That brief but shocking energy fluctuation was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake. Although its ripples had calmed down, it left indelible traces and endless suspicion in the hearts of all Watchers who sensed it.
Inside the Shi'ar Empire "Silent Speaker" reconnaissance ship, the atmosphere was unprecedentedly solemn. Captain Varick looked at the initial feedback from the home star - an order requiring "absolute caution, suspend all non-essential active sensing, and wait for the arrival of the 'Theoretical Sages' analysis team" - and frowned. Even the most intelligent "Theoretical Sages" in the empire, who usually only focus on abstract cosmic laws, were Alarmed and sent to the front line, this in itself shows the seriousness of the problem. An unconscious energy fluctuation of "Individual Alpha" requires the empire's top wisdom to be interpreted? Varik cannot imagine what that means. He strictly followed the order and adjusted the observation mode of the scout ship to the most conservative passive reception state, as if he was afraid of disturbing the sleeping giant beast in the distance.
Inside the A. I. M. sea base, it was a different scene. MODOK watched the sensor record the energy reading that instantly exploded (even though the instrument was almost damaged). Instead of being afraid, MODOK laughed even more crazily.
"Did you see it?! This is the power of God! A trace of unconscious dissipation is enough to shake the instrument!" His huge brain was congested and turned red with excitement. "This proves my theory! Energy absorption and transformation is the ultimate path to evolution! The 'Titan' project must be accelerated! We need to get closer to that energy source! We need samples!"
The investors turned pale with fright at the horrifying data, but the greedy flames in their eyes burned even brighter. More funds and scarcer resources were promised to invest in this crazy plan. A. I. M.'s scientists (if those fanatics can be called scientists) began to reverse engineer alien debris even more frantically, and even tried to use unstable energy cores to bombard various biological samples. Explosions and weird energy flashes were heard from time to time in the base, and the level of danger increased sharply.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury's brows were knitted into knots.
"Have you found out the source of the fluctuation? Is there another blind bastard causing trouble?" He asked Hill in a low voice.
"All monitoring points confirmed that the center of the fluctuation is located at Malibu, and the energy characteristics are completely consistent with Xiao Han." Hill reported, "It is not an aggressive behavior, nor is it a response to any known stimulus. It is more like... an irregular overflow after energy saturation? Or some kind of physiological activity that we cannot understand?"
"Irregular spill?" Fury chewed the word, "One irregular spill can cause sensitive instruments around the world to trip? Then if he sneezes, do we all have to prepare for impact resistance?"
No one could answer this terrible question. Fury felt a headache. He would rather face ten Chitauri invasions than deal with this completely unpredictable and incomprehensible existence.
"Intensify surveillance. All agents on leave will cancel their vacations and enter a state of standby. I have a bad feeling." He gave the order and looked out the window at the dark night sky, as if he could penetrate the space and see the threats hidden in the dark and ready to move.
Wakanda, Princess Shuri's "Deep-Space Echo Amplifier" successfully captured more details of the Shi'ar signal. Although it was still unable to decipher the content, it analyzed its signal pattern and became more cautious. There was even a hint of "awe" (based on energy fluctuation frequency analysis). At the same time, she also confirmed that those scattered prying eyes from the gaps in the dimensions disappeared briefly after the fluctuations occurred, but soon reappeared, and even increased in number, like flies attracted by honey.
"Brother, the situation is more complicated." Shuri said worriedly to T'Challa, "Shi'ar seemed to be frightened, but more people came to watch the excitement. And... I seem to have caught some very, very weak, but very bad signals... like... the smell of rot? It came from deeper places, intermittently."
T'Challa looked solemn. "Can you locate it?"
Shuri shook his head. "It's too vague, like the smell through thick frosted glass. I only know that the direction is probably... underground? Or some kind of subspace?"
Underground? Subspace? T'Challa's heart sank. There are more and more unknown threats, becoming more and more weird.
"Strengthen the energy level of the underground barrier. Any form of large-scale testing of Vibranium energy is prohibited without my order." He must be more cautious.
On the dark side of the earth, those restless forces were also stimulated by this fluctuation. The bounties on the black market for "God Cells" and "Superhuman Genes" increased several times, triggering more desperate and crazy behaviors. An extremist organization corrupted by the ideas of Hydra even planned a ridiculous plan to use infrasonic weapons to remotely "purify" Malibu (this plan was crushed by S.H.I.E.L.D. undercovers in its infancy, but it was enough to show the extent of the madness).
Malibu Villa.
Tony·Stark stayed up all night. He repeatedly studied the energy wave curve at that moment, trying to find some rules or logic, but found nothing. The level of power was far beyond his understanding.
He walked to the balcony and looked at the still motionless figure on the beach downstairs. For the first time, he felt an extremely strong sense of strangeness and... insignificance.
What kind of existence is this guy who lives under the same roof with him (although he spends most of his time in the yard), eats ice cream from his the Fridge, and complains to each other? What kind of star-like vast and unpredictable core does he contain under his seemingly lazy appearance?
"Friday, if we... I mean if, our biggest 'insurance' suddenly feels... it's too noisy here one day and decides to leave, or... sneezes and knocks the house down, do we have any backup plan?" Tony's voice was full of fatigue that he didn't even notice.
"The backup plan database is empty, boss." Friday replied calmly, "Based on the existing data, there is no known means that can prevent or affect any decision of Mr. Xiao Han."
Tony smiled bitterly. Yes, backup plan? In the face of absolute power, the so-called plan is so ridiculous.
He took a deep breath of the cool morning air and forced himself to calm down. Panic could not solve the problem. He needed to focus, he needed to make progress faster, at least... to be able to understand the warning before the storm came.
He turned back to the laboratory and once again immersed himself in the sea of data on alien technology.
A new day begins, and the sun shines on Malibu Beach again.
Xiao Han opened his eyes, feeling the influx of energy brought by the sun, and the unconscious impatience from last night seemed to dissipate.
But he keenly noticed that the "noise" of the surrounding environment had increased to a slight level compared to yesterday. The Watchers in the distance seemed to be more restrained, but the fragmented "eyes" from different directions were more active. Deep in the earth beneath his feet, the weak Vibranium energy fluctuations became more frequent and deliberately suppressed. On the earth, the dark side of human beings was restless, like water about to boil, with more gurgling bubbles emerging.
The whole world is like a bowstring that is gradually tightening, making a subtle but uncomfortable trembling sound.
He doesn't like this trend.
Dislike very much.
He sat up, took the new flavor of ice cream that Tony put down in the morning on the table next to him, and took a bite.
Too sweet. Not to my taste.
He put the ice cream aside casually and glanced at the sea level casually.
At the A. I. M. base far away on the high seas, the unstable "Titan" prototype armor was undergoing a high-risk energy overload test. The dark red energy core flashed violently, making a dangerous buzzing sound, and the surrounding scientists recorded data with both excitement and fear.
Suddenly, the energy readings of the armor began to soar crazily without warning, instantly breaking through the safety threshold!
"No! The core is overloaded! It's going to explode!" a scientist screamed.
MODOK's exclamation sounded through the speaker, "Quickly suppress it! Start emergency cooling..."
Before he finished speaking, the dark red energy core suddenly lit up--
Then, without warning, it was completely extinguished.
It was not an explosion, not a leak, but a complete and absolute extinction. It was as if someone had drained all the energy in an instant, leaving not even a trace of residual heat. The armor fell to the ground like scrap metal, and the internal structure was covered with weird damage at the microscopic level, as if it was forcibly "silent" by invisible forces.
The entire laboratory was silent, everyone was stunned and didn't understand what was happening.
Only a monitoring station at the outermost edge of the base recorded that in the trillionth of a second before the energy core was extinguished, there was an indescribable and unanalyzable huge "will" or "rule force" that swept across the place across space. Its intensity even caused the monitoring instrument itself to temporarily malfunction.
Malibu Beach, Xiao Han withdrew their gaze and continued to bask in the sun. It was as if they had just done a trivial thing, such as driving away a noisy fly in the distance.
He just felt that the sharp energy noise that suddenly sounded in that direction was a bit harsh, so he "mute" it conveniently.
As for whose experiment it was and what consequences it would have, he didn't care.
The world seems a little quieter again.
But the forced silence made all Watchers who knew about it, from Shi'ar to S.H.I.E.L.D. to Wakanda, feel a deeper chill.
It's not that he didn't notice. He just... didn't care. And when he did care, his way of "solving" was so arbitrary and beyond understanding.
The noisy night before fell into deathly silence because of his inadvertent move.
But the real storm is still gathering strength in the distance.