"Alright, I'm coming." Saitama put down the remote he'd just picked up.
A short while later—deep beneath S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Trident Headquarters, inside a top-classified laboratory.
Fury and Doctor Strange stood before a thick, transparent energy barrier, their expressions grim. Inside the barrier was a sealed isolation chamber. At its center floated a roiling, constantly shifting mass of black mist—an imprisoned, tightly controlled sample of dark energy.
"We used Tesseract isotope energy to create this barrier. It's the only way we can barely keep it contained," Fury explained to Saitama, who had just arrived. "Doctor Strange and I tried to analyze its composition and origin. We found this energy has an extremely strong capacity for imitation and adaptation. It can read the information of nearby living beings, then perfectly mimic their form—and even parts of their abilities…"
As if to prove his point, the black mist inside the isolation chamber suddenly churned violently. It compressed inward, then rapidly reshaped, stretched, and solidified…
In just a few seconds, it turned into a bald figure identical to Saitama—yellow suit, white cape, even the expression looked lifelike. The only difference was its eyes: hollow and dead, with black smoke leaking from its body.
"Damn it—It read Saitama's data the moment he entered the base!" Doctor Strange cursed under his breath, already forming a golden halo as he began to conjure the Seraphim Shield.
The fake Saitama rolled its neck. Its empty gaze locked onto the real Saitama outside the barrier. Then it moved without warning—appearing instantly on the inner side of the energy barrier as if ignoring distance. Mimicking Saitama's most common motion, it threw a straight punch into the barrier!
Boom!!!
The energy barrier—strong enough to withstand repeated heavy missile strikes—shuddered violently. Fine cracks actually spread from the impact point. Alarms blared through the laboratory in an instant!
"The barrier won't hold!" an engineer shouted over comms.
Fury's face changed. Doctor Strange immediately pushed his shield spell toward the damaged area to reinforce it.
The fake Saitama didn't pause at all. It struck the same spot again!
Crack!
The barrier shattered completely! The fake Saitama became a streak of black light, burst through the fragments, and lunged straight at the real Saitama—so fast it was almost impossible to see. That same simple, yet terrifyingly powerful, straight punch came roaring in!
Fury and Doctor Strange's hearts jumped into their throats.
The real Saitama watched the copy rushing him, and for the first time, a hint of… curiosity showed on his face. He didn't take the punch head-on. He simply shifted slightly to the side and casually avoided it.
The copy's strike missed. The shockwave from its fist dented a row of alloy lab cabinets behind Saitama. It immediately turned and launched another flurry of savage attacks—punches and kicks leaving afterimages and black energy ripples, every blow packed with frightening force.
Saitama, meanwhile, moved through the assault as if taking a leisurely stroll, dodging with ease. Occasionally, he blocked with a hand, producing dull, heavy impacts. He seemed to be observing something.
"Power's about the same… speed's not bad…" he commented while weaving aside. "But it's like it only copied the motions. No thoughts of its own. And the way its energy flows… it's really stiff."
After several exchanges, Saitama seemed to figure something out. In the instant the fake body threw a full-power punch—old force spent, new force not yet born—Saitama stopped dodging. He slipped precisely into the centerline and flicked out a single finger, landing it right on a point slightly left and below the copy's chest, where its energy flow was sluggish and chaotic—
The weakest link in its simulated energy structure.
(End of Chapter)
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