The summer sun shines brightly in Metropolis, so scorching that every glass object on the streets reflected a dazzling glow. The heat waves on the tarmac were visible to the naked eye, trapping people like coagulated jelly.
A young man wearing black-rimmed glasses hurriedly crossed the zebra crossing. Although he was dressed formally and had a briefcase slung over his shoulder, he did not seem to be heading to work. Because he was leading a dog with one hand and holding a black cat with the other.
And yet, he walked into a small newspaper office located in the west of Metropolis in this manner. As he passed beneath a nondescript office sign and was about to walk into the office, a scream rang out.
"Clark, oh my God! Are these your dog and cat? Ahhh! You guys, come see, he really did bring them!"
Clark turned to see who he thought was just Lois standing at the staircase. But seconds later, a gaggle of women rushed out from the top of the stairs, their shrieks nonstop. Little Kryptonite's head was pet eighteen times in one second, and Bat Cat couldn't escape either.
"Ah, yes, this is Little Kryptonite, and this is Little Bruce. I came to deliver something, Lois, the information you wanted."
As he spoke, Clark took a file from his bag and handed it to Lois, who shook her head and said, "I told you I wasn't in a hurry. You could have brought it when you came to work tomorrow. This isn't the Metropolis Daily anymore."
"We all feel that it's a shame." Clark sighed, "You're such an exceptional journalist and you're stuck in this small newspaper office."
"It's okay, it was my choice. You should work hard; otherwise, you won't be able to afford your pets. Oh, right, someone called looking for you earlier. Do you want to call him back?"
"He called here? Did I give a client the wrong number? Give me his number, I'll call him back when I get home."
Clark took the number from Lois and didn't think much of it when he saw that it was a stranger. After dialling the number, he was about to apologize when he heard a familiar voice.
"Hello, Clark, it's Bruce. I need a favor. Actually, it's something for you, Diana, and Hal, but they're both not at the base right now, and your phone's unreachable. I could only call Lois to reach you."
"Oh, I'm sorry, some hackers got my private number and kept prank calling so I had to turn it off. Next time you need something, just say my full name then start speaking to the air, I'll hear."
"Well, have you seen the show 'Millionaire'? We ran into an issue. The black diamond that I thought was very ordinary actually contains some kind of powerful force. A vampire attack has occurred in London, and there's chaos in the magical realm. Now both parties want the black diamond."
"You know, neither the vampires nor the mages can be relied on to care about ordinary people's feelings. I hope you three can assist in the retrieval of the black diamond so that ordinary people holding them wouldn't be attacked, and to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands."
"Oh my." said Clark. "Why didn't you inform me about this earlier?"
Then he remembered that his phone was off and Bruce couldn't get through, so he didn't comment, "I could handle this myself". Instead, he sighed and said, "I'll fetch Hal and Diana now. It's better not to throw any dangerous things around in the future."
"Yes, this is my mistake. It's all on you now. Goodbye."
After hanging up, Bat Cat hopped onto the table and snorted, "What trouble did that guy find for you now?"
Although it was a question, the tone was very affirmative. But Clark was used to this by now; he said to himself, "I need to find those black diamonds. However, I've never seen them before, seems like I'll have to find Diana for this."
But before Clark could find Diana, she found him. Her face was extremely serious; Clark was preparing a meal for Little Kryptonite in the kitchen while listening to Diana recounting her recent experiences.
Dick from the other universe and I visited my brother's palace. I persuaded the Fire God's Crown to open the warehouse, although Dick wasn't distracted by the divine artifacts. He simply chose a few delicate ones based on his combat style and didn't care for the precious but cumbersome items."
"He's quite favored by my brother. Hephaestus thinks he's a reliable and not greedy person. They enjoyed each other's company. I was quite pleased as well, however, just then, Messenger Hermes from Olympus brought me bad news."
"My arch-nemesis Witch Circe is looking for a black diamond with a powerful force. She calls it the Eclipse. She claims it's the Spirit of Wrath which caused the flood during God's creation and she wishes to obtain its power to bring destruction and disaster back to the world."
"In fact, since the Omen descended, Circe has been collecting it. She now possesses more than a hundred fragments. She saw the clip of Bruce Wayne asking the commoners to collect black diamonds from his participation in a variety show, so she believes that Bruce may already realize the preciousness of black diamonds and possibly even have a significant number of fragments."
"So, Bruce is her next target?" Clark widened his eyes and asked.
"Very likely. The magical realm is facing an unprecedented catastrophe; the mages can't stand against this chaos. We're the only ones who can help."
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go."
Diana shook her head and said, "The power of the Eclipse is very powerful. Anyone who touches it with their bare hands might be mentally influenced. The green lantern energy that Hal possesses can block this effect. He plans to craft a few pairs of special gloves using the green lantern energy so that we can safely touch the Eclipse fragments."
At the space station base beyond Earth, Hal, who was in the midst of attempting to create gloves out of green lantern energy, received a call.
"Hello, Professor Shearer, what's up? I'm at the base of the space station, goodness, have you also heard about this? Yes, we are in the process of taking care of this matter."
Hal lowered his head, switched the phone to his other hand, and then said: "Diana is planning to collect these fragments globally, at least more than those found by Witch Circe, so that her scheme will not succeed."
"However, even when Diana and Clark touch these fragments, they need to be careful. I'm planning to create a pair of gloves made of green lantern energy for them...What? You also want one? Oh, your friend got a piece, and you want to research more?"
"Alright, alright, I know I shouldn't remind you that this is dangerous, what could be more dangerous than you? But I still need to say it, don't let ordinary people touch it... I will make the gloves as soon as possible, and I will fly over to deliver them to you when they're ready. Okay, that's it, goodbye."
After Shearer hung up the phone, he turned to look at a man behind him. The man was dressed in a long brown coat, his collar was erected, and his face revealed typical Slavic features. His eyes were sunken, and his eyebrows were raised. This was the deputy director of the KGB Eleventh Bureau, Petrov, who had previously returned Shearer's medal.
"The gloves that will allow you to touch the Black Diamond will arrive soon. Until then, keep an eye on all the confirmed targets holding the Black Diamond. Don't let them out of your sight. Once they go berserk, stop them remotely, and don't let anyone get close to the Black Diamond."
"Don't worry, Director. Under your leadership, the Eleventh Bureau has been collecting various powerful items from around the world for many years. Our comrades are very familiar with similar processes. As soon as the containment artifacts arrive, we will immediately take action."
Meanwhile, in Wayne Manor, Damian, who had just finished a day of school, threw his school bag onto the couch as soon as he got home, and quickly ran into Aisha's room where Aisha, Harley, and Jason were gathered.
"Why are you just back now? Hurry, hurry, hurry, we thought of a new method that will definitely be faster than having Thomas look."
"What do you plan to do?" As Damian sat down, he said, "Thomas has been keeping a close eye on me these past few days. He doesn't let me go out at night to find fragments, but I'm sure there are fragments scattered around Gotham."
"As I said, stop trying to find them on your own. We are only a few people, even if we search every day, when will we be able to find a thousand pieces?" Harley crossed her arms and said: "You need to use your brain!"
"What do you plan to do?" Damian asked with some curiosity.
"You remember how Arkham Mental Hospital used to be a gathering and communication place for mercenaries, right? Can't we pay to post a job there and have those mercenaries help us find the fragments?"
Damian raised an eyebrow and after thinking for a bit, he said: "That makes sense, but where are we going to get the money? The rewards for those top-tier mercenaries should be quite expensive, right?"
"Indeed, which is why my money definitely isn't enough. Last time, I managed to get Deathstroke's help because he owed me a favor, but this time won't cut it. However, don't forget where we are and how much Thomas likes you. If you ask him for pocket money, would he refuse?"
"But I can't ask him for pocket money." Damian pursed his lips, looking somewhat troubled: "How can I... I can't..."
Ten minutes later, Thomas looked helplessly in his office at the four little heads looking up at him. He reached out and patted each one on the head, then said: "Alright, it's better to give you all money to spend than to give it to that spendthrift, Bruce... Moray! Moray! Help me prepare a card!"
Harley signaled toward Damian with a "I told you so" gesture, to which Damian could only respond by rolling his eyes.
After leaving Thomas's office, Damian asked: "Harley, who are you planning to hire with this money?"
"Of course, the strongest mercenaries."
And so, the battle over the spirit of God's wrath, also known as eclipse fragments, was quietly taking place in a hidden world, unbeknownst to ordinary people.
A thousand fragments may sound like a lot, but under the search of the experienced and skilled forces, most of the fragments had nowhere to hide, and their exact locations and holders gradually surfaced.
However, as the battle became more intense, these individuals inevitably met on various occasions. Due to the fixed number of fragments, you have more and I have less, a zero-sum game. Everyone wanted to keep what they had while trying to seize more fragments from others, which turned confrontations into frequent occurrences.
Progress came first from Zatanna, her antilanguage magic was extremely unreasonable. It was incantation free and very convenient. Gabriel, caught unaware, was frozen on the spot by a point of her finger.
Zatanna pulled the core fragment from his chest and forcefully kept Constantine's body. However, Gabriel was very cunning. The moment the seal on the fragment was lifted, he had used a prepared spare body to escape.
Zatanna, carrying the extracted core fragment, returned to the Forgotten Bar to find Bruce. While they were studying the fragment, the door of the bart was suddenly kicked open with a bang.
Just as Zatanna wondered if Master Jim of Dark Nights and his group had arrived, a figure in black and yellow armor appeared at the door.
"Don't waste my time, hand that thing over."