"Owl?" Batman muttered the word, puzzled. The huge sculpture was clearly an owl, but as Superman had said, how could there be such a large dungeon beneath the chemical plant?
"It looks quite ancient." Wonder Woman, gazing at the moss in the corner, said, "I seem to have seen a similar architectural style in the ruins of Mount Olympus, which must be tens of thousands of years old."
Suddenly, Superman jabbed Wonder Woman with his elbow, and after coughing twice, she added, "But the wear on the building doesn't look that old, I would guess it's a few hundred years."
Superman stood under the massive owl statue, looking up at its glowing eyes and said, "These eyes look strange; is there something behind them?"
By now, Batman had leapt up and was standing on top of the statue's head. It seemed there was something inside those shiny, glass-like eyes. Without hesitating, he pried open the bricks that formed the eyes. With a clang, a key fell down.
Superman picked up the key below. It was an ordinary key, except the oval on a cartoon key was replaced with an owl design. After Batman climbed down, he examined the key thoroughly but couldn't find anything unusual.
Since there was a key, there must be a door. Batman looked around and felt that the answer had to still be related to the owl.
Suddenly, he noticed the owl's folded wings seemed movable, with traces of bearing parts on the shoulders. He moved in front of the owl, and one of its claws lifted slightly.
Batman stepped on it forcefully and heard a click—some mechanism was triggered, and he looked up confidently.
Nothing happened.
"It's over!" Tim, in the Batcave, grabbing Shiller's arm, shouted, "Did we press too hard and the wings didn't turn?"
Primary Universe Batman looked at Shiller, who assertively told Tim, "Wasn't it you who said to use some force if it wouldn't budge?!"
"You pushed way too hard; now the mechanism is stuck!" Tim sighed helplessly, "Jason would love to build Legos with you; you're even stronger than he is!"
Fortunately, Batman had a backup plan. He abandoned studying the mechanism and turned instead to pry at the seam of a wing.
Tim wasn't wrong about Shiller; Batman also struggled at prying with only the tip of his hook wedged into the seam, completely unable to move the wing.
Finally, Batman, gripping the hook, and Superman holding Batman, with Wonder Woman holding Superman, all pulled together—creak—bang!
Together with the hook and wing, the three flew out and finally managed to pry open the broken wing. Looking down, Batman saw a deep well below that was too deep to see the bottom.
"Drop the hook down first," Superman said.
"I once also..." Batman began but then stopped. He said, "Okay, let's try that first."
Superman and Wonder Woman exchanged a glance, both surprised, as Batman threw the hook down. When he pulled it up, the hook was wet, and from the sound of it, it seemed there was quite a spacious pond below.
The good news was it was definitely not deadly; however, the situation was still unclear. Wonder Woman, the best conditioned, prepared to jump down. Batman wanted to stop her but seemed to reconsider and ended up saying nothing.
After Wonder Woman jumped, a thump sounded as she entered the water with a perfect dive and then swam up, clinging to the edge of the pond, intending to shout up—but the brick she was holding came off.
Wonder Woman gasped, quickly pressed the brick back, and forcefully punched it twice, muttering under her breath, "Shoddy construction."
"It's okay, come on down!" she still shouted up.
Later, two figures jumped down together; Superman, concerned about Batman getting injured upon landing, simply held him as they leaped.
Wonder Woman rolled her eyes, climbed from the edge of the pond, and seemed to survey the new environment, actually checking for other signs of shoddy construction.
Finding a loose brick on the floor, she stomped on it firmly. Fortunately, when Batman and Superman clambered up, they encountered no loose bricks and made it smoothly onto the ground.
This place was a spacious hall, but compared to the dungeon above, it had higher walls and colder, harder floor tiles. Most notably, there were traces of human activity, long covered with dust but indicating it might be a headquarters of some mysterious organization.
"To think there's such a place beneath Gotham," Batman remarked, "It seems the density of cameras still isn't sufficient."
"There seems to be a passage over there," Wonder Woman pointed forward and said, "Maybe we can find some clues and figure out what exactly this mysterious ancient city is all about."
Batman didn't hesitate, walking towards the direction indicated by Wonder Woman. As she had mentioned, it seemed to be an area of living activity for some people; they could even find items like books and notes here.
Unfortunately, there were no real clues; the notes were filled with gibberish or drunken babble, not even mentioning what the place was called or who they were.
Both Superman and Wonder Woman looked puzzled, but Batman was not discouraged. He said, "It seems the residents here were just small-time players. If I'm not mistaken, this place likely goes down layer by layer, the deeper you go, the closer you get to the core."
"Really?" Tim looked at Shiller.
"Really?" Shiller looked at Primary Universe Batman.
Primary Universe Batman said nothing, looked down at the instruction manual in Shiller's hand, and then they both picked up the manual to study it again.
Indeed, Tim pointed at the manual's fourth step and said, "You see, they installed a staircase here. Just follow this staircase down to the third floor; there's a mechanism door..."
"Wait a minute… stairs?" Shiller seemed to realize something and said, "Are there stairs?!"
Tim glared at him and said, "Did you not put it together?! Then why did you go push that cart of step material?!"
"What I pushed was clearly pond material!" Shiller defended, "It's the steps around the edge of the pond!"
"No, those steps are curved, using special pieces," Tim explained. "The stairs over here use the standard step pieces. Could you have mixed them up?!"
"Is it possible that so many people didn't notice that the steps weren't installed?"
"We were assembling from top to bottom. How would anyone know if you didn't follow the instructions?!"
"This is bad." Shiller kicked his office chair away, covered his face with the manual, and said, "How are they going to get down without the steps?!"
"Guess they'll just have to jump, it's not like they haven't jumped before." Tim sighed and said, "After we get back, I'm definitely not assembling puzzles with you again, who knows how much rework that would entail."
"It was really just a mistake," Shiller explained.
At that moment, the three Batman explorers had reached the end of the corridor. In theory, turning right should lead to the stairs that activate the mechanism for the door to the next level. So, without the stairs, there's just a gaping hole from the upper floor to the lower one.
Counting from the top, they were now on the second floor, headed to the third floor. In theory, even without stairs, jumping down should land them on the third floor, but the problem was the floor beneath the steps wasn't installed either, so the hole goes straight down to the fourth floor.
The moment Primary Universe Batman realized this, he was speechless and agreed that Tim had a point. He definitely shouldn't assemble puzzles with Shiller anymore.
"This really isn't my fault," Shiller sighed and said. "I'm so busy every day. Who has time to assemble puzzles? Only Arrogant, that medieval antique, has time for that... Anyway, there's probably nothing important on the third floor, right?"
"How can there be nothing?" Tim said morosely: "The fourth floor is the Flame Maze, the Fireproof Shield is on the third floor. If they jump down now, they'll likely turn into skewers."
Shiller immediately clasped his hands together in prayer, "Don't jump, please don't jump, Batman, you're a cautious superhero, please don't jump straight down."
Batman was adjusting his hook, seemingly without any intention to jump directly, but Superman and Wonder Woman were puzzled. They thought this might be another well-like passage, and Wonder Woman said, "Shall I fly down to check?"
"No, based on my past experience, below that must be…" Batman paused.
"Don't stop, keep talking!" Shiller shouted, "Social skills aren't meant for this moment!"
Batman didn't rebuke forcefully. Wonder Woman and Superman were indecisive, but in the end, Wonder Woman decided to fly down to take a look. Shiller slapped his forehead. Was this shooting oneself in the foot?
In the past, Batman seldom used social skills on Justice League members; he mostly just gave orders or warnings. But in fact, this played a very important role in the Justice League's operation because these folks really don't think much. Without Batman's reminders, they wouldn't know how many times they could have been tricked into death.
However, Batman's learning ability was too strong, and he applied it instantly, successfully using social skills in communications with his Justice League teammates. But honestly, it was better not to.
This made Shiller think, if Bruce had this learning ability, Arrogant would be laughing in his dreams. But unfortunately, misallocated resources are a waste. Now, it seemed not knowledge but water had gone into this Batman's brain.
"Ahhh!!!"
Just as expected, a scream came from Diana who flew down, and Superman rashly jumped down after her, Batman seemed to reach out to stop him, but was too slow. Superman also screamed as he jumped.
Now Batman had to go down too. Right as Superman burst out, "No! Batman! Don't…"
Batman had already jumped down.
Soon Batman understood what they were screaming about. The room they were in had three walls that were spewing fire, and these were moving closer to them. This was clearly not a place one would reach by following the regular paths. They couldn't run anywhere.
Primary Universe Batman in front of the screen covered his eyes. Fortunately, he was prepared. He pressed his communicator and said, "Green Lantern, go support them; just say you found them after escaping a trap."
Green Lantern hurried to the top of the chemical pond, dove down, and following their earlier route, arrived at the hole where the stair should have been, ready to jump down.
A flash of green light, and immediately, a protective bubble enclosed them, the surging flames unable to harm them—particularly the mortal flesh of Batman. Superman and Wonder Woman breathed a sigh of relief.
"How did you get here?" Batman asked Green Lantern.
"I saw you guys fall, so I thought maybe I could at least retrieve your bones," Green Lantern said with a smile.
Batman was visibly moved but then remembered Shiller's teachings, so he said, "You alright? Didn't run into any trouble on the way?"
"Uh, no, do you guys know where the door is?"
Shiller and Tim were again staring at the manual, arriving at a conclusion after much deliberation—the room was normal, but someone hadn't installed the door!
Both of their gazes simultaneously fell on Primary Universe Batman.