"K'uk'ulkan," Alex spoke, magically amplifying his voice to let it spread through the water without any distortion.
Instantly, every single Talokanil paused in their actions. Drawn by the call, they turned to look at the bubble holding the Wakandan procession with their King floating at the forefront.
Instantly, panic gripped the Talokanil people as half of them immediately started swimming away toward their homes while a few guards tried their best to maintain order, only to fail miserably as the situation quickly became precarious, bordering on a riot.
"This is what happens when someone expects their home base to be impenetrable," Alex said apathetically, watching coldly as the colliding mermen got injured despite being underwater. "No shield is absolute, whether it be Wakanda's, or Talokan's natural defense reliant on water pressure, or even my planetary shields."
"Are you preluding to something?" Tony asked. "I have a feeling that Empire of yours might not be as stable as you want me to believe."
Alex smiled. "The enemies that I am preparing to face can casually destroy entire galaxies, or even the entire universe if they desired. An absolute shield does not exist against such entities. I will not rule over a complacent empire with no backbone."
"Way to give an answer and raise ten more questions."
Suddenly, a hum spread through the ocean, rousing the Talokanil from their panic as they all calmed down.
"K'uk'ulkan!" "K'uk'ulkan!" "K'uk'ulkan!" The people started chanting as their expressions turned fanatical.
A man, bare-chested and draped in Vibranium jewelry. His feet featured two sets of prominent wings that seemed to propel him forward without the need to perform any other movements underwater. Unlike the Talokanil, who had blue skin and gills, his skin was tan with no gills, leaving him indistinguishable from a human save for the wings at his feet.
"King of Wakanda. Why are you here?" Namor's murderous intentions were clearly visible on his face as he swam toward Alex's bubble and stepped into it, confident in his capabilities as he stopped a few feet away from Alex, sporting a menacing expression on his face.
"Wipe that look off your face, Namor," Alex said. "Nobody died, right?"
"Why are you here?" The man asked again, flexing his muscles, ready to attack.
"You sent your people to scout Wakanda," Alex said. "Did you think I wouldn't find out? Wakanda has long been aware of your little underwater kingdom."
"Do you think this meager show of force is enough to deter us?" Namor suddenly let out a high-pitched call, saying something in an old Mayan dialect. The waters all around them immediately started stirring as hundreds of Talokanil, clad in primitive yet effective Vibranium armors and holding spears, emerged, swimming up to Namor and stopping behind them.
Alex silently observed as within the span of a minute, thousands of Talokanil warriors emerged from the city to stand behind their king.
"Wakanda's foolishness in revealing the might of Vibranium to the outside world has troubled us all. Talokan will not stand for your provocation today. My people, attack!"
"Foolishly arrogant and trigger-happy," Alex commented. "He needs to be taught diplomacy between nations."
"In their defense, quite a few of their citizens seemed to have died in the previous panic. And five hundred tie-fighter-equivalent ships are hardly menacing in front of the literal army of mermen in front of us," Tony responded.
"I guess that makes sense," Alex nodded. "Then again, they are here as nothing more than showpieces today."
STOP.
That single word from Alex made every single person behind Namor stop in their tracks as expressions of struggle appeared on their faces, but they were unable to even writhe, let alone call out to their god and leader who was charging forward all by himself.
Namor effortlessly entered the bubble Alex had created, pulling back his spear, intent on stabbing him.
"Unrefined technique," Alex commented, grabbing the spear and pulling Namor toward himself, clamping his hand over the man's throat as the vibranium spear was wrenched away from his grip and tossed aside. Namor immediately swung his leg at Alex, taking advantage of his wings to propel his kick forward with greater force. Unfortunately, it was useless as two tentacles emerged from Alex's back, restraining Namor's arms and legs in a spread-eagled position. A look of struggle flashed on the subsurface king's face as he glanced at the black tentacles restraining him with apprehension.
"You are the same as me… A mutant," Namor said.
"I'm something far greater, Namor," Alex said. "And you aren't a mutant. At least not the kind that this universe should eventually encounter."
"What do you want?"
"I want Talokan," Alex said.
"If you kill me, every single one of my people—man, woman, child—will choose to fight you to the very end. And I will never surrender to a surface nation that wants to exploit us."
"I know," Alex said. "Fortunately, I have other plans."
The four tentacles crushed Namor's limbs as their black material started covering his skin. He let out a pained scream, but the black material covered his entire body within a second as he completely disappeared into the tentacles, which quickly retracted back into Alex.
"What the fuck was that?" Tony looked rightfully distraught.
"It's what I do," Alex said as a black mass rose up in front of him, taking the form of Namor. Wordlessly, the new and improved Namor turned around and flew out of the barrier to pacify his agitated citizens as Alex released them from their bindings. He had conveniently blocked the bubble's transparency while he devoured Namor, making it easy for him to feign forming a truce.
"Nat… if he's threatening you and Wanda, I just need a signal. I will do everything in my power to free you both."
"Tony…" Natasha sighed. "We are with him by choice. Especially Wanda. Her current strength is unfathomable. He couldn't imprison her even if he wanted."
"I'm standing right here," Alex said. "And I could totally trap her. If she can't form any coherent thoughts, her powers naturally become inert and useless."
"Is this what you call diplomacy?"
"This is my special brand of diplomacy," Alex said casually. "It leaves no hidden dangers, and I can raise a successor who is absolutely loyal to me and me alone before moving things to a hands-off system."
"And this is what is in store for our planet in case I choose to oppose you."
"Yes," Alex nodded. "I will kill you and take over your identity before using you as a springboard and taking over the world."
"Before I agree," Tony said. "I want to see Wanda."
"I will bring this planet into the cluster and sync the time dilation factor with Gaia's before bringing Wanda over to meet you," Alex said. "Though I'm not sure how happy she'll be to see you after the stunt you pulled with Vision back then."
…
As Alex departed with Natasha and Tony, taking the Wakandan fleet with him, he maintained Namor's skin to call over his trusted confidants to bring over some reform in Talokan. After devouring Namor, he had a thorough understanding of the inner workings of this country. As for getting any other benefits from devouring him, they were negligible. Alex already had superior versions of all of Namor's abilities. Not to mention that the man didn't actually have the X-gene and instead had been mutated by the herb that his mother had consumed. Essentially, he was a variant species of the rest of the Talokanil with a longer lifespan, greater strength, and wings on his ankles. That came at the cost of losing his reproductive ability, rendering him infertile. At best, Namor and the Talokanil could serve as a reference point for Alex in case he ever wanted to take a go at creating his own version of a super soldier. With his intimate knowledge of Asgardian genes, he could use different species' genetic data as a reference to further enhance them if he ever wanted.
"Namora, Attuma," Alex called as two gaudily dressed Talokanil swam to his side, expressing their worries about the situation in their native Mayan dialect.
For the time being, Alex's primary goal in taking over Talokan was to have them mine all of their Vibranium as soon as possible so that he would have a sufficient amount of it available in case he ever wanted to start another project like Wanda's Chaos Tower. Not to mention, he would need plenty of Vibranium to support Tony's project.
Aside from their intensified Vibranium mining, Alex decided to prioritize exploring the ocean as well to determine if there were any other special materials like Vibranium that he could mine and extract. Aside from that, he didn't bother to introduce any immediate changes in the lifestyle of the Talokanil, similar to how he hadn't bothered to make any changes to Wakanda. Once the MCU Earth was integrated into the Gaia cluster, Alex would have plenty of time and means to modify the planet's culture.
***
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