Chapter 26: Beware of the Kangaroos!

It is worth mentioning that the action sequences in this animation are quite well-executed.

Elias, manifesting as the Phantom Lantern, engages in a back-and-forth battle with a massive monster outside a skyscraper. The spectacle is so cool that it hardly feels like a show for all ages, and the music during the climax is equally impressive. When the Book of Fate strikes the monster’s skull, causing it to collapse with a thunderous crash, Gale, watching from outside the screen, almost instinctively starts to applaud—

That is, if the villainous monster in the video wasn't a giant, super-sized kangaroo.

Seriously, why would a giant kangaroo appear in Metropolis?! Don't you people living in this cartoon find that strange?!

The people of Metropolis in the animation clearly do not care about such details.

Upon seeing the villain defeated, they immediately crowd around Elias to cheer. Elias, surrounded by them, stands tall with a sense of pride and joy, muttering to himself: "Although I am not good at English or spells, I excel in other areas. Social skills do not determine whether a person is successful or not."

The interviewer who had just rejected him is also among the celebrating crowd.

**

Hearing this, Gale pauses for a moment, then realizes that in reality, Elias would never have such worries.

Well, that’s fine then.

**

The animated Elias on screen glances at the giant kangaroo lying on the ground, frowns imperceptibly, and then walks away with a light step amidst the cheering crowds.

The scene then flashes, and the camera cuts to the inside of the giant kangaroo.

—It turns out to be a mechanical kangaroo! Inside its bloated abdominal cavity are flickering blue computers and circuit boards. The person remotely controlling it is none other than the animated version of Gale Esposito. A boy with brown skin, earrings, and messy black hair sits in a dimly lit room, observing Elias's back through a telescope.

"Excellent," he says in a villainous tone, "Father has already stepped one foot into the trap."

The voice is accompanied by a shadow cast from the upper diagonal of the camera, intended to heighten the terrifying atmosphere.

Real-world Gale: "..."

Before he can comment on his own villainous tone in the animation, the plot continues. The AI in the computer in front of the animated Gale asks: "Pardon me, sir, why are you targeting your father?"

"Does it need a reason?"

"A typical child would not do such a thing, sir."

"Fine, I'll tell you then." Gale, who seems to have been waiting for this chance to complain, immediately shouts, "Because he doesn't love me! He is a negligent father!"

"When I wanted butter-flavored chips as a child, he bought me garlic-flavored ones!"

The screen shows a chibi-Gale crying after being choked by the scent of garlic.

"He lied to me that I didn't have to go to school the next day, only to move me to the school gate in the middle of the night while I was asleep!"

As night falls, Elias is seen sneakingly carrying a child’s bed under the stars to the school entrance.

"That's not the end of it. When I asked him why everyone else has a mother and I don't, he told me it was because I was picked up from a trash can!"

"I asked him why Batman has Robin, and why I can't be the Phantom Lantern's Robin. The next day, he found Black Lightning and had the school give us extra homework!!"

"Just because I went out with Superboy on the weekend to fight crime, he lectured me in front of everyone at the Justice League headquarters and confiscated my weapon—a birthday gift he gave me when I was six! He promised he would never take it from me!"

The boy drops his shoulders and says angrily: "He hates me, and I hate him too. Just you wait, I will prove his theory is wrong."

The AI asks: "How are you going to prove it?"

"Keep watching and you'll find out."

**

What is this! Look at what you are playing!!

Outside the screen, the real Gale can no longer stand it and presses the pause button!

He stands up and begins to pace back and forth anxiously. During this process, every time he catches a glimpse of the animated Gale on the screen and recalls his earth-shattering remarks, he feels as if his soul is cracking from his crown to his toes!

When he saw the out-of-character Elias in the animation, Gale only felt schadenfreude.

Now that it’s his turn, he can no longer find the joy. His scalp tingles and his eyelids twitch; he suspects that the audience comments for this video must be roaring with laughter right now. Once this absurd revisionist history is broadcast, what will those who have only seen the animation and not the comics think? What will those who watch the animation after reading the comics think? From now on, whenever people mention Gale, they will only ever think of him wailing over garlic chips and his failing grade books!

After a long time, Gale gradually calms down, wipes his face, and thinks: I hope the comics sell well and the animation never gets approved for broadcast.

He sits back down, originally intending to finish the long first episode in one go, but feels a wave of dizziness in his brain, and a white light appears at the edge of his vision—his body is waking up from his sleep.

The dream's gift has ended.

The moment Gale opens his eyes in reality, the local time is five o'clock in the afternoon. In the Southern Hemisphere, July and August are winter, so the sun is already setting. Gale, suffering from a jet-lag-induced headache, walks unsteadily to the floor-to-ceiling window of the hotel and looks out. He happens to see the endless, rose-tinted Timor Sea under the sunset, with the coastline overgrown with wild grass and a few wild crocodiles lounging lazily in the middle of a rarely used driveway.

No kangaroos.

This makes Gale breathe a sigh of relief.

He suspects that the dream has made him a bit paranoid. The animated Gale riding a kangaroo... or rather, manipulating a kangaroo to attack Metropolis, is probably just a coincidence. In reality, who would have the spare time to do such a thing?

As for Elias... Gale forces himself not to think about the "prophecy" left by the Lord of Fate. Perhaps he is destined to return to Garfield High in Suicide Slum next Monday, but at least until then, he is free. The International Gang's expenses have recently exceeded their income, mainly because the boss spends money lavishly—for instance, the Batmobile he just bought at a high price from Red Hood exploded in the blink of an eye. The finance department is frantic, begging Gale to either spend less or replace himself with an AI.

Gale believes in increasing revenue rather than cutting costs.

Northern Australia has famous oil and mining regions that attract many wealthy people from Europe and Greece. Perhaps he will have a chance to strike a deal with these people, breathe some life back into the International Gang's finances, and prepare for future developments in the process.

**

Elias receives an interview notice. It is the only notification he has received in days, so much so that he almost thinks he misread it when he opens the email. Yesterday, he had put all his energy into practicing magic, and the results of his training were fruitful: Ophelia is now able to wake up for a few hours every day.

Batman sends a message in his busy schedule, telling Elias that "that talkative Spider-Man has successfully returned to his own universe."

To be honest, Elias feels that all Spider-Men are talkative, and he doesn't know which one Batman is referring to.

This message is sent to Elias's work email. The interview notice is right next to Batman's email, the latter of which was automatically marked as urgent—this is one of the reasons Elias almost overlooked the former.

**

Batman also asks in the letter: "Does the Phantom Lantern have contact information?"

That is like asking my left hand, 'Does your right hand have a separate phone number?'

Elias replies: "...No."

Batman does not ask any further, only saying that Green Lantern Hal Jordan has been wanting to have a "private" chat with Elias. The last time they met at Elias's doorstep, the Phantom Lantern was called out by Spider-Man to test magic, which meant the Green Lantern never found a chance to talk to Elias’s other persona about the Yellow Lantern ring.

At this point, Elias realizes his schedule is packed. He has to continue chanting spells in his spare time to try to send all the Spider-Men back home, and he also has to prepare for the upcoming job interview. Once the interview is over, he has to go to Gale’s school to see Black Lightning, and it would be best if he could enroll Ophelia at the same time—Elias realizes that it is inappropriate to keep a child of school age at home all day.

Even without mentioning the need to make up for common sense and socialization, keeping the little girl indoors for long periods is a mental torture for her old father.

Elias thinks he really needs some uninterrupted personal time; whenever he has a moment of leisure lately, he can't help but miss the good old days when he was a free bachelor.

—Wait, he seems to be a bachelor now, too.

How can someone transition into the pain of family life before ever enjoying the sweetness of love?

Elias is utterly baffled. He tells Ophelia about his arrangements while she is awake, but to his surprise, he encounters her strong protest.

"I don't want to go to school, Father." She pleads in a pitiful, small voice, "Can I not go to school? Maybe you can teach me at home?"

Elias refuses without a second thought: "No."

This time, his attitude is unusually firm. He lets Ophelia throw tantrums, cry, or play the victim, and when he feels he can't hold on, he stands outside the door in the cold wind, listening to the sound of the little girl sobbing and hiccuping inside.

His upstairs neighbor, smoking a cigarette, looks at him with pity and says: "Raising kids isn't easy, is it?"

Elias has a headache. He knows why Ophelia doesn't want to go to school: she is still afraid of crowded places, and her previous experience in Gotham not only failed to alleviate her PTSD but added new symptoms—now, she is not only afraid of meeting strangers but also fears physical contact with others.

Once, while eating, Elias accidentally touched her hand while passing the cutlery, and Ophelia shuddered violently, looking around in a panic to see if there was another father from a parallel universe in the house.

Perhaps in other families, qualified parents would give her time to adapt slowly. But Elias is not sure what the right thing to do is; he has never seen a situation as complex as theirs.

He only knows that if Ophelia continues to avoid it, she will never be able to overcome her fear. As she grows into an adult, she will become disconnected from modern society, forced to live in a cramped space, unable to bridge the gap between herself and others no matter how much she longs for the outside world.

Of course, Elias does not mean that Ophelia must become an extrovert.

He just hopes she will have the ability to make her own choices.

He can take care of her now, so being disconnected from society doesn't matter, but who can say what will happen in the future?

Therefore, whether Ophelia wants to go to school or not, she must go.

As for the job Elias is interviewing for, it is ordinary and unremarkable—specifically, working as a cashier at a small supermarket. He has heard that the supermarket's staff includes Americans, Indians, Asians, and Eskimos, so their Chinese boss is very tolerant of poor English. Knowing that Elias cannot provide identification does not bother him either; he promises that if he passes the interview, he can work on weekends, get paid in cash, though the wage will be slightly lower than the others.