Lord Superman is now a bit confused.
Because Bruce is angry.
Of course, it's not that Batman never gets angry. However, Batman has a very unique way of expressing his emotions, and under ordinary circumstances, no one can tell if he's angry or happy because he always has a straight face.
But Bruce's emotions are clearly expressed. He throws away what he has in hand, he turns around and walks back to the city, and he doesn't say a word to Lord Superman who's following him.
It's not until he sees Wonder Woman that he raises his voice: "I'm really fed up! Why can't you just leave him here and run to my place to watch ? He scared off all my fish!"
"I just wanted to make sure you were safe..."
"You know full well that's not what you're doing." Bruce turns back, angrily gazing at Lord Superman's face: "Are you disappointed that you didn't see a criminal fish in the lake? Or were you hoping to see a criminal person, like maybe?"
"I didn't..."
"You know best if you did or didn't! From the mont we t in the projection room, you revealed your true thoughts. You think I'm a worthless scoundrel, right?"
Bruce walks up to Lord Superman and stares directly into his eyes, which have begun to glow red, and says: "I know you've killed all the criminals on Earth, Clark, so you better kill quickly. Otherwise, I'm bound to kill sothing to prove just how prescient you are?!"
"And I only worry that even if I'm locked up in jail, soone's still going to flit to my window and ask which style of pacifier to choose for the day!"
Lord Superman was tongue-tied again.
Wonder Woman ca up to diate, only to have Bruce abruptly turn back to her: "Don't play diator! You've been wavering for a long ti, haven't you? Do you think you bear no responsibility for anyone's poor relations?"
"Do you think your slippery diplomacy skills, your supposed priceless 'legacy', are so that everyone can be as old as you?"
"If you're even so stupid as to not find a bucket of water during a fire, then shut up! No one wants to know every single detail of your earth-shattering idea to use wood to fight the fire!"
With a "slam," Bruce stord out.
Wonder Woman and Lord Superman looked at each other.
Lord Superman was so upset by Bruce's remarks that his chest was heaving, and even uncontrollable frost was rising from his nostrils! Wonder Woman was also quite upset, as she had not been so angry for many years.
And both of them realized a very serious problem they are now facing.
They always claid that Batman has a very unique way of expressing emotions and that no one could understand him. They had always claid that the main reason for their lack of strife was Batman's overly restrained emotions.
But now, if Batman's emotions weren't restrained, and they could really argue, could they really argue with him?
Batman is a world-class genius in every aspect. His thinking speed, logical rigor, and language organization are all top-notch. If he applies these skills to arguing, can anyone really out-argue him?
And if he applies his talents to insulting others, could anyone really out-insult him?
It seems that no one can.
Batman insulting people seems like an incredible thing. But upon careful consideration, this is actually quite terrifying.
If the most intelligent person in the world, with the most knowledge and technical skills, and the most solid reasoning and insight into people's hearts, starts disparaging others without distinction, how many people will not be taken aback?
At least, Lord Superman and Wonder Woman were sowhat taken aback.
But it's not their fault; they had beco accustod to Batman's extrely introverted emotions and hard-to-understand communication style. Over ti, de-escalation, a basic emotional defense that most people should have, was lost due to too many years of pure rational communication.
Simply put, the people they et, the things they participate in, and the friends they make over the years are basically good people who can mostly discuss issues on their own rits.
Even when opinions differ, after rational dialogue confirms this, they typically choose to understand each other, or at minimum reserve their disagreent. Even if they point out the other's errors, they are presenting facts and reasoning.
But Bruce is just pouring out his emotions. He isn't explaining anything, denying anything, or proving anything. Instead, it's a very straightforward personal attack.
Humans are emotional beings who can sense the emotions of fellow beings. Although Wonder Woman and Superman are not humans in the narrow sense, they are sentient beings with human characteristics and can be emotionally affected.
Being complinted makes one happy, and being scolded makes one angry. These are unavoidable emotional fluctuations. And if soone scolds you at a ti when you think you haven't done anything wrong and that the other person is just being unreasonable, but you can't retort or win the argunt, you'll toss and turn into the wee hours of the morning, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, your pillow clenched in frustration, sighing, "Why couldn't I win the argunt?"
That's where Lord Superman and Wonder Woman are right now.
They no longer have the mood to fix the car or join the ga. Each retired to their room to stew in their anger.
As to why they didn't go after Bruce, the key lies in the fact that, first, Bruce is too young, and they felt quite embarrassed to argue with Bruce in front of others. Second, neither of them could win an argunt against Bruce when confronted individually. After all, you can't exactly kill him, can you?
In the end, when it was getting dark, there was a knock on Lord Superman's door. When he opened the door, it was Bruce.
Lord Superman snorted, thinking Bruce had co to apologize. Instead, Bruce knocked on the door fra energetically and said, "I'm hungry, where's your deer?"
Lord Superman stepped aside, allowing the light in the room to illuminate Bruce's face. He tried to find any residual anger or sha on his face, but he found nothing.
Bruce ca over for a al as if nothing had ever happened.
Lord Superman took a deep breath and said: "I thought you didn't want watching you anymore?"
"But you scared off my fish earlier."
"You said you weren't fishing anyway."
"It's because you annoyed that I quit!"
"So, it's my fault then?"
"What else could it be?"
Lord Superman began to breathe cold air again.
"You want to say you're busy, but you're not doing anything at all." Bruce leaned against the door fra with one hand and laughed, "Because the Batman you know only left you with a car to repair, and beyond that, you have no idea what to do."
"Don't look at like that. You're not a bull behind a red cloth." Bruce cleaned his ears with his fingers, then continued, "Or maybe you're trying to figure out how to argue with , and I would tell you not to waste your energy."
"And of course you're thinking about how to silence ." Bruce looked into Lord Superman's eyes and said: "But the fact is, that's impossible. Because I haven't taken my dicine and you can't argue with a madman."
Lord Superman was amused by him.
"Do you know how I dealt with the madn in Gotham?" Lord Superman squinted and said: "I lobotomised them. That's the best way to handle madn."
"I'm afraid my psychology professor wouldn't agree."
"But he's not here now."
"Yes, that's why I'm not taking any ds."
"Do you think that's your talisman?"
"But you won't dare to do anything because you need a Batman. If you harm , you'll lose two Batmans, the one you knew, and ."
"What do you want in the end!"
"Get so food, I'm hungry."
After ten minutes, Lord Superman tossed the deer he'd been carrying onto the bonfire that Bruce had started. He stood in place silently for a while before eventually using his heat vision to cook the deer.
"I thought you were just a bit rebellious, but you're actually insane." Lord Superman pursed his lips and said, "And you have an awful personality, completely shaless."
"Your insult is as bad as your hunting skills." Bruce tore off a deer leg and said, "I haven't even shown you 50% of my craziness. Trust , you don't want to know."
Lord Superman sat down beside the deer, and asked, "Like what?"
"Like how the last steak dinner I had was with the Joker."
Lord Superman's eyes widened.
Bruce took a big bite out of the cooked deer, but spat it out because it tasted terrible - unsalted. He complained, "The roasted at at the barbecue was much better than this."
"So, in that universe, you and Joker are friends?"
"To be precise, he's my creditor." Bruce ripped off a small strip of at and chewed on it reluctantly as he said, "I owe him so money and still haven't paid it back."
"You need your ds. You're starting to babble."
"I think we could join a ga later." Bruce looked up at the sky and said, "It'll help us understand each other better."
Lord Superman opened his mouth, not thinking that understanding this Batman would be a good thing.
Mostly because he finally realized that giving Batman a voice might not be a good idea, because he might talk, but not necessarily well; he might be articulate, but not necessarily kind.
And when Batman doesn't speak kindly, the effect is terrifying.
Lord Superman suddenly rembered how, whenever their plans went wrong, it was everyone's fault but Batman's, who usually remained silent, occasionally offering viable plans to boost morale.
If this mad Batman was in charge, not a single person in the Justice League could walk out that door with a smile on their face, they would probably return ho and cry for at least three days.
Finding Batman to understand Batman's plan seed to be a complete failure, but Lord Superman definitely couldn't just propose to terminate the plan, wouldn't it seem like he's afraid?
It's just a sowhat mad Batman, isn't it?
Not to ntion that he isn't a real criminal, even if he were a truly brutal criminals, Lord Superman has seen plenty of them. So, there's no way he could be afraid of him, right?
Thinking this, Lord Superman stood up, lightly dusting off the pieces of deer skin from his hands, and said, "Once you're done eating, we'll head out for the ga. Which category did you have in mind?"
But Bruce's answer surprised Lord Superman.
"Unity, we'll join the unity gas."
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