Chapter 4435: Dark Prelude (Part 27)

With a "click," Diana turned off the television and let out a long sigh as she sat on the sofa. Well, that was that; even the loose end about the Serpent of Frigine not being recorded in history books had been smoothed over. If Schiller had been born a few thousand years earlier, humanity would have mastered pi long ago.

Regarding Schiller's goal, aside from letting people know that Martians were truly plotting against the Justice League, Diana could see that he had also flushed out the opposition led by the Mayor of Metropolis.

Although the Mayor had tried to run when they started fighting, the agents had already been rushing toward the scene, so the Mayor hadn't escaped. The group of people in the mansion at the time had also been captured. Presumably, they would confess about a large group of people before long.

Furthermore, he had created a brand-new version of the Serpent of Frigine and patched in an origin story. At the same time, he had applied the final patch to Clark's identity.

Letting people continue to think Clark was a Martian was not a good thing. If he did well, people would feel it was what he was supposed to do, since it was his own kin who started the war; if he did poorly, people would suspect he had been faking it all along.

Now, through the legend of the Serpent of Frigine, the existence of Kryptonians had been revealed. Although there was no substantive evidence for the time being, at least it provided an official explanation. If they really needed evidence, it wasn't impossible to get. They could just have Clark go back to his old home once and bring back some local specialties.

Additionally, he had directly caught Damian and Steve. These two were also members of the resurrection army and belonged to the category of unstable factors. It was best to keep them under strict supervision, just like Barry's parents, to ensure they didn't cause any trouble out there.

In fact, Diana instinctively felt there must be some other purpose, but based on the information she knew, she couldn't see it. However, Diana felt that the mess regarding this snake was definitely not over yet.

Schiller's utilization rate of resources was despairingly high. Through the Serpent of Frigine, he had already extended seven or eight threads, each with several different goals. Every time this snake appeared, it wouldn't stop until it had severed the heads of several enemies, yet even so, people kept rushing forward one after another, like the world's most delicious bait, luring countless stupid fish to take the hook.

Logically speaking, having such a capable teammate should be quite reassuring. But Diana couldn't be happy at all. As the saying goes, a black cat or a white cat, a cat that can catch mice is a good cat. However, summoning an evil god just to catch mice was still a bit too much.

Another thing that made Diana unhappy was that something had probably gone terribly wrong with her arm. As of today, liver spots had begun to appear on it.

It wasn't that she hadn't gone to Batman for a checkup; in fact, she went immediately after the incident ended. The result Batman gave her was also one word: "Dead."

Diana's arm was now a corpse. But strangely, she could still control the arm freely and didn't even feel anything unusual. If it weren't for the fact that her skin left a dent when pressed and the red liver spots were spreading over a large area, she would have thought she hadn't been injured at all.

Diana had the same symptoms as Hal. So, she decided to ask Hal for a talk. Just in time, to compensate Diana and to cooperate with the President's work, the Metropolis Museum had given Diana a long vacation. Diana went straight to the fast-food restaurant where Hal worked, claiming she wanted to work part-time too.

Unlike Hal, Diana was a celebrity, especially popular recently. The fast-food restaurant owner wanted to refuse, but fearing the Justice League would audit his taxes, he could only grit his teeth and agree.

And so, the two of them happily started frying fries in the back kitchen.

"This stuff in fast-food restaurants is just convenient." Diana operated the machine. It was an automatic fry machine, the fully automatic kind; you just needed to throw the fries into the basket, press a button, and the basket would sink into the oil by itself and float up when the time was up. All they had to do was put in the fries and pack them.

Actually, this wasn't easy work either, because the back kitchen was hot, but it just so happened that these two corpses weren't very afraid of heat. Therefore, frying, eating, and chatting at the same time was quite lively.

"What do you think is going on here?"

"I think they might have changed their strategy," Hal said. "Batman anticipated the enemy and pulled off this Martian stunt, which caused their plan to impersonate our relatives and sow discord to completely fall through. Now they aren't even pretending anymore."

"How so?" Diana asked.

"You should go back and ask your mother and sisters. Without superpowers, is it possible for an ordinary human to sneak into the Amazon Queen's prison and rescue another ordinary human without superpowers?"

"I'm afraid it's not very likely," Diana said. "The Amazon prison is designed specifically for superpowered individuals; it's not that easy for them to escape. However, I also asked my mother, and her meaning was that no one noticed anyone sneaking in there, and no one was injured."

"They must have snuck in secretly; after all, it's not suitable to make a big scene right now, otherwise they would become enemies of the world. But being able to sneak in is still impressive, isn't it?"

Diana nodded and said, "They must have used superpowers in places we didn't see. Perhaps that mastermind, Death, helped them."

"This can't even be considered sneaking anymore," Hal glanced at Diana's arm and said, "Haven't you already been hit?"

Diana glanced at her arm and sighed. She had indeed seen the black line that day, but because it was so thin and flashed by in an instant, she couldn't be sure if she had been attacked.

After all, the wound was neither painful nor swollen now, and apart from being a bit dead, it could still be controlled at will. Where would one find such an injury?

"Whether it's you or me, both of us have developed these symptoms, which proves this is one of their most powerful attack methods." Hal speculated, "Turning us into a corpse must have some major use."

Diana suddenly realized and said, "Do you remember what Schiller said? This is a crisis on a multiversal scale, it just chose our universe as the breaking point."

"You mean..."

"They might want to use us to invade the multiverse."

Hal nodded and said, "It is indeed possible. Schiller said before that the so-called Death hasn't fully come over yet. He might need to cultivate a group of loyal subordinates within the multiverse so that he can help him open the channel and threaten the multiverse. We are the unlucky ones who were chosen."

"In other words, although this injury doesn't look like much now, if he wants to use power to control us..." Diana looked worried. She said, "I'm really worried that I will endanger the Earth and the Justice League."

"Look on the bright side," Hal patted her shoulder, threw a fry into his mouth, and said, "Why should it control us, instead of us controlling it?"

Diana looked at him with some confusion. Hal thought for a moment and said, "What enters my body is my energy. Whether it's Green Lantern energy or this so-called Death's power, it's all about using my spirit to master them, not them mastering me."

"Even if it's stronger, no matter how much power it sends into my body, it can't control me. Instead, I can try to absorb and control its power. Isn't that right?"

"You seem very confident."

"This is from experience," Hal said very seriously. "To be honest, when the Green Lantern energy first entered my body, it also tried to control me, or rather, this kind of external power infused into the body will compete for autonomy with the body's own power. It was precisely because I used willpower to control the external power that I was able to become a Green Lantern."

"Then the power of Death is the same. As long as it enters my body, it will definitely compete with me for control of my body. But how can one say it will definitely win?"

"Maybe it's much stronger than the Green Lantern's power," Diana said.

Hal shook his head and said, "I didn't spend those few days of training at Green Lantern headquarters for nothing. As far as I know, the Green Lantern power is already one of the fundamental powers of the universe; even the Mother Box might not be able to surpass it. For it to be higher than the Green Lantern power, it would have to be God."

"If it isn't higher than the Green Lantern power, then I've already beaten the Green Lantern power, so controlling it will definitely be easy; if it is higher than the Green Lantern power, I might not necessarily lose either. Because the most powerful force I've ever controlled is the Green Lantern power, but my potential might be more than that. If it comes, I'll take it down all the same."

Diana couldn't help but give him a thumbs up. Hal was a pure optimist. He was very confident and firm; even an ancient being like herself would be moved by such pure conviction. He was worthy of being an ace pilot.

At the thought of pilots, Diana's mood sank again. She said, "I haven't told you guys before, but Steve was also a very impressive pilot. He flew his fighter jet very well and made many meritorious services..."

"I've heard of him," Hal said. "A hero pilot during World War II, it's a pity he died young. He is also one of my role models."

Diana smiled reluctantly. Hal continued, "Seriously, if one day I were dying, flying a plane to embrace my lover and release her shackles is the most romantic way to die I can imagine. It's a pity I don't have a lover with a heart of iron and bones of steel like you."

Diana was amused by him and laughed out loud. She shook her head and said, "I will pass your words on to Carol."

"No, no, no. If she knew I wanted to crash a plane into her, she would be furious." Hal quickly admitted defeat. He said, "And this kind of thing is very unlucky in this line of work. I usually have to be careful not to say words like 'crash' or 'hit'."

"Then why did you take the test flight plane..."

"That was an accident." Hal sighed and said, "I was just..."

"Wait," Diana suddenly interrupted Hal and said, "Are you sure it was an accident?"

Hal looked at her.

"I don't mean anything else. Of course, I also trust your judgment of the situation. However, watching from the sidelines, there isn't a single person in the entire Justice League who hasn't experienced conspiracy and persecution. Although one shouldn't think the worst of everything, it's always good to think more and check more."

Diana had already been very tactful; in fact, to put it bluntly, the entire Justice League had been persecuted. Not to mention the tragedy in Victor's family; even a superpowered individual like J'onn couldn't protect Dr. Erdel; a billionaire like Bruce also lost his son.

Hal's life looked smooth sailing, living freely and easily; perhaps it wasn't that he hadn't experienced persecution, but that his own ability was too strong and he dodged it. Looking at it this way, the most likely thing was that plane crash.

Hal nodded and said, "Actually, I didn't feel any obvious loss of control. But I will find a way to check again. Actually, Carol suspected it at the time, too; after all, their family tree has many enemies. But without decisive evidence, it's hard to tear off the mask. I understand her."

Only then did Diana understand; it wasn't that the two of them hadn't checked, but that the other party had done it cleanly, and without decisive evidence, it was hard to fall out with people. Hal could only be wronged and lie low for a while.

No wonder, after such a big incident, his father-in-law didn't blame him much, and his girlfriend still covered all his various expenses. One could only say that Hal was still very lucky.

"By the way," Hal remembered another thing, "Our families have all been resurrected. What about Clark's? Did his father pass away?"

"It seems so," Diana said. "But since he became President, his mother has left the farm. She should have gone somewhere else and been protected by Batman. If his father has returned, he might have gone to the farm too."

"I'll send him a text message to remind him," Hal said. "Although I don't think he will fall for it, it's best to be on guard."

?? I drank myself unconscious during the Spring Festival social events, falling. jpg