Chapter 841

"Grand Canyon? S.H.I.E.L.D. searched that place for five years and came up empty-handed. And it involved extraterrestrial life... What exactly were they looking for?"

Evenson had known for a long time that S.H.I.E.L.D. kept things from him. Nick Fury did it. Coulson did it. He couldn’t really blame them. They were spies. Even when dealing with someone they trusted, their jobs demanded a certain amount of caution and compartmentalization. Besides, their relationship had never reached the point where complete trust was even possible.

"I already told you. Extraterrestrial life. Aliens. Whether they were refugees who’d lost their home, invaders who came here with a fleet and bad intentions, or something related to the alien blood used to resurrect Coulson’s body, I can’t say."

That was a pretty broad range of possibilities.

Still, Evenson suspected the Kree.

Coulson had been resurrected using blood from a Kree corpse. Evenson had personally seen that corpse once. Judging from its state of decay, how well the body had been preserved, and the condition of its soul—or rather, the absence of one—he could estimate when it had died.

The timeline fit the late 1980s almost perfectly.

And the Kree had visited Earth before. They had come here in ancient times, established laboratories, conducted experiments, and left behind the Inhumans.

A return visit in the 1980s wasn’t exactly far-fetched.

The question was why.

An invasion?

Evenson knew the Kree weren’t exactly famous for being gentle neighbors. Their civilization had expanded from a single homeworld into the Kree Empire, spanning hundreds of worlds.

Sure, maybe all those planets had willingly joined because they were huge fans of the Kree.

Or perhaps the Kree were actually devoted pacifists, and every single war they’d ever fought had started because someone else attacked first. They’d simply been forced to defend themselves all the way to the point of exterminating the enemy’s population, conquering their worlds, and annexing their civilization.

Yeah.

Who would believe that?

For a civilization like that, deciding to add Earth to its collection wasn’t impossible. Earth’s resources might or might not be particularly valuable, but it was a habitable world capable of sustaining life.

That alone made it worth something.

But if the Kree really had intended to invade, why had they failed?

The technological gap between Earth and the Kree wasn’t merely significant. They weren’t even playing the same game.

Yet Earth was still inhabited by humans. There was no Kree occupation. Humanity had no idea any of this had happened.

Which meant that if an invasion really had been planned, someone must have intervened before the war ever officially began.

Evenson’s first thoughts went to the Sorcerer Supreme and Asgard.

At the time, those were the only two powers on Earth—or close enough to Earth—that the Kree might have had reason to fear.

But the more he thought about it, the less likely either seemed.

The defensive network established by the Sorcerer Supreme through the three Sanctums was highly sensitive to incursions from places like the Dark Dimension.

Alien spaceships?

Not so much.

If it worked that way, Loki would have barely stepped onto Earth during the Battle of New York before the Sorcerer Supreme dragged him off for a beating and FedExed him straight back to Odin.

So if she had dealt with the Kree, it would have had to happen after the invasion actually began.

There was no way she could have made an entire invasion disappear without a trace.

Unless she’d somehow become capable of instantly converting the entire planet into the Mirror Dimension.

Which was ridiculous.

And Asgard was even less likely.

Given Odin’s mentality at the time, Evenson could easily imagine him waiting until Earth was battered and half-dead before swooping in as the great hero, then demanding Earth’s complete submission to Asgard in exchange for salvation.

And Asgard didn’t exactly specialize in subtlety.

It would have been a glorious military campaign involving armies, explosions, and enough spectacle to make hiding it completely impossible.

So there was only one possibility left.

Someone Evenson didn’t know about had somehow learned that the Kree intended to invade Earth.

And that person had been powerful enough to frighten the entire Kree Empire into abandoning the idea.

Could someone really be that powerful?

The thought actually startled Evenson.

He immediately considered abandoning the entire theory.

Maybe it hadn’t been an invasion at all.

Maybe some Kree ship had suffered a catastrophic accident and crashed on Earth.

No war.

No mysterious superbeing capable of intimidating an entire interstellar empire.

That would also explain why nobody had ever mentioned the incident.

Because there had never been an incident worth mentioning.

Exactly.

That made far more sense.

The alternative was ridiculous. One person intimidating an entire Kree invasion fleet into turning around?

What was this, Dragon Ball?

Was Kakarot hiding somewhere?

"Hey, Nahash... are you absolutely certain everything you just told me is true?"

Evenson had talked himself into feeling better, but he still wasn’t convinced.

"I guarantee it."

Nahash smiled seductively through Raina’s body.

Then he added, "But you know me. I’m a demon who lies for a living. That’s rather fundamental to my nature. So can you really trust my guarantee?"

"You...!"

Evenson fell silent.

He hated this about demons.

They always knew the answer, yet instead of simply telling you, they had to turn everything into some stupid guessing game.

If Nahash weren’t currently occupying Raina’s body, Evenson would have loved nothing more than to throw him onto the floor and beat the smugness out of him.

Unfortunately, the last thing he needed was someone accusing him of assaulting a woman.

"Fine. If that’s how you want to play it..."

Evenson’s eyes narrowed.

He studied Raina from head to toe before finally confirming, "You’re bound here, aren’t you?"

He reached down, lifted the hem of Raina’s skirt, and grabbed the inside of her thigh.

A field of green runes immediately spread outward from his palm.

"Hmph. Then you’re going to jail with this woman. Neither of you is going anywhere."

Evenson was genuinely irritated now.

He sealed Nahash inside Raina’s body.

Until Raina died, the demon would have no way to abandon his host and possess someone else.

"Pervert!"

The accusation came at exactly the wrong moment.

Melinda and Skye emerged from the room, helping a freshly awakened Coulson walk between them.

They stopped dead when they saw Evenson’s hand on Raina’s thigh.

Skye’s eyes widened.

"Holy crap!"

Evenson could have explained.

He could have given them the entire story.

Unfortunately, Skye had already shouted first.

There was no recovering from that.

Coulson’s expression immediately became strange, and Bangalore, who had followed them out, instinctively took a step backward.

"For God’s sake..."

Evenson gave up.

"I’ve had enough."

He turned around, grabbed Raina, and dragged her away.

They could call him unlucky. Fine.

They could call him broke. He’d survived worse.

But a pervert?

Come on.

"Gentleman," he muttered under his breath. "The word you’re looking for is gentleman."

Once Evenson was gone, the tension finally eased.

"Anyway, I’d say our cooperation went quite well."

With a hiss of compressed air, Bangalore removed her helmet and revealed her face.

Skye stared.

"You’re a woman?"

She had expected the person beneath that armor to be a massive, scar-covered man with a face like a brick wall and maybe one missing eye for good measure.

Instead, Bangalore was clearly a woman.

Her skin was dark, her short black hair had been gathered into several thick braids at the back of her head, and although her features were somewhat rugged and there was a distinctly masculine sharpness to her expression, there was no mistaking the feminine features beneath it all.

"What are you surprised about?" Bangalore asked, her voice noticeably more feminine now that the helmet was off. "Women can’t fight in powered exoskeleton armor?"

She glanced at them.

"I thought you would’ve figured it out already. I didn’t realize S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had such terrible observational skills."

Everyone looked at her again.

This time, several people paid particular attention to her figure.

Melinda was no exception.

After several seconds, even she gave Bangalore a deeply unimpressed look.

"Honestly... you really couldn’t tell."

"Hmph!"

Bangalore snorted.

"You’re not exactly one to talk."

"Regardless, our cooperation went very well. The Black Badge Division has never had a conflict with S.H.I.E.L.D., and I’d like to keep this good beginning going."

Bangalore smiled and pulled a business card from her belt.

"If you need help in the future, give me a call."

She didn’t hand it to Melinda.

She didn’t give it to Coulson, either.

Instead, she slipped it directly into Skye’s hand and leaned close enough to whisper in her ear.

"There’s my private number on there, sweetheart. If you ever need help, give me a call. Any kind of help."

"Uh..."

Skye shuddered.

She immediately stuffed the card into Coulson’s hand.

"I doubt I’ll need it anytime soon."

A while back, Evenson had apparently decided that Skye’s romantic prospects were cursed enough that even the universe itself might stop by to make things worse.

Apparently, he’d been right.

But Skye wasn’t interested in dating anyone right now.

More importantly, she’d already paid for that expensive good-luck charm.

That money wasn’t coming back.

A thousand miles away, in Los Angeles, the Devil’s Bar was considerably quieter.

Inside a private booth, Mephisto sat across from Gabriel with a glass in hand, smiling as though he’d been expecting her.

"I must say, Sorcerer Supreme, I’m surprised you came back. What can I do for you?"

The woman sitting across from him was Gabriel.

She had plenty of freedom now.

After leaving with Evenson, she’d apparently decided to return here alone and have a private conversation with Mephisto.

"I told you, I’m no longer the Sorcerer Supreme."

Gabriel frowned slightly as she swirled her cocktail.

"Call me Gabriel. Don’t get that wrong."

"No problem."

Mephisto nodded.

"Gabriel, if there’s one person in this world who understands humanity better than anyone else, I imagine it’s you."

Gabriel sighed.

"I’m not convinced. I’ve lived for a very long time, and I’ve spent most of that time among humans. But there’s truth to the saying that someone inside a situation can’t always see it clearly. You may have a more objective perspective than I do."

"You flatter me."

Mephisto gave a dry chuckle.

"If I really understood humans that well, I probably wouldn’t be stuck in a situation where I can’t even go home."

"Exactly."

Gabriel narrowed her eyes.

"I think humanity has a serious problem."

"Global warming? Rising sea levels? Tomorrow’s bar specials? Maybe the price of eggs at the supermarket?"

Mephisto tilted his head.

"There are plenty of problems in the world. Which one are you talking about?"

"After I was given a new life, I decided to seriously evaluate this world."

Gabriel’s expression became thoughtful.

"But Evenson told me it was a waste of time. He said that if I could accept the world as it existed before, then I should be able to accept the world as it is now. Human behavior hasn’t really changed."

"That’s not entirely wrong."

Mephisto nodded.

"Humanity has always had a talent for repeating its mistakes."

He paused.

"The biggest difference is that there are simply more of them now."

"Exactly."

Gabriel’s eyes darkened.

"That is the greatest difference. There are far too many people in this age."

"In the era when I was born, everyone had a purpose. Farmers grew food. Shepherds tended livestock. Soldiers fought. Even a court jester could earn his keep by making people laugh."

She looked down at her drink.

"There was no such thing as a completely unnecessary person."

"But look at the world now."

Gabriel’s expression hardened.

"A thousand people can die, and the world barely notices. Why?"

"Because there are simply too many people who aren’t needed."

Mephisto’s smile twitched.

You think there are too many people?

What exactly are you planning to do?

"That’s not necessarily a bad thing," he said carefully.

"Quite the opposite."

Gabriel shook her head.

"I think your era was the abnormal one. If every individual is indispensable, then losing even one person can cripple the entire system."

"But this world doesn’t work that way."

"The reason is all those people you consider unnecessary. They may appear useless because there isn’t currently a position for them. But when an important position becomes vacant, someone else can step in and keep the system running."

She raised her eyes.

"They’re backups."

"Backups?"

Mephisto raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like you know your computers."

Gabriel sounded genuinely surprised.

"I’m a demon, not a caveman."

Mephisto waved dismissively.

"I was surfing the internet while Kamar-Taj was still using dial-up."

Gabriel stared at him for a moment before shrugging.

"Unexpected."

She returned to the subject.

"But you mentioned backups. One or two backups can be extremely valuable. If a computer is on the verge of failure, they can restore it."

Her voice grew colder.

"But what about ten thousand backups? A hundred thousand? What happens when all those backups consume every available resource, slow the system down, and never actually get used?"

She set her glass down.

"They simply consume this world’s resources while contributing nothing. They hold civilization back."

"And eventually, there may be so many unnecessary people that the entire system collapses."

Mephisto’s expression became slightly more serious.

Gabriel’s gaze hardened.

"Sometimes, I even think... perhaps Evenson’s Project Insight wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it succeeded."