Chapter 305: Ancient Invasion
"Susan, Johnny, help me run a power cable over here. I need to restart an instrument." Reed called out.
Susan, Johnny, and the others remained dozens of feet away, separated from Reed and Tony by the massive hole Hulk had smashed through the floor.
Reed Richards had risked his life swinging across on a severed electrical cable to study the full-wave projector. But the others wouldn't dare attempt something so reckless.
Hearing Reed's request, even Susan's face showed reluctance.
How were they supposed to get over there? Grab cables and swing across like Tarzan?
That was insane! They didn't even know if those cables were still live!
"Reed, you're a goddamn maniac!" Ben Grimm shouted across the gap.
Seeing his companions couldn't help, Reed turned his gaze toward Tony Stark.
Tony didn't hesitate.
"Don't even think about it."
Reed shifted his attention to Max Dillon, who stood to the side with a smile, having barely spoken.
"If it's purely an electrical issue, I can solve it." Max said with a pleasant smile.
He and Iron Man stood on either side of the full-wave projector, guarding it. But aside from transforming into Electro at the beginning to save the helicopter Tony had accidentally shot down, he'd maintained human appearance the entire time.
Reed Richards had no idea that the seemingly ordinary Max Dillon could transform into the energy being called "Electro" at will.
"Really?" Reed's face lit up with delight.
"Max, don't help him." Tony said. "Our guy's still on the other side of that vortex in another world. Don't interfere."
Max Dillon spread his hands.
"If nobody helps him, want to bet whether Reed will try grabbing a live wire again? I'd rather not witness that."
Tony couldn't help raising his hand to rub his forehead. But wearing the metal faceplate, he could only tap his armored skull with his fingertips.
"Damn."
Max was right. Tony absolutely believed Reed capable of doing exactly that.
Tony found himself in an impossible position. If he didn't help Reed, the man would go crazy. If he did help, who knew what impact it might have on the full-wave projector?
While Tony wrestled with the dilemma, he noticed Max winking at him.
Max swept his hand through the air. A series of electrical sparks traced several words—but they vanished before Tony could read them clearly.
Tony's spirits lifted. He quickly disabled Mark IV's external audio and spoke to Jarvis inside the armor.
"Jarvis, what did Dillon just write?"
"Sir, Max Dillon said: 'I'll supply power while lowering voltage so his equipment can't function properly.'" Jarvis AI reported.
Tony couldn't suppress a grin. He subtly gave Max a thumbs-up.
Reed hadn't witnessed this exchange. His attention remained almost entirely focused on the full-wave projector.
"When I originally named this device the full-wave projector, it was because I discovered it can generate fluctuations at virtually any frequency."
"From another perspective—what if it's resonating with fundamental strings of all potential dimensions? Using that resonance to connect to other dimensional worlds, not just the current primitive one?"
Max followed Reed's instructions and powered up an instrument. Reed rapidly constructed a mental model of the full-wave projector.
"Based on current analysis, the projector's vortex channel isn't stable. I need to stabilize it first, then build a perfect model from there."
"Hmm... I could try firing a counter-resonance wave at the primitive channel to cancel the instability. Like using sound waves to stabilize a bridge."
"That might make the channel solid and transparent as glass, instead of requiring you to stick your head through to see the other world."
Reed looked at the instrument Max had powered up. Without pausing to thank Max, he rapidly adjusted the device's parameters.
HUMMMM—
Just as Reed envisioned, the counter-resonance wave fired precisely at the full-wave projector.
But simultaneously, Tony and Max exchanged a glance. Under low voltage conditions, Reed's instrument had fired the counter-resonance wave—but it wasn't doing anything useful.
Insufficient voltage meant the emitted counter-resonance wave didn't match Reed's perfectly calculated theoretical waveform. Instead, it produced extremely subtle harmonic distortions at the peaks.
"Huh? That's not right." Reed didn't notice the voltage issue, but he caught the resonance wave problem. He scratched his head, muttering to himself. "Where did it go wrong?"
"Let me think... I roughly understand the full-wave projector's core principle now. It locks onto and stabilizes the strongest resonance frequency, using that to open channels to other worlds."
Deep in thought, Reed performed another series of operations on the counter-resonance emitter, firing several more waves.
Due to low voltage, these different counter-resonance waves had inconsistent peak values. What the full-wave projector received was the primitive channel's primary frequency plus distorted harmonics from the counter-waves—A, A+, B, C...
Like stones dropped into a calm lake. One ripple spread outward. The next second it exploded into towering waves. The mirror-shattering effect had begun.
The distorted harmonics acted like a virus, contaminating the originally pure full-wave channel. The projector began locking onto more and more "similar frequencies."
Around the yellow-green vortex, one tiny light point after another began appearing. As they siphoned energy from the main channel, the main channel—struggling to maintain its own existence—was forced to scan and bind even more frequencies in a vicious positive feedback loop.
CRACKLE CRACKLE...
One yellow-green vortex after another opened and rapidly expanded.
---
In the primitive world, Batman held Lunella in one arm while dragging the red T-Rex in a massive web-woven net with the other, pulling it away from the flames.
The battle between the Lizard Professor and the horned giant T-Rex was nearing its end. Size advantage clearly hadn't allowed the giant to overwhelmingly defeat the Lizard Professor.
Instead, the Lizard Professor—superior in strength, speed, and agility—had coiled his body python-like around the giant T-Rex's neck, about to strangle it.
Batman surveyed the area. Apparently due to the Lizard Professor's battle with the giant and the massive fire ring, no "wild" dinosaurs had approached.
But near the yellow-green vortex they'd arrived through, the massive pile of dinosaur corpses had attracted an unknown number of carnivorous predators.
For Batman, those dinosaurs posed minimal threat. But they would interfere with the red T-Rex he was dragging.
Just as Batman considered solutions—maybe having the Lizard Professor carry the red T-Rex while he held Lunella and ran—Reed Richards solved the problem for him.
Large and small yellow-green vortexes opened in rapid succession across the ground around Batman, first swallowing the scattered human bones.
Then the struggling Lizard Professor and giant T-Rex. The other dinosaurs and primitives not participating in combat.
Batman looked into the distance. The bloody stench from the dinosaur corpse pile suddenly faded. The carnivorous dinosaurs drawn by the scent vanished through vortex channels.
In an instant, countless channels opened across this primitive world. Even the red T-Rex Batman was dragging fell into a vortex.
"Something's wrong." Batman's gut clenched. Holding Lunella, he sprinted madly toward the original portal.
He couldn't be certain where these newly opened channels led. The wisest course was returning the way he'd come, getting Lunella to safety, then executing plans based on specific circumstances.
The question of "where do the channels lead" was answered the moment Batman crossed through the vortex back to Baxter Building.
All the channels opened in Manhattan—especially within a half-mile radius centered on Baxter Building.
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