Ripples spread across the surface like those on a lake. It was still the warehouse in Raccoon City, and a spacious silver-gray aircraft passed through the ripples and entered this world.
On the other side of the Gate, Tony wore his Iron Man Armor and checked his sixth measuring device. It still hadn't detected any external conditions that caused the portal to appear. He couldn't help grumbling, "If God isn't playing a joke on me, I shouldn't fail this time."
After grumbling, he passed through the Cross-World Gate and arrived in the Resident Evil world.
The aircraft turned and landed in the open area outside the warehouse. The sports car that had been parked there was gone, and the bodies inside the warehouse had disappeared too. Umbrella's people had probably cleaned them up.
The sun shone brightly over New York in the Marvel Universe, and the weather was lovely.
But Raccoon City in the Resident Evil world was shrouded in dark clouds and billowing smoke.
Once they were outside the warehouse, they couldn't see a single ray of sunshine. The sky was gloomy, as if foretelling that something bad was about to happen.
As soon as Tony arrived in the Resident Evil world, he used his armor to start hacking into its networks.
With his computer skills, it didn't take long for him to adjust to the subtle differences between the networks of the two worlds and successfully connect to Raccoon City's local network.
That's right, Tony could only access the local network here. Communications between Raccoon City and the outside world had already been cut off. He had no satellites in this world, so he was limited to a single city.
"Duncan, it looks like Raccoon City's been cut off from the outside world." As he spoke, Tony began hacking into more electronic devices. He gained control of some ancient cameras and saw people running wild through the streets.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
As Steve and the others stepped out of the Quinjet, a helicopter happened to fly overhead.
Everyone looked up in unison and saw the unmistakable Umbrella logo on the black helicopter.
Duncan had stepped off the plane with the others. He watched the helicopter fly away, then turned to Tony, who was standing motionless, and asked, "Tony, have you connected to Umbrella Corporation's internal network?"
Tony didn't answer. The helmet of his armor projected a holographic screen beneath the gloomy sky. It showed footage from some of the cameras still operating on Raccoon City's streets.
The hologram caught everyone's attention. The footage showed crowds of people fleeing in the same direction, with a few slow-moving, stiff-limbed "people" among them.
"Th-this can't be zombies, can it?" Afraid the others couldn't see the footage clearly, Tony zoomed in on the scenes of the zombies feeding. It was hard to look at.
The sight of people eating other people was deeply disturbing. Anyone seeing it for the first time would have a hard time handling it.
Duncan's mouth fell open beneath his gas mask, and he blurted out, "That doesn't add up. The timing's all wrong!"
Isaac had said it would take about a year to get everything ready. How could the Raccoon City outbreak have started so soon?
Were they hiding in cryogenic pods beneath the Hive?
If the timing was off, could the location be wrong too?
If Isaac wasn't hiding beneath the Hive, Duncan's plan to save the world would fail, and his grand dream of taking over an intact Umbrella Corporation would be shattered.
No, he had to move faster and find Isaac right away!
He also had to capture the scientist who'd invented the T-virus and make him work for him. He couldn't let someone like that get away.
He might only be a clone, but a clone's knowledge was still knowledge. His mind wasn't much different from an ordinary person's.
Duncan immediately said, "Isaac must have moved up his plans. We need to hurry, or this city might be destroyed by a nuclear bomb!"
Everyone felt a chill at his words. A weapon as powerful as a nuclear bomb was about to be dropped on a city of more than a hundred thousand people? Umbrella Corporation had some nerve!
Even Tony, who'd witnessed the United States drop a nuclear bomb on Manhattan, couldn't help making a grim remark. "Things haven't even gotten that bad, and they're already dropping a nuclear bomb? That's crazier than Pennywise at a Halloween party."
Watching the city's residents flee in panic on the security footage, Steve felt the weight of the situation too. He gripped his shield and began assigning tasks. "Natasha, Tony, you're coming with me to the Hive. Sam and James, protect Duncan. If we lose the signal underground, we'll come back up after dark. Ready to go?"
Duncan nodded to Steve, finding no fault with the plan. He added, "All the facilities beneath the Hive are controlled by an AI, and there's a Laser Corridor near the main computer room. Be careful unless you want to be cut into pieces."
"No one understands AI better than me!" Tony declared, sounding like an expert.
Then they set off. Tony flew ahead to scout, while Steve and Natasha went to find a car.
"Boss, we're heading out too!" Bark and the other six nodded solemnly to Duncan. Their faces were hidden behind gas masks, but the gravity in their voices was clear.
They had to find their families in Raccoon City. They'd called them from the side a moment ago: five of them had managed to reach their families, but Bark and Kevin hadn't gotten through to theirs. They were frantic with worry.
Duncan nodded too, stepped forward, and patted Bark on the shoulder. "Go on."
After Bark and the others left, Duncan raised the watch he'd brought with him ever since Resident Evil. It showed 2:31 p.m.
There was still plenty of time, and Duncan wasn't one to sit around patiently. He immediately decided to take James into the city and look around, to see if they could run into the heroine, Alice.
"Wait!" Seeing Duncan about to leave, Sam, who'd been left behind to protect him, immediately grew anxious. "You're just going to leave like that? What if you run into danger and die? How are we supposed to get back?"
"Oh! I almost forgot. We really do need to be careful."
Duncan slapped his forehead. He was back in Raccoon City and a little too excited, so he'd forgotten to take the necessary precautions.
He opened a Cross-World Gate on the door to the warehouse office. Then he spoke into the channel of his tiny earpiece. "The warehouse office door is the way back. I'm going into the city to find some people. If anything happens to me, you can all go back through that door."
Agent Hill, who was in the Quinjet fiddling with the computer, heard the announcement over the channel and sighed, rubbing her forehead. If she'd known Duncan was going to be this reckless, she would have asked Fury to send more people to protect him.
No one could talk Duncan out of anything. He couldn't stand being idle. The fact that he'd once wandered into a den of criminals while sightseeing and been hacked to death before transmigrating said it all.
Maybe they'd released the virus early because they hadn't checked the weather forecast. The sky grew gloomier by the minute as Duncan, James, the other four, and Sam wandered around the city.
They were heading for Kendo Gun Shop.
A month earlier, Duncan had ordered a batch of guns, planning to use them later when developing another world. After discovering that he'd arrived in the Marvel Universe, he hadn't paid much attention to the order.
Now that he was back in Raccoon City, Duncan had to check on the guns he'd ordered. It was also a chance to see if they could run into Alice.
In the movie, she seemed to have wandered into a gun shop and picked up her gear. Maybe that shop had been Kendo Gun Shop!
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