The battle in Paris City was going smoothly, with the plan to dodge the brunt of the attack being very suitable for the current situation. Although Batman, who was part of the fighting group, was being chased all over the city in a frantic escape and could be said to be completely overpowered, unable to fight head-on, and struggling even to flee, the capture group had already seized a few hundred personalities. Moira had them suspended above the machine's furnace.
The White Can dispatched drones from its airborne base to deliver monitoring devices to where the machine was located. As the number of personalities gathered increased, the machine sensibly detected brainwave fluctuations that were different from before.
This proved that the plan could very well be effective. David's consciousness had not completely vanished but was hiding within all the personalities alongside the divided energy. If a sufficient number of personalities were gathered, it was possible to awaken him. Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
But things were not going so smoothly for the Luminous Alliance. The filthy thing inside the ti stream was difficult to capture by conventional ans, and after deducing that it might be the sche of so backstage manipulator, they also did not dare to act recklessly.
Originally, they could have sought out so more powerful entities to make a deal with and let them do the capturing—for instance, Stark could have contacted Death Spider-Man, having been to the Temple of Eternity before. If this thing was indeed proven to be highly dangerous, asking for help from these gods would have been quite normal.
But the problem lay in what could happen if this guy really was a backup embryo sent by so powerful entity from the other side. What would be the manner of the embryo's landing? Contact? Or might it parasitize after being eliminated?
Since they had no clue who the opponents were or how powerful they might be, sending a powerful entity and getting it parasitized instead would only make things more troubleso. Thus, they ultimately decided to send a portion of Kang's clones and employees of the Ti Managent Bureau to do the capture.
Kang's clones were infinite and not valuable, and as long as they were under the supervision of the pri body, they could be destroyed imdiately, even if parasitized. The employees of the Ti Managent Bureau were no longer ti criminals but many clones, using the cloning technology that created Riley. They were equipped with the standard gear of the Ti Managent Bureau, which was basically also considered infinite.
This approach resembled the Exhaustion thod. If they could find the trace of the monster, they could instantly form an encirclent. As for how to deal with it, they should find a strategy after a few encirclents.
However, just then, the Ti Managent Bureau brought more news: sothing else was within the ti stream.
This thing was much stranger than the monster. The monitoring staff searched back and forth without being able to see its form, yet every monitoring device insisted there was sothing there, leaving the staff utterly confused.
In the end, both Nick and Stark were alard. One went to watch the monitoring devices and the other to adjust the equipnt. The two busied themselves for a long ti but still could not find what that thing was.
Even Stark had already gone into his Iron Demon God Form and took a direct look at the ti stream, yet he still saw nothing.
Although this entity lingered in the ti stream, it did not show any harm, so everyone was hesitant to attack it directly. Ultimately, it was Loki who proposed a thod.
"I've looked at the profiles of David's personalities you provided earlier. One of them is called the Prophet, right? A blue-skinned woman who claims to know the answer to every question in this world but can only be asked three questions at a ti. Can't we find a way to ask her?"
Although this thod was strange, it seed feasible, especially since Moira, the boss of the X-Alliance, was on their side. Moreover, it was apparent to everyone that although Moira verbally insisted on destroying the personalities to nd the heavens with their energy, she still very much wanted to see David. After all, she was David's mother in fantasy, and she also considered David to be her son.
In the end, Stark relayed the ssage to the White Can through Ultron, who disguised himself as Jarvis to prevent direct retribution from the White Can on the spot. The White Can then communicated this ssage to Moira through the dispatched drones.
Moira found the Prophet, but the Prophet stated that the questions had to be asked by a person, not a machine. In the end, they decided to let the Pri Universe's Batman ask.
Batman's strength was not outstanding among the group of demons and monsters, and his role in battle was not very effective. It would be better to make full use of his advantage in wisdom, especially since that entity ca from their universe, and Batman should bear so responsibility.
After learning about the situation, Batman formulated three questions and then went to the Prophet's residence.
The blue-skinned female personality was floating in mid-air. Before Batman could ask, the Prophet spoke, "I was David's elentary school teacher, and he was also my favorite student. After I died from liver cancer, he absorbed my soul, bringing here."
"I hope you can help him. He is not a madman, but a good kid who treasures his friends. I am sorry for all the destruction caused by the uncontrollable personalities, but if David is still there, I think we have a chance to make ands."
Batman nodded slightly, without comnting further. He simply said, "My friends have run into a little trouble. They need to know the true identity of an unobservable entity."
The Prophet's eyes glead, evidently ready. She said, "You can ask three questions, and I can assure you that the answers to these three questions will be accurate and true."
"What is the na of the unobservable entity that the Luminous Alliance in this universe is searching for, an entity that exists deep within the ti stream?"
The Prophet fell silent for a long ti, her eyes growing brighter and brighter until light shot out from them. She almost scread the na—"Franklin!"
With a whoosh, the light in her eyes went out completely. The Prophet looked at Batman and said, "He saw , he's coming!"
Batman froze, then swiftly turned around to see a point of light appearing behind him. A figure erged from the light, and it wasn't until its form beca fully visible in front of Batman that he realized it was a boy.
It's not exactly accurate to call him a boy, he appeared to be around the sa age as Harley and Barry, a middle school-aged teenager, except he had dazzling blonde hair and eyes that were even bluer than Batman's.
He floated in midair, seeming to wear no clothes, but the light covered most of his body, making him look very sacred. Batman, however, did not let his guard down, squinting his eyes as he stared at him and asked in his usual tone, "Who are you?"
"Franklin," ca a slightly hoarse voice from within the light, a common teenager's voice going through the change of puberty.
"Who is Franklin?"
"I co from the future," he said. "I am here on soone's request to remind you that you can release the ti abilities within David's personality, enter the ti stream, and kill the Godspeed Reaper."
Batman was inwardly surprised but showed nothing, while the Luminous Alliance's base erupted into chaos.
"Who is he? Why does he know these things?" Strange asked. "Especially, why does he know about the Godspeed Reaper, and what does it all have to do with him?"
Stark, however, had a strange expression on his face. Everyone looked at him, and after a long pause, Stark said, "In fact, during the last few upgrades, I took a peek at Reed Richards, but don't get wrong, it's definitely not to compare our future achievents or anything, I was just worried he might cause major chaos."
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Iron Man," Loki said with dismissive praise. "The very paragon of justice among all superheroes. Tell us, what's the deal with Reed Richards?"
"Many universes' Reeds married Susan, uh, Susan is... well, anyway, they had a son nad Franklin Richards, and this child is incredibly powerful, far beyond what one could imagine."
"Are you saying this boy is our universe's Franklin?"
"I'm afraid so, but it doesn't make sense," Stark said with so confusion. "Reed and Susan aren't together now, let alone married with children, and the two of them don't seem likely to spark any romance, so how did this..."
"None of that matters now," Strange said. "What powers does this Franklin have? Why would he know what we are currently experiencing?"
"He can travel through ti, and he can also foresee the future... don't look at like that, I told you he's strong."
"He said he was entrusted by soone, but who? Reed?" Strange frowned deeply, seemingly sowhat repulsed by the ability to foresee the future.
Stark shook his head to indicate he didn't know either.
Franklin landed on the ground and quickly turned into a boy wearing a normal cartoon-patterned T-shirt. He said to Batman, "The personalities are David's most cherished friends. If you use their lives to threaten him, David would only be provoked, leading to even more extre actions."
White Can, in the base, stared at the instrunts when suddenly his face changed, and picking up the walkie-talkie, he said into it, "No, Moira, don't gather them together, put them down quickly, their fear is morphing into sothing else, and it's going to be terrifying..."
"Moira, Moira." White Can's voice ca from above. "The psychic space is getting more and more unstable. What's happening over there?"
Moira imdiately lowered the tied-up personalities from above, but it was already too late. The powerful ripples emanated from the center, and Moira was flung out, crashing heavily to the ground.
A pair of eyes flickered in and out of visibility within the energy waves, filled with anger and resentnt. In the center of the fading ripples, unstable energy was gathering into a large figure, like a monster slowly rising from the water.
Suddenly, a glowing figure appeared above it, and Franklin suddenly shouted, "David, do you rember ? I'm Franklin!"
The figure paused abruptly, and Franklin continued to shout, "Rember that sumr camp? I was late, and you pleaded for with the instructor. Later, when the instructor wanted to harm Diana and you, I used the tree branches to save you!"
The huge figure was stiff for a long ti until it slowly dissipated, returning to the calmness of the water surface, while another smaller figure erged.
"How co you're here, Franklin?" the voice of another teenager spoke.
"I'm sorry, I lied to you, David. I wasn't really a camper that sumr. I joined the camp to find you, which is why I was late."
"I didn't want to show any extraordinary abilities in front of you; I just wanted to make friends. So, I didn't peek into the future and didn't know the instructor would dare to do such a thing, leading to an accident. I'm sorry."
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