Chapter 3475: Research on Cats and Dogs (Part 34)

On the night Barry returned from Cat Getan with an umbrella, he knocked on the door of Lex's room.

Lex was hunched over his desk working. Barry walked over, handed him the umbrella, and said, "The Professor said you would know what to do."

Taking the umbrella from Barry's hand, Lex pondered for a moment and roughly guessed Schiller's intention.

The power level of the item "Schiller's Umbrella" was actually quite awkward. Whether it was the Life Equation or the Anti-Life Equation, both possessed effects that pointed directly to the origin of the universe, but the prerequisite was that the user had to be a scientist. This thing could basically only exert its maximum effect in the hands of Batman or Darkseid.

But Schiller was clearly not a scientific researcher; even if he got his hands on this thing, he couldn't use it for research and could only use its most superficial function: forced control.

Regardless of the principle, in any case, under normal circumstances, intelligent beings could not look directly at the surface of the umbrella; just one glance would make them dizzy.

The difference was that humans would faint after one glance, while Kryptonians with super-brains had a higher tolerance threshold, though they would still feel dizzy for a short time. Especially when caught off guard, losing consciousness for a few seconds was possible.

However, other than that, it had no other special functions. Physical attacks were not particularly enhanced, so it couldn't be considered a weapon.

But this thing had one greatest advantage: too few people knew about it. Most people didn't know what the umbrella's surface was made of, and seeing someone pull out an umbrella, they would just think it was going to rain.

Therefore, the umbrella was very suitable for sneak attacks.

Choosing who to sneak attack was naturally easy. Although Batman was not good at encounter battles, his vigilance was very high; to lure him into a trap required full preparation. Once a failure occurred, success would never be possible again.

By comparison, Superman was much easier to deal with. Although his senses were sharp and ordinary traps couldn't deal with him, the umbrella was clearly something his senses couldn't comprehend, and he would have a hard time being on guard.

Coupled with the fact that Injustice Superman's mental state had always been poor, he had been controlled by someone before, and most of his attention was focused on Injustice Batman, he would easily take the bait.

Don't look at this forced control skill as only being able to hold the opponent for a few seconds; Superman had another huge weakness: Kryptonite.

This weakness could be said to be known to everyone, and the reason ordinary people couldn't utilize it was actually that they couldn't find a breakthrough. After all, not everyone was Superman's external brain, capable of making him completely unguarded.

So, Schiller's original intention in sending the umbrella over was to let Lex use the umbrella to create a breakthrough to subdue Superman.

Originally, Lex's plan was to use the umbrella to control Superman for a few seconds and then bury him with Kryptonite—there was plenty of this stuff. Besides the ones dug up in Cat Getan back then, Lex had been collecting quite a bit from all over the world one after another.

However, after thinking about it, he still went to find Pamela.

"Cactus spines are non-toxic, right?"

Pamela, who was wearing gloves and goggles doing experiments, said without looking back, "Are you talking about normal cacti? That's true. Most plant spines are non-toxic; their life forms don't support them growing poisonous fangs and glands like animals. Cacti are even less capable of that."

"Then how did you make Batman poisoned?"

"Because what I cultivated wasn't a normal cactus." Pamela put down the test tube in her hand, turned around to look at Lex, and said, "If it were just physical attacks, cabbage would be completely sufficient. Why do you think I wanted to cultivate cacti?"

"I thought you wanted to use them for long-range attacks."

"There are much better choices than cacti for that." Pamela shook her head gently and said, "I chose cacti because I really did value their spines, but mainly because of how cacti utilize the moisture in the soil... forget it, just know that what I need are their spines."

"You can make their spines carry poison." Lex used a declarative sentence.

"Yes, I added plant toxins to the cultivation reagent, which can make the sharp spines they grow carry poison. But as you've seen, the traits aren't very stable, otherwise Batman would have fainted long ago."

"Then can you give them some other characteristics?"

"What are you referring to?"

"Can Kryptonite reagents make cactus spines have Kryptonite effects?"

"... Holy crap?"

Pamela began to pace in front of the lab bench like a true evil scientist. She said, "Theoretically, it's feasible, but Kryptonite is a mineral; mineral reagents might not have as great an impact on cacti as plant toxin reagents. And even if it could cause mutation, whether the mutation would manifest on the sharp spines is also a question..."

"That is your problem." Lex said, "I have a plan regarding that evil Superman who caused such a huge mess..."

Lex explained to Pamela the general plan for sneak-attacking Injustice Superman. In short, it was to use the umbrella to control Injustice Superman, use Kryptonite to subdue him, and then let Charles Xavier possess him directly.

"Is there a possibility," Pamela said, "that we could skip the first two steps and just let Charles control him directly? He should be able to do that, right?"

"I'm not sure." Lex answered truthfully, "Professor Xavier's abilities exceed my scope of imagination. However, even if he could, I would still adopt this relatively safer method. After all, Superman is simply too strong."

"More importantly, this Superman is not a good person. As far as I know, in his original universe, he didn't just kill the Joker; he also killed superheroes. Once the plan to control him goes wrong, there will be no moral bottom line to restrain him from killing. It would be troublesome then."

Pamela frowned slightly, her slightly rotating eyeballs indicating she was thinking, seemingly weighing the pros and cons.

There was no doubt that if she joined Lex's plan, she would definitely have to control the plants to take action. This meant she would have to face Superman directly. If the plan didn't succeed, she would definitely be the first to suffer.

But for Pamela, facing Superman directly was also a temptation. If the plants she cultivated could really possess Kryptonite attributes, it would mean she could restrain most Supermen.

With this result, she could also report back to the Green: your agent can already defeat Superman; as for why she had to fight Superman, don't worry about that for now.

Pamela gritted her teeth and stomped her foot, then said, "Fine, let's do it."

In the laboratory, Pamela watched Injustice Superman slowly stand up, and just as she breathed a sigh of relief, she felt another kind of creepiness when Charles's pair of blue eyes flashed before her.

Evil Superman was terrifying, but was it really safe to let such an existence control Superman's body?

Pamela couldn't help but look at Lex, but Lex seemed very satisfied with his results. He nodded at Injustice Superman and said, "Then the next step is to solve the problem between him and Batman. Professor Xavier, can you do it?"

Injustice Superman nodded slowly and said, "I have quite a bit of experience with this."

Although Lex didn't know much about the Marvel Universe, Professor X and Magneto were simply too famous in Battleworld. The entanglement and grievances of their half-lives were also talked about with great relish.

Although Magneto looked like the perpetrator, no one could deny that Professor X was no victim. He should be the number one accomplice.

In dealing with pathological and twisted relationships, he was indeed the authority among authorities.

Pamela's brow had never relaxed, clearly a bit uneasy. After Injustice Superman slowly walked out the door, she looked at Lex's doctor and said, "Do Oliver and the others know about this plan?"

"Why do you have to listen to the Justice League?"

"Uh... I think sometimes being conservative is also quite good." Pamela clicked her tongue and said.

"Is that so? Poison Ivy?"

"Don't call me that." Pamela's facial features wrinkled together, and she said, "I don't want to dress like a broccoli. Fine, I mean, I'm not that much of a sociopath, right?"

"But unfortunately, the Justice League agreed."

"Hiss..." Pamela took a light breath and said, "We really have quite a few sociopaths here."

"It's because of this." Lex picked up the umbrella and shook it, saying.

"Of course, Professor Schiller gave you the umbrella to guard against this evil Superman. But are you sure he wanted you to send Xavier's soul into Superman's body?"

"It seems you still don't trust Professor X."

"Who could trust him?"

"Of course, that bunch of sociopaths from the Justice League." Lex snorted and said, "They didn't question my plan at all, making me feel like I was being too conservative."

"I probably know what they're thinking." Pamela said, "If Professor X wanted to rule the world, resistance would be useless. Since he hasn't done so, it proves he can be trusted."

"That's not without reason." Lex said.

"What I'm worried about isn't that he'll rule the world; that has no meaning for him, and our universe doesn't have mutants."

"Then what are you worried about? That he'll brainwash the whole world into being heterosexual and ruin your dates?"

"If you hadn't said that, I wouldn't have been that worried!"

Lex took out his phone and said to the other side, "It's done, go to the monitoring room downstairs. No ice in the drinks."

By the time the two of them arrived at the security monitoring room under the Luthor Manor, the entire Justice League had arrived. Barry, Harley, and Kara had also arrived, and they were already tearing open snack packages.

Clark handed the drink without ice to Lex. Pamela rummaged through a pile of snacks to find her favorite flavor, complaining that Hal and Oliver had taken all the spicy potato chips, and then sat down on the spacious sofa.

In front of them was a huge holographic projection screen, which was currently playing the scene in the laboratory where Injustice Batman was.

Injustice Batman in the laboratory was adjusting his equipment. He seemed to have made a brand new grappling hook and was testing the strength of the rope with a saw blade.

Just then, the laboratory door was knocked.

Injustice Batman turned his head. The Batman mask made his nose bridge look even more prominent, looking like a sharp awl from top to bottom, piercing the stiff, straight line of his pursed lips.

He seemed to have anticipated who was coming.

His anticipation was right, but also wrong. Injustice Superman's pair of light blue eyes, like a polar storm, appeared in his line of sight. Injustice Batman only took one look before turning his head away, pretending to still be busy with the work at hand.

Until a low voice came:

"Bruce, I think we should talk."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3476 =====