At this moment, because they had stolen a hot potato, Bruce and his partner were desperately fleeing when they ran into the Superman and Batman duo. Both these pairs had Action Points bonuses, so they were quite the speedsters, and it was truly a coincidence that they crossed paths.
"What are you two rushing around for?" Lord Superman asked, frowning.
"Uh, nothing much," Selina cleared her throat and said, "How about you? Did you find anything on the spaceship?"
"You don't need to know," Lord Superman said, "Seeing you sneaking around, you haven't been up to thievery, have you?"
Selina deflected, "You don't need to go the way we came from; we've already picked through everything there. Which direction do you plan to go?"
"That's none of your business," Lord Superman said, "A thief's just a thief, always up to stealthy things. I'm not teaming up with you."
With that, he turned and left. In the command room, Bruce burst out swearing. Selina comforted him, "Come on, his organization has cleared the Earth of all crimes, including theft. I knew he wouldn't like me. Don't argue with him; let's move."
"Since when did you get so good-natured?" Bruce said, puzzled, "When I called you a thief, you almost gouged my eyes out. Why are you so easygoing with this guy? You don't find his suit nice, do you?"
When he said the last sentence, Bruce was a little bitter. The next statement was even more tinged with jealousy as he said, "Last time Clark asked if I wanted to change the color of my suit, he must've seen the Justice Lord's white suit, thought it looked good, and wanted to switch up. You lot are completely fooled by the looks! This guy is a tyrannical despot, not a good guy!"
Selina rolled her eyes so hard they almost hit the ceiling, "It's you who think his outfit looks good, hence this whole theory, right? To me, a regular Superman wouldn't think a white suit looks good. They just like those colorful, bright outfits; otherwise, why wear blue suits and red cloaks?"
"Besides, when you accused me, I didn't argue with you verbally, did I? I went straight to action, didn't I?"
Bruce then realized that even though Selina said it was nothing, she was actually trailing Lord Superman from a distance once he had left. Her intentions were clear.
"What do you think I'd do? Refute him with righteous indignation? Say whatever you like, but I was forced to steal out of poverty? That he's disregarding the lives of the underprivileged by blaming thieves? Get real. I know full well I wasn't forced into being a flying thief; it was my talent and interest. Otherwise, I wouldn't target difficult-to-sell things like gemstones."
"I don't claim to be any good guy, and in front of someone who has truly cleared Earth of all crimes, I'm always going to be in the wrong. But just because I'm not a good guy, even if I'm in the wrong and he looks down on me, it still pisses me off. So, I can only resort to the despicable methods that bad guys always use."
Shortly after he finished speaking, Lord Superman ran into Pikachu and Stark, who were looting in an igloo. Without a word, he threw a punch, collapsing the igloo.
"Damn it!" Stark, maneuvering his battle armor, arced through the air, glaring angrily at Lord Superman. Lord Superman remained in his arrogant stance, floating with his arms crossed, lips pursed, not saying a word.
Stark opened his mouth to say something, but realizing this was a player-versus-player game, with no real problems with how others played, he had nothing to add. Pikachu, however, wouldn't let it slide, performing an East Coast rap on the spot, making Lord Superman frown repeatedly at the vocab.
Given Lord Superman's personality, he certainly wouldn't just close his ears, so he chose to throw a punch at Pikachu. Pikachu rolled away, sending a Thunder Strike toward him.
Crack!
Lord Superman hadn't planned on dodging; when had he ever been afraid of lightning strikes? But he momentarily forgot this was a game, and his sun-summoning skill had expired, so his defense was now average. And Pikachu, with its fragile build, was naturally a high-damage attacker, with this Thunder Strike taking away a good chunk of Lord Superman's health bar.
Hiss...
Lord Superman took a sharp breath and quickly backed away. In the command room, Lord Batman said, "This guy's not easy to deal with. I've run into their Small Animal Alliance in other quests, and each member was skilled with unique abilities. Just a few little guys took out tens of thousands of attacking zombies."
Lord Superman was somewhat skeptical. But Pikachu didn't give him a chance to explain, following one Thunder Strike with another. Lord Superman had to twist and turn mid-air to avoid getting hit.
Stark also joined in the fight to help Pikachu tackle Lord Superman, not because of any real camaraderie, but mainly because he feared Pikachu's electricity more than Lord Superman's punches. After all, he was using an old-model mecha, and if he got hit by a single Thunder Strike, his collected parts would be wasted.
The more technical professionals understand the power of electricity. No matter how sophisticated the machinery, if it's pierced by a large current, it's pretty much done for. Agreeing to Pikachu's proposal before was partly because of this. It's better to have such a restrictive character as a teammate than an enemy.
Stark took a deep breath, opened his Hand Cannon, and fired a continuous barrage at Lord Superman. And just as Lord Superman swooped down, intending to close-combat Pikachu, Stark collided into him, ramming Lord Superman against the wall at the battle area's edge, firmly preventing him from getting close.
Lord Superman did fight back, pummeling Stark several times, but this guy's armor was obviously high, and after pounding for a long time, not a drop of blood was shed.
So the situation became a bit delicate. Stark stood in the front, and Lord Superman could only swing fists with him, but he was a bit unable to move him. Pikachu was fiercely striking from the back, with high damage and fast frequency, Lord Superman was almost electrocuted by him.
There was no choice, Lord Superman turned around and knocked Stark away, directly summoning the Sun. Stark, dazzled, covered his eyes with his hand and said helplessly, "Isn't the one hanging in the sky enough?"
This move unleashed more power than expected because they were on the snowfield now, with white snow everywhere. People with experience surviving in the North should know, the principle of snow blindness is that snow is a high ultraviolet reflective environment, excessive ultraviolet rays scorch the cornea, causing eye inflammation, and eventually leading to decreased vision and blurry sight.
This was already a sunny day, and they were on the verge of snow blindness walking on the snowfield, then another Sun was summoned, though not as bright as the one in the sky, and with lower ultraviolet, it undoubtedly added another burden to everyone's eyes.
"Oh God!" Stark shouted, "Why didn't I add an ultraviolet filter to this first-generation Mecha… oh, wait, I was in Afghanistan then. Damn it!"
"Yeah, if you had been kidnapped to Siberia, maybe you would've remembered to add goggles." Steve said.
"If I had been kidnapped to Siberia, you wouldn't see me today!" Stark said irritably, "Do you expect me to make a Mecha with potatoes?"
Actually, Stark was fine, his first-generation Mecha didn't have very good long-range attacks, it was basically close combat. Mainly Pikachu had a bit of trouble aiming because the sun surrounding Lord Superman was really too dazzling.
And at this time, Selina quietly entered. But he didn't first go to pickpocket Lord Superman's pockets, instead, he approached the stationary Pikachu. He seemed to think his position was very safe, so he simply stayed put. To touch his stuff was a piece of cake for Selina.
He reached out for a touch, didn't find anything useful at first, but since Pikachu remained still, he could keep touching. The Hundred Treasure Bag also came into play, grabbing a bunch of items and stuffing them inside, there was no issue of a full backpack. So back and forth, Selina managed to snatch Bruce's exclusive equipment badge.
"Wow, unexpected gain," Selina said, "It's your exclusive equipment, not bad."
Bruce was also quite happy, but he quickly said, "Quick, quick, go rummage through their pockets again, there might be more good stuff!"
Stark and Lord Superman were locked in an intense fight, and Selina didn't dare to recklessly go forward. But it wasn't for nothing that he's the number one Flying Thief on the East Coast, he seized a moment, flashed between the two, and directly picked Stark's pocket.
But upon looking at it, it was a component. Bruce looked at the part and then said, "Seems like it's from his Mecha, why don't you try again?"
Selina waited a while, then seized another chance to grab, but unfortunately, it was another component. Then he shook his head and said, "No good, Iron Man might be immune to my skills, his warehouse is full of components, grabbing too many takes up backpack slots, and throwing them away is easy to be discovered, forget it."
Bruce nodded. He knew Stark's skills were the best counter to thieves, actually, the important thing about preventing thieves is not catching them but polluting the card pool. As long as the card pool is full of non-functional components, Selina can't keep stealing there, and stealing skills become ineffective.
As for stealing a bunch of components to knock down the Mecha, it's even more unnecessary. Bruce himself can switch between three forms as a War God, this kind of first-generation Mecha is useless to him. Moreover, Stark probably needed some passive skills to use the Mecha, if he only has the Mecha without the skills, the Mecha instead becomes a burden.
As for Selina, he doesn't even wear a formal suit properly, do you expect him to don such a bulky iron shell?
After waiting a while, Selina went to Superman and picked twice. But obviously, Lord Batman is not someone careless, as soon as a tool was missing from the inventory, he noticed it immediately and told Lord Superman.
"I told you it was a damn thief!" Lord Superman cursed, "And that Bruce is actually dating him!"
Lord Batman touched his face.
"Wait a minute," Lord Superman realized, he said, "You also dated him?! God, how could you fall in love with a thief???"
But they didn't have much time to dwell on this matter because soon another tool was snatched. Lord Superman was furious, he never encountered a thief who could steal from him in his entire life.
"Don't worry," Lord Batman comforted him, he said, "Since he dares not show himself, it proves he can't withstand a frontal attack. You show a flaw to lure him in, and then you can send him back to the command room."
Lord Superman found this plan reasonable, so he implemented it. While avoiding Stark's attacks, he deliberately circled to the side, leaving a lone gap, waiting for Selina to take the bait.