Chapter 4983

"Managing Wayne Enterprises' business." Carter sighed, crossing his arms as he looked out at the distant sea. "After the two Earths merged, the commercial landscape expanded too. Wayne Enterprises has to compete with more entities. But actually......"

Carter wore a somewhat awkward expression, then lowered his voice: "I get the feeling he's not too good at running a business, often ends up at his wit's end. Wayne Enterprises hasn't gained any advantage from the other big sharks either; it's barely scraping by."

Shiler recalled briefly — Old Master Wayne indeed wasn't too skilled at business. Or rather, he wasn't good at doing business honestly, but excelled at probing wildly in the gray zones, including but not limited to arms dealing and casinos.

The competition Wayne Enterprises faces is fierce. Besides the original LuthorCorp, there's Stark Industries, Oscorp, Roxxon, and that whole pile of not-so-legal giants from Marvel — they're probably having a massive headache right now.

"I thought he'd focus more on the Justice League's revival work," Shiler said.

"Can't say he doesn't value it," Carter explained. "He has provided a lot of help to the Justice League, including taking on this wedding — he helped out enormously."

Carter sighed lightly: "When we learned Mr. Grayson actually wanted a traditional Catholic wedding, we were all shocked. You have to understand, Steve grew up in a traditional Catholic parish; the religious atmosphere in his era was thick, yet even he couldn't pull off a Catholic wedding. Ours was a modern lawn ceremony — hard to imagine young people wanting that kind of traditional wedding."

"Back then we asked around among the superheroes — nobody had done it. Fortunately Thomas told us at the end that his and Martha's wedding was a traditional Catholic one; otherwise we wouldn't have dared take this job."

Shiler remembered — for a period before, he'd been doing psychological counseling for Catwoman Selina, mainly because after she entered high society, especially when socializing with Aisha and those parents, she wasn't adapting well, and had once asked Selina about her wedding ideas.

This girl who grew up in the slums based her wedding ideas basically on Hollywood TV dramas — a beautiful big lawn, the bride in a white wedding dress walking up, and tossing the bouquet at the end. Maybe Bruce wants that kind of wedding too.

But Shiler guessed Thomas and Martha might want them to adopt a more formal approach — whatever the case, at minimum they'd have to go to a church. Can't say who's right or wrong; a lawn wedding is simple and open, ritual sense not as strong, more like a friends' gathering, but a church wedding is more solemn, more ritualistic.

Sure enough, Thomas and Martha had a traditional Catholic wedding back then. But that's not strange either — whether the Wayne family or the Kane family, they're East Coast old money. Old money heirs generally get top-tier treatment across the board; every key life ritual must be the most solemn and grand, let alone a marriage alliance with the Kanes — that could probably be called Gotham's wedding of the century.

Thinking here, Shiler's hand paused. He said: "Is your budget enough?"

"What?" Carter completely hadn't expected him to ask this; only after reacting did she say, "You're not joking, Professor? We dared take on this many multiverse guests — you think we'd have no budget? Our budget is unlimited!"

Shiler flipped through his memory again, asking: "Which department is Nick Fury in?"

"He went to the Development Division," Carter said. "What's up?"

"Nothing." Shiler didn't know how to explain either — not every universe's Nick is a reimbursement master; most are still pretty reliable. Besides, 616's Nick is white, completely different from the universe where Greed resides — no comparison possible.

"I only know a traditional Catholic wedding's cost matches its ritual grandeur — you'd best be prepared," Shiler said.

Carter smiled, not minding. She'd long since gotten word from others — for this multiverse reception event, they'd prepared extremely ample funds, even set up a special fund management team; the account balance was enough to make one's eyes swim.

The yacht swayed as it docked; cars already packed the shoreline. Since no one drank, everyone was sober — except the Asgardian King and Queen who might need a hospital checkup, everyone returned to the hotel to rest.

It wasn't too late when returning to the hotel; just then another batch of superheroes arrived, the two motorcades ran into each other, scene momentarily chaotic.

Fortunately, not only Carter's group — Coulson brought people too. His bunch differed from Carter's; clearly a combat squad, basically everyone armed.

Shiler was puzzled — who exactly needed a combat squad escort? After getting out of the car he didn't head straight into the hotel, stood by the steps watching the commotion. Then a stretch limo door opened and a cannonball crashed into his arms.

"Professor!!!" Aisha shouted. "Look look — did I grow taller!!"

Shiler looked down — Aisha really had grown a bit, though this was probably her own doing. Aisha chattered: "Dad agreed with them — I'm gonna be a flower girl. A flower girl can't be too short; I don't wanna roll around in front of the newlyweds like a cabbage. But if I wear heels I'll fall, so I just grew a little taller......"

Aisha kept chattering. Shiler ruffled her head hard, looking toward Bruce and Selina stepping out of the car. Selina rushed over, hugged Aisha, then said: "Sorry Professor, we hit traffic on the way — we were going stir-crazy."

"Aisha!" Selina called. "Don't stand at the doorway talking — hurry with me to the bathroom. You ate ice cream in the car, got it all over your hair and clothes — hurry up and wash......"

Finished, she dragged Aisha off, but clearly one person couldn't manage her. Bruce ran up the steps, nodding at Shiler as he passed, then went after Selina.

Shiler watched the family of three's retreating figures, thoughtful: No wonder the other side dispatched so much security — turns out it's because of Bruce......

He'd just thought this when he saw the Fantastic Four step out of the cars behind, Reed Richards in the lead.

The second Reed stepped out the car door, ordinary agents without guns all instinctively reached for their waist holsters; Carter even took a backstep seeking cover — the whole scene's tension spiked to the max.

Shiler hurried down the steps, waved at Franklin floating mid-air, then exchanged pleasantries with Susan: "Long time no see, ma'am. How've you been?"

"Pretty good. I got a Master's in Astronomy from UC," Susan smiled. "Process had some difficulties, but glad the result's good."

Shiler also smiled: "Learning's always beneficial. Of course, a doctorate would be even more beneficial."

"Oh, you flatter me too much." Susan laughed, waving a hand. "I think my current education's enough, but I lack hands-on lab experience — next step I plan to......"

Shiler had already discerned — these four are actually from the Greed Universe. But strangely, the Central Universe shouldn't have a Fantastic Four — the four of them never formed a team.

Reed and Susan did get together, and Human Torch Jonathan is Susan's brother after all — those three are close. But originally Ben Grimm the Thing, though their classmate, wasn't close; if not for mutating together on a mission, they wouldn't have teamed up.

The Fantastic Four truly are a loving family — mutual help, support, encouragement. One could say the two least "human" members — Mister Fantastic and Human Torch — had their humanity given entirely to this family.

But in a sense, not experiencing that accident was good for the Thing and Human Torch. The Thing needs no elaboration — in almost every universe he's tormented by his appearance.

Originally he had a bright future as a pilot. Green Lantern Hal is a test pilot but lacks astronaut qualifications. Ben Grimm, however, was not only an excellent pilot but had extensive space work experience — among the highest-earning, most respectable lifestyles in America. Such a person should've had a brilliant life.

But after becoming the Thing, one: couldn't fly planes anymore — cockpits simply couldn't accommodate him, let alone cramped rockets and spaceships. Even if he barely fit, not suited for long-term ops — his career was effectively destroyed.

Two: originally Grimm was handsome; with a respectable career he was the center of attention anywhere. Suddenly turning into a stone monster — that gap would be unacceptable to anyone. So the Thing once gave up on himself; if not for the sense of accomplishment from later becoming a superhero saving him, he might really have fallen into a supervillain.

The Central Universe's Grimm was first a pilot at the space agency, later selected for the space station, now should be on a starship — seems to be competing for first officer on some starship. Wonder if that's why he reunited with his old classmates.

And Human Torch — a classic young hero, personality unruly and rebellious, a tough troublemaker who constantly causes trouble for his sister and brother-in-law to clean up. Even Reed, that chaos lord, looks a bit like a sucker in front of him.

His temper plus his powers — a fully automatic humanoid trouble machine. Hard to say whether he or the villains have greater destructive power. And his mouth is especially hard. Though some of it is writers manufacturing conflict, forcing him to be reckless — still infuriating to watch.

The Central Universe's Human Torch didn't become Human Torch, but caused plenty of trouble. Before, unknown where he swapped a beat-up spaceship, drag-raced in low Earth orbit, caused a pileup, nearly killed by Polaris — Reed fished him out.

Good thing he doesn't have Human Torch powers anymore — otherwise with Earth and near-Crux traffic that busy, one wave from him and half the universe's insurance companies would be trembling.