MARVEL/DC: DOCTOR IN THE MULTIVERSE

Victor Fries silently turned and walked back toward the refrigerated transport truck.

A moment later, he began dragging heavy black canvas duffel bags from the cargo compartment.

One.

Two.

Three.

Until all six bags had been lined up neatly inside Miracle Clinic.

Each bag was swollen with weight.

Without saying a word, Fries knelt beside them and unzipped every one.

Bundles of U.S. currency.

Vacuum-sealed.

Stacked to the brim.

Ten million dollars.

Cash.

After arranging everything, Victor returned to the center of the lobby.

His armored knees struck the floor with a dull metallic clang.

"Doctor..."

His voice emerged through the cryogenic suit's external speaker.

Low.

Hoarse.

Barely steady.

"I know your rules."

"The payment is here."

He slowly lifted his head.

Through the frosted visor, his exhausted eyes met Lynn's.

"Even if..."

"...you needed my brain for research..."

"...or every drop of my blood..."

"...if it brings Nora back..."

"...I'll give it."

Silence filled the clinic.

Wanda stood quietly nearby.

The cleaning cloth was still in her hands.

She looked at the kneeling man.

Then toward the woman sleeping inside the cryogenic chamber.

Tears slowly gathered in her eyes.

She understood that expression.

She had once worn it herself.

The expression of someone who had already accepted sacrificing everything.

Lynn walked around the reception desk.

He stopped beside the cryogenic capsule.

Then crouched.

The All-Seeing Eye activated.

Its vision penetrated the chamber's transparent outer shell.

[Automatic Diagnosis Initiated...]

Patient: Nora Fries

Medical Assessment:

Entire body remains under long-term cryogenic preservation at approximately −196°C. Intracellular ice crystals occupy roughly 41% of cellular volume. Conventional thawing will rupture most plasma membranes. Primary disease identified as an advanced neurodegenerative disorder closely resembling Huntington's disease, resulting in severe neuronal loss throughout the basal ganglia before preservation. Cryogenic preservation protocol is incomplete. Although Victor Fries' technology significantly exceeds conventional medical cryonics, true vitrification was never achieved. Ice crystal formation remains the principal cause of secondary cellular destruction. Ten years of continuous suspended preservation have produced localized cryogenic degeneration throughout several organs despite successful metabolic arrest.

Estimated Survival Probability Following Conventional Thawing: 2.7%

Estimated Survival Time: Two to four hours after awakening.

Healing Reward Prediction: Probability of copying an A-Rank Talent.

An A-Rank talent.

Likely related to extreme cold adaptation.

Nora herself possessed no metahuman abilities.

However...

Decades of exposure to Victor Fries' experimental cryogenic environment had gradually altered her cellular tolerance.

It was passive adaptation.

Not an innate superpower.

But prolonged environmental pressure had left measurable genetic changes.

Those changes qualified for copying.

Even so...

Lynn's attention shifted elsewhere.

Toward Victor Fries.

The All-Seeing Eye scanned directly through the cryogenic armor.

Immediately—

A completely different diagnostic report appeared.

Victor's physiology had fundamentally diverged from ordinary human biology.

His core body temperature remained approximately −37°C, consistent with most mainstream DC Comics portrayals in which his body survives only under sub-zero conditions.

Cryoprotective proteins saturated his bloodstream at concentrations thousands of times greater than those observed in naturally cold-adapted organisms.

Every metabolic process had been reconstructed to function below freezing.

Without the specialized refrigeration suit...

His altered body would rapidly become unstable.

Conversely—

The ambient temperature around him would also plunge dramatically, coating nearby surfaces with frost.

This was no ordinary mutation.

It was complete physiological dependence upon extreme cold.

Lynn stood.

"I can save your wife."

Victor's breathing stopped.

Hope.

Real hope.

After years of failure...

It appeared once more.

"But..."

"There are several problems."

Lynn returned to the reception desk.

"The first problem."

"Your cryogenic preservation method is flawed."

Victor lowered his head.

"I know."

"It relied upon direct freezing."

"Without complete vitrification."

"I had less than an hour."

"If I hadn't frozen her immediately..."

"...she would have died in front of me."

His voice became quieter.

"I didn't have another option."

"You saved her life."

Lynn spoke calmly.

"But your preservation method also created an enormous secondary problem."

Victor nodded.

"That's why I came."

Lynn continued.

"The second problem."

"I've accepted your payment."

"But ten million dollars isn't the entire cost."

Victor looked up.

"What else do you need?"

Lynn's gaze settled upon the cryogenic armor.

"After the operation..."

"I require one vial of your blood."

Victor answered immediately.

"Take as much as necessary."

"One vial is sufficient."

Lynn began putting on surgical gloves.

"Move Nora into the operating room."

"Wanda."

"Prepare the surgical instruments."

"Understood."

Wanda immediately crossed to the sterilized instrument cabinet.

...

The operating theater had already been cooled.

Temperature:

−5°C.

Deliberately.

A rapid increase from liquid-nitrogen temperatures directly to room temperature would catastrophically accelerate ice-crystal expansion.

Controlled warming remained essential.

Victor remained outside.

His refrigeration armor prevented him from entering the sterile surgical suite.

Instead...

He watched silently through the reinforced observation window.

Wanda stood beside the instrument table.

Ready to assist.

Even she began shivering slightly inside the freezing room.

Yet she never complained.

The cryogenic capsule slowly opened.

White vapor rolled outward.

Nora Fries lay motionless.

Her complexion resembled carved marble beneath translucent frost.

The scan had actually underestimated the damage.

The microscopic ice crystals were denser than expected.

Some intracellular crystal formations measured nearly one-third the diameter of the surrounding cells.

Every crystal resembled a microscopic spear.

Embedded through fragile cellular membranes.

The moment ordinary thawing began—

Those structures would melt unevenly.

Rotating.

Expanding.

Shredding every surviving cell around them.

Using conventional medical techniques under these conditions would accomplish only one thing.

It would kill her.

Lynn had no intention of using conventional medicine.

"Begin."

He extended both hands.

Then...

They disappeared.

At least—

To normal vision.

From Wanda's perspective, Lynn's hands faded from the wrists downward until they became completely invisible.

She instinctively stepped closer.

The hands had not vanished.

They had become too small to see.

Quantum Scaling.

Only his hands were shrinking.

Not his entire body.

Within seconds—

They reached microscopic dimensions.

Lynn's awareness descended into that hidden world.

The All-Seeing Eye expanded simultaneously.

Everything became perfectly clear.

A single liver cell now stood before him like a massive transparent chamber.

The plasma membrane formed walls stretching hundreds of times his apparent height.

Everywhere—

Needle-like ice crystals pierced the cellular structure.

Lynn carefully approached the nearest crystal.

He regulated the temperature of his fingertips with microscopic precision.

Exactly—

0.5°C.

Only one-tenth of a degree above the melting point.

No higher.

No lower.

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