Abomination and the Lizard both watched as Gene slowly ascended from the battlefield. They locked eyes. Despite the mutual animosity between
Abomination and the Lizard both watched as Gene slowly ascended from the battlefield. They locked eyes. Despite the mutual animosity between
Abomination and the Lizard both watched as Gene slowly ascended from the battlefield. They locked eyes. Despite the mutual animosity between them, they reached a fragile understanding—take down the biggest threat first, then destroy each other afterward.
The Lizard let out a rasping snort before his hulking figure slowly vanished into thin air. It was one of his chameleon-like abilities—changing the pigmentation of his skin to perfectly match the environment and become virtually invisible to the naked eye.
Abomination snorted, nostrils flaring with white-hot steam, blood-red eyes glaring at the man standing calmly before him—The Black Devil.
But Gene wasn't just being watched. He was watching, analyzing, calculating.
He wanted to understand—why had Abomination suddenly grown this much stronger?
"Sir," Red Queen's voice echoed through his neural network, "Based on our scans, 70% of Emil Blonsky's energy originates from Hulk-class gamma radiation. However… the remaining 30% shows a high correlation with the energy signature of Odin, King of Asgard."
Gene's eyes narrowed slightly. "Odin?"
Why would he suddenly meddle in Midgard's affairs?
But this wasn't the time for answers. Abomination charged.
The ground trembled with every thunderous footstep. Though completely consumed by rage, the deep muscle memory of Blonsky's military training remained intact. His moves were refined, efficient, brutal. Every strike carried the lethal precision of a battlefield assassin.
Too bad it wasn't enough.
Gene's neural network spun at speeds far beyond comprehension. Every movement of Abomination was predicted in real-time. Bursts of bright blue plasma flared from Gene's gauntlets, scorching Abomination's hide. His fists flailed, wild and deadly—yet not once did they so much as graze Gene.
Then, the glow of Gene's palm cannon intensified.
Boom!
A concentrated energy beam struck the ground with surgical precision.
A tortured scream ripped through the air—the Lizard, forcibly knocked out of invisibility. His crimson eyes burned with hate as he stared Gene down.
The two mutated monsters surged forward, launching a coordinated assault. The Lizard's claws and tail struck Gene from both sides—only to be met with the cold clang of vibranium alloy. Sparks flew as the claws scraped across his armor, but there was no real damage.
Gene grabbed the Lizard's tail mid-swing and smashed him into the ground like a ragdoll. Then, a precise palm cannon blast slammed into his skull, knocking him cold.
"Sir," Skynet's voice buzzed in his neural feed, unusually excited, "S.W.O.R.D. is fully operational."
Gene glanced at the downed Lizard, then fired another beam into Abomination's chest.
"Good," he said coolly. "I'm bored of this meaningless fight anyway. Lock onto the target. Initiate launch protocol."
Crimson cords of Cyttorak's Binding erupted from the ground, wrapping tightly around Abomination and the Lizard. No matter how violently they struggled, they couldn't break free.
Because now—they weren't facing Gene. They were facing S.W.O.R.D. itself.
__
S.W.O.R.D.—named after the very agency tasked with monitoring extraterrestrial threats—was the apex of human technology. Just its name alone commanded awe. And that was before anyone even learned what it could do.
This weapon wasn't just some high-powered satellite laser.
It was Gene Mason's masterpiece.
The design was spearheaded by Gene himself, with additional breakthroughs contributed by none other than Victor Von Doom before his obsession with fate dragged him elsewhere. The top minds of S.W.O.R.D. had fed their finest tech into this project. Even the Kree—reluctantly—had offered ideas, weapon blueprints, and exotic energy patterns. Everything had been poured into one thing:
A weapon that redefined planetary-scale destruction.
S.W.O.R.D. was stationed aboard the orbital command ship hovering in low Earth orbit. By precisely adjusting the mothership's position and trajectory, it could strike anywhere on the planet at any time.
The name wasn't metaphorical.
It was a sword—sharp, deadly, and surgically precise. Forged from vibranium and Kree alloys, its discharge output exceeded that of any known nuclear weapon on Earth. A full-power strike could obliterate a city in seconds.
But its true superiority over nukes?
Control.
S.W.O.R.D. had the most advanced targeting system ever built. Its energy output could be dialed to exact joules. Whether razing a mountain or vaporizing a single molecule, S.W.O.R.D. delivered pinpoint lethality unmatched by even the wildest nuclear dreams.
And now?
Its first targets were Abomination and the Lizard.
How lucky they were.
While Gene battled them on the ground, S.W.O.R.D. had already completed positioning. Its targeting algorithms had synced with dozens of global satellites Gene had temporarily requisitioned. Final parameters had been crunched by Red Queen and Skynet together—two AI minds capable of simulating an entire planet's physics in seconds.
Every nanosecond of delay had been eliminated.
Every millimeter of deviation corrected.
S.W.O.R.D. was primed, aimed, and ready.
All that remained—
Was Gene's command.
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