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Chapter 355: Everyone's a Smurf
The Watchtower had fallen.
Alright, this wasn't anything particularly strange. After all, similar-looking things that resembled spinning tops seemed to have a built-in "kick me" sign; passing aliens, whether they had business there or not, all liked to take a couple of shots at it. Rather than saying, "The Watchtower actually fell!", it was more like, "This thing actually lasted until now before falling." It could only be said that the power level of the villains the Justice League had faced so far hadn't been up to par.
But that wasn't to say it was useless. After all, putting such a trouble-magnet in orbit could at least attract some firepower. Plus, its permanent residents were all unkillable, god-like beings. Donating one or two aerial gravestones backed by the Wayne family's Power of Money was definitely better than letting aliens drag the fight into the city center and raising the difficulty for the Aihara Ryuu of a parallel world.
This was one of the reasons Orin Vale hadn't advised the League to move the Watchtower to the ground. Honestly, even if this aerial gravestone wasn't used as a base, it was an excellent choice for tanking aggro.
Today just so happened to prove this theory correct.
The barrier was gradually being breached, and the Watchtower could no longer maintain its balance. But Batman switched to manual control, piloting the Watchtower through the atmosphere for a manually navigated forced landing while firing back with the weapons mounted on the space station.
"Batman to the Justice League, the Watchtower can't hold. I'm initiating a manually navigated forced landing into an uninhabited area."
As Batman spoke, the entire outer layer of the Watchtower was already burning red-hot. The falling facility trailed a long plume of black smoke, and its turbine engines whined mournfully.
Martian Manhunter pierced the heart of a Manhunter with a phasing hand-blade, then shot out Heat Vision from his eyes, taking down two more. He maintained his phasing state to evade the Manhunters' concentrated fire, the crisscrossing energy beams passing harmlessly through his transparent body.
"More and more Manhunters are converging on this position," Martian Manhunter shouted. "They're following you, Batman! You need to get out of there, quickly!"
"This is better. We can draw the front line to an uninhabited area." Batman turned a deaf ear to the blaring alarms behind him. "They'd better keep up.
"Besides..."
He had only gotten halfway through his sentence when a red-and-blue afterimage streaked in from outer space. Superman flew onto the battlefield at dozens of times the speed of sound, leaving a series of explosions in his wake. The Manhunters were pulverized one after another, their shattered shells and debris scattering everywhere.
Only then did the second half of Batman's sentence emerge: "...we have backup."
Superman froze a large patch of robots with a blast of Freeze Breath and flew to the Watchtower's side. Batman, focused on pulling the control stick, fired a volley of missiles at the pursuing Manhunters without looking back and said, "You're slow."
"Just finished dealing with an earthquake."
Superman said as he looked around.
"Hal's not here? This should be his area of expertise."
"He answered the call. He's on his way." Batman paused, then added, "But we can handle it."
"Uh, I'm not so sure about that."
Superman looked up at the sky.
With his Super Vision, he saw that behind the group of Manhunters, above the atmosphere, vast swarms of yellow figures were breaking through and diving down.
"Remember that yellow power ring you mentioned before?" Superman glanced at Batman. "I'm starting to think maybe you should have kept it."
The Watchtower successfully made its forced landing, exploding in the mountain valley with a towering blaze. The entire mountain range shook violently, and falling rocks tumbled down like a torrent.
Before landing, Batman had escaped by piloting the Bat-jet housed inside the Watchtower. The Justice League's first-generation Watchtower became a towering torch behind him. Blazing flames licked at the blackened wings as the fighter jet, like a bat bathed in fire, burst through the curtain of fire.
He had managed to get away from the city center, but there was still a town in the nearby mountain range. This was the best he could manage.
The members of the Yellow Lantern Corps swarmed down, covering the sky. A Yellow Lantern shouted in excitement, "Attacking one of the most backward civilizations with the most powerful weapon in the universe! I don't know why the great Sinestro wants this backward little mudball, but I'm going to enjoy this process!"
After all, who could resist the temptation of smurfing in the low ranks?
Although Sinestro had warned them not to be careless, there were still some Yellow Lanterns who thought nothing of it.
A planet with a Civilization Level of three? Couldn't any random Yellow Lantern completely dominate it? It'll be as easy as a picnic.
"Apache Chief, want to see who can kill more primitives?" a Yellow Lantern shouted.
The Yellow Lantern next to him laughed, "Sure. You really never learn. The number of times you've beaten me can be counted on one hand..."
Before he could finish, an afterimage caught up from behind at a speed far greater than their power rings could manage. Superman flew up behind the pair, struck out with both palms, grabbing the two Yellow Lanterns' heads, one in each hand, and slammed them together in mid-air with a *bang*.
The two Yellow Lanterns' foreheads collided. The protective force field around their heads shattered with a crack. They fell, screaming, as Superman let go and accelerated toward his next target.
The next Yellow Lantern realized he was being targeted and threw a punch from a distance. The power ring on his fist erupted with a golden radiance, and the blinding light transformed into a giant claw that lunged forward.
But Superman didn't dodge or evade. He met it head-on with a punch that smashed the giant claw to smithereens, then shot straight through the dancing golden-yellow fragments and smashed a fist into the Yellow Lantern's disbelieving face.
As everyone knows, ninety percent of the difficulty when Superman fought was controlling his own power to avoid excessive damage. Every time he faced an opponent of a different level, he had to constantly gauge the amount of force to use, lest his opponent just drop dead on the spot. That's why all the villains in Metropolis had the illusion that they could go toe-to-toe with Superman.
But now, with the Yellow Lantern Corps invading and the situation critical, he knew that every second wasted could worsen the situation. Furthermore, he was facing bizarrely-shaped, non-humanoid creatures, so Superman struck much harder than he usually did.
The surrounding Yellow Lanterns stared blankly at the red-caped figure who had charged in and was going on a rampage.
Wait, are we here to smurf, or to be smurfed on by the fish?
What happened to Level Three? What happened to "easy as a picnic"?
Damn it, the minnows are fighting back.
Meanwhile, a red afterimage cloaked in an electric arc cut a long wake across the water's surface as The Flash arrived, running across the water.
"Batman, I'm here!" Barry said over the comms channel.
"Evacuate the civilians. There are still people in the nearby village," Batman replied. "Get them as far away from the battlefield as possible."
"Roger!"
In a flash of electric light, he had crossed mountains and ridges back and forth an unknown number of times in just a few seconds. One moment, the villagers were at the edge of the village with their mouths agape, watching the gods fighting; the next, they were whisked away as if riding on clouds, reappearing countless miles away in a flash.
Over on the other side, Martian Manhunter was also going all out, weaving between the Manhunters and Yellow Lanterns. He seized an opportunity to flash behind a Yellow Lantern and gently brushed his palm across their forehead. His mind control activated. The Yellow Lantern cried out, clutching his head as his mind descended into chaos. The power ring, no longer guided by consciousness, immediately went out, and the Yellow Lantern plummeted.
"I got him!"
A Yellow Lantern shouted, simultaneously creating a yellow cage to restrain Martian Manhunter.
"I've got him! I've got—huh?"
Before he could finish, he saw the eerie, green-skinned creature phase right through his construct cage. It then transformed, manifesting a massive fist dozens of meters in diameter, and punched him so hard that his vision went black, his head lolled to the side, and he began to fall.
Before losing consciousness, only one last thought flashed through the Yellow Lantern's mind.
To hell with Level Three! They're all damned smurfs...
(end of chapter)
The Watchtower had fallen.
Alright, this wasn't anything particularly strange. After all, similar-looking things that resembled spinning tops seemed to have a built-in "kick me" sign; passing aliens, whether they had business there or not, all liked to take a couple of shots at it. Rather than saying, "The Watchtower actually fell!", it was more like, "This thing actually lasted until now before falling." It could only be said that the power level of the villains the Justice League had faced so far hadn't been up to par.
But that wasn't to say it was useless. After all, putting such a trouble-magnet in orbit could at least attract some firepower. Plus, its permanent residents were all unkillable, god-like beings. Donating one or two aerial gravestones backed by the Wayne family's Power of Money was definitely better than letting aliens drag the fight into the city center and raising the difficulty for the Aihara Ryuu of a parallel world.
This was one of the reasons Orin Vale hadn't advised the League to move the Watchtower to the ground. Honestly, even if this aerial gravestone wasn't used as a base, it was an excellent choice for tanking aggro.
Today just so happened to prove this theory correct.
The barrier was gradually being breached, and the Watchtower could no longer maintain its balance. But Batman switched to manual control, piloting the Watchtower through the atmosphere for a manually navigated forced landing while firing back with the weapons mounted on the space station.
"Batman to the Justice League, the Watchtower can't hold. I'm initiating a manually navigated forced landing into an uninhabited area."
As Batman spoke, the entire outer layer of the Watchtower was already burning red-hot. The falling facility trailed a long plume of black smoke, and its turbine engines whined mournfully.
Martian Manhunter pierced the heart of a Manhunter with a phasing hand-blade, then shot out Heat Vision from his eyes, taking down two more. He maintained his phasing state to evade the Manhunters' concentrated fire, the crisscrossing energy beams passing harmlessly through his transparent body.
"More and more Manhunters are converging on this position," Martian Manhunter shouted. "They're following you, Batman! You need to get out of there, quickly!"
"This is better. We can draw the front line to an uninhabited area." Batman turned a deaf ear to the blaring alarms behind him. "They'd better keep up.
"Besides..."
He had only gotten halfway through his sentence when a red-and-blue afterimage streaked in from outer space. Superman flew onto the battlefield at dozens of times the speed of sound, leaving a series of explosions in his wake. The Manhunters were pulverized one after another, their shattered shells and debris scattering everywhere.
Only then did the second half of Batman's sentence emerge: "...we have backup."
Superman froze a large patch of robots with a blast of Freeze Breath and flew to the Watchtower's side. Batman, focused on pulling the control stick, fired a volley of missiles at the pursuing Manhunters without looking back and said, "You're slow."
"Just finished dealing with an earthquake."
Superman said as he looked around.
"Hal's not here? This should be his area of expertise."
"He answered the call. He's on his way." Batman paused, then added, "But we can handle it."
"Uh, I'm not so sure about that."
Superman looked up at the sky.
With his Super Vision, he saw that behind the group of Manhunters, above the atmosphere, vast swarms of yellow figures were breaking through and diving down.
"Remember that yellow power ring you mentioned before?" Superman glanced at Batman. "I'm starting to think maybe you should have kept it."
The Watchtower successfully made its forced landing, exploding in the mountain valley with a towering blaze. The entire mountain range shook violently, and falling rocks tumbled down like a torrent.
Before landing, Batman had escaped by piloting the Bat-jet housed inside the Watchtower. The Justice League's first-generation Watchtower became a towering torch behind him. Blazing flames licked at the blackened wings as the fighter jet, like a bat bathed in fire, burst through the curtain of fire.
He had managed to get away from the city center, but there was still a town in the nearby mountain range. This was the best he could manage.
The members of the Yellow Lantern Corps swarmed down, covering the sky. A Yellow Lantern shouted in excitement, "Attacking one of the most backward civilizations with the most powerful weapon in the universe! I don't know why the great Sinestro wants this backward little mudball, but I'm going to enjoy this process!"
After all, who could resist the temptation of smurfing in the low ranks?
Although Sinestro had warned them not to be careless, there were still some Yellow Lanterns who thought nothing of it.
A planet with a Civilization Level of three? Couldn't any random Yellow Lantern completely dominate it? It'll be as easy as a picnic.
"Apache Chief, want to see who can kill more primitives?" a Yellow Lantern shouted.
The Yellow Lantern next to him laughed, "Sure. You really never learn. The number of times you've beaten me can be counted on one hand..."
Before he could finish, an afterimage caught up from behind at a speed far greater than their power rings could manage. Superman flew up behind the pair, struck out with both palms, grabbing the two Yellow Lanterns' heads, one in each hand, and slammed them together in mid-air with a *bang*.
The two Yellow Lanterns' foreheads collided. The protective force field around their heads shattered with a crack. They fell, screaming, as Superman let go and accelerated toward his next target.
The next Yellow Lantern realized he was being targeted and threw a punch from a distance. The power ring on his fist erupted with a golden radiance, and the blinding light transformed into a giant claw that lunged forward.
But Superman didn't dodge or evade. He met it head-on with a punch that smashed the giant claw to smithereens, then shot straight through the dancing golden-yellow fragments and smashed a fist into the Yellow Lantern's disbelieving face.
As everyone knows, ninety percent of the difficulty when Superman fought was controlling his own power to avoid excessive damage. Every time he faced an opponent of a different level, he had to constantly gauge the amount of force to use, lest his opponent just drop dead on the spot. That's why all the villains in Metropolis had the illusion that they could go toe-to-toe with Superman.
But now, with the Yellow Lantern Corps invading and the situation critical, he knew that every second wasted could worsen the situation. Furthermore, he was facing bizarrely-shaped, non-humanoid creatures, so Superman struck much harder than he usually did.
The surrounding Yellow Lanterns stared blankly at the red-caped figure who had charged in and was going on a rampage.
Wait, are we here to smurf, or to be smurfed on by the fish?
What happened to Level Three? What happened to "easy as a picnic"?
Damn it, the minnows are fighting back.
Meanwhile, a red afterimage cloaked in an electric arc cut a long wake across the water's surface as The Flash arrived, running across the water.
"Batman, I'm here!" Barry said over the comms channel.
"Evacuate the civilians. There are still people in the nearby village," Batman replied. "Get them as far away from the battlefield as possible."
"Roger!"
In a flash of electric light, he had crossed mountains and ridges back and forth an unknown number of times in just a few seconds. One moment, the villagers were at the edge of the village with their mouths agape, watching the gods fighting; the next, they were whisked away as if riding on clouds, reappearing countless miles away in a flash.
Over on the other side, Martian Manhunter was also going all out, weaving between the Manhunters and Yellow Lanterns. He seized an opportunity to flash behind a Yellow Lantern and gently brushed his palm across their forehead. His mind control activated. The Yellow Lantern cried out, clutching his head as his mind descended into chaos. The power ring, no longer guided by consciousness, immediately went out, and the Yellow Lantern plummeted.
"I got him!"
A Yellow Lantern shouted, simultaneously creating a yellow cage to restrain Martian Manhunter.
"I've got him! I've got—huh?"
Before he could finish, he saw the eerie, green-skinned creature phase right through his construct cage. It then transformed, manifesting a massive fist dozens of meters in diameter, and punched him so hard that his vision went black, his head lolled to the side, and he began to fall.
Before losing consciousness, only one last thought flashed through the Yellow Lantern's mind.
To hell with Level Three! They're all damned smurfs...
(end of chapter)
