Chapter 4017

Steve and the main universe Thor exchanged a glance; both felt somewhat surprised, but they did not disobey orders, instead turning and walking out of the conference room door.

"Not surprising," Steve said, "the command center's strategy has always been very conservative. Once we pull manpower to strike outward now, it might instead cause the base's defense to become weak."

"But if we don't strike outward, we will definitely be compressed inward. The tactical space will become smaller and smaller. If they seize the opportunity to land, things will become troublesome."

"We can only find a way to seize the opportunity," Steve said, "our command system is indeed inferior to the Batman on the other side; we can only rely on our own performance."

At a fork in the road ahead, the two parted ways, each returning to their respective teams. Steve put on his equipment and headed to the designated patrol point to meet up with the other two Captain Americas.

"They're coming, right? I just received an emergency notice requiring us to step up patrols and increase vigilance. Have they made up their minds to strike inward?"

"I'm afraid it's Batman's decision," Steve said, "the front lines of the Nine Realms are tense; Batman will definitely seize this opportunity."

"Are we just going to guard here like this?" another Captain America asked.

"There's no other way; the command center's intention is definitely to stall. Although Asgard cannot be reinforced, mages and mutants can still come. As long as the trouble threatening Earth is resolved, they will return to reinforce the front-line base, and this hurdle will be considered passed."

"I hope it goes that smoothly. We also... is that the Green Lantern fleet?"

The universe was pitch black, with only the base having scattered points of light. Therefore, the appearance of certain colors would be particularly conspicuous. Green Lantern energy always appeared particularly rich and vibrant; as they formed a fleet and gradually approached, it was like green branches suddenly protruding from the abyss, carrying a strange vitality that had no place to stand.

"... Something's not right," Steve said.

"Hello? Hello?" Seeing Natasha's voice came through Steve's earpiece, "Steve, are you there? Witness reports say that what Batman sent might not just be the Green Lantern fleet."

"I think I've already seen it," Steve said, "is that ship behind them an Apokolips warship?"

"It's a troop transport," Seeing Natasha said, "we recovered the monitoring equipment we previously placed on an asteroid near Apokolips. Technical personnel analyzed the structure of the patrol ships sent by Apokolips and inferred that their ship cabins, which are unusually large compared to normal, should be used to store Parademons."

"Parademons?"

"One of Darkseid's trump cards. There are countless alien creatures in the Apokolips domain that have been modified by him. They are half-carbon, half-mechanical creatures; their individual strength is not strong, but their numbers are very large. You all need to be careful."

Steve knew that the Black Widows must have gone to collect information. Of course, there was no information to collect in this universe, but they could go to the Battleworld to dig up more clues.

Returning to the Battleworld now counted as being out of the game, but the Battleworld's communication system could still be used. There were always universes that hadn't participated in the war willing to sell intelligence, and the Black Widows could completely obtain enough information about the other side from them.

"Prepare for battle!" Steve shouted, raising his shield. He knew that what they were about to face might not just be Green Lanterns, but a massive army of Parademons.

Once they were within visible range, the others naturally discovered that it wasn't just Green Lanterns coming; the troop transports following behind were the key. Because they hadn't seen Darkseid release Parademons, no one knew how many so many transports could carry, so everyone was a bit uneasy.

But just at this moment, some equipment more familiar to them entered the field. The mechanical defenses previously deployed at the human outpost were mostly withdrawn and then redeployed in front of the Asgard base.

Stark from the central universe wasn't pretending anymore either; in addition to the stock previously stored in the Andromeda Galaxy, he began to pull out new things.

"What is this?" the main universe Iron Man asked, circling a huge suit of armor.

"Anti-Green Lantern Armor," Stark replied without raising his head. He was debugging another suit of armor, which was slightly smaller and presented an overall female form. He tapped the shell of the armor and then said: "This is the Anti-Wonder Woman Armor."

"You were prepared?"

"Is this considered early?" Stark said irritably, "Shouldn't it have been prepared before the Battleworld officially opened?"

The main universe Iron Man was speechless and said: "Do you think I didn't want to prepare? Where on earth do you get so much free time?"

"I have free time every day," Stark said, "the group is managed by Obadiah and Pepper, the Avengers are organized by Nick, and the Glorious Alliance only works three days a year. If I didn't have to submit those damn psychological evaluation reports, I would have even more free time."

"Don't Congress and the military bother you?"

"Ha, they have plenty to bother me with," Stark sneered, "Sanctum Sanctorum tax evasion, the former Soviet Union digging up graves, environmental problems at magic schools, Omega babies destroying the world... before the fighting started, the funerals of two overworked congressmen had just ended."

The main universe Iron Man didn't know what to say for a moment. Although it was a good thing that Iron Man wasn't bothered, if an Iron Man who had hoarded so many dangerous mechs couldn't be counted as Earth's number one threat, and there were more problems for Congress and the military to worry about, then this didn't seem any better.

But thinking about it, when Ultron had an incident in his universe, he had also enjoyed a rare period of peace. So, should he actually be hoping for more chaos on Earth so that he could have more room for development?

The main universe Iron Man shook his head, shaking off these absurd thoughts. He looked at the huge mech in front of him and said: "How does this thing counter Green Lanterns?"

"I got some Yellow Lantern energy, traded it with a kid for a super cool mechanical transforming slide," Stark said while debugging the mech, "although this mech cannot produce Yellow Lantern energy, under my calibration, it can repeatedly use the Yellow Lantern energy it possesses without producing any leakage, and it can last for a long time, enough to beat up a Green Lantern."

"Are Green Lanterns afraid of Yellow Lantern energy?"

"Most of them are afraid," Stark said, "I discovered this by accident before; once they encounter Yellow Lantern energy, the mild cases lose all their power, and the severe cases are so gripped by fear that they cannot move at all."

"Then what about this Anti-Wonder Woman Armor?"

"This doesn't need any special power; robots naturally counter Wonder Woman because it makes her lasso lose its effect. This set is a symbiote armor; once bound, you can use the symbiote's characteristics to transform and break free."

The main universe Iron Man nodded and said: "It sounds effective, it will definitely beat them to a pulp. When do you plan to release them?"

"Don't be in a hurry; they might not be prepared for this, so it's best to catch them off guard."

The main universe Iron Man opened his mouth; he seemed a bit anxious, waved his arm in the air, and then said: "You know, right? About Shi Difen acting without authorization."

"That's the Doctor Strange from your universe; it has nothing to do with the Shi Difen I know. He's busy fighting demon gods," although Stark usually didn't give an inch to Strange, he was still protective at critical moments.

"Alright, that has a big impact on our universe's reputation."

"So, what do you want to say?"

"If possible, I can go and deploy these armors. After all, going deep behind enemy lines has a certain degree of danger. If I can succeed, I might be able to save our universe's reputation."

"Not a chance," Stark said.

"Alright," the main universe Iron Man sighed and said, "you made it, so you should indeed be the one to deploy it. Just pretend I didn't say anything."

"I'm not doing this to show off," Stark said, "to catch them off guard, we can't let them recognize that this is my creation. We have to disguise this thing as some other mechanical creation, send it into their formation, and then launch a sudden sneak attack."

"A sneak attack?!" the main universe Iron Man said, somewhat puzzled, "Since you have the ability to fight head-on, why sneak attack?"

"This is war. As long as I can achieve good enough results, I don't care if it's fair and square," Stark put his wrench on the table and said, "a weapon is a weapon, and the purpose of a weapon is to inflict maximum damage on the opponent. Have you been a superhero for too long and forgotten how to be an arms dealer?"

The main universe Iron Man was speechless and stared at Stark, saying: "You certainly haven't forgotten; you're not even ashamed, but proud instead."

"Of course. If one day I can sell Earth's weapons across the entire universe, make all the wars in the interstellar society start because of me, have the High Intelligence lay out a red carpet, have the Skrull Emperor shine my shoes, and have the Shi'ar Empress respectfully call me 'Mr. Richest Man' when she sees me, then who would dare say selling weapons is bad?"

The main universe Iron Man sighed deeply. He had discovered that the Iron Man of this universe had money, strength, and a happy family, but just lacked any moral bottom line.

"Are you sure Iron Man will come out?" the main universe Green Lantern looked at Hal and asked, "They should know that their physique is just that of ordinary humans; they might not be in such a hurry to get on the battlefield, right?"

"I don't know about the others, but the main universe one on their side should be very anxious," Hal said, "after all, that Doctor Strange from the main universe is too outrageous. If they don't get some military merit, they'll be squeezed to death by other universes."

"I'm not afraid of them being eager for quick success, I'm only afraid of them being timid. As long as they dare to come, we will definitely take them down," the main universe Green Lantern nodded and said.

"Do you remember the tactics we studied before?" the main universe Wonder Woman asked, "Many Iron Men love to show off their technology, and plus they are eager to make contributions now; as long as we guide them, they might charge very far forward. It would be great if we could capture one or two."

"Even if we capture them, they won't work for us. Just like the Guardians of the Galaxy, what's the use of keeping them in jail and feeding them for free?"

"That's different. These are members of the Avengers. Once we capture them, the other side will have to fight even if they don't want to. If they choose not to save people or drag it out, then their morale will be completely ruined."

"Let's step it up," Hal said, "they've released their robots; should we release a wave of Parademons to test them?"

"I'll go pilot the ship," the main universe Green Lantern said, "let's send one ship over first to test them. Iron Man definitely still has good things in his hands; it's best to force them to show their trump cards first."

The huge troop transport slowly approached the mechanical defense line. It didn't slow down at all when approaching the turrets, just crashed straight into them. And countless mechanical turrets were not polite either; for a time, lasers flew everywhere, and explosions followed one after another. The thin-skinned and heavily-loaded transport was destroyed just like that, but countless safety pods containing Parademons exploded out from inside.

With a "swish," all the release commands for the safety pods were activated, and countless pairs of cold and cruel eyes lit up one after another. The light from the mechanical defense line illuminated the front, and what spread out like a dark cloud was an uncountable army of Parademons.