Field investigation of temporal fluctuations, strange happenings on Manhattan's streets
Manhattan, 3 p. m.
Sunlight filters through the gaps between buildings, carving out a chessboard of light and shadow on Sixth Avenue. Cars flow endlessly, and crowds surge.
At the outdoor seating area of a street corner coffee shop, several people dressed in municipal engineering maintenance uniforms were adjusting some seemingly ordinary equipment. Their movements were precise and their expressions focused; to passersby, it was just another routine pipeline inspection.
Wanda sat by the window in the coffee shop, without touching the coffee in front of her.
Her gaze passed over the glass, calmly fixed on the intersection across the street, which the technical staff had concealed with their instruments.
Those were the coordinates Gwen Stacy provided.
The field team from the Technology and Order Integration Department has been stationed here for three hours.
Time ticked by, and all I heard in my headset was the low rumble of the equipment and the unchanging background noise. Everything seemed too normal, so normal that it was irritating.
She could sense Hela's Undead Legion conducting a thorough search across the globe; the aura of Death Force was like an endless fishing net, savage and brutal.
Qin's Psychic Network is even more concealed, like mercury seeping into the ground, permeating every corner of the city, filtering out abnormal thought fluctuations.
They were all carrying out the hard targets set by Lynn in their own ways.
And she, the head of the Ministry of Department of Technology, could only sit here like a fool waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree stump, hoping for a vague clue to appear.
This passivity made her feel a long-lost anxiety.
Lynn's words, "lacking actual data support," still echoed in my ears. This was the most direct denial of her professional abilities. If she couldn't produce results before Hela and Qin, that "unsatisfactory" evaluation would become an indelible stain on her resume.
Wanda picked up her coffee cup, then slowly put it down.
She didn't trust Gwen Stacy. That woman, like her, was vying for a place in Lynn's eyes. But she knew even better that, as the head of the newly established Liaison Office, Gwen Stacy needed allies and tangible results more than anyone else. The opening of Vibranium technology was a bargaining chip that Gwen couldn't refuse.
Therefore, this intelligence is most likely true.
Just then, a screeching sound of tires screech broke the noise of the street.
A yellow taxi that had gone out of control suddenly swerved and veered straight toward the sidewalk. A young man who was looking down at his phone froze in shock, his pupils reflecting the approaching car.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Wanda's fingertips twitched slightly, and Scarlet energy gathered, ready to be unleashed. She could easily freeze the car and save the person.
But she didn't move.
Her job was not to maintain traffic order.
Just a second before the taxi was about to hit the man, a bizarre scene unfolded.
An orange halo, shimmering with countless Runes, suddenly opened up behind the man without warning. Inside the halo was not a street scene, but a void of darkness.
A hand reached out from the halo, grabbed the man's collar, and yanked him backward.
The aperture closed instantly, disappearing without a trace.
It was as if nothing had happened.
No, it's even stranger than that.
The out-of-control taxi was now standing steadily at a traffic light a few dozen meters away. The driver was humming a tune, seemingly completely oblivious to the terrifying moment that had just occurred. The passersby around him also appeared calm and continued with their own pace.
Time seemed to have been gently turned back three seconds by an invisible hand throughout the entire block.
Aside from Wanda and her technical staff enhanced by Chaos Magic.
"Minister, a local Timeline Reset phenomenon of 0.72 seconds has been detected. The energy source has disappeared, and extremely weak, Mutant Power fluctuations remain at the coordinate point."
The technical team leader's suppressed excitement came through the headset.
Found it.
Wanda's eyes sharpened instantly.
Without the slightest hesitation, she stood up and crossed the road.
"Seal off the scene, Class A procedure."
She gave the order coldly.
Several technical staff immediately understood and activated their portable equipment. An invisible barrier of Chaos Energy rapidly spread out, isolating this area with a radius of fifty meters from the outside world. Outside the barrier, the flow of people and vehicles continued, but they would subconsciously avoid this area, as if there were an invisible wall naturally existing there.
Wanda walked to the spot where the man had disappeared.
A faint, yet unmistakably clear, unfamiliar aura lingered in the air. It was a cold, purely logical energy, devoid of any emotion.
This is the physical evidence for "High-Dimensional Interference".
It is rapidly dissipating, blending into its surroundings. Conventional methods simply cannot detect it.
Wanda raised her right hand, her five fingers spread.
The Scarlet Chaos Magic was no longer a violent destructive force, but transformed into countless energy tendrils, finer than Silk, cautiously probing into this space.
Her movements were like those of a top surgeon performing an unprecedented microsurgery.
She is peeling away.
The orange energy, which had become intertwined with time, space, and even the laws of physics themselves, was forcibly peeled away from the body of reality, bit by bit.
This is an extremely meticulous and domineering process.
The essence of Chaos Magic is to distort the rules. At this moment, she is using this unreasonable power to capture another equally unreasonable power.
A barely visible wisp of orange light was forcibly pulled from the void by her energy tentacles, struggling violently as it tried to reintegrate into reality.
"Stabilize the energy field, turn the power up to maximum," Wanda commanded.
The technical officer immediately executed the order, and several Scarlet beams of light shot in from different angles, forming a stable energy cage that locked the wisp of light firmly in the center.
Wanda's eyes narrowed, and she clenched her fist tightly.
Countless Scarlet tentacles instantly tightened, enveloping and compressing the wisp of orange light, ultimately condensing it into a grain-sized energy crystal that shimmered with a faint light.
She took out a special container made of Vibranium and magical Runes, carefully placed the crystal inside, and then sealed it tightly.
It's done.
She obtained the physical evidence of a "living sample" that Lynn wanted.
With this report, she can not only wash away her previous humiliation, but also establish absolute technological dominance in the "Joint Working Group".
Wanda's lips curved upwards in a barely perceptible, subtle arc.
However, just as she put the container away...
In the shadows of the street corner, the air seemed to have turned into thick ink.
Squads of soldiers, clad in jet-black armor, wielding Long Halberd, and with eerie green soul flames burning in their eye sockets, emerged silently from the shadows. Their steps were perfectly synchronized, utterly silent, and the deathly aura emanating from them caused the surrounding temperature to plummet.
The Asgard Undead Legion.
Hela's people.