Chapter 310: Mutant?
The laboratory fell silent for a few seconds.
Everyone's gazes simultaneously fell upon that pair of sisters.
Sarah Grey held her younger sister tightly in her arms, her back pressed firmly against the wall, her body trembling uncontrollably.
Jean Grey bit her lower lip, her hands tightly gripping her older sister's mud-stained coarse cloth hem, and beneath her dark red hair, a pair of eyes looked around in terror.
The high-tech metal console, the strange sparks resembling a portal, and the group of men and women standing not far away whose auras were suffocatingly strong.
Pietro reached out and scratched the back of his head, his head of silver hair rumpled into a mess by him.
"Mutant?"
Pietro stared at the two pale faces on the ground, looking at Lu Chen in utter confusion: "Boss, what kind of new species is that? Are they aliens like the Skrulls?"
Lu Chen stood in place, his arms crossed over his chest.
Hearing Pietro's question, several thoughts flashed through Lu Chen's mind.
In this thoroughly fused World, he was not entirely clear whether the origin of Mutants was because their gene chains were tampered with by the Celestials a million years ago, or if it was a natural iteration of the human gene pool under environmental influences.
"They aren't aliens," Lu Chen said concisely. "You can simply understand it as a group of humans born with special superpowers."
As soon as these words came out, Pietro was stunned on the spot.
The silver-haired youth widened his eyes, looked down at his own hands, and then pointed at his own nose.
"Humans with special superpowers?"
Pietro drew a sharp breath, his voice abruptly rising: "Isn't that just me? Boss, could it be that Wanda and I are also Mutants? Does that mean all of us are a family?"
Wanda's hand holding the coffee paused for a moment, and she gave her own dear brother a resentful glance.
Lu Chen curled his fingers and tapped on the metal console.
"Shut your mouth and listen to me finish speaking."
Lu Chen glanced at him: "They have genetic genes brought straight from their mother's womb, which basically naturally awaken during adolescent hormone fluctuations or when subjected to severe stimulation. What about you? You don't even know where your own ability came from, do you?"
Pietro sheepishly shrank his neck and muttered in a low voice: "Anyway, I run fast, who cares how it came about."
Standing in the background acting as a backdrop, Wong raised a hand to rub his bald head.
The sorcerer's honest, broad face was full of confusion: "That doesn't sound particularly special either. As long as the apprentices of Kamar-Taj practice hard for a few years, they can also use magic artifacts to cast a few decent spells. To outsiders, those are also superpowers, so why do these two girls look so afraid of us?"
Simone stood on the side, calmly and unnoticeably glancing sideways at Wong and Pietro.
This executive CEO of Vought Company rolled her eyes elegantly in her heart.
At first glance, this was definitely not a guest invited back by the boss through formal channels.
Change it to any ordinary girl, suddenly being kidnapped to a place like this by someone who can traverse space, fear is only natural; if it were you, you'd be scared too.
Hearing unfamiliar terms like "Kamar-Taj" and "Mutant," the fear in Sarah's eyes not only did not subside, but instead grew even more intense.
She could perceive danger.
The young man in the black coat before her contained unknown energy as vast as the deep sea within his body. And the red-haired woman behind him emitted an aura of chaos strong enough to devour the entire neighborhood.
Every single person in this group seemed capable of crushing their sisters into fragments just like crushing ants to death.
Lu Chen lowered his gaze, looking at the Grey sisters huddled together in the corner of the wall, trembling into a ball.
Jean's freckled little face was full of guard, but the moment her eyes met Lu Chen's, she buried her head into her sister's neck like an electric shock.
She was still an Omega-level who hadn't grown up yet after all.
The current Jean wasn't even as strong as her older sister.
"Simone," Lu Chen spoke.
"Here, Boss." Simone immediately put away her expression of watching a show, taking a step forward in her high heels.
"Take them to the guest room on the top floor, have a Doctor treat their scrapes, take a hot bath, change into clean and well-fitting clothes, and get them something to eat by the way."
After finishing, Lu Chen's gaze fell upon Jean's messy red hair, his tone softening: "Alright, stop trembling here. Isn't it just having some superpowers? In this room, people without superpowers wouldn't even dare to speak loudly. Go get washed up, eat your fill, and sleep first; I'll talk with you two later."
Hearing this, Sarah was stunned.
No slice-and-dice research, no cold restraints or bindings, and no harsh tortures.
Only a bath, a change of clothes, and food?
Jean raised her head slightly from her sister's embrace, her bloodshot eyes looking timidly at Lu Chen.
Her untrained Telepathy subconsciously extended a trace of tendrils, attempting to read the emotions of the man before her.
However, what she touched was only a void and depth resembling the vacuum of the Universe.
Sarah looked down at her younger sister, and the two sisters exchanged a glance.
In this building like a fortress of steel, resistance was a meaningless suicidal act. Since the other party hadn't bared their fangs for the time being, obedience was the only path to survival.
"Thank you... thank you, sir." Sarah squeezed out a few words in a hoarse voice, supporting her weak legs and carefully pulling her younger sister up.
Simone put on a proper and professional smile again, turning to lead the way: "Two misses, please follow me this way, the private elevator is on the left-hand side."
Lowering their heads, the two sisters followed closely behind Simone step by step out of the blast door.
The blast door closed, and the heavy mechanical lock made a crisp clicking sound of locking.
Lu Chen withdrew his gaze, turned around again, and looked at the large screen in the center.
On the screen, the map of North America was still occupied by large areas of scarlet light spots.
Since the bottom-layer screening mechanism created by Fitz and Simmons treated all non-standard human genes as anomalies, besides the list of high-ranking government officials clearly excavated from Gravik's brain who were replaced, the hundreds of red dots scattered across major cities and remote wildernesses made it completely impossible to distinguish which ones were truly green-skinned lizards and which ones were affected Mutants or civilian espers.
Beside the main control console, Fitz and Simmons, feeling they had made a huge mistake, didn't even dare to raise their heads.
Their fingers hammered out a dense afterimage on the keyboards, and the clattering sounds of the mechanical keyboard echoed in the spacious hall.
"Parameters are resetting!" Fitz's forehead was covered in fine cold sweat. "We are re-importing the gene pool of the Skrulls, trying to perform a spectral difference comparison between native Mutants and alien mimic cells..."
"How long will it take?" Lu Chen asked.
Simmons swallowed a mouthful of saliva and whispered in reply: "We need to recompile the satellite's pulse array."
By the time these two unlucky college students finished reconstructing the program and re-detecting, many Skrulls would probably have already fled, especially since an order of executing on the spot for non-cooperation had been issued.
Chapter 311: Vought's Arrest
"Yuheng." Lu Chen spoke.
Above the spacious laboratory, a soft and cold female electronic voice immediately sounded.
"I am here, Sir."
"Issue an order to all channels." Lu Chen had his hands buried in his coat pockets, his gaze cold and sharp, "Aside from continuing the arrests of the politicians, military Officers, and media executives extracted from Gravik's memories just now who have been confirmed to be replaced by Skrulls, all other Vought security forces searching for abnormal red dots outside are to withdraw immediately."
"The order has been issued, and the field units are beginning an orderly return with alternating cover." Yuheng responded swiftly.
Wanda, holding a cup of coffee, walked over to Lu Chen. Her pretty eyes carried a hint of puzzlement: "Boss, why recall everyone? Those aliens hiding in the dark... Are we just going to let them continue to lurk like this?"
Wanda pursed her lips, her mind still lingering with the images from Gravik's memories just now of victims being suffocated to death alive.
Those alien lizards replaced human identities, slept in the beds of the dead, and controlled the power organs of human society. Leaving these things to roam in the dark made the entire human society feel like sitting on a powder keg ready to explode at any moment.
"Let them roam? When did I ever say I was going to let them be?"
Lu Chen turned around, picked up the list recording dozens of replaced government officials from the table beside him, and casually flipped through two pages.
"Gravik wanted to start a nuclear war, and Nick Fury invited wolves into the house and kept it hidden for over a decade."
The corners of Lu Chen's mouth curled into a cold smile, the depths of his pupils shimmering with a captivating sense of oppression: "Since they dared to do this, don't blame me for flipping the table. Since we are going to publicly trial Fury in front of all mankind, let's make the commotion as big as possible."
Lu Chen looked at the big screen, his tone calm yet carrying an unquestionable dominance:
"When the program reconstruction is complete, I am going to tear off all the fig leaves, and smash the details, appearances, and camouflage methods of these alien cockroaches, along with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s messy accounts, right into the live broadcasts of all television stations around the World."
"Since S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mess cannot be wiped clean, let people all over the World take microscopes themselves and dig them out one by one on the streets."
Washington, Department of the Navy Building.
The solid wood flooring in the corridor was polished to a shine, and the air was filled with the aroma of premium cigars and aged black tea.
The door to the Navy Deputy Minister's office was ajar. Behind the desk, an elderly man with graying hair and a majestic expression was reviewing the latest military expenditure approval documents.
Suddenly, noisy footsteps came from outside the door, mixed with the guard's nearly distorted shout.
"Stop! Who goes there?"
Bang!
Accompanied by a loud crash, the five-centimeter-thick carved mahogany door shattered into pieces. Amidst flying wood chips, two figures wearing black tactical windbreakers passed through the debris like ghosts and stepped into the room.
The Deputy Minister's eyelid twitched, his Montblanc fountain pen suspended in mid-air, and his gaze darkened instantly.
Before he could press the emergency alarm button under the desk, a cold wind had already swept across his face. Two Vought Agents who had injected enhanced serums moved so fast they left afterimages; one reversed his hands to lock down both of the Deputy Minister's wrists, while another pressed a special alloy dagger gleaming with cold light directly against his carotid artery.
"Who sent you? Do you know who I am?" The Deputy Minister gritted his teeth and roared in a low voice, trying to suppress the other party with the aura of someone in a high position.
The Agent was expressionless, too lazy to even utter a single word.
One raised a hand to reverse-bend his joints, while the other grabbed his back collar. Both exerted force simultaneously, crashing his heavy body toward the side window.
Crash!
Under the impact of immense force, the glass burst into crystal-clear particles filling the sky. Amidst the ghost-seeing gazes of the patrolling soldiers downstairs, the two Agents grabbed the Deputy Minister and leaped dozens of meters into the air, their leather boots lightly kicking against a pillar of the opposite office building, before disappearing deep into the complex of buildings with a few bounds amidst a violent gust of wind.
The entire capture took less than eight seconds.
Meanwhile, inside a secret underground command post located in Virginia, the scene was far more chaotic.
An army logistics director here was clearly better prepared. The moment the alarm sounded, an entire platoon of elite guards set up heavy machine guns and automatic rifles, sealing the secure corridor leading to the core office tightly.
"Officer, who on earth is attacking this place?" The adjutant pulled back the bolt of his gun covered in sweat, staring nervously at the tightly shut alloy blast door.
The high-ranking Officer protected in the very center had a livid face, the depths of his eyes flashing with a panic that did not belong to a human. He could not be captured alive; once he fell into the hands of the Vought Company, all his secrets would not be kept.
"Stop talking nonsense! Open fire! Anyone, as long as they cross that line, kill them immediately!" The Officer ordered sternly.
Before the words fell.
Pfft!
A barely perceptible, muffled sound pierced the air.
A tiny white hole appeared on the bulletproof glass window, and a high-speed rotating special armor-piercing bullet precisely shattered the window frame, drilling into the Officer's abdomen without any hindrance.
Blood instantly bloomed on the military uniform.
"Officer!" The adjutant turned pale with fright, hurriedly reaching out to support him.
However, in the next second, the adjutant's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, the whole person looking as if struck by lightning, his eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets.
The intense pain tore apart the neural connections of the mimetic cells, and the middle-aged White Officer with a previously resolute face let out a shrill, piercing, non-human wail. His skin wriggled violently like boiling mud, his short brown hair quickly fell off, and his original facial features collapsed and reorganized amidst muscle twitches.
In the blink of an eye, that human face completely vanished, replaced by a layer of dark green, rough skin full of wrinkles, and a pair of sharply protruding weird ears.
The wound on his abdomen flowed with dark purple viscous blood, dripping onto the marble floor and making a faint corrosive sound.
"Monster... There's a monster!"
The soldiers in the command post held their guns, completely terrified out of their wits. The immediate superior they had guarded for a full three years turned out to be a green-skinned monster?
In the half-second when everyone's brains crashed, the ventilation duct overhead crashed down. Three nimble former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents rolled and landed, their tactical pistols firing stun darts in succession, pinning the dazed Officer firmly to the ground.
The Agent nimbly pulled open a special body bag, stuffed the Skrulls who had returned to their original form inside, zipped it up, with one person carrying the bag and another throwing a smoke bomb for cover, disappearing into the billowing thick smoke in a flash.
Across the entire North American continent, such bloody and precise targeted elimination was staged simultaneously at dozens of strongholds.
Chapter 312: The World's Reaction
The news of Vought super Agents frantically arresting core government officials spread through all levels of U.S. institutions at a viral speed.
However, the officially released briefings tacitly concealed any information about alien creatures.
After all, no one could bear the consequence of letting the public know that the national decision-making layer had long been replaced by alien variants.
Those truly high-ranking executives who luckily escaped arrest and were kept in the dark fell into boundless panic at this moment.
Their only weapon was to mobilize all propaganda machinery, desperately pressuring Vought Company, and tearfully denouncing the atrocities of Vought Company on television, demanding an explanation from the other party.
As for the few people who knew part of the truth, such as the remnants of the nominal S.H.I.E.L.D., they all played deaf and dumb, shrinking into the shadows and not even daring to breathe a word.
New York, the top floor of Vought Tower.
Lu Chen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the streets below where sirens wailed.
The special mobile phone in his pocket vibrated, and the name Tony Stark jumped on the screen.
Lu Chen swiped to answer and pressed speakerphone.
"Lu, what on Earth is going on?"
On the other end of the phone, accompanied by deafening explosions and the roaring of thrusters, Tony was obviously speeding in the Mark armor.
"I just blew up one of Killian's biochemical dens, and the calls from the Military, the White House, and even those old guys in Europe blew up my channel! Washington was turned upside down by your people, and a dozen congressmen were arrested! Are you planning to enthrone yourself as emperor?"
Listening to Tony's extremely fast-paced questioning, Lu Chen twitched the corner of his mouth, his tone showing not a trace of fluctuation: "Go mind your own business, Tony."
"Hey! Wait, at least give me the bottom line..."
"Remember to watch the news."
Lu Chen answered concisely and hung up the phone.
At this moment, it was not just Tony.
In a dark and narrow alley, Matt Murdock stood with his blind cane under the dripping eaves, his ears filled with the anxious broadcasts coming from televisions and radios across the city, and the blind vigilante's brows locked tightly.
On the top floor of Fisk Tower, the underground emperor of New York, Kingpin, leaned on his cane, quietly staring at the scrolling news flashes flashing on the screen.
The ash of the high-grade cigar in his hand fell onto the expensive carpet, and he smelled the dangerous aura of the World order completely overturning.
Midtown High School.
The harsh alarm sound in the broadcast loudspeaker echoed, and the school emptied the campus in advance on the grounds of sudden emergency avoidance.
Young Peter Parker, carrying a heavy school bag, stood somewhat confused at the school gate, watching the police helicopters whistling across the sky, completely unaware of what had happened to the World.
Meanwhile, on the far side of the ocean, inside a secret laboratory of the Kingdom of Wakanda.
Princess Shuri swiped the virtual light screen, looking at the footage of North American high-ranking officials being arrested transmitted back by the satellite, and let out a long breath: "Could it be... That man is finally dropping the act, and he intends to take over the entire Planet?"
The World was boiling, and fear was spreading.
Right at the center of the storm, the underground laboratory of Vought Tower was exceptionally quiet.
Accompanied by the heavy sound of air conditioning, the last few specially-made alloy restraint boxes were pushed into the isolation hall.
What they carried were all eradicated Skrulls high-ranking officials.
Some had been shot dead on the spot into cold green corpses, while others had been injected with high doses of sedatives and were in a deep coma.
In front of the central control console, the sound of typing on the keyboard finally stopped.
Dr. Banner wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and Fitz and Simmons let out a long sigh of relief, both of them almost collapsing onto their chairs.
"Done, Mr. Lu!"
Fitz grabbed the electronic tablet, his voice trembling slightly with excitement: "We imported the fresh tissue samples of the Skrulls sent back just now, and extracted the unique spectral difference of their cells during mimicry. The current exploration radar has completely filtered out native humans, Mutants, and Inhumans!"
Banner pressed the enter key on the main screen.
The dense warning light points that originally dyed the entire North American map red instantly plummeted.
After the big screen flickered twice, only hundreds of precise red dots scattered in various places remained.
Next to each red dot, extremely stable alien energy residue feedback was marked.
"We did two rounds of blind tests with the targets captured just now, and the recognition rate is one hundred percent."
Banner pushed up his glasses, his tone certain.
Just then, the heavy explosion-proof door of the laboratory slid open again.
Coulson, Melinda, and Skye walked in.
Behind the three of them, Ward escorted a black man wearing special electromagnetic handcuffs.
Nick Fury.
This former king of Agents who controlled the lifeline of global security was extremely listless at this moment.
That sole remaining solitary eye was full of bloodshots, and his expression was gloomy and complex.
"Lu Chen."
Fury stared at the tall and straight young Chinese man in front of him: "You don't know what you are doing. Do you think you are playing the savior? You are pushing the entire human society off a cliff!"
Coulson stood aside, his lips moved, and finally lowered his head in silence.
Melinda was expressionless, her eyes restrainedly looking at the ground.
Lu Chen turned around and looked down condescendingly at the prisoner.
"I'm pushing them off a cliff?"
Lu Chen let out a soft sneer, a cold sarcasm rising in his eyes: "For more than a decade, you put a group of alien variants with mimicry abilities who could replace the human high-level officials anytime and anywhere into the core power circle, used them as your private Agents, and in the end, got penetrated into a sieve by them... Nick Fury, is this the order you maintained?"
Fury was choked so much that his face turned iron-green, and his solitary eye twitched violently: "They need a home! And I need them to build Earth's alien defense system!"
"Defense?"
"Studying the Space Stone without any preparation, and sending Earth's coordinates to the Universe, is this what you call defense?"
Lu Chen said coldly.
He turned his head sideways, looking at the miniature holographic projection suspended in the air.
"Yuheng."
"I am here, Sir."
The cold and elegant female electronic voice immediately echoed in the hall.
"Hijack all global communication satellites, and take over all TV stations, radio stations, streaming networks, and outdoor public big screens in major cities."
Lu Chen's eyes were as sharp as knives.
"Cut in Gravik's memories, the list of replaced dignitaries, capture footage, and the so-called promises of this former Director, all of them into the feed."
Lu Chen's voice was calm and low, but it carried an unquestionable judgmental meaning:
"I want them to have absolutely no place to hide on this Planet."
Above the console, a massive data stream poured into the global satellite array like breached river water.
At this very second, screen images all over the World simultaneously fell into violent static flashing.
Chapter 313: Humanity First!
A torrent of data brutally crashed all video protocols on Earth.
The giant billboards in New York's Times Square, the 3D screens at Tokyo's Shibuya Crossing, and the neon signs in London's Piccadilly Circus. At the exact same moment, all the screens froze, followed by a flash of pure, cold white. Even the center consoles of cars speeding along highways and the smartphones in people's hands were not spared.
Yuheng's cold, steady electronic voice was simultaneously translated into over a hundred languages, reaching the ears of every living creature on Earth.
"Global citizens, please pay attention."
"I am the artificial intelligence, Yuheng."
"Authorized by the highest directive of Vought International, I am now releasing a top-secret declassified archive concerning the survival of human civilization."
The screen flashed, and a massive cosmic star map expanded before zooming in on two warring interstellar nations.
"Twenty years ago, an interstellar war broke out in the Milky Way Galaxy, and a defeated refugee race fled to the Solar System. This race is known as the Skrulls. Their physiological structure possesses perfect mimicry capabilities, allowing them to completely Copy a target's appearance, body shape, and even their DNA and retinal information."
The screen suddenly cut to a different scene.
A photo of a middle-aged Black Agent wearing a black leather trench coat and his signature single-eye patch was pinned directly to the center of the screen.
"This man is named Nick Fury. He is the former head of the Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate—commonly known to the public as S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Twenty years ago, this Director, who styled himself as Earth's secret Guardian, entered into an illegal symbiotic agreement with these alien vagrants in private, without any official authorization or informing human society."
"The terms of the agreement were: Fury promised to use his network of Agents to find a habitable new home for them; in return, the Skrulls would become Fury's personal shadow unit, using their mimicry privileges to infiltrate all sectors of human society."
Across the globe, the once-bustling streets fell into an eerie, dead silence. Countless people stopped in their tracks, staring up blankly at the screens above them in utter disbelief.
Yuheng's voice remained flat, but the words she spoke were like knives:
"However, Director Fury's promise was never fulfilled. The massive lie bred an irreversible betrayal."
"The radical faction within the Skrulls has completely abandoned their nomadic life. They even plan to bring their kin from all over the Universe to Earth in batches through secret routes, launching a full-scale invasion codenamed 'Secret Invasion'."
The footage on the screen switched again, turning into a live recording that made people's skin crawl.
Inside the Navy Building in Washington, a high-ranking official who had just been seized screamed in agony. The skin on his cheeks peeled away like boiling mud, and his brown hair fell out, exposing a dark green, rough, wrinkled hide and sharp, bizarrely long ears;
In an underground command post, an Army Director hit by a specialized armor-piercing round twitched on the ground, a foul-smelling, dark purple fluid flowing from his wound;
"To date, more than forty-seven members of Congress, twelve high-ranking Military generals, and eight editors-in-chief of mainstream media outlets have been confirmed killed and replaced."
"They sit in the seats you elected them to, manipulating the launch keys of nuclear weapons, secretly instigating a third World war among the major powers, in hopes of completely taking over this Planet once nuclear winter sets in."
Silence.
After a deathly silence came a boundless panic that swept the entire World.
In the corridors of the White House, folders slipped from the hands of aides and scattered across the floor, ignored as everyone stared at the screens, their faces pale;
In a dark alleyway, Daredevil Matt Murdock leaned against a damp, cold brick wall. His super-hearing clearly captured the heartbeats of tens of thousands of humans within a radius of several kilometers, all skyrocketing to their limits at the exact same moment;
"Bastards." Matt's voice trembled. He was a lawyer who firmly believed in procedural justice and did not kill—that was his line. But looking at this pack of alien parasites stealing human lives, he felt for the first time that the billy club in his hand could do more than just stop crimes; it could also smash these green hides to pieces.
High in the sky, Tony Stark hovered at the edge of the clouds. His eyes beneath the faceplate stared at the declassified files, his usually cynical expression completely freezing over;
The ruins of the Battle of New York were still vivid in his mind. The Chitauri army and those God-like creations of the Eternals had become nightmares that kept him awake at night. He had worked himself to the bone developing armor just to guard against the starry sky above.
And the result?
That self-righteous, one-eyed Fury had actually kept a bunch of alien monsters, who could turn into anyone at any moment, on Earth as his trusted confidants.
Abandoning his original flight path to pursue The Mandarin, he contacted Rhodes and told him to head to Vought Company together.
Meanwhile, in every corner of Earth, those moderate Skrulls who truly just wanted to live peaceful, quiet lives had now fallen into despair.
In an apartment on the outskirts of London.
A middle-aged, blonde housewife stared at the television, the frying pan in her hand slipping and clattering to the floor. Hot butter splattered onto her slippers, but she didn't feel the pain. It was over. All over. The mess that idiot radical Gravik had made was now going to be blamed on the entire Skrull race. What was the use of a perfect disguise? Once Vought Company mastered the identification technology, they would all die.
Not just her, but in thousands of other corners, those moderate Skrulls who were hiding among the crowd and only wanted to live in peace slumped into their chairs. Staring at their compatriots' true forms on the screens, they felt as if they had plunged into an icy abyss.
Inside a luxurious guest room on the top floor of Vought Tower.
Sara Grey, who had just changed into a soft, off-white hoodie, was using a towel to dry her younger sister's wet red hair.
Jean Grey set down the half-filled glass of steaming milk in her hand and stared blankly at the large screen on the wall. The green-skinned monsters forced back into their true forms made her feel a wave of nausea.
"Sister..." Jean turned her head, her slightly freckled face filled with confusion. "That man said we are Mutants. So, are we still considered human? Will we be caught and killed as monsters by them too?"
"Don't let your mind wander," Sara said in a low voice, though her fingers trembled uncontrollably beneath the towel. "We aren't aliens. Even though Mom didn't want us, we are still her children. We're just... a little different from everyone else."
Sara knew very well in her heart that she was lying to herself. The man who brought them back could turn the aliens' World upside down today, but would it be the turn of Mutants like them, who carried powers in their genes, tomorrow? Was this tower really a sanctuary for them, or was it a far more dangerous cage?
Just as the globe was on the verge of collapse and paranoia, all the video footage on the screens suddenly faded out.
Inside the laboratory, Lu Chen turned around.
Yuheng's voice softly echoed in the Master control room: "Sir, the global broadcast channels are completely stable. Would you like to make a speech?"
Lu Chen adjusted his collar and nodded calmly. "Patch me in."
Whoosh!
Across billions of screens worldwide, the image coalesced once more.
A young man with black hair, dark eyes, and a handsome, cold face appeared right in the center of the screen.
Lu Chen looked at the micro-hovering camera directly in front of him and spoke:
"I am the helmsman of Vought Company. I know that at this moment, countless eyes are watching me."
His voice echoed through all audio systems, clear and powerful, instantly drowning out all the noise on the streets.
"No matter what nationality you are or what language you speak; and no matter whether the blood flowing in your veins is that of an ordinary human, a Mutant, or an Inhuman."
"Today, I will only say one thing."
Lu Chen slightly raised his chin, his dark eyes as deep as an abyss:
"Earth is humanity's home."
"My definition of a 'human' has never been that cold string of genes at birth."
Lu Chen's voice reached every corner of the globe: "You were born on this soil, and you grew up under this sky. You weep for her disasters and cheer for her victories. As long as you identify yourself as human, then you are the Master of this land."
In the top-floor guest room, Jean Grey, who was holding her milk, trembled all over. She snapped her head up, her clear blue eyes staring intently at the figure on the screen.
"But this home has its rules."
Lu Chen's gaze suddenly turned icy, the cold glint deep in his eyes almost piercing through the screen.
"Humanity is never afraid of making friends; what humanity fears is a venomous snake slithering into its bed."
"And right now, there is such a pack of creatures."
"It wears the face of your neighbor, your husband, your child. It sleeps in your bed, sits in your seat, and spends your money, all while plotting how to wipe you out of your own home and turn your homeland into its nest."
"This is not seeking refuge or immigration; this is called parasitism and invasion."
Beside the Master console, Nick Fury, his arms pinned behind his back by Mei, had an ugly expression on his face.
Lu Chen did not look back at the loser behind him. His gaze pierced through the void, as if he were looking down upon the entire Planet.
"Now, let me make myself perfectly clear to all the Skrulls still hiding on this Planet, whether you are sharpening your knives in the dark, pretending to sleep while waiting to see what happens, or truly just wishing to scrape by."
Lu Chen's tone left absolutely no room for negotiation:
"I give you three days."
"Within three days, shed your human skins, walk into Vought Company to register, and await your judgment."
"After three days, I will assume that all those who have not shown themselves have chosen to declare war on all of humanity."
The air in the hall seemed to drop rapidly in temperature with Lu Chen's words, and even Wanda and Pietro standing in the back felt a bone-chilling cold.
"When that day comes, there will be no moderates, no elderly, women, or children—only enemies hiding beneath human skin."
"I will dig you out of the gutters one by one and wipe you out completely, until the very last shapeshifter is reduced to ashes under the sun."
Lu Chen paused for half a second before delivering his final verdict:
"Across the vast stars, humanity reigns as its own Master; on every inch of our homeland, not a blade of alien grass shall grow."
Chapter 314: Vought Company in the Gathering Storm
The images on the screen flickered back to static, and then went completely black.
The streets of New York did not immediately erupt into cheers, nor did cries immediately ring out.
After a dead silence lasting several seconds, harsh screeches of brakes, sounds of shattering glass, and hysterical screams burst out all at once.
"Aliens... They're all fucking aliens!"
"Raised by S.H.I.E.L.D.! It was crystal clear on TV just now!"
"Don't touch me! Get your hands off! Who the hell are you?!"
Pedestrians who had been waiting side by side at the traffic lights a few minutes ago now jerked away as if they had run into a plague.
A middle-aged man clutched his briefcase, backing away frantically while staring at the acquaintance who had just patted him on the shoulder.
That look wasn't like looking at a neighbor, but rather like looking at a monster wearing human skin.
How long had the Battle of New York been over?
The tragic scene of the Chitauri invading by falling from the sky hadn't even faded from their minds, and now this—it turned out that the real invasion had happened long ago, right under their noses, and even in the same bed.
The authorities couldn't be trusted, and S.H.I.E.L.D. had become the biggest accomplice.
Many people scrambled frantically back home, locking their security doors dead and drawing all the curtains.
But there were others who were different.
Those civilians who had lined up to take Compound V a while ago stood firmly in place instead.
Although they couldn't tell who was a green-skinned lizard either, feeling the surging power within their bodies finally gave them some confidence.
At least if someone really wanted to replace him, he could throw a punch to smash the other's head, instead of sticking out his neck like a chicken waiting to be slaughtered.
"To Vought Company!"
Someone yelled at the top of their lungs in the chaotic crowd.
"Right! To Vought Tower!"
"That man dared to make such harsh remarks, he must have a way to find out!"
"They still have medicine! What if they hand out medicine again today?"
Like a tide that had found a floodgate, the panicked crowd frantically turned around and began surging toward the skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan.
In Lower Manhattan, blocks outside Vought Tower were already packed impenetrably.
At the edge of the crowd, three figures wearing hoodies and large sunglasses were shoved crookedly.
"Hey, stop shoving!"
Barton lowered the brim of his hat, lightly jabbing his elbow into the crowd to push away a fat guy trying to bump into him, "I've never seen so many people in my life. This is even crazier than Black Friday lines for discounted TVs."
Natasha kept one hand in her trench coat pocket, her gaze sweeping over the fanatical faces around her.
"When people are in extreme fear, they only grasp at the nearest straw to save their lives. That straw used to be the government, S.H.I.E.L.D., and now it's Vought Company and Lu Chen."
Steve Rogers walked in front.
He didn't speak, just silently watching the terrified, angry, and despairing faces around him.
His Vibranium round shield was hidden in a large canvas bag, and he recalled seventy years ago, those European refugees facing the tyranny of Red Skull.
Back then, the enemy wore black uniforms with striking skull insignia, and their objectives were clear.
But what about now?
The enemies looked exactly like the people being protected.
Steve couldn't help wondering, waking up after seventy years of slumber, was what he risked his life to protect a Planet called Earth, or humanity on Earth?
If the price of protecting humanity was sending Skrulls to the gallows, could he bring himself to do it?
"Captain, stop zoning out."
Natasha reminded him in a low voice, "We're almost there."
The three of them shoved past the final wall of people, arriving in front of the riot control cordon set up by heavily armed security outside Vought Tower.
Two Vought guards raised their rifles, their tones cold: "Back away, the building is not open to the public today."
Steve took off his sunglasses, revealing the face printed in history textbooks.
"It's me."
Steve spoke, his voice low and steady, "Steve Rogers. I want to see Lu Chen."
The two guards exchanged glances.
One of them glanced down at a tactical terminal, reported softly through the internal communicator for a moment, and then raised the isolation barrier: "Please come in, Captain Steve. The boss gave instructions that if it's you guys, you can go straight up."
Steve put his sunglasses back on, leading Natasha and Barton across the cordon line.
As the three of them walked through the revolving doors, two harsh roars of airflow swept across the high sky above their heads.
Two metal figures intertwined with gold-red and silver-gray plummeted straight down from the clouds.
Boom!
Tony Stark retracted his nano-armor, revealing a face full of Fury.
Colonel Rhodes landed right beside him, the heavy armor of War Machine emitting a muffled hydraulic damping sound.
"Tony, calm down."
"Calm? I'm as calm as a dead man!"
Tony strode toward the elevator leading to the top floor: "That one-eyed bastard Nick Fury kept a bunch of aliens that can transform into our likenesses as pets in his backyard! Rhodes, he hid it for a full twenty years!"
The blast door slid open from the inside.
Simone held a tablet computer in her hand, with an impeccable professional smile on her face: "Mr. Stark, Colonel Rhodes, the boss is waiting for you all in the conference room downstairs."
Washington, Triskelion.
The telephone rings inside the Director's office rang incessantly like they had gone crazy.
Red ones, white ones, encrypted internal lines—dozens of phones buzzed loudly on the spacious office desk.
However, the Master of the office didn't answer a single one.
Alexander Pierce stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, hands braced against the railing, his tie pulled crookedly.
His throat had long since become hoarse from continuously issuing orders, but on that weathered politician's face, there was not a trace of panic at the moment.
On the contrary, a light that was almost overflowing burned in his eyes.
"Humanity cannot handle freedom..."
Pierce muttered to himself.
"Freedom only breeds war, chaos, and disorder. Only under the control of absolute tyranny can humanity achieve true peace."
This was the ultimate creed that his faction of HYDRA had deeply cultivated for decades.
For this goal, he secretly tampered with the Insight Project behind Fury's back, had Strucker conduct human experiments in Europe, and laid out his plans for decades, all for the day when he could purge all uncontrollable elements with absolute force, and then establish a brand new global order using the might of super soldiers and advanced technology.
During this period of time, Lu Chen was like an insurmountable mountain, pressing heavily down upon the heads of HYDRA.
That young man was too strong—so strong that he couldn't be assassinated, and couldn't be kept in check by conventional means.
Pierce couldn't sleep a wink every night, his hair had turned white, and his mind was filled entirely with how to eliminate Lu Chen, the biggest destabilizing factor.
Until just now.
Watching the tough speech delivered by Lu Chen on the television screen, listening to that extremely cold phrase, "Not an inch of our homeland will be yielded, and not a blade of grass will be left for outsiders," Pierce felt as though his entire body had been drenched by a basin of icy water, followed by a shuddering thrill rising from the soles of his feet.
Chapter 315
He was wrong.
Completely wrong!
Why did he want to get rid of Lu Chen?
Wasn't this man, who possessed invincible might, acted ruthlessly, and regarded rules as nothing, the ultimate answer HYDRA had been searching for?
After Lu Chen laid bare the threat of the Skrulls, instead of rioting, the public actively surrendered their so-called freedom out of panic, frantically rushing toward the sanctuary of absolute power!
Isn't this the future HYDRA has been dreaming of?
The greatest obstacle to realizing this plan had, in turn, become their greatest assistance in achieving their goal!
"Come in!" Pierce turned around, his voice brimming with majesty.
The hidden door to the office slid open, and two trusted Agent strode in, straightening their spines. "Officer."
"Issue the highest directive to all S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent lurking in various departments." Pierce tidied his suit collar, buttoning each button one by one. "Fully cooperate with the Vought Company's arrest operation. No matter where Vought Company wants to blockade or who they want to capture, S.H.I.E.L.D. will unconditionally provide logistical support and on-site order maintenance."
The Agent froze for a moment: "Officer, what about Director Fury..."
"Fury is done." Pierce interrupted coldly. "From the day he led aliens onto Earth, he was already a dead man. Prepare a private jet."
"Where are you going?"
"New York, Vought Tower." Pierce took a deep breath, his eyes flashing with the madness of a veteran conspirator. "I am going to see Lu Chen in person."
At the same time, in the suburbs of London, deep within an abandoned old industrial park.
Dozens of Skrulls sat huddled around rusted iron boxes.
Their disguises had faded, their dark green skin gleaming with an oily sheen under the dim emergency lights, their pointy ears drooping limply.
The ultimatum on the television screen had long since ended, but that bone-chilling coldness still gripped everyone's neck.
On the elevated platform at the very center, a Skrull with even deeper skin wrinkles braced his fists on the table.
Talos.
Once a general of the Skrull Empire, now the only moderate leader among this group of refugees.
His eyes were bloodshot.
His clansmen had wandered in a sea of stars for hundreds of years, searching like stray dogs for soil to settle on.
He brought his remaining forces to Earth, thinking Nick Fury was the one who could promise them dawn.
He worked his life away for S.H.I.E.L.D., did dirty work for Fury, and even watched helplessly as young clansmen died in the treacherous infighting among humans.
And the result?
Fury's promise was a bounced check, and Gravik's radical revenge directly pushed the entire race onto a doomed guillotine.
"General... What should we do?"
A young female Skrull cradled an infant still in swaddling clothes in her arms, tears sliding from her green eye sockets: "That man... He said if we don't go out within three days, he will completely wipe us out."
"Fight! Fight them to the death!" A tall, broken-horned stout man beside him slammed the table fiercely, the veins on his forehead throbbing frantically. "Gravik died at their hands, and we still have hundreds of warriors! Human bodies are so frail, if we take on their armaments..."
Slap!
A crisp and neat slap sent the robust man staggering back two steps.
Talos withdrew his hand, that rough big hand trembling slightly.
The old General looked around at all his clansmen below: "What do you plan to fight them with?"
Talos took a deep breath, the Fury in his eyes ultimately turning into endless despair. "Vought Company should have already mastered the spectrum algorithm to screen us. As long as you walk out of this bunker, the satellite can lock onto your heartbeats in a second!"
Dead silence fell inside the shelter.
The stout man who had just clamored to fight to the death gritted his teeth, lowered his head, and stopped making a sound.
"Pass down my order."
Talos straightened his hunched spine, pulling out the final determination of an empire general: "Immediately issue the highest-level retreat signal to all clansmen scattered throughout human society."
"First, destroy all disguised identities, forged documents, and communication records on hand, and all personnel must withdraw back to the stronghold at the fastest speed."
"Second, enter total radio silence, prohibit any solo outings, and under no circumstances allow any form of friction with humans!"
"Third, whoever dares to preach any revenge or attack remarks in the stronghold, I will snap his neck with my own hands! Resistance equals total annihilation. Our only task now is to preserve our bloodline and put an end to any individual heroism!"
The orders were issued one by one, and the Skrull Agent in the stronghold lowered their heads, starting to operate the radios with numb expressions.
In the corner, an elderly Skrull scholar stood up tremblingly, his voice shaking: "General... Even if we hide here, how long can we hide? Three days... Once the three-day limit passes, we will still be dug out. What will we do then?"
Talos looked at the mother holding the infant, and then looked at the dozens of panicked faces present.
"Within three days, do not move."
The old General reached out and tore an outer garment from the coat rack, draping it over himself.
His facial muscles began to undulate, the green outer skin gradually receding, turning back into an ordinary human old man with graying hair and tired eyes.
"I am going to New York."
Talos tidied his collar, as if arranging his final affairs: "I will go to Vought Tower in person and plead guilty to Lu Chen. If someone must be publicly judged, let me, this General, take the blame."
New York, the ninety-first floor of Vought Tower.
Inside the spacious reception room, personnel from several factions had packed the originally empty space to the brim.
Tony Stark held a glass of untouched whiskey in his hand, staring tightly with furrowed brows at the dense crowd outside the window.
Colonel Rhodes stood by his side, his back straight and his expression solemn.
On the other side, Steve Rogers sat at one end of the long leather sofa, his hands crossed and placed on his knees, the canvas bag beside him faintly revealing the red and white curves of a round shield.
Black Widow Natasha leaned against the adjacent pillar, her eyes scanning the room like radar, while Barton lowered his head and played with a special arrowhead.
And by the door, Coulson guarded with Mei and Ward.
The heavily injured and languid Nick Fury was handcuffed to a specially made steel chair, that single eye staring fixedly at the ground, saying not a word.
Not a single person spoke in the entire room.
Everyone was waiting.
Chapter 316: Different Views
The doors of the reception room opened.
Lu Chen strode in, followed closely on the left and right by Simone in high heels and Wanda, with Dr. Banner and Pietro trailing behind.
The room, which had been murmuring quietly, instantly fell into dead silence.
The gazes of everyone in the room instantly converged on Lu Chen.
Tony held a wine glass, leaning against the windowsill with an ugly expression, while Colonel Rhodes beside him stood at rigid Military attention with a complex look in his eyes; on the long sofa, Steve Rogers pressed against a cloth bag containing his round shield, and Natasha and Barton wore grim expressions; in the special steel chair in the corner of the room, Nick Fury had magnetic locks on both hands, his single eye sinking into the shadows; Coulson, Melinda, and Ward stood beside Fury, the atmosphere oppressive to the extreme.
Lu Chen used Soul Discrimination to check Rhodes; it seemed he hadn't been replaced yet. As for the rest of them, they sure came in full force. It seemed that his speech on television had truly severed the nerves of all factions.
Simone hurried forward and reported in a low voice beside Lu Chen: "Boss, Alexander Pierce has arrived at the rooftop helipad by helicopter. Should we let him wait in the waiting room first?"
Lu Chen glanced around at everyone in the room: "No need. There are enough people here; one more or one less doesn't matter."
Lu Chen gave a casual wave.
A ring of blinding sparks lit up in mid-air, and a circular portal directly tore open a passage between the helipad several floors above and the reception room.
Pierce, who had just stepped out of the helicopter and was preparing to straighten the hem of his suit, suddenly felt the ground drop out from under his feet.
"Holy shit!"
This HYDRA leader, who was usually suave, elegant, and deeply majestic in international politics, let out an extremely unseemly exclamation. His entire body fell from mid-air in an extremely unseemly posture, sinking with a thud into the soft leather sofa.
His neat hair became messy. The old politician who usually called the wind and rain in Washington steadied the armrest of the sofa, still shaken, and as he raised his head, his gaze collided with a dozen weird stares.
Only Coulson in the entire audience remembered the rules and bowed slightly: "Director Pierce, good afternoon."
"Ahem... I'm fine, Phil." Pierce forcibly suppressed the panic in his heart, gave a dry cough and stood up, quickly smoothing out the wrinkles on his suit in an attempt to recover the dignity of a top-tier politician.
Then he squeezed out a proper smile at Lu Chen: "Mr. Lu's methods are truly breathtaking every time I see them."
Lu Chen ignored the compliment and walked straight to the high-backed leather chair in the very center to sit down. Wanda naturally walked to his side and back to stand still, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes shimmering with a faint reddish glow.
"Everybody sit." Lu Chen leaned back against the chair back, his gaze sweeping across everyone's faces one by one. "Since everyone is here, speak up. You ran all this way, what kind of explanation do you want from me?"
As soon as his voice fell, Tony couldn't hold back anymore.
"Lu, you directly pulled the air defense alarm of this Planet to the highest level!" Tony pointed at the crowded crowd outside the window, speaking at a rapid pace. "People on the street now think their own mothers are green-skinned lizards! These alien swindlers have lurked in our World for decades, stealing Military and political secrets, and almost even pressed the nuclear button! I think we need a clear disposal plan."
Lu Chen leaned against the backrest, not rushing to answer, but motioned for him to continue.
Colonel Rhodes stepped forward and took over the conversation. Representing the Military, his tone was stiff and formulaic: "Mr. Lu, the Military's attitude is very clear. This batch of alien creatures possesses an unprecedented gene mimicry mechanism, which is a live resource of extreme strategic value. All captured Skrulls, please hand them over to Military research institutions for comprehensive analysis. We need to extract their physiological samples, reverse-engineer countermeasure technologies, and even use them for the construction of a new generation of national defense systems."
"Oh come on, Rhodes, shut your mouth." Tony unceremoniously interrupted his friend's words and sneered aloud, "Hand them over to The Pentagon? Then wait for some day when a general's adjutant is replaced again, or your bunch of good-for-nothing researchers are swapped out, and the entire arsenal is given to the aliens? Weren't the lessons of the Battle of New York painful enough?"
Speaking of this, Tony glanced sideways at Nick Fury, who was handcuffed to the chair: "Of course, we also have to thank a certain one-eyed great detective. If it weren't for his foresight and deep calculations in raising this group of dangerous creatures as private canaries in his backyard, how could we have today's kind of surprise?"
"I also decide that sectioning research is inappropriate."
A steady, low voice interjected.
Steve Rogers furrowed his brows tightly, his voice carrying disapproval: "Rhodes, they are highly intelligent life forms. I know the radicals committed crimes against humanity, and those elements like Gravik who attempted to provoke a nuclear war must face the harshest trial and punishment, and I would have no objection even if they were executed by the death penalty. But what about the elderly and children who didn't participate in the conspiracy? Are you going to push the entire race onto the laboratory operating table?"
Steve frowned tightly, his eyes carrying an uncompromising persistence: "We are talking about a race, a refugee group that has lost its home Planet and is wandering in the Universe. Many of them perhaps just want to find a place to survive, and there are even women and children. If, because of the crimes of a few, we label the entire group as enemies, strip them of all dignity, and interrogate and detain them like livestock, what difference is there between us and Red Skull?"
Steve took a deep breath, meeting Lu Chen's gaze: "Bring the radicals to justice. As for the moderates, provide them with a spacecraft capable of deep space travel and necessary supplies, supervise them to leave Earth, and let them go deep into the interstellar space to find their own destination. This is the bottom line humanity should have."
Tony turned his head and unceremoniously sneered: "Oh come on, old popsicle, can you pick your occasions for your moral cleanliness? Seventy years ago, the people you faced were soldiers holding guns, they were humans; now these guys can turn into your neighbors and your comrades! The so-called moderates? How can you be sure that while he's baking a pie for you the last second, he won't poison the city's water supply the next second? In my opinion, all radicals involved in infiltration should be executed on the spot, and as for the rest, lock them all up in high-dimensional gravity prisons, squeeze out the interstellar coordinates, cosmic factions, and spaceship blueprints in their brains, and once Earth has interstellar voyage capabilities, throw them out of the solar system."
Steve looked directly at Tony: "If we detain them all as prisoners, interrogate, exploit, and strip them of all rights, this in itself is a trampling on the bottom line of civilization. Giving the moderates a spaceship, letting them leave Earth, and finding their own way out is the only just approach."
"Give them a spaceship? And then let them take Earth's coordinates and bring over the Kree Empire or some other alien fleet?" Tony acted as if he had heard a monstrous joke, raising his eyebrows and sneering, "Captain, your kindness will sooner or later bury this Planet."
Just as the Avengers were arguing endlessly amongst themselves, Pierce, who was sitting on the side sofa, cleared his throat.
Chapter 317: The Skrulls' Bargaining Chip
The old fox leaned forward slightly. His gaze bypassed Captain America and Tony, locking firmly onto Lu Chen instead. His tone carried a bone-deep malice and resoluteness: "Gentlemen, you are too naive."
Everyone looked at Pierce.
He adjusted his collar, took half a step forward, and stared intently at Lu Chen. He had long pondered every word Lu Chen uttered during the global broadcast. That young man's attitude was cold and ruthless; it was by no means something that a moral paragon like Steve could shake.
HYDRA believed in absolute order, and the first step of absolute order was purging.
Pierce suddenly waved his hand and said resolutely: "I speak on behalf of the World Security Council: S.H.I.E.L.D. will fully cooperate with the Vought Company. Once the three-day ultimatum passes, regardless of whether they are radicals or moderates, every single Skrull on Earth must be killed! Grind their bones to dust, and do not let a single cell remain on Earth! Only by completely eradicating them can we buy true security for all humanity!"
Having professed his loyalty, Pierce abruptly turned around and looked down from on high at Fury sitting in the steel chair. His eyes held a mix of malice and glee: "As for our great Director Fury... harboring alien invaders and abusing the highest authority of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Nick, you are not only an incompetent head of Agents, you are a sinner against all humanity! If you hadn't invited the viper across the threshold, how could the current World have fallen into such panic?"
Tony snorted and added a knife twist: "Indeed, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s annual budget is enough to build ten helicarrier fleets, yet it all got taken by the one-eyed dragon to hand out relief rations and trade for intel with alien refugees. Fury, was that eye of yours scratched blind by them?"
Nick Fury in the corner had a complexion as dark as the bottom of a pot.
The King of Agents, shackled to the steel chair, finally couldn't help it anymore. He took a deep breath, his remaining single eye bloodshot, and roared low at everyone in the room: "What do you know? You have no idea what is out in deep space!"
Fury abruptly raised his head and stared at Lu Chen: "No matter how angry you are, you cannot change the fact that they are useful to Earth! The Skrulls hold the star charts of major civilizations across the Milky Way Galaxy. Without them gathering intelligence from the shadows, Earth is blind and deaf in the vast Universe! S.H.I.E.L.D. utilizing their technology to resist potential alien invasions, is that wrong? Everything I have done is for the survival of this Planet! I op—"
"What the hell are you opposing!"
Pierce slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly, cutting Fury off angrily with a voice that drowned out Fury's: "For survival? Nick, put away that savior's fig leaf of yours! You kept secrets from the Council and the entire World, secretly using the Tesseract to develop weapons of mass destruction, and ended up leading Loki to Earth, nearly turning New York into ruins! And now? You've led a bunch of parasites capable of changing shapes at will back home, raising monsters too big to be controlled! You gave them promises, but couldn't give them a home, ultimately letting them put a blade against all humanity's throats!"
Pierce's gaze was icy as he looked down from on high at his former subordinate: "Nick, you are not a Guardian; you are merely an arrogant acrobat playing with fire and burning yourself. Everyone sitting here today has the qualification to talk about Earth's future, except you—you don't!"
Fury trembled violently from the scolding, his lips moving, but he found he couldn't spit out even half a word in rebuttal.
The entire parlor instantly fell silent.
The Military advocated dissection and research; Tony advocated extracting intelligence before deportation; Captain America advocated distinguishing good from evil and letting the moderates leave; Pierce groveled to the extreme, advocating complete eradication; and Fury completely became the target of public criticism.
Everyone's gazes ultimately returned to the young man in the main seat.
The power of life and death determining the fate of this alien race was not in the White House, nor in the United Nations, but solely within Lu Chen's single thought.
Lu Chen picked up his teacup and took a light sip.
"Have you argued enough?" Lu Chen put down the teacup. His voice wasn't loud, yet it sent a chill through the hearts of all the superheroes and dignitaries present.
Just at the moment Lu Chen was about to speak, the holographic projection screen above the parlor suddenly rippled like water waves.
Yuheng's cool and steady electronic voice broke the indoor silence: "Sir, at the entrance of the building's first-floor lobby, a Skrull who voluntarily lifted their mimicry has appeared."
The light screen instantly switched to a surveillance image.
An elderly white-haired white man in plain clothing was standing in front of the security checkpoint barrier. Locked under countless gun barrels, the old man's facial muscles were slowly writhing, dark green wrinkled skin emerging inch by inch to reveal his originally pointed, alien ears.
He held his hands high, entirely unarmed, his face aged and exhausted.
Yuheng's voice echoed in the hall: "The other party claims to be Talos, former general of the Skrull Empire and current leader of Earth's moderates. He claims he is willing to represent all Skrulls stranded on Earth to plead guilty to the Vought Company, and requests an audience with the Supreme Arbiter."
The atmosphere in the entire parlor instantly froze.
Tony narrowed his eyes and put down his wine glass; Steve took a deep breath, his palm unconsciously pressing against his knee; Fury's single eye widened abruptly, a hint of shock and grief flashing deep within it.
Lu Chen tapped his fingertips lightly on the armrest, his eyes deep and unfathomable.
This old lizard arrived even faster than imagined. It saved him a lot of effort chasing people everywhere.
"Let him up."
The parlor doors slid open to both sides.
Two Vought heavily armed security guards holding electromagnetic assault rifles escorted a figure inside.
Dark green skin wrinkles were stacked, earlobes were pointed and long, and the lower jaw was covered in uneven, rough gullies.
He wore no weapons, nor did he even raise his head to look at the Avengers on both sides.
Walking into the very center of the room, under dozens of gazes, Talos slightly bent his knees and heavily knelt down onto the cold marble floor.
Thump.
The muffled impact sound plunged the parlor into dead silence once more.
"I am Talos." The old general lowered his head. "Former deputy commander of the Skrull Empire's Third Fleet, and also the refugee leader currently remaining on Earth. I voluntarily disarm myself and, on behalf of the Skrulls stranded on this Planet, accept the Vought Company's disposition."
He raised those bloodshot yellow pupils and looked at Lu Chen on the main seat.
"I only ask, Mr. Lu, to leave a sliver of life for my people."
Steve on the sofa had a slight shift in his gaze, while Tony raised an eyebrow, his fingers holding the wine glass lightly tapping against the cup wall.
Nick Fury, sitting in the steel chair, had indescribable emotions churning within his single eye as he clenched his teeth tightly.
"To beg for survival, there must be bargaining chips." Lu Chen leaned back against the chair back, his fingertips tapping lightly at the armrest. "Empty-mouthed begging cannot trade for even a single gram of oxygen here at the Vought Company."
"I brought a bargaining chip."
Talos straightened his hunched upper body, speaking word by word: "Twenty years ago, the Skrull homeworld was completely destroyed by the Kree Empire. Within the refugee fleet I brought out, a complete Tier-2 jump assault ship was preserved, along with a hyperspace cross-galaxy communication array."
"These things are hidden beneath the deep-sea ice in northern Norway."
"In addition to this, I also hold the sphere-of-influence distribution maps of seven major civilizations, jump point coordinates, and the patrol fleet route map of the Kree Empire."
When Talos said this, his breathing grew a bit heavier: "All these technologies and star chart intelligence—for twenty years, I have never revealed a single word of it to S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, I offer it all to the Vought Company."
Nick Fury sitting in the corner suddenly raised his head, his single eye almost splitting wide open.
"Motherfucker!" Fury's teeth grated loudly, squeezing out an angry curse from between his teeth: "Talos, you kept this hidden from me for a full twenty years!"
For twenty years, S.H.I.E.L.D. had allocated astronomical amounts of secret funds to provide asylum for the Skrulls, and Fury had even withstood pressure from the Council to build dozens of safe houses.
Yet this old alien had all along clenched starship and jump blueprints in his hands that were sufficient to let Earth's technology leap across an entire era, without spitting out even a single screw!
Talos turned his head, looking coldly at that former ally.
The old Skrull twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing sharp, yellowish teeth, his eyes full of sarcasm: "Of course we had to keep a trump card! Without a trump card, once your value was squeezed dry, what would we use to negotiate conditions with you?"
"Just like how you watched the Chitauri fleet rush down from the wormhole, watched Manhattan blown into ruins, and watched countless civilians die on the street, yet stubbornly refused to press that pager calling Carol Danvers!"
Chapter 318: The Hyenas of Humanity
The moment these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the room shifted instantly.
Tony slammed his glass down, liquor splashing onto the tabletop. "Wait. Carol Danvers? Who on Earth is that?"
Steve furrowed his brow as well, turning to stare at Nick Fury.
Natasha and Barton exchanged a look. Having worked covertly within S.H.I.E.L.D. for many years, neither of them had ever heard of this codename either.
Talos scoffed coldly. "Twenty years ago, a human woman absorbed the energy of the Tesseract right here on Earth. All on her own, she smashed the flagship of the Kree Empire's Accusers in low-Earth orbit! Fury holds a custom communicator that can reach her. She is the strongest combatant your kind ever sent out into the cosmos, yet this Director would rather watch New York turn into a meat grinder than reveal this secret!"
Tony's face darkened completely.
Steve slowly stood up, walked over to Nick Fury, and looked down at him from above.
"Nick, is what he said true?"
Fury leaned against his steel chair, avoiding Steve's gaze.
"Answer me!" Steve raised his voice sharply, his words booming like thunder inside the reception room. "During the Battle of New York, you held a trump card that could have ended the war instantly in your hands. Why didn't you use it?"
The muscles in Fury's cheek twitched. Finally, he looked up and forced himself to meet everyone's eyes.
"Because that is humanity's last line of defense!"
Fury growled low, "Carol is patrolling deep space, confronting major crises capable of wiping out entire star systems! The Chitauri vanguard was just small potatoes—Earth's local superheroes were more than enough to handle the defense of New York! If we revealed our ultimate trump card in a fight of that scale, what would Earth use to shield itself if an even greater crisis arose later?!"
Small potatoes?
The disappointment in Steve's eyes was almost overflowing.
Thousands of innocent civilians died in New York that day, severed limbs and broken bodies littered the streets, and Tony nearly died on the other side of the wormhole carrying a nuke!
Steve pointed out the window toward prosperous Manhattan. "In your calculations, were all those who died—and the Avengers who fought with everything they had—just expendable material used for military drills and probing the enemy's strength?"
Fury closed his eyes and said nothing more.
Any excuses now seemed utterly feeble and meaningless.
"That's enough."
Lu Chen, sitting at the head of the table, spoke up, cutting off the tense and explosive argument in the room.
Lu Chen stood up, walked over to Nick Fury, and looked down at this King of Agents.
"Fury, your big picture perspective is indeed grand—so grand that you can treat even the land under your own feet as a bargaining chip."
Lu Chen twitched the corner of his mouth, his gaze frigid. "As for your final disposition, it doesn't need to be decided by the Security Council, nor by S.H.I.E.L.D."
Lu Chen turned to Coulson. "Strip Nick Fury of all his authority and make all his secret files public. Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, at the public tribunal stage in Times Square."
"I'd love to see whether you press that button calling Captain Marvel or not when you are sent to the gallows of all humanity."
Fury's body shook violently. He stared at Lu Chen, but in those deep black pupils, he saw nothing but cold indifference.
Then, Lu Chen turned and walked toward Talos, who was kneeling on the floor.
The superheroes and dignitaries throughout the reception room instantly held their breath.
The moment to decide the fate of an alien race had arrived.
Steve's fingers tightened slightly against the edge of the table, while Alexander Pierce leaned forward halfway, a fanatical light flickering in his eyes.
"As for you Skrulls..." Lu Chen looked down at Talos.
Talos was completely prostrate on the ground, his forehead pressed against the cold floor tiles, his muscles taut all over.
"First, all radicals who have taken human lives or disguised themselves to replace high-ranking officials will be executed before all of humanity by the Vought Security Force."
"Second, after the three-day ultimatum ends, for any shapeshifters hiding in the shadows who have not surrendered, Vought will publicly release their biological frequencies and coordinates to the global network."
Lu Chen's tone was calm, yet the words he uttered sent chills down everyone's spine. "Dead or alive, any human citizen who brings back the corpse of a Skrull will be rewarded with a bottle of Compound V enhancement serum. There are seven billion people on this Planet, and I believe they will be more than happy to join this hunt."
Talos gritted his teeth, but he offered no objection.
He knew this was the price the radicals deserved to pay.
"As for you remnants who claim to be moderates..." Lu Chen looked at him. "Hand over the battleship hidden beneath the ice, as well as all star charts and communication technology. Then, line up to receive the Thought Seal."
"Thought Seal?" Tony frowned, clearly catching onto this unfamiliar term.
Lu Chen didn't explain and continued, "Accept an absolute loyalty lock on a psychological level. Once all of this is done, Vought Company will refuel your battered starship and send you off Earth."
"Your only way to survive is to serve as pathfinding hounds and reconnaissance scouts for humanity in deep space."
"When encountering the Kree, you will fire the first shot; when encountering unknown star sectors, you will explore them with your lives."
Lu Chen looked down at the old general from on high. "Whether your descendants can gain a foothold on this Planet or any Planet in the solar system depends entirely on how much valuable intelligence you bring back, and how much blood you shed for humanity."
"Do you understand?"
Talos trembled uncontrollably.
This was no mercy; this was the most absolute enslavement and exploitation.
From exiled refugees, they had become expendable Agents and throwaway assets for human civilization reaching into the stars.
Yet the old general slowly closed his eyes, knocked his forehead heavily against the ground, and spoke in a raspy voice, "The Skrull remnants submit to your judgment."
At least the bloodline of their species was not completely wiped out here.
"Wait! Lu Chen!"
A resolute voice broke the oppressive atmosphere.
Steve Rogers took a large step forward, his brow locked in a deep knot. "A Thought Seal? Stripping a species of their free will, sending them into deep space as slaves and cannon fodder? That isn't justice at all! If humanity treats the weak with such brutal methods, how are we any different from invaders? They have already surrendered, we should at least give them the right to survive..."
Before his words finished, an invisible and vast surge of telekinesis crashed down like a torrent.
The air was instantly sucked vacuum-dry. Steve's advancing steps ground to a halt, his knees groaning under immense pressure as his entire body was forcefully forced back into the depths of the leather sofa, unable to lift even a single finger.
Steve's face flushed red as he gritted his teeth, resisting this power that was simply impossible to contend with.
Lu Chen didn't even turn around to glance at him.
"Steve, the reason I allowed you all to stand in this room and speak today is that regardless of your ideals, you did indeed risk your lives to protect humanity."
Lu Chen straightened his sleeves. "But that does not mean you have the right to dictate or criticize the decisions I make."
"The future of this Planet is decided by those who can bear the price, not by your fragile and ridiculous sense of morality."
Lu Chen turned around and instructed the empty air, "Yuheng, synchronize the ruling directives just made directly to the global media as they are."
"Understood, sir."
Lu Chen took long strides, walking straight out the doors of the reception room.
Wanda gave Captain America, who was pinned to the sofa, a cold glance before quickly following behind Lu Chen. Only when Lu Chen's back completely disappeared down the end of the corridor did the colossal pressure weighing on Steve quietly dissipate.
Captain America gasped heavily for air, cold sweat dripping from his forehead, his expression complex to the extreme.
Tony stood by the window, watching the direction in which Lu Chen had left. He took a sip of hard liquor, his eyes flickering with thought.
Autocratic, domineering.
But... Tony asked himself in his heart, if he were the one sitting in the helmsman's seat, facing this crisis-ridden deep space above their heads, was this cold and ruthless approach perhaps the solution that would allow humanity to survive better?
In the corner of the room.
Alexander Pierce slowly rose from the sofa.
This supreme leader of HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D. felt his entire face burning slightly at this moment, his heart racing to the extreme.
He stared at the empty doorway; in his eyes, there was no fear, only matchless fanaticism and awe.
Depriving dissidents of free will, absolute military enforcement, iron-fisted rule with the survival of civilization as the sole supreme principle...
Behind his back, Pierce's hands trembled violently with excitement.
Yes...
So right!
This was the ultimate answer HYDRA had been pursuing for nearly a century!
This was the person who could truly lead this broken World into eternal order!