2206 Side Story: Fantasy Journey 47
In the end, Luke successfully invited Diana out for lunch. He even got into her Lamborghini, and they drove off.
Behind them, Master Wayne’s eyes flickered, while Barry and Victor were dumbfounded.
Stumped for a moment, Barry turned around and looked at Victor. “You drive?”
Victor said helplessly, “I don’t have that much control over this body. If I’m not careful, I might crush the gas pedal. You drive. I don’t want to have to fix the car.”
Barry said gloomily, “I usually run. It’s faster and more convenient than taking a car.”
Victor didn’t care. Pulling him to the car which Luke had left behind, he glanced at it. “It’s an auto stick. It’s very simple.”
Barry suddenly slapped its forehead. “Wait, you confused me. Bale’s SUV is a smart car. I don’t need to drive it.”
Victor said, “…Why didn’t you say so earlier?” He then pulled on the door… but it didn’t open.
Barry coughed and said, “Open sesame.”
There was a light click, and the passenger door opened.
Victor glared at Barry. “You did that on purpose?”
Barry trembled. “You were too fast.”
Victor said, “So you’re not the fastest one among us?”
Barry said, “Bale said that we should do our best to have fun in life. There’s no meaning in moving quickly all the time.”
Victor: “…Fine, you operate it. I don’t care.”
They bickered as they left. Master Wayne got into his car, but didn’t start it immediately. Instead, he tapped the wheel thoughtfully. “Bale, heh!”
…
Eating with the battle goddess was something they had arranged beforehand.
Luke casually asked about her family and then made a request to visit Paradise Island later.
Diana didn’t refuse, but she was a little curious. “Why?”
Luke shrugged. “It’s for the team. I helped take care of Barry and Victor’s family issues. If Arthur doesn’t object, I want to take a look at Atlantis.”
Diana swirled the wine in her glass. “I don’t think there’s any trouble at home.”
Luke said, “Maybe I need some help too.”
Diana was intrigued. “What kind of help?”
Luke asked, “Like an indestructible sword or an indestructible shield?”
Diana got it, but shook her head regretfully. “We don’t have the technology to make these things.”
Luke waved his hand indifferently. “That’s just an example. You may have become used to some things, but Bruce and I might be able to do something new with them. That’s how scientists think.”
Pondering for a moment, Diana didn’t refuse. “I’ll ask. It might not work.”
Luke smiled. “Putting everything else aside, if someone like Steppenwolf shows up again, are you sure Paradise Island doesn’t need an emergency defense weapon?”
Diana’s eyes flickered. “Like your floating cannons?”
Luke said indifferently, “That was just for Bruce’s benefit. Actually, my fighter plane already has the ability to fly short distances into outer space.”
Diana: …Say that in front of Bruce if you dare!
In the end, Diana didn’t make the decision on the spot, but Luke felt that she was definitely tempted.
She had lived in England for a long time and roamed other European countries, but there had been a lot of casualties on Paradise Island.
If Paradise Island had a spaceship or whatever that Luke was talking about, there would be a lot more room to maneuver in a crisis.
Warriors could die on the battlefield, but that didn’t mean that reducing casualties wasn’t important.
Of course, there were a lot of problems.
First of all, some consideration had to go into letting an outsider go to Paradise Island, and someone as extremely strong as the Dark Knight at that.
Secondly, the Dark Knight was a man, and a handsome and powerful one at that.
It had to be pointed out that the Amazon warriors on Paradise Island were all women.
If they ran into a man like him, a few of them might want to test him out.
Diana was very confident on this point. After all, that was how she had behaved after leaving Paradise Island to interact with the outside world.
…
A month later, Superman returned to Earth.
He was a little surprised and embarrassed when he heard about the attack by Steppenwolf.
Luke didn’t ask what he had obtained from his return to Krypton, but Master Wayned had calmly probed him several times.
Unfortunately, Superman didn’t reveal anything.
Looking at his expression and movements, it didn’t look like he had found a treasure this time, but the experience had left him with complicated feelings.
Luke wasn’t as hasty as Master Wayne.
He still had hundreds of years to live. He was much calmer than someone who had already lived half his life and was about to pass his prime.
Superman himself was a huge treasure.
He had already hidden away the Kryptonian spaceship that had sent him to Earth as a baby.
After gathering intelligence from multiple sources, Superman also had a high-level Kryptonian database.
Luke didn’t know exactly what this database was about or what it was for.
But just by looking at the remains of the spaceship left behind by General Zod, one could tell how powerful Kryptonian technology was.
So, Luke simply quietly solidified his power network and took the opportunity to replace some specialists researching General Zod’s spaceship with his own people.
That would be enough for him to play with for eight to ten years.
Master Wayne was gradually perfecting all aspects of the Justice League, and Luke was helping him.
The members had to be aware that while Master Wayne was responsible for setting up the bulk of things, Knight had also contributed a small portion.
This thing was essentially similar to a company; whoever invested more had more say.
Anyone who didn’t invest had very little say.
Master Wayne was a little uncomfortable with Luke’s investment, but he had no choice but to accept it.
He couldn’t publicly say that other capable members weren’t allowed to participate in ‘building this team,’ right? Nobody was an idiot.
In particular, when Luke was discussing ‘crowd psychology’ with Victor, Barry seemed to get something out of it from where he listened in on the side.
Superman wasn’t present? That didn’t matter at all.
In any case, this sort of ‘team-building’ happened for an hour every Saturday afternoon, and reporter Clark from Metropolis could listen in remotely just by twitching his ears.
Putting deep content aside, the basic principle was to think independently and refuse to blindly follow orders.
During the ‘lessons,’ Luke was very acidic when he mocked the ‘brainless.’
However saintly Superman was, he didn’t want to be lumped in with that crowd
At night, Luke would put on his suit and randomly pick ‘lucky audience members’ to clean up in major cities on the East Coast.
Actually, these ‘lucky audience members’ were targets he had already earmarked earlier on.
The ‘random pick’ was actually in terms of priority; it was only a matter of time before they ran out of luck.
This way, Dark Knight stood out for a period of time among the members of the Justice League.
Compared with Batman, who basically only appeared in Gotham, the Dark Knight’s sweep through one third of America was too high-profile.
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