"You finally came back. I thought you'd miss the start of the new academic year." Shiller sat behind his desk, looking at Victor who had just walked in.
"What's going on with Pamela? Why does she want to lead people to Krypton?" Victor sat down on a chair beside and said, "Surely, this isn't your doing, right?"
"This time, you're wrong." Shiller said, "Pamela is with the Justice League. She's always been working for them, it has nothing to do with me."
"Then you must know what they're up to, right?" Victor said with a look of resignation, "The Justice League has been gone for almost a month now, shouldn't there be some movement?"
"I'm sorry, but I really don't know." Shiller said, "The reason I got involved in this was purely to help you get some more funding."
"But in reality, we didn't get much." Victor sighed, "Amanda is simply unreasonable. If she were just a bit smarter, our income could be ten or a hundred times more..."
Victor's tone revealed regret, and Shiller could see that he genuinely had counted on Amanda. But unfortunately, Amanda was not Nick; her mind doesn't adapt easily. Even if she understood how S.H.I.E.L.D. operates, she couldn't emulate it.
Shiller's involvement seemed to bear little effect, failing to allow the Federation Shield to achieve a good financial cycle like S.H.I.E.L.D. But the main problem wasn't with Shiller, it was Amanda.
If Nick had been there, Shiller would have provided him with a perfect opportunity. Because if the Federal Government also chose to side with Brainiac, then the remaining opposition would all be the power of the Federation Shield.
In other words, negotiations between Congress and Brainiac were not the end, but a beginning.
It's impossible for everyone on Earth to be in the surrender camp. To be precise, only those politicians would choose Brainiac over Amanda because they fear Amanda settling scores with them afterward. They'd rather take a long-term poison than suffer short-term losses.
But there are, after all, people with foresight in this world. They clearly realize that even if Brainiac poses no harm now, he must have ulterior motives. They will definitely not side with Brainiac.
Such people not only have long-term vision, but are usually quite smart and certainly have some power, making them excellent choices for supporters. The actions of the Federal Government are equivalent to directly pushing this group of people to Amanda's side.
As long as Amanda can figure out a way to contact the leaders among this group of people, there's much potential.
Although the Federation Shield is an American organization, the world has more than just America. The Soviet Union still exists, and a few countries in East Asia cannot be underestimated. Since the Federal Government chose to betray, contacting them wouldn't count as treason.
Not to mention, if we can somehow connect with the KGB in the U.S., they can tie up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for quite some time, and maybe even secure some funding from across the ocean.
In short, if Nick Fury had experienced this, he might have already organized a giant entity similar to S.H.I.E.L.D. amidst the chaos. Unfortunately, in this cosmos, there was no Nick, only Amanda, who could only end up in defeat.
Though we didn't swindle much funding, it wasn't completely without results. The biggest achievement was pushing the Federal Government towards Brainiac, which could accelerate Brainiac's control over Earth.
Shiller wasn't truly concerned about benefiting Brainiac, but the quicker he takes over Earth, the faster his true motives will be revealed. It's better to suffer now than later.
Solving this before the official start of school would be much better than dealing with classes and piles of assignments later, being overwhelmed.
However, it now seems that the Justice League might be planning to take action.
Batman and his team traveled through the Green Lantern Teleportation Gate on Earth and arrived on the surface of Krypton. But here, it was evidently far from the central area and still retained a bit of natural scenery.
No one had the time to marvel. Batman checked around and found that the entire planet's energy had basically been restored, so he hotwired a small spaceship driven by ordinary people. After charging it, they flew towards the central zone.
"We need to find the laboratory where Brainiac was created," Batman said, "There, we should be able to find more information about him."
"Then we need to create some commotion." Pamela said, "First, draw Brainiac's attention away, and then sneak into the laboratory to look. Otherwise, if he finds out, he will definitely try everything to stop us."
"I'll go with El Diablo." Pamela continued, "Our abilities are quite conspicuous, we can surely draw Brainiac's attention. You guys, who are good at sneaking, find the information quickly and then we retreat."
Batman nodded, agreeing to this plan. Because he could tell, El Diablo and Pamela weren't on the same team, they supervised each other, and he didn't fear them causing trouble.
After approaching the center region, no one dared to relax because Brainiac surely kept a tight watch here.
They split into two groups: Pamela with El Diablo, two Batmen with Deathstroke, one went south, the other north, heading in two different directions.
"You make some noise here." Pamela said, "I also have something I need to find, don't tell them."
El Diablo squinted his eyes and stared at her, seemingly hesitating whether to stop her. Pamela looked at him and said, "Believe it or not, it's the Justice League that wants me to do this. This whole plan is theirs."
"Who are they dealing with? Brainiac?"
"Don't ask so many questions, just do your job. If this succeeds, the Justice League won't treat you poorly."
El Diablo was somewhat inclined towards the Justice League, but what Pamela said made him feel like he was on some pirate ship.
But in the end, he didn't stop Pamela; on one hand, he might not have been able to, and on the other hand, if the Justice League was really preparing something and he ended up disrupting it, affecting their arrangements, which further impacted Earth's safety, it wouldn't be good.
Pamela sneaked away alone. El Diablo simply unleashed his Fire God form, rampaging through the city, burning down several buildings, and hurling cars at various structures.
Brainiac quickly noticed the anomaly here. He dispatched defensive robots, which were not Earth's products but genuine Kryptonian specialties. Although Kryptonian civilization wasn't adept at creating robots, their advanced levels in materials science and mechanical engineering made their robots far superior to those of humans.
Even so, they were made of metal. El Diablo's high-temperature flames were the nemesis of all metals. He could fight dozens without losing ground, forcing Brainiac to divert more attention his way.
Pamela didn't linger nearby for long. She didn't go near the research institute, instead heading to the Krypton History Museum, and she didn't wander around inside, going straight to the target on the top floor.
Unlike humans, the lower the floor in a Kryptonian history museum, the closer it is to modern times; the higher the floor, the older it gets. Pamela went all the way to the top floor to find information about the Kryptonians.
After leaving there, Pamela went to the Noble District, where the Kryptonian council members lived. There she scavenged and took away a lot of information.
Once Batman also found the information they needed, Pamela and El Diablo met up, heading nonchalantly to the crossroad where they had separated earlier.
"How's it going?" Pamela asked, feigning anxiety, "Robots are increasing, we can't stay here too long."
"No problem, we found some research documents from back then. I think we might be able to find a loophole or a base protocol in its system through these documents."
"Then let's not linger here, let's go."
Just as they were about to leave, countless robots jumped down from the rooftops. Pamela sighed, "Ignore them, just head towards the teleportation portal."
After saying that, her eyes gleamed green. All the robots were swept away by vines, and a small spaceship zigzagged successfully, dodging various weaponry and wobbling its way through the teleportation portal.
Successfully returned to Earth, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Batman said, "I need a bit of time to conduct research, about 2 to 3 days. But I need a place where Brainiac won't find out."
"That's difficult," Pamela said, "It seems Brainiac has already reached an agreement with the Federal Government, and now the entire America is under his control. But I think you can go to a place without internet, those relatively primitive areas, which likely haven't fallen into Brainiac's claws yet."
The two Batmen exchanged a glance and immediately thought of the same place, which was Brude Haven. Although Brude Haven is a coastal city, it has vast forests and canyons. At the bottom of many canyons, not only is there no internet, but even phone signals are unavailable.
Moreover, Batman knew that during the Cold War, many air-raid shelters were built there, with some still storing supplies. Conducting research there might allow them to discover Brainiac's weaknesses before he actually takes over the globe.
The Batmen hurriedly left. Pamela also breathed a sigh of relief. She returned to her laboratory and then used magic from All Things Green to block all cameras and signals before beginning to study the pile of information she brought back from Krypton.
Although there were two Batmen, their research speed was far from Pamela's. After all, Pamela only needed to find something, not actually conduct research; whereas Batman's target was Brainiac, which was much more challenging.
Eventually, Pamela found what she was looking for. It was a series of Kryptonian numbers, somewhat like a human phone number, but actually a type of cosmic signal wavelength used to transmit broadcasts towards a specific location in the cosmos, like making a call to the other side.
Then, Pamela pulled out a rather peculiar item from a box. It looked just like an ordinary box with two antennas on top, like a radio, but the Green Lantern emblem on the back indicated this was a piece of equipment used by the Green Lantern Corps, which could be called a "Cosmic Phone."
The string of numbers she had could be dialed out using this device. Pamela dialed the number on it. After a sound very similar to a busy signal on a human phone, the call was connected.
"Hello?" Pamela spoke in English, "Can you hear me?"
There was clearly someone on the other end, but no response. Pamela quickly said to the other side: "Whoever you are, I hope you can help us. There is a very evil artificial intelligence invading Earth, it seems to be from Krypton. If you are some alien civilization, could you come and help us? Our address is..."
There was no response from the other side, but the call wasn't disconnected either. After Pamela finished speaking, she created a series of noises around her and then hung up, pretending to be interrupted by something.
After hanging up, the person on the other end was silent for a moment before turning to his subordinate and saying, "Go invite Lord Desaad, and tell him that there's news from Krypton again."