CASE CLOSED

"AA..hahahaha! Let's die all together... let us jump in the pit to find wonderland!" Mad Hatter laughed like a maniac.

"Nah! We have no plan to die today," Batman said with a casual tone.

[Rumble!] [Rumble!] The entire building began to shake as if an earthquake hit the building.

"It's the creatures! Oh, beautiful creatures," Mad Hatter's manic laughter continued, "Beautiful, beautiful! You look divine! My Alice."

"We should get out of here!" Selina flew up the hole in the ceiling, straight into the sky, and looked down. Everything around the building was exploding and the explosion was slowly growing upward from below. The tremors caused by the explosion grew larger, causing the buildings on the other side to collapse.

However, that wasn't the main problem...

There was an energy dome surrounding the entire area. Selina quickly threw a missile at the dome. It exploded on impact but didn't leave even a scratch. "What the hell?! Jarvis... Scan it. Now." She ordered. "Jarvis?!" No matter how much she screamed, no answer came. It was like his existence itself was deleted from her suit.

'God damn it.' Selina looked around; her options were limited. From the top of the building, she couldn't escape and soon the destruction will hit the building.

Diana flew up into the sky followed by Batman who had tied up Mad Hatter and flew behind her.

"We can't get out. There's some invisible barrier and I can't connect with Jarvis," Selina informed them.

"So, we are trapped here," Diana narrowed her brows. She threw a punch, yet again not a single scratch. She took out her sword, "How hard can it be." She murmured as she slashed the dome multiple times even stabbed it a few, only for the same thing to happen. She couldn't even pierce through it.

"Interesting. Is this your trump card? Trap us inside this barrier, cut off our communication, and flood this place with chain explosions?" Batman looked down at Mad Hatter who was dangling on the rope he used to carry him.

"Gurr...garr," Mad Hatter groaned, holding his jaw and laughing.

"So, Lex has managed to recover the ship's barrier system that can endure any attack and cuts off outside signals, huh? A Kryptonian technology," Batman's eyes narrowed. There wasn't any way he was going to just escape and let such an advanced technology escape his hands. Since Lex has prepared such a delicious piece of tech for him, he might as well take full advantage of it.

Mad Hatter coughed and laughed. "BATMAN! Batman! Have you heard? I love her sooo much. She loves me very very much as well. Don't you agree?"

"Shut up! Fuck face!" Batman slapped a shield bot on his back and threw him toward Diana, "Hold on to him." He flew toward the barrier and touched it. The nanites from his suit dispersed around the barrier, humming with power as he controlled them to find the main source of the barrier. Even though it was a Kryptonian tech, he was fascinated with how powerful the barrier was. "Come on... Where are you hiding?" He mumbled to himself.

The explosion on the other hand had already destroyed the Lex Corp building and the flames were flying up high like a volcano. Their nanite suits were holding on just perfectly.

"It will not last."

Diana quickly controlled the nanite shield bot to cover Mad Hatter, just in case, to protect him. He can't die yet. She must keep him safe if she were to save those innocent victims.

'Bingo!' With his recent upgrades and the extra boost from his double suit nanites, he easily found the source. But the thing is there were three of them. Time was running out as the heat level continued to rise. He can only take one, maybe two...

"Selina... Lend me a hand, hurry!" Batman suddenly turned around and pointed her in the other direction, exactly opposite to his, "You see those two glowing green lights at the edge of the barrier?" He pointed at the small hidden shield device, disguised in an electric pole that connected the shield and the barrier system, surprisingly almost unharmed by the explosion. "Grab one, isolate it in the nano box. Hurry!"

Selina flew through the flaming inferno without a question. The nanites around her body were gleaming red-hot from the insanely increasing temperatures. While Bruce flew down toward the device on his side. He grabbed the device and isolated them in a box made from nanites and Selina too quickly captured it within a nano box as instructed.

"Alright, Skyler. Teleport us to the Underground Base," Bruce looked at his lightning ring. "Now!"

[Boooom!] An earth-shattering explosion went off. The fire vortex burst into the air and consumed everything like a demon of the pits of hell. The single device couldn't withstand the explosion and broke apart. Waves of flames swept in every direction, flattening and leveling the few buildings around them.

Luckily, Jarvis has already alerted Gordon about the situation as soon as it lost connection with Bruce and the others. So, they were able to evacuate the citizens far away from the site. But the damage to the surrounding infrastructures and property was just too high. That night the government put a bounty on Lex Luthor labeling him as a terrorist.

[Underground base]

"Whoahh..." Skyler sighed in relief. The teleportation was successful. Bruce, Diana, Selina, and yeah, Mad Hatter too were safe. "That was a close call, Bruce." She spoke through telepathy into Bruce's mind.

"Humff! Activate coolants and shut down the nanites. Fuck! That's hot!" Bruce opened his armor which was already overheated and suffered some damage. Then he quickly rushed over to Selina and Diana who were lying on the ground. They also deactivated their armor and stood up. "You two alright?"

"Yeah! I'm good. Phew! A bit late and we would have been barbecued without sauce," Selina opened a bottle of water and splashed her face.

"Pfftt! That would have tasted really bad..." Diana also grabbed a water bottle and splashed it on her face. "Well, what kind of flame was that? I have never seen or felt anything like that."

"Lex must have found it from that spaceship," Bruce replied as he slumped on the chair.

"Uuumm... Bruce..." Pamela who was waiting for them along with Alice and Oliver suddenly gasped. "Your mask..." She whispered.

'Huh?' Bruce touched his face, "What? Oh!" He just took off his armor due to overheating without looking around the room. Although he has nanites in his body, he just hasn't practiced enough with it. Bruce quickly stood up. However, Oliver stepped forward. "So, Bruce Wayne, huh? All these techs and cars... Now it makes sense why you had access to such cutting-edge technology."

"You brought them here?" Bruce raised his eyebrow while looking at Pamela. "I thought you took them to the Batcave."

"We haven't been in there for like forever. I thought you were talking about this base?" She replied. "Sorry..."

Bruce could only sigh. "Oh, well, not that it matters since we will be working together more often from now on."

"Yes! I agree with you," Diana added. "There must be a certain level of trust among us if we were to work together as a team."

"Ok, we can get to know each other later," Alice bent down on one of her knees and looked at the unconscious Mad Hatter on the floor, surrounded by the nanite shield bot with a bloodied face, "So, this is the fucker responsible for all these deaths?" She looked up at Bruce, "What are you planning to do with him?"

Bruce looked toward Pamela, "I guess, I will leave him to you. Find out where he is hiding the rest of the victims. We can not bring back the dead, but we can at least try to save if there are more of the victims alive..."

****

Ivy used her own ways to get everything out of Mad Hatter. Alice and the others spent the next few weeks gathering and freeing the captives from the numerous places of their nightmares. They saved a hundred and twenty victims, but sadly couldn't save them all... Some were too deep in their illusion. A few just wanted to stay and serve 'Alice'. While some took their own lives to escape their nightmares and some were just... Ivy put them to sleep painlessly in their dreamlands, it's the best she could do for them.

The fall of Lex Luthor was all over the news, but his whereabouts were still unknown to the world. Amanda Waller seized this opportunity to raid Lex's warehouses where he stored raw materials and weapons, plus she is now the sole owner of the spacecraft. With Lex out of the picture, she can take over all his research and everything related to it.

The construction began, a week later after the whole incident. The spot where once stood the Lex Corps has turned into a giant crater. It would take months to get everything up and running. Till then, the northern part of the Metropolis has been completely blocked off. The media keeps on reporting new conspiracies and theories day after day, but nothing has surfaced as of yet.

Bruce has begun to research the shield devices. And from the data he has gathered from one of the intact devices, he has successfully found a way to create his own. Right now, he's working on evolving his nanites to generate independent shields like this. He was way too much fascinated by this technology. It can block any and all types of hacking attempts and with an overdrive mode, any machine trapped within it will instantly shut down. If he's successful, then he won't have to worry about Cyborg's hacking system. Maybe he will add a small touch of his own, just in case because he knows that there are other Kryptonians out there. So, it might not be impossible for them to bypass the device. That's why, this time, he will be ready.

As for what happened to Mad Hatter. Well, the girls made sure to bring him out of his madness and then kill him in the most painful way possible. Then, they burned his body and threw it in the sewer.

****

[Location: Classified]

"Hufff! Cough! Cough!" A man in a half-burnt white suit coughed hard while panting on the ground. "What do you want from me?" He glanced back at the hazy yellow figure.

"Ah! A business man even in this situation. Right now, your situation doesn't look well. But I am sure a man of your caliber can turn his fate around..." The hazy figure flickered in the dimly lighted room as his red eyes stared down at him.

"Cut the shit out!" He stood up with a groan, "It's not like you saved me just for the sake of being a Good Samaritan... So, what do you want in return?"

"Yes. Indeed," The hazy figure glanced at another figure, "The location of the giant green crystal cave. You want your revenge? Get back a thousand folds of what you have lost? Give me the location and I will tell you a nifty little secret that you have been dying to know... You still are... The real identity of Batman."

****

[Far away in the darkness of the space]

A crack in the space appeared. It started to get larger, tearing open, slowly revealing a transparent ship inside the crack. It was not just any ship but a Warship, one that was lost thousands of years ago. Slowly the ship was pulled out from the crack in space-time and was ejected like a baby into the cold vastness of space.

Six more cracks in space-time slowly formed within the void of the blackness. Six more warships were pulled from inside those cracks and then closed behind them.

[Powering up]

[Cryo Sleep Cycle has been terminated. Awakening the occupants...]

Cryopods opened up one after another...

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Next Ch: 104: Barry Allen pt1 [Speedsters] 

Ch: 105: Barry Allen pt2 [Who is faster?]

Ch: 106: A day with Pamela 

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AN: This is the end of the daily release. I'll take a small break, and stockpile some chapters. Patreon as usual will get daily chapters. I need at least 8 more chs for another daily release.