Yao

[Affirmative, I have already contacted the authorities. They should be here any minute,] Queen said as she began the scan.

An hour later, the hall was filled with various medical professionals and fire personnel.

The military had the entire place on lockdown, but thankfully all the other scientists in the facility had escaped after the evacuation alarm.

"Sir, do you feel any pain anywhere?" the medic asked as she checked Richard's body.

"None, I managed to get to cover before the explosion. Reed's friend needs this check-up more. Is he even alive?" Richard replied, trying to sound as normal as possible.

"Don't worry, they have all been taken to the hospital and are under the care of the best we have," the medic responded as she continued her checks.

"Oh."

A few hours later, Richard returned home after a full check-up at the hospital just so that the doctors and Mr. Storm would see that he was truly okay.

His phone—or at least the newly reconstructed phone—had more than 29 missed calls from his mother and many more from Uncle Jon.

It had been an entire year since the fight with Magneto, and a lot of things had improved in his life.

His mother had received a version of his nanocytes that were programmed mainly for regeneration and a bit of strengthening.

He had fully registered his virtual glasses as a product of his new company, Deus Corporation.

He had refused to register it under White Industries simply because he wasn't in charge there, and this was a revolutionary product. Deus Corp was created to be the world's first virtual company.

Adverts were everywhere about the virtual glasses, which were aptly named the Deus Glasses. Game companies and several think tanks all around the world were already investing, so things were going well, especially considering he was only just eighteen years old.

He also visited the X-Mansion, or the school, several times in the past, either due to them calling him or for some reason or another. His relationship with them was sort of complicated, so he couldn't really do much with them.

Things were going well if one considered all that had happened, but it also had its downsides.

The explosion today that he could have escaped easily if he had used his abilities, but because of the existence of the others, he could only react as much as a human should.

Getting back home, Richard simply greeted the butler, who also didn't bother to ask any questions, as he immediately went to sleep.

He was done with today and had suffered all that came with it. If anyone had told him he was going to take an explosion of cosmic energy to the face today, he would never have believed them, but here he was covered entirely in cosmic residue and some unknown particles.

---

The next day, Richard headed for his workshop and immediately got several pieces of equipment to clean up all the cosmic residue he had brought home with him.

It was reckless of him to have just gone to bed without any clean-up to remove all of it from himself, but it didn't matter. It had only been a few hours, so he could still clean it all up.

As for what he got out of the explosion, he didn't know all of it yet, but he did know that he now had thousands of years' worth of experience in torture, murder, poisoning, curse magic, hand-to-hand combat, combat with weapons as a whole, and some other things.

He had no idea where all these came from, but he had such knowledge, and it was all after yesterday's event. He was sure he hadn't touched anyone, so he shouldn't have gained any knowledge from the incident.

Due to the suddenness of everything, Richard hadn't truly sorted out the new knowledge he had magically gained, so he wasn't truly sure of how much he knew exactly.

However, that wasn't his main focus for today; he needed to clean up the house before someone got some disease from him.

"Queen, can you get me some vacuum cleaner or something to clean up the cosmic residue from yesterday?" Richard said as he entered the workshop.

"That isn't necessary, I have taken care of it," an unfamiliar female voice responded to his command.

Immediately, Richard entered battle mode as he generated a blaster using repulsor technology.

"Who are you?" Richard asked as he shone the light from his blaster in the person's direction.

"You don't have to worry too much about me. I am only here because yesterday's events happened to connect our paths," the woman said as she stepped out from the shadow, revealing herself.

The woman was bald and wearing weird orange monk clothing, accompanied by an ancient-looking medallion around her neck.

Richard, seeing her appearance, immediately recognized her. She was the secret protector of the Earth and Leader of the Masters of the Mystic Arts on Earth, aka the Sorcerer Supreme, Yao.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Richard asked, continuing his role as the clueless victim.

"I am known as the Ancient One by many, so I would prefer you refer to me as that, and I am here for you."

"Okay... Ancient One, what do you want me for? Talk, or you get a hole in your head."

"You and your friends were bathed in vast amounts of cosmic energy and some demonic energy during the events of yesterday. I am here to ensure that you all aren't affected in any other way that doesn't affect the timeline, but it seems your existence itself affects the timeline," Yao explained.

"So, what does that mean? You will kill me or what?"

"If I could do that, then you wouldn't be alive today. I am here simply to see who the anomaly is," Yao said as she tapped the empty space behind her, and immediately it fractured and broke into a million pieces.

"What's that, and what did you achieve by doing this?" Richard asked.

"Drawing your curiosity. We would be expecting you at 122 Bleeker Street," Yao said as she entered the fractured space, and immediately it repaired itself.