Watching Bruce walk out the door, Jack sighed. This unlucky kid, just a car and he was bought off.
"You go too," Primary Universe Batman said, "I'll give you one as well, with Joker-themed paint."
Jack quickly went off.
Of course, that alone wasn't enough. Primary Universe Batman had already keenly sensed that this matter might still be related to the Infinity Gem, so he called in another Joker, the one from Earth 3, Clown Hero.
This time, the other party wasn't wearing a police uniform but a dark agent's windbreaker commonly worn by agents, with a cigarette dangling as he walked in.
"Go find Night Owl," Primary Universe Batman said, "If possible, send him back to Battleworld."
"That guy's causing trouble again?" Clown Hero asked while lighting his cigarette, not even lifting his head, "He's really good at screwing things up."
"There are some urgent matters now, I cannot allow him to ruin my plans further. Do you need assistance?"
"No need, just give me a tracking device."
Primary Universe Batman picked up a nearby tracker and said, "His counter-surveillance skills are very advanced, ordinary tracking devices might be detected by him. I'm using a more concealed type, but the downside is that it only transmits the position once every hour."
"That's enough." Clown Hero took the tracker and left. Primary Universe Batman didn't even have time to ask if he needed equipment or a Batmobile. But then he thought, the guy is a proper police officer, with an establishment, and even has benefits in the event of death, commuting with a patrol car, why would he need a modified car?
Meanwhile, Arkham Batman and Agent once again came to Centaurus. Although the meeting planet was gone, the black market merely relocated rather than disappeared. They came this time to gather information.
The cosmos is really vast, and finding something can be very difficult. However, those Nightmare Phantoms are very powerful and attack indiscriminately, likely creating chaos quickly. The black market is well informed and can immediately know where there are suspected attack incidents and head over.
Most of the black market has moved to a smaller planet not far from the meeting planet, still bustling with activity. Unfortunately, the landmark Central Tower is gone, and that giant octopus has probably been stewed.
They found a hotel, still the owner from last time who relocated here. Shiller took out two more gold bars and booked two rooms. They thought news would come quickly, but they ended up waiting for three days.
No news at all for three days, and the pair quickly realized something wasn't right. Because if Nightmare Phantoms had really come to the real dimension, it could not be without a trace. Having fought those guys, they knew how dangerous this group is.
If it was just general morbidity, it might not be too bad, but these Phantoms possess superpowers, and many of which aren't single-target attacks. For example, manipulating guilt emotions within people — once that appears in a region, potentially people on several planets could go mentally berserk. Such a big event cannot be suppressed by the Three Great Empires, and news would instantly spread in the black market, how could it have no movements at all?
"Those guys may not have come to the real dimension," Arkham Batman said, "if there are no surprises, they could have gone to the dimension where the Infinity Gem is. This is definitely the result of their doing."
Hearing his tone, Shiller knew that Arkham Batman had suspected this a long time ago. He stayed in the black market just because if it truly went to the dimension where the Infinity Gem is, along with Primary Universe Batman. He stayed here just waiting for another possibility. Now without any news from the black market indicates that this possibility does not exist.
The pair hurried back to the Dark Quadrant to meet with the solemn Primary Universe Batman.
"How's the team you sent?" Arkham Batman asked.
"No news at all," Primary Universe Batman replied. It was precisely because of this matter that he was looking grave.
Three days, a whole three days, not a single word came back.
One should know, Batman from the Dark Multiverse is much stronger individually than Batman from the bright multi-universe, at least in terms of force. Whether it's that harsh environment breeds clever people or adversity further trains people's will, their comprehensive qualities are strong. More importantly, they have both wisdom and force.
Superman's force is indeed strong, but sometimes his super brain just doesn't work, which forces Batman to remotely command them. Green Lantern's comprehensive qualities are good, but he's lacking in strategy. As for The Flash and others, there's no need to mention them, as every superhero has shortcomings, or else they wouldn't need to form an alliance.
But Batman from the Dark Multiverse, by using various mutations, compensated for the lack of force in Batman. When weapons and command centers are integrated into one body, combat efficiency will be unprecedentedly high. It was because the war for the last Infinity Gem could be very dangerous that Primary Universe Batman sent these incredibly resourceful Dark Multiverse Batmen.
But, he never expected that these Batmen would never return.
The originally anticipated combat time was about 12 hours, considering the possibly different time flows between the two dimensions, no later than 20 hours. After all, these Batmen do get tired, and high-intensity combat for 20 hours is pretty much the limit. Beyond this time, they can only retreat temporarily for recovery.