The fake Hope Pym still seemed unwilling to accept defeat.
Meanwhile, Ant-Man—Eric O'Grady—slowly regained consciousness after being knocked out.
When he saw the fake Hope bound tightly with special restraints, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"That scared the hell out of me. That attack almost finished me off!"
"What the hell happened?"
"My whole body went numb. I fell straight into her trap. Unbelievable."
As Eric spoke, he blinked rapidly more than a dozen times, trying to clear his head.
Even so, he still couldn't accept how easily he had been fooled.
He really had sensed that something was wrong with Hope Pym.
But after testing her, her abilities and even the way she used them had been virtually identical!
It was almost impossible to guard against.
"So the real Hope Pym has already been captured by you, right?"
Karl didn't even give the impostor a chance to make excuses before confronting her directly.
"You finally figured it out? Looks like your head is working properly again."
"And it isn't just Hope Pym. We've captured other superheroes too!"
"To be honest, I don't even know how many superheroes they've already taken or how many DNA samples they've replicated."
"Plenty of fake heroes have already infiltrated Earth. We need to find someone you can absolutely trust."
Eric O'Grady could hardly process all of that at once.
Although he had sensed earlier that there was something wrong with Hope, he had only realized the truth after it was already too late.
He had never discovered that she had been replaced.
"All right, stop thinking about it."
"I know what that kind of frustration feels like. I've experienced it before too, back when I wasn't strong enough."
"The technology in their hands is far more advanced than we imagined. Right now, they're collecting every Ultimate Weapon they can find."
Eric immediately covered the belt around his waist with both hands!
This was his own Ultimate Weapon.
With it, he could continuously shrink his body until he entered the Quantum Realm!
If the Skrulls obtained this technology, Eric didn't even dare imagine what they might be capable of doing with it.
They might even be able to travel between different dimensions, bypassing ordinary limitations of distance and spacetime!
The thought that this technology could be stolen from him made Eric shudder.
"So the Skrulls are going through all this trouble because they want the belt I'm wearing?"
"They think that once they collect all the Ultimate Weapons, they'll be able to conquer Earth?"
"That's ridiculous!"
"If it were really that easy, why couldn't Thanos accomplish his ultimate objective even after getting his hands on my belt before?"
"They're just reassuring themselves with fantasies!"
The fake Hope became furious when she heard them openly discussing the situation right in front of her and insulting the power of her lord.
She tried to shrink her body again.
But she quickly discovered that she was completely powerless.
As an early-generation reproduction of Ant-Man-style size-changing abilities, the fake Hope's capabilities were far inferior to Eric O'Grady's.
At most, she could enlarge herself to roughly one hundred feet.
At her smallest, she could only shrink to around half an inch.
The limitations of those transformations made her desperate to improve herself.
That was why she had planned to extract Eric's DNA and advance to the next stage.
Unfortunately for her, Karl had suddenly appeared and completely ruined the plan.
Tothwanwell had already predicted that if Karl remained unaware of their plan to conquer Earth, they could continue delaying their invasion until everything was ready.
Before Karl arrived, the fake Hope had already transmitted a signal back to Tothwanwell.
Inside the Skrull palace, everyone believed she had succeeded.
They were already celebrating!
They were simply waiting for her to send Eric O'Grady's DNA back to them.
Once they possessed it, they believed they would finally be able to relax.
Karl could understand Eric's anger.
After all, Eric's abilities—especially his quantum shrinking technology—could be extremely useful against the Skrulls.
That kind of technology was precisely what they desired most.
"Do you think all they want from you is some kind of time machine?"
"Not even close."
"If they gain the ability to travel freely through different dimensions, how are we supposed to deal with them then?"
"Think about it. If they gather every Ultimate Weapon they're searching for, just imagine how terrifying the combined power would become."
Eric turned toward the captive impostor.
"You people really went to a lot of trouble just to obtain my technology, didn't you?"
"Talk!"
"Where are you keeping the real Hope Pym?"
Karl immediately realized that Eric's emotions were starting to take over.
Rescuing Hope was obviously important.
But right now, charging ahead recklessly wouldn't solve anything.
"All right, all right. Come over here for a second. I need to tell you something."
Karl practically dragged Eric into an empty room nearby.
The spell Karl had cast earlier was more than enough to keep the fake Hope completely immobilized.
She couldn't shrink or enlarge herself anymore!
"Stop pulling me!"
"I need to find out where they're holding the superheroes!"
"Everyone always talks about saving Earth and saving the world, but when everything falls apart, they're still going to need my power!"
"I'll show them just how powerful Eric O'Grady—the Ant-Man—is!"
Karl rubbed his forehead helplessly.
This was absolutely not the time to show off or compete for credit!
The fake Hope had fallen into their hands precisely because she had been so desperate to distinguish herself.
She wanted to impress Tothwanwell.
She wanted to prove her value to the Skrulls.
And that eagerness had caused her to fall straight into Karl's trap.
Karl first needed Eric to calm down.
"I understand. I understand exactly what you're thinking."
"But think carefully."
"If we openly storm the Skrulls' main base, they'll immediately realize that we've discovered the fake superheroes."
"They'll know their identities have been exposed."
"Right now, they're hiding in the shadows while we're standing out in the open. They can see everything about us, while we know almost nothing about them."
"If we expose everything immediately, they'll become even harder to defend against."
"They've already planted spies all around us."
"Instead of revealing that we know, it would be better to pretend we don't, play along with their plan, and turn their infiltrators against them."
After hearing Karl's explanation, Eric finally understood.
He nodded.
"You're right!"
"I really was too impulsive just now."
"It's all because of that impostor."
Eric felt particularly embarrassed.
The atmosphere between him and "Hope" earlier had been so intimate.
And in the end, she had turned out to be fake!
Worse still, she had been a Skrull pretending to be Hope Pym.
Her mannerisms had been so convincing that Eric had almost completely fallen for the disguise.
He was supposed to be the third Ant-Man to inherit this technology.
His abilities had certainly become stronger.
So why did it feel like his judgment had become worse instead?
With Dr. Hank Pym's assistance, Eric had continued upgrading and refining his technology.
Karl knew that Eric could reduce himself to an incredibly tiny size.
That ability would definitely become extremely useful later.
"It's because Dr. Pym helped advance your technology this far!"
(End of Chapter)
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