CIATB Chapter 351 Fragments of the Cosmic Cube
Chapter 351 Fragments of the Cosmic Cube
Chapter 351 Fragments of the Cosmic Cube
"You can't possibly know anything from me—Aaaaaaah!"
Although his secret identity is Hydra, he is, after all, a legitimate member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, and this unfortunate fellow's attempt to resist only emboldened Batman to act without restraint.
This time, however, Batman finally didn't make things difficult for the other person's shoulder joint.
Do you know how many bones are in a human hand?
"What? Ouch! Ah!"
After asking that question, Batman twisted the other man's hand in a way that looked painful, and the latter's scream rang out at just the right moment.
Joey took a quick look and counted them carefully; there were 27 pieces.
If Batman had been a bit more violent, the loss might have been more than 27 dollars.
"Isn't this a bit too violent?"
Joey still felt this method was a bit too inhumane, so he immediately chose a painless method for them: "Tie up a few key people and take them back. We have people over there who can read minds."
"He'd rather spend the whole day like this than agree to have his mind read."
Batman felt that his ancient interrogation method was more humane than having a telepath thoroughly search a person's mind.
"Go ahead and ask!"
As the two were talking, the interrogation room door was suddenly flung open from the outside with a loud crash.
Joey's act of blindly chiseling his way in through the outer wall finally alerted the people inside the Hydra base, who then dispatched their strongest force, the Winter Soldier, who was still recovering, to deal with the intruder.
Winter Soldier was also one of the products of Hydra's secret replication of the Super Soldier Serum. His superhuman physique, coupled with his terrifyingly powerful metal arm, directly smashed open the interrogation room door and slammed it into Joey's face, who was still standing there in a daze.
This strike didn't feel like what I expected; all that came out was a clang, like metal clashing.
Undeterred, the Winter Soldier threw punches again, alternating between left and right hooks, but aside from cracking his own hands and overloading his metal arms, he achieved nothing.
This metal arm was built by Hydra using resources stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. at great expense. It is sturdy, reliable, waterproof, corrosion-resistant, and even insulating.
But no matter how reliable and sturdy it is, it can't compare to the steel bodies of the Kryptonians.
Despite the opponent's fierce attacks, Joey remained unmoved, and he flexed his wrists:
"It's my turn."
Joey, who was about to deliver a blow to the Winter Soldier, was stopped by Batman before he could even make a move: "Calm down, calm down!"
In Batman's view, the Kryptonians he has recently encountered are mostly the type who don't know their own strength. If Joey hadn't held back after that punch, the opponent would have been lucky to have a metal arm left, or at least a whole corpse.
"He must know something, right?"
Unexpectedly, the Winter Soldier didn't appreciate the gesture. Seeing that his usually invincible robotic arm was no longer working, he immediately pulled out his pistol and shot both Joey and Batman in the head.
With two loud bangs, the first shot hit Joey directly in the face and eyelid. The specially made tungsten steel bullet shattered upon contact and was crushed to pieces upon impact with the bio-force field.
Batman, however, lacked that kind of toughness. As soon as the Winter Soldier raised his hand to fire, he had already turned to the side and ducked, using the wrist guards of his Batsuit to deflect the bullet.
The deflected bullet ricocheted, sparking and ricocheting throughout the confined interrogation room, before finally striking the unfortunate man who had almost been subjected to Batman's torture.
"Ah! My—"
Batman, who had almost broken the other man's fingers, now showed concern for his captive: "It's just his butt, the least dangerous spot on a person's body after being shot."
As for the Winter Soldier?
Joey found a way to subdue the opponent with minimal damage. He grabbed the Winter Soldier's metal arm, kicked it off, and pulled it off his body.
The Winter Soldier, having lost his arm, smashed his head against the wall, creating a human-shaped dent. Even with his super soldier physique, this was enough to prevent him from getting up.
After tossing the severed arm into the room, Joey looked at Batman: "Let's get down to business."
Now that he's been summoned, there's no need to purge the entire base in Batman's style.
The method of infiltrating first, then clearing out the small monsters, and then slowly sweeping the map is still too slow.
Joey's eyes swept across the entire base, revealing everything except for some special bunkers with lead metal interlayers.
After finishing the inventory, Joey immediately lost interest: "I thought I was going to find some big fish, but it was all for nothing."
This is a very ordinary S.H.I.E.L.D. facility located underground in New Jersey, which has been occupied by Hydra members and used as a forward base for the Winter Soldier's operations in the vicinity.
It's hard to say whether this constitutes "occupation".
Joey even doubted whether the logistics personnel and cadets outside the base knew that they were repairing and maintaining the equipment and vehicle of the assassin who had just killed Nick Fury.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s one-way isolated command system has played a significant role in Hydra's infiltration and espionage over the years. Hoping to get any useful clues from these people is wishful thinking.
The problem between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra lies precisely in this interdependence: you are in me, and I am in you.
"What do you say, we fly straight to New York and drag Alexander Pierce out of the Security Council building first?"
Joey's neurotic remarks successfully drew a disapproving look from Batman:
"After you find him, are you going to execute him on the spot in front of the whole world?"
Alexander Pierce, one of Hydra's undercover agents infiltrating the highest levels of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the president of the World Security Council.
He was in charge of all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s financial and political resources; in terms of administration, he was even more powerful than Director Nick Fury.
Fury is a level higher.
From this perspective, this undercover agent has even succeeded to the point that he no longer needs to be a Hydra agent. Unfortunately, in the eyes of people like him, S.H.I.E.L.D. is the dark side that has abandoned the darkness for the light, a stubborn disease that needs to be eradicated.
"Human society doesn't work that way; we need evidence."
However, skipping the process and going straight to the answer is a bit too advanced for someone like Batman, but he's not saying he'll do nothing at all:
"Give me another twelve hours, and I'll get it done."
This isn't the first time Batman has dealt with such behind-the-scenes schemers.
After losing the Winter Soldier, Pierce will definitely use other resources to attack his group. The more the enemy takes action, the more obvious their weaknesses will become.
With Batman's involvement and Superman's cleanup, the opponent's downfall is only a matter of time.
While the two were talking, the heavily armed field team had already rushed over. Flashbangs and stun grenades landed at their feet, and gun barrels were already sticking out of the corridor.
"Watch out!" Batman warned, but his hands moved to push Joey out and pull the door shut, shielding Superman from the stun grenade's power.
Bang bang bang!
A few seconds after the stun grenades and flashbangs exploded, a series of gunshots were followed by a few muffled groans, and then silence returned.
Batman pushed open the heavy door, carried the Winter Soldier, the more valuable prisoner, over the unfortunate souls who were trying to take down the Kryptonians with sticks loaded with 7.62 NATO bullets, and followed Superman toward the center of the base.
After taking down the attacking security response team with a single punch, Joey quickly inspected several lead-filled rooms in the base for radiation protection purposes, and unexpectedly found some potentially valuable items.
"It wasn't all for naught."
Batman carefully examined Superman's clenched hand and found tiny specks of eerie blue light on it.
A tiny blue light source, so small that it is almost invisible, can only be identified by the faint glow it emits.
Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. weren't entirely without ability. Although it was unclear how they managed it, Joey immediately recognized the thing's true nature:
"The container for the Space Stone, a fragment of the Cosmic Cube."
With it, perhaps we can find the whereabouts of the lost Space Stone more quickly.