What now?
Superman reported the wormhole situation to the United Nations. Countries held meetings to figure out what to do. For now, the Justice League would guard it, but they couldn't stay posted at the wormhole forever. Ultimately, it was up to the UN to decide how to proceed, while the Justice League would provide some support.
The wormhole was located outside Venus's orbital path, between Mercury and Venus. Something strange could come through at any moment, entering the solar system and posing a threat to Earth. The UN had no choice but to take it seriously, though their tech wasn't exactly advanced.
They gathered elite scientists from around the globe to find a way to shut it down, but no one had a solution.
At this point, the five major powers had to step in. With greater power comes greater responsibility—even for nations. Not by meddling in others' affairs like the U.S. often did, but by providing aid and support when smaller countries needed it.
Small nations had little to offer here. The five major powers took charge and decided to form a new agency under the UN. Like the World Health Organization or the Red Cross, this new global institution would be called the United Earth Cosmic Defense Bureau—or just the Defense Bureau.
With the assumption that the wormhole couldn't be closed, they would focus on defending both sides of the portal.
The U.S., China, Russia, the U.K., and France, along with countries like Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Italy, began work on Earth's first space battleship to guard the wormhole. Just like that, Earth was headed for space. A new chapter in history was opening.
In the past six months, China had already begun extracting helium-3 and had upgraded its pulse engines. They'd gained significant experience in spacecraft construction and flight. With their mastery of high-tech like quantum communication, China became the backbone of the Defense Bureau.
The U.S. and Russia took responsibility for the ship's weapons systems. Other countries contributed to different parts of development. The creation of the Defense Bureau suddenly brought an unusual harmony to Earth. The wormhole had done more than open a path for exploration—it sparked a sense of shared crisis. Humanity started to cooperate.
Liu A'dou was really curious about what lay on the other side of the wormhole. He wanted to go check it out. But Batman advised caution, so they continued to wait. Of course, the Justice League wasn't some dictatorship. Besides themselves, they also transported the first batch of Defense Bureau staff to the wormhole site.
There were white, Asian, and Black personnel speaking all sorts of languages. Liu A'dou even spotted someone he knew—Ms. Chang'e, also known as An Rong. She wasn't about to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She had volunteered to be assigned to the Defense Bureau as one of the first investigators to arrive at the wormhole.
This first team set up a forward base around Bunny, conducting side-field studies of the wormhole and searching for a way to close it. But honestly, the scientists didn't want to close it. They wanted to fully study it instead. Scientists and politicians often viewed problems from very different angles.
Besides the scientists, there were security and combat personnel too. These included members of America's Eden Serpent Unit, as well as Chinese and Russian space fighter pilots.
But compared to the U.S., China and Russia's pilots had far less experience. Still, the Justice League allowed all three countries to transport their space fighters to the wormhole for patrol duties.
Three countries, three very different space fighters. America's sleek sci-fi Serpent, China's bulky Type-15, and Russia's rugged Katyusha. The Katyusha was developed independently by Russia. It looked like a scaled-down MiG-25—basically a flat flying brick.
"Whoa, I didn't even know Earth had stuff like this," said Flash, who was normally just a beat cop. It was his first time seeing the top-level military tech from different countries. He had known about China's Wugang-class ship, but hadn't expected the Serpent, Type-15, or Katyusha at all. It looked like every major country had plans to head into space.
Wugang-class, Earth's first high-speed spacecraft, had built quite the fanbase. Over the past six months, it had made a round trip between the Moon and Earth roughly every half month, transporting over 600 workers and scientists from various countries to the Moon. Its two flight crews even set a record for the most lunar trips.
While Flash was checking out the three nations' space fighters, the pilots were also eyeing him. It was the second time the Justice League had saved Earth. After learning the full story, the pilots all had the same reaction—chilled to the bone.
That punch from the sun—if Superman and the others hadn't stopped it, half of Earth would've been scorched to a crisp. Even though a wormhole popped up from the accident, Earth was still intact, so they had to give credit to the Justice League.
They were all young and all public servants, so Flash quickly hit it off with the pilots.
On the other hand, things weren't so chill for the scientists. The experts were facing a huge challenge. The wormhole was sustained by phenomena beyond current human understanding. It wasn't expanding or shrinking. Where its energy came from, why it could transport people across distances—those were all things that needed investigating. That's why the scientists weren't in favor of closing the wormhole. It was a once-in-a-lifetime research opportunity.
The Justice League couldn't stick around long. Flash had his day job, Superman was worried about Metropolis, and Batman had to return to Gotham City. Diana wasn't in a rush to go back, but she was bored here with Bunny, so she left too. That left only Kaitou Kid, who had nothing urgent on Earth. If he wanted to see his daughter, Elsa could just teleport her over.
The research was moving full speed ahead. Alongside An Rong, 12 scientists made up the top research team on Earth. Liu A'dou stayed behind mainly to protect them.
"We're requesting permission to exit the ship." Today, An Rong stepped forward to make the request on behalf of the entire science team.
Kid thought, 'This is how every sci-fi movie starts—curious scientists doing something reckless that causes a massive disaster.' He said, "No. Someone might not be able to resist going through. We still don't know what's on the other side, so it's not allowed."
An Rong still didn't know that Liu A'dou and Kaitou Kid were the same person.
"We're not going to do anything dangerous. We just want to place a probe."
"Still no. We don't even know if the other side is safe, so no exploratory actions are allowed."
"But if we don't put down a probe, how will we know if it's safe or not?" An Rong wasn't going to back down just because Kid had saved the world—truth came first.
"We have our own methods." Of course, he meant using energy sensing. So far, the other side seemed empty—nothing had been detected. Most likely, it was just space over there too.
"Still, we want to observe the wormhole up close." An Rong was fascinated by the liquid-lake-like substance.
Seeing how determined she looked, Kid nodded. "Fine. Only close observation. No crossing allowed. Get ready. Bunny will teleport you right to the wormhole front."
Bunny seemed close to the wormhole, but it was actually about 20,000 meters away. Approaching in spacesuits alone would've taken forever. Thank goodness for teleportation.
"Alright."
The scientists were thrilled as they suited up, but truthfully, only An Rong had any space travel experience. The rest were desk researchers—they had no idea what to expect in space.
Excited like elementary schoolers on a field trip, the scientists bustled with energy. Kid started regretting it already. He could just picture one of them doing something stupid like in those movies.