[Integrated/Crossover DC/Marvel] Why Did the World End Again? - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: City of Hope — Extinction

Within the dazzling multiverse, countless worlds drift ceaselessly. They are like shooting stars, flashing to assert their existence until one star collides with another…

Luthor had a dream.

He dreamed he was walking through the boundless, vast starry sky. He looked toward a familiar direction that home, the place where the ancestors of humanity had lived since they first evolved: Earth.

It was already a dead land. The vast oceans had turned to steam, revealing a terrifying void; the sun had become so brilliant it seemed intent on evaporating everything; the greenery on the ground had vanished, replaced by a parched wilderness; the skyscrapers had crumbled.

“Where are the superheroes? Where did Superman go?”

As soon as this thought rose in Luthor’s mind, he saw a familiar figure in the starlight. A tattered red cape drifted in the vacuum of space Superman was dead.

“Batman, do you believe in fate?”

Bruce looked at the man before him. He was hesitant, almost disbelieving; after all, he could never have imagined a day when Lex Luthor would actually speak the word “fate” to him.

Batman understood most of the world’s secrets for example, that the distant Middle East hid waters that could grant resurrection, that silent forests concealed a life-force guiding all things, and that other dimensions existed beyond the ancient stars. But he never believed in a predetermined fate. If fate were set in stone, there would be no Batman.

If Batman believed in fate, he should have died in that alley alongside his parents.

“I don’t believe in those things. I thought you were a materialist.”

“Materialist? When I was a child, perhaps I didn’t believe there was another civilization and aliens outside this world an alien who happened to look just like us, who could land safely on the ground and become a hero, a role model for the people. From the moment he chose to appear before the world, this world fell into utter chaos.”

“Superheroes ruined everything. From the moment you appeared, the world took a different turn. Everything seemed to get better; the probability of various accidents gradually decreased. But at the same time, it moved toward chaos. A train that has jumped the tracks can never return to the rails.”

“What did you see, Luthor?”

Bruce’s expression became solemn. He looked at Luthor. He knew the man would find ways to target Superman, perhaps even kill him, but Luthor would never joke with the world.

Luthor cared about this planet more than anyone.

Luthor closed his eyes, seemingly trying to recall everything that had happened in the dream, and finally just smiled.

“I saw a God. With just a thought, He destroyed everything. Not even that Kryptonian, or that daughter of Zeus of yours, could stand against Him.”

“He said that destruction is eternal… So, Batman, you tell me: what should we do? What must we do to escape…”

The two fell into silence. Bruce turned to look toward the window. That figure had been sitting there all along. Bruce understood his own body perfectly; while he might harbor many old injuries and hidden ailments, he was certain he did not suffer from mental disorders involving hallucinations.

“I see Him, Luthor. He glows, doesn’t He?”

“He is coming…”

The figure had been watching the conversation between the two. He seemed not to care, or perhaps he was thinking of something else. He jumped down from the windowsill and walked over slowly—or rather, he drifted. His hands rested on Batman’s shoulders.

“Bruce, don’t be afraid. Treat all of this as a beautiful dream. It happens very quickly, and there won’t be any pain. You can choose to run or scream; after all, it will take me a long time to transport myself over here…”

“Don’t be afraid. Everyone will be reunited with you. I promise to bring everyone along…”

“Are you still peeping, Anna? Don’t mess with the laws of time…”

Annabelle opened her eyes, staring into space. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her eyes as a flash of light crossed her vision. She felt as though she had forgotten something. At that moment, a note appeared inexplicably on the ceiling, spinning as it drifted down onto her face.

She quickly grabbed it and saw several lines of text written in neat handwriting:

“Tolerance is the first mission, Greed is the first drive, Arrogance is the first sin, Parting is the first virtue, Lust is the first bitter fruit, Flesh is the first revenge, Cowardice is the first choice. At the Red Sun, everything shall come to an end. That place is Paradise.”

Annabelle’s expression turned grim because the handwriting was hauntingly familiar. It was no one else’s; it was her own. She had indeed thought about developing a time machine to go back and prevent everything from starting, but she didn’t know if her future self would succeed, or what kind of future she would lead the world toward.

And now, her future self had given her a guide: she had to find the Red Sun…

Annabelle began to think seriously. The sun visible to the naked eye naturally emitted normal light. What could the “Red Sun” be? A Red Giant?

At this possibility, Anna grew frustrated. The decline of a star is so incredibly long; even Annabelle knew she couldn’t reverse a stellar cycle. The technological leap involved was far too great.

The current level of civilization simply couldn’t achieve this. She couldn’t possibly live that long. Was it about preserving a spark, waiting for a future day to find true liberation?

Just as Anna was pondering the contents of the note, a sound rang out. No one was more familiar with this sound than her. Someone was opening her door. She quickly hid the note under her pillow and waited for the person to approach.

She was used to the Director’s erratic behavior; he was always harassing her in the middle of the night under the guise of “advice,” which was actually an attempt to break her spirit from every angle.

She didn’t know what methods he would use this time. However, Anna didn’t wait for the Asylum Director; instead, Batman and Alice arrived first.

When she heard the two unusual sets of footsteps entering, alarm bells rang in Annabelle’s mind. She could hear two people in the room: one sounded like a lightweight female, while the other made almost no sound at all, making it impossible to discern gender or weight.

Annabelle had been here for a long time. She knew the distribution of personnel perfectly. No one here had the systematic training required to hide their footsteps. Furthermore, when these people tortured her, they never bothered to hide; they were always blatant.

She sat up abruptly. Alice, finding the other woman wide awake, felt a bit awkward. She didn’t know how to convince her to trust them.

After all, to some extent, their actions were quite abnormal—running out in the middle of the night and sneaking into someone else’s room sounded a bit…

Bruce, however, was very calm. He understood her psychology perfectly; no one wanted to get out more than she did. As long as they demonstrated their value, she wouldn’t care about their motives.

“We are A1 and A2. We’ve come to cooperate. Our goal is to escape this place, and I believe yours is too.”

In a crisis, there was no point in beating around the bush. If she didn’t want to believe, she wouldn’t, no matter how much was said. The opportunity and the choice were handed to her; it depended on what she thought.

Hearing Bruce say this, Annabelle stared straight at him. She didn’t trust his words, but the idea of wanting to escape was absolutely true. They wouldn’t have gone to such lengths otherwise.

More importantly, Anna understood perfectly: she was now half a pawn. Only to this obsessive, neurotic “Perpetual Number Two” who had been overshadowed by her for a lifetime was she an important figure.

On the surface, Annabelle was just an ordinary person. Perhaps the world needs geniuses, but geniuses will always keep appearing because there are so many people in this world.

“So, what is your plan?”

The question stumped Alice instantly. What plan did she have? She only came out tonight because Bruce dragged her. Bruce, however, said nothing and directly took out the device from the Utility Belt, not hiding it from anyone.

Seeing the device in his hand, Annabelle became even more certain of her choice. Perhaps he belonged to a third-party force some rebel army but it didn’t matter to her. Escaping was what mattered most.

Of course, how exactly were they going to escape? She couldn’t reveal everything; if she told them all her secrets, she would lose her value. Who knew how they would treat her then? After all, from their perspective, she was just a helpless madwoman.

Bruce pulled up a structural diagram of the entire asylum. When the shape appeared, his brow furrowed. No wonder it felt familiar: it was a repurposed Metropolis hospital.

“We are currently on the third floor. To escape, we either jump from a window or go through the main entrance on the first floor. The second floor is the pharmacy, and the first floor is the cafeteria.”

“What about jumping? The bars outside are steel; can they be sawn through?” Alice looked at Bruce, hoping he would pull an all-purpose mini-electric saw from his belt.

Annabelle shook her head in disagreement.

“We can only go through the main door. The windows are electrified. I once tricked them into giving me some liquid that can corrode metal, so they reinforced the security. Going through the windows won’t work. It has to be the main door.”

“I observed the door lock carefully during the day,” Bruce said. “It requires both fingerprints and a password. I’m not yet sure if meeting one condition is enough or if both are required. So, we just need to obtain the password and the fingerprints to leave.”

Alice fell into silence hearing Batman’s words.

“Don’t you have a device that can just plug into the lock and crack the password? I see it in movies all the time just connect it, click a few times, and the door opens.”

Annabelle countered this idea again.

“The computers inside have been upgraded. I’ve tried brute-forcing passwords before. As soon as it detects a signal intrusion, it triggers a facility-wide alarm.”

Alice remained silent at this.

“Sister… why haven’t you escaped yet?”

“Because the security keeps upgrading. Now I can’t even get out of my room. Before, it used a normal key, which I picked.”

Alice gave a thumbs up.

“Sister, you are truly amazing…”

Support [Integrated/Crossover DC/Marvel] Why Did the World End Again?