In New York, within the office of Arkham Sanatorium, Shiller just picked up a cup of delicious coffee, intending to enjoy some rare leisure time in the early morning, when a bald black head squeezed in from the door gap.
"Shiller, I've got a favor to ask."
"Sorry, I don't entertain visitors without appointments." Shiller rolled his eyes back into his office chair, sipped his coffee, and heaved a comfortable sigh.
He looked at Nick Fury, who was standing by the door, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and propping his face with the other saying: "Didn't I explain it to you over the phone? There's nothing I can do about it."
Nick extended three fingers, Shiller simply shook his head, Nick then raised it to five fingers, Shiller casually blew onto his coffee, leaving Nick no choice but to clench his hand into a fist.
Seeing no reaction from Shiller, Nick adjusted his eye patch and said with a serious face: "Doctor, as the Head of Hydra American Division, I order you to figure it out. My base is running out of space!"
"There's nothing I can do." Shiller shrugged and said: "You've accumulated too much experimental waste, how am I supposed to help? But speaking of which, how did you use to deal with them?"
"Throw them into the sun." Nick replied succinctly, stating: "No matter what kind of mutant animals, mutant plants, ghosts, or aliens, just directly launch them into the sun."
"Oh, I get it, Tony didn't let you do that, right?"
"I dare not let him know." Nick closed the door and lowered his voice in front of Shiller: "These experiments are top-secret, and those superheroes wouldn't approve."
"Then you indeed shouldn't do that, what use is there in studying those alien creatures? I suppose they couldn't even beat the current young heroes, could they?"
Nick put both hands on the table, looking seriously at Shiller and said: "I need funds to study them, funds for damage control if the research fails, and when I secretly release successful specimens, they start fighting superheroes, I sell successful specimens to the military on one side, and on the other side, I ask Congress for superhero logistic support funds. How else do you think I managed to get more than seven hundred bases?"
"So how do you usually deal with the aftermath?"
"I lock them up and then launch them into the sun sequentially to destroy them, but this damned Solar System Development Plan, they've been keeping a close eye on the sun, I didn't realize until I had accumulated too many failed products in the warehouse. If I can't destroy them quickly, my bases will overflow!"
"So what do you plan to get me to do?" Shiller put down his coffee, moved his chair forward, and then said, "You can't be thinking of having me convince Tony to let you hurl all that junk into the sun, can you?"
"Nick, you have to understand, these scientists are irrational about this, they will tell you that the variables you create by throwing things into the sun can affect a series of their experiments, if the readout of the experiment differs by even a single digit, they'll want your head. What can I do?"
"But for the sun, this is only..."
"You go tell Tony that." Shiller turned his chair to the other side and took a sip of his coffee, stating, "Besides, every country is watching the sun. You have to make sure that no one discovers what's in those canisters. Once the monsters you created are exposed, the Congress will want your head first."
Nick sighed deeply and said: "Am I the only one in the world who cannot enjoy the benefits brought by the progress of the times and has to be troubled by it?"
"Apart from throwing them into the sun, isn't there another way? Can't you destroy them on the spot?" Shiller asked.
"Those that can be destroyed are gone at the moment the experiment fails." Nick spread his hands and explained: "I'm not idle enough to lock them up. The reason they occupy the space in my warehouse is that some things can't be destroyed by conventional means, or their vitality is too tenacious, which can only be destroyed by the sun."
"My God, they've deprived me of the right to use the sun, this is simply the pinnacle of injustice, can I accuse them of racism?" Nick couldn't help but wail.
"All right, stop your acting, if you keep prattling on, I'm going to start charging by the hour."
"Indeed, nothing can be kept from you, my dear doctor." Nick revealed a row of white teeth as he grinned. Then he said to Shiller: "As long as they're far away from my warehouses, not taking up space."
"You can't be thinking of..."
About half an hour later, in the dimly lit office of the Time Management Bureau, Nick, in a leather jacket, and Shiller, in a trench coat, were standing in front of a dark red office desk.
Nick pointed at a golden magic projection and said to Shiller: "We began observing the abnormal movements in this part of the time stream about two months ago. Look at this."
Shiller frowned, looking at where Nick was pointing, and saw two tiny light spots, which were rotating around each other in very regular orbits, whereas most of the other light spots hurriedly flashed across the screen and disappeared. Only those two light spots, although revolving around each other, hardly moved forward.
"Is this a binary star system?" Shiller recalled some of the phenomena he had seen in the cosmos related to celestial physics.
Nick, with both hands on his desk, stared at the image and said, "This is the surveillance equipment of the Time Management Bureau for universal timelines. Each point of light on the map represents a universe."
"Universes don't exist forever, they have their lifespans. Most universes gradually age as time passes, like water droplets in a river inevitably flowing downstream, and at quite a rapid pace, too."
"But there are some universes that run into problems and get stuck. At these times, the staff of the Time Management Bureau will go and assist these universes."
"It's not that we want the universes to decay. But if the time within a universe doesn't advance, then neither does the time for the lives within it. It's as though they are frozen in eternal amber, effectively the same as annihilation. Therefore, the Time Management Bureau will do what it can to help them restore order."
"Still, it's a spectacular sight." Nick stood upright and continued, "There are two such universes in our multiverse that have fallen into an endless time loop."
"The strange thing is, it's not that one universe is stuck, but two universes are mutually trapping each other, forming a delicate causality loop that causes their time to never advance."
"Can you elaborate?" Shiller asked, arms crossed as he watched the two constantly spinning spheres on the screen.
"In simple terms, Universe A is struck by Disaster A, and the life within Universe A escapes the disaster and comes to Universe B, bringing with it Disaster B. Life in Universe B, in a struggle for survival, finds a way to solve Disaster B. The solution is to send the causative elements back to Universe A's past, which then leads to Disaster A bursting out in Universe A."
"When Universe B sends the disaster back, it resets Universe A's timeline, back to the occurrence of Disaster A. The elements sent back cause Disaster A to unfold, the timeline advances, leading to Disaster B, which then leads back to Disaster A...."
And so, the time of these two universes is completely stalled. According to Mobius, the Bureau's professional surveying teams found out that they haven't been stuck for long, probably just within this year."
"So what?" Shiller slipped his hands into his trench coat pockets and turned to ask Nick.
"In some ways, these two universes have created an excellent defense system for themselves. The universes are no longer participating in the progression of time, the lives within go in never-ending cycles, and there's no room for outsiders."
"And the point I want to make is..." Nick bent down once more and pressed some buttons on the desk. A slightly grisly image surfaced in Shiller's line of sight, prompting him to deeply furrow his eyebrows.
"The so-called disaster is actually a highly rare zombie virus infection that's taken over the lives in these two universes. Almost all life forms have turned into zombies."
With a bit of thought, Shiller remembered which two universes this referred to. What many don't know is that the infamous 'Zombie Universe' isn't one universe, but two.
Earth 2149 and Earth 91126 can be regarded as two evenly matched victims of ill fortune. The overall process is exactly as Nick described- the Zombie Sentinel from Earth 91126 arrived on Earth 2149, infecting the entire Earth 2149. Then the zombie superheroes of Earth 2149 made it to Earth 91126, infecting Earth 91126 in return. The superheroes of Earth 91126 purged all the zombies, leaving only the Zombie Sentinel. Someone then sent the Zombie Sentinel back to a previous point in time on Earth 2149, where the Sentinel went on to infect the whole of Earth 2149 once again…
If it doesn't make sense, that's okay. The end result is that the time of both universes is completely stuck, and the cycle goes on endlessly. All the superheroes are caught in a tragic loop of turning into a zombie, saving the universe, and turning back into a zombie over and over again.
"Most importantly, the life forms in these two universes that have turned into zombies develop insatiable appetites. When they get hungry, they eat everything in sight. Doesn't that sound like a huge shredder?"
Shiller looked Nick up and down before asking, "Don't tell me you plan on dumping your hazardous waste into these two universes."
"It's completely safe, healthy, eco-friendly, and pollution-free." Nick held out a hand and gestured as he spoke, "Their time is already stuck, so no matter what, it'll cycle endlessly. These two universes are beyond saving."
"But inside them, there's a group of immensely hungry zombies. They're ravenous, and I'm quite concerned about the state of other parallel universes. They've sacrificed so much for cosmic safety, but they can't even have a full meal. How deeply saddening..."
Shiller was at a loss for words. Although he had long known of Nick's shamelessness, the damned rascal surprised him every single time by lowering the moral bar yet again. Shiller knew he was doing the same to Nick, but he was an outsider after all. Was it okay for Nick, a native, to be so pathetically immoral?
Shiller had a feeling he accidentally vocalized his thoughts, and Nick immediately snapped his fingers and said, "You've once again hit the nail on the head, my genius doctor. When I sent the Time Management Bureau staff to check, they found that they're also affected by the time loop. Maybe it's because we're the natives of this world and our timelines share some common elements."
"But you don't have to worry about that issue. You're an outsider, your identity code is different from ours, and you're under the special care of numerous powerful gods. You won't be affected by the timelines of the universe."
"So, Shiller, I'm afraid I have to ask you to take the trouble to go and dispose of my trash. I swear it's the simplest task, and the reward is more generous than you can imagine."
"10% of all research project funds."
"No, Shiller, you're too greedy. It's completely impossible. I can't even get 10% for myself!"
Shiller turned on his heel and walked out the door with Nick yelling behind him, "5% is negotiable!"
Without looking back, Shiller exited the room.