Kamen Rider ZZZ from the American comic book world

"I've long suspected that brat isn't my child, and you even colluded with those guys to give false testimony!"

"Bullshit! You just don't want to believe it. He's clearly your biological child."

"It's all because you're an untrustworthy guy. Do you want me to count how many ex-boyfriends you've had? Oh, and you've found another gigolo outside!"

"That's my friend, and you yourself are having an affair!"

Even without opening the door, Li Ai could imagine how intense the argument between the couple was. Before she could say much more, she heard shouts and curses coming from outside, followed by the sound of glass objects being smashed.

The little boy could only clutch the doll, trembling, his shoulders hunched over as if he wanted to hide in a corner.

The couple outside the door were naturally Li Ai's biological parents from his previous life, but he later preferred to call the orphanage director and his wife "Mom and Dad" rather than acknowledge those two.

Li Ai's family in his previous life was not very wealthy; they were just ordinary wage earners. However, his parents were not content with the status quo.

The woman had dated many boyfriends before marriage and even lived with several of them. She was not faithful after marriage and had affairs.

The man is a manager in a private company, but he likes to use his power to make things difficult for his subordinates, causing them great distress. He also has an ambiguous relationship with a female colleague.

The man always suspected that Li Ai from his past life was not his biological son, but rather the child of one of her ex-boyfriends. Even when presented with a paternity test, he did not believe it, thinking that the woman had fabricated evidence to deceive him.

Therefore, the man treated Li Ai in her previous life very badly, always beating and scolding her. If she did well, he would verbally provoke her, and if she did poorly, he would beat her with a belt and a wooden stick.

That woman wasn't much better; she went out to have dinner with friends, leaving Li Ai at home to eat scrambled eggs that looked like charcoal.

"It must have been the night I became an orphan." Li Ai looked out the window at the flash of lightning.

Ping ping pong pong —

Outside the door, there was a series of smashing sounds, with men roaring and women screaming in succession, until a muffled 'bang' brought a break.

The door to the small room was suddenly opened, and a beam of cold light shone in. A man with abrasions stood in the shadows, pointing at the little boy and saying menacingly:

"If you dare to cry even once, I'll beat you to death!"

Then, the door to the small room was slammed shut, making the door frame tremble. The little boy was so frightened that he didn't dare to breathe, and it was only after a long time that he dared to sob softly.

At this point, the woman will leave home and never be heard from again, while the man will die of a heart attack after drinking heavily.

In his previous life, Li Ai managed to stay in his room until the next day. When the school teachers noticed he hadn't come to school, they called the police, which saved him from starving to death.

However, due to the bizarre actions of the couple, Xiao Li Ai in her previous life was not accepted by her grandparents and maternal grandparents, and it took her a long time to settle down in an orphanage.

Years later, when Li Ai looks at this scene again, his lips turn slightly pale, but he is no longer the person he used to be.

He walked to the little boy in the corner, half-squatted down, met the boy's terrified eyes, and then extended his left hand, softly comforting him:

"Don't be afraid anymore, I'll take you away from here."

The little boy looked up at Li Ai, his eyes still brimming with tears, but he reached out his hand.

The two people walked hand in hand to the door.

Looking at the wooden door that had once been a source of childhood trauma, Li Ai took a deep breath and said in a voice only she could hear:

"Now, I don't have to be afraid anymore."

After saying that, Li Ai clenched her right fist and then punched the wooden door in front of her repeatedly. Each punch made a dull thud as it hit the door.

"There are people I care about outside, and people who care about me. How can I let this illusion trap me!"

The wooden door was initially quite sturdy, but Li Ai's punches grew heavier with each blow, the force constantly building up, and with each punch he threw, a face would appear before his eyes.

boom!

With a loud bang, the wooden door was completely shattered by Li Ai, and wood chips scattered everywhere, slowly drifting down into the air.

But instead of a man slumped over a table drinking alone, or a messy living room, there was a street in the pouring rain outside.

Familiar Chinese signs lined both sides of the street, but no shops were open, and only streaks of lightning flashed across the dark, cloud-covered sky.

"They really don't want me to leave." Li Ai let the rain fall on her.

The underlying mechanism of this mental labyrinth is that it will not let anyone leave, but Li Ai also has a reason to leave today.

The mental labyrinth, according to Li Ai's memories, transformed into the 'lightning' that was once engraved deep in his memory.

Rumbling--

The lightning in the sky was so dense that it formed a large net, with silvery arcs of electricity leaping between the clouds and pressing down on Li Ai's position.

Seeing this, Li Ai flipped his right hand, and the blank capsule that he had used to synthesize the two-star impact and then lost all its power appeared in his palm.

"I have reasons to leave now, and I must solve my own nightmare!"

The lightning struck completely, and the blinding light illuminated the entire street as if it were daytime.

However, it was completely blocked by the blank capsule in Li Ai's hand. The electric arc jumped on the surface of the capsule, emitting a piercing hiss.

To prevent him from leaving, the Mind Maze mechanically increased the power of its lightning, and the silvery-white lightning gradually moved closer to the gold, its light becoming increasingly scorching.

Until the power of the Mind Labyrinth and Li Ai's past life nightmares was completely exhausted, the capsule in his hand was also stained with a brilliant golden color.

The young Li Ai from her past life gave her present self a thumbs up, a smile finally appearing on her youthful face, before her body turned into specks of light and vanished completely.

The mental labyrinth, having exhausted all its power, vanished silently, leaving only the numbing sensation from the golden capsule in Li Ai's hand as proof of his recent experience.

Chapter 109 The Skrulls' Counterattack (Part 1)

Time may seem long inside the mental labyrinth, but for Li Ai, only a few seconds had passed. Looking at the golden capsule in his hand, his anxiety subsided considerably.

"Now only that guy is left."

Li Ai's eyes narrowed as he thought of Gravik, the strongest of all the Super Skrulls. Only by killing Gravik could he be truly at ease.

Li Ai then headed towards the place where the hostages were being held.

Because Li Ai's previous offensive was so swift and fierce, it almost threw the entire Skrull armed force in the base into chaos, which made the transfer of the hostages by Ada and the other two go exceptionally smoothly, without encountering any significant resistance.

【Stream!】

With a spin of the capsule, a blue current, under Nancy's control, lifted all the hibernation pods and transferred the hostages at an extremely fast speed.

"Team C's mission is almost complete," Jessica reported over the communication channel.

"No way? You guys are that fast?" Tony's incredulous voice came through the headset, while the others could still faintly hear the explosions from their end.

"Maybe I was in a hurry to throw a victory party," Li Ai said in the communication channel, and then appeared in front of the three people who were transferring the hostages.

Watching the last hibernation pod being teleported away, Li Ai said in a relaxed tone:

"Team C has completed its mission."

"Here you go." Nancy handed the surging capsule back to Li Ai.

Li Ai took back the surging capsule and said, "Let's go back to the villa in the woods first."

After saying this, Li Ai led the three back to the villa in the woods. With the portal closing, Team C's hostage rescue operation could come to a temporary end.

The hibernation pods were temporarily placed in the backyard of the villa. The hibernation pods could still operate for about 24 hours without a power source, so there was no need to worry about all the hostages suddenly waking up. Before the other teams returned, Li Ai arrived at the hibernation pods of Black Widow and Hawkeye.

“Those green-skinned lizards certainly won’t sit idly by. It’s not bad to temporarily add two combatants.” Li Ai opened the two hibernation pods and then took out the recovery capsules.

【Recovery!】

With a flash of green light, the heart rates of the two people who were still asleep suddenly increased.

Cold, shivering...

"Enemies!" Hawkeye sat up abruptly, gripping the edge of the hibernation pod, his face wary, as if he were still in the midst of the Skrull attack.

Black Widow looked around in confusion, her memories blurring with her surroundings, until a voice pulled them back to reality.

"Not bad, you are the best among this group."

The two turned their heads and saw a mysterious man wearing a helmet and dressed like he stepped out of an old-school spy movie looking at them.

Behind the mysterious man were a woman wearing sunglasses just like him, a purple-haired woman rubbing her fists, and a woman with dual pistols wearing black exoskeleton armor.

"Where is this place? Who are you? And why are we here?" Black Widow asked repeatedly.

"Because there is an alien race that can transform into anyone's appearance and needs your identities..." Li Ai told the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents about the Skrull invasion.

This even includes Nick Fury's secret recruitment of Skrulls as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

“That Nick Fury guy is really…” Black Widow’s lips curled into a complicated smile after hearing this, but in the end she could only shake her head helplessly.

This behavior of letting the wolf into the house while thinking that everything was under control made her really not want to comment anymore.

Hawkeye's face, however, darkened visibly.

"So, a bunch of aliens have taken over my life?!" Hawkeye jumped to his feet.

Black Widow's biological parents have long since disappeared, and the temporary family she formed during her mission has not been in contact for many years.

But Hawkeye is different. He has his own family, and when he hears that someone has taken his identity and is living with his family, the killing intent of a top agent flashes in his eyes.

"It seems you must be an organization fighting against aliens," Hawkeye said through gritted teeth in a low voice.

"I want to join you, give me a bow."

“No problem.” Li Ai turned to Black Widow and asked, “And you?”

"Just bring me some pistols and stun batons," Black Widow said calmly.

"Then you two can rest here for a while." Li Ai and Ada turned and walked into the villa, leaving only Jessica and Nancy watching the two former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"Dr. Pym, could you please prepare some weapons? We have some new recruits joining us," Li Ai said over the communication channel, relaying the request to Dr. Pym in the underground laboratory.

Once inside the villa, Ada lowered her voice and remarked to Li Ai, "I never imagined that even Black Widow would be replaced by the Skrulls."

"Do you know that woman?" Li Ai asked curiously.

“I’ve crossed paths with her a few times before when I was taking on jobs. She even discovered me when I infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters once; we fought to a draw,” Ada explained, then changed the subject, asking:

"So what are you going to do next?"

"We've discussed several possibilities before..."

Meanwhile, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in Washington.

In the corridor of the high-rise office, the sky outside the floor-to-ceiling windows is gloomy, as if a heavy rain is about to fall at any moment.

Vilanco maintained the appearance of Black Widow, constantly replaying the events unfolding in his mind.

"All three bases have lost contact, and even the psychic pulse bomb I bought from the collector can't be detected. What on earth is going on?"

“Your Majesty, we must act immediately.” Gravik’s voice came through telepathy, carrying an undeniable determination. “Human warriors must have destroyed the three bases, and our conversion machines may have been destroyed as well.”

Although Gravik and Vilanco couldn't understand how humans knew the coordinates of the three bases and the conversion plan, they both remembered a certain figure.

“ZZZ,” Glavik uttered the code name in a deep voice, his tone filled with both anger and a hint of gloom, as if he had met his match. “You really do bring me unexpected surprises.”

“You’re right, Gravik.” Vilanco’s gaze was fixed on the Washington nightscape through the window as she calmly stated:

“Now that we’ve been exposed, there’s no need to hide anymore. Notify all our compatriots to begin operations immediately. Our targets are the White House, the Pentagon, and this S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. I want to paralyze this nation’s top command structure tonight.”

This cold, hard command was instantly transmitted telepathically to every Skrull spy lurking within S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.

In the corridors, offices, and break rooms, the agents who were chatting and smiling as usual suddenly changed their expressions in the same second.

"For the glory of Skrull, for Queen Vilanco!"

Chapter 110 The Skrulls' Counterattack (Part 2)

boom--

A deafening explosion suddenly came from the basement, the entire building shook violently, chandeliers on the ceiling fell down, and the glass curtain wall shattered into countless pieces, raining down on the crowd.

"Enemy attack! It's an internal enemy attack!"

"Sound the alarm immediately! Notify all floors!"

Agents attempted to retaliate and locate the source of the explosion, but before they could even identify the enemy, several blaster guns opened fire from behind them. Caught off guard, SHIELD agents fell in droves, their screams, gunshots, and explosions mingling together.

The surviving agents fought back desperately from behind cover, but ordinary pistol bullets hitting the Skrull armor only produced a few sparks and could not cause any real damage.

Meanwhile, Queen Veranko of the Skrulls led Glavik into the top-level office.

A giant hand covered in golden energy forcefully tore open the highest-security door, revealing a blond white man in a suit hiding behind a desk, holding a handgun for self-defense.

Seeing this, Gravik simply raised his hand expressionlessly. A condensed golden energy blast shot out, and the desk was blasted into a shower of wood chips and fragments with a deafening roar.

"Who are you people?!" the white man exclaimed in terror.