Less than thirty seconds later, they landed on the lower floor of the Skrull fortress.
Looking around, they saw an absurdly large office. At one end, right in the center, stood an imposing desk. Behind it, a Skrull remained with his back to them, hands clasped behind him, staring out through a massive window that looked outside. Normally, the view would have been nothing but dirt and rocks, they were several meters underground after all, but in this case, the colossal skeleton of a dinosaur rested buried before the base. Whether it was a real discovery or just decoration added by the Skrulls, perhaps only Gravik knew the answer.
The silence was broken by one of Tony's characteristic comments.
"An entire floor dedicated to your office, which is ridiculously huge, and you wait for us with your back turned, staring out a window? Careful, or Fury might sue you for copyright infringement."
Gravik turned and calmly sat behind the desk. "That man copied everything he knows from me. If he has a problem, he can come say it to my face instead of hiding like a rat."
Tony smirked with disdain. "I can tell you hold a grudge. At least seventy percent of the enemies we've beaten before felt the same way toward S.H.I.E.L.D., so your story doesn't interest me." As he spoke, he raised his palm toward Gravik. Despite his casual tone, he was eager to fight. This enemy had been a nuisance for months and had kidnapped his friends. He spoke again, this time in a colder voice. "So tell me, why do you think you won't end up like them?"
Gravik smiled. "Because I'm different. Don't compare common criminals to a true king. Tell me, do you really think I was the one who made all the infiltrators reveal themselves?"
"Wasn't it?" Tony asked.
"Of course not. Having someone on your side served me well to track your movements. You never had a chance to stop us." Gravik shifted his gaze toward Leonardo. "Although I'll admit I didn't expect that, because of someone, you'd get here in less than a day. My infiltrator didn't even have time to interfere."
Before anyone could respond, a red energy surrounded them. Chaos magic. Wanda's body revealed her true alien form, and the only one who managed to escape was Pietro, using his speed.
But he didn't get far. A shield thrown like a disc forced him to duck and slide, then an arrow grazed his side, followed by explosive feathers and gunfire from above. He barely found a gap to dodge the attacks, but was met by a metallic punch right where he thought he was safe.
He fell to the ground and tried to get up, but a chill ran down his right leg, as if a ghost had passed through it. A moment later, pain took over and blood began to flow. In front of him, Vision had his hand buried in his leg.
Meanwhile, Gravik looked at Leonardo. "No matter how many times you resurrect them, I'll just kill them again." He smiled confidently.
Tony let out a short laugh, still motionless inside the crimson energy. "Really, Wanda? I thought we already settled our problems."
"My name isn't Wanda," the Skrull replied.
"I told you we should have rescued the team along the way," Tony said, still keeping his usual carefree tone. After all, he trusted Leonardo completely and knew they were not truly out of options.
"Did you see how many halls and rooms there were? Why go through all that when there are easier methods?" Leonardo replied.
While they spoke, Steve carried Pietro and placed him next to the others. Now all three were trapped in the same chaos magic, floating in the air like puppets.
"From your conversation, I can tell you haven't lost hope yet," Gravik said mockingly. Then he smiled. "But I'll have to disappoint you. The Avengers are not here. They're scattered all over the world."
He knew that, just as the captured Avengers were his greatest strength, they also represented a weakness. That was why he had made sure to keep them apart, hidden in different parts of the planet, so that even if one managed to escape, they would not pose an immediate problem. But above all, he wanted to ensure that a single escape could never trigger a chain reaction that would ruin all his plans.
However, when he looked at Leonardo, he found only a mocking smile on his face.
"What?" he growled, thinking they were making fun of him. "I don't know what you're planning, but you have no way to win. Your friends are scattered around the world, in bases so well hidden that even I don't know exactly where they are."
"What are you talking about?" Leonardo replied calmly, his voice resonating through the room. "Aren't they all here?"
Gravik looked at him in confusion, then at the Avengers. When he recognized their green faces, the brief unease he had felt vanished, and he let out a laugh. "You're delusional. They're Skrulls."
"Didn't you just say they were the Avengers?" Leonardo said, glancing at Tony. "Tony, didn't he say that?"
Tony didn't know what Leonardo was planning, but as always, he played along without hesitation. "That's right. Everyone knows it. These are the Avengers. Skrulls? What's that?"
Gravik stared at them for a moment, confused, thinking he was facing a group of idiots.
Leonardo clicked his tongue as if pointing out something obvious. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Gravik, don't you know what era we live in? The era of networks and misinformation. These days, people don't care about the truth. They only follow what the majority believes, without thinking for themselves."
"Human, you're starting to annoy me. Kill him," Gravik ordered.
Wanda closed her hand, and the chaos magic began to crush Tony's armor slowly. But Leonardo remained calm, speaking as if giving a lecture.
"You told the world that these are the Avengers, and now you want to deny it? No one will believe you. Let me tell you a story. On Earth, there's a concept called a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was introduced by sociologist Robert K. Merton in 1948. I won't try to teach human sociology to an alien, but in short, it means that something false, when believed by enough people, ends up becoming true precisely because everyone believes it is." He looked directly at him and smiled. "So, you say these are Skrulls, but the world, the world believes these are the Avengers. Maybe at first it was a lie, but if everyone believes it, eventually it becomes reality."
The moment he said the word "reality," a different energy emerged from his body. It easily pierced through Wanda's chaos magic and surrounded the others. Although both energies shared the same red color, they were completely different. One felt forced and controlled, as if someone were manipulating it, while the other flowed naturally, without obstruction or deviation. It wasn't manipulating reality, it was reality itself.
At the same time, in faraway places, the pyramids of Egypt, the top of the Eiffel Tower, Machu Picchu,Río de la Plata, Antarctica, The Grand Canyon, India, dozens of hidden Skrull bases remained silent. In the depths of each one, metallic spheres made of a transparent material rotated slowly, containing human bodies suspended as if floating in water.
Then, those bodies were enveloped by the same red energy. Their skins turned green, transforming into Skrulls, while the impostors in the fortress regained their human forms.
Throughout the entire process, no alarm went off. No defense reacted. Nothing seemed out of place. Because, in truth, nothing abnormal had happened. Nothing was out of place. Everything that occurred was simply reality.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)