What is it like to study at Midtown High School?

At four o'clock in the morning, the night in New York is the same cloudy black color as ever. Under the night, the classically shaped Strange House looks like the Usher Mansion in a weird story that can collapse anytime and anywhere, which is indescribably eerie and paradoxical.

The young tutor, Miss Maria, did not sleep peacefully in this mansion. New York has been quite uneasy these past few days. Although it is not clear what happened, the expressions of the people in the streets and alleys have been tainted with panic. Mary Ya couldn't help feeling flustered, so she had a strange dream all night.In the dream, there were overgrown insects and ants, howling ravens, and silent tombs. Maria escaped all kinds of horrible images alone, and finally found a closed door, but when she knocked on the door anxiously and called for help At that time, there was a knock on the other side of the door...

Maria woke up in shock, and the frightening knock on the door still echoed in her highly tense brain. After a while, she realized that the knock on the door not only appeared in a dream, but also existed in reality.

Before Mr. Strange and Miss Strange left home, they had instructed that ordinary people would not come to visit them. However, a visit at four o'clock in the morning should not be considered ordinary people, right?Miss Maria put on a coat over her pajamas and walked across the corridor to open the door.

To her surprise, the visitors at the door were actually two young teenagers, a boy with strangely dyed silver hair was half dragging a white-haired boy—the boy was terribly thin and pale, and seemed to have passed out.

Maria calmed down a little, stopped at the door and asked, "Who are you? Who are you looking for?"

The silver-haired boy responded quickly: "My name is Pietro, he is Alan Parker, do you know him? Alan Parker! Look!"

The boy held a golden key in his hand. Maria gave a soft "ah" and looked around vigilantly. Seeing that no one was watching, she sideways let the two boys into the room.

Pietro quickly put Alan on the sofa in the living room, and covered him with a blanket. Maria touched Alan's forehead: "He's as cold as ice."

Pietro had lit the fireplace and asked at the same time, "Ma'am, could you please bring me some hot drinks?"

Maria nodded repeatedly, then trotted to the kitchen.

Pietro, who was finally able to sit down and rest for a while, sat next to Allen, his messy silver hair hanging down on his sweaty forehead.

He didn't know what happened. After Alan came back from Professor X's office last night, he was so weak that he seemed drained of energy. What was even more frightening was that the first thing Alan said after seeing him was: "Let's go!" , to New York."

It's not that Pietro doesn't want to go to New York to save his sister Wanda, but how could Ellen take him with him like this.

However, Alan insisted abnormally. He couldn't even stand firmly. He held his shoulders and said with a smile: "Quick Silver, I will save your sister, and I will save many people, but now you have to save me first. "

"I also think you can save it—what do you want me to do?"

"Go to New York." Allen just said so, and then gave him an address.

In this way, Pietro rushed from Westchester County to New York with the seemingly dying Allen. Allen passed out halfway without explaining anything.

What an irresponsible person.Pietro looked at Allen's pale and restless sleeping face and thought.

Miss Maria quickly brought two cups of hot cocoa and some cookies. Pietro expressed his thanks and gave Alan a gentle push.

"Yeah, Mr. Parker isn't in very good condition. Do you want to let him take a rest?" No matter how Maria looked at it, she felt that Alan was a critically ill patient.

Pietro smiled helplessly. It wasn't that he wanted to be a villain, but Allen should have his own reasons for being able to urge him to come so anxiously.

Sure enough, the first thing Allen said after waking up was: "Pete... what time is it?"

"Four twenty-five in the morning."

Allen exhaled softly, and murmured, "That's still too late..."

Maria couldn't bear to interject, "Mr. Parker, would you like a cup of hot cocoa?"

"Well...thank you..." Allen sat up on the sofa, took the hot cocoa in Maria's hand, took a sip, and looked at her as if awakened, "Where is the doctor's study?"

Maria was stunned for a moment, then hesitated and said, "Master's study... no outsiders can enter."

Allen looked at Pietro: "Give me the key." After receiving the key, he turned to Maria and said, "I can go in alone, can I?"

"This... alright." Maria looked a bit embarrassed, but before she left, the lady said that the person who holds this key can do anything in this mansion, "I'll take Mr. Parker there."

Allen once went to Doctor Strange's study room once, with a bath towel wrapped around his waist, and then walked along the strange Escher-style stairs to his study room. There was a huge clock in that study room instead of the one in front of him. This room is the same, covered with classical oil paintings.

Maria had already left under his signal. Alan stood in the center of the study, looked at the key in his hand, thought for a while, and then let go, the golden key fell from his hand and fell silently on the carpet .

Like a torn page, Allen watched as a crack opened on the ground and quickly spread to the wall. The entire study room seemed to be torn in half by an invisible force, and simultaneously tilted outwards. At the same time—from the cracked abyss Inside, another study room is being flipped out, and the bookshelves, clocks, sofas, coffee tables and even curtains are all spit out by another study room.

After a while, Allen stood on the other side of the folding study, facing the clock of Ouroboros.

When Allen saw this clock for the first time, he didn't have any impression of it. The second time he saw it, it was Doctor Strange who wanted to extract the secrets about time from him, but he really didn't know anything about time. .

This is the third time that Alan has touched the wonderful patterns on the clock seriously. These are not patterns, but words. He still can't understand them, but he can read them in a weird accent, which sounds like they came from afar. The language of the kingdom.

As Allen recited subconsciously, the still hands began to move faster and faster, as if to make up for the stagnant time. Allen stroked the last word with trembling hands, and read the last word one syllable.

The second hand, minute hand, and hour hand overlapped, and the huge clock vibrated like a sigh, and then asked heavy words.

——Who are you!

——Inhuman, prisoner of time.

Alan couldn't hold on to this almost disposable body anymore, closed his eyes slumpedly, and knelt down in front of the clock face.

What he couldn't see was that the silvery white light was flowing out from the twelve Roman numerals, and those rays of light diverged into thinner and thinner rays of light on his own path, and finally scrambled to wrap around the kneeling man. On the boy's body, it was like a boy being wrapped around by long hair.

Pietro, who was waiting with Maria in the living room, felt that the silence in the study was disturbing. He had asked Maria no less than ten times: "Why hasn't Alan come out yet?"

The drowsy Maria still had only one answer: "Wait a little longer."

"Let me go and see!"

"No, I can't open the door of the master's study either."

"Then I'll smash it." Pietro crushed a cookie angrily.

"Pietro...Your temper is still so anxious." Allen walked out leaning on the wall, just in time to hear this sentence.

"Alan!" Pietro stood up immediately, then froze for a moment, "Alan...you look..."

Maria also covered her mouth in surprise: "Mr. Parker, have you recovered from your illness?"

Allen couldn't see his own appearance, he could only feel the power belonging to Ouroboros rushing around in his body, almost shattering his body, but in Pietro's eyes, the original pale and weak Allen has become more... healthier.Look at his face, isn't it much better?And those bright scary eyes.

However, Allen's steps were vain and floating, and Pietro couldn't help but wanted to help him, but Allen avoided him: "No, it's not Pietro now, it's not yet time."

Pietro asked in confusion, "When?"

Allen glanced at Pietro blankly, as if looking at another person through Pietro: "What time is it?"

Maria replied cautiously: "It's exactly seven o'clock." Seeing that the two were looking at her at the same time, she hurriedly added, "Morning!"

Allen raised his hand stiffly, some thin white threads were winding around his fingers, a large number of memories that did not belong to him had been forcibly stuffed into his brain in the past two hours, he thought for a long time before Remember who he is, where he is, and who the two people in front of him are.

What made Allen even more painful was that he was finally able to understand Uroboros' perspective. He looked at Pietro looking at him with concern, the kind tutor was also worried, and Doctor Strange was walking through the corridor , Meera sat inside the body of the tutor, flipping through a book in an unknown language.

All kinds of overlapping pictures and sounds hit Allen's five senses, and he closed his eyes in pain.

"Alan, do you want to take a break first?" Pietro couldn't help persuading Alan when he saw his strange expression.

"No..." Allen shook his head violently with a splitting headache, "No, Pietro, time is running out, we have to set off now."

Allen's serious and indifferent expression surprised Pietro, and at the same time vaguely realized that something he didn't know was happening: "Where are you going?"

Allen looked at Pietro for a while, and then said an address.

At the same time, in the North Pole, in Doctor Strange's shelter, Dr. Strange, who was surrounded by magical light, suddenly opened his eyes.

That man, he's back.

I don't know what kind of ending he can bring.

Meera fell asleep behind him, and the young prophet was experiencing experiences beyond reality in the illusion, but there were no traces of disappointment and despair on the girl's face.

Doctor Strange smiled barely noticeable.

I don't know what kind of ending that person will bring in this war without right or wrong, so that fewer people will bleed and more hope will survive.

The author has something to say:

I saw some friends saying that the Pharaoh-style approach might make people let go of their prejudice against superheroes, but Mouyu thought about it, if the people have to accept heroes with successive crises, will it turn into a riot?Because only we can guarantee your safety, you must accept me, or you can only choose to perish.

This loses the original meaning of a superhero, which is why Luo Shan would rather die than accept a false utopia.

At the same time I thought about that Batman story.

Batman and Superman returned to the crime alley of the year, couldn't help but rescued their parents, and then disappeared. Because of the rewriting of this incident, Batman disappeared, and when he grew up, he was just an ordinary rich man.

But his world's number one partner, Superman, had to look for him, but when he saw this Bruce who didn't become Batman, he thought like this:

"When Bruce Wayne came out of the manor pool, I saw something in his eyes."

"Something I don't think I've ever seen in his eyes."

"Bruce is happy."

Bruce is very happy, which is enough to make many fans cry!

But Superman can only turn Bruce back into Batman, he must let Bruce return to the original timeline, because he has no choice, Gotham has no choice, Gotham without Batman, will fall without a bottom line, and Gotham with the Dark Knight may still be "plain and simple", but there is a little hope that can emerge from despair.

It's not pointless.

Gotham is a little better with Batman after all.

A world with superheroes is always a little more interesting.

Allen will not choose the way of the Pharaoh to save the world, he will not choose any ending without superheroes - because he understands the cruelty and aggressiveness of human nature, so he will not sacrifice "freedom, truth, equality" for another utopia.

Gordian Knot: The Gordian Knot is a knot that has no end, so it cannot be untied in the usual way.In 333 BC, after Alexander the Great came to Phrygia and saw the knot, he took out his sword and split it in half, solving the problem.Since then, the term has generally been used as a metaphor for solving unsolvable problems using unconventional methods.

The pharaoh's approach is to cut the knot directly and find a shortcut to solve the problem.

But Dr. Manhattan also said: This will never end.

The cruelty and combativeness of man will not end, and sooner or later the darkness will return, and the last man who came out of the traditional heroic age is dead.