The urgent assembly alarm replaced the lingering laughter in the Villa.
The Avengers were puzzled, but they quickly gathered at the laboratory door.
"Tony! What the hell? An emergency assembly right after the party?" Clint complained, still holding half a spilled drink in his hand.
The door slid open.
Dead silence.
Everyone's eyes were instantly fixed on the completely lifeless dark green Skrull corpse on the detection platform.
The air instantly froze.
"Holy crap!" Sam was the first to curse, his eyes almost popping out.
Thor frowned, clenched his fist, and rumbled, "What is this? Tony, why did you kill an ugly Jotunheimian?"
"This isn't a Jotunheimian, Thor." Green Dr.'s expression was solemn, "This is a Skrull."
"Tony Stark!" Carol's voice exploded like thunder, and a dazzling light instantly erupted around her.
She strode up to local Tony, her golden short hair almost bristling, pointing at the corpse on the ground, and demanded sharply, "What did you do?! You killed it?! These Skrulls are refugees seeking asylum! I need an explanation! Now!"
Local Tony suddenly looked up, his bloodshot eyes showing no concession, only Fury and naked accusation.
He took a step forward, almost face to face with the glowing Carol, his voice hoarse with anger:
"Explanation?! Carol Danvers! Open your eyes and see clearly! See this green-skinned thing!"
He roared, his finger stabbing hard at the Skrull corpse on the ground, "Who did it disguise itself as?! It disguised itself as James Rhodes! My brother! Wearing War Machine's armor, mixing among us! Tell me, what do these 'refugees' you brought to Earth with such great difficulty want to do?! Do they want to hollow out the Avengers from the inside?! Do they want to turn our World into their new colony?! Answer me!"
Every word hit Carol's face like a cannonball.
The energy light around her flickered violently, her angry expression froze, and a hint of disbelief and wavering quickly passed through her sharp eyes.
Rhodes? Replaced?!
"Tony, this accusation is very serious!" Local Captain America immediately stepped forward, trying to stabilize the situation, his gaze sternly scanning between the two Tonys and the corpse, "Evidence? We need conclusive evidence!"
He instinctively maintained the team's order, but his clenched shield exposed the violent tremor in his heart.
"Evidence?" Transmigrator Tony's finger casually swiped in the air.
Instantly, a huge holographic projection exploded in the center of the laboratory! It clearly played everything that had just happened:
Rhodes was tricked onto the detection bed by local Tony under the pretext of "checking his mechanical leg."
The Vibranium restraint device popped out and locked him down.
"Rhodes'" hysterical denial and aggressive accusations.
Local Tony ordered the activation of a top-priority full-body scan.
During the scan, red alerts flashed frantically.
The cold data clearly displayed on the screen showed abnormal subcutaneous tissue creeping, abnormal bone density, and a biological feature match of 0.7%!
The Skrull's disguise collapsed, revealing its green true form, and it sneered hideously, "Rhodes? Probably rotting in some dark corner!"
Finally, its twisted declaration and its unhesitating suicide!
The screen finally froze on the dark green body of the completely deceased Skrull.
In the laboratory, only the faint hum of the holographic projection and a heavy breathing remained.
Clint's wine glass "clattered" to the ground, scattering broken glass, but he was oblivious, just standing there with his mouth open.
Sam gasped, muttering, "Fux me..."
Thor's beard bristled, and tiny arcs of electricity began to entwine around mjolnir: "Bugs! Daring to deceive an Asgardian ally!"
The light around Carol completely dimmed.
She stared intently at the roaring words about "Rhodes rotting" in the holographic image, then slowly lowered her head, her gaze falling on the lifeless green corpse on the ground, her face becoming extremely grim.
Her "refugees" had replaced her comrade-in-arms? A huge sense of absurdity and anger intertwined in her heart.
Steve took a deep breath, forcing himself to recover from the shock, his voice low: "Everyone, stay calm! Now is not the time for infighting!"
His sharp gaze swept over the shocked crowd, finally landing on local Tony: "Tony, the immediate priority is to find Rhodes! Is he still alive? Where is he being held? Is this Skrull spy an isolated case, or the tip of an iceberg? We need to act immediately!"
He instantly grasped the core of the problem—saving people and eliminating the threat!
"Steve's right," Transmigrator Tony interjected, "But this trouble,"
He looked at the changing expression on Carol's face, "Wherever it started, someone has to be responsible for it to the end.
Carol, your 'refugees' have caused a huge mess."
"Exactly!" Blue lightning flickered in Thor's pupils, and he glared at Carol furiously: "Troublemaker of the Universe! If the bugs you brought harm a single hair on my friend Rhodes, Asgard's wrath will descend! We are not afraid to start another war!"
His booming voice made the laboratory hum, directly echoing local Tony's previously suppressed declaration of war.
Carol was stunned by Thor's roar, her anger fading, replaced by confusion and a hint of panic she herself was unwilling to admit.
She furrowed her brows, subconsciously retorting, "Wait, Thor! I just found out about this too! I haven't figured it out either! The Skrulls were brought by me to seek asylum, but replacing Rhodes? This..."
She irritably ran a hand through her golden short hair, her energy field flickering unstably a few times.
"Fury!" She suddenly looked up, as if grasping at a lifeline, "Fury has more contact with the Skrulls! He should know some inside information! He must have a backup plan!"
"Where's Fury?" Local Tony immediately pressed, his voice like ice.
"S.W.O.R.D. platform," Carol spoke quickly, "In orbit.
He's been dealing with cosmic border issues recently." As she spoke, she flicked her wrist, and a miniature communicator instantly popped out, hovering in front of her.
She directly activated the emergency frequency.
"Static..."
The communication connected, and Nick Fury's characteristic, slightly impatient, husky voice rang out:
"Danvers? What's so important that you have to use the red channel? Did those unexpected guests cause trouble? Or did you set someone's galaxy on fire again?"
"It's your 'good friends' who caused trouble, Fury!" Local Tony snatched the communicator from Carol, his spit almost spraying into the microphone, making the communicator hum: "They didn't cause trouble! Your Skrull darlings caused big trouble! They! Disguised themselves as Rhodes! Right under my nose! Right in the middle of the Avengers! Now this green-skinned bastard's corpse is still lying on my lab floor!"
Tony's voice was fast and urgent, like a machine gun:
"That impostor even mocked the real Rhodes, saying he was rotting before he died! Fury, you'd better tell me what's going on! Is this your S.W.O.R.D.'s 'asylum plan'? Letting alien spies infiltrate the core of the Avengers?!"
The other end of the communication instantly went silent.
After a full three seconds, Fury's voice came again, devoid of emotion, only an extreme coldness:
"...Rhodes replaced? Confirmed?"
"Scan data is ironclad! The corpse is right here! Green as can be!" Tony roared back.
There was another silence in the channel, only faint static.
The atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating.
Finally, Fury's voice broke the silence, dry, without any inflection, but with a sense of impending storm:
"...Understood.
I'll be right back." As soon as he finished speaking, with a "static" sound, the communication was unilaterally cut off, leaving only a busy signal.
The laboratory was quiet, with only the lingering busy signal from the communicator in Tony's hand echoing.
Everyone stared at Tony, then at the dark green corpse on the ground.
"He hung up?" Sam asked softly.
Tony casually tossed the still-buzzing communicator to Carol, his gaze still coldly fixed on the air, as if he could penetrate the ceiling to see the S.W.O.R.D. platform in orbit.
"Hmph, 'be right back'?" He sneered, wiping his face, his earlier anger forcibly suppressed, but his eyes grew sharper, "That old fox definitely knows something.
I think he's hiding in space not to deal with some 'border issues,' but to play space drifting and avoid trouble!"
He turned, his gaze sweeping over the Avengers' varied expressions, finally landing on Carol's ashen face:
"Alright, everyone heard that? Fury said he'd 'be right back.' Until he gets his ass back here and gives us an explanation—" Tony took a deep breath, forcing himself to think calmly, "Everyone, stand by! Friday!"
"Yes, Boss."
"Initiate highest-level internal security protocol 'Disinfection Operation'! Scan the entire World! Scan all personnel entry and exit records! Especially those involving 'Colonel Rhodes'! Dig! Dig three feet deep to find traces of Skrull infiltration and Rhodes' possible confinement location! At the same time, blockade all external channels! From now on, not even a green fly will be allowed to leave here!"
"Command confirmed.
Protocol 'Disinfection Operation' initiated."
Local Tony looked at Steve: "Captain, keep everyone calm.
Until Fury returns or we find Rhodes, no one makes any rash moves.
Especially," He meaningfully glanced at Carol, "keep an eye on certain 'trouble sources.'" With that, he ignored everyone and strode to the control panel, beginning to furiously operate the holographic screens.
The Avengers silently exchanged glances, the atmosphere extremely heavy.
Carol stood rooted to the spot, looking at Tony's busy back, then at the Skrull corpse on the ground that revealed the huge crisis she had brought, and then thought of Fury's cold, cut-off communication...
The light around her completely extinguished, her golden short hair seemed to dim a few shades.
She never imagined that the Skrull refugees she sheltered would pull off such a trick, replacing someone.
Was she really too kind?
Fury arrived faster than anyone expected.
While Native Tony was scanning the World, Fury, with a dark face, walked into the lakeside Villa, his single eye so gloomy it could drip Water.
"Tony Stark!" Fury's roar instantly drowned out the hum of the laboratory. "What the hell have you done?!"
Native Tony spun around, his crimson eyes fixed on Fury. Without a word, he raised a hand and pointed at Fury: "Friday! Highest priority! Full body scan him! Scan every bone in his body clearly! Now! Immediately! Right now!!"
Buzz!
A blue beam, thicker and more dazzling than the one that just scanned "Rhodes," instantly descended, enveloping the unprepared Fury from head to toe.
"What the—?!" Fury almost jumped from the blinding light, instinctively reaching for his gun, but his reason told him not to. He could only growl unhappily: "Stark! Are you insane?! Look closely at who I am!"
Data cascaded across the holographic screen.
"Biometric match: Nicholas J. Fury. Non-Skrull mimicry confirmed. Iris scan passed. DNA comparison passed. Bionic prosthetic detected in left eye..."
The beam vanished.
Fury moved his numb neck, the rage in his single eye almost bursting out: "Satisfied?! Now can you tell me what kind of mess you've made of my 'Sanctuary Project'?!"
Tony ignored his anger, rushing to stand face-to-face with him, spittle directly spraying onto his face:
"Satisfied?! Fury! My brother! James Rhodes! Was replaced by those green-skinned lizards you swore were 'harmless, reliable, and worthy of sanctuary'! His corpse is right there!"
He pointed at the dark green remains on the ground. "That bastard even mocked Rhodes for rotting before he died! Is this your 'peaceful coexistence'?!"
Fury followed Tony's finger, his single pupil contracting sharply, the muscles in his face tensing. He was silent for a few seconds, and when he spoke again, his voice was low and hoarse, tinged with the gloom of betrayal:
"I didn't know." He looked into Tony's eyes, enunciating each word, "Stark, I swear on my remaining eye, I didn't know they would dare to do this, and I certainly didn't know they replaced Rhodes."
"'I didn't know' and that's it?!" Tony roared.
"Of course not!" Fury sharply cut him off, his single eye sweeping over all the tense-faced Avengers in the laboratory, finally settling on the extremely grim-faced Carol. "Yes, I settled the Skrulls, and I trusted them. But now it seems that trust was exploited by some scum. I'm sorry, Carol, your kindness was taken for weakness."
Carol's lips moved, but no words came out. She just clenched her fists.
"Enough talk! Where is Rhodes?!" Native Captain America stepped forward, his voice cutting in.
Fury took a deep breath and quickly said: "I don't know Rhodes' exact location, but I can provide several primary recuperation zones and underground facility coordinates that we designated for the Skrulls. These places have complete life support systems and concealment capabilities; they are most likely to hide people there, or use them as Bases for infiltration."
He tapped his wrist device, and several markers instantly projected onto the holographic map in the center of the laboratory, pinpointing several locations—London, the United States, Denmark, and Russia…
"Friday, lock onto these coordinates immediately! Highest threat level!" Tony roared almost simultaneously with Fury's marking.
"Coordinates locked, satellite and global sensor arrays prioritizing focus scan..."
"Thor!" Tony sharply turned to Thor.
"I've been impatient for too long!" Thor grinned, crackling with violent electrical snakes, blue lightning illuminating his entire body. "Asgard's wrath, it's time for the bugs to taste it!"
"Clint, Sam! Prepare for ground infiltration and intelligence support!" Steve immediately assigned tasks.
"Green Dr.! Stand by! We need a breakthrough force!" Tony shouted to Banner.
Banner pushed up his glasses, nodding gravely, an unstable green glow beginning to eman emanate from him.
"Tony..." Carol began, her voice tinged with complexity.
"Danvers!" Fury sharply interrupted her, his single eye sharp. "Put away your overflowing sympathy! Now, either you clean house yourself and prove you're not compromised! Or, stay put! These green-skinned bastards have declared War!" His voice was decisive, leaving no room for negotiation.
The light around Carol flickered violently for a moment, finally solidifying into cold determination. She floated up, golden energy burning like tangible flames in her fists: "I will find Rhodes. And then, personally deal with those traitors!"
"Good," Tony turned, all the anger on his face transforming into cold killing intent and an iron will.
He looked at Transcendent Tony and Captain America, a bloodthirsty curve on his lips:
"Guys, it seems the 'surprise gift package' after-sales service has arrived."
"Friday, I want you to point every satellite at the marked areas!"
"All armors on standby!"
"Avengers—"
Tony's voice, like a steel torrent, echoed through the entire laboratory:
"Assemble! Let those green-skinned lizards know that touching our people comes at a bloody price!"
The moment his words fell, the laboratory lights suddenly turned into a dazzling red alert! The roar of countless engines starting came from deep within the Villa!
War, without warning, had already begun!
Fury's coordinates became the Death warrant for the Skrull radicals.
The Avengers' Fury and efficiency were astonishing.
Although the Skrulls could change in myriad ways and infiltrate, under absolute power suppression and precise intelligence, all disguises became futile.
Native Tony's satellites and AI network locked onto the target areas, and the Avengers, like precision-guided missiles, struck various locations across the globe.
In an abandoned mine shaft under the Siberian permafrost? Green Dr. punched through the ice, incidentally producing a report on polar environment adaptability (unpublished).
In the Victorian-era tunnels beneath London? Clint and Spider-Man played a silent game of "hide-and-seek," collecting a pile of green-skinned captives and a few Victorian-era antiques.
A certain "environmental research station" on the Danish coast? Thor and his lightning made the entire area experience what "purification by natural forces" meant. Afterward, the Danish government received a vague explanation about abnormal weather (and a large sum of reconstruction funds).
Several strongholds in the United States were even worse off. Tony's Iron Legion, combined with Sam's airstrikes and Captain America's tactical command, beat the radicals until they cried for their parents, physically "sanitized" without even a chance to surrender.
The most ironic was the leader of these radicals—Gravik.
He was still in a secret Base in Russia, dreaming of World domination over his magnificent "Super Skrull" plan blueprint (which clearly marked samples of abilities mimicking Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and even Captain Marvel).
When Carol found him, he didn't even have time to transform into a second "Rhodes" to argue. Captain Marvel, with the Fury of betrayal and guilt for Rhodes, exploded with golden light, one punch!
Boom—
Gravik and his imperial blueprint, together, became an abstract green splatter painting on the wall, literally "integrating" into the Base structure.
"Your empire dream," Carol coldly shook off the unknown viscous substance from her fist, "it's time to wake up."
As one stronghold after another was eliminated, the radicals' plan was completely exposed to the Avengers.
That "Super Skrull" plan document sent shivers down everyone's spines—replicating the abilities and memories of all major Avengers? If that had succeeded, Earth would truly have been renamed the New Skrull Homeland.
Fortunately, with the assistance of the Transcendent team (primarily the super combat power of Transcendent Tony and Transcendent Captain America), the most core and dangerous radical strongholds were prioritized for precise strikes, and critical data and samples were destroyed in time.
Super Skrulls? Dead in the Water.
What remained was the tedious work: a global hunt for radical elements who had slipped through the net, and dealing with the implicated, possibly still oblivious, moderate Skrull settlements.
Fury's dark face grew even darker. This meant that for a long time to come, S.W.O.R.D. would be busy "cleaning the floor" and identifying "green-skinned good citizens."
Seeing that the overall situation was settled, Transcendent Tony patted Old Iron Can's shoulder: "Alright, the pests are mostly cleared out, and the Super Lizard Men are a bust. The remaining dirty work, you can take your time with it, Old Iron Can."
Transcendent Captain America also nodded to Native Captain: "Stay vigilant, Captain. Trust needs to be rebuilt."
"Hey, Old Ice Pop, don't be so serious," Tony pulled Steve towards the open space, "We call this 'after-sales additional service' perfectly completed! Time to go back and collect our five-star reviews!"
Native Tony looked at these two troublemakers and saviors from a parallel World, uncharacteristically not retorting, just twitching his lips: "Go on, don't let my champagne actually get knocked over by Pietro. And... thanks."
"Received!" Transcendent Tony snapped his fingers stylishly.
Quantum energy hummed, and their figures instantly vanished.
In the lakeside Villa's laboratory, only a mess remained for the Native Avengers to clean up.
"Friday," Native Tony rubbed his temples, "Deactivate 'Disinfection Protocol.' Activate 'Moderate Skrull Settlement Monitoring,' level... Yellow. Also, connect me to the Global Disaster Control Department and tell them to prepare the bill—cleaning up alien garbage isn't cheap."
The War ended, but the Avengers' post-War troubles had only just begun.
-----------------------
Completed English PDF of this fan-fic on my Patreon shop if you want to support and own the full fan-fic in one go. Just grab the PDF and binge the entire story from start to finish!
Guys, I've uploaded some High Quality english translated fanfic on my Patreon shop! Feel free to check it out-if you're interested, you can grab a copy and support me there.
Here are a few titles of recently uploaded fanfics:
New Addition
"Living in Marvel, Starting by Marrying the Scarlet Witch"
"Traversing the Myriad Worlds, Starting by Obtaining the Marvel Ten Ring"
"Marvel's Multiversal Magic Controller"
"Marvel: The King's Descent"
"Marvel: Randomly Load a Protagonist Template"
"Living in Marvel: Starting by Building 2B Missy (18+"
" Marvel: Glory of the Sun God (18+) "
" Marvel: This Position of Authority, I'm Taking It for Sure "
" Marvel: Zaun Captain America, Villains Call Me Ancestor-Man (18+) "
"Marvel Summoning Villains "
"Marvel: Weekly System Refresh, King of S.H.I.E.L.D. "
many more are available 57+
Your support means a lot-thanks in advance, legends!
patreon.com/SuperTL
(End of Chapter)