Marvel Magic Case Files

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Lieutenant Cooper cursed loudly as he clung tightly to the wildly spinning wreckage of the ship, flung into space by the explosion. Even though the spacesuit's temperature control system provided a survival-safe temperature, Lieutenant Cooper felt cold sweat trickling down his back. "Where am I going! Why the hell did this happen to me! Fuck! Calm down! Calm down! How do I get back to the ship? I need to vent the air from my tanks! That better work! Ready to take off..."

He took a deep breath and simultaneously disconnected the spacesuit from the gas tank. "One, two, three! Hurry, hurry!" When the pressure reached the critical value, he deactivated the magnetic boots on his spacesuit, and the propulsion system on the back of the suit lifted him off the wreckage. "Yes! Yes!" He adjusted his posture, his head facing the cross-shaped spaceship in orbit, illuminated by the giant thunderstorms constantly flashing in Neptune's atmosphere. Perhaps it was a hallucination caused by tension and panic, or perhaps the impact of the explosion had injured him, but Lieutenant Cooper had a feeling he had done something similar before.

He knew perfectly well what pressure his thrusters should hold before jumping, how much oxygen he should conserve for breathing until he returned to the ship, and he knew that something terrible had happened on the Event Horizon—the explosion seemed to be propelling the Event Horizon toward Neptune's atmosphere, and dense thunderstorms were about to tear the hull apart. He shook his head, dismissing the absurd thought. He didn't see that behind him, another person in the same spacesuit was jumping from the wreckage, their back also turned to him, completely unaware of his presence.

"I'm here! You bastard!"

Lieutenant Cooper's space voyage will continue for some time.

A casual glance at that moment revealed to him a massive silhouette barely illuminated by the faint starlight in space. It was a ship, and two gleaming points of light shot out from it, heading straight for the Event Horizon. He recalled the contents of the crew meeting—Dr. Will's warning to Captain Miller. The former declared that other nations were trying to obtain the secrets of the hyperspace engine—the drifting time was considerable, and Lieutenant Cooper would have time to daydream; he only needed to adjust his posture and the airflow. If other nations wanted, he wouldn't mind them taking that damn thing; if he could, he absolutely didn't want to touch it.

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Major DJ suddenly opened his eyes, but a sudden, sharp pain rendered him unable to move.

He remembered… Miller had said that Dr. Will had blown up the Lewis and Clark… Then, a rush of cold air filled the room. His uniform was ripped open, the dog tag around his neck tossed aside, and a scalpel and a bone saw ripped open his chest. The air rushing in caused an acute pneumothorax, making it impossible for him to breathe. Through his blurred vision, he saw Dr. Will standing beside the medical bed, his scarred face expressionless, his hollow eyes seemingly gouged out along with any human emotion.

Fresh blood gushed from the ruptured lungs and spilled from the nose and mouth.

Dr. Will picked up a thick suture needle, and even without the aid of his eyes, he was able to thread it with precision. He seemed to have gained some forbidden inspiration and memory, knowledge he had never possessed before—it wasn't his knowledge, but he was completely unaware of it—based solely on intuition, without any medical knowledge, he could use tough, thin thread to pierce the flesh of the limbs and back, treating the human body lying on the medical bed like livestock.

While humans on Earth were still using cold, sharp iron and wood to kill each other, the Vikings of Scandinavia had invented a form of torture that could be described as art. It added considerable creativity to this art form—it loved fearful prey, and inflicting fear on others through the suffering of its own kind was something humans excelled at. It possessed an unparalleled artistic sense, perfectly combining fear and art. It was very satisfied with its work; both Major DJ's current state and Dr. Will's heartfelt ecstasy testified to its masterpiece—when Captain Miller rushed into the medical room, he nearly vomited. He saw numerous iron hooks piercing the flesh of his limbs, hanging Major DJ's limbs outstretched above the medical bed. His body had been dismembered by scalpels and bone saws according to some imperceptible pattern, and steaming blood was still dripping from his scattered internal organs.

Miller felt no fear; he only felt anger burning like oil in his veins.

This is Dr. Will, no, it's some kind of thing in human skin toying with its prey!

"Will! Will!" Captain Miller's voice was low and menacing as he gripped the repair nail gun tightly, his hawk-like eyes scanning the medical bay. Finally, his gaze settled on Major DJ. "Sorry, my friend," he whispered, "I'll release you after I kill him. It won't be long, I promise! I'll make him pay!"

Miller had a gut feeling that Will would go to the bridge control room.

He couldn't explain this intuition, much less Will's behavior, just as the physicists he knew would never, and were incapable of, committing such a cruel act. He pressed a switch, and the airtight doors of the bridge slowly opened. At this moment, all the ship's power was being drained by the hyperspace engines, and all the lighting in the bridge went out. The only light source in the darkened bridge was the pale starlight streaming in from the portholes, but that meager flame of civilization was utterly inadequate to illuminate the solid, heavy fear that gripped the space. Moreover, the explosion seemed to be causing the ship to begin sinking.

The most violent storm in the solar system, originating from the planet below, generated a continental-scale thunderstorm. The deafening thunder traveled through the extremely thin gas into the ship's interior, but the intense flashes of light needed no medium, bursting in through the portholes. Captain Miller, nail gun in hand, cautiously entered, aiming the muzzle at any corner where a human might be hiding. He was ready to pull the trigger at any moment, letting the sharp rivets pierce a body. Before he could find Dr. Will, he kicked something soft. It was a human body; the once tightly tied golden ponytail now lay scattered on the ground like loose golden tassels. Captain Miller immediately dropped the nail gun and crouched down to check on the first mate.

Fortunately, he still had breathing and a heartbeat.

Miller cautiously surveyed his surroundings, then tore open his uniform arm pocket and pulled out a small plastic bottle. He broke the seal and held it under Stark's nose, instantly waking him. The first mate immediately began to struggle. "It's alright, I'm here. I'll get you out of here." His voice calmed the first mate, who opened her eyes, breathing rapidly. He helped her to her feet, reaching into the darkness for a nail gun, but found nothing—not wanting to waste time, he immediately pulled the dizzy first mate aside and helped her toward the control room exit—before they even left, the captain's seat began to creak. The seat turned toward them, revealing a bloodied, hunched body. In the dim light of the emergency lamp, he could make out the person's face and uniform.

Miller immediately lowered the first mate and hid her behind the control panel. The thunderstorm illuminated Dr. Will's face and the hollows of his eyes; the deep, bone-revealing wounds had dried and were beginning to swell due to inflammation. Miller had seen many corpses, but he had never seen such injuries on a living person. "My God," Captain Miller couldn't help but whisper, "What happened to your eyes?"

"Where we're going doesn't need eyes, Miller."

"What are you talking about?"

"This ship was meant to explore planets, but it far exceeded expectations. It tore a gaping hole in the universe, opening a portal to another dimension," Dr. Will said in a hollow voice, his bloodshot eyes wide open. "A utterly chaotic space, a utterly evil space. Before, it was just a spaceship, but after it returned, it came to life. It warped the fragile spacetime structure of the physical universe, showing me the ultimate destination. Captain Miller, can you feel its heartbeat? Look how beautiful it is..."

"Your beautiful ship killed all its crew!"

“Now…we have new crew. Now it has us.” Dr. Will licked his chapped lips with his scarred tongue. Captain Miller felt a chill run down his spine; he felt this mad physicist was becoming more and more like a snake. To be precise, a snake had slithered into his body, replacing his spine, leaving him hunched over in the captain's seat. Captain Miller saw Dr. Will press several buttons and asked warily, “What are you doing?”

"You want to know where this ship went? You'll find out soon enough."

First Officer Stark suddenly rushed out, slamming the oxygen tank she was holding at Wilbur. Wilbur suddenly displayed a reaction speed and strength beyond that of a normal human—he was sitting in the captain's seat, grabbed First Officer Stark by the neck, lifted her up, and threw her—First Officer Stark slammed into the control panel and passed out. But before Captain Miller could reach the captain's seat, Dr. Wilbur raised his nail gun and pulled the trigger. Captain Miller had to stop; he had no doubt that the sightless Dr. Wilbur could hit him.

He raised his hand, bent over, and prepared to strike.

"If you miss me, you'll shoot through the ship's hull."

Dr. Will laughed. He faced Captain Miller, his bloodshot eyes seeming to see something, "How could I miss you?"

Then something caught Dr. Will's attention. Captain Miller noticed two faint lights outside the porthole, floating in the cold void before gradually approaching until they touched the icy cross-shaped porthole of the bridge. On the dimly lit bridge, these two lights from the outside world were incredibly conspicuous.

"I'm back! Look, I'm not dead! Open the door!"

Lieutenant Cooper's voice came from the control panel. He peered through the porthole and saw a man facing him sideways, a nail gun pointed directly at the window. He didn't have time to think about how this had happened, but he knew the situation was far from optimistic.

"damn it……"

He only had time to curse before the rivet, propelled by gunpowder and air, pierced the porthole in front of him. The freezing air rushing out of the hull felt like a heavy fist slamming into his helmet, shoving the unfortunate man out again. Captain Miller immediately lunged at Dr. Will, who fired another shot. The high-speed rivet pierced the cable, erupting in a shower of sparks—the next moment, the rivet embedded in the porthole was propelled out by the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the cabin, the immense pressure shattering the porthole into countless fragments. Dr. Will, without hesitation, fired at Captain Miller, who was frantically dodging in the bridge, completely disregarding what he had hit. Everything unsecured or loose in the bridge and passageways was sucked in, coffee cups and cables alike, flung into space by the force.

Captain Miller tumbled and grabbed anything he could catch.

Dr. Will screamed as he released the nail gun he couldn't hold onto, and even the captain's seat was grabbed by the force and thrown towards the broken porthole. The roar of the air and the sound of everything colliding filled his ears, along with the howling wind and the groans of deformed metal. Dr. Will dug his fingernails into the mesh deck of the bridge; the ship had granted him superhuman strength, making his muscles and bones stronger than steel. Even so, the remnants of his reason, crushed by the invincible, told him that victory was impossible, but neither he nor it paid any heed. They only saw the metal mesh his fingers were gripping begin to bend, emitting a tooth-grinding scream, as finger bones, metacarpal bones, and shoulders were forcibly torn apart and crushed.

An oxygen tank was ripped out of the tunnel, crashing into the open airlock and control panel, shattering half of Dr. Will's body. Captain Miller watched as Dr. Will's contorted body screamed and was thrown into space, but he was also caught by the force. If it weren't for a cable from the tunnel entangled in him, he would have fallen into the vast, cold depths of space like Dr. Will.

"Miller! Miller!"

First Officer Stark, in the tunnel, grabbed the cable and shouted at the captain.

The rapidly surging air whipped up a gale in the cabin, and Stark shouted with all her might, worried that Captain Miller wouldn't hear her. Fortunately, even in her desperate struggle for survival, Captain Miller continued to search for her.

Miller grabbed the cable and used all his strength to pull on the airlock. Due to the automated damage control system still running and insufficient power, the airlock, which was supposed to close quickly, was closing very slowly. Captain Miller climbed out first, grabbing a support for storing miscellaneous items to wedge the airlock shut. "Grab my hand, Stark!" He grabbed the first mate's collar, who was clinging to a pillar, with one hand and gripped the cable tightly with the other. He stared intently at the airlock and pulled with all his might, forcibly pulling her out of the ever-shrinking airlock—before the two could say anything to ease the tension, the alarm sounded again—Captain Miller quickly judged that it was the sound of the forward airlock opening, the airlock Justine had walked out of. Since the over-controlled airlock was not yet repaired, the only way to invade the ship from the outside was through that airlock. He pulled the first mate Stark and ran to the forward airlock, grabbing two nail guns from the maintenance tool cabinet.

"Could it be Will again?"

"I don't want to take any risks!" Miller bent down to load his ammunition. "Shoot if you sense anything's wrong!"

The airlock slowly opened, and icy, frozen air rushed in like a fog. Miller and Stark stood on either side of the airlock, their nail guns aimed at the staggering figure emerging from within. "Don't shoot me!" Lieutenant Cooper collapsed to the ground, too weak to walk any further. "Take this away! Take this away! I can't breathe!"