Brand Master [Comprehensive Yingmei]

"Vera, Detective Comics has sent the first draft."

"Put it down, I'll see later."

"Vera, there seems to be something wrong with the interview in this magazine—"

"I know, I'm talking to their editor-in-chief."

"Vera, Zhenglian and those guys destroyed a building when they were chasing criminals!"

"Are there any casualties? No? Contact the War Damage Foundation and I'll be in charge of the news."

"Vera, there's something about this public service announcement—wait a minute, you're dressed like this, you haven't slept all night, have you?"

"so what?"

"...Oh QAQ"

Vera.

Vera.

"Vera—!"

Cardiac arrest, loss of ejection function, respiratory arrest, loss of consciousness.

This is a typical symptom of sudden cardiac death.

In another top medical restoration room located in the outskirts of the city, the girl lay quietly on the hospital bed, under the emergency breathing mask, her small, delicate face was so pale that it was almost transparent.

Just a few minutes ago, Bruce, who was in the base, kicked away the coffee table and sofa that got in the way, snatched Vera with his hands, and pulled all the buttons on her chest when he gave her emergency chest compressions and artificial respiration. opened.

But Diana was not there, and none of the six men present was ashamed to help her change into a hospital gown, so they could only help her take off her coat tremblingly, unzipped the sweater, and wrapped her in such loose clothes, Take her to the medical recovery room near the base.

Looking at Vera, who was connected to countless instruments, received needles, and had electrodes attached to her chest, no one spoke except Batman who was adjusting the instruments.

Even Shazam, who is usually the most carefree, is full of worries and feels uncomfortable, let alone someone who has more interactions with Vera.

Hal and Bari were expressionless, they looked at Vera who suddenly fainted in silence, their eyes were dark and unspeakable.

Working without a break for weeks on end, staying up all night and all night, worrying about everything, abusing aspirin and other drugs, overeating without restraint...

Considering Vera Senna's physical condition and work intensity, it's not surprising that such a sudden situation would occur.

"She's a normal person."

Bruce drove a few people out of the recovery room, closed the door of the recovery room with his backhand, and said to everyone in the corridor, as if warning the group of colleagues, and as if emphasizing himself.

"Her physical condition is not optimistic."

All along, she has acted too tough, as if omnipotent.

Whenever she appeared in front of everyone, Vera was always full of energy and quick thinking.

When exactly did it start?

They're used to having her standing behind them, they're used to having her ever-reliable support behind the scenes.

They just remember Vera smiling and saying, "Do what you want, I'll do the rest."

But he forgot that when she said this, she was actually lying on the hospital bed.

"..."

Hal closed his eyes, only felt a throbbing pain in his chest, and asked hoarsely, "... how is she doing now?"

"The rescue was timely, and there is no serious problem for the time being."

Bruce glanced back at Vera in the room, walked in anyway, and closed the ward with his backhand in front of several people.

Although Batman's attitude was not good, his words made the few people who were almost worried about the explosion a little relieved.

At the other end of the corridor, Clark, who was talking on the phone, finally let go of his clenched fist after hearing these words from afar.

As a representative of Zhenglian, even if he wanted to escape, Trevor's call reached him immediately. Unfortunately, a few minutes ago, Clark's full attention was on Vera, and he could only hear The heartbeat in Vera's chest was beating, but she couldn't hear the buzzing bell of her communicator at all.

After the rescue was successful and Vera was sent to the repair room, Clark discovered Trevor's missed call.

For a moment, Clark's heart burst out with deep irritability and depression.

This mindless, suddenly rising lethargy and self-loathing disappeared the moment he thought of Vera.

...He's got to get these things sorted out in time.

He has to bear it, he has to deal with it—otherwise, these problems will only evolve into more complicated and annoying crises, weighing on Vera like a mountain.

Picking up the phone with a blank expression, Clark listened to Trevor's report on the situation at West Point, and at the same time paid attention to the movement in the corridor and in the ward.

He chased the sound of her heartbeat, and in the faint but gradually restored steady beating sound, he exhaled slowly and deeply.

"The reason for Diana's riot at West Point has been found."

After the call ended, Clark explained to everyone with a gloomy face:

"She ran into the exact same thing as the mutant side."

According to Trevor's explanation, the reason why Diana made a big fuss about the entire West Point Military Academy...was because of a female student named Elizabeth in the military academy.

As they guessed, Diana was invited to West Point Military Academy, and after experiencing the veiled and contemptuous attitude of the people in the military academy towards women, she immediately understood why Vera kept telling her to "calm down".

After understanding, although she was very angry, but since she had agreed to Vera, she maintained a calm attitude as much as possible, and she could bear some hidden difficulties and provocations. If she went too far, at most it would be He snapped back coldly and bluntly.

With Diana's temper, she was really serious about fulfilling her promise to Vera. She knew that she represented the Zhenglian, and it was not easy to fall out with the military, so she didn't do anything.

Originally, the first two days had passed smoothly. However, on the third day after she was about to leave, Diana bumped into the scene of a tragic accident.

——A high-achieving female student named Elizabeth was brutally gang-raped by six male students of the same level.

Just because Elizabeth performed too well, these people, under the concept of jealousy and stubborn "women can't be so good", for the purpose of teaching her a "lesson", they just attacked her like this.

When Diana broke into the scene, the poor female student had already been beaten and tortured inhumanely, and she was dying, lying there without dignity, almost dead.

In stark contrast, the six men standing beside her, while making fun of Elizabeth's body, stimulated her with the most unbearable words.

It is hard to imagine how angry Diana was when she witnessed this scene.

Facing the same tragedy, when Vera faced Sharlto, she let him die socially, while Diana almost killed the murderers.

The anger that had been pent up for three full days erupted in an instant. Facing the military school instructors who came to stop him, anyone who dared to defend the group of murderers would be counted as one, and Diana would beat them up.

By herself, she overthrew the entire West Point Military Academy.

"The most serious problem now is—Elizabeth is dying and comatose. There is no other evidence at the scene to testify to this. The six murderers uniformly said that they did not do this. Instead, it became Diana who committed the crime with divine power."

This situation is actually exactly the same as what Layla and the others experienced on the mutant side.

It was obvious that Leila was molested by Sharlto, but because there was no evidence, Joel's brave act turned into an unprovoked murder.

Diana is actually facing such a situation now: she clearly saw the scene of the crime and knew that the murderers were those bastards, but she had no evidence.

Those six people avoided all camera surveillance when they committed the crime. After the incident, they even set Elizabeth on fire with some kind of flammable liquid, artificially destroying DNA. Diana didn’t have the habit of recording evidence, so she fell into this vicious circle. .

Everyone only saw her committing murder on the spot, destroying the entire West Point Military Academy. Who knew that Diana was angry because of an innocent female soldier?

They even attribute Elizabeth's near death to Diana.

"But, doesn't Diana have a lasso of truth?"

Shazam was unbelievable. He was angry and anxious, and he wished he could go to West Point immediately to remind Diana and Trevor:

"Just use the mantra lasso on those sons of bitches!"

"Do you think Diana didn't use it in her defense?"

Clark sighed and explained helplessly.

"Of course, we all know that Diana's Lasso of Mantra can make a trapped man tell the truth - but who but us knows that it is a weapon made by Hephaestus, the god of fire?"

This is really an extremely absurd objective situation.

The lasso of truth, which makes trapped people speak the truth—the ability itself is an incredible magic.

Polygraph can detect lies, why not widely used in court?

Because many people don't believe that a lie detector can actually detect the truth.

In the same way, it can be proved that even if people inside Zhenglian know the true ability of mantra lasso, will the officers of West Point Military Academy, including the vast majority of people in the world, believe it?

Would they trust the lasso to tell the truth?Who knows whether Diana's lasso can make people tell the truth, or manipulate the trapped people to speak according to Diana's instructions?

This is the fundamental reason why Vera and the others never considered using Diana's lasso from the perspective of public opinion:

If you want to use the lasso to clarify the truth, you must first convince the world that the lasso of mantra really has this ability.

To do this, first of all, Diana must become a trusted hero, that is, to continuously expand Diana's influence and right to speak in this world—that is what Vera is about to do.

But now, Vera was overtired and fell into a coma, and Diana was slandered by West Point Military Academy because of a crisis of trust... Clark and Bruce, who walked out of the ward, looked at each other and thought of the same solution.

——Among them, one of them has to stay here to guard Vera, and the other needs to lead a team to West Point Military Academy to help Diana clarify the facts.

So, who will stay and who will lead the team to investigate the case?

"Batman go!"

Hal had already raised his chin to signal to Bruce, "I'll leave the investigation to you, anyway, you'll have no problem dealing with those generals."

Bruce: .

Bruce stood still.

"Or... Superman go."

Barry said a little worriedly, "As soon as Diana's temper comes up... Hey, Superman, it's faster for you to stop her."

Clark: .

Clark pretended not to hear.

Two men of the same stature stood facing each other, and neither of them planned to speak, but the steel bone who had been silent all this time suddenly sighed and said earnestly:

"In this way, letting Superman and Batman go to West Point Military Academy at the same time, wouldn't it just solve all the problems?"

As soon as this remark came out, the eyes of Hal and Barry, who were secretly worrying, lit up, and they all agreed:

"Good idea! Isn't it just right for you two to cooperate?"

"It seems to be like this. Batman is going to investigate the case, and Superman is going to stop Diana. The division of labor is very clear!"

"And aren't you two very used to dealing with the military and the media? The image that Vera created for you before is not fake."

"Superman and Batman will be fine together - get out there, you two!"

Four out of six people voted in favor, so let's go!

"Worried about Vera? It's okay, it's okay, I (we) stay with her, you go with peace of mind!"

Everyone, crazily blowing the rainbow fart of "World's Number One Partner", their eyes glued to Vera's side and not leaving.

Clark:? ? ?

Bruce:? ? ?

You people! ? ?

Outside the door, the six strongest superheroes in the world are arguing back and forth.

Inside the door, Vera, who was fragile and seemed to disappear at any moment, was sleeping alone, wrapped loosely around her body by the clothes she had untied a long time ago.

As soon as Mary, who received Clark's message, came here, she saw this annoying scene.

She squinted her eyes, and the light in her eyes suddenly dimmed.

The anger and great worry that had been suppressed erupted at the same time, and a strange and indifferent killing intent flashed across her face, and then disappeared without a trace in an instant, and she turned back into that hot-tempered, extremely capable woman. female assistant.

Stepping on high-heeled shoes and walking past, facing Clark who suddenly froze and Hal and Barry who were apologetic, Mary sneered:

"Thank you for your concern for Vera—but since I'm here, you don't have to worry about who is in charge of staying behind."

You superheroes... get lost!

I don't know if it was influenced by Vera. Mary, who is also an ordinary person, is not afraid of Zhenglian's superhumans at all. She obviously angered Zhenglian because of Vera's fainting, and stared at him with angry eyes. Superman and Batman.

"I'll stay here and watch over her."

Mary grabbed the doorknob of the ward with one hand, twitched the corners of her mouth, and said sarcastically:

"Gentlemen, at least I can change her into a hospital gown."

You don't even dare to help her change clothes, can you expect other actions?

Besides, when Vera wakes up, I really want to see you tear off her clothes and carry her to the medical repair room here like a hooligan. With her character, do you think she will explode?

Clark who did all this by himself: "..."

Bruce really wanted to say that this place still needs special care, but the medical repair room he built with huge sums of money was basically fully automatic. As long as Vera lay there, all the repair procedures would no longer require other operations.

So he also "...".

Under Mary's cold eyes, Batman walked into the medical repair room silently, adjusted all the instruments again, and led everyone to leave after confirming that everything was safe.

Before leaving, he looked down at the sleeping girl on the hospital bed for the last time, and his eyes fell on her sickly face.

Soft facial features like daisies, thick eyelashes like a small fan, short wheat-colored hair scattered, eyebrows that seldom let go, and... cold lips.

"..."

Bruce pursed his lips and sighed.

Didn't you say you'd give me a slap in the face?

You... woke up and slapped me.

Repeatedly told Mary, and asked Mary to notify them as soon as Vera woke up, and all the Zhenglian people could not stop worrying and left together.

The roar of the bat battleship taking off sounded not far away. In the secret and soundproof medical repair room, Mary, who was sitting in front of Vera's hospital bed, moved her ears slightly, but still focused on looking at the bastard boss on the hospital bed.

She heard the clear roar gradually fade away, and her heart sank slowly.

"See? Vanessa."

Mary carefully smoothed Vera's short hair behind her ears, slid her fingers down, held Vera's unconscious palm, and smiled with difficulty.

"This is... a superhero."

"I regret it, Vanessa."

she muttered.

I regret handing you over to them.

They can't take care of you at all, and they can't protect you.

……

……

Vera woke up again, three days later.

She seemed to have fallen into a long, inescapable dream. When she woke up, she opened her eyes to the soft beep of the restoration instrument, and was hugged into a familiar embrace.

The restoration instrument made an extremely light buzzing sound, which lingered back and forth in the huge restoration room, overshadowing the sound of breathing and heartbeat.

Mary, who was originally sitting by the bed, just stretched out her arms and hugged Vera tightly. She buried her head in the neck of the bastard in front of her, and yelled at her while hugging her with all her strength.

"Vera Senna, you are such a bastard, you should fucking die at the Zhenglian base! You should fucking die at work! You—"

Obviously it was such vicious cursing and cursing, but Mary who said these words was trembling uncontrollably.

Her voice was hoarse, and her whole body was hot, as if she was enduring something, and she seemed to be in great pain.

Feeling the wetness from her neck, the sleeping beauty who had been sleeping for three days was in a trance for a moment before laughing softly.

She raised her head slightly, allowing Mary to vent her emotions like this, pulled off the metal instrument in her hand with great difficulty, and hugged Mary with her back.

"Yeah, I'm an asshole."

Vera gasped twice, but the expression on her face was still indifferent, as if she didn't care at all about her dangerous experience of almost dying from overwork.

"It's not worth shedding tears over an asshole."

She tried a little hard to comfort Mary, but the words she said were still so annoying, "I used Zhenglian's special repair room? Where are they? Where's Diana?"

What day is this?

Judging by Mary's state, Diana's matter is probably resolved?

"..."

There was a sudden silence in the room.

Mary, who was still gnashing her teeth and cursing Vera, stopped talking abruptly, her body stiffened slightly, and a sharp sourness flashed across her eyes.

But when she let go of Vera, the expression on her face changed back to that look of hating iron and steel:

"Forget about being too busy! Those people don't care about your life, they all ran to West Point Military Academy to help you know!?"

Although her mouth is not forgiving, Mary still found the tablet honestly and started the news for the past three days for Vera.

So, Vera, who finally woke up, looked at the tablet and saw several sensational news headlines and an uproar in the public opinion field:

"Wonder Woman's disturbance at West Point Military Academy is suspected to be related to Zhenglian?"

"Justice League publicly defends Wonder Woman, sparking outrage"

"The U.S. military's response contradicts the Justice League: unforgivable! Resolutely demand an apology from the Justice League!"

Vera: "..."

Vera: "Sorry, my heartbeat seems to have stopped, I'll go to sleep for a while..."