PFC Chapter 3958 MU Superbody Major Event (38)
Chapter 3958 MU Superbody Major Event (38)
Chapter 3958 MU: The Superbody Incident (Thirty-Eight)
The other two were drawn to his laughter. Bruce coughed twice and said, "I think I know why Baron Zemo was so flustered."
"You wouldn't be thinking of saying..."
"He probably thought Ant-Man was in this jar."
The Punisher walked over and took the jar from his hand, but it was just an ordinary, empty jar. The material was determined to be pure glass.
"Baron Zemo's men were ordered by him to capture Ant-Man, but they obviously failed. However, not wanting to be reprimanded by their superior, they lied and said they had captured him."
"This should have been a very clumsy lie, but Ant-Man is different from all other superheroes. His most unique feature is that he can change his size at will, even to the point of being invisible to the naked eye. So anyone can bring an empty can and say that Ant-Man is inside. As for why the other party doesn't show up, it's obviously because they don't want to cooperate."
"This is a lie that no one can expose, because Pym Particles are Ant-Man's patent, and no one in the world can replicate them, or even figure out how to do them. So unless Ant-Man appears somewhere else, no one can prove that he is not inside."
The Punisher was speechless. He said, "Zemo just believed that? Doesn't he know that an ordinary jar can't contain Ant-Man?"
“Not everyone has been to school,” Bruce said. “You can’t expect someone who hasn’t had much schooling to understand what molecules are. He might prefer to explain Ant-Man’s transformation using theories like magic.”
“This is getting interesting,” the Punisher said. “Iron Man has tracked him down, and a simple ‘no evidence’ won’t suffice, especially with the even more unreasonable Doctor Strange on the side…”
Just then, Schiller abruptly turned to look out the window. As if sensing something, he said in a low voice, "We need to leave here."
They hurried out of the private room. Bruce quickly restored the control panel to its original state, then crossed the office to the lounge across the street, pretending to know nothing, and sat down to drink coffee.
Not long after, a somewhat familiar voice came from the office next door: "You better not try anything funny with me. Your little tricks are nothing compared to mine. Dr. Pym's safety is a matter of cosmic security. Give him to me right now."
Schiller took a sip of his coffee. The voice was familiar, but the tone was completely different. The Iron Man's tone in the main universe was colder and sounded more mature.
Baron Zemo, with a hand cannon pointed at him, was shoved into his office, step by step. Clearly, the negotiations had failed.
However, this was to be expected. After all, Baron Zemo didn't realize the magnitude of the matter. He was unaware that Dr. Pym was connected to the Avengers' next plan to fight Batman, and thought he was just an insignificant scientist in the Avengers, assuming that Iron Man wouldn't force his way in without evidence.
But the reality was completely opposite to his expectations. This was a matter of utmost importance, potentially jeopardizing the entire universe. Iron Man and Doctor Strange, as staunch resisters, faced immense pressure; they were practically on the verge of snapping. Even if the Illuminati weren't exactly known for their high moral standards, they certainly wouldn't care about that now.
Simply put, the immense pressure of confronting Batman and the entire neighboring universe has driven Iron Man and Doctor Strange to their wits' end. They don't care about the police or evidence; if you don't cooperate, you're dead.
The Punisher sat in the lounge, coldly observing everything. After a long while, he snorted softly, "Sure enough, you only know the pain when the knife cuts you. No one can live a life of high-sounding honor."
He was clearly thinking about the past accusations the Avengers had leveled against him for his violent behavior. However, despite saying this, he didn't go outside. After all, it was obvious to everyone that Iron Man was on the verge of going insane, and anyone who went out would likely get blown up.
Baron Zemo was forced to press the button on the air conditioning control panel with trembling hands—he pressed it two or three times, but nothing happened. Schiller turned to look at Bruce and found a gloating glint in Bruce's eyes.
“It’s not my fault,” Bruce said, spreading his hands. “The stuff he made himself was of such poor quality that it broke after he took it apart just once.”
Sensing the growing killing intent behind him, Baron Zemo said in a trembling voice, "What's going on? Why can't I open it? Damn it..."
"I told you, don't try to play tricks on me." The voice of the main universe's Iron Man had sunk to the bottom.
“I didn’t!” Baron Zemo shouted. “This thing must be broken! I should have called the repairmen sooner!”
Fortunately, he wasn't completely stupid. He pointed to the wall where the secret room was located and said, "This is the secret room. The wall isn't very thick; you should be able to blow it up."
The main universe's Iron Man narrowed his eyes, seemingly trying to determine if it was a lie. But perhaps he was also driven to desperation, he simply stretched out his hand, and two missiles spiraled out, exploding through the wall with a loud bang.
Before the smoke and dust had even cleared, he was already on the floor of the secret chamber. Baron Zemo rushed in, grabbed the empty can that had been put back on the table, and said to the main universe's Iron Man, "He's in there! I swear I didn't do anything to him, he completely ignored me!"
With a click, the mech's visor opened. The main universe's Iron Man stared at him with an incredibly cold gaze and said, "You were right, you were just messing with me."
Having said that, he raised his hand. Baron Zemo's eyes widened in disbelief as he roared at him, "You damned madman! Are you going to blow me and Ant-Man up together?!"
“My scanner shows it was an empty can. There’s no trace of Pym particles in this room either. Where did you hide it?!”
Baron Zemo stared wide-eyed at the jar in his hand. He exclaimed, "Impossible! Don't you know Ant-Man can shrink and grow?! He's just become so small that we can't see him, like dust in the air!"
With a deafening boom, Baron Zemo was blasted away. He landed on the ground, spitting out blood, and the empty can shattered, but nothing happened. Ant-Man didn't appear, and Iron Man turned and walked away.
Back in his office, the main universe's Iron Man turned to look at the door to the lounge. At that moment, Schiller had already come out.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Iron Man."
The main universe's Iron Man was taken aback for a moment, but quickly clenched his fist. He clearly realized something.
"You must be very disappointed that the otherworldly traveler who appeared here is me. You've heard of me and know that you probably can't control me. If it were someone else, you might be able to lock them up and prevent them from spreading rumors back in their own universe."
Schiller's words revealed the true thoughts of the main universe's Iron Man. He said, "However, even if you could restrain me, it wouldn't matter. The news of the multiverse has probably spread far and wide already."
“How is that possible?” The main universe’s Iron Man clearly didn’t believe it. He took a step towards Schiller and said, “Even if they’ve seen Ultron, there are many Ultrons in the universe. How would they know that something is wrong in our universe?”
"The biggest mistake you made after Ultron escaped was not letting Spider-Man go to other universes to help," Schiller said frankly. "Almost all Spider-Men went to the dark universes in other worlds to help the people there, while the Spider-Men in the main universe disappeared. Do you think that makes sense?"
The main universe's Iron Man was taken aback. His lips moved, but he didn't say anything. Schiller continued, "I don't know what others think, but I find it very unreasonable. So I came."
“It’s not that I’m stopping him from leaving,” the main universe’s Iron Man said through gritted teeth, “Do you know what will happen to him if something goes wrong along the way?!”
"Are you worried Batman will lock him up?"
“Don’t tell me Batman won’t do that,” the main universe’s Iron Man stepped forward again, squinting at Schiller. “Even if he won’t, I will never give Spider-Man a chance to have a change of heart and side with them. I will not give him the chance to betray us.”
Schiller lowered his eyes and said, "So, is that all? Because of his disappearance in the multiverse, everyone suspects you. Are you going to blame him for that?"
“Of course not. Since it was my decision, I will take responsibility. He just needs to stand with us—I will handle everything.”
"Alright, so this is you, Iron Man. But I must warn you, I'm not the only one who's noticed something amiss. The fact that you've spotted me proves that there are probably alien travelers everywhere."
The main universe's Iron Man clenched his fist again. The muscles in his neck trembled, he kept swallowing, and his blinking was rapid. But the more he did this, the faster his most intelligent brain in the universe worked.
"Someone kidnapped Ant-Man. If it's not that damn Hydra, then who is it? Which universe are you from?"
“That’s not important. You only need to determine one thing now.” Schiller stepped forward, now very close to him. He looked into Stark’s eyes and said, “—Was it Batman who kidnapped Ant-Man?”
Iron Man in the main universe suddenly opened his eyes wide, his breathing visibly erratic. He was clearly well aware of the consequences of Ant-Man falling into Batman's hands—it would mean they would completely lose all initiative, and their plan to resist to the end would become a joke.
“Tell me, is it him?” asked the Iron Man from the main universe.
“I don’t know. This is all I can give you.” Schiller took out his phone and showed him a picture on it—a view of the apartment where Ant-Man lived.
"Since it's known that neither Doctor Strange nor Hydra did it, who do you think could have left such traces?"
The Iron Man of the main universe seemed to be seeing the scene for the first time. When he saw those marks, his pupils contracted sharply, a fleeting look of recollection crossed his face, and he pursed his lips as if he had thought of something.
“Whiplash,” he said, “these are the marks left by his energy whip. Damn it, these aren’t magical marks at all!”
Schiller was somewhat surprised to hear the name. He raised an eyebrow and said, "Why would this guy kidnap Dr. Pym? Do they have a grudge?"
"He has no grudge against Ant-Man, but he has a grudge against me." The Iron Man in the main universe answered absentmindedly, clearly searching for something inside his mech.
“That’s not right. It’s impossible for him to have precisely targeted your weaknesses and devised such an effective plan to strike you hard without knowing your plans.”
"What do you mean?" The main universe's Iron Man looked at him.
"As far as I know, he doesn't have a ticket to the Battle Realm, so he can't possibly know anything about the multiverse, and naturally he wouldn't know about the Ultron out-of-control incident, nor would he know anything about your plans. Even if he wanted to take revenge on you, he would more likely target Stark Industries than kidnap Dr. Pym and cause you a huge problem."
The main universe's Iron Man also calmed down. He took a deep breath and said, "Unless someone told him this, but that's impossible. Our plan is only known to the members of the Avengers, and they can't possibly cooperate with this guy."
"That's true. But are Avengers only members of the Avengers?"
The main universe's Iron Man was slightly taken aback. He knew, of course, that Schiller wasn't talking about a tongue twister; he vaguely understood what he meant.
"And I'm afraid even the members of the Avengers might not know all your plans. I'm afraid that recently, the people closest to you are not them—you know in your heart who they are."
The main universe's Iron Man remained silent for a long while, then uttered the name in a slightly trembling voice:
"...Jarvis."
"I'm here, sir."
When the familiar mechanical voice rang out, Iron Man from the main universe suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.