The two Skrulls who had fired the sneak attack were now staring down the barrels of combat robots' guns. Only now did fear creep into their expressions.
Seeing the cold, emotionless eyes of the robots, they shuddered slightly, their shoulders trembling with fear.
But despite their terror, neither of them begged for mercy. Instead, they shouted things like, "If you're going to kill us, get it over with!"
Their defiance riled up the other nine captured Skrulls, who cheered loudly in support of their comrades while cursing at William.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
A series of dull, meaty impacts mixed in with the Skrulls' insults.
Cursing at anything or just at William might have been fine, but the moment someone insulted William's family, a robot immediately punched them in the stomach.
Several of them doubled over, clutching their midsections, coughing violently, or dry heaving on the ground.
The cave quickly fell silent.
But it didn't take long for the most aggressive ones to recover from the pain and start cursing again.
Seeing this, William actually started looking at these Skrulls with a newfound respect.
Narrowing his eyes, he thought, These guys truly live up to their reputation—survivors of their homeworld's destruction, fugitives from a planetary genocide, and still brave enough to fight the Kree. At the very least, they aren't cowards afraid of death.
Initially, William had planned to execute all the Skrulls in the cave, but Nick Fury had seen through his intentions and forced a surrender too quickly.
While William had no qualms about killing, executing prisoners didn't sit well with him either.
Once he calmed down, he also realized that the ones destroyed were just robots, not actual sentient beings.
However, the fact that they didn't deserve to die didn't mean they shouldn't suffer consequences. More importantly, these captured Skrulls, with undeniable criminal records,
could very well serve as bargaining chips to pressure Captain Marvel.
Committing crimes meant facing punishment—something any reasonable person could understand.
Locking up a group of Skrulls under perfectly legal charges meant that if someone wanted them freed, they would either have to break them out or do William a favor in exchange for a pardon.
And since even someone like Captain America had resorted to breaking prisoners out before, it wouldn't be surprising if Captain Marvel did the same.
After thinking it over, William considered an alternative—simply putting all the prisoners into stasis aboard his ship and leaving it cloaked in deep space.
Trying to locate a 35-meter-long invisible spaceship in the vastness of space was far harder than finding a needle in a haystack.
If a jailbreak wasn't an option, negotiations for reduced sentences or pardons would be the only alternatives. With that leverage, getting Captain Marvel to do him a favor wouldn't be difficult.
At that realization, William suddenly found the idea of having Carol Danvers owe him a favor far more valuable than the lives of a thousand Skrulls.
With that in mind, he decided that in order to control Captain Marvel, he either needed to get the Skrulls to confess and surrender formally,
or provoke them into resisting so he could capture them all and bring them back to London for trial.
Click. Click.
The sudden sound of guns being cocked shocked the cursing Skrulls into stunned silence. Panic flashed across their faces as they instinctively clamped their mouths shut, afraid that William might actually order their execution in a fit of rage.
Even though they knew that if the guns fired, it would mean an irreparable blood feud, the presence of loaded weapons still left them paralyzed with fear.
As the barrels of the combat robots' guns began to glow, Nick Fury urgently shouted, "Wait! I am Nick Fury, Level 10 Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Are you really going to execute suspects without interrogation or trial right in front of me?"
"You've got to be kidding me, Nick Fury! Since when did we become 'suspects' in your book?"
Fury's face darkened. Damn idiot! He cursed Talos in his mind. Could he really not understand a tactical maneuver when he heard one?
But Talos saw things differently. He demanded, "And who gave you the right to judge us?"
"I did."
The voice that echoed through the cave sent a chill down both Talos and Fury's spines aboard the Skrull ship.
Any hope that this was just a coincidence vanished as William continued, "I hereby declare you under arrest in my capacity as the first Director of England's Department for Extraterrestrial Affairs."
"Department for Extraterrestrial Affairs?" Fury asked, both confused and shocked. "Did I leave Earth for a hundred years or something? Since when did England have such a department?"
"Apologies, Agent Fury," William replied mockingly, "but this department was formed from the remnants of the Kingsman intelligence agency. So, do you have any other questions?"
Three seconds of silence passed before William continued, "Good. Since you don't, then I formally order you and your Skrull leader, Talos,
along with the rest of the Skrulls under your command, to surrender immediately. You are charged with attempted prison break, destruction of government property under the Department for Extraterrestrial Affairs,
as well as other offenses, including the kidnapping of Viscount Charles Cavendish, espionage, and conspiracy to overthrow the English government.
Upon hearing this verbal notice, you have five minutes to surrender. Failure to comply will result in immediate military action.
All consequences will be yours to bear. Thank you."
"Go to hell, William Devonshire!" Talos shouted furiously, cursing at the future and swearing, "Screw your damn Department for Extraterrestrial Affairs!
"If you've got the guts, come and catch me yourself!" Talos sneered. "All the fancy titles and legalese in the world won't mean a damn thing if you can't actually arrest me!"
The more aggressively Talos yelled, the more it proved how frustrated he was. Even if he wanted to retaliate, he couldn't, not while eleven Skrull prisoners were still under robotic control.
Deep down, he actually hoped that William would execute a couple of hostages. That way, he would have a justifiable reason to abandon them and go to war immediately.
Meanwhile, Fury was still reeling from the realization that William had lumped him in with the suspects and charged him with multiple felonies.
If England actually upheld these charges, he might spend the rest of his life rotting in a British prison.
William, however, didn't care what Fury or Talos thought. He knew that his spider drones had already infiltrated the Skrull ship's control room.
Seizing control of the vessel was now a trivial matter for him.
Even if the ship tried to escape, it wouldn't be able to leave the solar system or reach a hyperspace jump point in just five minutes. This "deadline" was just a formality.
If Talos really did flee, that would actually be even better for William—after all, no one would care about imprisoning a cowardly fugitive.
With that thought, William grinned and told Sunday, "Send eleven space rescue pods with stasis functions to Mars. Lock up all the surrendered Skrulls in stasis chambers.
Once I've consulted with Prime Minister Richard and the others, we'll determine the legal proceedings for their trial."
"Understood, Sir."
Eleven space rescue pods were quickly delivered to the Mars base through a portal.
After treating the Skrulls' external wounds, the combat robots forced them to remove their armor and enter the stasis pods.
When a few refused to comply, they were beaten mercilessly by the battle droids and forcibly shoved into the pods. The rest quickly obeyed and lay down voluntarily.
Once all eleven pods were sealed inside a secure room in the cave, five minutes had quietly passed.
"Time's up. This is your final warning: Surrender immediately, or we will take military action."
(End of Chapter)
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