Chapter 3452: The Study of Cats and Dogs (11)

But this was far from over.

By four or five in the afternoon, the few of them, having skipped lunch, were getting hungry. They discussed who should go buy food.

"Old rules: rock-paper-scissors," Clark said. "The winner decides what to eat, the loser goes to buy it."

The Superman from the other universe shook his head: "The Justice League of this universe is indeed still a bit too young. Never think you can beat Batman at a game of psychological maneuvering like rock-paper-scissors."

But the development exceeded his expectations. Bruce lost three times in a row and had to go buy the food.

"I want the classic Neapolitan pizza from the shop on Museum Street. No basil leaves, and a goat cheese vegetable salad, and a hot orange mulled wine. That's all," Diana said.

"Then I want a seafood pizza. No squid tentacles, extra rockfish and clams, double cheese. Also an Orleans chicken wrap without spice, a box of popcorn chicken, a large iced lemon soda, and half a portion of syrup," Clark said.

Bruce nodded, repeated the order, and looked at Batman and Superman.

"We'll just take one large pizza," Batman said, nodding as he looked at the cola he hadn't finished yet.

Just as they expected Bruce to have a butler or secretary go buy it, or at the very least drive there himself, he didn't head for the door at all. Instead, he walked to the window and leaped out.

Superman was shocked, but before he could change color, Bruce was already flying, soaring over the building like an agile bird toward the street on the other side.

Superman turned back to look at Batman, sizing him up from head to toe as if seeing him for the first time.

"I can't fly, Clark," Batman said to him. "I am human; humans cannot fly."

But Superman's expression clearly said, "That's debatable."

However, Batman was clearly curious about Bruce's ability to fly. He remembered that when they first arrived, Bruce and Clark had descended from mid-air.

"Yes, ordinary people cannot fly," Diana said. "We worked together to create a suit for Bruce. Through reinforcement from Mount Olympus and the infusion of energy, it granted him the ability to fly."

Batman watched as the eyes of the Superman beside him lit up, as if a new world had opened before him—though it was a door better left closed.

"How is the safety?" Batman asked.

"Not bad. Nothing has happened in all this time," Diana said. "Even if something did happen, it wouldn't matter; he can't be killed by a fall. And even if he were to die, it wouldn't matter; he'd be resurrected soon enough."

Before Batman could understand what Diana meant by that, Clark looked up from his phone and said: "Hal sent a message saying that the personnel he stationed around Earth discovered fuel residue from unidentified flying objects on the outskirts of the solar system, suspecting they might be invaders."

"Have they eaten?" Diana asked.

"Who? The invaders? They seem to be in a hurry, so probably not."

"I mean Hal and Arthur. Should we call Bruce and have him bring two extra portions?"

"That makes sense." Clark took out his phone to message Bruce, but finding no reply, he made a call.

"Hey, Bruce, have you reached the shop? Add another spicy chicken pizza, double chili, no black olives. And a 'Family Feast' pizza, extra meat, extra cheese. Also two iced drinks, send them to Hal and Arthur."

"Uh..."

"Oh, wait. That shop doesn't seem to sell 'Family Feast' pizzas. I got it mixed up. Then just get a meat-lover's pizza, you decide."

"Wait a second, Clark..."

"What's wrong? Have you already placed the order?"

"I mean... I've been kidnapped."

"What?" Clark turned around while holding the phone. "You've been what?"

"I've been kidnapped by another Superman. That Superman with the terrible fashion sense. He brought me to... I'm not quite sure where this is. Somewhere on a mountain around Metropolis, I suppose."

Superman's eyes widened upon hearing the voice from the receiver, and Batman clearly heard it too; both grew tense.

Yet Clark asked: "Did you buy the pizza? Were you kidnapped along with the pizza?"

"No, I hadn't flown to the shop yet. He suddenly rushed out, said a bunch of nonsense, and then grabbed me."

Clark breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. If you had bought the pizza, I would have had to go save the pizza."

He hung up the phone and turned to Diana: "You lost two rounds just now, so it's your turn to go buy the pizza."

Diana rubbed her forehead: "Spare me, I don't have a super-brain, I can't remember what you all want. You go."

Clark had no choice but to put down his phone and turn toward the window. Batman stepped forward to block him: "Are you going to save Bruce? We'll go with you."

"No, I have to go buy pizza," Clark said, looking at him. "It doesn't matter if we eat or not, but we can't let Hal and Arthur go hungry. They might be busy until the middle of the night."

"What about Bruce? Aren't you going to save him?"

"I can save him, but there's no need," Diana said, leaning against the wall. "Letting him spend a little more time with that evil Superman counts as our friend from another world contributing to this operation."

Batman and Superman looked at each other. Superman clearly didn't believe Clark wouldn't go save Bruce, so after Clark flew out, he followed behind him.

Clark landed at the pizza shop, ordered everything he had just mentioned—and then sat in a chair to play on his phone, showing no intention of moving.

Superman had no choice but to focus his attention, starting to listen to all the sounds in Metropolis, trying to find Bruce's location in the vast sea of people.

Bruce was kidnapped to an air-raid shelter on a mountain. He sat in a chair with his arms tied to the backrest. The evil Superman stood before him.

"You don't understand at all. You cannot comprehend the kind of world we come from. That world is ruled by me; I hold all the power."

"Then why aren't you there being your puppet emperor instead of coming here?"

The evil Superman turned around abruptly, looking at Bruce: "You are very young. I was just as naive when I was your age. I thought Batman and I would be best friends for life."

"First of all, I am not Batman."

"Are you still pretending to be a clueless billionaire even at a time like this? Batman's sponsor?"

"I mean, I was Batman for a while, but I stopped."

The evil Superman narrowed his eyes.

"You don't really think that if I were still Batman, I would be wasting so much breath talking to you, do you? What Batman would be willing to talk to you? Idiot."

The evil Superman's eyes turned cold. He looked at Bruce and said: "It seems you still don't understand the situation. Should I give the Superman of this universe a painful lesson?"

"If you want to give him a painful lesson, you should wait until I've bought the pizza, kidnap me along with the pizza, and then when he comes to save the pizza, put squid tentacles on his pizza."

The evil Superman seemed to notice something. He looked into Bruce's blue eyes, his gaze carrying a trace of unusual inquiry, as if he wanted to see directly into Bruce's brain.

But that was clearly impossible; even if he could see, he wouldn't be able to read the secrets written in the folds of Bruce's brain. Ordinary people would attribute those abnormalities to mental illness or personality defects, and the evil Superman was no exception.

But thought has inertia, and he still said like a villain: "Do you think your Superman will come to save you?"

"Do you hope he comes to save me?" Bruce looked at the evil Superman too. "Are you afraid he'll come?"

"Why would I be afraid of him? How could I be afraid of an idiot who has all that power but doesn't know how to use it correctly?"

Bruce shook his head slowly: "Why do you think I called you an idiot? In my view, you are the one who is like that."

"But I conquered the world. From then on, there was no one who could harm me. Batman? He would eventually be defeated by me too."

"I think you should know better than me. There is no 'eventually'."

"What?"

"If you were truly determined to defeat him, destroy him, kill him, you would have done it long ago. The fact that he is still alive means you didn't want to."

"That is Batman; he made many contingency plans against me, and he has Kryptonite that can restrain my abilities. I need to be fully prepared..."

"Is conquering him harder than conquering the world?"

The evil Superman paused: "No one can say otherwise."

"When do you plan to act?" Bruce asked again. "After the crisis in your universe passes? After everyone has turned to your side? After you solve the Kryptonite problem? After he reveals a flaw?"

"Yes. Those are all problems that need to be solved."

"Then go solve them, why come here?"

The evil Superman remained silent. Bruce said: "Coming here is of no help to you in solving any of those problems. Bringing him to a new universe is like putting a fish back into the ocean. The original universe could no longer contain him; these problems will only become more thorny."

"We need to solve the Brainiac problem."

"Choose him or choose Brainiac?"

"That is not a choice! I will destroy them both!" the evil Superman raised his voice.

"Then go destroy them, why kidnap me?"

The evil Superman fell silent again.

"Oh, I see," Bruce suddenly said. "You kidnapped me to be a translator, right? Then let's talk about it. What did the Batman of your universe express to you? What did he do that you couldn't understand?"

The eyes of Batman and Superman are mostly blue, like the sky and the sea, but the evil Superman's eyes were very light, almost white, more like polar icebergs and storms.

In any confrontation, the owner of those eyes was usually not the one to back down first. But this time, it was different; the evil Superman looked away first.

Bruce was too young, and his blue eyes were like a rain that would pull the world back into the past.

"In our recent encounter, he found the table used for Justice League meetings. There was a crack on it, left... a long time ago. I asked him why he kept it, and he said he had already forgotten."

"You believed him just because he said so?"

The evil Superman was choked up.

"You believed him when he said he would stop you; you believed him when he said he gave up on you; you believed him when he said he forgot why he kept that table. You trust him so much, why don't you take him to church?"

"Enough!"

(End of chapter)