"You should have used your brain before taking action! And if your brain had already been tampered with beforehand, then at the very least, use your damn brain after the battle!"
The entire Avengers team saw the Captain this enraged for the first time. At this moment, Steve Rogers didn't look like the symbol of the American spirit people hoped for; instead, he looked like the drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket, unleashing a verbal barrage on Namor for several minutes straight.
What was even more impressive was that he managed it without uttering a single curse word.
"Wow, I was a bit curious before about what the Captain was like in the army... now it seems it's not exactly what I imagined." Janet remarked with a sigh. Normally, it was impossible to imagine Steve Rogers turning red in the face and scolding someone like a stereotypical redneck.
Ultimately, the issue lay with the attitude of the Sub-Mariner, Namor. His previous reckless attempt to charge Roxxon was due to the Enchantress's magic; clearly, she had intended to thoroughly eliminate Namor as a threat, but Thor had happened to arrive just in time.
Namor and Thor had fought for a while until Thor knocked him unconscious and brought him back to Avengers Tower. Strange, having arrived, helped dispel the charm Amora had placed on Namor, which served as proof of the Captain's suspicion.
But what happened afterward? Afterward, Namor remained stubborn, insisting that he could have definitely defeated the opposition back then. Even after Peter explained that the Enchantress had already prepared Skurge the Executioner as her muscle to wait for Namor, and that Roxxon Energy itself had trump cards, Namor continued to run his mouth.
The final result of that stubbornness was this fierce lashing from the Captain.
"Looking at it this way, our past disagreements were practically 'friendly exchanges.'" Tony remarked. He, Banner, and the others were putting all their effort into analyzing exactly what the object buried deep beneath the city of Atlantis was. Namor was currently engaged in a heated exchange with the Captain; they could ask him about the architecture once he lost the argument.
Meanwhile, Strange was conducting a scrying attempt with the help of Thor and Peter.
As yet another divination spell failed, Strange looked at the two of them with an unfazed, composed expression. "This place is being interfered with by powerful magic. Not just magic from Mount Olympus, but Asgardian magic as well. Both pantheons have laid down incredibly strong magical shields here to interfere with external prying."
"If that place has always been protected, then how did Loki and Amora know what was inside?"
Peter thought over Thor's question and provided an answer: "It's more likely that Loki and Amora always knew what the object was and were working hard to find it. When they discovered the protections here, they concluded the item must be inside."
Thor nodded in agreement. Although they didn't yet know what Loki and the others had discovered, they now had evidence of the Enchantress's presence. Whether it was Namor being controlled or Peter's personal encounter and battle with them, it all proved that Loki's subordinates were lurking nearby.
"To be safe, we don't have a way to directly confront the crisis inside Atlantis yet. However, we can start with the Enchantress. Investigating Loki's subordinates gives us a perfectly legitimate reason to act."
Having seemingly finished his lecture on Namor, the Captain walked over with the others. Namor actually found the breath to continue his sarcasm: "That works out perfectly. Atlantean affairs should be settled by Atlanteans. As long as you Avengers round up that group of clowns, Krang is no match for me."
Peter gave Namor a strange look, wondering if the guy had forgotten about the Casket of Ancient Winters, but he said nothing. Regarding the Casket, the consensus was that as long as Iceman stepped in, everything would be fine; it wasn't a problem at all.
"Fine, but first we need to know what this thing is."
Peter temporarily bypassed the issue and projected the sensor images of the underwater structure onto the Avengers' main screen. "It looks like a temple."
"Of course it's a temple, can't you tell? That is the Temple of Poseidon. Before Atlantis sank, he was the primary deity of Atlantis—he still is now, but besides the original respect, there is an added measure of fear."
Namor frowned, thinking it over, and finally understood what Peter was getting at. "You're saying that Norse witch is looking for something here?"
"Exactly. Do you know if there's anything special about this place?"
Something special... Namor's brow furrowed as he thought back carefully. Finally, he answered with some uncertainty: "Around the year 2011, a local city lord reported to me that an old man had arrived with a bundle, claiming he wanted to offer it to Poseidon. He wouldn't allow us to inspect the offering, so he was intercepted, and the news was reported to me."
The team exchanged looks. It now seemed highly probable that the old man was Odin, and he had hidden something within the Temple of Poseidon. Thor asked anxiously, "What happened next?"
"Next? Before my orders could be delivered, an oracle from Poseidon arrived. Hmph. The old guy ignores everything for thousands of years and then suddenly pops up. There was nothing to be done; the temple priests are all old fossils. They let the old man bring the item inside, and then the bundle vanished."
The technological and cultural levels of the Atlanteans were more advanced than those of the surface world, roughly on par with Wakanda. Their attitude toward the gods was very pragmatic; or rather, while they were subjects of the Olympian pantheon and every Atlantean city had a temple to Poseidon, most people didn't actually care much about him.
Just as Poseidon didn't care much about them, they left each other in peace. For the modern Atlantean, the rituals and faith surrounding Poseidon were closer to a traditional culture than a religion. Consequently, Namor wasn't particularly fond of Poseidon either.
"If we want to know what it is, we need to infiltrate it." The Captain made a quick judgment. "We need Iceman's assistance and the Sorcerer Supreme on-site to see if the mystery can be unraveled. Spider-Man, you go with Strange. Thor, I need your expertise to track down the Enchantress. As for the rest..."
"We need a journalist who isn't afraid to speak the truth to leak the news of the collusion between Roxxon and Loki's subordinates."
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