The two met above the chemical vat, and an inevitable clash ensued, with the gleaming Batman dart brushing past the edge of the other's mask and embedding itself in the wall of the chemical factory.
Both jumped down from the beam at almost the same time but then grabbed onto the opposite beam with their hooks and swung across. As their forms intersected, Batman with red eyes tried to slice through the other's rope with his Batman dart.
The rope snapped back the Batman dart, and Batman revealed a smug smile. After landing, he shouted, "Haha, ever since you last did that, I've improved the rope! Don't think you'll succeed again!"
Both were standing at the edge of the chemical vat, and Batman looked up at the hero hanging above, unfortunately, this wasn't a trick by this fellow—the members of the Justice League were indeed real.
"I won't say anything else, Flash, how exactly were you caught?" Batman was truly puzzled, even forgetting about the current situation, and looked up to ask.
"Uh, I dropped an ice cream cone, stepped on it, and slipped."
"Okay, you're still adorably dumb. What about you, Martian Manhunter, you're supposed to have mind reading technique."
"The Flash dropped an ice cream cone, stepped on it, slipped, and knocked into me, which knocked me out."
Batman covered his eyes, then had no choice but to turn to Green Lantern.
"The knocked-out Martian Manhunter crashed into a wall, I went to stabilize it, and got knocked out by Superman who also rushed over to hold the wall."
Batman held his face and sighed deeply, then looked towards Aquaman.
"After Green Lantern got knocked out, he fell on me and I got knocked out," shrugged Aquaman.
"And you, Cyborg?"
"After Aquaman got knocked out, he knocked out my plug, and I ran out of power, so I got knocked out."
Batman was already squatting down.
"Hawkman and Hawkwoman... alright, I get it, you don't need to say anything, Cyborg's short circuit knocked you out, right?"
"So! Shazam!" Batman roared anew: "What about you? How could you possibly have been knocked out?!"
"The ice cream was bought by me."
Shazam flashed a toothy grin.
Batman collapsed to the ground.
No evil scheme, no fear of solitude, none of it mattered now, Batman jumped up and roared at the group above him: "You!! Are you saying!! The Justice League got wiped out by an ice cream cone?!!!"
"Actually not," said Flash. "At that time, Superman and Wonder Woman were fine; they got caught later by this guy's trap."
Just as he was explaining, the captured Superman and Wonder Woman were also tied up with ropes and gradually lowered to the same height as the rest of the Justice League members.
"Uh, hi?" Superman said with a smile showing eight teeth: "Long time no see, Batman, I really need to explain, we didn't intentionally not invite you to the party."
"Yes, I completely understand, and thank you!" Batman yelled: "Because I would shatter into pieces if any of you bumped into me!"
Then he turned to the other Batman and said: "So your plan was to drive an ice cream truck to their party?"
"That's underestimating me." Batman with red eyes said: "I specifically adjusted the formula of the ice cream to melt quickly, which is why that scoop of ice cream fell to the ground so fast…"
"What? You actually tampered with the delicious mint ice cream formula?!" Flash said in agony: "I knew it didn't taste as good as before! You evil clone!"
"Batman! You must defeat him." Shazam yelled at Batman: "Otherwise, we'll never get to enjoy delicious party ice cream again!"
"Shut up, I don't want to hear the word ice cream anymore!"
Batman felt his head buzzing as he took out his Batman dart and aimed at the other Batman: "Let them go now, or you're going to regret it!"
"We'll see if you've got what it takes!"
Once again the two clashed, their dark figures swaying above the chemical vat, and looking down at the green chemical solution bubbling below, under the chemical vat on the ground floor, a group of people were digging tirelessly.
"Hurry up!" Prime Universe Batman, holding the blueprint, waved at Bane who was pushing a small cart piled high with bricks as they had already dug a huge hole there.
Harley Quinn ran over pushing a cart filled with parts; Poison Ivy was using plant tendrils to assemble these building parts one by one onto the cave walls, and by now, half a room was already assembled.
Shiller and Tim were looking at an instruction manual, Shiller pointed at a part and said: "Is this piece installed backward? Why doesn't the protrusion on its back seem to fit with the next piece?"
"No, it's not like that. It's because it's facing downward. Did you see it? It isn't actually supposed to fit with this part but with the arm below it."
"So do we need to flip it over? But what about the parts on the back? They surely can't fit with the top one, right?"
Tim scratched his head and said, "No worries, just push it firmly upwards when the time comes. If it works, it will definitely stay; if not, we'll just try another one."
Shiller rolled his eyes and said, "Are you sure you're not a LEGO enthusiast? Why are you so proficient?"
"Dick just had to drag us into assembling with him," Tim rolled his eyes even more dramatically and added, "It's fine when it's just the two of us, but sometimes when Jason joins, even selling his LEGO for 50 dollars would be a loss; he could turn any type of LEGO into a handgun."
Shiller could already picture that scene. Tim continued, "He and Cassandra are like Sleeping Dragon and Rising Phoenix—one assembles firearms, the other cold weapons. If it doesn't fit, it's just because they aren't pushing hard enough. Once they've assembled a LEGO piece, you can forget about repurposing it."
"Please, we are already short-handed; you two better not slack off!" Scarecrow groaned as he dragged a small cart towards the other side of the cave, shouting at Shiller and his group.
Shiller shrugged and went to work. He also went to the materials area, picked up a cart of LEGO, and leisurely began to assemble the room's walls.
Most of the building parts were dark green, some adorned with mossy decorations, and the floor tiles were so darkly green they almost seemed black, revealing a faint pattern when several were joined together.
Shiller had contributed the sculptures he had secured from Joker, sanded them down, changed their colors, added some moss, and placed a couple of torch columns next to them to perfectly mimic the style of an Evil Temple.
The lunatics of Arkham Asylum, under the leadership of Primary Universe Batman, had rapidly constructed a Cult Temple in the chemical plant's underground.
Finally, during the temple's ribbon-cutting ceremony, a crucial piece was placed above the temple's main door—a sculpture of an Owl, its eyes blinking with bright light.
Sorry, Nya, Shiller thought to himself, I'll just borrow your Ancient City for a bit, I'll pay the royalties later.
With two loud bangs from the ceremonial cannon, the ribbon was also cut. After all was done, everyone silently packed up everything and evacuated the newly built Owl's Ancient City, which had just been completed five minutes prior.
The beauty of LEGO is its flexibility; assemble and disassemble at will. Even if history only lasted five minutes, as long as the pieces fit tightly, you can't say it had no history.
The battle above the chemical pool continued, with two Batmen exchanging blows without a clear winner. Batman's goal was to rescue his colleague, but cutting the rope now could easily result in them both falling; thus, he had to defeat this evil Clone Batman first.
However, fighting above the chemical pool was perilously risky; one misstep could lead to irreversible destruction. Batman fought timidly, while his opponent seemed not to care at all.
Such an evil lunatic, Batman was once again driven out of the range of the chemical pool. As he saw the rope holding his colleagues stretching lower, he gritted his teeth and flew above everyone, grabbing the rope they were hanging from.
With a fierce swing, everyone below issued a shout of alarm. Superman guessed what Batman was trying to do and yelled to everyone, "Don't struggle! Swing out!"
Easier said than done. While it was indeed possible to escape the chemical pool's bounds using inertia, the rope was quite short, and the pool was large; they would have to swing very high to have a chance of escaping in one go.
Batman didn't know what magic the rope tying them possessed that even he and The Flash couldn't escape, but he knew, if indeed the rope was specially made and they didn't swing adequately, and if he cut the rope above, those who fell wouldn't be able to fly and would definitely fall into the chemical pool.
Continuing to exert force, Batman almost swung the group up to the rafters, and judging the height was about right, he fiercely cut the rope.
But at that moment, the red-eyed Batman stretched out a hook and fastened it onto Superman's cape. As the rope was cut, everyone else flew away, but Superman and Wonder Woman tied together were pulled back by the hook.
Inevitably, they plummeted towards the chemical pool.
"No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Batman turned back and lunged forward, trying to push them out of the pool's range, but the pool was too large, and all three plunged into it together.
Batman's last thought was, "At least I'm not alone."
The anticipated pain didn't come; instead, it felt as if they had fallen into water, or rather, a sticky liquid, slowly descending.
Until with a splurge, like being spit out by some giant beast, Batman opened his eyes only to feel slimy all over. He got up and found himself not in Hell but in a dimly lit dungeon.
The cold floor had a rough feel to it. Batman stood up, flicked off the slime on his arms and legs, and noticed Superman was still lying on the ground. Surely he couldn't be less durable than himself?
He went over and helped Superman up. Superman coughed twice, spitting out a clump of slime, shook his head, and said, "This stuff is really weird; it might contain Kryptonite. I feel a bit weak. How about you?"
"I'm fine, what about Diana?"
Wonder Woman, however, came around from behind a massive sculpture in the center of the dungeon and said, "My Lasso of Truth is gone. It probably fell into that pool just now; I looked for a long time but couldn't find it."
Superman looked up, surveying the vast dungeon and the huge statue, and said, "Where are we? How can there be such a place under the chemical plant?!"
By then, Batman had already made his way in front of the massive sculpture and saw that the towering beast in the darkness had a pair of bright, alert eyes.