Chapter 4357: Justice League: Assembly (Part 12)

Bruce has a deeper understanding of the pharmaceutical industry. Generally speaking, pharmaceutical companies don't want to cause trouble. If they go too far, and people start dying like crazy not long after changing to new drugs, they will definitely be sued by their families. If the jury sees so many death cases, they might judge them to lose.

Therefore, new drugs may reduce some efficacy or have trace amounts of harmful substances, but they won't be like poison, dying on the spot after one bite. At least they have to take the medicine for half a year to a year. And some patients whose condition is not so serious and whose physique is relatively strong are fine after eating, at most suffering a bit more, which is not easy to lose when fighting a lawsuit.

The few new pills in his hand are also like this. Harmful is definitely harmful, but the onset is not so fast. Unless the person is already dying, that is, the heart can no longer pace itself, maybe eating two pills will die. In the case of relatively good maintenance before, it will take at least half a year of medication to have symptoms.

J'onn thought about it, this definitely doesn't match. The doctor died not long after changing the medicine. So the medicine is not the main problem?

J'onn's brain is a bit messy now, and he can't analyze it, so he told Bruce everything that happened. Bruce thought for a while and said: "The medicine may have played an auxiliary role, but it is not the culprit. Think carefully about the situation that day."

J'onn narrowed his eyes and looked at him. Bruce said: "I don't know what the situation of your friend is, but I can tell you that during the time period you described, the US government once established a human transformation project. They believed that there is great potential hidden in the human body, and they should stimulate their potential through various methods, so as to obtain an effect similar to super-powers."

Barry also pricked up his ears to listen. This is a government secret that is generally not heard, but Bruce knows it all.

J'onn also nodded: "It was still the Cold War at that time. Both sides have done some unreliable plans like super-powered warriors. This is not fresh news."

"After many experiments, researchers found that the potential of adults has almost been fixed. No matter how stimulated, it cannot exert more. They once did some experiments on space radiation on adults. They observed that some cells have changes, but the changes are very weak and not enough to reach the level of super-powers."

J'onn and Barry's hearts are sinking lower and lower. The two of them seem to be able to guess what Bruce is going to say next.

"Relatively speaking, they believe that the variation potential of infants and children is greater..."

"Wait," J'onn stretched out a hand and said, "Mr. Butler, please give me another cup of soothing tea. Thank you."

Alfred gave him another cup of soothing tea. J'onn listened while holding the teacup. Bruce continued: "So in this plan, it includes a very anti-human project called 'Infant Space Medicine Experiment Project'."

"Vomit..." Barry started retching again, and he said, "Please give me a cup of soothing tea too."

Both of them sat there holding teacups. Bruce continued: "They believe that by sending human infants into space through some means and letting them accept space radiation, they can significantly activate the potential hidden in their genes and let them have super-powers."

"So this plan..."

"Did not succeed. In fact, the experiment was not carried out. It is not because they found their conscience, because the hundreds of infant samples needed for the experiment at that time were already prepared. As far as I know, it seems that the key link of the experiment went wrong, forcing the federal government to abandon this plan."

J'onn rubbed his eyes hard and then said: "Teleportation device."

"What?"

"I came to Earth because the teleportation device developed by Dr. Erdel for Mars went wrong. That device was originally to send people to Mars, but it pulled me over."

Barry turned his head to look at him and said: "How can an astronomer study a teleportation device that sends himself to the stars?"

This is indeed a good question. J'onn hadn't doubted it before either. He felt that it was Dr. Erdel's interest, and he was gifted, so he made such a powerful machine. Thinking about it now, even if it is true, without someone supporting behind, how can there be such a perfect laboratory and so much money for him to squander?

J'onn spent a lot of time in the laboratory. Looking back now, the things Dr. Erdel made basically couldn't be commercialized, and there was no great war value—after all, they didn't intend to go to war with Martians. Then this kind of research is pure investment, completely inconsistent with reality laws. 【4

Unless the benefactor behind Dr. Erdel had intended from the very beginning to use this kind of machine to do something, such as teleporting people into space to activate superpowers using cosmic radiation.

Now this theory seems too ridiculous, but back in that era, it was all about the Space Race. Whoever could throw a rocket higher, farther, and with more flair won. So, many times, such projects didn't consider rationality; even if it was a tin bucket pieced together with scrap metal and rivets, it had to be forced up there.

Coupled with the fact that the great power on the other side did indeed produce many people who looked like they had superpowers, the people here were naturally very anxious. Even looking at the disclosed documents, they never gave up on researching superpowers, so it was perfectly normal for them to do such things.

It would have been fine if Dr. Erdel hadn't researched it and just dragged it out to collect funding; he could have lived peacefully until the end of the Cold War.

But he happened to be a genius and actually researched it. Once the people above saw that, since it was already researched, they decided to take action.

J'onn was more inclined to believe that Dr. Erdel had no idea what this thing was used for. Moreover, counter-espionage was very fierce at that time, and such knowledgeable scientific researchers were the most heavily guarded; after all, there were many previous examples, so it was unlikely that the people above would tell him.

So when he found out what the machine was used for, his entire worldview collapsed.

You have to know, Dr. Erdel was a man who could pull a Martian Manhunter from the brink of despair. Such a person must possess powerful empathy and be extremely kind at the same time.

After all, Martians can read minds. If there were even a trace of evil intent, it would be impossible to gain the wholehearted trust of a Martian, and naturally, there would be no way to talk about guidance. It was precisely because J'onn was infected by Dr. Erdel's righteous and kind heart that he was able to gradually walk out of the shadows of those years.

If you let such a person use the machine he built to throw hundreds of innocent infants into space, he would definitely show you what it means to prefer death to submission.

Thinking of this, J'onn suddenly froze. He suddenly remembered that there was a very unusual thing that day, but because it was a small matter, he had overlooked it.

"Usually, I go to the breakroom to prepare coffee for both of us, but that day, he suddenly said he would go pour it. Because he had talked to me about things like sugar control before, I thought he didn't want me to add so much sugar, so I let him go. Then, about two hours later, he collapsed..."

J'onn's whole body began to tremble. Barry quickly pressed his shoulders, which helped him regain a shred of reason. He stared at Bruce with those blood-red eyes, seemingly wanting to get a negative answer from his mouth.

"Where did the body go?" Bruce asked.

"The hospital took it for funeral arrangements," J'onn said, "I didn't know much about human society at that time, and I was afraid they would discover me, so I just saw medical staff take the body away..."

"It was likely taken for an autopsy," Bruce said, "The brains of people like this are usually preserved..."

J'onn stood up with a start. Bruce also stood up quickly, pressed his shoulders, and said, "Calm down. I know this sounds inhumane, but this might allow us to further clarify the cause of his death."

Bruce started searching again. Soon he said, "Where the brain is preserved cannot be found, and the body may have been destroyed. So now there are two ways: find the doctor who performed the autopsy at the time, or find the autopsy report. The latter is simpler because the former might have been silenced."

Bruce operated again and then said to Barry, "University of Colorado Hospital. Put this thing into the interface of their electronic system."

Bruce handed Barry a small square with a bat image printed on it. Barry knew at a glance that it was for physical hacking, so he disappeared in a flash. When he returned, he nodded and said, "Done."

Bruce continued to operate on the computer and soon showed an expression of realization. J'onn walked to his side and saw the familiar face of the corpse at first glance.

He couldn't bear to look anymore, slumped onto the sofa nearby, and choked up with his hands covering his face. Bruce continued, "You can see that the hormone content in the blood is clearly abnormal. He must have ingested some high-concentration hormones to stimulate his heart, leading to a heart attack. That special medicine only worsened his heart condition, and combined with the final stimulation, it ultimately led to his death."

"It was himself..." J'onn said weakly, "It must have been him who added some to the coffee..."

After sitting there for a long time to recover, he said, "I know why he chose this method. He needed everything to look like an accident. Because he had asked me before what I would do if he died. I said I would definitely avenge him. He didn't want me to seek revenge."

"But that wasn't because he forgave the people who did these things. He just didn't want you to be trapped in hatred anymore." Bruce turned to look at him and then said, "He saved you from the abyss of hatred with his own hands; he could never watch you fall back in."

"From an outsider's perspective, if you had directly destroyed the federal government at the time, it would indeed have been avenging him, which would have been very satisfying. But afterward, you would also lose all stability in your life and become as muddled as you were after your family died. He didn't want you to become like that."

J'onn closed his eyes tightly. He knew Bruce was right; Dr. Erdel was just that kind of person. J'onn had only ever read pity and tolerance in him, and it was precisely such gentle emotions that led him out of the vortex.

J'onn fell silent, and Barry was silent too. Afterward, they talked about other things, as if this matter had already passed. But everyone knew it hadn't—not by a long shot.

When a volcano hasn't erupted, people shouldn't think it's dead. The enormous energy beneath the crust is just constantly accumulating, waiting for the next eruption. The longer it stays silent, the more it accumulates, and when it erupts, it will only be more violent.