Clark immediately covered his mouth, his expression one of undeniable shock. Lex revealed a hint of disgust, clearly repelling the rotten smell emanating from the mixture of blood and hair before him.
Bat Cat's fur bristled up, baring its fangs, and emitting a low growl from its throat. Pikachu's short fur had also spiked up, evidently frightened as well.
The cats in the cages were not in good shape. The better ones lay weakly on the ground, thin and bony, with vacant eyes. The others were worse, barely describable. The ones closest to the owl statue had turned into unidentifiable chunks of matter, with no recognizable feline shape remaining.
From the surrounding torches and still glowing energy channels, it was clear that this was a magic array with some function. From the style alone, it was obvious that it wasn't being used for anything good.
Bat Cat took several deep breaths, and Clark could feel him trembling. He held him close, stroking his fur, but Bat Cat did not stay for long. He jumped out of Clark's arms, landed on the ground, and gently sniffed the scent of his companions.
Lex also approached. He crouched by a cage housing a live cat and studied it. He noticed a mark burnt onto its hind leg, which looked like an owl's eyes and forehead.
Neither of the two men or the two animals knew how to use magic. Thus, without Spirit Vision, they could only deduce that an evil magic array was set up. However, they could not determine its exact purpose.
Although they couldn't visually identify what the array was used for, they could infer it. After being shocked by the sight, Clark's superhuman brain was stimualted, causing his hair to stand on end. He said, "I remember… I remember, in Cat City Gotham, there were owls disguised as cats, do you remember, Bat Cat?"
Bat Cat nodded his head and climbed up to the top of the cages that towered to the ceiling. From up above, he released a piercing cry. All the cats turned their heads towards him, though most had lost their strength so much that even moving their heads was a struggle.
It was obviously apparent that the people who brought these cats here did not do so to keep them as pets. Many of these cats were so thin from starvation, but a bizarre type of energy was sustaining their souls, keeping them from an immediate death.
The cats that were already dead had probably been sacrificed to the owl statue at the center.
The cats in the inner circle had all been badly abused, while those in the outer circle were mostly alive. The further out a cat was, the better its condition. Some seemed to have just been brought in. Clark even found a collar on one Ragdoll cat.
He forcefully opened the cage and carried the Ragdoll cat out. The cat was obviously terrified and struggled in his arms. Clark kept stroking it, trying to calm it down, before looking at the nameplate on its collar.
"3rd building on Flona Street... This cat's name is Nana, and she's a year and a half old... My God, they've been catching domestic cats, these… these…"
Clark, who had never cursed before, now regretted not having a few choice words in his vocabulary. The fury he felt was stuck in his chest, unable to be released. It was simmering into a more potent power, waiting to deliver a deep lesson to these heartless ruffians once they showed up.
Bat Cat silently stood atop the highest point of the cages, and after a long while, he spoke, "If, as you say, the world I was in was within a dream, then perhaps this is their method of invading dreams."
"They're using an evil magic array, sacrificing the lives of cats in reality, and then using that to invade the Dream of a Thousand Cats," Lex continued. He moved closer, observing the condition of the middle-tier cats before adding, "They first put these cats to sleep, and once their dreams connect to the Dream of a Thousand Cats, they pollute them with a sort of dark energy."
"That's how the dark energy can invade the Dream of a Thousand Cats, and then... it forms the Dark Owl you saw before in Cat City Gotham. And this…" Lex looked up at the gigantic owl statue and continued, "This is what they use to store dark energy. It's connected to these cats, continuously sending this kind of energy into the dream world."
Bat Cat took two steps back, leaped down from his high vantage point and said in a somewhat rushed tone, "We must sever this energy flow. Once the Dream of a Thousand Cats is completely polluted, it will be too late."
"We should go find Professor Shearer." Lex turned around to leave, adding, "Otherwise, we won't be able to address this magic issue."
"No. At least we should destroy the statue and save the cats first." Clark disagreed, thinking it was best to get the living cats out of there first.
But unexpectedly, Bat Cat jumped onto his shoulder, blocking him. "Right now, these cats all have strange symbols on them, which means that they have been marked. No one knows if they will instantly die once the statue is destroyed. It's best to bring in professionals."
The two men, mouse, and cat emerged from underground. They returned to Luthor Manor first. Just as they arrived, the phone began to ring. Pikachu rushed out to answer it. As expected, Shearer's voice was on the other end:
"We've arrived at the outskirts of Metropolis. Come get us. It's time to get to work."
After Pikachu relayed Shearer's message, Clark and Lex shared a glance. As they got into the car, Clark asked Lex, "Did you guys already have a plan?"
"It was the Professor who had a plan."
Once they got to the outskirts, Shearer, Constantine, and Hal were all waiting there. Accompanying them was a helicopter full of supplies that resembled the Bat Helicopter in color and design.
10 minutes later, Clark, who was carrying the Bat Helicopter, landed. Lex, who emerged from the helicopter, looked back and said to Shearer, "See? I told you it's an engine from Bruce's helicopter…."
Shearer walked over and patted Clark's shoulder, "This is the place, huh? Come on, let's get the stuff."
"Wait a minute! Professor! Don't go in there yet. Inside, it's a bit…uh…" Clark hesitated, unsure how to describe it. Everyone else thought that he was just worried for nothing. After looking at Shearer's experiences, what situation hasn't he seen?
Two minutes later, Shiller stood next to the only magic array and said, "I've never seen such a scene, daring to slaughter animals so recklessly in this world…"
Shiller shook his head, looking at the owl statue with the gaze one might reserve for a corpse. Constantine came over, clicking his tongue at the grisly sight before him.
If truth be told, if the ground was littered with people instead of cats, the pair probably wouldn't have felt such dismay. But as it was, the death of so many cats was a spectacle neither had ever witnessed before.
As Clark carried several crates from the helicopter, Hal and Clark worked together to unpack them. Constantine, armed with tools, began to prepare.
When the magic array was ready and the Spirit Vision was activated, everyone could see countless black owls circling the enormous owl statue unceasingly.
What was odd, however, was that there were several black cats perched on the owl's shoulders. Despite their feline appearance, their behavior was more birdlike. It was plain to see they were owls in disguise.
They seemed to be doing their best to mimic cat-like behaviors. One counterfeit that bore a strong resemblance to a cat took a couple of hops and then merged into the body of a cat that was still alive.
The cat suddenly fell asleep. When Bat Cat walked over and took a look, Shiller beckoned to him. As Bat Cat approached, Shiller crouched down, took out a bottle of wine, and let him sniff the cork. The Bat Cat also lay down.
"The dark owl energy in this part of Metropolis is intended for invading dreams, so the method we used to extract energy with nursery rhymes wasn't effective," Shiller explained.
"However, we can utilize the fighting within the dream to force the statue to put in more energy. Then we can cut off and store that portion of energy with a magic array."
"Alright, let's delegate. Constantine and Hal will stay in the real world and clean up according to the plan we previously devised. Restore everything here to the way it was before they come back. Pikachu is in charge of standing guard."
"I, Clark, and Bat Cat will enter the dream world to go to Cat City Gotham. We'll provoke the owls there and lure the statue to invest more energy. Clark will guard the dream world."
"Okay then, let's get started."
Saying so, Shiller and Clark left the room. After they got a short distance away, Shiller brought out his bottle of wine again, and they both entered the Thought Palace.
Shiller stood next to the massive pit at the center of the Thought Palace, sighed, and pointed upwards. Clark looked up but saw nothing. Looking back at Shiller, he asked, "...What? What's up there?"
"There's nothing up there."
"...So what?"
"Then do you know why there's nothing up there?"
Shaking his head, Clark didn't understand why Shiller was asking this. He looked upwards again, intending to scrutinize the sky. It was then that Shiller silently moved behind him, withdrew his umbrella, and clutched the shaft.
When Clark looked straight again, he found that Shiller was gone. As he turned around, the only thing that came into his sight was the enlarged umbrella handle.
With a "bam," Clark, caught completely off guard, was knocked into the huge pit. Then, two figures jumped into the pit together, the latter one sporting green hair.
When the two arrived in Cat City, Clark was still holding his chin and casting a wounded glance at Shiller. He had no recollection of what he did before, but Shiller paid him no mind and went straight to find Bat Cat.
After the fake Bat Cat was defeated, the real one took back Bat Cat Manor. He then usurped the identity of the fake one, turning a deception into reality, and took complete control of the city.
The real Bat Cat was much more clever. His first act in office was to find the owls hidden in the city.
These owls were not hiding well at all. Had it not been for the fake Bat Cat's collusion, they wouldn't have been able to hide for so long.
Their behavior patterns were utterly unlike cats' and they always had a birdshit odor about them. In no time at all, the real Bat Cat devised a machine that could identify the owls. He scanned everyone in the city, and all the owls were marked.
It was the first time Marvel Shiller had visited a Cat City like this. He was transformed into a white cat, Clark remained an orange one, and accompanying them was a green cat, who looked just like the Joker cat that Bat Cat had pretended to be.
An hour later, in the Gotham Grand Theater of Cat city, several ropes descended from the ceiling with owls hanging from them. A green cat leaped onto the stage and gave a sharp cry, followed by uproarious laughter:
"Ladies! Gentlemen! I have a plan, called -- The Owls' Downfall!! Hahaha!!"