bookmarkrole Chapter 113 The Brave and Fearless
Chapter 113 The Brave and Fearless
Chapter 113 The Brave and Fearless
Deep within the universe, beneath the boundless starry sky, inside a massive skeleton spaceship.
Brainiac sat on his throne, with metal tentacles attaching themselves to his brain, connecting him to his kingdom.
In the endless stream of data, countless possible futures, like chess pieces on a chessboard, were repeatedly deduced by Brainiac's immense computing power.
"Analyzing... Analyzing..."
"Sample collection success rate: 32.1%, which is too low."
"Based on analysis, the following three individuals caused the variable."
1. Superman.
2. Batman.
3. Lex Luthor.
Brainiac opened his eyes.
Countless massive data streams flashed across his indifferent, almost inanimate eyes. These data streams were enough to overwhelm all the most advanced servers on Earth, but they were insignificant to Brainiac.
He even has the ability to be distracted by other things.
"Re-establishing the analysis model. Analyzing... Analyzing Darkseid. Calculating: Earth's destruction time."
"Establishing a comparison. Analyzing the most successful and suitable sample collection time; sample collection target: metropolitan area."
"It is worth noting that conflict with Darkseid should be avoided at all costs. This precondition has been included."
"Additional targets: Superman, Batman, Lex Luthor, Parasite."
"The Earth Civilization Protection Plan is under development and has been launched."
Brainiac nodded, and then a holographic image of General Zod and Black Zero appeared in front of him.
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"What's that, Major?"
General Sam Lane sat in the main seat of the command room, surrounded by busy researchers and heavily armed soldiers.
His expression was serious, and his slightly graying temples contrasted with his black hair, but the trembling fingers on the armrest suggested that he was not so calm.
His mind kept replaying his daughter, Louise Lane, the Kryptonian known in intelligence as Fiora, who had asked her to go to Black Zero with the alien called Superman.
In that instant, as a father, he was prepared to directly reject the aliens' demands and then lead all the American soldiers into battle against the Kryptonians on the spot.
But his daughter left without hesitation, following the tall Boy Scout in red and blue.
It's all Superman's fault!
Well, General Lane knew this was just impotent rage and utterly baseless transference of hatred. His reason knew it perfectly well, but emotion and reason are never the same thing.
His subordinate's voice interrupted his reverie, and he immediately reverted to the iron-blooded general.
"Enemy aircraft detected, launched from an alien spacecraft!"
"Screen display."
"Yes, sir."
"Connect to radio 4, zoom in a bit closer."
General Sam Lane picked up the phone: "Command, today's code is Trident. An alien spaceship is approaching."
"Radio 4 is now connected."
How fast is it?
"380 nautical miles, entering Kansas airspace, they seem to be pacing back and forth, searching for something!"
"They won't respond to us!"
General Sam Lane remained silent.
"I'm sorry, colleagues," he said, "the worst has happened. Even though we've handed over Superman, the aliens still refuse to leave Earth immediately."
"I believe this battle is probably unavoidable. The president has authorized me to retaliate should aliens invade Earth. Therefore, I may have to make this announcement."
He turned and looked at everyone in the hall.
"We're going to war with aliens."
He knew exactly what he was saying, and he knew exactly what the consequences would be.
Lois Lane, his beloved daughter, is currently aboard a Kryptonian spaceship.
If he simply carries out the president's order, he may very well... never see his daughter again.
Yes, that's right.
General Ryan told himself this over and over again. He felt his limbs trembling and his head going cold. A huge surge of emotions was crashing over his body, crushing him and burying him in bottomless darkness.
But he still repeated his command.
"General, but your daughter..."
"I said, execute my orders—didn't you hear me? Activate the fighter jets! Tanks! Attack helicopters! Launch the attack!!! Use missiles! Use bombs! Use artillery!"
General Sam Lane's voice trembled: "Didn't you hear my orders, soldier?"
Colonel Hardy bowed his head: "Yes, General!"
"Countless people have given their lives for our country," General Ryan said in a low voice, as if telling everyone present, or as if hypnotizing himself. His voice gradually stopped trembling.
"They're all other people's kids. If other people's kids can die, then so can mine. Louise is an adult; she can take responsibility for her choices."
"Therefore... launch an attack! In the name of the United States, launch an attack on the enemy!"
As he finished speaking, his body visibly swayed. General Ryan shoved away Colonel Hardy, who tried to help him, and pointed at him, saying, "You lead the team yourself, with overwhelming firepower, Colonel Hardy. We're going to use the highest level of attack and send these aliens straight to hell!"
He opened his mouth, feeling his soul howling in the dark night, but not a single tear fell from his eyes.
"Attack them! That's my order to you... Go attack them!"
Just then, another sergeant rushed into the control room and whispered in General Ryan's ear, "General, a colonel wants to see you. He's waiting outside—"
"Nowhere to be seen? What the hell?" General Ryan said. "Get them out of here. We're dealing with an interstellar crisis right now."
"But he brought with him the president's orders—"
"What do you do for a living—"
"You can't come in—a presidential order? Uh… but even so, you can't—"
A burst of noise came through the microphone in front of General Ryan, followed by a question from a guard outside: "Your Excellency, there's a colonel here claiming to be carrying orders from the President. Can we let them in? They're trying to force their way in; should we retaliate?"
General Ryan glanced at the sergeant beside him. The sergeant immediately replied:
"My identity is correct; I've verified it."
General Ryan nodded. "Let them in."
Then he turned to Colonel Hardy and said, "What are you standing there for? Prepare for battle!"
"yes!"
Colonel Hardy saluted and turned to leave.
General Ryan turned around and stared blankly at the two alien spaceships on the screen, seemingly lost in thought.
A few minutes later, the door behind him opened.
General Ryan turned his head and saw a tall, strong, blond man walk in, accompanied by several FBI agents in black.
"General Ryan, I am U.S. Air Force Colonel Steve Trevor." Steve entered the room and extended his hand to General Ryan, who was sitting there.
But General Lane did not shake hands with him.
"What brings you here?"
He said, "Let's not waste each other's time."
Steve frowned, but didn't take General Ryan's gun-like attitude to heart.
He pointed to a fat black woman next to him, who was as fat as a black sow standing upright, but was wearing an FBI uniform.
Her unsightly appearance prompted General Ryan to give her a once-over.
Generally speaking, guys with that kind of appearance should be in slums or sanitation departments, not mixed up with a bunch of FBI agents.
"I am Amanda Waller. An agent. It's a pleasure to meet you, General."
Amanda didn't mention her specific job title. She gave a harmless smile, looking exactly like a middle-aged woman working as a supermarket clerk.
Steve said:
"Your Excellency, a holographic conference awaits your attendance. The President and numerous members of Congress wish to discuss with you the issue of extraterrestrials, as well as the chairman of Lexcorp, Luther—"
He leaned close to General Ryan's ear: "They are anxiously waiting for you to explain the situation to them. Meanwhile, we are also discussing whether we should release the parasite to deal with this threat."
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At this time, the farm was more than ten kilometers away from Kent Farm.
Chen Tao appeared safely on an invisible bat-shaped aircraft, with Alfred standing next to him.
This is a relatively heavy bat-shaped aircraft; it's more like a mobile, small aerial fortress than a plane. Since the aircraft only hovers, the AI can handle the rest, allowing Alfred to guard this location.
At this moment, Chen Tao was sitting in front of the computer. Most of his body had turned into a real car. Only his upper body, neck, and thighs still retained a human form, which made him even more bizarre. A human head was directly glued to the car's hood, and the two rear wheels were replaced by two hairy legs. Because his front body was too heavy, he could only push off the ground.
Fortunately, the cabin of this plane is spacious enough that even if most of your body were to be sized like a car, you wouldn't have to worry about not fitting in.
At this moment, Chen Tao was connecting himself to the Batmobile's computer with a cable. To be frank, the Batmobile's computing power was simply too weak. Even with the assistance of the nanobots from the Broken Bat, hacking directly into Black Zero was an almost impossible task.
Even magic needs to be reasoned. People are capable of anything when they're desperate, except for math problems. If your calculation ability isn't up to par, it's down to it. After all, he's only an F-class Batman; how much stronger can you expect him to be?
Now, facing Black Zero is like encountering a thin steel film. It looks weak, and he knows its weaknesses, but he has no ability to penetrate it.
The problem is, he didn't need to hack in. Superman took the master key, allowing the AI modeled after his biological father, Jor-El, to successfully infiltrate Black Zero.
So now all he needs to do is put his own in.
The old butler looked at Batman, who was becoming increasingly inhuman, with a somewhat complicated expression.
"call……"
Chen Tao let out a long breath, and his metal body deformed, returning to its original flesh and blood form.
He walked over to the old butler. "What's wrong, Alfred? Why are you lost in thought? What are you thinking about?"
"Oh, it's nothing," the old butler chuckled. "I was just thinking about where we can go for fun after we retire."
"Anywhere is fine." Chen Tao opened a bottle of drink from the cabinet and poured a glass for each of them. "Anyway, I'm gradually stepping back from the front lines now. Once I give Superman a little more help and get his superhero career back on track, we'll really be retired."
Then Chen Tao lowered his eyes and muttered in a barely audible voice, "Damn Brainiac."
"What did you say, sir?"
"It's nothing," he said, raising his glass. "To my retirement!"
Boom!
Just as Chen Tao raised his cup, a loud bang came from the screen.
"You—how dare you—murder—my mother!!!!"
"Tsk tsk tsk..." Chen Tao clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked at the enraged Superman on the screen. This was an image transmitted from Wayne Enterprises' private satellite.
"Are you sure it's okay to use a clay figure to fool Superman like this?"
Alfred came up and watched the video with him: "Poor child, he will be heartbroken."
"If I hadn't used Clayface to trick Superman, Superman might not have been able to defeat these Kryptonians."
Chen Tao looked at the satellite imagery on the screen: a furious Superman kicked another Kryptonian giant, Ekko, who was besides Zod, sending him flying. He then grabbed a broken steel beam and swung it, striking Ekko in the groin.
Their battleground had flown several kilometers away, and they were now locked in combat in the center of a small town.
At this moment, Superman seemed to have the upper hand, single-handedly overpowering the giant Ike and General Zod.
"After all, as I said before, the Kansas farmer has hardly ever been in a fight in his life. The difference between him and General Zod is not something that can be bridged by a few days of learning some underhanded tricks."
"Stink bombs and breath-breathing agents might be a good idea, but we'll have to wait until he takes off his mask."
On screen, Superman grabs the giant Ekko's ankle with his bare hands and plows him across the ground, but is immediately stomped on the back of the head by General Zod from behind.
"In short, although I feel very sorry for lying to Clark, I have to provoke his anger so that he can fight against three or more Kryptonians at the same time," Chen Tao said. "Once this is over, I will personally put the resurrection armor on his mother, but for now..."
"Our Superman needs a bit of a rage buff," Chen Tao said. "Right now, he needs a courageous heart that can unleash the full power of his steel body."
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"In my opinion, this is utterly insane," Jason said earnestly. "What good would it do to get involved in the fight against the Kryptonians at this time?"
Their rented van was parked on the side of the road a few kilometers from Kent Farm.
"The bat-plane signal you found is nearby, right?"
Ms. Shiva did not give him a direct answer.
"Yes, that's right, but that doesn't mean..."
But before Jason could finish speaking, he and Shiva saw a futuristic Kryptonian spaceship fly overhead and land in the distance.
"That certainly means enemies," Shiva said, pursing his lips.
"Jason, get out of the car."
Jason the Red Hood was about to say something when he suddenly felt a blur before his eyes and was kicked out of the driver's seat, completely powerless to resist.
This is an overwhelming gap in martial arts skills.
"Hey you……"
"It's dangerous there, Jason, you'd better not get involved."
Jason couldn't hold back any longer: "Dangerous? Aren't you dangerous too? Professor Shiva, according to my calculations, even a large amount of venom couldn't... You didn't need to..."
But he could say no more, for he saw into Madam Shiva's eyes, and the piercing light in them made him unable to open them.
"No, don't you understand, Jason?"
"This is a challenge, a real challenge. And I am the strongest human on this planet, I was born to face this challenge. It's not that I don't want to back down, however—"
Shiva sat in the driver's seat, his lips curled into a silent, maniacal laugh.
Jason stood there in the sunlight, watching the world's strongest mortal drive a beat-up van, embarking on her destined journey:
"I'll stake my human dignity, I'll stake my reputation as a fighter, I cannot back down here!"
"Because I am—the strongest in the world!"
(End of this chapter)