Chapter 179: What's So Funny?
"You are now in the controlled airspace of the Coast City Air Force."
The woman stepped forward and said sternly.
"On behalf of the entire Air Force Base and all its populace, I thank you for your assistance. But Coast City is not Metropolis. We don't need flashy aliens. Now, please leave."
Coast City Air Force?
Only then did Orin Vale notice they had unwittingly flown to Coast City.
The pilot had already jumped down, ignoring the soldiers his superior had brought, and squeezed his way in front of Kara. This young pilot seemed to have good composure, recovering so quickly from such a perilous situation to try and flirt.
"My name is Augustus, Coast City's ace pilot," the young man said, a hint of pride in his voice as he mentioned his title. "And you are?"
"My name is Ka—no, it's Supergirl."
She had almost let her real name slip. Kara thought to herself, "That was close." Thankfully, her super brain kicked in and she reacted quickly. Otherwise, she would definitely get a scolding when she got back.
"Ace pilot, huh?" Kara glanced at the smoking aircraft nearby, finding it a little amusing.
"Uh... this is a new model, its first test flight. Accidents are inevitable." Augustus scratched his head, a bit embarrassed. "Test flights are inherently dangerous. I already have a very low accident rate. You have no idea about the ace pilot before me, a guy named Hal Jordan. That dude was a monster at crashing planes. The financial and logistics departments at Ferris Aerospace really couldn't take the strain he was putting on them. So, he got kicked out at the beginning of the year."
Orin Vale remained silent, merely listening from the side.
Hal was fired. Based on the timeline, it was highly likely he had already become a Green Lantern.
To Orin Vale, the character profile of a Green Lantern was a bit odd. An ace pilot who transforms when he can't win a fight, belongs to a large-scale cosmic peacekeeping organization, and whose daily business mainly involves cosmic monsters and alien invaders...
With these elements laid out, if you didn't know he played with a ring, you would probably assume he was a public servant from M78.
Even the title of "ace pilot" was a perfect homage. Honestly, every aircraft Hal had ever piloted that got any screen time either turned into a brilliant firework in mid-air or ended up plowing the earth. Its one and only purpose was to serve as a Green Lantern launcher.
Of course, in Orin Vale's opinion, the country bumpkins of the Green Lantern Corps were still no match for the classic cursed pilot, Shinjo. After all, Shinjo's teammate could even flip a bumper car at an amusement park. In terms of the sheer scope of his vehicle-wrecking talent, that man was in a league of his own.
"Are you with that alien from Metropolis?"
The female officer glanced at the "S" on Kara's chest, which was distorted by her well-developed figure, and frowned.
"We know him, but we're not exactly together... Huh?"
Noticing the other woman staring at her chest, Kara subconsciously looked down at the seemingly magnificent chest under the other's uniform, then let out an involuntary "Ah!"
"Ah, what's going on there? Why did you stuff so much weird silicone in there?" Kara's face was full of surprise. "Doesn't that feel uncomfortable?"
The female officer's face instantly turned ashen. But before she could say anything, Orin Vale coughed twice to interrupt. "Apologies for intruding on your flight plan. We'll be leaving now."
With that, he pulled Kara along and ascended into the sky, departing.
The female officer's face was grim. She turned around and saw the group of soldiers behind her all struggling to hold back their laughter.
"What are you laughing at!?" she barked.
Everyone immediately snapped to attention, their faces becoming stern again.
It was as if to say, "We have all received professional training. No matter how funny it is, we will not laugh."
The officer's icy gaze swept across their faces one by one. She grunted heavily and turned to walk away quickly. "Get this aircraft towed back immediately. Call the Kerkert Company and have them check the engine..."
"Pfft."
She had barely taken a few steps before someone behind her burst out laughing.
He really couldn't hold it in.
The officer's face turned ashen again. She whipped her head around, her gaze locking onto one of the soldiers.
"You! What's so funny?"
"S-sorry, Officer," the soldier said, putting on a straight face. "I was just thinking of something happy."
"They're so rude," Kara grumbled as she flew. "I caught their plane and saved their man, and they just shoo me away like that... That officer, I bet she's from Gotham!"
Orin Vale chuckled.
"It's actually understandable," Orin Vale said. "It's because she's afraid of us. Besides, that engine, as I said, comes from alien technology, likely from a high-level civilization. So naturally, she'd be nervous about us getting close to it."
"Oh, I see," Kara said, scratching her head.
"Of course, her actions were completely meaningless. Because I already know everything I need to know. Before she even got out of her car, I had already performed a complete scan of that engine. The model and parameters are already stored in my armor."
"Are we going to find out where it came from?" Kara asked.
"Of course. Whether it's the Military or Corporations, these people are a bunch of troublemakers. You don't want to know what kind of things they'll cook up with high-level technology of unknown origin in their hands. They never learn not to play with toys they don't understand."
However, in this respect, the defense forces of the Ultraman universe were really no better than the ones here in the DC Universe. Earth's technology tree, more or less, always developed in a self-destructive direction. A classic case of using alien technology to build a big daddy they couldn't deal with themselves, waiting for outsiders to clean up the mess.
And these poor bastards responsible for cleaning up the mess are called Ultraman in the Ultraman universe, and the Justice League in the DC Universe.
However, Orin Vale didn't want to clean up the mess, so he decided to modify this strategy slightly.
He was going to snatch the toy from their hands before these troublemakers could build their big daddy.
At this very moment, on the highway to Coast City.
The scorching sun beat down mercilessly. Sparse patches of withered grass and dead branches dotted the cracked earth, as if everything else had been evaporated by the high temperature.
A military transport vehicle bounced along the sun-baked road, like an ant crawling on a hot pot. A wave of heat washed over them, like steam in a steamer.
"Good lord, it's too hot."
The man in the co-pilot's seat had already taken off his shirt and turned the air vent to maximum, blasting himself with it, but sweat still poured down his face.
"Are you sure this is really the air conditioner, and not just air circulation or something?" he asked the Driver in the driver's seat, wiping his sweat. "It's way too hot."
"Absolutely certain. It's already on max," the Driver said helplessly. "Just bear with it. We're about fifteen minutes away from the Coast City Air Force Base. We're almost there."
The man in the co-pilot's seat reached out and touched the metal wall panel behind the driver's seat that separated them from the cargo bay. But the moment he touched it, he involuntarily snatched his hand back as if he had been shocked.
"God, that's scorching hot!" the Co-pilot said uneasily. "I think maybe we should pull over and make sure the thing in the back is safe..."
"The higher-ups said it's classified," the Driver shrugged. "The highest level. If we so much as lift the tarp to take a peek, both of us will have to be shot."
"Ha, very funny."
The man in the co-pilot's seat shrugged and looked at the Driver, only to see a completely serious expression on the latter's face.
"Wait," the man's smile vanished. "You're not serious, are you? But they can't..."
"Can't what? Shoot us? Heh, now I'm sure you must be new," the Driver chuckled.
The Co-pilot immediately grew tense. He didn't speak again for a moment, fiddling uneasily with the air vent.
After a few minutes, he couldn't help but ask again, "So we just do this, not caring or asking about anything? Because the more I think about it, the more I feel this isn't normal. Top-secret cargo, a problem with rising heat, and I swear when we stopped at the Rest Stop earlier, I thought I heard a sound from the cargo container..."
"Relax. Don't overthink it, don't ask questions. Anyway, in a little while, the thing will be delivered to the Base." The Driver shrugged. "By then, it'll be the General's problem, not ours."
The Co-pilot thought about it.
"That's true."
So he ignored his ominous premonition, turned on the car stereo, closed his eyes, and sank into his chair, trying to drown all his anxieties in the music.
The melodious and light-hearted music soon filled the cabin, and both men soon found themselves humming along involuntarily.
Perhaps because of this, neither of them noticed the stirring coming from the rear cargo bay.
In the darkness of the cargo container, a red glow lit up.
Like a pair of scarlet eyes.
It was accompanied by a hoarse, intermittent mechanical sound.
"No... one... can escape..."
*BZZT...*
"..."
(end of chapter)