"Finally, he's moving."
Inside S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury sat in his office, his single eye fixed on the surveillance feed streaming across the screen. The live footage showed every angle of the battlefield, the destruction, the chaos—and at the center of it, Liam Hayes stepping forward.
Originally, Fury had no intention of getting involved. If anything, he had been perfectly content to sit back and watch General Ross deal with the consequences of his own mess.
But then Ross had called, offering a generous list of incentives that were too valuable to ignore. That changed the equation.
It just so happened that Fury had recently established a cooperative relationship with Professor X. More importantly, he wanted to personally evaluate Liam's capabilities, to see just how far this mutant's power really went.
So he agreed.
Now, leaning slightly forward in his chair, Fury studied the screen with sharp interest. "Against something like that… can you really handle it that easily?" he murmured, his tone low but focused.
Back on the battlefield, Abomination had already recovered from being blasted away by the car. The impact had done little more than slow him down for a moment, his body rising again with terrifying resilience.
"ROAR—!"
With a thunderous roar, he charged forward like a raging beast, his massive frame tearing through everything in his path. Cars were sent flying, debris scattering in all directions as he barreled straight toward Liam.
Liam didn't move.
He stood there calmly, his posture relaxed, as if what was rushing toward him wasn't a monster capable of leveling buildings. Then, at the last moment, he simply raised one hand.
That was all.
One hand, reaching forward to meet Abomination's incoming punch.
The contrast was absurd. One was a massive, grotesque fist capable of crushing steel. The other was a human hand, slender and completely ordinary in appearance.
No one watching believed what they were seeing.
Some people even shut their eyes instinctively, unwilling to witness what they assumed would be a brutal, one-sided impact. Even the woman behind Liam turned her head away, unable to bear the sight.
Then—
Boom!!!
The collision exploded outward with a deafening shockwave. The ground beneath them fractured instantly, cracks tearing across the pavement as dust and debris surged into the air.
But the expected outcome never came.
Instead, something impossible happened.
Abomination's fist slammed into Liam's palm—and stopped.
Not slowed. Not resisted.
Stopped.
For a fraction of a second, everything seemed frozen. Then the force reversed.
Abomination's entire body was hurled backward, as if he had just punched an indestructible wall. He crashed into the ground with tremendous force, the impact sending another wave of destruction through the street.
Silence followed.
Then Liam lowered his hand slightly, a faint smile forming as he stepped forward. "Not bad," he said casually, as if evaluating something mildly interesting. "But the harder you hit, the harder it rebounds. That one probably hurt."
His tone was almost conversational, completely detached from the violence of what had just happened.
On the ground, Abomination struggled to rise. His right arm—the one that had thrown the punch—was visibly shattered, the damage inflicted not by Liam, but by his own force rebounding back through him.
For a being like Abomination, the injury wasn't fatal. His regenerative ability was already working, attempting to repair the damage.
But it had still hurt.
Back in S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury's expression changed.
His eye widened slightly, the calm calculation in his gaze momentarily giving way to genuine surprise. "He… redirected it?" he muttered, leaning back as he processed what he'd just seen.
It took him a few seconds to exhale slowly, regaining his composure.
"That's not just strength," he continued, more to himself than anyone else. "That's reflection. A very dangerous kind."
For the first time, he had a clear, undeniable understanding of Liam's ability.
And it only made him more interested.
Fury had been considering the formation of a specialized team for some time now—a group of individuals with extraordinary abilities who could handle threats beyond conventional forces. Until now, he hadn't found the right candidates.
But Liam… Liam was different.
According to the intel, he had been an ordinary orphan, taken in by Professor X and enrolled at the Mutant Academy just over half a year ago. At that time, he hadn't even awakened his mutant abilities.
His powers had only manifested a month ago.
And in just one month, he had risen from a normal human to a level-four mutant—possibly even level five—with multiple high-tier abilities.
That kind of growth was unprecedented.
What made it even more valuable was his temperament. By all accounts, Liam kept a low profile at the academy. He had no hostility toward humans, no record of conflict with other mutants, and was generally described as calm, even easygoing.
Powerful. Controlled. Stable.
Exactly the kind of person Fury needed.
Still, there was a complication.
"Professor X…" Fury muttered, already anticipating resistance. Convincing Xavier to let Liam go wouldn't be simple.
After a brief pause, he picked up his phone and placed a call.
Back on the battlefield, Liam had already closed the distance.
He walked slowly toward Abomination, his expression carrying a hint of boredom as he looked down at the struggling creature. "That's it?" he said, his voice laced with faint disappointment. "That's what you call power?"
The words hit their mark.
Abomination roared again, fury blazing as he forced his battered body upright, dragging himself out of the crater with sheer willpower.
But before he could fully rise—
Liam moved.
He stepped forward and brought his foot down.
"Stay down."
The moment his foot descended, vector manipulation activated at full output.
Boom!!!
The impact was like a meteor striking the earth.
The ground caved in instantly, layers of concrete collapsing inward as a massive crater formed beneath them. Shockwaves rippled outward, cracking the surrounding streets and even destabilizing nearby buildings.
Within a radius of dozens of meters, everything sank.
The destruction was absolute.
When the dust began to settle, Abomination lay at the center of the crater.
His head had been completely crushed.
There was no movement.
No recovery.
Even with his incredible regenerative ability, the damage was too severe. There was nothing left to regenerate from.
Liam glanced down at the body for a moment, then shrugged lightly, his interest already fading. "That was… underwhelming," he muttered.
He hadn't even used most of his abilities.
Flame control alone could have reduced Abomination to ash with temperatures exceeding seven thousand degrees. Absolute zero could have frozen him solid, turning his body into something that would shatter on impact.
And abilities like spatial inversion or atomic collapse would have ended the fight instantly, regardless of durability.
This hadn't even been a challenge.
With the threat eliminated, Liam turned away without another glance.
As for Hulk—he had already reverted back to Bruce Banner, lying unconscious and no longer a threat.
There was no reason to get involved any further.
....
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