"Isn't this Batman?"
The Primary Universe Batman had just stepped out of the conference room when he heard a somewhat familiar voice, full of malice. He turned his head and saw Night Owl's round eyes.
"Hello, Owlman." The Primary Universe Batman stopped and looked at him, "If not being Batman makes you so proud, then don't always throw yourself in the bat crowd when choosing your group affiliation. It just makes you look needy."
Night Owl was stunned. He was momentarily brain-dead from being scolded. No kidding, dude, what's with the temper?
I failed at black magic, got hunted by my teammates, was exposed by evil electronic life, and was even taken to another universe, but I've never been this resentful. Did the sky fall?
The Primary Universe Batman isn't usually someone who curses. If someone is worth cursing, he wouldn't engage in personal attacks; if they're not worth it, he wouldn't even give them a glance. He never even personally attacked the Joker. For a moment, Night Owl didn't know if he should feel honored.
He thought he could provoke Batman, and the Primary Universe Batman would just give him a silent look and then walk away as usual. If the one in metal armor were there, he might try to punch him, but he'd be stopped by the Primary Universe Batman. Why was the script different today? Did Batman take bullets?
"I..." Night Owl opened his mouth but didn't know how to refute on the spot. Well, the Primary Universe Batman did hit the nail on the head.
The truth is, Night Owl's biggest weakness isn't about justice or evil, nor his wits, but that he's simply not Batman. He's not even Bruce Wayne. So, mixing in with Batman's crowd is inherently improper.
Even though Battleworld categorized him among the Bats, not being Batman means not being Batman. Especially since he has other counterparts, like the Night Owl in Overwatch and the Night Owl in cartoons. He should be categorized separately, not mixed with Batman.
Of course, the principle of "better to be a chicken head than a phoenix tail" doesn't work for Night Owl. He certainly wants to gain status within Batman's group, rather than play with his other impoverished counterparts.
Although Batman surely discovered this weakness long ago, he never pointed it out, which naturally has a reason. After all, Batman aims to unite the majority, not subdivide the group by each person's differences. That wouldn't be good for unity.
If Night Owl isn't counted as Batman, then possibly many Batmen wouldn't be Batmen, then many Supermen wouldn't be Supermen, and many Green Lanterns wouldn't be Green Lanterns. If this happens, the Multiverse Alliance would collapse in an instant. For the sake of the bigger picture, even if the Primary Universe Batman knows this, he wouldn't openly say it.
But today, for some reason, Night Owl felt like he might have lost his mind, daring to come straight in with a killing move.
Night Owl hesitated inside; the Primary Universe Batman seemed to be in a rage. If he continued provoking recklessly, he feared being kicked into a black hole. Night Owl didn't call this cowardice, but "a wise man knows when to retreat."
With this thought, Night Owl didn't speak his next mockery. The Primary Universe Batman ignored him, turned, and walked in another direction. Night Owl wanted to know where he was going, so he followed behind.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw Thomas Wayne.
"Father," called the Primary Universe Batman. "How's Mother? Is she okay?"
"She's fine, accompanying Selina to choose a wedding dress," Thomas said gently. "I was supposed to chauffeur them, but you said manpower was short here, so Martha urged me to come. How's everyone else?"
"They're fine; Batman hasn't suffered any losses. But quite a few Supermen have fallen; otherwise, we wouldn't need reinforcements."
Thomas sighed, "War inevitably involves casualties. When I was on the battlefield, friends I laughed with one day lay in trenches the next, without even the chance for me to bandage them. Wars among superheroes might be even more brutal. Losing one's best friend for the first time must be terribly sad. Perhaps I should've brought Martha along."
"Let it be, Bruce is about to get married, choosing a wedding dress is more important," the Primary Universe Batman said. "Let me introduce, this is Little Thomas Wayne. In some universe, he's my brother, your eldest son."
Night Owl had been restless since entering. Seeing Thomas Wayne's face again gave him a severe stress reaction. His hand was already on a dart.
Night Owl's origin was modified. He once was a purely evil Batman, killing the good Wayne couple and his brother. But later, it was changed to the Wayne couple being greedy, malicious capitalists, whom Night Owl accidentally killed his brother while trying to eliminate them.
The latter origin is more reasonable because Earth 3 inherently has reversed morality. In the normal universe, the Wayne couple are philanthropists; thus, in Earth 3, it's more reasonable for them to be heartless entrepreneurs. At least that's Night Owl's origin story now.
Moreover, the Wayne couple weren't good to the Wayne brothers, always busy and never home. The servants they hired were greedy and snobbish, indifferent to the brothers, even abusing them, while the Wayne couple didn't care.
Childhood traumas are hard to erase. So despite knowing this Thomas might be utterly different from his real father, Night Owl's heart still trembled when he looked over.
Now he could confirm that the Primary Universe Batman had gone half-mad. He disgusted him by calling his own father to the battlefield. Who could tell you apart from the Joker?
Even though he was cursing inwardly, he didn't dare show it on the surface. He didn't dare attack Thomas, not entirely due to psychological shadows, but mainly because many other Batmen were in this base. If he assaulted their father, wouldn't he get minced finely?
Then, forget about drawing in other Batmen; he'd become the cosmos Batman enemy. He couldn't afford to do that.
But perhaps it's because Primary Universe Batman decided that he wouldn't dare to do it, so he deliberately brought Thomas over to disgust him. Do we really need to say more about who Evil Batman is?
"Why does he dress like a diver?" Thomas asked, a bit puzzled, "Forget it, I discussed with your mom whether to have another child before. But we both felt that we couldn't make up for what we owe you through another child; it's unfair to you."
Night Owl got goosebumps all over. Primary Universe Batman, however, seemed unfazed and nodded, saying, "If you plan to have another one, I just hope it's not like Bruce."
"Speaking of Bruce, where is he?"
"He's out on a mission, but he should be back soon…"
As they talked, they walked towards the back door of the room. Night Owl didn't want to follow but was curious about their conversation. Yet he feared they would think he had something to say to them. Hesitating for a moment, he ultimately decided not to follow.
This Primary Universe Batman appears to be mentally unstable, it's better to stay away. He has to figure out what happened during Batman's absence, especially how Primary Universe Batman was defeated.
And Primary Universe Batman only chatted briefly with Thomas before going off to handle business.
He arrived at Erik's cell. In fact, it wasn't really a cell, just an ordinary room. Due to Darkseid's existence, Magneto was just a powerless ordinary person at that moment. When Primary Universe Batman arrived, Erik appeared to have just woken up.
Seeing his condition, Primary Universe Batman frowned. As far as he knew, Erik Lehnsherr wasn't someone who could sleep in such situations.
"Hello, Mr. Lehnsherr." Primary Universe Batman cautiously greeted him, treating him with the respect due to a seasoned elder, despite his youthful appearance.
Erik remained silent, simply sitting opposite Batman, still somewhat absent-minded, causing Batman concern for his health.
"We mean you no harm." Batman said, "Keeping you here is just a temporary measure, intended to exchange for hostages. But your old comrades seem to have some issues with us."
Erik bowed his head but still didn't speak. Batman tried another approach, saying, "He killed most of the Flashes and many Supermen, including the one from my universe, just because we captured you."
"Perhaps," Erik replied.
"What do you mean by perhaps?"
"Did he tell you directly that it was because you captured me?"
"Certainly, The Flash heard it."
"Then perhaps that's just part of the truth," Erik yawned, saying, "Actually, I should thank you. This is the only good sleep I've had in six months."
Primary Universe Batman deeply furrowed his brow.
"Perhaps you don't know, our universe has four recently born Omega-Level mutants. Before you captured me, I was the one guiding them. I don't know if you can imagine the workload, but either way, you rescued me from that hell, I should thank you."
"...Four Omega-Level mutants?"
Erik lowered his head, fiddling with his fingers, then said, "Yes, it's precisely out of gratitude to you that I must warn you. Without my help, neither Wanda nor Charles, nor the children's biological parents, are capable alone of taking care of them or controlling them. The truth that Charles went mad because you captured me may be that he tried to control those four little demons but failed, leading to a chain reaction of events. The consequences of failure are not only ours to bear."
Primary Universe Batman seemed to listen to a fantastical tale. Mainly, their universe indeed has no such creatures as mutants; it makes it hard for him to imagine scenarios of super babies destroying the universe, so he doesn't comprehend such disasters.
"You mean Charles went mad not because of you, but because without you, no one helped him with the kids, so he went insane?"
"You're mistaken about one thing; most Professors aren't that kind-hearted. They only feel that by imprisoning or even killing me, you've given them an opportunity to console me, which could strengthen their control over me. Perhaps they thank you for it."
"Perhaps you would describe our relationship as a tangled love-hate, but the driving force isn't love; it's precisely the negative aspects involved. If you want to drive him mad, you should leverage not his love for me but his hatred."
"For instance?"
Erik looked up at Batman and said, "For instance, in a choice between victory and him, I chose the former—once again."