With a swoosh, Strange's figure reappeared in the Luminous Alliance's base. Clearly, he had just finished informing Nick, but he returned with a grave expression.
"There's something in the time stream," Strange said. "Nick just detected its presence, and now he's organizing the Time Management Bureau's forces to capture it, but that thing is very strange."
"What kind of strange?" Stark hadn't realized the severity of the problem and asked, "Is it yet another so-called time offender?"
"Not at all," Strange replied. "It isn't a carbon-based life form like us, nor is it an intelligent life form. It looks more like a bizarre set of rules and regulations, which is the main reason Nick has been unable to capture it."
The room fell silent as everyone stared at Strange. Stark sat up straight and asked, "Is this thing very dangerous?"
"It poses a threat to all time travelers," Strange answered. "It seems that once a person's speed and frequency of traveling through the time stream reach a certain level, it will appear behind them and kill them."
Professor X's eyes widened slightly as he said, "Are you suggesting it's something like a natural disaster? Something that punishes the users of certain abilities?"
"That's what Nick says." Strange looked up to the screen where a battle had broken out in the heart of Paris City, with the Spider-Men now facing off against a gigantic spider, casting dust and chaos so thick it darkened the skies.
"Can Nick catch it?" Before Stark's words could fully land, he read the likely difficulty of the situation from Strange's face.
"Nick isn't a user of time abilities himself, and the Time Management Bureau's personnel just travel through time using machines. They can see that monster, but they can't touch it."
"What about Kang?" Loki suggested. "When all timelines converged into the Sacred Timeline, Kang should have become a true master of time abilities."
"Nick is trying to contact him... oh, they've made contact," Strange said, frowning at his phone. "Kang says he has never seen this thing before, not on any timeline, and he suspects it's not a native species of our cosmos."
"You're not suggesting it comes from another universe, are you?" Loki was quite familiar with the affairs of other universes and said, "But that wouldn't be surprising; that place produces all sorts of weird things."
"What do we do now? Can Kang defeat it?" Stark asked.
"It looks unlikely," Strange shook his head and stated. "Kang has control over timelines, but this outsider is beyond his control, and he doesn't have the necessary offensive power to crush it in one blow."
Soon enough, the news came in. Kang had indeed caught up with that creature, or more precisely, the creature had caught up with him. Kang's surprise attack injured the creature, but it escaped.
"It's too fast," Kang's voice came through the communicator. "I think if I could completely control it, I should be able to kill it, but its movement through the time stream is beyond anyone's imagination; it's more akin to teleportation."
"Teleportation within time?"
"Yes, a kind of time-jumping ability. Although I can use this ability as well, I'm slower than it. The only way to capture it now is to split into countless clones and search extensively through the time stream, finally surrounding and annihilating it."
"But I cannot guarantee that these clones will remain fully under control," Kang said. "Just like the previous situation, they might split into countless versions of me, then turn on each other."
"No, don't do that," Loki interjected. "This creature in the time stream only threatens those with time and speed abilities, but if your clones stir up trouble again, it could threaten many people."
At this moment, Professor X received a call—it was obviously Magneto's voice. After hanging up, Professor X brought Magneto into the discussion.
"Someone's hunting Quicksilver," Magneto said. "Injured him, nearly killed him."
Although he appeared to be just there to understand the situation, the tone sounded very much like he was seeking retribution. Stark was already irritated and about to burst when he heard this tone, but Loki managed to restrain him.
"We also have injuries," Loki said from the perspective of the Time Management Bureau. "A creature is globally pursuing time and speed ability users; we still don't know where it's from, but we're trying to figure out how to eliminate it."
"It must be done quickly," Magneto said. "I can exceed the speed of light by transforming into a magnetic field; will it appear behind me then?"
"Don't try it lightly," Professor X cautioned. "If you can't kill it in one strike, you might make it even harder to capture."
At that point, Stark noticed that Ultron had sent him a massive pile of data. Upon opening it, he glanced at it, and the more he looked, the deeper his brow furrowed.
The Batman on the screen had successfully lured out the three strongest super-personalities. Batwoman was using her Trident of Poseidon to contain Fireman, while Doomsday Batman was wrestling with the sumo wrestler. The pursuit team's Batman was also making smooth progress. The super-personalities realized what they were doing, but due to interference, they couldn't provide support immediately.
Stark had no choice but to project all the data onto the other side of the screen, which now displayed The Flash's information, including the experiences of many Flashes from different universes.
"The God of Death with Divine Speed?" Loki read the name with some confusion. He said, "But our cosmos doesn't have anything like Divine Speed."
"This means that our cosmos also has a similar concept, which is not surprising," Stark explained. "If time is also a type of rule, and the creator of this world wanted ordinary people to understand it in a more straightforward way, then surely a similar concept would be established, allowing beings that are not made of rules to traverse it."
Considering the similarities between these two universes, it's not improbable," Strange said. "I even suspect that our respective universes share the same creator, who merely copied and pasted the cosmic parameters, changed the names of all the files, and thus created two distinct universes that are fundamentally the same."
"But judging from The Flash's data, he doesn't seem to be that careless," said Professor X, speaking on behalf of The Flash because he could understand him. Professor X continued, "From his actions, although he is obsessed with his parents' deaths, he is still fundamentally a good person with a sense of justice, able to stick to his moral code most of the time."
"Yes, but what about this one?" Stark projected another red figure onto the screen, but this time with two pointed ears on the head.
After reading his data, everyone fell silent. This Batman, driven to extreme measures to the point of killing his own friends over his parents' deaths, was hard to believe that he wouldn't do something like deliberately sending a monster to another universe.
"Ultron says he is now lucid, but we must still maintain necessary skepticism," Stark said, caressing the communicator on his arm. "Moreover, the dire consequences he has brought can no longer be reversed, and we now need to find a way to deal with this monster."
"Wait a second," Loki, who had been a schemer for who knows how many years, immediately interjected. "Do you remember? This group of Batmans are actually just the product of another conspiracy, with a puppeteer lurking behind them."
"You mean the one who tainted them," Strange said. He clearly had heard this convoluted story, which he also got from Ultron.
Loki nodded and said, "Don't you find it strange? This person has the intention and ability, tainting so many Batmans. Do you really think his plan stops at just corrupting them?"
"What did he taint them for? What purpose does he want to use them for? Where is the final target of his plan?"
The room fell silent, with everyone deep in thought. Stark shook his head in confusion and said, "You're not suggesting his target is our cosmos, are you?"
"It's not impossible," Loki stood up, pacing in front of the screen, and said: "Look, the existence of the Battleworld is not a secret between our and their cosmoses in the Multiverse, because many superheroes have become involved."
"Let's assume that the puppet master is not the kind of ancient relic that would hide deep in the mountains for millions of years, unwilling to show his face yet still wanting to destroy a cosmos. Instead, he's like these Batmans, becoming an evil superhero. He would definitely notice the Battleworld."
"He would know that there's a System allowing him to traverse the universes, which for a strategist, is incredibly good news since it provides more space to maneuver."
Loki lowered his head as if recalling and said, "If I were a madman wanting to destroy a cosmos, indeed, I used to be, but I am not anymore; that's why I can put myself in his shoes and think."
"I know that the destruction of a cosmos is an inevitable fate, and I don't need to sneak into another cosmos to eke out an existence. Yet, during the process of cosmic destruction, I will undoubtedly have to struggle against many, and therefore, I must make all the necessary preparations."
"Putting all my preparations in this cosmos is unrealistic because I am active here, and I would stir up a lot of noise and draw much attention. Once they notice me, the preparations I have made could be discovered and rendered ineffective."
"But if I cleverly send the crucial elements and life-saving preparations of some plans to another universe, I would be able to make a strategic shift when the cosmos destruction plan hits a snag. I can be reborn in another universe and reaccumulate power."
"We know it's not easy to traverse these two universes in the usual way, but if I learned of a magical System that allows all uploaders to easily use portals to travel between universes, wouldn't I have ideas?"
Strange fell silent for a moment, for Loki's empathetic confession made a lot of sense. Everyone present was intelligent and could understand that if there was indeed a genius madman stirring things up on the other side, and he got wind of the Doujie System, he wouldn't miss the chance to target this side, to his great advantage.
"If we assume that tainting our cosmos is the ultimate goal of the other side's corrupted Batman plan, then the monster that came in deep with The Flash, spurred by the Divine Speed, is definitely not an accident. He must be hiding secrets of the other side," Strange deduced.
"Find a way to capture him!" Stark couldn't sit still any longer. He said, "If their plan is so large that it requires two cosmoses to contain it and has been put into action, it indicates that he is not only evil but also powerful enough."
"What about Shiller then?" Professor X raised a key question. "What role does he play in this plan? Could he really be unaware and unprepared for it?"
One Hand picked up the teacup, and the curling steam climbed to the glasses over his eyes. Shiller took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, took a sip of hot tea, and leaned back in the comfortable office chair.
"How long has the Doctor been chasing Mad Laugh?" Shiller murmured to himself. "He's chased him to the point of thinking about laying eggs here."