"Is this idea of yours... actually respectable?" Marcus asked warily.
"Absolutely." Roland thumped his chest. "Don't you trust my character?"
"Well..." Marcus thought it over. "No."
"You trust Zhu Bajie, but you don't trust me?" Roland felt deeply hurt.
"How could you insult my master like that?!"
Roland smiled and stroked Marcus's head. "I'll save the monkey head for a snack with my drinks..."
"Ahem... what I meant was, what ideas do you have for dealing with Batman?" Marcus hastily corrected himself.
"Of course I have one. Have you heard the story of A Christmas Carol?" Roland asked.
"Of course. The miser Scrooge is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve, and they gradually reawaken the warmth in his humanity." Marcus nodded. It was a famous work by Charles Dickens, so naturally he had read it.
"How about we arrange three ghosts for Old Bat too, and reawaken some warmth in his humanity?"
"The problem is, Batman isn't a miser." Marcus shook his head. "That story doesn't fit him at all."
"Says who?" Roland raised a finger and wagged it. "There's actually a ready-made A Christmas Carol script... though it might not do much to this guy. At most, it'll mess with his head."
"Then... shall we give it a try?" Marcus said after a moment's thought.
Gotham City.
"What brings you here?" Roland asked Shazam.
"Solomon wanted to see you," Shazam said, returning the Ten Rings to Roland. "He borrowed something from you last time and hadn't returned it yet."
"Oh, those." Roland nodded. "Got it."
Wait, why those? Dr. Roman was dumbfounded. Does this world have surprises lurking around every corner? Didn't God give him the Ten Rings? Why would this world's Solomon be "returning" them to Roland...?
Could he be...? A possibility occurred to Dr. Roman, and