In the dusky light of the afternoon, Gotham's weak sunlight crept into the office through the curtain gaps. Shiller was taking a nap in his office chair. Victor, at his side, was reading a paper while half-asleep, propping his head up with one hand. Anna from the mathematics department was already sound asleep on her desk.
The teaching work at Gotham University was very lax, almost all professors have a habit of taking afternoon naps. The professors in the next office even bought recliners. Shiller, gradually becoming accustomed to this slow-paced lifestyle, would likewise choose to take a nap after lunch.
Just as he furrowed his brow, intending to turn over, suddenly, a shrill shriek echoed across the entire Gotham City, like a kettle boiling. Victor was abruptly awakened. Shiller, with his eyes open in confusion, shared a glance with Victor, covered his eyes and asked: "…What is she screaming?...Dad?"
In a flash, Shiller became lucid. He paused in his chair, then leaning on the armrest, stood up, walked to the window, fiddled with his hair, looking in the direction of Wayne Manor. He said to Victor: "Can you cover for me? I need to step out for a bit."
"Have you forgotten? We don't have a principal now, not even an acting one, so you don't need to take time off." Victor stretched languidly, saying, "Go on, my chemistry class replaces your afternoon session today. I still have two experiments left anyway."
Shiller left Gotham University, originally planning to fly directly to Wayne Manor in his gray mist form. However, the gray ring he was wearing suddenly warmed significantly. Shiller followed the guidance of the ring and arrived in the Earth's outer atmosphere in the form of gray mist. He found a luminescent lantern furnace floating there.
Shiller circled the lantern twice, then rubbed his chin, talking to himself: "…As expected, it's here, but quite surprising it brought the lantern furnace over too, this is an unexpected delight."
Swiftly, his figure disappeared. A few minutes later, Shiller emerged next to the yellow lantern furnace floating in Earth's outer atmosphere, but this time, he held another yellow creature in his arms.
The Pikachu, abruptly roused from his nap, was blinking sleepily and flailing his short limbs in Shiller's arms, saying, "What are you doing? Why did you drag me back to this frightful world again?!"
Shiller held Pikachu's armpits with both hands, making him face the yellow lantern furnace, saying, "Haven't you always been hungry? I found a great place for you to dine. See that contraption over there?"
Pikachu, using his short arms to rub his eyes, squinted at the glowing lantern furnace. Then, sighing with all his strength, he asked, "I'm not even going to ask what that thing is, because I know it surely has a complicated background that could take you hours to explain. I just have one question: why are you so certain that I can eat here?"
"Because you're yellow."
"...And then?"
"It's also yellow."
Pikachu crossed his short arms in front of his chest like a human, looking puzzled. But before he had the chance to criticize Shiller's illogical theory, Shiller explained: "It might sound absurd, but I believe that, in the mystical world, color holds significant symbolic meaning. Mystical items of the same color must possess a certain correlation…"
Pikachu opened his mouth but didn't know how to refute him. Shiller turned him around, made him face himself, held onto his armpits, gazed into his eyes and said: "If you're well-fed, could you not wreak havoc on my cakes, biscuits, and coffee grounds? Eating over a dozen pounds of cake a week, is that reasonable?"
Pikachu waved his hand, saying, "It's not just me, Peter also eats quite a bit..."
"Alright, I can indeed absorb energy from the outside and convert it for my use, then release it as a skill. But this thing, which looks like a cross between a fire hydrant and the lower half of a toilet, I've never seen before. I'm unsure what I'd change into if I were to absorb the energy within it..."
"No worries, don't you know me yet? I steal electricity, not for my use but to deprive others of it…"
"Oh, if you'd said that earlier, it'd be fine. I'm good at this, come on, throw me in."
Shiller did as instructed, he tossed Pikachu through the opening at the top of the lantern. Perhaps due to Sinestro's modifications, this lantern floating in the cosmos was larger than the one Shiller remembered from the comics, standing about half a human height. The opening on it was just wide enough for Pikachu to crawl into.
Soon after Pikachu got in, akin to tropical fish tossed into an aquarium, the two yellows almost merged. Not long after, the glow surrounding the lantern began gathering inward gradually. It concentrated more and more until it completely shrunk to the lantern's inner wall. Within the midst of the furnace, there was a thick yellow dot, like a mini sun, which absorbed all the surrounding energy.
Subsequently, the energy layered on the lantern's outer wall also started gradually disappearing. The entire lantern began slowly losing its color. The highly concentrated yellow torch energy consolidated into a small cluster. It became more concentrated at the center until it was entirely absorbed by the creature with tails and long ears within the lantern.
Suddenly, Pikachu's figure blinked, appearing outside the lantern. Shiller squinted his eyes, noticing his current state, and said, "Seems like there's some change..."