Chương 4061: Chapter 3169: "Romantic" Wedding Season (53)

"Robert? Same name as Speedball," Polaris muttered to herself, but soon she added, "It wouldn't be strange if it's a human; humans always produce all sorts of oddities. It's universally acknowledged in the cosmos. But how did he become a subject for the Old Skrull Empire? Could he have really been abducted by a UFO?"

"I'm not sure about that," Professor X said. "We'll have to wait until he wakes up before we can say more. Now, off you go."

Polaris and Iceman left. Soon after, a wormhole teleportation portal appeared in the office, and Iceman dragged out a huge hibernation pod.

The door of the hibernation pod was transparent, so Professor X could see a handsome young man lying inside. He appeared young but was remarkably robust, and seemed to contain a tremendous power, the kind that even made Professor X feel alarmed.

Iceman settled the hibernation pod properly and then turned to ask Professor X, "What do we do next? Professor, should we activate this thing?"

"No, don't rush it, let me take a look." Professor X walked around the hibernation pod, and soon Dr. Beast came in, obviously summoned by Professor X.

"Is there a way to wake him up, Hank?"

Dr. Beast had also been studying for a while and soon he said, "This thing seems to also have a function to suppress power. It's better not to activate it for now. Can't you detect his brainwaves?"

"Very faint, extremely faint," Professor X paced around the hibernation pod and said. "His state is very peculiar. The brainwaves are very regular, not quite like those of a normal comatose person. Rather, it's somewhat like... a code?"

"A code?"

"Yes, I can't describe what I'm sensing to you, but it's a structured music, and I think this could be something used to activate something."

"To activate what? The hibernation pod?"

"Can you find a visible way to start it?"

"No, by 'start,' I mean to break it open."

"Then it seems this type of brainwave might be the key. Do you have a brain wave oscilloscope?"

"Would you still need that gadget?"

Professor X looked at Dr. Beast, who smacked his forehead. Right, not everyone is a mind reader, they definitely need to use tools to display the code.

Soon, Dr. Beast brought a portable oscilloscope, and as the machine started, regular lines appeared on the screen.

"Ah, it must be a combination of troughs and peaks, but where do we input the code?"

Dr. Beast knocked around the hibernation pod for a while and finally found a small button at the bottom seam, pressing it revealed a panel.

But at this moment, Dr. Beast was stumped because the device was not for inputting numbers, and he couldn't understand the writing on it.

"This is the language of the Old Skrull Empire," Professor X recognized the characters. "But it's not numbers—it's the characters of their language. First, write down the numbers of the troughs and peaks, and I'll see how to decrypt them."

Dr. Beast did so, and Professor X deciphered for a while, then suddenly cracked a knowing smile and said, "Simple, it's much like the Caesar cipher. Arrange them in order, and shift four places forward. Let's see the answer... 'Long live the Skrulls.'"

Professor X instructed Dr. Beast to enter the characters, and then they heard two beeps. The hibernation pod did not open, but Professor X detected a change in the brainwaves.

"Are you awake?" Professor X asked, and since he knew this subject was human, he asked in English, but to avoid any language barrier, he also repeated it in Skrull.

"Yes, I'm awake," a rather steady voice of a young man responded. He asked, "May I know your name?"

"Charles Xavier, have you heard of me?"

"Professor X? I saw you in the newspapers when I was very young, back when you were still young."

Professor X immediately made a judgment about his era of origin, so he said, "I hope you can tell me what this is all about, why did you go to the Skrull Empire, and why..."

"I didn't go to the Skrull Empire." The young man objected. "At that time, that nation was still called the Skrull Interstellarism Republic."

Professor X paused. Certainly, he had heard of that period of history when the Skrull Empire adhered to the spirit of interstellarism, seeding many advanced civilizations.

However, later this nation inevitably became corrupted, causing interstellar disturbances, leading many civilizations to destruction. People regarded it merely as another form of empire, thus called it the "Justru Empire."

"Why did you go there?" Professor X asked.

"It was an accident," the young man replied. "I was born in the slums of New York, but I had unusually good academic results. Once when I was going to borrow books, I met a professor and later followed him to his lab, where I curiously drank a potion."

"Did that potion take you to the Skrulls?"

"Of course not, the professor took me." The young man sighed. "That wasn't any potion at all, but a liquid energy he had invented, containing the power of a million stars. After I drank it, I couldn't control such power at all, and to save me, he took me to the Skrul Republic."

"That professor wasn't an Earthling?"

"I'm not sure; all I know is that he was the initiator of the founding revolution of the Skrul Republic."

Professor X caught his breath.

He had indeed heard of that revolution, which overturned the earlier aristocratic rule of that civilization. There were various accounts of the revolutionary leader, but without a doubt, they were all Skrulls. How could a Skrull revolutionary come to Earth and become a professor?

"And then? Did he experiment on you?"

"No, he didn't," the young man said. "Or maybe he did, but not to achieve any experimental results, rather to solve my problem."

"Your problem with controlling power?"

"Exactly, the power inside me was too strong, not something a human could control, and if I lost control, it would be akin to a million stars exploding simultaneously."

Professor X took a cool breath. This was no joking matter; it was almost akin to the nuclear capabilities of the Three Great Empires.

So, was he dealing with a humanoid nuclear bomb?

Professor X suddenly felt that bringing the hibernation pod back was somewhat too risky.

"Oh, don't worry," said the young man. "I can now control my powers, and the problem is mostly resolved."

Professor X was not reassured. He merely asked curiously, "Resolved? How was it resolved?"

"I don't know, some professor handled it, but I'm indeed able to control the powers within me now."

"Then why are you still lying here?"

"Because a new problem has arisen," the young man's voice was tinged with helplessness.

"What problem?"

"I split."

"What?"

"My personality split, and it can't be sewn back together. Moreover, the other half of my personality that split off is beyond my control. It's extremely evil and may cause disasters if it takes over my body."

Professor X now understood why Shiller insisted on drawing his attention to the Life Fusion Plan.

He knew not to believe a single word from the emergency calls; if he had known this patient's situation, he certainly wouldn't have accepted it.

But since he had already accepted, there was nothing he could do. Professor X tried to respond as patiently as possible, "I don't feel anything wrong with your personality."

"The problem is just there. My other half's personality is 'nothingness'. You wouldn't be able to perceive it."

"Have you ever been controlled by him?"

"Yes, and it almost led to the destruction of the Skrull Republic."

Professor X was startled. There were many triggers for the destruction of the Skrull Republic, but one of the most famous was the massive explosion at an advanced energy research laboratory near the second most thriving star system of the republic.

That explosion almost flattened the entire star system, almost qualifying as the republic's secondary capital, and the radiation it emitted was not completely cleared even until today.

At that time, both the Kree Empire and the Shi'ar Empire had seized this disaster as an opportunity, relentlessly pursuing the Skrull Republic along the border and in the court of public opinion, essentially burying this once-bright republic.

To this day, that explosion remains the most severe experimental accident in cosmic history.

"Was that explosion caused by you?" asked Professor X.

"Yes, everyone thought I was well controlled, but then 'nothingness' emerged unexpectedly."

Professor X sighed, and then he said, "So you haven't resolved the issue with 'nothingness' yet?"

"Yes, but I think coming here wasn't an accident. Do you have a way to solve this issue?"

This phrase "wasn't an accident" reminded Professor X that Shiller indeed intended for him to investigate and he did find out this result—it surely must have been deliberate.

But how did Shiller know about this young man? Laira hadn't had such information in her mind.

"Do you know Shiller?" asked Professor X.

"No, I've never heard of this name. Why?"

"What was the name of the professor who took you away?"

"Anatoly Shostakovich."

"Wait," interjected Professor X, knowing something was off about that name, "Are you sure he's a Skrull, not a Soviet?"

"I never said he was a Skrull. Actually, he fits more what I'd expect a Soviet to be like."

"Shostakovich..." mused Professor X, feeling a sense of familiarity with the surname, and then as if realizing suddenly, he said, "Isn't Shostakovich Natasha's real last name? Alexei Shostakovich?"

Thinking further, Professor X added, "But it seems like a fairly common Russian surname. Do you remember what that professor looked like?"

"He was tall and kind; I remember his eyes were blue."

Professor X sighed with relief. Natasha's original eyes were not blue, he had just checked.

However, the same surname implied they might be from the same country, but how would a Soviet have a laboratory in America and then pick up a New York kid and go to the Skrull Empire?

Professor X suddenly remembered the potion, and he asked, "You said that potion concentrated the power of a million stars; do you know what he was researching the potion for?"

The young man was silent for a moment, then said, "I asked him out of curiosity, but he didn't answer. He just told me it was some kind of energy."

"Energy? For powering what?" speculated Professor X. "What needs the power of a million stars to operate?"

"Possibly some type of weapon, I guess," the young man replied.

"But the million stars power itself is a weapon, isn't it? Your loss of control alone was enough to flatten an entire star system. If one could maintain that level of power, the other two empires would surely be uneasy."

Professor X, while saying this, seemed to have thought of something, "Perhaps what he wants isn't large-scale devastation, but rather to power some more precise, controllable device."

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