That rather deranged voice made even Bruce frown uncomfortably.
Naturally, Bruce's expression didn't go unnoticed by the Molecule Man, who asked in confusion, "Is something wrong?"
"It's nothing," Bruce shook his head, not mentioning the strange, maniacal voice he had just heard.
He didn't rush to check his mental prison to see what changes had occurred within it. He believed that thing would eventually resurface.
As long as that being still wanted something from him, it wouldn't just hide away in his mind, staying somewhere he couldn't find.
It would eventually appear in the cage again.
But before that, Bruce had to deal with the situation at hand.
"Why do I feel like even you have started meddling in other people's business now?" Doom was clearly displeased with the Molecule Man for bringing him and Mr. Fantastic here.
Although their battle above hadn't produced a victor, once they were here, some things were no longer within Doom's control.
"I want to make a different choice, Victor."
The Molecule Man glanced at Bruce first, then shifted his gaze to Doom, and finally to Mr. Fantastic, who was recovering his form off to the side.
Although Doom had expended all of his transcendent divine power, Mr. Fantastic still seemed to be at a disadvantage when facing him.
Doom clearly couldn't comprehend why the Molecule Man would make such a decision.
"You just abandoned me and gave up on that bat, and now you want someone who couldn't even save his own family during a crisis to shoulder this responsibility?" Doom's words were merciless, directly belittling Mr. Fantastic to nothing.
"Maybe there's a better solution than what you offer." The Molecule Man paid no mind to Doom's complaints.
He simply wanted to see whether Mr. Fantastic could reshape everything—to bring about a better outcome.
"A better solution? This guy couldn't even save his own world. The only person he might be able to save is himself. He couldn't even—" Doom's rant was abruptly and forcefully interrupted.
"How dare you?!" Mr. Fantastic roared at Doom.
Doom merely looked at his lifelong nemesis, resigned to the fact that their entanglement was far from over.
As Mr. Fantastic moved to attack Doom, the Molecule Man stopped him—he still had something to say to Doom.
"Did you bring me any food, Victor?"
Even though the Molecule Man already knew what Doom's answer would be, he still wanted to see if his chosen person had changed.
After all, as a godlike being, Doom could easily bring food here—even with just a short trip back.
"No."
As expected, Doom still uttered that familiar answer. He had never brought the Molecule Man any food, completely ignoring the hunger he had endured all this time.
The Molecule Man looked again at Mr. Fantastic. Before he could say anything, Mr. Fantastic had already spoken, somewhat apologetically.
"Sorry, Owen. I didn't bring anything."
"So, the two of you are equal." The Molecule Man hadn't expected Reed, who had just escaped, to bring food. He simply wanted Doom to understand that, in his eyes, the two of them were the same.
The Molecule Man no longer stopped Mr. Fantastic. Now, they needed to resume the battle they had left unfinished. A winner needed to be decided here.
While the two of them fought, Bruce quietly stood beside the Molecule Man, watching the pair hurl threats and speak of secrets he could barely understand as they tangled together.
At that moment, two figures appeared at the entrance.
Jessica and Gwen had followed the marks Bruce had left behind and tracked him to this place.
But the first thing they saw was a rubbery man fighting a guy clad in iron armor.
Naturally, this surprised Jessica and Gwen, and they weren't sure what to do until they spotted Bruce standing on the other side—and called out to him.
"Looks like your little friends," the Molecule Man said to Bruce upon seeing Jessica and Gwen arrive.
He had been in this space for far too long.
As for the family drama between Mr. Fantastic and Doom—he had no interest at all.
He was far more curious about the relationship between Bruce and the two girls. After all, this bat didn't seem like someone who could live a quiet, stable life.
Bruce didn't respond to the Molecule Man's comment—he merely nodded, acknowledging the truth of it.
"By the way, I've always been curious—how old are you really? The way you carry yourself clearly doesn't resemble that of some young hero in their teens or twenties." As he spoke, the Molecule Man reconstructed a corridor to connect to this area, helping them avoid getting caught up in the battle between Doom and Mr. Fantastic.
Bruce showed no intention of answering. He simply stood silently as Jessica and Gwen approached.
"What happened? Why are they fighting?" Jessica wasted no time questioning Bruce as soon as she got close.
She had some vague impression of one of the two—Reed Richards and his stretching powers were widely known.
And the other was clearly the godlike Doom they had encountered in the war zone earlier.
But based on what she had heard in the past...
Doctor Doom, known as the Divine Monarch, shouldn't have been fighting Mr. Fantastic to a mere stalemate.
At least, that's how it looked now.
In her universe, Doom was a well-known villain, but Jessica had never been able to associate him with this white-robed, godlike version of Doom.
"This is... quite a long story," the Molecule Man answered before Bruce could respond.
Hearing this, Jessica merely pressed her lips together and stood beside Bruce, following his gaze toward the battling Mr. Fantastic and Doom.
Gwen, on the other hand, went right up to the Molecule Man, curiously inspecting the figure suspended upside-down from the ceiling, with everything around him defying gravity.
"How are you doing that? Your gravity is totally different from ours, but I don't sense any environmental shift around you. It's unbelievable." Gwen was genuinely curious about how he was hanging there.
She even shot a web to test if anything was up there to latch onto.
But the web flew out and fell powerlessly to the ground.
Clearly, there was nothing overhead.
Which meant the Molecule Man was using only his own powers to hang upside down—no external support at all.
But then again, his name alone explained a lot.
Not just anyone could be called the Molecule Man.
"There are too many unimaginable things in this world. If you try to figure them all out, it'll just drive you crazy. Like those people—do you really think all they wanted was to run multiverse collision experiments?" the Molecule Man said to Gwen.
Meanwhile, over on the battlefield, it looked like Doom and Mr. Fantastic were nearing the end of their fight.
Though Mr. Fantastic had used his powers to bind Doom tightly, Doom had already grabbed Reed's head. Intense energy surged in his hand, ready to obliterate the man in front of him.
But Doom didn't destroy Mr. Fantastic. Instead, he kept shouting at him.
"You've always thought that if you had power—real power—you could solve everything, fix every problem. You thought you'd do better than me!" As Doom spoke, anyone could hear the madness in his voice. His eyes radiated a fierce intensity. Even Gwen, previously so focused on the Molecule Man, was drawn in by his outburst.
"Didn't you?!"
Doom noticed that Mister Fantastic didn't respond to his question, so he repeated it—this time almost roaring it out.
"Am I right or not???!!!"
Even though Doom's searing energy was now inches from Mister Fantastic's face, he remained calm.
"Yes, we all understand that, don't we?" Mister Fantastic's tone hadn't changed at all.
He simply stated the fact in a calm and composed manner.
But it was exactly that calm tone that drove Doom into a frenzy.
"Yes! You—go to hell!" Doom pressed both hands against Mister Fantastic's head. At this point, smoke was already rising from his skull. Clearly, Doom was intending to kill him.
Meanwhile, the Molecule Man glanced at Bruce, Jessica, and the others.
"I have a gift for you."
That was all he said before shifting his focus away from Bruce and the rest, turning his gaze toward Doom, who was about to kill Mister Fantastic.
"What does he mean by gift?" Jessica and Gwen were both confused, but Bruce had a vague idea.
Still, before anything unfolded, Bruce couldn't draw any conclusions.
"All right. If you all agree..."
Molecule Man's words immediately provoked a reaction from Doom, who tried to stop him.
"Wait, don't—"
Unfortunately, Molecule Man ignored him completely. A dazzling burst of light exploded in that moment, engulfing everyone. Even the beings far off on the other side of Battleworld were shaken by it. There was no escape—from either the blinding light or its effects.
When Bruce and Jessica opened their eyes again, everything around them looked incredibly familiar—every detail, every object, was something they had created bit by bit. They were back in the Batcave.
"Looks like he rebuilt our universe," Jessica said excitedly, eager to rush out and see the world restored.
But Bruce stopped her—he could sense that this wasn't the universe they had once belonged to.
"Jessica, this isn't our original universe," Bruce said calmly, as if he had already accepted it.
Jessica froze.
Everything around her was so familiar—all the equipment, the decorations on the walls—she had made them herself.
How could this not be their universe?
Just then, the Batcave's elevator suddenly activated, and a man stepped out.
"Looks like I'm not late after all, Master Wayne, Miss Drew." The man in a fine suit smiled at Bruce and Jessica, placing the tray he was holding aside.
It was only at that moment that Jessica finally accepted Bruce's words—this universe truly wasn't their old one.
Clearly, this was the Molecule Man's gift.
He had sent them to another universe and rebuilt everything.
"But what about Gwen?" Jessica remembered clearly that they had all been together back then.
Now Gwen was no longer with them—could it be...
"Maybe Gwen has her own life to live now," Bruce said calmly, wrapping an arm around Jessica's shoulders.
"Master Wayne, as much as I enjoy seeing this, what's more important right now is that we sit down and eat." The man addressed Bruce.
"Thank you, Alfred." Even though Bruce was meeting this man for the first time, he instinctively knew what to call him.
"If you and Miss Drew could marry sooner rather than later, I'd consider that the greatest thanks you could offer me," Alfred said humbly before turning away, ignoring Bruce's expression.
"I think that's a proposal worth considering," Jessica said with a beaming smile as she watched Alfred leave.
It was clear she already felt a strong affection for this man she had just met.
Bruce said nothing. He looked at Jessica briefly, then turned his attention to the food in front of him.
But Jessica had no intention of letting Bruce off the hook. She grabbed his cape and pulled him toward her.
"Let's do something we love."
With that, she kissed him on the lips.
Alfred, who had come back to retrieve something, stopped in his tracks the moment he heard the sounds, and quietly turned back the way he came.
As he left, there was a smile on his face.
While Bruce and Jessica engaged in their "intense battle," just as Bruce had predicted, Gwen was indeed beginning a new chapter of her life.
When Gwen opened her eyes, she found herself sitting at a dinner table, surrounded by the familiar faces of her childhood friend Peter Parker, her father, and Aunt May.
She threw herself into Peter's arms, eyes overflowing with tears she couldn't hold back.
She was overwhelmed with joy—people she thought she had lost had returned to her life.
It was a deeply emotional moment.
"Look, I know you two are close, but can't you save this kind of thing for later? It's a bit much for me," said Captain George Stacy, Gwen's father, as he stood with arms crossed watching the two embrace.
Peter looked completely bewildered, but even so, Captain Stacy couldn't help feeling a bit irritated at the boy.
In the next second, Gwen threw herself into her father's arms, practically hanging off his neck.
"Whoa! This is... definitely unexpected," Captain Stacy said, visibly surprised.
But he quickly embraced it. Who wouldn't want a warm hug from their daughter?
"All right, time to eat," Aunt May chimed in.
Gwen turned to hug her as well.
"You're right. It's time to eat," Gwen said.
As Gwen sat back down at the table, Captain Stacy and Aunt May exchanged glances, clearly unsure about what had gotten into Gwen today.
Still, seeing that she had calmed down and taken her seat, they did the same and began their usual pre-meal prayer.
"Thank you, all of you."
(End of Chapter)
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