"Remember to eat properly."
In the Batcave, Aunt May walked toward the back kitchen with practiced ease.
Jessica and Gwen, who had been smiling as they watched Aunt May walk away, suddenly changed their expressions.
They clearly remembered the current state of the kitchen.
There was no way Aunt May could be allowed to see it.
The two of them immediately dashed toward the kitchen and stopped Aunt May just before she entered. Jessica gently guided her to sit elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Gwen swiftly entered the kitchen to start cleaning up the mess from earlier.
To be honest, the kitchen was relatively clean—if one ignored the splattered tomato sauce on the wall behind the stove from making tomato spaghetti, the pot with a burnt bottom in the sink, and—
Well, Bruce bore about a third of the blame for the state of the kitchen.
But right now, there was no way Bruce could come in and deal with it.
He needed to stay outside to keep Aunt May occupied.
"How is it?" Jessica cautiously stepped into the kitchen at this moment. Seeing the situation, she pressed a hand to her forehead.
There was no way Aunt May could find out about this.
"Let's get to work," Jessica said, patting Gwen on the shoulder.
The two Spider-Women had no other choice. They rolled up their sleeves and started working hard.
Outside, Aunt May probably had a good guess about what was going on, but she didn't interfere. She simply sat quietly in her seat, watching Bruce eat.
"Honestly, are you really the same Batman I read about in the comics?" Peter Parker was genuinely unsure about the man in front of him.
After all, when he saw Doomsday being pushed away like that, he had been completely stunned.
At first, he thought the Ultimate Team had somehow found another incredibly powerful person, but Aunt May had instantly recognized that it was Batman.
To be honest, based on the video's clarity, Peter himself hadn't seen any defining Batman features on Doomsday, yet Aunt May had recognized him at a glance.
At the time, Peter felt a little bitter and confused. How had Aunt May recognized Batman so easily?
But then he thought—Aunt May had recognized him too. So maybe it all made sense.
Bruce didn't respond to Peter's question. He simply continued eating.
In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have eaten so much at S.H.I.E.L.D.
Now Bruce could finally understand why some people pig out at parties.
Feasting at someone else's expense really was a bit intoxicating.
Seeing Bruce remain silent, Peter didn't lose interest. He kept chattering away beside Bruce.
There was no sign he would stop anytime soon.
Bruce didn't mind. With chatterboxes like him, it was better not to engage—any reply would only encourage more talk.
Besides, someone else was sitting nearby who was much better at handling chatterboxes.
"Peter."
Sure enough, just as Bruce expected, the moment Aunt May spoke, Peter immediately went quiet.
Even though he clearly still had a bunch of questions he wanted to ask, since Aunt May had spoken, there was nothing he could do.
While Bruce and the others had returned to the Batcave, Reed had also just arrived back in the city.
Only, outside the city, he encountered someone unexpected.
He never imagined he would run into him here.
"Hello there, Nick Fury." Reed no longer looked like the crumpled mess he'd been before—he had returned to his normal form.
Although Tomorrow's Children were still suspicious of Reed…
Reed was, after all, their creator. Now that the city had accepted him again, they would naturally begin trying to accept him too.
"Aren't you supposed to be dealing with things in Europe?" Since leaving Bruce, Reed had already been updated by Tomorrow's Children on the current situation in Europe.
What he didn't expect was for Nick Fury to show up here.
"I'm not too concerned about Europe." Nick Fury never thought the situation there would spiral out of control. The Howling Commandos could handle everything easily.
"But I have other matters here that require your assistance," Fury said, looking at Reed—one of the smartest people in the world.
Reed was clearly surprised to hear this. He looked at Fury, rubbing his chin and narrowing his eyes.
"No, no, no... for you to say something like that—are you really the same arrogant Nick Fury I know?"
Reed was genuinely puzzled.
What kind of situation would drive Fury to seek his help?
Was he even trying to get rid of him?
All of it made Reed incredibly curious.
Fury simply stared calmly at the man before him.
"Finished looking?" Fury said to Reed.
"Hold on, I need to confirm you're the real Nick Fury," Reed replied, his tone clearly starting to turn playful.
He knew exactly what kind of person he was dealing with.
"I'm guessing you came to ask for my help, didn't you?" Reed took a deep breath, a smile curving at the corners of his lips. "You like my way of doing things, don't you?"
Fury said nothing.
But Reed didn't need a response—he already understood what Fury was planning.
"You already know," Fury muttered, clearly annoyed. He hated talking to people like Reed. No matter how vague you tried to be, they could still pick up on the truth from the tiniest clues.
If it were just a matter of technological genius, agents could handle that easily.
But the problem with all the scientists S.H.I.E.L.D. had encountered was that they each had way too much personality.
"Mm. But I can only help you while staying in the city," Reed nodded, shifting his gaze toward the now fully restored city.
He knew exactly what he needed to do.
Especially after learning what Bruce had said, Reed became even more certain that he couldn't leave this place.
He possessed top-tier intelligence, but without technological assistance, he still couldn't fully unleash all his abilities and ideas.
As for Nick Fury's request, Reed wouldn't refuse.
To him, helping S.H.I.E.L.D. was merely a spice added to the routine of daily life.
Someone who could no longer even be considered truly alive—how could such a person still be seen as normal?
"This is how you can contact me." Nick Fury placed something in Reed's hand and then turned to leave.
"Director Monica might not necessarily allow me to assist you," Reed said, without turning to look at Nick Fury.
Nick Fury didn't respond.
But Reed believed Fury would give him a satisfactory answer.
What he needed to do now was build what he needed using the resources here—and also create what the Bat needed.
"By the way, do you guys know the Bat's real identity?" As they entered the city, Reed asked the Tomorrow Children beside him with great interest.
But the question he asked made them all feel a bit helpless.
They had tried to uncover the Bat's identity before, but came up with nothing. Even deploying the City yielded no results.
At the time, it made the City suspect it might have malfunctioned, causing it to ignore everything the Bat did.
Yet repeated diagnostics revealed no issues.
And that, in itself, was the biggest issue.
But the moment they stopped trying to investigate the Bat, everything returned to normal.
If that didn't make things clear, the City might as well be shut down for good.
Clearly, that Bat had done something subtle to mask himself.
And he had done it brilliantly.
This was also one of the reasons why, whenever Bruce came to the City, it always allowed him in.
To put it bluntly, its own processing programs were basically at Bruce's mercy.
"Now, it's time for us to get to work." Reed once again donned his old uniform.
Not the Fantastic Four suit that once symbolized his good intentions, but his former Creator attire.
"Let's see what we've got," Reed said, getting right into work mode.
From the vast sea of data, Reed retrieved a research project he had once worked on—though he and the City had later dismissed it.
They'd believed it was a complete waste of time, energy, and resources.
"This project is going nowhere. We already discussed this," the City said as it noticed Reed digging out the abandoned files.
It trusted Reed's brilliance, but that didn't mean it trusted human memory.
Perhaps Reed had simply forgotten.
"No, no. This might actually be something we can develop now," Reed shook his head, refuting the City. He wanted to build this thing now.
But before that, he still needed to create what the Bat had requested.
After all, the Bat seemed to be in a hurry.
And Reed was also curious about what the Bat was planning to do.
Would he travel back in time like Kang the Conqueror to alter history? Or would he use another method to interfere with the timeline?
Whatever it was, it promised to reveal some very interesting truths.
"Time travel… What a bold idea," Reed's eyes gleamed with excitement.
While Reed buried himself in work, Stark had already brought Amadeus to Stark Tower.
Though Stark Tower had sustained some damage during Reed's time in power, its core structure remained intact.
It was still perfectly suited for research.
"To be honest, I always wanted to come to Stark Tower, but your research direction differed a bit from mine," Amadeus said as he looked around at the sophisticated equipment, visibly impressed.
The equipment available to the world's top company was not far behind S.H.I.E.L.D.—in some areas, it even surpassed it.
Especially the tech Stark had developed himself.
"How much of what the Bat said do you think is actually true?" Stark asked as he approached what looked like an ordinary wall, placing his hand on it.
In an instant, several beams of light lit up across the wall, which slowly transformed into a doorway.
Amadeus was amazed, but still responded to Stark's question: "I don't know. I really like the Bat, but what he said was definitely a bit frightening."
"Then let me put it another way—do you think releasing Reed was really a good idea?"
After Stark asked this, Amadeus fell silent.
Reed Richards had once been one of his idols.
But everything that happened afterward made him uncertain.
Everything had changed.
Reed had even tried to rule all of humanity.
Although the grand vision he had outlined was something Amadeus deeply admired, he also knew it was impossible.
"Looks like we feel the same way."
Stark nodded, seeing the expression on Amadeus' face.
"Come meet Anthony."
As Stark spoke, Amadeus saw a massive electronic machine.
"You created an artificial intelligence?"
"There was a time when only I could see Anthony. But now, everyone can witness his energy," Stark said as he gazed up at the AI he had poured all his brilliance into.
It was entirely modeled after the Anthony in his mind.
The Gem Anthony had also helped Stark immensely back then. But now the gem was gone, and that original Anthony who had always been by Stark's side had also vanished.
Fortunately, Stark had already copied Anthony's data and consciousness by his own means and preserved it here.
Although he couldn't replicate it completely, it was the best he could manage.
"Hello, Amadeus Cho," said a holographic figure as it appeared before Amadeus. It wore a high-end suit and sunglasses—almost a carbon copy of Stark himself.
Just... a smaller version.
"This is seriously cool," Amadeus said, barely able to contain his joy as he looked at the AI.
As a top scientist, he knew just how much of an advantage such a powerful AI could provide in their work.
"Anthony may not be able to match the computing power of the City, which Reed spent over a thousand years building, but since the City is responsible for so many different modules, we actually have better raw computing power," Stark said, looking proudly at his creation. "And what we need to do now is thoroughly calculate what might happen to our universe."
"I think you should—"
Before Stark could finish his sentence, he saw Amadeus already putting on his glasses.
"What are we waiting for? Let's get to work!"
Stark smiled at the passionate young man brimming with determination.
"Then let's begin."
(End of Chapter)
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