Long Time... No See~~~

After calming the Hulk down, Nick Fury boarded the plane with a mind full of worries.

He piloted the helicopter himself, quietly heading for one of his secret bases.

Don't ask how he got his secret bases.

He was Nick "Cunning Rabbit with a Thousand Burrows" Fury. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if he didn't have a thousand secret bases?

Could a director building a few secret bases for himself be called corruption?

That was called being cautious!

In any case, an hour and forty minutes later, Nick landed on a mountaintop.

He did not enter the base. Instead, he went to the space between two bushes and reached beneath the weeds, scratching at the ground.

No water flowed out...

A moment later, he turned over the soil and pressed the button beneath it.

There was no reaction from the surroundings, but he was not in a hurry. He simply stood there and waited in silence.

A full three minutes passed before faint noise finally came from the air.

The space in front of Nick seemed to shatter like a mirror, reflecting countless Nicks.

Then, a small spacecraft fully appeared before Nick's eyes.

Whoosh!

The spacecraft hatch slowly opened, and two green-skinned figures clad in fitted purple clothing stepped down.

"Nick Fury... Long time no see!"

The leading green-skinned man gave Nick a huge hug.

After the hug, Nick Fury habitually looked around before following the green-skinned man aboard the spacecraft.

Once the spacecraft sealed shut, Nick let out a long sigh.

"Buddy, what's wrong with you? You look awfully nervous. Could someone have followed you?"

"No, no, no, Talos. I just ran into trouble—big trouble, the kind that comes from outer space!"

As he spoke, Nick casually sat down inside Talos's spacecraft and even propped his feet on Talos's workbench.

Talos did not mind. He and Nick had been old comrades for many years. The more natural Nick acted, the happier Talos was.

Talos sat beside Nick, brought him a cup of Skrull Sweet Wine, and quietly asked.

"Trouble from outer space? That shouldn't be possible. With Asgard and Carol around, no one should want to provoke Earth!"

"But it happened anyway. Talos, have you ever heard of Kryptonians?"

Nick asked solemnly.

In an instant, Talos's huge eyes widened sharply.

"Kryptonians?!"

He asked in shock.

"Are you joking with me?

Have you forgotten that I lived on Earth for a long time?

I've read your comics, especially the most popular one!"

"But he really appeared, buddy. I'm not making this up!"

As he spoke, Nick showed Talos the video of Heisenberg as usual.

"Take a look. This kind of power—flight, Heat Vision, Freeze Breath, and the Biological Field he has displayed recently—it's exactly the same as what the comics describe!"

"Mm-hmm, you're right, Nick!"

Talos frowned as he watched the video for a long while, then could not help adding.

"He's even much stronger than he was in the comics. At least in Superman comics before 1986, Kryptonian Superman had difficulty even lifting a large airplane!"

"Mm-hmm. It's like our comics keep making him stronger, and his abilities keep getting stronger too!"

Nick muttered helplessly.

A moment later, Talos gave Nick a deep look.

"We must inform Carol about this. This could be a huge problem!"

"What?"

Nick was utterly stunned.

Decades ago, Carol had indeed given him a communication device when she left.

But he had buried that device away for decades, not so he could use it now!

Talos seemed to notice Nick's unease. He patted Nick on the shoulder and offered a comforting word.

"You don't need to contact her. We have a way to reach her. This matter has nothing to do with Earth either. It's mainly this so-called Kryptonian's power that gives me a very bad feeling!"

With that, Talos took a sip of tea and continued explaining slowly.

"Our Skrull Empire was one of the three great empires of the universe hundreds of thousands of years ago. Even the Kree Empire, which now belongs among those three great empires, was once merely our vassal.

But I have to admit that, at the height of our Skrull Empire, we were still beaten senseless by the strongest Shi'ar Empire.

And the Shi'ar Empire has two supreme combat powers: one is Supreme Sword, and the other is Supreme Nova.

This Kryptonian... I don't believe he stepped out of a comic book, and I certainly don't believe that after our three great empires divided up the universe for millions of years, none of us discovered a planet as infinitely promising as Krypton!

Besides, if the Kryptonians he speaks of truly possessed such uniquely blessed genes, shouldn't they have made a name for themselves long ago?

After all, Earth isn't the only place in the universe with a yellow sun.

So I have no choice but to suspect this is a scheme by the Shi'ar Empire, or perhaps one of the Shi'ar Empire's enemies.

It may be some kind of experiment related to the Supreme Sword lineage. More likely, it's an experiment conducted by an enemy of the Shi'ar in imitation of Supreme Sword.

In any case, Carol has a close relationship with the Nova Corps, and the Nova Corps is the Shi'ar Empire's standing force.

I have to ask her about this!"

With that, Talos clapped his hands decisively.

The Skrull sitting in the pilot's seat nearby nodded.

After he nodded, a call notification immediately appeared on the spacecraft's viewport.

A moment later, as he looked at the projection of an American middle-aged woman on the viewport, Nick nearly ground his back teeth to pieces!

Goddamn it!!!

I held onto a freaking pager for thirty years and never even dared press it!

Yet you and the Skrulls have been able to stay in contact all this time!

Are you even an Earthling?

You were just too lazy to come back, weren't you!

Did you really forget your little Nicky by Daming Lake?!

Though he was furious, Nick Fury immediately put on a smile.

At that moment, after Captain Marvel was genuinely surprised for a moment, she could not help asking Nick.

"Huh? Fury, why are you there?"

In an instant, Nick Fury painfully accepted the fact that the person on the other end truly was Captain Marvel.

When he first met Carol all those years ago, he had deliberately told her something.

He only liked being called Fury and never allowed others to call him Nick!

Of course, that was merely an old agent's little trick. Nick Fury particularly loved playing such word games.

He had assigned almost everyone around him a unique form of address for him.

That way, if certain people were impersonated, he could tell whether they were real or fake the moment they called him Nick Fury.

But the more certain he was that Carol was real, the more miserable Nick felt!

I waited for you for so long. So many times, I held that pager and couldn't bear to contact you.

Yet you could have told me long ago that you could communicate with the Skrulls!

You could have told me sooner!

Still, thinking about it, it made sense...

Though the Skrulls had fallen on hard times, they had once been one of the universe's three great empires.

Interstellar communication should never have been a problem for the Skrulls.

For a moment, Nick's heart trembled.

After hesitating for a long while, he quietly spoke.

"Long time no see..."

Sometimes, the most helpless words were that simple "long time no see" after not seeing someone for years...

Like when you were in the prime of youth, while I was only a boy...

Ahem.

Enough nonsense. Carol was also particularly happy to see Nick Fury.

The moment she became happy, dazzling flames of light burst from her entire body.

The next moment, she directly flew through more than three spacecraft with her body.

Only after finishing the fight did Carol find time to chat with Nick and the others.

Her first words were.

"You've gotten this old already, Fury. And your eye...?"

"It's fine, my eye is nothing!" Nick immediately answered.

But Carol was not stupid, and she quickly remembered.

"Oh my God, back then, you were scratched by a Flerken... It was my fault. I should have told you that if you were scratched by a Flerken, you had to apply Horned Dragon blood to recover.

But I didn't know that at the time either. I heard it on Tai'a Star near Centaurus. You're really pitiful. You were only scratched by a cat and then..."

"No, no, no!!!"

Nick's face instantly darkened as he tried hard to explain.

"You're overthinking it. Fat Orange definitely didn't do this. I simply suffered a friend's betrayal later on, and during that incident, I lost my eye!"

Carol: ...

Talos: ...

Who knew whether they believed him or not? In any case, the three of them soon began discussing Heisenberg.

Carol was the first to express surprise.

Because when she was young, her favorite comics had been Captain America and Superman.

Of course, she liked Captain America a little more, because she could enlist in the military, but she could never become an alien.

As long as she enlisted, she could get a little closer to her idol, Captain America.

But after she grew up, she discovered that not only had she failed to get closer to Captain America, her abilities had instead become more like Superman's...

In any case, the topic of Kryptonians was one that nearly every Earthling in Marvel had a story about.

After a while.

Earth, the Skrulls, and the Shi'ar Empire barely counted as three parties that reached a decision regarding a plan for Heisenberg.

First, they had to ensure Nick Fury's safety.

Since Heisenberg was immensely powerful and overwhelmingly domineering, Nick, who was always plotting against him, would naturally be in some danger.

Second, in order to prove the authenticity of the Kryptonian bloodline, the Skrulls would send one or two professional agents to impersonate Nick Fury and someone else from S.H.I.E.L.D.

In short, the two of them would replace Nick Fury to ensure Nick Fury's safety while also finding a way to approach Heisenberg.

Then they would use the Skrulls' innate talent, shapeshifting, to transform deeply into Heisenberg himself.

The reason the Skrulls could become one of the universe's three great empires was precisely because of that terrifying talent.

They could replicate everything about a person, inside and out.

If they encountered Captain America, they could possess Captain America's appearance and all of his strength.

If they encountered the Hulk, they could even possess the Hulk's normal strength.

The reason this ability had not been displayed in the Captain Marvel movie was simply because Earth had not had many supernatural beings at that time.

The Skrulls had no suitable genetic samples, so they had not copied Earthlings on a large scale.

After that, Carol suddenly rose to prominence.

Though this middle-aged woman's own bloodline was fairly good, all her power ultimately came from the Space Stone rather than her own genes.

Thus, Carol, who could not be used, formed a strategic alliance with the Skrulls.

In short, Nick Fury decided to officially board the Skrulls' hidden base, then remotely direct the Skrull impersonating him to uncover everything about Heisenberg.

As for whom the other Skrull would impersonate?

Nick could not help thinking of his deputy commander, Hill...

"Talos, let the other disguise be Hill. Carry it out!"

"Of course, no problem!"

Talos smiled happily.

After smiling, Nick and Talos began happily competing in drink.

But drinking was drinking. The two of them were top spies from their respective planets, and who knew how many verbal clashes flashed across the table.

As the temporary leader of the Skrull refugee team, Talos would not send his people into danger without benefits.

As for what benefit Earth currently had that the Skrulls needed?

To be honest, there was only the Hulk!

Talos actually wanted a genetic sample from the Hulk, intending to mass-equip Skrull refugees with Hulk transformation forms.

That touched Nick Fury's bottom line. He could never give the Skrulls a Hulk army!

The two soon started cursing each other out.

To make them stop, Carol had no choice but to find a way to divert their attention.

So Carol began telling Talos about what she had seen in the universe.

She knew that Talos, who now lived in obscurity in a corner of the universe, most loved news about the major powers across space.

Carol slowly began to speak.

"Recently, the situation in the universe seems a little grim. Thanos's forces have been circling around Kree territory nonstop."

Kree Accuser Ronan seemed likely to betray the Kree Empire.

And those Chitauri, Thanos's pack of dogs, had recently begun gathering in force.

They had even assembled most of their main forces.

Who knew which planet this batch of Chitauri, Thanos's vanguard, would sink their teeth into this time.

Fortunately, they were unimaginably far from Earth. Surely they wouldn't attack Earth, right?"

"Yeah, they definitely won't attack Earth."

Talos added.