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*****
Although they were both invisible, this was Fini's Mirror Dimension after all. While he wasn't omnipotent here like he was in the Evil King's True Eye, he still possessed a certain degree of control over it.
Thus, Fini quickly located Ava Starr's position.
Quietly approaching her side, he threw out a punch. Caught off guard while invisible, Ava Starr failed to maintain her phased state and was instantly knocked out of her invisibility.
Because he didn't intend to kill her, Fini controlled most of his strength, only leaving her injured. Otherwise, a single sneak attack with that punch could have instantly killed her.
Inside her suit, Ava Starr spat a mouthful of warm blood into her mask. This was the first time she had been injured in all the years since she mastered her abilities.
As she flew backward, she hurriedly shifted her physical state, forcing herself to remain phased to prevent Fini from following up with another attack.
She had originally planned to ambush Fini from invisibility, but she never expected to be ambushed instead.
"To be honest, you're really no match for me. Just surrender quietly, I don't want to kill you yet!"
Fini didn't pursue Ava Starr. Instead, he deactivated his invisibility and looked at her, offering another word of advice.
Aside from being interested in Ava Starr's condition, Fini did feel a certain level of sympathy for her experiences. After all, she had been taken in by HYDRA since she was a child, a time when she had no power to resist.
Furthermore, judging from the original plot, all she really wanted was to cure herself.
Ava Starr remained silent, merely standing her ground and staring intently at Fini. She was trying to buy time; she couldn't win a fight, and her invisibility was useless, so her only hope now rested on reinforcements.
Unfortunately for her, she had no idea that Sitwell had immediately guessed Fini either left some trap in the room or was physically inside it the moment he lost contact with her. As a result, no reinforcements would be coming at all.
"Actually, I know how to cure your body!"
Seeing Ava Starr's demeanor, Fini dropped a bombshell. Based on his knowledge of the original plot, he truly did know how to solve her problem.
Ava Starr's body shuddered violently. Though she knew Fini might be bluffing, she was utterly unwilling to let any opportunity slip by. After all, no one could understand the agonizing pain she endured every single day.
Taking a step forward, Ava Starr hesitated for a moment before removing the mask from her head, revealing a youthful face. Traces of blood still lingered at the corner of her mouth, but her eyes were locked onto Fini as she spoke:
"What's the method?"
Fini didn't explain immediately. Instead, he recalled the plot and said, "Your body became like this after a quantum tunnel explosion, right?"
Ava Starr wasn't overly surprised that Fini knew about her condition. However, she inexplicably felt a bit more trust in his claim that he could cure her.
In truth, a large part of this trust stemmed from the prestige of Fini's identity.
Fini was hailed by the entire Earth as its most mysterious and powerful individual, and his true strength remained an absolute enigma to this day. Even though Ava Starr didn't follow the news, she at least knew of his reputation.
What's more, she had just witnessed Fini's strength firsthand.
"How can my body be cured?"
Ava Starr took another step forward, the expression on her face growing visibly agitated.
"I do know, but why should I tell you?"
Looking at Ava Starr, Fini asked back with an amused tone.
Hearing Fini's words, the expression on Ava Starr's face instantly stiffened. After a few seconds of silence, she replied, "I won't try to kill him anymore. I just want to return to normal!"
Fini immediately shook his head and corrected her, "Not to underestimate you, but with me here, you couldn't kill him even if you tried!"
Ava Starr fell silent. In reality, that was the absolute truth. She could barely protect herself right now, let alone complete her mission of assassinating Nick Fury.
After another stretch of silence, Ava Starr asked again:
"Then what do you want?"
This question was somewhat difficult for Fini to answer. What he truly wanted was something Ava Starr couldn't give him, and his reluctance to kill her was purely out of a sense of pity.
What Fini actually wanted were Pym Particles and the Quantum Laboratory.
He had made plans for those two things very early on. The Quantum Realm was a magical place where time and space had no correlation to the real world.
There were even time vortexes. For the early-game Fini, who desperately needed time to grow, the boost would have been unimaginable if utilized properly.
Even back when he had first drawn the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, he had considered shrinking her down along with himself to enter the Quantum Realm. His plan was to find a way to alter the flow of time and then raise her by feeding her fried chicken rolls.
However, those had always been his last-resort measures. While such methods offered massive growth, they also came with significant risks.
But now, after drawing nine skills at an unimaginable speed, he no longer had such a desperate need for those things.
Even so, he remained highly interested in the quantum energy and time vortexes within the Quantum Realm. After all, being able to travel through time meant he would have access to far more resources to fuel his growth.
For instance, the Dimensional Power he needed most.
Pulling his thoughts back, Fini looked at Ava Starr, who was still staring intently at him awaiting an answer. Sighing, he said, "You can't give me what I truly want, but I suppose I can reluctantly lower my conditions."
"Name it!"
Ava Starr asked without the slightest hesitation.
"Help the guy you were just trying to kill wipe out another organization within SHIELD, and I'll tell you the method!"
After some thought, Fini decided to have Ava Starr help the Braised Egg clear out HYDRA. After all, he couldn't really gain anything useful from Ava Starr herself, so it was better to sell Fury a favor and extract benefits from him instead.
Ava Starr frowned instantly. She didn't actually care about SHIELD or HYDRA; she only cared about her own body. Helping Nick Fury deal with HYDRA would undoubtedly mean smothering her current hope of a cure.
"How can I believe you?"
"I can tell you the method first!"
Fini replied candidly and spoke directly: "Your condition was caused by a quantum tunnel explosion. To return to normal, you must use quantum energy from the Quantum Realm to replenish and stabilize yourself."
"I know someone who can build a quantum tunnel and has a way to enter the Quantum Realm, though he can't guarantee a safe return after going in!"
"The cure for your body is actually very simple: either you enter the Quantum Realm yourself to absorb energy and heal your cellular structure, or someone else enters the Quantum Realm to harvest the energy for you and injects it into you upon their return."
Hearing Fini's words, Ava Starr stood frozen, her brow furrowed deep in thought. In her heart, she actually believed the method Fini described. On HYDRA's side, she also relied on a type of quantum fluctuation to help stabilize her body.
However, there were clearly a few critical points in Fini's explanation that had been left unexplained.
For example, who the person capable of building the quantum tunnel was, and how one was supposed to return from the Quantum Realm.