"This..."
Talos's previous arguments had plunged the room into a strange, suffocating silence.
After a long time, the elderly Skrull who had spoken earlier opened his mouth, his voice trembling uncontrollably:
"Gravik, this is far too dangerous. Once this plan is exposed, every single one of us will face total, irreversible annihilation."
"Dangerous?!"
Gravik let out a faint laugh. Immediately after, he suddenly reached up and yanked off the hood covering his head.
The instant his hood came off, his body began to swell violently in a bizarre and unnatural fashion.
Within a few brief moments, he transformed into a towering, terrifying monster resembling the deceased Abomination!
"T-This... what is this?!"
Seeing Gravik's current monstrosity, the faces of the gathered Skrulls turned pale with sheer horror:
"Gravik... how did you become like this?!"
Gravik gazed with utter obsession at his heavily mutated arm—which had expanded countless times in size—a vicious, psychotic grin spreading across his face:
"I grafted the Hulk's DNA into my own genome!"
As he spoke, his body twisted once more, morphing through the likenesses of a mutated spider-monster and a giant lizard:
"And it's not just the Hulk's DNA. Ghost-Spider, Lizard, Captain America, Hawkeye, Daredevil..."
He rattled off a list of hero names as if reciting a menu:
"During the previous Inheritors War and the Battle of New York, I secretly collected massive amounts of DNA from these superheroes and successfully finalized the development of the Harvest Gene Integration Chamber!"
"Right now, I alone am equivalent to an entire team of Avengers!"
"And this... is merely the beginning!"
Gravik spoke in an intensely alluring, persuasive voice:
"As long as we harvest enough superhero DNA, and as long as all of you step into my integration chamber just like I did..."
"Every single one of us will become a Super-Skrull! When our entire race stands united, do you honestly believe Peter Parker can still be a match for us?"
These words exploded in the minds of the Skrulls like a thunderclap.
It rapidly nurtured a single, festering thought in their hearts:
He's right!
Noticing the hesitation cracking through the Skrulls' resolve, Gravik opened his arms with fanatical, demagogic energy:
"Brothers, hesitate no longer! Depose that fool Talos this instant! Let me lead you into a glorious new era for the Skrull race!"
"However..." a more rational Skrull raised a cautious objection, "America right now is an absolute iron fortress. In that country, every single person obeys Peter Parker.
Even if we use our shape-shifting abilities to cause chaos, I doubt we'd stand much of a chance."
"Who said anything about causing trouble inside America, Peter Parker's main stronghold?" Gravik let out a cold sneer, tapping his own temple with a finger:
"Do you think I'm as stupid as Talos?"
As he spoke, he stepped up to a giant holographic projection map, sweeping his finger across the display before tapping firmly on the European continent.
"America is his turf, so we won't touch it. Our target... is right here."
"Europe?"
"Exactly." Gravik's eyes glittered with calculating malice:
"I plan to leverage our shape-shifting gifts to launch a Secret Invasion!"
"We start with superpowers like Great Britain, France, and Russia, applying immense political pressure on the United Nations. We'll use a reason they cannot possibly refuse—Superheroes are a asset to all humanity, and they cannot be monopolized by a single nation like America!"
He paused, savoring the expressions of sudden realization dawning on the faces around him.
"Step one: We impersonate those greedy human politicians, forcing the UN to pass a mandate requiring superheroes to disperse across the globe to handle international crises.
Just like that, we break their united fist into scattered, isolated pieces."
Gravik turned around, spreading his arms wide like a monarch preparing to ascend his throne.
"Step two: We use the Gene Integration Chamber, shift into their exact appearances, and commit unspeakable atrocities using their powers!
We'll turn them into universal pariahs hunted in every nation, forcing the entire world to spontaneously reject these superheroes!"
"When that moment arrives, we can step forward in a brand-new capacity. While picking them off one by one and replicating their abilities, we will present ourselves to the public as a new team of government-sanctioned superheroes!"
"At that point, every other country on Earth will worship us as saviors. Against that, what good will Peter Parker's little setup in America do him?"
Silence fell over the room.
Immediately following it was a deafening wave of fanatical cheers.
"Brilliant!"
"Hail Gravik!"
"FOR NEW SKRULLOS!"
The elderly Skrull watched the maddened scene before him and opened his mouth to speak, but when his eyes met Gravik's cold, murderous glare, he ultimately swallowed his words.
He could only let out a frail, helpless sigh.
He knew that from this moment onward, the destiny of the Skrull race had officially slid into an unpredictable abyss...
With the plan decided, all that remained was execution.
Gravik's efficiency far exceeded anyone's expectations. Once the fanatical flames of war—dormant for decades in the hearts of the Skrulls—were reignited, the energy unleashed was not to be underestimated.
In less than an hour, General Talos was "escorted" into the meeting room.
Looking at the faces in the room—at once familiar yet utterly alien—and especially at Gravik standing in the head seat that rightfully belonged to him, Talos's heart sank into his stomach.
He understood everything.
"Gravik," Talos said, his voice laced with profound exhaustion as he looked at the young subordinate he had once held high hopes for, "what are you doing?"
"What am I doing?" Gravik adjusted his cuffs with slow deliberation, not even bothering to look up: "As you can see, General. Correcting the mistakes you've made, and leading our people toward a genuine future."
"Your so-called future is inciting a war with Earth?!" Talos's voice rose sharply:
"Have you lost your mind?! You have no idea how terrifying Peter Parker actually is! You are dragging our entire species straight into a furnace!"
"Terrifying?" Gravik finally raised his head, his eyes brimming with pure mockery:
"I see only his arrogance. And his arrogance guarantees his absolute demise!"
Stepping aggressively toward Talos, he pressed forward with suffocating momentum:
"Forty years, Talos! Our children are born inside freezing starships, never knowing what the wind of freedom smells like! Forced to live in dark gutters like rats!
And you, foolish Talos—you are still begging for scrap mercy from our enemies!"
"This isn't mercy, it's trust!" Talos argued fiercely: "We have formal agreements with Fury and Parker!"
"Agreements?" Gravik laughed as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world:
"A worthless sheet of paper that can be shredded at any second! Real authority is seized with your own fists, not handed out as charity by others!
You're too old, Talos. You've forgotten how the Skrull Empire once ruled the stars.
A coward like you will only lead us into a bottomless pit!"
Gravik's words drew wild, enthusiastic cheers from the surrounding Skrulls.
They had had enough of waiting. They were sick to death of living under another species' roof.
Talos looked around the room, meeting pair after pair of eyes ignited by unbridled ambition. He knew that the hearts of his people were entirely lost.
Unable to do anything more, he could only let out a bitter, helpless sigh:
"Mark my words, Gravik... every single one of you will live to regret this."
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