Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 345 Mind Reading

Chapter 345 Mind Reading

After firmly confining the explosive force, enough to level an entire coastline, within his hands, Joey clapped his hands and brushed away the last bit of dust from the explosion site on his palms.

He then looked impatiently at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were gradually emerging from the Quinjet and eager to get started:

"Does anyone else want to try?"

All the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents present spoke up.

Superman can no longer distinguish between Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D., but that doesn't stop them from being able to subdue anyone before they can even react.

The speedster who had just attacked at several times the speed of sound was now in Joey's hand.

In a world without the Speed ​​Force, Joey doesn't think anyone could run at the same speed as The Flash and Reverse-Flash in the atmosphere.

Based on this alone, he should have no problem controlling a minor speedster.

This relatively young speedster was held in mid-air by Joey's grip on his neck. Even though he was being held so tightly he couldn't breathe, he still managed to roar at Iron Man with all his might:

"Tony Stark, I—you—! You—a former arms dealer, a notorious warmonger, what right do you have to play the hero and good guy here?! I—uh—uh—uh!"

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, Joey quickly used her freezing breath to shut the other person up.

"That's enough!"

He had almost figured out which of these Native American speedsters in front of him might be the one who had a grudge against Iron Man.

"No, Superman, let him continue!"

Tony, who had been relaxed and even had the leisure to joke around with his old acquaintance Coulson after seeing him, suddenly stopped laughing after hearing this.

He made a move to melt the block of ice blocking Quicksilver's mouth, but Joey stopped him: "Not now, we're already in enough trouble here!"

Iron Man's past is not honorable, that's an obvious fact. In the past, Joey might have discussed it in detail with Tony, but now there's simply no time for that.

"Coulson! Go, arrest them all!"

"Huh? Me?!"

Coulson was somewhat confused: "Arrest who? My colleagues?"

Sending Coulson, a S.H.I.E.L.D. executive, to arrest his own colleague sounds abstract, and it is indeed very abstract:

"Are you serious, Superman?"

Although Coulson was itching to act, he didn't dare to act immediately: "Isn't this illegal?"

"Don't make me laugh, Coulson. How many of the things S.H.I.E.L.D. has done have been legal?"

However, this is the only solution for now. Joey doesn't have time to vet everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D., and Coulson is someone Joey trusts.

"If you won't subdue them first, what am I supposed to do? Freeze them all with freezing breath? Or roast them all one by one with heat vision?"

All the agents, who had initially expressed some resentment about losing their personal freedom, fell silent upon hearing Superman's words.

"I object!"

Among the crowd, a brave soul stepped forward. This was John Garrett, a senior figure to Coulson, and the two had a fairly good relationship.

"We are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, only taking orders from our direct superiors and the Council. What right do you have to detain us?"

John's words weren't entirely unreasonable, but Joey was too lazy to reason with people right now, especially someone who looked like a Hydra at first glance.

With a single breath, the other person froze into an ice sculpture. At the same time, Joey didn't forget to explain the function of biofields to everyone present:

"Don't worry, it's not fatal. He's just temporarily frozen. He'll be perfectly fine after he thaws!"

The S.H.I.E.L.D. members exchanged glances. Anyone with a basic understanding of natural science felt that Agent Garrett was now completely doomed. First, he was frozen and chilled, so who knew if the next person to openly object would be met with Superman's heat vision?

"Gentlemen, there's a problem within S.H.I.E.L.D.; you've been infiltrated by Hydra!"

Tony was also in a terrible mood, but he could only force himself to cheer up and stabilize the situation:

"Stay calm. I guarantee you, in the name of Iron Man, that we'll release you after a thorough investigation—provided you're all good kids, not troublemakers!"

At the same time, Tony subtly winked at Joey and secretly sent him a text message: "Where are you planning to lock all these people up?!"

Joey gave him the same look: "Didn't you buy an unfinished building to use as a hideout for your spider army?"

Since each member of the Spider Legion was issued a Green Lantern ring, their combat power has exploded.

With this number of Green Lanterns and Spider-Men around, let alone the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., even if you sent the entire Avengers over, they probably wouldn't be able to make much of a splash.

As for their secret base underground in Manhattan?

The key word for the secret base is "secret". If you stuff all these people in there, what secrets will there be?

"So how do you plan to investigate?"

Coulson then asked, "Even if we have indeed been infiltrated by Hydra, who could truly detect it?"

"It depends on whether you want to accept the time-consuming, insecure, and unstable conventional identification methods, or—"

Joey suddenly realized that he had brought back quite a lot from his "long trip":

"Or is it a faster, more accurate, but less regulated and less humane unconventional method?"

"If S.H.I.E.L.D. has indeed been infiltrated by Hydra, then quickly identifying friend from foe is absolutely crucial."

Normally, Coulson would choose the shorter option, but for Superman to say that this method was even slightly inhumane, it must have been extremely inhumane.

"Could you explain the standard methods?"

"The standard approach is to lock you up and wait, but the inhumane approach is—"

The agents who appeared before Superman and Iron Man were, in theory, mostly non-Hydra agents. The high-ranking Hydra agents hidden within S.H.I.E.L.D. certainly hoped to use Superman and Iron Man to eliminate most of the remaining core members of S.H.I.E.L.D.

But that doesn't mean there wasn't any sand mixed in.

The conventional method is to isolate this Hydra-S.H.I.E.L.D. hybrid group, wait for Joey and the others to counter their moves and completely resolve Hydra's counterattack, and then go through the normal procedures to identify them one by one using files and other evidence.

Those with solid evidence are sent to prison; those without evidence are released.

"Then let me be so bold as to ask another question: what you mean by this unconventional and inhumane thing—"

Coulson's quick wit and ability to pick up the conversation made Joey think that if he retired from S.H.I.E.L.D., he could easily become a stand-up comedian.

The so-called unconventional methods are so simple and effective that they are almost unchallenging:

"Then it's very simple—mind reading."

Anyway, since some bald guy in a wheelchair has nothing better to do, why not ask the amazing "prophet" Professor X about this little problem in Werewolf where he doesn't know if he's a werewolf or a villager?