Chapter 4072

After the Arkham Batman agreed to the decision made by the Dream-Powered Doctor Strange, they began to sink slowly into the first dream. Because the order had not been decided, no one knew whose nightmare this was. It wasn't until two gunshots rang out, like a thunderclap, that everyone was jolted awake.

After Shiler's vision gradually cleared, he immediately realized that they were in Germany, and during World War II at that. Now he knew who the third person mentioned by the Dream-Powered Doctor Strange was.

"Erik Lehnsherr," Shiler said immediately. "No, Max Eisenhardt, a young Jewish boy around 10 years old."

Arkham Batman paused, then said, "He was captured?"

"Yes. He came from a German merchant family; his father was a World War I veteran, and his childhood was very happy. But after World War II broke out, his whole family was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. They almost escaped, but were later betrayed by an acquaintance. After being arrested again, all his relatives were buried in a mass grave, and he was the only one who escaped."

Shiler repeated Magneto's life story as quickly as possible, but in reality, it was very general. Because he didn't know the specific birthplace, nor exactly when he escaped. The comics didn't depict it very specifically; he only knew that roughly this was how it happened.

"Remember? They are saving people, and we are stopping them from saving people," Jack said with a huff. "He must have targeted us because we have Batman in our team, so he wants to use moral kidnapping, right?"

Shiler felt the same way inside. It was absolutely impossible for Batman to help that group of people capture someone, but if they didn't play the villain, were they just supposed to watch them rescue the person?

"Who said that stopping a rescue means we have to help that group capture the person? Can't we intercept them in advance and take Magneto somewhere else?" Constantine said.

Arkham Batman thought the same. They moved along the alley, walking quickly toward the source of the gunshots. The scope of a nightmare couldn't be very large, and scenes were usually built around the protagonist, so Magneto shouldn't be too far from them.

"Be careful," Shiler said. "If I remember correctly, it was around this time that Magneto awakened his powers. You'd better not provoke him."

"Whether we provoke him or not isn't up to us," Jack said. "If this is their first time being captured, that would be fine. But if they were captured after escaping later, things might not be that simple."

They had just reached a corner and saw a bakery ahead when they heard a man's trembling voice from inside, a string of German: "I can give you money, I still have property, I have friends in America, I can give you whatever you want... please don't hurt us..."

Bang!

The moment the gunshot rang out, the group had already rushed into the bakery. Very unfortunately, there were three corpses in the room, two adults and one child; they looked like Magneto's parents and sister.

Two burly men were holding guns, seemingly intending to finish off the last survivor. Arkham Batman rushed over quickly. Just as he was about to subdue the two men, he saw the barrel of one of their guns begin to tremble.

Arkham Batman recoiled violently and said to the people behind him, "Run!"

With a boom, the entire bakery exploded violently. The few people at the door didn't have time to dodge and were blown away directly.

Jack crawled out from under the bakery's sign, grimacing as he said, "Are you sure he needs saving?!"

Shiler stood a bit further away and wasn't affected too much. He also climbed up and said, "A young mutant's powers are hard to control. He probably couldn't use them actively, and after the power burst, he would enter a period of weakness. He might have fainted by now. We just need to guard here and not let anyone..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw a pair of blue eyes flash by at the dim street corner.

"Wait," Arkham Batman said. "Shiler and Constantine, you two go find Magneto. Tell him you are his father's friends from America, that you came to save them but were one step too late. Stabilize him first."

Shiler nodded and ran into the bakery with Constantine. He knew very well what Arkham Batman's intention was; the key was actually who Magneto would listen to.

If he insisted on not leaving, Doctor Strange's side would have no way either. Someone else might be able to take him away by force, but even a young Magneto was not easy to deal with. Without being able to destroy the nightmare's structure, Charles and Doctor Strange might even be blown over by this Magneto cub.

So if they went to gain Magneto's trust first and persuaded him to leave with them, the probability of victory would be very high.

They rushed into the ruins and saw the little boy huddled in the corner. One could vaguely see some of the older Magneto's features on his face, but the temperament was vastly different. Although this little Magneto was also slightly melancholic, his emotional fluctuations were much more intense than the older version.

At this moment, his face was covered in tears and dirt, his hair was messy, and he looked completely bewildered.

Constantine pretended to have just discovered him and said, "Wait, why is there a child here? He... why does he look a bit like Mr. Eisenhardt?"

Shiler also walked up quickly and said, "Who are you? How did you end up in this bakery? This is the extraction point we agreed upon with Eisenhardt. Have you seen him?"

The young Magneto was still very naive. He came from a middle-class family and had been well-protected by his parents since childhood; he was not at all the closed-off and vigilant person he would become later. He widened his eyes and looked at the two, saying, "I am Eisenhardt, Max Eisenhardt."

Shiler and Constantine exchanged a look of feigned surprise, then said, "You must be little Eisenhardt, where is your father?"

"He... he's dead! They beat him to death!" Little Erik seemed unable to cry anymore; he just kept repeating something, pointing in one direction with his hand. Constantine walked over and pretended to take a look, and sure enough, he saw the male corpse that looked a bit like Erik.

"Oh, God, we were too late," Constantine said. "Mr. Eisenhardt was a good man. Doing business with him before was always pleasant. How could he just..."

"No time to be sad," Shiler reminded him. "That group will be here soon. Let's take the child and leave first."

Then he turned to look at little Erik and said, "We came from America; we are your father's business partners. A few weeks ago, he contacted us saying he was in trouble and wanted to move his whole family to America. We agreed to meet here, but we didn't expect..."

"He did seem to tell me," little Erik's voice was a bit hoarse. He sniffled and said, "He said someone would come to pick him up. If you could have come earlier..."

"Sorry, the checks in the city were too strict, and we were being hunted too. But there's no time to explain so much now. You come with us first."

Little Erik nodded. But just at this moment, two more people walked into the bakery; it was the Dream-Powered Doctor Strange and Charles, wearing suits from that era.

Seeing Constantine and Shiler in the room, the two were shocked and shouted at them, "Who are you people? Where is Eisenhardt?!"

Constantine and Shiler blocked Erik tightly, frowning as they said to them, "That's what I should be asking you. Who are you? How did you come here?"

"We are Mr. Eisenhardt's friends from England, here to pick him up and evacuate," Charles said, frowning. "Where is he?"

"But they said they are my father's friends from America, here to pick us up and leave," little Erik said. "Did he contact two groups of people? But why couldn't you come earlier..."

"No, little Max, don't be fooled by them," Constantine turned around immediately and said. "Your father told us he only contacted us. Besides, he had no business dealings with England. You've never heard him mention knowing any English people, have you?"

The reason Constantine dared to be so certain was that the elder Eisenhardt had said before he died that he had friends in America. Although that might have been to scare his enemies at the time, little Erik had heard it, so naturally, he would believe their version more.

Who knew Charles wouldn't be angry or argue; he just frowned slightly, sizing up Constantine and Shiler, and said, "You are Americans? But as far as I know, even people from San Francisco wouldn't dress so strangely..."

This successfully drew little Erik's attention to the two's attire. He wiped his red, swollen eyes with his hand and looked up at Shiler and Constantine, immediately noticing that the two were dressed very strangely.

Both of them were wearing trench coats, and they were the kind of relatively modern-style trench coats. They didn't wear wool coats like people of this era, nor did they wear felt hats and gloves like ordinary merchants. They looked too young and didn't have beards.

It was precisely because the elder Eisenhardt did business with Americans that little Erik had seen some American merchants. He immediately and keenly noticed that these two didn't look like American merchants at all.

Conversely, the Dream-Powered Doctor Strange wore a very retro-cut British naval suit, had a neatly trimmed beard, and wore a pair of light gray gloves. Charles wore a long overcoat on the outside, a gray-blue wool scarf, and a crisp suit fabric on the inside, carrying a leather suitcase with metal edges; he was the spitting image of a person from the World War II era.

Erik looked up slightly and met Charles's blue eyes directly, and then he froze there.

Shiler couldn't help but cover his forehead. No wonder people often said you can see a person's future at three and seven. Some people's aesthetics were truly indestructible and consistent. Shiler didn't know how many times Erik Lehnsherr had fallen for these blue eyes in his life, but he knew they were probably going to fall this time too.

Sure enough, little Erik trotted on his short legs and ran behind Charles, grabbing his hand.

Fortunately, Arkham Batman and Joker Jack blocked the door. The plan to gain trust wouldn't work, so they could only solve it by force.

Arkham Batman threw a punch at the Dream-Powered Doctor Strange. The Dream-Powered Doctor Strange was extremely agile; after bending over to avoid it, he grabbed little Erik and ran outside.

The two of them ran out, and Charles remained inside. Just as Jack was about to make a move on Charles, he heard a childish voice from outside the door: "You are not allowed to hit him!!"

Accompanied by little Erik's roar, his mutant power lost control again. With a boom, half of the building where the bakery was located collapsed. Everyone except Doctor Strange and little Erik was buried inside.

And by the time they crawled out, the Dream-Powered Doctor Strange had already taken little Erik away. The score also reached 0:1.