"Brother." The black-haired Latino girl wanted to call out to the figure walking ahead. She quickened her steps and passed through the dark corridor to approach her dear brother.
But her brother did not stop and wait for her as usual. Instead, he slowed down, silently stood there, and slightly bowed his head.
"I sensed you were in danger," Jenna said with a cry in her voice, "For a mont, I even thought you were dead. Are you...?"
"Dear Jenna." A sowhat deep youthful voice echoed in the silent hallway, Jenna heard her brother say, "Don't ask a question when you already know the answer. Haven't we always been in sync like this?"
Tears finally flowed down, the petite girl squatted on the ground, sobbing, and then she heard her brother say.
"Now is not the ti to cry. Wait until the trial is over, when the guillotine is poised at my neck, then you can cry."
"No! No way!" Jenna yelled like a madwoman, "You can't die! You can't... you can't leave alone! We promised we'd always be together!"
Jenna couldn't bear it any longer. She stood up, rushed forward and hugged Zan from behind, crying and saying, "Since we left ho, we've never been apart. When you said you were going on patrol, I got worried. I should have stopped you!"
Shiller, who was controlling Zan's body, turned around, embraced Jenna, and gently stroked her head and back.
Jenna could feel no warmth from his body, as if she was hugging a rock, yet such gentle movents gave her a warmth more profound than blood.
"I won't let them kill you," Jenna said. "Even if you have beco a vampire, you are still my brother, and you haven't done anything wrong, have you? They can't put you on trial!"
"Don't say that, Jenna. Have you forgotten the oath you took when you joined the Justice League?"
But Jenna pushed her brother away, gritting her teeth, "Yes, I said I would dedicate my life to the cause of justice, but they didn't even give us a chance, always treating us like children and errand runners!"
Tears were in Jenna's eyes, a flood of emotions bursting forth as she looked into Zan's eyes, "No one here respects us. They think we're helpless, joining just for the resources and equipnt, labeled as freeloaders and thieves!"
Shiller frowned and said, "No, Jenna, don't say that. They think we are young, so..."
"Young? Please, we are aliens. What is age to Earthlings? And, isn't Superman young too? Green Lantern? Batman beca a superhero in his early twenties, didn't he?"
Jenna wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, "You used to comfort like this before. Don't think you can fool now, especially that Green Lantern. He spent half an hour tweaking the security system himself, but sent you out on patrol. If not for him, you wouldn't have..."
She pressed her lips together tightly, then couldn't help but bite her lower lip, "What have we even done here? Serving them tea, running errands, doing trivial tasks, and now you're in danger... No matter what they want to do to you, I'll never agree!"
She moved forward two steps, staring into Zan's eyes, "You're not planning to turn yourself in, are you?! Have you gone mad??? Right now, they're all furious, especially Hal. They might even want to execute you!"
"What else can I do," Shiller shook his head, seemingly resigned to his fate. "Soone was attacked at the headquarters. They will definitely investigate one by one. I don't think I can fool them. Once I'm identified as the perpetrator, I'm afraid my ti is up."
"But you didn't do it! You have an alibi!"
"Do you think they care about evidence now?"
Jenna took a deep breath and said, "Still, that's not acceptable. You can't confess to sothing you didn't do. You taught this before."
Shiller turned to leave, but Jenna grabbed his arm, "You can't give up hope. We'll keep it hidden for as long as we can. If you really need to feed... feed on ."
Shiller shook his head, "I won't hurt you, Jenna. But you were right about one thing. If it hadn't been for the patrol, I wouldn't have been ambushed."
Jenna's brows knitted together in an instant; she caught the hint in her brother's tone and hesitantly said, "You walked into an ambush? It seems more than coincidence."
"About 20 minutes ago, soone sounded the ergency alarm. Superman said in the broadcast that soone had been attacked and asked us to rush over, but soon after said we should stay indoors, especially not to be alone."
"Restless in my room, I wanted to call and remind you, but I left my phone in another room, and Superman had forbidden us from going out."
"If it hadn't been for the attack delaying , maybe I could have warned you in ti, and you wouldn't have been bitten. The timing of the attack is too convenient. Could it be that soone knew you were in trouble and created a disturbance here to delay us?"
Shiller seed dejected, "It's no use talking about this now."
"No!" Jenna blocked his path again, insisting, "This ans there's another vampire in the headquarters. Otherwise, they couldn't have tid the attack so precisely. If we expose them, others won't care about you anymore!"
Shiller inwardly complinted, "Smart girl," but hesitantly added, "But how can we expose him when he's disguised so well?"
"The weaknesses of vampires are quite clear, maybe we could use sunlight and holy artifacts..."
Shiller then shook his head and said, "Would you believe it? I am not scared of sunlight and holy artifacts either."
Jenna looked surprised as she circled Shiller twice and said, "How is that possible? Aren't all vampires afraid of sunlight and holy artifacts?"
"I have a special power within ," Shiller adopted Doctor Strange's terminology, explaining, "It seems to be given to by the one who turned , allowing to not fear what vampires do."
"That ans no one can prove you're a vampire?" Jenna's eyes widened, but then she went silent before saying, "If you can live under the sunlight and aren't scared of crosses, then what's different about you from before?"
"I can only survive by drinking blood."
"Oh, right!" Jenna exclaid, as if it dawned on her: "Even if vampires aren't scared of sunlight and crosses, their craving for fresh blood can't be hidden. Maybe we can take advantage of that..."
Shiller shook his head again, "If I were really that desperate for fresh blood, I would have definitely bitten you just now."
Jenna fell into confusion again. She thought carefully, then speculated, "A person who has just eaten won't be hungry. People only show their craving for food when they're extrely hungry. That ans to expose that vampire, we'll need to make him hungry."
After speaking, she looked at her brother and asked, "Are you hungry now?"
Shiller shook his head. Jenna did the math. If her brother had encountered the attack while on patrol, it couldn't have been more than an hour ago, so it made sense that he wasn't hungry.
But he couldn't possibly never get hungry. Vampires surely wouldn't have a slower tabolism than the human race. If they only needed to feed on blood once every few decades, they would pose almost no threat to humans; humans could even donate blood to them on a voluntary basis.
The sharp conflict between the human race and vampires exists precisely because vampires consu too much. A tiger can go three days without hunting after a single al, but these creatures need one human per al and eat three tis a day. No race could sustain that, which led to the irreconcilable conflict between the human race and vampires.
Having realized this, Jenna thought back to the previous attack. Although she hadn't been to the eting room yet and didn't know the specific details of the attack, Jenna guessed that its occurrence could have been due to the vampire concealed within the Justice League headquarters getting hungry?
Then Jenna thought that while the plan to exploit the vampire's hunger to expose him was good, she practically had no way to implent it, as she couldn't possibly lock everyone together—no one in the Justice League would listen to her.
It wouldn't work to go to Superman and Wonder Woman either. They also didn't have absolute say and could easily be led by the nose.
Suddenly, a na flashed through Jenna's mind.
"I've got it!" Jenna raised her voice and said, "I'll call Batman, tell him the plan, and ask him to co over. The reason is ready-made; the Justice League headquarters has been attacked. As a leader, how can Batman not show up?"
Shiller couldn't help but inwardly applaud; she indeed was a smart and alert girl, though a bit lacking in her judgnt of people.
So, as if ntioning it casually, he suggested, "With such a big incident, Batman will definitely co. If you call him, you might be overheard. It might be better to send a ssage instead."
It suddenly clicked for Jenna. She imdiately hopped up, clung onto Shiller, and said happily, "Right, I should send him a ssage. Batman is so clever; he'll understand as soon as he reads it."
"He can find a reason to keep everyone in the eting room for dozens of hours. Then, while pretending to use the restroom, you could drink from . That way, you wouldn't be hungry, and that guy won't have an ally like . After that, we just need to cause a little bloody accident, and he'll certainly beco desperate!"
Jenna imdiately took out her phone and began to compose a ssage. Shiller peeked over and discovered that the girl was even smarter than he thought. The ssage she was sending to Batman was straightforward but didn't give away any hint of her actual plan.
She rely suggested a possibility to Batman: that this attack might be because the vampire inside the headquarters was hungry and there was no blood to feed on, which led to the frenzied attack on people.
Actually, this hypothesis was sowhat naive, because neither of them knew the specifics of the attack at this point; it was also possible that the person who was attacked hadn't been bitten, or that the assailant had planned it in advance, rather than committing a cri of passion.
But Jenna made good use of one advantage: her young age. She was the sa age as Robin, which made her a junior among the other superheroes in the Justice League. Thus, even if she ca up with naive or unsubstantiated guesses, it would be seen as immaturity rather than folly.
Especially Batman - he was generally quite tolerant of teenagers her age. At first glance, this guess might seem overly simplistic, but upon rembering it was the sister from the Magic Twins who was speculating, and that she was about Robin's age, it would not seem strange.
Moreover, Batman was very clever. He might have thought about the issue of vampire food long ago. It was just a matter of who would openly state it. Jenna gave him a good pretext.
The very Batman, standing inside the Justice League eting room, tucked away his communicator and cleared his throat to say.
"I think we should indeed discuss the issue of a traitor within the Justice League seriously."
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