Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 45 The Kansas Farmer

The old bat, clutching Barry Allen's body, questioned whether he had fallen into the same madness as his wife.

Yes, in this world, only Bruce Wayne died in that alley that night; his parents survived.

After killing the murderer who killed his son, Thomas Wayne became a masked vigilante in Gotham, using deadly force year after year to unleash his grief over the loss of his son on Gotham's criminals.

Martha Wayne, the mother, was deeply distressed after her son's death. She blamed Thomas Wayne and herself for his death. This longing and torment drove her to complete madness. She cut two slits in her lips, and for the first time since her son's death, a smile finally appeared on her gloomy face.

Barry Allen paints a picture of the world Thomas longs for, a world with his own son, but in no time, that longing turns into the ravings of a madman.

Thomas noticed a rumbling sound above his head, and the falling raindrops seemed to pause for a moment. He looked up and saw a figure wearing a red cloak.

The man looked down at him, and the lightning bolts that occasionally struck him could not harm him in the slightest; they only made the 'S' logo on his chest shine brightly.

The two stared at each other, remaining in an eerie silence for a long time.

No, Thomas, who was on high alert, suddenly realized that the other party was not staring at him, but at the corpse of Barry Allen in his arms.

"And who are you?!"

Thomas questioned the other party about their purpose in coming here, but in the blink of an eye, the red cloak in the air suddenly disappeared again, as if everything the old bat had just seen was just an illusion.

The Flash is dead.

Undeterred, Joey personally confirmed this at close range.

A storm raged within him, a complex and inexplicable emotion washing over him: Who will save this world?

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Kent Farm, Kansas.

The world is indeed in a difficult time right now. There are conflicts in every corner of the world. Although the Americas, which are independent of the World Island, are temporarily unaffected, as long as the Atlanteans control the ocean, they will remain lambs to the slaughter.

Ever since Wonder Woman and Aquaman went to war, refugees and homeless people from the Atlantic coast have been fleeing to inland areas like Kansas. Even in Smallville, a once peaceful and simple rural place, Jonathan Kent had to bury his weapons under his pillow when he slept.

There was noise outside the farm again tonight; this is the fourth time this week that uninvited guests have invaded.

First, a few aimless homeless people, who seemed to have no idea where they came from, planned to break down his front door. Then, a strange man in a red cape pushed the door open without permission. And then, he changed into casual clothes and tried to sneak in again...

Without exception, these people were deterred by the dark muzzle of their own guns. Jonathan, who had been woken up, impatiently picked up his double-barreled shotgun, calmed Martha down, and got out of bed to go outside and find out what was going on.

But this time it's a little different.

It was the same group of homeless people who came a few days ago, but this time there were more of them. They were carrying crowbars and steel pipes that they had somehow gotten their hands on, and they were banging on the wooden door of Jonathan's garage.

Hey everyone!

Jonathan stepped out of the house, raised his double-barreled shotgun, and shouted in a booming voice, "Food, water? Or clothes? I'll give you anything!"

"No, Mr. Kent, we don't want that."

The speaker was a thin, withered man. He seemed dazed, his lips were chapped, and he grinned as he spoke, revealing a set of bad teeth.

"...We don't need that anymore."

Kent knew this man; his name was John Coburn or something like that. He had seen him in town two weeks ago. He was an outsider who had fled from a coastal city and was forced to sleep on the streets because he couldn't contact his relatives or friends here.

Just like the other townspeople had done before, Jonathan took the other man to his home for one night, and the next day introduced him to Old Hans at the bar so that he could help him with some odd jobs. But a few days later, when Jonathan went to see him again, Hans told him that the other man had disappeared.

It doesn't seem to have truly disappeared now.

John was closing in on Jonathan Kent, completely ignoring the gun pointed at him: "Old Kent, could you help me one more time? Could you give us this manor of yours?"

"Don't come any closer." Jonathan's hand was on the trigger. "Leave now, and we'll all be fine."

"Hahahaha!" The group just laughed, and John, emboldened, lunged at him: "Do you have the guts to shoot?"

Jonathan was stunned as the other man rushed over and tackled him to the ground. He had originally intended to hit the other man hard on the chin with the butt of his gun, but his physique, being older, was not as agile as it used to be, so he was tackled to the ground.

Seeing this, the bastards laughed even louder, and one person in the crowd staggered towards his house.

"No! Martha! Run!"

Jonathan, who was being entangled on the ground, struggled to break free while shouting a warning to his wife. His heart had sunk to the bottom.

boom!

The thunderous explosion unleashed a gust of wind so strong that everyone present lost their balance.

Jonathan realized that John, who had been on top of him, had disappeared. He looked up and saw the young man in the red cape from yesterday. He had assumed that the man was just some clueless copycat who came out in a uniform to scare people.

But Jonathan never imagined that the other party was actually a superhuman—the latter was currently floating half a meter in the air, his eyes glowing red, holding John Coburn by the neck, letting the other party struggle like a maggot due to lack of oxygen.

"No!"

Jonathan instinctively tried to stop the other person's behavior, but he knew that his opinion would be useless. Basically, all the caped gladiators in this world are like Batman, relying on their superpowers to kill and take lives from ordinary people.

But the other party clearly took his words to heart, and almost without hesitation threw the bastard in his hand to the ground like trash.

"Ugh."

Joey simply sighed, then stepped forward and slapped each of the high-drowsy addicts, completely waking them from their drowsy state: "Get out of here, all of you! If you come any closer, I'll break your legs!"

As Jonathan watched the group scramble away from Kent Farm under the young man's intimidation, he was about to thank him when the young man suddenly became angry:

"What's wrong with you! You bought a gun but not bullets?"

The reason Joey didn't burn those bastards to ashes on the spot was because he saw the shotgun in Jonathan Kent's hand, which was nothing more than a fire poker.

Kind-hearted Jonathan didn't even buy it a single box of bullets!

Those scumbags from earlier definitely knew about this too!

Jonathan defended himself by saying, "I think having a gun is enough to scare those poor people away..."

"That only applies if the other side doesn't know your gun is unloaded! Once they find out, this kind of thing happens!!"

Previously, Joey and his adoptive father had maintained a tacit understanding. He helped Jonathan with farm work, and Jonathan taught him how to spot rat burrows in the fields; he carried two dozen beers for Jonathan, and Jonathan gave him five dollars...

Joey had never clashed with this stubborn middle-aged man before, but this time was different; Joey practically pointed her finger at him and started yelling:

"You stubborn, old-fashioned Kansas farmer!"