On the street below, Reverse-Flash was staring at an empty bench.
"What the—"
The shock nearly gave him a heart attack. He quickly looked around in panic.
But the next second, Reverse-Flash saw the expressionless girl step out unhard from a nearby alley.
Reverse-Flash finally breathed out in relief and couldn’t help scolding her a little:
"Don’t go wandering off."
Rachel glanced at him expressionless and didn’t say anything.
Viktor landed beside Rachel and didn’t say anything for a mont, but she shook her head.
He nodded once.
Superman ca down behind them. He looked tired in a way that had nothing to do with the fight.
"Batman actually modified that bomb hidden underground in Atlantis."
"Yes. He replaced Black Manta’s explosive with a special virus targeting Atlanteans’ DNA. A few days of weakness at most."
Viktor’s mouth twitched a little.
That sounded exactly like Batman.
After all, Atlantis once had a crown prince who wanted to start a war against the surface.
The fact that soone like Orm could exist showed that Atlantis still had the potential to be a threat to the surface.
Even if that Orm isn’t a born war-monger, Orm must have been influenced by the Atlanteans around him, or taught him to resent humans on the surface.
For Batman, that threat alone was reason enough.
Even if Batman probably wouldn’t go for using lethal force, he definitely wouldn’t be short on surveillance and precautions.
He probably wouldn’t go as far as killing anyone, but definitely wouldn’t be short on surveillance and contingency plans.
The virus bomb was a failsafe.
In case Aquaman ever had a change of heart, or if Arthur got overthrown by the more aggressive, war-mongering side of Atlantis.
Batman could trigger the virus bomb ahead of ti and neutralize Atlantis’s fighting strength before anything started.
But for Arthur, no matter how "low-risk" that bomb supposedly was, it was still sothing he could never accept.
He wasn’t just a mber of the Justice League. He was also the King of Atlantis.
The mont Batman’s modified bomb was discovered and made known to the public, what it contained stopped mattering entirely.
The mont Batman’s modified bomb was discovered, the public found out about it.
The mont Batman’s modified bomb was discovered, and the people of Atlantis found out what was actually inside it, at that point, nothing else mattered anymore.
The betrayal was the point.
By the sa logic, it wasn’t hard to understand why that Flash said Wonder Woman temporarily withdrew on behalf of Themyscira.
"Ms. Prince thought of similar reasons too, right?"
Viktor asked the question with near certainty.
Superman let out a weary sigh.
"Yes. By that point, a few people already brought up the need to withdraw. Diana remained silent at first. After everyone who wanted to leave had spoken and left, she finally asked Batman one question."
Superman changes his voice to imitate Wonder Woman’s tone with surprising accuracy.
"Tell , Batman! After I found those surveillance devices in my apartnt and confronted you about it, you haven’t placed anything similar on Themyscira or if you did, you’ve already removed it!"
Batman’s side of the call responded with silence.
Then, Wonder Woman understood imdiately.
Batman’s silence ans he probably hid sothing on Paradise Island that could instantly incapacitate all the Amazons.
Superman made a gesture as if slamming a hand down on a table.
Even though the eting that morning was only a voice call, Superman insisted he really did hear a sound like that coming from Diana’s audio.
"Batman, you’ve been to Themyscira. You know exactly what those won are like. The Amazons who raised would never start a war against the surface world!"
This ti, Batman finally spoke, and his answer was very short:
"Not one hundred percent."
Superman dropped the impression and looked at Viktor, who had been listening quietly the whole ti.
"In the end, Diana used you as an example. She said that compared to how genuine and sincere you are, Batman’s suspicion is just... unreasonable and sothing like that."
Viktor’s expression darkened.
He had actually seen this coming.
After visiting Atlantis last night, Viktor already considered that Batman’s actions would one day bring this kind of disaster for the Justice League sooner or later.
There had even been a storyline about this in the comics of his previous life.
He vaguely rembered sothing about soone obtaining Batman’s contingency plans against every mber of the Justice League and then turning those plans into sothing far more deadly.
Even though everyone later solved the problem without anyone dying, most of the team beca angry at Batman, and the Justice League almost fell apart.
However, Viktor didn’t expect it to happen so fast. He had just left the ocean, and right after that, Aquaman made the whole thing public and caused an uproar.
He honestly hadn’t thought Aquaman had it in him to act that boldly.
"It sounds like I really did play a pretty important role in all this. No wonder that Flash saw as a threat, but he was still madly unreasonable."
Then Viktor suddenly noticed Rachel, who remained silent even after recovering, give him a very slight shake of her head.
Clearly, Rachel had sothing she wanted to tell him, but considering Superman and that other strange person were still right there, she hadn’t opened her mouth.
’Right.’
’What was the deal with this Reverse-Flash?’
Viktor looked toward him.
He turned it over quickly in his mind and decided he shouldn’t appear to know anything about the man.
Then, Viktor returned to being polite.
"Um... Mr. Thawne, thank you for stepping in just now. Otherwise, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been able to survive against a crazy speedster."
Reverse-Flash coughed, shifting his body as if sothing was itching all over him, but quickly resud his arms-crossed posture.
Reverse-Flash coughed and shook his body but quickly resud his arms-crossed posture.
’Emperor Viktor was this polite when he was young?’
Before he could say anything, Superman stepped forward and put a hand out in front of Viktor.
"I’d recomnd keeping your distance from him. The Mr. Thawne who just helped you isn’t necessarily a good person, and his na is still on the Justice League’s most wanted list. I don’t care what you’re planning—go back to your future, Reverse-Flash."
Reverse-Flash kept his face vibrating at high speed but rolled his eyes at Superman.
A massive butterfly effect was already rippling through the future because of his interference in the past.
He didn’t dare recklessly jump back until the flow of ti fully stabilized.
"Go back?"
Reverse-Flash wasn’t afraid because this Superman didn’t even exist in his future tiline.
"You think the problem’s already been completely solved?"
Superman frowned.
"What do you an?"
"A war unlike anything that’s ever happened before is about to begin. What happened today was just a small appetizer, and aren’t you even a little curious about where your world’s Flash has gone?"
...
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