Marvel's Kryptonian Scientist Chapter 135 135

"Drex, I understand why you're angry about this," Tony Stark said, shaking his head, "but if the Superhero Association actually does sothing like this, we cross a line we can't uncross."

He leaned forward, expression grim.

"Right now, the public sees superheroes as symbols of hope. Politicians and corporate elites see us as a dangerous gray area, but still manageable. That balance matters."

"But if superheroes start crossing borders and carrying out military operations on foreign soil?" Tony exhaled sharply. "That changes everything."

Because to people in power, that kind of precedent was terrifying.

Today superheroes eliminate terrorists overseas.

Tomorrow maybe they decide a corrupt president deserves a bullet too.

The public adored the Superhero Association. If Drex Valen decided to run for president next election cycle, there was a genuine chance he could win.

But public opinion had never truly controlled governnts or billionaires.

Not really.

As long as superheroes stayed within acceptable boundaries, they could coexist.

The mont they stepped beyond them, retaliation would co without rcy.

Drex nodded once.

Then he left the eting room.

In the end, it always ca back to this path.

He thought about the civilians left behind in Benghazi.

About the inevitable reprisals.

About suicide truck bombings and mutilated corpses dragged through the streets because soone had dared to interfere.

Drex had no interest in watching history repeat itself.

If superheroes couldn't act openly…

Then sothing else would do it instead.

A demon.

By the ti he returned to his underground facility, his mood had improved considerably.

Matter rearranged itself beneath his control.

Atoms folded together like obedient servants as a colossal figure slowly erged within the laboratory.

Heracles.

More specifically, the berserker incarnation from the Fate universe, recreated at full scale.

During the creation process, Drex incorporated samples of Savage Hulk blood alongside the mutant gene known as Gaia.

Gaia was an unusual mutation discovered almost by accident.

Its host could draw strength directly from the earth itself, gaining superhuman strength, durability, and regenerative abilities as long as physical contact with the ground remained unbroken.

The longer the connection lasted, the stronger the user beca.

It resembled the legend of Antaeus from Greek mythology.

The son of Poseidon and Gaia.

An unstoppable giant who could continuously absorb power from the earth beneath him and never tire so long as he remained grounded.

Even before the Gaia mutation had been added, the combination of Green Hulk and Red Hulk genetic material had already transford Heracles into a living weapon of absurd physical power.

Now?

Now the towering black giant looked like a war god made flesh.

An engine of destruction built solely to crush everything in its path.

Drex implanted mories into the creature's mind.

The silent giant slowly rose to his feet.

"Go wipe out the Zandara Tribe," Drex said calmly.

The next instant, space twisted.

Drex teleported himself and Heracles directly into Benghazi, Libya.

Zandara's chief was still considering how to retaliate against the Dark Knight.

The previous suicide truck bombing had given him several promising ideas.

He stood in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of Zandara Tower, admiring the city skyline while savoring his own brilliance.

Then a pickup truck ca flying upward from the street below.

It spun violently through the air before smashing directly into the glass beside him.

The entire window exploded inward.

"What the hell?!"

Glass shards tore across his skin, leaving bloody cuts over his face and arms. But he barely noticed.

He was dozens of stories above the ground.

How had a truck been thrown that high?

Then he heard it.

Gunfire.

Explosions.

Screams.

The sounds rolled upward from below like thunder.

He rushed toward the shattered window and looked down.

A gigantic black figure was tearing through the base of Zandara Tower.

An Apache helicopter barely managed to lift off before the giant leapt upward and smashed it apart midair.

The fireball reflected in the chief's widening eyes.

His heartbeat spiked instantly.

That helicopter had cost a fortune.

Below, his soldiers deployed heavy weapons imdiately.

M2 Browning heavy machine guns opened fire from multiple positions, unleashing streams of .50 BMG rounds powerful enough to shred vehicles and punch through reinforced cover.

The sheer firepower was monstrous.

Most heavy machine guns weren't even designed primarily for killing people. They existed to destroy fortifications, suppress armored positions, and tear apart obstacles.

Now eight of them were firing simultaneously at a single target made of flesh and blood.

And it accomplished absolutely nothing.

The black giant walked through the barrage head-on.

The .50 caliber rounds struck his body and bounced away uselessly, unable to even break his skin.

Then he reached the firing positions.

One punch.

Vehicles exploded alongside the mounted machine guns.

"RPGs!"

Three Zandara soldiers stepped forward carrying rocket launchers.

The rockets scread toward the giant.

Heracles moved with shocking agility for sothing so massive, weaving past the explosions before driving a kick into a nearby vehicle.

The impact launched the truck like an artillery shell.

It crossed dozens of ters in an instant, trailing a violent pressure wave before smashing through a concrete wall.

The three soldiers disappeared beneath the wreckage so completely that nobody could tell whose bones belonged to whom anymore.

"Damn it… he actually attacked us…"

The Zandara chief stared in disbelief.

To him, the black giant looked eerily similar to the S-Class hero Hulk.

The resemblance wasn't surprising. Drex had done an excellent job covering up the truth about Bruce Banner, including destroying military records connected to him. As far as the outside world knew, the Hulk had always simply been a monster that looked like that.

The Dark Knight had gone insane.

How could he dare do this?

How could he unleash a superhuman weapon against them like this?

The chief had always considered himself ambitious. Ruthless. Fearless.

A man willing to do what ordinary people never could.

That mindset was how he'd clawed his way past more than fifty siblings to beco leader of the tribe.

But now, for the first ti in years, genuine fear crawled through his chest.

Compared to Drex Valen…

He suddenly felt painfully sane.

Did that lunatic not care about international retaliation?

About the United Nations?

About global sanctions?

What exactly was he trying to do?

Put superheroes above nations themselves?

Cold sweat spread across the chief's back.

His trembling hand snatched up the phone.

He needed to warn the people behind him.

Drex Valen had completely lost his mind.

...

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