"Hoo, interesting."
Lynn looked the Skrull up and down—the creature's entire body was green, and its pointed ears gave it an almost elven appearance. "You just brought him out of S.H.I.E.L.D. like that?"
"What else could I do?"
Natasha crossed her arms and smiled. "If it were just me, it would've been tough to move this alien out for questioning. But with Steve backing me up, things got a lot easier."
Steve Rogers, who had been quiet until now, stepped forward and handed Lynn a brown paper bag.
"Honestly, I'm still not good at this kind of thing," he said.
Opening the bag, Lynn saw neat stacks of U.S. dollars inside.
He immediately understood—Steve's "not good at it" was referring to the act of falsifying equipment expenses to skim off funds.
Tucking the money away, Lynn pulled out a small bottle filled with a pink liquid.
The moment the Skrull tied to the chair saw it, he began thrashing violently. "What are you doing? Damn it, what is that stuff?"
"Truth Potion," Lynn said evenly. "You can think of it as a stronger version of a Truth Serum."
Uncorking the bottle, he stepped forward, grabbed the Skrull by the chin, and forced the potion down his throat.
"I heard from Natasha that you can resist Truth Serum—so let's see if you can handle this."
Once he finished, Lynn casually tossed the empty bottle into a nearby trash can.
"And then? That's it?"
Seeing Lynn step back while the Skrull sat motionless, Natasha spread her hands.
"Let the bullet fly for a while," Lynn said casually, leaning against the wall and glancing at his watch.
When the second hand hit the thirty-second mark, the Skrull's pupils slowly turned pink.
"Not bad. Ordinary humans last maybe five seconds against the Truth Potion—but this alien managed thirty."
"Alright, go ahead and ask your questions."
Taking the cue, Natasha stepped closer to the restrained Skrull. "Which planet are you from? Why did you come to Earth? What are your abilities? And why do you have strength comparable to the Hulk's?"
The Skrull's expression twisted with resistance, but his mouth moved on its own.
"We are Skrulls. Our planet lies within the Andromeda Galaxy. To escape persecution from the Kree, we've been wandering the universe."
"Our ability allows us to transform into anyone we've come into contact with."
"Later, with the help of Carol Danvers and Nick Fury, we won that war and settled on Earth."
"To repay Nick Fury, ever since he became Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., we Skrulls have been secretly assisting him."
At that moment, the Skrull's face twisted in agony, yet the words kept spilling out like water from a broken dam.
"That scoundrel Nick Fury promised to find us a proper place to live on Earth," he rasped.
"But instead, he broke his word and sent our people to settle in a region contaminated by nuclear radiation!"
"So we Skrulls split into two factions. One side believes our current life is fine and stays loyal to Nick Fury's arrangements."
"The other side—us—believes Fury betrayed his promise!"
Veins bulged on his forehead as he fought to stop himself, but his mouth continued on its own.
"We, the opposition, want to create a home for ourselves through our own strength. But under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s suppression, we've been forced to develop in secret."
"After the Battle of New York, we came up with an idea: if we could obtain hair, blood, saliva, and other genetic samples from you superheroes—and fuse them into ourselves…"
"Then we could gain immense power! By then, we wouldn't just have a home—we could rule Earth itself!"
The Skrull suddenly snapped his head up, his eyes burning with hatred as he glared at the three of them.
Realizing he couldn't stop himself from revealing everything, he stared at them one last time—then twisted his neck sharply.
With a sickening crack, his head fell to the side at an unnatural angle.
Lynn blinked in surprise.
"Even among carbon-based life forms," he muttered, "do Skrulls have to be this dramatic when they kill themselves?"
Natasha and Steve exchanged a look, both seeing the same shock reflected in each other's eyes.
Neither of them had expected that a race like the Skrulls was already living on Earth—let alone that they planned to use superhero genes to grow stronger and eventually rule the planet.
Remembering how the Skrull had almost transformed into a Hulk-like monster during capture, Natasha's expression turned grim.
"We have to find out how many of these rebel Skrulls exist—and how many of them already have powers like the Hulk's, or even ours," she said seriously.
"If we can't track them all down, Earth could be facing a major disaster."
Steve nodded, his face just as grave. "But with only the three of us, it'll be tough. I think we need to gather the Avengers and use S.H.I.E.L.D.'s full resources to investigate."
"Most importantly," he added, "this involves Nick Fury too."
When Steve turned toward Lynn to get his input, he froze mid-sentence.
At some point, Lynn had stuffed two cotton balls into his ears.
Standing there with his arms crossed, he gave them both a perfectly innocent look.
"Go on," he said lightly. "I can't hear a thing you're saying."
Steve blinked. Where the hell did he even get cotton from?
Seeing Lynn's perfectly innocent expression, Natasha sighed and shook her head. "Lynn, this concerns the future of Earth, so—"
"Huh? What was that? I can't hear you!"
He pointed at the cotton stuffed in his ears, as if to emphasize his point.
Natasha's patience snapped. She stepped forward and yanked the cotton right out.
Before she could even speak, Lynn glanced at his watch and suddenly gasped in mock panic. "Ah, damn! I've got an appointment—I'm already running late!"
Without giving them a chance to respond, he turned and hurried out of the room.
Natasha watched him go, then shrugged. "See? That's what a smart man does—he knows better than to get mixed up in something this troublesome."
"But we need him."
Steve's tone was firm. "I believe there's more to him than just being a potion maker."
He met Natasha's gaze. "We're dealing with Skrulls—creatures who can take anyone's form."
"Lynn's… unusual abilities might be exactly what we need."
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(づ￣ 3￣)づ
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