Chapter 304: I'm Very Strong
"Give me a reason." Tony Stark stared at Reed Richards.
Unless Reed could produce something convincing enough to persuade Tony, no amount of flowery language would make Tony hand over the full-wave projector before Batman returned.
"My mother died when I was seven." Reed said. "My father raised me, but he disappeared when I was nineteen."
Tony's mouth twitched slightly behind his faceplate. That sob story wouldn't move him at all.
Reed couldn't see Tony's expression through the metal mask. He continued regardless.
"My father, Nathaniel Richards, was a genius scientist. He designed a time-travel machine to visit the future—to see what lay ahead for himself."
"Then he vanished completely. A year later, the government declared him dead. But to this day, I've never seen his body. No concrete evidence. As if he never existed in this world at all."
"So you're saying you're pathetic? Hoping that'll make me trust you with the full-wave projector?" Tony asked.
"No." Reed said. "I don't believe my father is dead. I believe he traveled to some unknown time or world. Maybe he's waiting for me to rescue him."
"So despite your achievements across multiple scientific fields, your primary research direction remains interstellar travel?" Tony asked.
Reed Richards nodded.
"More precisely, I research space-time travel and dimensional physics. But we can't even achieve interstellar flight yet. There's too much we don't understand about cosmic radiation... so my current work still focuses on space travel."
"But now, Tony—a device capable of creating gateways to other worlds sits right in front of me. I've never been this close to finding my father. I'm begging you. Give me this chance."
As Reed spoke, his eyes remained locked on the full-wave projector. As if the moment he looked away, it would sprout wings and fly off.
Tony Stark observed Reed in silence.
In the past, Reed's reasoning wouldn't have moved him. The word "father" felt too distant. Tony had barely experienced anything resembling "fatherly love" from his own father.
But now the arc reactor in his chest existed because of notes his father had left behind—data from researching the Tesseract sixty years ago.
Though Batman's discovery of the vibranium isotope provided a safety net, that didn't erase his father's help in leaving clues about Tesseract isotopes.
Tony Stark chose compromise.
"Fine."
Reed Richards's face lit up with joy. He stepped over dinosaur corpses to stand before the full-wave projector.
"I don't know this projector's operating principles. Don't know if it can open these vortexes to other worlds again."
"I need to perform data analysis and build virtual models..."
Reed muttered as he began his work.
---
In the primitive world, Batman solved a mystery that had been nagging at him.
The supernatural ability Dr. Helen Zhao had encountered was the little girl Lunella herself.
Precisely because something theoretically confined to science fiction—like mental telepathy—had appeared in reality, Dr. Zhao had made the bold conjecture that Professor Warren's injuries were "caused by a vampire."
"You want to save that T-Rex?" The moment Lunella finished speaking, Batman understood her subtext.
Lunella nodded, looking toward the T-Rex inside the fire ring whose body had burned scarlet red. The T-Rex was looking back at her.
"That's right. Without it, I would've already been burned alive by these primitives' fire, or suffocated by smoke."
"But I'm just a little girl. I don't have the ability to save it."
"And you, Batman—you're also my savior. I can't ask you to risk danger again because of my wishes."
Pain flickered across Lunella's face.
She was smart. Therefore she knew she'd just placed her savior Batman in opposition to another savior—the T-Rex.
"Lunella, look at me." Batman didn't need much thought. "I understand your feelings. If a wild beast saved me and then faced danger, I would choose to rescue it too."
"That's dangerous." Lunella said quietly. "I seem to be morally blackmailing you, Batman."
"It protected you. That's enough." Batman said. "Remember what I told you earlier?"
Lunella looked at Batman's jawline.
"What?"
"I'm very strong." Batman said.
In truth, even if Lunella hadn't asked, Batman had planned to bring back a live dinosaur specimen anyway—to study carefully why a creature from a primitive world possessed mental telepathy.
Now that Lunella had asked for help, Batman decided not to instruct the Lizard Professor to show mercy toward the other giant horned T-Rex. He'd go rescue the scarlet-burned T-Rex himself.
WHOOSH!
Batman held Lunella with one arm while his other hand shot toward his utility belt, retrieving a canister of solidifying gel.
This substance could function as a bomb. It could also extinguish fires. Batman had used it once before at the gamma facility in New Mexico.
Batman hurled the solidifying gel outward. Before it hit the ground, his hand darted to his belt again.
This time he withdrew four batarangs.
Batman's batarangs came in many varieties. From basic models to ones with built-in scanners for remote object analysis. Others released irritant gases, sedatives, hypnotics, and various other payloads.
The batarangs currently held between Batman's fingers were hollow inside, filled with compressed cold gel. They worked well against fires fueled purely by large quantities of burning wood.
But only "well." Relying on one solidifying gel canister and four batarangs to completely extinguish flames eight to ten feet high wasn't realistic.
Batman didn't need to extinguish it completely. He just needed to reduce the fire enough to charge back into the blaze with Lunella in one arm—then lift that red T-Rex out with his other hand.
"Don't be afraid, big guy." Lunella whispered to the red T-Rex from within Batman's cape. "Batman's coming to save you."