Chapter 2676: Star Core Rescue (18)

"Oh my God, you've finally come, we thought we were going to be stuck here forever!" Parker walked towards the people at the door, who also had an expression of someone who had a narrow escape from disaster; behind the crowd, Parker saw Balk.

"We didn't expect Hart to do such a thing," the female scientist Sophia said with a worried look, patting Parker on the shoulder. "He might really have a problem, but fortunately, you're alright."

"Long time no see, Parker," Balk stepped forward and shook hands with Parker, evidently he was the leader of this group, and Parker responded with a smile.

When the female agent emerged from the darkness, Balk was visibly startled. Natasha deftly made her way through the crowd and came over to shake hands with Balk, winking at him as she said, "Hello, I've heard so much about you."

"You've heard of me?" Balk asked with some confusion.

"I've heard from Parker that you're a pretty amazing computer scientist. I happen to be not that skilled in this area, so I might need your help in the future," Natasha said with a smile.

Turning her head, Natasha gave Parker a look, meaning these guys were definitely not right, especially this one named Balk. He was too nervous when he saw Natasha, and when she mentioned she had only heard of him from Parker, his relief was far too obvious.

Natasha felt a little bored. No matter how audacious these people were, or how grand the conspiracy they engineered, without solid fundamentals, everything was in vain. It was far less thrilling than the time when she had matched wits with Shiller.

Then, the female agent lamented in her mind: she had no fun to watch all because of Shiller!

Parker didn't have such sharp eyesight; he basically couldn't perceive the emotional changes of the people before him, nor did he know how Natasha figured it out. But having the renowned Black Widow willing to believe and support him essentially made him confident in his judgment.

"I didn't expect Hart to do that either; maybe he went mad under too much pressure. I hope he hasn't destroyed any more critical equipment," Parker deliberately said, and sure enough, Balk's complexion didn't look good, so much so that even Parker could notice it this time.

Seeing the tense atmosphere, the female scientist immediately said gravely, "You won't believe what we all saw in the control room. We've copied it, hurry over."

Parker and Natasha pretended to be clueless and followed a group of people into the room, returning to their original office at the fastest speed. The female scientist took out a backup and placed it in the projector, and the video began to play.

This was clearly a side camera; therefore, it only captured half of Aux's body. Parker observed carefully and confirmed that the video didn't show whether Aux had a safety tether, which meant he definitely had one.

But soon, Parker had no time to ponder these trifles because a terrifying scene appeared on the surveillance footage—a flame ball flew from the direction of the sun with numerous interwoven black and gold tentacles stretching out toward Aux.

Aux got up and hid behind the solar equipment, but it seemed as though he had seen something, backing up a few steps before turning around, by which time the Flame Monster had completely engulfed the solar equipment.

"My God!" Parker was stunned, standing still for several seconds without speaking, then he said, "What is this monster? How could this happen?!"

Natasha also stared intently at the screen for several seconds, but in reality, this was just to cover up that she was putting her attention elsewhere. Upon seeing that fleeting look of triumph on Balk's face, Natasha was almost certain she knew what was happening.

Parker turned back, his shock was genuine as he was seeking agreement from Natasha, who straightened up and said, "From my experience, this video has not been edited."

Balk's triumphant expression had hardly time to become more apparent when he heard Natasha say, "This situation has gotten quite serious. I'm afraid I must contact S.H.I.E.L.D., urgently calling back the superheroes..."

After saying that, she pinched the communicator on her wrist and turned to walk away, counting silently in her mind, three, two, one...

As expected, Balko grabbed her arm, looking at her and saying, "There's no definitive proof yet, so I think it's not very good to rashly call back the superheroes who have such important duties..."

Sure enough, Natasha smiled inwardly, how easily he gave himself away. Besides, what does he mean by important duties? Before they arrived at the Space Station, the situation in the Centaurus constellation could at best be described as Thanksgiving cultural outreach in advance, with all sorts of turkeys taking the stage to perform.

But Natasha still spoke very seriously, "What duty could be more important than the safety of Earth? Now that the aliens have reached our doorstep, what reason do they have not to come back?"

"I also think it's better to notify S.H.I.E.L.D. first," Parker said. "At least let them know that this incident was not an accident, but an alien invasion. The level of response needed for these two causes is very different."

Balk was visibly choked, his face growing even uglier, but Natasha silently sneered. She hadn't thought that the forever low-ranking, pitiful member of your team would dare to contradict you at this moment, or perhaps that person wasn't really part of your team at all, just a prop in your performance.

At that moment, Natasha suddenly wondered, why Ben Parker?

She felt there was some inexplicable connection, and as Natasha carefully thought back, a face flashed before her eyes. When she looked up at Balk again, she suddenly understood why he was so anxious.

This guy wasn't really named Balk at all, he never had that circle of beard. He had met Natasha before, which is why he was worried she would recognize him.

Just growing a beard counts as a disguise? Natasha couldn't help but ridicule in her mind, thinking that this was even less convincing than Shiller's trick with his glasses on and off.

She searched her memory carefully for information about this guy. Natasha understood a bit, but she didn't immediately tell Parker. Peter's uncle was a remarkably intelligent ordinary person, with survival wisdom that came from the common folks. It was a different system that didn't require an agent's instructions and was still very effective.

Indeed, Parker, more aggressively, inserted himself between them and said directly to Balk, "And now that we've got the evidence that Aux was framed, we need to get this to S.H.I.E.L.D. sooner to clear his name. I've always said Aux wasn't that kind of person!"

"Ben Parker! What do you mean?!" The white-haired old man who had been silent behind them stood out and said, "Balk never said he wouldn't tell S.H.I.E.L.D., but we are scientists; we need rigor. Right now, we only have a video, and nothing is clear yet. How can we exonerate him already?"

Parker looked embarrassed as if he couldn't afford to offend the old man, so he took a step back. But at that moment, Natasha stepped forward and said, "Clearing his name is secondary. As a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, I can't ignore what I know. Please hand over the video to me, or else I have the authority to take law enforcement action."

The others seemed stunned by Natasha's brazen unreasonableness, but seeing Natasha's hand on her gun, Balk swallowed hard and said, "No, don't do that, ma'am. Of course, we'll give the video to you. But as you know, S.H.I.E.L.D. can't send a large number of agents right now; we still need to help ourselves."

"I won't stand in your way," Natasha appeared to back down and added, "In fact, I'll report everything you've done to the director. At least the efforts you've made in search of the truth won't be forgotten."

Balk visibly relaxed. Natasha decided the timing was right to say, "Next, I need to focus on coordinating with S.H.I.E.L.D. Even if they can't send people up here, they can still offer assistance using resources from the ground..."

Natasha's words implied their separation was imminent. Balk looked even more relieved; his vigilance had faded, and so he said, "But I'd prefer Parker to stay with us. He might not be much help with agent work, but he has good relations with others. He can help us convince the rest to stay calm."

There was a dark look in Natasha's eyes; it seemed that these people indeed treated Parker merely as a tool, almost like saying, "We have allowed you to be part of this grand, world-saving mission, shouldn't you willingly follow our orders without expecting anything in return and play an insignificant role?"

But when she looked at Parker, he displayed a "patience" expression, so Natasha was forced to suppress her irritation, thinking she'd have to tell these jerks off the next time she saw Peter.

Wait, she didn't have to wait to see Peter, who else had come up to the Space Station with them?

Natasha was not one to take things lying down; she had complaints from morning to night, so it wasn't long before Shiller bumped into Natasha at a corridor corner, and she dragged him into an office.

"Do you really have the leisure to stroll here?!" Natasha asked with heartfelt pain, "What are you doing up here?"

"Fulfilling the duties of a psychologist, didn't you see the guy I hypnotized?" Shiller spread out his hands and said.

"I want to ask that too. Why did you hypnotize him?"

"If I didn't remind you in this way that Aux could be under hypnosis, it would take a year for you to realize it," Shiller replied.

Natasha opened her mouth, but was at a loss for words. She eventually said, "So you intentionally smoked in front of Lehman to induce flaws in his hypnosis, in order to remind us that Aux's hypnosis might also have flaws?"

"Not might, for sure," Shiller said with a professional demeanor. "Even I find it hard to do a perfect hypnosis."

"Really? Even you can't?"

Shiller shook his head and said, "Charles might be able, but not with ordinary methods. At the very least, it would take brainwave adjustments."

"Let me put it this way." Shiller lifted a finger and exemplified, "The human brain is a black box. All the preparation you do might become useless the moment it comes into contact with the insides of the black box. The ability of any psychologist to improvise is insufficient to handle the complexities inside the brain; flaws are inevitable."

"In other words, hypnosis isn't about being perfect to begin with; on the contrary, you have to leave some flaws to allow them to discern what is hypnotic suggestion and what is reality. Otherwise, erasing memories as perfectly as Charles does only leads them to doubt themselves and go mad."

"So there's no theory that guides perfect hypnosis in this world. Even I can't do it, let alone others."

"I heard you hypnotized your teachers in college..."

"Where did you hear that from?" Shiller paused before responding, "It's a different level of difficulty. I just made them have a better usual impression of me to scrape by with a pass. That's different from hypnotizing a good person to commit murder."

Natasha reluctantly accepted this explanation, then played the video she had gotten from the group to Shiller, and said, "The video is definitely unedited; I can tell. So what do you think about this monster? Is it one of their mutant abilities?"

"Do you know magic?" Shiller suddenly asked, "The video of a magic trick is unedited too. How then is the dove produced?"