mtl008 Chapter 4222 A Guide to Wandering the Galaxy (29)
Chapter 4222 A Guide to Wandering the Galaxy (29)
Chapter 4222 A Guide to Wandering the Galaxy (Twenty-Nine)
Quiet times always pass quickly. The next morning, it was another busy day. When Schiller went downstairs, he found that the seats were almost all occupied by the Robins. They had all come to pick up their equipment the day before and were resting here for the night before setting off.
The change was indeed significant. Moreover, they weren't using discarded military equipment from the black market, but rather the active-duty gear of the Skrull Empire. The creations of mechanical civilization possess their own inherent aesthetic order, and although the Robins were all different, they truly resembled professionally armed individuals when using their new equipment.
The workers at Crossroads II aren't allowed to stay overnight, so not many people come in the morning. The Robins finish their breakfast and head out. They chat and laugh, and their conversation doesn't entirely revolve around Batman, but rather about the new things they've discovered in the universe.
Schiller stood at the bar watching their retreating figures. He thought that perhaps Batman was also gradually realizing that if he wanted the birds to be independent, he had to teach them to fly first. But without a sufficiently vast sky, they could not roam freely.
Once, Earth was big enough for them. It had many different cities, but they were all pretty much the same. After they had their own independent homes, their lives weren't much different from before; they were just superheroes in a different city.
But there should be other paths for them. They could stay by Batman's side, learning knowledge and skills, or they could pursue the mysteries of magic, exploring the truths of the universe in another way. They could be street heroes, maintaining order in the lives of ordinary people, or they could set sail, battling the storms between the stars and the sea, becoming the most valiant helmsmen.
Perhaps this is true for every father and son. When the Batmen saw Robin wanting to be like them, they felt happy and proud, but they couldn't help but think that perhaps they should have their own path instead of repeating their own lives.
Repetition means no progress, and he works so hard to make this world and this universe a better place so that more people can have more paths to take. The same applies to Robins and their ilk.
Perhaps that's why the Batmen all chose to send Robin here. They wanted the birds to see the scenery of the universe, so that when they leave the nest, they wouldn't spend too much time looking back. When the sky is no longer the limit, they can focus on flying higher and higher.
One spaceship after another took off, the light from their engines reflecting off the barren rocky landscape, then transforming into countless points of light that vanished into space like shooting stars. The darkness as far as the eye could see was made more vivid by these points of light.
But soon, more liveliness and noise followed. Schiller was finishing his unfinished wine tasting at the bar, and when he looked up, he thought he was hallucinating.
What are you doing here?!
Loki appeared before the bar.
“You’ll have to ask those two.” Loki pointed to his side. One side was black and red, the other entirely pink.
“That’s right, the two of us rescued him!” Gwen spoke first. “I knocked out those two prison guards to get him out!”
"Come on, if I hadn't distracted the guards, you would never have been able to get into such a heavily guarded prison!" Deadpool retorted.
"That's because my stealth skills are superb. Besides, you smashed the prison building, cracking the foundation and almost killing us both!"
"If you hadn't insisted on taking a tour of the palace first, we wouldn't have missed the guards' rest time and had to resort to this method..."
"Stop!" Schiller shouted. He had already gleaned from these few words what a thrilling adventure the two had embarked on in space, but that wasn't the main issue.
Why did you two go to save him?
“Because he got captured,” Gwendolyn shrugged. “It was all over the news, we both saw it. After all, Asgard is humanity’s ally, how could those damned aliens capture Loki?”
Schiller then looked at Deadpool. Deadpool spread his hands and said, "On that point, I agree with this stupid girl. Everyone in the universe knows we're best buddies with Asgard, and they just kidnapped their prince like that. Isn't that a huge embarrassment to us?"
Finally, Schiller's gaze fell on Loki's face, who looked utterly helpless. He sat down at the bar and said, "I didn't want to leave, but if I don't go with those two, the Skrull capital will be destroyed! First, they caused a ruckus in the palace, dismantling the emperor's throne and poisoning the palace's water system..."
“That wasn’t poison!” Gwen said helplessly. “We were hiding from the guards on the water tower, but this idiot insisted on seeing what the structure was like inside, and he accidentally fell in…”
"Then why not just poison it!"
“He,” Loki pointed at Deadpool, “blew up the toilet while the Emperor was in the bathroom.”
“She,” Loki pointed at Gwen Sterling again, “sent away the spaceship that the Emperor was preparing to use to see a doctor.”
"The entire military force of the capital star system is hunting them down. I don't know what kind of luck they had, but they just couldn't get caught. They flew their spaceship to the prison, one of them jumped out, and the other, for some reason, didn't. He just drove his spaceship and crashed the prison down. I thought there was an earthquake!"
“Then just tell us whether the two of us rescued you or not,” Gwen said.
"I don't need either of you to save me!"
“I know, I know,” Deadpool waved his hand and said, “It’s embarrassing to be caught, especially since you’re a prince of Asgard. But you can’t be too concerned about saving face. Isn’t getting home safely more important than anything else?”
Loki covered his forehead helplessly.
Does your brother know you've come out?
“I left a fake body there,” Loki said. “Don’t worry, it won’t delay the trial the day after tomorrow. But I told Thor I’m out, otherwise I was afraid he wouldn’t make it to the trial.”
“That’s good,” Schiller said. “They made such a big fuss, it’s like they’ve gotten revenge for you.”
"But why were you arrested?" Deadpool asked. "I thought you'd stabbed their emperor with a knife again, but he seems to be alive and well."
"When did I get a knife...?"
“That’s not important,” Gwen interrupted him, then said, “What I’m more concerned about is that they’re saying Helen is your illegitimate child with the Sorcerer Supreme…”
"Cough cough cough cough cough!!!!"
Loki nearly coughed up his lungs, then glared at Gwen Strange and said, "What nonsense! Helen is indeed my daughter, and I do want another child, but Strange?"
“That’s true. If you had even considered him, you wouldn’t still be struggling to get a girlfriend.” Schiller added fuel to the fire from the side.
"What the hell?" Loki said.
“I think the more important thing now is to think about how to explain this to your brother.” Schiller pulled a gossip tabloid from under the bar and placed it in front of Loki.
Loki nearly fainted after taking one look. "'The Sorcerer Supreme has been secretly married for years; the cat-and-mouse game between the strongest enforcer and the strongest liar stems from marital discord?!'"
Schiller hadn't really looked at the newspaper closely, but upon hearing such a sensational headline, he leaned over for a glance and silently concluded that this was definitely Venom's doing. He wouldn't hesitate to betray his former host!
Loki crumpled the newspaper into a ball, took a deep breath, and with a whoosh, a flame appeared in his palm, burning the newspaper.
“Burning this stuff won’t do any good,” Schiller said. “This issue of the newspaper has already sold over a hundred million copies and has been voted the most popular news headline of the year.”
"Loki!" a voice called from outside the door. Loki vanished in a flash.
Then, right after, a bolt of lightning struck him and he was pulled out of his skin. Of course, it didn't actually hit him, it just struck the area next to him, which scared him into coming out.
“Thor, let me explain!” Loki said. “That’s just tabloid gossip. There’s nothing between Strange and me!”
Thor, arms crossed, leaned against the bar and said, "I heard you've been married for ten years and have an illegitimate child?"
“How could that be?” Loki said with some helplessness. “We are just ordinary business partners.”
“I remember there was a time when the two of you were staying in Kamar-Taj.”
"...When?" Loki asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Shortly after arriving on Earth."
"That was over a decade ago!"
"Doesn't this fit perfectly?"
“At that time, we were just figuring out how to make money,” Loki said.
“Of course, I believe you,” Thor said. “I’m just giving you a heads-up: Strange is a good Sorcerer Supreme and a decent partner, but he’s definitely not a good companion. He’s too paranoid.”
“I know,” Loki said somewhat helplessly, “but it’s nothing, isn’t it?”
The group sat down again at the bar. Schiller looked at Deadpool and asked, "You've turned the Skrull Empire's capital up like that, are you sure they'll be able to appear in court on time the day after tomorrow?"
“It’s alright, their emperor isn’t going,” Deadpool said.
Thor then looked at Schiller and said, "I heard you want to move the earth to another place?"
"Yes, Earth is the best location in the solar system to establish a teleportation channel. I believe Reed's calculations. Although it may be a bit troublesome, moving it is not out of the question."
"What about the other planets?"
"Move the whole thing around."
"You mean you want to move the solar system away?"
"No, the sun doesn't move, but the rest of the system is shifted. You can think of it as spreading out all the planets in the solar system a bit, since it's really too crowded, isn't it?"
Thor nodded, took the beer Schiller offered him, and took a big gulp. He had also spent many years fighting in space, so he understood that this situation in the solar system was indeed rare.
In the universe, binary star systems are more numerous than isolated star systems. For example, Cross 2 has more than one star. Even among isolated star systems, it is rare to find one with eight planets like our Sun, and the orbits of these eight planets are basically evenly distributed, forming a delicate balance.
Most star systems consist of one star with three or four planets, and these planets are relatively far apart and are likely to be gas giants. It's quite rare for planets like Earth and Mars, which have similar properties and orbits, to exist in the same star system.
Therefore, the planets in our solar system are indeed too numerous and too densely packed. This wasn't a problem before, but now that humanity has starships and is preparing to build large-scale engineering machinery, this dense galaxy has become a hindrance. Many things require a certain amount of space to start up, and with such a high density of planets, collisions and impacts are very likely.
Therefore, scientists are now studying ways to disperse the solar system, readjust the orbits of the planets, place the important ones in better positions, and move the less important ones to the side.
Mercury remains largely untouched due to its proximity to the Sun and its ability to provide abundant energy. The gas giants are also well-positioned, neither too close nor too far for easy mining. The more distant ones are even less of a concern; their starports are already built, making relocation impractical.
The only real obstacle now is Mars. This colony, once a hopeful prospect for humanity, is now somewhat undervalued. It's close to Earth, but it's essentially wasting its time and doesn't play a significant role. Therefore, the biggest disagreement within the scientific team is whether or not to remove Mars altogether.