Chapter 302 1. Justice League: Criticism and Self-Criticism
The atmosphere in the Justice League's watchtower today was unusually solemn.
Green Arrow Oliver Queen, who had just been discharged from the hospital and was still a little weak, walked into the Hall of Justice on crutches and was supported by his girlfriend, Ms. Black Canary.
When the high-tech hatch opened, the round table in front of him was already full of people.
This scene is very similar to the last time everyone was here discussing how to deal with the alien world that crashed into the earth, but the purpose of today's meeting is obviously different.
Oliver thought that all the attendees were extremely serious, and their faces were so full of deep thinking that not even a trace of a smile could be seen.
This is obviously a statement of high emotional intelligence.
Low emotional intelligence, it's more vulgar so I won't say it out loud.
Even the face of Miss Magician Zatanna, who was attending the audience on behalf of the spellcasters, was full of frustration and worry. Apparently, she had been the "nanny" of a group of young wizards in the past few days, which made the famous unmarried white wizard feel the horror of marriage in advance. After life.
+1 for daily fear of marriage!
The atmosphere was depressing, aggravated by the pale-faced Wonder Woman sitting at the round table and the tired-looking Flash holding a cup of wolfberry tea.
The most outrageous thing is Cyborg.
The Justice League cyborg is still in the process of self-upgrading his quantum brain, so he has a thick data cable connected to the back of his head.
Almost all of the outer armor of its entire mechanical body has been removed, and it is sitting on a chair in the posture of a "mechanical skeleton". A large number of mechanical nanobugs are swimming around in its body frame to reorganize its internal modules.
To be honest, this scene looks a bit eye-catching.
But Green Arrow knows the origin of this scene. Everyone's low pressure stems from the shameful failure they just suffered. Everyone here is a loser.
Even Batman, who was dressed in black and didn't say a word.
"Green Arrow, sit down."
Superman stretched out his hand to invite his companion to sit on the chair. When he saw the corners of Oliver's mouth twitching under the domino mask, Superman asked softly:
"Is your leg feeling better?"
"It's not bad, I can already walk."
Green Arrow whispered:
"It just takes some time to recover. That crazy young man broke my legs and poured a terrible potion on me. The pain made me see the door of hell opening with my naked eyes."
"He just removed your leg bone. How serious can it be? Stop complaining."
Out of breath, Wonder Woman touched her wrist and sighed:
"I still don't know how many things he took away from me. To be honest, if he hadn't thought of that shameful and vicious way to torture me, I wouldn't have known that I still had such a weakness."
"He also took your weapon away."
Arthur Curry, who was present here, glanced at Diana, who was looking down, and the deep-sea man whispered:
"I think for soldiers, this is much more serious than physical pain, right?"
"The loss of the Lasso of Mantra is not that big a problem."
Diana shook her head and said:
"The girdle of the goddess Hestia is still enshrined in the temple on Paradise Island. It only needs to find a skilled craftsman to make it again. But you are right, Arthur.
I am a warrior, and my weapons have been taken from me, making me a disgrace to all Amazons. ”
"That's better than being tied to a rocket and rushing into your own farm with the attention of the whole town, right?"
Dachao couldn't help but join in the complaints.
This gentle Kryptonian seemed to have remembered some embarrassing scenes. He couldn't help but put his hand on his forehead and sighed:
"My family was scared. Except for my idiot son who was very excited, everyone else started to worry about whether my heroic career would be ruined.
The Daily Planet has published several articles to refute the rumors, but the negative impact cannot be dissipated in a short time.
The worst part is that I still have to find a way to make up for the losses caused by the poor harvest of this year’s farm due to the corn fields I destroyed, and to explain to my family the disappearance of my cousin”
"So is this a competition of misfortune for everyone? No matter how miserable you are, can you be worse than me?"
Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who was sitting on the chair unscathed, complained with pain in his face:
"My lamp ring encountered a virus invasion and issued a shutdown command. This is a rare situation that the entire Green Lantern Corps has experienced in the past countless times.
I was ordered to write an accident report and rush to Oa to attend an inquiry meeting composed of 72 Lanterns.
The worst thing is that the central battery of Oa Star entered the process of self-upgrading due to a bug I discovered. Until the cause of the fault is found out and the upgrade program is written, all lanterns are not allowed to overuse the lantern ring.
What the hell!
If I lose, that's fine. The Lantern is never afraid of failure, but the sad thing is that I didn't even see the enemy. How should I write this accident report?
The minimum requirement is 40,000 words! No matter how hard you try, you can't even get it together. ”
Seeing the Justice League's "misfortune competition" getting more and more intense, the master, who had been silent for a long time, felt that he couldn't do anything if he didn't come forward. If this continued, everyone's morale would be lost.
He looked around, thinking whether the "Anyway Alliance Tactics" Mason left for him needed to be supplemented, and said:
"Everyone!"
As soon as the master spoke out, everyone stopped complaining.
They all looked at Batman.
The meanings in the eyes are different. It is said that the master had encountered a brutal attack by a strange individual on his own territory in the Batcave in Gotham.
If he hadn't made preparations in advance, he probably wouldn't be here today.
And according to the gossip from the telescopic man who was the first to rush to support after receiving the distress signal, Batman was badly beaten by that fierce and mysterious opponent, and even the Bat suit was torn to pieces everywhere. .
It is said that the master was covered in injuries, extremely weak, and out of breath, as if he had suffered some kind of suspicious abuse.
“We are not here today to share our experiences of defeat.”
The master ignored the glances directed at him. He stood up and said in his trademark dumb voice:
"Although it is rare, it is an unavoidable fact that we suffered a terrible defeat, and our enemies cunningly caught our weaknesses and targeted them.
We could say he was opportunistic.
But in a life-and-death confrontation, such a failure can be fatal and cause irreparable damage.
This failure should make us vigilant! We are not invincible, and we should face up to our weaknesses and avoid them. ”
"That's right."
Dachao also looked at his companion with a serious face, and said in a deep voice:
"Is our failure really due to our lack of strength? No, absolutely not. From what I know about Mason Cooper, he is not an opponent of any of us in terms of absolute strength.
Yet he toyed us with applause overnight.
We are not losing to a powerful force.
We lost because of our own mentality. We thought he couldn't make any splash, but that magical young man gave us a few words with his practical actions.
But, that’s not a bad thing.”
"Please, Superman, don't try to change bad things into good things at this time."
Neptune complained:
"If we lose, we lose. It's not like we can't afford to lose! I also know the reason why everyone is gathered here today. The first failure can be said to be underestimation of the enemy and lack of preparation, but if we suffer a second failure, then there will be no more Any excuse.
The most important thing right now is not to review, but to come up with solutions. ”
Having said this, Arthur glanced at the master with a strange look, and he said:
"I estimate that Batman's alliance tactics have been greatly expanded. In order to protect us from being defeated by powerful enemies, and to protect us from being seen through by our own people, I think it is necessary for us to carry out targeted training in the coming time. < br>
And this mission belongs to none other than Batman. ”
"Yes, for a guy who thinks about how to beat his own people every day, it is a matter of course for him to design a strengthening plan for us."
Green Lantern echoed:
"And the intelligence collection part has to be put back on the agenda. Facts have proved that our estimate of the capabilities of that mysterious member of the Society of Stars was seriously underestimated.
They are by no means the third-rate opponents we imagined.
They are dangerous!
We must prepare in advance.
I have sent information about the Society of Stars to Oa and am applying for assistance from the Lanterns. Although the Monitors do not participate in or advocate this matter, they have not stopped my recruitment.
With any luck, the next time the war breaks out, we will have powerful allies from other planets. A true lantern group!
Ha, we will be invincible. ”
"Luck?"
Xiao Shan, who had been silent until now, suddenly raised his head and said in a firm tone:
"We can't leave this kind of thing to luck, Hal! That will lead to quite terrible consequences. We must be 100%! No, 500% prepared!"
These words made everyone around look at Xiao Shan in surprise.
In their impression, The Flash is a very active and kind character, occasionally rough but always optimistic, making it hard to imagine that such bat-like remarks would come out of his mouth.
"Speaking of which, where have you been recently?"
Flash's good friend Hal Jordan frowned and said:
"Why haven't you answered my calls these past few days to ask you to come out and relax? I thought you were traveling through the timeline again."
"I"
Xiao Shen hesitated, coughed and said:
"I went out for a run. After all, being frozen by an ordinary person hurts my self-esteem too much."
"Yes, I heard that your bare butt was frozen."
Green Lantern joked:
"It's a pity that I was busy and didn't go and take some photos to laugh at you."
"Everyone!"
The master's tone increased, causing Green Lantern to immediately make an apology gesture, and then stretched out his hand to pull on his mouth, indicating that he would not interrupt anymore.
"Zatanna, publish the information you have collected."
Batman made a "please" gesture to Zack who was watching, and the latter immediately stood up and placed a magic ornament at the center of the Justice League round table, and soon a series of projections were released.
She took off her tall hat and put it aside, explaining:
"Our operation in Gotham was not without success. Everyone, we captured 15 spellcasters of the Star Society. They are currently imprisoned in the House of Mystery and undergoing questioning and torture.
We have obtained a lot of valuable intelligence from several weak-willed people, but the soul curses attached to them prevent them from telling any information related to the core secrets of the Star Council.
We are unable to determine their headquarters, their high-level structure, their operational patterns and specific plans.
What is currently certain is that there are tens of thousands of core members of this organization, and an even larger number of lower-level members who are used as consumables.
The most terrifying thing is that they occupy the planetary resources of many parallel worlds.
We cannot fight a war of attrition with them, which has no chance of winning. ”
"Wait, Zatanna."
Wonder Woman, who had always been very emo, suddenly raised her head. She looked at Zha and said:
"There were more than this number of spellcasters escaping in Gotham City that night. Are there any who are still on the run who have not been captured?"
"Yes!"
Xiao Zha brushed back her long, smooth black hair and said seriously:
"Doctor Fate is personally leading a team to hunt them down, but we can confirm that there are some people in this world who are secretly helping these outsiders, and their traces are quite secretive.
This is why I am here today. We need intelligence support from the Justice League to search for their traces throughout the world.
The barrier that suppresses the Gate of the World and prevents it from crossing the border cannot be left open for a long time.
That would undermine the stability of the Ley Line in this world, so we must capture those who escaped before it is forced to shut down. ”
"We also need to prevent them from jumping over the wall!"
Dachao stood up and said:
"Those people have very dangerous abilities, and they have strong malice towards our world. They may cause inhumane disasters around the world at any time.
We must act! ”
"Yes, can't we catch them if we can't catch Mason Cooper?"
Arthur stood up suddenly, and the deep sea man said loudly:
"I will return to Atlantis right now to launch a worldwide alert for marine life. If you need help, just let me know and I will rush over immediately."
"I'll go too."
Wonder Woman, who still looked a little weak, moved her wrists and stood up. The female demigod moved her wrists and gritted her teeth and said:
"I'm very angry now and I desperately need a fight to bring myself back to life."
"Cyborg?"
The master glanced at the cyborg that was shut down for maintenance. The latter was still in the process of system upgrade. He would use the backup thread to respond in an electronic voice without any emotion:
"The world monitoring program is online!
When the energy tracking program is in operation, mobile communication authority is delegated. Areas matching the remnants of energy signatures have been detected in South America, Africa and Antarctica.
Targets are designated and waiting for combat mission assignments. ”
"I'll lead the team."
Dachao moved his fingers, looked at Batman, and said:
"About Mason Cooper, who mysteriously disappeared after that night"
"He was once a member of the Bat-Family."
The master said hoarsely:
"I'll deal with him!
After you come back, I will come up with an intensive training plan. In addition, Diana, I can help you find a craftsman who is capable of handling divine items, if you are at ease"
"I can rest assured when you do things."
Diana waved her hand and followed Da Chao out of the hall. She said boldly:
"The warriors of Paradise Island will send you the girdle of the goddess Hestia and help me complete the rearmament as soon as possible."
"Well, now that it's all said and done."
Green Arrow also raised his hand and said:
"I think the weapons of Black Canary and I also need to be upgraded. It turns out that ordinary suits and weapons can no longer protect us in the face of the attack of the Star Society.
But I might as well ask you to help me mess around in this area, Batman, you are the recognized master in this area. ”
"Well, a comprehensive clothing replacement plan has also been put on the agenda, and I have found a trustworthy master to help."
The master nodded and said:
"I will come up with the finished product as soon as possible. Green Arrow, you and Black Canary will stay in the watchtower to assist Cyborg. Flash, you come with me.
I need your help in finding the traces Mason left in this world. ”
A few minutes later, the Bat Fighter flew out of the observation tower and headed towards the earth. In the cockpit, the master activated the data protection to avoid being eavesdropped. Xiao Shan behind him took out a document and handed it over.
He whispered:
"I went to the Gotham orphanage seventeen years ago and witnessed with my own eyes the scene where the infant Mason was sent there. I have to say, Bruce, we really underestimated his origins.
I almost had my heart ripped out by that mysterious woman. ”
"Huh?"
Batman didn't expect that such a thing would happen when he sent Flash to get files. He asked dumbly:
"You mean Mason was sent there on purpose?"
"No, what I mean is that maybe Mason himself doesn't know that he is not from our world at all! He is an alien! Just like Clark, although he did not crash here in a spaceship."
The Flash sighed and said:
"I saw with my own eyes that the woman opened a very strange door. She seemed to be seriously injured, put Mason at the door of the orphanage and staggered away.
Someone must be chasing her. I stepped forward to help but was attacked by her.
Also the car accident the night Mason was adopted was intentional. Another group of people came across the border and tried to take him away. I was the one who stopped them.
I was also the one who led a drunken Robert Cooper to find him at the scene of a car accident.
To be honest, I wanted to send him to you as an infant. But I have seen with my own eyes the consequences of time being disrupted. I am also very surprised. It turns out that I met Mason seventeen years ago.
No wonder I always feel a strange sense of closeness when I face him.
I suspect he has too.
Otherwise it would not explain why he would go easy on me while beating up other people. ”
As Batman listened to this incredible story, he opened Mason's adoption papers and his childhood belongings. He looked at one of the blood-stained cards in deep thought.
After a few seconds, the master suddenly said:
"Barry, tell me honestly, did you and Mason bring something back from other worlds?"
"Huh?"
Xiao Shen was stunned for a moment, and he whispered:
"We didn't. That's a violation of the laws of time and space. I won't do that kind of thing. You know me. But, do you feel something?
Could it be that people from the Star Club are already lurking around you?
Do you need my help looking for it? ”
"No need, I can't be sure, but if necessary, I will contact you as soon as possible."
The master shook his head.
He played with the blood-stained card that belonged to Mason in his hand, saying nothing but recalling the meal he had last night.
He didn't know how to describe it to Barry, but during that mediocre late-night snack, he felt something he had never felt before. It was a feeling that was very unfamiliar to Batman.
It's uncomfortably warm, yet irresistible.
Like.
It was like a treasure that had been lost for a long time suddenly returned, even making him resist for the first time in his life to uncover the truth behind it. However, he is Batman after all.
Tenderness is just an illusion to him.
He had to keep his eyes open at all times, and it seemed it was time for a "major inspection" of Wayne Manor. (End of chapter)