New Project

(Please vote and recommend~)

Gotham City.

Nearly year-round clouds hung over the pitch-black modern city, flashes of lightning flickering through the sinister haze. Without warning, torrential rain poured from behind the clouds, striking the gloomy streets in a loud, dense barrage.

Barbara Gordon sat in her wheelchair by the clock tower window. Rain hung outside like a waterfall, and looking down at the city through that curtain of water felt like staring at a sleeping demon.

Years ago, she had been one of this city's costumed fighters. Batgirl had once been her codename, before a green-haired madman in clown makeup shot and crippled her legs. Now she called herself Oracle, one of the world's foremost hackers, providing logistical support to the caped fighters from this highest point in Gotham City.

She had always hated rainy days, even after living so long in this city of perpetual overcast skies.

The elevator behind her gave a crisp ding. It was the direct elevator that only a handful of people with clearance could use. She turned her wheelchair around and saw Huntress appear at the doors, one hand braced against the elevator wall as she panted heavily. Her hair was a mess, a corner of her purple cape had been torn away, and she looked thoroughly bedraggled.

Barbara raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell us you were back in Gotham."

She had always gotten along well with Helena, and that had not changed even after Helena switched jobs to work for the government.

"I've been at the Gotham safehouse these past two days, until they kicked me out—for this thing." Helena stepped forward and pulled a USB drive from her belt. "Please, I need your help. This is important."

Barbara took the USB drive. "Let me guess. Bruce doesn't know yet?"

"I didn't tell him," Helena said flatly.

"Maybe you should consider it." Barbara plugged the USB drive into her computer as she spoke. "He is your father, after all. You two can't go on like this forever. Besides, he needs you too."

Helena remained silent.

Barbara skillfully opened the USB drive on her computer. A project titled "S.D.E.Project" quickly appeared on the screen, along with the warning dialog Helena had encountered and a password field. Barbara frowned as she read the name aloud. "This is what left you looking so battered? Then it must be pretty important."

"I only tried to access its contents, and they hunted me like I was a most-wanted criminal." Helena said, "I tried cracking it, but failed, and it automatically sent an alert to a higher-level server. I only had time to copy the data. But be careful if the crack fails."

"It might upload data again and expose our location. Thanks for the warning. You really brought me a hot potato." Barbara sounded as though she were complaining, but there was not a hint of retreat on her face. She stretched her slender fingers as if preparing for a major battle.

"But you'll handle it, right?" Helena asked. "You always do."

"Of course. Stand back and watch carefully."

Barbara made it sound easy, but it was anything but. For the next half hour, she did not say a single word, focusing entirely on the computer screen. Helena watched her fingers dance across the keyboard as lines of green code streamed across the black interface like a surging river. She could not understand much of it, but she could tell this was not an easy fight. Barbara's expression was grave, like a chess master confronting a once-in-a-lifetime opponent and engaging in a fierce exchange.

Helena quietly waited beside her without interrupting. She pulled over a chair and sat down, unable to stop herself from getting a little sleepy.

After quite some time, the code rolling across Barbara's screen finally stopped. A successful decryption prompt popped up in the center of the interface at exactly the right moment, and even Helena, watching from the side, could not help feeling the thrill of clearing a game on hell difficulty.

Barbara let out a long breath, as if she had completed a thousand-mile march. "This thing you wanted to see is really something. This is military-industrial-grade encryption—no, it's even beyond that. I can barely remember the last time I cracked a security protocol this troublesome."

"I told you it was important." Helena eagerly leaned over the back of Barbara's chair and urged, "Open it already. What exactly is in there?"

Barbara opened the folder, and the long list of related parties Jay had seen appeared first before the two women. Barbara opened the subsequent folders one by one. The detailed files told a story of extraterrestrial exploration and a Kryptonian visitor who had answered humanity's invitation to come to Earth, just as Jay had heard from the project's sole remaining survivor.

"So that's where that little Kryptonian came from." Helena clicked her tongue and muttered.

"Who?" Barbara had not fully processed the information yet, and she asked in surprise, "You mean it's real? A Kryptonian none of us knew about has been hiding on Earth all this time, and you've met him?"

"I have. Bruce has too," Helena said casually. "Maybe I can introduce you sometime. He's a pretty interesting boy. Wait, is there another attachment here?"

Only then did Barbara notice the attachment they had nearly overlooked in their surprise. It was named "S.D.E-NEO," and it seemed this project had a continuation.

They had thought what they saw earlier was startling enough, but they never expected the truly suffocating content to begin only here. When Barbara opened the attachment, Helena felt as though she had almost stopped breathing. She could not help questioning whether the contents recorded here were real, because they were simply too unbelievable.

If this was true, then everything they had seen, experienced, and lived through was all an unimaginably enormous lie.

Metropolis, hospital.

Night quietly descended upon the sleeping Metropolis. The sun gradually slipped beneath the city's silhouette, swallowed by the darkness, while artificial lights shone through the ward's only window. Kara had been at Lois's bedside for hours. Lois still lay unconscious, her face pale, showing no sign of waking.

The spacious room was utterly silent, making the steady beeping of the heart monitor especially piercing.

Jay landed on the balcony without making almost any sound, like an intangible breeze, but Kara noticed him anyway. She hurried outside and quickly saw the exhaustion and grief written all over his face.

"He was right in front of me, that poor old man," Jay said dejectedly. "We... we were probably this close. But I couldn't save him."

"Jay."

"I should have saved him." Jay ignored her interruption and continued in a low voice. "I should've reacted faster. I should've gotten him out of that house before the fire. I should've noticed that bomb sooner. I—"

"Jay." She gently stroked his face and looked straight into his light blue eyes, now clouded by gloom. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I can imagine, because we've all been through it. But you have to remember, it wasn't your fault, okay?"

"I watched him burn to ashes right in front of me." Jay lightly held her hand. "It felt like... like I was the one being painfully burned alive."

"I know," Kara said softly. "We all feel that way, and later, you may feel it even more—perhaps even worse than this. The secret is to remember that this pain does not belong to you. That is precisely why we have to help those who are suffering. You have to remember that even though we possess such great power, we are not gods. We are only trying, again and again, to make the right choices."

Jay was silent for a long while before asking, "So this feeling... it never goes away, does it?"

Kara nodded. "That's right. It doesn't."

Jay looked out at the brightly lit city below the balcony and took a deep breath.

"Thank you," he said. "I feel better now."

After a pause, he added, "I have to go."

"I can help," Kara said.

"No. I need you to look after Lois, and my parents. They could all be in danger." Jay said, "I still don't know who I'm up against, but they fired a missile at my office. And just when I found someone willing to tell me something, they blew up the house."

Kara covered her mouth. "Rao above, what happened?"

"I don't know yet. But I do know this has become my business." As Jay spoke, he rose back into the air. "I have to figure this out. Can I ask you to keep them safe?"

"Of course." Kara nodded. "Go. Do what you have to do."

"Thanks. I'm really glad to have you by my side. Really."

He smiled faintly, then moved, turning into a blue afterimage as he shot into the night sky.