Chapter 90: Symbiote and Hyperion
"The big guy is sleeping soundly. As long as no one is foolish enough to wake it up, everything will be fine."
As the King of Agents, Nick Fury constantly walked on the edge of danger. He knew how to control the situation, and if things truly got out of hand, he still had a pager.
"Are you still holding a grudge about being taken down by a shotgun, Captain?"
He motioned for him to walk aside, leading him to a nearby laboratory.
"Look at this, something I prepared for you."
Captain America limped into the laboratory after him, his leg severely damaged, leaving unavoidable after-effects on his nerves.
Lately, he couldn't even throw a punch. S.H.I.E.L.D. employees recommended he spend his time online, getting acquainted with the new era.
"With this, you will no longer fear bullets, no longer fear any injury. Captain America will never be defeated."
He stroked his chin and chuckled deeply.
Inside a glass jar, a black, viscous substance churned as if alive.
"What is it?"
Captain America frowned, "It looks like a living blob of black rubber."
"Wait a moment…"
Before Nick Fury could answer, he suddenly felt that this thing, this color, seemed so familiar?
He turned his head and, through the clean glass of the laboratory, saw the enormous creature frozen in ice.
The giant dragon had no scales; its skin had the luster and texture of black rubber.
His face darkened as he turned back, staring at him intently.
"Nick Fury, don't tell me this blob of stuff was taken from that big guy?"
"More or less."
Ordering the nearby scientists to leave, Nick Fury awkwardly scratched his cheek, "I once drilled a hole in the ice, wanting to extract a little of its blood for analysis.
As a result, I extracted this blob of stuff."
That black-winged giant dragon seemed to be composed of millions of these blobs.
"You?"
Captain America's eyes widened in anger.
He had just said that as long as no one woke this big guy, the World would be safe and sound.
"Calm down, Captain.
Look at the size of that big guy.
Compared to you, it's like being pricked with a nano-diameter needle while you were frozen and sleeping."
Nick Fury gestured for him to relax.
That kind of pain wouldn't even be felt by a conscious person, let alone one frozen in sleep.
The laboratory scientists had analyzed that this giant dragon was frozen after being severely wounded and falling into a deep sleep; it wouldn't easily wake up.
It had been resting here peacefully for over a decade since its discovery.
"Captain, listen.
I've been feeling a bit unsettled lately, an inexplicable unease in my heart."
He frowned, describing his feelings over this period, looking somewhat paranoid: "Perhaps it's from that king who is so strong he doesn't fear gods, or perhaps it's from something else."
"In short, I feel something big is about to happen."
"What's the situation now, Fury? A super Agent talking about a sixth sense?"
As an Agent, Nick Fury had experienced life-and-death situations many times. The reason he was still alive and well was his boldness and caution, daring to act and meticulously planning.
"Captain, even gods have appeared on Earth. Is a sixth sense still an ethereal concept?"
"So?"
Noticing Nick Fury's stubbornness, Steve raised an eyebrow and asked.
"So I need a stronger Captain America to give me a little sense of security."
He stared into his eyes, the cunning King of Agents showing a rare hint of sincerity.
"Captain, you are but flesh and blood, yet you have repeatedly created miracles on the battlefield, becoming the spiritual pillar of the United States military at the time."
Nick Fury hoped Captain America could do the same in the new century, using stronger abilities to create greater miracles—such as protecting Earth during a crisis.
"Alright, now let's talk about how to cure my limp with this black rubber."
Seemingly moved by him, Steve, who had been dealing with medicine for a while, asked.
"Internal or external application?"
…
Loki had been studying diligently in the Dark Quadrant, studying to conquer Earth.
And the person teaching him, no one would have imagined, was none other than Thanos, the infamous Mad Titan of the Universe.
Thanos displayed knowledge that belied his tall and intimidating appearance, teaching Loki some superficial cosmic secrets, how to subtly use the Mind Stone and the Space Stone among the Infinity Stones.
Loki had almost completed his studies. In two more days, he would be able to take the Mind Stone and go to Earth to probe it for Thanos, to see if he could bring back the Space Stone.
Few people knew that Thanos's childhood dream was actually to be a scientist. Back then, he wasn't so tall, back then he was still very thin…
Back then, he still had parents, and a home Planet, until his home Planet was destroyed by resource depletion. Before that, he had proposed killing half of the population on Titan to solve the resource problem.
But he was deemed a madman and exiled from Titan.
After witnessing the tragic fate of his home Planet, he resolved to save all living Planets in the Universe, to prevent such a thing from happening again.
The method of salvation was the same method that Titan had not implemented: slaughtering half of the population to alleviate resource pressure!
The probing mission led by Loki and the Chitauri was crucial.
Thanos planned to adjust his subsequent plans based on this mission. If the new individual who appeared on Earth was far stronger than him, approaching the level of Odin and Ancient One,
his original plan would need to be changed.
…
It had been a few days since Audreyf stopped trying to assassinate Ronan, and her quietness made him feel a bit bored.
During this period, Wakanda's research department developed the second-generation Arc Reactor, replacing the ones in W1 and V1. Especially for V1, its endurance was greatly improved, and continuous combat for seven or eight hours was no longer an issue.
One day, he received a phone call.
A call from overseas.
"Your Majesty."
A deep, husky middle-aged man's voice, with a hint of a soldier's sharpness and toughness, sounded from the other end of the phone.
"General Ross, what can I do for you?"
In the secluded King's manor, Ronan lay on a lounge chair, admiring the scenery as he asked.
General Ross was a veteran; when leading troops, he was as swift and fierce as thunder, earning him the nickname "Thunder General." His will was exceptionally tenacious, and he never gave up pursuit even when facing a monster like Hulk.
Turning him into an insider was much more difficult than with ordinary people, but he was, after all, just a mortal.
"Your Majesty, there is something I need to report to you."
On the other side, in a military Base, General Ross looked incredibly serious. He had received an absurd and astonishing piece of news that he had to report to Ronan.
"What is it?"
Listening to the unusually serious tone on the other end, he was slightly curious.
Turning General Ross into an insider was merely to prevent the United States from spending a large sum of money and resources to redeem a person who would cause him trouble.
The casually placed mole seemed to have unexpectedly played a small role.
"Your Majesty, do you know Superman?"
A military Lieutenant General, a spy acting as an insider, gravely and seriously asked about a comic book character, which subtly felt out of place.
The Marvel Universe did have DC comics, and Superman, as the World's first superhero, had become an indelible cultural symbol of the United States.
"Superman?" Of course, he knew Superman. In the future, he might go to the DC main Universe to see that Superman, but this was Marvel. What did it mean to talk about Superman?
"Your Majesty, after I returned to the United States…"
General Ross recounted what happened after he was redeemed and returned to the United States. He received no punishment or blame; in fact, he was commended, moving one step closer to becoming a General.
In the original plot, General Ross was also like this. Although he failed several times in capturing Hulk, leaving him in a sorry state and even affecting civilians, he had many connections above him. By the time the Civil War occurred, he was already in the high position of Secretary of State, and the United States Government sent him to make the Avengers sign the Sokovia Accords, to regulate the Avengers.
After he personally interacted with Ronan and returned to the United States, the United States Government sent people to question him about Ronan, hoping to get some information from him.
"After they got nothing from me, perhaps because I had ample experience dealing with superhumans, they invited me to join a secret military Base specifically monitoring and researching superhumans."
Even though S.H.I.E.L.D. essentially worked for the United States, there was always an International Security Council in between. The United States Government itself established a Base to deal with supernatural events.
"What did you find? A Kryptonian spaceship?"
Ronan guessed that General Ross must have discovered something extraordinary, but it couldn't be the real Superman.
"No, Your Majesty.
I found them investigating and reviewing data on meteorites that fell in East Africa on Earth in recent decades."
"Meteorite data?"
Upon hearing this, his expression became strange.
"Could it be that they really think there's a Kryptonian orphan who landed in Wakanda in a spaceship?"
The last time he met with Fury, he accessed his memories and saw how S.H.I.E.L.D. internally viewed him.
Heat vision, super speed, strength comparable to a god—they believed it was Superman from the comics who had come to reality.
But that was just talk; no one truly believed it.
"Is the United States Government foolish enough to believe this and investigate?"
He didn't think so; the situation felt off.
"I asked the Base commander something similar, and he seemed to know something, smiling meaningfully and saying there are always coincidences in the World, and Superman might not be nonexistent.
This matter was also an order from above. The higher-ups ordered him to investigate and confirm that no second Superman came to Earth decades ago."
Lowering his voice, General Ross said with a solemn tone what he had found out.
The existence of a Superman-like being on Earth was not a small matter, and he felt it necessary to report it to Ronan.
"A second Superman?"
Somewhat surprised, Ronan's eyes flickered.
It sounded like decades ago, a 'Superman' came to Earth in a spaceship?
Who was this second Superman referring to?
Captain Marvel? Decades ago, she did return to Earth in a crashed spaceship, but the United States Government couldn't possibly be unclear about her identity. She wasn't an alien, and her image was quite different from Superman's.
His fingers lightly tapped on the armrest of the chair as he pondered this matter.
"In the Marvel Universe, there are four individuals whose abilities are similar to Superman, collectively known as the Four Supermen: Sentinel, Blue Marvel, Gladiator, and Hyperion."
Sentinel and Blue Marvel were both products of accidental experiments by native Earthlings.
One was an addict who stole and drank experimental chemicals, and the other mutated and gained superpowers after an experiment with a machine he tinkered with.
Gladiator was an alien, but he was the Strontian Imperial Guard leader and wouldn't come to Earth.
Only Hyperion remained.
In some Universes, his backstory was also the most similar to Superman's.
An Eternal orphan, after his Planet's destruction, came to Earth in a spaceship, was raised by humans, and became a superhero.
"But… if it's Hyperion."
"Why has he never appeared in public?"