That's right, the Natasha before them was a Skrull.
Darian had some impression of this Alien race.
Peter B. had mentioned them a few times. The Skrulls and the Kree were mortal enemies; the Kree Empire, where The Accuser Ronan belonged, had been fighting them for who knew how many years.
The most troublesome aspect of the Skrulls was their mimicry ability. They could not only transform into someone else's appearance, but they could also replicate their voice and memories, and even copy a portion of their superpowers. They could be called an enhanced version of Mystique.
Precisely because of this outrageous bootleg talent, the Skrulls had caused quite a lot of trouble in Peter B.'s World.
However, in his own server, Darian had heard more news about the Kree and very little about the Skrulls. It was said that the Skrulls had been constantly suppressed by the Kree, reaching the verge of extinction, and had since completely disappeared.
He really hadn't expected that this bunch of bootleg Aliens hadn't gone extinct but had instead appeared inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
"How did you discover I was fake?"
The female Skrull frowned tightly, staring fixedly at Darian, her eyes filled with confusion.
One had to know that their race's disguise was flawless. They could even replicate the target's memories, to the point where it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them the real deal. Yet, the person before her had actually managed to see through her ability.
Of course, she didn't know that in the eyes of Darian, who possessed the Fiery Golden Eyes, her camouflage ability was just like a female streamer who forgot to turn off a level-ten beauty filter while claiming to be a beauty streamer.
Darian naturally wouldn't explain it proactively. He chuckled, "I was just guessing."
The female Skrull's mouth twitched, "Then what if you guessed wrong?"
Darian spread his hands, "What else could I do? I'd just attend your funeral feast."
The female Skrull: "..."
She felt sympathetic that Natasha had such an eccentric teammate.
Steve demanded, "What did you do to Natasha?"
"Rest assured, she is safe for now, but you two might not be."
The female Skrull narrowed her eyes, "I originally intended to control you secretly, but since I've been exposed, I have no choice but to change my strategy."
Clang! Clang! Clang!
As her voice fell, thick silver alloy plates slid out at high speed from hidden layers in the surrounding walls.
In the blink of an eye, all exits and ventilation ducts were sealed shut, and the entire strategy room completely transformed into a closed space.
And from every corner of the strategy room, one S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent after another slowly walked out.
Darian scanned the area; without exception, these people were all Skrulls.
Clearly, this group of Skrulls had long since infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.
Darian was speechless.
Was S.H.I.E.L.D. a sieve? How could any faction infiltrate it?
First HYDRA, and then the Skrulls.
How many genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were actually left in S.H.I.E.L.D. now?
The female Skrull stood in the center, her eyes cold, "Strategy Room Level 1 Lockdown Protocol. No signals can enter or leave. The defense level is enough to withstand a direct missile impact, so don't count on the outside hearing any commotion here."
"It's not too late to give up resistance now. As long as you obediently cooperate with us, I guarantee you won't suffer any unnecessary harm."
"Don't even think about it!"
Steve raised his shield and stated firmly, "No matter who you are or what your goal is, I won't let you succeed!"
"Since that's the case, take them down!"
The female Skrull stopped talking nonsense and waved her hand.
Upon the order, the Skrulls disguised as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents immediately took action, simultaneously raising the firearms in their hands and pulling the triggers at the two without hesitation.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Dense gunfire exploded within the enclosed space!
Countless golden bullets turned into a metal storm, pouring toward Darian and Steve.
Steve raised his shield to protect himself. With a series of crisp clanging sounds, all the bullets were blocked by the shield. Remarkably, not a single bullet hit any other part of his body.
Darian activated his Protection Spell, a layer of white light radiating from his body, blocking all the bullets outside.
He raised his left hand, and a golden desert eagle suddenly appeared in his grip.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots rang out in succession; three Skrulls were shot in the center of their foreheads and fell backward onto the ground.
They didn't have the female Skrull's ability to withstand bullets. They were dead as dead could be, and their corpses quickly shed their disguises, reverting to their original goblin-like appearance.
Seeing this, Steve realized these guys were definitely not human.
Originally, he had been worried that these S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were being controlled, but now it seemed they were just like the female Skrull disguised as Natasha—just a bunch of imposters.
Steve lost his last bit of hesitation. He lowered his stance, raised his shield, and charged forward, crashing straight into the Skrulls.
The shield swung left and smashed right; everywhere it went, there was the dull sound of breaking bones.
Not to mention, the scene of Steve holding a HYDRA shield and beating up a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents did indeed have quite the flavor of Captain HYDRA.
Just then, a Skrull lunged at Darian.
During the charge, his right arm suddenly expanded and deformed, covered in thick, hard green scales, and his five fingers transformed into cold, glinting sharp claws, swiping at Darian's face!
Darian quickly reached out with his right hand, grabbed the opponent's wrist, and suddenly exerted force with his fingers.
Crack!
A crisp sound of bone fracturing rang out; the bones in that hideous arm were instantly crushed, and it went limp.
The Skrull let out a miserable shriek as his buttocks suddenly trembled. A thick, powerful green tail burst through his clothes, carrying a sharp whistling sound as it swept horizontally toward Darian's waist like a steel whip.
Darian nimbly dodged to the side, and the tail struck the nearby pillar heavily, leaving spiderweb-like cracks.
He examined that reptilian tail and immediately recognized it.
"Dr. Lizard?"
Clearly, this Skrull had copied the abilities of Dr. Lizard, gaining the same physiological traits.
Immediately, the tail attacked through the air again.
Swish!
A cold glint flashed, and the tail was severed in two, with purple blood spraying out.
Darian held the short axe he had swiped from Scorch, looking at the painfully wailing Skrull, and noticed there was no sign of healing at the wound.
He grinned and said, "Looks like you didn't manage to bootleg Dr. Lizard's self-healing ability along with it."
It was clear that the Skrulls couldn't completely copy a target's abilities; at the very least, the intensity of the abilities was definitely far inferior to the original.
Indeed, if the Skrulls were that badass, they would have dominated the entire Universe long ago, and wouldn't have been beaten into an endangered species by the Kree.
Just as he was thinking this, three more Skrulls rushed out from the side.
Their bodies underwent a transformation, actually turning into The Three Warriors of Asgard, wielding cold weapons, and attacking Darian in unison!
"As expected of the World's will, it can't even separate the three of you even in a bootleg version."
While complaining, Darian swung his short axe, easily parrying the offensive from the three Skrulls.
These three Skrulls had only copied a portion of The Three Warriors of Asgard's physical attributes, but lacked the corresponding combat skills. Moreover, the weapons in their hands were all Earth-made products and couldn't even break through the Protection Spell on Darian.
"Though, this 'scraping' technique was learned quite well."
Darian shook his head, too lazy to keep circling, and his axe strikes suddenly accelerated.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three dull thuds overlapped almost instantly; the axe blade swept past, slicing through both the people and their weapons.
Darian shook the thick blood droplets off the axe and laughed disdainfully, "Even the originals would be sending themselves to their deaths, let alone you bunch of bootlegs."
"Bastard!"
Seeing that several of her elite subordinates had been wiped out, the female Skrull could no longer keep her composure.
She roared in anger, stomped her right foot heavily on the ground, and amidst the shattering bricks, shot toward Darian like a cannonball.
Her right arm expanded rapidly, muscles bulging and knotted, her skin turning an earthy yellow, and she threw a fist the size of a sandpot, aiming directly at Darian's head!
Darian put away the short axe, clenched his left fist, and met her head-on without dodging.
Boom!!
The two fists collided fiercely, exploding with a dull, thunderous sound!
A visible ring of air pressure exploded between their fists, sweeping outwards in all directions.
The floor tiles under Darian's feet cracked, but his body didn't move an inch.
Instead, the female Skrull was staggered half a step backward by the recoil, a look of obvious astonishment flashing across her face.
One had to know that the target she had copied was Abomination, that mutant monster who had absorbed the genes of Hulk.
Even if her ability wasn't as good as the original, it was considered top-tier among many superpowered individuals; apart from Hulk and Thor, basically no one could contend with it.
Yet, the guy in front of her could actually catch a blow from Abomination with his bare hands and even knock her back?
The female Skrull had no time to think, as she saw Darian's fist already striking again!
She gritted her teeth and met the blow, and the two immediately fell into a fierce exchange of punches.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—!
Fists collided continuously, each time exploding with a sound like beating drums, and shockwaves burst out one after another, blowing the surrounding Skrull soldiers until they could barely stand.
The female Skrull became more and more alarmed the longer they fought.
She used ten percent of her strength in every punch, but the opponent not only blocked every single one, the force of his counterattacks grew heavier each time!
After a few hard collisions, she could even hear the cracking sound of her own arm bones unable to bear the load, causing immense pain.
Is this really a human!?
Although the female Skrull had long known that Darian was not an ordinary person—in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files, Darian's number of completed missions already exceeded the sum of most S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents combined, almost single-handedly carrying the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. KPI—she still didn't know the opponent's true strength.
In fact, to this day, no one was clear about Darian's abilities and strength, not even Nick Fury, who had known Darian the longest and was the first to discover his uniqueness.
But the female Skrull never expected that in a pure test of strength, she would actually fall behind while in the Abomination form.
After more than a dozen heavy punches were exchanged, the female Skrull finally couldn't hold on, staggered backward, and lost her balance.
How could Darian let such an opportunity pass? He stepped forward and landed a solid right fist on her abdomen!
"Urgh ah—!"
The female Skrull's eyes bulged, her whole body curled up like a shrimp, and she flew backward, smashing into the huge electronic screen behind her, sparks flying everywhere.
But she quickly struggled to crawl up.
This time, her body underwent an even more thorough transformation.
Except for her head, everything below her neck had completely turned into the form of Abomination, only the overall size had shrunk by two sizes compared to the original.
Imagine, underneath that beautiful head of Natasha, was a body over two meters tall, covered in exaggerated muscles.
This visual impact was truly too bizarre.
Darian was so startled that he hurriedly reactivated his Fiery Golden Eyes, and only after seeing the opponent's green-skinned, pointed-eared true form did he heave a sigh of relief, "I didn't expect you Skrulls to be hiding such depth; you can actually use mental attacks."
The female Skrull ignored his complaint entirely, transformed into a small giant, roared, lunged over, and smashed her fist down.
Darian nimbly dodged and shook his head, "A savage who only knows how to use brute force. Today, I'll let you witness the power of a mage. Blessing of Light!"
He waved his hand, and a ball of light flew from his palm, shooting straight at her chest.
The female Skrull felt the holy aura rushing toward her and immediately raised her arms to block. Who would have thought that the moment the light ball touched her flesh, it would melt directly into her body.
She immediately felt her whole body sink, as if she had fought for three hundred rounds, and her body inexplicably became weak.
But this was not the end; Darian's voice rang out one after another.
"Holy Word: Shield!"
"Life Bloom!"
"Heroic War Song!"
"Poison... ahem, Blade of Light!"
One ball of light after another flew in with a swoosh, all drilling into the female Skrull's body, instantly stacking a whole bunch of DEBUFFs on her.
Weakness, Slow, Poison, Bleed, Stun...
Although these effects were very mild, when stacked together, they were terrifyingly potent, and even the female Skrull's physique barely managed to hold on.
She said in shock and anger, "You can actually use such evil magic!?"
Although she was a Skrull, she had a very good understanding of Earth knowledge and naturally knew of a mage's methods.
Darian scolded, "As expected of an Alien, you have no discernment at all. This is pure Light magic!"
The female Skrull: "Wow."
Bullshit! These spells are all insidious weakening effects; where is there even a hint of Light magic!?
In fact, the magic Darian used was indeed Dark magic, but it had only turned into this form due to the influence of the Light attribute.
But he just wouldn't admit it, insisting to the death that this was Light magic.
After all, this concerned his superhero image. If people found out he used Dark magic and misunderstood him as an evil supervillain, how would he be able to play happily with other superheroes in the future?
It was a pity that Energy Tentacles was a game skill and not influenced by the Light attribute. Those pitch-black, massive octopus tentacles were really not suitable to be displayed in this situation; otherwise, Darian would have just used them on the female Skrull.
The female Skrull was just about to retort, but before the words could leave her mouth, she was smashed in the stomach by a massive scepter.
Darian grabbed the 300kg pharaohs scepter and unleashed a flurry of head-splitting, face-smashing blows on the female Skrull.
The female Skrull reached out to block, but the DEBUFFs stacked on her were still in effect. She felt like she was stuck in glue, her movements slowed by more than a beat, and she could only take every heavy blow with her body.
The most disgusting part was that every time Darian attacked, the scepter would emit white light, refreshing a wave of DEBUFFs on the female Skrull.
The female Skrull had absolutely no power to resist. Her consciousness had started to blur, her Abomination form was becoming unstable, and the earthy-yellow skin on her body would occasionally dissipate, revealing the dark green original skin underneath.
Boom!!
Accompanied by a loud bang, the female Skrull was smashed away by the scepter and fell heavily to the ground.
At this moment, she had turned back to her original form, covered in blood, with no strength to get up.
Darian slowly walked up to her and raised the huge scepter, the tip of which was emitting a dazzling light.
"Do you have any last words?"
"You, you evil..."
Boom!!
The scepter fell suddenly, cutting off her speech.
Darian pulled the scepter out of the flesh and snorted coldly, "As expected of an evil Alien, you still wanted to slander me before you died!"