Chapter 168: Arc 5: Chapter 12: Quantum State

After a few hours more of flight, the plane Merlin and Hill rode on landed on a small airfield belonging to SHIELD on the outskirts of New York.

The one who greeted Merlin was the busy Director of SHIELD himself.

Fury even brought some more cars to transport the radioactive wreckage Merlin and Hill found in the rubble of the lab in Argentina.

It seems that he's quite attentive about it.

"I heard that you brought back a young child?"

Fury walks into the cabin, curiosity and confusion filled his eyes as he asked Merlin:

"Someone actually survived that terrible energy blast?"

"You can think of her existence as a miracle, though in my eyes, it's an utter tragedy."

Merlin shrugs and brings Fury into the sealed-off chamber in the cabin, in it was the distorted bee-nest device along with the sleeping Ava Starr.

The child's condition was much better than how it was a few hours ago, her body lying in the metal chamber had transformed from illusionary to physical form, though there was still a faint pale glow emitting from her body.

"I think the energy of the blast caused by the particle collider had permanently changed the structure of her body."

Merlin explains to Fury:

"She's experiencing unbearable pain, and that pain only subsides when she falls into a deep sleep. I couldn't let her wake up as we were in flight, she's still unable to control herself, and once she awakens, she may pass through the plane and fall from the sky."

"Peculiar indeed."

Fury holds his hands behind him, and a light flashes in his right eye as he looked at the sleeping child.

Moments later, he shakes his head:

"Pitiful indeed, she does need help, but we got a problem, Merlin."

"We can't contact Hank Pym."

Fury says to Merlin helplessly:

"I sent agents to his lab, but the head of the lab told me that it's been some time since Pym had last shown up."

"You're kidding?"

Merlin looks at Fury and says in a low tone:

"With all the resources at SHIELD's disposal, you can't find a hidden scientist?"

"Don't underestimate Hank Pym, Merlin."

Fury waves his hand and says:

"He's not just a scientist, he was once an agent, or superhero, who specialized in handling dangerous missions. Very few can find him if he wants to hide from the world. And even if I want Professor Pym to help you with their young girl? I doubt he'd help you even if you found him."

Fury seemed to be recollecting bad memories as he says:

"You never worked with Professor Pym, so you don't know what kind of a person he is. I can only tell you that he's hard to reach out to and hard to socialize with, most of the time, the things he does make him look like an utter jerk. We're not the only reason he left the SSR back then."

"He's terrible with people, and he seems to like it, he's a true genius, as well as a true weirdo."

"What about the child?"

Merlin saw the higher-ups of the SSR's awful comments on Hank Pym in his personal files, and it reveals some things when Fury, whom he's familiar with, gave a similar comment.

Merlin looks at the sleeping young Ava in the chamber and couldn't help but ask:

"We can't just leave her like this, she's very unstable right now, and her condition may worsen without assistance from a specialist...look at her, she's just 11 and she's experiencing pain unbearable even for adults."

"I never said I would leave her like this, Merlin! Am I such a cold-hearted person in your eyes?"

Fury glares at his subordinate, he then takes out his phone and sends Merlin a phone number and address, saying:

"I may not be able to find Hank Pym, but I found someone else, Professor Bill Foster, Professor Pym's assistant from back then; he too has a deep understanding of quantum physics, perhaps he can help the kid."

"Also, if Professor Pym's help is needed, you can seek assistance from Miss Carter, they were friends back then after all, and I suspect that Miss Carter may have Professor Pym's contact number."

"Why don't you go?"

Merlin looks at Fury:

"Why do I always have to do the hassle of asking for help? Also, what of the wizarding war in London? Do I still need to go back and handle things there?"

"You still want to return to London?"

Fury looks at Merlin and sighs:

"As I told you before, even with military authorization, it's a big thing launching a missile in the homeland of a sovereign state."

"You have to stay in New York for now, Officer Pierce helped divert some of the questionings, but there may still be some follow-up review processes you need to partake in...in the grand scheme of things, it shouldn't be anything big, you did vanquish most of the Death-Eaters with that tactical missile, and even averted a potential crisis."

"As for the wizarding war in London, the news I've received so far is is that the Death-Eaters organization had taken a fatal hit and that Voldemort and the remaining Death-Eaters have gone underground."

"Agent Garrett and the secret agents are helping the wizards of the Order of the Phoenix to look for the last 2 Horcruxes, and they already have a lead on them. The situation of the British wizarding world is being shifted to our advantage, and the order there is quickly reawakening; what I mean is, you are no longer needed there."

"You should trust your companions to be able to handle the rest of it. Also, you have to drop by Miss Carter's place regardless of this incident, she has some things to ask of you recently."

"Alright then."

Merlin nods, he strokes the emerald ring on his finger and says:

"I'll see it as a short break. Fury, what about the girl? Do you want to take her? Or should I do it?"

"You'll take her to Professor Foster for now."

Fury looks at the watch and answers:

"After confirming the treatment plan, we'll arrange the child's whereabouts. She's no ordinary person, Merlin, we can't just put her into a foster family."

"Mmm, I got it."

Merlin nods.

After bidding farewell to Fury and Hill, Merlin drives the nanny van and the sleeping Ava towards the address Fury had given him.

It was a place that made Merlin somewhat emotional, Columbia University. Professor Bill Foster was a physics professor in this school. He gave the professor a call and agreed to meet up in his lab.

Merlin drives the car into the nearest parking lot to Professor Foster's lab, and after parking the car, he turns back and calls to the sleeping young girl.

"Ava, wake up."

Merlin calls for her:

"It's time to get up."

"Ah..."

On the passenger seat behind him, the sleeping young girl stretches her body, yawns, and opens her eyes. And as she woke up, her stabilized body began to show signs of fading.

"Calm down! Calm down, child."

Merlin says gently:

"Does it still hurt?"

"It does."

Young Ava nods pitifully, she tells Merlin:

"It hurts when I wake up, but it feels better now. Brother Merlin, where are we now?"

"We're here to cure you."

Merlin presses his glasses and says to the poor child:

You are reading story The Path of Shadow in American Comics at novel35.com

"The doctor's up ahead, but I need you to calm down, Ava, I need you to resist that pain for now; what I mean is, can you control your body?"

"Try not to make yourself 'light', it'll scare people."

"I can't."

Ava widens her eyes, looks at Merlin, and says with an uncomfortable tone:

"My body 'hides' when I'm scared, it hurts even more when I hide, and it feels better only when I sleep."

"Alright."

Merlin looks at the young girl, she was only 11-years old, so it's a tad too much to ask her to control this suddenly acquired ability. He thinks briefly and extends his hand to Ava:

"Then hold my hand, Ava."

The young girl reached out and tried to hold Merlin's hand, but she missed.

She was like a non-existent phantom, she could not maintain physical form without proper control.

"Ah, forget it."

Merlin says with a headache:

"Just follow me, and stay close, okay?"

He opens the door as Ava 'passes' through the metal of the car and to Merlin's side, she looks at the quiet atmosphere of the surrounding school curiously yet timidly.

Merlin looks around and calls for the shadow to enshroud both his and Ava's bodies, and as the shadow covered her, Ava exclaimed in surprise.

As she was enshrouded by the shadow, her field of vision darkened like a semi-transparent curtain had been put over her.

This made her curious, the young child extended her finger and poked at the shadow summoned by Merlin, the fog-like energy enshrouded her and emitted a cold aura.

"Come, follow me."

Merlin walks forward while Ava follows behind him.

A few minutes later, they arrive at Bill Foster's lab, where the professor is seen calibrating some kind of equipment.

He looked like a very muscular black man wearing a researcher's white coat and black-framed glasses, looking to be in his late 40s. He had a serious expression as he worked, which fitted the typical temperament of a researcher.

"Ahem."

Merlin retracts the shadow and coughs. The professor then turns around and looks at the young man behind him warily, but then, his attention slowly shifts to the odd young girl hiding behind Merlin.

"You must be Mr. Merlin."

Professor Bill presses his glasses, looks at Ava, and says:

"And this, must be the daughter of my old friend Elihas Starr, Ava, right?"

"Yes, professor."

Merlin says to the professor in front of him:

"I brought Ava here to seek your help, you see it too, the child's had some terrible changes from her father's experiments."

"I heard it from Director Fury."

Bill Foster points at the calibrated device next to him that looked like the NMR equipment in hospitals.

He tells Merlin and Ava:

"I've prepared the detection equipment, for now, I need to check Ava's physical condition, since quantum entanglement is a very abstract concept, one cannot see where the problem lies through the naked eye alone."

As he finishes, the serious-looking professor walks next to Ava and squats down, he takes off his glasses and lets out a gentle smile, saying to the fearful young girl in front of her:

"Don't be scared, Ava. I'm a friend of your father's, tell me, does Starr still like eating pickled cucumbers?"

"Mmm Mmm."

Ava nods and says:

"Dad loves eating pickled cucumbers, almost every meal. Mom says it's not healthy for him, but dad doesn't care."

"Haha, I told him that it's unhealthy for him too."

Professor Bill chuckles and tells Ava:

"You can call me Uncle Bill, come, Ava, let's examine your body first. Lie in that white machine, don't worry, I'll help you."

Under Professor Bill and Merlin's encouragement, the poor child lies on the machine, and as it activates, she's slowly transported into the enclosed metal chamber.

Professor Bill put his glasses back on and walks to the monitor, the flickering green data on the screen caused Merlin to feel dizzy as he looked at them.

"Mmm, a typical sign of quantum entanglement."

A dozen minutes later, Professor Bill seemed to have come to a conclusion, he points to the changing wave lines on the screen and tells Merlin:

"Every cell in Ava's body is in a loop between being torn and healed, this is a painful process. What's worse, her physical form is but an illusion, but the child's condition worsens, then her very existence may fall apart anytime."

"What caused this to happen?"

Merlin asks with a frown:

"Just because of Starr labs' explosion?"

"No, not just the explosion."

Professor Bill says:

"She would be utterly destroyed should she be in direct contact with the explosion. The child must've been in a protected environment when the blast occurred, the environment shielded her from being destroyed, but it could not shield her from the large quantum entanglement of the particles brought by the radiation."

"I can use a more scientific term to describe Ava's condition, but I trust that you have no interest in hearing that, so I'll put it simply."

Professor Bill looks at the experimental chamber behind him and says softly:

"In an isolated system, such as the human body, or any other existential being, all the particles that make up the physical form co-exist in a stabilized phase relationship. This is the base of our existence, but if it is disrupted, the stable phase relationship would become chaotic, therefore becoming unpredictable, and unable to maintain physical form."

"This is the situation Ava is in right now."

"The particles that form her body have been disrupted, they're instinctively seeking stabilization, but it's not so easy. She's between existence and non-existence, a typical sign of being in a  quantum state. She can freely phase through any physical object, and if she wants to, she can even freely change the state of the particles in her body."

"Sounds impressive."

Merlin says:

"But one cannot make an omelet without breaking an egg, Professor, tell me, what is the biggest disaster Ava currently faces?"

"As time passes."

Professor Bill's expression becomes gloomy as he continued:

"The longer she stays in the quantum state, the more unstable the particles inside her become, until eventually, she'll enter the quantum realm and disappear from existence."

"Is there any way to cure this?"

Merlin frowns and asks:

"Are there any other ways to stabilize the particles in her body?"

"I can try."

Professor Bill says:

"But I cannot guarantee that it will work, but if...you can find Professor Pym, he'll surely have a way. In the field of quantum entanglement, he's the true expert."

 

You can find story with these keywords: The Path of Shadow in American Comics, Read The Path of Shadow in American Comics, The Path of Shadow in American Comics novel, The Path of Shadow in American Comics book, The Path of Shadow in American Comics story, The Path of Shadow in American Comics full, The Path of Shadow in American Comics Latest Chapter