Inside the Batplane, the engine roared loudly, prompting Hal to yell, "Just because you can fly a plane, why did you bring them along?!"
Hal turned his head, looked through the seatback, and to his surprise, there were two children's seats in the rear of the cockpit where Dick and Aisha were securely strapped in.
"Flying a fighter jet is too dangerous for children!" Hal shouted.
"And you think leaving them in Gotham isn't dangerous?"
Alfred yanked the joystick hard, accelerating the plane again, yet Dick and Aisha at the back didn't seem affected.
With the Green Lantern energy in Dick and the extraordinary Aisha, they showed no fear to the rough ride, and even peered around curiously from their seats at the control panel in front of them.
It wasn't just them, Hal soon noticed the unusual control panel too. It was different from any other fighter jet control panel he'd ever seen, yet Alfred was handling the Batplane with ease and familiarity.
Despite the different control panel, Hal could still tell this was not Alfred's first time flying a plane.
As he had mentioned before, flying a plane and driving a car were two different things. Professional pilots need professional training. Although there are gifted outliers who find flying as simple as driving, it's easy to distinguish between a novice and an experienced pilot.
The distance between Gotham and Metropolis wasn't long. They were two of the closest mega-cities. Soon, they could see the faint outline of city buildings through the cockpit of the Batplane.
"There is no tower! How are we going to land?" Hal asked loudly.
Alfred didn't answer. He turned his head and looked down. His gaze fell on the parachute packs under the chairs. Following his gaze, Hal also looked at the parachute packs and said:
"You're not going to make me parachute down, are you?!?!?!"
"That goes against the pilot's safety guidelines!" Hal argued, straightening his neck, "I was a test pilot and I've worked in ground logistics. I've never seen anything like this...."
As soon as he said this, a black hole of a double-barreled shotgun was pointing at his head. Hal swallowed, quickly changing his tune: "Of course, there are emergency plans in the pilot's safety guidelines. We should be adaptable...."
Alfred put away the shotgun. Hal sighed in relief. As the towering mansion rapidly approached, he sighed again and began to prepare for parachute deployment silently.
Looking out from the cockpit of the Batplane, you could see snowflakes falling everywhere, and among them, you could vaguely make out the spires of the Mayor's Manor. The atmosphere there was not tranquil at all, but instead extremely tense.
As it's universally known, Marvel and DC comics have different styles. This distinction manifests not only in their artwork but also the plot structures, character developments, etc. Similarly, personalities from these two worlds respond differently to this discrepancy.
The most straightforward example is DC Schiller. By nature, he doesn't like hard work. Not that he dislikes his job as a university professor, but during specific events, he prefers to exert minimal effort to gain maximum enjoyment, with a focus on mental relaxation.
But, at times, Marvel Schiller prefers to take a hands-on approach. He's willing to help superheroes, spend time investigating their background, offer them therapy, or chat about economics with the directors of key institutions, leaders of mage sanctuaries, or alien princes. Compared to mental relaxation, he puts more importance on material gain.
Things got a bit interesting when these two characters swapped roles. About half an hour ago, Schiller left his guest room and headed straight for the underground of the mansion.
His thought process was straightforward. Since he knew there was something underground in the mansion, which might even contain artifacts from this world's predecessors, why not go and get it? Who was going to play this spy game with them?
Moreover, Schiller's method of reaching the underground was straightforward. He used the Flash to teleport to the ground level and began searching for the entrance.
He didn't use the Flash to directly teleport underground as he was worried about unexpected situations. Using Gray Mist and Flash techniques was a significant advantage for exploration. Within a few minutes, he found the entrance to the underground mansion.
It was an underground cellar entrance next to the storage room, a certain distance away from the banquet hall, and you had to cross the courtyard. This distance exceeded the range of Schiller's Flash teleportation, so he planned to transform into Gray Mist and float there.
On a heavy snow day like this, with low visibility, a ball of mist floating through the courtyard should not be very noticeable. Even if the agents detected something strange, they couldn't do anything. How could anyone baulk a mist?
So, after teleporting to the ground level and finding the entrance, Schiller immediately transformed into the form of Gray Mist, and started to float towards the entrance of the cellar. Coincidentally, Bruce, Lex, and Clark's trio were close by.
After agreeing to Benjamin's deal, as expected, Lex and Bruce had no intention to follow the plan.