readsfreenovel Chapter 77InJustice
Chapter 77InJustice
Chapter 77 InJustice
Wonder Woman pulled the Lasso of Truth downwards, and with a giant spin like she was snatching a shot put, she dragged Superman back to the ground. Like a stone being snatched twice by a sling, Superman landed first, smashing the gate of Gotham State University to pieces. Wonder Woman, holding a sword at the other end of the rope, followed closely, tightening the rope as if to stab him through.
The Lasso of Truth gleamed, but it couldn't completely restrain the Kryptonian. Superman reached out and broke free from its control.
"If I can kill you once, I can certainly kill you a second time!"
He grabbed the rope, trying to gain the upper hand, but Wonder Woman let go after an initial struggle, instead throwing him off balance.
"A madman spouting nonsense."
This is an experience Wonder Woman learned from her previous battle against the younger version of "Joey," effectively preventing her from becoming a kite again in the face of the opponent's immense power.
Although she didn't know where this older version of Joey came from, since the other party was now an enemy, there must be a reason why she had to kill him.
She swung her sword to pry open one end of the rope, continued to charge forward and slash, taking advantage of her opponent's loss of balance to aim straight for his neck.
Based on her previous experience, she believed that the Sword of Vulcan was enough to deliver a fatal blow to the opponent.
Superman stretched out his arm and barely managed to deflect the blade of Vulcan's sword from the side. The slight deviation in the point of force meant that his arm only suffered minor cuts and bruises.
He was sent flying backward by the immense force transmitted from the Sword of Vulcan, crashing into the towering clock tower outside Gotham University, which was almost as old as Gotham City itself, like a cannonball, before continuing to fly into the sky.
"Shazam!"
With a loud shout from the sky, dark clouds, thunder, and lightning once again enveloped and shook the entire night sky of Gotham. Shazam unleashed Zeus's wrath upon Superman, who was trying to escape, electrifying him and rendering him unable to move.
Immediately following was Cyborg firing seven or eight missiles mixed with kryptonite powder, which blasted Superman back to the ground.
Along with the remaining Gotham Clock Tower, it was razed to the ground.
Joey, who happened to arrive at the scene, witnessed this and couldn't help but burst into a tirade:
"Steelbow, who taught you to use kryptonite like that?!"
He wasn't accusing Cyborg of secretly developing Kryptonite weapons. Kara had been studied by humans for so many years, so they naturally knew all about the Kryptonians' weaknesses. He just felt a little heartbroken.
Kryptonite, a unique mineral, is formed from the geological structure of Krypton after being irradiated by the yellow sun. Kryptonite is everywhere on Earth in the ordinary universe, and anyone can pull out a piece to enhance Clark Kent's strength. The reason is simple: Krypton was blown to pieces, and a considerable number of celestial fragments were scattered on Earth.
Meanwhile, Krypton is doing just fine in this universe. Until it's figured out whether Kryptonite can be artificially synthesized in six days, the amount of Kryptonite on Earth is dwindling.
This prompted Joey to burst out cursing: "Do you even know how scarce Kryptonite is in this universe?"
! "
To prevent Cyborg from wasting his precious Kryptonite assets, Joey sped up and rushed toward the center of the attack, enduring the discomfort caused by the scattered Kryptonite dust to find Superman buried in the rubble.
The other party clearly still had room to resist. Seeing Joey coming over, he pounced out from the rubble and punched Joey in the nose, catching the latter off guard.
"You son of the beach!"
Despite his nosebleed, Joey simply tilted his head slightly to regain his balance. He endured the itching and stinging on his skin and the discomfort in his respiratory tract, and delivered a wide left hook that slammed into "Superman's" temple, knocking him to the ground.
Joey bent down and lifted the man with one hand, supporting the unbalanced "Superman" on the ruins. With his other hand, he delivered a series of heavy punches to the man's nose, leaving the already helpless opponent bleeding profusely.
As Joey's attacks became increasingly reckless and audacious, the rubble and earth mounds that had originally had some slope were completely reduced to dust and debris. Centered on the point where Joey's fist struck, huge cracks gradually spread to the entire concrete ground of Gotham University.
But this only fueled Joey's inexplicable anger.
Joey's dozens of punches had caused his opponent's nose to bleed profusely, his own hands to bleed profusely, and the mound of rubble beneath him to become a ten-meter-deep crater, but he still hadn't been able to kill his opponent, or even break his nasal bone.
Given their current low-powered state, where they haven't had enough sun exposure, their strength is relatively even. Even if Joey's punches were to drive his opponent into the earth's core, it would only be enough to beat him half to death.
Why are Kryptonians so hard to kill?!
"Joey, watch out!"
Wonder Woman retrieved her Lasso of Truth and threw it at Joey. This time, the Lasso of Truth finally subdued Superman, who had lost consciousness and was powerless to resist after being repeatedly struck on the head by Joey.
This reminded Joey, who reached out to Wonder Woman: "Diana, give me your sword!"
Upon hearing this, Diana twirled the sword in her hand, gripped it in the back of her hand, and was about to hand it to Joey when Cyborg and Shazam, whose body was still crackling with golden lightning, also arrived in the deep pit.
Shazam reached out to stop Wonder Woman from handing over the Sword of Vulcan, then looked at Joey:
"No, he has completely lost the strength to resist. Don't let anger control you. And let him live; we can get more out of him."
'
Joey, who was straddling "Superman," withdrew his hand, seemingly considering Shazam's suggestion.
"You thief who stole the power of the Greek gods, what right do you have to point fingers at us?!"
With her path blocked, Wonder Woman's hand gripping the sword hilt twitched again, bringing the sword back to a neutral position and pointing it at Shazam. She then forced out her words, one by one:
"Get out of my way!"
Cyborg stood between Wonder Woman and Shazam, his first instinct being to support his good friend Billy: "Billy, from a moral standpoint, I completely support you. I also think it's not right to just kill someone who isn't putting up any resistance."
Wonder Woman glared at Cyborg, her palpable killing intent sending a slight chill down Cyborg's already scalp, but her next words drew a disapproving look from Shazam behind her:
"But then again—this 'person' is too dangerous, and I think we might need to add a bit of... pragmatism to our decision-making process."
Cyborg knew he could never please both opposing groups at the same time, but he could certainly offend everyone present without a doubt.
Especially now that his position is already precarious, unless this newly appeared Kryptonian can be immediately annihilated without leaving a trace, it will be a troublesome matter to deal with him, whether he is dead or alive.
The friendly situation that was originally one of fighting side by side has suddenly become deadlocked due to differing opinions on how to deal with the enemy.
Just then, a muffled thud sounded as a large hole burst open next to the sewer in the deep pit, and a huge mass of seawater gushed out from it.
Along with the seawater arrived Aquaman, fully dressed in golden armor, with golden hair and a golden trident:
"Sorry I'm late! All this talk about sovereignty and sea rights is so annoying. I was planning to sail on the Kraken, but I got intercepted by an aircraft carrier outside New York Bay."
As the Sea King traversed the human sewer network—which was even more unclean than the Trench Clan's territory—he used a massive amount of seawater to protect himself.
Now that he had finally seen the light of day again, he immediately poured out a bellyful of bitterness:
"I had no choice but to ask my crocodile friend for directions and take a shortcut here, but you guys have no idea what kind of filth those bastard landlings in Gotham City throw into their sewers! This route is really a bit..."
vomit!"
Now that Aquaman's capital has been moved to the coast by Joey and is within range of the land-dwellers' cannons, he has suddenly begun to treat things like sovereignty, which the land-dwellers talk about, with more rationality.
In the past, he would have simply ordered the Kraken, which is invulnerable to human weapons, to march straight in. Why bother with it sinking in the cesspool of Gotham’s sewers?
However, after he had to accept this, he found that this thing was really useful—especially when you have the military strength to conquer an entire continent in an instant.
As life gets better and better, Aquaman is now willing to act in accordance with international frameworks to a certain extent in exchange for the right to monitor and enforce the law against land-dwellers’ crimes of overfishing and dumping in the deep sea.
At least for now, when Aquaman sees whaling ships and nuclear wastewater from certain countries entering the sea, just like they're throwing garbage into the ocean, he can legally and legitimately throw them all back onto their land.
Wonder Woman, having had enough of Aquaman's incessant chatter, rudely interrupted him as he spoke animatedly:
"Who the hell cares how you're doing with those landlubbers! Arthur, come on, make a choice!"
"Well, I guess I won't... Of course, I absolutely, completely support Superman, no, Super... oh wait, that's not right."
Joey's, but then again—"
The two Supermen on the scene, with identical color schemes, similar uniforms, and similar appearances, differing only in age, made Arthur a little confused. Seeing that his attempts to fool the enemy wouldn't work, Aquaman finally revealed his true thoughts:
"I can't make a decision right now, Diana, I really can't."
The first two times I made a decision, one was to try to marry you, and then war broke out, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the Amazon, Atlantis, and the human world.
The last time I made that decision, I almost committed a crime far more serious than the one that this bastard I'm currently tied up in, nearly causing the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.
It was Superman, yes, our Superman, whose mercy gave me and the Atlanteans a second chance!
The truth is, I am not qualified to make decisions right now.
And you, Diana, you're just like me.
"you!"
Wonder Woman and Aquaman have been at odds since the outbreak of the war. Although they have now ceased hostilities, they have already been stained with the blood of each other’s people. How could they be completely without any ties?
Being lectured by the Sea King at this moment made her even more frustrated, especially since what he said made a lot of sense. Although she was very unhappy, she couldn't find any reason to refute it.
Just as the situation on the scene was thrown into chaos by Aquaman, a ball of burning orange-red flame leaped into the deep pit, and the intense heat instantly evaporated the seawater beneath everyone's feet.
The spark was burning fiercely, and the large hole in her chest was healing rapidly. She looked at Joey and said, "Kryptonians obviously have both good and bad traits. It's your decision."
Upon hearing this, Joey suddenly felt that "Superman" hadn't done all the bad things. At least after he made a big hole in Starfire's chest, it seemed to have healed the huge hole in her mind.
As for Joey's decision?
Why did Joey make that decision?
Shouldn't such important decisions be made by family members?
Bang! A gunshot rang out from the upper level of the pit.
After holstering the pistol he'd taken from the old bat, Batman Bruce Wayne spread his cape and leaped down into the pit.
At this moment, the focus of everyone's debate has no longer existed.
Superman was shot through the skull by a bullet, which was made from a regular handgun bullet and a small piece of Kryptonite that Bruce had found after asking Raven to return to the Justice League's watchtower underground.
The Batman from another world finally made his decision.
The scene, which had been filled with conversation between several parties, suddenly fell silent.
Batman mentally considered the seven people in the pit, all of whom were familiar yet unfamiliar faces: Superman, himself, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Shazam, and Starfire.
He was even somewhat dazed for a moment.
However, when the original seven of them came together, all the members were idealistic, all the procedures were just, and everything was united and wonderful.
Without such a head-on argument, a superficially harmonious atmosphere, and a morally ambiguous stance, we would have ended up with the current outcome.
After regaining his senses, Batman almost instinctively fled the scene, firing his grappling hook and leaving.
He knew that almost everyone present was capable of stopping the bullet, but none of them chose to do so.
When Batman climbed back to the top of the pit, a night of chaos had left half of Gotham City devastated.
At that moment, the sun rose just above the flattened horizon, shining on the bat's jet-black cloak.
Nocturnal animals vanish as if fleeing from the first rays of dawn, their flight disappearing into the shadows of skyscrapers.
In the past, if seven superheroes had come together to defeat a powerful enemy and save the world, Batman would have called it the dawn of justice.
But now seven people have gathered here again, and together they have committed an unjust act.
Their team is not as united and close-knit as their previous team, and it is highly unlikely that it will remain so in the future.
Wonder Woman and Aquaman's feelings toward Superman, the core of the team, are more awe than respect.
Cyborg and Shazam form a small group, while Starfire's feelings toward Superman are even more complex.
Where will such a seemingly fragmented team ultimately go?