"I'm a bit curious," Shiller said to Dick in front of him, "Can you bite Superman?"
"Am I crazy?" Dick retorted, "What's the difference between biting him and directly biting the sun?"
Shiller and Batman were both at a loss for words, and then Dick added quietly, "Even if I step back ten thousand steps, I wouldn't be able to pierce his skin!"
Batman nodded and said, "I've tested Superman before. Humans can't penetrate his skin's defense with ordinary physical means, let alone teeth, not even diamond drill bits can do it."
"So Superman is a hurdle that vampires can't get over," Dick said.
"Vampires have too many hurdles to overcome," Shiller said with a laugh, "Is the divine-bodied Wonder Woman easy to deal with? Is Green Lantern, who can be powered by the green energy, easy to deal with? What about Martian Manhunter with his mind-reading technique? And Cyborg with his iron head and steel body? Which of them can vampires handle?"
"They are not without weaknesses," Batman said with some concern, "Superman becomes very weak when exposed to Kryptonite. Although his skin's defense might not be breached, there's at least some chance. Wonder Woman becomes helpless once tied up with the Lasso of Truth. The Green Lantern Ring can run out of energy. Martian Manhunter's mind reading can be blocked with a brainwave-blocking device, and Cyborg can be invaded by electronic viruses."
Shiller was still fine, but Dick was looking at Batman with a suspicion in his eyes. You're a vampire, I'm a vampire, what are you scheming?
"The problem is whom do they target first?" Shiller said with a still relaxed expression, "He can't possibly pick the exact moment when the Green Lantern Ring runs out of power to stuff Kryptonite into Superman's chest, tie up Wonder Woman with the Lasso of Truth, activate a brainwave blocker and an electronic virus at the same time, and there must be no water around that Aquaman can control, and also seal the Twins' ability to transform..."
After thinking about it, Batman felt that it was also very difficult to execute. The formation of the Justice League was like the snake of Zhuyuan, but it was also true that if you attacked the head, the tail would come, and if you attacked the tail, the head would come, and if you attacked the middle, both would arrive.
They might not be the brightest, but their great strength and single-minded behavior effectively compensated for that.
The Justice Hall was only so big, Superman could hear cries for help from around the entire Earth, and as long as he was vigilant, everything the other side said or did would be under his surveillance, and Martian Manhunter was the same.
Although Wonder Woman didn't have surveillance abilities, she had the Lasso of Truth in her hand; she could tie anyone up and ask if they were a vampire and the person could only tell the truth.
Not to mention other superheroes, even if some unfortunate ones were alone, attacking one would bring an entire swarm. Even Batman had to give deep thought to the difficulty of infiltrating the Justice League.
It was hard to say whether the vampires were naive or truly confident in their special means. Shiller could only say it was quite in Bruce Wayne's style, to just get on with it and discuss the difficulties of graduating later.
He might have infiltrated successfully, but how to lay low and what comes after would be topics for another day.
"Could they possibly influence people's minds?" Batman began to speculate, "Cause people's IQ to drop?"
Dick blinked and turned to look at Shiller. Shiller looked at Batman, and the topic of their silent exchange couldn't be more obvious—if there were such a thing as a Dumbing Aura, would Dick still need to see a dentist?
If Dick couldn't handle them, then it's likely that the mole within the Justice League also couldn't handle the others. So what exactly were the vampires relying on?
This was the question that troubled both Batman and Shiller because, looking left and right, up and down, they couldn't see any possibility of the vampires successfully executing their audacious plan.
"Maybe the King of Vampires is different," Batman suggested another possibility, "Maybe he is immune to sunlight, can bite through hard skin, is immune to Magic Energy, blocks mind reading, and isn't afraid of modern scientific weapons..."
By the end, Batman had fallen silent himself.
If the King of Vampires had such capabilities, why would he still be sitting here just fine?
"I think we might be lacking some intelligence," Shiller suggested a more conservative possibility, "They must have something we don't know about that they believe can completely turn the situation around for the vampires, just not strong enough to annihilate both the Batcave and the Justice League in one fell swoop."
"So now, on one hand, he's causing trouble on both sides, and on the other hand, he may be pushing for the emergence of this thing, thinking that all the negative momentum accumulated before could be reversed by it..."
"All chips on one gamble?" Batman said with a frown, "That's not a smart person's move."
"Smart people wouldn't become vampires either," Shiller sighed lightly, "You probably need to initiate a census to see which superheroes you know have problems, whether injured or missing in action. The clue might lie with them."
"I need to do this without alarming the Justice League," Batman stood up, walked over to the computer, and started working as he spoke, "Most superheroes have dealt with the Justice League, so it won't be hard to check them, but whether or not they'll trust me is another matter."
"I believe you can assess if they have any abnormalities, and I can deal with the more unique cases for you."
"Such as?"
"Constantine."
Batman was about to say that no one gets a free pass in his domain, but after hearing that name, he fell silent too.
Constantine was like a rock in a toilet pit, stinky and hard, plus if you try to fish him out, you might get covered in shit, and what you retrieve might not even be real—it could be a fake body of his. And if you go to settle scores with him, he'll just toss more shit your way."
That's why, under normal circumstances, Batman wouldn't bother with him, but since it involved vampires, this so-called Hell Detective might actually have some clues.
Shiller was more than willing to handle this trouble for him, but Batman took precautions and said, "You absolutely cannot take Dick with you; he can't be in contact with such a person..."
As though his intentions were discovered, Shiller slightly shook his head, seemingly casually saying, "I actually wanted to take him to see Constantine to inquire if he had a method to solve the vampire bloodline issue. Since you disagree, then..."
"I'm going!" Dick stood up and said, "They don't care for me here anyway, better for me to leave and give them some peace."
Batman had anticipated this and sighed, "Alright, Dick, you can go; I know you're of age but if you dare to do something there..."
"I got it." Dick waved his hand impatiently, thinking that Batman was just warning him not to make trouble over there, or to get involved in anything dangerous with Constantine. But what Batman really meant was that it might be better if Constantine took him on a legitimate adventure; however, that guy never does anything straight-laced.
In an astonishing statement, Shiller said, "Dick, if Constantine harasses you, just ignore him. He used to harass your dad just like that."
Dick nearly choked on the tea in his hand.
Whether Batman had actually been harassed by Constantine wasn't clearly depicted in the original comics, but the vast majority of readers believed that Constantine definitely harbored such thoughts.
Aside from Constantine's peculiar orientation, it's also because at one point, he was supported by a mob boss who bore an almost identical resemblance to Bruce Wayne—and he seemed to enjoy it. Following the logic of explicit and implicit storytelling, this suggests that Constantine might've fantasized about Batman but never had the opportunity to lay his hands on him.
As for whether Batman was aware of this, Shiller leaned toward the belief that he knew. But with so many people fantasizing about Batman, like having too many lice to be worth scratching, he probably didn't care much.
But Dick was utterly shocked by the fact.
He knew all too well how attractive his dad was; he had seen Batman on more than one occasion dating Catwoman, and there was no need even to mention Talya—their product of union was standing in the living room showing off right now.
But Constantine? Seriously???
Dick was still stunned when he left Wayne Manor, which was just the effect Shiller was going for to prevent him from arguing with the Robins downstairs again.
Learning that Shiller was taking Dick away, the Robins, who had been somewhat on edge, suddenly felt embarrassed, thinking they might have driven Dick away. Fortunately, Batman appeared to soothe them, barely managing to mollify the situation.
After taking Dick away, Shiller didn't rush off to England because flying there would be too slow. Given the vampire situation, Constantine might not even be in London anymore.
He had to make Constantine come to him.
Shiller had Constantine's phone number, or to be precise, a magical world number, a rune used to contact him, but it required magic to activate.
Shiller himself couldn't use magic, but Dick could. In the hotel room, Shiller arranged the runes, and Dick enveloped them in a purple magic energy.
Soon, the runes lit up, proving the line wasn't dead, and that the Constantine in this cosmos used the same number.
According to the Constantine in Shiller's cosmos, this number was a hot line from Hell that he worked hard to acquire. Hence, most of the Constantines in the various cosmos would use it.
Although the call connected, no one answered for a long time. Shiller frowned, hoping Constantine hadn't been chased by vampires to the point where he couldn't answer the phone, right?
The glow from the runes gradually brightened until it flashed abruptly, and a frustrated roar erupted from the other side.
"Whoever the hell you are!! Get your ass over here and save me!!"
After the shout, Constantine immediately appeared at the top of a high-rise building, hurried to the other side, and drew a red teleportation portal in the air with his hands.
But a bolt of golden light cleaved through the portal moments later, the tip of the candelabra whizzing past his nose.
Two bangs of gunfire, and Constantine whirled around, his magic shield blocking the bullets, but he was still surrounded by layers of summoned undead creatures.
He let out a wry smile, looking at the three figures encircling him and said, "Is this really necessary? Armor boy, I was complimenting you on your physique; did you really have to..."
Bang! Bang! Bang!