The chaos at SHIELD and Hydra was too significant to hide. Even with the official identities shielding some of the Hydra branches, the ruckus couldn't be concealed. Especially when Skrulls disguised within official institutions, yet not part of Hydra, also responded and rushed to the scene, turning all of America into disarray.
Naturally, such turmoil couldn't be hidden from the Avengers. Tony Stark and Jarvis immediately started an investigation, and even Steve, along with Peggy Carter, who had now mastered her abilities, reached out to their connections to figure out what was happening.
This turn of events caught Robert off guard. He had only intended to eliminate the Skrulls within Hydra in one swoop, but Alexander Pierce and the Hydra members managed to draw out other Skrulls disguised in high-ranking human positions.
After some time, Hydra and a portion of Skrulls who came to investigate gathered at SHIELD's headquarters. Among them were also some high-ranking humans and superhumans who had not been replaced by Skrulls.
"Steve? Carter?" Amidst the crowd, Robert sensed two familiar presences, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"This commotion is my setup. You should leave here now, but don't take anyone with you, even if it's someone you know. Most of the people here are Skrulls in disguise!" Robert communicated this message to Steve telepathically.
"Skrulls?!" Steve's pupils contracted. He glanced up at the SHIELD logo, momentarily unsure of what to say.
Though Steve had prepared himself for the possibility that many high-ranking humans would be replaced after learning about the Skrulls and their secret invasion plan, the fact that SHIELD had been infiltrated by Skrulls was still hard for him to accept, even if SHIELD had always been at odds with the Avengers.
After all, SHIELD was a major human institution housing many secrets and superhuman forces. If even SHIELD had been infiltrated, Steve feared Earth had no secrets left from the Skrulls.
"Don't dwell on it too much. Here's some good news: SHIELD was already half-Hydra before the Skrulls infiltrated it. It wasn't entirely Hydra's territory, but at least half of its members were Hydra…" Robert, seeing Steve's thoughtful gaze at the SHIELD logo, smiled and offered him some consolation.
"Even the former SHIELD Director, Alexander Pierce, is one of Hydra's leaders. After Nick Fury was replaced by a Skrull, SHIELD became fully Hydra, or rather, the Skrulls' domain."
"Hydra?!" Steve's eyes widened in shock. He never believed Hydra would be completely eradicated. After all, he had fought alongside Robert and Bucky Barnes against numerous Hydra forces. But despite Jarvis's help, Steve hadn't found any Hydra leads. He never expected them to be hiding right within SHIELD.
"How is that good news?!" Steve muttered bitterly, thinking about how Peggy Carter and her team had worked so hard to establish SHIELD, only for it to become Hydra's lair, secretly allowing them to grow. If Peggy knew, she'd probably tear Alexander Pierce to shreds, even if he had been replaced by a Skrull!
"What's wrong?" Peggy Carter, noticing Steve's change in expression, asked, puzzled.
Truth be told, Steve and Peggy standing together now felt somewhat awkward. Steve, though still lively, looked like a handsome old man, while Peggy, having regained her prime appearance thanks to the Reality Stone, looked as youthful as ever. Together, they resembled an older man with a much younger wife—a contrast even more jarring than the time Steve had kissed Peggy's niece, Sharon Carter, in another timeline.
"Nothing. Let's leave. This place is the Saiyan's doing…" Steve shook his head and pulled Peggy away. He didn't bring along any of the officials he knew, unsure if they were Hydra or Skrulls.
"Huh? Where's Captain?" A high-ranking human official noticed Steve and Peggy disappearing but didn't think much of it, assuming they were investigating elsewhere.
"Pierce, what's going on? Where's the enemy? Didn't you say there was an enemy?" A Skrull, now at SHIELD and wary of the many unfamiliar people, hadn't revealed his true form yet and asked Alexander Pierce with a frown.
"Have Hydra stand to one side, and the others move to the other side," Robert, still hiding behind Pierce and Fury, continued to control them with hypnosis.
"Those I called for help, come closer. The others investigating, please step back for a moment. We have some important matters to discuss…" Pierce, under hypnosis, instructed. Hydra members and some Skrulls instinctively moved forward, while others from official institutions frowned and stepped back, curious about what Pierce was up to.
"Whoosh!" Without warning, a powerful energy wave shot forward, instantly killing a row of Hydra members. Their bodies collapsed to the ground, many transforming into their true Skrull forms upon death.
This was why Robert had them split into two groups—whether Skrulls or not, the Hydra members were all guilty and deserved to die.
As for the officials investigating, they likely included Skrulls, but certainly not all of them. Given that Steve and Peggy had come to investigate SHIELD, it wasn't surprising that others from official institutions had done the same. Robert planned to kill this batch of Skrulls and force the remaining ones to reveal themselves.
"Saiyan?! It's the Saiyan!" The panic spread as Hydra members called out Robert's name. Chaos erupted, and fear gripped everyone.
"Buzz!"
"Buzz!"
In an instant, chaos broke out in SHIELD. The Skrulls didn't have many special abilities, relying mostly on laser weapons, but many superhumans among the officials revealed their powers.
However, none of the superhumans rushed toward Robert. They decisively turned to flee the SHIELD headquarters.
Although they didn't fully understand why Robert was attacking SHIELD, they all knew his reputation well enough. No official institution believed they could defeat Robert. Survival was the priority; any consequences or formal complaints against Robert or the Avengers could wait.
"Boom!"
"Crash!"
Unfortunately, none of these superhumans managed to escape. Robert had sealed the entire area with his telekinetic powers.
To their shock, they found themselves trapped in two separate zones—one for the Hydra members up front and one for the official institution members at the back. Some even tried to join forces with the Hydra group but couldn't.
"Saiyan! What are you doing?! Do you really think you can do whatever you want just because of your strength?!" Someone, furious and desperate, shouted at Robert.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
Ignoring the outburst, Robert unleashed a series of energy waves, systematically killing every Hydra member in the room. Once their blood soaked the air, many transformed into Skrulls upon death.
The stench of blood filled the space, and among the tens of thousands of Hydra members present, about a thousand were Skrulls. Robert killed them all, regardless of their identity. After all, Hydra members deserved death anyway, whether they were Skrulls or not.
"Glug!" The officials at the back swallowed nervously. Some stood frozen, overwhelmed with shock and fury, wearing the same stunned expression as Alexander Pierce and Nick Fury, who were still under hypnosis beside Robert.
"Bastard! You killed them! I'll make you pay!" Fury roared angrily, lunging at Robert. But before he could get close, Robert sent him flying.
As Fury crashed to the ground, his body reverted to its Skrull form. His rage had broken his ability to maintain his disguise.
Not only Fury, but Alexander Pierce and other Skrulls among the officials also revealed their true forms.
If it had been just one or two Skrulls, they might have been able to keep up the pretense. But with thousands of Skrulls now dead, half their invasion force wiped out, their emotions were too overwhelming to suppress.
No matter how skilled the Skrulls were at disguising themselves, they were still sentient beings with emotions. After the near-extinction of their race, they had grown even closer, making this loss unbearable.
Just as they had sought to obliterate Nick Fury for revenge earlier, the Skrulls now desperately wanted to annihilate Robert.
"Wh-What?!"
"Impossible!!"
With the Skrulls' true forms revealed, the human officials recoiled in horror. Even the superhumans hesitated to take action.
"Aliens? They can disguise themselves? Does that mean these guys have infiltrated our government too? Could our own organizations have Skrull infiltrators?" The officials quickly realized the gravity of the situation and grew increasingly anxious.
They didn't know much about Skrulls. Even though Robert had exposed many of them, there was no guarantee their own organizations hadn't been compromised.
After all, before the Skrulls revealed themselves, no one had noticed anything amiss. Some officials had even shared friendly conversations with these impostors…
"Now you're scared? Now you're angry? What right do you invaders have to be angry?" Robert's lips curled into a smirk as he addressed the enraged Skrulls. With a thought, he teleported the Skrulls from the official group directly in front of him.
This time, Robert didn't kill them all right away. He planned to use them to extract more information, hoping to uncover the whereabouts of the remaining Skrulls and the leader of the secret invasion. As for their prisoner base, he'd find it if he could; if not, it didn't matter.
"Shunk!" With a swift motion, Robert's energy blade pierced one Skrull's abdomen, while his hypnosis power influenced another nearby Skrull.
"Tell me, where is your leader hiding?" Robert's voice was laced with a hypnotic
lure, causing the Skrull to waver.
"In…" But before the Skrull could finish, his body shuddered, and he immediately shriveled up, lifeless.
"Hmm, looks like I can't ask like this. It seems the Skrull curse is triggered this way. I wonder how they acquired this curse. Was it another imitation of some power?" Robert muttered, tossing aside the two Skrull corpses and moving on to the next mentally-broken Skrull.
"Do you have any companions who haven't shown up yet?" Robert watched as the next Skrull went from sorrow to confusion, then terror, before eventually collapsing into a shriveled corpse as well.
Robert's plan had seen considerable success—killing thousands of Skrulls was no small feat. However, capturing all of them in one go still proved challenging...
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