce room in his heart, what other effect do they have? Two-Face, Scarecrow, Penguin Man..."
As Batman listed one criminal after another, Joker's lips began to tremble, then suddenly lifted into a mad smile that reappeared on his face.
"Exactly! Those damned fools only interfere with Batman's judgment of me, I want to kill them, smash them all!!!"
"No no no," Batman shook his head again and said, "Haven't you heard that the living can never surpass the dead? Do you want to hear one day that Batman says his greatest enemy is actually some dead old friend?"
"He wouldn't be so..."
"He would, because I am such a person," Batman whispered softly, "If one day I am forced to answer this question, the name I will blurt out is either someone who can never be influenced by anyone, like Superman, or it has to be a dead person."
Joker's expression turned confused, and Batman leaned close and whispered in his ear, "But you could lock them all up, preventing them from ever contacting Batman, and Batman will never be able to tackle the crimes they commit."
"Then the only criminal left in Gotham would be you, and if Batman doesn't want to see you, he will have to."
"What about Superman?" Joker, trembling with excitement and foreboding a marvelous future, asked.
"He is not Batman's exclusive villain; he doesn't revolve around Batman 24 hours a day. If you can find him some other work, maybe Batman will soon forget him," said Primary Universe Batman.
Joker's expression brightened, and the tears in his eyes turned into sprays of hope.
The dark shadow standing behind him was as profound as ever, looking as though it was branding a black hole into the looming brightness.
At the top of the Gotham Police Department building, Shiller, while tossing chips into his mouth, said, "Batman the instigator, encouraging the Joker, I really should have captured this."
Tim, however, shuddered and said, "No wonder the 'me' from other universes always remain tight-lipped about their foster father. Could it be that Batman is such a dark creature?"
"Isn't he?" a voice came from behind as Deadpool sheathed his swords and threw the bag of snacks to the ground, then said, "You all from DC are too dark."
Tim shrank his neck and said, "I can't imagine what life would be like if we faced such a Batman."
"It would also depend on who Batman is facing; if it were you, perhaps there wouldn't be much difference," said another voice.
At this, Shiller smiled and said, "If there were even more intense opponents, perhaps he'd have headaches too."
Tim appeared thoughtful.