Chapter 151: Merging of Actor Roles!
Gotham City is a fictional metropolis in DC Comics, best known as the home of Batman.
The night sky perpetually hangs heavy with clouds, bizarre Gothic architecture towers over the streets, and beneath the surface glamour, corruption and filth lurk in every dark alley.
This is Gotham City—one of the most crime-ridden cities in America.
The city had been relatively peaceful for eight years, ever since a caped vigilante allegedly killed Gotham's white knight, District Attorney Harvey Dent. This masked criminal, who called himself Batman, vanished without a trace that night.
Harvey Dent was posthumously recognized as a hero, and the Dent Act was passed in his honor. Over the past eight years, relying on this legislation, the Gotham City Police Department arrested nearly a thousand criminals, effectively ending organized crime in the city!
But on this particular day, the sudden appearance of a distinctive black vintage car meant that this world was destined for anything but continued peace.
Jake squinted slightly, rested for a moment in the driver's seat to recover from the dimensional transit, then opened his eyes.
He could generally withstand the disorientation of dimensional travel by now, but some world-jumps still brought varying degrees of physical sensation.
It was like being in a car—sometimes cruising on smooth asphalt, sometimes navigating a winding mountain road where the path wasn't just bumpy, but the turns came sharp and sudden.
This particular journey had involved some unexpectedly sharp turns.
However, when Jake opened his eyes fully, he was shocked to discover that Mia was nowhere to be seen—the passenger seat was completely empty!
What the hell happened?!
This was the first time anything like this had occurred. Had something gone catastrophically wrong during the dimensional transit?!
He immediately threw open the car door and stepped out, about to search for her, when a police officer approached him. "Sir, you really shouldn't park here."
Jake recognized this man instantly—Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who'd played Arthur in Inception. In this world, he was playing a beat cop, but Jake knew from the original timeline that this was John Blake, who would eventually become Robin, Batman's protégé.
"Sorry about that," Jake said quickly, raising his hand apologetically. "I just had a... special situation to deal with. I'll move it right away."
"Alright then." John Blake was slightly taken aback—it was rare to encounter someone from Gotham's wealthy elite who was actually polite and cooperative.
Thanks to the Dent Act, the city's police force had been fairly relaxed for years now, occasionally helping with traffic duty just to pass the time during their shifts.
However, just a few steps away, John suddenly realized something was off. The license plate on that vintage car hadn't looked like it was from Gotham!
But when he turned back around, he found the classic sedan had already driven off—and the license plate now definitely showed Gotham registration!
Was he seeing things? He rubbed his eyes, watching the car until it disappeared around a corner before shaking his head and moving on.
Jake turned the steering wheel sharply, maneuvering the car into a narrow side street before coming to a complete stop.
He was now absolutely certain he'd successfully entered the world of The Dark Knight Rises—and equally certain that Mia wasn't with him!
Taking out his phone, he prepared to jump back to The Princess Diaries world to check if Mia had somehow been left behind—this was no small matter.
DING—
As he pulled out his phone, an unexpected notification appeared on the screen.
"Identical actress detected for different role"
"Character replacement initiating... merging..."
"Success..."
Below the text, images of Mia Thermopolis and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) transformed into two thin streams of light, intertwining before finally merging together into a single unified image!
"What is this...?"
The phone, which hadn't shown any new capabilities in quite some time, was changing again?
Character merging?
Because the same actress was playing both roles, they were being merged? So was the merged person Catwoman, or Princess Mia?
The fusion of the two characters had to be centered around one of them. If it was Mia-dominant, that would be manageable—but if it was Catwoman-dominant, he wouldn't even know where to begin processing that loss.
The most critical thing right now was to find Mia—or rather, whoever she'd become—and figure out exactly what had happened.
He dismissed the pop-ups one by one, but then something even more unexpected occurred.
The phone projected a three-dimensional holographic display.
At the same time, the Red Queen's voice sounded in his earpiece. "My projection device has been forcibly hijacked."
"Can you detect what's causing the override?"
"Your phone. It emitted a unique electromagnetic wave signal and forcibly took control of my systems."
"Looks like my phone has more secrets than I thought." Jake watched as the holographic projection became clearer and clearer, eventually displaying a completely nude female figure rotating slowly before him.
And this woman was unmistakably Mia!
A series of prompts appeared on the phone screen, and Jake finally understood what was happening.
"I see." He nodded slowly in comprehension.
The purpose of the projection was to let him choose which of the two characters' personalities and memories should be dominant in the merged individual!
"Do I even need to think about it?" Although he felt somewhat guilty about Catwoman's inexplicable disappearance from this timeline, Jake didn't have any intention of abandoning his girlfriend.
He selected Mia as the dominant personality.
Surprisingly, the advantages and abilities of both characters were automatically combined in the merge.
For example, when filming The Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway had been very young—the film was released in 2001. However, when The Dark Knight Rises was filmed, it was eleven years after The Princess Diaries.
Therefore, the younger appearance became dominant—Mia's youthful face and body.
As a master thief and cat burglar, Selina Kyle possessed incredible agility, exceptional acrobatic skills, and expert combat training—completely overwhelming Mia Thermopolis, whose coordination had been practically nonexistent.
This merged body now incorporated all of Catwoman's physical abilities and skills.
The combined strengths of both characters created a theoretically perfect individual.
At this revelation, Jake's mind immediately began racing with possibilities.
If he brought Katniss Everdeen to the world of X-Men: First Class, would she merge with and become Mystique?
If he brought Matilda to the Star Wars universe or the Thor films, would she acquire those corresponding identities and abilities?
If he brought the one-armed Imperator Furiosa to the world of Prometheus, would she become young and beautiful again, and regain her missing arm? In the world of Snow White and the Huntsman, would she become the Queen with all her magical powers?
If all of this were truly possible, he could unknowingly assemble an incredibly powerful force under his command.
The simplest exploitation would be to find Henry Cavill, the actor who plays Superman, use hypnosis to make him a loyal follower, then bring him to the DC Extended Universe and have him merge with Superman—thus gaining the Man of Steel himself as a subordinate.
However, this was all just speculation. The potential side effects and limitations of character merging were still completely unclear.
The most important priority right now was finding Mia.
Would Mia, now merged with Catwoman's persona, continue doing the things the original Selina Kyle had been doing in this timeline?
"Excuse me, is today Harvey Dent Day?" Jake pulled up alongside a stylishly dressed woman and rolled down his window.
"Oh? Are you trying to pick me up?" the woman asked with an interested smile.
"If that's what you'd like to think, ma'am," Jake replied with deliberate ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying.
"Harvey Dent Day was yesterday, handsome." The attractive woman confidently walked toward the car, reaching for the door handle with a flirtatious smile.
The car immediately drove off, leaving her standing on the sidewalk looking confused and annoyed.
Jake didn't have time to flirt with random women when he couldn't even locate his own girlfriend.
He remembered from the original film timeline that on Harvey Dent Day, Catwoman had infiltrated Bruce Wayne's residence and stolen something valuable.
The necklace she'd stolen had contained one of Batman's tracking devices.
A skilled jewel thief operating in Gotham's underworld wouldn't be easy to find—but Bruce Wayne was extremely easy to locate.
There was another critical reason he had to act so quickly: in the original movie, Catwoman was eventually won over by Batman himself!
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