The Evil of Human Nature

The City of Immortals did not have enough Skrull samples. That was a crippling flaw, one even Salomon could not solve.

Skrulls developed and multiplied by parasitizing civilizations throughout the universe, occupying important positions before taking control of a planet in one fell swoop once their numbers were sufficient. When the Skrull Empire still existed, the Skrulls had seized more than a dozen planets through this method, becoming a super-civilization capable of rivaling the Kree Empire. However, these hidden Skrulls would only be activated when necessary, and there was no easy way to separate them from the local species—before going undercover, Skrulls underwent brainwashing procedures. They believed themselves to be locals rather than outsiders, leaving no psychological flaws whatsoever. On top of that, Skrull shapeshifting imitated targets at the genetic level and could even acquire fragments of genetic memory, making ordinary genetic screening extremely ineffective at identifying them.

Other civilizations' disgust toward Skrulls was not without reason. After all, no one wanted to wake up one day and discover that their planet had been occupied by a bunch of green-skinned aliens. Skrulls only revealed flaws under very rare circumstances. Once discovered, a Skrull's only fate was death, without exception. The Skrull sample preserved by S.H.I.E.L.D. was the only biological sample Salomon had, perhaps along with a decaying Skrull hand. The body belonging to that hand should now be in Nick Fury's possession—this was an exception, because that Skrull had not undergone a strict infiltration procedure. Combined with Salomon's mind-probing magic, that was what led to its exposure.

Salomon had issued this order with nothing more than the faint hope of a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse.

He would use Whitehall's surrendered Hydra forces to further infiltrate biochemical institutions across the globe, using the Vaccine Alliance and American biochemical