Shiller piloted the spaceship around to the market side and sure enough, found that mother ship right above the central tower of the market. It was painted with the insignia of the Interstellar Security Committee, but there were a few strangely styled ships parked next to it, which were obviously not standard equipment.
Logically speaking, since the police had already descended, who else would visit the mother ship?
But at this critical moment, Shiller couldn't afford to overthink. The spaceship he was piloting could be recognized by the mother ship, and he himself had the official identity of an agent of the Interstellar Security Committee, so he wouldn't be attacked by the defense system. He smoothly flew his ship into the mother ship.
As soon as he entered, he realized something was off. The ship was not empty; on the contrary, it was quite lively, as if a party had just been held. A substance similar to alcohol was wafting through the air, its components slightly different, but Shiller felt a bit dizzy just from a sniff.
"These aliens actually take sedatives as drugs," Shiller sighed. He could roughly guess what was happening on this mother ship.
Instead of going to the cockpit first, he went to the control center and checked the ship's visit information. Unsurprisingly, the few strangely shaped ships outside all belonged to the black market boss Tolos.
And looking further, Shiller found information on more than a dozen private ships of high-ranking officials from the Intergalactic Alliance. In other words, not only were the police onboard the mother ship, but at least a dozen alliance high-ranking officials, some possibly bringing their families along.
After copying the information, Shiller found a mess downstairs in a banquet hall. Although it looked different from a human banquet hall, the slime everywhere and some peculiar odors could roughly suggest what had happened here before.
Continuing his search, Shiller finally found a large number of octopuses in the bottommost cargo hold of the mother ship.
Not an adjective, but actual octopuses. Aside from being over twenty meters long, they didn't differ much from human octopuses. They were soaking in tanks, currently in a somewhat dazed state.
As soon as Shiller walked in, he heard a voice saying to him, "Humans?! How could a human come here?!"
"Who are you?"
"I am a member of the Amikas tribe, Tolos sold us to those high officials. They… they…"
"Alright, you don't need to tell me." Shiller made it clear that he wasn't interested in hearing the details of the octopuses' victimization. He said, "I heard Tolos is also an octopus; why would he harm his own kind?"
"We're not octopuses, we… well, you're human, you decide. We and Tolos can't be considered the same race; accurately, we're two subspecies of a common ancestor, and we're at odds. Recently, their species launched a raid into our gathering area, making us his prisoners…"
"Since you're prisoners, what else is there to say?"
"That's not it; both our planets are part of the Intergalactic Alliance, so we must adhere to the alliance's war rules and prisoner exchange regulations, and can't randomly kill or abuse prisoners. But he falsely claimed we died in battle, wanting to sell us to the high officials…"
Shiller couldn't imagine what the high officials wanted these octopuses for, but when thinking about Constantine, he could only say that intelligent life's orientations are free; some people just like octopuses, and there's nothing you can do.
"Alright, I can find a way to get you out, but I also have business here. As long as you're willing to cooperate with me, we can benefit mutually."
"You're wearing standard equipment; are you disguised as a police officer to get in here? You're not planning on assassinating these officials, are you?"
"Not at all." Shiller started circling the tank, saying, "Don't worry about what I'm going to do; first, tell me what you can do."
"Our Amikas tribe has innate psychic abilities. However, when Tolos captured us, he put mind suppressors on us. Fortunately, my body size is smaller, so the collar model he used on me was incorrect, allowing me to talk to you. If you help us remove the collars, we can use our psychic abilities to attack those high officials; even if we can't kill them, we can at least make them pass out. Tolos alone isn't our match."
"But how can I be sure you won't attack me?"
"With the Ami God above, you're human; why would we attack you? We just want to live well!"
Shiller thought about it and felt what they said made sense. Weak humans are stuck on the planet's surface and can't escape; any human who can wander throughout the cosmos is an unspeakable existence. Not to mention getting onboard the mother ship, any alien seeing them would steer clear.
Shiller stepped onto a box, looked into the tank, and then asked, "How can I unlock your collars? Can you survive out of water?"
"We're not octopuses!" the voice shouted, "He soaked us in water because there's a drug in it that makes us weak. Just smash the tank, and we can fly out."
Shiller first looked around, confirmed there were no cameras, recalled the movement on the ship earlier, figured the ship's soundproofing should be good, and directly shot the tank with his laser gun. As expected, these octopuses turned into jellyfish-like forms and started flying around in the air.
"We're not jellyfish…" the voice said helplessly, "Even though we did evolve from the ocean, we've long transcended the realm of low-level aquatic creatures."
"Cephalopods are not low-level aquatic creatures," Shiller remarked, then grabbed an octopus tentacle to pull one down, using his laser dagger to cut open the collar between their heads and tentacles.
"Oh my!! Human!!! Don't kill me!!!" another voice screamed in his head.
Shiller ignored him and went to grab another octopus. After much effort, he finally cut the collars off these dozen or so giant octopuses.
"Thank you so much!" the initial voice said, "You saved our lives; we will report to our Emperor and later invite you to Cygnus for drinks."
"No need for that. I want you to knock out everyone breathing on this mother ship and ensure that, regardless of what they hear, they won't wake up in the next hour."
"Rest assured, although our ability isn't as powerful as Professor X's, it's more than enough to deal with these people."
"Do you know Professor X?"
"Of course, we were the first listeners to connect to his channel and often chat with him. I heard you all have been fighting recently, so if you need our help, just let us know."
"I appreciate the gesture. When can it be done?"
The octopuses collectively fell silent for a few seconds before speaking, "Alright, they have already fallen and will be unconscious for at least a few hours. You have ample time to do what you need to do, and we'll be leaving now."
Shiller nodded. The octopuses quickly flew out of the cargo hold. Shiller followed them, but judging by their reckless pace, he knew there was no one awake on the ship.
After the octopuses left, Shiller immediately opened the mother ship's communication system. Since the entire planet is currently blocked, communications within the planet cannot be sent out, otherwise Arkham Batman wouldn't have arrived so late; it certainly took them a lot of effort to find each other.
But, on the mother ship, there was no such concern because the mother ship itself is part of the blockade, and of course, it couldn't block its own communication system.
Shiller immediately connected to Apocalypse Star's communication and said, "They sent quite a few people over, if your reinforcements are just Batman, then you need to coordinate with me for us to have a chance to win."
"There are more reinforcements than just him, including Supermen. But the opponents seem to have anticipated our support, and mutants intercepted Superman halfway, they are currently fighting, temporarily unable to detach themselves."
"Did the mutants make a move?"
"Yes, but for now, it's some young mutants such as Polaris, Quicksilver, Iceman, Pyro, etc. Magneto and the others haven't acted yet, but if they want to keep all the Supermen there, they will inevitably strike."
"Alright, I can't control that. Now I need you to hack into the mother ship's control system, at least to be able to control the mother ship's weapons."
"What do you intend to do?"
"Fire at the surface."
In the lower mine pit, Arkham Batman and Constantine were seated in the Batmobile, and the Batmobile was recklessly crashing into Iron Man who was flying through the air and the jumping Fantastic Four.
Constantine would occasionally stick his head out of the car to shoot, but alas, those who came were not really afraid of laser weapons, so the results were very limited.
Arkham Batman slammed the accelerator, hitting an oncoming Iron Man and sending him flying. With a "bang" sound, the Iron Armor sparked everywhere. Just like that, the alerts inside the armor went off, from the chest piece to the leg armor not a single part was intact, and its durability was bottoming out instantly.
"Damn it," Iron Man cursed, "What the hell is this car?! My armor can't compete with a car?!"
Mr. Fantastic quickly extended his arm to drag him back. The next second, the Batmobile made a 180-degree turn again, crashing toward him, and if this hit landed, it'd likely break apart directly.
The people on the field had no way to deal with the wildly charging Batmobile because the car not only could fly, had vehicle shields, could teleport short distances, and carried onboard weapons but also had a very skilled driver. Whether it was Human Torch's flames, The Thing's strikes, or Mr. Fantastic's interception, it couldn't stop this dirt truck.
However, they all discovered that the car must be using magical energy, and since it's energy, it will eventually run out. They intensified their attacks on this car; even if they couldn't break the shield, they would consume its energy, so when the energy ran out, an ordinary metal car wouldn't withstand their siege.
Mr. Fantastic kept using his infinitely rebounding body to create speed bumps, stretching himself out in front of the car like an aircraft carrier's arresting cable, but he didn't dare block directly since another had already been broken before, so he opted to interfere with the wheels, preventing it from turning or cornering.
Human Torch was responsible for long-range attacks, Invisible Woman helped The Thing launch, and they used Mr. Fantastic's body like a slingshot to launch The Thing directly as a cannonball at the Batmobile, hitting the shield. Iron Man and the mechas, while dodging Batmobile's attacks, kept hitting with hand cannons. Spider-Man was responsible for warning them to dodge.
For a moment, they cooperated smoothly, and the Batmobile's shield's durability was dropping rapidly, making Constantine somewhat anxious.
"We can't keep dragging it out with them here, how did you get in?"
"I teleported in," Arkham Batman replied calmly.
"Can't you just teleport out?"
"Do you think they would give us the chance to teleport?"
Constantine fell silent too. Most teleports require a preparation, under this attack density, teleportation is very likely to be interrupted.
But actually, it wasn't like that, Arkham Batman could leave if he wanted to; even if he couldn't teleport out, activating a phased state to fly out would work. The only reason he stayed was that he wanted to keep all the enemies here.
While they were stalling, wasn't he doing the same? He believed, when Shiller decided to leave first, he already planned for them to bury the other side entirely here.
"Batman," came Shiller's slightly distorted voice through the communicator, "Maximize your shields and stay put."
The Batmobile immediately braked, and the shield glowed brightly, shining so brightly that people couldn't open their eyes. Meanwhile, Spider-Man's Spider-sense roared deafeningly.
Buzz—
After a sharp buzzing, at the target point aimed by the mother ship's main cannon, only an empty area of dozens of kilometers remained, followed by the dense white light brighter than ever.