Chapter 184: Reed's Personnel

For Reed, he was never the kind of guy who cared about what happened to other people's planets. To him, the only thing that ever mattered was this one Earth beneath his feet.

And now, being able to destroy someone else's planet in order to save his own universe—this wasn't even a dilemma for Reed.

Back when he was stranded in the Negative Zone and developing technology, Reed had already mastered the means to easily destroy a planet. He had simply never used it—until now.

Now, he was just pulling that technology back out and giving it some refinements.

Everything was progressing smoothly. Whether it was the development and manufacturing of the devices or locating the collision site, the city had completed everything in the shortest possible time.

Now, all they had to do was arrive early and wait for it all to happen.

And right at that moment, the city detected a familiar presence.

"Batman is here."

The city's words didn't surprise Reed much.

They had already known that Batman had been monitoring them at all times, so his arrival here wasn't exactly unexpected.

As Batman stepped in, he immediately ran into Reed.

"My time-travel machine still works fine, doesn't it?" Reed asked with a smile, like a customer service agent checking in with a customer to see how the product was performing—whether he was satisfied with it.

"What are you trying to do?" Bruce completely ignored Reed's question and cut straight to the point, directly confronting him about what he was planning.

"I think you already know," Reed said calmly, showing no nervousness as he looked at Bruce. "Or rather, you probably know more than I do. I want to protect this Earth. I want to ensure it survives."

"Even if it means destroying someone else's Earth?"

Bruce looked up at the man in front of him—Reed, no longer dressed in his old Fantastic Four uniform, now back in his Creator form.

"Come on, aren't we the same? We're both trying to protect this world," Reed said, brushing off Bruce's question as he smiled and placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder.

"We don't have a choice. All we can do is destroy the other universe." Reed patted Bruce on the shoulder and began to walk away.

But in the next moment, Bruce grabbed his hand.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Bruce repeated the question, but this time, there was something dangerous in his eyes.

Reed simply smiled at the Batman before him.

"I've always known exactly what I'm doing. If you all hadn't overthrown me before, maybe I would've already found a way to solve this crisis using the Infinity Stones."

As one of the most intelligent minds on this planet, Reed had always been proud and aloof. He never believed there was anything wrong with what he did. But even he would sometimes admit to having made mistakes—only after he had failed.

"Enough, Batman. Let me do what I need to do. You go do what you need to do. Let's not interfere with each other." With those parting words, Reed continued walking away.

The massive mechanical head of the city slowly lowered, and it addressed Batman.

"If you want to preserve this planet, then what Reed is doing is the only correct course of action."

As an advanced AI, the city never made emotional judgments. It was purely rational—entirely logical.

It would always choose the most beneficial option based on reality.

And right now, the best and simplest option was to eliminate the other planet.

Bruce looked up at the city looming overhead.

He said nothing. He simply turned and left.

"Batman has left. Based on his previous actions, he will likely attempt to stop you," the city relayed its analysis to Reed.

After receiving this information, Reed didn't slow his pace. He simply arranged for the fastest aircraft to head toward the collision point.

He and Batman would never see eye to eye on this kind of issue—so a conflict was inevitable.

And Reed wasn't without his own preparations.

"Get me in touch with Nick Fury."

By the time Bruce rushed out, all he saw was the fading silhouette of Reed's aircraft.

Even though Bruce immediately boarded his Batwing and tried to catch up, the problem was that Reed's aircraft still left him far behind.

A technological gap of over a thousand years couldn't be bridged by one or two people's brilliance—no matter how advanced the tech in Bruce's Batwing was.

Jessica and the others, who had previously landed in Europe with Bruce, now saw the small red dot representing him on the map moving again—this time, not heading toward America.

"What's he trying to do?" Jessica was puzzled. If he had discovered their location, he would have told them by now and ordered them back to the Batcave.

But that hadn't happened. And Bruce's current flight path looked strange.

It was as if he were chasing someone.

"No matter what he's doing, we'll know if we follow him," Gwen said decisively.

The F-22 roared to life once more. Fortunately, the terrain around the city had long since been cleared and leveled, so any patch of ground could serve as a runway.

The F-22 shot up into the sky, following closely behind Bruce. The two Spider-Women remained cautious. They were well aware of how vast the Batwing's detection range was.

They kept their distance, making sure Bruce wouldn't notice that they had snuck out of the Batcave.

But sometimes, in the game of mantis stalking the cicada while the oriole waits behind, everyone thinks they're the oriole—when in fact, even the oriole is just a snack in the hunter's eyes.

After receiving Reed's message, Nick Fury had already begun using S.H.I.E.L.D. authority to track Reed's aircraft—and had detected an F-22 flying a considerable distance behind it.

Nick Fury immediately identified where that F-22 had come from.

Wasn't it his former self who had once delivered military supplies to that bat?To think there were still leftovers—that was something even Nick Fury found a bit surprising. But clearly, the one sitting up there couldn't possibly be that old, cunning bat.

Otherwise, they would have never been able to detect the bat's movements. Just like now, they had no idea whether there was a Batwing flying between the F22 and Reed's aircraft.

Still, whether there was or not didn't stop Nick Fury from issuing his orders.

"Howling Commandos, move out with me." For matters like this, Nick Fury would never assign the Ultimates. The Ultimates were meant to be shown to the public eye.

The Howling Commandos were the ones meant to deal with the darker, unspeakable missions.

"Oh, boss, don't you think we deserve a break? I mean, we just took care of that mess in Europe, didn't we?" joked Ghost Rider Danny Ketch, half-serious as he addressed Nick Fury.

"I said now."Nick Fury firmly reiterated his command to Danny Ketch.

If, at this point, Danny Ketch still didn't realize Fury was being dead serious, then he had no business staying with the Howling Commandos.

He knew full well the difference between staying with the Commandos and going back to that damned prison.

"Okay, no problem. You're the boss."He raised both hands and followed behind Nick Fury. Outside, the rest of the Howling Commandos were already prepped and ready.

"Where are we heading this time, boss?" Danny Ketch asked, curious about which set of delightful rebels they'd be crushing next.

"Africa."

"Oh, that's never a good place."

At that moment, in Namibia, Africa—

Reed had arrived ahead of time, looking up at the sky.

There were no anomalies yet, but according to his predictions, as soon as the Bat arrived, that planet would appear.

Reed's sudden appearance startled the local residents. They didn't know what was happening, nor why this man had shown up here.

Especially seeing his outfit and the aircraft by his side—he clearly resembled one of those superhumans.

Had something gone wrong here? Or was a supervillain planning a terrorist attack?

They wanted to ask Reed what was going on, but before anyone could muster the courage to step forward—

The Batwing had already landed.

At the same time, the sky changed color. A deep blue light spread across everything in the area.

The surrounding crowd was bathed in the glow, faces full of panic. They had no idea what was happening or why the world suddenly looked like this. All they could do was push and shove, desperate to get away.

They cried out, pleading with the heavens not to punish them. Clearly, they believed this was divine wrath aimed at destroying them.

Reed only smiled as he watched them flee in terror. He liked this feeling—this sense of being the only one awake while everyone else was lost in confusion.

Raising his head to look at the blue planet hovering above, Reed smiled again.

Just as he predicted—this was the perfect timing. That thing had indeed arrived.

"My calculations were spot-on. I even predicted the Batwing's full-speed travel time,"Reed turned to Bruce, who had just stepped off the Batwing and was walking toward him, speaking with pride.

Seeing the blue-tinged surroundings, Bruce's heart sank. If those so-called "Bridge Builders"—the mechanized entities—were up there, they were in for one hell of a fight.

However, there was one upside: the planet above them currently had no life. At least for now, Bruce agreed with Reed's approach.

"What are you waiting for?"Bruce knew that Reed hadn't immediately used his equipment to destroy the blue planet. He was clearly waiting for something.

"Waiting for certain people to arrive," Reed replied without a hint of concern. He was well-equipped and fully prepared for any unexpected developments.

He believed that if he could learn about this cosmic collision, surely others from alternate universes could as well.

Which meant the priority might not be to destroy the planet—but rather, to eliminate the enemy's living forces first.

All the weapons he had brought were designed specifically to kill opposing superhumans.

Just then, an F22 suddenly flew into the area.

Jessica and Gwen, sitting inside the aircraft, stared at the bizarre environment in stunned confusion. They had no idea what was going on—but the massive blue planet in the sky made the seriousness of the situation crystal clear.

Was this why the Bat had rushed over here?

"My team hasn't arrived yet. Didn't expect your people to get here first,"Reed scanned the F22 and saw the two Spider-Women in the cockpit.

Bruce's expression remained unreadable. He simply watched quietly as the F22 prepared to land.

What Bruce intended to do with the Spider-Women afterward would be his decision alone.

"You can destroy the blue planet now," Bruce suddenly said to Reed, catching him off guard.

"Oh?"Reed leaned in slightly, peering at Bruce's masked face, trying to figure out why the Bat would say such a thing.

"Looks like you know more than I do,"Reed straightened up and gave Bruce a smile."Then why don't you tell me what the blue planet signifies? Or… are there other colors as well?"

Bruce looked at Reed and replied,"There's also a red one."

"Ssshh..."Reed inhaled sharply. Clearly, this was far more complicated than he'd anticipated.

But he wasn't too concerned. As long as they solved all these problems, the disaster wouldn't befall Earth, nor would it cause any harm.

"What exactly is going on here?"Jessica and Gwen had finally entered the scene. It had taken considerable effort to find a suitable landing zone for the F22.

Whatever questions they had for Bruce were now set aside. What mattered more was understanding what exactly they were experiencing.

Just then, another group arrived—entering the space where the collision was occurring.

"Holy shit."One of the Howling Commandos blurted out as he looked up at the massive blue planet hovering so close to Earth.

After all, who had ever seen another planet… this close?

(End of Chapter)

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