socalfunplaces Chapter 111 Ms. Shiva's Declaration of World's Strongest Power
Chapter 111 Ms. Shiva's Declaration of World's Strongest Power
Chapter 111 Ms. Shiva's Declaration of World's Strongest Power
Chen Tao walked along the ridges of Kent Farm with a Kryptonian named Clark Kent.
The sunlight around 9:00 to 10:00 AM is at its best; it's neither scorching nor weak, carrying a slightly intoxicating warmth that makes one feel almost intoxicated. It's so warm that every cell in the Kryptonian's body groans and joyfully absorbs the energy.
Chen Tao and Clark walked along, neither of them speaking first.
Soon, they reached the edge of their own field. Clark finally spoke:
"Does it really mean... we can only choose one of the two?"
Chen Tao didn't answer him directly; instead, he murmured:
"I am Clark Kent, and I will do this for humanity..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but Clark already understood what he meant.
"You can be anyone, Clark. But the most important thing is that you know who you are going to become. Your father was a great man," Chen Tao told Clark.
"He bestows upon you all the finest qualities of humanity. I have always believed that human identity comes from recognition, not from lineage."
"Therefore, I sincerely hope you don't harbor any illusions about Zod." Chen Tao lowered his eyes.
"Don't go to see Zod, and don't try to persuade him. To Zod, the lives of all living beings on Earth are nothing but insects. Including Martha Ken..."
"Mr. Wayne—I hope you won't use my mother's name to influence my judgment."
"I apologize for that," Chen Tao replied immediately, "but the truth is, your conflict is irreconcilable."
"Going to Black Zero only gives him the opportunity to kill you."
Chen Tao tried his best to persuade the other party, although based on his understanding of Superman, he knew, and was well aware, that it would all be in vain—
Superman is never one to blindly follow others' opinions; he is the greatest hero on this planet, and that title is very likely to be without an "one of" follow-up. He has his own judgment; he just doesn't like to use his super brain.
If you could rush up to any bad guy at near-supersonic speed and smash him into a cookie with one punch, while someone else hitting you would cause you to lose 1 x 10^-9999 trillion health points, and if you hit someone else, they would just explode on the spot, you wouldn't even want to think about it.
But that doesn't mean Superman is a fool. Chen Tao knew very well that no matter how obedient Superman had seemed to him before, when it came to the most crucial decisions, Superman would never be fooled by anyone.
"Mom was so worried, she didn't sleep all night," Clark changed the subject.
She held me tightly, begging me not to leave her.
He squatted down, picked up a pebble from the ground, weighed it in his hand as if he wanted to throw it directly, but in the end he curled his fingers and crushed it into powder.
"Last night, I flew all over the world," Clark said. "I even flew around Black Zero and observed them for a while."
The atmosphere seemed somewhat stagnant.
"I have not found the world engine you mentioned, Mr. Wayne."
He stood up and turned to look at Chen Tao.
They faced each other in the field. Both stood in the light, the golden sunlight casting long shadows.
"My biological father's projection confirmed to me the existence of the World Engine. But it also confirmed to me that General Zod was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone with nothing, and that everything on Krypton was destroyed along with the planet. General Zod shouldn't have possessed such a thing."
"General Zod will absolutely not let this go..."
How did you know?
Chen Tao fell silent. This was the worst part of the whole thing. He was a time traveler; he could deduce the process by combining the results with what he knew from comics and movies in his previous life, but that meant that nothing he said was supported by a complete logical chain or chain of evidence.
Therefore, when faced with Superman's questioning, he could only answer: "I just know, because I am Batman, and Batman knows everything."
Superman remained noncommittal.
He turned around and continued walking forward, and Chen Tao followed him, walking shoulder to shoulder with him.
They flew side by side over the ridges and slopes, hovering over the dense trees, and then gradually began to accelerate. After flying for a while, they landed on a concrete road in the distance of another small town.
"So, where are we going now?" Chen Tao asked. "Where are you taking me?"
"You'll see when we get there." They walked along the path for about six minutes, and a church built on a small hill outside the town came into view.
"Do you seek God's guidance when you are lost?"
Chen Tao asked.
Then he saw a bio-force field veil covering Clark's face.
When he looked at his face, Chen Tao could clearly see his handsome features, but once he looked away, the face became a mosaic in his memory, and even Clark's hair color became somewhat blurry.
Chen Tao sighed.
He snapped his fingers, and silvery-white particles swirled around his face, transforming into a tattered bat mask and dark yellow pupils.
Facing Clark's gaze, Chen Tao said irritably:
"Don't look at me like that. I don't want to be so flamboyant, but I don't share your biological perspective."
The two of them walked into the church together.
There were few people in the church, only a priest standing on the platform. Hearing someone enter, he instinctively said:
What is on your mind?
Then he looked up and saw Chen Tao transformed into a tattered bat, hovering above Clark's head like a dark cloud.
He was so frightened that he swallowed hard.
Clark sat down in the chair, seemingly oblivious or rather, completely unconcerned: "I don't know where to begin."
He paused.
"The spaceship that appeared last night, I am the person they are looking for."
"And I was the Batman last night."
Chen Tao floated up to the priest's forehead like a ghost: "I am a human, and he is a Kryptonian."
"You're more like an alien," the priest thought to himself, looking at Chen Tao's body, which was half like sand. Of course, he didn't say it aloud.
This wasn't because he had high emotional intelligence, but because his mind was completely blank at that moment, and he had almost lost his ability to process language.
He managed to string together a coherent sentence and asked Clark:
"Do you know... why they're looking for you?"
"The current line of reasoning is that I will revive my home planet," Clark replied. "But General Zod, even if I surrender, may not keep his promise, or rather, his so-called promise may have been nothing but a lie from the beginning."
"But... if surrendering can save the world, shouldn't I do it?"
Seeing that the priest was speechless, Clark shook his head.
Chen Tao walked out of the church with him.
Clark pulled out his phone from his pocket, adjusted the settings, and a video was playing: "If he really doesn't want to harm us, then he should return to his people and face the consequences... If he refuses, perhaps we should send him. Louise Lane of the Daily Planet knows who he is, and I think she is..."
Chen Tao recognized him; this was Woodburn. Lewis had previously collaborated with him on a news report about Clark, and now, sure enough, amidst the global crisis, he didn't hesitate at all and directly betrayed Lewis.
Clark stared silently at the information on his phone screen.
Then he concluded by saying:
"I can persuade General Zod. Even though there's a high probability it's impossible, I'll still try. I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne. Zod and his men are my last comrades."
Regardless, I will try to find a path to peacefully resolve all disputes.
Chen Tao sighed again. He knew it would turn out this way.
"All right."
He said.
"I'm not stupid enough to walk right into a trap," Clark told Chen Tao. "I'll bring the master control key to the Kryptonian ship. Black Zero was designed by my father himself. As long as I have the master control key, I should be able to take over some of the ship's control."
"And this is part of my body." Chen Tao dispelled the transformation of the Broken Bat and placed a small square piece of metal in Superman's palm.
The metal then transformed into an unremarkable iron ring, which was fastened to Superman's middle finger.
"You just need to leave it on the Kryptonian ship. It will be of great help to us when the time is right."
Clark looked at him, then nodded emphatically: "Okay."
Watching Clark's figure disappear into the horizon, Chen Tao immediately pulled out his phone, blinked, and the phone automatically sent a text message to Mudman: "Clark has surrendered to the army; now you can kidnap Martha!"
Then he immediately switched to Alfred's interface: "Hurry, Clark is finally gone. Use the Batplane to move all the Kryptonite weapons over. And don't forget that Kryptonite reactor armor! How's our scientist (Lucius) upgrading it?"
……
……
……
metropolis.
Inside the hotel where Ms. Shiva and Jason were staying.
Five-star hotels offer a complimentary buffet breakfast in the morning.
"Professor Shiva...we've been in the Metropolis for a while now, why haven't you—"
Ms. Shiva tapped the table with her chopsticks. She was Asian and preferred chopsticks to a knife and fork.
"No rush, no rush, let's watch TV first."
She said.
The news on the television next to the hall was still playing on a loop footage of tabloid reporter Woodburn's speech advocating that we should not protect Superman.
"I remember that Lois Lane. Only she could get exclusive stories about Superman. But by now, the FBI must have already come knocking and arrested that reporter."
Jason said, "This world is becoming increasingly incomprehensible to me. A few years ago, when I was dealing with serial killers, psychopaths, and bipolar disorder, the world was still relatively normal."
"Then came the American Idol era, where criminals had equal opportunities, and every guy with Tourette syndrome (note: clinically manifested as motor tics, vocal tics, and behavioral disorders) dared to call himself the next Joker just by carrying a makeup box."
"I thought this era was bad enough, crazy enough. But now even aliens are popping up."
"In fact," he said, picking up a piece of food with his chopsticks and putting it in his mouth, "the news these past two days has been absolutely outrageous. I feel like I'm watching Rick and Morty."
He ate another bite, drank some beverage, and mumbled indistinctly as he chewed:
"Hmm... Challenging Batman was already fantastical enough, now we might have to challenge aliens too..."
Before he could finish speaking, he saw the expression on Shiva's face, and then his expression also fell.
"Seriously? You really want to challenge aliens?"
"What about Batman? Weren't you here to challenge him?"
He was then immediately met with a counter-question from Shiva.
"If you're after excitement, why not just go all the way?"
Jason choked.
He stretched his neck, swallowed the food with great effort, and then said, "But you've seen how inhuman that Superman is."
He felt utterly exhausted. Did anyone still remember their original purpose?
He originally came here just to fight Batman, and the battle was supposed to take place in Gotham, but now he's staying in a five-star hotel in Metropolis—how did things turn out like this?
"I know he's very strong."
Ms. Shiva said:
"Flames can't burn him. He can easily demolish houses and lift massive piles of steel beams weighing tens of tons."
"If you know that, shouldn't you also understand that this is absolutely no opponent that humans can fight against?"
Jason said, "Humans are no match for aliens like these."
"You're wrong. The only difference between humans and aliens is power. If that can be overcome... Do you think I don't know you're secretly hiding something, Jason?"
Jason understood what the other person meant, and he didn't intend to hide it.
"I didn't prepare a lot of Venom," he said. "Although Bane's henchman, the Zombie, taught me the recipe for making Venom, I didn't make much due to time constraints, limited materials, and space."
But before he could finish speaking, Ms. Shiva said with absolute certainty, "You only made one bread cart, right?"
Jason was speechless.
Ms. Shiva adopted a serious expression: "I've found the bread cart you hid. It's too early for you to have this venom. I'll keep it for you until you're a little older..."
"You want to use this venom to enhance yourself, raising your strength to the point where you can fight aliens, and then challenge them with martial arts?"
Ms. Shiva pretended not to hear Jason's question: "You can locate Batman's plane, right?"
"Yes, that's right," Jason said sullenly. "He's still using those same satellite codes from back then."
Ms. Shiva said, "Then you should start tracking my location regularly. I need to know when Batman is going to fight the aliens."
Jason saw her brush a strand of hair behind her ear, reveal a bloodthirsty smile, and take a bite of the roasted meat in front of her.
It looked like a ferocious beast tearing apart the flesh of its prey.
He then remembered that Ms. Shiva was famous in her early years for killing other martial arts masters with her bare hands. Countless martial arts masters considered it an honor to die at her hands.
"I want to go see too. Do aliens bleed? Can aliens be killed? This is really something to look forward to..."
Shiva's gaze wandered.
But whether it's Batman or an alien, I will definitely win.
Because I am Shiva.
The strongest individual on this planet—without a doubt!
……
……
……
Four hours later.
General Zod and his men landed in front of the Kent family house on Kent Farm.
As soon as General Zod stepped off the spaceship, he saw Martha Kent standing in the doorway with an unsettlingly strange smile, like a statue made of mud, waiting for them.
The town was quiet for miles around, so quiet that not even a dog barked.
(End of this chapter)