2201 Side Story: Fantasy Journey
Luke didnât know that Master Wayneâs paranoia was acting up again, but he wouldnât care even if he did.
That was Master Wayneâs normal routine.
Besides, Luke wasnât Superman, and didnât have high expectations of himself.
He wasnât Master Wayne either, and didnât have such a strong sense of unease.
Controlling public opinion was a little underhanded, but it was only for self-protection.
Whatever âgodsâ disdained to do, he could do.
What âpeopleâ didnât have time to do, he had time to do.
The DC superheroes either couldnât be bothered, didnât have time, or didnât have the money or resources to do their âbranding.â It was better to leave it to him.
There was a backup of this âoperation planâ in the armorâs A.I. program, which could be adjusted for use here.
In any case, human nature was essentially the same, whether it was in the Marvel or DC universe.
The key to this operation wasnât gimmicks or flattery, but practical applications of human psychology.
It was the reason why people got deja vu when PR handled things when popular celebrities got into trouble.
That was because most of them were âproductsâ that followed a certain operating model.
There was a method to carrying out an operation, just like there was a method to handling a crisis. Moreover, this also focused on human psychology, especially social psychology. To be precise, it was the practical application of group psychology.
As long as the operation went well, it wouldnât be hard to blind the public.
Speaking of which, establishing this âgenuineâ Justice League in this DC universe was a lot easier than what Luke had done back home.
Superman, who was practically invincible in all of the universe, could amply protect himself.
Although Master Wayne possibly had a plan to take down Superman, it would take time.
Then, there was Diana, the ârose among the thorns.â
She could fight and defend at the same time. She had no shortcomings in terms of brains, EQ, and mental fortitude, and she also had a charming personality.
Almost all men would kneel when they saw her, and at least half of the women.
There wasnât much to say about Master Wayne; he was already close to turning GCPD into his own company. It wouldnât be an exaggeration to say that he was a famous hero who was an indispensable part of the teamâs overall image.
As for the rest⊠well, it was best for them to clean up a bit.
It didnât have anything to do with appearances; it was that they had too little experience and lacked the foundation to be a âteam titan.â
For example, when Superman descended lightly from the sky like a god, or when Master Wayneâs cape fluttered when he stood on a rooftop, or when the battle goddess was poised for battle with her sword and shield raised, they had an âauraâ around them.
No one at a lower level would dare question them.
On the other hand, thinking about how Arthur chuckled stupidly, or how Barry rolled his eyes and scratched his head, or how Victor⊠Well, forget that, people would doubt he was human.
Onlookers would just harass them even more.
The three bigshots were great âfacesâ for the team. If this were a Korean idol group, they would be the lead singer, the one with good looks, and the dancer; they would meet more than 80% of expectations.
Given the ready-made resources in this team, it would be much easier for Luke to put things in motion compared with back home.
As his plan progressed, the chances of the team members being screwed over by someone else would drop.
In a few years, even if someone really could kill a superhero, including Superman, Luke would be able to put the deceased on a pedestal as a martyr.
The enemy, on the other hand, would be sent into a cesspit and would never be able to make a comeback.
At that time, it wouldnât be a matter of who wanted to deal with the Justice League, but who the Justice League wanted to deal with.
More importantly, with this âteam image,â Luke wouldnât have to worry too much about future operations.
As long as it wasnât on too big a scale, he would be able to do some things.
It was human nature to balance things out when big mistakes were made.
As long as he did a lot of good deeds, any small mistakes he made when âfighting crimeâ would be nothing.
Lukeâs thoughts raced as he looked at his new teammates with a smile.
His teammates, on the other hand, were still enjoying the thrill of victory and the satisfaction of saving people, and didnât expect a certain person to already be putting together their âcharacter settings.â
âŠ
Luke took on the task of the post-battle cleanup, and Master Wayne supervised.
As for the others⊠Well, they took Master Wayneâs Batplane back.
The main thing was that every bit of Steppenwolfâs âremainsâ and âlegacyâ had to be collected, and not a single trace could be left behind.
Only after Luke studied them would he destroy them.
It was impossible to destroy them right away. Luke didnât trust ordinary methods at all.
Who knew, Steppenwolf could be reborn on another planet with a resurrection spell.
So, he took Steppenwolfâs head as his spoils of war and threw it into his inventory as test material.
The Mother Boxes were dealt with as per the old arrangements.
Arthur returned to the underwater Atlantean shrine with one Mother Box, while Diana returned to Paradise Island with another. She also took with her Steppenwolfâs two-horned helmet to comfort the heroic spirits of the Amazon warriors whom he had killed.
At Lukeâs suggestion, mankindâs box was left in Master Wayneâs safekeeping.
That was because when he first came into contact with a Mother Box, the system had warned him that this item might draw the attention of an unknown existence, so he wouldnât store it in his inventory.
Clearly, this thing had a similar attribute to an Infinity Stone back home.
For example, the shadow of the Vishantiâs Ancient One loomed behind the Eye of Agamotto, and the Power Stone had long been used as a weapon by the gods, while the Dark Elves with the Aether were the worst.
...
From what Steppenwolf had said, it sounded like the Mother Boxes belonged to a âhigher familyâ to begin with, and Steppenwolf, this idiot, was a godson of this âhigher family.â
By the time the Russian government arrived, only the âflower townâ and the remains of the Parademons were left at the scene.
There were too many of the Parademons, and after running numerous tests which showed that they posed no risks, Luke left them to the authorities.
After the aid foundation was established, the first contribution should be toward this incident.
After all, it was the Justice League who had turned this 100,000-strong Parademons to dust; it made sense to reimburse the authoritiesâ âcleaning fee.â
âŠ
Two days later, the triumph of victory faded.
Barry remained at the base, working with Luke to improve his suit.
It was troublesome.
He couldnât use just anything in battle. Otherwise, there was no need to besiege Steppenwolf together in order to kill him â it would take less than 0.001 seconds for Barry to ram Dianaâs longsword into Steppenwolfâs neck.
He had already tested the material for this suit many times.
...
The suit which Luke had designed for Pietro wasnât much stronger. It couldnât compare with the standard team armor at all.
A power source and weapons were secondary; the most important thing was that the suitâs defense wasnât up to standard.
If Barry could retain his original mobility while wearing the nanosuit, he wouldnât have been crippled by a stray bullet.
From this, it could be seen that what he lacked most was protection.
Lukeâs demands werenât high; it was enough as long as the suit could block ordinary attacks and Barry wasnât at risk when the battle became slightly more intense.
This didnât match Lukeâs usual âsafety firstâ principle.
Just as Barry put on a crude test suit made from new synthetic materials and was about to run, Luke received a message on his phone.