Lego Batman opened his eyes; he was standing on the interdimensional detection device he had built himself in the Batcave.
The metal pedals were still slightly warm, and the surrounding monitoring screens were flickering with dense data heart rate, blood pressure, brain waves, spatial coordinate offset everything was normal.
Lego Batman rested his small hand on his belt and fell silent for two seconds; he had already discovered that although he had left, almost no time had passed since his departure.
“Welcome back, Master Bruce.” Alfred’s voice came from the side.
The old butler was sitting at the round table, holding a cup of black tea, his posture as elegant as if he were enjoying afternoon tea rather than assisting a superhero with cross-dimensional experiments.
“How did it feel to attend a party in another World?” the butler’s voice rang out.
“It wasn’t a party, Alfred.” Batman turned around, his cape snapping in a sharp arc, his voice low and serious.
“I went to help a girl in another World who was in danger, and to observe what exactly the Superman of that other World was planning.”
Alfred did not continue speaking, because there was another person present.
“Oh, is that so?” A gentle and familiar voice came from the direction of the Batcomputer.
“Then how did you find the other me? Does he also spout farm proverbs?”
Batman spun around, his white lenses widening under his cowl; the figure he least wanted to see had actually appeared here.
Lego Superman was standing next to the Batcomputer, stuffing a cookie into his mouth.
Crumbs fell onto his iconic S-shield, which he brushed off without a care.
“Superman!” Batman took a step back, flicking his cape to cover the lower half of his face.
“What are you doing here? Are you trying to invade my Batcave? Or do you want to continue that Batman v Superman fight from last time? Bring it on! I’m not afraid of you!”
“Whoa, whoa, relax, friend.” Lego Superman took another bite of the cookie, the sound of his chewing sounding exceptionally crisp in the quiet Batcave.
“I heard you went to another World, and I was a little worried about you, so I came to check on you.”
“What!” Batman retreated another step, his voice rising by half an octave.
“You were eavesdropping on my whereabouts? Are you spying on me?”
Lego Superman tilted his head in surprise, the cookie hovering in mid-air.
“How could that be? Your beloved butler told me.”
Alfred took a light sip of tea and nodded, his expression calm and unruffled:
“Indeed, Master. I assumed your trip to the other World would take quite some time, so I invited Master Superman over for tea. I didn’t expect you to return so quickly, as if you had never left at all.”
“So, Master, did you attend the party or not?”
“A party?” Lego Superman’s eyes lit up, his hands on his hips, his whole being radiating an indescribable glow of excitement.
“Hey, old pal, you never used to attend our Justice League parties. Looks like you’ve changed recently! Let’s go, there’s a party happening right now!”
“Batman does not need ”
Before he could finish, in the next second, Batman found himself standing in the center of the Fortress of Solitude.
The surrounding speakers were blasting a high-tempo electronic track.
Wonder Woman was spinning in the center of the dance floor, Flash was darting through the crowd as a blur of red and yellow, Green Lantern had conjured a giant disco ball with his ring, and Cyborg’s body was flashing in time with the beat.
“Woo-hoo! Everyone, look who’s here!” Lego Superman floated in mid-air, shouting excitedly to the room.
“It’s Batman!”
All members of the Justice League stopped what they were doing simultaneously, turning in unison to look at the little black plastic figure at the entrance, then erupted into warm cheers and applause.
Lego Batman stood rooted to the spot, his cape still holding the pose from when he had tried to flick it away.
Lego Batman looked at the group of bouncing superheroes before him, watched the disco ball spinning overhead, and saw Superman floating in the air giving him a thumbs-up, cookie crumbs still clinging to the corner of his mouth.
Lego Batman sighed.
Then he walked onto the dance floor.
Not because he wanted to dance, but because standing at the entrance was too conspicuous.
The corners of Superman’s mouth curled up a little more, but he didn’t call him out Batman’s footsteps were actually falling in time with the beat.
Lego Batman thought to himself: ‘Damn Superman.
No matter which World it is, Superman is always so annoying.’
…
Ultraman stood on the edge of the rooftop platform of Ultraman Building, his cape snapping in the wind behind him.
Ultraman activated his X-ray vision, piercing through reinforced concrete and layers of flooring, and caught sight of his target at the intersection of Third Avenue.
A woman, with long black hair and a black bodysuit, the silver-white decoration on her chest twisted into an S-shape not representing hope, but merely because this Amazon woman felt she was “Super.”
Wrapped around her hand was a rope covered in thorns; it was her weapon, and also her instrument of torture.
At this moment, she was stepping on a man’s chest with one foot.
The man lay on the ground, his face covered in blood, his chest emitting an ear-grating creaking sound.
His companions lay strewn about around him, no longer moving.
“Ah!
You lunatic!” The man’s voice was distorted by fear as he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Do you know where this is?
This is Ultraman’s territory!”
“Hmm?” Superwoman lowered her head, her red lips curving into a playful arc.
“Weren’t you just cursing him a moment ago? What’s the matter, now you remember to use his name? How ugly, mortal.”
Superwoman shifted her weight forward a little more, and the man under her foot let out a miserable scream.
“How about this curse him a few more times, and maybe if I’m in a good mood, I’ll let you go.”
Superwoman’s toe lifted slightly, then aimed at the man’s throat.
Just as her heel was about to descend, two red beams of light tore through the air.
The air was torn apart by the intense heat, emitting a piercing sonic boom.
Superwoman’s pupils constricted, and she jerked her arm up.
The magic bracers on her arms barely blocked the strike; the red energy collided with the bracers and splashed outward, burning a fist-sized hole into the nearby lamppost.
She shook her numb arm and looked up, gazing in that direction with a hint of anticipation.
In the sky in the distance, a figure was slowly floating toward them.
A red and blue bodysuit, a flowing red cape, and on his chest, not an S, but a U an angular inverted triangle.
The ruler of Metropolis, the God of the World, had arrived.
Superwoman licked her lips, eyeing the powerful figure with a predatory gaze.