The clearing of the Skrull settlements in North America counted as a phased victory in the first stage of the Secret Wars. What followed immediately was the search for Skrull forces across Eurasia. This was not an evenly matched contest. The City of Immortals deployed the formidable War Machine and enforced harsh counterintelligence measures. Reconnaissance satellites and even Space Stations operated at full capacity, all for the sake of execution and destruction. In Victoria Hand's initial proposal, she had strongly advised against launching an offensive against the Skrull settlements in North America, because doing so would alert the Skrulls in other countries who had infiltrated the upper ranks of governments or corporate management.
There was a famous conspiracy theory in the United States: politicians and tycoons were all lizardmen, cold-blooded creatures with green skin. The origins of this conspiracy theory could no longer be traced, and it was absurd, but it had not arisen from nothing. Many years ago, a Skrull who had infiltrated the upper levels of government had indeed been seen shedding its disguise. That Skrull later took advantage of an office sex scandal to disappear completely from the media's gaze, retreating into a Skrull settlement in North America.
Then the urban legend spread from mouth to mouth, growing ever more widespread.
In a sense, the lizardman conspiracy theory was not entirely wrong. Skrulls did possess reptilian genes, so calling them lizards was not a problem at all. The only reason it had become a conspiracy theory on par with nonsense like the Flat Earth theory and the Finland hypothesis was people's habit of embellishing things, combining lizardmen with matters like the deep state. Along with years of education designed to keep the public ignorant, the truth had been buried in a vast ocean of information.
Others and