I'm having a blast in Marvel!

Page 63

He came alone, empty-handed, with that signature, enigmatic smile on his face.

One is in the light and the other is in the dark.

One came quietly from the sky, and the other rang the doorbell from the ground.

These two groups of people were clearly not from the same group. Yet, they both appeared here at the same time.

Things are getting interesting.

Chapter 75 The Negotiation Table

The sound wasn't loud, but it was like a cold awl piercing through the taut membrane in the living room.

Carol's body froze instantly, her palms clenching instinctively, a few golden arcs of electricity flashing between her fingers. Maria gasped, looking at Chu Hang for help. An alien was standing in the backyard, and an uninvited guest had arrived at the front door; this small house seemed to have become the eye of a storm.

Chu Hang laughed, but there was no nervousness in his smile; instead, there was a hint of amusement as he watched a show.

He winked at Maria, his tone as casual as if he were greeting a latecomer to a party: "Go open the door, Maria. We're already here, we can't just leave her standing outside."

Maria's lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but seeing Chu Hang's confident expression, she finally nodded and turned to walk towards the door.

"Are you crazy?" Carol lowered her voice, leaning close to Chu Hang's ear, her voice filled with disbelief. "Let the people from S.H.I.E.L.D. meet the Skrulls? They'll fight!"

"Why not?" Chu Hang shrugged, his gaze sweeping past Carol as he looked with interest at the Skrull man in the backyard who was also on high alert. "You see, one wants to regain his memories, one wants to find a new home, and the other wants to figure out all the uncertainties. Everyone has a clear goal, so sitting down and talking together is the most efficient way. It saves me the trouble of explaining things to each of you one by one."

Carol was rendered speechless by his twisted logic. She found herself completely unable to follow this man's train of thought. In his eyes, this was not some imminent interstellar conflict, but a community mediation session that he could manipulate at will.

Maria led Nick Fury in.

As soon as Fury entered the room, his single eye acted like the most sophisticated scanner, completing a tactical assessment of the entire living room in a fraction of a second. His gaze quickly swept over the tense Maria and the hostile Carol, finally settling on Chu Hang like two nails.

When his peripheral vision caught sight of the figure standing beneath the dark green spaceship in the backyard, the pupil of his single eye contracted almost imperceptibly. That was the most instinctive reaction of a top agent when faced with variables beyond the plan.

But his expression remained unchanged, still bearing that calm, professional smile, as if he had just seen a raccoon wander into the backyard.

“Mr. Chen, we meet again.” Fury spoke, his voice so calm it betrayed no emotion. “I hope I haven’t disturbed your family gathering. However, if I may be so bold, that… unregistered private aircraft in your backyard might cause some unnecessary trouble in the community.”

He deliberately emphasized the term "private aircraft," as if testing the waters or applying pressure.

“Mr. Fury, ringing the doorbell is a good habit, commendable. But perhaps you could call ahead to make an appointment next time?” Chu Hang completely ignored his subtext, lazily pointed to the sofa, and made a “please” gesture. “Since you’re here, have a cup of hot tea before you leave. Maria, could you please have a cup for this gentleman who has come from afar? He looks travel-worn and must be quite tired.”

Fury felt like he'd punched cotton. He'd prepared a whole negotiation strategy, including threats, inducements, and pressure, but the other party treated him like an insurance salesman, even politely inviting him for tea. This completely unconventional approach instantly disrupted his rhythm.

He sat down silently on the sofa, deciding to wait and see. He had a strong intuition that he wasn't the protagonist of today's drama.

Chu Hang ignored Fury, who was lost in thought, and turned around to call out towards the backyard, "Friends outside, come in and sit down. Don't your legs get sore standing there in the sun?"

In the backyard, the Skrull man was visibly taken aback. He hadn't expected the other party to invite him. He glanced at the one-eyed man in the black trench coat inside the house, his eyes filled with deep-seated wariness and distrust. That was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, the most troublesome intelligence chief on Earth, the kind of trouble they, as outsiders, needed to avoid most.

"Don't worry, he won't bite anyone today." Chu Hang's voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to have a penetrating power, clearly reaching his ears. "There are no traps in the room, only a few cups of hot tea and a few people you can talk to as equals. If you don't trust me, you can continue to wander in the universe until you are found by the Kree, or until you run out of fuel on some desolate planet."

That last sentence, like a precise dagger, pierced the softest and most painful spot for the Skrull man.

This word is etched into the very bones of this generation of Skrulls.

After a few seconds of deathly silence, the man took a deep breath, as if making some difficult decision. He started walking, step by step, towards the seemingly ordinary yet eerie house.

As he entered the living room and stood under the bright lights, Carol tensed up again. She could clearly sense that this man exuded the same aura of those green-skinned, pointy-eared intruders from her memories. Six years of ingrained fighting instincts made her almost uncontrollably launch an attack.

“Hello, Firth.” The Skrull man ignored Carol’s hostility and looked at her, speaking in a hoarse voice that sounded utterly exhausted. “Or, should I call you Carol Danvers?”

His gaze was complex, containing scrutiny, vigilance, but more than anything, a near-desperate expectation.

"Don't stand, please sit down." Chu Hang pointed to another empty single sofa, arranging the seats with the unquestionable authority of an experienced community mediator. "There may be some misunderstandings among you all. Let me act as a mediator and introduce you to each other. My name is Chu Hang, and I'm the temporary landlord here."

He pointed to Fury: "This is Nick Fury, a regional manager for a relatively unknown security company on Earth, mainly responsible for handling neighborhood disputes and community safety issues."

Fury's lips twitched, but he did not refute.

Chu Hang then turned to the Skrull man: "And this is..."

“Talos,” the Skrull man took over, straightening his back, which had become somewhat hunched from long exile. “Skrull, General.”

In an instant, the atmosphere in the living room became incredibly strange.

The highest commander of S.H.I.E.L.D. was said to be in charge of neighborhood disputes. The exiled Skrull general, the future Captain Marvel, and a mysterious homeowner who seemed to manipulate everyone, sat around a small coffee table with a few cookies on it. Maria, clutching her daughter Monica tightly, watched nervously from the kitchen doorway. Monica peeked out from behind her mother, curiously observing this "guest" with peculiar green markings on her skin.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's get straight to the point." Chu Hang picked up the tea Maria had just brewed, blew on the steam rising from the rim, as if he were presiding over a meeting that would decide the fate of two races, but rather a regular company weekly meeting. "General Talos, you go first. You risked being discovered by the Earth authorities, traveling all this way with your family—the elderly, women, and children—you didn't come to Earth just to experience the idyllic scenery, did you?"

Talos's gaze swept over Fury and Carol's faces, and finally, he fixed his gaze on Chu Hang, who seemed to be the most in charge.

“We have come seeking refuge.” His voice was filled with undisguised weariness and sorrow. “Our homeworld, Skrullos, was destroyed by the Kree Empire decades ago. The rest of us have been wandering the universe for decades, evading the Kree like rats in the street. We are refugees, not the invaders you remember.”

Carol's brow furrowed. Everything the Kree had taught her, the supreme wisdom she believed in, screamed in her mind, telling her that the person before her was lying. The Skrulls were a cunning, evil, shapeshifting race, a scourge on the universe.

“Marwell, you Earthlings call her Dr. Lawson.” Talos ignored Carol’s almost overflowing hostility, his voice softening slightly. “She’s a Kree, a great scientist. But she’s not like those war-crazed people; she sees the pointless nature of this war. She sympathizes with our plight and decided to use her knowledge to help us.”

"Using the technology of the light-speed engine, she found us coordinates in her secret laboratory where we could evade the Kree's pursuit, coordinates where we could rebuild our home. She promised to lead us there."

“But she’s dead.” Talos’s eyes dimmed, like two extinguished stars. “Six years ago, in that plane crash, she died. We lost our last hope. All we knew was that finding her lab would give us the coordinates, the key to our future. And the key to finding the lab lies in your memory, Carol Danvers.”

As he spoke, he took out a small, old-fashioned-looking recorder from the inside pocket of his jacket and gently placed it on the coffee table.

All eyes were focused on the small metal object.

Talos pressed one of the buttons above.

"rustle……"

After a burst of electrical noise, a somewhat distorted female voice slowly flowed out of the device.

“Talos, it’s me, Lawson. The plan has changed. Yon Rogge has discovered my intentions and he’s on his way. I must leave with the core immediately. If I fail… remember, the coordinates are in my lab; they will guide you to a new home. Don’t trust the Kree, ever…”

The recording stops here.

But that voice, that tone, that content, was like a lightning bolt piercing through time and space, violently cleaving open Carol's chaotic memories that had been sealed away for six years.

It's Dr. Lawson!

That's the voice! She remembered! Before the crash, in the cockpit, Dr. Lawson had used this extremely anxious tone to tell her to destroy the engine and not let it fall into Yon Rogers' hands!

The Kree have been lying to her all along!

Yon-Rog, the Supreme Intelligence… They’ve all lied to her! They’re not maintaining cosmic peace; they’re invaders, executioners who slaughtered an entire race! And the Skrulls are the real victims!

The anger of being deceived, the humiliation of being used, the grief over Dr. Lawson's death, the remorse for what had been done over the past six years... all these emotions burst forth at this moment.

An uncontrollable, violent golden energy suddenly erupted from Carol's body. The light bulbs in the living room couldn't withstand the impact and shattered one after another, shards of glass flying everywhere. The television screen flickered with blinding static before going completely black with a bang. Maria let out a short scream, instinctively pulling Monica tightly into her arms, shielding her with her own body.

Fury's reaction was lightning fast. Almost at the same moment the energy burst forth, he sprang up from the sofa, leaning back, his right hand flashing towards his waist, where he always carried his pistol. This was a reaction ingrained in his bones as a top agent facing a deadly threat.

Talos was also startled. His body lost its fixed shape in an instant, like a pool of melting green wax, seemingly instinctively trying to merge into the floor to avoid this destructive force.

Chu Hang's voice wasn't loud, it could even be described as very soft, yet it seemed to possess a certain magical power, instantly engulfing the entire chaotic living room.

He simply placed the teacup he was holding lightly on the coffee table in front of him.

A crisp, light sound.

That soft sound was like an invisible switch that pressed the pause button on the whole world, and then pressed the rewind button.

The violent golden energy emanating from Carol, powerful enough to lift a roof, was instantly calmed by an invisible hand, obediently retreating back into her body. The gleaming shards of glass, suspended in mid-air, defied all the laws of physics, flying backward and clanging back together to form perfectly intact light bulbs; even the burnt-out tungsten filaments miraculously reconnected. The blacked-out television screen flickered, then returned to normal, still playing an old midday drama.

In less than a second, the entire living room went from a state of utter chaos back to normal. It was as if the terrifying energy explosion just moments before was nothing more than a shared nightmare.

Fury stood frozen in place, his right hand still in the position of reaching for his gun. He stared blankly at the light bulb that had come back on, then at Chu Hang, who was calmly and leisurely sipping his tea. For the first time, a fine layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

What ability is this?

Time travel? A weapon based on causality? Or... a modification of reality itself?

All the information he had about superpowered individuals, all his knowledge about physics and energy, collapsed in that instant. This man was a thousand times more terrifying than he had imagined. He wasn't just a powerful individual; he himself was a rule.

Talos also reverted from his liquid state to human form. The look in his eyes as he gazed at Chu Hang had transformed from initial wariness and scrutiny into utter, soul-deep awe. He had wandered the universe for decades, witnessing countless powerful civilizations and individuals, but he had never seen such inconceivable power.

"Losing control of your emotions won't solve anything." Chu Hang put down his teacup, his gaze falling on Carol, who was pale and disoriented. "Now, do you believe me?"

Carol nodded weakly. The shock of the truth was more painful and debilitating than any physical attack. She had been deceived for six years, working for her enemy and hunting down those she should have protected. Her hands were stained with the blood of the innocent.

"So, you came to her just to ask her to help you find that laboratory?" Chu Hang turned his gaze to Talos.

“Yes.” Talos nodded with difficulty. “We intercepted the Kree communications and learned that she is still alive and has returned to Earth. She is the only clue, our last hope.”

"Alright, things are clear now." Chu Hang clapped his hands, stood up, as if giving a final summary of the meeting. "The Skrulls need to find Dr. Lawson's lab, get the coordinates, and search for a new home. Carol needs to find the lab, regain her complete memories, and incidentally atone for her foolish actions of the past six years, fulfilling Dr. Lawson's last wish. And Mr. Fury, you..."

Chu Hang looked at Fury, a meaningful smile playing on his lips: "You probably want to figure out all these aliens, alien spaceships, and alien technology, and then bring them under your control, right? After all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Fury narrowed his one eye. He neither admitted nor denied it. He simply stared intently at Chu Hang and asked the most crucial question: "So, Mr. Chen? What do you want in this game?"

"Me?" Chu Hang leaned back on the sofa, shifting to a more comfortable position, and said lazily, "I want a quiet vacation, but unfortunately, there are always people who come uninvited to bother me. So, I can only help you resolve things as soon as possible so that I can have some peace and quiet."

He stood up, walked to the center of the crowd, and began assigning roles, like a stage director.

"The plan is simple. First, locate Dr. Lawson's lab. Talos, do you have any clues about the lab's exact location? For example, orbital parameters, or some signal frequency?"

Talos shook his head dejectedly: "We only know that it is in Earth's orbit, but it is completely invisible. We have tried every method, but we cannot find it."

"I know where it is."

A clear, childlike voice suddenly rang out.

All eyes instantly turned to the little girl who had been hiding behind her mother.

The little girl, feeling a bit scared under the gaze of so many important figures, shrank back behind Maria, but still mustered her courage and said in a clear voice, "Aunt Lawson took me there once... on her computer. She said it was her 'office on the stars'."

Chu Hang smiled. Good, the plot has finally returned to its proper course.

“Well done, Monica.” He praised her generously, then looked at Fury. “Mr. Fury, I think you need to utilize the resources of your ‘Security Company.’ We need to go to the old base of ‘Project Pegasus’ and we need a plane that can fly out of the atmosphere. In return, S.H.I.E.L.D. can share all the intelligence on this operation.”

Fury's eyes lit up instantly. This was exactly what he wanted! Full monitoring, first-hand contact and assessment of the value of all alien technology and personnel—this deal was a sure win.

"Deal." He agreed without hesitation.

“Carol,” Chu Hang looked at Carol again, his tone becoming more serious, “this is your business, you decide. Find the lab, find the truth, and then decide what to do.”

Carol nodded heavily, a renewed fighting spirit rekindling in her bewildered eyes. She needed an answer, and she needed redemption.

"As for General Talos," Chu Hang said, turning to the Skrulls, "have your men wait patiently in the ship. Once you find the item, I will guarantee your safe departure from Earth."

Talos stood up and bowed deeply to Chu Hang with the most solemn Skrull etiquette.

A massive crisis, capable of triggering an interstellar war and plunging Earth into flames, was transformed in this small living room into a planned, well-organized treasure hunt mission where everyone got what they wanted, all arranged by Chu Hang with just a few words.

Looking at the man before him who seemed to control everything, Fury felt a slight unease for the first time about the future of his grand "Avengers Plan."

He had originally thought that a powerful figure like Carol was his ultimate trump card. But now, someone who could manipulate reality at will and disregard Carol's rampaging energy was sitting across from him, drinking tea.