Tim twisted his ankle during the emergency landing. So Miles and the Arkham Knight stayed to help him with the treatment. Peter went to check on the spaceship. Dick and Jason followed him.
"What's the deal with those robots you mentioned?"
"Are you sure your spaceship accidentally fell down?"
"I don't know. As I was entering orbit, it suddenly warned me that the autopilot had failed. I had to land manually. But I've never flown this thing before. The landing spot wasn't great. It dropped from a few hundred meters above the ground."
"You guys are really lucky," Peter remarked, spotting the spaceship nose-plunged in the swamp from a distance. Then he added, "The spaceship itself was lucky too."
"Isn't it more about its quality?"
Peter shook his head but didn't explain further. Luckily, the spaceship plummeted headfirst. Before coming aboard, he had checked, and this type of spaceship has the strongest cockpit at the front. If it had landed sideways, it might not have remained so intact.
They walked all the way to the spaceship. Peter looked around but didn't see anything noteworthy. He then shot two strands of spider silk, standing at the back of the spaceship, firmly grounded his feet, and yanked it hard. The spaceship was pulled flat, lying atop the swamp.
"Oh my God," Dick exclaimed.
But Peter's expression didn't improve. He boarded the spaceship directly, headed to the cockpit, and began checking the spaceship's log. After just a few glances, he understood: the spaceship had suffered from electromagnetic interference.
Dick sighed and said, "My manual piloting skills are terrible; otherwise, this wouldn't have happened."
Peter glanced back at him and noticed that this universe's Dick was quite young, possibly not yet Nightwing. Jason and Tim were also young, almost like children. Batman from this universe must be really trusting to send them here.
"I know what you want to say," Jason remarked, folding his arms in the back. "Batman originally didn't want us to come, but we wore him down. After all, we couldn't miss the Multiverse Robin summer camp, could we?"
Peter sighed too. He had been their age once, so he didn't press the topic much further and said, "Actually, your manual piloting skills are what saved your lives."
"What do you mean?"
"The spaceship's signals were jammed, causing the autopilot to fail. But your manual landing path was too random, avoiding their anticipated range. When we arrived, they were probably combing the planet looking for you."
Both immediately felt a chill run down their spines, exchanged a glance, and asked, "Why are they attacking us?"
"Someone doesn't want humanity developing the Milky Way and will try to sabotage it. For the project in Crux, the Nine Major Kingdoms' defenses aren't as tight as before, giving them an opportunity to infiltrate."
"So, when they were jamming the ship, they thought we'd crash in one direction, but through manual piloting, we landed elsewhere. Just as they came to find us, you arrived and rescued us?"
"Pretty much. But I don't think they specifically targeted you. They might have set some interference on this planet, but you arrived before they could implement it. By the way, why did you choose to enter this planet?"
"Mission requirements," Jason said. "The Milky Way Explorer's Guide stated that if we encounter any celestial bodies with unique phenomena, we should examine and record data. This planet sits right in between the gravitational fields of two stars. We found it quite unique, so we decided to check it out."
Peter nodded and said, "Your only problem is you didn't team up with a superpower user. I'll see if there are any available Spider-Men or mutants to come get you."
Jason rolled his eyes, seeming a bit reluctant but didn't voice any objection. Peter understood: they were young, eager for an adventure alone without outsiders, thinking they could handle it.
It seemed like the condition of their universe might be good. These three kids hadn't yet faced life's harsher realities and viewed this as a gaming challenge. But now, they probably learned a lesson—a spaceship crash is no joke, and even if things ended well, the process was terrifying enough.
Soon, Polaris and others also brought Tim over. As soon as Tim arrived, he started ranting, "I told you we needed superpower users!! But you two wouldn't listen!!! When the spaceship was falling, you were the ones screaming the loudest!!!"
The two were a bit embarrassed, but Miles interrupted Tim before he could continue. He said, "If they decided to put interference devices on this planet, it means there's something unique here."
"This planet is situated between two stars but hasn't been captured by either side. Its magnetic field is quite chaotic, making it a potential spaceship graveyard," Polaris said. "Our small spaceship could navigate here because Doctor Schiller chose a particularly high-end flagship commercial spacecraft model with strong anti-interference capabilities. A slightly inferior spaceship couldn't even make it in."
"They probably thought ships made by the human race couldn't reach here," Peter said, "but it's the truth. If we used drones to scout, they'd avoid overly chaotic magnetic areas, unable to reach this place. So in that sense, you've made a contribution."
The Robin trio's faces finally showed some relief. Tim found a rock to sit on and said, "When you find one cockroach in the house, there are probably lots more. They might not have had time to set everything up on this star, but on others, they could have succeeded."
"What do they want in the end?" Polaris asked, frowning.
"We shouldn't stay here long," Peter said. "You guys board the ship; we'll talk on a nearby star. Miles, help me move those robot remains and their interference device onto our ship. I need to study them."
Miles nodded and immediately went to move things. The Robin trio also went to restart the spaceship. Two small spaceships flew to a slightly distant place in Scorpio and landed on a desolate dark planet.
During the journey, Peter briefly checked the robot's corpse and equipment. When the spaceship landed, he said, "The signal interference machine has a lot of power, in normal operating mode, it can cover the surface of a planet like just now globally. But at the same time, I found that this machine also has another mode, which is the focused interference mode."
"Focused interference?"
"You can understand it as converting a shotgun into a sniper rifle, able to output fierce electromagnetic attacks on one point."
"Who is he going to snipe?"
Peter shook his head. He certainly knew it was aimed at the Human race, but exactly what it was targeting, he was still unclear. After all, since it was already thought that the human spaceship couldn't fly over, then it should not be attacking the spaceship. So what was it attacking?
Without any clue for the time being, Peter and the others decided to continue the investigation. Soon, Peter called over two Spider Men in the group chat. One of them was the First Spider-Man, his age was also young, and he had common topics with this group of young people. The other was Spider-Man 2099, who was more mature and could ensure the team's safety.
The First Spider-Man is a talkative happy-go-lucky guy, and it didn't take long for him to mix well with them. Watching the group board the ship and set off, Peter sighed and said, "I'm afraid Doctor already anticipated the current situation, otherwise he wouldn't have insisted on using manpower to detect."
"It proves he was right," Polaris said, "Although drones are convenient, their limitations are too great, not as flexible and adaptable as humans. Fortunately, we have these helpers from the neighboring world, otherwise, we might not have bumped into anything."
"Let's go, we need to check some areas with magnetic field chaos next."
At this time, Shiller and Pikachu were planning the tavern construction site on the nearest planet to the Teleportation Portal in Centaurus.
"We should indeed start by building a tavern, otherwise there would be no place to live while working here," Loki said, "The Dwarves have a pretty good engineering team, they currently have no job. I'll have them come over and take a look. As long as you give them some Vibranium, their work efficiency is astounding."
The High Lord also nodded. Although he is quite interested in establishing a luxurious casino, he didn't want to sleep in the wild either. But this planet is indeed quite barren, survival in the wild is not possible. Without buildings, they would have to return to Earth to sleep.
"Then let's hurry up and start," Pikachu said, "The design plans are all ready, but it should be slightly expanded, adding more rooms on the second floor. It's just hard to recruit staff this quickly..."
Pikachu looked at Shiller, and Shiller looked back at him, the two stared at each other. Shiller said, "Why are you looking at me? I cannot do tavern work."
"Then go recruit staff," Pikachu said.
"They're all sent out by me to explore the Milky Way, where would I recruit people? We'll have to wait for the exploration activities to finish."
"Then you can only fill in," Pikachu said.
"And what will you do?"
"Come on, do you think it's easy to open a store? I need to brew beer, fill up the barrels, clean up, open the door to welcome guests..."
"Sounds like you're doing it all by yourself."
"Come on, we still need bartenders and chefs. Considering that not many people might come soon, you could temporarily serve in these two positions."
"Oh dear, don't you know I'm very busy?"
"Then tell me what you're busy with."
"Uh... forget it, explaining would be too troublesome. Reluctantly, I'll help you manage for a while. When those young people come back, they'll scramble to work here."
After deciding, everyone went back to prepare. Pikachu returned to Earth to purchase brewing ingredients, and also buy some ready-made beer. Shiller had to buy some cooking ingredients, even though he already had a lot, he needed some fresh ones.
Loki went to find the Dwarven engineering team. His efficiency was the highest, as the Dwarves, upon hearing that there would be Vibranium and free drink, hopped excitedly to come over. Although the Asgardians also love drinking, with good brewing techniques and prevalent drinking culture within the Nine Major Kingdoms, the Dwarves usually don't lack drinks but are willing to try any kind of alcohol—they've been eyeing the Human race's drinks for a long time.
Their construction method is different from humans and Magicians, it looks very primitive: setting up frames first, then stacking bricks on top. But in fact, the efficiency is terrifyingly high, those bricks seemed to have eyes of their own, stacking themselves neatly.
Moreover, they have advanced hoisting technology, not limited to ground hoisting but able to hoist in the sky, and are quite rigorous in engineering, parts fit perfectly. Before long, on the barren land, a huge tavern rose suddenly.
The first floor is a spacious lobby, with dozens of tables scattered around, and a gigantic circular bar counter. Behind the bar counter are two large spiral staircases. The second floor has many guest rooms, like a maze. The third floor is a private meeting room, not in use currently.
Behind the stairs is the kitchen, with a passage directly connecting to the bar counter, and doors for going out to serve food on both sides of the passage. On top of the bar counter is a magnificent crystal chandelier. And because it's Dwarven-made, all pipelines and decorations are metal, combined with the medieval tavern style set by Pikachu, it looks very steampunk.