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Black Super's withdrawal wasn't solely because of the pursuing enemies. More importantly, from the menu screens he'd just forced the Kree to interpret—combined with what he'd already pieced together—he now knew exactly where to find what he wanted, and what that thing actually was.
Mar-Vell's laboratory had been remodeled beyond recognition by the Skrulls left behind on the ship. No wonder Black Super hadn't even considered this place during his earlier reconnaissance.
Perhaps it was the boredom of six years spent trapped here. The Skrulls living aboard this cruiser hadn't merely built lighted grow rooms to cultivate plants and slow the depletion of stored rations.
They had repurposed entire compartments and machines, reshaping them to better support long-term habitation, creating a self-sustaining living cycle.
The only machine left largely untouched was the extractor that held the Tesseract. But given its placement in such a vast, open chamber, that clearly wasn't its original location either.
As for the main laboratory—it had been converted into a breeding chamber. The plants grown in the illuminated cultivation rooms all originated from seedlings synthesized here.
The Skrulls' ability to produce their own food during this time wasn't because the cruiser carried a conventional seed vault capable of endlessly producing high-quality crops.
At the level of Kree and Skrull civilization, biodiversity was no longer preserved through seed banks, but through gene libraries, much like Krypton's Codex.
Only this gene library was far broader in scope—not limited to Kree or Skrull DNA, but encompassing countless species of flora and fauna, preserving only the most optimal genetic templates, and not restricted to species from the Skrulls' homeworld.
Their genetic technology was advanced enough that, given a species' genetic code, they could synthesize it directly from raw matter.
That raw matter was derived from waste—excrement, unusable plant residue, decomposed food scraps—broken down and recombined through chemical processes into biological substrate.
In essence, it was an artificial simulation of a natural ecological cycle.
But trapped within a cruiser, unable to rely on nature itself, they had no choice but to substitute technology for every step, maintaining a fragile internal ecosystem just to keep everyone alive.
Unlike ordinary ships that relied purely on resupply, this was exactly why the cruiser couldn't support a large population.
It was precisely because so many compartments were filled with various plants that Black Super had subconsciously dismissed the area earlier, failing to realize that this seemingly non-essential space—unrelated to navigation or life-support—was in fact Mar-Vell's original research lab.
With Captain Marvel going berserk and the cruiser suffering a brief power outage earlier, the imprisoned Skrulls had seized their chance to escape. Along with them, the two humans—Nick Fury and Maria Rambeau—had begun their breakout.
The Kree soldiers, who had previously been spread throughout the ship sweeping every compartment, first converged on the area where Black Super had appeared. Now they were being redirected to intercept the fleeing Skrulls.
The upside was that Kree troop movements had become more concentrated.
Naturally, Black Super chose a route far from the crowds, heading straight for his objective.
He deliberately avoided using super-speed to dash past the aliens, because he couldn't be sure whether this unfamiliar high-tech civilization had experience—or equipment—specifically designed to counter speedsters.
What he knew of them came from films and comics, fragments rather than the full picture.
Betting that they definitely didn't have such countermeasures—or that they weren't carrying them—was unnecessary risk. Taking the long way around was the safest choice.
Avoiding contact altogether and minimizing exposure remained the ideal scenario.
After a tense but uneventful journey, he arrived at his destination: Mar-Vell's laboratory.
Amid rows of seedlings, Black Super finally spotted his target.
At the same time, he confirmed what Kree technology used as data storage.
It was a transparent, multi-faceted glass object—sometimes irregular in shape. Data was engraved and erased using light of specific wavelengths.
To the naked eye, it looked like a cloudy, low-grade crystal. Who would ever imagine that such an unassuming object contained the knowledge of an advanced civilization?
Black Super removed the largest storage crystal and examined it closely.
It was roughly the size of a fist—a perfect regular icosahedron. Among the fourteen crystals in the lab, it was the most symmetrical and complex in shape.
The others included seven irregular forms, two large stellated dodecahedrons, three diamond-cut shapes, and one hexagonal column.
Some were mounted in read-write rigs surrounded by thirty-six probes for full-spectrum access; others were simply stored in cabinets.
In fact, those irregular ones were likely brought by the Skrulls themselves. Otherwise, it was hard to explain why the same type of device would follow two entirely different design aesthetics.
And given how much overlap existed between Kree and Skrull technology, it was clear these two empires hadn't just stumbled upon each other in some cosmic dark forest.
According to official origin lore, the Skrull Empire predated the Kree Empire.
When Skrull explorers arrived at Hala in the Large Magellanic Cloud, they discovered two intelligent species.
Arrogant as an advanced civilization, the Skrulls decided to test both races—intending to uplift one and exterminate the other.
Instead, the Skrull observation team was ambushed and defeated by the Kree once the truth came to light. The other observed species, the Cotati, were slaughtered by the Kree.
Seizing the Skrulls' abandoned technology, the Kree rapidly rose into a military empire. That first encounter sparked mutual hostility, leading to a war that lasted hundreds of thousands of years—
—setting aside the question of which planet's orbital period defined a "year."
—until the Skrull Empire was ultimately destroyed, its people scattered.
From one perspective, it resembled America's break from Britain—except that the United States didn't then wipe out the British Isles and hunt the English across the globe.
The Kree did exactly that.
In short, neither alien race was innocent.
Stealing from them gave Black Super zero moral burden.
So without even checking the contents, he swept up all the storage crystals—Kree-made and Skrull-made alike.
After suffering so much under the Skrulls' "hospitality," taking a little compensation was only fair.
With Captain Marvel currently on their side, it wasn't a good time to burn bridges completely. And in the end, this Kree cruiser would fall into Skrull hands anyway.
He was only taking non-essential data—leaving the engines intact instead of turning the ship into a space coffin. That already made him generous.
Besides, if they had an excuse to linger on Earth, he would be the one stuck dealing with the fallout.
Black Super did briefly consider swiping a Kree-brand reader as well. Building one himself wouldn't be difficult, but having a ready-made unit would save him the trouble of calibrating light wavelengths.
Still, with more than a dozen crystals already weighing him down, even lightly equipped, he already looked like a thief who'd struck gold.
Adding an entire machine would really cement the image of someone moving house.
Tempting as it was, the Quinjet departing the Kree cruiser had already come under attack from Kree fighters in open space.
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