"What?! This is impossible, this is?!" Banner could hardly believe what he was seeing.
On the image Noah displayed, a laboratory was filled with bottled and bagged blood. If it was just blood, Banner wouldn't have been surprised, but what shocked him most was the writing on the blood bags. It read, "Bruce Banner XX Year X Month X Day." Could this be his own blood?
When Banner was on the run, he often mailed his blood to his online friend, Mr. Blue, hoping he could help him find a cure for the Hulk. However, Banner never expected that the other party would use his blood for their own purposes. But why was there so much blood? He had only sent a tiny bit each time.
"Is all of this my blood?" Banner's eyes trembled slightly, wide with disbelief.
"Yes, Dr. Banner, this is all your blood. Dr. Samuel Sterns, after obtaining your blood, secretly used it for experiments and even replicated it," Noah clicked a few times, and new data popped up on the screen.
[Date --- July 12, 2008]
[Content --- Exploring the fusion of ??? blood and human cells]
[Experiment Process --- Attempted to fuse ??? blood with mice as test subjects. The result was beyond our expectations. The blood does not seem to fuse with normal cells. The test subjects died.]
[The cells in ??? blood contain Gamma radiation that is too powerful to fuse with normal cells. These cells are like a poison.]
[Date….]
Banner frowned, looking at the data Noah provided, one entry after another. Noah obtained all this information on the day he first met Banner, which was also the day Abomination was born. At that time, after Banner entered the campus where Samuel Sterns was located, Noah waited in a coffee shop on the street outside, playing on his phone. However, he wasn't just idly playing; he took the opportunity to have Lissandra infiltrate Samuel Sterns' laboratory, where she obtained this data and these photos.
"Dr. Stern, what exactly have you done?" Banner began rubbing his temples. This information was giving him a headache. He never imagined that the blood he had given would lead to such consequences.
"Samuel Sterns has been experimenting with your blood, first with mice, then with large mammals, but it seems none of them were successful," Noah mused, resting his chin on one hand.
Noah remembered that before Banner went to see Samuel Sterns, he had obtained all the data from their previous experiments from his girlfriend, Betty, and sent it to Samuel Sterns. Perhaps with this data, coupled with the mutation in his brain, Samuel Sterns' experiment finally succeeded.
"These are… the data I sent him…" Banner reviewed all the data and saw the information he had sent to Samuel Sterns. He then realized that his data might have been the final catalyst for the other party's successful experiment, which made him feel a bit annoyed.
"No, we must stop him. This power is too dangerous," Banner couldn't help but exclaim. His oversight might bring a great disaster to the World, and this was something Banner could not tolerate. He had to resolve the matter with Samuel Sterns as soon as possible.
"Alright, but he's disappeared now. It will take more time to find him," Noah also wanted to find this cunning fellow, as he still had a mission to complete.
Banner was also trying to figure out a way. He was more anxious about this matter than anyone else, because it was a mess he had created, and if there were any consequences, he would bear a part of the responsibility. This was his inner thought.
"Let's go to this place first. Maybe we can find some clues," Noah opened a Teleport gate, intending to check out the Gamma energy source shown on the detector, which was the building burning with Fire on the display.
"Dr. Banner, do you want to come along?" Noah looked at Banner, then opened another Teleport gate to send Hat back home, as it wouldn't be needed for fighting anymore.
Banner looked up and thought for a moment. There shouldn't be any more danger, so he wanted to go see.
Banner nodded, then followed Noah through the Teleport gate again.
As soon as they stepped out of the Teleport gate, a wave of intense heat washed over them. This heat made Banner quite uncomfortable, as he was not in his Hulk form at the moment. However, for Noah, this was child's play; the temperature of the Fire caused by the Magic Hat earlier was much higher.
Amidst the burning flames, there were many explosions. Noah used his old trick, summoning Water through a Teleport gate to extinguish the Fire. Since these were just ordinary flames, Noah didn't mix magic into the Water this time, only using regular Water to put out the Fire. Noah initially thought of using wind to blow out the flames, but he was afraid of collapsing the buildings, so he didn't choose to use wind to extinguish the Fire.
Banner, standing by, watched in amazement. When Noah put out the Fire before, he was in his Hulk form, so his memory was a bit hazy, but now he was seeing it with his own eyes, and he was very curious about the power of magic.
Noah and Banner walked into the dark building. As they walked, Noah waved his hand to disperse the thick White smoke. The building had been so burned by the flames that its original appearance was unrecognizable, making it impossible to tell what it was originally used for.
The two explored for a while, then came to what appeared to be the Leader's laboratory. Scattered around were fragments from an explosion of instruments, which led them to believe it was a laboratory.
"There's nothing left here, nothing to find," Banner said, disheartened, kicking at a piece of metal debris on the ground.
Noah walked a few steps, and a smell of roasted meat wafted over, and he immediately realized what it was. Noah patted Banner's shoulder, motioning him to look over the railing ahead.
Banner thought Noah had found a clue, so he walked over without hesitation. Below the railing was a deep pit. When Banner reached the railing, his eyes widened.
"Ugh ~ Shit! What are these?!" As Banner saw the scene in the pit, the smell hit him, making him gag.
The pit beneath the railing was filled with bizarre-looking corpses. The recent Fire seemed to have only burned the upper layer, and the corpses at the bottom were not incinerated. Banner could see the appearance of these bodies; although distorted, Banner could still vaguely identify their original species, including both animals and many human corpses.
"Oh my god, has he killed so many people already?! He's already started human experimentation!" Banner was furious, his voice growing heavier and heavier. He only managed to control his anger just before he was about to transform.
Noah, however, was not so emotional. He had seen many dead people, and he himself had taken care of many. Noah didn't dwell on the pile of corpses; he was sensing every area within the laboratory. This might be where the Leader usually spent the most time.
After gaining Neeko's power, he had a lot of insights into the power of souls, because Neeko's transformation ability utilizes the souls of others to transform, just like Noah transformed into Thor in Asgard before. And after Noah studied at Kamar-Taj, he had read many books on soul abilities there.
So, Noah wanted to look for any lingering soul essence of the other party here. Even if there was only a tiny bit of essence, Noah could collect it and then go to Kamar-Taj to find any tracking spells. With so many books in the Kamar-Taj library, there must be one that has it.
"Hmm? This should work," Noah came to a piece of instrument wreckage not far from the railing. The Leader seemed to have spent the most time here, and over time, some of his essence had clung to the spot. Other mages might not be able to detect this essence, but Noah had Neeko's power, which allowed him to sense the Sho'ma (soul) of all things. He was very sensitive to this kind of essence, which was why he could detect this faint essence.
"We'll go to Kamar-Taj later," Noah said. In fact, Noah wasn't too rushed, after all, the mission had no time limit. He had already completed the B-rank mission that popped up today. This B-rank mission gave him 800 essence, which he thought was pretty good. The minimum reward for a B-rank mission was 500 points, so anything higher than that was decent.
"Let's go, Dr. Banner. We'll figure out a way when we get back."