18 The Villain's Script

For the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman of this world, tonight had been full of unexpected hitches, yet it could still be described as lucky.

Lex Luthor had been apprehended, and his laboratory staff, left leaderless and panicked, had accidentally released Doomsday before the creature had reached its full, perfected form. Although Doomsday had inevitably caused some damage in the city before the trio arrived, fortunately, there were no casualties. Furthermore, because it was not yet a complete specimen, its lethality was significantly lower than what Luthor had originally anticipated.

With the seamless cooperation of the three heroes, the hideous Doomsday didn't even get a chance to take a second breath of fresh air before being promptly sent on a one-way trip to hell.

Wonder Woman retracted her Lasso of Truth and shook out her sore arms. Just as she was about to call her temporary teammates to go back and find Kara, she noticed the other two were clearly not in any rush; they were huddled together, whispering about something.

Wonder Woman: ?

She felt as if she had become the odd one out in this trio... or perhaps she was the only workaholic still focused on the mission while her teammates had already begun bonding?

"Boys, I know it's your first time making friends, so it might be a bit novel," she said, emphasizing "first time making friends" just enough to earn two awkward glances. "But shouldn't we hurry and deal with Kal's Kryptonian cousin? We left her alone in the suburbs, and I'm really worried..."

She didn't need to finish the sentence. Wonder Woman was naturally suspicious about leaving a Kryptonian—who likely possessed powers identical to Superman's—unattended, even if the person in question was Superman's cousin.

Batman nodded at her, then shook his head. "We don't need to go over there right now."

He stepped aside slightly, and Wonder Woman finally saw the projection screen between him and Superman. It showed Kara standing alone beside the ship, looking around in a daze.

"By Hera, that's hard to believe." Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow, recalling how she had snatched the USB drive containing Luthor's data before Batman could, and had to admit that this human had endless ways of gathering information. "You’re actually monitoring the situation with Kara?"

"In fact, my assistant, Penny-One, has taken over the surveillance cameras in the suburbs of Metropolis. Fortunately, there happened to be one that could capture Kara's location."

The rest went without saying. None of them were currently by Kara's side; if she truly had some ulterior motive, she might drop her facade. This was the perfect opportunity to see her true colors.

Then, they watched as a... or rather, half a Doomsday crawled out beside Kara. Judging by the terrifying partial form that emerged, it was clearly much stronger than the half-baked version they had just defeated.

What followed was the Batman and Superman from the other world joining forces to defeat that Doomsday.

It had to be said that this brought them some relief; at least it prevented another major battle tonight. But perhaps one confrontation remained unavoidable.

At this moment, Batman stood between Superman and Wonder Woman, taking an initiative step forward. Even with his mortal frame, he issued a threatening growl toward the Kryptonian woman.

"Don't bother arguing. We all saw it—Doomsday crawled out right beside you. And it's clear you aren't unfamiliar with this thing; you didn't even seem confused as to why it suddenly appeared—"

"The only explanation is that you knew it was there, or rather, you are the one who brought this monster here!"

Kara: "..."

Great. She declared that she was no longer a fan of the World's Greatest Detective!

Sometimes, fanning a character is great until they are no longer in their own dimension. Once you actually have to deal with them, you can't be a fan anymore—you just want to hold your head in your hands and scream, wondering why the guy was written to be so incredibly sharp!

She couldn't help but cast a desperate, pleading look toward her two colleagues. *Colleagues, help me out!*

However, before Bruce and Clark could react, Batman narrowed his eyes, his voice growing even more dangerous. "Why are you looking at Batman and Superman? And tell me, didn't you find it strange that Kara immediately found Doomsday's weak point?"

Of course it wasn't strange! That was her prop; how could she not know how to shut it off? But could Bruce say that? Of course not!

At that moment, on an interface visible only to the three unfortunate cosplayers, lines of blood-red text appeared, carrying a heavy sense of warning.

[The pillar characters of this world have grown suspicious of you! Please immediately improvise a script to resolve their suspicions, or you will be judged for serious OOC and will be unable to return to your original world!]

Unable to return to their original world? What would happen to them? Would they be stuck here forever? Or be exiled directly into the void? Regardless of the outcome, it was clearly not what Bruce wanted.

He took a deep breath internally while remaining calm on the surface, his brain racing to figure out how to bluff his way through this.

First, Kara and Doomsday had to be protected. If he came all this way only to lose his props and his colleagues, he wouldn't fare well after returning home.

Second, he had already recognized that the Batman and Superman before them were the very ones they had swapped places with previously, though they didn't seem to have recognized him yet...

Before he could even feel relieved that he didn't have to rewrite the entire script and only needed a plausible explanation, he heard the puzzled voice of the opposite Superman.

"I feel like there's something familiar about you..."

His gaze scanned back and forth between the three, eventually settling on Bruce, whom he had carried while flying earlier.

Bruce: ?!

Before he could pray that the other side wouldn't figure it out, Batman stepped forward again. Despite being just a normal human, he projected an unprecedented sense of oppression.

"If this has nothing to do with you, then leave Kara and the corpse of Doomsday here. We need to know her purpose in bringing a monster to Earth!"

Of course, Bruce was certain the other side wouldn't just let them run wild on Earth; they would definitely be rounded up and locked away. Meanwhile, Clark was deeply worried that this Batman was already preparing to use the Kryptonite meant for Superman on him.

Bruce took a deep breath—this time, he didn't even try to feign composure.

He finally realized that this matter could not be resolved peacefully. His hope of pretending it was all a misunderstanding and parting ways amicably had clearly gone down the drain. They couldn't possibly follow Batman to his Batcave for an examination—what if he found that damn switch on Doomsday's head and confirmed that Kara was a master of evil biological weapons, or worse, suspected it was a prop?

Therefore, to prevent Batman's imagination from spiraling into a worse direction—and potentially having a flash of insight that they were just a bunch of evil cosplayers—Bruce had to do something.

For instance, letting someone, or a couple of people, take the fall to cement the other side's suspicions. No one said that confirming their suspicions wasn't a way to solve the problem, right?

So, he decisively sold Kara out, and intended to drag Clark down with him, shooting him a meaningful look. It was incredibly inconvenient not to have a telepathic link here. He hoped Clark could utilize their decade-plus of synergy to understand his intent and step up to take the blame, allowing him to play the role of the innocent, hoodwinked Brucey-baby without having to strain his brain to script a narrative.

Regrettably, their decade of synergy wasn't quite enough; Clark just returned a blank stare.

Bruce: "..."

He knew it. In the end, he would have to shoulder it all.

And so, Bruce bravely took the first step toward taking the blame.

"I was the one who had Kara bring the 'valve' containing Doomsday to Earth."

The moment his low, hoarse voice rang out, everyone present—including Kara and Clark, who should have been on his side—cast looks of disbelief at Bruce.

This was the downside of not having a telepathic channel to synchronize scripts with colleagues. Both of them were genuinely confused, having no idea what game Bruce was playing.

"...Wow." Wonder Woman shrugged, breaking the silence first.

She seemed very interested in what Bruce had said, but in reality, she was already secretly on guard, every muscle in her body ready to spring into action.

"Unbelievable. The Batman from another world actually knows Superman's Kryptonian cousin? But your Superman doesn't look like he knows her very well. Does he know the story between you two?"

She was doing it on purpose, aiming to provoke a dispute between the alternate Superman and Batman to gain more clues. However, what she said was true. Even the Batman and Superman of their own world could see that the other Superman clearly wasn't close to Kara; there wasn't even any eye contact between them.

In fact, if Batman hadn't outed himself, they wouldn't have guessed that Batman and Kara were close enough for him to entrust her with bringing a terrifying biological weapon to Earth.

For this reason, they all secretly increased their guard against Bruce, as this guy was clearly an expert at disguise.

Facing Wonder Woman's intentional provocation, Bruce remained expressionless, appearing completely unmoved.

"That is my business."

"You should understand by now that Kara is the Kara from our world, and everything I had her do has nothing to do with you."

"In fact, we will be leaving here soon. If you are willing to take a step back, everything will be resolved quickly."

*Yes, as long as you stop suspecting this and questioning that, we'll go home immediately! I promise we'll never come to this world again!*

However, to the three people opposite him, this statement carried an entirely different meaning.

Bruce's voice was cold, even tinged with a condescending impatience, almost undisguisedly revealing a terrifying desire for control.

Batman looked at him, and for a split second, a chill rose in his heart.

This guy... what kind of person is he? Is he really still Batman?