The Skrulls had noticed the crude special effects.
Not just the technician. Every single one of them had.
But none of them found it suspicious.
If this was a historical docuntary or biographical reconstruction, then visual effects were perfectly reasonable. After all, they couldn't exactly bring a legendary Earth champion back to reenact events. Even if that champion were willing, there was no way to put a continent-sized landmass back where it had originally been just for filming.
Naturally, special effects would be necessary.
What the Skrulls didn't know was that Drex Valen had already modified many details in Superman Returns.
For example, all references to Krypton had been removed.
Otherwise, if humanity ever encountered the Kryptonian Empire in the future, the similarities would raise far too many questions.
A coincidence?
Perhaps.
But when Superman's powers matched those of a Kryptonian almost perfectly, explanations would beco difficult.
"Captain," one Skrull said nervously, "if what we just watched is real, then we don't need many of those Earth champions. Ten would be enough. Ten beings with Superman's level of power could wipe the Skrull Empire from existence."
The room fell silent.
Then another Skrull spoke up.
"Wait a minute. We've only seen one docuntary. What if our assumption is wrong?"
The others looked toward him.
Unlike the rest, he wasn't ready to surrender to despair.
"What are you getting at, Aganzo?"
Aganzo folded his arms.
"What if Earth only has one of these champions? During the entire docuntary, Superman was the only powerful human I saw. Everyone else looked weak. Fragile. Practically rodents compared to him."
The argunt gave the others pause.
The captain slowly nodded.
"That's a fair point."
His expression eased slightly.
"There are plenty of recordings here. Let's continue investigating before we draw conclusions. We still don't have enough information."
If Aganzo was right, the situation wasn't hopeless.
One unstoppable champion was terrifying.
But empires had dealt with singular anomalies before.
The Shi'ar Empire, for example, possessed Gladiator.
A single overwhelmingly powerful individual didn't automatically an extinction.
Feeling sowhat reassured, the captain reached for another DVD.
The English title read:
STAR WARS
Three hours later...
A group of utterly broken Skrulls stumbled out of the security office.
Their arms were stuffed with DVDs.
Their faces were pale.
Several looked as though they hadn't blinked in an hour.
The mont they reached their concealed dinsional gateway, they rushed through without a word.
None of them wanted to remain on Earth for even one second longer.
Only after they were gone did the unconscious security guard finally wake up.
"Huh...?"
Groaning, he pushed himself off the floor.
"What happened?"
Then he saw it.
His treasured collector's edition action movie.
Shattered.
Cracked clean in half.
The guard froze.
A mont later, his anguished scream echoed through the building.
"NOOOOOOO!"
The next morning, news spread throughout the company.
A large number of DVDs had been stolen from DC Comics.
Fortunately, they were all publicly released films rather than unreleased master copies.
If prototype editions had been stolen, the financial losses would have been severe.
Even so, the incident attracted the attention of the Los Angeles Police Departnt.
DC wasn't just another entertainnt company anymore.
It belonged to Umbrella.
And everyone knew Drex Valen had personally provided many of the scripts that turned the company into a powerhouse.
Who wouldn't want to earn favor with Drex Valen these days?
Unfortunately, the investigation quickly reached a dead end.
The security caras had captured nothing.
The Skrulls' technology was vastly superior to Earth's surveillance systems, and their technician had erased every trace of their presence.
As for Drex himself?
The theft wasn't important enough to warrant his attention.
At that very mont, he was occupied with a far more pressing matter.
Preparing for war.
At S.W.O.R.D. Headquarters, tension filled the conference room.
When the Security Council, United Nations representatives, and Earth's superheroes learned that the Skrulls had successfully transmitted intelligence back to their empire, the mood instantly turned grim.
The transmission hadn't contained only information about the infiltrators.
It had included extensive S.W.O.R.D. data.
Earth's defenses.
Strategic assets.
Operational information.
In warfare, intelligence was everything.
Starting a conflict while the enemy knew nearly everything about you was bad enough.
Having virtually no information about the enemy in return was far worse.
"Didn't we intercept anything?" Tony Stark asked.
Drex shook his head.
"The Skrulls use technology fundantally different from Earth's. By the ti I discovered what was happening, it was already too late."
A United Nations representative leaned forward.
"What about the Skrulls already on Earth? Couldn't we interrogate them?"
Tony answered before Drex could.
"Unlikely to help."
He shook his head.
"Most of them have been living here for years. They probably know less about the current state of the Skrull Empire than we do. Any information they provide would likely be outdated."
Nobody could argue with that.
"The bigger issue," another official said, "is that we don't know how their technology works."
The room fell quiet.
"Do they open portals directly onto Earth?"
"Do they teleport entire fleets into the Solar System?"
"Can they attack from outside detection range?"
No one had answers.
The uncertainty was suffocating.
Eventually, all eyes turned toward Drex.
Soone finally voiced what everyone else was thinking.
"You have a solution, right?"
"Yeah," another person added. "You're Drex Valen."
Drex stared at them.
Then leaned back in his chair.
"You people really think I'm so kind of miracle machine, don't you?"
His tone was completely deadpan.
The room offered no response.
Because, honestly...
Most of them did.
Drex rubbed his forehead.
In truth, forcing the Skrull threat into the open had advantages.
A direct confrontation was far preferable to allowing the Secret Invasion scenario to unfold in the shadows.
If handled correctly, the Skrull problem could be eradicated permanently.
The difficult part was determining exactly how to do it.
anwhile...
Deep within the Skrull Empire.
"This is impossible!"
"Completely absurd!"
"Twenty million superpowered humans? That's insane!"
The imperial council chamber had descended into chaos.
The reconnaissance team's collection of "historical docuntaries" had caused a political earthquake.
The reactions only grew more extre as officials watched additional films.
Star Wars.
X-n.
Justice League.
Every recording seed more horrifying than the last.
Humans capable of mastering the Force through training.
Jedi Knights who could beco superhuman warriors through discipline alone.
The idea sounded ridiculous.
Even the Kree Empire, famous for creating enhanced soldiers, couldn't produce results on that scale.
Then there were the mutants.
Humans born with extraordinary gifts.
One could manipulate planetary magnetic fields.
Another possessed telepathy powerful enough to influence billions of minds.
According to the recordings, all of them lived on Earth.
And then ca the Justice League.
A coalition of superhumans that had defeated Darkseid himself.
The ruler of Apokolips.
A cosmic conqueror.
The footage never clearly stated how long ago that battle had occurred.
But that only made things worse.
If Earth had defeated a being like Darkseid, didn't that make humanity stronger than both the Skrull Empire and the Kree Empire?
The implications were terrifying.
After the final docuntary ended, silence settled over the chamber.
At last, Skrull Emperor VII spoke.
"Thank goodness we didn't act recklessly."
The room nodded in agreent.
Had they not tried to outsource the mission to the Chitauri, they never would have noticed the warning signs.
Had the Chitauri not reacted so strangely, they wouldn't have sent a reconnaissance team.
And if they hadn't gathered intelligence first...
The Skrull Empire might have marched directly into a nightmare.
Earth wasn't a primitive world.
It was a death trap.
The emperor folded his hands.
"That leaves one final question."
His gaze swept across the assembled officials.
"What should we do about the Skrulls currently living on Earth?"
For the Skrulls, every mber of their species mattered.
Abandoning their own people was not a decision they took lightly.
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