Like ripe fruit hanging from branches, the cities Brainiac had collected were the fruit inside his ship. Their knowledge was the nutrients. Within them lay nearly every stage of history, technology, and civilization. Just looking at them, Liu A'dou felt the vast richness of the universe—and this was only a fraction of the civilizations Brainiac had gathered. Most of those worlds no longer existed. Out in the cosmos, many more still remained.
Walking here was like strolling through a miniature history of the universe.
In the middle of the shrunken cities, Liu A'dou saw Brainiac. The green-skinned alien sat inside a massive conical machine, eyes closed, controlling the ship. His body bristled with ports, many of them plugged into thick data cables. Those cables carried knowledge extracted from the miniature cities and also relayed commands to the ship.
Kid swaggered right up in front of Brainiac and was shocked that the alien didn't even notice him. Clearly, this guy had never dealt with a real thief.
But the moment Kid made a move, he'd be discovered. Should he steal first or fight first? If he stole first, combat would follow anyway. If he fought first, that would turn stealing into straight-up robbery.
It was obvious Kid didn't take the enemy seriously. Stealing or robbing, for an expert thief with decades of experience and countless classic heists under his belt, there was only one choice—steal. Take the goods and vanish. That was the Phantom Thief's style.
"Guess I'll need a new title after this," Kid chuckled. Emotional energy surged into his ring. The wedding band gleamed, seven colors blending into pure white light. The beam shot outward. "The Thousand-Handed Thief, hahahaha!"
Under each city hung a glowing hand, gripping its base. When the time came, he would have to snatch them all in an instant. The difficulty was enormous. Sweat trickled down Liu A'dou's forehead. The ring's power ran off his emotions, and now he had to control more than 2,000 hands at once. Every move demanded hyper-speed calculations. Kid's brainpower was already top tier, but splitting focus more than 2,000 ways was pushing the limit.
Ready. All the hands were in place. On the count of three, everything would move.
Three. Two. One. Kid's thousand hands moved together. Just like plucking apples, he twisted the miniature cities, snapping the stems to take the fruit. Cities in hand—time to vanish.
Steal first, then run. That was Kid.
Data streams cut off. Brainiac's eyes flew open, fury blazing like fire.
Back in Metropolis, Batman whipped out his tablet, using the space station's teleport system to blink across the city. He appeared and vanished like lightning, fighting in different spots at once.
Batman's specialty was his endless supply of explosive Batarangs. Even the toughest steel walls could be blown apart. He might not be as fast as Superman, but he fought nothing like a normal man.
What ordinary human could teleport this often, land with perfect accuracy, and keep fighting nonstop? Only Batman.
The robot legion wasn't huge. They were consumables. Brainiac hadn't replenished them—he wasn't waging war, just cleaning up. He didn't need too many. Pairs of robots stomped down the streets, mechanically firing their weapons. They killed anyone in front of them but ignored those who ran, simply marching forward.
Batman hurled enough explosives to blast them sky-high. Two versus one? No problem.
Superman's side was even easier. His fists crushed robot skulls like a grown man crushing empty soda cans.
The robots were no real threat. The real pity was for Lois and Jimmy. They couldn't even snap photos—Superman and Batman were moving way too fast today, rushing from one scene to the next.
"When did Batman get superpowers?" Jimmy had been hoping to catch a close-up photo of him. Pictures of Batman were worth a lot. But Batman only ever appeared for a few seconds, tossing a Batarang before vanishing again, never giving Jimmy a chance.
"I think it's the Justice League's space station teleport system," Lois said. She knew plenty—Superman often gave her firsthand information during interviews. She just didn't report everything. She had to protect Superman too.
Jimmy thought to himself, who knows how much more black tech exists in this world? He had just bought a scooter, but the heroes were already using teleport systems. No way to compare.
"What are you waiting for? Move!" Lois clicked along in high heels, walking faster than Jimmy. "Show some reporter's spirit—hurry up!"
Jimmy muttered that reporters weren't athletes. He was already running as fast as he could.
"Wait, Lois, look." Jimmy pointed up. The blue sky was covered by a veil of white light.
"What now?" Lois frowned at the sky. Aliens always pulled out new tricks, endless and unpredictable. With humanity's limited wisdom, how could they ever understand the methods of so many alien races? The universe was too vast. Earth too small. Humans too weak.
The gauzy white curtain of light wrapped Metropolis, sealing it inside a giant sphere. The barrier cut through every road and bridge connecting the city, isolating Metropolis as a lone fortress.
Then something even stranger happened. The glowing sphere rose upward, and as it ascended, it shrank.
Jimmy and Lois crouched low to keep their balance as the city rose. They exchanged looks. "We're going up."
"We're being pulled into the ship."
Superman had flown out before the barrier closed. He wanted to stop Metropolis from shrinking, but the ship's shield held him back.
He needed momentum. He needed speed. Clenching his fists, Superman hurled himself forward like a living missile. His Kryptonian body was tougher than any warhead.
Boom!
The ship, strong enough to roam the cosmos, cracked open under his blow.
"A Kryptonian?!" Brainiac instantly recognized what he was. His original plan was to secure Metropolis, recover the lost cities, and then destroy the sun. But this was an unexpected prize. A Kryptonian—something different.
"Brainiac." Superman had guessed his name too.
No more words. Time to fight.
Brainiac stayed inside his machine, using the data cables as weapons, refusing to lift a hand himself. Superman closed in easily, planting a fist right in Brainiac's face. The punch bent his neck backward at a grotesque angle.
Superman thought he'd won. He used his x-ray vision to scan the ship, hoping to find a control hub to stop Metropolis from shrinking. But there wasn't one. The ship was entirely run through cables. No master switch.
Then he'd just destroy it. Superman found the shrink ray and lit up his heat vision—
Bang!
Before he could fire, a massive cable smashed him to the ground from behind. The force was enough to break mountains and shatter cliffs. Even Superman staggered from the blow. Looking back, he saw Brainiac staring calmly at him, untouched.
Steam hissed from the conical machine. Facing Superman, the Civilization Raider finally spoke, "Kryptonian—and the thief who stole my collection. You're both looking for death!"