Hope

"What?" James Jerome could hardly believe his ears upon hearing the order from headquarters, and subconsciously blurted out.

The communication channel repeated, each word cold and clear: "Target characteristics: wearing a blue bodysuit, red cape. Target confirmed to be highly dangerous, destructive weapons authorized, over."

James froze. Only now did he know his specific mission target. He was a soldier, his duty was to obey orders. He was like a sharp sword belonging to the government; wherever his superiors pointed, he had to strike, no matter how unwilling he was.

The blue figure designated as the target was currently confronting the large alien opposite him, standing still amidst the messy ruins, making him an easy target. But as James's thumb hovered over the missile launch button, the small button felt as heavy as if it were stuck, and he felt he couldn't press it no matter what.

The two fighter jets partnered with him flew past overhead, flanking him. He was the one in charge of the operation among the squad on site, and his two comrades were waiting for his instructions.

He stared intently at the two people confronting each other below, hesitated for a long time, and finally made up his mind. He disengaged the safety lock on the air-to-ground missile and gritted his teeth, whispering, "All units, listen to my command now."

As the three fighter jets flew low over their heads, Mongor revealed a strange smile and looked up at them, then said to Jay, "Do you know what the most ironic thing is, kid? It's that you fight for the humans of this planet, but they don't appreciate it at all. Believe it or not, these three fighter jets will strike you within a minute."

Jay also looked up at the fighter jets flying overhead and gritted his teeth. Mongor now held unimaginable power, so it seemed he couldn't expect these fighter jets to be here to help him.

After flying over their heads, they turned around as Mongor had said, like three agile swallows. They lowered their noses and aimed downwards, like hunting eagles. Two missiles detached from the racks under each plane, pulling out dazzling fiery trails as they dove. The three planes that dropped the missiles smoothly increased their altitude, climbing back into the sky.

Mongor watched the three pairs of six missiles fly at high speed with a triumphant smile, tearing through the air with sharp hisses. He looked at Jay mockingly, as if showing off his victory.

Then, all six missiles exploded on his smiling face.

Intense firelight was unleashed in an instant. Mongor was caught off guard, his massive body suddenly bursting out of the flames, trailing a long string of fiery smoke, piercing through layer after layer of buildings and walls. His disheveled appearance was a stark contrast to his previous arrogance.

James rapidly ascended in his beloved fighter jet, laughing and cursing to himself, "Damn, now that's more like it."

The communication channel from headquarters questioned what he was doing, as expected. James simply cut off the communication. As his fighter jet circled, he ripped off his mask and gave a thumbs-up to the figure with the flying cape, shouting over the roar of the engines, "Kick his ass hard, Superman!"

The voice was almost completely swallowed by the roaring engines, but Jay heard it. He nodded gratefully at the pilot, his gaze returning to Mongor, who was crawling out covered in dust and dirt.

Mongor glared at the three circling fighter jets in the air, his eyes seeming to spew fire. He didn't seem accustomed to the embarrassment of being slapped in the face at light speed. Before Jay could attack the fighter jets, he lunged forward and sent Mongor flying another ten meters with a punch.

"You're wrong, Mongor," Jay strode towards the fallen Mongor and shouted, "You said humans crave to be ruled by you, but these people are living proof against that. They chose the latter between your rule and hope, and there are many more on this planet who believe in hope. All they need is a reminder that hope is always there."

Before Mongor could steady himself, he roared and swung another punch at Jay, which Jay blocked with one hand. At the same time, his free right hand delivered a full-power elbow strike to Mongor's face, sending him flying again. His body scraped long cracks along the outer wall of a building, with bricks and debris flying like waves.

"Get out of our planet," Jay said coldly.

"Enough!" Mongor angrily got up, wiping a trace of blood from his mouth. He glared ferociously at the figure hovering before him. The glaring "S" seemed to have merged with Superman of the past, and all the resentment and hatred towards that Superman surged into his heart at this moment.

"What you've done has challenged the limits of my anger, Kryptonian brat. And you will regret this!"

He wasn't kidding. When Jay saw Mongor pull out a finely crafted, glowing green dagger from who knows where, he almost started cursing.

A Kryptonite dagger. This guy was really prepared.

The particles launched from the Federal Government Building had condensed to a visible level. The iron-black building had transformed into a launch tower, and a cyan beam shot straight into the sky, tearing a rift in space beyond the atmosphere.

People in good observation positions on Earth could already see the anomaly in the sky. An incredibly massive, dark shadow was gradually approaching Earth from the rift. That was the cosmic fortress "Warworld," loaded with destructive weapons. Once it successfully reached Earth's outer layer, Mongor would have the military power to obliterate any city on Earth, or even Earth itself, at any time. Then he wouldn't need to hide behind the scenes; he could openly threaten and conquer the world with his power.

At this moment, the rogue government agent Huntress was in the Federal Government Building, trying her best to prevent this from happening.

Helena felt this was definitely the most difficult infiltration mission she had ever undertaken. The aliens in the government building were not only incredibly tough, with physical abilities far exceeding humans, but the most troublesome thing was their extremely sensitive hearing. They could hear the friction of her cape and metal plates when Helena crawled through ventilation shafts.

While weaving through the complex corridors with these aliens, she sent a communication request to Oracle. Thankfully, Barbara didn't take too long to answer.

"Helena?"

"Ah! Thank God you answered!" Helena kicked an alien in a suit into an elevator shaft as she spoke. "Listen, I desperately need your help right now, the world-ending kind!"

Barbara was confused: "Slow down, Helena, what... is that gunfire where you are?"

"Uh, I'm dealing with a bunch of alien agents," Helena said, smashing another alien's head into a wall, adding, "That's not important. What's important is that a highly dangerous program has been activated here, and I might be the only one who has a chance to shut it down. Can you help me?"

"Help you? How?" Barbara asked. "If you want me to hack into the World Federation's system, I don't think that's possible."

"What if I can manually access their main server? Can you handle it through my terminal?"

"Hmm, maybe. I've never tried that before," Barbara asked. "But how do you plan to do it? You know that server is housed in a building with the world's top security measures, right?"

"I know. I'm inside it right now," As she said this, Helena stood at the edge of a platform. Twenty meters below was a huge, rapidly spinning fan – the main server's cooling exhaust fan.

"...And I'm planning to jump into the main unit."