Statue of Liberty

The energy beam blasted the target into rubble without hesitation, but everyone knew that as soon as they looked away, it would immediately restore itself. Without much hesitation, the Doctor and Tony stepped over the debris on the ground and pushed open the door to the basement.

"What exactly are you?" Tony didn't want to walk side by side with this seemingly crazy man in a suit and asked, "This isn't a spring outing."

The Doctor exchanged a glance with Rose and then shrugged. "Well, no, it isn't."

However, his eager expression seemed to say otherwise. But when he cast his gaze towards the dark staircase, he quickly wiped the smile off his face.

Rose and Baia stood with their backs to them, watching the angel behind them. Just as the group relaxed their guard, the shattered angel had reverted to its original form and even crawled a few steps forward, claws outstretched.

Being a bit older than Baia, Rose naturally took on the role of protector. She held Baia's slightly cold hand and noticed the tiny cat-like claws on her black gloves.

"Aren't you scared?" Baia asked.

"No," Rose said, "this kind of situation happens to us often... I'll protect you."

At first glance, Rose seemed like a somewhat pretty but overall ordinary woman; you might give her a second look in a crowd, but she wouldn't leave a lasting impression. But once you got to know enough people, you'd realize she wasn't quite as she appeared on the surface.

Talia, proud and dangerous; Selena, mysterious and elegant; Black Canary, poised and confident. Each of them was dazzling in their own right, perhaps a bit more beautiful than Rose, but she was different.

There was a light in Rose's eyes that Baia had never seen before.

She naturally gravitated towards her.

Staring at the angel in front of her, Baia asked, "Are you superheroes?"

"What's that?" Rose asked casually, "We're just travelers, occasionally helping out with trouble."

Baia nodded solemnly. "Then I'll protect you."

Rose chuckled.

Tony prepared several light sources; as he himself said, he may be arrogant sometimes, but he never fought unprepared. The Doctor, who liked to improvise, was very pleasantly surprised by this. The thulium lamp was unaffected by the angels.

Passing through the narrow corridor, Tony cursed at the sight of the basement.

It was like an underground exhibition of angel statues, not only the usual ones with their faces covered, but also baby stone sculptures that looked like they were playing around.

Looking a bit further, on the other side of the basement, the wall was flashing with unpredictable blue light.

It was the crack.

Baia had once faced the Ataxi from another universe through the crack, the prison guard of Zero. There was a time when she thought the eyes on the other side of the wall were terrifying enough to top her nightmare list for the past few years, but now, the countless stone hands reaching out from the crack had successfully replaced them.

Baia shuddered and squeezed Rose's hand tighter.

"Alright, all we need to do is figure out a way to put this Higgson particle beam emitter—"

"Don't name other people's inventions randomly!" Tony protested against the Doctor's words. "This is a spatial resonator—"

"Whatever you call it, it's clearly a Higgson particle beam emitter." The Doctor didn't concede, sticking to his opinion. Then he seemed to remember something and slapped his forehead. "Are you from the 62nd century? People there do use some different terminology! But even after entering the Miracle Era, humanity still hasn't mastered inter-universal technology!"

"Sorry, I'm from the 21st century," Tony snorted. "Born a primitive, I'm really sorry."

The Doctor turned his head, staring at him skeptically, and as a result, Baia and Tony could only keep staring at the statues non-stop. "21st century? Are you serious? Well... I suppose the level of technology varies from universe to universe. But I do have a small suggestion for your invention."

"Didn't anyone tell you not to meddle with other people's inventions?"

"If it wasn't something I'd already invented when I was 302 years old! I suggest you reverse the polarity of the sync relay and then reset the subatomic energy occurrence device to the new parameters, and finally increase the energy output by 10%." The Doctor said earnestly.

Tony remained silent for a few seconds, then rolled his eyes in his armor. "And blow us all up? Sounds like a great idea for a bomb modification."

"Blow us all up? How—wait, did I say increase by 10%?"

Rose chuckled mischievously. "Yes, Doctor."

The Doctor scratched his head. "Decrease by 10%, my apologies! Sometimes my human brain isn't quite up to par."

The other three present felt somewhat offended.

"If you're an alien who's lived for hundreds of years," Tony said sincerely, "then I think you should retire to some alien nursing home instead of lecturing young people about perfect inventions. I'll come visit you then, I promise."

Thinking of a certain blond alien prince, it seemed these people could only choose between a nursing home and a kindergarten.

"Just trust me this time and modify it as I said!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"I will," Tony muttered, "although you're clearly losing your marbles, there's some sense in your idea."

The tools in Iron Man's gauntlet were more than capable of handling most of the modification work. They spent a few minutes at the dimly lit basement staircase, completing what Baia referred to as "the device to close the crack," as the two had been arguing over its name.

"Done. Originally it would take one or two hours to close the crack," Tony played with the device, which resembled a spider robot, "now it should take about fifteen minutes."

Although Tony simply stated the facts, the Doctor seemed ecstatic. This mysterious man in a suit with Converse shoes seemed to have a potential for a lively atmosphere, making Baia less afraid.

"I must say, they get along quite well," Rose commented.

Baia added, "Yes, at least for a short time, I won't have to attend one of their funerals."

Friday chimed in, "Miss Wayne, your speech is becoming more and more like a boss's."

System: "Friday's right. You never used to be this unruly in front of Tony; Bruce must be heartbroken. How did you end up like this under the influence of some wild superhero?"

Baia coughed lightly. "It's not that serious."

"Now we'll send this thing over."

Currently, the few stood at the top of the stairs, slightly higher than the basement, facing an ocean of statues with an unknown number of angels guarding upstairs. This position allowed them to overlook the area within their sight. Once they went down, they would be surrounded by angels, and it would be impossible to keep an eye on each one.

But Tony was prepared.

A short-range drone. If it could carry the device to close the crack over there, it could anchor itself around the crack, provided the angels didn't affect the drone's power.

He flew the drone over the ceiling of the basement first, and all the statues had no reaction, which was great.

Once the device was loaded onto the drone, Baia felt that things were about to come to an end. However, the process was not as smooth as everyone had imagined. Just halfway through, the drone began to sway unstably in the air.

"It's a trap. They clearly could have affected the drone just now, but they didn't act," the Doctor said.

"Obviously," Tony gritted his teeth, the drone was already losing control.

At this moment, there came a thunderous rumble from outside, and dust fell from the ceiling with a rustle. The dim light bulbs swayed and fell to the ground, shattering into pieces at the angels' feet, their faces seemingly smiling.

Everyone listened intently.

"This sounds like..." Baia's face turned pale.

"It's footsteps," Rose said, "have you all forgotten? The most famous statue in New York—"

"The Statue of Liberty," Tony said, "this can't be possible, how could no one have noticed? There's no record of this in the future at all!"

The Doctor added, "This is a reality altered by the angels; we absolutely cannot let it come true."

"The Statue of Liberty could slap us all into pancakes," Baia said.

"So someone has to go stop her," the Doctor's gaze swept over everyone's faces, finally locking onto Tony's, then blinked, "please?"

"Alright, fight the Statue of Liberty." Tony immediately started to act, while loudly complaining, "This is a story I never imagined in my wildest dreams."

"However, why don't you just keep an eye on her? As long as you're watching her, she won't move!"

"Alright, the division of labor is complete!"

Without hesitation, the Doctor jumped into the pile of angels to retrieve the Higgs particle beam emitter that had fallen there. Meanwhile, Iron Man burst through the ceiling of the basement and flew out of the Winter Quay.

"Oh my God," Tony said, "this is just too—"

Before Tony, suspended in mid-air, stood the towering 305-foot Statue of Liberty, leaning down towards him, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth and a grotesque face.

The whole of Manhattan fell into extreme silence, and Tony realized that in this so-called 1983, there might be more angels than in their time. In the distance, he even saw carriages and some pre-World War I buildings, while on the other side, the skyline showed a cluster of skyscrapers. He recalled what the person who called himself "the Doctor" had explained—the timeline was like a tangled ball of yarn, and New York was a knot.

There was no reason, just like planes always went missing in the Bermuda Triangle.

That's why the angels chose this place.

Superheroes couldn't detect them because they only existed in a certain segment of reality. The angels ruled 1983, while subsequent years were hardly affected. When they replicated the events of 2019, Tony discovered their existence.

System: "I'm going to throw up."

"Behind you!" Baia didn't have time to respond to the system; she shouted, and as she diverted her gaze, the predator lurking in another corner immediately closed in on her, its petrified fingertips less than a centimeter away from Baia. She stared at it, cold sweat soaking her uniform lining.

Since the Doctor was obviously the angels' biggest enemy at the moment, all the angels went mad. They no longer tried to toy with their prey but seized every opportunity to send the three of them back.

The minor chaos created by Iron Man's departure gave them an opportunity. Everyone was in a panic, and at this rate, it would be impossible to close the crack.

"Alright, I've had enough," Baia muttered, then calmed her racing heart.

There had to be a change now.

If there were fewer angels present and they didn't focus on the Doctor, there might still be a chance for success.

Baia summoned her courage and sent a signal to the Doctor.

As the golden light flickered at her fingertips, although all the statues remained motionless, Baia felt countless eyes casting malicious and greedy gazes at her, like tiny needles pricking her skin.

System: "Damn it, you're asking for trouble."

Baia sprinted towards the stairs because she noticed two angels staring at the stairwell door. She passed through them unscathed and then retreated towards the elevator.

The airflow shifted, and the angels in the lobby on the ground floor began to move.

Baia activated the expandable shield Tony had given her, narrowly avoiding the sound of stones hitting it. Because she had to divert attention away from the Doctor, Baia couldn't hide.

Utilizing the limited time the shield was open, Baia boarded the old-fashioned elevator that had been inviting them from the beginning.

System: "Sss, I feel like this elevator is inviting Liu Bang to meet Xiang Yu."

Baia: "You know a lot... Don't worry, in the end, Liu Bang will win."

Those gazes seemed to linger on her. It made Baia both fearful and slightly relieved about the situation with the Doctor. Under the flickering elevator lights, she leaned against the wall for a moment, closing her dry eyes slightly.