First Meeting with Batman

With a complex heart, Bruce Wayne returned to his bedroom.

"Who?!" Batman tensed warily.

After a pause, a figure stepped out from the darkness. "It's me, Batman." Bruce kept his body taut, his peripheral vision scanning everything within reach. "Who are you...!"

Batman stared in shock at the fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youth emerging from the shadows. "You..."

Aeo shook his head and walked on his own to the sofa in front of the understated yet luxurious bedroom, sitting down.

"Don't be nervous, Bruce Wayne." He smiled faintly. "I'm not your enemy."

"!"

"It's you!" Batman finally recognized who had come, speaking with both shock and amazement. "That Superman?"

"Superman?" Aeo chewed over the familiar yet foreign word, then gave a bitter smile after a long moment. "No, I'm just an outsider, a war refugee..."

Batman was floored. "What?!"

"You heard me right." Aeo finally began the plan he had been orchestrating for ten years. "Listen, Bruce Wayne, I mean no harm to you or this Earth. But if you look at different lifeforms with malice and hatred, then you will reap an enemy in return—a powerful one!"

"I come from a planet called Krypton. My name is Aeo Zod..."

Bruce Wayne, as one of Earth's elite humans and top superheroes, gradually set aside the darkest malice in his heart after the initial shock, listening thoughtfully to the seemingly young but astonishingly significant visitor's long tale.

"...My planet was invaded by outsiders. After a futile resistance, it was destroyed. Because my father was a high-ranking official in the empire, a ship was prepared in advance. I was ejected and have been drifting through space ever since, until ten years ago, when the ship's computer discovered Earth as a habitable planet... For ten years, I've been wandering across the United States... Our race is no different from you humans in appearance, only—"

The uninvited guest finally got to the point.

"We are stronger!"

Meeting Batman's stern gaze, Aeo Zod said meaningfully, "This strength is etched into our genes. As time passes, we grow more powerful—strength, endurance, recovery—all countless times greater than you humans..."

"Like vampires?"

Meeting the youth's stunned look, Bruce retorted sharply, "Isn't that what you said? As time passes, you grow stronger! Isn't that just like the legendary undead monsters, vampires? Both get more twisted with age..."

Aeo's brow twitched. Fine, he'd forgotten that the old man was also a tsundere billionaire. He had all the flaws typical of a rich second-generation heir, but compared to Stark, Bruce had more self-control and was better at suppressing his desires...

"Don't tell me you're like those blood-sucking monsters, afraid of sunlight or something..."

"Quite the opposite!" Since you can't listen quietly, I won't be polite either, Aeo countered. "The sun is the source of our power! By the light above, we grow stronger every moment!"

Sure enough, Bruce was stunned by this new secret—they could absorb the sun's power...

"Why tell me all this?" Bruce's face was as dark as water.

Aeo saw it was time to quit while ahead. "Listen, Bruce Wayne. For ten years, I've been hiding among you. When have you ever heard of me or anything I've done? I'm telling you this because I know you're also a living being with power, someone who understands the heart of the powerful. As long as you don't try to take or seize anything from me, I won't meddle in your affairs at all!"

The youth's words somewhat softened Batman's expression. He thought back over the past decade for similar incidents, but found that, as Aeo said, no such events had been reported globally. So his tone eased a bit. "Then why did you act this time? Why kill the Joker?"

"This time, I knew that if I ignored it, many of you might die, so I stepped in..." Aeo said seriously. "As for the Joker, he's the most dangerous and terrifying human I've ever seen. He corrupts and invades people's minds, leads them to depravity, drives them mad. Keeping him alive brings no benefit at all!"

"Should we thank you, then?" Bruce couldn't help his sharp tongue. "Regardless, here, killing is always condemnable!"

"Don't be naive." Aeo refused to back down. "Bruce Wayne! Even without me, your world is still full of killing, war, and death. They don't differ by race. You and your kind are inherently creatures of chaos and contradiction—love and hate, light and darkness..."

"Don't pin everything on me being an alien. Countless histories prove that when it comes to killing your own kind, you're the true experts!"

Batman fell silent again. The alien's words were so stark that he found no argument to refute them.

"Listen, Bruce Wayne. Maybe my existence is indeed an unstable factor for you and your kind, but enemies are chosen. As long as you don't provoke me, I won't go on a killing spree or destroy nations. That's stuff from novels, comics, movies. In the real world, we're not that savage or ambitious. At heart, I'm just a war orphan, a pitiful soul..."

Soft and hard, both carrot and stick—that was the pitch Aeo had crafted over ten years. After all, he understood human nature deeply from both his past and present lives. Outright hostility toward the Federation or S.H.I.E.L.D. was impossible; they were the native masters of this world, inherently more entitled to claim sovereignty.

Besides, with a broader perspective, having reincarnated as a Kryptonian, why get hung up on a tiny Earth? The universe was vast and lively; fixating on one planet was boring. As for why he chose Batman, Aeo knew that among all known superheroes, Batman had the strongest principles and the toughest will. If he could earn his trust, establishing a foothold on Earth would be much easier. That's why Aeo chose this moment to act, saving Rachel Dawes, Batman's secret love, putting him in a huge debt, making future conversations smoother.

And indeed, after Aeo's "pitiful" speech, Bruce felt a bit embarrassed. For one thing, this Kryptonian was still communicable. Compared to the alien civilizations in movies that always wanted to destroy Earth, he was far friendlier. He had wandered the Federation for ten years without abusing his powers (though that was debatable) and had maintained a certain moral code—extremely rare. After all, he was still so young...

Yes, Aeo's age was another reason for the old man's softening attitude. He had arrived on Earth ten years ago, meaning he was only five or six then... Well, even as an alien, the kid was pitiful enough—his home destroyed, his parents dead... the last Kryptonian in the universe...

Actually, he was lying through his teeth! Though Krypton had indeed suffered a major catastrophe, Fortier hadn't been wiped out. After escaping, they had drifted through space for so long before finding Earth as a place to survive...

Thinking this, Bruce Wayne's attitude softened. "You... maybe you can stay, as long as you—"