Bang bang bang!!!
A series of gunshots rang out, S.H.I.E.L.D. bullets all hitting Loki, yet he remained completely unharmed.
"Everyone, fall back! Now!"
As a qualified Director, Nick Fury's first move, after sizing up the situation, was to order his agents to retreat from the area, opting to hold the outer passages instead.
"Barton, Coulson, Hill, authorization for Weapon Three!"
Composure was the secret weapon that allowed Nick Fury, the king of spies, to navigate countless battlefields for years. Even with Loki's astonishing display of power, he showed no sign of panic.
"You're special."
Loki had been to Earth before, but Nick Fury was the only human he had ever met who could remain so calm and give orders after witnessing such a display of superhuman power.
"Who are you?"
"Why are you here?"
"Who gave you this information?"
With the energy source shifting, Nick Fury's confidence grew. His dark pistol was aimed at the man's head.
"My name is Loki, and I am from the Black Quadrant."
With the Mind Stone scepter in one hand and the Tesseract in the other, Loki was clearly in a good mood.
"The Black Quadrant?"
Coulson and Barton, standing behind Nick Fury, exchanged bewildered glances.
"Alright, now, please put down what you're holding. Then we might have a chance to sit down and talk."
He wasn't the HYDRA operative he had been secretly tracking, but an even worse alien visitor. Nick Fury felt a headache coming on.
"Sorry, I can't."
"Trust me, I need it more than you do." Toying with the enchanting blue cube in his hand, Loki's voice suddenly boomed:
"I carry a great mission that you cannot possibly comprehend, and this is my key."
With a scornful smile and a look that regarded Nick Fury's team as insignificant, Loki's foot rested on a dead S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
"Why?"
"We have no quarrel with you." Nick Fury held his left hand behind his back, making a gesture to Hill, and continued to talk to the man before him with a grim face.
"An ant also has no quarrel with your shoe." Loki seemed completely oblivious, sitting down on the lifeless body.
"So you want to step on us?"
"No, actually, you don't even qualify for me to step on you."
Clang!
The Mind Stone scepter's collision with the ground was crisp and clear. An invisible energy wave, centered on Loki, instantly spread in all directions. S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director Maria Hill, who had snuck behind Loki through a secret passage, felt as if she had run into an invisible wall, instantly taking a nasty fall.
Thud!
"Her rank in this organization must not be low, correct?" Loki, completely in control, didn't give Maria Hill a chance to react, pressing the Mind Stone scepter against her chest.
"My position in S.H.I.E.L.D. is Deputy Director," the now-controlled Maria Hill truthfully replied.
"Excellent. In that case, let's go, Deputy Director."
Loki raised his hand, and three energy blasts instantly shattered the support pillars of the underground research base.
Rumble!!!
"Everyone! Retreat!"
Seeing the dire situation, Nick Fury decisively ordered a withdrawal. By the time they evacuated the facility, Loki had already vanished from Nick Fury's sight, taking Maria Hill and a group of researchers with him.
"Find out for me, I want to know what the hell the Black Quadrant is!"
Why was Earth being targeted by so many alien visitors? Nick Fury was sinking into deep worry.
"Barton, notify Natasha and have her bring back Dr. Banner."
"Coulson, go find Tony Stark."
"As for Thor of Asgard, I'll go see him myself."
Nick Fury's face was like still water, a rare sense of urgency welling up inside him. An urgency born of the unknown.
....
The Cosmos, Ronan's base.
As a former Accuser who had won great honors for the Kree Empire, Ronan became a traitor due to a fabricated crime, but not many Kree fleets came to hunt him down.
The Kree's artificial intelligence god, the Supreme Intelligence, had expelled Ronan the hero but had no intention of a total purge. Even when Ronan gathered a force to cause trouble elsewhere, the Kree high command chose to ignore it under the Supreme Intelligence's directive.
The Supreme Intelligence's exact words were: "Let him do whatever he wants, but no Kree are to get involved; we must cut all ties with Ronan."
The Supreme Intelligence was scared, intimidated. Lothar's past act of directly destroying Hala had made the AI god choose to keep a wide distance from him and resolve to have no form of connection with him. It didn't want the new Hala it had just managed to find to be bombed by Lothar again. It would go insane if that happened.
"That's the situation."
"This is a video recording of your father that your subordinate secretly copied from the Xandarian Planetary Defense Center." Ronan's most trusted confidant knelt on one knee, respectfully presenting a chip etched with the Xandarian emblem.
The chip's contents were, of course, the video footage that Ebony Maw had sealed within it beforehand. It was the recording of Lothar's energy blast destroying the elite fleets of two great empires. It also included the footage of Lothar causing Planet N52 to deviate from its orbit and crash, killing Ronan's grandfather.
This subordinate, whom Ronan trusted most, had been secretly controlled by Ebony Maw ever since Ronan decided to cooperate with Thanos, all to keep a constant watch on Ronan's movements.
Bang!
After the video finished playing, Ronan slammed his furious warhammer onto the ground. His eyes were bloodshot with rage.
"LO! THAR!"
With each syllable, Ronan's teeth were gritted. He couldn't accept that he had been working for his own enemy. He couldn't accept that his grandfather and his father had both died at the hands of the same person. So what was he doing now? Bearing the humiliation?
"Where is he now?" Ronan asked, his eyes red.
"According to our scout's report, Thanos's son should have already arrived on Xandar."
"Arm the Star Annihilation Cannons you brought back; I want him dead!" A hoarse voice echoed in the hall, the overwhelming killing intent enough to twist the sanity of an ordinary person.
....
Inside Xandar's Planetary Defense Center, Lothar, clad in golden armor, threw the still-unconscious raccoon to the trembling Nova Prime.
"Deal with it however you see fit, according to your Xandarian rules."
Lothar, planning to use the inertia of history to capture his future enemies in one fell swoop, left Nova Prime's mind in a state of turmoil. What did he mean, "according to Xandarian rules"?
"Alert! Alert!"
"Nova Prime, the Kree fleet of Ronan is launching an attack on us!"
"Alert! Alert..."
Suddenly, Xandar's planetary defense system blared an alarm.
"What? Ronan?" Nova Prime immediately looked toward Lothar. What was this all about?
"Lothar!"
"Die!"
"Along with Xandar!"
The Star Annihilation Cannons, sourced by Ebony Maw, fired suddenly after Ronan's fleet entered the defense zone under the guise of "allies." The ear-piercing roar sounded somewhat mad.
"Woz?" Lothar frowned, ignoring Nova Prime's stare.
"Unable to control the Kree fleet, Your Highness Lothar," Woz respectfully replied.
"Is that so?"
Lothar looked up, his gaze meeting the massive fleet in the sky. Each ship was equipped with a Star Annihilation Cannon.
"Lothar! You—"
Nova Prime's angry question was cut short.
And then came a series of earth-shaking explosions that rocked all of Xandar. A dazzling display of fireworks erupted as all of the warships were reduced to ashes by Lothar's energy blast.
The man, standing under the dome, held one hand out in front of him, fingers splayed, his stern face filled with silent, murderous intent. The golden armor shimmered in the sunlight, creating a dazzling array of colors, while the vibrant cape behind him billowed defiantly.
"Shit! What the hell is that monster?!"
"He can tank a Star Annihilation Cannon with his body?!"
Star-Lord, a native of Earth, sat slumped on the cracked floor, his gaze vacant, a local Earth curse slipping from his lips.
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