Chapter 338: Contact
Accompanied by the landing of a black Batplane, the Old Master wearing a Batsuit and a scruffy-bearded Middle-Aged Man wearing a brown trench coat, with a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his mouth, walked down from the Batplane.
"Hmm, a strong Death Aura!"
"Can you confirm if it's a Dark Creature?" Batman looked at his "Old Friend" beside him! Although this Old Friend of his had exceptionally poor character, he was a top Black Magic Master.
"How could it be that fast? I need to collect some samples!" After the famous Black Magic Master of the DC Universe, John Constantine, grumbled,
he walked towards the scorched earth marks left by the battle.
He scooped up a handful of soil from the ground containing bone fragments, then took the cigarette from his mouth to use as a casting medium. He silently chanted a spell, causing the ash, like embers, to swirl and cover the scorched earth.
First, he formed a magic-isolating barrier. Then, Constantine took a tear-shaped gem pendant from his pocket. As he chanted strange, unknown spells, streams of black energy were drawn out from the bone fragments. The more black energy he collected, the brighter the radiance emitted by the gemstone in Constantine's hand.
"Bang"
Amidst Constantine's heartbroken cry of surprise, this magic item, which clearly looked very valuable, shattered into fragments, instantly covering Constantine's forehead with sweat.
"This isn't the Power of Death, nor is it the power of Hell or Heaven. Perhaps it's from some unknown Evil God!"
Batman looked at Constantine. A rarely seen serious expression appeared on the face of this Old Friend, who was usually cynical.
"Will this power have an influence on Earth!"
"Hard to say!" Constantine shook his head. When he was just collecting this power, he clearly felt a certain chill come over him.
"My suggestion is, you'd best not provoke them. In this power, I felt a cold death energy. Beings who wield this power often have bad tempers!"
"If I were you, you'd best release its minion!"
Constantine smoked his cigarette, offering Batman advice quite frankly.
"Not now. He brought information. Earth is facing danger. I'm gathering people, John, I need your help!"
"Come on. Earth is facing danger all the time. I'm not like you superheroes. I have many creditors 'upstairs' and 'downstairs'. If I can't deal with them, every day is the end of the world for me. This matter is done. Settle the money for me! Young Master!"
"The money has been transferred to your account!"
Batman continued to ask, "Are you sure this power poses no threat to Earth?"
"This power feels very distant to me, intermittent. Even if its master is very powerful, it's not in our dimension, so there's absolutely no need to worry!"
"Hmm."
Hearing Constantine's words, and recalling Star-Lord saying he was from Another Universe, Batman finally felt relieved.
"I'm gathering people, John. The crisis Earth is facing this time is significant. I need your help!"
Constantine didn't respond, seemingly not wanting to get involved.
"One million US dollars, plus one black magic item collected by Wayne Enterprises!"
Batman seemed to understand John Constantine well, knowing he was waiting for a better offer. The President/CEO of the wealthy Wayne Family directly spoke.
"Two million US dollars, and I want three things. I'll pick them from your collection!"
"Deal!"
Constantine glanced at Batman, who agreed readily, and suddenly felt he had asked for too little. He pursed his lips and said:
"How about three million US dollars instead?"
"I have an appointment!" Batman walked towards his Batplane.
John Constantine lit a cigarette and waved at Batman: "I'll visit your Batcave later!"
Watching the Batplane ascend and leave, Constantine's gaze began to linger over the scorched earth. A light of unconcealed greed shone in his eyes.
He licked his lips: "Evil Gods who are far away are the truly good targets. Being far away means this will be an excellent creditor. If I borrow a little power from him, he can't possibly come all the way across such a distant dimension to collect a debt just for this small amount of money, right!"
"This is much better than those stingy guys from Heaven and Hell. Haven't I only tricked them a few times? They're always staring at me like debt collectors!"
John Constantine muttered to himself as he pulled out a packet of unknown black powder from inside his trench coat. He drew a complex magic array on the scorched earth marks on the ground.
This was a magic trick he had tricked out of an ancient cult. It could connect to certain mysterious beings based on the aura they left behind.
In the magic world, the existence of these mysterious, supernatural creatures is often symbolic. If you establish contact with them, you can steal certain mysterious powers from them.
Of course, it's very difficult for ordinary people to achieve this. They might even be directly scared to death by the true form of these dimensional Evil Gods, and ordinary people also can't produce things that would impress these mysterious beings.
As for Constantine, he was an old hand. While drawing the magic array, he had even thought of the things he would use to make a deal with that unknown dimensional Evil God.
His soul!
Uh, although Constantine's soul had already been promised by him to at least a dozen Hell-Lords, dimensional Evil Gods, plus a few Angels from Heaven who were eyeing him, and even that Lord was waiting for him.
But with many debts, one doesn't worry. So many people eyeing him only showed that his soul had value. The more it was branded, the more it could incite the Demons' desire to fight over it.
Constantine had dealt with those Evil Gods and Demons for a long time and found that these guys were pretty much like humans, or even worse than humans.
He had used the possessiveness of these Evil Gods and Demons to trick them countless times. Even the famous Hell-Lord Lucifer had once been toyed with by him.
However, his behavior was like walking a tightrope. Once he lost balance, his fate would be a hundred times more miserable than souls burned by raging fire in Hell. That's why he desperately sought any power that could serve as his bargaining chip.
After drawing the magic array, Constantine felt inside his trench coat and pulled out a crystal gemstone identical to the one before. Streams of black energy occasionally rose within the gemstone, clearly showing he had tricked his Old Friend.
As Constantine placed the gemstone in the center of the magic array, he made magic gestures with his hands and began to mutter incantations.
Magic arrays simultaneously flashed with radiance on his arms and on the tattoos on his back.
Those were contracts Constantine had signed with certain ancient devils. He sold his soul to them in exchange for the ability to borrow the power of these ancient Demons.
An endless stream of magic power flowed through Constantine, the medium, into the magic array—
However, this time, the duration of the magic power infusion was unexpectedly long—
Marvel Universe Federation, New York, Sea Area near Manhattan. On the Deck of the 'Great Tang' super yacht, several dining tables were set, laden with various delicacies. Sliced and roasted white truffle emitted a special aroma.
Fatty tuna sashimi freshly cut from a recently caught bluefin tuna. The pink fish meat was wrapped in seaweed, and one bite was full of fresh, sweet taste.
Beluga sturgeon caviar, costing several thousand US dollars per box, was casually piled up on the side, like dipping sauce for a buffet.
Slices of Libyan ham, carved as thin as cicada wings, covered the plates.
And various freshly grilled seafood, brought onto the Deck by chefs as if in a flowing stream.
A group of long-legged Victoria's Secret supermodels wore bikinis. In front of them were champagne, red wine, and whiskey, various kinds of alcohol. They clustered around Tang Song and Scott Lang, listening to Ant-Man recount his adventure story from Another Universe.
According to Scott Lang, they had traveled through over a dozen Parallel Universes, encountering all sorts of strange life forms and many strange Worlds.
In these Universes were certain alien mechanical lifeforms that could transform into cars. They were infiltrating Earth, divided into two factions, fighting each other.
In one Parallel Universe, Vampires ruled Earth. Humans were raised like livestock for blood bags, reduced to mere animals.
In a Parallel Universe, humanity formed the Earth Federation, but they also had enemies. Human warships were at war in the Milky Way Galaxy with monsters called Zerg, the war extending across several star systems.
In some Parallel Universes, the entire Earth suffered a doomsday catastrophe. The land was submerged, and the World became a vast ocean. Recalling this adventure, Scott Lang downed half a glass of whiskey in one gulp, looked at Tang Song, his expression becoming increasingly bitter: "Mr. Tang, you don't know, we traveled through over a dozen Universes, collected a lot of data from Parallel Universes, and there were as many as seven Parallel Universes that encountered the end of the world. Floods, Frozen, Earthquakes, Robot rebellions, Earth always seems to be full of calamities!"
The Victoria's Secret supermodels nearby giggled, some holding seashell spoons tasting the delicious caviar, others gathered together savoring the expensive red wine in their cups. Clearly, they were listening to Scott Lang's adventure as if it were just a story.
Only three people were seriously listening to Ant-Man recount the Avengers' adventure experience. One was naturally Boss Tang,
He toyed with the whiskey wine glass in his hand, quietly listening to Scott Lang recount the Universes he had experienced, while comparing them with the plot in his distant memory.
Mechanical lifeforms that could transform into cars, Transformers? The war between the Zerg and the Earth Federation was clearly Starship Troopers.
As for the Parallel Universe where Vampires ruled Earth, Tang Song had some impression, but only some impression.
As for the several doomsday worlds, in his memory, there were at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, Hollywood films with this theme. Even though Tang Song's memory was superhuman, he really had no method to deduce what World it was from Scott Lang's bits and pieces.
On Tang Song's wrist, Artificial Intelligence Red Queen recorded Ant-Man's words one by one, analyzing the unique features of this Universe from these words.
In the future, these Universes might become the material providers for the Heavenly Palace he was building. Ding ding ding! Giselle held a knife and fork, cutting the medium-rare beef in front of her. The slightly trembling knife and fork clinked against the plate. A Latino Victoria's Secret supermodel nearby saw this scene, thought the sea breeze was making her body cold, and kindly draped a jacket over her.
"Thank you!"
Giselle looked up at the model beside her, wrapped the jacket tighter around herself, and at the same time declined her invitation to taste the caviar.
She continued to cut the steak in front of her with her dining knife. It wasn't that she had a special fondness for this piece of Wagyu, but rather that the dining knife was the only weapon she could get her hands on.
The reason she was trembling was that, using the micro-expression knowledge she had learned, she couldn't detect any sign of lying on the face of this man named Scott Lang.
If all of this was true, over a dozen Parallel Universes, the interests and secrets involved were unimaginable.
But why would he let them hear this, unless he wasn't worried at all that they would leak this information.
Giselle stole a glance at Tang Song's profile, thinking of the Female Agents he had mentioned who were sent to Alien Planets.
Her face pale, she gripped the dining knife in her hand tightly, feeling the slight, insignificant sense of security the cold metal brought her.
"Scott, you've experienced so many Universes. Based on my understanding of Tony and Captain, they aren't the type to stand by and do nothing. Didn't you think about helping those Universes that encountered doomsday catastrophe?"
Tang Song unhurriedly spread a spoonful of caviar onto a slice of bread. The salty, fresh, slightly fishy taste... hmm, truly not great.
"What could we do?" Scott gave a bitter smile: "In one Parallel Universe, Earth civilization developed extremely powerful artificial intelligence. Those artificial intelligence later developed self-awareness and instead imprisoned humanity, using them as batteries!"
"We once thought about interfering. Mr. Stark used his AI assistant to implant a virus inside those mechanical lifeforms, and we helped the Human Faction achieve victory!"
"But what we got in return wasn't gratitude. Earth had long been destroyed in the war between artificial intelligence and humanity. Nuclear clouds covered the sky everywhere. No one wanted to live in this World. They wanted to return to the Virtual World the mechanical lifeforms had constructed for them! We helped them achieve victory, but what we got in return was endless resentment!"
Scott Lang said this and took a big gulp of whiskey. It was clear that the Avengers team had faced considerable misunderstanding in that Parallel Universe.
Scott Lang recounted the efforts they had made in saving the Doomsday Parallel Universes. The results they got in return were not very ideal.
Moreover, their own Universe still had half the life in their own Universe waiting for them to save. So, after discussion among several people, they temporarily gave up interfering with these Parallel Universes in the later stages, and instead focused on finding their Target, the Parallel Universe that was Quantum Entangled with their Universe.
However, as Scott Lang described the Earth in that Parallel Universe, Tang Song's eyes grew brighter. Earth, having encountered a doomsday crisis, had the most steadfast faith at this time. Once a "God" saves them, they would be the best followers.
What a great bunch of Human Minerals!
"Hmm?" Suddenly, Tang Song's Divine Sense stirred. From the Depths of Hell, in the Netherworld Blood Sea that was currently being built, Blood Daoist suddenly sent him a piece of information.
DC Universe, Wayne Manor Batcave. This is Batman's main Base, and also the location of his advanced tech R&D base and medical base.
Every time he encountered a difficult enemy in Gotham City, when he was beaten half to death, he would return here to recuperate and formulate countermeasures.
With Wayne Enterprises existing, few people could defeat Batman, who possessed Cash Power, a second time.
This Batcave had always only been known to a few people, including Batman and his Butler.
However, after learning the origin of the Parademon Legion from Star-Lord, as well as the existence of Darkseid behind them, Batman began to look for helpers.
Batman took his private jet and traveled to various parts of the World within a few days, visiting many Old Friends. Under his Cash Power and years of accumulated connections, this hidden Batcave successively welcomed many Guests.
Wonder Woman Diana, Cyborg Victor Stone, Aquaman Arthur Curry, The Flash Barry Allen, Green Arrow Oliver Queen! When the several people arrived at Wayne Manor upon invitation, they were somewhat surprised to see each other. Most of the people present had heard of each other's names.
Once they gathered, it meant big trouble was coming.
"Mr. Wayne."
Bruce Wayne, wearing a suit, stood in front of the Batcave, welcoming the crowd.
The Flash Barry Allen, somewhat shy, waved a greeting. As the fastest man in the World, Barry Allen was also a seasoned nerd.
Bruce Wayne had also only found him based on some clues online.
Barry Allen walked to the Batcave, to the round table, pulled up a chair and sat down. He then saw Star-Lord across from him looking at him with an extremely friendly, even appreciative, or perhaps fanatical gaze.
The shy Barry Allen felt extremely uncomfortable under his gaze. He lowered his head and looked left and right, but didn't see anything wrong with his attire.
"Oh, Mr., my name is Barry Allen, hello!"
Barry Allen thought it was a politeness issue. He raised his hand and cautiously greeted Star-Lord.
"I'm Peter Quill! My friends call me Star-Lord. Nice to meet you, The Flash!"
Star-Lord enthusiastically stood up, holding a small notebook in his hand, and walked towards Barry Allen. "I'm your fan, could you sign an autograph? Can we take a photo together!"
Poor Barry Allen was momentarily overwhelmed by Star-Lord's enthusiasm. He stiffened his body and was pulled by Star-Lord for a selfie, then signed his name on the front of the photo.
Star-Lord held the instant camera he had 'scavenged' from the Batcave in one hand, looking at The Flash making a peace sign in the picture. He felt something was missing.
Looking at the photo, he suddenly slapped his head and said to Barry Allen: "The Flash, when you're wearing your suit, can we take another photo together!"
Where had Barry Allen, this socially anxious person, ever seen a socially confident person like Star-Lord? This was a top socially confident person who could even do awkward dancing in front of enemies.
"Oh, oh, okay!" Barry Allen's expression was one of bewilderment.
"Where did you find him?"
The woman who looked very similar to Giselle, standing side-by-side with Bruce Wayne, the Female Warrior from the Amazons, watched as Star-Lord, after 'tormenting' The Flash, then pulled Aquaman over for a photo.
She looked at her Old Friend.
Bruce Wayne said in a deep voice: "He said he is from Another Universe!"
"Hmm?" Diana's gaze sharpened. She solemnly sized up the unremarkable, greasy Middle-Aged Man in front of her, out of trust for her Old Friend, Bruce Wayne.
She had no suspicion that Bruce Wayne was lying to her.
Uh, after all, according to hearsay, Wonder Woman and Batman actually had a period of unknown past before.
"Is this the purpose you gathered us for? I don't see any threat from him?"
After Diana sized up Star-Lord, she turned her gaze towards Bruce Wayne, waiting for his explanation.
Bruce Wayne said in a deep voice: "He brought information. Earth is likely already facing a doomsday threat, which is why I gathered you!"
"Also, I need you to verify whether the matters he spoke of are true or false!"
Diana folded her arms, looked at Star-Lord walking towards her with the camera, smiled and nodded at him, and at the same time said to Bruce Wayne: "Leave it to me. My Lasso of Truth will make him speak the truth!"
(end of chapter)