"Bruce, take a look at this." Victor dialed Bruce's communicator, sent over a bunch of photos, and said, "I found these at the art gallery; they should be paintings by Mars people, and they look pretty good."
Bruce flipped through the pictures he sent and then stopped moving. He found that the artistic style of the Mars people is indeed very different from that of the human race. They are not realist at all; the things they paint are not quite abstract but more like magical realism.
For example, when they paint a tree, there is still the outline of a tree, but inside it's filled with some colorful lines, and many unrelated things to trees as well. If one or two paintings are like this, it can be said to be a unique art style, but most of the works from different people have this style, which proves that this is popular art in Mars City that they can understand.
Bruce definitely couldn't understand it, so he contacted Ron and sent the photos over. Ron was silent for a long time before responding; he said, "Mars people have the talent of mind reading; we don't understand them through one's appearance but through their psychic battlefield. It's the same for objects; those colorful lines you don't understand are actually expressing the feelings of the psychic battlefield."
"I see." Bruce nodded and said, "Thank you so much, Ron."
"It's nothing..." Ron was silent for a long time but didn't hang up, and Bruce didn't hang up either. After a while, Ron spoke: "Where did you find these paintings?"
"Victor found them; it seems from an art gallery. Why?"
"These are children's paintings." Ron said, "Their expression of the psychic battlefield is very simple; they just painted what they saw without much processing. My daughter also painted such works."
"Is that so? Which kindergarten is he in? Maybe we can find his previous works too." Bruce said lightly.
"She... She does have a painting selected into the Mars City art gallery; the painting is... it's of me, the scene when I was arresting criminals. You..."
"You want me to help you find it, right? Okay, I'll tell Victor, but he's just left the art gallery; I'll have him go back and look again."
"No, no... Don't delay important matters..."
"Researching Mars culture is our important matter. If you can, I hope you can talk about how that painting was created; you should know, right?"
"Yes... she talked to me about it..."
Ron's tone was a bit dry initially, but soon, as if immersed in those beautiful memories, he spoke more fluently. He described how he saw his daughter's painting, how she proudly recounted her classmates' reactions when the painting was selected, and how they later went to the art gallery to see the exhibition together.
Bruce quietly listened, occasionally responding. At the end of the story, Ron was a bit wistful; he said, "Though I don't know why you've suddenly become interested in Mars culture, if it weren't for this, perhaps I would never speak of these events again. Thank you, Bruce."
"It's nothing, Ron; it's my duty."
After hanging up, Ron, who had already returned to his Earth apartment, sighed. Although he never fully understood Bruce, he couldn't deny that Bruce was a good leader. Ron was somewhat touched when Bruce listened to matters he believed would never be brought up again.
But soon, he realized he was moved too soon.
Events began to unfold at an unimaginable speed, so much so that by the time Ron realized what Bruce intended, it was already too late.
On an ordinary winter morning, as every household was busy preparing for the upcoming Christmas, cleaning their houses, purchasing groceries, or shoveling snow in their yards.
Since Atlantis and Amazon were affected in this war, Arthur, Diana, and Ron stayed on Earth while others worked on Mars.
That day, they gathered at Justice Hall, preparing to tidy up this street a bit too. Naturally, the damage marks were already repaired by Victor, but this street itself wasn't very clean; they thought it was close to Christmas, and it should be well cleaned.
Arthur cleaned the head of the street, Diana cleaned the tail, while Ron was responsible for clearing the snow at the doorway and the roof. They didn't use superpowers, just relying on their far above-average physical strength, sweeping bit by bit. While sweeping, Diana's phone rang.
"Hello? Yes, Lady Madela told me I'm not very busy recently, so I didn't go in today. What's up?" she said while sweeping the snow.
"What?! It's going to be exhibited again??!! Why is it being exhibited again?!!" Diana suddenly exclaimed.
Then she shouted somewhat exasperatedly, "What the heck is so interesting about that stupid snake?! Why is it going to be exhibited again in such a short time?!!"
After hanging up, Diana huddled on the ground covering her face with an expression of despair, almost as if life had lost all hope. Ron heard the commotion, realized Diana was in trouble, and came over to ask, "What's wrong, Diana? Your boss giving you trouble? I told you, you didn't have to rush back…"
"No," Diana's tone was filled with deep despair, "... 'Frenes Snake' is going to be exhibited again."
"Uh, is exhibiting it very difficult? Why don't you go back first? Don't delay your work." Ron thought he was quite understanding.
Diana shook her head. Ron slightly frowned, but seeing Diana take out her phone, he nodded and said, "If you're not going back, at least give your colleagues a heads-up; don't let them wait in vain."
"I'm going to quit." Diana said coldly.
"Wait! Wait!" Ron quickly stopped her and then said, "Why resign? That job is so good, dignified, well-paid, with a housing allowance. If you quit, where will you find such a good job?"
Diana wore a hopeless expression. Ron finally sensed something was wrong and said, "What's going on? If you really can't explain it, should I take a look myself?"
Diana nodded. With her permission, Ron looked through some of her memories, then he was speechless too.
"I mean, is it possible that there isn't a single real expert in the entire artifact collection world who can tell this painting is a fake? Not a single one?"
"That's the art world for you." Diana said with a bitter smile, "Moreover, now that it has the royal endorsement, no one can say it's fake anymore."
The two fell silent for a moment. Ron said, "Let it be on display, we can earn more ticket money, isn't it all your salary anyway?"
"I wish that were the case," Diana said, pressing her lips into a smile. "But the problem is, this painting often appears along with the Curse of the Pharaoh."
Before she finished speaking, a black luxury car drove onto the street, stopping steadily in front of them. Shiller stood straight after stepping out, adjusted his tie, and looked at Diana, saying, "Let's go for a ride, ma'am. Unless you'd like a closer encounter with the Pharaoh's treasure?"
Diana closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened the car door and sat inside. Shiller got in as well. Ron watched as the car drove away, feeling slightly worried, but he didn't sense any malice from Shiller, so he didn't follow.
"You've heard about the mural re-exhibition, haven't you?"
"What are you up to again?" Diana stared at him and asked.
"Nothing, just wanted to interview you about this precious artifact. Staff at the Metropolitan Museum and private collectors should have quite exquisite views."
"Where's the report?" Diana asked directly.
Shiller took a document from the file bag beside him and handed it to Diana. It was an interview draft already written, she just needed to sign it.
The moment she saw the title, Diana was shocked. She glanced at Shiller, then at the draft, and said, "'Ancient Amazon Kingdom Princess Claims, Mysterious Extraterrestrial Spaceship Patterns on Egyptian Artifacts May Point to Martian Civilization'?!
Diana felt like her brain had turned into mush. Isn't the spaceship depicted there a Kryptonian ship? How did it become Martian? Wasn't it supposed to point to Superman? How did it turn into pointing at Martian civilization?
"The public doesn't know about Krypton's existence," Shiller said, "Besides, even if they knew, it's so far from Earth that it feels unreal. But Mars is different; in cosmic terms, these two planets couldn't be closer."
Diana seemed to realize something, gasped, and turned to glare at Shiller, as if trying to read his face. But the man just smiled at her.
With a snap, she closed the file, shook her head, and said, "No, I won't sign. This is spreading rumors, creating panic. What's the point of doing this?"
"Don't play coy, ma'am. Have you forgotten what Batman told you?"
"So you two really are in cahoots!!!!!!!" Diana shouted in terror.
"I'm afraid the time we've been colluding is longer than you think. Unfortunately, I'm just Mr. Wayne's black glove, so don't put too much blame on me, okay?"
Diana felt herself trembling. She realized that from the moment Shiller first approached her, Batman was aware, and everything that happened afterward was all under his control.
Falsifying artifacts, spreading rumors, pressuring Superman, relocating the Capitol Building, forming the Justice League, fighting off monster attacks...
Everything was Batman's plan.
And what he truly wanted, seemed to have become quite obvious.
Diana took several deep breaths, calming herself, then stared intently at Shiller and said, "Are you sure this series of sophisticated plans can land smoothly? If not, it will be a disaster for the entire Earth!"
"That's not your concern, ma'am. Sign or not?"
Diana didn't want to sign, but flashes of her sisters in the Battleworld describing Batman kept crossing her mind. Originally she thought they were exaggerating, but now it seemed they were actually holding back.
After struggling and hesitating for a while, Diana finally picked up the pen and wrote her name at the bottom of the report, forcefully throwing the document at Shiller and saying, "If anything goes wrong, I will hold you accountable!"
"That's unreasonable," Shiller said, "I told you, it's Batman's..."
"I can't beat him, but can I not beat you?"
"...Hard to say."