American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

“Anti-Life Equation?” Stephen thought for a moment, then negated the answer himself before Luke could even reply.

He had fought Darkseid, the owner of the Anti-Life Equation, and experienced the power that could twist people's minds. In general, Stephen admitted the power of the Anti-Life Equation, but it wasn't enough to make Luke rush over.

Besides, anything that Luke thought would be effective for his project should be related to the project or at the same level. That kind of power and thing should be above even the Infinity Stones.

Luke stretched out his hand to Stephen: “Can you give me Bruce's dark side first?”

Stephen was a little stunned. He didn't seem to expect Luke to be interested in Bruce's dark side. He looked at Bruce, who didn't object, and immediately took out Bruce's dark side, which he had put away, stood up from the chair, and handed it to Luke. Then, he retreated to Bruce's side and watched Luke's actions with him.

The black sphere floated in the air in Luke's hand, and black sand-like metal permeated the air. They combined into tiny parts, and then pieced together an instrument like a horizontally placed hourglass on both the left and right sides. The center point of the hourglass was the dark sphere containing Bruce's dark side that Stephen had handed over.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the dark sphere was twisted and split open. The consciousness imprisoned inside turned into wisps of black mist, as if smelling the scent of freedom, and quickly overflowed from the cracked sphere, but soon they encountered a powerful obstacle. Layers of invisible barriers blocked them, and a force like a scalpel precisely cut them.

Two twisted phantoms were cut out, and two faces appeared in mid-air. One was the face of a young Wayne, with the black abyss mark still lingering on his body; the other was the Batman Who Laughs. He was more unlucky. As an outsider who actively merged with Bruce's dark side, he was also implicated by the abyss's attention summoned by the young Wayne.

It's hard to say whether this was in the Batman Who Laughs' plan, but he did use Bruce's dark side to expose himself to the abyss power of this universe and experience it firsthand.

Luke waved his hand, reabsorbing the young Wayne's share back into the dark sphere and re-imprisoning it. Then, the device that opened the sphere's seal and functioned as a miniature intelligent soul operating table also collapsed into hundreds of thousands of tiny parts in an instant, and then split again into black metal sand, covering Luke's left hand with a glove of unknown material.

“Here.” Luke tossed the dark sphere towards Bruce and Stephen.

“You came for him?” Stephen's Cloak of Levitation stretched out a corner of its fabric, wrapped the dark sphere, and obediently handed it to Stephen's side. Stephen looked at the dazed soul projection of the Batman Who Laughs in the void and asked.

“To be precise, I came for his memories and the mastermind behind him.” Luke corrected. The soul of the Batman Who Laughs was then compressed into a book the size of an A4 paper and as thick as a dictionary. His hand flipped back and forth on the soul projection of the Batman Who Laughs, as if flipping through a real book. The memories of the Batman Who Laughs at each stage were neatly arranged in the catalog according to time.

“There's someone behind him?” Stephen was stunned, his eyes swept across Bruce beside him, and he suddenly understood. He wasn't surprised by this, after all, any dimensional invasion usually had a mastermind behind it.

He and Bruce both wanted to ask more questions, but looking at Luke's focused look as he flipped through the book, they could only temporarily suppress their curiosity and desire to explore. Fortunately, Luke flipped through it quickly. Only a few seconds later, the book called Batman Who Laughs was closed again, obviously having been read by Luke.

“You read it so fast?” Stephen was shocked by Luke's efficiency. He had always been very confident in his memory and learning ability. Back then, he had stayed up late reading many of the magic books treasured by Kamar-Taj. But he had to admit that if he had Luke's reading speed back then, it would have been much easier for him.

“I'm not interested in his other memories. There's no need to waste my time on them.” Luke reached out and stroked the cover of the book, looked at Bruce and Stephen, shook the book in the air, and asked, “Is there anything you want to know?”

“No.” Bruce shook his head. In the dream, he had already browsed through the tragic experiences of how the other party became like this. He didn't want to recall that memory again, so as not to affect his current unstable mental state.

“I'm not interested in him either.” Since Bruce shook his head, Stephen was even less likely to actively read the book of the Batman Who Laughs. It had nothing to do with him, so why waste time?

“Then, the ownership of him belongs to me. I'll use him a bit, is that okay?” Luke looked at Bruce when he spoke.

“Of course.” Bruce understood what Luke meant. He guessed that Luke might do something inhumane to this soul next, and he was asking for his opinion as an alternate version of himself in advance. Although Bruce didn't think his objection would be meaningful and could stop anything, Luke showed his attitude, so of course he wouldn't be ignorant. The other party didn't touch his bottom line, did he?

“What are you going to do with him?” Stephen asked for Bruce.

“This is a very excellent material.” Luke gave the answer without hiding anything. “The crystallization after his death can open a channel for me to go to my destination. This is a pointing needle, Stephen.”

“Are your materials so, um, evil? Using souls as materials?” Bruce looked at the soul of the Batman Who Laughs, which was constantly deforming in Luke's hand, with a complicated expression.

“In the mystical world, the soul itself is a popular material! The more excellent the soul, the more it will be sought after! And dimensional demons such as Mephisto will constantly ponder a person's soul according to their own power attributes and sculpt it into the shape they want.” Stephen explained.

“I just feel a little strange in my heart. After all, it's another version of myself.” Bruce didn't have much sentimentality. Judging from the dream, those darkened versions of himself in other universes were obviously not good people. Each of them carried the wails of the destruction of a universe.

“That's normal. Haven't you noticed? You are simply the best fusion agent in these universes! Anyone can fuse with your soul, and any energy is also compatible with you. You are simply a ten-thousand-year-old adhesive.” Luke held a finished black pointer in his hand and glanced at Bruce with a strange look.

Bruce felt a chill all over his body from the interested research look in Luke's eyes. He was very afraid that Luke would suddenly say to him in the next moment: “Would you like to contribute your body as a material for me to study?” or something like that.

“Don't be nervous, I don't have the mind to study you. Your body data has already existed in my database since the first time. I'm just explaining your specialness to you. Look at those selves in the Dark Legion who have mastered strange power characteristics. Each one is a combination of someone's soul and power. Obviously, that mastermind thinks you are a very useful material.” Luke saw Bruce's nervousness and casually comforted him.

“The way you put it, I don't know what emotion to use to express it for a while.” Bruce smiled wryly.

Luke waved his finger, and a virtual furnace spewed out energy. A strong man's figure appeared from nothing, and then, under the stunned gaze of Bruce and Stephen, he threw an extremely illusory soul shadow into the body.

“Let him stay here for a while, I'll go see Becky. You can also chat with him.” Luke put away the black pointer, and then a door was neatly drawn in the air behind him. He reached out and pushed it open, and turned around to remind him when he stepped in.

“This is?” Watching Luke step into the space door, Bruce and Stephen's eyes fell on the third person on the field.

It was a face exactly like Bruce's. Luke also thoughtfully created a set of loose clothes like a patient's gown for him.

“Another you.” Stephen opened his mouth.

“Of course I know this is another me.” Bruce took a deep breath and pointed at the other person: “The question is, which me is he? I understand his technology is unreasonable, but what is this?”

“Ugh!” Patient Gown Bruce let out a soft grunt. He slowly opened his eyes, and then looked around vigilantly in an instant, until he saw Bruce and Stephen, and his body suddenly relaxed.

“I'm sorry for bringing trouble to you and your universe, Bruce.” Patient Gown Bruce looked at Bruce with some guilt and apologized before the two of them could speak.

“The Batman Who Laughs?” Stephen and Bruce looked at each other, then looked at Patient Gown Bruce and asked.

“I really don't want to hear that name from you. Because it always reminds me of that nightmare-like experience.” Patient Gown Bruce hugged his head and squatted down, his face in pain.

“What exactly is going on?” Bruce was a little confused. For a moment, he couldn't even tell whether his mental state was still normal.

“Obviously, Luke helped him recover to normal.” Stephen speculated. The illusory soul that was slapped into this body was the Batman Who Laughs after being extracted by Luke. According to the original attributes, this should be a chaotic dark personality soul combined with the Joker, but the current performance is so normal. If it is not a disguise, then it is obvious that Luke also helped him get rid of it when extracting the material he needed.

“Cognitive modification?” Bruce thought of a possibility. For example, Darkseid's Anti-Life Equation has the ability to distort people's consciousness, causing them to lose themselves or fall into another form. Based on his understanding of psionics, psionics also have a fairly high absolute priority in this regard. Then, in other words, it is not incomprehensible that Luke can modify people's cognition.

“No, I remember everything, I just returned to myself before being infected with the Joker virus.” Patient Gown Bruce denied Bruce's speculation. He didn't think his cognition had been modified, because he remembered everything.

“Are you sure your memory is real and has not been modified in any way?” Bruce expressed doubt.

“I am you, you should trust your own judgment.” Patient Gown Bruce looked strangely at himself, whose emotions were not very stable.

“This should not be a simple cognitive modification.” Stephen gave his conclusion after observation. His words also attracted the attention of the two Bruces, who turned their eyes to listen to Stephen's opinion.

“Emotions are easily affected by various factors. But like the Batman Who Laughs, who is connected to a powerful dark master and whose power characteristics are polluted and affected, simple cognitive modification cannot change his depravity.

Or rather, simple cognitive modification can only make him falsely awake for a moment, and then under the influence of power attributes, he will still fall and corrupt, becoming what the power attributes represent.” Stephen analyzed: “That method is a temporary solution, and it is difficult for the Batman Who Laughs to return to his true self.”

The two Bruces nodded slowly. This is like cutting a waterfall. If the subsequent water flow is not stopped from rushing down, the waterfall will not be cut off.

“So, rather than a cognitive modification, I think there is also a change in power attributes! A power opposite to that mastermind acts as a protective layer and a filter layer, protecting this Bruce's spirit and soul from being forcibly polluted again. Let him restore his original rationality and calmness.” Stephen continued: “And in terms of opposing energy attributes, this is Luke's most proficient field. He can always find a way to restrain any energy and create energy with opposing attributes.”

“But this does not prevent him from arbitrarily rewriting and twisting people's spirits and souls like those dimensional demons, does it?” Bruce narrowed his eyes, “The only difference between him and those dimensional demons is that those dimensional demons may only have one type of power attribute pollution, while Luke can combine and match them at will, allowing people to switch back and forth between the justice, darkness, chaos, and other camps.”

“I can't deny your words. But I don't think you need to worry too much about this. If he wants to, it will be difficult for you to stop him, won't it?” Stephen spread his hands. (End of this chapter)