Chapter 96: The Spymaster Returns
The United States Supreme Court held Maria Hill's final hearing and sentenced her to a maximum-security federal prison.
But even the most secure prison couldn't hold someone the Masters of the Mystic Arts wanted to free.
Maria Hill herself wasn't eager to escape, fearing that if she broke out, the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would become priority targets for the government.
However, after receiving an urgent message from off-world, Maria Hill escaped through a sling ring portal without hesitation.
A bright flash of light suddenly illuminated the countryside outside Moscow, and a one-eyed man emerged.
Bearded and wearing a knit cap, his legs were unsteady after spending months in the zero-gravity environment of space, forcing him to move carefully across the frozen terrain.
An SUV screeched to a halt nearby, and Maria Hill stepped out to greet him.
"Fury!"
"Hill, it's damn good to see you again."
Nick Fury, who'd been coordinating Skrull refugee efforts in space, had returned to Earth at this critical moment. Maria Hill, upon hearing the news, had rushed to meet him immediately.
WHOOSH—BOOM!
A flash of golden light descended from the sky. Captain Marvel landed beside them and said firmly, "Fury, you owe us all an explanation."
"Explanation for what?" Nick Fury had gradually adapted to Earth's gravity, and his legs had regained most of their strength.
Hill spoke urgently. "Fury, the Skrulls are invading Earth. James Rhodes was replaced by a Skrull infiltrator. The imposter stole the War Machine armor and destroyed a federal military convoy. Another Skrull has been impersonating you, trying to provoke war between superpowers."
"What? You're joking."
Nick Fury had maintained a close relationship with the Skrull refugees for decades, and he couldn't believe they were capable of such betrayal.
Hill continued grimly, "The generation of Skrulls you knew have grown old or died. The new generation doesn't want to hide anymore—they're planning to conquer Earth by force."
She produced a classified file and handed it to Fury. "We've just intercepted intelligence that the Skrulls are developing some kind of secret weapon."
"Then I need to stop them!"
Fury started to respond, but Carol interrupted. "The Avengers are assembled in New Asgard. We desperately need your tactical expertise."
The Avengers were highly capable fighters, each formidable in combat, but their ability to coordinate operations and develop strategic plans was severely lacking.
Although Hill had taken command of the Skrull investigation, progress had been frustratingly slow.
Compared to the veteran spymaster Nick Fury, Hill was clearly outmatched in this arena.
"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us."
Nick Fury, having just returned to Earth, immediately traveled to New Asgard with Hill and Carol to assess the full situation.
After reviewing all available intelligence, Fury almost believed he'd stepped into a parallel universe.
In a spacious makeshift war room in New Asgard.
After listening to everyone recount recent events, Nick Fury sat at the table and said:
"Let me get this straight. In addition to the Skrull crisis, there's a man named Ryan who's taken control of the U.S. government? And he's established a sovereign base on something called Celestial Island?"
Hill nodded. "And he commands an army of enhanced super-soldiers."
"Son of a bitch!"
Bruce Banner, sitting across the table, offered his analysis. "The Skrulls disguised themselves as Rhodey to instigate conflict. But a lot of what's happened traces back to this Ryan character being sent to 1970 by Steve during the Time Heist."
"Later, Strange brought him back from another dimension. The original plan was to imprison him, but Ryan suddenly became incredibly powerful and killed both Steve and Sam."
"Then a fake Nick Fury appeared and claimed he was forming a new Avengers team. We all participated and attacked a federal military installation."
Hearing this, Nick Fury's expression looked like he'd swallowed something foul.
"You let yourselves get played that easily?"
Banner replied defensively, "Nobody here except Carol even knew Skrulls were on Earth. That's on you."
Nick Fury coughed to mask his embarrassment.
It was indeed his fault. After resolving the Kree-Skrull conflict in 1995, he'd been the one to propose sheltering the Skrull refugees. He'd even promised to find them a suitable new homeworld. Nearly thirty years later, that promise remained unfulfilled—otherwise they wouldn't be in this mess.
Bruce Banner continued, "While there were misunderstandings between us and Ryan, conflict was inevitable. Strange identified him as a Destroyer—as long as Ryan lives, our reality will eventually be destroyed."
"Is this guy really that dangerous?"
Every superhero present who'd fought Ryan nodded in unison.
"Extremely dangerous. As powerful as Thanos himself." Captain Marvel Carol's confirmation convinced Fury immediately.
Bruce Banner took over. "But we don't have the Infinity Stones anymore."
"Then we time-travel and get them. What's stopping us?" Nick Fury asked, confused.
Banner shook his head grimly. "I considered that, but Strange explained that even if we go back in time, we can't retrieve the Stones anymore."
"Why not?"
"Temporal paradox." Banner grabbed a pen and paper, sketching diagrams as he explained. "Quantum time travel requires a stable timeline. When a timeline is altered, it creates a branch reality. Because Ryan disrupted the historical flow, our current timeline has become a branch."
"Theoretically, we could return to the prime timeline to obtain the Infinity Stones, but we couldn't bring them back to our branch reality. We'd simply travel to the prime timeline's future—where Ryan never existed. Therefore, the Infinity Stones are completely inaccessible from our timeline."
"Damn temporal mechanics! I don't understand half of what you're saying," Nick Fury muttered, then asked, "So we have to fight this Ryan?"
"That's where we're at."
"Then we fight! We gather every available asset and take him down. We've faced worse odds." Nick Fury was more confident than the assembled Avengers—after all, he wasn't the one going into combat.
But first, they had to resolve the Skrull invasion.
Nick Fury stood decisively. "I'm going to visit an old friend first. Maybe I can get detailed intelligence on the Skrull operation."
True to form, Fury immediately began delegating tasks.
Some operatives would accompany him to meet with trusted Skrull contacts to assess the situation, while others would prepare strike teams, ready to launch an attack as soon as they had actionable intelligence.
Fury quickly located his former Skrull allies and rapidly determined the current state of the Skrull community.
A radical faction had emerged among the Skrulls, led by a young militant named Gravik. He'd not only created Extremis-enhanced Skrull warriors but was also secretly developing a weapon of unknown design. The specifics were classified, but sources confirmed it was extremely dangerous.
Therefore, Gravik had to be eliminated before the weapon became operational.
The problem was that Gravik was hiding in a nuclear contamination zone in Eastern Europe. With Thor off-world, only Captain Marvel and Hulk among the Avengers could potentially withstand the massive radiation levels.
And even they weren't immune to its effects. Radiation releases subatomic particles during decay that cause severe and permanent damage to carbon-based life forms.
Risking two of the Avengers' strongest fighters just to reach Gravik seemed like a pyrrhic victory at best.
Just as Nick Fury was running out of options, an old Skrull ally's daughter named G'iah approached him.
Still reeling from learning that her mother had been murdered by Gravik, G'iah had finally found an opportunity to confront him.
When she did, the exposed Gravik shot her without hesitation.
Fortunately, G'iah had been cautious and injected herself with Extremis beforehand, which saved her life and granted her regenerative abilities.
G'iah witnessed Gravik's true nature, but she couldn't stop him alone. She sought help from her father, who happened to be meeting with Nick Fury, recently returned from space.
Thus, a desperate plan began forming in Nick Fury's mind.
Ryan was constantly monitoring the movements of both the Avengers and the Skrulls. Their inevitable clash would provide the perfect opportunity to strike—a chance to eliminate both threats simultaneously.
However, before that, Ryan needed to increase his own strength to counter the combined forces surrounding the Avengers.
Since successfully creating the alpha, Ryan's research on animal enhancement had advanced significantly.
Unfortunately, of the remaining 29 Dobermans, while all showed some level of enhancement, none reached the alpha's level.
The largest of the 29 was still two sizes smaller than the alpha.
Maya Hansen compared the genetic data of all the enhanced Dobermans and found no discrepancies. She approached Ryan with the data, confused. "Dr. Ryan, I've analyzed all the data thoroughly and haven't found any anomalies. Could the serum batches have been inconsistent?"
Ryan set down his instruments and removed his gloves. He took the data sheet, examined it carefully, and shook his head.
"It's not the serum. All the Dobermans received identical doses of Reagent 25. The variable lies with the dogs themselves."
Identifying the cause of the strength disparity among these animals was crucial for future bioengineering experiments.
Enhanced animals couldn't communicate like super-soldiers or perform complex administrative tasks. Their primary function was combat.
However, the advantage of enhanced animals was undeniable: absolute loyalty.
Even Thanos understood this principle—he hadn't incorporated conquered species into his armies, relying instead on his Outriders, who were engineered for unwavering loyalty.
Ryan searched through all the data but, like Maya Hansen, found nothing irregular.
Just as Ryan wondered if his experimental methodology was flawed, another possibility occurred to him.
When the 30 Dobermans first arrived, the alpha had been exceptionally aggressive, while the remaining 29 had appeared relatively docile. That was the most obvious behavioral difference.
"Pull up the data on aggression-linked genes for me."
Among humans, some people were mild-tempered while others were naturally aggressive. Mild-tempered individuals tended toward complex reasoning, while aggressive individuals often possessed superior physical capabilities and explosive potential.
Perhaps the same principle applied to animal enhancement—baseline aggression might be a predictor of enhancement potential.
End of Chapter 96
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