DC: A New Beginning-Chapter 58: Expedition
"Back in that alley just now, I found the same kind of magical energy as the golden apple you once had in your hand, and on top of that, there was a second, unfamiliar magical energy I didn’t recognize."
Viktor confirmed his suspicion and couldn’t help feeling a bit irritated. Having two gods lurking in the shadows watching him at any moment was truly a headache.
It seemed the divine realm had some way of predicting the future. Otherwise, why would Ares be so eagerly jumping in to get involved?
"Alright. I guess I should tell the Justice League about this first."
He said it like it didn’t have anything to do with him.
Reverse-Flash was somewhat stunned because the man in front of him had been on the front lines resisting the invasion of the post-apocalyptic world in the original history before he completely fell out with the Justice League.
After being completely unleashed, Emperor Viktor only took a single day to wipe out every last invader.
But back then, the Emperor had no interest in protecting anyone. The battle spread across dozens of cities, and countless people from this world were killed or wounded.
The remaining Justice League members were furious about it, and the Emperor had actually started thinking about whether he should replace what was left of the broken Justice League entirely.
After that, a mysterious powerhouse whom history couldn’t even record descended.
Emperor Viktor didn’t even have time to utter a single harsh word before he fled straight into the Antimatter Universe to hide.
Viktor rolled his shoulders to loosen them up.
"You can’t do a superhero’s job for free. This time, I’m definitely squeezing a huge sum of money out of Batman or Green Arrow. However, I need to explain just how serious the situation is. Otherwise, they’ll never believe me. And on the bright side, among those desperate people, there have to be some really strong fighters who can give me a good workout. The kind who fight with wild, crazy desperation."
"Mr. Thawne, you should have a way to locate and travel to that world, right? How much time do I have to prepare?"
Reverse-Flash blinked twice.
He had to admit that watching the future Emperor, the one who had once chased him across the entire universe, and being this polite to him... it felt really, really satisfying.
"Keep it within one day. I’ll take you there and bring you back with no problem."
"No need to bring me back. I’m afraid I won’t make it back, and Batman should be able to handle that part anyway."
Viktor crouched down slightly, and Rachel skillfully hopped onto his back. She leaned close to his ear and complained quietly.
"I don’t want to go."
"I wasn’t planning to send you somewhere that dangerous. This time, you might even score an even higher-grade steak from Batman."
The two of them had their heads close together.
’Find a way to let Batman know about those two troublemaking Greek gods.’
’Mm.’
Then Viktor waved at Reverse-Flash.
"Heading to Gotham. Want a ride?"
Reverse-Flash silently assumed a running stance.
"No thanks. I’m scared you’d drop me from mid-air, and I’d splat to death. I’ll run there myself."
...
Ten minutes later.
Viktor looked disgruntled as Batman led the three of them into one of who-knows-how-many Batcaves.
After everything that happened that morning with all the Justice League members criticizing him, Batman didn’t seem bothered at all.
He was busy carefully adjusting a replica Cosmic Treadmill stored in this Batcave.
"You refused the first time Professor Prince offered to take me to any Batcave. So why do you have no problem with him being here?"
Viktor gritted his teeth and pointed behind him at Reverse-Flash, standing there with his arms crossed.
"Even Superman warned me multiple times to be careful around him. Have you lost your mind, Batman?"
Batman couldn’t even be bothered to look up.
He stayed completely focused on connecting the damaged helmet to draw out the leftover Speed Force energy to the Cosmic Treadmill.
After he started writing a program on the computer, Batman calmly offered a short explanation.
"For a future college professor, as long as he’s visited the museums a few times, how many Batcaves Gotham has right now probably won’t be much of a secret. And if Gotham in the future no longer looks like this, this place might even become a tourist attraction that people visit again and again."
Viktor hadn’t expected this gloomy old man to have ever imagined Gotham could have a better future.
’Or was that just a joke?’
Reverse-Flash let out two mocking laughs through his buzzy static voice.
"If I read a bit more unofficial history books, I could probably name every one of Batman’s ex-girlfriends too. But unfortunately, I’m only interested in the Flash. Until I bring that fool back, I won’t be sticking my nose into anything else."
This time, Batman finally looked back at Reverse-Flash. Reverse-Flash hesitated for a moment, then still averted his gaze.
"That first part was just a joke to lighten the mood."
Afterward, the Batcave was finally quiet for a while. The only sound was the faint tapping of Batman’s fingers on the keyboard.
After dozens of minutes, Batman finally straightened up.
Vioktor’s gaze drifted down to Batman’s lower back, hidden under his cape.
’This guy had been hunched over working for so long... he had to be dying to stretch his back or get a massage right about now.’
’A normal person would already be in pain after hunching over to wash a few dishes, and this guy had been bent over working for more than half an hour.’
Batman calmly turned around and started tapping on the digital screen on his left forearm.
Then Batman noticed Viktor was looking at him from a kind of weird angle.
"Is something wrong?"
"Nothing."
Viktor calmly withdrew his gaze.
’This guy really refuses to show any weakness.’
Batman went back to adjusting his data.
"I’ve written a program. As soon as Reverse-Flash opens a portal to the other world even once, I can immediately begin analyzing the results and reconstruct the return route."
Viktor turned back and made a gesture to Reverse-Flash.
"No time to waste, Professor Thawne."
But just as Reverse-Flash was about to step onto the Cosmic Treadmill, Batman spoke up and interrupted them both.
"I don’t doubt that part of your reason for going includes saving the Flash. But I also don’t doubt you’ll go on a killing spree in that world. As far as the safety of our world is concerned, the other world means very little to you." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Even though he said "you’ll," Batman was clearly only staring at Viktor when he said that second part.
Reverse-Flash had shown up earlier than Viktor, and far more times too, so Batman had already figured out Reverse-Flash’s personality to at least ninety percent accuracy.
As for what Reverse-Flash would do on this trip to another world, Batman could already guess.
It would basically just be saving the Flash and then spending the rest of the time mocking and insulting him.
That kind of psychological damage and trauma, but Flash could probably handle it.
However, Viktor... ever since he started taking off his ’mask’, and without someone there to keep him in check, he was basically a killing machine.
He just didn’t enjoy endless conquest and slaughter for its own sake, but toward those who posed a threat to him, especially those "outsiders" who weren’t innocent or good... Viktor would become exactly what a conqueror he was meant to be.
Batman had even noticed that, at some point, Viktor had started to think of himself as a human in his daily life.
While he was "perfectly" protecting Metropolis, Viktor used extremely brutal methods to show those Yellow Lanterns what real fear looked like.
The footage of what he did to the Yellow Lantern Corps in Metropolis just a little while ago had already been saved and backed up in the Batcave.
Viktor spread his hands innocently.
"They were going to invade us!"
Batman lowered his arm after shutting off the display on his forearm.
"Then let them fend for themselves. Taking our Flash back will also give those desperate survivors a kind of hopelessness that’s very hard to accept. SoI’ve contacted a Justice League member to go with you and to make sure things don’t get out of hand."
A big, muscular guy in a red suit came swaying out of the shadows behind Batman, wearing headphones and bobbing his head to some music.
As Shazam was rolling his neck to the rhythm, he spotted the two people staring quietly at him. He awkwardly froze mid-dance, pulled off his headphones, and first put on a sad face.
"I’m really upset about what happened this morning. Usually when I’m sad, I need some music to cheer myself up."
However, the trace of sadness was instantly tossed to the back of his mind.
Shazam pumped his fist with a fired-up grin.
"But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re about to go on an incredibly COOL interdimensional adventure to another world. Batman already filled me in when he called me."
...
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