Justice League Gotham Base. Arkham Batman frowned as he looked at the document in his hand. Superman suddenly rushed in and shouted, "The largest power company in West California has experienced a serious failure, and a complete blackout is expected within two hours!"
Arkham Batman stood up abruptly and squinted his eyes, saying, "It's finally here."
Three days ago, after just finishing the weekly meeting, Arkham Batman walked out of the conference room. His assistant came forward, lowered his voice, and said in his ear, "Urgent message from Spain; the Royal Family strongly opposes setting up a Temple base in Madrid. Serbia has also called saying this matter needs to be postponed. And Hong Kong..."
Arkham Batman's steps halted. He was just about to say something when he felt a vibration from the phone in his pocket. He picked it up and saw that the system on his phone had disappeared, with only a line of black text on the white screen—"The show starts now."
Arkham Batman's face suddenly darkened. Seeing his expression, the assistant asked. Arkham Batman shook his head and said, "This guy reminds me of someone I hate the most."
"Mr. President, there's bad news!" As they passed a crossroads, another assistant suddenly rushed out to intercept Arkham Batman, saying, "A cruise ship typically carrying 163 Federation citizens went missing in the Amazon Basin, and the families reported it after hearing the news. The media got hold of it, and it will be published in as little as 30 minutes!"
"How did the news get out?"
"Unknown. The missing ship lost any signal. Families said they received text messages from passengers before it disappeared, but the Ohio State Police tracked the text signal using technical means and found nothing. They thought the families falsely reported it until other families contacted local police, confirming it was true."
"What did the Amazon side say?" Arkham Batman walked briskly forward, and the assistant strode alongside him.
"They insist on claiming no signal was received from any ship." The assistant paused for a moment and then said, "Our foreign affairs personnel don't dare continue pressing, fearing a diplomatic incident."
"Have the Minister of Foreign Affairs meet me."
"Yes, Mr. President."
Justice League Gotham Base. Wonder Woman was pacing anxiously in the room, checking her phone roughly every three seconds.
"What's going on here?! Where did that cruise ship come from?! No foreign ships reported entry, and nothing shows on radar. Did they fly in?"
She suddenly stopped, began typing quickly on her phone, and then resumed pacing.
"Calm down, Diana." Superman stood by and said, "Someone is definitely behind this, blocking the ship's signal on one hand so that the Amazon side notices no entry, and on the other hand, tampering with the ship's navigation system, so they don't know where they are; finally hiding the ship, creating a fake ship disappearance case.
"In this situation, the Federal Government wants to rescue people, but Amazon doesn't know where they are. The Federal Government may think Amazon is deliberately hiding, suspecting kidnapping; Amazon thinks the Federal Government is making trouble, deliberately creating diplomatic incidents. A rift between the two sides is inevitable."
"I know, of course!" Wonder Woman could no longer hide the anxiety in her tone. She said, "Especially recently, Batman barged onto Paradise Island to steal the key. He would definitely see this as revenge from my mother, and not telling him the ship's coordinates is trying to kidnap him through civilians; while my mother would think this is a signal from Batman wanting to move against Amazon, she might do something irrational under pressure."
Wonder Woman suddenly stopped and was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Especially since Amazon has a previous record..."
"You mean..."
"Previously, there was an incident with a ship there; it was the sisters of Paradise Island who rescued the people. The female passengers on the ship were rescued quickly, but as for the male passengers... if you say they all voluntarily stayed, you probably wouldn't believe it. Moreover, they likely weren't voluntary at all. And the women of Paradise Island just needed a tool to continue the lineage. Most men didn't receive good care, and many didn't survive to leave there, with some sent to the Fire God. This led to the tragedy where all female passengers survived, while all male passengers disappeared."
Superman heard the truth of this matter for the first time. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but eventually didn't, instead saying, "The primitive tribes of Amazon are too closed and backward, doing such things is not surprising. But such a matter should spark an uproar in the international community, yet few seem to pay attention."
"Because my mother made a deal with the US President at the time. America was at its peak, and even though there were many passengers from other countries on the ship, the countries they came from had to listen to America. Under the President's deliberate operation, this matter was suppressed."
Wonder Woman sat at the edge of the table, almost leaning on it. It was apparent that anxiety was nearly overwhelming her; she said, "When I found out about this, I had a huge fight with my mother, and since then, I rarely went back. I tried my best to find the men who escaped then and gave them some compensation, but it was difficult to make amends. I really don't want it to be like this."
"I know you definitely don't want things to turn out like this, especially since you and...never mind." Superman sighed and said, "Although it has been suppressed, it involves many countries, and such a major incident cannot be completely erased. It has left traces on the Internet, and this time, I'm afraid someone is going to dig it up and make a big deal out of it. It's a case of evil begets evil."
Just as he said this, Wonder Woman subconsciously glanced at her phone. When she saw the headline news pushed to her from the news app, she gasped:
"Tourists go missing again on a whole boat? Amazon primitive tribes conduct large-scale kidnapping and extortion of Federation citizens, victims' families claim to have received ransom demand messages!"
Wonder Woman couldn't catch her breath and nearly fainted. Superman hurried forward and held her. Superman also opened his phone to check out the news, and found out it wasn't just clickbait. The beginning showed four or five images of text messages, and victims' families appearing on-screen.
"It must be that guy causing trouble." Superman's expression turned somewhat grim. He opened the comment section, and sure enough, the comments were dragging up that old boat incident again, complete with pictures and analysis—there's even truth there. Just this thread alone has over ten thousand nested comments.
Opening other apps, the topic was already trending at the top, and even switching regions and languages, the topic remained prominent. It could truly be called a major international incident.
But actually, many cruise ships disappear from America every year. Although this time there were indeed more people missing, and they were all Federation citizens, most of them came from Ohio, mainly civilians. Logically speaking, it shouldn't have caused such a stir; someone must be stirring things up behind the scenes.
Then immediately following, another somewhat baffling topic was pushed to the forefront—"Amazon Queen and Princess: The secret to eternal life comes from sacrificing men?"
Superman's palm tightened when he saw this topic. He knew the manipulator behind the scenes had caught onto a critical point. Diana's background doesn't hold up under scrutiny; she's a warrior who participated in World War I, has lived eternally youthful all these years, and frequently appears in public, making her anomalies easy to notice.
Even though all countries actually know that without some superpower, it's impossible to establish a nation in the Amazon River Basin—which is an area humans can't really inhabit—most civilians are still unaware.
Just as people know there's a flying superhero named Superman, they don't know he is actually an alien. Many ordinary people know there are superpower users in the world, but they are unclear about how superpowers are specifically categorized.
And in human society, rumors about "witches" are widespread. Medieval standards for witch hunting were bizarre, but they shared one commonality: witches would seduce and devour men to maintain their youth and beauty and charm.
Amazon had two consecutive cruise ship disappearances, while the Amazon Queen and her daughter are eternally youthful. Isn't this the easiest way to associate them with witches?
Even if the truth could be revealed—Diana is a demigod from Mount Olympus, with Zeus as her real father—it wouldn't be much better. Although Zeus initiated the affair back then, the Amazon Queen was somewhat a third party, making Diana an illegitimate child. Such an identity is less accepted in ordinary human society.
Then, Amazon's good international image, and the high-society image that Wonder Woman painstakingly built, would collapse in an instant. Apart from those hoping for a chance encounter with Zeus, Amazon's tourism would be finished.
Anyway, it's a lose-lose situation: letting rumors ferment without clarification, and clarifying the truth both struggle to escape the predicament. What's more, the Federation government is involved; Arkham Batman will certainly rescue those people on the boat, but if the Amazon Queen can't hand them over, there'll be a battle between the two.
In his office, Arkham Batman is deep in thought. He's considering things more deeply than Wonder Woman: the small country of Amazon, even if everyone had superpowers, given their location and international status, could never compare to America. The Amazon Queen has no right to challenge him.
Stirring up conflict between the two won't yield any other outcome. Arkham Batman wouldn't even need to use force; there's a way to make sure Amazon never stirs trouble again.
But this electronic lifeform is coming forcefully, in stark contrast to its previous probing stance, and it's definitely not just borrowing his hand to kill off a small country. There is surely a larger scheme behind it.
Arkham Batman believes that the electronic lifeform's real motive lies not in sowing discord between America and Amazon, but rather targeting Federation territory.
Just think, given the nature of the incident, whether from the perspective of the US President or Batman, this group of people must be rescued. But if the Amazon Queen doesn't cooperate, Arkham Batman can't save them from his office in Washington. Others applying pressure might not be effective, and instead, they might be detained. With Arkham Batman's personality, he might personally make the trip.
Once Arkham Batman leaves, the electronic lifeform could seize the opportunity to stir trouble on Federation territory, with fires igniting in all fifty states, coupled with manipulating online public opinion, which would certainly destabilize Arkham Batman's presidential position. That is the electronic lifeform's true intention.
So what cards do I hold?
Arkham Batman hesitated for only a few seconds, then said to his assistant, "Prepare the plane, I need to return to Gotham."