Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4551 - 3633: Edge of Tomorrow (42)

Batman didn't even have time to get angry at Victor's attitude before a bigger problem appeared in front of him.

It wasn't just the Task Force crew here now. The hostages were rescued by ordinary police, who couldn't handle things as well as this group of demons and ghosts.

The shark monster in front of them had just swallowed a living person. Which police officer had ever seen such a spectacle?

The police, who had been getting along harmoniously with the Task Force, suddenly turned their guns around. They quickly retreated, formed tactical groups, set up their riot shields at the front, gun barrels at the back, all aiming at the Shark King.

The rescued hostages were terrified, screaming as they tried to run back, but their legs turned to jelly, tripping each other and falling on the ground.

The Shark King was a bit confused. His intelligence was indeed not high, but he had a keen sense of emotions. He could feel hostility from those aiming guns at him, but he didn't understand why.

He wasn't like Killer Croc who had mingled in normal human society. His lifestyle wasn't much different from that in the ocean. When he ate fish in the ocean, did he need to ask the fish for their opinion?

In his view, humans were much like fish. He ate when he was hungry, what's wrong with that?

The Shark King didn't understand why these people were showing hostility toward him. He hadn't done anything, just stood there scratching his head.

This action was his instinctive way of expressing confusion, but the police didn't know that. Seeing his shark monster raise its arm, they thought he was about to strike back and immediately started firing.

Suddenly, there was a volley of gunfire, forcing the other Task Force members to quickly find cover.

The bullets posed little threat to the Shark King, but the police's attitude enraged him. Just imagine if you were eating, and suddenly a fish jumps out of the tank and slapped you, wouldn't you get angry?

He roared and rushed toward the police. Pamela jumped out quickly to stop him — her vines swung mightily, sweeping away the cops in front.

The Shark King stopped halfway, finding the enemies gone, and looked back at Pamela, asking, "Tree! Trees! People!"

"Don't worry, I'm helping you deal with them!" Pamela waved her hand again, and the police on the other side were flung away.

"Stop!" Batman shouted.

"Stop what stop," Victor echoed beside him, "Can't you see she's saving those cops?!"

Though Pamela's methods seemed a bit violent, she did save the police well. Wherever the Shark King charged, she flung the police in that direction away, so the Shark King couldn't touch anyone, naturally preventing any harm.

Batman observed briefly, seeing the flung-away police were at most injured, which was better than being eaten. He hesitated a little but then left it alone.

Just then, a helicopter descended. Amanda stepped out of it. On her way here, she apparently hadn't checked the surveillance equipment and was unaware of the Shark King's loss of control.

Seeing cops lying everywhere, she thought it was the Joker and Harley Quinn's doing and cautiously retreated two steps.

Just then, the Shark King charged out, roaring at Amanda.

"What's wrong, Nanawei?" Amanda asked in surprise.

"Get out of the way!" Pamela chased behind shouting.

After roaring, the Shark King rushed toward Amanda. Pamela had to use vines to pick Amanda up. After all, she was one of her bosses, couldn't be too rough.

The Shark King was like a cat playing with a teaser wand, the more he couldn't reach Amanda, the more he wanted to jump up. Amanda kept screaming in the air.

"Put me down! Put me down!!!!"

The Shark King's sharp teeth flashed coldly.

"No no no! Don't put me down! Don't put me down!!" Amanda quickly changed her tune.

To calm the Shark King, Victor stepped forward, aimed his gun, and froze the Shark King.

Only then did Pamela put Amanda down. Amanda seemed shaken, and she was the kind who behaved particularly angry when scared.

"What are you all doing!!!" She charged into the factory like a mad cow.

The surrounding police were all down on the ground, the hostages too frightened to stand back up. Only Task Force members and Harley were still standing.

"Batman, you owe me an explanation!" Amanda roared at Batman, "If it wasn't for your mess-up in command, how would this have happened?!"

"That's right, it was him! He's the one who didn't let us be saved!" the hostages echoed beside.

It was clear that Amanda didn't think her command had any issues; she thought Batman's seizing of her command was just causing trouble and felt that Batman's command wasn't that successful either.

Batman didn't care about their accusations. As far as he was concerned, the hostages were rescued, Harley Quinn was captured, the mission was accomplished, and all unexpected events were within acceptable limits.

The more Batman showed this attitude, the angrier Amanda became. She walked deeper into the factory, trying to find evidence of Batman's mistakes. But Harley, standing by Batman's side, gradually widened her eyes.

She had been a bit too hasty when tying a submachine gun to him earlier, and the rope wasn't tied very tightly, now it had loosened. The gun was wobbling in mid-air.

Whoosh—bang!

The gun butt struck Amanda's head directly, making a crisp sound. Amanda fell over with a response. The world finally quieted down.

Fortunately, the subordinates Amanda brought were competent enough. Harley was eventually taken away by the Federation Shield. His plan was halfway successful; next, she just had to play Harley Quinn well and let Batman persuade her.

After being taken to the Federation Shield's base, Harley was locked in a room in the basement. In the evening, Pamela sneaked out to see her.

"My goodness. I dare say joining this team is definitely a dumb idea," Pamela couldn't help but say, "Nothing that happened during the day was part of the plan. Amanda hasn't woken up yet."

Thinking of Amanda who was knocked out, Harley couldn't help but laugh. But she coughed twice and said, "It's okay, as long as the final result is good."

"If it weren't for her paying so much, I wouldn't spend a second in such an unreliable organization! Anyway, I guess Batman will come to find you tonight. Just behave yourself."

After Pamela left, Batman came soon after. Harley really gave her all to play Harley Quinn, successfully preventing Batman from noticing any flaw.

The two held a secret conversation, barely reaching an agreement. At least that's what Batman thought.

The next day, after Amanda woke up, Batman went to find her again. Under his persuasion from both ends, Amanda finally agreed to let Harley join the X Task Force. She didn't expect her to help much, just not to cause trouble outside.

Just when Amanda wanted to rally her troops and explore the Brainiac Center which was being constructed by Brainiac, bad news came – Congress immediately demanded her to report to Washington.

Calling it a report was actually just a halfway recall, stopping her from further involvement in this matter.

Amanda was baffled. Brainiac was also an enemy of Congress, wasn't it a good thing to cause trouble for him here? Are those members rusty-headed?

Sitting nearby, hearing Amanda's phone conversation, Batman said: "I'm afraid that Professor made a move. He should be quite adept at these tactics, right?"

Amanda was also somewhat suspicious of Shiller, but she wasn't quite sure what Shiller relied on to influence Congress. Could it be the Justice League? But what reason does the Justice League have to persuade Congress?

This time, she got it right, it was indeed Shiller who acted.

To let the mercenaries earn more money, Shiller was quite painstaking. Too simple a task wouldn't get the budget; too difficult and the whole army might be wiped out. Designing a task with moderate difficulty really is an art.

Blowing things up wasn't Shiller's forte; he excelled at psychological and sociological strikes.

In fact, he didn't do anything particularly special, just had Brainiac record footage of the state police being deployed and sent it to Congress, prompting them to make this decision.

Brainiac is indeed a big problem, but as long as Amanda becomes a bigger problem, even at all costs, Congress will stand on Brainiac's side. To be precise, on the opposite side of Amanda.

Amanda's Federation Shield had always been marginalized, not because her ambition was insufficient or her capability was weak, but because it was a deliberate act by the president and Congress.

When you're just dealing with or limiting this gang of madmen, we certainly support you. But if you want to make use of this gang, it means you've become one of them, and the ones we need to deal with or limit would be you.

The Federation Shield was born under such circumstances. Ruling over superpowered madmen—how different is that from the madmen themselves?

The answer is no difference, both are uncontrolled.

So in order to reduce the danger of these people, they must be controlled, restraining their development speed. Hence, Amanda has always been suppressed, unable to make any progress.

Any act of advancement, seen from above, is thought of as her wanting to use this gang of superpowered madmen to cause trouble. Truly achieving results is even more alarming. If Amanda was to rise to power, then with the madmen in her hand, who would be her opponent?

Manipulating local police is considered quite a sensitive move. The enforcement power of the state police is significant, sometimes even the strong dragon of the Federal Bureau of Investigation can't suppress the local snakes.

New Jersey State is the base of the Democrats. Amanda's manipulation of the state police will hardly escape suspicion, she's already turned blue.

The Republicans won't allow such a powerful force to fall into adversary hands. The Democrats are actually not happy either, because they know Amanda isn't one of them, yet Amanda manipulates the state police to do business, isn't she taking away their gun?

It can only be said that Amanda is a typical isolationist in politics. When solving political problems, she basically only considers herself.

She thinks having support from the wealthy of Diamond Street gives her organization the ability to climb up. But if she looked up, she would realize the positions above are already filled. If you don't pull people down, but try to squeeze up, no one would agree.

The amount of power is fixed. When one person steps down to hand over to another, there wouldn't be any issue, because what's distributed to others remains the same. But if one tries to squeeze up, someone's power will be diluted, and nobody desires to see this. frёewebnoѵēl.com

If Amanda stayed obediently below, it'd be fine, but as she tries to squeeze up, and immediately grabs enforcement power, it's inevitable to face united resistance from those above. Because if she snatches the enforcement power today, she could snatch other powers tomorrow. Nobody is willing to hand over their power.

Shiller spotted this precisely, and that's why he set Amanda up with this method. Of course, this was only the first move, a series of chained traps followed.

In theory, Batman should be able to see the issue. But then again, if Amanda were receptive to advice, she wouldn't be in her current status.