PFC Chapter 3957 MU Superbody Major Event (37)
Chapter 3957 MU Superbody Major Event (37)
Chapter 3957 MU: The Superbody Incident (Thirty-Seven)
When that golden and red figure appeared on the horizon, the obviously still very young second-generation Baron Zemo was clearly gripped by extreme panic.
“Calm down, you brat,” Schiller snapped. Despite his youthful appearance, his words didn't seem out of place. Baron Zemo couldn't help but glance at him. Schiller said coldly, “Iron Man couldn't possibly have received a message from the FBI to investigate you. He and the police have always been at odds, and he couldn't possibly have any solid evidence. Since he can't prove you broke the law, he can't take vigilante justice. Now, go deal with him.”
Baron Zemo took a deep breath, as if just realizing something, and said, "Yes, he has no evidence. There are police everywhere on Long Island now; he couldn't possibly arrest me without cause in front of so many people..."
Baron Zemo grabbed the communicator and ran outside, seemingly having completely forgotten that Schiller was also a stranger who had intruded into the place. The staff member who had brought him in was also called away by him with a single phone call, leaving only Schiller and the other two behind.
"Do you know his father?" the Punisher asked.
“I don’t know him,” Schiller shook his head and said, “I only know he’s Hydra, so I’ll pretend to be Hydra, and that works, doesn’t it?”
"Aren't you afraid he'll find out your identity?"
"What do you think Hydra is? A professional and sophisticated intelligence organization?"
"Is not it?"
“When an organization develops to the stage of globalization, it will inevitably become fragmented and even hinder each other. Hydra is the opposite of the words 'professional' and 'precise.' So as long as I say I am, he has no evidence to say I am not; even if he doesn't know me, I can say that I have been lying low for a long time.”
The Punisher could only give him a thumbs up.
“But isn’t Iron Man’s arrival too coincidental?” Bruce said, arms crossed. “With Iron Man here, he won’t have time to deal with you. After all, you might not be an enemy, but Iron Man definitely is, which means he won’t have time to investigate you further.”
“That’s right, I’m the one who brought Iron Man here,” Schiller said. “This little Zemo is obviously inexperienced, but he’s not stupid. We have to put enough pressure on him so he won’t doubt us, or rather, he won’t be able to verify it.”
"You told Iron Man that Ant-Man is here?"
“They won’t believe me if I just tell them directly. I just had Spider-Man give them some clues. They’ll find out on their own and they’ll definitely come over as soon as possible. After all, they’re the victims who were framed, and at this critical juncture, they’re the ones who least want the Avengers to split up, so they’ll be even more eager to find Dr. Pym.”
“Okay, let’s walk around here and see if we can find any clues.” Bruce stepped out of the room.
Considering there might be surveillance cameras around, they didn't do anything drastic, just taking a quick look around like they were visiting a laboratory.
An ordinary person wouldn't notice anything, but Bruce was quite adept at this. After circling around, he shook his head and said, "Ant-Man isn't here. Either they didn't catch him, or they caught him and took him somewhere else."
Schiller frowned slightly, but the Punisher asked, "How did you know?"
"Judging from the traces in the room, Ant-Man must have put on his equipment and entered full combat mode. Under such circumstances, there would be so many traces left of attempts to capture him. It is impossible for him to remain in his normal human form and still cause such a commotion."
"Since he has already entered a combat state, there are only two possible outcomes: either he loses the fight and is captured, or he wins the fight and escapes. There was a broken window at the first crime scene, which also makes it possible for him to escape."
“I know, I mean how did you figure out Ant-Man wasn’t here just by observing the state of the place?” the Punisher asked again.
“Oh, you mean this? This isn’t deduction,” Bruce shook his head and said, “It’s common sense. Judging from all the experimental equipment in sight, they have no way of developing a revolutionary energy weapon. More importantly, there’s nothing that can limit the Pym Particles.”
"You mean..."
"As far as I know, Dr. Pym's magical particles can make him extremely small, even able to travel through molecules, or they can make him extremely large, comparable in size to an adult Tyrannosaurus Rex. Without a container or device to confine the Pym particles, Ant-Man could easily escape: either become extremely small and escape through the molecules in the glass, or become so large that he attracts attention and is then rescued by the Avengers. In short, a base of this level cannot contain him."
"You said they didn't develop a revolutionary weapon, then what about the marks in the room?"
“That can only mean that it’s an energy weapon that is not a known modern weapon, but it may not be newly invented, nor may it be in their hands.” Bruce paused for a moment before saying, “If you know anything about modern science, you should know that scientific research is never achieved overnight, and every advancement has its traces.”
"There are many difficulties in building energy weapons. To put it simply: the energy source for storing energy, the conductor for conducting energy, and the cannon for concentrating energy output—each link has a high level of technical difficulty. It's not just about design; it also depends on the development of basic materials science. Without breakthroughs in materials science, even if scientists rack their brains, they won't be able to create any decent energy weapons."
"I didn't see any equipment for testing conductors here, and the equipment for developing energy was very basic, looking like it was converted from an automobile production line. The assembly line was even more basic, and it didn't look like it could produce any new weapons."
"So, they didn't invent any new energy weapons at all? Does that mean all our previous conclusions about Ultron's ability to transform life forms are going to be overturned?"
Bruce shook his head again and said, "Weapon production belongs to the industrial field, but the transformation of life forms is not. It involves fields such as biology, chemistry, and microscopic structure. These things are not as intuitive as industrial production. Storing cells or molecules may only require a very small petri dish, which is not visible from the surface."
"So, converting life forms is even simpler than creating an energy weapon?"
"No, it's actually more difficult. But precisely because it's difficult, it can't be achieved with any equipment, so it's not so easy to tell. On the other hand, manufacturing weapons is simpler and closer to modern science, so it's easy to tell at a glance whether it's there or not."
The Punisher nodded and said, "It seems that reading more books has its benefits. I looked around and didn't see anything."
“It seems that Ultron’s transformation of life forms was really just a coincidence,” Schiller said. “This Norton Experimental Science project was a complete charade, producing no results whatsoever; it was just a scam to get funding.”
Bruce stood there for a moment, pondering, before saying, "To say there have been no results is perhaps not entirely true. Do you see that big machine in the innermost lab?"
"You mean that thing that looks like a CT scanner?"
“Yes, that thing has clearly been modified and has some technological sophistication.” Bruce paused, as if searching for the right words, and said, “To put it simply, that thing is a particle collider, except that the other side of the collision is a person.”
"What?" Schiller couldn't help but look at him.
"It's exactly what it sounds like. They were testing various elements against the human body to see which would react. In short, it was like playing the lottery. But they actually won. Simon's life form was transformed, and Ultron stole the results."
"I see." Schiller turned to look at the laboratory at the end of the corridor, which was also the largest laboratory. However, there was only one piece of equipment that seemed to have any technological content. From the outside, it was indeed unremarkable. I didn't expect it to have such a function.
"However, this is in line with Hydra's style. They are not a scientific research organization. They are good at espionage and stealing other people's research results. They are unlikely to develop any real technology from scratch. This kind of lottery-style approach is very suitable for them."
“However, even this machine might not be something they developed,” Bruce added. “All the equipment in the other labs is mass-produced, but this one is different. I suspect they might have stolen it from somewhere.”
“This is even more in line with Hydra’s habits,” Schiller said. “Moreover, in this field of particles, the most authoritative person is Dr. Pym, which may be one of their motives for kidnapping Dr. Pym.”
“You’ve really confused me,” the Punisher said. “Didn’t they say they failed to kidnap me?”
“Just having a motive doesn’t mean they actually went or succeeded,” Schiller said. “When I mentioned the kidnapping of Dr. Pym to Baron Zemo just now, he was clearly flustered, which means he wanted to do it and had even sent people. But now that he hasn’t developed an energy weapon, it proves that his people failed, and someone else kidnapped Dr. Pym.”
"If he didn't succeed, why would he be so guilty?"
“He probably doesn’t even know he failed,” Schiller said, shaking his head. “What we need to investigate now is: since the traces in the room weren’t left by him, and the people he sent might not have even caught Dr. Pym, why was he so panicked?”
As the three talked, they had already reached the second floor via the stairs. This wasn't a laboratory, but an office area, and at the very end was the largest office, which clearly belonged to Baron Zemo.
They went inside, Bruce walking straight to the wall with the bookshelves without even stopping. He knocked on it; the wall was solid, but this action made the Punisher realize that there might be a secret room behind it.
Bruce surveyed the wall, then turned to look at the chandelier behind him, and then at the central air conditioning unit next to it. He quickly walked to the control panel of the central air conditioning unit, and in a few swift movements, he removed the panel. Looking at the messy wiring inside, Bruce pressed a few buttons on the panel, and then a hidden door next to the bookshelf opened.
They went inside, and sure enough, it was a very spacious secret room. Bruce shook his head and sighed, "Secret rooms should be hidden underground. If it's upstairs, you can tell at a glance just by looking at the building structure. It's incredibly stupid."
Schiller went in as well. He looked around. Although it was a secret room, it looked like a large office, only more luxurious than the one outside. The furniture was all solid wood, and there was a dark red carpet on the floor. It looked like a place where villains should stay.
At that moment, Bruce's attention was drawn to an empty can on his desk. He picked it up, looked at it, paused for a moment, and then couldn't help but laugh out loud.