"Ordinary!!!"
Hearing Heisenberg's self-introduction, Nick Fury's shiny forehead almost started oozing grease.
Heisenberg's introduction was vague, but Nick understood it clearly.
You were once a leader of another planet, a traitor-criminal who either committed crimes or has hidden circumstances.
More importantly, you are an ancient lifeform who has lived for over 18,00018,000 years!
At this point in time, the Captain America Nick had dug out and thawed had only been frozen asleep for 7070 years!
And you… you call someone like that "ordinary"?!
Not to mention the kind of physical stats that make both men and women want to cry. Even lasers cannot damage a single strand of your hair!
Even an alloy wall over 30 cm30 cm thick, built for nuclear protection, cannot stop your casual walk!
And you call that ordinary. You…
Nick Fury clenched his fist.
Fine. You're amazing. Whatever you say goes, you "ordinary" Kryptonian.
"I think I roughly understand your identity. I'm Nick Fury. Even if you already know my name, I still hope we can have a more formal introduction between us," he said to Heisenberg with helplessness.
Heisenberg nodded noncommittally.
"I'm… Heisenberg. Meeting you doesn't make me very happy."
"Oh?" Fury tilted his head, doing a head tilt that could make people feel sick.
Heisenberg quickly squeezed his eyes shut for a second. Too spicy. Way too spicy!
"Don't overthink it. I can't explain why I fell from the sky. Even if I told you we're of the same kind, you wouldn't believe me," Heisenberg said. "So, I come from beyond the stars. Once, my own people betrayed me and imprisoned me for more than 18,00018,000 years. Now I finally wake up, and what I see is a planet I've never seen before, and a bunch of alien creatures pointing at you…"
As he spoke, Heisenberg stood up, walked to Nick Fury, and patted his shoulder.
"We need to understand each other, buddy. To me, you people are a bunch of annoying, unbelievably weak, yet insanely bold alien natives who dared to treat me like an experimental subject, right?"
"Uh, Earthlings are actually pretty friendly," Fury said.
"Same here," Heisenberg replied. "As long as nobody provokes me."
Heisenberg reluctantly accepted Fury's framing, then wandered over to the window on his own.
Through the massive floor-to-ceiling glass, he stared greedily at the sky outside.
A moment later, he faced the window and spread his arms.
"Do you know, Nick? Your planet's gravity is at least forty or fifty times lower than Krypton's. I think I can truly fly on your planet. Do you believe that?"
"This… flight is a lifelong dream for land creatures. Maybe you really can," Fury said carefully. "But right now, it's better if we talk about your future first. You're new here, you might need to adapt to life on Earth, and then we can look ahead to fl…"
"Stop. Compared to 'the future,' I prefer the present," Heisenberg cut him off.
Nick Fury instantly stood up, but Heisenberg only turned his head and smiled.
"You should know this. Only sheep need to adapt to a grassland full of hunters. A lion at the top of the food chain only needs to enjoy freedom that comes once every 18,00018,000 years."
Heisenberg waved a hand behind him at Nick.
"One last piece of advice. Don't come provoke me. If I'm in the mood, I'll come back to see you. I'm actually looking forward to how you'll host me then. I'm leaving!"
Boom!
Heisenberg suddenly kicked off with both legs and leapt out hard.
The instant he launched, the floor of Nick Fury's office shattered completely.
And this leap shot straight into the sky. In the blink of an eye, Heisenberg reached an altitude of over 2,000 m2,000 m.
Violent air currents tore at Heisenberg's clothes.
To be clear, he himself felt nothing. A Kryptonian body was just too strong, ridiculously strong.
But the front of his shirt was ripped by the raging airflow around him.
The damage was not too severe, but a few buttons popped off a perfectly good shirt. Heisenberg sighed in regret.
Only after truly reaching this sky, and moving at more than 33 times the speed of sound, did Heisenberg realize something.
He really did need a skintight suit and a cape.
Back on Origin Earth, when Heisenberg was still a mortal, he always thought Superman's tight long johns and bright red bedsheet cape looked like a joke.
But once you have Superman-like power…
When you fly at high speed, the flapping shirt front is annoying as hell. And that damned collar keeps slapping your face over and over like it's possessed.
And without a cape…
Just like in movies and TV shows, when Supergirl first starts out without a cape, she keeps falling on her face.
Even though Heisenberg was not truly flying yet. He was just gliding after a leap.
Even so, it was inconvenient to control his direction.
With that thought, Heisenberg began falling from over 2,600 m2,600 m.
He enjoyed the thrill of free fall while carefully controlling where he would land.
He had no intention of becoming a saint like Superman, but he was not evil enough to enjoy crushing people.
If he landed and killed too many civilians…
He probably wouldn't sleep well tonight.
So he adjusted himself midair, guiding his descent toward a more obvious park in New York.
After about a dozen seconds, he slammed in at an angle, crashing straight into a Roosevelt statue.
He shattered the statue, then continued grinding into the ground. The violent sound lasted over 33 seconds, and the cracked trench extended more than 17 m17 m.
Luckily, Manhattan had been almost fully evacuated by now.
Otherwise, that impact would have killed at least twenty or thirty racists…
"Cough, cough, I'm choking to death!" Heisenberg coughed as he climbed up.
A fall of only a bit over 2,000 m2,000 m caused him almost no pain at all.
It was just the dust that made him uncomfortable.
"Looks like I really have to fly. If I keep doing this, who knows whether Kryptonians can get black lung…"
He told himself a cold joke, then launched upward again.
This time he used more force, and he shot straight into a thundercloud.
Water vapor was shoved aside by the pressure wave around his body. He punched through the cloud and reached above the cloud layer at over 8,000 m8,000 m.
"Haha, this is insane! Not being human is too insane! I'm not being human anymore, hahaha!!!"
As Heisenberg roared, his body shot sideways like an arrow for several hundred meters.
Unfortunately, he still had not mastered the trick of flight. After flying sideways for a few hundred meters, he began falling again.
As he dropped, he pursed his lips.
He floated with his back to the ground and his mouth toward the sky, muttering softly.
"Feels like I'm missing something. I can't even feel my body's weight anymore, but flying… something's missing."
He shook his head, then switched posture to face the ground.
After that, he laughed freely.
"Whatever. I'll just try more!"
Boom!!
He smashed out a small crater about 6 m6 m across. This time he landed outside New York, and quite a few civilians who had not been evacuated managed to record it.
But nobody caught a clear shot of his face, because the moment he landed, he flipped up and launched into the sky again.
"Fly! Hahaha, I knew it wasn't hard. It's not hard at all!"
This time, when Heisenberg leapt into cloud cover around 3,000 m3,000 m, he instantly turned into a charging arrow.
He even triggered a violent sonic boom around himself, the phenomenon produced when he broke the sound barrier.
"In the DC world, Zod managed free flight in just a few minutes, and I'm even faster than him, hahaha!"
Heisenberg's joy and excitement spilled out through his incoherent shouting.
Decades as a mortal, then in one moment becoming a Kryptonian. That feeling…
"Awesome!!!"
Boom!!
Heisenberg vanished in an instant.
Even satellites tracking him could no longer keep up with his position.
He was too fast.
…
On the top floor of Stark Tower in Manhattan, Tony Stark shut off his monitoring equipment in shock.
"What a monster. His jump height is at least thirty times that green monster's, and his flight speed is more than ten times faster than Thor's!"
Still talking in disbelief, Tony slumped onto the couch, took the whiskey JARVIS had a robot bring him, and rubbed his forehead weakly.
"JARVIS," he said after a sip, "is my armor falling behind by too much?"
"Mr. Stark, technology always advances step by step, and you are on the correct path."
"Yeah, but aliens start way too high," Tony sighed. "I'm on the path and I can't even see their backs."
He stood and headed for the lab.
The original Mark III plan had to be changed. He needed to further strengthen Mark IV, specifically against this Kryptonian who had not caused major trouble yet.
Tony was not the type to wallow. No setback could kill his drive.
If his armor was not enough, then he would keep upgrading.
One day, he would crush the strongest enemies in the universe with nothing but his brain!
…
Meanwhile, inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agent Hill entered the office carrying drinks.
"This… this is…!"
She stared at the destroyed floor and broken window area, completely stunned.
Nick Fury got up with a weary look, took a glass from Hill's hand, drank it down, and set it aside.
"This is the first lesson the Kryptonian taught us. Don't try to guess what he's thinking."
Fury pointed at the damage in front of him.
"With just one jump, my specially built room that cost 18,000,00018,000,000 couldn't take it. I really don't know what I'm supposed to use to restrain him!"
Fury slumped back onto the couch, then a hint of hope appeared in his expression.
He turned his head and asked Hill, "Do you think… our nuclear weapons would work on him?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no, but we can't use them lightly," Hill said.
"Yeah. If we don't use them, then maybe we're still holding a Sword of Damocles." Fury frowned. "But if we use them and they don't work…"
"If we use them and they don't work, then we're in real trouble," Hill added tensely.
They fell silent for a moment. Fury shook his head hard.
"Hill, about the Hulk…"
"I've assigned Agent Natasha to make contact. If she can't do it, then nobody can."
"Good. Then about Professor Selvig…"
"I've instructed the research team to accelerate utilization of the Tesseract. We need more and stronger weapons."
"Right. As for our new consultant…"
"Tony has already contacted us on his own. He took all the information on the subject currently designated as 'Kryptonian Elder Heisenberg,' and he requested that we begin the Avengers Initiative as soon as possible."
"Fine. Everything seems like it's on track, but I… I still feel uneasy."
Fury closed his eyes. Countless thoughts swirled through his mind.
A moment later, he opened them.
"Investigate Heisenberg's movements closely. We must grasp every trace of his trajectory. For now, send Agent Barbara to make contact. After the Hulk operation ends, Natasha must follow up on this mission too."
"Yes," Hill replied crisply, nodding.
"And one more thing. Contact Thor's girlfriend and find a way to communicate with Thor himself. I need to understand Krypton's status in the universe. If their criminal lands on Earth, I need to know that it won't make that planet take military action against ours!"
"Yes!"
Hill nodded again, but the unease in Fury's chest still did not fade.
After thinking, Fury continued, "One more point. Seal away all information about Heisenberg across as many institutions as possible. Ban any institution besides us from contacting Heisenberg. Don't let those idiots cause trouble for our diplomatic relations with Krypton!"
"Yes!"
Only then did Fury's unease finally ease.
In his view, as long as Heisenberg only dealt with S.H.I.E.L.D., then S.H.I.E.L.D., which he controlled, would definitely be able to maintain enough harmony and tacit understanding with Heisenberg.
Only…
Was S.H.I.E.L.D. really his S.H.I.E.L.D.?
/-\
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