The aliens who were picked up by Superman at the beginning

Chapter 214 Clown Worship

"You all get back somewhere else—I'm not talking to you, Constantine, you're staying with me."

Li Zhen casually gave an order.

Mar's confused mind quickly recovered amid Constantine's annoyed snort, and then he seemed to finally notice something, pointing in horror at the mask that Li Zhen had taken off before inhaling and exhaling.

"Instructor! You...you...you just inhaled the virus!"

"oh."

Li Zhen glanced back at Mal, and the other young Titans, apart from Rachel, also looked at Li Zhen with great tension.

Then they saw that Li Zhen's eyes, nose, mouth and ears seemed to be emitting a faint golden light.

Mar was stunned.

"What is this?"

"What? Didn't I mention that your instructors also work as magicians?"

Constantine also made a knocking motion in the air, and a layer of golden, multifaceted diamond-shaped magical shield appeared with his knock.

"Magic has its own methods, just like how some witches in the Middle Ages used potions and spells to prevent pregnancy and certain diseases."

The analogy this guy used was also incredibly muddled, but this was no time to fuss over polite language.

Mia's ears twitched.

Li Zhen glanced at the mask and casually crushed it in her hand.

When Doctor Fate threw Constantine from elsewhere, Li Zhen noticed that the golden protective magic surrounding Constantine was very effective in isolating and defending against the virus's invasion.

So before bursting out of the Shadow Dimension, Li Zhen used the protective magic she had learned from Doctor Fate, originally intended to defend against the weaknesses of the Witrum people's cochlea, to fill all the other acupoints on her head that were open to the outside.

After all, from the moment he decided to show himself, he was destined to engage in a fierce battle with a group of guys who were likely no weaker than himself.

Breath-holding combat is usually used when bullying the weak or in special environments like space, when there is really no other way.

If you're fighting against equally matched opponents on land in an aerobic environment, holding your breath would be too disruptive to your rhythm.

It's best not to wear a face mask if you can avoid it.

After confirming that Li Zhen was not infected by the virus, Mal muttered something and turned to run towards Mia, hoisting her onto his shoulder amidst her exclamation.

Just as the Teen Titans were about to turn and retreat, the plastic figure that was looking at them ominously in the distance suddenly spoke softly.

"I never said they could leave."

As soon as he finished speaking, Tim, who was running at the front, suddenly stopped and opened his arms to block his companions who were about to rush forward.

"Wait! What's in the air?!"

Upon hearing this, Cassandra flicked her foot, sending a pebble flying forward. After the pebble flew about half a meter in front of Tim, it suddenly seemed to be sliced ​​in half by something unseen, breaking into fragments of varying sizes that flew in different directions.

The group gasped, while Li Zhen frowned and glanced sideways at the air behind her.

Now that Li Zhen can change the structure of his lens to resemble that of a Kryptonian, he can see clearly the things that are binding the young Titans' movements with just a squint.

It was a cage woven in the air by the plastic figure after the parts that had been detached from its body were pulled down to less than one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair.

Although it still hasn't reached the level of nanomaterials, the plastic man has given those simulated nanowires considerable destructive power in another strange way.

He is constantly contracting and releasing those fine threads that are invisible to the naked eye but still possess absolute elasticity.

The continuous and sufficiently rapid movement pattern turned those threads into a dangerous entity, similar to the working principle of a chainsaw.

This act of using "nano" tough materials to create arresting cables reminded him of his experience at a certain point in the Flashpoint world.

Li Zhen suddenly realized, and combined with the strange, exaggerated smile on the plastic man's face, a bad feeling welled up in her heart.

"Were you also infected by the clown's laughing gas?"

The plastic figure's smile, as it slowly twisted, became increasingly strange.

He let out a long sigh.

"You always complain that others don't bother to look into your background, but now it seems you're not very clear about my past either."

Suddenly, the plastic figure put its hands on its hips, spread its legs, and struck a classic "hero close-up" pose, then began to loudly introduce itself from a third-person perspective.

"Patrick O'Brien! He started as a Gotham thief, and his first idolized supervillain was the infamous Joker."

The fluids that should have been skin dripped from the plastic figure like melting candles, then at some point flowed backward and changed color in a strange visual gradient.

Red turns green, yellow turns white, and black turns purple.

In just a few seconds, the plastic man completely transformed himself into a different appearance by reconstructing his body shape and color.

Her once perfectly styled black hair, which looked as if it had been coated with whale oil, had turned into a messy, dry green, and her ridiculous red tight-fitting uniform had been replaced by a purple fitted suit.

With a pale face and an exaggeratedly bright red mouth, the man raised his hands above his head, stood on tiptoe, and spun around in place like a little swan.

When he opened his mouth again, that deep, comical sound transformed into a sharp, hoarse, and grating tone.

"Mr. Joker is infamous in the criminal world, while Plastic Man is just a nobody in the superhero team."

"Nobody noticed that they all have a top-notch sense of humor."

"No one noticed that they always liked to make people laugh."

"No one noticed how similar they were—it only took a small change in their personalities."

Li Zhen frowned as she listened to the guy, who was neither a clown nor a plastic man, chanting like he was singing a riddle song for a long time. Finally, she couldn't help but interrupt and ask a question.

"So are you really the Joker? Don't tell me that the guy who's been entangled with Batman for so long was eventually recruited into the Justice League by him personally. That's just too outrageous—"

The clown's dance moves froze, and then he hung his arms in frustration and dejection.

"No, how could I be the great Mr. Joker? I'm just imitating him."

Li Zhen's face darkened; he vaguely suspected that the plastic man had some problems.

This dejected look doesn't seem faked; deep down, this guy is a fanatical clown worshipper.

Perhaps it's not a genuine cult of personality surrounding the Joker's supposedly "glorious" criminal history, but rather a coincidence of overlapping perspectives within a certain madness of the "entertainment to the death" mentality.

The virus amplified and activated certain thought traits of the Plastic Man. Although it could not cause a real infection effect on a lump of rubber, it still made the Plastic Man one of the threats to Gotham City, which is now teetering on the edge of a precipice.

The plastic man didn't remove his disguise; instead, he quickly perked up again.

"Please, tell me you were really startled by me just now—"

The clown, who had raised his head, stared wide-eyed at Li Zhen, who had somehow teleported in front of him, and was about to let out a terrified scream.

Bang!

Li Zhen threw a powerful punch, which struck the opponent squarely in the face, sending the latter's head flying like a cannonball.

No, it was even more powerful than a cannonball, teetering on the edge of a sonic boom, and continued to crash into the structures of multiple buildings without losing momentum.

But Li Zhen's expression was unusually serious.

Because the plastic figure's body remained stationary, and even the neck, which was constantly elongating between the flying head and the body, showed no signs of breaking.

And most importantly.

Although his punch landed, it didn't feel like a normal punch that could shatter bones, crush flesh, or shake brains.

It was more like knocking away a super-heavy, solid, tough material sphere.

Then an even more disgusting scene unfolded.

Suddenly, a pair of eyes and a mouth appeared on the left shoulder of the clown's suit jacket, and it made a face at Li Zhen in a very human-like manner.