The conversation between Arthur, Barry, and Diana abruptly stopped. They looked at Thor, the man who called himself Thomas Wayne. After defeating the Red Death, there was no joy of victory on his face. He just stood there calmly, as if he had just swatted an annoying fly.
Thor ignored the three men's gazes and pulled a black portable terminal with a bat logo from his belt.
The familiar design made Barry's eye twitch. He couldn't help but think that no matter which universe, the Bat's aesthetic sense was remarkably consistent.
Thor's fingers flew across the virtual screen, bringing up a city map covered in red markers.
Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow, and the faint hint of mockery at the corner of his mouth disappeared.
Diana keenly noticed the subtle change in his expression and asked in a low voice, "What happened?"
"Your other comrade seems to be having some bad luck." Thor turned the Batcomputer screen toward them.
On the screen, a green dot representing a life signal is rapidly dimming, while next to it, a glaring marker emitting an ominous red glow is dragging the green dot at an alarming speed toward an area on the map marked " Metropolis ".
"That's... Hal?" Barry recognized the Green Lantern's signature at a glance, his voice filled with disbelief. "He's been defeated? How could that be! He's Hal Jordan!"
"Clearly, your greatest Green Lantern of all time can't be cool for more than three seconds."
Thor's tone carried a hint of mockery. Of course, he remembered how Hal Jordan confidently recited the oath in the original story, only to be dragged away by the Dawnbreaker like a chick.
"They're going to Metropolis..." Diana's expression turned serious, a knowing glint in her eyes. "They know of your existence as a 'troublemaker,' and they're gathering their forces to set a trap in Metropolis. That's... the territory of the Devastator."
The Devastator, the monster created by combining Bruce Wayne with the Doomsday Virus.
The entire population of Metropolis has been transformed by him into a mindless army of Doomsday.
The thought of that scene sent chills down Barry's spine. He scratched his head and stammered, "..."
"We... we're still going to save Hal? That's the Doomsday! We don't even have a single Kryptonite!"
"Ordinary Kryptonite is useless against them; at most, it can only cause them temporary pain."
Thor retrieved the Batcomputer, stating a despairing fact in a calm voice, "To inflict effective damage on the Devastator and those things he created, only the Ninth Metal and Tenth Metal."
"I know the Ninth Metal!" Barry immediately raised his hand, like a student eager to answer a question in class.
" Hawkman and Hawkgirl's weapons are made with that; they can defy the laws of physics." He paused, a puzzled look on his face. "But... what is the Tenth Metal?"
Thor glanced at him and, unusually patiently, explained, " The Tenth Metal, from the World Forge, is the crystallization of all pure possibilities and the raw material for creating the multiverse."
This is also the force Barbatos fears most. These Batman of the Dark Multiverse are essentially twisted creations; if they come into contact with pure Tenth Metal, they will be wiped out like vampires exposed to sunlight.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Aquaman Arthur slammed his trident on the ground with a dull thud. "Let's go straight to the World Forge, steal that so-called Tenth Metal, and the problem will be solved, won't it?"
Upon hearing this, Thor looked Arthur up and down with the gaze one would give a rare species, and then said, "Have you gone mad from sleeping with a fish in the sea?"
" The World Forge is Barbatos's lair; he can unleash his full power in the Dark Multiverse. Do you think he'll roll out a red carpet to welcome us, with just a few of us venturing into his stronghold to steal things?"
"I..." Arthur was speechless, his face turning red. He wanted to retort, but he realized that what the other person said seemed to be true, and that he really couldn't beat this foul-mouthed " Thomas Wayne ".
He could only hold his breath, turn his face to the side, and mutter indignantly, "It has nothing to do with fish! Those are all rumors!"
Ignoring the two men's bickering, Diana looked directly at Thor and asked earnestly, "You must have a way, right?"
Thor gave her an approving look; Wonder Woman was definitely the most reliable.
He stopped teasing him and reached into his bat-shaped belt again, this time to find four vials filled with a golden liquid.
"This is the serum I reverse-engineered from a sample of the Doomsday Virus," Thor said, tossing them four vials. "It can restore those infected to their original state. Use it sparingly; there aren't many left."
Barry hurriedly caught one, examined it against the light, and asked curiously, "This... how do I use it? To give them injections? They won't just stand there and let us prick them."
"Just apply it to your weapons; physical contact will activate the serum."
Thor said, glancing at Barry again, "You're a special case. You can apply it directly to your hands; your Speed Force will evenly coat each of your attacks."
Diana gripped the potion in her hand tightly and looked at Thor: "And what about you? The Devastator... that monster, these serums probably won't work on him."
"Of course." A confident smile returned to Thor's lips. "Leave that big guy to me. I have my own methods."
Before he finished speaking, he raised his hand and gently pressed it against the center of the armor pattern on his chest.
The black-gold nanotech armor covering his entire body seemed to come alive, rapidly flowing back to his chest and condensing into a fist-sized Arc Reactor that shimmered with golden light.
Then, to everyone's astonishment, Thor pulled out a much larger reactor from his bat belt and pressed it directly against his chest.
A soft "click" sounded, as if a switch had been turned on.
Thor gently patted the massive reactor on his chest. The next second, endless nanoparticles erupted from the reactor like a burst dam, instantly covering his entire body and climbing, expanding, and reorganizing at an incredible speed!
The sounds of metal armor rubbing together and the hum of the energy core mingled together.
In just a few seconds, a colossal black and gold structure, tens of meters tall, rose from the ground, taking the place where Thor had been standing.
The sleek metallic lines, the powerful structure, and the massive reactor on its chest that radiates a star-like glow all exude a sense of oppressive power known as "violent aesthetics."
"I knew it! I knew it!" Barry tilted his head back, his mouth agape enough to fit an egg, and whistled excitedly.
" Batman always has a Plan B! My god, this Batmobile is so cool!"
Thor sat in the spacious cockpit, feeling the seamless connection between the armor and his consciousness, and couldn't help but secretly admire it.
Tony Stark's technology has advanced again; the small Godkiller Armor he "borrowed" from him is now fully controllable by his mind.
He remembered that Valeria had mentioned that the Avengers from the Prime Universe had recently gone to the Wasteland Universe to pick up a group of refugees, only to run into the arrival of Galactus.
Then, Tony Stark took out his Anti-Celestial Armor MAX, which he had been researching for several years, and immediately beat up Galactus, who hadn't eaten enough, thus racking up a solid record.
It's fair to say that the Galactus unit is becoming increasingly less impressive.
Thor shook his head, clearing his mind of these distracting thoughts, and began to adapt to his new "body."
He manipulated the giant mechanical arm to extend, grabbing Queen of the Sea Mera Aquaman Arthur and Mera, who were standing next to him, like catching chicks, and lifted them up and secured them to the shoulders of his armor.
"Hey! What are you doing! Put me down!" Arthur struggled, but his strength was insignificant in the face of the giant mechanical hand.
"Shut up, you can't fly." Thor's voice came through the mecha's external loudspeaker, carrying a buzzing metallic quality.
Without another word, the thrusters on his back spewed out dazzling blue flames. The massive mech's legs bent slightly, then it pushed off with a bang, instantly cracking the ground as its enormous body rose into the air and roared towards the Metropolis.
Diana took a deep breath, a golden light flashed around her, and she too rose into the air, following closely behind.
Barry grinned as he watched the three figures fly away, then crouched slightly as golden lightning from the Speed Force Force instantly enveloped his entire body.
"The match begins!"
He transformed into a golden lightning bolt, leaving a long trail of light on the ground, and caught up with the giant mech in the sky.
Three beams of light pierced the silent sky, their target the Metropolis, a city utterly consumed by destruction and despair.