In the end, Earth's governnts chose cooperation.
It was humiliating.
It was also the only intelligent decision available.
If negotiations failed and war broke out, Earth would be the one paying the price. Humanity still lacked reliable interstellar warfare capabilities. Against a spacefaring civilization, they could only endure attacks passively.
That didn't an Earth surrendered quietly.
While diplomats searched desperately for the missing Kryptonians, the planet simultaneously accelerated military preparations in case those sa Kryptonians suddenly turned hostile.
Humanity had already survived multiple alien invasions by this point.
Fear still existed.
But helplessness didn't.
Tony Stark, anwhile, spent half his ti cursing Drex for being unreachable again.
The guy disappears every ti sothing important happens.
Still, the superheroes were prepared.
The battle against Gladiator from the Shi'ar Empire had taught Tony sothing valuable: Earth's greatest advantage wasn't conventional military strength.
It was concentrated superhuman force.
Stark had already developed spacecraft capable of launching direct assaults into orbit if necessary.
Aboard the Kryptonian ship floating in deep space:
General Zod.
Forr military commander of Krypton.
Colleague and superior officer to Jor-El.
One of the few people who had recognized Krypton was dying long before its destruction.
When the Science Council refused to act, Zod launched a coup to save the planet.
He failed.
He and his followers were imprisoned within the Phantom Zone, forced to watch helplessly as Krypton died.
After escaping, he devoted himself entirely to one goal:
Rebuilding Krypton.
Preserving his people's civilization at any cost.
And then Drex spoke.
"The Codex is with ."
The entire room froze.
General Zod.
Faora.
Five Kryptonian soldiers.
Two Kryptonian scientists.
Every pair of eyes locked onto him instantly.
Drex calmly produced a Kryptonian command key.
Not the original, obviously. That one had been destroyed long ago when he crossed into the Marvel universe.
He'd rebuilt this version himself.
"You're Kryptonian?"
General Zod's expression softened slightly.
Then realization suddenly struck him.
"Wait... are you Kal-El?"
"No," Drex replied evenly. "I'm a pure-blooded Kryptonian."
He inserted the command key into the ship's system.
Data flooded across the displays instantly.
Identity records.
Genetic archives.
Personal history.
Everything connected to Drex Valen appeared before them.
Father: mber of the Kryptonian Council.
Mother: leading Kryptonian scientist.
Occupation: advanced weapons and materials researcher.
General Zod frowned deeply.
"That's impossible. I never heard of you on Krypton."
They had spent years imprisoned inside the Phantom Zone, yes, but Krypton had already been nearing collapse before their exile.
Soone with credentials like Drex should've been impossible to overlook.
Drex shrugged slightly.
"I think the simplest explanation is parallel universes."
The two Kryptonian scientists imdiately reacted.
General Zod and the others looked confused.
"You an...?"
"Yes," Drex confird. "We're Kryptonians from different universes."
The room fell silent.
One of the scientists frowned.
"But crossing universes shouldn't be that easy."
"That's the weird part," Drex said dryly. "Apparently it is. You all just showed up."
Honestly, if he hadn't repeatedly scanned Earth and confird there was no Clark Kent anywhere on the planet, he might've started wondering whether he had accidentally crossed into the DC universe instead.
"You can stop searching," Drex continued. "There's no Kal-El here. My guess is you crossed universes either while escaping the Phantom Zone or soti afterward without realizing it."
The Kryptonians exchanged stunned looks.
Crossing universes accidentally?
That sounded insane.
Then General Zod focused on the only thing that truly mattered to him.
"Krypton..."
He looked directly at Drex.
"You rebuilt it?"
Drex nodded calmly.
"Krypton already exists again. In this universe, the Kryptonian Empire is one of the four major galactic empires."
He paused slightly.
"And one of those empires is already collapsing."
General Zod's breathing quickened.
"Take us there."
That single sentence contained his entire life's purpose.
Even if it wasn't his Krypton...
It was still Krypton.
Drex teleported them instantly.
The mont they arrived, brilliant light illuminated the horizon.
The Plasma Spark Towers glowed like artificial suns across the planet.
Angel legions patrolled the skies overhead.
General Zod stared blankly.
"This... is Krypton?"
Suspicion and disbelief mixed in his voice.
"Yes," Drex answered. "Every citizen here was created using the Codex."
Then he smiled slightly.
"Welco ho, General Zod."
The hardened commander visibly trembled.
"They're all Kryptonians?"
"Every one of them."
Drex gestured toward their armor.
"Remove the environntal suits. Then you'll understand what Kryptonians are truly capable of."
The soldiers obeyed without hesitation.
The mont the radiation-resistant armor disengaged, agony hit them.
Blinding.
Overwhelming.
Every cell in their bodies felt like it was igniting.
"The light of a yellow sun interacts with Kryptonian cells," Drex explained calmly. "It gives us the power to fly, survive, and dominate worlds without armor."
At the sa ti, the Mind Stone quietly soothed their ntal distress, preventing sensory overload as their abilities awakened.
The effect happened incredibly fast.
Krypton's countless Plasma Spark Towers flooded the planet with energy far beyond normal yellow sunlight. Combined with the genetic optimization already present in military Kryptonians, adaptation took only monts.
Then ca the power.
True power.
Strength surged through every nerve and muscle.
General Zod and his soldiers could physically feel the difference this world made.
anwhile, Drex gained sothing equally valuable.
The Kryptonian ship.
Its archives contained the accumulated knowledge of a civilization that had once ruled over one hundred thousand worlds.
So technologies might not function properly under Marvel's entirely different cosmological rules, but the scientific theories alone were invaluable.
General Zod and his people adapted quickly to life within the Kryptonian Empire.
Most joined the military almost imdiately.
For them, soldiering wasn't rely a profession.
It was purpose.
Drex himself had never liked old Krypton's rigid caste system, but he had to admit certain aspects of it produced extraordinary efficiency.
Everyone understood their role.
Everything functioned with near-perfect order.
Ordinary Kryptonians, however, still had limits.
Even under massive solar exposure, most would only reach levels slightly beyond a Dark Elf Curse Warrior.
Extrely durable.
Capable of flight.
Heat vision.
Freeze breath.
Powerful overall, but nowhere near Superman-level monsters.
Not everyone could beco Kal-El.
And certainly not H'el.
Back during the ancient wars, the Dark Elves had nearly conquered the Nine Realms using Curse Warrior armies alone, forcing King Bor to resort to desperate tactics.
That said, Drex already possessed sothing far more useful now.
The Ultraman Legion.
Compared to them, mass-producing Kryptonians simply wasn't worth the effort anymore.
Then the Black Queen appeared.
"Your Majesty," she reported, "General Zod and Grand General Darius are fighting."
Drex didn't even look up.
"Let them."
He sounded completely unconcerned.
"Darius knows where the line is."
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