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War Room, Wakanda
–T'Chaka–
He looked at the bowed head of the newest head of the Dora Milaje, "Rise, Okoye."
Okoye dutifully followed and took her position as the newest head, the youngest head, in fact, as her predecessor retired, on account of not being of the right mentality for the next administration that his son will be heading.
She was just too zealous, if that was the right term for it. As for the first order of business for today, "My King, we finally have some results,"
The Head scientist, who had been retired and was brought back just for this occasion, spoke to him in an excited tone, reminding him of just why he was forcibly retired, "This is magnificent, My King. We now have a proper DNA reading of the interlopers. Their DNA is completely alien, My King. They can't possibly be humans since even the enhanced ones have definitive human markers."
Okoye, already used to the job, said, "How is that helping us keep track of them?"
"We can't!" The man was clearly a bit mad, as he declared that news with excitement. Before he or Okoye could question his expertise, he took out a tablet and swiped the data for the Holograms to display.
"As you can see here," He showed a sample, that looked decidedly human, one of the dozens of distinct DNA samples they gathered from the attack sites, the ones that were not in the Wakandan repository that held DNA samples of every single citizen, "They were human here, leading most of the others," That part was spoken with derision, as his peers still refused to work with him in any meaningful capacity, something that worked to their benefit as they needed this to be completely secret, "--to neglect researching them but not me! I requisitioned some of the samples, and after three weeks of constant observation, they began changing. After the fourth week, they morphed into this-this completely alien monstrosity.
I am completely flummoxed as to how to categorise this other than being alien."
Okoye spoke once more, speaking as if she read through his thoughts, "That does not help us right now, Doctor. We all knew that the interlopers were monsters that defied common sense, even if we took into account magic."
"She is right. It makes little difference to us if they were aliens or monsters. What we need is something about their motives, why they were here, and how they managed to get away so cleanly," He made sure to ask the question clearly. The Man had a clear tendency of going off topic, and since this was something he wanted handled with as few people as possible, he couldn't even ask someone else to do it. Eh had to be the one to do it, and the only reason Okoya was even here was because this was a test for her, to see if she had the stomach to handle the kind of work she would be expected to do, sometimes even in direct defiance of the King, if she deemed it necessary.
Her relationship with his son notwithstanding, it was written in her reports that she will have a harder time justifying the actions the Dora Milaje take on a daily basis, if she doesn't know the cause of it, which was why she was not deployed to the War Dogs to get valuable outside world experience, something that has been a requirement until now to be a Dora Milake, but he had plans for her, plans that involved her focusing mostly on Domestic issues, and someone else in mind for Foreign ones.
"Ah!" B'Gembe, the disgraced ex head of the Royal Science Laboratory, spoke, raising his hands before sending in the next data packet, "But that's where this comes in, My King. See any similarities?"
He was already on his feet before the man could finish his sentence, with Okoye standing over him with her spear at his throat. She was right in her line of thinking, for this was treason of the highest order, something that would have the scientist executed without anyone in Wakanda blinking an eye.
He felt a little faint as he looked at the DNA sequence, which was human like but clearly different in little ways. Ways that resulted in the powers of the Black Panther. It was not fully there, with the screen showing a 32% match, but even that much was….
Turning to the kneeling doctor who was looking up at him with the biggest grin on his face, he faintly asked, "How did you get this?"
He made to speak but then noticed the spear getting too close to his throat, so he gave Okoye a look. Sighing, he waved Okoye off, as B'Gembe spoke, "That is the best part, My King. I got it from my time as the head before I was, uh, removed. These aliens, whoever they are, have an exceptionally malleable DNA, my King. They can take on any DNA, but that is temporary. However, this," he pointed at the comparison, "means that they have some way of making DNA changes permanent. I think they are using the Black Panther DNA to engineer permanent grafts onto their DNA, creating an advanced species, just like I wrote in my proposal to the Council." The last part was whispered, yet everyone in the room heard it, and just like that, the tension in the room reached new highs.
He remembered that day very clearly. It was during his third year as king, when a highly respected scientist, responsible for the current mental health regime that was available to the country free of cost, had come forward with a proposal that had almost cost him his life.
Out of respect for the academy and his willingness to see most diseases eradicated for Wakandans, he had volunteered to part with his DNA, and had authorised limited testing, on the condition that everything will be destroyed under the direct supervision of the Dora Milaje.
And what a success it had been. The man had gone above and beyond, creating cures for not just physical ailments and diseases they thought chronic, but also creating something that would go on to serve as the foundation for most mental health issues that were on a worrying trend of increase, as the more preposterous Wakanda got, the less issues the population had to face, and the more mental problems that were exposed to the world.
He was basically hailed as the most important scientific face of Wakanda alive, which is why he hadn't had the man executed. Even when he began going overboard, proposing ways to artificially replicate the Heart SHaped Herb to turn the entity country into beings on par with the Black Panther, by suggesting something as heretical as bypassing Bast's will by making sure that people did not need to go to the Ancestral Plane, he had just revoked his access and banished him to live out the rest of his life away from the city, with round the clock protection, instead of killing him.
"You think they were here for the Herb?" He asked the man pointedly.
"Yes, but even if they failed to get that, they could do many things with just your DNA. Now, as for this, I can see why they did but not the how. My technique was not refined enough for human trials, let alone alien integration. They must have used magic, maybe?"
The man had retreated into his ramblings, a defense mechanism that he had ironically categorised and treated as part of his research into medicine, but refused to have that medicated because he believed that he would lose his touch with science if he tried to dull that.
"Okoye," he turned to his new general, "See if we can get him some assistants, who can keep him on track. Destroy every copy of this data, just keep one copy with you and transfer it to the new facility under the Great Mound."
"The Great Mound, My King?" Okoya asked him with surprise in her voice, which was expected. For centuries, the area under the Great Mound was akin to a different country, closed off for everyone in Wakanda, even the King, as the Magic Tribe made that their Holy ground.
Alas, circumstances have changed, and he needed more security than ever, especially for something like this. Also, B'Gembe's comments about magic might be truer than he thought them to be, because the members of the Magic Tribe confirmed to him that these interlopers had a strange way of using magic on them, akin to physical reinforcement that made them vastly more durable, even when compared to the Black Panther.
If they could do that with a 32% match and with magic, he shuddered to think what they could do with higher levels of integration and magic. He really hoped that Kato's trip to Britain would bear some fruit, because he would like this nipped in the bud as soon as possible.
Time was not on their side.
___xx___
–Talos–
He grunted, the manacles digging into his wrists, as the sound of the doors opening made him wake up. Weakened, starved, and beaten, he had hoped this to be the end, but alas, judging by the smirk on his face, he resigned himself to yet another day of painful living, while watching his people be dragged into the same thing that led to them being ousted from their home, reduced to refugees.
The once proud Skurll empire, forced to beg for scraps and hide among backwater species.
He could see how Vael'Ryx managed to rally enough people to his cause, enough to splinter off safely to do whatever he wanted to do. Whatever he did, it was successful enough, as it made him powerful enough to steal the Skrull leadership right from under his nose.
He didn't even have the opportunity to call upon Danvers, as somehow, Vael'Ryx knew of it and defeated him before any action could be taken. Even worse, all his underlings agreed to follow him now, seeing his superior strength as the reason to believe him capable of leading them to a better future.
What they didn't understand was that no matter how strong they got, the Kree had far more power now, and to grow was to challenge them, to wage war against their very existence, something that Danvers would never stand for, and she alone had enough power to cripple both the Kree and the Skrull if she so wished.
It was the main reason why they had stayed here and why he was in the process of integrating the Skrulls into the command structure of the planet. If this planet could birth one Danvers, then it stood to reason that it could birth yet another powerful player and when that happened, they would be ready to take them in for their cause.
He had been waiting for that every day, patient because beings of that level did not appear out of nowhere. Alas, Vael'Ryx had destroyed his plan of stealthily taking over the planet, even going so far as to attack Wakanda.
A fact his guards had gloated endlessly, as that too had been a success.
Weakly raising his neck, he had to look up at the frankly hideous form of Vael'Ryx. The bulging muscles, the towering height, the purple veins of energy crisscrossing over his entire body and his slowly greying color. All in all, it painted a picture of a diseased Skrull, and yet, due to the power it afforded him, everyone wished to emulate him, to the point that many volunteered for fatal experiments. His people really were sick of being weak, it would seem, to the point, they would prefer dying in the process to come out strong, than to stay weak for any longer.
"What? Come to gloat?" He said, his throat dry.
"No," He blinked, looking up as Vael'Ryx replied, as a vial of dark purple was shoved towards his lips. A crushing grip was applied to his jaw as Vael'Ryx forcibly fed him the vile liquid. He thrashed against his binds to stop this, but his strength was not going to be enough even at his peak.
Weakened, he could do nothing but rage impotently and stare at the perverse pleasure Vael'Ryx took in doing this, as the pain knocked him out. Before he succumbed to the darkness, he faintly heard the last sentence from Vael'Ryx, "Goodbye, old friend."
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