What Bad Thoughts Can Batman Have 126

Chapter 124: Torment (After recovering from illness, I beg for your continued reading)

My name is John Corben, I am the Metal Man.

Under the Stars and Stripes, I swear to fight for the American spirit.

John Corben stood on the scorching desert, piloting his massive Kryptonite-powered armor. Before him stood a humanoid monster, over three meters tall.

It had a sharp, metallic, skull-like face with deep-set eyes that glowed crimson.

“Sergeant John Corben, be careful. This unknown enemy suddenly appeared on Earth’s outer boundary about three minutes ago, then used its body to break through the atmosphere and crash landed here.”

A voice came from his earpiece, “There’s no doubt, extraterrestrial life.”

John Corben glanced at the smoking crater not far away.

“Its entire body is made of a hard substance, far harder than metal, and it emits energy.”

He saw Doomsday looking around in a daze, then tapped its head twice.

John Corben heard the voice in his headset change, from the operator to a slightly older voice:

“This is Dr. Elmi Hamilton, Sergeant Corben. You must be aware, the enemy may be able to use heat release and freezing powers like Kryptonians, and considering its size and body structure, these abilities, if they exist, will be far stronger than those of Kryptonians, even capable of destroying everything.”

John heard the other party say quickly, “This is an emergency situation beyond all our expectations, if possible, my opinion is…”

His voice lowered, as if speaking to the soldiers beside him.

“We should contact General Lane immediately, have him stop all military actions against Superman, both those already happening and those that haven’t. Get him here to join forces with Metal Man and face this…”

Such a request was naturally met with a rejection from the soldier next to him, “This is what the President and the Pentagon have decided…”

“There’s no time for this crap.”

John Corben said.

His power armor displayed a green energy shield. This action caught Doomsday’s attention. The monster, previously standing in a daze, roared at the Kryptonite armor:

“ROAR!!!”

“I’m the best one-on-one fighter in the entire 440,000-strong US Army.”

Faced with the intense shock wave, John smiled slightly.

“Little monsters like this, I usually eat them for breakfast.”

He struck first, punching Doomsday in the face, knocking it back. Before Doomsday could retaliate, a cannon rose from behind the mech, and a green Kryptonite energy wave sent Doomsday flying back.

John Corben piloted the mech into the air, looking down from above, feeling like a god overlooking his enemy.

“You think just having a face your own mother would find ugly can scare me?”

The cannon fired again, the Kryptonite beam pinning Doomsday to the ground. It let out a loud roar, but to John, it was a scream.

He stopped the Kryptonite beam and landed on the ground. The giant armor walked slowly towards Doomsday, the metal making a grinding sound.

“I don’t know where you came from, you alien scum.”

Doomsday blinked, its eyes slightly blurry from the Kryptonite beam. As soon as it opened its eyes, it got punched in the face.

“But you’ve chosen the wrong world, the wrong people.”

He unleashed a torrential barrage of attacks on Doomsday.

“This world has always been under the protection of one man, me, John Corben, you son of a bitch!”

Bang!

Bang!

The Metal Man kept attacking!

Attacking!

Attacking!

Then, after the initial rush of blood, he felt something was wrong.

Why wasn’t Doomsday’s face even twitching?

The next second, red heat vision shot out from Doomsday’s eyes.

Buzz!

The mech was immediately knocked back, Doomsday jumped onto it, hammering it repeatedly through the green energy shield. The whole scene was almost a mirror image of before, only the positions and the attack and defense were reversed.

“Sergeant Corben, you must get out of there,” John Corben watched the shield warning lights flash frantically, Hamilton’s voice came from his earpiece:

“The armor’s strength can’t withstand this monster’s attacks! I know all the specs of this mech Lex Luthor made. It can’t resist a monster this strong, you have to wait for Superman…”

“Are you going to order me to retreat?”

Hamilton was taken aback.

“I have no rank, this is…”

“There’s no one in the command room with a higher rank than me.”

“General Lane ordered me to ‘stand by, and if any extraterrestrial creatures are hostile to America, initiate an offensive immediately.’”

John Corben’s face hardened.

“Therefore, I’m carrying out my duties. If you can’t order me to retreat, then shut up.”

“But…”

“I’m a soldier, a soldier’s duty is to obey orders. Until I receive an order to retreat, I won’t go anywhere.”

John Corben gritted his teeth.

“I’ve seen the map, there’s a town 15 kilometers from here, the residents refused to participate in the ‘exercise.’ Because of the distance, the military didn’t force them, right?”

“How dare you say that, if I pull away from this fight, it won’t go to that town and massacre the residents before Superman gets here?”

John Corben’s eyes flashed with determination, his face devoid of the second-rate expression he used when he was flirting with Lois.

“Once the battle starts, there’s no stopping it, Doctor.”

He hammered Doomsday in the face.

“And I may not lose.”

He said: “I have something I didn’t tell you about this armor…”

A piece of armor on the front of his mech separated, revealing the Kryptonite core, and green light radiated out! Doomsday cried out and turned its head.

“I’ve connected my nervous system to this armor, so, it’s not that I’m piloting the armor, but…”

“I AM the armor!”

The Metal Man stood up, his left hand glowed with green Kryptonite, aiming at the area without bony armor, and he slashed Doomsday with the blade, creating a deep and large wound.

Doomsday howled.

Under the green light, the Metal Man stepped on Doomsday’s chest, raised the Kryptonite blade high: “Will you bleed? You will!”

He said: “God bless America!”

His figure was like Theseus slaying the Minotaur.

4 minutes later.

The Metal Man lay on the ground like a dead dog.

His spine had broken when he ejected from the armor, he was spitting blood, and lay dying on the ground.

Doomsday, like a mad dog, ground his once-proud armor into dust, not a single piece left intact.

Then it turned its head and stomped John Corben’s lower body to a pulp.

At the same time, Lex Luthor, having discovered Doomsday’s existence, immediately launched dozens of drones from his base.

……

……

……

Inside the soldiers’ tent.

Bruce Wayne grabbed a soldier’s computer, the original owner of the computer trembling in fear beside him.

He used physical intrusion methods to connect to the scene of Metal Man fighting Doomsday.

The first second he saw Doomsday, he thought of a keyword.

“Death of Superman.”

Then he immediately began to associate:

Death of Superman=Retirement Plan Failure=Justice League Becomes Justice League of Losers=Only 6 Leg-Hanging Events Happen and They Can’t Win=They All Die=World Destroyed!

Therefore, in the second second, Bruce Wayne immediately made up his mind.

Superman absolutely cannot go head-to-head with Doomsday, it’s a guaranteed death scenario.

But the problem was.

He hadn’t expected to face Doomsday at this time.

“Hiss…”

Seeing the mech fighting the monster on the screen, Clark took a breath, “I’ll go ahead…”

He turned to leave the tent, but Bruce Wayne pulled him back.

“You can’t go.”

Clark looked at him confused, “But it’s obvious now…”

“You can’t beat him, don’t go yet, wait for me.”

Bruce Wayne hurried over to General Zod.

The Alfred Protocol usually allowed him to summon a Batman from other multiverses after someone loses, and if it was Zod, he should be able to summon…

Bruce Wayne frowned.

No response, no response at all.

Then, as soon as he heard Zod’s first words, he immediately understood the reason.

“Filthy Earthlings.”

Zod opened his eyes, looking at Bruce Wayne like a cockroach.

Bruce Wayne narrowed his eyes.

He had secretly studied the so-called Alfred Protocol and Crisis energy.

In the comics, the so-called Crisis energy was the dark counterpart to Anti-Crisis energy, derived from the fear and anger of the masses. Crisis energy is also known as the seven hidden forces, corresponding to the seven cosmic forces.

So, the key was fear and anger.

Whether it was Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, or the dying Joker, Bane, Talon, they all had some kind of these emotions towards Bruce Wayne. Even the previous Fiora…

But for Zod, —

“You low-level life form from this inferior planet.” he said.

Though Zod had seen Bruce Wayne’s Kryptonian form with his own eyes, Bruce Wayne had transformed back in front of them later.

Perhaps Zod didn’t know how Bruce Wayne had stolen the Kryptonian physiology, but once he confirmed that Bruce Wayne was not a Kryptonian, his attitude immediately did a 180-degree turn.

“Let Kal-El talk to me.”

Superman appeared beside him, “I’m sorry, Batman, Zod simply doesn’t consider any life form other than Kryptonians as human. It’s in his genes. He is programmed to protect the Kryptonian people, which means that to him, any creature other than a Kryptonian is not ‘people,’ but a cockroach on the ground or a venomous snake to be guarded against.”

Bruce Wayne understood the situation. If anyone were to be bitten by a venomous snake hiding in the grass, their first reaction would not be to hate or fear the snake, but to lament their bad luck.

Or hate and fear the person who put the snake in the grass.

Zod’s angry eyes fixed on Superman.

Bruce Wayne blinked.

He stood in front of Superman.

Then, he pulled out a handful of Kryptonite powder and threw it on Zod’s face.

Not mixed with fear toxin.

Fear toxin didn’t work. Bruce Wayne had done experiments before, and after using fear toxin, the target would become completely unable to communicate due to fear. In this state, even if they feared “Bruce Wayne,” they would only fear the “Bruce Wayne” they imagined in their minds under the influence of the fear toxin, not the real Bruce Wayne himself, the object was wrong.

Once the fear toxin faded, things would go back to normal, with no effect at all.

Therefore, Bruce Wayne intended to use another method to extract a Batman from Zod.

“Cough, cough, cough… Kal-El! Do you want this Earthling to humiliate me any longer…”

“I plan to let you go, General Zod.”

Huh?

Superman, who was still mentally preparing on how to persuade Batman to stop tormenting the captive, was choked by this unexpected statement.

“Wait, what did you say?”

“Go, go, go, kid, get lost.”

Bruce Wayne impatiently shooed Clark away, letting the confused Kansas farm boy squat aside like a frog.

“Actually, you see, we humans, we don’t want to fight Kryptonians either. We’ve always wanted to make peace with Kryptonians.”

Clark’s eyes widened.

This was simply wishful thinking.

But seeing Batman look so confident, he always felt that the other party was planning something, so he kept quiet.

A mocking smile appeared on the face of General Zod, who had been weakened by inhaling a lot of Kryptonite.

“Go ahead, first remove these shackles before you talk. Don’t talk about these lofty words, ridiculous. If you really let me go, I’ll…”

Clang! The handcuffs fell to the ground.

General Zod stared at Bruce Wayne in shock, he couldn’t believe that there were such fools in the universe.

He stood up, his body was still weak, he couldn’t fly. Eck was still lying on the ground, he couldn’t get up even without the Kryptonite shackles.

“Are you really letting me go?”

Zod asked Bruce Wayne, somewhat incredulously.

“Yes, yes, yes.” Bruce Wayne looked kind and peaceful, full of holy light.

“We are a peace-loving…”

General Zod turned and left, he pulled up Eck, who was lying on the ground, and limped away.

“I’ve never seen such a stupid idiot in my life.”

He looked at Bruce Wayne warily, wary of him suddenly breaking his word.

Superman looked at the two who were walking further and further away, dumbfounded: “…What happened?”

“Wait a little longer.” Bruce Wayne told him.

Then, when they had almost walked a few hundred meters away, he heard Bruce Wayne finally say, “Bring them back!”

Whoosh!

The two Kryptonians, severely poisoned by Kryptonite and temporarily incapacitated, had been running desperately like ants moving their nest for half a day, and in the blink of an eye, they were back where they started, looking dazed.

Bruce Wayne had them inhale two more breaths of Kryptonite powder, then shook the shackles, “You dare run when I told you to? You’ve got some guts!”

Typing with voice, coughing while speaking, I feel a little uncomfortable. But the main heat is gone, it’s much better. But I’m still a bit dizzy. I’ve run out of sick leave, if I ask for leave again, I’ll lose all my attendance bonuses, come on, everyone must keep reading, please, please.

(End of Chapter)

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