"So, what's happening exactly? You say you entered my dream and then brought me here? Forgive my bluntness, but this is a bit... hard to understand."
Up on a building in the night sky of Gotham, a trench-coated Gordon shifts his coat to the back, places his hands on his hips, and looks at the glowing green figure, saying, "He's not a local of Gotham, is he?"
Hal lands from the air and, folding his arms, asks Gordon, "How did you know?"
"Do you realize you look very much like a traffic signal?"
"I am the Green Lantern."
"I was referring to a traffic light kind of green light. If you were a local, you wouldn't be hovering in the air covered in green light, because we all know, the traffic lights at the central roundabout take hundreds of bullet hits every day..."
Shiller interrupts the conversation between Gordon and Hal, stating, "The situation began just as I previously explained to you. Now, I need to find a way to resolve it."
Gordon takes a deep breath, looking at the enormous creature wreaking havoc within the city. "Thank god, this isn't the real Gotham City."
"If we do not stop it, it eventually will find a way into the real world. That is why I have summoned you here - to prepare for the extermination of this monster."
"Speak, whatever your plan, I will do my part. For Gotham. For Batman."
Gordon's voice is firm: "No matter what, this peculiar vigilante in tights has saved Gotham's police on numerous occasions. Now he faces danger, I believe it's my turn to save him."
"I'm speaking to you privately because I must teach you how to combat within dreams, Chief Gordon."
"Hold on!" Hal interrupts Shiller, "Even if this is a dream, we can't just chat. What if that Yellow Lantern Beast actually enters the real world? It would cause massive destruction!"
At that moment, those standing on the roof feel a minor tremble in the earth. A monstrous abomination, terrifying in size and appearance, emits a roar. A huge black tide comes from the horizon and swamps the city in an instant. The entirety of Gotham submerges.
"It seems like something has triggered it?" Hal squints in the air.
"You don't actually believe that the things I've stitched together would harbor any goodwill, do you? Let alone the Yellow Lantern Beast and the Yellow Lantern Ring, even the Laughing Egg and Batman, the host of this body, are deadly enemies."
"This monster is only a temporary compromise. There is chaos within it."
At this moment, Shiller looks towards the horizon and says, "Seems like the other friends I invited have arrived."
A conspicuous "gulu" sounds rings in their ears, but they can't see anything falling into the water. Immediately following it is a "swoosh" sound. Instantly, a huge penguin leaps from the sea and bites off a part of the monster's tail with its sharp beak.
Hal opens his mouth wide, "A penguin? Why would it be a penguin?"
"It seems you don't know much about these birds," Shiller explains: "Perhaps the penguins you've seen on the land waddle clumsily and awkwardly, but in reality, these birds swim very fast underwater, are agile, and are good at hunting."
As he finishes speaking, the giant penguin that was several times larger than a regular penguin dives back under the water. It dodges the Fear Joker's claw attack, and then leaps out from the right side of its blind spot, bites viciously into its rib, and the Fear Joker lets out a cry of pain. When it turns around to counterattack the penguin, it has disappeared.
"...Who is that?" Gordon asks.
"That's Cobblepot, Chief. This brings us to the part I was about to explain."
"In the dream world, the best way to enhance your fighting power is to engage in combat in the form you are most familiar with in your heart. If you can release your true self fully, you will have higher coordination with the dream, and thus, you will have more power, just like this penguin."
Gordon squints into the distance, "Seems to be a bit different. I don't think a normal penguin's beak is that sharp."
As Gordon said, that nimble penguin has a pair of extremely sharp beaks. Each peck causes the monster to scream in pain, and if it happens to peck at the joint area, it would also makes it wobble a bit.
Shiller is explaining to Gordon and turns to Hal, "Gordon is just an ordinary person, so I need to teach him how to fight. What are you doing here?"
"I..." Hal stutters, but then says, "This is also my first time fighting in a dream. I feel that in this place the power of the Green Lantern is slightly sluggish. I think I can also learn something."
Shiller turns back to Gordon, and continues, "Chief, you can try it. Relax, then follow your inner instincts, imagine what kind of person you should be..."
Gordon takes a deep breath, "This is a little difficult."
He turns to glance at the giant monster nearby and then slowly closes his eyes.
Soon, a ripple appears within the dreamscape, but there's no change in Gordon himself. Instead, on his back, various illusions of large caliber firearms start to appear.
Shiller chuckles, "Chief, seems like your fear of lacking firepower is rather serious."
Gordon opens his eyes, looks at the floating weapons behind him, and says a bit embarrassedly, "Actually, I always wanted to try these weapons, it's just that, even though our police department has many heavy weapons, they are too exaggerated..."
Shiller looked behind him. Not only were there automatic machine guns with enlarged calibers, but there was also something that resembled a missile launcher.
Just then, Hal touched his face, looked up, and said, "Is it raining? Why does it seem like…"
"Oh, wait! It's snowing!" Hal reached out his hand and found some snowflakes landing on it, he said with confusion, "Does Gotham even see snow?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a violent storm arose, all the snowflakes swirling like razor blades, Hal had to shield his face with his arm, he yelled, "What the hell?!!! How did it suddenly turn into a snowstorm?!!!"
"This is what I'm about to introduce. There are countless forms of willpower manifestation. We can take the form of nature elements like storms and lightning, or manifest within dreams…."
"You mean!" Hal yelled in the storm, "This blizzard is also a person???"
"That's right, this is the manifestation of Victor's inner self."
"Victor?" Detective Gordon asked, surprised, "His inner self is so wild? I never saw it coming!"
"Where there is a tranquil snowfield, there are violent snowstorms. There are many images in a person's heart. Victor just emphasized the violent part of his heart, resulting in this effect."
"This is what I want to emphasize. You can channel your attention to manifest any emotion you want, such as anger, violence, the desire to kill, etc….."
Gordon and Hal both tried it, but there wasn't any significant change in either. Shiller guessed that this was probably because both were heroes, their hearts didn't entertain extreme emotions too much.
Even though Victor seemed mild and cultured on the surface, he was, after all, the precursor to Mr. Freeze, with the potential to become a villain, hence the plenty violent emotions within him.
In the battlefield, the blizzard was growing more intense. A snowflake fell from the sky and began to spin rapidly, bringing a bladelike air flow around it, then drawing a beautiful arc, cutting through Fear Joker's arm, leaving a wound.
Countless snowflakes fell, attacking the monster from all angles, followed by floating ice crystals.
First, the ice crystals lined up in mid-air like disciplined soldiers, then they shot towards the monster like bullets. Whenever an ice crystal touched the monster's skin, a large area of blue freezing matter would form, obstructing Fear Joker's movements.
"I don't quite get it ..." Hal said.
"Here is the dream, how could you get hurt in a dream? If, like you said before, attacks in dreams are all imagined, then couldn't this monster just imagine itself as invincible?"
"Maybe in your own dreams. When you realize you're dreaming, you can add wings to yourself or conjure a gun, but this is a multi-person dream..."
"In such dreams, every attack and defence is a willpower contest. If your willpower surpasses your opponent, you can effectively harm them. On the contrary, you may be defended against. That's it."
"Alright, I think I get it..."
Hal exercised his wrist, the green light on him got brighter. Clearly, Green Lantern's energy was quite abundant, and that sluggish and dark feeling was gone, on the contrary, because of Hal's strong willpower, the Green Lantern energy began to grow more lively, and also, his power increased.
"Don't rush, we still have an ally who hasn't arrived."
After Shiller finished speaking, he looked towards the sky again. At that moment, a sharp cry came, a winged figure appeared above Fear Joker's head, then the sharp claws scratched over the monster's shoulder, leaving three deep wounds.
That was a monster resembling an owl, with wings on its back and claws for hands, covered in many feathers. Along with a shrill cry, numerous feathers materialized behind it and shot rapidly towards Fear Joker, splattering blood all over his back.
"I really don't like using this form." Alberto's indifferent voice came, he said, "But I have to admit, a bird's claws and feathers are the best weapons."
"Who is this?"
"You should know him, but you don't recognize him. But that's not important, Chief Gordon. I think you should understand the rules here, now, you can show your skills."
Hal had completed a set of warm-up exercises, Gordon was still not quite adjusted, but he didn't hesitate and directly headed towards the battlefield.
Before leaving, Hal looked at Shiller who stood still and asked him, "We're going to deal with this monster, what will you do?"
"You can't seriously think that just by hitting each other back and forth like this, we can completely eliminate this monster?"
"So, what are you planning?"
Shiller suddenly changed the topic: "Currently on Earth, you're the only Lamp hero, right?"
"Well, If this Yellow Lantern Monster doesn't count, then indeed, I'm the only one."
"Alright." Shiller responded. Hal watched Shiller's departing figure, a sense of unease creeping up on him.