That army, so vast and terrifying it defied belief, did not escape Wakanda's notice.
Of course not. Wakanda's tech, while unconventional, was unparalleled. Say what you will about how their tech tree got so... crooked, but there was no denying the results. They'd struck the motherlode with their Vibranium reserves, and they knew how to use it.
With an endless supply of Vibranium at their fingertips, it was no wonder that the Wakandans, despite clinging to a tribal monarchy, had managed to create technology that even the most advanced nations could only dream of.
Now, deep in the royal palace of Wakanda, the high council was gathered. The atmosphere was tense, faces grim.
King T'Chaka, the elder Black Panther and current monarch, sat at the head of the chamber. By his side were Prince T'Challa, Princess Shuri, General Okoye, and others. All of Wakanda's key leaders were present, their expressions uniformly troubled.
Shuri, the youngest yet smartest among them, didn't waste a second. With a flick of her wrist, she activated her custom-designed holographic interface. A floating display burst to life, projecting a live feed of the approaching threat.
The screen showed a terrifying sight: a seemingly endless army of Transformers making landfall.
Across the sweeping coastline, the sheer number of these mechanical soldiers stretched beyond the horizon. They moved in perfect silence, emanating an overwhelming sense of dread. Just witnessing the image made one's scalp crawl.
Even more horrifying, hundreds of warships began transforming, shifting and unfolding into massive, combat-ready Cybertronians.
"Martin," Shuri began, her voice tight. "He appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the crisis. Preliminary analysis categorizes him as a Tier-4 lifeform, potentially stronger. There's a non-zero probability he's a sub-Skyfather-tier entity."
She pointed to the footage, eyes sharp, forehead damp with sweat.
"These robots? He created them effortlessly. His power can turn any machine into a living robot. Worse, all available data suggests he has absolute control over them. This is the worst-case scenario."
All eyes turned to her. Especially T'Challa. He knew how dangerously sharp his sister was.
If Martin were present, he wouldn't target Black Panther, or even the Panther God first.
No, he would eliminate Shuri.
Because in the Marvel system's intelligence rankings, Shuri maxed out the scale. Beyond gods. That small head of hers held a universe-level intellect. She ranked even above Tony Stark by an entire order of magnitude.
To understand how terrifying that is, just consider Amadeus Cho, the so-called "seventh-smartest" being alive. He once saw a split-second of an explosion on TV and deduced the exact parallel universe it originated from, in under a second. [TN: I can't find this claim on any fandom on internet. I also don't read marvel comics. And the raw says "eighth-smartest" and not seventh, but the fandom says the latter.]
And Shuri outranked him.
"There's no question," Shuri continued, her voice grave. "This man has set his sights on Africa. Establishing a base here is clearly part of his plan, just like Magneto once attempted. But there's something far more troubling… It's likely he's discovered Wakanda. And he's coming for our Vibranium."
"But we've never revealed ourselves to the world!" T'Challa's voice rose. "The only outsiders aware of our existence are the Atlanteans. How could he possibly know we're here?"
"There are several possibilities," Shuri replied, her mind racing. "His abilities might exceed our understanding. He could've detected the Vibranium-based tech inside Wakanda from halfway across the planet. That's the most plausible theory I can model."
But even that wasn't the most dangerous possibility.
She hadn't told them her real suspicion: based on everything she had observed—every microexpression, every step he took, every direction he looked—Martin had known about Wakanda from the start. He hadn't just stumbled upon it. He had targeted it.
Which raised a terrifying question: Where did this man come from? Did he span time itself? Did he already know the past, present, and future? Or was he a traveler from a parallel universe?
She didn't want to believe that Wakanda could fall. But her calculations, complex, deeply layered, and multidimensional, pointed to exactly that. She was an inventor, not a psychologist. She didn't specialize in forecasting human behavior or future outcomes… and yet her "weakness" in this field was still light-years ahead of most.
"This villain, he will never take our Vibranium!" King T'Chaka stood abruptly, his aging frame still radiating authority. "We can negotiate on anything else, but not the Vibranium! We will fight him to the last warrior!"
T'Challa stepped forward. "He commands millions. Even if we call up every last Wakandan soldier, each of us would need to take down several machines to stand a chance. And that's assuming he hasn't yet seized control of our Vibranium-based tech…"
"Our last hope," Shuri interjected suddenly, her voice low, "is the Vibranium itself. Its ability to absorb and reflect all forms of energy, if we're lucky, perhaps even his abilities can be nullified by it. If so… then we have a fighting chance."
But in her heart, she knew the odds were microscopic.
If Martin wished it, he could call down reinforcements from anywhere on the planet. No country could stop him, not in the short term.
Shuri stared at the screen, a creeping despair blooming inside her.
Her genius was still just that, genius. It wasn't raw power.
"Will Wakanda fall?" she wondered. "If it comes to it… we may have to surrender. I must prepare a detailed post-defeat surrender protocol."
Even in her despair, her mind calculated relentlessly.
"There are seventeen million possible phrases he might use. Probability of refusal… estimating. Projecting likely terms of surrender…"
And so, the child-genius of Wakanda, still young, still unburdened by years but not by fate, silently performed the calculations that would decide her people's future.
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