As one of the most powerful Eternals, Ikaris hadn't needed to throw a punch in a long time. There were plenty of strong beings on this planet, but none of them impressed him.
This was the unshakable confidence he had built over thousands of years of warfare on Earth, hunting Deviants alongside the other Eternals.
"Yes, the appearance is a bit strange, but these should be Deviants."
Racing over after receiving Sersi's message, Ikaris studied the Xenomorphs with his super-vision. A flicker of doubt crossed his face before it smoothed away. These were probably just a new variant.
After all, Deviants possessed powerful mutagenic genes and could change their forms by absorbing strength from other organisms.
Though these specimens... aside from the one still feeding inside the building... seemed pathetically weak by comparison.
He glanced into the ruined structure, noting what remained of Abomination: a mangled pile of meat. He couldn't tell exactly how the creature had died, but it didn't matter.
"This Deviant absorbed the ugly brute's life energy to evolve. But what's with this messy feeding method?"
Ikaris's expression remained cold.
Absorbing strength from other beings was indeed a Deviant talent, but it wasn't supposed to work by devouring flesh. They used tubular proboscises to pierce targets and siphon energy.
What kind of bizarre new abilities had these Deviants developed? It almost looked like regression.
Even stranger, the last known Deviants should still be frozen in an Alaskan ice lake. How had a few suddenly appeared… and so openly?
"Why are you associating with these Deviants? Don't you know how dangerous they are?" Ikaris crossed his arms, voice icy as he looked down at Adam from above.
"Deviants? You're mistaken." Adam knew exactly why this guy had shown up.
Ikaris was no saint himself. He had kept secrets from the other ten Eternals, never telling them about the final group of Deviants hidden in Alaska.
These eleven Eternals were nothing like the ones on Titan who had descended from those who left Earth. They were direct creations of the Celestials... professional enforcers whose memories were repeatedly wiped.
Each time they completed a mission... protecting a population long enough for a young Celestial to gestate in the planet's core... the Celestials erased their memories and sent them to the next world. Over and over.
There were occasional glitches, though. Fragments of uncleaned memories sometimes surfaced as strange, disjointed thoughts.
Ikaris had vaguely sensed something off about his own memories but had wisely kept it hidden.
"Earth's ecosystem could never produce creatures like these. They are not native to this world," Ikaris said coldly. "You have no idea what Deviants truly are, and you show no respect to me... the one who has protected you and your ancestors."
"Respect? Bullshit."
Adam's tone stayed even. He knew Ikaris was powerful and fanatical. Since the Eternal had appeared, he wouldn't leave without achieving his goal. "You keep talking about Deviants. Tell me, what's stronger in that head of yours... the desire to protect ordinary humans, or the urge to cover everything up?"
Ikaris's expression shifted. It wasn't just the insult. This human seemed to know about the Eternals and the Deviants… and about the secrets he had hidden?
Was it a lucky guess, or a deliberate probe?
Golden light flared in Ikaris's eyes. A heat-vision beam lanced out, more than enough to erase an ordinary human.
But in that instant, the Xenomorph that had finished feeding on Abomination swelled, burst through the wall with a mouth full of razor teeth, and slammed into Ikaris. It spun and drove him straight into the ground with a brutal suplex.
BOOM!
The unrestrained force cratered the street.
"Is this how you protect humans?" Adam called out, shielded behind the Xenomorph. "No restraint at all. You'd kill an unidentified human along with the so-called Deviants just to eliminate them?"
"You're not as ignorant as you pretend. You know we protect humanity. You know we hunt Deviants. Who are you? How do you know these things?!"
Ikaris rose unharmed, surprised by the Xenomorph's strength. Still, the brief clash told him this creature was noticeably weaker than he was.
It could be killed. It would just take a little time.
What concerned him more was Adam's calm composure. The man hadn't even blinked, as if he had expected Ikaris's attack and knew exactly what he was capable of.
This human was a major problem. The fact that Deviants were protecting him turned Ikaris's understanding of the world upside down. Deviants existed to devour humans.
Still, none of that mattered in the face of superior power. Ikaris simply wanted to kill Adam and these "Deviants" quickly and bury the incident.
WHOOSH!
Ikaris rocketed forward like a missile, driving into the Xenomorph's chest. As Adam stepped aside at the perfect moment, Ikaris smashed straight through several buildings. The shockwaves rolled across the sky. His attack was already causing far more collateral damage than the earlier Hulk-Abomination brawl.
Other Eternals might have tried to spare innocents. Ikaris didn't care.
Over thousands of years, they had fought Deviants in crowded cities right in front of ordinary people more times than he could count.
Especially Ikaris. In his mind, he had earned the right. He had safeguarded countless generations of human reproduction. What did a little collateral damage matter? Was there even an issue?
Ikaris clenched his fists, chest puffed out with powerful muscles, coldly watching the towering flames erupt from the massive hole he had punched through the high-rise.
Some gas line must have ruptured. Not that it mattered.
The Xenomorph didn't care either.
It emerged completely unscathed, silent. Its long, whip-like tail flicked as its powerful legs coiled, muscles surging with terrifying force.
The creature charged back in almost the exact same way, slamming into Ikaris and sending him flying amid a storm of rubble and screams.
"Why are there more monsters?! Wasn't the fight on Broadway over already?!"
"No way… what the hell is happening today? Two more lunatics showed up!"
At first, some citizens assumed Ikaris was a superhero and the hulking, Abomination-like Xenomorph was the villain.
Seconds later they realized neither of them gave a damn about civilian lives.
The main difference was that the more human-looking one attacked without any regard for bystanders, aiming for lethal strikes and clearly trying to end the fight as fast as possible.
The monstrous one, despite its grotesque appearance, exaggerated muscles, and bony spikes, seemed to be trying to move the battle somewhere less populated. It kept grabbing Ikaris and hurling him toward more distant, isolated areas.
Even when it was knocked back and occasionally crushed unlucky citizens underfoot.