Gotham, early autumn.
The midday sun shone through the window, casting a faint halo over Zane. He yawned, his sleeping posture changing from a spread-eagle shape to a curled-up one.
Scratching his chin, Zane stayed in bed for another five minutes after rolling onto his side before finally getting up.
Sleeping until noon completely swept away the fatigue from yesterday's work and even saved him money on breakfast. It was killing two birds with one stone.
Getting up and washing his face, he thought for a moment before turning on the TV.
The reason he turned on the TV wasn't that he really wanted to watch it, but just to have some noise in the room so he wouldn't feel so lonely.
What a sad reason.
Walking toward his noble bachelor fridge, Zane listened to the serious voice coming from the TV.
"...The Bat-Signal on the GCPD rooftop has been lit for five consecutive days, yet the masked vigilante familiar to the citizens still hasn't appeared."
"Has Batman gone missing?"
"...Regardless, Gotham's crime rate is steadily climbing, and the streets are filled with lunatics and criminals..."
"We can't help but doubt the GCPD's capabilities... Is the entire police department really no match for a fanatic in a tight bat suit taking the law into his own hands?"
That big bat is missing?
The news on the TV surprised Zane, but not entirely. After all, he was just a private detective and couldn't concern himself with such massive affairs.
After crossing over into the DC Universe, he didn't awaken some top-tier check-in system like other transmigrators, where clocking in at Metropolis today would instantly reward him with Platinum Kryptonite.
From then on, swallowing a piece of Platinum Kryptonite, his fate would be in his own hands, starting a boisterous life of punching the Arkham nursing home and kicking the Hydra kindergarten.
He had only picked up a magic book containing things related to necromancers. The content was obscure and convoluted, as if intentionally designed to be incomprehensible.
Two years of bitter study only granted him the ability to resurrect dead mice...
With the Bat missing, the other members of the Bat-Family would naturally come to the rescue. Zane stopped thinking about it and instead took a carton of milk and a box of cereal out of his bachelor fridge.
He shook them, and without exception, they were both empty.
Damn it!
Gritting his teeth, Zane grabbed his trench coat, draped it over his shoulders, and decided to go out to eat. His stomach was growling; he must be suffering from a lack of Vitamin KFC.
Having caught countless runaway cats and dogs for people, he still had enough dollars to eat at KFC.
That's right. Although being a private detective sounded highly prestigious and mysterious, the industry had actually declined a long time ago.
The 19th century or the early 20th century was considered its golden age, but now...
There were surveillance cameras everywhere on the streets. The GCPD couldn't catch supervillains, but they were still very professional when it came to handling ordinary criminals and regular cases.
Therefore, the only things left for a private detective like Zane were catching mistresses, tailing an employer's partner to see if they were cheating, and other similar tasks.
He was very professional in this line of work. Even if he got caught and beaten up due to counter-reconnaissance, the employer didn't need to worry; he would extort the attackers himself.
Leaving the house and sitting in his small car, Zane stepped on the gas pedal and drove through the chaotic streets of Gotham's East End.
After finishing his fried chicken, he began today's task of finding someone.
According to the information previously provided by a mutually helpful peer, his target this time, Sean West, had recently been seen frequently on Cisco Street in the East End.
According to the employer, Sean had been staying out all night recently. Whenever he came home, he would fall asleep without saying a word, and many scars had appeared on his body. Now, he hadn't even been home for four consecutive days...
And what Zane had to do was find Sean, take him home, collect the reward, and leave.
The small car turned, about to enter Cisco Street.
Zane looked through the windshield and blinked, trying to get a clear view of the scene at the end of the street. It seemed like a crowd was gathering there.
Suddenly, he caught a black dot above him from the corner of his eye.
Huh?
His attention drawn, Zane looked at the black dot in the sky. The dot was moving extremely fast. It was just as tiny as the eye of a needle a moment ago, but now it was getting bigger and bigger.
The landing point of this thing...
Holy shit!
Before Zane could even react and get out of the car, he heard a loud bang. The hood of his small car was smashed inward, emitting a plume of white smoke.
"What the fuck!" Zane couldn't help but curse, hurriedly getting out of the car to check.
He saw a spherical object resting in the dent on the hood. Under the setting sun, its surface seemed plated with a layer of gold foil, possessing a distinct metallic luster.
Click.
Suddenly, the spherical object opened, revealing a watch lying inside.
"What a strangely designed watch..."
Zane narrowed his eyes, and then his expression gradually turned strange. This thing felt so familiar!
The center of the dial featured a green hourglass with pure black on both sides. There was a small green dot on the top, bottom, left, and right edges of the dial. Right below the bottom green dot was a button.
"Hiss..." Zane took a sharp breath as his dusty memories constantly awakened. He had already recognized exactly what this watch was.
From the American cartoon Ben 10, a Level 20 technology in the show, commonly known as the broken watch, but actually the heaven-defying Omnitrix!
Suddenly, the Omnitrix sprang up from the spherical object, flying onto Zane's left wrist with a whoosh. The straps closed, automatically attaching itself to him, impossible to take off.
Sure enough, I knew that incomprehensible necromancy magic book wasn't my transmigration perk!
Thinking of that obscure magic book, Zane's eyes suddenly lit up. If he remembered correctly, among the initial ten aliens of the Omnitrix, there was a Galvan known as Grey Matter.
This race possessed extremely high intelligence, arguably the greatest in the universe. If he transformed into Grey Matter and then read that magic book, his learning efficiency would inevitably multiply countless times over.
Taking a few deep breaths, Zane forced himself to calm down, planning to test the abilities of the Omnitrix later.
He took the metal sphere off the hood and got back into his small car. Surprisingly, it could still run, so he drove the car to a parking spot.
During this time, not many people paid attention.
Come on, this was Gotham, a place with simple folk and outstanding people. Everyone was very busy. A suddenly caved-in car hood and parking as if nothing happened couldn't attract any attention at all.
At the very least, there had to be a car bomb erupting into a roaring fireball for those ordinary passing Gothamites to be willing to look up, take a selfie, and post it on social media with the caption: This fucked up city!
The camera shifted back to Zane. Sitting in the car, he reached out and carefully pressed the activation button on the dial.
A faint humming sound rang out. Amidst a dim green glow, the dial slowly popped up. An alien head with fire on it, looking somewhat like Ghost Rider, appeared before Zane's eyes as a holographic projection.
Isn't this Heatblast!
Sliding it with his hand, the other nine illuminated heads were also familiar faces.
The extremely fast, velociraptor-like XLR8. The heaven-defyingly defensive Diamondhead, whose entire body was covered in a diamond-hard, shining shell...
"Jesus's uncle, I've really hit the jackpot this time."
Zane couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The Omnitrix on his hand was the real deal. He finally didn't have to be a miserable private detective anymore!
Of course, he still had to finish his current ongoing task.
Zane was a responsible person. Since he had accepted the employer's commission, there was no reason to give up halfway.
It was also a perfect opportunity to test out his transformation abilities!