"You want to seize control of the fleet directly? Is that even possible?" Spider Man asked skeptically, raising a few doubts, "Not to mention the multitude of guards on this ship, how do we get to the control room? The control room of the spaceship is definitely the most tightly-guarded place in the entire fleet. Isn't going there to seize control of the spaceship like stepping into a trap?"
But Helen, Harley, and Little Bruce all remained silent, which made Spider Man doubt his perspective. He paused and then asked, "Is there something wrong with what I said?"
Harley pointed at her head and said, "Think again, don't you feel that these alien invaders of Earth hint at getting, how to put it... out-of-date?"
"They are aliens, how could they possibly be from the same era as humans?"
Helen looked around the spaceship cabin and then said, "Don't you think this place and all these people reek of a lack of imagination?"
"But they're still very powerful. They have so many fleets, and everyone is wearing that incredibly defensive armor."
"That's not what we're talking about." Harley shook her head, she sat cross-legged where she stood and said, "We mean, they're like bland villains from cartoons decades ago with no style."
"So what?"
"So we can completely deduce their weaknesses through the logic of villains in cartoons."
Helen also started to kneel and started to explain the theory to others.
Listening to their conversation through the Necronomicon in Harley's hands, Shiller combed through his memory in the Tower of Thought and finally found the reason for this strange situation.
In a nutshell, after the New 52 reboot, Darkseid's origin story had been changed.
Previously, Darkseid was the second prince of the Apocalypse Star. Then, the king of Apocalypse Star was his father, and his brother was the heir. One day, his brother claimed that he had found a powerful Omega Effect in the cosmos. When this news reached Darkseid's ears, he set a trap for his brother and acquired a powerful force.
Latterly, when Darkseid's father, the ruler of the Apocalypse Star, had an accident, his mother temporarily took over the throne. During this time, Darkseid fell in love with a female scientist. Strongly opposed to the marriage, Darkseid's mother arranged for the scientist to be assassinated.
Darkseid, having lost his love, sealed his heart, completely denying his emotions. He ordered Desaad to poison the queen, usurped the throne, and became a cold-blooded tyrant.
However, after the universal reboot event of Flashpoint, Darkseid's backstory was changed to him being a simple farmer on the Apocalypse Star. Because of his disdain for a group of ancient giant gods on the planet, he went to their resting cave and stirred up strife amongst them, leading them to kill each other. In the end, he killed them all with his own scythe. Darkseid absorbed their power and transformed the planet into the contemporary Apocalypse Star.
This is why Darkseid of this universe is interested in the equation in Batman's hands. Because he never gained the power of Omega from his brother, the power he is using now is that of the ancient gods of Apocalypse Star.
Although this origin was soon changed back to the previous version, it is clear that Helen and her group came at a peculiar time. The current Darkseid is still the farmer who absorbed the power of the ancient gods.
Even without careful comparison, it's clear that after the change of the origin story, Darkseid, as a villain, plummeted in terms of style by about 2000 percent overnight.
Once, Darkseid's backstory included royal family fights, fratricidal strife, devastating loss of love, matricide for revenge, and heartless usurpation. This, if not a strong narrative, didn't make sense. Clearly, it is like those villains who even if they die in the first season, would get revived in the third season just to reveal their sad backstory.
But the second version, to put it in a sophisticated way, is a full borrowing of the style of ancient myths and biblical stories. It wouldn't be discordant for this version of Darkseid to appear as a villain in children's fairy tales.
Although it cannot be said that stylishness is equal to strength, it is normal to judge who is more skilled at contending for the cosmos between a second prince living under high pressure and disliked by everyone and a vicious-tempered farmer.
Even if Darkseid had suffered many setbacks later, he didn't lose much prestige. It can be said that this period of time when his origin story has not yet been changed back is his weakest period.
The lack of boss's aura affects the entire team's style. It feels like the typical villains from old-time comics. This is why Helen and her group feel that they are everywhere uncouth.
Upon realizing this, Shiller found now to be the best time for the Prime Universe to deal with Darkseid. After a while, when Darkseid's background story changes back and regains prestige, it is feared that the whole Dark Elites' strength will greatly increase, and it will be more difficult to take action.
Shiller didn't hesitate for a second and directly controlled the Gray mist to send a message to Harley. According to the current situation, guessing the behavioral pattern of these villains isn't difficult at all. It can be nine times out of ten that even if Bruce returns, he can answer, thus it does not serve any role in training. So might as well take a shortcut and clear it straightforwardly.
"Just tell Weiman that we've figured it out." Harley read out the words that appeared in the Necronomicon, she frowned and seemed a little puzzled.
The others gathered around too. Although Helen had figured out the true identity of Shiller, she didn't intend to expose him. But this time, even she didn't follow, so she asked, "Why tell Weiman we've figured it out? Is it to lower his guard and then catch him off guard?"
"But there should be many guards around him, right?" Spider Man questioned, "Even if we can surprise him and knock him down, the swarm of guards rushing up would be troublesome."
"The key is that if we really battle with them, then we definitely can't have this spaceship." Helen, clutching her chest in pain, said, "These are our Earth's precious ancient heritage!"
"You'll find out when you get there," Shiller wrote again.
They all looked at each other, then at Harley, asking, "What should we do? Should we trust him?"
"Is this book really that kind-hearted?" Little Bruce's paranoid tendencies immediately flared up.
However, Helen closed the book with a slap, holding Harley's hand and said, "In any case, we have to deal with Weiman. We have to go and see him. It's not like we can run away, right? Perhaps, we can find some loopholes in the control room."
After a while of discussion, they realized that this was indeed the best method right now. If they wanted to apprehend the main culprit without damaging the spacecraft, they can't straightly rush out from here. Therefore, they had to let the guard take them to see Weiman.
After a while, Harley desperately beat on the glass, shouting, "Someone! Someone! We've thought it through, take us to see your boss, come on!"
Within half a minute, a burly guard walked in, his brow furrowed, glaring at the children with a ferocious expression, saying, "What's all the noise about?"
"Take us to see Weiman." Little Bruce leaned back, arms crossed, and said with an air of authority, "We have important clues about Batman to provide him. If you delay another moment, your General Steppenwolf may be killed by Batman!"
"What did you just say?!" The guard immediately glared at Little Bruce, his eyes wide with anger.
Helen nudged Harley gently with her elbow and said, "Good. It seems not a few guards are on Steppenwolf's side. Conflicts between security personnel and research personnel, eh?"
LIttle Bruce mixed truth and fiction about Batman's family matters. After all, he was Batman himself, what was there that he didn't understand?
The guard saw his sincerity, and being a low-level minion himself, didn't have access to any crucial information. If that damn Batman was indeed preparing a trap for General Steppenwolf and Steppenwolf carelessly fell into it, did that mean they would have to listen to that Weiman in the future?
The guard stepped out and called a few people. An individual who looked like a researcher walked up to the children, and through the glass, he put energy cuffs on them, removed the glass and let them out.
Little Bruce gave Helen a look, implying if they should make a move now. He could tell that the seemingly powerful energy cuffs probably couldn't restrain Helen and Aisha, and possibly Spider Man, either. If the three of them managed to break free, it would essentially mean they had escaped completely. Therefore, fighting their way out directly could also be a viable option.
However, Helen shook her head. She knew the true identity of the Necronomicon, thus trusted Shiller's choice. Mainly, she thought that if she behaved well, next time Stark sent her to Shiller's clinic to do homework, she could play games a bit longer.
Therefore, instead of attempting to launch an attack, they followed the guards. As they walked through the ship's corridor, Helen suddenly heard Harley's voice next to her ear: "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?"
Helen turned her head to look at Harley. Harley's voice rang out once more, but her lips did not move. Seeing the somewhat blank expression on Little Bruce who had also turned his head, Helen realized he had heard the voice as well.
"Now that we possess the same dark energy within us, we can communicate by changing the energy frequencies. We can't let them hear our plans when we confront that weird guy later," Harley said.
"Is that so?" Little Bruce's voice rang out, clearly he had also quickly grasped this method of communication.
Helen adjusted the energy within her and replied, "That's handy. But I bet you'll soon find me annoying."
They soon arrived at the control room. Despite it being called a control room, it was actually a multifunctional operation and office space. The front half, shaped like a semi-ellipse, was the control center for the spaceship's command and response system, while the rear half was a regular office. The two areas were separated by a non-enclosing wall.
However, once inside the room, the first thing to catch one's attention was the entire wall of the office side of the spaceship, which was made of what looked like glass, or to be precise, a highly transparent material.
Helen looked closely, noting the differences in this transparent material.
They had seen the portholes of the spacecraft when they were walking down the corridor, but they were mostly small. The transparency of the glass-like material was reduced, a clear result of special treatment to enhance its strength.
But in reality, windows aren't necessary for spaceships, and there's no such thing as a cockpit. Most of the time, spaceships aren't operated by the sight of the pilots. Instead, various kinds of radars and detectors serve as the eyes of a spaceship. The captain of the spaceship relies on reading various data to ascertain the conditions around the spaceship. Having windows is mostly for decorative purpose or to help ease the pressure of the crew in the enclosed space.
Having such a big picture window was quite unusual, thought Helen. She could clearly see that the picture window behind Weiman was highly transparent and seemed to have only one layer.
Suddenly, Helen's eyes widened in realization. She had figured out Shiller's train of thought. "Could it be that this guy is one of those who purposely install a luxurious picture window in the spaceship, just to stand in front of it with a glass of wine, watching the destruction of planets and lamenting, 'Such tiny creatures struggling to live, how pitiful'?" she wondered.
Weiman, who had been standing in front of the window with a wine glass, turned around.
"I often stand here, watching His Majesty Darkseid's formidable fleet destroy one planet after another, watching those tiny, weak beings like you struggle. How pitiful..." he mused.
Helen slapped herself on the forehead.