Peter left the gemstone and blueprints with Harry, while constantly thinking about what he said in the lab. Why did the mutants end up in trouble?
Of course, it's not that they shouldn't have ended up in trouble. To be precise, ever since the merger of Marvel's Old Earth 616 and DC Earth One, mutants have been the ones facing the most trouble.
In the Marvel universe, mutants are the biggest source of instability, but Superman and Wonder Woman in this universe definitely don't coddle them. The X-Men are slightly better off, while the Mutant Brotherhood is truly being pursued by those two, forced to flee in chaos and beaten into disarray every few days.
Superman and Magneto are even more of arch-enemies, constantly fighting in the Solar System. One day I give you an uppercut, the next I push you into the Sun, and their battles end without a clear winner.
Although Magneto is strong, he's holding back because he's afraid of affecting Earth; Superman, on the other hand, possesses a certain amount of idealistic power, plus Wonder Woman is assisting, so Superman's side can still manage to suppress Magneto. This has made the Mutant Brotherhood behave more obediently, and there haven't been any incidents for the past week.
Unexpectedly, with the Mutant Brotherhood quiet, it's the X-Men who have run into trouble. Peter knows quite a bit about the mutants at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. They shouldn't be fighting for no reason, even if they had to destroy something out of control, they wouldn't choose highly populated residential and industrial areas. Peter believes Professor X has at least this much of a moral baseline.
This indicates that something must have happened beyond their control, perhaps destroying just one thermal power plant was the best outcome they could manage.
Peter sighed internally. Unfortunately, in order to understand the situation in the unfamiliar universe, the Supreme Magician and most of the mages at Kamar-Taj chose to wander through the universe, and no one on Earth can contact them, not even members of the Illuminati. Otherwise, rebuilding the magical defense network would be Strange's undeniable duty.
However, exploring the universe is equally important, Peter is well aware. Even though there are no Demon Gods here, there are many mysterious and powerful beings in this universe. Without understanding, Earth could suffer at any time without knowing who the culprit is.
Additionally, mages who heavily rely on contracts must seek out new contract partners. Otherwise, they have no power to protect Earth. The departure of the Supreme Magician was an unavoidable move.
After all, their Earth has come to this side, which means everything besides Earth itself has effectively been abandoned. They have to start from scratch. This is the toughest period, and they can't rely on the Supreme Magician for everything.
With these thoughts, Peter put down what he was holding, left the lab, and picked up the phone, saying, "Hello? Iron Man? It's me, Peter. I have something important to tell the Avengers. Can you notify the Captain and the others for us to meet tonight?"
After absent-mindedly finishing his afternoon work, Peter called the fast-food restaurant owner to request leave, then hurried to the Avengers Base at top speed—since the Manhattan Area was now in Metropolis, he had to take the intercity train to get there. By the time he arrived, the Avengers were mostly gathered.
"I'm here," Peter panted, pushing the door open and saying, "Sorry, I live quite far away..."
"Is that an understatement?" Iron Man opened his mask and couldn't help but say, "S.H.I.E.L.D. and Avengers members are all assigned to Metropolis, only you went to Gotham. How long has it been since we last met?"
"Did you forget me?" Banner scoffed, "I work in Gotham too. Oh, I forgot, it's now called Forward York City."
"What sort of crappy name is that?" Iron Man couldn't help but complain, "The key to New York is New, not York! Now it sounds like some English city has run away from home!"
"Is there a possibility that York really is some English city?" Natasha asked.
"Alright," Peter interrupted their chat, "I'm here for a serious reason! Could you put the pizzas and sodas down first..."
The crowd put away the food, and Peter sighed, "I'm not sure if you've been paying attention to multiverse matters, I mean, this multiverse. The Batmen have started collecting energy in their respective universes to establish a magical defense network. I think we should do the same."
"We used to have it," Captain America spoke, "but possibly because in terms of energy, the compatibility between the two universes is worse, all the magical energy we previously had is now unusable. The mages had to leave the universe to find new contract partners, even if we wanted to build a magical defense network now, we are powerless."
Coulson also nodded and said, "That's true, Steven warned us before he left. Now that the Earth is without the protection of a magical defense network, it could be extremely dangerous. But coincidentally, that Superman and Magneto keep fighting big battles in the universe, each time shaking the heavens and earth, intimidating quite a few petty scoundrels, otherwise we wouldn't have peaceful days at all now."
"I have energy," Peter said.
Everyone looked at him in unison, and Peter cleared his throat and said, "Do you remember when I contracted a god before?"
"Oh right, how did I forget you might be the first mage among us," Iron Man said, "though you gave your Spider Power to a lousy kid, acting as a mage can at least save your life."
Peter shook his head and said, "Actually, I haven't been in touch with him for a long time, but fortunately, when I had this idea, I went to find him, and he agreed to lend me power. Does anyone know how to bring the mages back?"
Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. Iron Man hesitated for a moment and said, "Leaving aside the difficulty of inter-universe communication, these mages always prefer to go to remote and secluded places, maybe not even in the same dimension, possibly wedged in some obscure space crevice, and absolutely impossible to contact."
"Then we'll have to do it ourselves," Peter said, "I got a detailed blueprint from a friend in Battleworld—the magic academy that the Batmen went to taught this, it's not much of a secret. We can follow the blueprint for now and make modifications when the mages return."
"Is it really that urgent?" Captain America couldn't help but ask, "From what we see now, Earth isn't at a life-or-death stage, right?"
"No, I think Peter is right," Iron Man said, "The key isn't how the Magical Defense Network protects Earth, it's that if the Batmen make a move, we have to as well."
"Does that make sense?" Natasha asked.
"The Batman of our universe...forget it, let's not talk about it," Iron Man shook his head, "What I'm saying is we've already fallen behind. If we don't keep up now, this universe will inevitably fall behind. If a multiverse-level disaster occurs in the future, we might have to rely on others for support, which means we won't have any say and will keep getting weaker."
Everyone fell silent. Peter continued, "The Batmen must have reasons for acting now. Perhaps a multiverse-level disaster has already occurred, and they're in a rush to deal with the crisis."
His words sent a chill down everyone's spine. Captain America stood up, looked at Peter, and said, "Do you have a premonition?"
"Why does everyone rely on my premonition?" Peter said helplessly, "I've already said I'm not Spider Man."
"No, no, no, Peter, I wasn't talking about your Spider-sense, but the deeper reason the Spider Totem would choose you—you're someone with a keen sense of crisis. If you feel uneasy, then something must indeed be happening."
Just as Captain America finished speaking, Coulson's phone rang, making everyone's hearts skip a beat.
Coulson picked up his phone and walked outside. He hadn't even reached the door when his expression turned serious. A few minutes later, he returned and said, "An explosion occurred at the chemical park on Northern Island, suspected to be the work of superpower users."
Captain America didn't hesitate any longer. He tapped his shield and shouted, "Avengers assemble!"
Although Peter no longer had superpowers, he had become an amateur mage. He was also secretly providing technical support to the current Spider-Man—originally Batman Bruce Wayne from Earth No.1—so he too went to the explosion site.
"My god," Iron Man exclaimed while flying in mid-air, "This isn't just an explosion, what kind of bomb can slice a chemical building cleanly in half?!"
Standing on the rooftop, Captain America also looked grim. He said, "This is a terrorist attack. What on Earth is happening?!"
Natasha put away her grapple and slowly shook her head, "No black box, I mean, the surveillance cameras captured nothing. They might have acted from outside the park."
Shortly after, Spider Man Bruce also arrived. He stood on the rooftop looking at the building, his expression worse than anyone else's.
Since becoming Spider Man, he had always worked alone, not officially an Avengers member, though he maintained good relations with others. Except Iron Man thought he was too weak to be a superhero, the others admired his persistence.
"Something big has happened," Spider Man Bruce's voice was low. The others looked at him, and he said while staring at the building, "That's Penguin's property, he might very soon..."
"Jesus Christ! What the hell happened?!! James Gordon!!! You better have your lousy cops in front of me in three minutes and explain what happened to my new park!!!"
Penguin's roar was even harder than a helicopter's rotors, showing how furious he was. Bruce stepped back two steps, joining the Avengers members.
As soon as Penguin got off the helicopter, seeing a line of superheroes standing opposite, he paused, awkwardly standing there without moving forward.
Luckily, another figure quickly headed towards him on the rooftop. Thinking it was Gordon, Penguin approached, but it turned out to be the star detective Harvey Block, with a journalist in tow.
"Mr. Mayor!" Block warmly approached and shook hands with Penguin, then said, "I heard there was a terrorist attack at the chemical park you invested in? That's shocking! But rest assured, I will definitely help find the culprit and bring them to justice!"
"Who is that guy?" Iron Man whispered to Bruce.
"Harvey Block, a...star policeman."
"'Star'? 'Policeman'? English can be combined like this?"
"Yes, he's quite famous, supposedly solving many major cases with culprits hidden for years..." Bruce's face turned dark, adding, "Except for my parents' case."