NABC Chapter 245 Kidnapping Case
Chapter 245 Kidnapping Case
Chapter 245 Kidnapping Case
Ding-dong! Mark's doorbell rang. Joey arrived at the agreed-upon time for his visit.
"A small gift."
Having frequently interacted with foreign colleagues in his previous life, Joey was extremely familiar with the procedures for having dinner together in North American families.
Following standard social etiquette, he brought a bottle of wine, a bone china tea set, and a baby onesie.
If I remember correctly, Mark's family consisted of himself, his Asian mother, and a baby with blue-purple skin like Thanos—anyway, everyone got a gift.
"We each have one, this is too kind of you, we should be thanking you!"
Mark had just welcomed Joey in and was about to say a few polite words as he reached for the gift when, thankfully, his younger brother elbowed him from behind.
"Do I get a gift too?!"
Squeezed between Joey and Mark was a boy, but his distinctive skin color already told Joey who he was.
Mark's purple-skinned younger brother, Oliver.
"I'm afraid there aren't any left."
Looking at the child in front of him, whose age was similar to Billy Batson from the Flashpoint universe, Joey was momentarily stunned and asked Mark beside him:
"How long have I been in deep space? Didn't you say two months?"
When he first arrived in this universe a few weeks ago, the other party should have been a baby. How come they are already teenagers now?
Did he accidentally enter a black hole in the universe, causing his time to slow down?
That's not right either.
The Kryptonian biofield is like the Speed Force, a magical thing that ignores quantum mechanics and is capable of causing the edifice of physics to collapse countless times.
Even if Joey went into a black hole to take a shower, it wouldn't speed up his time much.
"It's a long story. Oliver isn't my mother's child."
Mark sighed: "He is the child of my father, born after he left Earth and mated with another alien race. Their race ages much faster than humans."
To explain his half-brother Oliver, he had to involve his father, the All-Round Man.
It is basically similar to the concept of "Superman".
His own father, a second-rate science fiction novelist and a first-rate travel biographer, Nolan Grayson, is actually an "all-around hero" who maintains world peace and comes from a distant alien planet called "Wittrum".
These aliens possess the most powerful individual strength in the entire universe, and they built a utopia in their home planet long ago.
Therefore, after reaching adulthood, they will travel throughout the Milky Way, using their talents and the powerful strength of the Vikings to help developing civilizations in various parts of the universe.
This is why Omniknight visited Earth and became its protector, the world's most powerful superhero.
At least until Omniknight revealed his true colors to the world, Mark and most of the insiders at Global Defense, as well as the deceased members of the Global Guardians, believed this.
The story takes a sharp turn for the worse after that.
It all started when the members of the Global Guardians, the seven most powerful superheroes on Earth, were brutally murdered by Omniknight.
Mark's father lied to his son Mark, lied to his wife Debbie, and lied to everyone on Earth.
The planet Witrum, from which Omniknight comes, is not a peaceful utopia, but an interstellar empire that is constantly expanding its military.
The purpose of Almighty coming to Earth was not to help backward civilizations develop, but rather to say, "Okay, that's enough."
Upon hearing this, Joey gently tapped the table, signaling with her eyes to stop Mark from narrating, as the sounds of kitchen utensils from the other kitchen cubicle had already ceased.
At this moment, Mark is at a family dinner party. Next to him is his younger brother, who is sulking because he didn't receive a gift, and his mother is busy in the kitchen. Joey feels that this story should not unfold in this setting.
Moreover, Joey had basically guessed how the story would unfold.
This Saiyan-like development is precisely the challenge that Joey is currently facing.
Even in another Earth galaxy, the Kryptonians, who are pressing in with their army, can make Joey very "proud" to play his accordion and say, "No one knows better than him how to deal with this situation."
Okay, just kidding. Joey was not sure how to handle the situation, and he couldn't be very proud either.
He is now walking a tightrope; one wrong step could be a fatal blow to the Flashpoint universe.
Starting a family dinner with casual conversation about Mark's father, the All-Round Man, is hardly a wise move.
This alien's betrayal of Earth not only shattered Earth's fragile sense of security, but also tore apart his family, who were his human identity.
Both sides ate with bated breath during the dinner, unsure whether it was a good or bad thing. Halfway through the meal, Mark received an urgent call from Director Cecil:
"Cesel! I'm really not available right now—what?!"
Watching Mark spring up with a "Zeng" and rush into the room to change into his uniform, Joey, relieved that the rather dull dinner party had finally come to an end, couldn't resist her curiosity and used her super hearing to eavesdrop on the other party's conversation.
The communication was quite explosive. What did it mean that, apart from Mark and another hero who was on the African savanna, all the other superheroes in the world had been kidnapped?
Is he a superhero or a complete idiot?
"Do you need any help?"
It wasn't Joey who said this, but Mark's brother Oliver, who was floating in the air with his feet off the ground.
His maternal lineage allowed him to grow much faster than others, completing a ten-year human lifespan in just one month. Consequently, the superpowers granted by his Dimensional bloodline awakened earlier than Mark's.
"No, Oliver, you—"
Before Debbie, who was anxiously objecting to her son's behavior, could react, Joey reached out and pressed the impetuous boy back into his chair:
"You're still too young."
Why would you send a child laborer who is less than half your height to risk his life to fight an evil supervillain?
Joey is Superman, not Batman.
The Kryptonian armor core, gifted to him by Jor-El, activated his chest, covering his entire body with active metal, replacing Joey's casual clothes with a red and blue battle suit, and a red cape that draped over his shoulders.
Once ready, Joey listened intently and quickly pinpointed the location of the kidnapped superheroes—deep within the Earth's crust.
The Invincible Young Hero also received the specific location coordinates. As for whether Superman should accompany him, Cecilia's opinion was "definitely yes."
He was just wondering how to muster the courage to ask, when luckily Superman volunteered to help.
"The one who kidnapped all the superheroes is 'Dr. Earthquake.' True to his name, he can emit special shockwaves with his hands, causing earthquakes."
I don't know how he managed to kidnap all the superheroes.
As Mark prepared to explain the situation to Joey on his way to the Earth's core, he discovered that Joey already seemed to know the location perfectly and was heading straight for it.
"I already know what's going on. The abnormal seismic waves deep in the earth's crust were indeed caused by someone behind it."
The Global Defense Agency's decision to withhold intelligence due to their distrust of Joey is entirely understandable to Joey.
But the fundamental premise is that they can control the situation after doing so, instead of hiding it and causing a disaster, and then making everyone pay for their mistakes:
"Cesel should have told me sooner, at least he should have told me about this connected person, Dr. Earthquake, then things wouldn't be like this now!"
Keeping secrets is reasonable and necessary, and being powerless is acceptable and understandable, but being both powerless and keeping secrets is extremely foolish and unacceptable.
"All similar organizations I've seen make this mistake—they always have the illusion that they are smarter than others and fantasize that they have everything under their control."
"Well," the invincible young hero in flight felt somewhat embarrassed, because Superman's sharp comment had been transmitted to Cecil's ears almost verbatim through the communicator:
"I haven't hung up the phone yet, so Cissell Joey doesn't care about Cissell's face or feelings, because he knows that people like him usually don't consider such useless things in order to achieve their goals."
If S.H.I.E.L.D. in the previous universe hadn't been so thoroughly infiltrated, practically on its deathbed, Joey would have already said the same thing to that one-eyed black bastard:
"He should listen!"
"His pride and confidentiality agreements can't save the world!"
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