Chapter 92: The Superman Xenomorph Is a Marvelous Creature; Annihilating the Atlanteans Will Serve as a Warm-Up.
The Tesseract could be used like this?
Tony was greatly surprised. This artifact had shone brightly during World War II, utilized by Red Skull and his group to create many powerful weapons. It was only unearthed along with Captain America a short while ago.
"The Tesseract can create living people?"
"It always could. This is one way to utilize the Tesseract. All of us underestimated this thing, including Red Skull back in the day. He only used the Tesseract's energy to create high-tech weapons, never truly unleashing its potential."
Fury looked at the face of the heavily injured Captain America. His expression remained unchanged, showing only a serene and accepting smile, as if he embodied all the truth, goodness, and beauty in the hearts of humanity. He couldn't help but sigh.
A person with virtually no sense of self in his thoughts was, in the end, not a real person.
"This Captain America was our creation. A purely imaginary version of him with almost no human flaws—a machine of justice... Moreover, I overestimated his combat ability and underestimated the enemy. I didn't expect him to be beaten so badly by that person, even losing his shield," Fury said.
The shield had been taken from the real Captain America.
"What about the real Captain? Where did you put him?"
"He's in a certain laboratory with the Tesseract. You didn't think I'd kill the real Captain just to create a copy, did you?"
"Others wouldn't, but coming from you, one can never be sure," Dr. Banner interjected, his tone openly mocking.
Fury's expression didn't change. "I thought that by opening up so many of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret projects, I had built a bridge of trust between us. Yet, Banner, you still don't trust me?"
"You think I should trust you? The more I learn, the more I realize just how much you've hidden! If it weren't for the fact that the enemies appearing now are beyond your ability to handle, each one more difficult than the last, you wouldn't have handed that thing over to me and Stark!" Dr. Banner scoffed.
"But neither of us has a choice. We can't just let Earth—our only home—fester in an endless cycle of war, only to be destroyed by some unknown horror."
Fury pointed expressionlessly at the screen. In the footage, Du Wa's forces were already wrapping things up. Several figures were pursuing Ikaris, slowly forcing the last of the Eternals into a dead end.
They were like a pride of lions on the African savanna, half-playing, half-serious, toying with their prey.
"What does this prove, other than Du Wa getting stronger? Ha, you still haven't given up on his Xenomorphs, have you? You want to become like Du Wa, holding S.H.I.E.L.D. in one hand and controlling the Xenomorphs with the other. Then you'll use the power at your disposal to continuously expand the Xenomorphs' strength until you finally surpass Du Wa. That's what you want, right? Is that how you plan to protect Earth? I certainly don't see how you're superior to him. You might even be worse. At least he's a leader and a warrior. And you? An agent with a head full of conspiracies and schemes?" Banner said with a cold laugh.
"You're right to a certain extent, but not completely. I can do what Du Wa can, and I can also do what he cannot. I'm the one who needs to be responsible for the entire world, not him. That's why he can act with such impunity."
"And yet, a person who acts with such impunity is protecting our planet right now," Tony retorted while scanning the artificial Captain America on the ground.
"Are you saying his war with Atlantis is also to protect Earth? His frantic expansion of the Xenomorph population, as if preparing for a world war to turn our planet into a Xenomorph homeworld—is that also protecting Earth? I'd believe you if you said he was protecting the Xenomorphs, but I'll never believe he's protecting humanity. What would you think of a person pointing a gun at your head, shouting that he's protecting you?" Fury said in a low voice.
This time, both Tony and Banner fell silent. For the time being, they couldn't figure out why Du Wa had suddenly become so aggressive, expanding his Xenomorph horde at all costs, even at the risk of igniting a war with Atlantis.
When they asked Du Wa, he didn't respond. Perhaps he disdained to answer inquiries from the outside world?
Even the recent fierce battle that had severely damaged New York City was, in essence, a derivative of the war with Atlantis.
They had every reason to suspect that Ikaris and the other individual, who was also suspected of being an Eternal, had been hired by the Atlanteans.
"But the Sorcerer Supreme hasn't moved against him. The Sorcerer Supreme's duty is to protect our planet. Since he hasn't acted, it suggests that Du Wa's actions aren't aimed at destroying Earth. I'm guessing a formidable enemy is about to appear, one that even Du Wa has to prepare for thoroughly," Banner said suddenly after a moment of thought.
"You're right, that is a possibility. He contacted the Ancient One in advance, which is why he's expanding on a global scale. But I must remind you, the Ancient One manages the mystic world, while I am responsible for the Mortal Realm. The same event can have drastically different outcomes when viewed from the perspectives of our two worlds."
The conversation ended on a sour note. Dr. Banner still felt he could never see eye-to-eye with someone like Fury.
"You're too prejudiced against him, always speaking to him with hostility. Even I can see it."
As they walked down a corridor on the Helicarrier, Tony said to Banner.
"And I shouldn't be hostile towards him? If I wasn't worried about the Hulk getting out, I'd want to punch him! Normally, I shouldn't even be here. I should be hiding out in some reclusive spot in South America or India, ignoring the outside world," Banner complained.
Tony shrugged. "I might have believed you if you'd said that before, but don't even think about it now. No matter where you hide, you'll run into Xenomorphs. You might even get besieged by them while living in seclusion and end up being sent to Du Wa to become an incubator for Xenomorphs... I believe Du Wa has ways to temporarily suppress the Gamma Rays in your body to allow a Xenomorph to successfully parasitize you."
Banner said nothing, because he believed Tony was right.
"Let's not worry about Fury and Captain America. For now, let's focus all our efforts on completing the project at hand. I have a feeling something big is about to happen, but I can't quite figure out what it is yet."
The two once again threw themselves into their project, trying to complete the repairs on the weapon in the shortest time possible.
...
Ikaris, covered in wounds and dust, was brought before Du Wa. His face, which should have been full of confidence, was now etched with dejection.
"It's been a while, Ikaris. I bet when you first went to war with my Xenomorphs, you never foresaw this day."
Du Wa looked at the Eternal he had met once before. There was no mockery in his tone; Ikaris wasn't important enough to warrant it. He spoke in an extremely calm voice.
"So, you're going to let me say my last words?" Ikaris's lips twitched, revealing an ugly expression.
Sunspot stepped forward and punched him. "Bastard, don't you use that attitude with my boss!"
"I'm about to die. You still expect me to be reverent towards him?"
"Idiot! What if you don't die? What if you're only implanted, not chestbursted?"
Ikaris slowly shook his head. "Impossible, rookie. You don't understand your boss at all. I can't become like you. This has nothing to do with whether I'm willing or not, only with Du Wa's will... My abilities are too similar to yours. From another perspective, he doesn't need many identical people, but having many identical Xenomorphs is no problem at all. I think my fate and Hyperion's was sealed the moment we were defeated."
Ikaris had managed to remain calm until the arrival of Druig.
Druig looked at Ikaris. The two comrades, who had fought side-by-side for thousands of years, now stared at each other in silence.
"Seeing an old friend again, any last words?" Du Wa asked, with a touch of humanity.
Ikaris gave Du Wa a deep look. "Perhaps my best chance to kill you was on Broadway. If I had insisted on fighting to the end back then, bypassed that powerful Xenomorph, and killed you directly, I might have had a chance."
"You're right. To kill me, you would have had to kill me much earlier in the timeline. Because the longer you wait, the stronger I will inevitably become," Du Wa said. "But unfortunately, you no longer have that opportunity. Not only that, you will become one of my subordinates, fighting for me with all your might until the last moment of your life."
With a thought from Du Wa, a Xenomorph immediately brought over an Alien Egg.
"You won't be lonely, my friend. You are about to embrace the truth and witness the greatest miracle in this universe..."
Facing his old friend, Druig showed no sadness for his impending death, but rather a fervent desire to promote his new faith.
Ikaris remained impassive. He knew talking to someone like Druig was a complete waste of time.
Watching this scene, Du Wa also felt a strange sense of harmony.
In a certain parallel universe, the paranoid Druig would summon one of the Celestials to pass judgment on all of humanity.
As it turned out, the first person this Celestial judged was Captain America, deeming him unqualified on a mental level.
In this universe, Druig had similarly chosen to walk his path to the very end, staunchly defending Du Wa's dignity and constantly recruiting all sorts of individuals to join Du Wa's ranks.
The others present all took action, completely crippling Ikaris's body, ensuring that every bone, every muscle, and every ligament was destroyed, leaving no possibility of him resisting the Facehugger's parasitism or killing it at the moment of implantation.
The most vulnerable moment for a Xenomorph is when the Facehugger combines with the host's genetic material.
As long as it survives this fragile stage, the Xenomorph larva will acquire the host's genetic material. The host's abilities will be passed on to the larva, which will naturally grow strong quickly.
Now, with the addition of Druig's mind control, Ikaris was soon chestbursted. A Superman Xenomorph stood before them. In just a few hours, it would reach maturity.
This was the first true Superman Xenomorph, but it would definitely not be the last.
"You're next, the great Hyperion... Ikaris's fate will be your fate." Du Wa looked at the feasting Superman Xenomorph, then dragged the half-dead Hyperion over.
Ikaris was ultimately just a warm-up act. His strength was actually decent, but it all depended on the comparison. He probably wouldn't last ten moves against Hyperion.
"Hehehe, so this is a Xenomorph? This is what you used to take care of Ajak and that group of Eternals? It's no wonder they lost. It seems I'll be following in their footsteps soon."
Hyperion was almost a crumpled heap of flesh, but his face was as defiant as ever.
As the strongest of the Eternals, relied upon even by Arishem, Hyperion had witnessed the majesty of the Cosmic Celestials and had personally attacked numerous civilizations on many planets. Of course, he had his pride.
He had never been defeated so miserably, a crushing loss to someone who was almost a complete mirror of himself in every aspect. And to lose because he was countered—deprived of sunlight.
"Perhaps I should have dragged the battlefield into outer space. If I had, I would have been the one to kill Sentry in the end, not the other way around." Hyperion's gaze shifted to land on Reynolds. "But unfortunately, there are no 'what ifs' in reality. Don't get too cocky, bastard. In the end, you're nothing but a lapdog. At least the master I follow is a Cosmic Celestial, while the one you follow is a lowly native from a primitive planet."
Reynolds strode forward and crushed the lower half of Hyperion's face with one hand, grinding even the bones of his face to dust.
"Now you can't spew any more nonsense, let alone beg for mercy... I won't give you the opportunity to pledge allegiance to Du Wa. I need loyal and brave soldiers, not a piece of trash who keeps causing me trouble."
So what if they were Eternals? Every single one of them would be turned into a Xenomorph. And what about Arishem, the master of the Eternals? Not even a Cosmic Celestial could change the Xenomorphs' loyalty to Du Wa.
Even if Hyperion wanted to surrender with his head held high, it was absolutely impossible.
Before long, two Superman Xenomorphs stood before Du Wa. Every second, their bodies developed rapidly, and the abilities of Superman began to manifest in them one after another.
"Excellent. These two Superman Xenomorphs will be assigned to your Superman unit. You and Sunspot must lead these two well. Your team is arguably the strongest one we have," Du Wa said with admiration.
He had seen Xenomorphs chestburst from many hosts, but seeing these two before him, he still found them ineffably wonderful, beautiful in the extreme.
Sunspot had an idea. Since two new recruits had arrived, he thought about pulling the Hyperion Xenomorph under his command and tossing the Ikaris Xenomorph to Reynolds.
But unfortunately, Reynolds had thought of the same thing. He directly pulled the Hyperion Xenomorph to his side and shot Sunspot a meaningful glance. This made Sunspot pout. He too coveted the Hyperion Xenomorph; this creature was essentially Hyperion at his full potential, and absolutely obedient. In fact, it would only be stronger than Hyperion!
Now, he could only reluctantly take command of the Ikaris Xenomorph.
Although everyone could see the grin spreading across Sunspot's face, a smile he couldn't contain.
The Ikaris Xenomorph was by no means weak. Furthermore, since a chestbursted Xenomorph acquires the host's best genes, its potential would only be greater than the host's. For Sunspot to be able to command such a powerful Xenomorph right from the start, he had nothing to be dissatisfied about.
He now desperately wanted to run back to Brazil and show off to his old man, whose company was on the verge of bankruptcy due to pressure from Hammer Industries.
"I've collected the fragments of Captain America's shield. With some repairs, it might be a decent piece of equipment."
Foster flew back. The Female Thor hadn't participated in the battle, which was a bit of a shame. She also wanted to compete with the Superman unit. Thinking about it, she felt that with herself and Skurge, they could probably take on Reynolds and the Hyperion Xenomorph, though their chance of defeat was extremely high.
"Do with it what you will," Du Wa said, uninterested in Captain America's shield.
The shield was made of Primary Adamantium Alloy, a metal unique in the entire universe, and indeed the strongest defensive metal in the universe. In addition, when Howard Stark was creating it, he mixed in some Vibranium, allowing the Primary Adamantium Alloy to also possess Vibranium's energy-absorbing function.
But the material was irreplaceable and couldn't be mass-produced.
After this battle, Du Wa's power once again experienced a massive surge. If he were to launch another attack on Jotunheim now, he wouldn't need any assistance from the Asgardians at all. He could easily achieve victory by leading a group of Xenomorphs himself.
Fighting Laufey wouldn't be as strenuous as before, which had required him to enter the fray personally. He could just send a few subordinates to charge, and they would be able to take Laufey down. At most, the process would be a bit more convoluted and take a bit more time.
"Next, we should focus all our attention on the ocean. Those small fry in the ocean have given me such a grand gift, we have no choice but to respond in kind," Du Wa said with a smile.
Everyone began to laugh loudly, especially the two newly chestbursted Superman Xenomorphs, whose cries were exceptionally shrill.
They were never the goody-two-shoes type who repaid grievance with virtue. They would only use every method at their disposal to kill their enemies. For them, not repaying kindness with cruelty was already a sign of restraint.
"It's over, it's completely over. Those two Eternals are a pair of wastes, especially that Hyperion. He was so arrogant when he arrived, calling himself the universe's strongest Eternal, giving me the illusion that he was some cosmic powerhouse. In the end, he himself became one of Du Wa's men, needlessly strengthening Du Wa's forces!!"
Attuma was furious, a trace of despair and disbelief creeping into his heart.
Attuma himself knew very well that Atlantis, relying on its own strength, could not resist the current Du Wa. Forget facing the top-tier Xenomorph heroes; even just fighting against the endless Xenomorph Army would put them in a precarious position over time. That was why they had sought outside help.
But how could this be the result? After one battle, even the reinforcements had become the enemy's men.
Events unfolded just as Attuma had feared. All the Xenomorphs across the globe began to riot simultaneously. They swarmed into the ocean like a mad tide, ravaging everything in their path. Wherever they passed, all Atlanteans suffered.
Those who died a glorious death in battle were the lucky ones. The vast majority of Atlanteans were ultimately crippled, captured, and dragged away. Their fate was obvious. Soon, the Xenomorphs that chestbursted from their bodies immediately joined the battlefield, attacking other Atlanteans.
One after another, ocean cities were destroyed, and countless Atlanteans were treated with cruelty.
Xenomorphs possessed no such tedious emotion as pity; they were merely the absolute executors of Du Wa's will.
The shrill screams were a sublime symphony; the collapsing civilization, a historical masterpiece.
The Atlanteans would not be lonely, for their lives were being transformed into another form, to become part of a great history, engraved upon the Earth.
No one stepped in to help Atlantis. Everyone watched on with cold indifference. Even if a few individual Superheroes couldn't bear it in their hearts, the moment they made a move, they would be discovered and swarmed by the Xenomorphs. They had to consider this consequence.
Finally, the kingdom of Atlantis, which had lasted for twenty thousand years, was about to meet its end.
And Attuma, leading his forces in a desperate resistance, could only watch in despair at the two towering Xenomorphs before him.
"You two must be Hyperion and Ikaris. To think I'd be finished off by the very helpers I hired!"
Attuma's face was a mask of madness. How could he be willing to accept such an outcome? He was the renowned Attuma!
But the Xenomorphs would not listen to his ravings.
The two Superman Xenomorphs flanked Attuma from the left and right, attacking with the speed of lightning.
Even though Attuma's own strength was extremely formidable, supplemented by high-tech equipment and a bit of magic he had learned, he was quickly routed in the face of these two Superman Xenomorphs. He was captured, denied even the chance to commit suicide.
Attuma would not be lonely. He would soon become one of countless Xenomorphs, offering up his body to serve Du Wa, dedicating everything from his soul to his flesh and blood.
And all of Atlantis would be annihilated. All his people would accompany him in death; not one would escape.
(end of chapter)