Batman Is My Dearest Friend!

"Bruce, move! I’m speeding up!!"

Superman’s voice suddenly rang out.

Without a second thought, Bruce Wayne dropped into a roll and dodged aside.

A red-and-blue figure tore through the air and slammed into Fault Insurance, pinning it against the wall together with Shimizu and Diana.

"The reactor’s in its chest!"

Shimizu shouted.

Superman immediately understood. He grabbed Fault Insurance by the head with one hand and hammered its chest with the other.

Nth Metal could withstand nearly every attack in the universe, but there were always exceptions.

The defensive power of a single piece of Nth Metal was nowhere near the upper limit of the universe.

Put a piece of Nth Metal before a multiversal terror like Darkseid, and a single Omega Beam could erase it from existence.

Superman was not Darkseid, but not only was Superman’s lower limit incredibly high, his upper limit was absurdly so. In some comics, he could even crush a universe in his hand.

His lower limit depended on sunlight; his upper limit depended on willpower.

The energy emitted by a single star like the sun should theoretically have been incapable of creating someone with such a terrifying upper limit.

And now, Superman had a small burst of power.

A teeth-grinding metallic creak rang out as Superman punched a hole into Fault Insurance’s chest.

The Anti-Kryptonite Armor on Superman was not as hard as Nth Metal. After the repeated heavy blows, the armor around its arms had been battered beyond recognition, exposing Superman’s fists.

Bang!

A cloud of Kryptonite smoke burst out from Fault Insurance’s shoulder.

Although the Anti-Kryptonite Armor protected most of Superman’s body, a small portion of his arm was still exposed to the Kryptonite radiation, weakening his strength.

"I’ve got it!"

Diana cried out. She used the Lasso of Truth to bind one of Fault Insurance’s arms, then flipped into the air and clamped her legs around both sides of its head. Raising the Sword of Vulcan high in her right hand, she drove it down through the opening Superman had made.

Sparks burst forth, and Fault Insurance finally stopped moving. The red light in its eyes vanished as well.

"Phew…"

Shimizu panted heavily, hands on his hips.

Most of White Warrior’s internal components had been damaged by Fault Insurance’s nanobots. Shimizu had been relying on his own Chakra to operate the puppet throughout the fight.

Under most circumstances, controlling a puppet with Chakra Thread conserved Chakra. But Fault Insurance was too powerful, so Shimizu had been forced to burn through more Chakra to enhance White Warrior’s performance just to restrain Fault Insurance alongside Diana.

But now, it should be safe… safe my ass!

Shimizu’s expression suddenly changed. He reached out again and pressed down on Fault Insurance’s arm.

The red light on its face lit up once more.

"Backup battery activated."

Seriously, man?

Again?!

Diana reacted quickly as well and yanked Fault Insurance back.

But it was too late.

A red energy beam struck Batman squarely.

Before he could even say a word, he vanished from the spot.

Huh?

After all that work, he still died?

Shimizu could hardly believe it.

Everyone knew Superman was DC’s favorite son, while Batman was DC’s father.

And in this incident, The Flash had died right at the start, which meant this probably was not supposed to be truly fatal. So how had things turned out like this?

Could this universe be some special one, destined to become a universe without Batman?

Or had Shimizu’s arrival changed everything?

"Malfunction cleared."

The red light in Fault Insurance’s eyes swiftly turned blue, and the alarm was lifted.

"Bruce said he injected this thing with a virus called Mercy. From the looks of it, this thing has no mercy at all."

Diana sighed softly.

As a warrior, she could accept the loss of a comrade.

"Maybe this robot has already shown Bruce mercy."

Superman did not look particularly happy either, but he did not seem deeply grief-stricken.

"That gun was an accidental creation of ancient Kryptonian technology. Long ago, Kryptonians made it while researching parallel universes. Any person or object struck by it would be erased. But Kryptonian scientists actually theorized that the gun sent whatever it hit to another parallel universe. They simply had no way of bringing it back."

"So Bruce isn’t dead. He’s just taking a temporary trip to another parallel universe?"

Understanding dawned on Shimizu’s face.

With Batman gone from this world, Fault Insurance’s mission could be considered complete.

"Right."

Superman put away the teleportation gun Fault Insurance had dropped and watched as it calmly walked outside.

"Then it’s fine. We can go home, clean up, and get some sleep. That guy will come running back on his own after a while."

Shimizu stretched and followed behind Fault Insurance.

"Wade, I didn’t expect that even though you argue with Bruce the most, you trust him even more than I do."

Superman looked at Shimizu with emotion.

"I want to ask you, and everyone in the Justice League, to study that gun. We need to find a way to bring Bruce back from the parallel universe."

Shimizu’s eyes lit up, but he still turned toward Fault Insurance as the thrusters on its legs slowly opened.

That teleportation gun was amazing, but parallel worlds sounded difficult to research at a glance.

Fault Insurance, on the other hand…

The Arc Reactor, all those Batman black-tech devices inside it, and that outer Nth Metal shell…

Those were all good things! And he really had a chance to crack the technology and greatly strengthen himself.

Oh, right. Batman’s Anti-Superman Armor had also "accidentally" been left behind here. As his good friend and close comrade in the League, shouldn’t he help keep it safe?

"Ahem, Clark, you’re right! But that thing is getting away! We can’t let it target us again when Bruce comes back, can we? I suggest we deal with it now!"

Shimizu said righteously, looking as though he had Bruce’s best interests entirely at heart.

Though there were most likely no nanobots left inside, the thing was still a tough nut to crack. It would be best to bring Superman and Wonder Woman along.

He figured most of Wonder Woman’s divine power had recovered by now as well.

Wonder Woman nodded in agreement and cracked her knuckles.

"That thing beat me up pretty badly just now. I need to beat it back. Better yet, tear it into pieces!"

"Fine."

Superman looked toward Fault Insurance, which was spraying plasma exhaust, swinging its arms, and flying into the sky.

More than an hour later.

On the Arctic ice fields, vast stretches of glacier had shattered, and signs of battle covered the area.

Fault Insurance had been torn into scattered pieces.

To keep these things from being collected and used by bad people, Shimizu could only carry them back in memory of Batman and become the bad… use them himself.