Zero-Sum Game
After Sonya departed the group on this gray rainy day, she found herself not too far from London in a quaint English village, Sonya found herself squarely in the cute cozy cottage of a home of the Daltons. One of the MI6 agents watching the place informed Sonya they were back. There was a beautiful little attachment on their flat that had all kinds of scientific equipment and laboratory specifications. The lab was so well organized, Sonya waltzed right inside. Victor and Rosa Dalton became aware of the intrusion on their security camera. But it was so strange, it was just a woman, no gun, not armed, she just looked like a wealthy upper class woman who had wandered into the wrong space.
Rosa and Victor exchanged a glance at each other.
“It’s probably nothing. She is kind of old, maybe she had a mental lapse.” Victor proposed. Rosa looked at her curiously on the video.
“Should we go see?” Rosa asked suspiciously.
“Might as well.” Victor responded like it was no big deal but he grabbed a shot gun he used for hunting sometimes just in case.
The Daltons had only recently returned to their home after needing a break from the hounding of Gravik and his rebels. Rosa neared the brunt of it as she was the geneticist, Victor helped with the engineering of the machine Gravik wanted.
Sonya looked around the room casually. She found herself very interested in a microscope on the table and she figured she’d take a quick peak. She was eager for the Daltons to find her. The Daltons slowly walked into the laboratory observing this very strange unthreatening woman in their space.
“Ah! Hello, skrulls!” She said cheerfully with a bright smile on her face.
“Who … who are you?” Rosa asked shocked, a human saying the word skrulls to them. Rosa looked Sonya over in her beautiful silk green dress and purple coat.
“That is a question that has perplexed me for a great many years.”
“You can’t have an identity crisis in our home.” Victor scowled.
Sonya paused, she gave a big wide frown surprised at that response.
“I guess I should not have assumed that skrulls would be more empathetic to such a thing. But I suppose who I am really depends on who you want me to be. Your best friend or not your best friend. A matter of taste really, cake or death! Have you seen that bit, it’s a good one.” Sonya said with her signature cheeky grin.
Victor glared at her, he had enough of this woman. She must be here to blackmail them or something.
“Enough, get out.” He clicked his shotgun together. Again, Sonya made a surprised dramatic face.
“Well, this is a surprise, it’s a bit of an error. Oslo, We’ll have to have someone come fix this.”
“My name’s Victor.” He responded with almost a laugh, who was this nutty woman! But then Victor froze as he felt a cool metal ring against the back of his head.
“Yes, I know. Oslo is the name of the agent with his silencer pressed up against the base of your skull.”
Rosa looked over at the man who silently came up behind them, he was so tall yet stealth, and he was wearing an eye patch. Sonya knew she had to bring along someone she could trust to finish this up. Although a bit battered, Oslo was the perfect candidate, mostly because he knew what skrulls were and he was recently made available.
Victor lowered his gun and Rosa froze.
“Now, I was able to observe some amazing things in this microscope, tell me, this wasn’t just a slide of someone’s saliva, right?” Sonya joked.
“Please, our work is highly sophisticated, the likes of you can’t even…”
“Not you. I was talking to the Doctor.” Sonya cut off Victor rudely and she looked at Rosa and gestured to the seat in front of her. Rosa took a seat fearfully.
“I am actually able to see that you, Dr. Dalton…” Sonya looked at Victor to cut him nonverbally and then she looked back at Rosa “are breaking quite remarkable ground. Please tell me about it.” Sonya complimented.
“It’s very involved, it spans several different areas of focus.” Rosa said casually, surely this woman didn’t know the difference between it.
“Involved, it is! Now tell me, how involved is this?” Sonya held up the plans for Gravik’s machine that she found in the lab.
“There’s a skrull and he wants to be able to make his species, our species, invincible, as powerful of the avengers. He said he had access to their DNA.”
“And is his name, Gravik?
“Yes.”
“And does he have Avenger DNA?”
“He’s never been able to provide it, but he claimed he get it. He told a great many skrulls who support him that if they showed him loyalty he would be able to make them the strongest beings in the universe.”
“And what happens if you were to put Avenger DNA into your machine?”
“Any genetic based powers would be able to be emulated by the skrull who went through the machine. We practiced on some things we were able to get. Like… ice powers, and the powers of a tree based life form, and some skrulls have been injected with extremis.”
“How did you get extremis?”
“I stole it from a lab I used to work in. I was able to replicate it and then enhance it so it would be able to work on skrulls.”
“So there are skrulls who can survive fatal wounds?”
“Just Gravik, so far, he’s the only one I know of.”
“So, if I were to put the DNA of a rabbit into your machine and a skrull used your machine what would happen then?”
“The skrull would have the abilities of a rabbit… I guess…” Rosa shrugged at the strange question.
“So the skrull would hop, eat, mate, and shit?” Sonya made a face and Oslo laughed and everyone but Victor looked at him as he did not move. But Victor tried to give Oslo side eye.
“Sorry.” Oslo apologized looking more serious.
“Yes, I suppose. I don’t want to be crass.” Rosa shrugged again uncomfortably.
“The enhancements you already made on a skrull do they disappear or are you building on the skrull’s abilities and enhancements each time?”
“It depends what the machine is set to, it is meant to build on the enhancements, but the DNA has to be modified properly to build on the already made enhancements unless the DNA itself automatically produces regeneration and modify itself.”
“So, it our scenario it would be a super skrull rabbit?” Sonya asked tilting her head.
“Only if the DNA of the rabbit was modified to enact with the enhancements to be able to build off the DNA and other abilities of a skrull. The DNA has to be modified, you couldn’t just place the DNA of a rabbit into the machine and apply it to the skrull for the skrull to become a super skrull rabbit. It just can’t work that way, it’s gene editing. The machine will default to what the DNA will allow for. You have to enable the DNA sample to add on to the abilities of the skrull to openly mutate with the other abilities… otherwise…” Rosa stopped in her tracks as she looked at Victor’s face.
“The rabbit DNA acts as a subtraction of abilities?” Sonya asked curiously.
“Not a subtraction, it acts as a replacement if it’s not modified properly or capable of modifying itself.”
“So if Gravik got Avenger DNA he might be able to pop it into the machine and use it? But he won’t know if it works without the modification until he tries it?”
“It’s a bit of a difficult process at the moment, eventually he could pop it in to the machine and have the abilities of anyone he wanted. But some Avenger DNA might work if that DNA is self editing and adaptable. Some other alien species may have those abilities, so some powers might work without the modification while others likely won’t. Like most science it’s trial and error, the capabilities a skrull can get from it depends on the source of the DNA.”
“Uh-huh. Okay, please explain something to me… so a skrull cannot replicate abilities of a gifted being, unless they are enhanced with that being’s DNA, but when a skrull shifts into another being it shifts down to the DNA, isn’t that right, Doctor? So couldn’t Gravik just shift into any being whose DNA he wanted and take their DNA and give it to you to modify?” Sonya raised a brow as she questioned what this doctor was telling her. Something about this skrull science was fishy.
“You would think it would be that simple, but it’s a complicated science skrull shape shifting. The DNA mimicking a skrull can do, it’s really an evolutionary scheme developed by the skrulls over generations. When other species started to check DNA to weed out skrulls in their ranks, skrulls abilities eventually changed to be undetected. When a skrull's DNA shifts into that of its shell, it’s not a real DNA, it mimics the real DNA in sight but not in capabilities. It would show up on a DNA test as belonging to the shell but it wouldn’t enhance any skrulls’ abilities.”
“So, if Gravik touched the Hulk and he transformed into the Hulk he wouldn’t have the strength of him?” Sonya clarified with a raised brow, because as it seemed to her, Gravik would have the strength of the hulk if he was able to transform as him.
“Well physical abilities.. his physical strength it’s a little different because skrulls are already very strong, and because the body shifted into he would have additional strength afforded him by shifting into the hulk, just like if he shifted into a body builder or something.”
“So Gravik could just transform himself into Thor, he wouldn’t have the capabilities of a god, but would be as physically strong as him?” Sonya clarified.
“Yes, that’s a better way to put it.”
“Huh. A complicated science, indeed.” Sonya made a face.
“It’s not that different from the camouflaging of an octopus or a chameleon if that makes it easier for your kind to understand, it just happens under the skin, too.”
“You unbelievable traitorous bitch.” Victor growled at Rosa and Rosa looked upset. Oslo pressed his gun harder into Victor’s skull.
“Oslo, I don’t really need him.” Sonya said, she was lying and Oslo could tell it was just to signal to him to shut up.
“Alright.” Oslo moved like he was going to fire.
“STOP! That’s my husband!” Rosa called out terrified.
“Well, I know he’s your husband in this little charade you two are playing, but as a skrull is he really your husband?” Sonya asked.
“We’re married skrulls too.”
“I only know one other person in your species, but I can tell that you can do much better.” Sonya assured.
“Mmm.” Oslo added in like the peanut gallery he was.
“This ‘unbelievable traitorous bitch’ just saved your life, so maybe be a tad bit grateful.” Sonya said to Victor and he still looked mad.
“Alright, c’mon lets get the boys and pack this up and deal with this lot.” Sonya commanded and Oslo went to grab Victor’s wrists to handcuff him but Victor turned hitting Oslo hard in the face on the side of his face that hadn’t been hurt in the accident.
“Aw! My good eye!” Oslo yelled as he grabbed his face as he fell from the very hard force in which Victor struck him.
Victor took Oslo’s gun and Rosa jumped up and started to dart across the room to escape but Victor grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around and held it to Rosa’s head furious with her betrayal.
“I will not let her betray Gravik.”
“Oh, god.” Sonya rolled her eyes and she pulled out her gun and aimed it right at Victor. Victor pushed his gun harder into Rosa’s head.
“Please, the males in my species are the same, if they aren’t gaslighting us, they murdered us, that’s what all the podcasts are about.” Sonya said unimpressed as she fired her shot that went straight through Victor’s head, his purple blood sprayed all over Rosa and she let out a blood curdling scream as she watched her husband change back into his skrull form as he hit the ground.
“I’m sorry Doctor, but, I did tell you, you could do better.”
“Mm.” Oslo added.
Rosa was in shock as she looked at her dead husband who just tried to kill her.
“On the bright side, you might find somebody new in jail.”
“Jail?” Rosa asked in disbelief, she forgot she was committing all kinds of crimes.
“Yeah, in the jail we send aliens we don’t want anyone to know about.” Sonya clarified. “The rules are not the same for incarcerating non-humans, so…” Sonya looked at Rosa with raised brows.
“I.. I can help you, please.” Rosa cried.
“Yeah? Let’s start with a list of everyone you know who has been replaced by a skrull, and where they are.” Sonya ordered and Oslo grabbed his gun back aiming it at Rosa.
“There’s tons of people who are skrulls in disguise.” Rosa admitted.
“I need names, now.” Sonya demanded. Rosa shook her head.
“I don’t know their names but I know where they are.”
“And where are all of these people that were replaced by skrulls, have they haven’t been killed?” Sonya asked in an irritated voice.
“They’re being held in New Skrullos, all of them, they’re all alive.”
“New Skrullos?” Oslo asked.
“It’s an abandoned nuclear site in Russia, we’ve been living and working there undetected. The skrulls would abduct someone from a doctor’s appointment or something, knock them out and replace them.”
“How are they alive? Why aren’t they killed by the radiation? It’s an abandoned nuclear site, right? Humans can’t live there, that’s why they left it.” Sonya looked at Rosa alarmed.
“We need them to be alive, to act as them successfully, so we can tap into their deep memories. So, some skrulls constructed special units called ‘fracking pods’ the we built pods that protect them from the radiation and allow us to access their memories anytime.”
“How long has this been happening.” Sonya looked appalled.
“Years. It started over a decade ago.”
“What about the people who blipped?” Oslo questioned.
“If they blipped, the skrull who was them just kept pretending to be them and then when they came back it was if they never left at all.”
“There are people who blipped who might not even know?” Oslo asked offended.
“Yeah, and there were skrulls who blipped and we held people there anyway.” Rosa admitted shamefully. What choice did they have? Sonya looked really offended by that admission.
“It was started by the skrull queen, Veranke and then Gravik took over sometime after she died.” Rosa explained emotionally. She was crying as she started to unravel the gravity of the invasion.
“You can’t think of one identifiable person who is being held in ‘New Skrullos’ and replaced as a skrull?” Sonya glared at Rosa.
“Lawton, Prime Minister Lawton!” Rosa said frantically as she tried to recall and faces she could remember there. Sonya nodded as that made quite a bit of sense to her.
Sonya quickly contacted Maria and Fury warning them that Lawton was indeed a skrull as they suspected. She then sent Fury an update on the science that Rosa shared and what Gravik’s machine could and couldn’t do. As Sonya updated Fury, Oslo arrested Rosa, and MI6 agents arrived to clear and destroy the laboratory. Sonya knew she had to go start removing the invaders making decisions and it was going to be very complicated, how could she arrest the Prime Minister? Sonya had to get rid of Weatherby too, those two could be quite dangerous together.
—————
Back in the motorcade …
Rhodes and Ritson started to travel through the English countryside to get to Chequers. Ritson agreed they should release the footage of Fury shooting Hill, Rhodes acted like he was working on it, texting vigorously on his phone. Gravik wrote back Raava to wait until after the strike, in case Fury did show up, it provided a motive for Fury.
If Gravik was feeling up to it maybe he’d throw some Fury into the mix even if he didn’t show up. The set up was a win/win for Gravik. As Gravik saw it there was really no good end for Fury, even if Gravik lost, Fury lost too. And that’s what’ mattered more to Gravik than being successful. It was a zero-sum game.
Originally, Gravik was rather confident that Fury would show up to the speech but he started to suspect that when Fury dropped that tidbit of information to Varra it might be a set up for Gravik, a play on false confidence. Hill showing up to distract Raava was probably not a coincidence. But Gravik couldn’t quite place it since Hill had been working with the MI6 agents for some time. She also didn’t seem to fight Rhodes’s fake pitch that real Fury shot her. If Maria thought Rhodes was a skrull imposter there was no way she would tell him everything she knew. She’d just get killed, she had to know that. Gravik thought back to the chess match he watched Maria and Fury play at the bar. You could learn so much about someone if you played chess with them. Maria put all her cards on the table, she played an open honest game and if Fury had been paying attention to her moves instead of feeling sorry for himself he easily could have trapped her a few times. Gravik felt confident in this theory at least.
Then Gravik started to think about the moves that had been made. It was hard for Gravik to discern if every move Hill made was extremely calculated or was it a mix of dumb luck, connections, and even skill— as much as Gravik hated to admit it. Gravik knew Falsworth was helping Hill, and that Falsworth was onto Weatherby and that had to be where Hill was aligning herself. If Hill did think the Fury she had been working with before was a skrull operative which she told Raava, Hill and Fury reconnecting seemed slim to none and Varra made no mention of Hill being with Fury. Even if Fury and Hill were making some kind of play Gravik wasn’t worried, they’d be able to find out anything Hill knew about about a plot the second she was finally replaced. Then this really would be over.
As Raava sat in the car across from the President, Raava couldn’t help feel like Gravik was up to something dirty and outside of the plan. She was still on edge about finding the bug in her hotel room and on her person. She thought it was Val but really it could have been done through Gravik. Gravik was so willing to send another skrull to Raava even though he wanted as many people available for the attack on Ritson. And why did Gravik go along with Raava’s suggestions so easily? He never did that, he was usually very short and dismissive with her. Why would he want to replace Hill like Raava suggested instead of just kill her? Raava knew why she suggested replacement, her intertwined human emotions didn’t let her suggest anything else, but Gravik already tried to eliminate Hill and failed, more than once. He had to be trying to settle that score with her.
Gravik was so insistent that Rhodes be in the same car as Ritson. But they could have just as easily put a tracker on the car. Then Raava had a thought that raised Raava’s paranoia and the hair on Rhodes’s arm stood up as a chill ran through him. Was Gravik going to kill her? Was he going to just take out the whole car? Gravik wanted Ritson dead for sure and if that happened what would Raava’s role be if Ritson was killed? The Vice President would have his own advisors to listen to. As this dawned on Raava she realized that Gravik was exactly this type of person, ‘no loose ends’ and Raava could see that Gravik would certainly consider her to be a loose end as this mission wrapped up.
—————
MEANWHILE at Downing Street …
As the time for the Prime Minister’s announcement approached, Downing Street buzzed with anticipation. It was no secret that the U.K. was hosting talks with the United States and Russia to stop the brink of war. Lawton had ensured the kingdom that everything was going well and people were working very hard to reach a solution to the violence. But something about her inflection gave so many people a lack of confidence in what was going on. That’s what Lawton wanted to do to make people feel uneasy and on edge.
During her speech, Lawton’s security detail that was largely made up of skrulls was on high alert for any suspicious character, specifically they were looking for Fury or Talos. They knew that Talos and Fury if they showed up would be sneaking around trying to blend in. Luring Fury to this event did seem all too easy, was the man this much of a fool? Lawton thought to herself. He had really gone down hill in the last couple of years. After Lawton finished her diversion of an announcement she went back to her office in Downing Street.
One of her security officers showed her a security video of Varra in the crowd. Lawton was told to be expecting Varra, and she had very specific instructions from Gravik about this.
“Let’s see if she doesn’t have time for a visit with her good friend from college.” Lawton said to the agent. Lawton messaged Gravik that there was no Fury in sight yet, but assured him that Varra was there. After a few minutes one of the agents arrived with Varra.
“Prime Minister.” She said faking excitement.
“Varra or do you still go by Priscilla now?” Lawton snickered.
“And, do tell how many names do you go by?” Varra asked.
“Let’s have a brief chat.” Lawton said gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. Varra looked suspicious at the two agents in the room.
“We’re all your family here.” Lawton clarified and Varra slowly approached the chair as she was directed.
“Excellent speech Ma’am.” Varra said with clearly fake intentions.
“Yes. Well. It didn't really have the desired result, though, did it?” She asked tilting her head like a teacher who caught someone red handed. Varra turned her head at the question.
“What result?” Varra asked with slight confusion.
“Fury didn’t show, did he?” Lawton asked Varra and she shook her head no.
“He’s disguised. He doesn’t look like himself, he may be here, but I couldn’t find him.” Varra explained.
Lawton looked unhappy.
“Varra, please. You know he’s not here.”
“Why would I know that? Gravik told me to come here for him. Fury said he was coming.”
Lawton gave Varra a condescending look.
“Do you think people tell you where they’re going if they know you’re working against them?” Lawton asked dressing Varra down. Varra was trying to understand what was going on in her head. Lawton could see the perplexed look on Varra’s face.
“You said he was coming, and he did not show up. What does that mean to you? You’re a smart skrull Varra, one of the best and you are blinded by your feelings for Fury.” Lawton lectured.
“He could be here, he has a veil. I saw him use it.”
Lawton had very specific instructions, if Fury showed go after Fury, if it was just Varra her time was up. Since Fury was on to her, she was no use to Gravik and the resistance any more. Gravik couldn’t take a chance either that Varra was helping Fury or would turn on them. She wavered. Gravik didn’t have space for people who could so easily flip.
“I have a message from Gravik for you… he thanks you for your service, but your time with the resistance has run it’s course.” Lawton said unaffected.
“What are you talking about?”
“Harboring our worst enemy? What did you think was going to happen. You can’t work for two candidates, you know what I mean, love?”
“No! What do you mean? He was supposed to come to me. That was the plan. I was supposed to be spying on him and he was to think coming to our house was safe.” Varra started to look angry.
“Our house. Don’t you see the problem? You’ve gone and mixed yourself with one of them.” Lawton eyed Varra hatefully.
“Mixed myself with one of them?” Varra asked.
“Do you also share a bed with the human? ‘Our bed.’” Lawton made an offended face at Varra and Varra’s face echoed hers.
“Watch yourself, Lyja.” Varra used her skrull name and she said it dripping with disdain.
“That’s what I thought.” Lawton narrowed her gaze at Varra hatefully.
“Lots of skrulls pretending to be humans have intimate relationships with them.” Varra defended.
“Yeah, but, the difference is they do that for an act, for a purpose, but that’s not what you did.”
“How dare you.”
“Well, I am nothing but a purist to say the least.” Lawton said with a cheeky British smirk.
“A racist.” Varra said with hate at Lawton.
“Well, they’re more a species really. Speciesism isn’t anything new, if anything the humans have excelled at it for generations, and we are here to dispel their misbeliefs that they are the superior species on this planet.”
“What is wrong with you? This has always been the plan, I was supposed to be with Fury.”
“You are right, it was a part of the plan, the part that you knew. You can’t be too surprised, you must know there’s not a place for you in the new world, and there’s no place for you in this current world either.” Lawton pressed her lips together and looked at Varra sympathetically.
“What!?” Varra shot up in her seat enraged. But the two agents beside her put their hands on her shoulders and pushed her back down.
“You married a human, you love a human, for real. You’re a species traitor. You’re not a true skrull, not a true human, you’re just a liability to both sides.”
“I did this to help Veranke, you know that.”
“We do things for Gravik now.” Lawton shook her head patronizingly.
“And, let’s be honest, that’s what you pretended to do for Veranke. Thats what you said to convince us all it was okay. It was to help yourself, it was because you were selfish, you fell into the trap of human womanhood, desperate for love and affection, let some man take you for a ride and stifle your career for him, stifle your cause even. It’s pathetic really.”
“I don’t understand. Gravik set me up?” Varra looked stunned.
“I don’t know why this isn’t clear to you. You served a purpose for Gravik, and now you do not. Unfortunately, Varra, your use to this cause is of very limited value and Gravik has determined that value has ended. Fury’s been on to you for years, why do you think he hid away from you in space all this time, and kept you on a different continent than where he worked?”
“No. He was protecting me. It’s part of the agreement, our deal, our arrangement.”
“He was keeping you in the dark. He either knew you were working against him or he was ashamed of you and c’mon we know, it was really probably both. You got played, darling. Twice. You sold your true self for a fake version of you to appease a male.” Lawton scoffed. “So much for a well trained spy, maybe it was good you stopped working for Fury to be his little house wife.” Lawton stood up admonished Varra.
“If you’re true to the cause like you claim, then I assume you’ll go quietly.” Lawton gestured to her two skrull henchmen acting as her security detail.
Varra gasped dropping her jaw.
“True to the cause or true to Gravik?” Varra asked angrily. That’s what this was really about someone showing loyalty to anyone other than Gravik for any reason.
“It’s one in the same.”
“It is not!” Varra corrected and Lawton sighed very loud.
“Really, it’s better this way, Varra. If you lived through it all, Gravik was going to put you on trial for treason, make a show out of you for cohabitating with our enemy. We just can’t allow human sympathizers like you in New Skrullos.”
“Human sympathizer?” Varra asked shocked.
“Fury’s not the only human you’ve ever cared about. Look at your shell. You didn’t steal that shell, you asked for it.”
“She was my friend, and she wanted to live longer than the world would allow her.”
“Did you think she wanted to be whisked away and hidden by some man with her extra life?” Lawton snarked.
“Humans are not our enemy, they barely even know we exist.”
“Comments like that really do not help your case. But you’re not wrong, are they worthy of being our enemies? No, they’re more like common pests, vermin, mice or ants or something getting in the way of our plans. If you help them, if you let them live on they will grow out of control and then take over. You just have to step on them and stop enabling them so we can grow.” Lawton said casually to Varra, she then gestured with her hands for Varra to get up.
“Please don’t make a scene, I’d hate to have to tie you to your terrorist husband on your way out. Trying to kill leaders of the free world.” Lawton snickered. The two skrull agents grabbed Varra’s arms and lifted her from the chair.
“Lyja don’t do this.” Varra warned using Lawton’s skrull name.
“We just can’t have any loose ends hanging about.” Lawton shook her head and looked back down at her desk as Varra was dragged out of her office through a back room.
“Lyja! Lyja!” Varra started yelling.
“Pipe down before we do it for you.” Lawton said coldly as the door to the back exit closed and the two skrulls forced Varra down an empty hall.
After Varra was removed Lawton called Gravik back, Fury not showing up to the speech likely meant he was circling in on Gravik. Maybe Fury just didn’t fall for the set up but Gravik knew Fury had to be coming for him soon. Lawton assured Fury was a no show and that she was dealing with Varra so they could stop worrying about her being a liability.
As Gravik was updated he pondered what to do, he knew Fury on his own could not stop the hoard of skrull operatives heading Ritson’s way, if anything, Fury showing up assured his own destruction. Things were coming together for Gravik so cleanly it started to make him nervous, but as he thought about it, why shouldn’t things come together for him? He was Gravik after all, the Skrull General, ‘elected unanimously.’ He did all this work and people clearly had faith in his leadership for a reason, Gravik told himself.
——————
MEANWHILE back in the hotel…
As Maria was quickly pulled and rushed into Rhodes’s abandoned hotel room, Maria felt the strong and harsh grip of the secret service agent behind her. She struggled against the hold unsuccessfully due to the skrull’s great physical strength.
“You won’t even notice.” Frain said surprisingly nicely as he uncapped a syringe with a potent tranquilizer with his mouth and then went to jab the thin needle into Maria’s neck. Just as Maria felt the lightest pinch into her skin Maria took her hand and clawed at the needle pushing it away from her and there was then a sudden unnatural click sound that caught Frain off guard. Frain then felt something jab into his shoulder harshly.
“What!” He started to yell surprised as his grip around Maria started to loosen swiftly and Maria pulled herself away as Frain looked over at Agent Killbourne who was standing there holding up a tranquilizer gun with a big grin on his face as he shifted in to Talos’s human form. Frain then started to fall backward into the door with the look of shock taking over him.
“It’s almost like we knew exactly what you were going to do.” Talos muttered unimpressed as Frain’s body fell against the door and lost consciousness.
Maria grabbed the syringe from the floor and put the cap back on. The cap was wet from the skrull’s saliva and she made a face realizing it as she had touched it. She wiped her hand off on her pants and put the syringe in her pocket.
Maria glared at Talos.
“What? No thank you?” He tilted his head at Maria smugly.
“You took too long.”
“C’mon, I made it.” Talos tried to brag. It took Talos longer because he wanted to tranquilize the skrull, not kill him.
“Okay, well, next time you can be the one who gets grabbed and muffled and a needle pricked into your neck and I’ll do the shooting.”
“Oh, that won’t happen to me, because you’ll shoot them well before then.” Talos smirked at Maria like he was joking with Fury and Maria glared at Talos right in his eyes and then rolled her eyes dramatically.
“What are we doing with this guy?” Maria said looking at the lump of a disguised human on the ground.
“We’ll put him with the other one.” Talos shrugged.
Maria and Talos dragged Frain by the arms toward the bathroom and then restrained him. When they opened the door the real but fake agent Killbourne was restrained on the bathroom floor and gagged. He was still out from when Talos tranquilized him earlier.
Maria looked at Talos when she saw the disturbing scene to say the least of a secret service agent tied up on a bathroom hotel floor, even though she knew he was a rebel skrull operative.
“What?” Talos asked knowing it looked really bad and Maria just tilted her head at him and gave him a harsh stare.
“This is giving a real scary crime boss vibe, you know?” Maria made a face.
“What did you think I was going to do with him?” Talos shrugged. Talos didn’t want to do it, but he had to. He wanted both of the skrulls to be kept alive too, so they could question them. Talos wasn’t wrong about that and Maria knew getting information from them was crucial but the means in which they were going to have to go about it were probably not going to be great.
Maria and Talos were the two most merciful people in Fury’s crew and they knew they were going to have to be unnaturally cruel to get these skrulls to turn on Gravik, if they would. If not, Talos was going to face a tough choice, kill more of his own or risk them getting free. Talos knew what choice he was going to make if he had to, but it was a tough one for him. Maria already had to take out quite a few skrulls to save herself and she really didn’t want to have to kill anymore of them.
Talos joining Maria was a last minute change of plans before everyone went off to deal with the mess these skrulls had made. He came in pretending to be Agent Watson, someone who didn’t raise any alarm. When Maria said she was going to tell the President everything, Talos realized this was an opportunity, if they could quash the rebellion and save Ritson then Talos could ask the President himself for help and refuge for the skrulls. Maybe something good would come out of it.
Fury also knew Maria’s concern was right, the skrulls probably would try to replace her, and then what would happen? Fury had to make sure he had a person on the inside, and he had to guarantee that person would stay that person. So Fury went off on his own, Sonya went to find the Daltons, and Talos and Maria were going to try and get to Ritson without tipping off the skrulls nearby.
Talos gave each of the well restrained skrulls a shot of something and removed the gag from Apox’s mouth.
The two restrained skrulls slowly woke up and looked up confused at their captors. Talos and Maria Hill? Apox scoffed as he realized it was just a woman and the most pathetic skrull in the galaxy.
Please! Apox believed he could easily break free of these restraints and kill both of them. Apox struggled to free himself, squirming on the floor but he could not wriggle out of the restraints Talos had used. Talos knew how to keep a skrull from breaking free and it was clear that Apox could not get himself out of these binds. Frain awoke more slowly as he started to realize what had happened.
“We have some questions, so just be up front with us do you guys want to answer them as friends or as enemies?” Maria asked casually as the two skrulls looked up at them hatefully. Maria had taken Frain’s gun and she and Talos held their guns up at the two bound skrulls.
“UNBIND ME TALOS YOU TRAITOR!” Apox yelled kicking and wailing on the floor. Frain also struggled and squirmed on the floor. They did look rather pathetic.
“Do it now Talos! Or once we get free we will rip your fucking heads off!” Frain growled.
Talos took a device from his pocket, it looked similar to the electric batons that were used in skrull battles decades ago, but it was much smaller and had a trigger now. It emitted a purple glow from the tip and he shot it at Frain and bright purple light shocked him, his body contorted for a moment and then it stopped. Frain started gasping, taking shallow breaths as he recovered. The skrull electric batons were so much stronger than any electric shock batons used on earth against humans, and this one didn’t even use the full force the ones from Skrullos had back in the day. They still hurt a lot, humans might not even live through it.
“You used skrull technology against one of your own!” Apox scowled and Talos turned it on him.
“And Gravik is using skrulls to kill skrulls.” Talos shot back at the two of them.
“And he’s going to kill you just like he killed your wife and your daughter too.” Frain added smugly as he recovered briefly before Talos shocked him again, and for much longer. Frain’s body contorted against the hard cold floor violently. Talos wanted to shock him again but he refrained, showing restraint that Frain did not deserve but Talos gave it to him anyway.
Frain was angry as he gasped for air trying to recover.
“I’m glad… he killed those… traitorous bitches!” Frain said slowly between gasping breaths. Talos grabbed Frain by his coat and pulled him up by his clothes as he punched Frain hard in the jaw. Frain’s face spun harshly to the side, blood escaping his nose and mouth. Frain let out a cry of pain.
“Gravik doesn’t care about you. He sent you here to die, Frain! He knew we were here, and he sent you to your death. He thought you were expendable. He knew Hill was here and she’s been racking up a lot of you idiots.” Talos growled and Maria nodded.
“Lots of ‘em, and I”m not losing any sleep over it, and have no problem adding you to that list right now.” Maria insisted confidently.
“And you’re working with her! She’s out there killing your brothers, what does that say about you?” Apox growled at Talos as he watched Talos grip Frain tightly and hatefully.
“We’re trying to save lives, you’re trying to destroy them.” Talos looked at Apox with a stone cold glare as he gripped Frain still.
“Human lives.” Apox scoffed.
“I am trying to save skrull lives! You fools are so pathetic that you really think you would walk out of this alive? You’re just causing destruction with no purpose!” Talos yelled at them.
“I’m a soldier! That’s what we are for, to follow orders of our leader even if we die.” Frain responded but his voice was in pain.
Maria and Talos looked at each other and Talos took his gun back out he he pressed it right against Frain’s forehead with force. Talos had such a wildly hateful, vengeful look in his eye as he pressed that gun against Frain, as Apox saw it, he knew Talos was going in for the kill. Apox was from an older generation who knew of the great general Talos, Frain was not and if Talos would kill Frain, he would probably kill him next.
“Talos! Talos!” Apox warned. This was the Talos Apox remembered, the harsh general, not the Talos of earth that Frain had heard of growing up.
“If you want to die for Gravik, here’s your chance.” Talos said in a cold unfeeling voice and he looked Frain right in the eyes as he narrowed his gaze.
Talos moved his hand forward and Frain’s eyes widened as he was faced with imminent death.
“WAIT NO STOP PL..” Frain started to beg as Talos’s finger pressed down on the trigger. Frain tensed up in fear.
“TALOS!” Apox yelled but nothing happened.
Frain took some slow deep breaths and trembled violently. As Talos had pulled the trigger but the gun had been empty.
Talos smirked at Frain with a smug grin.
“So, you don’t want to die for Gravik, then?” Talos looked Frain right in the eyes and Frain shook his head no. Talos was right, when faced with it, he wanted to live. A fake execution wasn’t really Talos’s go-to plan, rather brutal and traumatizing but Talos needed to show them they did not want to die for that man like they claimed they did.
Talos picked himself up and leaned straight and he loaded his gun in front of both of them.
“He got the fake out, so now let’s see, are you ready to die for Gravik?” Talos asked aiming his gun at Apox and Apox shook his head no.
“Well, now that is settled. If you don’t want to die for Gravik, I’ll give you both the chance to live for me, but you’re only going to live if you have something useful for us, so start talking.” Talos looked at the two of them.
“There’s no second chances, no other fake outs. I showed you what you really wanted and now here is your only chance to get your lives back.” Talos looked at the two of them.
As much as Talos wanted to take his rage out on Frain he had to stop thinking like someone with to avenge and start thinking like a spy. His emotions clouded his judgement before when he wanted to protect G’iah, now he couldn’t get bogged down as much as it hurt him.
“Where is Gravik and what is he planning?” Maria asked directly now that the tactics seemed over, she was relieved for the skrulls’ sakes really, because she too thought Talos would take out one of them based on the awful things Frain said.
The two skrulls were quiet as they looked at her, they were afraid but they did not respect this woman at all. Were they just supposed to give up everything to them?
“… I really only need one skrull to answer questions and there are more of them around than you two, so…” Maria added casually with impatient sigh. The skrulls were both quiet again. If the talked and Gravik found out he would kill them, but if they didn’t talk Talos and Maria would kill them.
“Alright, you want to pick which one?” Talos asked Maria.
“Nah, flip a coin since they both seem equally useless.”
“Flip a coin?!” Apox yelled. Apox was far more experienced than Frain, a young rebel recruit.
“That’s the most fair, and hey, if you die in this timeline you’ll live in the alternate one, right?” Maria smirked at them.
“I’m way more useful than Frain.” Apox said offended.
“What!” Frain yelled.
Talos took a coin out of his pocket and gave it to Maria.
“You both seem useless to me and I don’t have time for this, so someone call it, heads or tails?”
“Talos, you can’t be serious.” Apox started to beg.
“He can be heads, since he has such a big head.” Maria gestured to Apox. Maria flipped the coin and caught it and put it on the back of her palm. She looked at both of them before she uncovered it and sealed one of their fates.
“Gravik is attacking the motorcade on its way to Chequers.” Frain started to talk immediately as he knew he wasn’t getting a second chance.
“How? With what?” Maria huffed seriously.
“It’s going to be aerial first to stop them from traveling and then ground, coming up from both sides of the road. There’s probably 100 skrull operatives involved disguised as Russian rebels. Gravik just told us to mow down all the Americans, as many as we could. Whoever killed the most he was going to reward.” Frain responded.
“But there’s always aerial support over the motorcade, you just can’t see it, it would be able to take out any incoming aerial attacks.” Maria looked at Frain skeptically. What was Gravik thinking, they’d get shot down instantly. Was this skrull lying her.
“There isn’t any aerial support for the motorcade today, there are skrulls in the helicopters, there are skrulls in the stealth cover.” Frain looked back at Maria to see if she was understanding it.
They replaced the military aerial support with skrulls? Maria looked pissed.
“I have to go, I have to stop the President from leaving.” Maria said to Talos and she started to move toward the door.
“It’s too late, he already left.” Frain mumbled and Maria looked very irritated of course the security threat diversion wasn’t real and ws just an attempt to get her into a closed room.
“There is no way that a Russian projectile is getting through U.K. air space and definitely not when the President of the United States is here.” Maria looked at Frain very skeptically as he claimed this was the plan.
“LADY, yeah exactly! the projectile is going to come from the U.S. aerial support, it’s going to look like a misfire on the ground troops and hit a car in the motorcade instead.”
“But skrull Rhodes is in the motorcade?” Maria looked very skeptical of this plan.
“He’s with Ritson, so we know where he is and so Gravik can take him out how he wants.” Apox added.
“But if Rhodes gets hurt won’t he expose your whole thing?” Maria looked at the two of them. How could these men think they wanted to die for a man with a plan this stupid? Talos waved his gun at Apox to keep talking and Apox looked reluctant.
“Because we’re tracking Ritson through Rhodes, we know what car not to hit first.” Frain sighed.
“We aren’t going to shoot at our people obviously, and we have gear to protect ourselves.”
“Yeah, but…” Maria wasn’t buying what Frain was telling her. Did Gravik have no strategic skill at all? He just liked a show, that had to be it. What an insane risk to take.
“Not all of your people are going to survive that fight, when the American military takes you out, which they will at least some of you, when you die they’ll see you’re skrulls, isn’t that just going to blow Gravik’s cover as Russian rebels entirely and prove it wasn’t the Russians.” Was this skrull lying to them? Was Gravik an idiot? Maria was just trying to make sure what these skrulls were telling her was true before she jumped on it.
“Yeah, see the problem is, lady, that you’re assuming the Americans are going to win and they will be someone left to talk about what they saw at the scene, and Gravik knows we will win and there won’t be and their won’t be anyone left to contradict the evidence on the ground, Russian weapons, Russian gear.” Frain explained
“No wonder skrull Rhodes didn’t care if I knew where Ritson was going, Ritson was never going to get there.” Maria sighed. Maria groaned, she couldn’t believe they fucked up again. Maria angrily kicked near Frain’s leg, but hitting him was an accident.
“OW! Hey! What was that for!! I told you everything. You kicked me!” He whined like a child.
“You .. pricked me.” Maria looked at him frustrated.
“You guys are really in over your head.” Frain muttered with a little laugh.
Maria looked down at Frain tied up on the floor of the bathroom.
“I’m not the one bound on the floor of a hotel bathroom.” Maria rolled her eyes, but he wasn’t wrong. This group being in over their head was a constant theme and Maria had no idea what they were going to do against a skrull army. They did not fare so well the last time they were in a violent mass panic.
“You almost were.” Frain snarked back smugly. Talos kicked him, on purpose. “OW!” Frain whined.
“My foot slipped.” Talos smirked.
They fucked up bad, again. Maria couldn’t believe it. Maria should have gone right to Val, but she just didn’t know if she could trust her, the only thing she knew for sure was that she couldn’t trust Rhodes which is why it was better to try to trick Rhodes and make him think Maria trusted him than take a risk it with Val. Now, Rhodes was going to frame Fury and Val too.
Maria and Talos exchanged a glance and Talos could see Maria looked a little panicked. Unsure if what these skrulls told them was true, and even if it was, what exactly were they going to do. But Talos gave Maria a surprisingly confident look
“Alright, boys, shed those skins.” Talos said as he took out a phone and filmed the two skrulls shifting from their human form to an their true selfs while restrained on the bathroom floor. They weren’t sure what they were doing. Talos stopped filming and he put the phone away.
After Talos had the two skrulls change back into their true form he tranquilized both of them again and adjusted their restraints to make sure they couldn’t get free. Maria and Talos knew they had a couple hours with these guys knocked out, and if someone found them, they probably wouldn’t let them go free if they looked like … well aliens.
During this, Maria kept trying to call Fury and she couldn’t get him.
“Nick is on his own, tracking Rhodes. He’s going to get killed. Either by Gravik or the Americans if they think he’s with the Russians, and they are already trying to set that up.” Maria tried Fury again on his phone. That was exactly the type of set up Gravik was going for.
“God damn it, pick up!” Maria yelled frustrated after Fury’s phone kept ringing.
“Well, that’s a hello.” Fury muttered into the phone as he finally answered.
“Yeah, maybe I should have tried that line two years ago.” Maria snarked.
“Gravik’s plan is an attack on the motorcade on its way to Chequers, presumably in the most isolated part of the drive, but that’s a guess from me. The attack starts with an aerial misfire, from within the support of the motorcade that will strike a car that doesn’t have Rhodes or Ritson in it. The motorcade will stop and will be trapped on both sides by an estimated 100 skrull operatives but some are from within the President’s security. They are looking for you, they are going to tie you to to this you cannot go there. We have to find another way.” Maria explained in a quick and urgent voice.
“I’m almost there I’m not turning back now.” Fury said confidently and Maria looked really mad.
“We have to call for help, now. It’s a no man left standing order from Gravik. You cannot go there, you will die.” Maria said frustrated, Fury was dead no matter what if he went there and he no chance against an army of skrulls by himself.
“Hill, we’ve taken out and held off alien armies before.” Fury said confidently.
“Yeah, with the support of a very well funded and very technologically advanced agency!” What Maria wouldn’t give for a helicarrier right now.
“I have to try to stop Gravik in his tracks, I’m closest person there.” Fury said confidently.
Maria made the angriest face and she glared at Talos, but then Maria paused. Fury was right even if it was stupid, he was already so close, there was no way Maria could get help there faster than Fury even if he had a very small, almost impossible chance to stop this, at least he could mitigate the damage.
“Okay.” Maria said not fighting it which surprised Fury.
“I am going to try and get you some help but…” Maria sighed
“I won’t hold out for it.” Fury assured.
Maria had no time to think about a plan as she hung up with Fury and she and Talos just stared at each other. The clock was ticking, it could happen any moment and they found themselves just once again, waiting for a bomb to go off.
“Let’s go help him.” Maria said to Talos’s great surprise. Although Maria was not exactly sure what she was going to do quite yet, she did know that the very last person she wanted see or talk to, was probably the person who could help the most, Val.