I, V, Gotham Legend

"What's wrong? Is the dessert I made not to your liking?" Valerie asked with her head slightly tilted when she saw the Flash's expression.

"What? No, of course not, it's just..."

"I added some ingredients to this guy." Aquaman laughed heartily, "This thing is too sweet, it's so boring to eat."

Flash sighed and pointed the front of the ice cream towards Valerie so she could see what was on it.

It was a thumb-sized piece of soft white flesh that shimmered in the light and seemed to be covered with a thin layer of mucus.

The soft meat was stuffed in the ice cream and looked like it was infested with maggots.

"What is this?" Valerie turned pale.

"Clams, these are very tender snow clams." Aquaman proudly introduced them, "Even at the banquets in Atlantis, they are used to entertain distinguished guests."

Valerie's face turned even worse. This was a combination she had never thought of. But then again, it was also a good idea: "It sounds very suitable for adding a buff."

After exploring her abilities for a period of time, Valerie is basically certain that the more unpalatable the food she cooks, the stronger the buff will be - provided it is edible.

That's why she made a big batch of corn soup, which was the most disgusting thing she could make from the recipe she knew.

Taking another look at the fishy clams on the ice cream, Valerie was not so disgusted this time. She nodded in approval: "You may be a food genius."

"Right." Aquaman was proud.

But Wonder Woman totally disagreed. She stood in front of Aquaman excitedly and said, "Atlanteans! You are disrespecting delicious food!"

"Who are you?" Saying Atlantis in full made Aquaman feel uncomfortable.

"Do the ancient sea people have to question even their former allies?" Diana raised her head. "I am the future queen of the Amazons."

"Amazon?" Aquaman stared at Wonder Woman for a long time before pretending to shake his head. "Never heard of it."

Hearing this, Wonder Woman immediately got ready to fight: "I'll make you remember this."

"Wait a minute, don't fight over an ice cream." The Flash, who was caught in the middle, was very embarrassed.

"This is not just about food, this Atlantean is humiliating my homeland!" Wonder Woman said, throwing the Lasso of Truth at Aquaman.

Aquaman grabbed the noose, his tough face showing impatience: "I have indeed never heard of the Amazon. Are you from the rain forest?"

"Really never heard of it?" Diana frowned, and she looked at Aquaman's appearance carefully again.

His white eyeballs, elongated vertical pupils, scaly clothing and the trident placed not far away all reveal his identity as a sea dweller.

But the Lasso of Truth would not be wrong. Diana retracted the rope and bowed her head to apologize in a proper manner: "I'm sorry, I was too extreme."

Aquaman raised his head slightly, his brows locked together: "This is inexplicable, are we really going to team up with this weirdo?"

Valerie tilted her head, as if she somehow resonated with Wonder Woman's reaction.

"You are quite skilled. I also want to put the rope around someone's arm with just a flick of my hand." Valerie said to Diana.

"Okay, I can teach you. Amazon will respect every glorious warrior." Diana said kindly.

Valerie could sense gentleness beneath her reckless appearance, and she felt that this guy might just be inexperienced and not have any problem with his brain.

"All those gathered here are reliable." Valerie turned around and said to everyone, "We will fight for all mankind and for ourselves."

"What a touching slogan!" The Flash was already excited. He clearly felt his identity as a hero.

Valerie looked directly at Diana, "We have something to ask you."

Wonder Woman sat down immediately, with a determined look in her eyes, motioning Valerie to continue.

Valerie also pulled up her notepad in her field of vision, and she had condensed a few of the most concise questions from a previous meeting.

Although Batman thought that Diana probably knew something, it was still just a guess. So when Diana showed an understanding expression after hearing Valerie's question, several people who had participated in the meeting before smiled with relief.

Combining the answer we get from Wonder Woman with the currently known information, we can roughly conclude that Darkseid has been to Earth in the past.

When she was young, Diana occasionally heard her mother tell her about the heroic epics of the past. Although Darkseid did not mention it often, he had talked about it before.

To sum it up, it is a story about an invader being driven away.

Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta of the Amazon, saw a portrait of the Cosmic Nomad during a conversation with the gods, and she believed that this was a prophecy of Darkseid's return.

This is also the reason why she agreed to let Diana follow Steve to leave Paradise Island and go to the human world. After thousands of years of seclusion, it is time to reunite the world.

"Do you know about the Mother Box?" Valerie asked.

Wonder Woman turned her head away: "I've heard of the Mother Box. It's something Darkseid left here after escaping. It can't be destroyed, and it's like it's locked onto the Gaia continent. Even if it's thrown into outer space, it will come back on its own.

Later, the Mother Box was sealed by an ancient prophet with magic, and no one knows where it is. "

"Sounds like there's only one?" Valerie wondered.

Diana nodded: "From what I've heard of the story, there is indeed only one."

After reviewing the clues she had obtained so far, Valerie still refused to give up: "Don't you have a Mother Box?"

From what Diana said, the Amazons played a great role in the war thousands of years ago. Given their great contributions and abilities, if there are multiple Mother Boxes, Paradise Island would have at least one kept, right?

Diana shook her head. "In my own life, I have never seen a building that could possibly store a Mother Box, let alone a Mother Box."

Valerie felt that things were becoming complicated. She sat down on the chair, rubbed her temples uncomfortably, and tried to sort out her thoughts.

She and Joe agreed that Apokolips' coming to Earth was related to the Mother Box, not only because of the information Joe learned on Krypton, but also because the Mother Box was the only thing they knew that was related to Apokolips.

Valerie now has a Mother Box in her hands, and she is sure that no information will be leaked in her research on the Mother Box.

But the people from Apocalypse still came. They descended from the sky and were obviously looking for something with a purpose.

Valerie flipped through her memories again, carefully recalling her research on the Mother Box.

The Mother Box was found in Metropolis, and it was the same as the Hacker Access Pod, both of which originated from Luthor...

Valerie suddenly realized a blind spot.

She had thought about where the hacker access cabin, which was completely out of this world, came from, but she put the thought aside for the time being because she couldn't think of it.

But if we cross this clue and think about it the other way around, is it possible that the mother box she possesses is not from this world?

Valerie recalled the gap in space where she had briefly arrived not long ago when she was fighting the clown dragon.

She saw countless planet-like spaces there, which, according to the Joker, were parallel universes.

"We might have to go back to Central City," Valerie said.

If the Mother Box in her hand is not from this world, then the real Mother Box should still be somewhere on Earth.

The place that was attacked.

"Central City Stadium?" Although he didn't know what Valerie had just brainstormed, Batman knew where she was going. "It's been taken over by the military now."

"Hmm? So do we have to wait and see?" The Flash looked at Batman curiously.

"So we have to plan the infiltration route and how to circumvent the military blockade. We can use violence if necessary." Batman has already pulled up the map of Central City taken by his satellite on his PDA for study.

"Wouldn't it be better to discuss it directly with the military?" The Flash asked weakly.

Valerie raised her head, exchanged glances with Batman, and then looked at the Flash: "Generally speaking, neither the government nor the military would agree to the police intervening."

"I can ask Lois's father for help. He is quite prestigious in the army." Superman said.

"I don't remember him being an easy person to talk to...and what identity should I use to beg him?" Valerie felt a little uncomfortable.

"We have to give it a try." Superman said with his head down.

"...The people here can rule the earth together. You are just too cautious." Valerie scratched her head. "It would be nice if you had an official identity..."

She was halfway through her words when she suddenly remembered that she seemed to have an identity.

……

The bright moon hanging high in the sky is like a pump, bringing strength and peace of mind to those who are still busy.

The army's work of cleaning up the battlefield in the gymnasium is still in full swing. A large number of demon-like corpses are piled together and will be taken away by trailers for centralized processing soon.

Outside the stadium, several tanks were lined up in a row, with soldiers standing in groups of three between them, strictly checking vehicles and pedestrians entering and leaving.

A black sedan pulled up to the checkpoint and was stopped by flag-waving military police.

"What are you doing? No entry for outsiders." The person who stopped the car shouted loudly.

The car window slowly rolled down, and a pretty face wearing sunglasses showed him a capable smile.

"We are from the Sky Eye Society." Valerie, dressed in black long straight hair, handed over an ID card and said, "A super crime has happened here, right?"

The three military police officers looked at each other, one of them took the ID and ran to the back.

"I've heard of the Sky Eye Society. It seems to be an organization that targets supernatural events." The two military police looked at each other. "But I heard that the leader was assassinated three months ago, and the organization is still under investigation."

"Those are fights among the big guys. Those of us working at the grassroots level still have to work hard." Valerie said with a smile.

The military policeman who took the ID ran back and returned it to Valerie: "It's true. Thank you for coming. To be honest, this makes us feel much more at ease."

"Thank you, this is our responsibility." Valerie took the ID, and after a polite greeting, she rolled up the car window.

The checkpoint was opened and Valerie drove into the gymnasium with no obstructions along the way.

The Flash, who was sitting in the trunk, excitedly patted Valerie's chair, "You really are a government agent!"

"I've hardly used it, and I almost forgot about it." Valerie said, looking ahead.

The Flash and Batman sat in the back seat together. Batman still didn't trust the Flash, so he put on a suit and a top hat over his battle suit, disguising himself as an ordinary agent, with his pointy ears covered in the hat.

The Flash didn't think too much about it. Seeing Batman disguise himself, he followed suit and never revealed his identity.

Superman did not ride in the car. He floated two hundred meters above the stadium, keeping a distance from possible danger.

According to Batman, Apocalypse will strike again sooner or later. The last time was just a test, and next time there might be a big guy coming.

Wonder Woman and Aquaman did not follow to investigate. One of them did not understand modern technology, and the other was not suitable for stealth at all. They were simply left on the spaceship by Valerie, and together with Joe, they used Batman's satellite to search for the stronghold of Apocalypse.

There were quite a few staff members in the gymnasium, and those who were allowed in had all been inspected, but no one stopped Valerie's car.

Valerie parked the car on the lawn in the center of the gymnasium, opened the door, got out, and squatted on the lawn to check.

"Generally speaking, it's underground, right?" Valerie said with her head down.

"As far as I can see, I haven't seen any laboratory or mother box or anything like that." Superman said through the communication.

Superman's X-ray vision is extremely effective. Unless something is rich in lead or buried too deep, there is nothing he cannot see through.

"Maybe it's hidden in some abandoned lead pipe," Valerie muttered.

The Apocalypse Demon attacked here, he must be looking for something, but there are no accurate clues at the moment.

Valerie stood up and looked at the trampled audience seats, and suddenly she felt like she had grasped something.

Batman walked up to her and said what Valerie had just thought of: "What Apocalypse is looking for may be in someone's possession."

Batman finished his words, and Valerie simply turned her attention to the Flash: "Take us to where you have the hostages."

12. Mind Control

The subway system in the central city is quite old, but it was built to the standards of a shelter for people in the event of a nuclear war, so it is still relatively solid.

The subway line has been temporarily suspended now. Not only because of the alien attack, but the subway line itself was also damaged in a criminal attack half a year ago.

The police force in Central City has led the team to transport as many hostages as possible who were transferred to the subway station by the Flash back home, but some people are still too frightened to leave.

At this time, in the corner of the subway station, Victor Stone, who represented the Gotham team in the football game, had taken off his armor and was nervously drinking electrolyte water.

The game that determined his dreams was interrupted at such a critical moment, and his teammates were seriously injured in the attack of the demon-like creatures. The road ahead became uncertain again.

He had encountered a similar situation before. A few months ago, during a college football league in Gotham City, he had an argument with his mother in the car because his father did not come to watch his performance.

As a result, because he didn't look at the road, his car was almost hit by a turning dump truck. If it weren't for a kind-hearted clown girl who suddenly ran a red light and stopped the dump truck, he and his mother might not have had a good ending.

Perhaps it was because the last incident made the father feel scared, or perhaps it was because after that day, the father and son communicated and talked through their problems, and the father was finally willing to spend more on his son.

Today's game was a rare occasion for both parents to come and watch, but they ended up encountering something like this. Fortunately, they met the superheroes in time, otherwise Stone would have regretted it for the rest of his life.

"Clap, clap."

The sound of shoes stepping on the wet floor was heard, and Victor Stone looked up to see his father Silas Stone walking towards him holding a white box.

"I heard that the soldiers are willing to take us to the base to rest temporarily. I don't know what it's like, but it must be much better than here, right?" Stone complained to his father, "Mom is so tired that she fell asleep. We need a better place to stay."

As he spoke, he looked at the recliner behind him. His mother, with healthy, naturally curly hair, did not look very soundly asleep.

"I have my reasons. It's very safe here." Silas said, holding the box.

"What is that? You never let go." Stone looked at the box in Silas' arms and asked dissatisfiedly.