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Chapter 232: They Can Be Reasonable
"The prison is under attack! The front line has been breached, and Alpha Squad has engaged the enemy!" a pale-faced, blonde girl in the Belle Reve Control Room reported urgently.
"But the enemy is equipped with unknown weapons and battlesuits! Our equipment is no match for them!"
"What about the defense protocol?" the warden demanded.
"It's already in effect. It should be able to hold until reinforcements from Headquarters arrive... Wait a second," the girl's eyes widened in disbelief. "No, no, this is impossible."
"What happened? Report!" the warden barked.
"The defense protocol has been compromised... Our system has been hacked by some kind of virus we've never seen before! The system is down!"
The instant she finished speaking, all the lights went out. As if swept by an invisible electromagnetic pulse, every electronic device went silent. The screens in the Central Control Room went black for a second before lighting up again.
On a pitch-black, abyss-like background, an Omega symbol appeared, as if carved in blood.
A disturbing, low, and strange sound echoed from all the speakers.
"For Darkseid."
The warden was bewildered. "The dark side? What does that mean?"
"Warden, the prison's side gate has also been breached! Oh my god, the prison system... the criminals... the criminals have all been released!" The girl's face was ashen, her chest heaving violently as she breathed rapidly. "They're coming in, they're all coming in!
My god, if so many get in at once... what are we going to do?"
"Stay calm. Dispatch teams to suppress them. Focus on containment and delaying tactics with firepower," the warden gritted his teeth. "Hold them off as long as possible. We must wait for backup, no matter what.
Any one of the criminals in this prison getting out... would be a disaster."
"Target found!"
An intruder squad, the first to charge into the second underground level, quickly locked onto Martian Manhunter's position.
"It's that Martian... but the situation has changed, he's already been released!"
"Wait, there's something else. The one next to him is..."
A soldier squinted, getting a clear look at the red-and-silver armor, the iconic blue crystal, and the red-and-silver patterns. His pupils contracted in terror.
A figure flickered, like a bolt of lightning striking through the channel. But by the time they registered it, Orin Vale, now in his mobile armor, had already flashed back to Martian Manhunter's side, and the entire squad before them was on the ground.
Martian Manhunter blinked and glanced at him.
"You're fast," he said sincerely, then paused and added, "Faster than me."
"While true, you don't have to say it so strangely."
By now, a second intruder squad that had been notified nearby was rapidly closing in. One of the soldiers rounded a corner and tossed a strange, rod-shaped hand grenade. It clattered to a stop at the two's feet and detonated with a pop.
An implosion grenade, the same type of equipment the intruders had used to breach the prison's main gate. It could cause a small-scale space collapse, and its attributes allowed it to devour and destroy almost any matter.
Apokolips Technology. The visual effect of the explosion looked like the black hole grenades from the movie *Thor: The Dark World*.
The hand grenade detonated, and a scorching, eerie energy erupted from an unknown reaction in its internal core component. The outer iron shell was seared through, gravity was generated, and the metal debris of the grenade itself was the first to be devoured inward.
Then, the nature of the energy continued to change with that strange spatial physics reaction. The energy level kept rising, the gravity intensified, and what started as a singularity almost too small to be seen with the naked eye began to expand, like a transparent egg, pulling everything it touched into its center...
In the slowed-down space, everything was still. Orin Vale crouched beside the hand grenade, watching in slow motion as the thing peeled open like an eggshell, all while observing its physical reaction during the explosion and rapidly taking notes.
After all, he hadn't had much contact with Apokolips Technology. This was a good opportunity for up-close observation.
But something like a black hole grenade was hardly novel in many civilizations. Although their operations differed and their performance might be superior, the general idea was more or less the same. Orin Vale quickly understood the principle and completed his analysis of its operation.
At this point, the debris of the grenade's shell had just been sucked in, and the collapse in slow motion had not even fully formed.
He had already come up with at least fifteen ways to disable it—and that was while avoiding any further damage to the prison.
In reality, all it would take was to adjust the Light to the spatial frequency that suppressed the collapse and infuse it. He had done something similar to the Speed Force black hole before, and this hand grenade's collapse was smaller and more controllable, making it far simpler than that time.
After a moment's thought, he channeled Light into the steel combat boots on his right leg.
Then, he stomped on it.
*Pop.*
The collapsing domain, which hadn't even had time to fully form, instantly contracted, stamped out of existence by his foot.
To the ordinary people around him without a Bullet Time perspective, it all happened in an instant.
The Intergang intruders were momentarily stunned. They even forgot to open fire, as if the sheer shock of the scene made them forget what they were even there for.
Ever since they had obtained this implosion grenade from the aliens, they had seen it as the ultimate solution to all problems. After witnessing its power, every one of them firmly believed there wasn't a problem that a single implosion grenade couldn't solve. If there was... well, there were no "ifs."
Although they'd never tried it, they had a strange confidence that even Superman could be instantly killed by one of these grenades.
And what were they seeing now?
This being called Ultraman had casually snuffed out an already detonated hand grenade with a single stomp. The visible collapse had been forcefully stomped back into nothingness.
Are you fucking kidding me?
That was a goddamn implosion grenade, a piece of alien technology that could one-shot anything, not a fucking cigarette butt you could just snuff out!
After a moment of stupor, the men looked at each other.
They quickly reached a consensus through eye contact.
Without needing an order, every single one of them, with perfect tacit understanding, dropped their guns, put their hands on their heads, and knelt.
They had given up the struggle on the spot.
Orin Vale nodded slightly.
See? Most people are quite reasonable after all.
"Finally!"
King Shark kicked open the iron door, whose security measures had all failed after the system crashed, and charged out excitedly.
The corridor outside was already in pandemonium. The most dangerous criminals were all out of their cages.
Freedom, long-awaited. Its sweet scent was something he had almost forgotten. He couldn't wait to leave this hellhole and get back to the water. Oh, but first, he needed to rip out a few more throats to vent the rage from being locked up in here.
He also kind of wanted to find that little green man who locked him up and get some revenge. He had been living quite comfortably in the sea, just swimming and sunbathing. When he got hungry, he'd go to the beach and snack on a few tourists. Then one day, some freaky little green man wearing a lantern ring suddenly flew down, conjured up a pair of guns and cannons, and blasted him until he was dizzy. When he woke up, he was in a cage...
No one was going to put him back in a cage again, not even if that little green man came back!
He yearned for freedom, yearned to be free.
The big guy charged out of his cage excitedly, arriving in the pandemonium-filled corridor, and turned his head just in time to see such a scene.
A bizarre hand grenade exploded, creating a rapidly expanding field of collapsing space. Even his old god bloodline seemed to instinctively sense the terror of that energy, stirring an urge to flee from the depths of his being.
And in that same instant, he saw the red-and-silver strange figure in iron armor standing beside it.
He stomped casually.
*Pop*, the collapse vanished.
The energy that had been a threat to him dissipated into thin air in an instant.
The dangerous instinct vanished, but King Shark froze in place, his heart somehow beating even faster.
A moment later, as the Intergang intruders all knelt, the mobile armor slowly looked around, its gaze sweeping over all the criminals frozen in the corridor.
"Now, does anyone else want to leave?"
The criminals looked at each other.
A moment later, with someone taking the lead, everyone turned around and went back into their respective cages.
King Shark tilted his head, thought for a moment with his not-so-brilliant mind, then turned around and went back too, pulling the door shut behind him.
On second thought, the prison was actually pretty nice.
Everyone in here is a character, and they're all so pleasant. He just loved it here. Didn't want to leave at all.
Absolutely not.
As Orin Vale walked past, he glanced into the cell.
King Shark was hugging his knees, huddled in a corner, his giant shark mouth squeezed into a fawning smile.
As if to say.
What bad intentions could a little shark possibly have?
(end of chapter)
"The prison is under attack! The front line has been breached, and Alpha Squad has engaged the enemy!" a pale-faced, blonde girl in the Belle Reve Control Room reported urgently.
"But the enemy is equipped with unknown weapons and battlesuits! Our equipment is no match for them!"
"What about the defense protocol?" the warden demanded.
"It's already in effect. It should be able to hold until reinforcements from Headquarters arrive... Wait a second," the girl's eyes widened in disbelief. "No, no, this is impossible."
"What happened? Report!" the warden barked.
"The defense protocol has been compromised... Our system has been hacked by some kind of virus we've never seen before! The system is down!"
The instant she finished speaking, all the lights went out. As if swept by an invisible electromagnetic pulse, every electronic device went silent. The screens in the Central Control Room went black for a second before lighting up again.
On a pitch-black, abyss-like background, an Omega symbol appeared, as if carved in blood.
A disturbing, low, and strange sound echoed from all the speakers.
"For Darkseid."
The warden was bewildered. "The dark side? What does that mean?"
"Warden, the prison's side gate has also been breached! Oh my god, the prison system... the criminals... the criminals have all been released!" The girl's face was ashen, her chest heaving violently as she breathed rapidly. "They're coming in, they're all coming in!
My god, if so many get in at once... what are we going to do?"
"Stay calm. Dispatch teams to suppress them. Focus on containment and delaying tactics with firepower," the warden gritted his teeth. "Hold them off as long as possible. We must wait for backup, no matter what.
Any one of the criminals in this prison getting out... would be a disaster."
"Target found!"
An intruder squad, the first to charge into the second underground level, quickly locked onto Martian Manhunter's position.
"It's that Martian... but the situation has changed, he's already been released!"
"Wait, there's something else. The one next to him is..."
A soldier squinted, getting a clear look at the red-and-silver armor, the iconic blue crystal, and the red-and-silver patterns. His pupils contracted in terror.
A figure flickered, like a bolt of lightning striking through the channel. But by the time they registered it, Orin Vale, now in his mobile armor, had already flashed back to Martian Manhunter's side, and the entire squad before them was on the ground.
Martian Manhunter blinked and glanced at him.
"You're fast," he said sincerely, then paused and added, "Faster than me."
"While true, you don't have to say it so strangely."
By now, a second intruder squad that had been notified nearby was rapidly closing in. One of the soldiers rounded a corner and tossed a strange, rod-shaped hand grenade. It clattered to a stop at the two's feet and detonated with a pop.
An implosion grenade, the same type of equipment the intruders had used to breach the prison's main gate. It could cause a small-scale space collapse, and its attributes allowed it to devour and destroy almost any matter.
Apokolips Technology. The visual effect of the explosion looked like the black hole grenades from the movie *Thor: The Dark World*.
The hand grenade detonated, and a scorching, eerie energy erupted from an unknown reaction in its internal core component. The outer iron shell was seared through, gravity was generated, and the metal debris of the grenade itself was the first to be devoured inward.
Then, the nature of the energy continued to change with that strange spatial physics reaction. The energy level kept rising, the gravity intensified, and what started as a singularity almost too small to be seen with the naked eye began to expand, like a transparent egg, pulling everything it touched into its center...
In the slowed-down space, everything was still. Orin Vale crouched beside the hand grenade, watching in slow motion as the thing peeled open like an eggshell, all while observing its physical reaction during the explosion and rapidly taking notes.
After all, he hadn't had much contact with Apokolips Technology. This was a good opportunity for up-close observation.
But something like a black hole grenade was hardly novel in many civilizations. Although their operations differed and their performance might be superior, the general idea was more or less the same. Orin Vale quickly understood the principle and completed his analysis of its operation.
At this point, the debris of the grenade's shell had just been sucked in, and the collapse in slow motion had not even fully formed.
He had already come up with at least fifteen ways to disable it—and that was while avoiding any further damage to the prison.
In reality, all it would take was to adjust the Light to the spatial frequency that suppressed the collapse and infuse it. He had done something similar to the Speed Force black hole before, and this hand grenade's collapse was smaller and more controllable, making it far simpler than that time.
After a moment's thought, he channeled Light into the steel combat boots on his right leg.
Then, he stomped on it.
*Pop.*
The collapsing domain, which hadn't even had time to fully form, instantly contracted, stamped out of existence by his foot.
To the ordinary people around him without a Bullet Time perspective, it all happened in an instant.
The Intergang intruders were momentarily stunned. They even forgot to open fire, as if the sheer shock of the scene made them forget what they were even there for.
Ever since they had obtained this implosion grenade from the aliens, they had seen it as the ultimate solution to all problems. After witnessing its power, every one of them firmly believed there wasn't a problem that a single implosion grenade couldn't solve. If there was... well, there were no "ifs."
Although they'd never tried it, they had a strange confidence that even Superman could be instantly killed by one of these grenades.
And what were they seeing now?
This being called Ultraman had casually snuffed out an already detonated hand grenade with a single stomp. The visible collapse had been forcefully stomped back into nothingness.
Are you fucking kidding me?
That was a goddamn implosion grenade, a piece of alien technology that could one-shot anything, not a fucking cigarette butt you could just snuff out!
After a moment of stupor, the men looked at each other.
They quickly reached a consensus through eye contact.
Without needing an order, every single one of them, with perfect tacit understanding, dropped their guns, put their hands on their heads, and knelt.
They had given up the struggle on the spot.
Orin Vale nodded slightly.
See? Most people are quite reasonable after all.
"Finally!"
King Shark kicked open the iron door, whose security measures had all failed after the system crashed, and charged out excitedly.
The corridor outside was already in pandemonium. The most dangerous criminals were all out of their cages.
Freedom, long-awaited. Its sweet scent was something he had almost forgotten. He couldn't wait to leave this hellhole and get back to the water. Oh, but first, he needed to rip out a few more throats to vent the rage from being locked up in here.
He also kind of wanted to find that little green man who locked him up and get some revenge. He had been living quite comfortably in the sea, just swimming and sunbathing. When he got hungry, he'd go to the beach and snack on a few tourists. Then one day, some freaky little green man wearing a lantern ring suddenly flew down, conjured up a pair of guns and cannons, and blasted him until he was dizzy. When he woke up, he was in a cage...
No one was going to put him back in a cage again, not even if that little green man came back!
He yearned for freedom, yearned to be free.
The big guy charged out of his cage excitedly, arriving in the pandemonium-filled corridor, and turned his head just in time to see such a scene.
A bizarre hand grenade exploded, creating a rapidly expanding field of collapsing space. Even his old god bloodline seemed to instinctively sense the terror of that energy, stirring an urge to flee from the depths of his being.
And in that same instant, he saw the red-and-silver strange figure in iron armor standing beside it.
He stomped casually.
*Pop*, the collapse vanished.
The energy that had been a threat to him dissipated into thin air in an instant.
The dangerous instinct vanished, but King Shark froze in place, his heart somehow beating even faster.
A moment later, as the Intergang intruders all knelt, the mobile armor slowly looked around, its gaze sweeping over all the criminals frozen in the corridor.
"Now, does anyone else want to leave?"
The criminals looked at each other.
A moment later, with someone taking the lead, everyone turned around and went back into their respective cages.
King Shark tilted his head, thought for a moment with his not-so-brilliant mind, then turned around and went back too, pulling the door shut behind him.
On second thought, the prison was actually pretty nice.
Everyone in here is a character, and they're all so pleasant. He just loved it here. Didn't want to leave at all.
Absolutely not.
As Orin Vale walked past, he glanced into the cell.
King Shark was hugging his knees, huddled in a corner, his giant shark mouth squeezed into a fawning smile.
As if to say.
What bad intentions could a little shark possibly have?
(end of chapter)
