Carol's blood?
What use would her blood be?
Talos was stunned at first, then horrified.
"You mean… you want to create Super Skrulls?!"
"That's right, General. This is our last chance!" Gravik's expression was twisted with malice.
"Captain Marvel and Nick Fury promised they would find us a new home, but it's been over a decade, and nothing has been done."
"Then we'll use their power and take what is rightfully ours—by force!"
"General, while Carol is this weak, if we subdue her, we can extract her blood—we can take her power!"
Talos stared blankly at the crazed Gravik in front of him, then looked at the few young Skrulls whose eyes were flickering with dangerous thoughts.
Even his own heart couldn't help but ripple.
Some thoughts he shouldn't have had began to stir.
But it only lasted a moment before he suppressed them.
"The method for creating Super Skrulls was lost during our escape. Gravik, give up your delusions," he said, shaking his head.
But Gravik only laughed. "You're wrong, General. The technology wasn't lost. The scientists from back then—they made it to Earth. As long as you give the order, we can rise again—immediately!"
"What?" Talos felt his heart waver once more, harder than before.
But after a moment of inner conflict, Talos still shook his head.
"No! We can't do this! She's our ally, Gravik. And besides… even severely injured, none of us could defeat her. Even if we had Super Skrulls—what would that change? That Superman… sigh."
Talos waved his hand. "Disperse, all of you. Go rest. Once Carol recovers, we'll have to leave the solar system."
After speaking, Talos even inspected the chamber, making sure Carol hadn't left behind any blood, before turning and walking away.
The young Skrulls opened their mouths as if to speak but said nothing.
They wanted to act against Captain Marvel.
But although she had fallen, her presence still loomed.
Without Talos leading them, none dared to act recklessly on their own.
One by one, they left, heads hanging low.
Only Gravik remained, his eyes tinged with red as he stared fixedly at Talos's back, no one knew what was going through his mind.
…
The next day.
Earth.
The Avengers, on behalf of the Security Council, officially announced to the world that all Skrulls hidden on Earth had been identified and cleared out.
In secret corners across the globe, hundreds of thousands of people who had been replaced finally saw the light of day again.
Though the Skrulls had invaded Earth on a large scale, they refrained from going too far due to the reputations of Captain Marvel and Nick Fury.
Most of them simply lived in abandoned nuclear power plants, like the one in Chernobyl.
Aside from the individuals whom Nick Fury had specifically ordered replaced—who had indeed been killed, the rest of the Skrulls, even after secretly replacing a large number of humans, did not commit widespread slaughter.
Nearly all the people they had impersonated were hidden away, kept alive using life-support equipment.
When these individuals were found, aside from being physically weak, they showed no other lasting effects. It was as if they had awoken from an extremely long sleep.
And on that same day, S.W.O.R.D. was officially disbanded, and all personnel were sent back to Earth for supervision.
Nick Fury—along with Carol's friend, Maria Rambeau—was sentenced to life imprisonment.
After the verdict, the Security Council offered Fury two choices:
—Either spend the rest of his life in the Raft prison, or leave Earth forever with his Skrull friends.
Nick Fury chose to stay on Earth.
He believed that Earth would still need him someday.
At the same time, having recovered from her injuries, Carol returned to Earth once again.
This time, she did not choose to resolve matters with force.
Instead, she entered United Nations Headquarters and tried to persuade the world's nations to allow the Skrulls to stay.
But unfortunately, all she received there now were cold, indifferent stares.
In just one day, the leaders of every country across the globe had already uncovered Carol's past identity.
To them, she was someone who, though human in origin, had acted in ways that bordered on betrayal of her own species—no one could look upon her kindly.
As Carol left the UN headquarters, even the children on the roadside were pointing at her, saying, "Look, that villain! She's the human traitor who got beaten by Superman!"
At that moment, Carol felt as if her heart had been pierced.
She wanted to defend herself, but couldn't find the words.
In the end, all she could do was leave Earth, dejected and disheartened.
As she looked back from space, her once-familiar homeland now felt utterly foreign.
And in that moment, she finally began to regret her recklessness.
With a complicated expression, Carol flew back toward her ship—unaware that a storm she had set in motion was about to erupt.
…
One day earlier.
"Talos is too old. He no longer deserves to be our general—he can't lead us forward!"
Inside a room aboard one of the ships, Gravik stood before a group of young Skrulls.
His voice rang with passion: "We must take action and carve out our own path!"
"But… what should we do?" someone asked.
"It's simple! We need Captain Marvel's blood!"
"She was gravely injured that day—there must be blood residue left in her ship!"
"Right now, Talos is still humbly begging her day after day. She'll likely return to Earth again—and when she does, that will be our chance!"
Under the dim lights, there was a wild, wolf-like glint in Gravik's eyes.
…
Half an hour ago.
Captain Marvel was still at United Nations Headquarters, arguing with delegates from various countries.
Meanwhile, outside her ship, a group of Skrulls aboard a small escape pod had stealthily infiltrated.
Using Skrull technology, they bypassed the ship's AI defenses and slipped in one after another.
The interior of the ship was a mess, with Carol's clothes and gear scattered everywhere.
The green-skinned intruders could only comb through every corner of the vessel with patient determination.
When one of the Skrulls picked up a blood-stained towel, scanned it with a device, and confirmed the DNA, they let out a startled cry.
Immediately, all of them erupted in excited cheers.
They carefully sealed the towel, restored everything inside the ship to its original state, and silently withdrew without leaving a trace.
When Captain Marvel returned to her ship, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary.
…
On the third day, Nick Fury and Maria Rambeau were imprisoned in the Raft.
This was an underwater facility designed to hold the most dangerous and mentally unstable criminals in the world.
Barring a miracle, they would spend the rest of their lives there.
That same day, the Skrull fleet received a final ultimatum.
The Avengers declared that if they still refused to leave the solar system, Earth would deploy Superman.
Left with no choice, Carol led the entire Skrull population through a jump point and departed.
…
On the fifth day, the Skrull fleet drifted through the boundless void of deep space.
Inside one of the ships, a group of young Skrulls watched Gravik with a mix of nervousness and anticipation.
"Brothers and sisters—success or failure, survival or extinction, it all comes down to today!"
Gravik stepped onto a circular platform.
This platform was the device used to create Super Skrulls.
It consisted of a massive round base, with eight arched columns rising from the ground, encircling the center—like the eight legs of an overturned spider, wrapping tightly around its prey.
The device required only a blood sample from the target.
With that, it could enhance a Skrull, granting them all of the target's extraordinary abilities.
Though the resulting strength would only reach around sixty to seventy percent of the original, the machine could continually produce more Super Skrulls, as long as it had enough base material.
Moreover, each Super Skrull could stack the extraordinary abilities of the same target indefinitely.
Once enough of them had acquired Captain Marvel's powers, they could then begin layering Superman's abilities on top of that.
Just imagining Superman's power, Gravik could already envision the day when the Skrulls would rise again—as the overlords of the universe!
______
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