"Thank goodness I just upgraded to Silver Alex, and my super hearing has significantly improved. Otherwise, I might not have caught that sound."
Alex exhaled a faint breath of relief, his sharp eyes narrowing as he tilted his head upward.
His hearing had grown beyond terrifying. Every vibration of air, every faint scrape of metal, every whisper of breath—even the smallest disturbances now carried to him with flawless clarity. The entire planet was within his auditory grasp, like Charles using Cerebro to comb through countless minds.
And the best part?
This… was nowhere near his limit.
The sound he was focusing on didn't come from a building across the city, or even from another country—it came from tens of thousands of meters above the Earth's surface.
High above the atmosphere.
To be honest, Alex hadn't placed much hope in his hearing. Nearly two hours had passed since the Cube vanished, and any mastermind involved would have surely moved on or cloaked their movements. His plan had always relied more heavily on his X-ray vision, methodically sweeping every inch of terrain in a carpet-style search.
He believed sooner or later, he would uncover the Cube.
But reality had decided to play a different tune. His X-ray vision found nothing. His super hearing, however, picked up a conversation that changed everything.
And that conversation was happening in the sky.
"Found you."
His lips curved in a cold smile.
Without another thought, Alex blurred into motion. The atmosphere screamed as he ripped through it with impossible speed, a streak of red and silver cutting a straight line toward the heavens.
---
Far above Earth's atmosphere…
A sleek Skrull starship carved through the void, engines blazing with green-white light. Within its armored hull, several figures of distorted, alien forms sat gathered in high spirits.
On a raised platform in the center of the chamber sat their prize—
The Cosmic Cube.
Its crystalline glow painted the room in shifting shades of blue, refracting across alien steel and the eager, sharp faces of its captors.
If Alex had been there already, he would have recognized them immediately. The Skrulls.
For generations, their war against the Kree Empire had raged on, and the Cube—one of the most powerful energy sources in the known universe—was the kind of weapon that could turn the tide of their eternal struggle.
And in this timeline, thanks to the butterfly effect of Alex's existence, Project Pegasus had never been founded. The U.S. military never had the chance to study the Cube in secret. The Kree never staged their infiltration.
This time, it was the Skrulls who found it first.
"I never expected the energy source to actually be hidden on this barren planet," said a lanky Skrull with deep green ridges marking his forehead. His name was Tuga, a hardened warrior from the Fifth Fleet of the Seventh Skrull Legion.
Tuga's rise through the ranks had been swift. His victories against the Kree had caught the eyes of his superiors, and thus he had been chosen for this mission of utmost importance. For seven long years, he had lived disguised on Earth, patiently investigating, maneuvering, and waiting for his chance.
At last, his patience bore fruit. He had stolen the Cube himself.
"Yes," another burly Skrull beside him rumbled, nodding in satisfaction. His name was Yabo, Tuga's closest comrade-in-arms. "A wretched little backwater world, yet it hides something this extraordinary. C-53 is more interesting than I thought."
At the head of the chamber, sitting with his armored arms folded across his chest, was a figure who radiated command. His eyes glowed faintly, his expression calm but full of authority.
Commander Nakel.
The supreme officer in charge of this Earth mission. A veteran of countless interstellar battles, his very presence carried the weight of a soldier forged in endless war.
"This planet may be backward," Nakel admitted, his voice deep, "but do not underestimate it. C-53 harbors more than primitive humans. There are beings here that even we should be cautious of."
"Commander Nakel, you mean the mutants?" Tuga scoffed, his lips curling. "Yes, some of them are stronger than humans, but compared to us? They're nothing. I've studied the so-called 'X-Men' carefully. Their powers are flashy, but most mutants wouldn't survive a week in real war."
Nakel didn't reply, but Yabo frowned and spoke up.
"Tuga, you're forgetting someone."
At that, the chamber grew heavier.
One name was enough to freeze the air.
"Alex."
The sound of it made even Tuga's expression harden.
During his long years infiltrating Earth, Tuga had heard the stories again and again. Alex was whispered about with awe, with fear, with reverence. The so-called strongest mutant in the world. A man who stood above all others, his very name synonymous with invincibility.
Two decades ago, he had led a small mutant team—barely more than a dozen operatives—against the Decepticons. Against the Cybertronians themselves. And he had won.
Tuga had once obtained a classified recording of that battle. He remembered watching in silence as Alex tore through titans of steel and fire, moving like a god of war among machines.
Even now, just recalling the sight made his skin prickle.
"That man is… monstrous," Tuga admitted grudgingly.
But then he straightened his back, sneering with forced confidence. "Even so, it doesn't matter. We've already taken the Cube. Not even Alex can stop us now."
"Exactly," Yabo agreed, grinning with sharp teeth. "He may be able to fly, but I refuse to believe any creature from this mudball planet can survive in space. He can't chase us here."
The logic was sound.
After all, in the vast universe, how many could survive the vacuum of space with sheer flesh and bone? Not even the mighty Kree could boast such a feat casually.
No—Alex was powerful, terrifying even, but he was no god. A being of such magnitude simply could not emerge from C-53.
It was impossible.
Or so they thought.
---
Suddenly, the sharp alarm of the ship blared, a shrill chorus cutting through their laughter.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"Warning: Unidentified flying object detected."
"Warning: Unidentified flying object detected."
The Skrulls stiffened, exchanging wary glances.
A UFO? Out here?
Nakel rushed to the console, fingers flying across alien controls. With a flicker, the ship's sensors projected the magnified image of the intruder onto the central display.
The room fell silent.
And then—
Every Skrull froze, their green eyes bulging in disbelief.
It wasn't a ship.
It wasn't a missile.
It was a man.
A single figure blazing through the void, wrapped in an aura of molten crimson light. His cape whipped violently in the vacuum as he surged closer and closer, every movement shredding the empty black into thunderous shockwaves.
"...No."
Tuga's voice trembled.
"Impossible…" Yabo whispered, his jaw slack.
Commander Nakel's stoic face finally cracked, horror dawning in his eyes.
The image grew sharper.
There was no mistaking him.
It was Alex.
"Alex?!"
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"He actually… caught up to our starship?!"
Their voices overlapped, stunned and disbelieving, each syllable dripping with terror.
Just minutes ago, they had laughed. They had sneered. They had declared with absolute certainty that Alex could never reach them here.
And yet—
Here he was, flying through the cold void of space as if it were nothing.
The slap of reality across their pride was deafening.
So brutal. So absolute.
Alex… was this ridiculous.
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