"No! Don't kill me! The Supreme Magician won't let you get away with this!"
At this moment, in the Batmobile driven by Arkham Batman, an agent sat on the left side of the back seat, while on the right sat a somewhat unfamiliar human, dressed in a suit and wearing glasses, looking refined, but he was tied up and looked terrified.
"Behave yourself," Shiller said to him. "We don't have the habit of taking out our anger on ordinary people, but you'd better not move around, or else..."
"I know, I know, I have old and young to care for, you can't kill me, I haven't done anything bad..."
"How many years were you sentenced to?"
"Just three years, I..."
Realizing he had misspoken, he sheepishly shut his mouth, then murmured, "I was just a scapegoat, the big boss insisted on misappropriating funds, I had no choice..."
"After getting out, I went to work at the Holy Sanctuary?"
"The salary they offered was high, and the benefits were pretty good too."
"That's not the main reason, is it?"
"Uh, to elicit sympathy from the jury, I turned in my boss and two colleagues. If I got out, they'd tear me apart, mainly for safety."
"Then why did you go to the Space Station?"
"Someone in the office was pursuing me, and I didn't want to agree, so I took off while Earth was running away. By staying on the Space Station, I could avoid meeting him..."
"Tell the truth," Shiller said expressionlessly.
"I signed with the Heart of Darkness, this guy wanted me to be an inside agent, I didn't agree, I went to the Space Station to lay low."
"You really didn't agree?"
"I took the money but did nothing."
"Is that all there is to it?"
"Alright, Mephisto got me to do it," the man shrank his neck and said, "He told me to pretend to agree, then after taking the energy, not to go with Earth, but to stay on the Space Station to lay low."
"That's how you bypassed the security system?"
"Kind of, that old devil gave me a lot of energy, and I happened to know some Invisibility Magic, so I smoothly hid inside."
"Heart of Darkness didn't come looking for you?"
"He headed towards Earth, really thinking I'd listen to him and tamper with the Magic Defense Network. Actually, for the little money he gave, it wasn't even enough for a message. Why would I give up a stable job to help him?"
"Why did Mephisto instruct you to do this?"
"I don't know, but I guess it's because Heart of Darkness is his son, always causing trouble restlessly, and he's afraid his son would take over the Hell Dimension."
Shiller stopped asking because it involved Mephisto. The key is that it might not be the real Mephisto; it could also be Greed, making it hard to judge why the other side did this.
If it really was Mephisto, he might be worried that Heart of Darkness's havoc would be blamed on him by the Holy Sanctuary, so he acted early to distance himself; if it was Greed, it was probably guarding against this guy all along.
As for how the guy in the car came to be there, it started shortly after the Brainwave Controller was destroyed.
Just as they were preparing to return home from the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy, the deep voice of the Primary Universe Batman sounded in the Batmobile: "Mission accomplished? Congratulations, but now there's a new task."
"What is it?" Arkham Batman asked.
"Head to the Solar System; there's a space station left behind at Earth's original position. Go there and take a look."
"Take a look? What am I looking for?"
"You'll know when you get there. Oh, have Constantine come back, I need to talk to him."
After the communication was cut off, Arkham Batman frowned slightly. He stopped the car to let Constantine leave, then turned the car around and, together with Shiller, headed towards the Solar System.
Upon arriving in the Solar System, they discovered that Earth must have left in a rush this time. The Moon was not taken, nor was the space station, but perhaps due to gravitational adjustments, a void gravitational source was present, keeping the Moon and the space station in orbit without derailing.
However, seeing a satellite and a small space station orbiting around empty space seemed quite eerie, Arkham Batman cautiously parked the car outside the Solar System to prevent the humans here from noticing anything.
That's right, although Earth has run away, there are still many humans left in the Solar System. After all, there are many people at the Mercury Base, Neptune Star Port is crowded, and there are quite a few on the Moon and the Space Station, plus the engineering teams mining on gas planets, with various transport ships bustling about, it's really lively.
In this situation, driving the Batmobile in would be a bad idea, too easy to alert the enemy. Arkham Batman was just wondering where to find a spaceship when suddenly a mining vessel stopped in front of them.
"That's your ship," said Prime Universe Batman, his voice coming through the communicator again, "This ship is headed to Neptune Star Port for repairs. Once you board, take the Neptune Star Port Teleportation Portal to the Space Station."
"Does the teleportation portal have no identification system?"
"The humans here have just undergone an evolution; the portal's identification system hasn't been upgraded yet, so you won't be discovered."
Arkham Batman and Shiller boarded the transport ship. Since it was an uncrewed transport ship, there was no need for a struggle with the crew, and they arrived at their destination smoothly.
"How did Batman hack into the spaceship?" Shiller asked in a low voice.
Arkham Batman shook his head but had a guess. He knew the JARVIS in this universe was formidable, which is why the Earth government felt comfortable leaving the vast Solar System unattended. But it didn't mean JARVIS didn't have weaknesses, nor was he invincible from intrusion; with the right approach, a breach was possible.
JARVIS is a very powerful electronic life, or rather he has surpassed the realm of electronic life to become a being with human-like wisdom, but whether in the electronic life stage or now, he is always unrelated to magic.
In the past, he and Scarlet Witch were inseparable, this particular weakness couldn't be considered a weakness since the power of Scarlet Witch is the strongest magic, complementing each other's strengths, they were naturally invincible.
However, both were handling crucial tasks in their respective fields; in times of war, JARVIS served as the main brain of the entire logistical system, while Scarlet Witch went to assist the mutants. Now separated, JARVIS's weakness could naturally be exploited.
But this has to be done when the mages are absent; otherwise, apart from those who fled with Earth, some would stay behind in the Solar System, making any magical energy fluctuations detectable.
However, now with Doctor Strange captured, Asgard is engulfed in flames, with part of the mages supporting Asgard and another part maintaining the Earth Magic Defense Network, making the defenses of the Solar System weak—Batman can naturally use his magic power to exploit the vulnerability.
Yet, Arkham Batman didn't understand what was noteworthy about the Space Station.
They soon arrived at the Space Station without being discovered; after all, they were both humans, possessing no unusual energy fluctuations, employees on the Space Station don't all recognize each other easily, so the two mixed in with ease.
Arkham Batman first went to the warehouse on the lower floor to find a set of repair worker uniforms, while Shiller, without even changing clothes, carried a large pile of mooncakes just stored in the warehouse, and the two headed down the aisle without anyone noticing anything unusual.
They went up to the dormitory building, initially just looking for a room to serve as a base. But when the elevator buttons started glowing white, with only three numbers repeatedly lighting up: 9, 0, 2.
Arkham Batman pretended not to see it, walked out of the elevator calmly, then when he realized he was on the 18th floor he acted as if it was a mistake, went up to the 9th floor to room 902.
He opened the door which had a fingerprint lock, then placed his finger on it, and the door opened with a sound.
When Arkham Batman and Shiller walked in one after the other, the man in a suit sitting on the bed playing on his phone was stunned, he hadn't shouted before Arkham Batman captured him.
Thus, he was brought to the Batmobile, effortlessly with some mysterious power, and upon interrogation on the vehicle, it was found that he was an employee from The Sanctum.
He claimed he had just taken some annual leave, told his colleagues and superior he was vacationing in Hawaii, but secretly slipped into the Space Station, planning to spend his annual leave here.
The reason was, he had taken on some private jobs in his spare time but didn't fulfill them while worrying about the client's wrath and being reported, so he hid at the Space Station to lay low.
Typically, hiding on Earth in such situations would be the safest, since Heart of Darkness couldn't breach the Earth Magic Defense Network. But with Mephisto involved, the situation becomes unpredictable.
Shiller believed this guy might have taken Mephisto's money without doing the job, and Mephisto, obsessed with filming on Earth, he might fear an encounter with, thus fled to the Space Station, using the power Mephisto gave him to hide from Heart of Darkness, while also avoiding Mephisto.
But anyway, now that he's in their hands, being just an ordinary person uninvolved in the war, with no chance of revival, he needs full protection, as getting him killed would be problematic.
Bringing him back to the Dark Quadrant, handing him over to Prime Universe Batman, who said nothing and took the person to the underground room.
Shiller felt Prime Universe Batman might be seeking some intelligence, since The Sanctum's reach is vast, possibly holding information regarding the whereabouts of the Soul Gem, catching a lone individual for interrogation seemed reasonable.
But upon seeing a Green Lantern Ship departing, and alone at that, Shiller realized that Prime Universe Batman's plan wasn't so simple.
After completing the task, with no new missions temporarily, enjoying a rare moment of leisure, Shiller headed to the restaurant for afternoon tea, and upon entering, he spotted a somewhat familiar figure, resembling Natasha, yet possessing blue eyes.
More importantly, a faint white light emanated from this person, identical to the elevator button glow seen earlier at the Space Station.
Shiller approached with his coffee in hand, the person raised her head, expressing no surprise upon seeing him, instead offering a friendly smile. Upon closer inspection, Shiller discovered it was the Magic Body created in Arkham Universe, now inhabited by a Super Body.
"Hello, madam," Shiller said.
"Hello," she nodded and smiled at him, a genuine warmth and tenderness radiated, manifesting fleetingly across Natasha's face, leaving Shiller momentarily distracted.