Upon hearing this, Su Ming and Fury exchanged a glance, indeed there was something wrong.
Zola was panting heavily inside the protective suit, he extended a finger, pointing to the cabinet nearby: "May I take something?"
"Go ahead."
Su Ming stepped aside, watching as Zola wobbled his way to the cabinet, tiptoeing to open the door and took down a small box from a high shelf.
"Howard gave this to me a few days ago."
He handed the box over to Deathstroke, and Su Ming opened it to find glass slides inside, about two fingers wide, and one finger long.
These were slides, prepared microscope samples. Su Ming took one out and examined it against the light, noticing a small red dot congealed on it.
"What is this?" he tapped on the slide, inquiring Zola.
"I don't know, honestly, I'm not lying, I really don't know." Zola spread his hands but involuntarily seemed ready to surrender, pulling his arms back to his chest like a kangaroo: "I can't analyze it, they don't give me the authority to use microscopes and biochemical instruments."
Su Ming stored one of the samples in his bag, giving the box and the majority of the contents to Fury.
"Tell me, how did this come about?"
"Another Professor handed it to Howard, asking Howard to look into some matters, but Howard was not interested as it involved biology. He was eager for a night with some famous actress, so he left this to me."
Even Zola sounded resigned when mentioning Howard. In his view, if Howard had devoted just one percent of his thoughts from women to science, his accomplishments would be far greater today.
He had heard Howard wanted to develop a hover car, but after years, it's a miracle if the car floats for three seconds.
"But you can't research it here."
"I mainly study electricity and optics, energy topics are also good. In biology, I research genetic engineering, the future of humankind. I am a scientist, not a doctor; my work shouldn't involve testing blood for some addict!"
Zola was riled up again until a massive weapon placed on his shoulder brought him back to the real world.
"Uh, sorry, I lost my cool." Zola gently pinched the blade with his fingers, moving it slightly away from his neck, offering a conciliatory smile to Su Ming.
Su Ming nodded understandingly, retracting the weapon: "So this is blood?"
"Yes, from my perspective, whoever this blood belongs to must be severely ill." Zola promptly shared his opinion: "Normal blood wouldn't be this color, and it seems like the platelets aren't working at all; this blood hasn't dried up."
The atmosphere in the laboratory momentarily turned eerie as the three pondered over the situation. A screwdriver on the table rolled a bit, making a slight noise.
"I've figured it out, who gave him the blood sample?" Su Ming broke the silence, pressing his hand down on the table.
Zola frowned, recalling, not very familiar with the person: "Another physicist, what's his name?... Oh, right, Dr. Nathaniel Richards."
"I see, thanks for your cooperation."
Deathstroke merely said these words before turning to leave, leaving Zola puzzled and pondering the riddle.
He slowly walked to the door, leaning over a test bench and lowering his head.
A moment later, an ordinary-looking agent seemed to casually pass by outside the door, dropping something, and bent down to search for it.
"Someone wants to kill Dr. Stark." Zola said in a barely audible voice.
"Understood, investigation's starting." The agent didn't raise his head, swiftly leaving after picking up a pen from the ground: "Hail Hydra."
............
Fury followed in Deathstroke's steps, the mercenary's armor reflecting a metallic glow under the lights.
"Does Dr. Richards have problems?"
"No, he loves the United States, loyal to the Strategic Science Corps. Even if Howard has issues, he wouldn't have them."
Deathstroke answered like this, but Fury wasn't entirely convinced because just at the mention of that name, he sensed a fleeting murderous intent from Deathstroke.
It wasn't very obvious, Deathstroke controlled it well, but in that instant the room's temperature seemed to drop, bringing a slight yet undeniable sense of fear.
"I'll investigate." Fury slightly nodded, stroking the raised hair on the back of his hand.
"Suit yourself." Su Ming's answer was only this.
The surname hinted at the underlying problem, Dr. Richards and Howard each had a self-absorbed scientist son.
One, Iron Man; the other, Mr. Fantastic.
Nathaniel is Mr. Fantastic's father, Valeria's and Franklin's grandfather.
However, Nathaniel's issue isn't the focus here. His research direction was wormhole theory and time effects, and he was among the few SSR agents used as field inspectors, finally sacrificing himself in the chaotic time plane.
Just like The Flash falling into the Divine Speed Plane, he was sucked into the chaotic time stream manifestation.
And Su Ming's old friend, from the future 30th century, a dictator who rules over tens of thousands of light years of timelines, Conqueror Kang, his original name was Nathaniel Richards...
Yes, Dr. Richards shaped Kang after Nathaniel joined the greatest trouble-making organization of all time—Holy Shield Brotherhood. Through time travel technology, he arrived at Earth-6311, where he married an alien princess and greatly advanced the technology there.
Due to genetic isolation, they couldn't have children, so he cut a segment of his own time and existence, creating a baby version of himself to be raised by the princess, and then returned to the Main Universe to continue his mission.
The reason she was called a princess was that she was the daughter of the dictator queen, so one could imagine how this child would be raised.
During Kang's upbringing, countless forces and people interfered, making him more twisted and crazily obsessed. After mastering time travel technology, he became the highest-level multiple personality disorder patient—an infinite-time-stream dictator of countless individual parallel worlds.
Su Ming harbored a murderous intent for this reason, because he felt as if Conqueror Kang was standing right in front of him.
In every universe, Nathaniel would join the Holy Shield Brotherhood, and then travel to different time streams of the 6311 universe, creating countless Kangs, thereby planting seeds of future risks.
This is the convergence of time, the truth of Kang simultaneously acting in different time streams, while possessing interception capabilities.
But later, Su Ming let go of his murderous intent because if he killed Nathaniel now, his other son wouldn't appear; without Reed, there would be no Franklin, and during the future multiverse collision period many inconveniences would arise.
Moreover, the story's development is still uncertain, so Su Ming couldn't kill Nathaniel now based on his 'potential future' mistakes.
Su Ming's comic book knowledge is not like the Zola Algorithm; it's not Hydra-style aircraft carriers doing the killing based on calculated results.
If given a choice, Su Ming would directly cut off Nathaniel's opportunity to join the Brotherhood, as this is the best way to avoid risks.
Unfortunately, even if he did this, it would only eliminate one Kang; the countless Nathaniels of other worlds would still create myriad Kangs.
One of these Kangs would travel back to the 40K Universe's World War II, turning into Xiaohuzi to pit against Su Ming; this is destined history.
Everything is a closed loop, fundamentally inescapable; history has already been set that way, Su Ming is here to repair time loopholes, not to create bigger butterfly effects.
................
So take it one step at a time; first, figure out what exactly Nathaniel gave to Howard as a blood sample. Since Fury is so proactive in investigating Howard's matter, leave it to him; Su Ming wants to check out the place where Dr. Xavier died.
Nick Fury dropped him off outside Dr. Xavier's laboratory and then went off to make a phone call, while Su Ming shuffled casually through the chaotic laboratory searching for clues.
This is a combined laboratory, with lead containers used in physics, a variety of test tubes and flasks used in chemistry, and some mouse cages piled in the corner.
A large heap of various materials and books, a pile of trash and waste, and a pot of orchids in the corner with curled leaves, wilting and hunched in the corner.
The laboratory was extremely chaotic, seemingly intended to preserve the scene, but the floor was covered with a large number of footprints, meaning the scene had been thoroughly disturbed.
The most conspicuous object in the center of the room was a huge setup that looked a bit like an Inuit igloo, but larger, taller, and constructed of pitch-black metal.
He knocked it casually, and the machine emitted a heavy muffled echo; this was the Black Womb, a bizarre high-energy ray particle generator.
However, to Su Ming, this thing looked more like an old-fashioned popcorn machine, even the curved handle valve on the door was very similar.
There was a feeling that if he turned the handle and opened the door, Dr. Xavier's flesh would spray out.
Red and fluffy.
But this was just an imagination; SSR must have checked the entire apparatus after the incident, there wasn't even ashes, it's as if the person evaporated into the Human World.
He first examined the device's integrity.
It wasn't damaged, the valve and various pipes were intact, and supposedly when Dr. Xavier was adjusting the equipment inside, the valve suddenly locked, and then the apparatus started.
A green strong light flashed, and the person vanished.
The assistants quickly cut the power and opened the apparatus, only smelling the aroma of roast meat.
Now Su Ming had concluded that no one tampered with the device; at least the mechanism and trap didn't exist, if there had been, they've been removed.
Sitting on the desk, he felt that the physical evidence examination had failed, so reasoning was the only option.
By examining the victim's diary or experimental records, perhaps there would be discoveries.
First was a black leather notebook stored in a drawer, looking like a diary, so he opened it first.
But the result... he saw a love story.
It recorded Dr. Xavier's life experiences, most of it about Sharon, documenting their familiarity, understanding, and love process in first-person narrative.
It contained many snippets of a happy family, including a lot of beautiful visions for the future, Dr. Xavier hoped Charles would live happily in the future.
From this diary, it was clear Brian knew for a long time that Charles was a Mutant, but he wasn't worried, instead had an optimistic attitude.
The diary stated "Evolution is the nature of humanity; Mutants are the future of humans; no one can defy nature."
Blind optimism, a classic researcher image emerged, the kind who became foolish from doing too many experiments.
Defying natural laws doesn't necessarily mean failure, but the 'humans destined to be eliminated' would surely resist to the end; the Mutants wanting to replace humans' dominant position—just hearing it sounds like a world war.
Su Ming softly smacked the diary shut with one hand; he began to consider whether it was due to Brian constantly flaunting love in the diary that someone secretly read it, committing the crime out of jealousy and metaphorically reaching for gasoline and a torch...
But Brian's view on Mutants seemed familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere before.