Peter made a hesitant sound, his sentence getting stuck in his throat.
He could only shake his head and ask, "No—what exactly are you doing?"
Soren ruffled his hair, concerned that their conversation might disturb others.
He waved Peter over, inviting him to crawl under his blanket.
Peter's face reddened in the pitch-black room, "Th-this doesn't seem right…"
—But his body was already honestly making its way under Soren's blanket.
He hunched over and crawled into the blanket that Soren had propped up.
Soren then pulled the blanket tightly over them.
The two of them sat cross-legged on the bed, the blanket draped over their heads, like they were in a cramped little tent.
To Peter's surprise, Soren had a small flashlight.
He turned it on and placed it on the bed, between his crossed knees, where several mechanical parts that looked very familiar were scattered.
Peter asked, "Where did you get the flashlight?"
Soren shushed him with a finger to his lips and lowered his voice again. "I borrowed it from Tony's lab."
"What do you need the flashlight for?"
Soren glanced at him, as if assessing Peter's discretion.
Then, seemingly recalling something, he turned his eyes back to Peter and said, "I'm making an implantable sound wave shield, to be placed here—"
He tapped his chest.
Peter looked down at the components in Soren's lap, picked up one of the parts, and asked in surprise, "You're modifying the sound wave masking device Batman made?"
Soren nodded. "I've set the specific frequency of my heartbeat to the masking band of the device and implanted it in my chest. That way, Clark won't be able to locate me through my heartbeat anymore."
"Why?" Peter asked, puzzled, "Our base is underground with lead shielding. Superman shouldn't be able to hear anything…"
"But I can't stay in the base all the time," Soren murmured.
He leaned closer, tugging at the hem of Peter's short sleeve. "Aren't you planning to go rescue Kong Kenan from the Crab Shell Prison? I want to go too. I think I can be of some help."
The faint scent of the base-wide shower gel drifted into Peter's nose, and he was momentarily dazed.
—Why did Soren's scent, despite using the same cleaning products as everyone else, smell so good?
Moreover, Soren was even wearing the base-issued uniform, and though it seemed to be an ill-fitting size, the cotton short-sleeve shirt he wore revealed a strip of his pale, glowing neck and collarbones.
Peter quickly leaned back, increasing the distance between them.
He thought his ears must be flushed red, but thankfully, the flashlight's glow was weak, and his ears were partially covered by the soft blanket, so Soren wouldn't notice his discomfort.
He fidgeted, pretending to examine the mechanical parts, and peered at Soren through the dial hole of one of the components.
"But, but Captain won't let you go. The Crab Shell Prison is dangerous. Captain said we need to make more detailed plans before setting out."
"So you did get a mission to Crab Shell Prison," Soren deduced successfully, nodding thoughtfully.
Peter immediately covered his mouth.
"How could you!" Peter exclaimed in shock.
Soren looked at him with affectionate eyes.
"You're still as easily tricked as ever, Peter."
"No, no, no, you can't go. Kong Kenan has special abilities. Superman won't easily let him go. The Justice League must have stationed guards at Crab Shell Prison. You're now the most wanted criminal. They won't let you slip by. The risks are too high for you to go to Crab Shell Prison," Peter said urgently.
Soren replied, "I know, but I have to go. When Batman and I were working on the 'Prometheus Plan,' we never intended to involve him. He contacted Batman himself and offered to help us divert Clark's attention, which is why Clark captured him and put him in Crab Shell Prison. How could I just stand by and do nothing?"
He said calmly.
His eyelids, thin as if transparent, lifted.
He looked at Peter with a deep gaze, as if looking at everything that had flowed past in the torrent of time over the past few months.
…During his time in Washington, he had maintained close contact with Batman through the new Earth code in comic books.
Every copy of <
Each batch of books was sent to the destruction center for decommissioning concealed records of his secret communications with Batman.
Under Clark's nearly twenty-four-hour surveillance, he could only convey information to the outside world through these indirect methods.
Batman informed him that Superman had placed the prototype of a stamina-enhancing agent, suitable for ordinary humans, in the Fortress of Solitude.
To obtain this small green pill, Green Arrow had made a tragic sacrifice, Martian Manhunter had been burned to death, and Captain Atom had self-destructed.
They had all fallen one after another, all for the sake of obtaining this symbol of hope—
Once they had it, they could develop an antidote to negate its effects and also replicate pills with the same properties.
This meant that the Regime army would no longer be invincible, and the resistance could match the Regime army's combat power in various regions around the world.
He and Batman ultimately decided to name their plan "Prometheus," because what they were stealing from the vast Arctic ice fields was the fire of humanity's destiny.
Over the past three years, humanity has been utterly defeated in the face of Superman's power.
—At the beginning, humanity could only distrust, hate, and betray one another in the face of this sudden and overwhelming force, surrendering like loose sand beneath Superman's feet.
But as the number of people sacrificed in the fight against Superman increased, the spilled blood grew redder.
Everyone finally realized that the only ones who could lift them from their downfall were themselves.
Thus, one after another, resistance bases sprang up around the world, imitating the first base established by the Avengers, appearing like mushrooms after rain.