Chapter 45: Thor, You Should Evolve into the God of War
The next day, major media outlets around the world were frantically reporting on the events that had occurred in New Mexico.
If it were just a matter of Thor being unable to lift Mjolnir, it wouldn't have been a big deal, not enough to alarm the entire globe.
But then came Kaecilius taking on Loki, Magneto personally entering the fray, and Du Wa mobilizing a large force to attack. After lifting Mjolnir, Du Wa then wildly wielded its divine power, triggering widespread meteorological changes.
This was something that couldn't be covered up.
Even a fool would know that a major event had occurred in New Mexico, that superhumans of exceptional strength were involved, and that a fierce battle had broken out.
Now, globally, anyone with even a slight information channel roughly knew what had happened. With a big shot like Magneto making a personal appearance and unleashing his power, the rumors of Thor's descent to Earth were undoubtedly confirmed.
Fragmentary information about the Eternals and Deviants also began to circulate quietly.
"So, that's how it is. The news is impossible to suppress." Coulson, looking haggard, was covered in bandages. "This special serum you just injected me with—it won't have any side effects, will it?"
"Under those circumstances, it's a miracle you made it back alive. I was already prepared to lose you. Don't worry about the serum. Although it's a semi-finished version and only has the effect of accelerating recovery, it'll have no problem healing your terrible condition."
Fury stood with his hands behind his back, looking out the window. His figure was bathed in sunlight, but it couldn't dispel the heavy gloom on his face.
Everyone knew that from this moment on, the world would head in a different direction. The terrifying strength of superhumans could no longer be concealed.
As for suppressing the news like in the past... how was he supposed to suppress this event? Tell people it was just an anomalous global weather pattern?
So anomalous that all the unusual weather phenomena grew legs, crossed over a thousand kilometers, and specifically ran to New Mexico to erupt?
"I have a feeling, Coulson, that if we earnestly explain this to the public, they'll just see it as a serious provocation," Fury said with his hands behind his back.
Coulson understood instantly: "Because we'd be trying to insult their intelligence. Then let's flood the channels with false information. Use a sea of junk to bury the real intelligence. That should at least weaken the impact of this event."
"That's the only way. But I'm worried about Du Wa. That dangerous bastard! Motherfucker! He's the biggest winner in this event!" Fury was a very calm person, but he couldn't help but lose his composure when he thought of the culprit behind this huge sensation.
He looked at Du Wa's file over and over again, thinking for a whole day and night without figuring it out. What the hell was with this guy? Why was he so capable of stirring up trouble?
"Chief, instead of focusing on his boldness and ambition, we should first try to figure out something else: the intelligence shows that he always seems to know a lot of secret information. Perhaps he used this to attract Magneto, who was investigating the ancient Deviants, which then led to this series of events," Coulson said.
The psychological profile they had established for Du Wa had a new conclusion: Du Wa was very adept at using all sorts of opportunities. Hidden beneath that lazy demeanor was a remarkable shrewdness. He could always take whatever chips he had and, like building blocks, quickly assemble them into a combination with the maximum possible value.
This report was hot off the press. It might be useful in the future, but it was useless right now.
It only further fueled Fury's anger. His breathing grew heavy, his chest heaving continuously. He was furious.
"You look like you've been parasitized by a Xenomorph yourself and have become one of his. I suggest you get an X-ray," Coulson's expression grew solemn.
Fury glanced at Coulson. He knew his high-level agent's words were half-joking, half-serious. Since he'd said it, it meant he was genuinely suspicious.
"I will. Not just me, everyone in the S.H.I.E.L.D. system will have to undergo regular check-ups." Fury rubbed his forehead.
Parasitism... He once again recalled what Coulson had said about Du Wa's insane method.
Shoving a newly implanted larva into his own body to obtain a portion of Thor's genes? And then lifting Mjolnir as a result?
Honestly, if he didn't know Coulson wouldn't lie to him, and that all the on-site monitoring records had been instantly cut off and destroyed by Magneto's magnetic field, he would have suspected Coulson was drunk.
This whole thing was just too outrageous. Even if Du Wa had done it using magic? Or, more radically, if he had sacrificed his subordinate Xenomorphs on the spot to some demon god from another dimension to achieve it, Fury would have found that more acceptable.
"The value of the Xenomorphs is beyond our imagination. We can also draw a conclusion on a possibility we've been speculating about: a recently implanted larva can be surgically removed, and the host can almost certainly survive," Coulson said.
Fury asked, "What about the Xenomorph in Du Wa's body? He probably used the Xenomorph larva's genes to gain superhuman strength, yet he was able to remove the Xenomorph larva that had been parasitizing him for a long time and swap it with the larva inside Thor."
"Perhaps Du Wa can control the larva and stop its development. But once the larva chestbursts, the host will very likely die. This is because all the high-quality genetic material in the body is integrated and plundered by the Xenomorph. Combined with our analysis of Abomination's remains, this is the most likely outcome."
"Even the host's healing ability fails..." Fury's face darkened further. If that was the case, this thing was simply the nemesis of all superhumans. But a deep, fervent heat also appeared in his eyes.
He was annoyed with Du Wa, but even more annoyed with himself for not discovering the power of the Xenomorphs sooner and acting on it. Most of all, he was annoyed that he wasn't Du Wa, in control of this terrifying species, using it for his own ends.
But that would soon change.
Fury finally turned around. "But it's not a certainty. The Xenomorph chestburster takes the host's high-quality genes. The question is, how do the host's remaining genes identify the Xenomorph that has left the body? If it's recognized as a part of itself, then the healing ability would naturally fail, because a healing ability can't create a second set of organs out of thin air. There must be an unknown secret here that we haven't cracked."
If a life form didn't have this recognition mechanism, wouldn't it mean that a small injury, during normal self-healing, would result in new brains, hearts, arms, and legs growing out of the wound in minutes?
The body cannot 'heal' non-existent organs or a second set of them. But what if the host could consciously control their super healing ability, or if an external force used genetic manipulation to 'create' a second set of organs? Like the internal organs in the chest cavity that were taken by the Xenomorph?
No, there's another problem here: does the host's healing ability have that kind of variability? And even if it did, would the remaining genetic material be sufficient to perform such an act?
Fury and Coulson looked at each other.
Coulson looked suspicious. "Chief, I feel like your state is a bit off. Either you're not Nick Fury, or you've embarked on a crazy adventure without my knowledge. For you, this must be an action of immense value to elicit this kind of excited reaction."
"What do you think?"
"I've already guessed what it is, but my gut tells me it's not that simple. Du Wa wouldn't leave such an obvious vulnerability, and most importantly, the Xenomorph matriarch is always by his side."
The two fell silent.
...
Du Wa returned with his spoils of war: Thor, Makkari, and seventeen Deviants.
Of course, he used Tony's plane to get back.
The price was also extremely heavy. More than half of the Xenomorph force he had brought with him had died, he himself had been seriously injured several times, and in the end, he had to join forces with Magneto to outlast Kaecilius, using Thor's life as a bargaining chip to briefly force Loki's retreat.
If there was anything unsatisfactory, it was undoubtedly that an old man was constantly trying to communicate with him.
"...Got it, okay, goodbye, don't bother me again."
"Peace? Yes, long live peace. I love peace. I will practice peace with my actions..."
The X-Men arrived late, missing the battle, but Professor X was truly annoying. His global-reaching telepathy was even more so.
When Du Wa thought of Professor X wearing Cerebro, with the power to carry out a global bloodbath, a massacre of hundreds of millions, his head started to throb.
This old man was truly formidable. Now he had his eyes on him, constantly trying to communicate with him. It was a real headache.
"He's finally gone." Du Wa carefully sensed his surroundings, confirming that Professor X's telepathic ability was no longer present.
Speaking of a telepathic link, Du Wa had one too, though it was limited to him and all the Xenomorphs. However, because of this, he had some resistance to Professor X's mind control. He could even mobilize the consciousness of all the Xenomorphs to construct a psychic network to jointly resist any form of mental invasion.
However, at its current scale, it wasn't enough to resist Professor X.
"After all, he's one of the two poles of the mutant world. He and Erik have been fighting for the better part of their lives," Raven spoke, staring at Du Wa.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You did it on purpose. You used Erik again."
"You call this 'using' him? This was clearly a deal. Erik got all the intelligence he wanted about the Deviants. Without me, where would he have gotten it? The intelligence I provided gave him great help in formulating his next action plan. The fact that he left immediately after getting the intelligence is clear proof."
Du Wa swung Mjolnir, tossing it from his left hand to his right, and then from his right back to his left.
Lightning continuously sparked from the hammer, yet it didn't harm Du Wa in the slightest.
Raven averted her gaze, looking at Mjolnir, still with an expression of disbelief. She felt that this was all too absurd. Du Wa, a human, had gone out with his troops and returned as a "god"?
"You didn't actually kill the real Thor?" Raven pointed at the unconscious Thor on the ground.
"Your expression is very interesting. It makes me feel like I'm a fake. Also, I can actually feel your respect for me. What an honor. This at least proves that my efforts were real and useful."
Du Wa stood before his own heavy iron gate, looking at it, riddled with bullet holes and one obvious crater blasted by a heavy weapon. He then looked up at the devastated building, and finally turned to glance at the corpses scattered outside.
Tsk, in the few hours he was away, some fearless bastards had indeed come knocking.
"They were well-trained. It's impossible to directly determine whose men they were, but they were very familiar with the building's surface structure. It might have been S.H.I.E.L.D.," Raven replied.
"You think Blade leaked it? It's also possible they have the building's blueprints."
Du Wa didn't take it to heart. There were plenty of people with designs on him, but organizations with such daring and the ability to assemble a force equipped with heavy firepower in such a short time were rare.
"I'm relieved that you two are alive," Du Wa said gratifiedly, looking at Elektra who was lying inside like a corpse, one of her thighs completely gone.
"Boss, you should give me a raise. Even when I was with The Hand, I never had a job that involved clashing head-on with a heavily armed force," Elektra grumbled as she tried to regenerate her severed leg.
She even presented her broken blade, as if aggrieved or showing off.
To this, Du Wa expressed his sincere condolences, saying that a minor injury like a severed arm or leg was not worth mentioning, and earnestly promised "next time for sure."
"As you instructed, I let them steal one Xenomorph egg. I really don't understand what you're trying to do," Elektra said, very puzzled.
"For military expansion. Anyway, those guys already got their hands on Xenomorph blood. I've fought so many battles with the vampires, and the blood left behind when the Xenomorphs were injured is scattered all over the vampire strongholds in New York City. It's not hard for them to get it. I'm just trying to speed up their process."
Du Wa said something they didn't understand, then turned to look at Thor lying on the ground.
The large hole in Thor's chest had already stopped bleeding. It had to be said, the life force of a descendant of the God-King was absurdly robust.
Of course, this was also because Du Wa had removed the Xenomorph immediately, minimizing the damage to Thor's body. If it had developed normally to the point of a chestburst, there was a small chance Thor would have died—that would depend on what this universe's Odin was thinking.
Most likely, there would have been external intervention, using magic or other means to repair Thor's chest cavity.
"Elektra, bandage up His Royal Highness. I've already contacted Tony Stark. He's sending a group of doctors over. This is an opportunity to study the offspring of a god, and he's very tempted," Du Wa said casually.
He really couldn't let Thor die. It would be fine even if Thor was left with just a breath, but if he truly died completely, it would be a major event.
No one knew what Odin's attitude would be, and the runaway Loki would also go crazy.
Du Wa first selected a Xenomorph egg and had it parasitize Makkari, the speedster, to ensure that in the future, his forces would have someone who could rapidly transport troops.
Tony's side was very efficient. A short while later, a helicopter arrived, delivering several physicians and advanced medical equipment.
"Is this the legendary Thor from the internet?"
"How did he get like this? A small portion of his internal organs is missing, yet the functional indicators of the remaining parts are still far beyond human norms!"
"Mr. Du Wa, we even reattached his severed hand. We did our best, but for some reason, he just won't wake up," one of the doctors finally said.
"Don't worry, I have a way."
Du Wa picked up Mjolnir and placed it on Thor's body.
RUMBLE!
A bolt of lightning struck Thor.
The power of the Thunder God was rapidly absorbed by Thor's body.
"Son of Odin, you ultimately weren't parasitized by my power, so there's no need to engage in a desperate struggle with me for your dignity. That means we can talk. I imagine you have a lot to say to me."
Du Wa said slowly, "Why don't we start by talking about why you were banished to Earth by the God-King Odin? And lost your divine power? Perhaps you should listen to my idea."
(end of chapter)