"Ordinary!!!"
Hearing Heisenberg's self-introduction, Nick Fury nearly sweated through his shiny bald head.
Though Heisenberg's introduction was vague, Nick Fury understood perfectly.
You were once the leader of another planet, a traitor who may have committed crimes or may have hidden secrets.
More importantly, you're an ancient being who has lived for over eighteen thousand years!
Even Captain America, whom Nick Fury had dug up, thawed, and revived, had only been frozen in suspended animation for seventy years!
And you... you actually call someone like you "ordinary"!
Not to mention your physical abilities, which are so extraordinary they make men fall silent and women weep—even lasers can't harm a single strand of your hair!
Alloy walls over thirty centimeters thick in nuclear bunkers can't even slow your normal walking pace!
You call that ordinary? You...
Nick Fury clenched his fist.
Fine, you're amazing. Say whatever you want, you "ordinary" Kryptonian.
"I think I understand your identity now. I'm Nick Fury. Though you already know my name, I still hope we can have a more formal introduction."
Heisenberg nodded noncommittally.
"I am... Heisenberg. It's not exactly a pleasure to meet you."
"Oh?" Nick Fury tilted his head, executing a nauseatingly charming head tilt.
Heisenberg quickly squeezed his eyes shut. Too much! Way too much!
"Don't overthink it. There's no explaining how I fell from the sky. Even if I claimed we were compatriots, you wouldn't believe me.
So, I come from beyond the stars.
Once, I was imprisoned by my own people for over eighteen thousand years.
Now that I've finally awakened, I find myself on an unfamiliar planet, surrounded by alien creatures pointing and gossiping about you..."
As Heisenberg spoke, he rose to his feet and clapped Nick Fury on the shoulder.
"We need to understand each other, buddy. To me, you're just a bunch of annoying, pathetically weak, yet brazenly arrogant alien natives who dared to treat me like a lab rat, right?"
"Uh, actually, we Earthlings are quite friendly."
"Same here—as long as no one messes with me!"
Heisenberg reluctantly agreed with Nick Fury's assessment before turning to gaze out the massive floor-to-ceiling window.
Through the glass, he greedily devoured the sight of the sky beyond.
After a moment, he spread his arms wide, facing the window.
"Do you know, Nick, your planet's gravity is at least forty to fifty times weaker than Krypton's? I believe I could truly fly on Earth. Do you believe it?"
"Well... flight has always been the dream of every land-dwelling creature. Perhaps you really could achieve it. But for now, we should focus on your future. You're new here, after all. You'll need to adapt to life on Earth before you can even think about flying..."
"Stop! I'd rather live in the present than talk about the future!" Heisenberg interrupted sharply.
Nick Fury instantly rose to his feet, but Heisenberg merely turned back with a smile.
"Remember, only sheep need to adapt to a grassland full of predators. I, a lion at the top of the food chain, need only savor this freedom after eighteen thousand years."
With that, Heisenberg waved dismissively at Nick Fury behind him.
"One last piece of advice: don't provoke me.
If I ever find myself bored, I might return to see you. I'm rather looking forward to your hospitality then. Farewell!"
WHOOSH!
Heisenberg braced his legs and leaped with explosive force.
The moment he launched himself, the floor of Nick Fury's office shattered completely.
Heisenberg's jump propelled him straight into the sky, reaching an altitude of over two thousand meters in the blink of an eye.
The violently turbulent air currents battered his clothes.
Of course, Heisenberg himself felt nothing—the Kryptonian physique was simply too formidable.
However, the collar of his shirt was ripped apart by the raging winds around him.
The damage wasn't severe, but the loss of several buttons from his otherwise pristine shirt made Heisenberg sigh regretfully.
Only after truly experiencing this sky and flying through it at over three times the speed of sound did Heisenberg realize he genuinely needed a proper bodysuit and cape!
Back on Origin Earth, when Heisenberg was still a mortal, he had always found Superman's tight-fitting long underwear and bright red bedsheet cape rather comical.
But now that he possessed superhuman strength...
Flying through the air at high speed, the constant flapping of his collar was maddening. The damn thing kept slapping his face like a lunatic.
And without a cape...
Just like in the movies and TV shows, Supergirl kept tripping when she first started out because she didn't have a cape.
Even though Heisenberg wasn't truly flying yet—he was merely gliding after leaping into the air—controlling his direction was still proving difficult.
With this thought, Heisenberg began descending from an altitude of over 2,600 meters.
He savored the thrill of freefall while carefully adjusting his trajectory.
Though he had no intention of becoming a do-gooder like Superman, he wasn't evil enough to enjoy crushing people to death.
If he killed too many civilians upon landing, he doubted he'd sleep well that night.
As he adjusted his descent, he steered himself toward a prominent park in New York.
After about ten seconds, he crashed diagonally into a Roosevelt statue.
The statue shattered into fragments as he continued his descent to the ground. The violent impact reverberated for over three seconds, and the fissures in the ground stretched more than seventeen meters.
Fortunately, the Manhattan District had been mostly evacuated by this point.
Otherwise, his impact would have crushed at least twenty or thirty racist bigots...
"Cough, cough! I'm choking to death!"
Heisenberg coughed as he scrambled to his feet.
After falling over two thousand meters, he barely felt any pain.
Only the dust kicked up by his impact bothered him.
"I really need to learn to fly. If I keep doing this, who knows if Kryptonians will start getting black lung..."
He muttered a dry joke to himself before leaping skyward again.
This time, he exerted more force, propelling himself straight into a cumulonimbus cloud.
The water vapor parted before the shockwave generated by his body as he tore through the cloud, emerging above the eight-thousand-meter-high cloud layer.
"Ha ha! This is exhilarating! Being a non-human is so exhilarating! I'm done being human! Ha ha ha!!!"
With a roar, Heisenberg shot horizontally through the air like an arrow for several hundred meters.
Unfortunately, he still hadn't mastered the art of flight. After the brief horizontal burst, he plummeted back toward the ground.
As he fell, he pursed his lips.
Facing away from the earth, he tilted his head back and murmured softly toward the sky.
"Something's still missing," he muttered. "I can't feel my body weight anymore, but flying... what's missing?"
He shook his head and flipped over to face the ground.
Then he grinned, carefree.
"Who cares? Just keep trying!"
BOOM!!!
He crashed down, creating a small meteor crater six meters wide. This time, he landed in the outskirts of New York City, and the impact was captured by several civilians who hadn't evacuated.
No one got a clear shot of his face, though. He sprang to his feet the instant he landed and shot back into the clouds.
"Fly! Fly, damn it! Haha! I knew it wasn't hard! It's not hard at all!"
This time, when Heisenberg leaped into the clouds over three thousand meters high, he instantly transformed into a living arrow, streaking forward.
He even triggered a violent sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier.
"In the DC Universe, Zod mastered flight in minutes. I'm even faster! Ha ha!"
Heisenberg's joy and excitement spilled out in his incoherent babbling.
After decades as a mortal, suddenly becoming a Kryptonian—what a feeling!
"This is awesome!!!"
BOOM!!!
Heisenberg vanished in an instant. Even the satellites tracking him couldn't keep up with his speed.
He was too fast!
On the top floor of Stark Tower in Manhattan, New York, Tony Stark abruptly shut down his surveillance equipment, his face etched with shock.
"He's a monster! His jump height is at least thirty times greater than that green behemoth's, and his flight speed is over ten times faster than Thor's!"
Stunned, Tony collapsed onto the sofa, picked up the whiskey Jarvis-controlled robots had brought him, and rubbed his forehead wearily.
"Jarvis!" he said after taking a sip. "Is my armor really that far behind?"
"Mr. Stark, technology advances step by step, and you are on the right path."
"Yeah, but the aliens started so far ahead. I'm on the road, but I can't even see their shadows!" Tony sighed, then rose and headed to his lab.
The original plans for the Mark III armor had to be revised. He needed to further enhance the Mark IV, specifically to counter this Kryptonian who hadn't caused any trouble yet.
After all, Tony Stark wasn't one to wallow in self-pity. No setback could extinguish his drive to push forward.
If his armor was currently inferior, he would simply keep improving it.
One day, he would use his intellect to defeat the strongest enemies in the universe!
Meanwhile, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Agent Hill entered Nick Fury's office, carrying a glass of wine.
"This... this is...!"
She froze, staring at the shattered floor and window.
Nick Fury struggled to his feet and took the glass from her numb hand. He drained it in one gulp and set it down.
"This is the Kryptonian's first lesson to us: never try to guess his intentions."
Fury gestured at the destruction. "A single jump, and my eighteen-million-dollar custom-built room couldn't withstand it. I don't know what we can use to contain him!"
He slumped back onto the sofa, but a flicker of hope soon returned to his face. He turned to Hill.
"Do you think... our nuclear weapons would work on him?"
"Perhaps, perhaps not. But we can't use them lightly."
"Exactly. If we don't use them, we still hold the Sword of Damocles. But if we use them and they fail..." Fury frowned.
"If they fail, we'll be in even deeper trouble!" Hill added anxiously.
After a moment of silence, Nick Fury shook his head sharply.
"Hill, about the Hulk..."
"I've already assigned Agent Natasha to make contact. If she can't handle it, I doubt anyone can."
"Good. Then regarding Professor Selvig..."
"I've ordered the research team to accelerate their efforts to harness the Cosmic Cube. We need more powerful weapons, and we need them now."
"Exactly. As for our new consultant..."
"Tony Stark has already reached out to us. He's taken all the files on the provisional Kryptonian Elder Heisenberg and has volunteered to expedite the Avengers Initiative."
"Alright, everything seems to be on track. But I... I still feel uneasy."
Nick Fury closed his eyes, countless thoughts swirling through his mind.
After a moment, he opened them again.
"Intensify surveillance on Heisenberg's movements. We need to track every trace of him. Assign Agent Barbara to make initial contact. Once the Hulk operation concludes, Natasha will follow up on this mission as well."
"Yes," Hill nodded crisply.
"Also, contact Thor's girlfriend and find a way to communicate with Thor himself. I need to understand Krypton's place in the universe. We can't risk that planet taking military action against Earth just because their criminals have landed here!"
"Yes!"
Hill continued nodding, but Nick Fury's unease remained.
After a moment's thought, he added, "One more thing: seal all information about Heisenberg from every agency. No one but us is to contact him. We can't let those fools complicate our diplomatic efforts with Krypton!"
"Yes!"
Only then did Nick Fury's anxiety begin to subside.
In his view, as long as Heisenberg remained under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control, the agency—which Fury believed he controlled—could maintain perfect harmony and understanding with the Kryptonian Elder.
But...
Was S.H.I.E.L.D. truly his S.H.I.E.L.D.?