Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 59 The aftermath of the earthquake

The entire tectonic structure of the Northern Hemisphere was already in Joey's mind, and he had considered the weak points and strong points of each plate one by one.

For humans, such a disaster, enough to tear apart half of the Eurasian plate, is like the wrath of the gods, something that cannot be resisted. But for Superman, stopping this massive earthquake is just like a timed Lego assembly.

All Joey had to do was create cavities in some weak plate regions inside the Earth's crust to absorb stress, and then apply the opposite force to other solid plate regions to stabilize the strata, counteract plate collisions, and then use freezing breath to cool the deeper geothermal lava to prevent possible lava eruptions.

Having accomplished all this, Joey emerged from the ground, accompanied by Reverse Lightning, who had just traversed the earth's crust.

Unlike Joey, who simply carves a narrow crevice in the Earth's crust to pass through, speedsters like Reverse Flash can vibrate their molecules at a microscopic level, maintaining a specific frequency to pass through most objects, including the Earth itself.

Reverse-Flash, looking utterly bewildered, turned to Joey. Joey had primarily dealt with Barry Allen before, and this was the first time he'd witnessed the power of a Kryptonian so closely.

"This is impossible! No, this is not scientific!"

"That's scientific. Forces are reciprocal and can cancel each other out. If you're going to say it's unscientific, then you guys who work on the speed force are even more unscientific."

Joey had other problems to deal with, so he simply turned and left, leaving Reverse Flash looking utterly bewildered.

As mentioned before, it was just a simple LEGO assembly.

~~~~

Louis Lane and Jimmy Olson are getting ready to take a taxi to leave London's Heathrow Airport.

"Jimmy, I bet you, Perry White wants to tear us to pieces right now!"

Louis, whose phone had just connected to the internet, looked at the 100,000 missed calls from his boss, editor-in-chief Perry White, on his phone with a frustrated expression.

Because of the flight delay, I missed the Amazon Queen's declaration of withdrawal, and because of the ensuing invasion of the Atlanteans, the plane that had already crossed the English Channel had to turn back to Berlin Airport.

After the situation stabilized somewhat, I took another delayed flight from Berlin to London, hoping to catch the tail end of a big news story, but by then it was basically too late.

All weapons of the Royalists and Parliamentarians were completely confiscated, not even a single baseball bat was left.

Rather than letting a "civil war" that could only be described as a street brawl determine the future of Britain's political landscape, the two sides, concerned with their reputation, ultimately chose to sit down and talk.

Apart from the occasional sporadic Amazons around Buckingham Palace in London, the British Isles have largely returned to their former appearance.

As a journalist, I missed almost all the big news stories because I wasn't fast enough.

But what no one knew was that Louise Lane had another hidden identity; on the surface, she was a reporter for the Daily Planet, but behind the scenes...

"Agent Louis Lane!"

The metal watch on Louis's wrist suddenly transformed into the shape of a communicator, projecting Steel Bone's mechanical skull in front of Louis.

Louis quickly pressed the projector on the communicator, preparing to hide in a less crowded area: "Are you crazy, Cyborg? Won't this expose me...?"

Cyborg's voice continued through the communicator, this time at a volume several octaves louder: "Forget about hiding now, run! Louis! Get to safety! The earthquake's less than a minute away!"

Cyborg, whose mind was active in cyberspace, immediately learned of Lex Luthor and Deathstroke's detection data. Without much calculation, he arrived at the obvious conclusion: the earthquake would tear apart Western Europe, and hundreds of millions of people would lose their lives.

Cyborg didn't know what he could do to stop the disaster, but he knew he had to do something.

For the first time, he transgressed his own rules, openly bypassing all firewalls and turning all electronic devices in Western Europe capable of transmitting information into his own communication tools, including Louise's communication devices and all the broadcasts and electronic screens in the airport where she was located.

"An earthquake is imminent! Please evacuate immediately!!!"

This sound is echoing on every cell phone, every television, and every radio station across Western Europe.

This was Cyborg's last struggle in despair, even though he knew it would hardly make any difference, because in an earthquake of nearly magnitude 12, survival depended almost entirely on luck.

Without orders from the Grand Commander, Cyborg's main body, along with hundreds of drones, took off from Detroit, choosing to risk heading towards Western Europe.

Steelbone had calculated that compared to those who perished in this disaster, the number of people he could save in this operation was only a tiny fraction, and he was also risking angering the President. But that was no reason for him to stand by and watch people die.

"I'm looking for Billy, yes, Billy Batson! What? He's taking a nap? Wake him up and get him to answer the phone!"

While flying to Western Europe, Cyborg also took stock of the members of the "American Justice Society" he had organized, and finally found that only Shazam the Thunder seemed to be of use at this time.

Moreover, before Shazam the Thunder uttered the word "Shazam!" and transformed into a warrior with the power of six gods, his true form consisted of six children, led by Billy Batson, and a magical tiger that accompanied them.

Cyborg had to admit that what Batman said when he went to recruit him a couple of days ago was true: the group he had assembled was less like a super team to maintain world peace and more like a super circus.

A bolt of lightning struck from afar, accompanied by a shout of "Shazam!" echoing through the clouds. Shazam appeared before Cyborg at incredible speed.

Shazam's white cloak whistled as he came to a sudden stop, and a hint of worry appeared on his rugged, resolute face, as hard as marble.

"No need to go, Cyborg. I understand how you feel, but the situation there isn't as bad as you think. Someone has taken care of the disaster."

Blessed by the six Greek gods, Shazam has learned through his connection with Gaia, the goddess of the earth, that the disaster has been averted. On the contrary, Cyborg's antics may cause some minor casualties.

But Shazam didn't blame the other person, because no one can guarantee that they will never do something wrong with good intentions.

Louise Lane, who was far away in London, was momentarily stunned when she heard Cyborg's words, but she still chose to believe him. However, the other people in the airport just found it strange as they watched the earthquake warnings scrolling across the airport's large screens and their own mobile phone screens.

"Whose prank is this now?" "The airport's cybersecurity is terrible!" "Wuhu takeoff! Watch me, meat, eggs, scallions, and chicken!"

People at the airport just assumed it was some geek doing performance art and mostly continued playing on their phones until the first slight tremor came.

The airport's dome structure groaned under the strain, and the ground trembled slightly.

Only then did the normal earthquake early warning push notifications finally arrive on everyone's phones:

[Magnitude 4 earthquake, please take shelter immediately.]