Seeing the sly glint in Hippolyta's eye and hearing the curiosity in her mother's voice, a look of helplessness crossed Diana's lovely face. She shook her head gently.
"You don't know them. They're all heroes from Earth—recent heroes!"
With that, Diana took her mother's hand.
"Mother, don't tease me like that. Right now I just want to talk about something serious. I want to bring them to Paradise Island. May I?"
"Of course you may!"
Hippolyta nodded without hesitation.
"You are Diana, my daughter. You have the right to allow a few people onto our land, as long as you trust them enough! Besides, one of them is a god!"
"Even if that god is from the Aesir?"
"The Aesir?!"
Hippolyta froze.
"How do you know he's Aesir?"
"He carries the Gungnir spear. He got it after killing Odin. He's had a fair amount of contact with the Aesir."
"Heh, now that's a miracle. Didn't the Aesir fall to Ragnarok long ago? Very well, let them come. I'm even more eager now to meet this Sun God."
"Alright, Mother!"
Having gotten what she wanted, Diana smiled happily and went on chatting with Hippolyta about the whole business with Darkseid.
...
Meanwhile.
...
At the port of Metropolis, beneath the towering Statue of Liberty, a woman with fiery red hair and a sea-blue tight-fitting scale armor quietly poked her head out of the water.
She surfaced and glanced at the enormous statue.
A moment later, she tilted her head.
"Hah, in all my years, I've never heard of a goddess like that."
With that, the woman submerged and swam all the way to the nearby docks. As she approached the port, she slipped ashore from a corner. As she walked, the water on her body separated from her at her command, and within moments even her hair was perfectly dry, showing no sign that she had just come out of the sea.
At the same time, her scale armor slowly dispersed, revealing the light green bodysuit beneath.
A radiant young woman like this naturally drew plenty of attention, though the sailors were reluctant to bother someone with such a commanding presence. But when the people around noticed there was no car waiting for her, plenty of them sprang into action.
First came the taxis—over a dozen of them.
To those drivers, when it came to making money, who wouldn't prefer to pick up a pleasing-looking woman?
But the taxis didn't even get close before they were cut off by a stretch Maybach.
The Maybach pulled up beside the woman, and the window rolled down slowly.
The woman frowned and looked over, and a grinning face popped into the window frame.
"My dear, why don't you tell me where you're headed? I have a feeling we're going the same way!"
Hearing those words, the woman was briefly surprised, then smiled with satisfaction.
"You surface-dwellers are certainly forward. That's wonderful!"
She got straight into the Maybach.
Seeing her figure disappear into the car, every sailor and driver around wore a look of regret. Plenty of them spat in frustration.
"The best ones always end up with the bastards. Fuck!"
But their voices couldn't reach that luxury car. The Maybach vanished in the blink of an eye.
Inside the stretch Maybach, the woman sat with such poise that the man opposite her couldn't stay still. Her aristocratic air was so overpowering that just climbing into the car had already made him somewhat antsy.
The man held out a drink toward her and asked, "I'm Edward Vincent. May I know your name?"
"Mera. You can call me Mera."
Mera nodded and introduced herself softly.
"Thank you for your help. I'm here to see that Sun God. Please take me near his divine kingdom! I came ashore in Venice, and his people there said the Sun God is in New York. I've followed the map all the way here just to meet him."
"Aha!"
Edward across from her suddenly laughed.
"I knew you'd be like me. I came here specifically for this Sun God too. Who knows what the world's come to? I don't even know if I should keep believing in God anymore. I've never seen an angel, but I have seen the Sun God, Heisenberg!"
At that point, Edward looked expectantly at Mera, hoping to gauge her identity from her faith.
Mera showed no reaction at all. She didn't care in the slightest about the blasphemy in his words.
Edward nodded knowingly—this girl doesn't believe in God. So he continued.
"But seeing you, on the other hand, has actually strengthened my faith in God, because you made me feel like I was looking at an angel, my dear!"
He waited for Mera's reaction, but she gave none, which left him a little disappointed.
Straightening his expression, he went on.
"You want to meet this Sun God? I can help. I'm meeting the mayor of Metropolis tonight, and I can have him secure us a spot closer to that ship. Trust me, it's extremely difficult. The area is simply too packed. Believers and fanatics have it completely surrounded, and there are countless others like you and me who've traveled here from afar to pay homage. Without my help, it'll be hard for you to get any closer, my dear. Surely you don't want to shove your way through a sea of bodies? That wouldn't be very dignified!"
This finally got a reaction out of Mera.
She tilted her head slightly, offered Edward a gracious word of thanks, and at the same time declined.
"That won't be necessary. Just drop me near the area."
"Uh... it's a crowd as dense as mountains and oceans. Are you sure you don't need extra help?"
"No."
Sensing Mera's coldness, Edward shook his head helplessly.
This girl wasn't one he could easily tame.
So, let her go.
For someone of Edward's standing, even the finest things had to be mutual. He wasn't the type to force anyone.
The car fell silent for a while.
At last, the car stopped eight blocks from the Kryptonian ship. Mera stepped out gracefully.
Amid Edward's final farewell from the car, Mera looked toward the massive, dense crowd in the distance and took a deep breath.
No one needed to tell her—she already knew exactly where that god was.
She walked into the crowd, using her superhuman strength to push aside anyone who blocked her path.
Even so, it took her over an hour to reach the very center.
Standing among the crowd, she gazed silently into the distance at the ship wrapped in blue energy, blinking in puzzlement.
"This isn't what I expected. Why does this god's dwelling look so much like something from an outsider?"
At that, Mera shifted position, quietly slipping into a small circle of women gathered nearby.
There, she slowly drew them into conversation and eventually coaxed out everything that had happened the night before.
She learned about Superman, about Batman, about the monster Doomsday in Metropolis, and about Heisenberg, who had appeared at that very time.
She also heard what Heisenberg had said to the people.
"A slumbering ancient god who only now has awakened?"
Once she understood that, Mera's brow furrowed. Things were worse than she'd thought.
She had assumed Heisenberg was a New God.
Old Gods, on the other hand, had mostly taken their sides back in the ancient era. Mera had no idea how Heisenberg would view Atlantis. As far as she knew, plenty of gods in the ancient era had hated Atlantis!
But Mera still found her own way.
When she heard that both Superman and Batman had gone inside that ship, she made up her mind on the spot.
Since she didn't know how that god felt about Atlantis, she would simply go and ask him herself.
If he could meet Superman and Batman, he could certainly meet her!
As for how to get to him...
Watching the sky gradually darken, Mera smiled.
She would wait until those two came out of the ship, then follow them!
...
Inside the ship, Bruce wiped the sweat from his face and casually handed the tissue to Superman beside him.
Seeing the offered tissue, Clark froze, then shook his head with a wry smile.
"Thanks, but I don't need it. I don't sweat that easily."
"Uh..."
Bruce nodded and slapped the tissue onto his own forehead.
"Alright, my body really can't keep up with you guys. My work for today has to stop here. Otherwise I won't have the energy tonight to deal with those scumbags crawling back out in Gotham."
No sooner had Bruce spoken than Heisenberg, nearby, looked over and asked offhandedly, "Need a hand, pal?"
"No, that's my city. I can handle them. But don't worry, if I run into trouble I can't solve, I'll ask everyone for help. I just believe that'll happen rarely. Very rarely."
With that, Bruce cleaned the sweat from his face, pulled the Batman cowl over his head, and said, "I'm off. Heisenberg, Clark. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow. You'd better get more rest. You come help during the day and fight crime at night. I honestly don't know where you find the time."
Clark said his goodbye with a sigh, which finally drew a small smile from Bruce.
As he walked toward the ship's exit, Bruce answered, "I squeeze it in the same way you do. After all, as long as there's evil to fight and justice to uphold, we'll always find the time for it. In a way, we're both masters of time management, right?"
"No, no, not me. I always feel like I don't have enough time. I hardly get a moment with Lois! Anyway, see you tomorrow, Bruce."
Clark waved, bidding farewell to Batman, who was already far away.
The ship was huge, and it took Bruce a while to reach the exit.
Heisenberg had given the two of them sufficient clearance earlier that morning; the defense system wouldn't stop him now.
Once outside, the sky in the distance roared—his plane was approaching.
In front of countless onlookers, Batman shot a grapple line up to his plane and vanished directly into the sea of people.
But he didn't notice that in that crowd, a beautiful young woman was watching him closely!
Mera suddenly broke into a sprint, moving so fast it defied belief. In just a few minutes, she had followed the plane all the way to the sea.
The many people she overtook stared in astonishment.
The moment she hit the water, Mera commanded the endless seawater to carry her straight toward the direction of Bruce's aircraft.
An ordinary person could never track Bruce, but Mera was different. The moment Bruce had stepped out of the ship, a droplet of water she controlled had already landed on his cape!
Following the droplet's signature, Mera discovered with surprise that Batman was heading somewhere very close to the water.
She sped far ahead of the aircraft along his route and lay in wait to intercept this big bat!
Bruce, on his way back to the Batcave through a sea-level secret passage, never imagined that a young woman was waiting for him under the sea.
Half a minute later, just as Bruce was lowering his altitude...
A massive wave, leaping over twenty meters high, swallowed his Bat-plane whole!
Finding himself suddenly plunged from the sky into the depths of the sea, Bruce stared in stunned disbelief.
He'd just boasted in front of Heisenberg—and now he'd crashed yet again?!
/-\
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