"Your Eminence?"
Heisenberg spread his hands, a light teasing note in his voice.
"The age of gods is long past. No need to stand on ceremony like the old days. I'm Heisenberg—feel free to call me whatever suits you."
He finished with a smile, directed at Diana and the other two.
To his mild surprise, only Superman gave him a nod in response.
The other two were both racking their brains.
Diana was searching her memory for any mention of the name Heisenberg. When she was a child, her mother Hippolyta had told her countless tales of the gods.
As for Bruce…
His thoughts were scattered, many and varied—everything from nuclear bomb designers to drug lords.
But no matter how much he racked his brain, he could not recall the name Heisenberg from any mythology or scripture on Earth!
This left Bruce dissatisfied. Not knowing the origin of Heisenberg's divine title naturally increased the difficulty of investigating him.
He'd have to make use of his computers.
Realizing he couldn't do that work on the spot, Bruce filed the name Heisenberg deep inside his mind palace, bolded and magnified it countless times.
Meanwhile, Clark was asking Heisenberg a question.
"Is your name just Heisenberg? I mean, I thought you and I might share a surname."
At this, Bruce's ears pricked up, and even Diana pursed her lips, waiting for the answer.
Heisenberg merely shook his head, unconcerned.
"El is your family surname. As the leader of the Science Council, 'El' is a legacy, and only a family legacy at that. As for me…"
Heisenberg smiled.
"I long ago broke free of the shackles of my family and elevated my position to a far higher plane!"
He gave Clark a mysterious look and asked softly, "Can you guess my identity, child of Krypton, Kal-El?"
"I…"
Clark was momentarily tongue-tied. He'd never been particularly invested in Krypton, so he had hardly done any deep investigation of the Kryptonian ship on Earth.
He hadn't read the data aboard the ship, and at this moment, he had no in-depth understanding of Krypton.
Without a grasp of Krypton's political structure and institutions, how could he possibly guess Heisenberg's identity?
It was like running into a fellow townsman in a strange land—if you hadn't been home in over a decade, could you guess he'd been the town mayor two years ago?
Seeing Clark shake his head, Heisenberg sighed.
"Never mind, don't fret over my name. My history has long since drifted away with the past. Now, just like you, I'm merely a Kryptonian wanderer stranded far from home."
At those words, something seemed to occur to Clark. He hesitated, then decided to say it anyway.
"Great-grandfather!"
His expression as he spoke was solemn, even tinged with mourning.
Then he continued, "I know you were in a long sleep inside the ship… well, a rest… and you awoke alongside Doomsday. You may not know this, but Krypton has already…"
"Already gone, hasn't it?"
Heisenberg finished the thought, patting Clark's arm.
"Seeing a child like you, adrift in a foreign world, I can well imagine the fate Krypton suffered while I rested. But it's all right!"
Heisenberg's smile turned bold and magnanimous as he declared,
"Rest assured, I will use my authority to summon Kryptonian wanderers like you scattered across the universe. As an elder and a leader of Krypton, I will call them to my side. As long as I am here, Krypton will never truly vanish!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Bruce and Clark felt their hearts lurch!
They instantly thought back to General Zod, who months ago had planned to terraform Earth into a new Krypton.
Bruce even began mulling over the composition of Heisenberg's body—he needed to study at once why Heisenberg didn't fear Kryptonite the way Clark did!
If this powerful being who had just slain Doomsday to save the planet was planning to summon his old comrades and do something to Earth, Bruce had to have a countermeasure.
Unlike Bruce, Clark's brief worry quickly faded.
He didn't believe a kindly elder like Heisenberg would do the same thing General Zod had done.
Beside them, Diana chose that moment to ask Heisenberg,
"Lord Heisenberg, you were once the leader of Krypton? This 'calling them to your side'—you're not planning to turn Earth into a new Krypton, are you?"
Even as she spoke, she shook her head, laughing at herself.
"What am I thinking? You're a god of Earth as well—how could you harm it like some common invader!"
She cast a meaningful glance at both Clark and Bruce as she said it.
She was reminding them not to let their minds run wild.
Bruce remained silent, but Clark nodded.
"I'm truly overwhelmed. I never imagined you were the leader of Krypton. To have an elder who was a leader—this is beyond belief!"
Just then, Bruce's new aircraft happened to fly in.
They paused their chat to help Bruce attach his damaged plane to the transport craft as quickly as possible.
And so the group followed Bruce back to the mysterious Batcave.
When they disembarked, Alfred was the first to be waiting on the landing pad.
Of course, there was no one else…
Seeing Heisenberg and the other two behind Bruce, Alfred was genuinely delighted.
After what happened to Robin…
Well, since then, Alfred had not seen anyone new around Bruce for a long time. He'd been worried Bruce was too isolated, and now it seemed Bruce had found new friends!
"Welcome, welcome. I never thought I'd live to see a third person in the Batcave," Alfred said with a chuckle. "And now, all at once—persons three, four, and five!"
"Haha, is he usually just lying in your arms waiting to be fed, old friend?" Heisenberg said, shaking Alfred's hand with the ease of an old acquaintance. Alfred was his fourth favorite person in the DC universe!
At Heisenberg's warmth, Alfred smiled politely.
"Not just waiting to be fed, but also weeping in solitude. In my heart, Bruce will always be that…"
"That's enough, Alfred!" Bruce said, a touch of resignation in his voice. As Alfred got older, he enjoyed bringing up Bruce's past embarrassments more and more…
Seeing that deadpan look on Bruce's face, Alfred knew his charge was mortified, so he nodded understandingly.
"Very well, very well. No one likes their past put on display for public viewing, and Bruce is no exception. Come with me, everyone. I've prepared a proper French dinner, as well as a change of casual clothes for each of you."
Here, Alfred looked Heisenberg up and down and smiled.
"You, however, don't seem to need them. That attire of yours truly is the envy of me. Oh, and should I be addressing you as 'Your Eminence'?"
"Ha ha ha!"
Heisenberg burst out laughing.
"I'm just an ordinary Kryptonian who's lived a little longer than most. Please, none of this 'Your Eminence'! After all, those lofty Eminences wouldn't be nearly so eager for the feast you've prepared for me!"
With that, Heisenberg and Alfred took the lead, and together with a bemused Diana and the others, they made their way deeper into the Batcave.
Watching the two old men chatting happily ahead of him, Clark couldn't help but feel…
Incredibly awkward.
After all, his great-grandfather looked far too young!
As for Diana, seeing how approachable Heisenberg was, her estimation of him soared ever higher.
She nudged Clark's arm lightly.
"Your grandfather is truly so down-to-earth. If the gods of Olympus were like him, Earth would never have come to its current state!"
"What's wrong with Earth? I think Earth is fine just the way it is! Even the best life under the rule of gods would never be as vibrant and diverse as life today. At the very least, we'd never have such a splendid, multifaceted civilization under divine rule!"
Bruce countered softly. His words made Diana smile nonchalantly.
As a human who walked in darkness, Bruce knew that the deeper you were in the dark, the more you could perceive the light of the world.
Diana, on the other hand, hailed from the utterly pure island of Themyscira and had grown up among utterly straightforward Amazon warriors.
Arriving in society like that, what she noticed more was humanity's chaos and its darker side.
Of course, while their starting points differed, their aims were largely the same: to make the environment they lived in a little better.
That was all.
Listening to their debate, Clark smiled to himself with a sense of genuine novelty.
Before tonight's battle against Batman, his life had seemed to hold only Lois and Martha for company.
Now, he suddenly seemed to have gained a few comrades worth trusting—and an ancestor worthy of trust as well!
And so they continued on past countless machines and aircraft, arriving at the heart of the Batcave.
Batman's command center also served as his workbench, so it was naturally less than spotless.
But Heisenberg and the others paid that no mind.
"Before today, I could never have imagined our Bruce bringing back company like this. Clearly, I have been remiss as a butler. Please, make yourselves comfortable nearby. Dinner is being prepared, and a change of clothes awaits each of you in the room to your right—the innermost room is set aside for Miss Diana."
Alfred gave them the tour, then nodded a farewell to Heisenberg. He had to head upstairs to handle the meal.
Once Alfred had left, everyone went to change. But when Batman emerged from the break room, he found Heisenberg beckoning him over.
"You're the quickest, as expected. Come, sit. Before dinner, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you all!"
Heisenberg naturally gestured to a nearby seat, a motion that made Batman fall into a silent stillness.
He really wanted to tell Heisenberg, "The seat I sit in every day is right under your backside. You… you really are making yourself at home, aren't you?!"
But he could never say something like that. So with the same grim face he'd worn for decades, he sat down opposite Heisenberg.
Just then, Clark also emerged in his change of clothes—a crisp, casual suit—and took a seat beside Heisenberg without ceremony.
The three chatted idly while they waited. Diana, predictably, was not going to come out as quickly as the others.
So Heisenberg clapped his hands and got straight to the point.
"The reason I came is mainly that there's something I need to discuss with you. Inside the Kryptonian ship, after Clark and Doomsday fought their way out, I encountered a singularly evil being. He spoke briefly with me by possessing the person who awakened both me and Doomsday. The gist of his message was that he intends to bring his army to Earth for a little tour… if you believe it's a tour!"
Heisenberg fixed a deep look on Bruce.
"As one who witnessed that directly, I felt that wretch's power firsthand. He's not an enemy I can handle easily on my own. So I've decided to gather individuals as powerful as yourselves, to form a team specifically designed to counter high-level threats."
Heisenberg smacked the armrest decisively.
"I call this team the Justice League!"
A grin spread across his face as he glanced at Batman opposite him—face expressionless as ever, but with eyes that couldn't hide their shock.
"Bet you never saw that coming, Batman!!!"
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)