31 Batman in the Backrooms

Blinking under the harsh florescent light, Batman remained calm and still as he glanced around the unfamiliar dimension that his mother box had deposited him into. Having thought of a place that was inescapable and devoid of life while using the cube, the resulting destination appeared to be a sprawling labyrinth of office rooms with faded yellow wallpaper, moist, moldy carpeting, and strong, incessantly-buzzing florescent light fixtures.

Breathing sharply, Bruce let the smoldering mother box in his hand drop to the floor, the interdimensional travel device now useless. Taking a cautious few steps forward, the billionaire superhero peered around a corner, only to be greeted with more yellow-wallpapered hallways and rooms sprawling out ahead.

"Dammit, Bat-brain, where the hell did you send us?!" Harley Quinn demanded as she crossed her arms.

"You weren't supposed to go with me, I was trying to take the bald clown here so that the world would be safe from him," Batman replied flatly as his eyes carefully scanned the seemingly-endless maze of fluorescent-lit rooms before them. "The air in this place appears to be breathable, although it reeks of mildew. These lights indicate an electric source, and this entire structure is presumably artificial, of course. That is, assuming that the same laws of physics of our world apply."

"You're over thinking things, this is just one big building, duuuhh," the jester girl mocked as she began to walk in a random direction. "All we gotta do is find the exit, I mean how hard can that be?"

"I'd slow down, if I were you," the skilled detective warned as he watched Harley disappear around the corner. "The layout of this place is random and sporadic. It wasn't designed by anything intelligent. Who knows how far it goes."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks for worrying," the villain replied sarcastically as she found herself in another yellow room, the damp carpet squishing beneath her feet. "So what do you think of my new boss anyway? He sure messed you guys at the Justice League up."

"He's a danger to the entire planet, possibly the entire universe, and thanks to you, he's still there," Batman answered sharply as he slowly entered the next room, his gloved hand running up the faded wallpaper of one of the sides. "This place would have made the perfect prison, I'd like to see him try and get out of here even if he killed me."

Suddenly, the bat-themed superhero found himself hearing nothing but the constant buzzing of the fluorescent lights that lit the place. His heavy boots sinking into the moist floor, Bruce marched forward to where he thought he'd seen the villainous woman disappear to, only to find the next room empty save for the same, dreary wallpaper.

"Harley? Where did you run off to?" Batman yelled, his voice echoing far off into the distance between the winding rooms.

"Huh? How the hell are you all the way over there?" Harley's distant voice replied from what sounded like hundreds of feet behind where Bruce was standing.

"You were right in front of me, you turned a corner, and now you're suddenly half a mile behind me?" Batman wondered aloud as he clutched his pointy-eared mask. "This place doesn't behave the way that a normal building would. Listen, Quinn, I know we aren't the biggest fans of each other, but straying too far could end with one of us becoming hopelessly lost."

"So?! This is my chance to get away from you!" the jester criminal's voice laughed manically as it grew more distant. "Later, Bat-dork!!"

Sighing, Batman shook his head before turning on the cowl lenses within his mask. Immediately, the caped crusader was able to see through every one of the many walls in front him, where he felt a very slight bit of worry as he could see that the expansive maze of offices seemed to stretch out farther than the eye could see. Turning around, he could vaguely see Harley through a distant wall, before she vanished from sight.

"I am not going to like this place," Batman shuddered as he winced at the blinding light from overhead. "There has to be a way out of here. Think, Bruce, think."

Slumping down against one of the drab walls, the dark knight closed his eyes as he tuned the incessant buzzing out so that he could clear his mind. Batman wasn't sure if there even was a way to exit the bizarre realm, but as long as Saitama remained back on Earth, he knew he couldn't give up on escaping.

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Meanwhile, the caped baldy and his flame-wielding sidekick were relaxing on one of Dominica's beaches, where the two of them drank pitchers of cheap fruit punch while a large, bubbling hotpot sat on a table between them.

"This is the life, isn't it, Dabi?" Saitama asked as he brushed some sand from his grey suit.

"You're bored, aren't you?" Dabi replied as he idly lit several buzzing flies on fire with his hand. "You have that cube thing that lets you go anywhere in the universe, why don't you just try going to a dimension that has someone really strong in it?"

"You know, I was thinking about saving that later, but maybe once I get a real fight under my belt, I can calm down and relax HAHA!" the bald clown exclaimed with a snap of his bare fingers. "Yes, Yes maybe this was just confirmation that I need to do that."

Standing up, the caped villain retrieved the mother box from his suit pocket and held it up into the air.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you," he said with a shrug to Dabi. "Make sure the zombies don't get into trouble. Toodles, HAHA."

With a brilliant flash of blue light, a boom tube opened up below the bald man and Saitama casually jumped into it, before the rip in reality promptly closed a second later.

Unbeknownst to Dabi, who remained sitting on his beach chair, Atom had watched the scene unfold from a leaf. Shrunken down to the size of an aphid, Ray Palmer realized that the villain who'd obliterated the ranks of the Justice League was apparently off-planet.

"Hey, it's Ray," Atom spoke into his communicator. "I think we might have an opportunity here!"