"Our base has been destroyed, and many of our instruments will need to be repaired one by one. All of that takes time."
"The Skrulls suffered heavy losses in this battle. If we keep waiting like this, I'm afraid the situation will only become more unpredictable."
Dotilt wasn't exaggerating.
She was telling the truth.
They had survived this attack, but what about the next one?
Could they survive a second attack?
A third?
"Bring him out, now!"
"At the very least, when they attack again, we need something capable of holding them back!"
"Or are we supposed to throw tens of thousands of Skrulls at them and fight to the death?"
Tothwanwell was naturally unwilling to do that.
But Dotilt's plan was far too aggressive.
He couldn't suppress his concern.
Everything about this plan felt rushed, and the fear inside him continued to grow.
The thought of what might happen next filled him with dread.
Each new step in their plan felt like another hand tightening around his throat.
He could barely breathe.
"We can't keep waiting!"
"We need to deal with them first!"
"If there's really no other choice, then we should move the full-scale assault forward!"
Tothwanwell silently turned away.
He didn't say much.
Instead, he muttered quietly to himself.
"Let me think…"
"Just let me think this through…"
If they acted now, they might cross a point of no return.
Once their ultimate weapon was released, the damage it caused would be enormous.
The Skrulls were undoubtedly intelligent, but even they had no confidence that they could completely control this ultimate weapon.
Meanwhile, Karl had already used the cage to rescue the imprisoned superheroes.
Now they were preparing to counterattack.
"Being locked inside that starship by the Skrulls for so long was humiliating!"
"If we don't fight back after that, we'll never be able to let this go!"
None of them could believe they had endured something like that, and there was no way they were willing to simply allow the Skrulls to continue acting as they pleased.
"Looking at the situation now, I'm worried too…"
Ever since Wonder Woman had escaped, all she had wanted was revenge.
Otherwise, there was no way she could vent the anger that had been building inside her.
"What I'm worried about is something else."
Karl's words immediately drew everyone's attention.
They quietly turned toward him.
"I'm worried that they prepared another contingency long ago."
"On the surface, it looks like they've been preparing some kind of ultimate weapon, but I have a feeling that isn't everything."
"I think they may have another powerful fighter waiting for us…"
After Karl finished speaking, Iron Man silently lowered his head.
He thought about it carefully.
Among all the people the Skrulls could still bring under their control—someone capable of opposing them and even stopping their assault—only one person came to mind.
"Magneto."
The moment that name was spoken, everyone present was stunned.
Magneto was originally an Earthling as well.
However, he had frequently stood against them.
Even more frightening was that, according to the information they had, his body wasn't restricted to a single fixed state.
He could manipulate cosmic energy, using that energy to alter his body and assume different states under different conditions.
"He's a mutant and doesn't belong to any other power system."
"If we judge him purely by his strength, he could be considered Alpha-class, even…"
There was another problem.
None of them truly understood the full extent of Magneto's potential.
They might have assigned him a classification, but very few people present had ever genuinely fought him.
The superheroes immediately fell silent.
"The most frightening thing is that he can create an incredibly powerful magnetic field to protect himself!"
"I've heard that the magnetic field surrounding him can reach an intensity comparable to several nuclear explosions occurring simultaneously!"
"When that happens, whether any of us will have enough power to withstand it directly is still an open question."
"So I'm warning everyone to be careful before making a move."
"And watch out for surprise attacks."
The Skrulls' forces were already in complete chaos.
Karl knew it would take them some time to recover.
But he was even more concerned about what would happen once they regained their composure.
If they suddenly intercepted Karl's group in space, the situation could turn disastrous.
Magneto was the greatest concern.
He could travel freely through space.
Changes in surrounding magnetic fields would not restrict his physical state.
In fact, he himself could generate an enormous magnetic field and use it to control others.
All of the superheroes had been upgrading their equipment and strengthening themselves.
But no matter how advanced their equipment became, none of them currently possessed technology capable of directly altering the surrounding magnetic field on that scale.
Iron Man was visibly surprised when he heard this.
He had already developed several powerful abilities of his own, and successive upgrades had dramatically increased his combat capability.
Even so, he remained concerned about how much damage Magneto could inflict during a direct confrontation.
Tony had his Absolute Speed available if he needed to escape.
But simply running away wouldn't solve anything.
"In that case, maybe we should take stock of what we have first."
Eric O'Grady stepped forward.
Everyone looked at him in confusion.
What good would taking stock of their abilities do now?
"Every one of us is essentially a powerful weapon."
"No matter how strong Magneto is, he still has weaknesses!"
"If we explain our individual strengths, maybe we can work out a way to exploit one of them!"
Wonder Woman immediately raised a question.
"But does anyone here actually know what Magneto's weakness is?"
Silence fell over the group.
No one knew for certain what his weakness was.
Even if Magneto did have one, his own strength was simply too formidable.
"This is all speculation…"
"Even if Tothwanwell really intends to conquer Earth and has managed to replicate Magneto, there's no guarantee he'll be capable of keeping that replica completely under control."
That was the most optimistic possibility they could think of.
Although Karl's theory was still only speculation, he vaguely remembered seeing a file concerning Magneto when he had been inside the underground prison.
"The Skrulls are extremely intelligent."
"They know that if they want to conquer Earth, they need an ace in the hole."
"And that ace needs to be something that can't easily be detected or tracked."
"Otherwise, what are we supposed to do? Sit here and wait for them to come kill us?"
The thought alone was deeply unsettling.
"This is insane. It's like the universe itself wants us dead."
Karl and the others began preparing their battle plan.
Meanwhile, at the Skrulls' main base, a massive container was being pushed out.
The entire container had a silvery metallic surface.
Deep, thunderous rumbling echoed from within.
The Skrulls pushed the enormous container into the center of the platform.
Countless Skrulls packed the surrounding area.
Tothwanwell stared at the container.
He knew that once Magneto was released, dealing with those superheroes would be almost effortless.
(End of Chapter)
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