"Saiyan, there's definitely something suspicious about Batman. We were originally planning to investigate him, but the Doomsday event happened so close to Gotham. The city suffered heavy losses, so we decided to give him some time to handle the aftermath there..." Tony Stark explained after seeing Robert's reaction.
"And besides, you can't entirely blame Batman for firing the Kryptonite weapon. Superman had the same idea and informed me during the fight with Doomsday. If Batman hadn't fired it, I would've taken the Kryptonite weapon and used it myself."
At this point, Tony felt a sense of relief. Just before Batman launched the Kryptonite weapon, Tony had already confronted him. If Batman hadn't acted quickly, Tony Stark might have been the one to pull the trigger.
If that had happened, Clark's death could have been indirectly at Tony's hands. Even if this was all orchestrated by a mastermind, Tony couldn't have lived with the guilt of Clark dying because of his actions.
"Firing the Kryptonite weapon aside, the source of his Kryptonite is highly questionable!" Robert said, shaking his head with a sharp glint in his eyes. "I'll go check him out myself. If he's innocent, I won't kill him. It's a shame Martian Manhunter is dead—this would've been a lot easier with him."
Robert felt a bit of regret. After all, Martian Manhunter was a master of the mind, and if he were still alive, it would be much easier to investigate Batman's true thoughts. As for uncovering Batman's secrets? Robert didn't care much about that.
Some things that Batman might consider deep, unbreakable secrets were nothing significant in Robert's eyes.
"Uh… okay. While I'm confident I could persuade Batman, if you're going, there's no question he'll cooperate," Tony Stark responded, falling silent for a moment. He had already devised a plan to get Batman to yield, but with Robert stepping in, there was no reason to interfere.
"Batman… huh? Seems like it's you guys again..." Robert began searching for Batman's presence, ready to teleport, but something seemed off. He stopped, sensing something strange about Batman's aura.
"What's wrong?" Kara and the others asked, puzzled by Robert's behavior.
"I think I know what's going on. I'll go check it out…" Robert shook his head, but his eyes gleamed coldly, and a surge of killing intent leaked from him.
In a flash, Robert vanished, leaving Kara and the others glancing at each other, uncertain about what had just happened.
"You should follow him. The Saiyan seems angry, and if possible, you should stop him. Although Batman doesn't share our exact ideals and indirectly caused Superman's death in this incident, his original intent was to help Earth deal with Doomsday..." Tony, sensing Robert's growing killing intent, hurriedly advised Kara and Diana.
"We'll check it out, but the Saiyan doesn't show killing intent toward people without reason. Batman may not be as simple as we think!" Kara nodded and reminded Tony. She and Diana then disappeared.
Diana hadn't voiced her opinion, but her thoughts aligned with Kara's. Robert, while merciless toward his enemies, wouldn't kill an innocent person or someone who hadn't crossed him.
Kara and Diana moved quickly. Although their speed didn't match teleportation, it didn't take them long to reach Gotham…
Meanwhile, as Robert appeared in front of him, Batman—or rather, Bruce Wayne—visibly tensed. It wasn't Batman standing there but Bruce Wayne, busy handling Gotham's post-crisis recovery during the daytime at Wayne Tower.
Batman had begun to worry after seeing Robert launch Doomsday into space. He had considered abandoning the Batman disguise and either returning to his Skrull identity or assuming another persona.
But after some thought, Batman decided to continue the charade.
Though he was merely pretending to be Batman, everything he had done was something Batman would have done. He had only taken over Batman's actions, without altering the character's behavior or persona.
More importantly, in Batman's memory and data, there was a thorough analysis of Robert's personality. Although Robert was ruthless and not as merciful as Clark, he wasn't one to kill indiscriminately. Especially since Batman's actions had reasoning behind them, and it wasn't Batman who killed Clark—it was Lex Luthor. Of course, the real Batman wasn't aware of Lex's role as the mastermind…
Thus, Batman stayed in Gotham, diligently doing his part. By day, he was Bruce Wayne, handling Gotham's rebuilding and economic issues, and by night, he transformed into the Dark Knight, protecting the city. He fulfilled all of Batman's duties flawlessly.
Batman thought he was doing a good job playing his role, but when Robert suddenly appeared before him, he couldn't help but panic.
Even the real Batman would feel shaken in a life-and-death situation. How much more so for a fake?
"Saiyan, you're here to investigate the Kryptonite, right?" Batman took a deep breath, having already prepared for such a confrontation. He quickly pulled out a box—the same one Lex Luthor had used to store the Kryptonite.
Of course, the letter Lex left instructing Batman to take down Clark wasn't in the box. But the Kryptonite description remained, something Batman hadn't erased.
As for replacing the box, Batman didn't bother. After all, Robert was a being of extraordinary means. With so many methods at his disposal, there was no guarantee Robert couldn't trace the box back to Lex Luthor.
Batman also hadn't considered mentioning Lex Luthor, as his persona shouldn't know about him. The more he said, the more likely he was to make a mistake. It was better to let Robert investigate it himself.
As long as Robert took the box and followed other leads, he wouldn't focus too much on Batman.
"To be honest, I don't know where the Kryptonite came from. I didn't acquire it until just before Doomsday appeared…" Batman continued speaking after handing over the box.
"At the time, Superman was caught up in the bombing controversy, and I wasn't sure if he had truly lost control. So, I took the Kryptonite to confront him and find out the truth. Just as I learned the truth from him, Doomsday appeared..."
Before Batman could finish speaking, he suddenly felt his body lighten. He was lifted off the ground, his face changing as he began to struggle.
But then, his mind started to become hazy, and Batman realized something was wrong. He struggled more violently.
No matter how hard he fought, he couldn't escape Robert's grasp. Robert had him by the head, and Batman's consciousness grew more and more blurred.
Robert frowned as he attempted to use telepathy to read Batman's mind. However, his telepathic abilities were far inferior to those of Martian Manhunter. Robert excelled at using mental powers offensively, but reading through the vast memories of a person was much more difficult, especially given how chaotic Batman's memories were.
Even Martian Manhunter had taken considerable time and effort to probe the mind of a Skrull disguised as the Joker. How much harder would it be for Robert, who wasn't specialized in this?
Still, Robert managed to glean some of Batman's memories—specifically those related to the Kryptonite, where Batman had used it as a weapon and set up plans to deal with Superman.
Robert didn't stop there. He continued digging through Batman's mind until the memories finally shifted, showing Batman's research on Robert and contingency plans for how to respond if Robert decided not to spare him.
Robert's telepathy had succeeded. These were Batman's most crucial recent memories, though the Skrull's natural abilities still kept the disguised portions hidden…
Just as Robert prepared to dig deeper, a beam of light shot toward him, but it disappeared before it could even reach his body, swallowed by the aura surrounding him.
"Let go of Master Wayne!" A towering, two-meter-tall mech appeared behind Robert, its voice deep as it spoke. The mech, brimming with supernatural energy, continued, "Saiyan, we don't mean to oppose you. We didn't create the Kryptonite, nor did we deliberately kill Superman. If you want trouble, go after the mastermind…"
"The mastermind certainly needs to be dealt with, but the clues are right here, aren't they?" Robert snapped out of his focus, stopping the telepathy but not letting go of Batman. "Honestly, you did a good job with the disguise…"
"Hmm?!" Batman's heart skipped a beat upon hearing Robert's words. He never expected Robert to see through his identity!
"Click!" Batman instinctively reached for his utility belt, intending to use a hidden trick, but before his hand could touch it, an electric current surged through his body. His equipment shattered, and his body was left paralyzed.
"Tell me, how long have you been infiltrating Earth? You must know quite a bit by now. I even suspect you had a hand in Superman's death…" Robert said, staring intently at the immobilized Batman.
"With your infiltration abilities, you could've pulled it off. Otherwise, why would the Kryptonite end up in your hands, specifically?"
"How many of you are there? Where are they hiding? Who else have you replaced? Oh, and was Carol killed by you?"
"You!" The real Batman might not have reacted to Robert's words, but when Robert mentioned Captain Marvel, Carol, Batman's pupils shrank. He never imagined that Robert had a connection to Carol.
At that moment, a previously suppressed memory surged to the forefront of Batman's mind—a memory linking Bruce Wayne's life to that of the Skrull who had replaced him.
During his investigations, Batman had looked into Robert's history, including the Danvers family,
which naturally included the missing Carol Danvers. However, Batman didn't know that Carol Danvers was Captain Marvel. Only now, after hearing Robert's words, did this Skrull-Batman connect the two.
Just as Batman was processing this, several beams of energy, filled with Hell's aura, blasted toward Robert. The attack came from Alfred, who was now piloting the mech.
Since losing the Icarus Mask, Batman had few extraordinary means left, at least ones comparable to a superhuman's level. As a result, he found some extraordinary items related to Hell demons and used them to build this Hell Demon Mech.
This was the strongest combat suit Batman could create at the moment. But even so, it posed no threat to Robert. The Hell-infused energy beams were swallowed up by Robert's aura, just as before.
After all, this Hell Demon Mech was merely at the level of a Demon King, while Robert had just returned from the Hell dimension, where he had forced several Hell Lords to compromise and stop invading Earth. The two were on completely different levels...
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