Compared to Zod Heath's efficiency, everyone else suddenly felt kind of useless.
And Zod Heath felt like it was about time he showed off a little of his own strength. So nanorobots gathered in his hand, forming a gun.
The weapon had an unmistakably sci-fi design. One look was enough to tell it was high-tech.
Watching the nanorobots on Zod's body shift and transform, Tony Stark fell into thought.
The Strong-Melt Gun!
It could fire a basketball-sized sphere of high-heat energy. The moment it made contact with a target, it would produce temperatures of several thousand degrees, or even higher, enough to melt or vaporize almost anything.
Zod aimed at a Deep Sea creature lunging toward him and pulled the trigger. An energy sphere burst from the muzzle, then slammed into the target. After a flash of light, the Deep Sea creature was wiped from existence.
"Holy shit! That weapon is insanely strong!"
Johnny was stunned. The gun looked terrifying, because even the Deep Sea creatures nearby had scorch marks burned into their scales.
"A short-term ultra-high-temperature energy weapon?"
Reed fell into the same thoughtful silence as Tony Stark.
Only, Reed's kind of deep thought was probably way scarier than Tony Stark's.
Nick Fury stared at the screen with wide eyes. He could not help feeling that the gun looked very, very familiar.
It looked just like Hydra's energy weapons from World War II.
Same thing. One shot, and the enemy was gone without a trace.
Of course, he did not suspect Zod Heath of being Hydra. After all, Hydra had supposedly been wiped out by Captain America. But even without the Tesseract, Zod Heath had somehow developed something that looked almost identical, and its power was this outrageous...
Thinking of the endless stream of new monsters and the shortage of superheroes, Nick Fury suddenly had a bold idea.
As for Zod, he was not thinking that far ahead at all.
Just like the last time he broke through the atmosphere, he was only displaying his "strength."
After all, tech like this could be mass-produced and replicated. Who knew how many Strong-Melt Guns Zod Heath had? If you used advanced energy weapons like this against outdated gunpowder-based kinetic weapons, anyone knew which side had the better chance of winning.
The Strong-Melt Gun was powered by a magnetic-confinement fusion reactor, which allowed it to continuously fire ultra-high-temperature energy rounds. Tony Stark's Ark Reactor, on the other hand, could probably power this gun for only five shots at most.
No matter how numerous the Deep Sea creatures were, the real issue was that they were inside the city, which limited the military's use of heavy weaponry. Otherwise, one round of artillery bombardment from a field position, or a salvo from the warships stationed near the coastline, would have flattened the area. Even if those Deep Sea creatures were not afraid of bullets, sheer shell volume alone could bury them. Not to mention missiles, fuel-air bombs, infrasound bombs, and even deadlier weapons.
You could say Zod had perfectly exploited the city environment, creating the illusion for the general public that the American military was weaker than Zod Heath and the superheroes.
Once today was over, the military's public credibility would probably collapse even further, and people would trust superheroes and Zod Heath more.
This was part of the operation.
For now, Zod still intended to keep living on Earth. As for the future, he would deal with it when he went into space.
Of course, if the battlefield had not been somewhere important like New York's rich districts, the military probably would have gritted its teeth and brought in bombers and artillery shells already.
After Zod Heath joined the fight, the battle continued for more than three hours before finally coming to an end.
At last, no more Deep Sea creatures appeared along the coastline.
The military let out a sigh of relief. They had suffered terrible losses in this battle, yet their public trust had somehow dropped instead. It was a real headache.
But this had been a sudden emergency. The military could not really pin the blame on anyone. And in this kind of situation, they truly were not as effective as the superheroes.
Especially Zod Heath.
He had almost single-handedly turned the situation around and saved everyone.
The military was also drooling over Zod Heath's energy weapon. That gun looked absurdly powerful.
But the image Zod Heath had carefully built for himself left them unable to act on any thoughts they might have had.
The military could not move.
But the bald black egghead from S.H.I.E.L.D. had already come knocking.
"Natalie, what are you doing in my office?"
Zod returned to his office, only to see Natalie standing beside his desk. Pretending not to know anything, he asked the question.
"Mr. Zod Heath, this is our first meeting."
Then the office chair slowly turned around. The dark-skinned bald egghead had both hands braced on the desk, his mouth half-hidden behind them, striking a pose like Commander Ikari.
"Security. There are illegal intruders in my office."
Then Zod called security.
Nick Fury froze for a moment.
A few burly Beastified soldiers immediately appeared, wearing Blade Technology Industries security uniforms, and stepped forward to arrest them.
Natalie moved at once, trying to subdue the guards so Nick Fury could speak properly with Zod Heath.
But the moment she acted, she was grabbed and restrained by a Beastified soldier whose enhancements far surpassed hers.
Pinned to the floor, the Black Widow looked completely dazed.
What just happened?
Where am I?
Hydra headquarters? Or Leviathan back in Russia?
Were Blade Technology Industries' security guards really this ridiculous?
"Natalie, I don't know what you were trying to do, but you're fired. I'll reserve the right to have my lawyer sue you for the attempted theft of Blade Technology Industries' trade secrets. Now, you and this dark-skinned bald egghead can leave together."
Zod Heath spoke calmly.
"Wait, Zod Heath, we're not..."
Nick Fury had just started to say something when the Beastified soldiers, understanding that their boss had no interest in hearing any nonsense, stepped forward and subdued him too when he tried to resist. They pressed him to the floor, then hauled the two of them away together.
"Uld, have someone throw out everything in my office later. Tear down the walls too and redo the whole renovation."
Zod Heath informed Uld.
There was no need for him to talk to Nick Fury.
He already knew what Fury wanted to say, because Fury's thoughts were laid bare to him.
"So he was already thinking about the Avengers Initiative in 2002. Is that because of my early arrival?"
Zod looked out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the New York skyline below and shook his head.
Nick Fury wanted to cut in halfway?
Wishful thinking.
"What the hell was that? Don't tell me Blade Technology Industries' security guards all came from something like Leviathan or some other special agent organization?"
Nick Fury's face was dark.
He was a Level 10 agent. Natasha Romanoff was the famous Black Widow.
And yet both of them had been taken down in one move.
Were Blade Technology Industries' security guards really that terrifying?
"I could tell they weren't ordinary people. They've most likely all been enhanced."
/-\
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