The Death Knell

"Where are we now? No, maybe I should ask what time it is?"

Watching Deathstroke buy two cones at a roadside stall and then turn back, Lori also squinted her eyes and walked under the parasol.

The place where the two of them are currently is a very ordinary community park. Some old people are basking in the sun on the benches, some young lovers are whispering under the trees, and some naughty children are chasing pigeons on the grass, but those chubby birds are just cooing. Grunting, he quickly escaped on his short legs.

The surrounding buildings look a bit dated, but the cleanliness of the streets also shows that this is a high-end community. There are clouds floating in the blue sky, and everything is quiet and peaceful.

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like there's going to be a crisis.

In fact, it is not. This is an ordinary point in time. It does not even have a special light on the timeline. It represents daily life.

Seven or eight stalls selling various snacks share a dining area with white plastic tables, chairs and white parasols, allowing people to experience a moment of tranquility in the city even under the scorching sun.

Deathstroke gave one of the cones in his hand to Lori, and he leaned on the chair and breathed a sigh of relief:

"Our current time is in a period after the end of the 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', when the five surviving new earths (new earth), including Earth 1, Earth 2, Earth 4, Earth S, and Earth X, gradually evolved into parallel worlds. , this Earth 12 was just born. To put it simply, from the 'rebirth' multiverse, we first returned to the N52 period when Bruce became Batman's new origin, and then went upstream from there to the current P52 period."

"......Can't understand."

Lori's little face wrinkled up, she might have been iced to her teeth.

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. You just need to know that it's before the 'Blackest Night'. It's actually not that important." Su Ming waved his hands with a relaxed look on his face: "We are just here to rest for a while. You want to eat something?" What? You must be hungry after running with me for so long, right? Doing activities on different timelines at the same time makes your mind tired easily."

"Thank you, how about I invite you?"

Lori dug into her pocket and took out a small black wallet. There were a few crumpled small-denomination bills lying inside, about thirteen dollars, including coins.

She suddenly blushed in embarrassment, because she only brought this little change to buy groceries when she went out.

But Deathstroke smiled and patted the back of her hand and helped her down the steps: "I'm a standard gentleman, how can I ask a lady to pay for it? You wait for me here, and I'll buy some fast food and come back. There's a queue in front of that mobile food truck. There were a lot of people there, and it seemed delicious.”

He pointed to the other end of the park, where the signboard of the food truck could be vaguely seen, as well as the people queuing up, but it was obscured by the trees in the park, so the view was not very clear.

The embarrassed girl nodded and put her wallet back with a smile: "Then I'll treat you to a drink next time."

Su Ming nodded and walked towards the other end of the park. He didn't show any ability. He just lined up in the crowd normally and waved to the girl from a distance to indicate that he was there.

Lori, who was sitting under the parasol, waved in response, and then quietly waited for the arrival of the food. At the same time, her eyes were gradually attracted by the laughing people, and she couldn't help but feel the peaceful atmosphere.

The team moved forward, and the presence of Deathstroke was obscured by the trees. She did not notice that the man disappeared into the crowd in a flash.

............................

In a house not far from the park, there was a man holding a framed photo of himself and his brother, drinking wine alone.

This is the house left to the brothers after his father died. It is full of memories of his family. However, now, he is the only one left. Whenever the clock rings on the hour, he is reminded again and again that there are people in this house. How empty.

"damn it!"

A man drank excessively, and the more he drank, the more he drank. After drinking several glasses of brown liquid, he angrily knocked down the table with his fists.

He was scolding himself because he blamed his brother's death entirely on his own incompetence. It was because he was too weak that Donald died in the frontline battle against the Anti-Monitor.

Whenever he thought of this, he wanted to commit suicide to pay for his brother's life.

His father was assassinated by gangsters for justice, and his younger brother died for the sake of the multiverse. It seems that as long as he is a good person and a hero, he will not end well in this world.

Why wasn't he the one who died? It is obvious that he has a bad temper and strikes hard. If he catches a thief, he will beat him to a high position and become a paraplegic. The other heroes in Zhenglian all complain about him. It is obvious that he is the one who deserves death.

Thinking of this, he gasped, drank another glass of wine, froze for a moment, and then began to slap himself.

"Maybe I am the source of misfortune. No matter who I am close to, that person will die. Maybe this is my retribution. I will never wear that uniform again. The so-called war eagle is not appropriate!"

After yelling to himself to vent his anger, he stood up and walked to the bedroom, took out his uniform, and prepared to take it to the backyard to burn.

Donald's death has severely damaged his spirit, and the expressions of sympathy from other superheroes have not helped. Hank is now completely disheartened.

Although a girl named Dawn came to his door these days, saying that she was the new spokesperson chosen by the Force of Order, and asked him to reorganize the combination of War Eagle and White Dove, but he refused.

The girl was young and beautiful, and full of idealistic belief in justice, just like her brother Donald.

But the more they resemble each other, the less Hank can agree to her request. He doesn't want to see good people die in front of him anymore.

However, no matter what he said, he even called the police to have the girl arrested on charges of invading a private home, went to the court to apply for a restraining order, and asked an acquaintance in Zhenglian to pass the message on his behalf to refuse, but the girl still persisted and came every day.

Either he was sitting quietly outside his house holding a sign with two little red and blue figures holding hands, referring to a war hawk and a white dove; or he was constantly calling and sending messages, trying to sneak into his house through the dog hole in the backyard, and even Unconventional means such as magic messages or flying arrows were used to send messages.

It's 2009, would any normal person still write letters tied to arrows and shoot them at other people's homes? Except for Green Arrow's gang...

Just now, he called the police again to ask the girl away, and then he had the opportunity to continue drinking.

Returning to the dining table with the uniform, he placed it in front of him and looked at it quietly, his hazy thoughts drifting into the distance.

"You are right, Hank Hall. As the spokesperson of the Lord of Chaos, you are indeed one of the sources of misfortune. After all, chaos is also a kind of crisis force."

It was obvious that those words he had just said to himself before received an unexpected answer. A voice came from behind him, and at the same time a pair of hands pressed on his shoulders.

"who?!"

Although he was drunk, his instinct as a superhero still made him suddenly sober, and he tried to break free the next second.

However, those hands were holding him down as steadily as mountains, but they did not even damage the chair.

"Don't get excited. The symbiote has interfered with the nerves in your limbs, so it's useless for you to get excited. Let's talk for a while. It's time to put an end to the matter."

The man behind him let go of his hand, but Hank was still unable to move. He could only raise his neck and watch a one-eyed man in a casual suit walk around him, sit on the side of the coffee table, and take it from his hand. Wine bottle:

"Oh? It's BBR's Blue Penny Rum. I didn't expect you to be as big and thick as a fool, but you are quite British at heart, haha."