"So, you want me to track down the other versions of you?" Bruce asked, eyeing Owen in front of him.
Owen walked over and sat casually on the edge of the table next to the Bat.
"Exactly. I want them to understand I'm not some toy they can play with. Well? Partner up?"
"But I have one question."Bruce rose to face the Molecule Man.
"Why me?"
Owen clearly hadn't expected that.Still, it was a fair thing to ask: out in the other room Reed and Stark were undeniable geniuses; Bruce, at best, merely matched them in certain areas.
"Because you and I—we're both outliers."
Owen spoke earnestly. "Anything else?"
Bruce studied him for a long moment, then turned to leave without another word.Owen understood that as acceptance and followed the Bat out of the room.
Outside, everyone watched the doorway that had vanished re-form and swing open from the inside.Bruce emerged with Owen in tow.
"What did you just do?" Fury's voice was tight. The ability to reshape S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters silently was downright absurd—yet it had just happened.
"Nothing dramatic—just making sure no one interrupted our chat," Owen said lightly, unconcerned whether anyone believed him.
Fury shot a questioning look at Bruce, but the Bat gave no reply.
"We need to get ready. I have to try again," Bruce announced, heading off with Owen.
"You didn't find a better plan last time—what's different now?" Reed stepped in front of him, scrutinizing both men.
"This time we have a clear target."With that, Bruce sidestepped Richards and left.
As Owen passed Reed he paused, glanced at him, then hurried after the Bat.
"Can we trust him?" Fury muttered, watching them disappear down the corridor.
"No idea," Reed admitted. "But we'd better prepare for both outcomes."He pulled up every name that had ever set foot in the Bat-Cave, along with all contingency protocols, marveling at the Bat's patience and meticulous foresight.
When the Bat and the Molecule Man returned to the Cave, Jessica was waiting.
"Can we really pull this off?" she asked Bruce for the first time.
He didn't answer; instead he cupped her face with his hand.Jessica's eyes widened—she hadn't expected the gesture and froze, uncertain how to react.Then, as quickly as it happened, he let go and started toward the Cosmic Treadmill.
Before he got far, Jessica grabbed his hand, yanking him back.She closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his.Surprised, Bruce still shut his eyes and kissed her back.
Owen, witnessing the scene, twitched at the mouth.Weren't they supposed to be off avenging something? Why was he standing here eating dog food?
Captain America, who had come to talk to Bruce, felt equally awkward.He cleared his throat softly. "Ahem."
The cough snapped Bruce and Jessica back to reality, but there was no embarrassment.
"I'll wait for you," Jessica whispered, releasing his hand.
Bruce nodded and walked toward Cap.Steve flashed Jessica an apologetic smile and led Bruce away.
"Jessica just turned eighteen—you'd better—" Cap began.
"I'm restarting the search for alternatives, but I still can't guarantee success," Bruce cut him off, ignoring the previous remark.
Steve nodded, pledging to protect everyone here—and urging Bruce to return quickly.
"Can we go now?" Owen grumbled; the stench of romance was too much for him.
Bruce's armor morphed at blinding speed—the crimson-gold Red Death suit engulfed him.Grabbing Owen by the shoulder, he hauled him onto the Cosmic Treadmill and wrapped him in Speed Force energy.
"This power is peculiar," Owen mused, feeling the field around him. "I can't even break it down."
But Bruce gave him no time to experiment.
He had already activated the Cosmic Treadmill, pushing his speed to the limit in an instant. A brilliant flash of light swept through, and Bruce and Owen's figures vanished completely within the Batcave.
Staring in the direction of the Cosmic Treadmill, Jessica could only silently pray in her heart that everything would go smoothly.
Gwen, standing nearby, walked up to Jessica and said gently, "Don't worry. The Bat will definitely come back, and he'll resolve all of this."
Listening to Gwen's comforting words, Jessica simply nodded.
She hoped everything would go as everyone wished.
This time, with his previous experience using the Cosmic Treadmill, Bruce didn't immediately break through the boundaries of the multiverse to reach the cosmic entities.
Instead, he stopped as soon as he exited his own universe.
"Can you locate your counterpart here?" Bruce asked Owen beside him. At that moment, Owen the Molecule Man demonstrated his ability and instantly pinpointed his counterpart's location in this universe.
Boosted by the Speed Force, Bruce brought Owen to the designated location in an instant—only to find that the Owen of this universe had already been killed.
Bruce turned to the Molecule Man beside him. "He's already dead."
"Someone, like me, realized the problem we're facing. But he chose to have his ally kill him, to prevent the multiverse from colliding and being destroyed," Owen said calmly. After all, if he could become aware of the issue, then it was inevitable that another version of himself could, too.
They just might not have had the right allies. But at least one version of him did.
"Then we need to move faster," Bruce said after a brief pause. He grabbed Owen once again and darted through parallel universes.
Not relying solely on the Speed Force, he also had his universe-hopping wristband.
But in each universe they reached, the Molecule Man there was either missing or already dead.
Someone had been completing this task ahead of them.
"We need to go to a slightly earlier timeline," Owen said to Bruce. "I can sense that your wristband still has the ability to traverse time. I need you to go further back and find them."
"The timeline..." Bruce hesitated. If he carelessly altered the fate of every Molecule Man by jumping across timelines, wouldn't that cause the already fragile timeline to completely collapse?
"All timelines were already destroyed when the multiverse collision began. We're merely drifting in the aftermath of time," Owen replied indifferently.
The so-called timelines had already ended long ago.
Now they were just riding the final wave.
And that wave would eventually crash onto the shore and dissolve into foam.
Hearing Owen's words, Bruce turned to look at this man who had been turned into a cosmic doomsday bomb.
"The multiverse collision and destruction—there's no way to stop it, is there?"
"That's right. Once it starts, it can't be stopped," Owen said, fully aware that Bruce would eventually come to understand this.
Bruce learning it now was just slightly ahead of Owen's expectations.
"Knowing all this, will you still move forward?" Owen asked the question, though he wasn't worried Bruce would give up—because this Bat had never known how to give up.
"We have to try."
As Bruce said this, he began adjusting the wristband on his arm and activated the time-travel function.
"Hold on tight." With Bruce's words, a smile appeared on Owen's face.
This was why he had chosen Bruce as an ally.
This man never gives up.
Wrapped in the Speed Force, the two vanished instantly from the universe, leaping through the timelines.
Meanwhile, in another universe, the one who was hunting and killing Molecule Men realized that the corpse he had just slain was slowly disappearing.
This was clearly abnormal. In the past, even after killing a Molecule Man, while their body would vanish, there would still be traces of death. But now, not even those remained.
This meant that the Molecule Man before him had likely been rescued from the distant past.
He had completely left this universe, preventing his death in it.
Clad in a green suit that shimmered with dazzling white light, the man looked at the dagger in his hand, then at the now-empty spot on the ground.
He knew—someone was interfering with his plan.
His form gradually faded away and returned to his base of operations:
The Cosmic Library, a place that could shield his presence from those beings who sought him, and a place where he was revered as a god.
Not the Black Swans who worshipped him with supreme reverence—he passed by them slowly and walked into the innermost chamber, a place reserved only for him.
And inside, another person was at work.
"Someone saved you in the past," said the man, his light fading away to reveal his true face—Doctor Doom, now known as the Great Destroyer.
He was the one all Black Swans worshipped.
While they revered him, they also carried out his orders—to kill every Molecule Man in every universe.
"We all know it wasn't those guys. They're linear—they can't go back to the past or travel through timelines." The Molecule Man, clearly aware of what was going on, turned to Doctor Doom. "Another version of me must have discovered the truth and has started his own plan."
"But aren't all of you the same? One being, one mind, sharing one consciousness?" Doom still clearly remembered what the Molecule Man told him before all of this began.
"You should understand—sometimes you can't put all your eggs in one basket. He took another path, one I had thought about before but never carried out," Molecule Man explained without hesitation.
"Then which plan do you think will succeed?" Doom looked at him, wanting to know whether his plan would ultimately prevail—or the other one's.
"Neither will succeed. No one can succeed. But together, our two plans might make sure we don't fail."
At that moment, the ground beneath Doctor Doom cracked open, revealing a dreamlike light. It was mesmerizing, stunning in its beauty.
But the next moment, Doctor Doom saw a figure he recognized instantly—despite the armor having changed long ago.
That familiar bat symbol—he knew he would never forget it for as long as he lived.
"Behold our Holy Speedster."
(End of Chapter)
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