Tonight, New York's streets were no longer as busy as usual.
Gunfire. Explosions. Gangs taking advantage of the chaos to grab territory. Agents fighting agents. The military rushing in, frantic. NYPD swarming like ants on a hot pan.
Countless forces turned what used to be an economic center into something that felt like a live match of Call of Duty.
And on these empty yet deadly streets, a battered Grand Cherokee riddled with bullet holes was tearing forward at full speed.
Inside the car, Jessica cursed as she yanked the steering wheel around.
As the vehicle swung through a turn, the curses finally poured out.
"Fck S.H.I.E.L.D. Fck Nick Fury. F*ck New York. I hate this damn city!!!"
After that, she drove straight through a storm of bullets and forced her way near the Triskelion.
When she got within forty meters of the gate, six turrets suddenly rose up at the entrance.
The moment she saw those turrets spitting blue muzzle flashes, she nearly started cursing all over again.
"Watch your own ass. We're ditching the car!"
After barking that at the alien Eryda, she slammed her left fist into the door. The door blew off and went flying.
At the same time, her right hand seized Eryda. She hauled the poor alien out and jumped.
No roll, no bracing, no fancy landing. Jessica's tough body let her plant her feet like it was nothing.
And at that exact moment, the Triskelion's turrets opened fire.
The Grand Cherokee exploded instantly, and even more autocannon fire raked toward Jessica.
Jessica hurled Eryda away from the line of fire, then took the incoming rounds with her own body.
Looking down at how her clothes were being shredded into rags by the barrage, she clicked her tongue.
"I seriously need some kind of cover that can actually hold these two lumps in place. Something that won't get blown to pieces!"
The second she finished speaking, she dashed to Eryda, ripped the alien's coat off, and threw it on herself.
"I'm going in. You stay behind me and point the way!"
As she spoke, Jessica zipped up, spun, and sprinted. Two steps later, she vaulted up beside a turret.
She grabbed the turret assembly with her bare hands, twisted hard twice, ripped it out, then flung it into another turret.
She repeated that process several times until the gate turrets were finished.
Then Jessica and Eryda went on a rampage, carving a path straight into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s command center.
By the time they reached the command room entrance, more than forty agents were clustered outside, launching nonstop attacks into the room.
That attack itself proved the fake Nick Fury inside still wasn't dead.
Eryda's face lit up with a trace of joy.
"You're sure your guy is in there?" Jessica asked.
Eryda nodded so fast she nearly shook her neck loose.
Jessica pressed her lips together, annoyed.
Too many people outside. Too much trouble. Was she going to have to slaughter her way through?
Slaughter…
She already had.
Boom.
She stepped forward. No, she didn't have Heisenberg's terrifying aura.
But as a super weakened, discount Supergirl with a bench press over eighty tons, Jessica had her own kind of presence.
One shoulder charge sent four agents flying into the corridor wall.
If Jessica had studied traditional martial arts, she might have even produced that ridiculous scene where people get pinned to walls like framed paintings.
Dodging and weaving, charging like a tiger into sheep, a superhuman's recklessness was the greatest fear a normal person could face.
Over forty professional agents, and they managed to do nothing but damage Jessica's clothes.
Like usual, she peeled a uniform off a knocked-out agent and threw it on, then knocked on the sealed door in front of her. It had cracks, but it was still holding.
Jessica judged it, then shook her head. Her strength was nowhere near the Hulk's. There was no way she could rip open S.H.I.E.L.D.'s special security door.
"I was sent by Eryda. Is that Skrull alien inside?"
The door opened.
Nick Fury, covered in injuries and dressed in torn-up rags, stepped out.
"Eryda!!!"
The black bald bastard didn't even glance at Jessica. He just shouted Eryda's name and ran to her.
The two of them embraced in the middle of blood and chaos.
It looked so romantic it was almost sickening.
And for some reason, Jessica felt like throwing up.
A black egg hugging a green egg and getting all lovey-dovey…
"Blegh… sorry, I think I drank too much tonight… blegh!!!"
Maybe she really had drunk too much. Jessica braced herself on the wall and actually started vomiting.
The two Skrulls glanced at her, then hugged again like nothing happened.
Just like humans thought they were ugly, they thought humans were ugly too.
No wrinkles, not even a bit green, what was so pretty about that?
At least their faces had mysterious, meaningful folds.
While they hugged, Eryda quickly told Nick Fury about her deal with Heisenberg.
"You need to die once as Nick Fury. Die in public. And after that, the real Nick Fury and Hill must be handed over to Heisenberg!"
Nick Fury nodded without hesitation.
"Don't worry. I haven't exposed my identity yet. In a bit, I'll pick a good spot to die. By the way, Eryda, that human woman over there is…?"
"Heisenberg's subordinate. Very strong. Probably stronger than a Super-Skrull's standard form."
"Earth really is full of hidden monsters. Let's go. I'll die fast, then we go home."
"Yeah. Home!"
The two aliens synced up instantly and took Jessica with them, heading straight for the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy.
If you asked where S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel were most concentrated right now, it was New York's S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy.
There were over three thousand excellent trainee agents here, and ninety-nine percent of them hadn't been corrupted by HYDRA in time.
That made it HYDRA's primary target.
"Simmons, where are you? Simmons!!!"
Leo Fitz, a Level 3 agent who was actually a top academy graduate with two doctorates, kept screaming his friend's name.
The war came too suddenly, and the war orders only went to one side.
The poor people inside S.H.I.E.L.D. who still had a conscience couldn't organize an effective resistance at all.
So in less than ten minutes, the student-built defensive line was smashed to pieces.
HYDRA stormed into the academy, abducting talented people left and right.
Fitz was still alive only because HYDRA respected and needed talent.
He searched frantically, holding his degree certifications up like a shield while slipping along the edges of small skirmishes.
He didn't want anything else.
He just wanted to find the person he'd been dreaming of and make sure she was still alive.
But he never expected…
Boom!
As he rushed toward Lecture Hall Three, the ground suddenly shook violently.
The tremor was intense. The floor buckled and bulged upward, forming a mound over 1.3 meters tall and about twenty-five meters wide.
"Damn it, what is that?!" Fitz bolted away. He knew something was about to burst out from below.
But what kind of monster was it?
What kind of monster had strength like that?
This wasn't the first time S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy's underground had produced terrifying tremors.
What was hidden down there?
Even at a moment like this, Fitz couldn't stop thinking. Curiosity really was a disease for researchers.
Thankfully, he kept running while thinking.
After he'd fled more than eighty meters, the ground shook again.
This time, a massive green monster over six meters tall erupted from the mound and leapt into the air.
His jump height nearly hit eighty meters, and that was after he had already smashed out of the ground.
Just one leap, and Fitz came to a conclusion while staring in shock.
That green giant could absolutely lift objects weighing ten thousand tons.
Maybe even more.
…
At the same time, Nick Fury reached the center of the academy plaza. He fired as he shouted at the student groups still resisting.
"I'm Nick Fury! Everyone, you all…!"
Bang!!!
The moment both HYDRA and the S.H.I.E.L.D. students reacted to the name "Nick Fury," something horrifying happened.
With that lethal gunshot, blood exploded from Nick Fury's chest.
In the next instant, there was a hole in his chest, and he collapsed to the ground.
Forget the students' grief and rage.
Forget the HYDRA agents' instant excitement.
Hulk, who had just leapt into the sky, happened to see Nick Fury fall.
Hulk got angry.
"Hulk… hates liars! ROOOAARRRR!!!"
He roared and charged like a madman at Nick Fury's body.
From the look of it, he was going to pound the corpse into meat paste.
Jessica's soul almost left her body on the spot. She was so depressed she nearly coughed up blood.
"What the hell is that monster, f*ck, I'm going to have to go all out!!!"
Jessica sprinted at Nick Fury too.
Just as Hulk's huge foot was about to stomp down on the body, Jessica's slender, pale foot kicked viciously into Hulk's side.
Boom!!!
Hulk stumbled sideways more than twenty meters, but he was back on his feet in a blink.
Jessica's strength was nowhere near enough to hurt him. It only made him angrier!
"Hulk very angry!!!"
"I'm very angry too, damn it! Heisenberg, I've paid you back for your favor, alright!!!"
Jessica actually charged Hulk head-on.
She barely avoided one punch, then used two quick rolls to get close to Hulk's side.
She sprang up and hammered two punches into Hulk's lower leg.
It wasn't that Jessica enjoyed fighting dirty.
It was that if she didn't jump, the lower leg was all she could reach.
And jump in front of Hulk?
No chance.
The moment she messed up and got caught in his hand, almost nobody got out intact.
After landing the two punches, Jessica didn't even look back. She dodged like crazy, surviving more than ten brutal swings, then found a second opening and landed a few more hits.
She dragged Hulk for over three minutes like that.
Then Hulk finally found his chance and slapped her straight into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy library.
One slap.
And Jessica, with her weakened steel-bone body, nearly lost all ability to fight back.
She struggled for a long time just to stand, and the moment she did, Hulk was already blocking her path.
"Hulk hates little bugs!"
With that roar, the green fist grew larger and larger in front of her.
And so did Jessica's pupils.
She thought she couldn't dodge it. She thought she was about to die right there under that fist.
Then, the next second, a flippant voice sounded in her ear.
"Isn't this Superman's little bed buddy? Why are you fighting him yourself? Did Heisenberg throw you away?"
The voice came from above.
And while Tony was mocking her, he dumped two-thirds of the missiles stored in his armor's shoulder and back compartments straight onto Hulk's head.
/-\
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