"We only want a place to survive."
The King of Atlantis spoke with remarkable restraint.
A ruler willing to bend when necessary was far more dangerous than a proud fool. Compared to the version of Namor from other universes, this king was practically reasonable.
Which only convinced Drex Valen further that the man needed to die peacefully at so point in the future.
A more aggressive successor would make relations between Atlantis and the surface world infinitely ssier.
The superheroes of S.W.O.R.D. weren't used to scenes like this.
Most of them genuinely believed in protecting the weak. Seeing a displaced civilization begging for shelter naturally triggered sympathy.
Then Drex kicked every last one of them out of the eting room.
What followed wasn't hero work.
It was politics.
Representatives from the United States, Russia, and China were brought in imdiately to handle negotiations with Atlantis directly.
Negotiating at a table belonged to professionals.
Not superheroes.
Give so idealistic cape five minutes in the room and he'd probably hand Atlantis three major cities and a foreign aid package.
One of the negotiators adjusted his glasses and glanced toward Drex before entering.
"Director Valen... where exactly is the line?"
Several diplomatic teams were already preparing to carve Atlantis apart like starving wolves around fresh at.
They wanted Atlantean exoskeleton technology.
Their pressure-based water weapons.
Their underwater engineering systems.
Everything.
Drex's response was simple.
"Ask for whatever you want."
"Push hard."
"Don't worry about their limits. Strip them for everything they're worth."
The room actually went quiet for a second.
"And where are we planning to relocate them?" another official asked cautiously.
Drex leaned back.
"Africa sounds fine."
"Plenty of space."
"Drop them there."
The negotiators stared at him.
Atlanteans were aquatic beings.
Every report claid they struggled to survive long-term on land.
Most people assud they'd at least be given islands or coastal territory.
Drex was suggesting they be dumped in the African interior like unwanted cargo.
Still...
Nobody objected for very long.
Humans had spent thousands of years exploiting each other. Compared to that, squeezing concessions from a near-alien civilization suddenly felt surprisingly easy to justify.
Especially when everyone convinced themselves it was "for humanity."
The diplomatic teams walked into negotiations practically glowing with righteous purpose.
A massive Atlantean flagship resembling a steel sea serpent remained anchored near Boston Harbor.
The negotiations took place aboard that vessel.
Outside the chambers, S.W.O.R.D.'s superheroes maintained security while diplomats tore into Atlantis with surgical enthusiasm.
The process beca a bloodbath disguised as paperwork.
Atlantis sent mbers of its Elder Council to negotiate.
Ancient nobles wrapped in ceremonial robes.
Politically experienced by Atlantean standards.
Which ant absolutely nothing here.
The diplomats facing them had survived decades of global negotiations, economic warfare, sanctions, proxy conflicts, and international power gas.
Compared to them, the Atlantean elders were amateurs wandering into a shark tank wearing perfu made of fresh blood.
Atlantis simply lacked that kind of internal political brutality.
Their society was too unified.
Too stable.
The elders were dismantled piece by piece.
Eventually, trembling with frustration, they traded away enormous amounts of Atlantean scientific knowledge in exchange for permission to live on the surface.
Then ca the relocation issue.
The United Nations selected Wakanda.
Officially, Wakanda was still viewed by the world as a poor developing African nation surviving on international aid and humanitarian support.
As for Wakanda's opinion on suddenly receiving an entire underwater civilization as neighbors?
Apparently irrelevant.
The logic from several world powers was brutally straightforward.
The international community had "helped" Wakanda for decades.
Now it was Wakanda's turn to "help humanity."
Sharing territory with so displaced fish-people seed like a fair trade in their eyes.
King T'Chaka protested furiously.
The United Nations ignored him completely.
Atlantis had already begun preparations to relocate.
So Wakanda finally revealed its hand.
And the world exploded.
Advanced aircraft.
Energy shields.
Technology decades, possibly centuries, ahead of the rest of humanity.
The revelation felt absurd.
Like discovering a remote farming village secretly possessed fusion reactors and orbital weapons.
Of course, once the shock faded, the scientific gap actually made sense.
Technological advancent depended heavily on energy and materials.
And Wakanda possessed vibranium.
A miracle tal capable of rewriting the rules of engineering entirely.
Still, Drex privately found one thing funny.
Despite their supposedly hyper-advanced society, Wakandan computers still used the sa fundantal processing logic as everyone else on Earth.
Sohow that annoyed him more than it should.
T'Chaka hadn't exposed Wakanda by choice.
He simply had no alternative.
If Atlantis arrived, war between the two civilizations would beco inevitable.
Wakanda would never abandon its territory.
And it certainly wouldn't coexist peacefully beside another hidden super-civilization sitting directly on top of vibranium reserves.
The king understood the consequences imdiately.
Wakanda's secrecy was dead.
No more hiding behind the image of a poor nation.
No more quietly collecting international aid while operating in the shadows.
Now every intelligence agency on Earth would target Wakanda aggressively.
Spies.
Infiltrators.
Corporate interests.
Military analysts.
Everyone would co.
And they did.
The mont Wakanda revealed itself, the five major world powers imdiately proposed "scientific exchange programs."
T'Chaka knew those proposals weren't requests.
They were inevitabilities.
Refuse too aggressively, and Wakanda could end up standing against humanity itself.
And if S.W.O.R.D. got involved?
That beca unwinnable.
Even with Wakanda's technological edge.
So Wakanda accepted.
Reluctantly.
anwhile, Atlantis was reassigned elsewhere in Africa after world leaders decided putting two secret super-civilizations beside each other sounded catastrophically stupid.
Unfortunately for the major powers, the second African nation turned out to be exactly what it appeared to be.
Just a normal country.
No hidden vibranium.
No sci-fi empire hiding underground.
That disappointnt lasted about twelve minutes.
Still, amid the chaos, world governnts discovered sothing important.
S.W.O.R.D. worked.
Its existence forced Atlantis and Wakanda to sit at the sa table.
It forced them to compromise.
Even accept outrageous demands.
For the first ti, many politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate elites who had quietly resented S.W.O.R.D.'s enormous authority began changing their tune.
The organization's power was terrifying.
But the benefits were even greater.
As for Wakanda and Atlantis?
The two new neighbors imdiately began watching each other with deep suspicion.
Wakanda feared Atlantean military strength and advanced oceanic technology.
Atlantis feared Wakanda's weapons even more.
Vibranium spears.
Energy bows.
Near-indestructible lee weapons that made no sense to Atlantean engineers.
The Atlanteans beca convinced the surface world had placed them near Wakanda deliberately.
A leash disguised as diplomacy.
If Atlantis caused trouble, Wakanda would be close enough to strike imdiately.
And honestly?
They were probably right.
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