Apocalypse clasped his hands behind his back, quietly staring at the front gate of the Prime Minister's Office. With a wave of his hand, the gate seemed to be torn asunder by some force, flying sideways to reveal the dark hall within.
"Go, I will protect you."
Whenever Apocalypse activated his power, his eyes would roll back, and it was no different now. He coated Su Ming with a layer of purple light, resembling an elastic jacket, ostensibly some sort of defensive power, though surveillance couldn't be ruled out.
But none of that mattered. If no special situation arose, Su Ming had no reason to reveal his trump card. For any ordinary enemies encountered within the building, his dual pistols should suffice to resolve them.
Su Ming signaled for Cable and the others to improvise, glanced up at the sky that had become gloomy from various forms of pollution, and then donned his helmet and drew his weapon.
Strangulation covertly began to spread under the armor. Su Ming strode boldly towards the steps of the Prime Minister's Office.
With Apocalypse covering the rear, his back was secure for now. He was curious about what goodies Kang had prepared for him inside the building.
The hall was vast and empty, the polished marble floor lined with a red carpet that extended deeper, reminiscent of bloodstains left by a corpse dragged across the floor.
This administrative building wasn't large and didn't have many rooms—at most a few lounges, a place for secretaries to work, maybe a small banquet hall.
Based on Kang's habits, he should be in the highest place; he liked to look down on others.
Despite his true height being only 1.74 meters, he always found ways to seem taller by adding height within his armor or using magnifying devices to transform into a giant.
So, Su Ming passed through the hall, treading over the luxurious carpet towards the stairway to Kang's office, intending to kick him out the window for Apocalypse to deal with.
But upon mounting the stairs and reaching the corridor of the second floor, Su Ming discovered the setting had changed dramatically; the once solemn building now lay in ruins, flames and smoke everywhere, with two battalions engaged in fierce combat at the corridor's ends.
One battalion donned iron-gray uniforms wielding MP42-like weapons, while the other wore grass-green uniforms brandishing Bo Bo Sha guns.
They engaged in intense firefighting on both sides of the corridor, and Su Ming appeared right amidst the battlefield.
Instantly, ripples exploded all over him; the shield given by Apocalypse deflected all bullets.
Su Ming rolled sideways into a nearby room, littered only with collapsed desks and scattered documents.
"Damn it, completely oblivious—directly fell into a time stream trap." Su Ming furrowed his brows and took a deep breath; this was likely one of Kang's time streams, placed here via some method.
Su Ming had never seen such a trap before, and he stepped right in without surprise.
What a troublesome tactic; if the Conqueror kept tossing him about in the time stream, he might never make it out.
Gunfire persistently rang out beyond the door, but Su Ming knew this was Kang's designated time, hastily cast out to trap others.
Kang possessed many such time streams, including those where he impersonated aliens in the cosmos, timelines in which Earth held no significance and sparked no change.
Kang's time realms could be seen as unstable parallel worlds...
Thus, if he exerted a significant enough influence or entirely altered its course, the world should undoubtedly succumb to historical inertia, butterfly effect collision, or exceed its self-propelling capacity, thereby producing fractures.
With this strategy in mind, he could carve out an escape.
On this historical day, Germany fell, but Su Ming intended to preserve it, altering history.
Such a significant change should generate powerful impacts, though the shattering of the time stream might be perilous. Luckily, with X Metal and Apocalypse's shield, he dared to try.
With a plan in place, Su Ming dashed out of the room, directly wielding the Great Sword, charging at the Fur Bears.
As for who was righteous or evil in warfare, it held no importance; Deathstroke had his mission to fulfill.
Any obstruction was enemy.
In those terms, there were at least two million enemies in the city; this was unlikely to be easy...
............
Su Ming's expectations were perhaps too optimistic; the robustness of this time segment was extraordinary, demanding substantial time.
Fortunately, this was a world abandoned by Kang, bearing no other Kang; it's a discarded toy, used now to trap opponents.
Even then, it was a formidable war, diametrically opposed to Su Ming's world, with German forces heavily disadvantaged here.
Su Ming executed numerous actions, appearing on various battlefields, meticulously plotting, finally reversing the tide, preserving Germany.
History altered; the time realm couldn't handle such turmoil, eventually shattering.
He discovered himself floating in a dark universe, countless bubbles drifting afar.
"Back to the Multiverse selection screen again..." Su Ming sighed, having spent so long in the damned temporal singularity made everything seem worlds away.
The scene resembled when he first arrived in the Marvel Universe.
Apocalypse's shield still enveloped him, enabling survival and breath in cosmic space. Among the dense bubbles, he identified his world, magically hastened back by the Magic Floating Cloak.
Once more, traversing the Endless Star Sea, the atmosphere, he landed back before the Berlin Prime Minister's Office.
"Uh... How did you return from the skies?" Cable glanced at the Prime Minister's Office before him, then up at the sky.
"Too long a story..." Su Ming removed his helmet, rubbing his face, feeling fatigued after months of major strategy gameplay.
At this moment, Apocalypse was querying the young X-Men girls, inquiring about the meaning of the X insignia.
Su Ming raised an eyebrow; Jean Grey and Cyclops, though they'd battled Apocalypse and Horror, their uniforms differed from ordinary X-Men.
Jean's uniform bore a Phoenix across the chest, while Laser Eye then still donned the outdated ugly blue and yellow X uniform of the old X-Men.
Compared to the current New X-Men's sleek black leather attire, the disparity was vast.
However, being nervous might lead the young girls to slip up. To hedge bets, Su Ming hooked Deadpool's neck.
"Wade, give our 'god' a crash course on brand and fashion concepts—you understand."
Deadpool, of course, understood, needing to prevent Apocalypse from associating too much with the X insignia, starting with his favorite Mexican tacos.
Witnessing Apocalypse ensnared by Deadpool's talkative charm, Su Ming nodded calmly.
"Cable, hand me a few Magnetic Field Detectors and EMP Grenades." Su Ming extended his hand to Cable, confident as a master craftsman to swiftly assemble them if not on hand.
Su Ming had already deciphered Conqueror Kang's tactics; the first trap worked due to complete unfamiliarity, but the second time wouldn't.
No matter how Kang placed a time stream as a trap on the Prime Minister's Office's second floor, it had to be technological means.
Maybe some future-sourced converter or an inconspicuous metal spheroid.
Yet as long as needing power to work, it would inevitably disrupt magnetic fields—an unavoidable result of machinery operation, incapable of shedding Earth's magnetic influence, Earth being a colossal magnetic field itself.
As for EMPs, Su Ming merely wanted to test whether electromagnetic interference could counteract should he discover the opponent's device. If efficient, confronting Conqueror Kang would exempt him from seeking Apocalypse cause.