The reception hall had six individuals standing in it, three men and three women, Shiller recognized several of them as soon as he walked in.
The Asian girl standing on the side must be Cassandra, who looked similar to most Cassandras in the cosmos, small in stature yet her cold gaze and muscular outline suggested she was far from simple.
The pair at the front of the group were the Magic Twins, identical to those of the Vampire Universe; Jenna still had that black short hair, her eyes whirling mischievously, clearly a smart cookie.
By the door stood a red-haired girl in green clothes, at first glance one might mistake her for Pamela, but her skin was paler and her makeup heavier, with a fashionable attire that made her the most stylish of all present; Shiller guessed she must be Lilith.
Not far from Lilith stood two young men in hoodies, both with good builds, tall and handsome. One had a blue beetle perched on his shoulder—most likely Ted Code, known as Blue Beetle.
The other blonde guy was even taller, with smooth lines of muscle like those of a top athlete, looking slightly despondent, heavy dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn't slept well in a long time, Shiller thought he must be Golden Vanguard, Michael Carter.
As Shiller and the others entered, the youngsters immediately started shouting and calling out, some recognizing Diana, some recognizing Oliver. They suddenly came forward, clamoring for autographs, especially Blue Beetle and Golden Vanguard; they were just the typical, overly excited white teenagers.
Cassandra observed all this dispassionately without a twitch of expression, although her eyes flickered slightly when she saw Oliver. If Shiller hadn't been watching closely, he wouldn't have noticed.
The extraterrestrial Gemini twins kept speaking their native language, but from the occasional glances they threw, it was clear they were discussing the newcomers.
Lilith seemed uninterested in mingling with the unruly youths, busying herself with makeup in a little mirror.
"Alright, alright, let's introduce ourselves!" Bruce raised his voice, "Everyone surely knows who I am, so I'll skip that. This is Clark Kent, also known as Superman; most of the Batman photos you've seen were taken by him."
"This is Diana, code-named Wonder Woman, also the Princess of Paradise Island. This one is Oliver; you've probably seen his picture in political news, the founder and leader of the Mexican Revolutionary Army."
"This is Professor Shiller, a world-renowned psychologist, and he will be teaching your future psychology classes."
Then Bruce let them introduce themselves and they were exactly as Shiller had guessed, each one with their own unique situation.
Cassandra was a trained assassin and the organization she belonged to didn't matter much to her; her skills were superb, capable of holding her own against Wonder Woman and Superman with her mere human body. Bruce's adopted sons probably wouldn't last a single move against her, likely making her the top combative figure in the future Young Justice League.
Lilith, chewing bubble gum, said precisely what Bruce had eaten three days ago without making a prophecy. According to her, prophecies weren't something she concocted but a gift from some force; without it, she would be silent.
Blue Beetle was particularly unlucky—his origin story being similar to most Blue Beetles. He wasn't the original, his teacher was the one recognized by the beetle artifact but was killed in an accident, leaving the Blue Beetle to him before he died.
Turns out, the beetle—crafted as an alien weapon—had its own intelligence, and certainly didn't fancy him, often doing the opposite of what he wanted, offering no cooperation nor combat capabilities, while Blue Beetle himself had failed in business and amassed a mountain of debt.
The Golden Vanguard was from the future, the 25th century to be exact. After stealing an exhibit from a museum, he journeyed to the past, also pilfering a flight ring and a force device.
He'd been equally unfortunate in his original timeline; an athlete doing well until his crooked father tricked him into fixing matches, resulting in his expulsion from the team and ruining his career.
The Magic Twins had been on Earth for a while, speaking English without much of an accent; their superpower involved fist-bumping, transforming one into water and the other into an animal. They appeared to be the weakest in the group, but Shiller was optimistic about Jenna, the clever girl. There were plenty of superpower users, but few who were truly smart.
Indeed, in the last part of Jenna's self-introduction, she said to Bruce, "Honestly, Mr. Wayne, you look much younger than on TV. I thought the head of such a large company would be more mature and stable."
Her flattery was spot-on, making Bruce overjoyed, and Jenna smiled at him, "My brother and I would love to attend your class. That must be so much fun. You Earthlings have a saying, right? Interest is the best teacher."
Bruce happily agreed.
Standing beside him, Shiller also smiled, because he sensed a great drama was about to unfold.
The day passed quickly as most students got to know their dormitories, each other, and networked. Later, they received their dense but manageable schedule, no challenge for these geniuses selected from all races and forces.
A peculiar note was that Sea Storm from the Young Titans had also arrived, although he was counted among the Atlanteans, not as an independent hero.
Classes began in earnest the next day, as teachers observed the aptitude of their students through the day's lessons.
To their delight, the students had exceptional average talented—gifted and quick learners, making teaching effortless.
Shiller felt that perhaps the Battleworld had stimulated the formal members of the Justice League to realize that the progress of this universe was a bit behind, and this time they were truly going all out.
Even among geniuses, there are levels of brilliance, and a few young apprentices stood out from the rest, including Jenna from the Magic Twins.
She was truly very astute and likable, quickly winning over all official members with her excellent grades and vivacious personality.
One might say that Bruce still carried some of Batman's habits; whenever he saw a smart and attractive child, he wanted to take them home as a Robin. Even though Bruce felt he hadn't yet outgrown being a child himself, he genuinely liked this intelligent little girl.
Mainly because other Batmans all had a Batgirl, while his own Gordon could no longer be relied upon, Little Jenny would still need over a decade to grow up, Cassandra didn't arrive in Gotham as scheduled for some reason and they had only just met, Aisha... to make her Batgirl would be an understatement, her species should be Megalodon.
Bruce thought Jenna would be just right, surely better than any other Batgirls and bound to get along very well with Dick and the others. She might even have a lot in common with the similarly astute Tim, and that would settle his youngest son's lifelong matter.
Bruce decided to find a way to lure Jenna back home.
Bruce also noticed that Jenna had a talent for detective work and performed exceptionally well in forensic classes. However, as an alien, she had difficulties with Earth's cryptology using human languages. Seizing the opportunity, Bruce offered her private tutoring.
But in reality, he wanted to see if Jenna was cut out to be a detective. The material was ready at hand—Gordon had sent her the photos from a set of three related serial killings.
After a day's lessons, Jenna knocked on the office door, opened it a crack, and poked her head in. Bruce waved her in.
Once inside and having closed the door, Jenna tiptoed to the desk and discovered it was covered in photos—pictures of three bodies, each positioned differently.
Before her forensics classes, such photos might have surprised Jenna, but the course materials were almost entirely photos of various humans who'd met grisly ends. Jenna was never particularly scared of this, and now she was completely accustomed to it.
Jenna immediately noticed letters next to each body in the photos and realized this might be a test from Bruce. Sure enough, Bruce spoke.
"Do you see anything?"
"Are you talking about the cipher? Sorry, I can't discern the pattern in these characters. If you give me a night, I might have some ideas."
"No, Jenna, in forensic science, you cannot separate the cipher from the case. If you can find the clue to the case, it will also benefit your decryption efforts."
"You want me to analyze this case?"
"Yes, through these photos, what do you see?"
Jenna stood in front of the desk deep in thought, then suddenly reached out One Hand, picking up one of the photos. Bruce noticed it was the photo of Nigma's dismembered body.
"This is the first case, without a doubt, it's the first in this series of serial murders."
"Good girl, tell me why." Bruce looked at Jenna intensely.
Jenna rested her chin in her hand and began to pace around the desk, yet her gaze never left the table. After circling once, she said, "This is a carefully orchestrated beginning, without a doubt, and there will be an echo at the end. For the sake of this echo, he intentionally altered the corpse's form, presenting it in an extremely extreme state... dispersed, he spread it out."
"It's not a random state, but one that's been meticulously designed. He wants it to expand, to disperse, so that his power radiates outward rather than focusing on a single point... I inferred that the echo would be this, so the person impaled on the pillar is the third case, and the last, because the power of this corpse is concentrated."
"From disorder to order, or from order to disorder—both are possible, but I believe it is the former, his beginning is chaotic." Jenna slowly furrowed her brows, her speech slowing.
"He... suffers from a mental illness, his thoughts were torn apart, as if something had crushed them. It's a terrifying force far beyond the ordinary, which almost instantly destroyed his psyche..."
Jenna's breath quickened, a pained expression across her features, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
"He was completely unguarded, his spirit shredded, feeling himself dispersed into fragments, none of which could find each other, he felt pain and confusion... above all, confusion."
"Who is it? Who does this force come from? He doesn't know, it's an insoluble puzzle for him, but he's confident in solving puzzles..."
"He... He found an answer for himself, knowing it's just an answer and not the truth." Jenna's voice constricted as though her throat was being squeezed, struggling to get out the last sentence.
"He believes the entity that completely overwhelmed him is... God."
Bruce was dumbfounded.