Fury looked at Luke, who was wearing the exact expression of a man silently saying, I told you so. With a snap of his fingers, Luke teleported Tony and Pepper to a safe location.
Having spent decades dealing with spies, double agents, politicians, secret organizations, and people who hid their true intentions behind carefully crafted masks, Fury had become exceptionally good at reading people.
And Luke was absolutely gloating.
The look on his face practically screamed that Fury had ignored a warning and paid the price for it. It was the expression of someone watching a friend press a clearly marked dangerous button and then act surprised when everything exploded afterward.
"So," Luke asked, "how long?"
Not that he actually needed to ask.
At his current level, information like this was almost meaningless.
Normal manifestations were already entities capable of affecting entire multiverses through their actions alone, embodiments of concepts spread across endless realities that existed on a scale ordinary beings could never comprehend.
Luke had already surpassed that level.
The moment he became Humanity's Manifestation and inherited Humanity's authority, the old competition rules had activated automatically. The authorities of every avatar he had defeated had begun merging into him.
Corruption.
Evolution.
Virtuoso.
Destruction.
All of them.
And Destruction was by far the most absurd.
For over a billion years, Destruction had consumed other manifestations and accumulated their authorities.
Now all of that power was slowly flowing into Luke as the rightful victor. The amount of authority currently merging with him was honestly ridiculous.
Which was exactly why he rarely used those abilities for trivial matters.
He could have known the answer before asking. He could have known almost anything if he wanted to.
But what was the point?
Life would become boring as hell if every question already had an answer before it was asked.
"A little over three weeks," Fury answered.
Luke gave a small nod.
That matched what he had expected.
Fury studied him for a moment before letting out a sigh.
"You're enjoying this way too much."
Luke didn't bother denying it.
"Maybe."
The two stared at each other for several seconds before Fury finally shook his head.
"Anyway," Luke said, glancing around the prison cell, "have you learned your lesson?"
Fury folded his arms.
"About what?"
"Never trust a species whose entire civilization revolves around pretending to be somebody else."
Fury rubbed his forehead.
"That sounds obvious when you say it now."
"It was obvious before too."
Fury looked away.
Unfortunately, Luke had a point.
Years ago, Fury had allowed the Skrulls to remain on Earth because he believed they were harmless allies. More importantly, he had seen value in them. A race capable of perfect infiltration was the kind of intelligence asset most governments would kill to possess.
He had never imagined things would end up like this.
He certainly never expected some of them to betray that trust and begin replacing people right under his nose.
"So what?" Fury asked after a moment. "Are you going to help, or are you just going to stand there enjoying yourself?"
Luke glanced at him.
"Of course I'll help."
A small amount of tension left Fury's shoulders.
Then Luke continued.
"I don't want those idiots accidentally impersonating one of my family members. I have a very large family, and I'd be extremely annoyed if something happened to them."
Fury let out a tired sigh.
Some things, apparently, never changed.
Even after becoming absurdly powerful, Luke's priorities remained exactly the same.
Family came first.
Everything else was a distant second.
"But," Luke added casually, "I'm getting you out first. After that, you're dealing with the Skrulls yourself."
Fury immediately frowned.
"Why?"
Luke looked genuinely confused by the question.
"Because you're the reason this became a problem."
Fury opened his mouth to argue.
Nothing came out.
After a few seconds, he closed it again.
Unfortunately, he didn't have a good counterargument.
Before either of them could continue, a violet portal suddenly opened beside Luke.
A familiar head cautiously peeked through first.
The woman glanced around the room, checking her surroundings as though making sure she had arrived at the right place.
Then her gaze landed on Luke.
"Hmmm... Luke?" Clarice asked, blinking in confusion.
"Yeah," Luke replied. "What's with that look? You're staring at me like you've never seen me before."
Clarice stepped fully through the portal, which closed behind her a moment later.
Rather than answering, she slowly began circling him.
Once.
Then a second time.
Her eyes traveled from the top of his head to the tips of his shoes, studying him with surprising concentration.
Fury watched the entire exchange in silence.
Luke watched it too.
Eventually, Clarice stopped directly in front of him.
Then she asked a question that seemed completely unrelated to anything.
"Out of all the women in the house, who makes the best food?"
Luke stared at her for a long moment before answering.
"Since when did any of you learn how to cook?"
Clarice crossed her arms immediately, clearly offended by where this conversation was heading.
Luke pointed straight at her. "All of you make food poisoning disguised as dinner. I'm the only decent cook in this house."
Clarice held his gaze for a second before raising a thumbs-up.
"Yep, you're the real deal," she admitted, offering her support with far less resistance than anyone expected.
*****
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