In the top-floor office of the Baxter Building.
As the elevator doors opened.
Gwen followed the woman leading the way out of the elevator, and then saw Reed Richards, whom the people of this world dubbed Mr. Fantastic.
A person lauded as a prodigy since childhood, he once graduated from prestigious universities such as California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Columbia University, and Empire State University, holding doctorates in fields including engineering, mathematics, and physics.
During a space experiment, he encountered an accident, gaining superpowers, and his body possesses tremendous extensibility and elasticity, able to stretch and deform at will.
Quite similar to Bruce Banner.
Both mutated after being exposed to cosmic rays.
Gwen, watching Reed Richards seated behind the desk, recalled the information she had read about Reed Richards, her mind pondering.
As Gwen watched Reed Richards, he was also watching Gwen.
After the woman who brought Gwen here left the office.
Reed Richards spoke.
"Ms. Stacy..."
"Phoenix."
"Hmm?"
"I am already married, my husband's surname is Phoenix."
Gwen solemnly corrected Reed Richards' error in addressing her.
Hawk was her choice.
She never regretted it.
Reed Richards, looking at Gwen's serious face, glanced at the information about Gwen on the computer, then chuckled: "The data shows you are unmarried."
Gwen smiled and said, "No, I am married."
Saying this.
She displayed the wedding ring on her finger.
Reed Richards nodded thoughtfully.
"May I ask what Mr. Phoenix's full name is..."
"Hawk Phoenix."
Gwen revealed Hawk's name, then looked at Reed Richards turning to the computer: "You won't find him, I've tried, he doesn't exist in this world."
Reed Richards looked at the screen showing no such person, then looked at Gwen.
"Fraudulent marriage?"
As Reed Richards entertained this thought, Gwen seemed to have anticipated his thinking: "Hawk exists, it's just that he's not in this universe, because I'm not from this universe either."
Reed Richards was silent.
His first reaction was that Gwen was a lunatic.
But...
Would someone who achieved a doctorate at just twenty years old be a lunatic?
Impossible.
Therefore!
Reed Richards adjusted his sitting position, placed his hands on the table, and looked at Gwen.
"Please continue."
"Hawk and I met at Midtown High School..."
Gwen slowly recounted her encounter, understanding, and love with Hawk, followed by an abrupt shift in time leading to a changed world.
As everyone knows.
Reed Richards holds many doctorates, among them is a doctorate in psychology.
Thus, while Gwen recounted, he kept observing the expressions on Gwen's face.
Once Gwen finished speaking, he drew a conclusion.
Either Gwen is completely insane.
Or Gwen is telling the truth, she isn't from this Earth, but from a multiverse Earth.
The former?
Reed Richards couldn't see any traits present in lunatics when he looked at Gwen.
But the multiverse?
Dubbed the smartest person in the world, Reed Richards couldn't help but frown, posing a question.
"Dr. Sta… Phoenix, you say you're not from this world, but from the multiverse. How can you prove it?"
"This."
Gwen raised her right hand, the wedding ring on her finger glinting with peculiar light.
She slowly removed the wedding ring from her finger, placing it on the table under Reed Richards' gaze.
"This?"
"Yes, you may try to lift it, Dr. Richards."
Gwen said, making a gesture of invitation towards Reed Richards.
Reed Richards looked at Gwen's expression, smirked, then reached to pick up Gwen's wedding ring placed on the table.
But...
No movement.
Hmm?
Reed Richards, looking at the motionless ring under his grasp, paused slightly, then instinctively looked at the ring quietly resting on the table.
Unfortunately!
Despite Reed Richards using both hands, he couldn't lift the wedding ring belonging to Gwen from the table.
Reed Richards gave up and looked at Gwen.
Gwen smiled, then under Reed Richards' gaze, picked the ring up from the table with two fingers, and placed it back.
Reed Richards went to take it.
The ring, once more, remained stationary.
"This..."
"This wedding ring was given to me by my husband during our honeymoon."
Gwen smiled and said, "It's made from a diamond planet, so this ring carries the weight of an entire planet, uniquely mine. I think this can serve as proof."
It was a very simple operation.
Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, also carries the weight of a planet.
It's just that Odin made a hammer from a planet, and Hawk made Gwen's wedding ring from a diamond planet.
The weight of a planet?
Reed Richards listened to Gwen's words, instinctively looked at Gwen, then once again at the wedding ring on the table, and then back to Gwen.
"May I conduct a test?"
"Of course."
Gwen said with a smile, "I came here seeking the trust of the smartest person in the world, and then, I hope Dr. Richards can help me find a way home."
Upon hearing this, Reed Richards looked serious, "Madam Phoenix, if you truly come from the multiverse, we will find a way to send you back."
Gwen stood up from her seat and extended her right hand towards Dr. Reed Richards.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
After Reed Richards shook hands with Gwen, once she put the wedding ring back on, he impatiently guided Gwen towards their laboratory.
An hour later.
The test report was out.
"Hiss!"
The person gasping was Ben Grimm, who was tall and strong before an accident in space, but afterward became The Thing, whose body was entirely made of orange rock.
He looked at the test report in disbelief, "This isn't scientific, the weight of this ring…"
Beside him, the young, handsome Johnny Storm with short blond hair, crouched down, also looked incredulously at the ring under the glass cover, "So this isn't a diamond ring, but a diamond planet?"
Johnny Storm's sister, Susan Storm, who is also Reed Richards' wife, was equally surprised, "How is this accomplished?"
Compressing a diamond planet to fit into the setting of a ring?
Is this something humans can do?
Susan Storm instinctively looked at Gwen beside her.
After reading the test report, Reed Richards had already made a final confirmation in his mind, but with one last question, he looked at Gwen.
"Dr. Phoenix, one last question."
"Please, Dr. Richards."
"You came here, told me you're from the multiverse, didn't you ever think that I might not be a good person, and maybe even a bad one?"
Gwen, hearing this doubt, smiled at Reed Richards.
"My husband is named Hawk Phoenix."
"So?"
"If something happens to me in this universe, believe me, Dr. Richards, your Earth and your entire universe would be buried with me. My husband, he has a very bad temper."
That was the truth.
In some people's eyes, Hawk's temper couldn't just be described as bad; they would describe it as explosive.
Reed Richards, seeing the expression on Gwen's face as she said this, thought of the Hawk Phoenix mentioned in Gwen's previous stories.
His intuition told him that when Gwen said this, she was very serious.
If she perishes in this universe, then the entire universe would perish with her.
After all...
According to Gwen, her husband was originally trying to seize another universe from their own universe, which angered the universe itself to the point of sending him here.
All the universe could do was to move Gwen away from Hawk's side.
This!
Reed Richards looked towards Gwen.
"The multiverse exists only in theory; we might need time."
"Time is the one thing I don't lack now."
Upon hearing this, Gwen again extended her right hand toward Reed Richards, "And maybe I can help."
Once again, even though it was a different Earth, it didn't change the fact that Gwen was financially independent.
Although there was no Osborn here, and no Stark Industries, the Regenerative Potion still existed and was also Gwen's research achievement.
Therefore…
She wasn't short of money, and one might say the reason why Reed Richards agreed to meet Gwen was primarily because of her wealth.
He just didn't expect Gwen to drop such a bombshell.
However!
Reed Richards contemplated the unseen Hawk Phoenix mentioned in Gwen's words, spun his thoughts, and then shook hands with Gwen, "Welcome aboard, Dr. Phoenix."
There was no choice.
He dared not gamble.
It wouldn't matter if they were oblivious, but now that they knew, what if something really happened to Gwen on this planet?
Giselle.
"To destroy you has nothing to do with you!"
At best, the genocide!
At worst, annihilation.
Moreover, fighting one universe against another universe?
Just thinking about the Hawk Phoenix mentioned in Gwen's words made Reed Richards' scalp tingle.
So!
If anything unfavorable really happens to Gwen in their universe, it won't be a small planet-level crisis anymore, but a disaster capable of overturning their universe.
In short!
To be safe, even if Gwen says nothing, Reed Richards still feels it's necessary to keep her under close observation.
...