Kryptonite

Just like the mainframes of all home computers, the World Federal Government's mainframe also had its own cooling fans, just on a much larger scale. The rapidly spinning blades resembled giant pot lids covering the mainframe directly above, with the supercomputer's servers hidden in the rooms beneath the fan blades.

However, the cooling fans didn't always spin that fast; they would periodically slow down or even stop. Helena didn't have enough time or patience to wait for it to stop completely. She secured herself to the ceiling of the room with her grappling hook gun and, estimating when the fan blades had slowed down enough, leaped from a height of twenty meters onto the slowly decelerating blades.

Her maneuver was incredibly perilous, calculated with extreme precision. She fell between two fan blades precisely in the moment after one blade had just passed. Two seconds after the grappling hook rope helped her land safely, it was severed by the sharp metal blades of the exhaust fan, cutting her off at the waist. It was a truly hair-raising situation.

The mainframe's temperature had likely exceeded sixty degrees Celsius, and with a significant portion of its resources being occupied, the temperature was still rising. Helena felt as though she had jumped into a large oven in its heating phase; within seconds, sweat had soaked through her entire uniform. She knew she couldn't stay there for long and needed to finish as soon as possible.

"I'm in," Helena said, quickly weaving through the dense rows of server cabinets and locating the core of the servers. "I'm ready to connect now. Are you ready on your end?"

"Ready anytime," Barbara said, cracking her knuckles.

Helena crouched beside a server cabinet, watching her wrist-mounted terminal computer being taken over by Barbara. Lines of code began to scroll rapidly across the screen. "Hurry up, Oracle. I don't think I can hold out here much longer," she urged.

At this very moment, in New York.

Watching Mongor, who brandished a Kryptonite dagger and advanced with a ferocious grin, Jay couldn't help but take two steps back. Yes, he was scared, and he didn't think there was any shame in it, as it was a normal instinct for a living being facing death. DC Comics had countless parallel universes and worlds, but for almost any version of Superman, Kryptonite was an eternal and absolute weakness. Just being within its radiation range caused Kryptonian cells to self-destruct, rapidly weakening all sorts of superpowers until they were weaker than ordinary humans.

"I believe I see fear in your eyes, kid," Mongor said, smiling smugly as he slowly approached. "But if you regret it now, it's too late. I won't let you die too easily, oh no, I won't. You still have value in the arena. But before that, I'll make you suffer greatly. I'll make you beg me to kill you."

He let out a loud laugh and suddenly accelerated. The ground behind him cracked as he pushed off. Jay's pupils contracted as he stared at the crystal-clear dagger, which swept towards him in a beautiful and deadly green arc. He forgot to dodge at first, only managing to retreat hastily when it was right in front of him, narrowly avoiding the blow.

Mongor sneered triumphantly at his panicked reaction, slashing with the Kryptonite dagger like a storm. Jay gritted his teeth and dodged frantically, finally finding himself unable to avoid the fifth strike. Instinctively, he raised his arm to block, but it was an unwise move – Mongor's dagger would likely have severed his entire arm.

However, that didn't happen. Or rather, what happened next exceeded the expectations of both of them.

The green-glowing Kryptonite dagger, imbued with Mongor's immense strength, struck Jay's arm with a crisp sound like a heavy blow on steel. Immediately after, his muscles snapped the dagger into two pieces. The intricately carved tip spun outwards, leaving a long trail of green dust in the air.

Not only Mongor, but Jay himself stood frozen in place, utterly bewildered, completely unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Wasn't he a Kryptonian? Why was Kryptonite ineffective against him? But if he wasn't a Kryptonian, why could Superman's suit identify his Kryptonian genes?

It didn't make sense.

"No," Mongor stared at the half-broken Kryptonite dagger in his hand, so shocked he forgot to continue his attack. "No, no, this is impossible! The weakness of Krypton is absolute, how could it be..."

"Who knows," Jay shrugged, raising his fist again. "I guess you just forgot to check the almanac before you left home today."

He unleashed a full-power punch directly into Mongor's still-stunned face, sending the larger man flying like a cannonball. The massive body crashed through an elevated railway track, causing the corner grocery store to collapse into rubble.

Mongor burst out of the debris, his rage beyond measure, but it was a final desperate struggle, more akin to a cornered beast. He threw away the useless half of the Kryptonite dagger in his hand and roared as he lunged forward. Jay floated off the ground, surrounded by expanding rings of milky white energy. With a thunderous roar, he charged towards Mongor.

Both afterimages suddenly accelerated, air currents churning, and all surrounding scenery blurred into indistinct illusions. Both sides accumulated unparalleled kinetic energy, brewing for the most violent collision.

However, in that split second, the three circling fighter jets swopt down low again. Three pairs of six missiles, trailing dazzling fiery lines, roared out, aimed directly at Mongor. Mongor, charging at full speed, had no chance to evade. Zero-point-something seconds later, he collided head-on with the six missiles. The moment the missiles exploded, the released heat and impact canceled out most of his kinetic energy. Mongor stumbled out of the thick smoke, only to be met by Jay's fist.

The brutal monarch felt his body completely slip from his control. He was like a kite with a broken string, drifting powerlessly in the wind, crashing through a bank lobby and embedding heavily into the thick vault door. As he shakily got to his feet, the Kryptonian kid had already flashed in front of him, delivering another punch that sent him flying out of the bank ceiling again.

Mongor had lost count of how many more punches he had taken, just as he had lost track of how far he had been hit. Each of Jay's punches blurred his consciousness a little more. When he was finally punched from a hundred meters in the air into a human-sized crater in Times Square, he finally lost the strength to stand up again.

Jay landed lightly in front of him and commanded, "It's over, Mongor."

However, the exhausted Mongor burst into laughter instead.

"I don't know how you overcame the weakness of Kryptonite," he said. "But you think you've won? You think this is a problem you can solve with your fists? No, you haven't changed anything. Just wait a little longer, wait for Warworld to descend upon Earth..."

However, his subsequent arrogant declaration was cut short as he swallowed his words. The azure beam of light shot from the government building into the sky abruptly ceased. Countless particles, having lost their core, dissipated into the air. The spatial rift outside the atmosphere gradually closed, and the colossal dark silhouette of Warworld retreated from Earth.

"No!" Mongor strained to lift his neck, roaring in disbelief. "Why!?"

It was Helena. Jay couldn't help but smile slightly, the words "Best Partner" reappearing in his mind.

"Sorry, it looks like we won this time. As for you..." Jay walked up to him, grabbed the weakened giant by the neck with his left hand, lifting him into the air. He clenched his right fist, infusing it with unprecedented power.

Jay gritted his teeth, and his right fist shot out, its power surpassing every previous punch, as if to tear through space. The moment his fist collided with Mongor's jaw, the airwaves transformed into visible ripples, pushing outwards with overwhelming force. The ground cracked open with the two of them at the center, and the drastic change in air pressure sucked the wreckage of several cars beside them upwards, only to fall back to the ground with the scattered debris.

Mongor, long devoid of the strength to resist, allowed the full force of the punch to hit him unimpeded. His entire body shot upwards like a rocket, accelerating to imperceptible speeds in an instant, charging straight into the sky. The atmosphere was suddenly torn open by a huge gap. The alien king shot out of the atmosphere, his speed barely decreasing as he plunged into outer space, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Jay shook his slightly numb hand. ".Have a pleasant interstellar journey."

He let out a long sigh and surveyed the devastated cityscape around him, still finding it incredible. Nearly a third of New York City had been destroyed in their brief battle. Collapsed buildings and scattered vehicles were everywhere. Water columns spurted high into the air from ruptured underground pipes, like rain.

Jay hovered in the air, basking in the golden rays of the sun, and felt increasingly that the experiences he had gone through so far were as unbelievable as a dream. But thankfully, everything was over. Now he could finally rest, something he hadn't done in a long time. He just wanted to go home and not think about anything...

At that very moment, he heard a heartbeat, a heartbeat he was all too familiar with but was rapidly weakening, coming from the government building.

Jay's expression changed drastically. Without a second thought, he instantly shot into the air, a sonic boom trailing behind him as he sped towards the black iron building. The blue afterimage, as it streaked through the ruins, was like an invisible blade slicing through, scattering debris.

Government Building, Main Server Room. Ambient temperature ninety degrees Celsius.

Helena leaned against a server cabinet, beads of sweat trickling down her forehead. The moment they hit the scorching floor, they evaporated into steam, emitting a terrifying hiss. The server room was sealed like a steamer, completely enclosed by the massive exhaust fan, with not a single window. The high temperature generated by the server's high-load operation far exceeded the upper limit of human endurance.

Helena knew she was dehydrated. The high temperature was causing her to hallucinate, and Oracle's calls through her earpiece were becoming increasingly muffled, sounding as if she were miles away. She struggled to inhale the scorching air and, after several futile attempts, gave up trying to stand.

She laboriously glanced at the screen of her wrist-mounted terminal. It displayed "Transmission Complete," meaning her mission had been accomplished, at least. She hoped it wasn't a hallucination brought on by dehydration.

She sat down calmly and said softly, "Oracle, I don't think I can get out of here."

"Don't say foolish things, Helena," Barbara's voice was stern from the other end of the earpiece. "We just stopped an invasion by a mobile fortress loaded with strategic weapons, and you're telling me you can't overcome dehydration?"

Helena ignored her and continued, "You know, afterward, I thought a lot about what you said, about how I should repair my relationship with my father... I think maybe you're right. I want you to tell Dad for me that I'm sorry I never talked to him, that I don't blame him for Mom's situation..."

"Then go tell him yourself, Helena," Barbara said loudly.

But Helena didn't respond again. The sound of Oracle's voice in her earpiece grew fainter and fainter, quickly becoming almost inaudible. Sweat streamed down her long eyelashes, further blurring her vision. She couldn't help but think of many things about her father, of when her mother was still alive, of when she was very young. That distant life seemed so simple and happy.

She had almost given up hope.

But just then, he arrived, that inexperienced Kryptonian kid. He burst into the building like a blue bullet, impervious to even mosquitoes. Amidst the panicked shouts of aliens, he smashed through layer after layer of walls with his body, appearing in the main server room with a gust of cool wind. Without a word, he scooped up the dazed Helena in a princess carry and shot straight up into the sky.

The cold wind at a hundred meters in the air quickly helped her regain a little consciousness. She heavily opened her eyelids and, seeing Jay's face up close, dazedly revealed a smile, "You're here."

Jay had her lie in his arms as he flew towards the hospital—thank goodness the city hospital wasn't destroyed in the recent fierce battle. He smiled and said, "Yeah, I'm here. Don't talk, I'm taking you to the hospital now."

Helena let out two soft gasps and, surprisingly, obediently stopped talking. But that was quickly proven to be only because her consciousness hadn't fully returned. Half a minute later, she seemed to have regained her senses and abruptly asked, "Are you having me lie in your arm?"

"Uh, yeah, what's up?"

"Put me down!" As if instantly regaining her sharpness, she commanded in an unarguable tone.

"Huh? But..."

"I said, put me down! Now!"

Jay reluctantly complied and landed. He watched Helena's calves involuntarily go weak as she landed, almost unable to stand. He couldn't help but inwardly complain that her strange temper was just like the Bat-family's legacy; father and daughter were the same.

(Thanks to the book friend Camthalion for the 500 Qidian coins reward, and book friend A Bottle of Plum Wine for the 100 Qidian coins reward!)