Chapter 293

In the dim afternoon light, weak sunlight filtered through the curtains into the office; Shiler was napping in his office chair, while Victor beside him on the desk was reading a paper but had also dozed off, head propped on his hand, and Anna from the math department had already fallen asleep with her face on the table.

The teaching workload at Gotham University was light; nearly all professors had developed a habit of napping after lunch, and several in the neighboring office had even bought recliners. After gradually adapting to this slow-paced lifestyle, Shiler too began choosing to nap after eating.

Just as he frowned, preparing to roll over, a sudden, piercing scream—like boiling water—erupted across the entire sky of Gotham. Victor jolted awake; Shiler blinked open his eyes, dazed, and met Victor's gaze before covering his eyes and asking: "... hat did she scream?... ad?"

Instantly, Shiler snapped awake, paused on the chair, then pushed himself up by the armrests, walked to the window, brushed his hair aside, and gazed toward Wayne Manor. He told Victor: "Take a leave for me—I need to go out."

"You forgot? We don't have a chancellor, not even an acting one, so we don't need to take leave." Victor stretched and said, "Go ahead. I'll take your afternoon class—my chemistry lecture. I still have two experiments left."

baimengshu.

Shiler stepped out of Gotham University, intending to fly directly to Wayne Manor in his mist form, but the gray ring on his finger suddenly grew hot. Following the ring's guidance, he took mist form and ascended to Earth's upper atmosphere, where he found a glowing yellow lantern hovering.

Shiler circled the lantern twice, then stroked his chin, muttering to himself: "... o it came. But bringing the lantern too? That's an unexpected bonus."

Soon, his figure vanished. Minutes later, Shiler reappeared above Earth beside the yellow lantern—this time, cradling another yellow creature.

Pikachu, yanked from his nap, drowsily dangled his four short legs in Shiler's arms, wriggling wildly. He cried: "What are you doing again?! Why do you keep dragging me to this terrifying world?!"

Shiler gripped Pikachu under his armpits, turning him to face the yellow lantern. "You're always hungry, right? I found you a great place to eat. See that thing ahead?"

Pikachu rubbed his eyes with tiny paws, squinting at the glowing yellow lantern with mismatched eyes, then sighed with all his might: "I won't ask what this thing is—I know it has some two-hour-long complicated backstory. I only have one question: why are you so sure I can eat here?"

"Because you're yellow."

"... nd then?"

"It's yellow too."

Pikachu crossed his tiny arms like a human, face full of confusion. Before he could challenge Shiler's illogical theory, Shiler explained: "It may sound absurd, but in the realm of the mystical, color holds profound symbolic meaning. Mystical objects of the same color must share some connection..."

Pikachu opened his mouth but couldn't refute it. Shiler turned him around, still holding him under the armpits, and looked into his eyes: "If you're full, can you stop stealing my cakes, soda crackers, and coffee powder? You eat over ten pounds of cake a week—is that reasonable?"

Pikachu waved his paw. "I'm not the only one—Peter ate plenty too..."

"Fine, I can absorb external energy and convert it to power my abilities, but this thing—looks like a fire hydrant or the bottom half of a toilet—I've never seen anything like it. I don't know what'll happen if I absorb its energy..."

"No problem. Don't you know me yet? I don't steal electricity to use it myself—I steal it so others can't use it..."

"Oh, why didn't you say that sooner? I know this game. Throw me in."

Shiler did as instructed, tossing Pikachu into the lantern's opening. Perhaps due to Sinestro's modifications, this floating lantern in space was larger than the one in Shiler's comic memories—about half a person's height, with an opening just big enough for Pikachu to crawl through.

Once inside, Pikachu resembled a tropical fish dropped into a fishbowl—his yellow form nearly merged with the lantern's glow. Soon, the light around the lantern began slowly drawing inward, growing denser until it fully contracted into the inner walls. At the lantern's core, a tiny, sun-like yellow point absorbed all surrounding energy.

Then, the energy clinging to the lantern's outer surface began fading. The entire lantern slowly lost its color. The intensely condensed yellow energy coalesced into a small cluster, growing denser at the center until it was entirely absorbed by the figure inside—the one with a tail and long ears.

Suddenly, Pikachu's form flickered and reappeared outside the lantern. Shiler squinted at him: "Looks like something changed..."

Pikachu stared at his body: now semi-transparent, with tiny specks of light connecting across his form, as if transformed into a star spirit.

Then, under Shiler's gaze, Pikachu began growing larger—until he swelled into a giant Pokémon dozens of meters tall, radiating thick yellow energy.

A thin thread of energy connected him to the lantern—just as Parallax had become the Lantern Corps' lantern beast. Pikachu now formed a unique link with the lantern and its ring.

After Parallax shed its shell and reincarnated as an order-being, Pikachu, having absorbed nearly all the yellow lantern's energy, filled the vacant position and became the new lantern beast of the Yellow Lantern Corps.

The Source of Cosmic Fear, the Yellow Lantern Beast, the Gigantized Pikachu—was born!

Soon, Pikachu's form shrank again, gradually becoming solid—but faint yellow energy still shimmered around his fur. He could now fly freely through space. He flew to Shiler and said: "This energy's strong. But when I compressed it all into myself, I felt strange connections form. What are they?"

Shiler, having witnessed the entire process, understood: Pikachu had become the Yellow Lantern Corps' new lantern beast. He briefly explained to Pikachu the DC universe's concepts of power rings and Lantern Corps. Pikachu rubbed his cheeks with tiny paws: "Will those guys with yellow rings come after me, make me their mascot?"

"Why worry? If they show up, I'll take you elsewhere." Shiler picked up Pikachu, studying him. "I think they'd rather not have you appear in the Yellow Lantern Corps at all."

"Why?"

Shiler recalled the original art style of Parallax, then the other lantern beasts in the comics, then looked at the chubby, cake-gorged Pikachu before him. He said: "Because the art style doesn't match. Can't force it."

Shiler prepared to return to Earth with Pikachu. Before leaving, he glanced at the now-drained yellow lantern. The rich yellow glow had vanished entirely; the lantern looked dull and ancient—unlikely to recover for a long time.

Meanwhile, at Wayne Manor, seeing Batman suddenly appear behind Elsa, Sinestro fired a yellow beam without hesitation.

Batman intended to dodge outright, but Elsa was beside him. Before evading, he grabbed Elsa and tossed her to Dick—his movement slowed. The yellow beam struck his arm.

Then... nothing happened.

Batman glanced at his arm, then at Sinestro. Sinestro looked at Batman's arm, then at his own ring. Both froze.

Sinestro, refusing to believe it, fired another yellow beam at Batman. Batman still showed no reaction. Sinestro kept firing, building a massive yellow sphere and hurling it at Batman.

Batman, naturally suspicious, didn't lower his guard despite the earlier failed attacks. He rolled aside, only grazing the sphere's edge—but the sphere halted mid-air before suddenly veering toward Batman.

Sinestro reached out: "... ait!! Come back!!"

Light moved too fast. In an instant, the yellow sphere merged into Batman's body. His arm glowed yellow. Just then, Sinestro arrived chasing the sphere. Without thinking, Batman swung a punch—and...

Sinestro flew at least ten meters away.

Batman looked down at his glowing fist, then at Sinestro, sprawled on the ground, unable to rise. He suddenly understood something.

Sinestro, unable to endure such humiliation, scrambled up. He glanced at his ring—the glow was dim. The battle with Hal had nearly drained its energy.

But Sinestro wasn't worried. He'd wisely brought the lantern to Earth. The yellow lantern should still be floating above the planet.

Sinestro raised his hand and shouted loudly: "Fear is the source! Sinestro's Authority!"

"... ear is the source! Sinestro's Authority!"

"... inestro's Authority!"

"Authority! Authority!... uthority????"

Across from him, Batman, Dick, and Elsa stood in a line from tall to short, watching the middle-aged man in yellow spandex strike a bizarre pose—one hand on his hip, one finger pointing skyward, repeating the same phrase.

Batman opened his mouth, but before he could say "Alfred," the butler appeared behind him. Batman hesitated: "Maybe... call Arkham? I think he's... no, not just think—he's definitely insane..."

Sinestro, unable to summon yellow energy, was bewildered. He lowered his hand, staring at his ring. The Yellow Lantern Corps emblem flickered constantly—but could not connect to the lantern.

Sinestro was an alien, but not every alien was a Kryptonian who could fly unaided. All his powers came from the yellow ring. Without yellow energy, he couldn't escape Earth's gravity.

At that moment, Elsa waddled between Sinestro and Batman, pointed a finger at Sinestro, looked back at Batman, and screamed: "Daddy!! Waaah! Waaah!!"

Batman flexed his wrist. Sinestro stepped back: "Wait! You can't— I'm..."

Before he finished speaking, accompanied by Elsa's excited clapping and shrieking, a fist the size of a sandbag, glowing yellow, appeared in his vision.

Ten minutes later, Shiler landed on the grass of Wayne Manor with a yellow-furred rodent. He looked at Sinestro, now a bruised, battered heap on the lawn, and said: "Sinestro, right? Long heard of you. Now, we can talk..."

A few minutes later, in Wayne Manor's basement, Batman had Sinestro tied to a chair. Shiler pulled Pikachu's tail from Elsa's mouth, telling her to spit out the fur as he spoke: "Back in the dream, I let Parallax crawl into the Joker Eggshell because I wanted to fish."

Batman studied Sinestro. "You lured him here on purpose?"

"Exactly. Parallax was the Yellow Lantern Corps' lantern beast. When he vanished, their leader would come looking."

After finally separating Elsa and Pikachu, Shiler walked over, sat across from Sinestro, and said to Batman: "Aren't you curious about these Lanterns and their Corps?"

Batman said nothing, but his silence confirmed interest. What Shiler didn't tell him was another reason he'd lured Sinestro here.

Previously, Shiler had misjudged the Joker Egg incident because he hadn't expected the Yellow Lantern Corps to appear so early. He'd assumed they hadn't emerged yet—and that assumption stemmed from Sinestro's origin story.

In the comics, Sinestro was originally the strongest Green Lantern, hailed as the most powerful Lantern ever. But he was caught using Green Lantern energy to control his homeworld. Hal discovered it, they broke apart, Sinestro defected, commissioned the Weapon Master to forge him a yellow lantern and ring, and became leader of the Yellow Lantern Corps.

A key moment in that story: Sinestro's split from Hal. Only after that did he go rogue.

But Hal had only recently become a Green Lantern—a rookie with no reputation, unknown to Sinestro, no connection between them. Yet the Yellow Lantern Corps had already appeared.

After this misjudgment, Shiler had been pondering why.

A butterfly effect wouldn't explain it. Shiler's influence since arriving was confined to Gotham—even if expanded, only the East Coast. Even generously, only Earth. No connection to outer space, the universe, or the Green Lantern Corps.

Even if Shiler's butterfly flapped its wings, the storm couldn't have reached the Green Lantern Corps so quickly. Sinestro's premature defection had another cause.

Faced with this uncertainty, Shiler's first instinct was to crush it at its root. But first, he needed to know why Sinestro had become Yellow Lantern leader so early.

So when he saw Parallax lingering at the entrance of his Thought Tower, he had an idea: if he could hold Parallax, Sinestro would come. And Parallax, eager to escape his poor, stingy master, wanted to latch onto Batman.

The man and the monster agreed instantly. Parallax found a new father. Shiler caught the fish he wanted. Batman gained a daughter. This was a three-way win.

The only loser—the Sinestro now writhing in the chair—turned his gaze from Batman to the table ahead. There, seated behind it, Shiler and standing atop it, Elsa, both smiled at him—a smile that sent ice down his spine.