The command center was instantly in an uproar, with everyone hurling curses because just from the footage captured, they could roughly reconstruct the original event.
The octopus named "Tolos," during the just-concluded war, illegally captured and imprisoned many of his kin and took them aboard the Star ship of the Interstellar Security Committee. Some high-ranking officials who indulged in such hobbies came as invited, and a lively, colorful banquet was held on the starship.
Perhaps to heighten the excitement, perhaps to fully enjoy, they even brought some kind of hallucinogenic potion and ended up getting thoroughly drunk. Then, it was unclear which fool ended up drunkenly piloting the starship and fired the main cannon at the surface, directly disintegrating the planet.
Moreover, Eddie subsequently gathered even more conclusive evidence: he found the aroma used to release the hallucinogen and extracted the substances from it. Although he didn't analyze it, most aliens could recognize that this substance was a potent hallucinogen effective on most carbon-based life forms in the universe, somewhat similar to drugs in the cosmos. Judging by the amount burned, it was enough to knock out some large carbon-based life forms—which aligned perfectly with the state those high-ranking officials were in.
However, there are still significant doubts about this matter. For example, the shot was incredibly precise, hitting the mine where Spider-Man and the reinforcements were located. Never mind that the core of the high-energy impact is dozens of kilometers wide, affecting an area of potentially hundreds of kilometers, but the planet itself is not small, so how did it hit just that spot? How could these people, knocked out, still manage a precision strike?
Everyone felt something was off, yet couldn't find any evidence. Stark pressed his earpiece and asked Jarvis, "Have you checked the internal system of that starship? Are there any signs of intrusion?"
"So far, nothing has been found," Jarvis said, "but we can't completely rule out that possibility, after all, there's Batman on the other side."
Stark frowned, clearly deep in thought.
In fact, based on the current available evidence, Thanos is the most suspicious. First, the starship that fired the shot was equipped by the Interstellar Security Committee; second, the planet was specifically locked down before the shot; and finally, the most important point—the Dark Quadrant has recently made a comeback, his alliance with the human race is precariously hanging, and there's been no lack of minor moves lately.
He completely has the motive and the capability to take this opportunity to strike at humanity, then shift the blame onto Batman.
Because whether it was he who manipulated the starship or Batman remotely invaded it, no one can say for sure. Both scenarios are possible. However, since they are at war with Batman, of course, they would suspect Batman first, and Thanos could instead play the victim, escaping human retaliation.
Although using the Interstellar Security Committee's standard equipment is quite risky, aren't there still those high officials to take the fall? When the time comes, they can pin all the blame on them, claiming they colluded with Tolos for personal gain, and Thanos can naturally retreat unscathed. This move, although risky, has a high chance of success.
Yet, to say Batman has no suspicion whatsoever is, of course, impossible. After all, they were fighting on the planet at the time, and the reinforcements were blocked by Mutants. To escape smoothly and take the Infinity Gem back to Apocalypse Star, they might well do such a thing.
Anyway, Batman never considered aliens as people, let alone aliens from a different universe than his own. Besides, how many good aliens shop at the black market? Naturally, they have even less hesitation when it comes to taking action.
But the issue they are facing now is: whether it's Thanos or Batman, they have no decisive evidence. They can't find any invasion records or evidence of action. Although they don't need evidence to start directly hitting back, if they make a mistake and hit the wrong party, the other side would wake up from a dream laughing.
If they wrong Batman, then Thanos can watch them engage in mutual strife; if they wrong Thanos, Batman would also profit without lifting a finger. It's really a difficult choice.
While everyone was continuously analyzing, they received a message—Thanos had left the Star Area and returned to his Dark Quadrant.
"Then there's no mistake, it's definitely this guy!" everyone gritted their teeth, "If you're not guilty, why did you run?!"
The Batmobile broke the silence of universe space and landed steadily on a desolate dwarf planet. Shiller walked over to open the door, sat inside then said, "Let's go, back to Apocalypse Star first."
"Are you sure they will go after Thanos? Logically, our suspicion isn't small either." Arkham Batman said while starting the car.
"Yes, at first, our suspicion might have been greater. But once Thanos chose to return to the Dark Quadrant to dodge the spotlight, he cemented his own suspicion. We, however, can leave unscathed."
"Do you think he'll definitely leave?"
"Of course. Because he fundamentally misunderstands this war," Shiller smiled, reminiscing about his conversation with Thanos.
Knock, knock, knock. The office door was knocked. A person in an Interstellar Security Committee uniform opened the door, and Shiller walked in behind him. Upon seeing the purple-skinned giant sitting behind the desk, he nodded slightly and said, "Hello, Lord Thanos."
Seeing Shiller's face, Thanos was startled but quickly realized this might be Shiller's counterpart from another universe. So he stepped forward, shook Shiller's hand, and said, "What brings you here?"
"Not to hide from you, sir, I have some tasks to do, but I need a reasonable and convenient identity. I heard the Interstellar Security Committee was quite decent, so I wanted to check it out."
"...You want to join the Interstellar Security Committee?"
"I could join unofficially. I've had extensive experience working as an agent, you know."
"We're not exactly lacking manpower lately."
"But I think you might be lacking some specific war-related intelligence, right?"
Thanos squinted his eyes and said, "Which war?"
"I don't have much time for beating around the bush, Your Excellency. You must be eager to know what that giant planet is about, why so many human superheroes suddenly appeared in the universe, and why they're fighting each other. I can tell you all this, I just need an agent's identity."
Thanos pondered for a moment and said, "I can investigate these things myself. After all, I have so many agents under me, what can't I find out?"
"Regarding the matters between the multiverse, you certainly won't find out anything. They won't let you know, especially after you take back the Dark Quadrant. Even Batman, who is temporarily working with you, will never reveal this part of the information to you. You should be very clear about that, right?"
Thanos looked at him and said, "Then why would you reveal it to me?"
"Because what I have to do now is more important than the information of the multiverse. So I will naturally use it to exchange with you. Just this once, the offer expires soon."
Thanos took a sip of water, adjusted his glasses, and then said, "I can give you the status of a formal employee, and equip you with gear that formal employees can have. But you must promise me, not to do anything illegal, and don't make things too difficult for me."
"For example?"
"Like genocide and carnage."
"No problem," Shiller agreed readily.
"Alright then, tell me, what exactly are the humans up to?"
"This matter has to start with an electronic life form in our Prime Universe losing control..." Shiller recounted the sequence of events from Ultron losing control and invading the neighboring world.
"So you mean, now it's another world seeking revenge on us, and Batman is here for revenge?"
"Sort of. After all, Ultron caused quite a stir over there, and the Prime Universe's Avengers refused to admit their mistake, even proposing to start a fight. Batman is not one to swallow his anger."
"Then why don't they go to the Prime Universe, why come here?"
"It's closer for them," Shiller paused and said, "You have to know, such cross-universe warfare comes at a cost. If everyone could travel freely across the multiverse, even crossing worlds, it would have been chaos long ago."
Shiller deliberately spoke vaguely, leaving room for Thanos to fill in the blanks. And Thanos could see that Shiller wasn't lying, so he was successfully misled by Shiller.
All of what Shiller said were true causes, but in reality, they were just surface reasons. He did not reveal the matter of the leaders on both sides wanting to use this to train troops, nor did he disclose the most crucial "Battleworld" revival system.
Thanos was unable to enter Battleworld. Even if he knew of Battleworld's existence, he only knew of its existence and not its nature, let alone who created it or what it could achieve.
So he couldn't imagine that a brutal war, to the founder of Battleworld, was nothing more than adjusting some data; moreover, he could not comprehend that people who truly died in the universe could be perfectly revived in Battleworld, as if they had never died, and without any cost.
This incorrect understanding led him to make the wrong choice.
When he learned that something went wrong with the Market Star, he knew he was hard to blame. Fortunately, those high-ranking officials took the blame later, so he wasn't dismissed, but he would definitely take a hit.
However, when he found out that dozens of humans also died on the planet, he knew he might have been used by Batman. But more important than finding evidence to prove his innocence was to quickly save his own life.
Thanos knew all too well how mad and powerful humans could be. In Thanos's view, having killed so many humans, the human retaliation would surely come quickly, possibly in the next minute, or the next second, and there was no way he could take on these people.
Due to Shiller's misleading, Thanos didn't know this was a training exercise, nor did he know that humans could be revived. He seriously overestimated the situation based on the true death of those dozens of people, which resulted in Thanos being scared.
The Three Great Empires didn't do anything to Earth, and Earth managed to play a game of billiards and bury all their main forces. His ship had actually killed dozens of superheroes, so if he didn't run quickly, would he have his life?
Moreover, Thanos did indeed have a guilty conscience. He had been up to many small schemes recently, as he knew that after the return of the Dark Quadrant, his greatest enemy would be the human race, so he was also plotting how to deal with them, and he knew humans might have noticed something.
At this moment, when such an incident occurred, no one would believe it wasn't him. The human race suffered such heavy losses, even at the risk of completely falling out with the Intergalactic Alliance, they would surely take his life. So staying in his office at the Star Area was not safe at all, he had to return to his hometown.
Thus, Thanos fled. But by fleeing, he effectively confirmed his own guilt.
Although the command center suspected that it was Batman and Thanos colluding, with Batman instructing Thanos to fire in order to save the trapped Arkham Batman and Shiller's group, the betrayal of allies from the same universe was indeed more difficult to accept.
Less than an hour after Thanos fled back to the Dark Quadrant, Mutants surrounded the Dark Quadrant.