Chapter 4358: Justice League: Assembly (13)

In a dimly lit laboratory, the black man sitting before the workbench pushed up his glasses and looked up at another figure busy at the bench. The other person's face looked very young, and his temperament was quite scholarly, yet he had a shaved head. His face revealed a hint of fatigue, but his hands did not slow down in the slightest.

"Doctor, please help me export that analysis report on the Kryptonian air composition again," the bald youth said without looking up. "I need to perform one final comparison. If nothing goes wrong, the synthesis is a success."

The black man stood up and walked to the printer nearby. He printed the report again, handed it to the youth, and said, "You should rest for a while, Mr. Luthor."

"I'm fine, Dr. Stone. By the way, has Superman contacted you again? Is his desensitization training not continuing?"

The black man addressed as Dr. Stone shook his head and said, "No, he no longer needs desensitization."

Lex looked up at him.

"That has become a part of him."

"I don't understand."

"He absorbed the Kryptonite," Dr. Stone said, spreading his hands. "I know this sounds incredible, but he did it. This proves that this race is more powerful than we imagined, truly possessing infinite potential."

"Hmph." Lex let out a cold snort and then said, "So powerful, yet didn't they still drive themselves to extinction?"

"Human civilization is still very young," Dr. Stone's voice remained calm. He said, "Modern Homo sapiens haven't appeared for long. The reason we don't seem to have an extinction crisis now is because we are still infants learning to walk. When civilization reaches middle or old age, that is when the true test of physical constitution begins."

"I don't think we'll make it to middle or old age," Lex said coldly. "Those damned politicians and officers—if the world were ruled by them, we'd be extinct before we even learned how to walk."

After finishing, he paused, then added with some indignation, "I really don't understand, as an expert in the field of extraterrestrial research, why you have to take orders from them..."

"I am not taking orders from them now," Dr. Stone said. "I have Superman and that Colonel Jones to thank for that. They helped me break free from the military's control, allowing me to conduct research freely."

"I meant in the past." Lex took a deep breath.

Dr. Stone sat back in his seat, placed his hands on the desk, and said, "You are a great tycoon, born with the Luthor Group, so you can make your intelligence serve only yourself. But I cannot. I am just an ordinary person; my knowledge and technology will inevitably be utilized by others."

"But the military is the worst choice!" Lex was clearly still shaken; he raised his voice and said, "They are so evil and stupid that they make me feel Superman isn't even that much of an eyesore!"

"I had no choice." Dr. Stone shook his head slightly and said, "Who I work for depends on who finds me first."

"But in my view, with your academic level, you shouldn't have to borrow Superman's power to get rid of them, really." Lex nodded and said, "I'm not good at flattering others, but in terms of extraterrestrial and alien research, you can completely be called the light of the human scientific community. Besides this damned country under our feet, there should be many people willing to take you in, and you could shine just as brightly there."

"You mean the Soviet Union, or China?" Stone lowered his eyelids and then said, "I certainly considered it, but... some accidents occurred."

"Accidents?"

Dr. Stone nodded and said, "Yes, accidents. That accident left me with no choice but to stay here; I cannot leave."

"What accident?"

Dr. Stone shook his head and stopped speaking.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He picked up the phone, and a cold voice came from the other end: "Hello, Dr. Stone. You don't need to know who we are, nor do you need to know how we contacted you. You only need to know one thing—the current vote count is very unfavorable to us, and we are striving for a recount. A few days ago, a madman broke into the Capitol building, and he has a series of photos of the tragedies that occurred in the Blue States. We need them. You only have three days."

"Why do you think I would be threatened by you?" Dr. Stone frowned slightly.

"Of course, because you still have a weakness. You have a son, right? I heard he had an accident before, and it was the military that saved you both. Although the military can stop us from finding you, they cannot stop us from finding your son. You had better think clearly."

Dr. Stone hung up the phone. He let out a long sigh and rubbed his forehead with some fatigue.

"See, I told you, they are just that despicable and shameless, and they linger like ghosts." Although Lex didn't hear the specific content of the call, he could roughly guess it. He said, "If you take one step back, they will push you directly to the edge of a cliff and then kick you off."

Lex put down his work, walked in front of Dr. Stone, and said, "Are they threatening you with someone important? Don't you know those super-powered individuals? Why not ask them to save the person?"

"This matter isn't that simple," Dr. Stone said. He opened his mouth, seemingly hesitating whether to speak, but after a long while, he shook his head and said nothing. He picked up his phone again and dialed a number.

"Hello? Victor? You... is that so? I still need some time here. I... I'm sorry, I can't guarantee it, I might not be able to make it on your mother's death anniversary... I really have my own difficulties, I'm very sorry..."

In the living room of the house, various household items were piled up in a somewhat scattered manner, clothes were messily draped over the back of a chair, and the coffee table was covered with various energy drinks. The television, which had been left on, raised the room temperature by several degrees. The youth wearing a hoodie sitting on the sofa hung up the phone forcefully, threw it aside, and fell backward onto the sofa.

He covered his face, but he still couldn't get used to the cold, mechanical touch coming from his palms. He lowered his hand again, and when he sat up, his hoodie fell off. The face of a black youth appeared, but only half of his face was human, while the other half was metal with red lights flickering in the eye area.

He stood up, and as he walked out the door, he suddenly stopped and picked up a group photo from a cabinet nearby: his dad wearing a plaid shirt with a smile, his mom excitedly hugging him, and himself wearing a football uniform holding a trophy.

He pressed his lips together tightly, put the photo back in its original place, reached out to pull up his hoodie, and walked out with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets.

He arrived on the street, kept his head down as he walked forward, looking left and right from time to time, until he crossed this street, walked two more blocks, and arrived in a dark alley. He came to a wall and squatted down. Not long after, another black man wearing a jacket walked over.

He stood up, took two stacks of dollars out of his sweatshirt pocket, looked left and right again, and just as he was about to hand the money to the other person, two police officers suddenly rushed out from the alley entrance.

"Hands where we can see them! Take your hands out!"

Both of them immediately stretched out their hands. The police officers walked over with their guns raised, shouting as they walked: "Get on the ground! Hands where we can see them, then get on the ground!"

Both of them raised their hands and lay down. The two officers walked over and handcuffed them. One of the police officers walked over and frisked the black man in the jacket, then said: "Now we are going to search you according to the law. Which pocket are the drugs in?"

"There are no drugs," he said. "I'm not a drug dealer."

"We already saw you trading," the other officer said, picking up the stack of dollars. "This is stolen money, right? Names."

"Derry Frankfurt."

"Victor Stone."

The officer walked over, took off Victor's hoodie, but was shocked and took two steps back the moment he saw his face: "What the hell!"

Victor sighed and said: "We weren't trading drugs. I owe him money, and I came to pay him back."

"Shut up, you two damned junkies. Do you think we'll believe the lies you made up? Hurry up and take the drugs out."

"Then search us," Derry said indifferently. "I'll have my dad sue you until you're bankrupt. He's a state prosecutor!"

The two officers paused. Victor, leaning against the wall on one side, also said: "My dad is the research director at STAR Labs. That's a U. S. military lab. You'd better not do something this stupid."

The two officers looked at each other. They had waited so long just to catch two big fish; they wouldn't let them go that easily, so one said: "If you have anything to say, say it at the police station."

"We aren't going with you," Victor said. "You have two choices now: either get the hell out of here and pretend this never happened, or I will use force to defend myself."

"How did you..."

With a *zila* sound, a red light shot from Victor's eye and hit the wall nearby. The two police officers were scared out of their wits and fled in a panic. Victor snapped the handcuffs and then unlocked them for Derry as well.

"These two must have been watching us for a long time," Derry said.

"If you hadn't arranged to meet here, we wouldn't have been mistaken for drug dealers," Victor said with some dissatisfaction. "I didn't even dare to carry a bag; otherwise, they would have definitely thought I was robbing a bank."

Derry picked up the stack of dollars from the side, counted them, and said: "It's just about enough. The weather is getting cold; we can get the kids a few more pieces of clothing."

"Don't skimp on it. If it's not enough, I have more here. But we really need to think of a better method; otherwise, even if I can pull more money out of the bank system, I won't be able to give it to you safely."

"You're really something," Derry punched him and then said, "Other people get superpowers and go on rampages, but you actually go and pick the pockets of bankers to help the poor."

"Who says? Didn't Superman do a great deed a few days ago?" Victor curled the corner of his mouth and said, "Those old men in the Capitol were almost frozen to death on the streets of Metropolis."

"Hahahaha! I was just about to tell you about that! What he did was simply beautiful. You don't know, ever since the heating subsidy was canceled, there must be over a dozen families who can't pay. If it weren't for you, they probably would have frozen to death..."

"Alright, let's not talk about this. Let's go take a look first. Is Madeline okay? She just gave birth, she needs to eat more meat. And Finch, he should be starting middle school soon, right?"

"They're all doing well. Let's go, they've been missing you too."

The two walked shoulder to shoulder, crossed two more streets, and arrived on a street that was clearly somewhat dilapidated. The buildings next to the street were all high-rises and looked quite grand, but as night fell, only the lower floors had lights on. When they walked into the lobby of the building, the area near the elevator was already covered in a layer of dust. They didn't head that way, but instead walked directly up the stairs.

Victor looked at the building and sighed in his heart. The property management probably left 12 years ago, and there had been no security for a long time. It was known as one of the worst neighborhoods for public safety, rampant with gangs and drug dealers. But over a decade ago, the housing prices here could even rival those of wealthy districts, and it was called the "future city center." Now, it was nothing but a mess. ===== CHAPTER 4359 =====