PFC Chapter 3909 The Nameless Bat (79)
Chapter 3909 The Nameless Bat (79)
Chapter 3909 The Nameless Bat (Seventy-Nine)
When Peter rushed into the conference room, almost all the mutants were already there. He pushed through the crowd and saw Magneto standing in the center of the room, with Cyclops Scott lying beside him, though his chest was rising and falling slightly, suggesting he had passed out.
Peter wanted to ask what was going on, but seeing everyone remaining silent, he held back his urge to speak. It wasn't until Professor X, sitting in a wheelchair, appeared that the stagnant pool finally began to stir.
“He’s fine,” Professor X said. “He’s just been too tired lately and was also affected by the magnetic field, so he’s temporarily unconscious.”
Hearing him say that, Phoenix rushed over and picked him up. The X-Men gathered around and helped Phoenix carry Cyclops to the bed in the lounge.
"Go and call the Avengers," Magneto said. Although he didn't speak directly to Peter, Peter knew he was being addressed, so he went out to make the call.
Before long, the entire Avengers arrived, even Nick Fury. Magneto remained standing there, lost in thought. The Avengers assumed he was fighting with cybernetic lifeforms and dared not approach. It wasn't until about 10 minutes later that he slowly turned to look at them.
“I spoke with it,” Magneto said. “To be precise, it was an accident; it wasn’t targeting us. But…”
No one present could understand what he was saying. Professor X gave Magneto a look, and Magneto slowly removed his helmet. Peter, seeing this, scoffed: "Who said they weren't exchanging sweet nothings? Everyone else exchanges wedding rings, and you two are exchanging helmets and wheelchairs, huh?"
After a moment's thought, Professor X said, "I see. It's a bit complicated. Please sit down, and we'll explain slowly."
Representatives from the Avengers, X-Men, and Brotherhood of Mutants took their seats. Aside from Mystique and Rogue staying in the lounge to watch over Cyclops, everyone sat neatly in three rows.
Just as Professor X was about to begin his lecture, a red and blue figure flew in through the window and said, "I sensed a very intense energy burst here. Are you all alright?"
Peter turned his head and saw it was Superman. Bruce, sitting next to Peter, frowned slightly. Peter noticed his expression and asked in a low voice, "You two don't get along?"
"It's alright," Bruce said, shaking his head.
“We’re fine, but you’ve come at the right time,” Professor X said. “Now that the two Earths have merged, your people over there should know the truth. Please have a seat, sir.”
Superman hesitated, looking at the large group of mutants and superheroes in the conference room. However, upon seeing Bruce, he walked over and sat down in the back row. Bruce turned his head away, refusing to look at him.
Peter found it odd: in other universes, Batman and Superman had a good relationship, but in their universe, Spider-Man Bruce Wayne had a better relationship with the Joker than with Superman. This was truly a cosmic oddity.
However, he turned his attention back to the case. Professor X said, "Eric intercepted a segment of its radio waves, and he will later put those waves into a machine that shields all external electrical signals so that we can communicate with it later. But that would be too inefficient, so Eric talked to it first."
“I have a question,” Iron Man began, “What did he grab? A piece of code or radio waves?”
"It's a radio wave. It can't be fully considered an electronic life form, but rather an electrical signal life form. This technology is amazing, far beyond our imagination. However, Eric just happens to be able to control it, which is why he was able to capture it."
"Are you sure this is its original form?" Iron Man asked again.
“Of course not,” Professor X shook his head and said, “but it is its only counterpart in our universe.”
The meeting room erupted in an uproar. Captain America, his face grim, said, "As expected. This kind of technology is beyond our universe's capabilities; even Ultron couldn't achieve this level. It's definitely related to the multiverse."
"Where could it have come from?" Nick asked Iron Man in a low voice. "From our side, or from next door?"
“It’s very likely from next door,” Iron Man said after thinking for a moment. “Our cyber life forms don’t follow this path, as you can see from Ultron. And I always felt that this matter was related to Batman; their technology is just so mysterious.”
"As you all expected, this Mr. Radio Ghost comes from the big world next door, the world with Batman, but he hasn't revealed which universe he comes from."
"Then why did he come here?" Nick asked, frowning. When it comes to the multiverse, he, as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., has to take it seriously, because if there's a multiverse invasion, S.H.I.E.L.D. will have work to do.
“Wait a minute,” Peter suddenly said, “this isn’t the next world anymore, we’re in their world now.”
Everyone was taken aback for a moment, then realized: indeed, although they came from the Marvel universe, it was the old Earth that had been abandoned after the reboot. They had come to someone else's world and merged with their Earth. From a cosmic perspective, they were no longer in the Marvel 616 main universe, but rather Earth-1 (DC 1).
"That's why Eric said it was an accident. This thing was trying to invade this universe, but we came here to merge with this Earth, and it doesn't seem to know that, so it invaded us as well."
“No wonder,” Peter said. “If it knew what was going on here, it would never have chosen to appear on Earth in the form of an electrical signal. Isn’t this just handing Magneto a piece of the pie?”
“That’s right,” Professor X nodded. “Although it knew something about our heroes, it never expected that we would all come here together, and Eric just happened to be the one who could restrain it the most, so it was captured.”
"Then why is it invading this multiverse?"
“I don’t know,” Professor X shook his head and said. “Its life form is different from ours, so it has no concept of morality or good and evil. What we call an invasion may just be its way of understanding and perceiving the world. It is indeed constantly innovating itself.”
Peter had another flash of inspiration and said, "So all those things it did to Cyclops were to reinvent itself?... Was it exploring desire? Emotion? Love?"
Professor X nodded and said, "That's true. According to it, it wants to evolve into a more perfect life form, so it wants to fill its own gaps. As a radio wave ghost transformed from electronic life, it used to exist in a purely logical form, so emotions were naturally its weakness. Now it wants to fill this gap, so it has made many attempts."
"So many?!" Captain America exclaimed in horror. "Could it be that Cyclops wasn't the only victim? How many more people has it lured?!"
“In our universe, there is indeed only one Cyclops,” Professor X said, “but in other universes, it’s hard to say.”
Everyone else's eyes were on Spider-Man Bruce. Although he was now Spider-Man, the Fighting World didn't seem to recognize him and still considered him Batman, so he was still in the Fighting World Batman group chat.
Spider-Man Bruce also opened the group chat at this moment, but quickly shook his head and said, "No news. They haven't chatted for almost a month."
“That’s not right,” Peter pointed out. “Batman would be very active in gathering information from the multiverse, and with such a convenient platform, he wouldn’t remain silent. The absence of chat messages is precisely what indicates that something has happened.”
The others nodded in agreement, clearly supporting Peter's assessment. Spider-Man Bruce frowned and said, "The Joker told me that Batman has been busy working on energy, building a magical defense network for Earth, the kind you guys used to have. Some Batmen have gone to Mount Olympus, and others are fighting cosmic wars..."
“No,” Peter shook his head again. “Batman isn’t reckless. On the contrary, he doesn’t like to wield too much power because he thinks that could mean a much greater risk of losing control, let alone killing gods or starting a war to wield such power—unless he has no choice.”
He stood up, looked around, and said, "Did you know that the Central Universe, the universe that other Spider-Men often go to, uses a magical defense network that can monitor all energy fluctuations on Earth, completely block Earth's signals, monitor Earth's communication with extraterrestrials, and the network built by magical power is completely different from other radio waves and cannot communicate with each other?"
“I understand,” Iron Man said. “The reason Batman is in such a hurry to build a magical defense network is probably because they’ve detected this radio ghost’s intrusion. They want to use this method to stop the intrusion.”
“We have to do something,” Nick said, standing up immediately. “If I’m not mistaken, our universe is the only one that has successfully captured radio-wave life. This is invaluable information that could help us gain a foothold in the multiverse.”
The others exchanged glances, then slowly nodded. They all understood, of course, what gave their universe an advantage over others: it was the only universe with heroes from two great worlds.
Although the merging did cause a lot of chaos and there are still many problems, Earth's power is now stronger than ever before, and they also have an information advantage—few people in the multiverse know about their universe.
Just like this unfortunate radio ghost, it thought it had only invaded DC-1 Earth, but it didn't expect that it had also invaded the Marvel 616 main universe.
If it were just Earth 1, then no one could do anything about it. Even the powerful Batmen couldn't handle it, so the incredibly weak superheroes on Earth 1 would probably be completely baffled.
But the 616 main universe is no pushover. The current 616 is the version before the all-new, all-different universe. Although the active reboot brought forward the all-new, all-different version, they have experienced most of the major events before the all-new, all-different universe. They have fought against powerful dragons and local bullies, beaten up aliens and kicked mummies, traveled through time hundreds of times, and fought dozens of civil wars. They are all battle-hardened masters, forming a perfect complement to Earth 1.
The DC universe, on the other hand, started with the New 52. The main universe is relatively young, and the major events it has experienced so far are the Darkseid invasion and the subsequent intergalactic war. Compared to the battle-hardened 616, it's like a greenhorn. They are indeed remnants of the old era, but this new ship happens to need a group of veteran sailors.
For other Batmen, this is their first experience with a multiverse-level event, but for the original Marvel Cinematic Universe, multiverse invasions are all too common. No matter what disaster strikes Marvel, it always ends up affecting the main universe; they have far too much experience with this.
So they didn't even need to discuss it; they all knew what the current situation meant, and almost everyone knew how to fight this battle. They just exchanged knowing glances and knew what to do next.