"Send a message to the Department of Science and Technology and the Inspection Operations Department. Contact S.T.A.R. Labs and have Barry get in touch with the remaining League members. I'll help Batman with a few things here in Gotham, then I'll be right there."
Qingshui hung up the phone, and beside him, Victor quickly removed the testing equipment installed on Lightwalker.
"Victor, hold down the fort!"
Qingshui said, pressing a button on his wrist communicator and addressing Mr. Freeze.
At the same time, mechanical arms extended from the surrounding walls, installing another set of powered armor onto Lightwalker.
"Understood."
As soon as he finished speaking, Qingshui and Lightwalker burst through the ceiling and flew out.
In less than half a minute, Qingshui flew from Blüdhaven to the skies above Gotham. By monitoring and analyzing the visual nerve signals from Lightwalker, Qingshui was able to display Lightwalker's vision in real-time through White Knight's eyes.
Kryptonian X-ray vision!
*Bang!*
The air vibrated, and a sonic boom exploded.
Lightwalker instantly burst into a building, freezing the bombs attached to Nightwing's and Tim's feet with his cold breath, then melting the chains binding the two with his heat vision.
Batman and Joker, who were fighting at the room's entrance, paused: "..."
"???"
"Didn't they say he was just a regular metahuman with a high-tech suit who could control wind and lightning? How did he turn into a Kryptonian?"
Joker asked, bewildered.
He was starting to not understand this world.
"I don't need to tell you."
A hook from Batman's prosthetic arm successfully knocked Joker unconscious.
"You're not Lightwalker. Are you a puppet he created from that Kryptonian corpse?"
Batman asked, looking at Lightwalker.
"Forget about all that for now. Aliens are coming. We don't have time to watch you and Joker play house."
Qingshui's voice rang out from outside the window.
White Knight crashed through the window, coldly raising an arm towards Joker.
Batman silently turned around, blocking Qingshui's aim at Joker.
The pedantic no-kill rule.
Qingshui, hidden within White Knight, disdainfully curled his lip.
"Move aside. I don't intend to kill him, nor do I mean to cripple him."
Qingshui said.
Joker couldn't be killed.
When one Joker died, another would soon appear. Even if one didn't, the Dionysium would transfer and lie dormant within another person, driving them to madness.
And the closest people to Joker right now were himself and Batman.
Qingshui didn't want to get infected and go crazy, nor did he want to see The Batman Who Laughs appear.
So the best option was to keep Joker alive and seal him away.
While there might not be a prison in this world that could hold Joker, what if?
A cold freeze ray shot from White Knight's arm, encasing Joker in ice.
The Dionysium within him would ensure Joker wouldn't freeze to death, but that was all.
"*Ninja Art: Grand Funeral Seal!*"
A dense layer of sealing runes climbed over the ice block encasing Joker.
This wasn't over yet.
Qingshui emerged from White Knight, his hands glowing with a magic circle as he began to chant.
"*Galladogel Confinement Ring Net.*"
Chakra was converted into glowing blue rings that intertwined, forming a large net that covered the ice block.
Solid ice, Sealing Jutsu, magic—triple insurance. That should be enough, right?
"Later, when Superman has time, I'll have him banish him to the Phantom Zone. That should pretty much make it foolproof."
Qingshui kicked the ice block containing Joker.
Batman: "That doesn't seem much different from killing him."
"Did it violate your no-kill rule or not?"
Qingshui squinted, looking at the male psychiatric patient in the cat-eared bodysuit.
"Was that magic you just used?"
Batman changed the subject.
"Don't change the subject."
Qingshui turned to look out the window.
A brilliant spark appeared in the white sky.
"The defensive lookout post deployed in outer space orbit has been destroyed."
"Aliens? Is it the same group of Kryptonians as last time?"
Batman asked, sending a message to Alfred at the same time.
"Clearly much stronger."
A holographic projection lit up on White Knight's arm, displaying the images captured by the space lookout post.
A spherical spaceship, looking somewhat like a green skull, was traversing space, extending countless cannons that instantly fired tens of thousands of lasers, pulverizing the space lookout post.
The space lookout post, comparable to a skyscraper, looked pathetically tiny in front of the spherical spaceship.
A quick estimate showed that the size of this spaceship might be no less than some modern cities on Earth.
"The spaceship is heading towards Metropolis. I've already notified the others in the League. Let's see if Superman can hold them off for now."
Qingshui and Lightwalker once again shot up from the ground and disappeared from Batman's sight.
At the same time, a Batplane flipped its turbines and docked outside the window.
"Alfred, I'm leaving Dick and Tim for you to take back and look after."
...
...
Metropolis.
A red cape fluttered.
Superman, transformed into a red and blue streak of light, smashed the swarm-like green robots rushing towards him, one punch at a time, while dodging left and right to avoid the rays shooting down from the sky.
Superman might defend against other attacks, but these rays could shrink any object they touched countless times over.
LexCorp Headquarters.
"Boss, should we go out and assist? Fourteen Kryptonite-powered robots are ready and waiting."
Eve Teschmacher, Lex Luthor's secretary and lover, held a tablet and spoke to him.
Lex Luthor, clad in heavy Kryptonite-energy armor, looked at the massive warship that blotted out the entire sky above Metropolis.
How the hell are we supposed to fight that?
"No…"
Lex Luthor watched a building in front of him shrink, slowly shaking his head.
"Kryptonite radiation will reduce Superman's combat effectiveness. Now is not the time for us to act."
Eve understood.
Although he was at odds with Superman, that was because Lex Luthor was a human supremacist.
Superman and the people on that spaceship were both aliens, but at least Superman was an alien who was more aligned with humanity.
Eve asked, "What do you plan to do?"
Lex Luthor turned around, his eyes calm.
"Given this alien's power, it could certainly destroy Metropolis directly, but it hasn't. It's just been trying to capture Superman, which means they, like the Kryptonians, are after Superman. Perhaps if he just takes Superman away…"
*Bang!*
The office door was pushed open, and a woman in a maid outfit rushed in.
"Master! Your daughter, Alex, was shrunk and captured by the alien's ray!"
Lex Luthor's expression froze.
His daughter had been well protected since birth.
Even some of his most trusted people didn't know he had a daughter, let alone his adversaries!
But even with the best protection, this time it was an irresistible force; no amount of preparation would help.
A few seconds later.
Superman remained incredibly powerful, crushing countless robots like a wrecking ball and charging towards the spaceship in the sky, looking as if he intended to destroy the entire vessel.
But what the opponent wanted, perhaps, was to close the distance with Superman.
A ray, thicker than any previous one, shot out.
No, rather than a ray, it was a gigantic curtain of light.
A curtain of light large enough to cover all of Metropolis.
Even Superman, fast as he was, had no time to escape at such close range.
"This..."
Qingshui, controlling Lightwalker who was clearing the path ahead, slammed to an emergency stop, avoiding the light screen.
He watched helplessly as the entirety of Metropolis was shrunk and flown into the spaceship.
This was...
The DC Universe's top collector, the alien Brainiac?
The light screen dissipated, and the bustling Metropolis vanished, leaving only a massive basin.
"How do we handle this?"
Qingshui turned to the Batplane, which had flown in behind him, and asked.
"Reinforcements have arrived. Pursue."
Batman replied.
As if to confirm Batman's answer, a figure swinging through the clouds with a golden lasso appeared in the sky.
A bright red lightning bolt streaked across the ground, and further away, a turbulent mass of flames was rushing towards them.
Looking closely, at the center of the flames was a young Black man who looked like a high school student.
Firestorm!
Although his popularity, status, and influence might only be considered second-tier, Firestorm's combat ability definitely matched that of a top-tier superhero.
The current Firestorm was Professor Stein and the Black high school student, Jefferson.
"Leave clearing the way to me and the old man!"
Firestorm was the first to charge towards the spaceship, launching nuclear-bomb-like fireballs—he himself was essentially a nuclear weapon.
This was followed by high-energy rays from the White Knight and the Batplane, and Lightwalker's heat ray.
This attack, powerful enough to destroy a large area, only opened a small, barely man-sized hole in Brainiac's spaceship.
Lightwalker was the first to rush in, followed by Qingshui and Firestorm.
On the ground, Barry was holding Wonder Woman's hand, and they swung in together using the Lasso of Truth.
Batman, however, put on his Anti-Superman Armor inside the spaceship before following them in.
Although it was almost rendered useless by the Fault Insurance last time, Alfred and Lucius still recovered the Anti-Superman Armor.
After all, the Promethium on it was still there; it couldn't be wasted.
Not only did they repair it, but they also installed two Arc Reactors inside to increase its output power.
After entering the spaceship, Qingshui realized there was an extra person there.
It wasn't a ghost story; The Atom, Palmer, had been hiding in Barry's suit pocket and only now jumped out.
"Superman was taken to a room on the west side, seems like something's draining his energy. Metropolis was put into a bottle, and a team of robots is moving it to a certain location... Lex Luthor escaped from the bottle!
He used an ICBM hidden in LexCorp to loosen the cap. He's revealed himself! Seems like he wants to negotiate with the alien.
And there's a woman, also controlled by a robot..."
Qingshui, using Lightwalker's X-ray vision, began to recount what he saw and had Batman start giving commands.
Although his own tactical command skills were not bad, with Batman, the recognized world's top tactical master, he might as well use him as an external brain, just like Superman.
However, the strategy Batman gave was very simple.
After asking Qingshui if there was a storage-like area, he gave his orders.
"Barry, Palmer, you two go to those locations and search for anything that can turn Metropolis back. The rest of you, come with me. We'll confront the alien head-on and try to rescue Superman."
"That's it?"
Barry scratched his head.
"I think so. Lex Luthor will handle the rest, and right now, we can only fight."
Qingshui said, looking at the swarm of green-skinned robots rushing towards them.
In the spaceship's main control room.
Superman's brain and his powerful limbs were connected by several tubes, leading to a massive instrument.
At the center of the instrument was a green, translucent tank, where a slender female figure could vaguely be seen.
Visible unknown energy was continuously flowing into the instrument.
Further away was a human girl with a shaved head.
Similar to Superman, her brain and limbs were restrained, though without the tubes, but she too looked pained.
The main control room door opened, revealing Lex Luthor being escorted by two robots.
Lex Luthor first glanced at his daughter with concern and tension, then composed himself and spoke to the alien in high-tech clothing, sitting at a steel control panel.
"You are... Brainiac. I've seen information about you in the Kryptonian ship records."
"Are you here for this female creature? Is she your daughter? A cosmic civilization that hasn't yet left its home planet to reach level one, yet it has produced a human whose brain has the potential to surpass level ten intelligence. Your species is very talented."
Brainiac looked at Lex Luthor and said, "My goal is almost complete, so I don't mind saying a bit more, leaving a tiny trace in this world."
"I agree with what you're saying, but Alex... she's just a young human female who hasn't reached adulthood yet. The human brain doesn't fully develop until age twenty-five. Even if Alex is very smart, I... I don't think her brain can handle such immense calculations!
If it's possible, I believe I'm the most suitable candidate! Because I am the most intelligent human on this planet!"
Lex Luthor had already figured out why Brainiac had captured his daughter.
He was going to use her as a CPU!
Alex was naturally frail but incredibly intelligent. Lex Luthor believed his daughter was even smarter than he had been at her age. If not for her extreme physical weakness, she would surely surpass him.
"No, you are still not enough. Although I don't know what knowledge you possess, according to the scan of your brain development, your intelligence is at most level nine. Perhaps you have reached the limit for intelligent life in areas like creativity and judgment, but your primitive biological structure and backward social civilization limit your potential."
After Brainiac finished speaking, he coughed a few times, spitting out yellow-green blood. He waved his hand, signaling the robots to re-imprison Lex Luthor.
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