Bruce Wayne received an invitation to a charity gala, signed "Alexander Luthor."
The gala was held inside LexCorp's Gotham branch, which had a dedicated reception hall for hosting banquets.
Batman immediately chose to go alone. He didn't bring anyone and didn't notify the Justice League.
At this time, he still thought this was an event he could resolve independently.
When he drove his valuable vintage car to the charity gala, he found Alexander Luthor standing at the entrance, specifically to greet him.
A sense of vigilance rose in Bruce's heart, but outwardly, he still displayed a professional smile and went forward to shake hands warmly with the other party.
"We haven't seen each other in a long time, Gotham's most famous business prodigy. Lately, you've been absent from all the parties."
Luthor greeted him with a similarly professional smile. As the heads of two prominent companies in neighboring cities, Luthor and Bruce were not strangers.
They occasionally conversed at business gatherings, and over time, they became quite familiar.
"What have you been busy with lately? I haven't seen your heroic presence in Gotham's newspapers for quite some time." Luthor teased.
Bruce said helplessly: "I'm getting old, perhaps it's time to settle down."
"Wow, these are words from Bruce Wayne. The ladies of Gotham must be very sad~"
Luthor stepped forward, affectionately patted him on the shoulder, and shook his hand again.
Bruce's expression changed slightly, but it was fleeting, as if it were just an illusion.
Luthor's expression remained unchanged throughout. He released his hand and led Bruce into the banquet.
"Don't be shy, enjoy yourself!"
"I will." Bruce said meaningfully, then walked into the banquet hall.
After enduring two hours, Bruce excused himself, citing discomfort, and left.
Once in his car, he sped back to the manor and headed straight for the Batcave.
"Any findings?" Alfred was still working in the Batcave.
Honestly, he was probably the only butler in the World who willingly worked overtime, and he was already so old.
Bruce pulled a small gadget from his pocket—a USB drive.
"I guess, a big harvest." Alfred said after seeing the item in his palm.
Bruce flipped the USB drive over and found words written on it: "Do not connect to the network!"
He immediately thought of the recent power grid system issue. LexCorp's laboratory was clearly using excessive electricity, but it wasn't showing up on the networked system, obviously due to tampering by some special program.
"Alfred, give me a computer that isn't connected to the network."
Alfred immediately found him a laptop. Bruce plugged in the USB drive, which contained several folders.
He immediately opened the folders and found video files and text documents.
He first opened the video files, which contained surveillance footage arranged in chronological order.
From the file naming convention, it should have been footage from inside the laboratory's surveillance cameras.
Bruce clicked on the first recording.
Initially, everything was normal, but a few minutes later, something resembling a teleportation portal appeared in the surveillance footage, and then an alien began to appear on the screen.
He was wearing silver armor, wielding a giant axe, and had two deformed horns on his head.
After him, many winged humanoid creatures appeared from the portal. They were similar in size to humans, but could fly, and were extremely bloodthirsty!
Due to the poor angle and subpar audio, Bruce couldn't clearly hear what they were saying.
But he could generally understand that Luthor and the alien had reached some kind of agreement.
Then he saw three regular hexahedral boxes appear in front of the armored alien, emitting a flash of light, and the video cut out.
Bruce didn't stop; he immediately clicked on the second file, which detailed the ultimate destination of all the lost electricity.
All this lost electrical energy ultimately went to one laboratory—S.T.A.R. Labs.
Bruce had vaguely realized that this matter was more serious than he had imagined. Even Luthor had to resort to this method to convey the message to him, which indicated that he was likely in a controlled state.
The biggest change in Bruce over the past few years has been that he finally learned to call for help when he shouldn't be showing off.
So he immediately contacted the Hall of Justice, and Dane and Cortana, who were on the Watchtower in low Earth orbit, picked up Batman's signal.
"Bruce?"
Bruce was concise: "I've run into a bit of trouble here; I need to meet you in person."
Dane thought for a moment. For Batman to proactively seek him out, it must be a major event he can't solve on his own, so he nodded: "I'll be right there."
He said to Cortana beside him: "You stay here for now and continue to fight that electronic consciousness. I must go to Gotham and see."
Cortana obediently agreed.
Dane arrived at the Batcave via the teleportation light and saw Bruce in a formal suit.
"What's so urgent?"
Bruce moved the laptop on the table in front of Dane, showing him the surveillance video.
"Your expression makes me feel like you know about this."
Dane's subtle change in expression was caught by him.
Bruce immediately pressed on: "You know who the guy in the video is, don't you?"
Dane didn't hide it and said directly: "Steppenwolf, one of the New Gods of Apokolips. I just met him recently."
Batman pinched the bridge of his nose, a flash of inspiration in his mind.
"Apokolips... I remember you mentioned this before..."
He was referring to the movie plots Dane had spoken of when he used to act like a psychic. So he still remembered? Dane had a prophet persona.
"That's right, this is the alien invader I once saw in a prophecy, but I originally thought he wouldn't appear again..."
"According to what I prophesied, Doomsday... that Kryptonian monster we encountered in St. Roch last time, would eventually kill Superman and perish with him."
Batman's face changed when he heard this.
"After Superman's death, the mother box would awaken from its slumber and summon Steppenwolf to this World."
"I originally thought that Clark had changed his own destiny, and Steppenwolf shouldn't appear again.
But I didn't expect him to come anyway, just as in the prophecy, though with some differences in detail."
In the original movie plot, Lex Luthor somehow learned in advance about Steppenwolf's arrival, but Dane was certain he hadn't had any contact with Steppenwolf.
However, in this World, the two of them had a deeper connection.
Although Lex Luthor seemed to be coerced, Dane didn't trust him.
Even if he still had his hair intact now, it was the same.
"...Who gave you this video?"
Something even Cortana couldn't get, Batman managed to obtain.
"It was Lex Luthor; he secretly gave it to me."
Dane looked him up and down and roughly understood how he got it.
So you see, Batman is his true identity, and Bruce Wayne is just his mask!
It was clear that Lex Luthor knew very well who he was. Fortunately, he didn't come asking for a Confundus Charm, otherwise, he wouldn't even have gotten this information.
But news that Lex Luthor proactively delivered... shouldn't he be more cautious?
"I understand the situation, but this matter shouldn't be rushed. There's something I haven't had time to tell you: there's more than one Doomsday."
"What did you say?"
This time, Batman couldn't sit still, and judging by Dane's expression, he had a bad hunch.
And Dane quickly confirmed his suspicion.
"I suspect Steppenwolf possesses a method to mass-produce Doomsday, and you probably don't know that the Doomsday in St. Roch was actually accidentally released by LexCorp."
...After transmitting the message to Bruce, Lex Luthor returned to S.T.A.R. Labs as if nothing had happened.
Steppenwolf had already taken over the place in his own way, turning it into an energy Base to power the mother box. All the electricity that had disappeared from Gotham City was transferred here.
"How much longer until we complete this work?" Lex Luthor inquired subtly.
But Steppenwolf just sneered: "Don't ask about what you shouldn't know, Human!"
Lex Luthor didn't mind the contempt in his tone. He had already grasped Steppenwolf's bottom line; he wouldn't kill him before his mission was truly completed.
At this moment, he was intensely curious about what the mother box truly was. He believed that Steppenwolf had come all the way to Earth not just to recharge three metal boxes.
These three mother boxes must hold secrets he didn't know...
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