506. The Determination to Protect.
506. The Determination to Protect.
In the end, Alex didn't use a pillow to smother Tony Stark.
To avoid disturbing the drunken fool from having a good sleep and to ensure the drunken fool wouldn't disturb him, Alex and Kara left the main hall of the House of Mystery and headed to the library.
This library was originally a place for Constantine to store various magical books. Later, after the House of Mystery was established with its overseers, it was modified by Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.
Now, the library didn't just house magical books, but also a lot of scientific materials, and they had even moved some magical books from the wastelands here.
At this moment, the library contained the greatest products of both mystical and scientific knowledge from two universes. Many heroes would visit to study when they had free time.
Of course, this was mainly limited to the Bat-family members. People like Pietro and Ashley, who weren't exactly studious, would never voluntarily come to this place.
"This is my first time here since the renovation." Alex slowly walked over to a desk, and the chair automatically slid out for him to sit.
Looking around at the vintage-style library and the magical books floating in mid-air, Alex smiled and stretched. "It really feels like being at Hogwarts."
Watching Alex curiously glance around, Kara shook her head with a smile.
On paper, Alex was the owner of the House of Mystery, but from how little he seemed to know about his own organization, who would think he was the leader of the overseers?
"This library was Tony Stark's idea. He placed a number of magical barriers here to protect it."
"I can tell. The magic flows here are orderly but not chaotic, with some abstract magic mixed in. Looks like Stark's talent is actually pretty good." Alex nodded.
From the moment he entered, he had been able to observe the magical circuits here. Normal people might not notice, but in Alex's eyes, these magical arrays were quite obvious.
"I'm not sure about his magical talent, but this guy sure is obsessed with drinking. He keeps saying that alcohol is humanity's ladder to truth. I really don't get what's so great about it."
Kara rested her cheek on her hand, her expression one of confusion.
"It's not the wine that makes people drunk, but people make themselves drunk. You should understand; after all, he lost everything. In the Zombie Hero Universe, Tony Stark is one of the few survivors." Alex shrugged.
Everyone has their own way of relieving stress. Maybe for Tony Stark, drinking was the best way to escape reality and forget the past.
And in fact, most parallel universe versions of Tony Stark seemed to do the same.
Kara stared at Alex for a long while before slowly speaking.
"How long are you planning to stay this time?"
Alex paused, not immediately understanding why the topic had shifted so quickly.
After an awkward laugh, Alex spoke up. "The way you're saying it, it sounds like I'm a bird without legs. I've been busy for so long. Can't I rest for a bit?"
"Of course, you can rest. But from what I remember, you've never really rested." Kara's lips curled up. "How am I supposed to know if you'll disappear again without saying anything?"
"Is that how you see me?" Alex shook his head with a bitter smile. "I admit, I did have some important things to handle before, but now, those things are settled, so I can take a break for a while."
"Really?" Kara didn't seem convinced.
Aside from Pietro, Kara was one of the first companions to follow Alex. Over the journey, Kara had come to understand just how terrifying the difficulties they faced were.
Whether it was the invincible General Zod, the strange Deadpool, or even Trigon, Darkseid, and the Planet Eater from the wasteland, all of them were incredibly powerful beings capable of destroying entire universes.
Not to mention the pervasive pollution. If it weren't for Alex's presence, Kara couldn't even imagine what those universes would have turned into.
Because of this, no one understood the dangers of Alex's journey more than Kara.
There had been many times when Kara had tried to persuade Alex to abandon those meaningless rescues. They were just ordinary people, and even someone as powerful as her Kryptonian self was just an insect in the eyes of those mighty beings.
What did the safety of other parallel universes have to do with them? Why should they risk everything to help those people? Couldn't they take care of themselves?
Kara really wanted to tell Alex that he should respect other people's destinies.
But she knew she couldn't say that. After all, she was one of those people Alex had saved. If it weren't for Alex and Pietro rescuing her from prison, she couldn't imagine what would have happened to her.
Maybe she would never have escaped the prison, or maybe she would have been killed by the furious General Zod, who would have stolen the Kryptonian gene inside her.
In such a situation, how could Kara possibly persuade Alex to give up?
In fact, Kara was deeply conflicted. On one hand, she was extremely worried about Alex's safety; on the other hand, she hoped Alex could completely resolve the troubles they were facing, which made her feel very troubled.
And Alex could tell what was going on in Kara's heart. He smiled gently and said:
"Alright, I know what you're worried about. Actually, we've already got what we wanted: family, loved ones, a peaceful world. People often find greater motivation when they have nothing left."
"Once we have what we've always dreamed of, we begin to wonder if it's time to stop, because no one knows whether everything we've gained will be destroyed if we keep moving forward," Alex continued after a pause.
"I promised Pietro that I would give him a world where he could live in peace, and I also promised you that you and your brother would have a planet you could call 'home.' Now, I've done it."
"But this peace didn't come easily. You know the dangers lurking around us. The polluted parallel universes could threaten our peaceful life at any time, so to protect the wasteland, I can't stop."
"I understand."
Kara extended her hand and grabbed Alex's hand.
"But I hope you won't face it alone. The whole point of creating the overseers was to bring all forces together to deal with dangers that ordinary people can't stop. You don't have to carry everything on your shoulders."
"This... is hard to explain." Alex sighed.
He knew very well that he was different from Pietro and Kara. It wasn't that their genes were different or anything like that; it was that fundamentally, they were not beings of the same caliber.
Pietro and Kara were born in a lower-dimensional world, crafted into characters with their own unique souls, but Alex was different—he himself was a being of a higher-dimensional world.
Now that the threat of pollution was closing in, to deal with problems coming from the higher-dimensional world, it had to be handled by someone from the same higher-dimensional world: Alex himself.
This had nothing to do with combat strength or the illusion versus the material.
This was the most basic principle of logic: soldiers versus soldiers, generals versus generals. The Observer species had proven the correctness of this principle. It could be said that, except for Alex, no one in the entire multiverse had the ability to rewrite the pollution.
"Anyway..."
Alex looked up again and smiled at Kara.
"I hope you can trust me. I never do anything unprepared, and I would never place myself in danger. Everything I do is to protect our world."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
"Mm."
Kara smiled as well.
"I trust you."
They sat across from each other, each holding the other's hand, feeling the warmth of each other.
As they locked eyes, they both saw in each other's gaze the determination to 'protect.'
"Ugh~~~"
Suddenly, a strange sound interrupted the peaceful moment between Alex and Kara.
Alex's smiling face suddenly froze, and his head turned slowly and mechanically toward the direction of the sound.
He saw Pietro, Ashley, Venom, Damian, Dick, Jason, and a group of second-generation superheroes standing at the entrance of the library, all with mischievous looks on their faces, watching them.
Kara froze for a moment and then burst into laughter.
She had been so focused on Alex that she hadn't noticed the arrival of Pietro and the others. Now that she realized they were spying on them, she felt a little flustered.
But when she saw Alex's expression, she couldn't help but laugh.
This was the second time today she had seen Alex perform his 'face-changing' skill, and similarly, Alex's relaxed demeanor and calmness were something Kara had never felt from him in such a long time.
After so many adventures, Kara had always known that Alex was in a state of mental tension. Although she didn't understand it at first, after encountering one crisis after another, she realized why Alex had been so tense.
At that moment, seeing Alex finally relax, Kara was genuinely happy for him.
Of course, Kara was happy, but Alex wasn't exactly pleased.
Letting go of Kara's hand, Alex felt his fist instinctively clench, and as he stared at the group of heroes at the door, he slowly stood up.
"You guys... really like spying, don't you?"
This time, it was Pietro and the others who had the 'face-change.'
"Cough, cough, we were just passing by." Pietro awkwardly chuckled and nudged Ashley with his shoulder. "Right?"
"Yeah, yeah, we were just looking for something to eat," Ashley quickly spoke up.
"Hey, I suddenly remembered I have a sparring session with Black Canary. I'll leave first," Damian said, pretending to be calm.
"Me too," Dick followed suit.
Jason's eyes flickered as he opened his mouth, his mind racing, and finally said, "Uh, I was going to the armory... but somehow ended up here."
"Keep pretending."
Alex smiled coldly and started walking toward them, cracking his knuckles as he moved.
At this moment, each of Pietro and the others had a red "danger" symbol floating above their heads.
"Run! He's going to kill us!"
Pietro shouted, they all immediately turned and used their fastest movement technique to scatter in all directions.
"You little brats, stay right there!"
Alex's voice rang out with a grin.
.....
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