When Liu A'dou saw his daughter again, he also saw three people on the brink of madness. Elsa, Shadowcat, and Rogue were all about to lose it. As soon as they saw Liu A'dou, they quickly handed Nono over to him.
They needed to sleep. Liu A'dou couldn't help laughing.
"My little princess, you've been naughty. Look how exhausted you made them." Honestly, Liu A'dou felt the same when he was taking care of Nono himself.
In today's society, especially back in China, a lot of young parents leave their kids with the grandparents. But Liu A'dou and Ada Wong had no one else in this world—they had to raise Nono themselves.
Liu A'dou didn't want to make things hard for the younger women. He brought Nono home and started thinking. Since he'd be busy around the wormhole a lot, he really needed to find someone trustworthy to help watch over her. Elsa was still young and probably wouldn't be able to keep up. Who then?
As he paced around the house with Nono in his arms, a thought struck him—Queen Hippolyta. She was a mother of two, definitely more experienced with kids than he was. He had helped her recover the Moon Gem Pandora, so it only made sense for her to return the favor and help care for Nono.
As for the wish-granting rumors surrounding the Moon Gem Pandora, maybe it was because it had been used by Vandal Savage. Either way, it was totally different from the one in the Detective World. This gem had no wish-granting ability at all. Diana had already brought it back to Themyscira.
So, Liu A'dou headed to Themyscira. The Queen didn't hesitate. She was more than happy to take care of Nono and assured Liu A'dou that she'd raise her to be just as strong as Diana.
That put Liu A'dou at ease. He could now return to the wormhole. Superman and Batman had agreed to hand over responsibility for the wormhole situation to him. Liu A'dou was reliable and deeply connected to the event, so it was only right that he took full responsibility.
This time, Liu A'dou was bringing along equipment Batman had prepared for the mission. There was a lot of gear, too much for Bunny to teleport, so Liu A'dou had to fly it over manually.
Along the way, he passed a satellite launched by Stark Industries. He figured if Iron Man got serious about wormhole research, with his cheat-like genius, he'd probably have warp-capable suits ready in a couple of years.
He also spotted the Wu Gang II spaceship, carrying the first wave of wormhole explorers and moving at full speed. The second ship was five times bigger than the original and, unlike the first, was built specifically for passengers. It had 200 stainless-steel bunks. Huh? Why emphasize "stainless-steel bunks"?
As they brushed past each other, it looked like everyone onboard Wu Gang II was resting. Liu A'dou didn't bother them and quietly flew by.
He had brought along a bunch of probes and gear for atmospheric entry—everything Batman had prepared. There were unmanned drones for flying within an atmosphere and even a rover for landing operations.
Once he returned to Bunny, Liu A'dou would begin exploring that planet. Judging by the wormhole's surroundings, there didn't seem to be any advanced civilizations nearby. If there were, they'd have noticed the wormhole by now—it had been open for days.
That was ideal. If they could build a defensive outpost on the far side of the wormhole and keep battles out of the solar system, all the better. As soon as the other side was confirmed safe, construction of the base would begin.
Dozens of massive crates were stacked like skyscrapers. But in Liu A'dou's hands, they seemed weightless as he pushed them forward at high speed.
At last, Liu A'dou arrived at Bunny.
"That's Kaitou Kid, isn't it?" one of the patrolling pilots said blankly. In his memory, the thief had always been a mysterious, morally ambiguous figure. But this—flying at high speed through space without a suit—this was on Superman's level.
"Guess no one in the Justice League is normal." Two Mamba-class ships helped Liu A'dou navigate and parked the cargo off to the side.
Something felt off inside Bunny. Liu A'dou quickly found An Rong. "Did you guys do something behind my back?"
"Uh… it's not Dr. An's fault," one of the other scientists stepped forward to defend her. "We pushed her into it. But we didn't expect the remote controls to fail all of a sudden."
Turns out the scientists had pushed the probe forward to get a better look at that blue planet. It had been flying for two days when it suddenly malfunctioned and crashed through the atmosphere.
"It crashed? Just like that?" Liu A'dou pressed.
"Not exactly. Right before the signal cut off, the camera caught a moving black shadow. We think there's life on that planet."
Of course there's life. But Liu A'dou was still angry they broke the rules. "Don't let it happen again. If you pull another stunt like this, I'm sending you back to Earth."
He then asked the pilots to suit up and assist with reconnaissance. The scientists tried to join, but Liu A'dou shut them down and left them hanging.
So they stood around inside Bunny, watching the others work outside. "Should we apologize to Kid? He's just doing all this for Earth."
"Pfft, he's just a thief." After all, they were respected scientists—no matter what country they were in, people looked up to them. Why should they bow to a thief?
No matter how many times Liu A'dou saved the world, there'd always be someone unwilling to accept him, always bringing up his past as a thief. "Besides, I don't think we were wrong. Kid's investigating the other side of the wormhole now too, right? Why can he do it and we can't?"
Some of the scientists nodded in agreement. They were the best in their fields—they deserved special treatment. What's the big deal anyway? It was just one crashed probe.
What they didn't know was Liu A'dou feared that if they kept breaking the rules, next time they'd really push it too far and end up dead in space, bodies unrecoverable. He'd seen enough sci-fi movies to know how those stories go. That's why he made a big fuss—he wanted them to get serious and be careful.
"Hey, isn't that NASA's latest atmospheric landing pod?" someone pointed out. "That thing unfolds into a multi-function field workstation. It can launch drones and carry tracked vehicles. But when did they start making actual units?"
"Look at the bat symbol. You should know it's something Batman put together." That's right. Batman had found the design buried in an overlooked project file, funded it himself, and made it a reality.
"But they haven't done any recon yet—how do they know what's over there?" Their own probe hadn't seen any signs of the Justice League doing anything on the other side. They'd only managed to get to the blue planet after launching the probe and putting in serious effort. How could the superheroes know more already? Could they see the future or something?
What they didn't know was Liu A'dou had his own microcosmos. He could sense the situation on the other side of the wormhole directly—better than any probe.
"Let's see what those aliens on the planet really look like." A crowd gathered around Liu A'dou, watching as he guided the landing pod into the wormhole and aimed straight for the blue planet with no hesitation.
That only left the scientists more confused. Just how and when did Kid get such detailed info on the other side? Did he go there already?
"You scientists are way too naive," Liu A'dou said, taking the chance to lecture them. "If you can't explain something, you dismiss it. Don't overestimate Earth's level of technology. Out in the universe, no one has the right to be smug. Staying humble will do you some good."