"Depth: seven thousand meters."
Yunis's voice announced. Under the small submarine's floodlights, a corner of the dim temple was laid bare before Bant and Felicia.
"It's actually this deep."
Felicia said, surprised.
Most of the remaining civilizational ruins on Morag were quite primitive. Perhaps they had once been glorious, but now, temples were the tallest structures left standing.
Of course, what puzzled her most was Morag's once-every-three-centuries mega-ebb tide.
At that time, the majority of Morag's surface would emerge from the water. Just where did an ocean deep enough to submerge thousands of kilometers of the planet's surface disappear to?
"Maybe it drains underground."
Bant wasn't sure either.
Different planets existed in different cosmic environments. Compared to a dimension like Asgard, Morag's spectacle wasn't all that extraordinary.
He parked the ship on a platform outside the temple, then prepared to disembark with Felicia.
With a light tap of her bracelet, Felicia's nano-suit instantly enveloped her entire body.
Immediately after, the two of them detached from the ship simultaneously and swam toward the temple.
Then Bant separated a small timed explosive from his nano-suit and planted it on the temple wall.
The next moment—
BOOM!!
A muffled, earth-shattering roar. After the flash of fire, a massive, scorching bubble expanded outward, and even the surrounding seawater was blasted back by the shockwave in an instant.
A gaping hole was blown into the temple.
Bant shot Felicia a look, and the two of them swam inside simultaneously.
But at the same time, an immense current surged into the temple, the turbulent water making it nearly impossible for them to steady themselves.
Bant could anchor himself firmly to the wall using bio-electric static.
But Felicia had no way to do the same.
She tried to dig her claws into the wall, but the overly sharp Vibranium claws made it impossible to get a solid grip. It was like clawing at tofu; she just sliced right through the wall.
The raging whirlpool swept her away in an instant!
"Kitty!"
Seeing this, Bant shot a web-line at Felicia without hesitation.
But the current was so fierce that it instantly disrupted the trajectory of the high-velocity web.
"Felicia!"
Just as Felicia was about to vanish into the dark current, Bant slammed the Omnitrix hard. Green light covered his entire body.
In the next moment, a black-and-white creature tore through the water like a fish, diving into the darkness.
It was the long-lost Ripjaws!
On this planet, where most of the surface was submerged, Ripjaws was so at ease it was practically home.
The flowing water, which Bant had seen as a hindrance moments ago, now felt like a favorable wind accelerating a sailboat across the sea.
The small, bulb-like light source on the top of his head illuminated the path ahead.
Ripjaws' eyes could adapt to the darkness. Though the light atop his head was faint, it was enough for him to see everything before him clearly.
His black tail swung rapidly, his webbed hands parted the water, and he maneuvered nimbly through the cramped, obstacle-filled space.
"Felicia!"
In the darkness, he was like a crow skimming over a field under a dusky sky.
Almost instantly, he caught up to Felicia, who had been swept far away by the current.
"Grab my hand!"
Felicia's reaction was quick too. Though the powerful current severely restricted her movements, the Vibranium suit absorbed part of the impact.
She retracted her claws, struggled to grab Bant's arm, and then immediately wrapped herself around his waist like an octopus.
Only then did Felicia let out a sigh of relief and whisper in his ear:
"I knew you'd save me. Also, kitty cats like little fish jerky the most."
"Stop flapping your gums."
Bant said, exasperated. "Pull up the temple map. The air that was originally inside the temple shouldn't have leaked out, so the seawater shouldn't flood the whole place."
"Also, don't stick so close. Your boobs are pressing on my gills. It's a little hard to breathe."
"Sorry."
Felicia adjusted her posture first, then reached out like a kitten and fiddled with the little light globe on Bant's forehead, finally activating the device on her wrist.
"Go left…"
Bant made a sharp turn, veering left just before crashing into a wall.
"Then down, then right… Wait, something's chasing us!" Felicia suddenly shouted in alarm. On the map projected from her wrist device, countless dots were following right behind them.
"I smelled them."
He didn't need her to tell him. Bant's sense of smell, sharper than a shark's, had immediately detected the countless "pursuers" behind them.
Felicia turned her head to look, but it was pitch black behind them; she couldn't see a thing.
She could only sense that those things were swimming incredibly fast, even able to match Ripjaws' speed.
And as they swam, they emitted a dense "click-clack-click-clack" sound, as if thousands upon thousands of mouths were opening and shutting, countless teeth gnashing together.
Bant also glanced back.
With the faint light from his head, he could make out what those things were—strange bodies only twenty centimeters long, but with heads making up a huge portion of their bodies. The most eye-catching feature, of course, was those monsters' teeth.
They were practically like rows of saw teeth.
A twenty-centimeter body, with teeth three or four centimeters long.
"Alien piranhas?"
"Cool. I wanna keep a few in the main hall of Primatos as decorations. What do you think?"
"Whatever you like!"
Felicia was somewhat speechless.
She didn't really like fish jerky that much.
"Then it's settled. Next time I can invite you and your parents over to my place for lemon alien fish."
Bant turned around completely, coming to a hovering stop amid the turbulent water.
Felicia was surprised.
"You know how to make lemon fish?"
"I don't, but I can make Peter sneak into Gwen's house to learn."
Bant dove headfirst into the school of fish. Instantly, countless piranhas swarmed toward him in a frenzy.
In the blink of an eye, he and Felicia were completely engulfed, surrounded so tightly not a sliver of light got through.
Protected by her Vibranium suit, Felicia didn't feel a thing even when the piranhas gnashed at her body.
If piranhas could tear through a Vibranium suit, wouldn't that make them even more badass than Thanos?
Bant, on the other hand, directly let his nature run wild and began biting back.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Ripjaws lived up to his formidable name. Besides certain specially-made materials, he had yet to encounter anything he couldn't bite through.
These piranhas swarming him were no different from a pack of little white rabbits surrounding a tiger.
Before long, the blood of the fish school had already filled the waters of this passageway, carried by the current deeper into the ruins.
"Whoa, the meat's pretty fresh and tasty."
Perhaps because these alien piranhas had such powerful jaws, the meat in that area was extremely firm.
Of course, Bant only had a quick taste of the texture and didn't actually swallow.
He wasn't very accepting of uncooked food.
Felicia joined the fish-extermination effort as well. While enduring the piranhas' relentless bites, the suit was also storing up energy.
Although this energy was nowhere near the suit's upper limit, with the tech Bant had developed, the Vibranium suit could now release stored energy at any time.
"Kitty, keep your distance from me."
"Don't worry, don't underestimate Ripjaws' physical resilience. Plus, my uniform is Vibranium too."
Bant said nonchalantly.
Nanotechnology was something he had originally extracted from the Omnitrix, so switching the material of the suits for his alien forms was a given.
You could say this was Bant's first successful modification to the Omnitrix, and the result proved to be a complete success.
Of course, for powerful aliens, this modification might not be worth mentioning. For someone like Four Arms, fists were the best defense; for weaker aliens, it wasn't much use either, since the Omnitrix itself had a certain degree of protective mechanisms ensuring the wearer wouldn't die.
But for alien forms like Ripjaws and Glide, whose combat power was in a somewhat awkward middle ground—not strong, not weak—it brought a significant boost.
He didn't want the classic heroes to lose their chances to shine as his own or his enemies' combat levels rapidly escalated.
Hearing this, Felicia let go of her reservations.
In an instant, the suit's accumulated energy was unleashed.
BOOM!!!
A sphere of purple light rapidly expanded outward.
In the next moment, the seawater around the two of them seemed to be instantly displaced, forming a brief vacuum zone.
The piranhas swept by the energy at close range simply went pop and exploded outright!
Even the piranhas further away were instantly knocked unconscious by the shockwave, floating belly-up and pressing against the ceiling.
This energy wasn't just accumulated from the piranhas' bites; it also came from the earlier blast wave when they entered, and from the surging seawater that had crashed against her with dozens of tons of force.
"Let's move."
With those things dealt with, Bant and Felicia didn't linger.
Even if he wanted to bring some fish back, there was no need to carry them now. The planet was vast; he could just use the spaceship to trawl a few later.
In fact, Bant was even starting to think about turning some planet into his personal breeding farm, or creating a real Primatos that could store the genetic Codon Stream.
Morag was one option, but the target Bant fancied more was Ego.
Yes, Star-Lord's biological father, the living planet Ego.
Conveniently, that guy had seeded countless planets with his life-seeds and had probably acquired the genes of plenty of species.
The only snag was Ego's own consciousness. If he could just wipe Ego's consciousness, it would be perfect.
Bant figured, once he met the true "Father-Conflictor" Star-Lord, he'd have to have a good talk with him about this "father-son bonding" plan.
Ego: ???
What the hell?!
Of course, taking down Thanos, Star-Lord's father-in-law, together was the top priority.
Soon.
Following the route map Yunis provided, Bant and Felicia found a place to surface.
Although the suit could supply Felicia with oxygen, the feeling of returning to dry land still made the little wildcat breathe a sigh of relief.
"Air index normal. Safe to breathe."
Yunis immediately analyzed the air within the ruins. Once it confirmed it was absolutely safe, Felicia retracted her face mask, and her silver hair cascaded down, sleek and brisk.
"This is more like it."
She said, swaying her hips.
The suit's built-in climate control system evaporated the moisture from her body. Simultaneously, Bant transformed back from his Ripjaws form.
The two were just about to continue onward when the comm suddenly chimed.
At the same time, back on the original ship, the left-behind Winter Soldier had a grave expression as he initiated a broadcast to everyone.
"Security Officer, a large number of ships have appeared on the planet's periphery."
The Winter Soldier spoke while piloting the ship, diving toward the ocean's depths, using the complex seabed terrain to conceal himself.
At the same time, he transmitted the visual signatures of the ships he'd detected to everyone's wrist devices.
"Barring any surprises, it should be the Kree arriving."
Looking at the massive fleet overhead, the Winter Soldier seemed somewhat worried.
For now, it didn't seem like the other side had detected them yet, but that could easily change as time went on.
If they ended up in a direct conflict, it would be disadvantageous for their side.
"Received, Bucky. Watch yourself too."
Steve was the first to respond.
T'Challa was with him, so he didn't bother speaking.
Bant also gave a brief reply and then told the Winter Soldier to stay hidden.
Peter, on the other hand, started exclaiming the moment his comm opened.
"What?"
"The Kree are only arriving now?"
Inside the temple, Peter shouted in surprise. The eyes on his black mask were wide, one larger than the other, his face full of disbelief.
At the same time, his gaze shifted downward to a man in red leather lying face-down on the ground not far away, butt in the air, one bowl of rice away from being fat. Puzzled, he spoke:
"The Kree are only getting here now? Then who's this guy I knocked out?"
About ten minutes earlier, Peter had smashed through a wall and infiltrated the temple. After wandering around inside for a while, he'd finally found dry land.
He hadn't gotten far when he heard a god-awful voice singing.
Following the sound, he found Star-Lord holding a little temple dinosaur, lost in passionate song and dance, kicking the crap out of every little critter he saw.
The sheer brutality of the scene would've made Blue the Velociraptor weep.
Peter was still wondering who the hell this guy was when Venom immediately egged him on, claiming the guy was obviously a Kree and tricking Peter into charging over and crushing Star-Lord's skull.
In the past, Peter would have at most just tied Star-Lord up. But having been possessed by Venom for a while now, he couldn't help using a bit more force when he struck.
Plus, he figured that in a remote, gods-forsaken place like Morag, there really shouldn't be any other humans besides them. What Venom said was probably true. So he just slapped him—and knocked out Star-Lord, the celestial body that rivaled mere mortals, cold.
Star-Lord: #$%&@!!!
/-\
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