The rise of comics

"Deal, what deal do you want to make with me?"

"A deal you want."

"Oh...?"

Savage's eyes met Bruce's for a long moment, and an upward smile gradually appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Tell me, Batman, what deal do I want?"

"Kryptonian ships, and Kryptonian technology."

"what?"

Before Savage could answer, Clark subconsciously asked.

"What are you talking about Batman, what does this have to do with Kryptonian ships and Kryptonian technology?"

"...Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

After Savage was stunned for a second, he burst into laughter without concealment.

After laughing for dozens of seconds, he stopped abruptly and looked at Bruce with an unpredictable expression on his face.

"So, what do you want from me?"

"I need the truth about the ancient war, the true origin of Gaia, and...where is the legendary magic lamp. And is there some kind of incompatibility between these and the so-called 'God'? Known connections.”

Bruce laid out all of this without changing his tone.

"Well...it seems that you have already explored all these things."

He nodded in appreciation, but Savage changed the subject and said.

"Actually, to be honest, you came faster than I thought. Now I really feel that you have become a bit like human guardians."

"Tell me about it, Batman."

"Why do you think I need to make this deal with you?"

"Isn't that what you're here for?"

Bruce asked rhetorically.

"You have created all this, and you have said so much suggestive nonsense. Isn't your purpose to point directly at the technical knowledge that Krypton left on the earth and the spacecraft they left behind?"

"Why is his goal Kryptonian technology?"

Cyborg questioned.

"Because he said it himself, there is nothing in this world that can make him feel interesting."

Bruce stared at Savage with a meaningful look on his face.

"Can't you see that Vandal Savage, who has lived for tens of thousands of years, is simply playing tricks on us here with the mentality of playing with the world, no... not just us, but all human beings on the earth, It’s the entire human civilization.’ After the guys who call themselves gods left this planet, human beings became more and more mediocre.’ Therefore, our great Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Genghis Khan incarnations also want to imitate the gods and leave this planet. It’s such a small and inconspicuous planet in the universe. I think the reason why he appeared in front of us before was probably not just because he wanted to see an ‘Ancient Roman Colosseum’ between superpowers, right?”

Taking a step forward, Bruce was almost in front of the glass panel.Stare at the man in front of you.

"But with his ability, it may not be difficult to leave the earth. Why wait until now?"

Cyborg was still a little confused.

"Leaving Earth and Krypton's technology are too different."

Bruce said slowly without looking back.

"Cyborg, you are responsible for the research and development of the Kryptonian technology provided by Superman. I think you should also understand that the Kryptonian civilization was much more brilliant than human beings. The Kryptonian civilization spent 10,000+ or ​​even several thousand years. It takes 10 years to reach the height it has grown to."

"In a sense, what is the difference between the Kryptonian civilization at its peak and the so-called [ancient gods] for humans?"

"But it is a pity that no matter how powerful a civilization is, it will decline one day."

A meaningful smile also appeared on the corner of Bruce's mouth.

"It's just that most of Krypton's knowledge has been fortunate enough to be preserved, and they are all on Earth now. I think that for Vandal Savage, he may have been waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity far beyond The glorious civilization of mankind... He did not leave with the gods thousands of years ago, but he has seen how powerful the existences that left countless legends were, and even..."

Bruce remembered the words of the honest male voice - 'an expedition team from a foreign land'

"That may even be just the tip of the iceberg."

Savage narrowed his eyes slightly and remained silent.

"But it's been almost three years since the Kryptonian invasion. If his target was Kryptonian technology, why didn't he take action earlier? And he didn't see any knowledge of this aspect in the last melee incident between ability users. What coveting performance?"

Martian Manhunter asked with a paralyzed expression.Although he tried hard to look puzzled.

"Didn't you listen to what our 'Great Emperor' said?"

Bruce shook his head.

"Time has no meaning at all to him."

"We thought we caught Vandal Savage and defeated him. But little did we know that there was a mysterious [Immortal Sect] behind this, and Vandal Savage was the founder of this organization. [Immortal Sect] exists. For thousands of years, and with such an immortal ruler, its penetration into human society may be far beyond our imagination. It has been three years since the establishment of the Justice League, but we even It was only today that I noticed a trace of this organization...Why is this? Perhaps, this is also part of Vandal Savage's plan."

Savage listened to all this without saying a word, and looked at Bruce with something different in his eyes.

"...You can associate so many things with just some fragmented clues and your own intuition. Batman, you are really interesting and good."

"It's been a long time since anyone has been worthy of the word 'appreciation' in my eyes. Perhaps you can be called the first in this century."

"You really don't care about these earth-shaking things that you have caused, right?"

Bruce was silent for a second and then asked again.

"Batman, I admit that your cleverness surprises me. Your guesses are basically consistent with the truth. Yes, all of this is actually my plan. As early as when the Kryptonians came to this world, I We have already started planning and taking actions in secret... I even calculated that one day, you will come back to this place in person and stand outside begging for mercy... Haha."

Vandal Savage looked at the people outside the isolation glass, his voice was still very calm, and there was a calm smile on his face.

"As you said, time is completely meaningless to me. Even if I am captured and 'imprisoned' by you, what will happen? My waiting and patience for all this are beyond your understanding. These three To me, five years is not even one day in my life. But I didn’t expect that you could figure out these things by yourself. Anyway, it’s no longer interesting to continue playing tricks on a bunch of idiots. "

Savage's expression gradually became cold.

"As for these 'earth-shaking' things in your mouth, haha... That's right. Whether it's inciting a war between those with abilities... or the incident in the Land of Ice Sculptures, these are just an 'appetizer'. Hundreds Ten thousand people? Don’t be kidding. You have no idea what kind of death I have seen. Even if all the billions of humans on this planet die, to me, it is just a number."

Savage's unconcerned expression caused different feelings of anger to rise in the hearts of the six people outside the glass panel.

"You twisted monster..."

If looks could kill, Oliver Queen's look at this moment would kill Savage at least hundreds of times.

"For thousands of years, humans on earth have not had a so-called [Guardian] for a long time."

Savage didn't care at all about the ugly expressions of the people in front of him.

On the contrary, his expression looked very happy and he smiled meaningfully.

"Since you are going to play this 'game', you must be prepared to accept the test accordingly. There will always be some people who want to be bad guys, right?"

At this moment, Vandal Savage looked to the people outside the isolation panel as if he had become the incarnation of some kind of extreme evil.

"And Gaia is the ultimate test I have prepared for you, the Justice League, and it is also the test question that those hypocritical 'gods' failed to pass. As I just said, like those 'magnificent and magnificent ancient times' 's war'... Thousands of years have passed since then, and this long, suspended war should also come to an end. Since you all want to protect mankind, the survival and destiny of this civilization now depend on It falls into your hands as you wish."

"You old immortal Bitchi!"

Constantine punched the glass, so angry that his eyebrows trembled.

"What do you think of human life?! Do you think we are all dolls controlled by you? You (beep——) (beep——), you are just like (beep——) (beep——), you Do you think you will be satisfied with all this? I will definitely hand you over to Mephistopheles and let him try all the tricks of hell on you, shit, Falk!"

"Calm down, Constantine."

Clark took a deep breath. Although he had never felt so angry before, as the leader of the Justice League, he knew at this moment that this could not be solved by simply abusing and hurting Savage, although... even if he had always been of good quality, He even wanted to curse at this moment.

"Master, are you qualified to talk about 'human life'? In your opinion, sacrificing a few people is noble, and sacrificing everyone is original sin? When you played with other people's lives, why didn't you think that it was also a human life?"

Savage didn't care at all about the berserk Constantine and taunted him instead.

'This guy... knows almost every one of us...'

An idea flashed through Bruce's mind.

"Stop it, Constantine. He won't be afraid of your threat. The reason why he can stand here and talk to us with such confidence is because he has defeated us. Now we only have this option, to put the Kryptonian spaceship and Give him the technology, let him leave the earth safely while gaining new knowledge, and then...in exchange for what we want to know."

Bruce tried to keep his tone as low and indifferent as ever.

"What? Bruce, do you really want to give him Kryptonian technology?"

Clark frowned, a hint of unspeakable complexity flashed across his expression.

"But that... is what I prepared for the future of mankind. Don't you know? The reason why I am unwilling to disclose Kryptonian technology, and I have not even agreed to some of the government's requests, is because mankind is not ready yet. To be able to accept it.”

After a pause, he looked at Savage behind the glass panel, his eyes filled with disgust and anger.

"If Kryptonian technology is put into his hands, it will be a disaster."

"But if we fail Vandal Savage, there will be no future for humanity."

Bruce replied.

"We have no choice but to do it for the sake of humanity."

"Perhaps... I can try to use Kryptonian technology to create some related weapons to use against Gaia."

Cyborg hesitated.

"You know, we don't have this time now. Even if we hand the blueprints to you, we won't be able to create a weapon of this power level in just a short while. Even if you improvise something like a certain Plant antimatter aggregates like 'planetary bombs', and the result will be that we and Gaia will be buried together."

Bruce interrupted Cyborg's imagination without any hesitation.

“…”

Cyborg fell silent. He knew that Bruce was right. Even his computer brain was telling him through different simulation operations that the risk of doing so was too high.

Since the establishment of the Justice League, although technological research and development has usually been followed up and researched by it, they never thought that an enemy of Gaia's level would appear in such a short period of time. Although the gradual technological research and development has It can be said that it is decades ahead of human society, but the only few epoch-making technologies are the hyperspace teleportation device and some small-scale experimental projects, and these things cannot be used against Gaia. In other words, they cannot evaluate the consequences. If the operation is wrong, it is likely to be self-defeating, and only bigger problems will arise.So when calculating the 'defense strategy' before, Cyborg didn't even include this aspect.

"Have we discussed it? Since you are sincere in doing this deal with me, then do it as soon as possible. After all, I think our 'Mr. Earth' will not wait for you to be fully prepared before looking for trouble."

"And I, yes, I have prepared a glimmer of opportunity for you, but whether you can seize it and whether you can use it to defeat Gaia... depends on how capable your Justice League is."

Crossing his arms, Vandal Savage drank the water in the glass in his hand and threw it lightly. The water glass fell to the ground and turned into a puddle of shattered glass residue with a crisp shattering sound.

.....