Chapter 381: The Avengers 1.5: Invasion (Part 2)

A planet slowly rotates in the boundless darkness of space; the light of its star soon illuminates half its surface, while the other half sinks into deeper night.

This is a planet with scarce water resources, yet tonight, cold rain falls—an unusual hydrological phenomenon that should have drawn countless residents to watch, but the streets are empty, not a soul in sight.

Only towering buildings glow with cold mechanical lights; when the beams sweep across a stretch of street, charred ruins are visible—such ruins, large and small, cover nearly the entire city, when suddenly, a series of shrill laughter echoes again through the urban sky.

Upon hearing this sound, nearly all lights in the buildings extinguish; in an instant, this advanced future city becomes a dead city.

At this moment, the screen on the tallest building in the city center suddenly lights up; first, a pair of hands grasp the camera, and a figure wearing a clown mask appears on the screen, saying:

"Evening news bulletin! Is anyone listening? This is the fifth day the Joker has been here, and I love it!"

"I especially love your unique hairstyles—I'd love to get one myself, but you're all hiding from me, and it breaks my heart…"

His voice suddenly turns into a faint whisper: "... o you know? I'm already getting bored. You're so dull—just swaying your tentacled heads, making fierce faces, then crying and screaming…"

"Oh my god, you monsters—shouldn't it be me who's crying? I was tricked into coming to this distant planet, trapped among terrifying cannibal monsters. What did I do? Oh… I made seafood rice? So what if I used you as ingredients?"

Suddenly, he shouts hysterically: "You think I'm boring? Why are you all so serious?!"

He pulls one hand away from the screen, steps back, and reveals the scene behind it: a pot of boiling oil bubbles violently; a monster-headed figure hangs above it, its two longest tentacles submerged in the oil, writhing and screaming in agony.

"Who's your leader? A giant octopus? Would he taste better? Or are all of you in this species as stupid as him, your brains reeking of expired mold…"

"That's it. This boring game is over."

For some reason, every monster who heard this exhaled in relief, feeling a sense of Jiaoxing survival.

As he slowly lowered the rope made of gray mist, a black figure clad in armor with two pointed ears shattered through the window and landed in the room, saying: "Joker! Stop! Cease your madness!"

The man called Joker froze for a moment, then burst into wild, gasping laughter; after a long while, he straightened up and said: "Look who's here? A man dressed like a bat…"

"Oh, what did I just say? The game's over?"

"No! No no no!" he suddenly raised his voice: "Batman's arrival gives this opening act a spectacular finale!"

"And now… the main show begins!"

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!"

Outside the window, on the rooftop of another building, Steve hesitated and said: "I don't know what either of them are doing, but I feel we shouldn't interfere."

Stark crossed his arms and tilted his head: "Looks like someone's having fun and doesn't need saving. Let's do something useful—find out what's going on here…"

As he spoke, a thunderous explosion rang out; Stark's armor recoiled rapidly, while Steve was blasted away; when they landed, they saw the original building had collapsed entirely. Stark raised his arm to shield himself: "Damn it, are they insane?!"

"How could they…" Steve began, then choked off: "Wait—this isn't Earth, and those monsters aren't human… Okay, I've got nothing to say."

Captain America is indeed compassionate and just—but only toward humans; if stretched further, it extends to all creatures resembling humans. Clearly, these monsters, each with sixteen tentacles on their heads, are not included.

The explosion they just endured was merely the beginning of their perilous journey across the stars.

Soon, countless terrifying attacks capable of destroying the entire city erupted one after another; every screen in the city echoed that horrific, manic laughter; the night grew longer, the rain colder, and both felt an inescapable chaos enveloping the city.

It's not that Gotham has the Joker and Batman—it's that wherever the Joker and Batman are, Gotham is.

When the Joker arrives first, and Batman follows, madness, chaos, and disorder follow in their wake.

Following them came the awakened, deranged city itself; more lunatics emerged, and some monster-headed beings appeared infected, lurking in the dark rain, bringing even more madness and crime to the city.

Iron Man narrowly dodged another tentacle attack, shot upward into the air, shook his head, and said: "Insane. Everyone's insane. The symbiotes warned me these monsters were tough, but I never imagined they'd be this deranged!"

Xiaoshuting

Meanwhile, the symbiotes narrowly avoided the explosion's shockwave, leaping onto a rooftop. Blue Spirit watched the monsters below, holding lighting tools like zombies, walking the streets, hunting and killing every living thing, his voice trembling: "The Brood have evolved! They've grown more evil and insane—the universe faces another catastrophe…"

"This isn't right," Lei Ting said gravely. "The Brood aren't mindless, devouring chaos insects—they're a sentient, advanced civilization. Otherwise, how could they have built such a developed city? How could they have changed overnight…"

"Something has changed in this city," Green Spike shook his head. "The atmosphere here is too strange—I've never seen anything like it in any city."

"And strangest of all—why is it always raining? Where does this planet get so much water?"

Clearly, everyone sensed a terrifying atmosphere enveloping the city—as if the entire planet were inevitably sinking into the dark side of the universe.

Besides the Avengers team that arrived here, the planet's native inhabitants also felt this terror.

In a high-rise building at the city center, a monster-headed official in uniform slammed his fist onto the control panel: "Where's our fleet? Where are they? Why aren't they protecting our planet?!"

"Governor, we lack authorization to fire on the surface!" another monster-headed assistant replied. "We can't use planetary weapons for one troublemaker on the ground—it would destroy all infrastructure. The capital world won't approve!"

"But he's caused this chaos! What's going on? Who brought him here?!!!" the Governor roared.

"According to data from the teleportation device, he was brought back by an Earth-based agent as a parasitic backup material—originally meant to be the lowest-grade variant, which should have been immediately quarantined upon entering Brood territory…"

"Then why wasn't he quarantined?!!"

The assistant shook his head: "Data indicates the Earth-based agent has been killed."

The Governor slammed his fist on the table again: "Humans… humans… aren't they supposed to be the weakest race in the universe? When did the great Brood start losing to humans?!!!"

The assistant was equally baffled: "Our portal scanners show the masked lunatic is a standard human."

"But in five days, he's played over a dozen games, triggered countless explosions—and no one can catch him! Our guards and security forces have all been wiped out!!"

The Governor trembled with rage, pointing to the door: "Now! Immediately! Summon the fleet!! I'm ordering surface bombardment!!"

The assistant could only salute helplessly and turn to leave—just as the door opened, a metal-armored fist struck in.

"Bang!" The monster-headed official screamed and flew backward; Iron Man stepped over his body and entered, looking at the Governor: "You're in charge here?"

"Who are you? Wait—you're human?? How did you get here?!"

"Damn it, you're in league with that madman! You're invading Brood! Are humans declaring war on us?!!"

"Language analysis in progress… decoding… decoding complete. Translation system downloaded—70% status. Minimum communication threshold reached. Protocol activated…" JARVIS's voice came through; Stark spoke: "You captured our people. You intended to harm our kind. That's why we're here."

"Harm our kind??" the Governor shouted, his tone thick with disbelief and indignation: "That lunatic arrived, found our broadcast system, and announced he wanted to play a game!"

"He laughed maniacally, kidnapped our administrators, ripped their heads clean off their bodies, and threw them into furnaces. He kidnapped nobles and forced them to perform theater—cutting off their tentacles as admission tickets!!"

"You evil race!!" the Governor screamed: "You monsters! Perverts!! I will expose your crimes to the universe! You will face judgment!!"

"I…" Iron Man choked, realizing Shi Le might have gone too far.

But looking at the monster's horrific face, remembering they were parasites living inside human bodies, Stark suddenly found his accusations sounded like praise.

He gave up trying to reason: "Yes, that's us. That's humanity. Buddy—you picked the wrong people."

"But you can't defeat the great Brood! Our fleet is near the star—I've lifted all security protocols. They'll bombard the surface. You'll all die here!"

As he spoke, the Governor slammed a button on his back; the star map on the screen lit up, revealing several octopus-shaped warships, resembling the monsters' heads, advancing toward the planet.

"Fleet?" Stark's voice came through his mask, mocking: "You think you're the only one who can press buttons?"

He opened his arm armor and pressed a button; JARVIS's voice responded: "Fleet command system connected. Command received. Disabling stealth field. Anti-gravity systems activated. Control panel ready…"

Stark extended his hand toward the screen behind the Governor; the Governor, startled, turned around.

And there, slowly entering the frame, were several warships several times larger than the Brood vessels.

Beneath his mask, Stark's vision displayed a virtual command panel; to the Governor, his voice sounded like a demon's:

"Now… I'm going to play a game with you too…"

————EXTRA NOTES————

DC invades Marvel!

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!