"We have to have a good talk again."
Inside the Batbase, Wayne looked at the captain with a serious face. Next to him was Hal Jordan, who looked at a loss and pale, and Superman Clark with his arms folded across his chest.
It has been a while since the end of the war. Wayne has been busy with Gotham's reconstruction, disaster relief and other troublesome matters these days. As the heir to Gotham's richest company, he inevitably has to meet many people and deal with many affairs during this period.
It wasn't until today that Wayne took the time to have an in-depth meeting with their small team.
"What do you want to know?" The captain rubbed his face with his palms and asked calmly from his seat. He knew that with Wayne's suspicious and even schizophrenic personality, this conversation would inevitably happen later, so when faced with it, he was also very calm.
"Everyone! But before we begin, I'd like you to introduce the person who suddenly appeared that day." Wayne didn't resort to any psychological or other interrogation methods. Through his interactions and understanding, he knew that these methods were completely ineffective against Captain Rogers. The man's will was extremely strong, and he also possessed that magical and powerful ring. Without the influence of other energies, he would be immune to simple psychological and interrogation methods unless he wanted to talk.
Fortunately, the captain has been mostly cooperative so far.
"I heard you called his name when he appeared. Was it Thanos?" Wayne took the initiative to lead the conversation.
"To be precise, that's just his nickname. His real name is Thanos. He is a powerful being in our universe, but also a deranged lunatic." The captain corrected Wayne's information.
"Madman?" Wayne and the other two exchanged glances. Although Thanos was acting a bit domineering, the madman...
"I don't know much about him. Everything I do know comes from information we obtained from another universe. These things are a bit complicated to explain, so I'll try to highlight the key points.
Thanos of our universe believes that the disorderly expansion of life will consume a large amount of cosmic resources, eventually leading the universe into a situation where it cannot make ends meet. He believes this situation must be curbed. Therefore, he pursues a concept, which is to destroy half of the life on a planet.
No matter if they were high-ranking officials, ordinary poor people, or even the lowest class, all lives were treated equally and executed fairly. He attacked many civilizations in this tyrannical way.
But he discovered that individual power was too weak, and he couldn't save more civilizations and lives through killing. That was until he learned a secret from the birth of the universe. Captain Rogers smiled wryly, sorted out what he knew in his mind, and spoke calmly.
"Randomly killing half the people?" Hal and the other two were shocked by the information the captain had given. Although Wayne looked calm, the subtle expression on his face still revealed his inner unrest.
"What secret?" Wayne asked.
"Infinity Stones!" The captain gave the answer straightforwardly.
"What's that?" Hal couldn't help asking.
"The Infinity Stones are the condensation of rules born at the beginning of the universe, just like the lamp furnaces or lamp beasts that represent emotional energy here. They are divided into time, space, reality, soul, power, and mind. When the six are gathered together, they can possess incredible power. For example, they can fairly kill half of the life in the universe and keep it within a limit for self-adjustment." Captain Rogers explained.
"He did it?" Superman interrupted.
"He didn't do it." The captain's words made Wayne and the other two feel a little relieved, but the next words made them tense up again: "But, he in another universe did it."
"Another universe?" This was the second time Hal heard this information from the captain.
"You can understand it as a parallel universe or a multiverse. Anyway, the universe we know is not just one."
"Back to the question, how do you know that he in another universe did it? Is there still communication in your universe?" Wayne thought a little complicatedly.
"No, it's because after Thanos in their universe achieved his goal, he destroyed the Infinity Stones to prevent anyone from using them to overturn his achievements. Later, we in that universe came up with some kind of quantum tunneling method to travel through time. But there may have been a little accident during the process. Instead of returning to a certain timeline in their universe, they came to our universe.
Luke offered them a solution, but unexpectedly, Thanos from our universe learned of their situation and, for some purpose, used their technology to follow them back to their original timeline. "In the end, we went over and helped solve the problem together." The captain shook his head.
"That means he is your enemy," Hal concluded.
"But he said he was here to take Steve home." Wayne looked at the captain.
"Everything I said is true. He was restrained by Luke's technical seal. Maybe something happened, or certain conditions made Luke release him. But he gave me a strange feeling. He is not quite like the Thanos in my memory. But it may also be that I just don't know Thanos." The captain knew as soon as he heard it that Wayne still had doubts about the information he provided, and this suspicion was not necessarily directed at him as a person.
"Excuse me, I want to ask, who is that Luke?" Superman raised his hand.
"A researcher, a man who solves our problems!" The captain took a deep breath and covered his head with his hands, feeling a headache. "Of course, he's also a big troublemaker. But he always manages to keep those troubles in balance with his own skills and methods. This ring on my hand and those energy collection devices were all made by Luke. And it was Luke in his early days."
"What about him? You once said that you just wanted to go home, but he sent such a troublesome person here. Is his goal really just to take you home?" Wayne questioned.
The captain opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but thinking of Luke's personality, he decided to remain silent. He thought Luke was generally easy to talk to, and if you came to him with a problem, he'd take the time to solve it. But all this had to happen only if your interests aligned with his.
What does Luke care about?
It's energy!
Judging from the information revealed by Nick Fury and his companions during their conversations with him, Luke's pursuit of energy over the years has been persistent, unwavering, and unstoppable. You always think he has enough energy, but Luke's experiments always show you that energy is never enough.
Science is science, but if you want to turn science into technology, the cost of trial and error is quite high.
At least as far as Nick and Stark knew, Luke's experimental power consumption had increased from city-level to planetary-level, and then increased to the energy of one or two standard solar system stars in one experiment. Later, according to the latest information he obtained, Luke's energy expenditure for experiments had been upgraded to the standard Milky Way galaxy level, and this was just the cost of one or two experiments.
Nick and Stark enviously declared that Luke's experimental costs and expenses would sooner or later reach the level of a single universe! Compared to the experimental krypton gold and expenses, hundreds of Starks and all the giant companies in Midgard combined would pale in comparison to Luke's. Even compared to Luke's group of researchers at Heberon, they were nothing more than junior figures.
Under such a huge consumption of energy and resources, Luke is bound to cross into the multiverse. And after Luke knows about Bruce and others' special universe with emotional energy, he will definitely not give up.
The only difference lies in the means used.
From what the captain knew about Luke, the enemy was generally too lazy to destroy lives, as long as there were no obstacles ahead. Luke's most common approach was probably win-win cooperation. But the prerequisite was either having the corresponding strength or actively cooperating.
Wayne and the others...
The captain couldn't help but feel a headache when he thought of the other party's character.
"Well, now the decision has come. Are you on your side or ours?" Wayne asked a soul-searching question.
"Can't we just coexist peacefully? Things aren't as bad as you think, Bruce." The captain spread his hands helplessly: "Believe me, Luke is not a crazy person. He can talk and negotiate. You don't have to treat him as an enemy.
Believe me, this is not a good idea."
"Your credibility has decreased, Steve. I'm willing to believe you, but I have to be prepared for the worst! Tell me your choice," Wayne asked.
"I will stand with you until I leave this universe," Captain America said after a moment's hesitation. In terms of alignment, he would undoubtedly side with Luke and his universe. But if something truly happened to Thanos while he was gone, as a member of this temporary team, he would offer whatever assistance he could. After all, he also harbored doubts about Thanos, the powerful madman.
"It's not the answer I was looking for, but it suits you." Wayne wasn't surprised by the captain's choice. Putting aside the captain's personality, he had also thoroughly studied that energy. He could only say that anyone who could receive a significant boost from that energy would inevitably be affected by it. The only difference was that those with strong wills could maintain their boundaries and control themselves, or their personalities were perfectly suited to the energy they were wielding.
"I want to ask, are you still able to contact him? What's he doing off this planet?" Hal asked. They had assumed that after Thanos had dealt with the Yellow Lantern's Parallax, he'd gone after the fleeing Sinestro. But now that he thought about it, there seemed no need for him to pursue Sinestro. After all, the Yellow Lantern, Sinestro's source of power, was in Thanos's hands. Could he be afraid of Sinestro, the original owner of the Yellow Lantern, competing with him?
Suddenly, as if enlightened, Hal thought of a terrible possibility. He looked at Wayne and the others in horror, "Do you remember what he said when he left?"
Wayne, Clark and the captain all turned their gazes to Hal, whose face was pale and whose body and spirit had not yet fully recovered.
"He said there are six more! Damn, doesn't he want the energy from other lamps?" Hal hadn't thought in this direction at first, because no matter what, in his cognition, he felt that this idea was too ridiculous, but after listening to Steve's words today, he couldn't help but inexplicably thought of this idea, as if something in the dark was guiding him to think in this direction.
"Green Lantern?" Wayne and the other two were already well aware of Hal's faction and, through Hal, knew of the existence of the Green Lantern furnace. Thinking of the Yellow Lantern furnace that had fallen into Thanos's hands, everyone's expressions changed for a moment.
According to Hal, the Green Lantern Furnace is the Guardians' most important energy source, used to recruit Green Lanterns and maintain the stability and peace of the universe. Its importance is unquestionable. If Thanos comes to demand it, the Guardians will naturally not hand it over, and conflict between the two is inevitable. Although Hal talks about how powerful the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps are, they have never seen it, but they have seen and experienced Thanos's power with their own eyes.
"I must upload all the information here to Green Lantern headquarters." Hal said to Wayne in a decisive tone. He could no longer care about anything else.
Faced with Hal's determined gaze, Bruce Wayne, who had been resisting leaking information, finally nodded after a moment of silence.
Hal left in a hurry and rushed back to Oa Star at full speed under the guidance of the green lantern ring.
Wayne didn't stop Hal from leaving, as he also believed it was necessary to spread the news of Thanos. The Guardians were a force of order that could be won over, cooperated with, and even brought in as reinforcements when necessary.
As for the officials on the planet?
Thinking about the weakness of the technological weapons during the war, Wayne immediately gave up the idea. While waiting for Hal to return, Wayne, apart from the necessary time, devoted all his energy to studying Thanos' weaknesses and the weaknesses of emotional energy.
I thought Hal would be gone for a long time this time, but I didn't expect that a few days later, Hal brought a group of people back to Bruce's reinforced base.
"Ou Axing is gone."
This was Hal's first words after seeing Bruce and the others.
Thanos went to Oa and demanded the Guardians hand over the Green Lantern's furnace. The Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps fought desperately, but were unable to stop him from obtaining the Green Lantern's furnace. He absorbed the Green Lantern's beast from the furnace, killed the Green Lantern messenger who tried to stop him, and to stop his pursuers, he destroyed Oa.
Green Lantern Corps, Gone! "
Hal said dejectedly.