"Sounds interesting," Shiller said, "I thought it would simply be divided into the Justice League Department, the Avengers Alliance Department, and the Special Agent Organization Department."
"It can't be divided like that," Carter said, "The prototype of the Rebirth Alliance, the organization we called the 'New Earth Alliance', split like this. Two parties didn't agree, and even three or four parties disagreed, leading to a big brawl that nearly caused a disaster."
"Later, we found that simply squeezing together Superheroes and Special Agent Organizations from two Earths wasn't real fusion. It would eventually lead to a civil war, causing the whole organization to fall apart. To truly unify the opinions, we couldn't divide according to the original personnel structure."
Shiller nodded and said, "I just meant that given their personalities, they might want to divide it like that. But now it seems they've learned their lesson."
"A very profound lesson," Carter said with some helplessness, shaking his head, "Batman and Iron Man, Superheroes whose main bodies are human, all ended up in the first aid room. Superman nearly lost himself in the temporal chaos, Captain America had a mental breakdown, and the mutants almost blew up the moon..."
Shiller frowned, "That serious? What was the trigger?"
Carter shook his head and said, "If you're asking about a major disaster, there wasn't really one. It was just the explosion of accumulated day-to-day grievances. Everyone envisioned different futures for Forward York City and Earth, which ultimately led to the war."
"Luckily, everyone was rational enough to pull back in good time."
"Not entirely themselves pulling back, right?" Shiller seemed to know them well.
"Indeed," Carter said, "We have to thank Darkseid for attacking Earth at the right time. The Superheroes were like being splashed with a cold bucket of water and completely calmed down."
"Then they united and drove him away?"
"It's not that simple; it went back and forth for several months. In the end, even Asgard couldn't stand it and came up with a plan to expel Darkseid's armies from the Nine Major Kingdoms. Thor was furious and had to put some pressure on Midgard."
"Thor isn't Zeus," Shiller sighed, "Theoretically, he is the Lord of the Nine Major Kingdoms. Things turning out like this under his governance, of course, he's not happy."
"I think it's Darkseid that gave Thor a sense of crisis," Carter sighed lightly, "Apocalypse Star is indeed a big trouble, and it's said Darkseid has become a Multiverse Darkseid, which means he can make multiple preparations across the Multiverse, while the human superheroes most connected to the Multiverse are busy with infighting. If Thor doesn't intervene, the entire cosmos will be at Darkseid's command."
"What did the Three Great Empires say?"
"They're barely holding on," Carter lifted his head slightly as if looking toward the distant cosmos, "The momentum of Apocalypse Star is very strong. The Shi'ar Empire and the Kree Empire, which border it, have invested over 3 billion troops but are just barely holding the line. If it weren't for the Kree Empire's machinery being able to self-destruct and not being converted into Type Demons, the interstellar council would probably have to relocate."
Shiller understood that the sudden appearance of a strong cosmic enemy greatly contributed to the rapid transition from civil war to total fusion cooperation in the Fusion Universe. Besides Darkseid, the Little Blue People and the Lantern Corps were not to be trifled with. Moreover, the Three Great Empires themselves harbored ulterior motives for the cosmos. Fortunately, these people couldn't unite, or Earth would be doomed.
Initially, the exponentially growing crisis did not reveal itself, or the Superheroes did not feel it; they just felt there were more nuisances around. But when Darkseid's army bore down, they realized it wasn't just Superheroes multiplying—the super villains doubled too.
Actually, Zero Earth's intensity during the fusion was very low, and Darkseid originally wasn't that strong. But Darkseid merged into a Multiverse Darkseid, even stronger than Darkseid from the Prime Universe. This time Zero Earth truly ran into the final boss; were it not for the somewhat strong intensity of the Old 616 Universe, this wave could have taken Earth away.
"Let's continue talking about the Rebirth Alliance," Carter got very excited when this organization was mentioned and said enthusiastically, "After the alliance formed, they replanned Forward York City—during the fusion, whoever drew the blueprint was simply drawing chaos. Various functional buildings were repeated, but there was nowhere near enough residential space. Prices and economy layers inflated, and the financial bubble almost burst..."
At this point, Shiller felt a bit guilty. If he remembered correctly, it was Greed who made Lucifer draw the plans. This angel seemed not to understand how a human city should be constructed, just placing all the buildings as he wished.
However, letting Lucifer draw was indeed the only option, not because only he had the authority, but because he didn't understand. He didn't see why this city didn't need two cathedrals, two deep-water docks, or two city-center commercial streets. He merely wanted to fit in all the existing buildings, hence expanding Earth's area significantly.
Just as playing a city-building game without understanding could result in constant traffic jams, so opening a cheat to enlarge the map and convert all lanes to eight-lane roads could solve the problem. Greed handed the blueprint drawing to Lucifer with this exact intention. It didn't matter if he couldn't understand, as long as he could cheat.
So, the merged city inherited by people from the two Earths had chaotic urban planning. However, the land area was greatly expanded. Anything could be demolished and rebuilt, with the size of the area being the critical factor.
If Lucifer truly were a master planner, with all the buildings streamlined clearly, expanding the area just to meet the minimum population requirements, then it would have been a big loss. The current chaos of random drawing, however, has granted New Earth a greater space.
Thankfully, the Rebirth Alliance intervened promptly. With the merging of all superpower management organizations, the Federal Government is no match for us. The last two years have been spent on massive demolition and construction, but the final results are quite promising. In recent months, land reclamation projects have mostly been completed, making the city even broader and more orderly.
While speaking, they had already walked out of the arrival hall of the new airport. Immediately upon exiting, they were greeted by a warm sea breeze; it's currently summer in Forward York City, the heavens and the sea merging with clear and blue skies. The sea breeze carried a faint salty scent, standing on the wide square outside the reception hall, they could clearly see the skyline's varied heights in the distance, gleaming astonishingly under the sunlight.
Carter suddenly produced a pair of sunglasses from somewhere and handed them to Shiller, then remarked, "You're a Gothamite, right? You guys all need these. When the merger first happened, every sunglasses shop owner made a fortune."
Shiller chuckled, took the sunglasses, and put them on. But he wasn't quite used to wearing sunglasses, even though the ones Carter gave him didn't have any tinting effects, merely blocking the sunlight, he still felt uncomfortable, so he took them off again.
"Looks like I should prepare a parasol." As Carter spoke, a team had already approached, clearly members of her group.
The American group wasn't really a small subgroup, much like special operations squads aren't really just squads. A group could consist of dozens of offices, including management personnel, regular employees, and interns, totaling over a hundred people.
When Shiller stepped out of the plaza, the convoy was already in place. There were no people on the surrounding streets, which must have been cleared beforehand. Shiller and Carter got into the car.
"Because we don't know if Multiverse Visitors can acclimate immediately, we adhere to the highest level security and reception protocols," Carter explained, "The Security Department is overseen by Batman, but this time I brought in Natasha's special security affairs team, she may personally meet you later."
The car headed towards the city, Shiller looked at the streetscape outside through the car window. To his surprise, everywhere he saw the Neo-Classical architecture Carter had mentioned. This style was evidently the product of meticulous design, looking harmonious.
This style appears somewhat like "idealized Europe," meaning that old buildings don't appear aged, but always maintain a just-completed look while leaving room for modern equipment. Modern equipment evidently also made aesthetic compromises, street lamps, shop signs, and air conditioning external units all gravitated towards the ancient architecture, allowing for perfect integration.
At the same time, issues like narrow alleys, dark corners, and places accumulating filth typical of ancient cities were abandoned, expanding the streets to be wide, and constructing many underground parking lots, making cars mostly unseen above ground. With the addition of numerous green plants, the entire city transformed into a forest city, abundant with verdant greenery.
Shiller could see the effort put into designing this city. Or rather, with the support of the Rebirth Alliance, this idealized design plan was realized.
Not to mention, this level surely challenges Iron Man's technical skills. The entire street featured virtually no openly visible electrical equipment, no utility poles, no wires, no distribution stations, greatly enhancing the city's classical atmosphere. Shiller could almost picture Iron Man working hard laying out cables.
For many cities, poor urban construction quality doesn't stem from an inability to design, but from difficulty in implementation, because they can't conceptualize a city as a unified whole for planning, often ending up building wherever needed, resulting in incongruence upon completion.
But attempting to plan as a whole is impossible without massive manpower and resources. The two-party rule makes it even harder to carry out such extensive, long-term planning projects.
With external pressures in mind, the Rebirth Alliance evidently has disregarded any Shadow Government legitimacy, treating Forward York City entirely as their own territory for construction. The Federal Government couldn't resist them, thus resulting in such a city.
After quietly admiring for a while, Shiller suddenly saw a familiar figure. Spider Man's silhouette swung up and down between the buildings, but he was on the neighboring street, appearing faintly.
"Oh, damn it," Carter cursed, quickly picking up the radio to say, "What's going on? How could Spider Man show up next to the convoy?"
"One moment, boss, I'm inquiring with the security department… Sorry, Spider Man has an urgent task. The Joker has escaped again and started a brawl with Electro, pulling Kingpin into the mess..."
Carter slapped her forehead: "I knew it!"
"You go handle whatever you need to," Shiller suggested, "Just give me the hotel address, and I can head there myself. Or, should I follow along to check out the excitement?"
"Oh, this isn't exactly excitement..." Carter began saying but paused, "Though if it's you, then taking a look should be just fine."
Carter recalled her colleagues' thorough reminders before she came over. In short, don't provoke Shiller; just let him do whatever he wishes.