The disaster did not come from the sky or the sea, but from the earth itself. Geological structures around the world began to undergo strange changes that violated all known geological principles. Mountains increased or subsided for no reason, rivers changed their courses in an instant, and solid rock formations became like quicksand, or suddenly became harder than diamonds.
"It's not an earthquake, it's not a plate movement!" Bruce·Banner's voice sounded a hint of despair in the S.H.I.E.L.D. command center, "It's that the earth's own material structure is being...'re-edited'! The interaction between atoms is being partially modified!"
Nick Fury's one eye stared at the crazy beating data on the main screen. "Range? Speed?"
"Global! Accelerate!" Maria·Hill's voice was urgent, "Seventeen major cities have been paralyzed or seriously damaged due to geological mutations! It is impossible to predict the next mutation point!"
Tony·Stark's holographic image appeared, and the armor was covered with dust. "Friday analyzed that there is some kind of field covering the earth, redefining the basic properties of matter such as 'hardness' and 'density' like a 3D printer! But this requires energy and control accuracy..."
Strange's portal suddenly opened, and he and Wang stumbled out, even with a trace of blood on the corners of their mouths. "It's not magic," Strange gasped, with horror in his eyes. "It's something more basic... The structure of reality is being 'overwritten' on the material level! Something is trying to 'format' the earth into the 'form' it wants!"
Avengers once again fell into a bitter battle. This time they faced not the enemy, but the changing ground beneath their feet. The city collapsed, the roads disappeared, and the mountains rose. Thor summoned thunder and lightning to bombard the mutation point, but could only Exploding some insignificant debris; Hulk's power seems clumsy in front of the ground that may be fluidized or super-hardened at any time; Iron Man's armor flies hard in the sudden change of gravity field and material density.
They did their best to evacuate people and stabilize critical areas, but their efforts were in vain in the face of this global, indiscriminate physical tampering.
"The source must be found!" Steve shouted over the communication, his voice hoarse with anxiety.
"Can't find it! The signal is everywhere and nowhere to be found!" Tony responded, his tone full of powerlessness.
At this moment, Banner noticed the anomaly. "Wait a minute... all mutations... have avoided Malibu! With the Stark Villa as the center, within a radius of five kilometers, the material properties are incredibly stable! Like... a 'safe zone'?"
Everyone's eyes instantly turned to that direction.
Malibu Beach.
Xiao Han's beach chair shook slightly - not because of a geological mutation, but because the sudden uplift of a hill in the distance triggered a weak ground Quake transmission. What made him even more unhappy was that he felt that the material properties of the sand under him and the deeper crust were undergoing extremely subtle but continuous "fluctuations". This fluctuation made his process of absorbing solar energy no longer stable, like a light bulb with unstable power supply.
"Shoddy project." He whispered dissatisfiedly. Super-Senses instantly penetrated the ground and sensed the "editing field" that was trying to cover the world and modify the basic properties of matter.
In his opinion, it was like a painting that was originally pleasing to the eye but was scrawled over with clumsy brushstrokes, destroying the overall harmony and stability.
He didn't even bother to understand the purpose of this "smearing". He just impatiently "expanded" Biological Force Field, which was absolutely stable and defined his own material composition, slightly outward for a moment.
It is like a drop of alum dropped into muddy water, and like the reference coordinate for calibrating everything.
The moment the anomaly field trying to "edit" the earth's material came into contact with this absolutely stable "datum", the chaotic instructions inside it collapsed and failed instantly like the code that hit the south wall.
Geological mutations on a global scale came to an abrupt end.
The half-raised mountain peaks stagnated, the fluidized ground returned to solidity, and the super-hardened rock formations returned to normal. The material properties of the earth returned to their original, natural state.
The world suddenly stopped from a crazy "reshaping", leaving only devastated and shocked people.
Avengers was stunned in place, looking at the earth that suddenly returned to normal, unable to react for a moment.
"It's... over again?" Clint stood up from a roof that had just stopped collapsing, in disbelief.
"Is it him?" Natasha helped a fallen citizen and looked at the beach, which was always calm.
Doctor Banner watched the curve representing the stability of the material properties on the monitoring instrument change from crazy beating to a straight line in an instant, muttering to himself, "He... he defined 'normal' with his own existence? Any modifications that deviated from this 'normal' were... forcibly reset?"
Strange felt the restored stable reality structure and breathed a sigh of relief, "For him, maybe he just felt that the 'floor' just now was uneven and uncomfortable to lie on, so he 'flattened' it."
And outside the distant galaxy cluster, an ancient mechanical consciousness that tried to convert the planet into some kind of computing primitive recorded this failure.
"Execution log: Codename 'All Things Reconstruction'. There is an unanalyzable 'Form Lock' on the target planet. Any attempt to modify its basic material properties will trigger 'Form Protection Mechanism', forcing a restoration of the default settings. Mechanism source: Suspected Reality Baseline point. Threat level: Absolute taboo. Recommendation: Permanently included in the inoperable list."
Xiao Han Feeling that the earth beneath him had become "solid and reliable" again, he adjusted his lying position.
The world finally stopped messing around.
This is good.
As for why we were fussing just now? Who was fussing?
It has nothing to do with him.