The Comprehensive Evolution of American Comics

Twenty strength-enhanced metahumans, exceeding Bane's power, were closing in, along with an unknown number of enemy reinforcements. For the current Young Justice team, this essentially spelled their doom.

However, Robin wasn't entirely to blame. No one could have predicted such an explosive turn of events. What started as a conflict between two criminal gangs had now dragged them into a super-criminal organization unknown even to the Justice League.

Despite this, Robin still felt responsible. As the leader, he should have pulled the team back as soon as he discovered the Cobra venom. Instead, he insisted on staying to find out who was at the top of the Cobra cult.

This decision wasted valuable time for their retreat. If they had left immediately after gathering the information, they would almost be at Mount Justice by now, instead of desperately fleeing across Santa Prisca Island.

Beads of sweat trickled down Robin's forehead, only to be swept back by the wind as he ran. He racked his brain, desperately searching for a way to protect everyone.

'What would Batman do? What would Batman do?'

Robin's head felt like it was about to explode, but he couldn't come up with a viable solution. This was understandable, as the current Robin was far from Batman in terms of experience and courage.

Robin's true growth wouldn't come until he stopped trying to be Batman and embraced being Nightwing.

Habit, with his telepathic abilities, could clearly sense everyone's feelings. He was well aware of Robin's regret and guessed that Robin was wondering how Batman would handle the situation.

Yang Le could provide him with the answer: decisive action.

Yes, a good leader should ensure the safety of all team members, but sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice a small part to save the larger group.

The entire Justice League understood this and supported such actions. As long as it saved the majority, they wouldn't mind being the sacrificed few.

It was a cruel reality, but a necessary one. In comics, superheroes often made such compromises, and these great sacrifices led to great victories.

But the current Robin couldn't do that. He was just a child, lacking Batman's decisiveness and the resolve to live with the weight of lives on his shoulders.

This was when someone needed to make the decision for him.

'This isn't working,' Habit's voice echoed in everyone's minds. 'We need someone to cover our retreat, or we'll all be stuck here.'

Those words sent a shiver down the spines of all the kids. They knew what covering the retreat meant. The best-case scenario was getting captured; the worst...

'I'll stay behind!' Aqualad said firmly. 'I'm the oldest member of the team, so it's only right that I stay.'

'No, I should stay,' Wonder Girl disagreed. 'I have the strongest solo combat abilities, so I should be the one to stay.'

'I'm the fastest, I should be the one to draw them away,' Wally argued.

It wasn't just the three who spoke up first. Robin and Miss Martian, who hadn't had a chance to speak, felt the same way. It was just that one was lost in thought, and the other hadn't fully recovered.

But Yang Le, as the originator of the plan, didn't agree with any of them.

'I came up with this plan, so I get to decide who stays behind.'

As soon as he finished speaking, the horns on Habit's head glowed with an enchanting crimson light. The unsuspecting Young Justice team instantly lost control of their bodies, and Yang Le issued a simple command.

Retreat.

Ignoring the children's efforts to break free, Yang Le gradually slowed his pace until he stopped, silently nodding as he watched the children's figures grow smaller and smaller.

Sensing the ground shaking and the approaching roars behind him, Yang Le turned around and saw that the enhanced cultists were almost upon him.

'Although this clone's ending is supposed to be a noble sacrifice, I still have unfinished business and can't sacrifice myself just yet. Besides, dying at the hands of a bunch of goons doesn't count as a noble sacrifice.'

Yang Le jumped in place, doing warm-up exercises. As he moved, a faint white light shone from beneath the shell on his chest.

No matter which alien hero an Omnitrix wearer transforms into, no matter how strange their appearance or how diverse their abilities, they all share one thing in common: the Omnitrix symbol.

The Variant naturally had an Omnitrix symbol as well, emblazoned on the center of his chest like a colorful timer. At first, he could cover it with clothing, but after joining the Young Justice, they would surely do a physical exam, and he wouldn't be able to hide it once he took off his shirt.

So, in order to prevent the Justice League from discovering the connection between himself and the main body, Yang Le specially crafted a shell for the Variant clone that was similar in structure to his own, hanging it on his chest to cover the Omnitrix symbol.

By the way, the technology for creating the shell was provided by Doctor Fate, using the same technology as the suits he invented that could adapt to the wearer's superpowers. Therefore, the cloaking shell would also cloak itself.

The shell on his chest overflowed with light, indicating that the clone was using the power of the Omnitrix for the first time in months. This was inevitable because the Variant's power was simply not enough against twenty enhanced individuals.

Of course, because he couldn't abandon this identity just yet, Yang Le couldn't directly transform into other alien heroes, but even so, he still had two paths he could take.

First, Fusion Heroes. Yang Le could use the Variant as the primary and other alien heroes as the secondary to fuse and increase his combat power to break the situation.

Second, a simpler option. Yang Le could directly use the Ultimate Evolution he obtained months ago to transform into Ultimate Variant, greatly increasing his power.

But for Yang Le, an adult, children make choices; adults want it all.

As the person who personally dug the pit for the Illuminati, Yang Le always remembered what he wrote in his own experimental records.

His current identity, Weapon O, was a perfect Variant capable of perfectly fusing superhuman abilities. Since he was a perfect Variant, what was wrong with having a few more abilities?

Since you are so confident in your power now, then let's compete in power.

Yang Le hid his figure with a smile, causing the enhanced cultists who had caught up to lose their target. They stopped immediately and looked around, but saw nothing.

So they were prepared to lose the lost Yang Le, but instead went to chase the Young Justice League, who had already run a distance, but at this time an abnormality occurred.

"Bang!"