area51novel Chapter 225, Section 122: I hope you have a pair of steel knees.
Chapter 225, Section 122: I hope you have a pair of steel knees.
Chapter 225, Section 122: I hope you have knees of steel.
This was also the first time Bain had ever fought someone at high altitude.
When he saw Jonathan lunge forward with his arm outstretched and fist raised, he instinctively tried to dodge, but quickly realized that the weightlessness made it impossible for him to dodge.
Jonathan's fist slammed solidly into Bane's chest from below, sending the massive man, who was about to hit the ground, flying into the clouds.
"Surrender, or you'll die if you fall!"
Jonathan's shouts echoed from beneath the clouds.
At this moment, Superboy was unaware that Bane's physical strength was approaching his own. He not only held back his punches but also became concerned about his opponent's condition.
Bain, of course, wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity to launch a sneak attack, and feigned fear as he agreed to the other party's request.
"I surrender, God, please put me down!"
Jonathan, unsuspecting, sped up and flew toward Bane.
But just as he broke through the clouds, his opponent's heavy punch came hurtling toward his face.
With a crisp crack, Bane's fist twisted and shattered the moment it touched Jonathan, flesh and blood bursting open, and fragments of bone scattered like shrapnel grenades.
Jonathan wasn't faring any better. Caught off guard, he was struck by a powerful punch and instantly felt dizzy and disoriented, falling from the sky with a groan.
Fortunately, the two had already flown out of the city. Superboy crashed into the riverbank in the suburbs like a meteorite. The huge tremor stirred up the cold Gotham River, creating surging waves. In the distance, several steel cables of the Three Gates Bridge also snapped in the swaying.
Jonathan lay curled up at the bottom of the pit, his smoking body still intact. The impact wasn't enough to kill him, but being injured was one thing, and feeling unwell was another.
In the near future, mixed-race heritage will become Superboy's reliance to surpass his father, but for now, human blood is the shackle that restricts his growth.
The noise above grew louder, and Bane, his skin smoking from friction with the air, descended from the sky with the speed of a meteor, delivering a fatal stomp to Jonathan's chest.
"This time, Joe will probably be in a bit of a discomfort."
Clark muttered to himself, his feet dangling in the air.
But he wasn't there to support his son; he needed to get to the Sanmen Bridge before the next shockwave hit.
Due to the riots, many refugees are still stranded on the Sanmen Bridge. The bridge was already on the verge of collapse due to the breakage of several ropes. With Bain causing such a commotion, the bridge may not be able to withstand the pressure.
Clark's prediction proved correct; the shockwave churned the river, propelling giant waves, some tens of feet high, toward the Three Gates Bridge.
Superman, who arrived first, gently blew a breath that froze the entire Gotham River. Then he turned around and placed his palm against the bridge pillar. Instantly, a bio-force field covered the entire bridge, allowing it to stand firm and block the shockwave.
Finally, after scanning his surroundings with his super hearing and confirming that there were no cries for help or abnormal heartbeats, Clark quietly slipped away from under the bridge.
After all, he still carries the title of the Knight of Judgment. It wouldn't be good if the outside world mistakenly thought that the Knight of Judgment also had superpowers similar to those of Kryptonians.
Trust Clark, he is absolutely protecting the bats.
Countless practical experiences led Superman to a conclusion: the greater one's ability, the higher the demands others will place on one's abilities.
This has been going on since the Kryptonians first appeared thirty years ago.
Yes, even now, there are still "anti-Kryptonian" organizations active online. They curse Superman and everyone around him with the most vicious words online, and hold weekly offline gatherings to promote their so-called "Superman harm theory" which they copied from Professor Luthor.
Ironically, all of its core members had been rescued by Superman.
They had also invited Lex Luthor to join, but why would Lex possibly be interested in those scumbags?
Professor Luther's original statement of refusal is as follows: "I'm sorry I can't communicate with you, after all, our starting points are completely different. I oppose Superman because I stand on the side of humanity, while you oppose Superman because you have abandoned the side of humanity."
"This might be a bit blunt, so let's put it simply: You are a bunch of scum who aren't even human. Just thinking about being under the same sky as you makes me want to vomit."
"If I were given the superpower to curse others to death, and you and Superman were placed before me, I might be more willing to let you die."
Why would Lex say such vicious things? Look at the twisted thinking of these overgrown children.
If Superman had rescued him from the rubble, he would have blamed Superman for not doing it sooner.
If Superman had saved him sooner, he would have blamed Superman for not helping before the building collapsed.
—If Superman were to help a house before it collapses, the other party would blame him for not using a bio-force to protect the house.
In short, there will always be a considerable number of people who will never know how to be grateful.
Because Superman is so powerful that he is almost omnipotent, they take the help for granted.
This is why Clark in this world is more profound and silent than Superman in the main universe.
However, Clark's worries were somewhat unnecessary. If his actions caused V-Bat to suffer similar humiliation, the latter would not hesitate to use the Oracle System to hack into the other party's network.
After obtaining the other party's detailed address, Wei would sneak into their home late at night and deliver a complete set of personality-correcting punches.
With so many people around, it wasn't a good time to fly. Clark took advantage of the chaos to sneak onto the riverbank, where he encountered a little boy by the roadside.
"You're a Judgment Knight?!"
The boy's family members must have run onto the bridge to rescue him. The boy leaned out from the back seat of the car, his voice low and filled with surprise.
Are you a superpowered person?
"no."
"But I saw it all with this!" The boy shook the binoculars hanging around his neck. "You're amazing, but I don't understand. You clearly have superpowers, so why were you so badly injured when you saved me that day?"
Clark had already walked far away, but upon hearing this, he turned back.
"Did I save you?"
"Yes, in the underground playground, there was a bomb planted in our school bus. The pale-faced man asked me to give this to you, but I forgot about it that day."
It was a bus bombing on a snowy night!
Clark realized that if the boy's words were true, then the Judgment Knight had been framed by the GCPD.
"What do you want to give me?"
"I always carry him with me. Let me find him."
The boy pulled his head back out of the car window, rummaged through his small backpack, and pulled out a thick brown paper bag.
The criminal records of Gotham's political and business leaders, which were stolen by the Joker six months ago, ended up in Superman's hands after many twists and turns.
Clark didn't open the pocket; he had already read through the evidence inside using his X-ray vision alone.
"So—everything said in that live stream was true!"
Superman frowned deeply; at that moment, he understood the true nature of this war.
Gotham has always been portrayed as a city full of madmen and crime, but now it seems that the real problem does not come from the bottom, but rather from the top producers.
There was no violence involved; it was just the desperate counterattack of the poor people of Gotham after they had nowhere else to turn for help.
Clark recalled what Will had said.
"Where is American law when entrepreneurs who go bankrupt due to cutthroat business competition jump off buildings?"
"Where is the law when the poor are crammed into drafty huts in winter and freeze to death?"
"Where is the law when a Dalit in the East End sells his organs to a rich man for transplantation in order to support his family?"
"Where is the law when a factory worker's right hand is severed due to exhaustion from working sixteen consecutive hours?"
Didn't Clark know about these problems?
Clark, with his super hearing, was always aware of the situation, but few cities possess such extreme and intense class conflict as Gotham.
Superman is like a god; if you don't deliberately block it out, your brain will constantly receive messages from all over the world every second.
Human joy, human weeping, human prayer, human sin —
But he didn't want to become a god.
When he took off his red and blue battle uniform, all he wanted was to be an ordinary person.
He will hand over this evidence to the state police, but what then? Should he urge the state police to investigate the case? If he really takes that step, he will break the vow he made to his adoptive father.
But if we don't do this, can these criminals really be brought to justice?
He was also conflicted about how to handle the V-Bat incident.
This war may be the only resistance that Weineng can mount. According to US law, the other side has indeed committed a crime, but what else can Weineng do?
Clark could easily have taken the moral high ground and condemned Batman with a simple "You broke the law," but at 52 years old, his rich life experience has taught this superhero to see things from multiple perspectives, and he naturally wouldn't impose his own standards on others.
Just as he was feeling lost and confused, the boy opened the car door.
"that----"
The child stood in front of Clark, lowered his head, scratched his cheek, and spoke in a soft voice, shy yet excited.
"My parents say you're a big bad guy, but I know you're a good guy, a superhero—"
"Of course, it wasn't just me. George and Green thought the same thing, as did all the other students on the bus that day!"
"We made a promise that whoever meets you first will be the one to say thank you."
"So thank you!"
The boy bowed deeply to Clark.
At that moment, time began to rewind in Superman's eyes. The sun rose in the west and set in the east, and the Gotham River froze and then thawed. In his hazy vision, he seemed to see his sixteen-year-old self, the one who rescued a cat from a telephone pole with his bare hands after first awakening his superpowers.
The cat's owner was also a little boy, and like the child tonight, his eyes glistened with tears of gratitude.
"Judgment Knight, you are a superhero. Why should a hero be punished after saving his people? This is not fair."
Meanwhile, the battle between Bane and Jonathan has reached a fever pitch.
The poor Superboy was beaten back repeatedly by Bane's superb fists and feet, completely powerless to fight back.
If Bane had a kryptonite in his hand right now, he would have a very high chance of taking down Superboy, but unfortunately he didn't, so his attack couldn't break through Jonathan's steel body.
-
The two were like two wild boars in heat, entangled with each other, crashing their way from the riverbank into the suburban wilderness, leaving a trail of dust and debris in their wake.
Jonathan tried to use his heat vision and ice breath several times during this period, but unfortunately, the wind-up time for these two ranged attacks was too long, and Bane dodged them several times. Just now, his opponent covered his mouth and delivered a powerful uppercut.
The repeated jaw blows disrupted Jonathan's balance. The Superboy raised his fists and tried to take off, but he didn't fly far before crashing into the ground. Bane pinned him down and then violently attacked him from behind.
Experiencing setbacks early on is good for a child's physical and mental development, and this was the only way that Da Chao, who was overseeing the battle from afar, could console himself.
Finally, Jonathan passed out completely after being repeatedly punched.
If this were a game, a line of glittering text would appear above the head of a high-level player like Bane, granting him the achievement "Knock Out the Kryptonians (Beginner)".
Under the influence of Amber Gold, Bain, supporting himself on his knees, gasped for breath, his bloodied hands gradually recovering.
Even poison couldn't be supplied for the time being, so you can imagine how difficult this battle was.
Just as Bane was racking his brains about how to take down Superboy, a powerful shout came from afar.
"It's time for all of this to end."
Who? When did he arrive?
Bain turned his gaze, his surprise quickly turning into ecstasy.
Because the bat he was searching for was standing not far away.
"Bruce Wayne isn't going to be a coward anymore?" Bane sneered, his back teeth grinding violently with excitement and anger, a heartbreaking crunch echoing in the quiet wilderness.
Why are you so determined to find me?
Clark voiced his inner doubts.
He couldn't understand why a mortal bat should be a thorn in the side of an enhanced human; the two were simply incomparable.
But these words were interpreted by Bain as a blatant provocation.
"I can tell you're quite proud of messing with me, Bruce! I've been looking for you all night, and now that William Cobb, who took a bullet for you, is dead, there's no one to be your double!"
substitute? !
Upon hearing this word, Clark realized that he had been used as a pawn.
So that's why he suggested I impersonate him!
Superman, realizing the truth too late, chuckled to himself.
In Bane's eyes, Superman, who was standing there dumbfounded and grinning, had clearly given up resisting, so he slowly walked up with heavy and murderous steps.
"Ready to go to hell, Bruce!"
A triumphant Bane suddenly grabbed Superman by the throat.
But when he tried to lift Bruce high in front of him, he found himself like a baby clinging to the base of the Eiffel Tower, unable to move the massive structure an inch no matter how hard he tried.
"Damn it—who are you?!"
Bane's angry tone was tinged with panic, but he still didn't give up. Suspecting that his brain had been soaked in venom for too long and was causing hallucinations, he raised his knee and aimed it at Superman's pelvis.
The crisp, decisive sound of bones breaking sent a chill down his spine.
But the "Bruce" in front of us still had a smile on his face.
"I wish you had knees of steel, but unfortunately..."
He blew a soft breath, and a layer of frost crawled down Bain's wrist and across his entire arm.
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