No sooner had the words left his mouth than a red lightning bolt appeared beside the two men.
"Whew! That was a close call. This spaceship has defensive weapons deployed in a lot of places. I nearly had to travel through time just to barely dodge that last one." Barry said, panting and putting his hands on his hips.
"Draw out all the layouts you saw on this spaceship, mark the map clearly, and make sure it's precise." Lex Luthor pulled out a pen and paper he'd prepared earlier from his pocket and handed them to The Flash.
"Leave it to me, I got a Level 2 reconnaissance mapping certificate in college, so I guarantee it'll be a beautiful drawing." Barry took the pencil and paper, activated the Speed Force, and his hand moved so fast it blurred.
As a forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department, Barry had learned many practical skills.
A few seconds later, a sketch that looked like a finely detailed black and white photograph appeared on the paper, with all possible functions of various locations marked.
"Excellent. Now, abstract the map. By applying circuit topology, we can derive a roughly complete main circuit diagram. Next, we'll deduce the power source's location from the circuit diagram, which is where this spaceship's energy engine is." Luthor glanced at the map, his mind racing with calculations.
"And then we blow up the energy engine and escape together? But this is space. My suit has space survival capabilities, and Watt and the others should be fine, but you and other ordinary people…" Palmer hesitated.
"Do you have any way to contact Earth from here?" Luthor asked calmly.
"No, this spaceship clearly has functions to suppress electromagnetic signals both inside and out. Watt and the others are on the same ship as me, so contacting them isn't a problem, but the signal can't be sent to Earth." Palmer shook his head.
The lack of suppression inside the ship was because some of its internal equipment also required electricity and magnetism to function.
"Don't worry," Barry said, pointing to the lightning bolt ear covers on his cowl. "Sometimes, because I run too fast, it takes a while for electromagnetic signals to catch up. So, Cisco and I… well, Vibe and I made this communicator together. The signal is transmitted by rerouting directly through the Speed Force dimension, so I can still make contact."
"Good. We'll go to the energy engine's location first. When we're ready to blow it up, we'll contact Vibe and have him open a portal. Once Metropolis and the resizing gun are sent through, we'll retreat together." Luthor stated.
"What about you? Aren't you going to try to go back first?"
"I have a daughter. She's being held in the main control room, being used as a CPU by the owner of this place."
"She and Superman have already been rescued. It's just Watt and Batman who are still being held up." Palmer replied.
"Then… Alex, I'm entrusting her to you. The Flash, please take me and The Atom to the energy engine's location. Have him shrink down and send this bomb inside. Before it explodes, you need to bring Alex and the others back." Luthor looked conflicted as he spoke to Barry.
"Leave it to me!"
A red lightning bolt streaked by, instantly arriving at the main control room.
At this moment, Qingshui and the others were still barely resisting Brainiac's attack.
However, perhaps because most of its computing power was occupied by Brainiac Queen, and it needed to be distracted protecting Brainiac Queen, Brainiac's displayed strength wasn't as terrifying as Qingshui had imagined.
Moreover, as Superman's condition recovered, the situation was slowly turning in their favor.
"Get ready to retreat, guys!" Barry dodged laser after laser, moving to Batman's side.
"Take her and go first. We need someone to cover our retreat." Batman handed Alex, who was on his back, to Barry.
Barry scooped up the unconscious Alex in a princess carry, and in one second, delivered her back to Luthor's side.
Next to the energy engine, Luthor, who was discussing with Palmer where to best place the bomb for detonation, suddenly noticed his daughter lying flat beside him. His movements couldn't help but pause.
"The bomb placement has been decided. What about the other side?"
"Coming right up!" Barry vanished again like a gust of wind.
In the main control room.
"Leave the rear guard to me." Qingshui pulled Batman, who had nearly been hit by a shrinking ray, and said.
"I'll do it. I have a better chance." Superman shattered an incoming metal tentacle with a punch and destroyed it with his heat vision, then spoke.
"Don't worry, I won't take risks. He's the one taking risks." Qingshui pointed to Lightwalker, who was flying and releasing heat rays, and then quickly moved to Superman's side with the Speed Force, opened White Knight's arm, and used the Mystical Palm Technique on Superman's wound.
Even though Superman has strong defenses, he wasn't at full strength, and Brainiac's attacks weren't conventional, so they naturally caused him some injuries.
"Thanks."
After a heat ray obliterated a liquid metal weapon attacking Qingshui from behind, Superman nodded slightly in thanks.
Qingshui nodded in response, re-engaged in battle, fighting while retreating, and incidentally using a device inside White Knight to collect the small amount of Superman's blood remaining on his palm.
This was his true objective. Otherwise, if they waited until later, and Superman absorbed sunlight again, he wouldn't be able to collect such perfect Kryptonian blood so easily.
As for Lightwalker, he wasn't worried about leaving it behind as a rear guard and losing it.
Like White Knight and other battle suits, Lightwalker had a Summoning Seal inscribed on it, allowing it to be recalled at any time.
Superman and the others didn't know this, but they knew that this Kryptonian, who looked ninety percent like Watt, was actually a biological weapon created from a Kryptonian corpse.
Since it wasn't a living person or a companion, it wasn't an issue.
Although these righteous heroes would consider desecrating a corpse inhumane, especially since it was one of Superman's own kind, Watt hadn't used it for anything evil. In fact, they were relying on it to cover their retreat, so they naturally wouldn't say anything.
The group fought and retreated, covering each other.
After getting rid of Alex, who was a burden to protect, and with the combined abilities of the remaining few, even Brainiac had no good solution for a while.
If he were willing to unleash his full computing power, he might have a chance, but without Alex, his human CPU, Brainiac would have to dedicate more of his own computing power if he didn't want to abandon the Queen.
A few minutes later, at the entrance to the energy room.
A virtually endless torrent of liquid metal surged towards them like a flood, morphing into various high-tech weapons and attacking Qingshui and his group.
Having reached this point, Brainiac naturally knew their objective.
However, precisely because of this, Brainiac was also worried that using overly powerful attacks would cause the energy engine to be destroyed.
"Ci... Vibe, open a portal."
Barry retreated to a safe position, saw Palmer give him a thumbs-up, and spoke into his earpiece.
The next second, about a meter in front of Barry, space slowly twisted and rotated, opening a portal.
"You guys need to hurry! There's some unknown tech on the ship interfering with my teleportation! The portal can only stay open for two minutes!"
From the other side of the portal, in the S.T.A.R. Labs main hall, Cisco shouted loudly.
Lex Luthor, holding his daughter, was the first to emerge from the portal, followed closely by Palmer, carrying the bottled Metropolis.
The rest of the group followed, leaving only Lightwalker to guard the portal entrance.
"Beep—"
Palmer pressed the bomb button in his hand, starting the countdown.
"Three."
"Two."
Cisco quickly closed the portal.
At the same time, Qingshui took off White Knight and completed his hand signs.
"One."
"*Summoning Jutsu!*"
As the damaged Lightwalker appeared within the black summoning array, a small earthquake seemed to occur inside the spherical spaceship, which had just arrived near Jupiter's orbit, destroying its energy engine.
In the main control room, Brainiac, seated in a high-tech chair, let out a muffled groan.
To improve fault tolerance and work efficiency, his spaceship actually had more than one energy engine.
But now one of them had been destroyed, meaning a portion of his spaceship's computing power had also been wiped out.
To avoid interrupting the Brainiac Queen's evolution, he could only dedicate most of his remaining computing power to her, retaining only a small amount for repairing the spaceship.
Even Brainiac, with his brain being used so intensely, was almost losing his self-awareness.
And before his consciousness faded, he issued one final command.
To head to a colonial outpost left by a certain Kryptonian, to search for another group of surviving Kryptonian civilization.
Although the Kryptonian on Earth represented a more complete and potentially powerful Kryptonian civilization, with most of his computing power occupied, the possibility of acquiring it was almost zero.
The natives of that planet were strong. Although their overall civilization development level wasn't high, some of the natives had considerable intelligence, with outstanding talents in tactical strategy and psychological warfare. They also possessed a small amount of special technology and materials, and had special meta-humans.
Whether it was that Kryptonian, or that strange person whose body was constantly undergoing nuclear fission, or that person in red clothes whose speed defied the laws of physics—such individuals were rarely seen on other planets.
Rather than wasting effort here, it was better to seek out what was easier to acquire.
"Whew… We're finally out! I thought we'd be trapped outside Earth and never get back."
Palmer took off his helmet and plopped down on the ground.
"I'll go put Metropolis back where it belongs first, turn it back to normal."
Superman took the bottle and the enlarging ray gun from the ground and said, then turned to Lex Luthor.
"Thank you, Luthor, for this time."
"I wasn't doing it to save you. I was doing it for humanity, and for my daughter. I hope you realize that."
Lex Luthor glanced at Superman, then turned his attention back to his daughter, Alex.
Alex was currently lying on a gurney.
Caitlin was preparing to transport her to the infirmary for examination.
"Regardless, you've helped me a lot this time, and many others too."
The farm boy from Kansas gave Lex Luthor a bright smile, then floated off the ground and drifted away.
At the same time, Batman looked at the screen that popped up on his arm.
"Watt, Amanda took Harley Quinn and Joker from Nightwing and his team."
"How's Joker doing now?"
"They can't break your seal, at least not yet."
Batman replied.
"So Joker is also in their hands now?"
Qingshui raised an eyebrow.
That's my trophy, okay?
If those people somehow manage to break the seal, there's no telling how much damage Joker could cause. But when it comes to psychological torment and being utterly disgusting, that guy is ahead of everyone else in this world.
"Yes, as you know, someone like Joker is incredibly dangerous. I'm very worried they'll lose their heads and try to break Joker's seal. If it really is broken, they'll be the first ones to suffer."
Batman sighed.
"That ugly woman and I are colleagues, so you shouldn't expect to get Joker and Harley Quinn back through normal means. If you don't believe me, ask Lex Luthor."
Qingshui pointed at Lex Luthor by the door.
"She's a crazy woman."
Lex Luthor offered only a brief comment before hurrying off with Caitlin to check on Alex's current condition.
Batman looked at Qingshui.
He understood what Qingshui meant.
He wanted him to mess up Amanda's plans.
The two were rivals, and Batman being willing to oppose Amanda was great news for Qingshui.
"Uh... so, is this really urgent? Do Barry and I need to take you back to Gotham?"
Cisco and Barry exchanged glances before Cisco spoke.
"I don't need it. I'm going to check on Lex Luthor's daughter. Barry, could you please take Lightwalker back to Watt Tower and give him to Mr. Victor?"
Qingshui looked at Batman, then smiled at Barry.
If he could cure Alex, Lex Luthor would owe him a huge favor.
He loved it when people repaid favors!
"Leave it to me!"
Barry hoisted Lightwalker, whose body was missing a small portion, off the ground and instantly vanished.
"I don't need it either. I'll go back on my own."
Batman, with a flick of his cape, also walked out.
...
...
Naruto World.
Inside Qingshui's home.
Blood splattered everywhere, staining nearly half the room.
"Tsk, looks like Chakra can't go through this meridian."
Qingshui shook his arm, which was covered in blood and rapidly healing, and shook his head.
He was developing Wind Release Chakra Mode, but his method was a bit aggressive. He was relying on his strong physical recovery ability to frequently test and correct errors.
Current progress was encouraging.
Although not yet fully developed, some results had already been achieved and could be applied to many Wind Release Ninjutsu, such as Chiyo's Wind Rush Technique, which now had enhanced acceleration compared to before.
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