Tony almost dragged Chen Tian into the Silver Winged Star's cockpit.
"Whoosh!" The hatch closed tightly, cutting off the restaurant's smoke and Vergil and Bane's desperate gazes.
"Take off! Friday! Target Pym's Lab! Full speed!" Tony slumped into the pilot's seat, panting while pulling at the charred, smoking "Tomato Charcoal Medal" on his chest.
"Damn it… this smell is even stronger than when Happy and I sparred!"
Chen Tian slumped in the co-pilot seat, letting out a long sigh of relief, casting a lingering glance at the porthole, as if he could still see 2B's eyes shining with an unyielding blue light.
"Thanks, Tony, for saving my life."
"Don't mention it!" Tony waved his hand exaggeratedly, "One second later, we'd be the taste testers for 2B's next 'Art Omelet'! My God, that thing…"
He made an exaggerated retching motion, "What haven't I, Tony Stark, seen? The Chitauri army? The Justice League? Easy peasy! But 2B's omelet? I feel like if Superman's execution had been replaced with 2B's 'Gourmet Tasting Session,' the scene might have been even more brutal! Chen! Did she mistake engine oil for cooking oil?"
Chen Tian nodded frantically, his stomach churning at the thought of that "battle-damaged omelet."
"Believe me, I was also desperate. 2B is perfect everywhere except the kitchen! That smell… Hell's Kitchen concentrated essence!"
"More like biochemical weapon concentrate!" Tony rubbed his face, "Seriously, for everyone's good, so your kitchen doesn't need another explosion-proof upgrade," he lowered his voice, "how about sending 2B to Gordon for training? His phrase 'Even a dog wouldn't eat it!' is practically tailor-made for her!"
Chen Tian imagined 2B standing expressionless in front of a roaring Gordon, his mouth twitching.
"Tony… are you sure Gordon's heart can withstand 2B's 'art'? I'm afraid he'd end up in the ICU on the spot! Besides," he spread his hands, "her stubbornness about 'perfect food'… Gordon would explode with anger!"
"Tsk, you're right." Tony stroked his chin regretfully, "What a great plan… only Vergil and Bane's stomachs will suffer. Ha! Just thinking about those two usually stoic guys losing their composure makes me laugh all day." Tony chuckled gleefully.
"Exactly," Chen Tian slumped in his seat, looking at the white clouds outside the window, feeling completely relaxed, "as long as it's not us suffering. Let them enjoy their 'loving breakfast.'" He unburdened himself by throwing the two into a culinary hell.
The two happily (and deviously) complained about 2B's dark cuisine and kitchen disasters, Tony even projecting designs for a "foolproof AI cooking system," claiming he would cure the problem.
The Silver Winged Star's engine hummed softly, beginning its descent, as the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge came into view.
"Approaching destination, Boss, Mr. Chen." Friday announced.
As the Golden Gate Bridge gradually grew larger in their view.
Tony suddenly slapped the dashboard and laughed, "You know, Chen? I just remembered an interesting fact—Hank Pym might be the only person in the entire Universe who thinks the Stark family isn't intelligent enough."
"After all, your dad back then…" Chen Tian was interrupted by Tony as soon as he spoke.
"Oh! That classic story!" Tony waved his arms exaggeratedly, "Howard Stark, the World War II tech genius, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders—just because he tried to research Pym Particles, he was called a 'habitual plagiarist'!"
He imitated Pym's signature roaring tone: "The Quantum Realm isn't something you circuit-playing upstarts can understand!"
Chen Tian looked at the increasingly close laboratory complex outside the porthole and suddenly noticed a prominent sign on the roof: [Stark Family Members and Dogs Not Allowed].
He raised an eyebrow and pointed in that direction: "Looks like the animosity has escalated?"
"Ha! That wasn't there last week!" Tony whistled, "The last time I saw him, he kicked me off his lawn because he said my 'Eclipse' armor wasn't aesthetically pleasing at all, and I mocked his suit for being a retro diving suit…"
Friday suddenly interjected: "Boss, do I need to remind you that you said, 'Even 1950s sci-fi comics wouldn't dare use such an outdated design for this thing'?"
"Shut up, Friday!" Tony glared at the cockpit ceiling, "Anyway, that old man is as stubborn as Vibranium, he even sent people to secretly photograph the Quantum Lab I built in my Underground Room."
"That old man definitely has an anti-Stark radar on his roof." After Tony maneuvered the Silver Winged Star into stealth mode, he slowly hovered over Pym's house and looked at Chen Tian.
"Tell me, how are we going to see that old guy now?" Tony turned his chair to face Chen Tian.
"Emmm… after opening his fence gate, go to his front door, and politely knock?" Chen Tian said, tilting his head in thought.
"Politely knock?" Tony scoffed, "Do you think we're going to a neighbor's house to borrow sugar? That's Hank Pym! That old guy's mouth is more poisonous than Natasha's Scarlet Sting!"
He grabbed Chen Tian, who was about to jump out of the plane: "Listen, that old man's first words will definitely be, 'Stark's little lackey?' and the second will be, 'You circuit-playing upstarts'…"
"Third, 'Get off my lawn'?" Chen Tian interrupted him with a smile, "Don't worry, I'm not part of your Stark family."
Tony let go, and suddenly his eyes lit up: "Wait… you're really not a Stark. " He grinned mischievously and opened the hatch, "Remember to keep smiling, and when he starts cursing, 'Tony Stark, that arrogant fool'—"
Chen Tian walked to the hatch, turned to look at Tony, "Don't worry, I'll curse you with him."
With that, he leaped out of the hatch, landing steadily on Pym's Lab lawn.
Tony immediately slapped his seat and shouted: "Friday! Full recording! I'm going to make Chen Tian's breakdown into an emoji!"
Before Chen Tian could even knock, the door opened, and Hank Pym walked out with a gloomy face.
Chen Tian was about to speak—
"Stop!" Pym held up a remote control, "There are miniature landmines on the lawn, specifically for Stark's lackeys!"
Tony in the cockpit laughed, slapping his thigh: "Hahaha, a royal flush right at the start!"
Chen Tian, however, calmly pulled out a USB drive from his pocket: "Dr. Pym, this is the security vulnerability report for Tony Stark's Quantum Lab."
Pym's curses stopped abruptly, and Tony's smile froze on his face: "What?! Chen Tian, you—"
"Including all his failed data from reverse-engineering Pym Particles." Chen Tian added with a smile, "In exchange, can we discuss cooperation?"
Pym narrowed his eyes, then suddenly showed the first smile he'd given to a "Stark-related person" in decades: "Interesting… come in, kid."
"Friday! Stop recording! Immediately!" Tony jumped up and down in the cockpit, fuming, "That traitor! I'm going to lock him and 2B's omelet in one room!"
"Apologies, Boss, your breakdown expression has already been uploaded to the 'Arbitrators Strongest' group chat and made into a GIF posted on your social media."
"Damn it!!! Friday!!!! You're a traitor too!!!!"
— — — — — —
Pym's living room was filled with the scent of old books and coffee beans.
He toyed with the USB drive containing Tony's lab's "dirt," and unlike his usual scowl towards Tony, he actually smiled: "This… has good taste."
He looked up, his gaze sharp, "But if you want Pym Particles? No deal."
Chen Tian picked up his coffee cup—carefully avoiding all the red buttons—and smiled: "Particles? No. I want to talk about the World beyond the door."
He put down the cup, tapping his fingertip lightly on the table, "That Quantum Realm that can make people grow and shrink, and even… travel through time and the Universe."
Pym raised an eyebrow, a hint of interest mixed with his caution: "Oh? Stark's little lackey is interested in theoretical physics? Instead of figuring out how to cram my technology into his shiny tin can?"
"Correction, Dr." Chen Tian corrected, his tone relaxed, "First, I'm a partner, not a lackey. Second, my interest in 'tin cans' is limited to watching Tony crash into walls with them."
He leaned slightly forward, "The key is 'travel.' A stable, controllable channel that can precisely anchor to another point in time or a Universal coordinate…"
Pym snorted, his eyes, however, brightened a few shades: "Quite ambitious. What kind of mind-altering potion did that Stark kid feed you? Or rather…"
He scrutinized Chen Tian, "Does your 'snap' that can restore ruins itself allow you to see… more?"
Chen Tian merely returned a knowing smile, tacitly agreeing.
"Hmph…" Pym leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers impatiently on the armrest, "The Quantum Realm isn't a sightseeing tunnel! That place is chaotic, dangerous, and full of unpredictable turbulence! Randomly traversing? Theoretical models are just a few scraps of paper."
He paused, seemingly weighing something, and finally, his recognition of Chen Tian's strength and his fondness for Tony's incriminating data won out.
"…It's like trying to accurately navigate to a cheeseburger joint in Queens in a parallel Universe using a map scratched up by a cat—and it has to be the exact burger that Tony Stark choked on!" he scoffed.
Pym was still gesticulating wildly, spitting as he spoke: "…Even if you can rush in! The biggest problems are anchoring and closing the loop! How do you get back? How do you ensure that when you return, you're not a decrepit old man with a beard longer than mine, or simply a baby drinking milk?"
"The time currents in that damned place are crazier than traffic in New York! Your body goes through, but time flows in your veins more chaotically than the Pacific Ocean waves outside! Not to mention how to complete the damned closed loop, so the entire timeline doesn't look like a ball of yarn played with by a cat—"
—"Use a 'time anchor'."
A voice suddenly cut in.
Pym instantly bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, turning back to see Tony casually leaning against the living room doorframe, tossing a miniature energy core in his hand.
"Friday's stealth coating is pretty good, right? Old man, your anti-Stark radar needs an upgrade." Tony grinned.
"You! Get out of my house! Now! Immediately!" Pym's face instantly flushed red, and he grabbed the antique coffee cup beside him, ready to throw it.
"Wait, Dr.!" Chen Tian quickly stood up and pressed down on Pym's hand holding the cup, skillfully stepping between the two, giving Tony a look, "Go on about your 'time anchor,' Tony."
Pym's beard trembled with rage, but Chen Tian's obstruction and those damned three words "time anchor" made him pause, only glaring at Tony with murderous intent.
Tony walked in unconcerned, casually making a gesture in the center of the living room.
Friday immediately projected an extremely complex holographic structural diagram, countless light filaments interwoven, forming a dynamic Mobius strip. "Simple," Tony snapped his fingers, and a stable blue light spot lit up at the core of the Mobius strip.
"We build a hyper-dimensional anchor point generator, not a temporary one embedded in the armor, but a 'lighthouse' fixed at the entrance of the Quantum Tunnel. It continuously emits spacetime coordinate beams of a specific frequency, no matter how long we bounce around in the past, as long as we follow this 'light' back, the time flow perceived by the body… look,"
He pointed to a time flow simulation that had separated to the side, "It's like shielding this part of the turbulence outside a protective shield around our bodies, only retaining the 'journey' our consciousness experiences. The body? It remains at the 'present' of the entrance coordinates."
He paused, looking at the strong, unquenchable curiosity in Pym's eyes, and added with a mischievous grin: "As for the time loop? Old man, remember you said it was like using a rotten map to find a burger joint? Simple, just set the starting point (present), the ending point (a precise coordinate in the past), and the mission objective (for example, eating that damned burger)—then the 'lighthouse' will guide us throughout, ensuring we move along a closed 'pipeline,' go out, grab something, come back, and the pipeline automatically disappears, leaving no trace."
He provocatively lifted his chin, "Theoretically, this is much easier than navigating to the hamburger that choked you to death."
A brief silence fell in the living room, broken only by the faint hum of holographic projection light filaments.
Pym stared intently at the dynamic model, his lips silently moving a few times.
He abruptly grabbed the untouched coffee cup in front of Chen Tian and took a large gulp, then slammed the cup heavily onto the table with a bang, instantly creating several cracks in its bottom.
"Hmph!" He snorted, his sharp gaze sweeping across Tony's face, "A childish, simplified model! More holes than a sieve! Where's the energy supply? What about the interference shielding for high-dimensional spacetime tides? What about the stability threshold calculation for the closed-loop pipeline?! Little Stark, still only knows how to draw pretty rough sketches!"
He suddenly stood up, his back to the two of them, his shoulders rising and falling slightly with suppressed excitement. "...However," his voice dropped, carrying an extremely reluctant awkwardness, "the entry point... the direction... is barely, just a tiny bit... worth discussing." The last few words were almost squeezed out from between his teeth.
The smug, "I'm the smartest in the World" smile on Tony's face instantly spread to his ears, and he winked at Chen Tian: See? The old man's interested!
Pym stared intently at the precise light filament structure on Tony's projection, his nostrils flaring as if he had caught the scent of some prime bait but was forcefully resisting the urge to pounce.
He suddenly turned his head back, his eyes, capable of penetrating the Quantum Realm, fixed on Chen Tian: "Kid, why do you want to go back? Or rather... why do you want to open that kind of channel? Don't tell me it's just because the little Stark scoundrel wants to taste a cheeseburger from his Grandpa's era!"
The living room instantly quieted. Tony stood with his hands in his pockets, his smugness gone. He looked at Chen Tian and raised an eyebrow—meaning, should he really tell him?
Chen Tian shrugged, "Tell him, Dr. Hank isn't some gossipy old fossil." He nodded towards Tony.
Tony took a deep breath and turned to Pym: "Old man, look out the window."
Pym frowned, instinctively glancing at the calm San Francisco street scene outside the window.
"Think again," Tony's voice was slightly lower, "Batman of Gotham, the destruction of Metropolis, and that... 'Injustice League' captured by us Arbitrators."
Pym's pupils suddenly constricted! "What do you mean?"
Tony scoffed, "Haven't you noticed that many memories about these things seem to have been forced into our minds? Hank, we're all in cutting-edge physics; you should have realized—the scent of this World isn't right!"
Chen Tian took over: "Reality is like a piece of tattered cloth forcibly sewn together, Dr. Gotham, Metropolis, the Injustice League... they shouldn't be here. We are in a World that has been forcibly 'stitched' together, full of loopholes, with chaotic rules. Collapse is only a matter of time."
"So you want to travel through time?" Pym's voice was dry.
Tony spread his hands at the opportune moment, yielding the stage: "Old man, the idea of how to safely drill holes in timelines or parallel Universes wasn't mine," he gestured to Chen Tian, "It was his."
Chen Tian didn't hesitate at all. He casually raised his right hand, fingers slightly splayed.
Buzz—
Five dazzling rays of light suddenly lit up, rotating lightly around his wrist like a star ring!
Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time—five primordial colors intertwined and flowed, emitting a terrifying surge of immense energy.
Pym gasped, his eyes nearly popping out. His previously hunched back instantly straightened, and he stammered as he pointed at the light: "This... this is...? !"
"Infinity Stones, Dr." Chen Tian's voice, illuminated by the gems' glow, sounded exceptionally calm. "Energy crystals from the dawn of the Universe. The Space Stone lets me go anywhere I know the location of, the Mind Stone is best at playing with minds, the Reality Stone can rewrite rules, the Power Stone can burst a star with one punch..."
He lightly rotated his wrist, the green-glowing Time Stone particularly striking, "This green one, theoretically, allows me to travel freely through the river of time."
Only the rotation of the gems and Pym's heavy breathing remained in the living room.
He stared at the light with a mix of curiosity and shock, like a child seeing an ant crawl into a crack for the first time.
"With all six Infinity Stones, theoretically, any wish can be granted."
Chen Tian retracted his wrist, and the five gems' light vanished, as if the spectacle just now was merely an illusion.
"Now, only the last one remains, the most difficult to acquire—the Soul Stone."
"Soul Stone?" Pym subconsciously repeated, then suddenly reacted.
Pointing at the lingering energy glow on Chen Tian's wrist: "Wait! You have the Time Stone! It can control time! Why don't you just use that green stone to rewind to the time point or parallel Universe you want to get the Soul Stone? Why bother with a Quantum Realm channel?!"
Chen Tian showed a helpless and slightly embarrassed smile, shrugging for a rare moment: "Good question, Dr. Because this thing," he pointed to his wrist, where the green glow of the Time Stone seemed to linger, "I can only perform simple operations. For more complex operations, there's no instruction manual."
He looked at Pym's confused expression and explained: "The power of the Time Stone... well, it's very subtle. Making a rotten apple fresh again, or rewinding some annoying guy ten seconds to make him fall face-first—that's no problem, a small trick."
His tone shifted, "But to send my entire living self, precisely and safely, to a specific point in time in another parallel Universe—I'm sorry, that operation is like asking me to chop firewood with a scalpel; the difficulty factor is off the charts. My 'macro timeline travel' function for it is currently in a state of 'knowing it can, but not knowing exactly how to make it can.' Messing around? The outcome might be even more disastrous than Tony dancing in women's clothes."
Tony immediately protested from the side: "Hey! That was just strategic disguise! Tactical necessity! Friday, delete that last sentence of his!"
Chen Tian ignored Tony and continued: "However, I know who can, but I can't look for her, because I'm worried that she might die if she gets too excited."
The shock on Pym's face slowly gave way to a complex expression of "I knew it."
He looked at Chen Tian's frank expression, then at the fuming Tony beside him, and finally, his characteristic scathing sarcasm returned to his tone, though his voice was still a bit unsteady from the recent shock:
"Ha! So, you, the 'strongest Arbitrator,' are holding a pile of Universe-level cheat codes, but you can't even read the instruction manual?! And you need to beg an old man like me to pave the way for you with 'outdated' quantum mechanics?!"
He snorted heavily, but his eyes gleamed with fanaticism.
"Stark! Stop fiddling with your tin can! All your lab's raw data on quantum entanglement and spacetime positioning, immediately! Right now! Transfer it over! I want to see with my own eyes how much wild fantasy you two live wires have cooked up! Oh, and by the way! Get my daughter to help me, you know who my daughter is."
Tony immediately dropped his joking expression: "Friday! Package it up! Top priority transfer!"
He watched Pym, who was "cursing with his mouth, but honestly slamming the receive button with his hand," and exchanged a successful glance with Chen Tian—the secret to dealing with this stubborn old man, besides showing him Universe-level "cheat codes," was to complain with him about another "cheat code" holder's instruction manual reading disability.
— — — — — —
Dr. Pym's collection of antique-level experimental equipment (and himself) was directly air-freighted by Tony back to the Underground Room Base of the Malibu Arbitrator Tower—a newly opened Quantum Realm laboratory filled with the latest cutting-edge equipment.
Once the door closed, it immediately became a gladiatorial arena for mad scientists:
Tony Stark: Holographic projections were drawn in a dazzling array, coffee kept him alive, and his mouth was hotter than a reactor: "Old man! The energy matrix here must use my new configuration..."
Dr. Banner: Pushing up his glasses, trying to find a quiet corner of physical constants amidst Tony's noise and Pym's roars: "Uh... Hank, regarding the shielding layer for time turbulence, perhaps we could draw inspiration from gamma..."
Princess Shuri: Her fingertips danced across the console, moving so fast they were a blur, her eyes sparkling with wisdom, occasionally throwing out an optimized algorithm that surpassed Tony's existing framework, making both men shut up simultaneously.
Hank Pym: Hugging his old Ant-Man helmet like a protective lion, he glared at Tony's blueprints with a huff: "Exaggerated! Energy loss like a sieve! Use Howard's era stabilizer idea instead!" But he nodded frequently at Shuri's proposals.
Hope van Dyne: Efficient, cool, and precise, executing her father's and Tony's (sometimes contradictory) instructions, while also physically separating the two men who were about to fight: "Coffee's over there, don't smash the instruments!"
The Underground Room was filled with the smell of scorched welding, overly strong caffeine, and the sparks of high-intensity intellectual collisions.
Banner's dark circles were almost as bad as a Vampire's, and Pym's frequency of cursing Tony became the lab's background noise.
Time, here, was compressed like Pym Particles.
And at the same time—
Sunshine, beach, waves.
Chen Tian, wearing sunglasses, lay comfortably on the terrace of a top-tier resort Villa on a private island.
To his left was Bayonetta, wearing a sexy black bikini, elegantly sipping red wine, with several shopping bags bearing top luxury brand logos at her feet.
To his right was 2B, the mechanical girl meticulously trying to precisely place a cherry on top of an ice cream sundae, her gaze focused as if she were calibrating a precision weapon.
Not far away, Kiana was energetically surfing, wearing a white ruffled bikini. A big wave came, and she cheered as she was engulfed, then the next second, she rode her surfboard out of the wave, triumphantly waving towards the terrace.
"Phew... This is the life." Chen Tian leisurely sipped his iced drink, and a faint glow from the Space Stone on his wrist flashed, and a rare dessert from a small town in the Arctic Circle appeared on the table in front of 2B, earning him a barely perceptible, shining glance from her.
Beep beep beep—
Chen Tian's communicator rang, projecting a holographic image of Tony with a scruffy beard, sunken eyes, and Pym's angry roar of "Stark!" in the background:
"Hey! Vacation Emperor! Your 'Lighthouse' core is about to explode from the old man and my arguing! Also, Hope asked if you could lend 2B to help with some ultra-precision calibrations? She said mechanical life's stability is much stronger than us live wires! Oh, hey, why no sound? Hello? Hello! Chen Tian! Don't pretend the signal is bad! I see your eyes moving!"
Chen Tian calmly cut off the communication, shrinking Tony's avatar into a small, agitated blinking light dot and tossing it into the corner of the screen.
"Ah~~" He winked at Bayonetta, "Did Tony just send a message? Never mind, let's play first. Kiana! Do another one!"
Bayonetta listened, covered her mouth with a light laugh, then straddled Chen Tian, pointing at his chest with her finger, "My dear, you're such a big kid."
And from the sea came the energetic response of the young girl.
The vacation had just begun. The lab's grievances? They were separated by thick floors and half the Earth.
-----------------------
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