Chapter 493: USL’s Highest Committee
After Toadman left, Feng Bujue started to pace in the room. Under the circ.u.mstance, the only thing he could do was to wait patiently. Escaping was information. From the information that he had collected, Brother Jue was currently at the USL headquarters and knew basically nothing about the environment, the people, the defences that they had, so it was impossible to come up with an escape plan; in terms of forcing his way out, any star-level hero could topple him easily and there was nothing here but superheroes sitting around…
Of course, even if there was a chance at escaping, Feng Bujue would not do so. Just like what he told Toadman… he indeed had nowhere else to go, aligning himself with USL was his best choice for now. This organization was powerful, rich and had endless potential. With Brother Jue’s ability, if he could gain their trust, he would have a sanctuary and it was only a matter of time until he rose through the ranks…
…
At the same time, inside USL”s conference room. The big hall was decorated with scientific device and a big computer. A very futuristic looking oval-shaped metallic table was placed in the middle of the room. At that moment 7 superheroes were seated at the table. They were respectively, Toadman (Planet Manhattan), Tinfoil Man (Planet Mud), King Eggplant (Planet Non-Smilers), Ape Hunter (Planet Uchi), Queen Blackhole (Unknown Species), Professor Permanence (Earthling), and Captain p.o.o.p (Planet p.o.o.p).
Of these people, three of them looked like human—Toadman, Tinfoil Man and Professor Permanence. The former two’s difference with actual human was… People from Planet Manhattan had very high cheek bones and those from Planet Mud had deep eye bags. And Professor Permanence was from earth, he was a mixed heritage of a human and an alien. He looked like a Caucasian in his 40s (actual age unclear), he had a small patch of bear, curly hair and wrapped his body in a black cape.
Other than these three… the other four could not have looked more different than a human if they tried. For example, King Eggplant… looked like a giant eggplant that was 2 metres tall and thick like a tree trunk. At the top of this vegetable that was a small ‘face’ that protruded out. The face had 3 circular eyes and one mouth. There was no sight of organs like ears or nose.
Then we move onto the Ape Hunter. He was covered in short brown hair and his body was as thin as stick; his limbs were about the same length as his body and he stood up at 3 meters at full height. As someone from Planet Uchi, he had a natural racial advantage—very powerful eyesight. His eyes were similar to rabbits, they grew at the sides of his head and were slightly protruding, this gave him wide peripheral vision so he could look behind him without turning around. And the eyes had the ability to gather light so he could look in the dark.
Then the Queen Blackhole, this was easy to describe… a black ball of light that was one metres large that spoke in a female voice. Then lastly… it was Captain p.o.o.p. Now don’t you worry, his body was not made from p.o.o.p and he had no p.o.o.p equipment like a p.o.o.p s.h.i.+eld. Overall, he was a humanoid creature that was gigantified with a V shaped body. His height was 3 metres tall but his body was much more muscular than Ape Hunter. Since he was wearing a mask and bodysuit, his actual appearance was an unknown. And these seven were the current USL’s highest committee members.
Based on the time concept on Earth, USL had been in existence for over 50 years already, during this period, the members.h.i.+p of the highest committee had indeed changed. At the beginning, there were 10 superheroes but 5 left due to various reasons. Then with the addition of Ape Hunter King Eggplant, it completed the current pantheon.
“That is the basic situation… what do you think?” Toadman shared Brother Jue’s issue with the rest of the superheroes, he a.n.a.lysed the believability of each information without any prejudice before finally asking.
…
Tinfoil Man was the first to speak, “What else can we think?” he chuckled lightly. “From how I see it… you are in big trouble.”
“What?” Toadman was startled to hear that. He thought. [The trouble caused by this Feng Bujue is far more serious than I thought?]
But actually Tinfoil Man was talking about something else. “Do you know how many complaint I have received from the other superheroes in this past one universe week?”
Hearing that, toadman’s face darkened. “We should focus on this Feng Bujue now and the complaints about me can be moved later…”
“No, no, no… we can’t do that. The complaints against you is the league’s current biggest trouble,” Tinfoil man laughed. “Old friend, you have stumbled into a big trouble, do you understand that? If not for the six of us helping you to come up with an explanation, you would have been beaten into a pulp by the other members of USL already.”
TOadman sighed, and replied, “Fine, if you want to talk about that, I shall be direct…” He paused, “Yes, I am spying on the other superheroes. Every person above star-level and parts of those who I believe I need to keep an eye on are all in my surveillance list.”
“In other words… the six of us are in your list as well?” Queen Blackhole asked.
“Unfortunately, even if I do wish to spy on all of you, it is impossible technically wise.” At this point there was nothing for Toadman to hide. He first turned to Tinfoil Man to say, “In terms of machinery and nanotech, Stark better at them than I am, so be it tweaking with his armor or inserting nan.o.bot into his food, they will be exposed immediately.” Then he turned to Professor Permanence. “it’s even more difficult to plant any spying device on Prof. Even if I succeeded, the moment he used his ‘dimensional power’… like teleportation, the device will malfunction.”
Then Toadman turned to address the other superheroes at the table. “Ape Huntre’s super senses, King Eggplant’s special genetic make up also means that the possibility of surveillance is zero.” His eyes slowly moved. “And with regards to Queen Blackhole and Captain p.o.o.p… after so many years, I can’t even tell the nature of your superpowers and their limits much less…”
“Wait! Wait!” Ape Hunter interrupted Toadman and demanded in an agitated tone. “We are asking why would you do something like that. But you turned it on us and started to complain?”
“Whether you understand my intention or not, I believe my action is necessary.” Toadman argued. “Think about it, if one of the star-level superheroes suddenly decided to turn and started a ma.s.sacre among the USL, what will happen?”
“The basis of USL is built trust, your suspicion is the reason if any betrayal is going to happen. Your suspicion is an insult to the other heroes.” King Eggplant countered.
“I do not suspect anyone, I am just being cautious. One shan’t be too careful…” Toadman replied. “Furthermore… as long as no one knew, no one would be insulted. I have always been careful with my actions.”
“Hah! Then how did your caution get exposed?” Ape Hunter said mockingly.
“I… have underestimated ‘his’ intelligence…” Toadman said darkly. “I thought… it was fine saying those things before Pi Li Dance Hero and Tap Monster but who would have thought… that Feng Bujue managed to come to this conclusion and expose me before everyone…”
“Oh?” Professor Permanence said with contemplation. “That sounds like an interesting character.”
“Enough… enough…” Tinfoil man stood up. “Ladies and gentlemen… arguing and blowing the air is not going to solve any problem.”
“But I have not said a word…” Captain p.o.o.p grumbled.
Tinfoil man lifted his eyes to look at him. “For that I am thankful, captain.” He smiled and continued, “In any case, now is not the time to decide who is right or not but to solve the problem.” He turned to Toadman, “Wayne, there is only one solution you can do… you have to stop all the spying on all the superheroes immediately. You can insist on your views but you have to apologize to the superheroes that you have spied on and give them an explanation.”
“I will do that without an order from you…” Toadman replied but he did not finish his sentence and it was… [After all, I have collected more than enough data already.]
“So now…” Toadman paused for a few seconds before adding. “We better return to the main reason why we are here… Do any of you think, this The Poker, Mr. Feng Bujue from a parallel universe is trustworthy or not?”