This time, however, Quicksilver did not charge directly at Bruce. Instead, he turned and sped off into the distance.
Clatter—
At that moment, the glass on the building Bruce had used to change direction finally began to fall.
Fortunately, New York was now almost entirely under the control of the Herbitron robots, causing most people to obediently stay where they were supposed to be.
There were no pedestrians beneath the building either.
Lightning instantly enveloped Bruce's entire body, and his figure disappeared completely from everyone's sight.
Even the Creator, who was monitoring Bruce, couldn't capture his silhouette. All he could see was the lingering trail of lightning left behind.
"Look at how much our bat has been hiding," the Creator said, still watching Bruce's situation from his laboratory.
Meanwhile, beside him, Quicksilver's physical condition was also being monitored, and it wasn't looking good.
Several areas on his body were already marked red.
Those areas had sustained injuries.
Clearly, it wasn't a simple issue, and these wounds would inevitably begin to slow him down.
However, the Creator had no intention of rescuing him.
He had never truly trusted Quicksilver. What he trusted were the technologies in his hands and his own brilliant mind.
Mutants had never been part of his plans.
Neither he nor Kang the Conqueror ever believed in mutants, because those beings would only accelerate the world's destruction.
In all their projections, this had always been the case.
What they needed was a completely clean world.
Mutants had no place in it.
"So, what are we supposed to do now?" Banner had appeared beside the Creator.
In the battle against Thor, just as the Creator had predicted, a Thor who had lost his divinity was indeed no match for the Hulk.
Now, Thor had been thrown into the prison within Negative Space.
Locked up alongside Captain America and the others.
"Continue with your task. We'll take care of all the problems," the Creator said.
Banner didn't pursue the topic further and simply turned to leave.
This was the Creator's domain; even though they were allies, it didn't mean Banner could act freely here.
Besides, he needed to return to Africa to deal with the situation at the Seed of Wisdom farm.
"Good luck," Banner said, leaving those words behind as he departed.
The Creator didn't react. In his view, failure was not an option.
Once all eight Infinity Stones were in hand, the world—no, the universe—would see him as its savior.
After glancing once more at Quicksilver's physical status—seeing that, despite his injuries, he retained extreme speed and impressive recovery—the Creator removed his monitoring of Quicksilver and activated all the surrounding machinery.
He now needed to calculate the perfect formula to shape Earth's future into the dream he envisioned.
Meanwhile, Quicksilver was sprinting at full speed, not daring to look back. He had no idea if that bat had caught up to him; all he could do now was keep running.
He didn't believe the bat could actually overtake him.
But the next second, a streak of golden lightning flashed past him, then adjusted its course and came rushing back toward him.
"Once was enough. You think I'd fall for it a second time?"
Thinking Bruce would repeat the same trick, Quicksilver instantly changed his position, dashing up the side of a building.
His speed shattered all the glass on the building's surface.
He intended to use the building's flat surface to change direction—just like Bruce had done earlier.
But before Quicksilver could complete his turn, Bruce was already beside him.
Bruce reached out and grabbed Quicksilver by the throat.
"Ugh!!"
Never in his life had Quicksilver imagined someone could surpass him in speed. He tried to struggle, but Bruce was simply too fast.
Bruce even dragged him along at high speed.
Quicksilver felt like his entire body was suspended mid-air.
If not for the discomfort in his throat, it almost would have felt like he was drifting in outer space.
At that moment, Susan and Ben had already regrouped with Nick Fury's Roaring Strike Force.
"I thought something had happened to you two,"
Seeing them appear, Monica breathed a sigh of relief.
She had previously sent Susan to talk to Reed, but after Ben also vanished, she realized what they were planning.
However, before she could even discuss with Stark how to resolve the situation, Monica had been knocked unconscious.
Stark had also disappeared without a trace.
Fortunately, Nick Fury showed up—otherwise, they might have had no way to salvage the situation.
"How did you manage to escape?" Nick Fury asked.
Though he trusted that they wouldn't be easily captured, escaping from inside Alpha One was still suspicious.
The Creator would never have let them go so easily.
Unless he intended for them to escape in order to draw out more of his opposition.
"It was the bat who saved us."
When Susan said this, everyone around her wore strange expressions.
Their understanding of Bruce was still that of an ordinary person.
Although among ordinary people Bruce might be incredibly strong...
That didn't mean he was capable of utterly unbelievable feats.
"I know it sounds crazy, but—" Susan started to say more, but another voice interrupted her.
"That bat is far scarier than you realize," Stark said, his figure swaying slightly as a Herbitron robot supported him from one side.
When the Herbitron appeared, one member of Fury's Roaring Strike Force immediately prepared to shoot.
But Nick Fury stopped him.
The electronic screen on the Herbitron robot was no longer displaying the enemy's symbol; instead, it bore Stark's Iron Man insignia.
"What the hell happened?"
Two figures suddenly appeared in front of Stark, Susan, and the others.
A red Spider suit and a white Spider suit immediately revealed their identities.
After Kang the Conqueror and Bruce left the Batcave, these two had been freed from mind control.
They refused to believe Bruce would side with the Creator.
At the same time, they also knew that trying to fight the Creator with their strength alone would be nothing more than a fool's dream.
So they had sought out Nick Fury, operating as peripheral members of the Roaring Strike Force.
Upon hearing about Bruce, none of them paid any attention to Nick Fury's attitude anymore.
Nick Fury didn't show much reaction either, since this was exactly the thing he most wanted to know right now.
Originally, they had thought Stark was someone who needed rescuing.But now, Stark had already appeared in front of them by himself.
And everything seemed to be somehow related to that bat.
Sitting on the ground with his head split open wasn't exactly a comfortable experience for Stark.
The fact that he could even walk here now was already a testament to his sheer willpower.
"The power that bat possesses might far exceed our imagination," Stark said as he explained the situation to Nick Fury and the others.
Meanwhile, Bruce had already completely subdued Quicksilver.
Bruce's knee was pressing firmly against Quicksilver's neck.
"I—cough—cough—I really didn't know you could still run that fast!" Quicksilver said, still somewhat unwilling to concede.
He strained his neck, trying to look Bruce straight in the eye, but all he could see were a pair of golden, glowing eyes.
"You haven't yet stepped onto the worst possible path. You still have a chance to make it right," Bruce said to him.
"Make it right? You mean, let you all treat us like clowns?"Quicksilver clearly didn't believe Bruce's words. He gave a bitter, mocking smile as he replied.
"Or should I go join that so-called Eden the mutants have built, and play house with them?" Quicksilver roared at Bruce.
"You should know very well what the Creators think of you. Do you really believe that once they save the Earth, they'll give mutants like you a place to live?"
Bruce's words made Quicksilver fall silent.
He didn't know how to respond; he could only stare hard at Bruce.
"Think about it carefully," Bruce said as he stood up and backed away, showing clearly that he would not attack again.
Quicksilver also understood very well that, in his current state, he was no match for Bruce. Without hesitation, he turned and fled.
Even when Quicksilver entered Alpha One, Bruce made no move to pursue.
Instead, Bruce turned and ran in another direction. During his earlier chase with Quicksilver, Bruce had already caught sight of Nick Fury.
It seemed those guys already had a plan.
But Bruce had his own plan too.
By now, Stark had more or less explained everything that had happened. Before Susan and the others could even start reporting their side, a flash of golden light suddenly appeared beside them.
The person they had been talking about had arrived.
"I want to know what you plan to do next," Bruce said immediately to Nick Fury upon arrival.
Even though he had seen everyone around him—
Including Gwen and Jessica—
The more urgent matter now was how Nick Fury planned to deal with the Creators.
"Hey!"
Jessica, burning with anger, marched forward, wanting to question Bruce about something.
But Bruce simply turned and looked at Jessica.
"When this is over, we'll have a talk," he said.
And with that, he no longer looked at her, turning instead toward Nick Fury.
Gwen stepped forward and gently took Jessica's hand. When Jessica turned to look at Gwen, Gwen shook her head.
The more important task now was to deal with the Creators.
"I know most of the people here, but you should tell me," Bruce said, now standing beside Nick Fury, his gaze resting on a man nearby—barehanded, looking like a lion, "who exactly is he?"
"Hercules—the Demigod. I think we all need to have faith in our own gods," Nick Fury replied.
"No. America has never had its own gods," Bruce coldly rebutted.
America's history simply didn't allow for the birth of its own mythologies.
How could a country without deep historical roots ever have the kind of ancient, heavy mythologies born from the long history of other civilizations?
Nick Fury wasn't angry.
Bruce was simply speaking the truth.
Calling them 'their own gods' was nothing more than saying they were the descendants of those who once worshiped them.
"Wait, where's Quicksilver?" Susan suddenly asked. She remembered clearly that Quicksilver had been right behind them earlier. Now that Bruce was here and Quicksilver was not, did that mean that bat...
"He's gone back to Alpha One," Bruce said, as if casually mentioning a trivial matter.
This made Nick Fury a bit headache.
Although they had originally factored Quicksilver into their plans, to be honest, when Susan asked the question, Nick Fury had actually hoped Bruce had just killed him.
That would have made things a little simpler.
But, of course, this bat hadn't done that.
"The Creators will never trust him again. Or rather, they never trusted mutants in the first place," Bruce said.
This statement revived Nick Fury's spirits.
If that was the case, then it wasn't exactly bad news.
"Now can you tell me about your plan?" Bruce asked, looking once again at Nick Fury.
While those on the ground were discussing their strategies, Conqueror Kang had already returned to Alpha One, bringing someone with him.
"Looks like our most important asset is back," Kang said.
Looking at the now-vegetative Jonathan Storm, the Creator showed no regret—on the contrary, he seemed relieved.
Modifying a vegetable into a tool was much easier.
But even if Jonathan wasn't a vegetable, it wouldn't have mattered much—he would still have been transformed into a machine capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and harvesting Infinity Stones.
Now, it was just even more convenient.
"I'm back," Quicksilver appeared at that moment, gazing at the prone Jonathan Storm, saying nothing.
His eyes were empty, lost.
"Welcome back," Conqueror Kang said, walking over to Quicksilver and gently ruffling his hair, comforting him like a child.
The Creator, meanwhile, was scrutinizing Quicksilver.
"I can tell—the bat's speed absolutely crushed you. How did you manage to escape?"
"I—" Quicksilver started, but before he could finish, Kang interrupted.
"We'll discuss that later," Kang said, turning to glance at the Creator.
The Creator wisely shrugged and dropped the subject.
"Now, the most important task is in your hands," Kang said to Quicksilver.
(End of Chapter)
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