Wayne gave Steve a strange look.
It was just fighting a Milf.
Was all this drama really necessary?
Why did it feel like the guy was preparing for a funeral?
Banner spoke up next.
“So if we bring Wayne along… I can call you that, right?
If we show up with him, won’t Galactus take it as a straight-up provocation?”
The room went quiet.
An existence on that level almost certainly would notice the threat Wayne represented.
“It’s fine.
You guys go first.”
Wayne looked completely unbothered.
“If the talks fall apart, just call me.
I’ll be there in no time.”
Pym’s eyes widened.
“You can teleport across space too?”
“No.
I just fly fast.
I can teleport if I want, but for intergalactic distances flying there is still only a blink anyway.”
The Avengers all wore the same conflicted expression again.
Tony couldn’t help himself.
“Oh, perfect.
Even if every single one of us retired it wouldn’t change a damn thing.”
“You shouldn’t say that, Tony.
At least we can still do what we’re able to.”
“Cap, you still don’t get humor.
Never have.”
While the two of them went back and forth, Susan looked at Wayne, worry clear in her voice.
“If it really comes to that, we’ll back you up.”
Janet, fellow woman, nodded hard, a little emotional herself.
Johnny sparked a ball of flame in his palm and declared that nobody would lay a finger on his little brother.
The mood in the room shifted fast.
Tony glanced around, saw that even Pym and Banner were getting pulled into it, and couldn’t stay quiet.
“It’s one thing if the Captain, that old popsicle, doesn’t get it.
But Hank?
Banner?
You two should know better.
There is literally no material or spatial structure in the universe that can handle this kid’s power.”
“If he’s not bullshitting and his flight speed really is that insane, then there’s only one conclusion.
This kid can fucking punch the observable universe into scrap.”
Tony would still show up if it ever came down to it.
That didn’t stop him from pointing out the kid clearly didn’t need the help.
Steve rolled his eyes.
He understood science just fine, thank you.
Tony let out a long breath, dropped back into his chair, and stared at Wayne for a second before asking,
“Wayne… are you from outer space too?”
The thought of the comic-book Superman coming from Krypton was stuck in his head.
Everything he’d dug up said Wayne was human, but after seeing this level of power Tony wasn’t so sure anymore.
How the hell did Earth produce a monster like this?
And if an entire race like that actually existed out there…
Tony laughed at himself.
If every alien hit this hard, what was even the point of trying?
“Probably not.
There’s no one else like me out there.”
Wayne gave a small shake of his head.
There was a good chance he wasn’t purely Earth-born anymore, but he’d already searched this universe and others.
No clan.
No matches.
Tony nodded, looking a little relieved.
Then something else seemed to occur to him.
“Wayne, you want to join the Avengers?
We’re pretty short-handed right now.”
“Hey!
I didn’t just hallucinate that.”
Reed fixed Tony with a flat “you little shit are trying to poach my guy” stare.
Tony realized the Invisible Woman and the Human Torch were sitting right there.
Odds of Wayne jumping ship weren’t great.
He’d been a little inconsiderate.
Didn’t mean he was giving up on the poaching attempt.
For now Tony switched topics fast.
“Alright.
Current plan: we go negotiate first.
If that falls apart we call for backup and let our pure, strong farm boy one-punch Galactus into next week.”
Wayne was already too tired to correct the Kent thing again.
Nobody else objected.
The plan to save Earth was locked in.
Once everyone was ready they would board the warp-drive ship and go meet Galactus.
…
Two days later,
The Fantastic Four and the Avengers got a full global send-off as they prepared to leave for space.
Everyone on the planet knew exactly what they were heading out to do, and everyone was counting on them to save the world one more time.
Meanwhile, back at Empire State University.
Peter glanced at the live feed of the ship lifting off on his phone, then looked at Wayne, confused.
“Is it really okay that you’re not going?”
If he could have, he would have secretly webbed onto the ship and tagged along.
No chance of that, though.
The same question was sitting on every classmate’s mind, but most of them weren’t close enough to Wayne to ask out loud.
“I can be there whenever I need to.”
Wayne gave a small shake of his head.
Then he froze.
Someone had just grabbed his hand.
He turned.
Gwen.
She met his eyes, completely serious.
“I can help you.”
“I know.
And I will need your help.
Just not right now.”
Wayne didn’t want to brush her off, but throwing a brand-new Ghost-Spider at Galactus was a terrible idea.
Gwen’s face fell.
Harry still had no idea she was Ghost-Spider.
He assumed she was a regular person like him.
“Wayne, even if we don’t have powers we can still help.
Background support, looking up info, hacking traffic lights, that kind of thing.”
“Hacking traffic lights for me… in outer space?”
“…I can try.”
“I can fly, Harry.
I don’t need traffic lights.”
Harry’s eager expression died on the spot.
This was nothing like the movies.
He shook his head hard.
“Doesn’t matter.
You don’t have to carry everything alone.
There’s always something we can do.”
“Still have to carry it first, though.”
Wayne tilted his chin up, doing his best to look down at Harry.
“When the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up.”
“You’re only two centimeters taller than me.
Look at you showing off.”
“Correction.
It’s 2.6 centimeters.
That’s almost three.
Close enough to five.
Round it up and it’s ten.
Basically I’m half a head taller than you.”
“Hey!
Who the hell measures like that?!”
Harry immediately started arguing.
Gwen watched the two of them with a small smile.
She knew Wayne was doing it on purpose to lighten the mood so they wouldn’t worry.
Still, she couldn’t completely hide the concern in her eyes.
Wayne made it sound simple.
Would Galactus really be that easy?
“Guys, what’d I miss?
You talking about something good?”
Peter walked over.
The ship had already engaged the warp drive.
No more live feed.
Earth had lost contact.
No matter how much he wanted to know what was happening out there, there was nothing left to do but wait.