tkworld Chapter 484 Talia and her father-in-law were captured, and a new mission was launched.
Chapter 484 Talia and her father-in-law were captured, and a new mission was launched.
Chapter 484 Talia and her father-in-law were captured; a new mission objective.
Inside the Owl spaceship.
After bringing Chen Tao here, Darkseid returned to his planet Apokolips.
Chen Tao saw Night Owl again. He was sitting in his seat, tilting his head to the side, tapping his fingers on the armrest of the seat.
Although Chen Tao knew that what appeared in front of him at this moment could not possibly be Night Owl's true form, especially since this owl-shaped spaceship was likely not the one Greer and Nightwing were on, he still caught the faint sense of fatigue in Night Owl's voice.
You must be exhausted, bro.
Chen Tao felt as if he were seeing his past self, a truly strange feeling.
Taking charge of the overall situation is definitely not an easy task... especially when you no longer have anyone to rely on.
Although Chen Tao has been preparing to stalk the cicada at the crucial moment, at least for now, Night Owl is the one in control of the overall situation.
"I'm currently preparing for many things at the same time..."
Night Owl casually gave an example, saying, "The Submodal robot that Lex Luthor is developing with his former colleague Dr. Ivo has the potential to become a sufficiently dangerous and powerful combat force..."
The development of this weapon requires an extremely rare material, which is abundant in a dangerous alien civilization called the Senagan Empire, located several star systems away... These fools simply don't believe that your universe is about to be destroyed, so we have no choice but to resort to force..."
"N metal, right?" Chen Tao asked.
Night Owl was taken aback. He deliberately didn't explain the rare materials he needed to Batman, partly because he didn't think Batman was capable of participating in scientific research of this level—Batman wasn't a scientist—and partly because he was withholding some information from Batman, attempting to use this information gap to suppress Batman and seize the initiative in the ensuing conversation. However, this plan was quickly thwarted by Batman's use of the more information he possessed.
"You could try looking for someone named Carter Hall or Kada Hall, who might call himself Hawkman, or you could try looking for a woman named Kendra Sanders or Shia Sanders, who is Hawkgirl. They are connected to Senagon."
However, even though Chen Tao said that, even if the couple is found, it will most likely still be necessary to force the Senagan aliens to hand over the N metal.
Night Owl gave Batman a deep look: "I will."
He originally planned to use his superior intelligence to remind Batman that only he could lead everyone, but Batman revealed even more detailed information, which thwarted his plan.
He remembered the names Batman had mentioned.
Then he changed the subject:
"And then there's Lord Orm on Earth. I was only planning to influence him—you know, Batman, that plan to flood the Earth forced you to agree to help me."
"I forgave you a long time ago," Chen Tao said.
Night Owl: "..."
"That's not what we're talking about." He waved his hand, then continued:
"I once wanted to use him, but now the plan that required his participation has been scrapped. Unfortunately, with the timeline restarting, the arrangements I left with him are still faithfully executing my previous plan, coupled with Lord Om's own unpredictability..."
"Therefore, I now need to figure out how to resolve the problems I left behind... Fortunately, Orm and Aquaman Arthur are still on relatively good terms. So, out of respect for Aquaman Arthur, Lord Orm will not attack the surface for the time being. Here's an additional task for you: relocate Aquaman Arthur and Mera the Sea Maiden. With that couple around, both Lord Orm and we are greatly affected."
"You want to kill Lord Orm? No, Arthur will not allow it."
"I'll do it another way, that's none of your concern, Batman."
"You'd better be telling the truth, Night Owl. Lord Orm is Arthur's brother. You can do anything to him, but killing him will cause Arthur unbearable pain."
—When your villain is your own brother, this kind of awkward situation often does occur, turning a perfectly good superhero vs. supervillain battle into a melodramatic family drama.
Chen Tao continued:
"I could never allow Arthur to suffer, so even if you kill him, I will reset time to resurrect him, and then our agreement will be..."
"Enough! If you restart the timeline again, your limited time-reset capacity will be exhausted. Do you think this world's speed force can support a few more time rewinds? Those precious opportunities should be used at the most crucial moments, not wasted on this ridiculous family drama!"
Night Owl interrupted Chen Tao's speech. Chen Tao almost felt that Night Owl was in a bit of a panic, but that might just be his imagination.
However, this has nothing to do with Chen Tao. He is not the one making the decision now; he only needs to state his own requirements.
Even if the night owl is annoyed to death, lock him up...
Uh, that doesn't seem to work. If Night Owl quits, he'll have to take over himself.
See, this is why Chen Tao used the Metal Spirit's nanobots to infect Green Lantern Hal when he was facing Darkseid, so that he wouldn't object to the plan.
Humans are not NPCs. Even if they share the same goal, they will have their own demands. That's where the trouble lies in the world. Once an organization becomes large and has more people, it becomes less likely to act entirely according to the planner's ideas.
But it is precisely because of this that the power of a united alliance can be so immense after employing methods including, but not limited to, persuasion, unity, and even some dirty tricks like deception and control.
Becoming a tyrant is never the way to save the world. Even if someone like Night Owl has a completely conflicting purpose with Chen Tao, there is still room for them to cooperate.
However, there are also techniques to cooperation. Chen Tao is not contradicting Night Owl for no reason. Although he is indeed considering Arthur's interests, he is also trying to seize his own voice from Night Owl.
He had to keep Night Owl in check; he always remembered that he was the one controlling Night Owl, not that he had actually become Night Owl's subordinate.
"I won't kill Lord Om, but I will make him change his mind and become one of our fighting forces against the Anti-Monitors."
As the owl made this promise, it continued:
"Let's put this aside for now, I'll handle it, but I have a task for you now, Batman."
He began, "I've been following up on General Zod's matter. Back then, you and I..."
"You deliberately allowed General Zod to resurrect millions of Kryptonians in Argon, intending to use this Kryptonian army as combat troops against the Anti-Monitors, right?"
Chen Tao said, "I know."
Not only did I know, I also let it all happen. Of course, Chen Tao wouldn't reveal this to Superman and the others.
"Yes, I did intend to do that." Now that they were allied, Night Owl honestly revealed his previous plan: "I informed Supergirl about General Zod's existence, which led her to meet him, and as I expected, General Zod managed to extract the location of Argon from Supergirl."
"Then you orchestrated General Zod's escape, and I suspect you also introduced him to Anton Akane, the master of the Decaying Black. You expected them to hit it off immediately, and then automatically generate a superhuman army of over a million for you to command," Chen Tao said. "The plan seemed to be going smoothly, with each step perfectly linked. Now, what's going on?"
"No, the plan itself didn't go wrong," Night Owl said. "General Zod and Anton A. Kane hit it off immediately, but my original plan was for them to completely collude a few hours before the Anti-Monitors fully invaded, and then the Million Killers they bred would be forced to fight the Anti-Monitors to the death shortly after their birth."
Then he took a deep breath: "But they somehow got mixed up with each other. General Zod has resurrected his Million Bane and is now swaggering through the universe. He hates you, Batman. This is dangerous. The cannon fodder legion I was planning to create was supposed to help you deplete the enemy's manpower, not to fight you before the enemy even arrives and destroy our own forces."
"I can persuade General Zod."
Chen Tao said, "All General Zod cares about is his Krypton; he would do anything for it."
He shook his head, looking at Night Owl with some confusion: "If the universe is destroyed, where will General Zod's new Krypton go? Like Darkseid, Zod probably knows very well how ridiculous it is to be a king without land."
"No, that's not the problem. The plan is fine; the problem is with the objective." Night Owl sighed, then said:
"A new situation has arisen, otherwise I wouldn't have come to you. I just discovered that Anton Akane, the Lord of Decay, has sided with the Anti-Monitor."
"What...?"
"Don't assume everyone in the universe is on your side, Batman. Like I used to be, they've bowed down to the Anti-Monitor to protect something, but I was protecting my universe, while they were just trying to save their own lives."
Night Owl said, "The Anti-Monitor has realized my rebellion. If he hadn't been repeatedly trapped in the moment he entered this universe by your time restart method, he would have destroyed my universe long ago."
"Although he is not yet able to break free of this blockade and return to your universe, he can still maintain contact with this universe through various means. Some beings and powerful cosmic tyrants have heard the whispers of the Anti-Monitor and become his followers, and Anton A. Kane, the master of the Corrupted Black, is one of them. Worse still, the Anti-Monitor seems to have exerted some influence on him, amplifying his power, which is even more dangerous."
"So now General Zod has become a traitor who betrayed this universe in order to survive on Krypton," Night Owl said. "We have to stop him and reclaim that million-strong Kryptonian army."
Chen Tao: "..."
"Any other situations?"
"Yes," Night Owl said. "You might know this person."
He snapped his fingers, and soon a woman wearing a black bodysuit that accentuated her beautiful figure and with a somber expression appeared before Chen Tao.
Chen Tao looked at her and blinked twice.
"...Who is it?"
"My name is Nisha Augu." The woman squinted.
"If you have even the slightest recollection of my poor sister whom you so carelessly abandoned, you should remember her name. My sister is Talia Augu, and my father is—"
"Ninja Master, Lei Xiao Augu," Chen Tao said in a deep voice.
"General Zod attacked a League of Shadows base that has Lazarus Pool a few days ago."
Chen Tao narrowed his eyes.
Nisha began by saying:
"He demanded that his father's Lhasa Pool be used to resurrect the entire city of Agung."
"Father didn't need a defeated general, and in fact, Father always believed that the existence of the Nemesis was a waste of our planet's resources, so Father rejected his conditions."
"Lei Xiaogu is well aware of the influence of the Lhasaru Pool on people. Even the greatest souls will be corrupted by the pool's waters... General Zuo De has gone mad," Chen Tao interjected.
General Zod is not a native of Earth, so he is unaware of the situation. Although Lazarus can resurrect others, only a strong soul can keep the resurrected person clear-headed; otherwise, the resurrected person will only be driven into complete madness.
In the 600 years since being resurrected using the Fountain of Youth, Ninja Master Raiyo Ōgu himself has fallen into countless states of manic addiction.
General Zod's idea of using the pool to resurrect his own people is nothing short of delusional. That pool would turn all his millions of Kryptonian brethren from mindless corpses into berserk killing machines.
There's no need to wait for the anti-monitors to arrive. Millions of Kryptonians, wreaking havoc, will be enough to wipe out the entire universe. What legions, what Senagan Empire? They'll be utterly helpless against such a massive Kryptonian army.
Most of the inhabitants of Argon were ordinary Kryptonians without military training, and their chances of escaping the bloodthirsty shadow of rampant killing were less than 1 in 1000.
"Yes, that's right. Zod left the League of Assassins with no choice. Father used a kryptonite sword to wound General Zod and destroyed the Lazarus Pool he wanted. But there are many other pools out there. General Zod won't give up until he finds them."
Nisha said, "Therefore, Zod kidnapped my father and my sister."
"I need your help, Batman."
(End of this chapter)