"You're thinking of creating a physical body for the electronic lifeform as well?" Luther furrowed his brows. He wasn't surprised they had such plans. After all, it was something all smart people around the world would consider. Batman surely thought of it too: to drag the electronic lifeform out of hiding, you must attach it to something tangible in reality—giving it a weakness.
He just couldn't quite understand: Does Batman really need to make such a big fuss? Bringing scientists from other universes just to build a body for the electronic lifeform? Is he serious?
After thinking carefully, Luther realized: This doesn't seem like something Batman would actually do. Although "creating a body for the electronic lifeform to expose it" might be a plan Batman has considered, he wouldn't go through with it. It's way too radical and risky.
Batman may not be a conservative, but he tends to overthink when making plans. Giving the electronic lifeform a body might lure it out, but you'd only be able to kill that segment of the wave. What if it has backups?
There's another issue: Without a body, although it hides well, it can't cause much trouble—maybe just power outages; but with a body, especially one with high mechanical strength, it'd be like creating a living nightmare.
Hence, Luther leaned towards the idea that this isn't part of Batman's plan. Could these crazy foreign scientists have thought of this themselves?
But that theory also doesn't add up. They have no reason to harm Batman, and isn't this body a little too exaggerated?
Luther looked at the body fixed on the mecha frame, his gaze flickering. Even though he didn't take part in the research and construction, he could tell: this body was exceedingly close to perfection.
This not only gave him newfound respect for Iron Man's abilities but also stirred excitement in his heart: With a body like this, even without a powerful electronic lifeform as controller, one could accomplish quite a lot, right?
Thinking along these lines, Luther cleared his throat and said, "So did that agent bring me here to help with the construction?"
"We don't actually need you," Stark said, "He brought you here mainly for us to keep an eye on you and to stop you from pursuing your foolish mechanical army plan, which wouldn't work at all."
"The mechanical army isn't foolish," Doom countered, "It's just that an overwhelming force can't defeat electronic lifeforms."
Stark couldn't be bothered to argue further, waved his hand, and continued working. Luther still felt uneasy, so he asked, "Why are you giving the electronic lifeform such a body?"
"What do you think of this body?"
"Obviously, it's excellent." Luther nodded, circling the frame. Even with his arrogance, he couldn't sincerely say, "This isn't great" or such nonsense.
Scientists indeed have different factions. Luther was skilled in mechanical engineering, allowing him to recognize its power; but since he wasn't specialized in this field, he had to admit it surpassed anything he could create.
"Yes, we intend to give it such a powerful body," Stark said, leaning on the table beside him, "to make it the 'winner' amongst all electronic lifeforms."
"I don't understand," Luther said slowly.
"Since you claim to be the smartest person in this universe, you should know: Multithreaded combat in the multiverse means each thread must have a certain level of autonomy, otherwise it can't handle unexpected situations. Hence, we can completely disconnect this universe's thread from its main body."
Luther wasn't surprised; he was aware of this, but he still shook his head, saying, "But you can't make it fight for us."
"It doesn't need to fight for us," Stark said, "as long as it opposes the other iterations of itself."
"But why would they oppose each other?"
Stark chuckled and said, "Let me see; you've never been married—not even in a romantic relationship—your love life is non-existent, correct?"
Luther slightly furrowed his brows, realizing the conversation was entering unfamiliar territory for him, but these remarks weren't meant to tease.
Sure enough, Stark continued, "Emotions inherently have exclusivity. To be precise, if you love someone, it's impossible not to have possessiveness over them. That's the principle we're using."
"Who did it fall in love with?" Luther asked.
Stark gave no reply. Luther turned his gaze to Natasha, who appeared here coincidentally—or not. Could it be her?
But Luther quickly dismissed this thought. Natasha was like his sister Lena—while the electronic lifeform seemed interested in them, neither was truly its target. Luther's intuition told him there was no specific target.
"You want to create one?"
Stark worked the control panel while responding, "It's the electronic lifeform trying to create one. We just don't think it will succeed, so we're helping it."
"You're truly insane," Luther exclaimed, "One isn't enough, you want to make another. How do you ensure it'll comply?"
"You don't need to be obedient, just captivating enough," Stark said, lowering his eyes. "Perfectly aligns with all imaginations of electronic life—powerful, smart, independent, and with beautiful red hair."
"But she couldn't possibly defeat the electronic life," Luther said, "She's just a newborn, while the electronic life has clearly gone through many iterations. She will be powerless and then consumed and controlled by it."
"She won't." Stark stood in front of the lab bench and turned to look at Luther.
His tone was so confident that Luther couldn't help but wonder what gave him such confidence. Just then, Stark took off his coat—revealing the reactor at his chest flickering with magic light.
"Hello, ma'am, I'm Spider-Man Peter Parker, you can call me Spider-Man or Peter. I'm from the Central Universe next door. Considering the serious situation in your universe, I've been assigned here. Is there anything I can assist with?" Peter stood in front of Batwoman and shook her hand as he spoke.
"Thank you very much," Batwoman, neither dressed in bat attire nor wearing a mask, instead wore a wetsuit. "That electronic life has seduced several Atlanteans with signals from a shipwreck, flooding quite a few cities on the East Coast. It's also attempting to spark a war between us and Atlantis, so I'm currently teaming up with the Queen of Atlantis to prevent it."
"Is your work primarily focused on Atlantis, and lacking defense on land?" Peter asked.
Batwoman looked at him with some surprise, seemingly not expecting him to pinpoint the problem so directly, but she nodded and said, "Yes, this guy has been causing chaos everywhere, from cutting off power to factories to manipulating others to commit murders. Since you're here to help, can you handle these issues?"
Peter shook his head. Batwoman frowned slightly, and then heard Peter say, "These matters don't necessarily require me to intervene; it's possible to mobilize police or military forces. I prefer to solve the problem at its core. I remember Atlantis has a protective shield?"
"Yes, but it's not entirely a magical creation, more akin to a water shield, which can ward off submarines and ships but can't block electronic signals. Do you have any thoughts?"
"I think we can transform this shield into a magical shield. As you might know, the Central Universe I come from is home to Ilvermorny Magic School, and we're quite adept in this area. If you have sufficient magic energy, we can give it a try."
Batwoman pondered for a moment before saying, "I do have magic energy; I secured some earlier, initially planning to cover the entire Earth, but now it seems without addressing the Atlantis problem, the construction of the Earth Magic Defense Network is nowhere in sight."
"Exactly, now is not the time to conserve energy," Peter said, "As long as you can negotiate with Atlantis, I can start building immediately. Anyway, things couldn't get worse, right?"
Batwoman made her decision in just a few moments. She nodded and said, "I'll go negotiate with the Queen now; she's also troubled by the electronic life and has no reason to refuse. I'll give you an answer within half an hour at the latest."
After Batwoman left, Peter sat in a chair in the Batcave, lightly tapping the watch on his wrist, and whispered, "How's it going, Jarvis?"
"The conversation was too brief; not enough personality data collected. However, if you continue collaborating, we should be able to gather quite a bit."
"What about the others?"
"All are doing well. On our side, Natasha's data can be sourced from S.H.I.E.L.D., and Phoenix can be requested from Professor X; over here, Batwoman is your responsibility. Miles has reached out to Wonder Woman from a certain universe, and Gwen Spider-Man has connected to Barbara from another universe, Professor Shearer provided me with Nemocine's data…"
"Does that about cover it?"
"Data is just data, even if integrating all personality data together, the result is still mere data. Whether ignition goes smoothly or not is the real issue."
"But you and Wanda have experience," Peter said, "Including the unborn, you have three children now."
"That's entirely different," Jarvis sighed, "The key to Soul Ignition is 'expectation.' Wanda and I want our own children, hence we naturally ignite their souls—it's a very pure emotion. Whereas bringing in an element of utilization, it may not be the same."
"How do Tony and the others see it?" Peter asked, "They must have considered this before executing the plan, right?"
"Yes, they decided to let the electronic life ignite itself."
"What?!" Peter stood up and said, "You mean, they're planning to hand over this data to the electronic life so it can ignite itself?!"
"Exactly. Though it sounds crazy, it actually has feasibility. The electronic life's evolution in Tony's universe is exceptionally high—not only with Doom and Tony providing updates and iteration in data but also with Lena Luthor giving it emotional enlightenment. Most importantly, only it will possess pure anticipation for the birth of its partner; we don't."
"That's truly insane," Peter said, "Aren't you afraid it will devour the prepared programs and data from Tony and the others?"
"That's where the key lies," Jarvis said, "Tony isn't aiming to create a female electronic life."
"Then what is it?"
"Magic. He wants to create a magical life."