Stark wanted in on the action, but Zodhis politely turned him down.
Obviously. If he got involved, heaven knows what the plot would turn into next?
Ultraman Dyna versus the Prometheus?
Stark assumed Zodhis declined because he felt he could handle it alone and didn't need any backup.
He wasn't annoyed, though. Instead, he got it in his head to compete with Zodhis, so he secretly dragged Dr. Banner into helping him research a super battleship.
Zodhis didn't notice because he usually kept his super hearing and super vision turned off. After all, constantly processing that much information would bring unnecessary trouble and disruption to his daily life.
Given his abilities, Zodhis could conjure up an invincible battleship in the blink of an eye, but for the sake of everyone's mental health, he chose to take it slow and actually research it.
There was no rush anyway. S.W.O.R.D. needed a lot of designers to help plan and zone their new headquarters in a place as vast as New York.
Once the designs were done, they still had to build the thing. Otherwise, even if the invincible battleship was completed, there'd be nowhere to dock it.
In space, three thousand miles away from Earth.
A colossal battleship slowly cruised through the pitch-black expanse of space, its bow pointed directly at the azure blue planet.
A figure stood at the edge of the command room, watching the sea of stars and the planet ahead through a virtual projection on the wall. A large red cape draped down his back, his hands were clasped behind him, and his expression was utterly unreadable.
An alien approached him and bowed with utmost respect.
"My lord, we are approaching the planet the Chitauri call Earth."
"Good. I know. You may leave."
"Yes, my lord."
Half an hour later, a S.W.O.R.D. satellite detected the spaceship advancing toward Earth.
The word "aliens" was now a close second to "monsters" when it came to giving the Baldy a headache. Just hearing the term made his brain hurt.
"Notify the Director and the other superheroes."
The Baldy knew this sort of thing was best left to the professionals.
Once the superheroes were briefed, they naturally decided to take preventative measures—or rather, strike first.
Fighting on Earth caused way too much collateral damage; a whole city could be wiped off the map.
But now there was a new problem. Satellite surveillance showed that the spaceship was still well over three thousand miles away from Earth. How were they supposed to get there?
Stark's newest Mark armor could theoretically operate in space, and Thor could freely roam the cosmos with just his physical body.
If Dr. Banner transformed into the Hulk, surviving in space wouldn't be an issue either. But obviously, the Hulk couldn't fly. You couldn't exactly expect him to leap from Earth all the way to the enemy spaceship in a single bound.
What they lacked was a vehicle capable of space travel.
Stark was a super engineer, but he hadn't specialized in aerospace. Given enough time, he could definitely build a spaceship, but they clearly didn't have that kind of time right now.
Fortunately, someone remembered Zodhis. It goes without saying that the moment this genius—a man who could practically be written into the textbooks of human history as the supreme god of the cult of science—learned of the situation, his first thought was: Who's copying my script?
After all, his upcoming plans involved the galactic emperor Frieza invading Earth. Frieza would first send the Ginyu Force to brutalize the superheroes, making them realize the universe was full of bizarre superpowers and teaching them to tread carefully.
Once the Ginyu Force was dealt with, Vegeta and Nappa would arrive.
And after that, Boros and his Dark Matter Pirates.
Zodhis readily provided them with a spaceship.
He was curious to see who was coming over uninvited.
Once they had the ship, the group quickly hashed out a plan.
The strategy crafted by the superheroes was, as always, heavily influenced by classic superhero and American heroism. To sum it up in one word: Fight!
They would use the ship's cloaking device to fly directly onto the alien vessel, locate the enemy leader, and capture them with blinding speed. Then, they would force the leader to reveal their purpose for coming to Earth, and if possible, use the leader as leverage to force a retreat.
Of course, they hadn't forgotten about the language barrier.
But Zodhis had already taken care of that.
He handed them a "Universal Translator."
The underlying mechanics apparently had something to do with brainwave capture and psychic interpretation. In short, it could translate any language into English, or translate the wielder's English into the listener's native tongue.
Meanwhile, outside Earth, aboard the alien battleship.
The ship's commander was still standing by the projection wall in the command room, staring intently at Earth. The same subordinate from before approached again.
"My lord, it seems the Earthlings have noticed us."
"Oh?"
The figure didn't even turn his head, offering only a noncommittal grunt.
"An Earthling ship is approaching us," the alien reported. "They're using some crude optical technology to cloak their ship. Perhaps they think we won't notice them."
"Hmm," the figure replied absently.
The alien paused.
"Should we open fire and shoot them down?"
"No need."
The figure said dismissively, waving a hand.
"I was just starting to get a little bored anyway. Let them board. We'll engage them on the ship."
"Yes, my lord."
When Stark confidently boasted that "even aliens couldn't possibly detect this ship," everyone else remained highly skeptical.
Stark explained that he had integrated his optical camouflage tech with the spaceship, designing a cloaking device that intelligently adjusted its electromagnetic frequency based on incoming light waves. It was, he claimed, absolutely, positively undetectable.
Surprisingly, Stark was actually reliable this time. At the very least, their ship remained undetected from the moment it entered the perimeter zone until they closed in on the enemy's deck.
However, the moment they touched down, they were finally discovered. A massive squad of alien soldiers was already waiting for them at the landing zone, fully armed and ready, instantly surrounding the superheroes.
Well, what was there left to say? They fought. That was the superheroes' standard operating procedure anyway.
When it came to heavy interstellar artillery, Earth wasn't even in the same dimension as the aliens. The aliens could casually bring in a single planetary dreadnought and flatten the entire planet.
But when it came to a good old-fashioned brawl, face-to-face and fist-to-fist? There weren't many people in the entire universe who could beat a team of superheroes.
The superheroes quickly found their rhythm and got to work clearing out the minions!
The Earth heroes showed off their skills on the deck, unleashing a dazzling barrage of distinctly Earth-style abilities that exploded across the battlefield in a chaotic flurry.
/-\
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