The Raft shuddered violently as warning sirens screamed through its metallic corridors. Red lights bathed the prison's flooded decks in a crimson haze. Inside the control room, Zemo stood calmly before the main console, his gloved fingers dancing across the controls.
"Sir, what are you doing?" One of the guards shouted, panic rising in his voice.
Zemo didn't answer right away. Instead, he watched the monitor displaying the zombified Namor circling the Raft like a predator. The sea boiled with undead energy around him. "If we are to survive," Zemo said evenly, "then we must give the beast something it cannot refuse."
He pressed a final key.
A deep, mechanical groan echoed through the facility—and then one of the Raft's lower containment blocks detached, sinking into the depths below. The terrified screams of the inmates echoed for only a moment before being swallowed by the sea.
The guard stared at him, horrified. "You… you just sacrificed them!"
Zemo adjusted his mask and turned to the room of frightened survivors. "Do not mourn," he said coldly. "Their sacrifice buys us time. Alastor and his people swore to protect our city. They'll keep their word. Won't they?"
There was a tense silence. Then, one by one, the others nodded—some in fear, some in blind acceptance. "Yeah… they'll protect us," one muttered. "They always do."
Far below, in a neighboring cell, Shang-Chi and Katy Chen had felt the violent lurch. They stumbled as the floor tilted, realizing with dawning horror what had happened.
"No… no, they didn't—" Chen gasped, pounding on the reinforced door.
Shang-Chi's face twisted with rage as he heard the muffled screams fade into silence. "We have to save them!" he shouted, slamming his fists against the glass.
•••
The plunge into the ocean was instant—a heavy, crushing silence swallowing the world. The Raft cell sank like a stone through black water, bubbles streaking past as the structure groaned under the weight. Kamala's panicked voice cut through the comms.
"I—I got it!" She shouted, her hands glowing with blue-white Noor energy.
A shimmering sphere of light burst outward, expanding until it encapsulated all of us. The world outside turned hazy and dark blue, the sphere holding steady against the endless pressure of the deep.
We floated there, suspended beneath the sea. The muffled hum of the raft faded above us, replaced by the eerie sound of movement—something huge slicing through the water.
Kate pressed closer to the edge of the sphere, her eyes wide. "What the hell is that—"
Before she could finish, a spear of light blue energy struck the sphere like a meteor. The impact threw us all back, the Noor barrier trembling violently. A shape appeared outside—a sleek, muscular figure gliding through the water with terrifying grace, his golden eyes glowing faintly in the gloom.
"Namor," I said quietly, watching as the king of Talokan raised his spear again.
With a surge of force, his weapon slammed into the sphere, cracking it with a sound like thunder underwater. Kamala screamed, pouring every ounce of power she had into holding it together, but the barrier was shattering fast.
"Hold on!" she shouted, her voice echoing inside the light.
Namor made one final thrust—and the Noor sphere shattered like glass. Water rushed in instantly, surrounding us in a crushing embrace. For a mortal, it would've been their last breath.
But not for us.
As the cold swallowed me, I saw Shalltear smiling beside me, her crimson eyes gleaming with amusement. "My Lord, it seems drowning is off the table," she said calmly, her voice carrying through the link I shared with her.
"Convenient," I replied, my aura igniting around me like an invisible flame. "Still, let's get back to the surface. Our little king wants a war."
Kamala's Noor flared again—less a shield now, more a propulsion burst. The sea glowed with her light as she forced the currents aside, driving us upward. Namor followed, cutting through the dark like a blade. His spear struck the raft's outer hull just as Kamala's power slammed us into it.
Metal shrieked. The Noor sphere imploded outward, throwing us back into the Raft's lowest bay. Water cascaded in behind us as alarms blared again.
"Nice work," I said to Kamala, dusting myself off as though I hadn't just been to the bottom of the ocean. "That's a clever use of your power."
She was panting, her face pale. "I didn't think it would actually work."
I smiled faintly.
Well, even if she hasn't used her power for me and Shalltear, there won't be a problem, as we can't drown because we don't need to breathe air to live.
Shalltear giggled softly beside me, but the laughter faded as the entire raft trembled again—this time from within.
Namor and his Talokanil had breached the structure. The corridors erupted into chaos as guards and survivors clashed with the invading sea warriors—half of them already turned into zombies. The air filled with screams, gunfire, and the wet sound of bodies hitting steel.
"Fall back!" Zemo's voice rang over the loudspeakers. "All operatives, to the life pods! Now!"
His words were followed by another explosion, closer this time. Through a shattered viewport, I saw the unmistakable form of Namor tearing through soldiers like paper, his trident crackling with oceanic energy.
"Contain him!" Zemo shouted, appearing briefly on the upper platform. "Get him inside the Hulk Containment Unit!"
Dozens of heavy blast doors sealed around Namor, locking him inside a transparent chamber that began filling with electrical current. For a moment, it seemed like it worked—until the sound of cracking glass filled the air.
"Zemo," I muttered, shaking my head. "You're playing chess with a god."
But Zemo wasn't interested in heroics. He slammed a final switch, ejecting several pods from the raft. "I'll preserve what I can," his voice echoed. "The rest of you—hold the line if you can."
Coward.
Namor shattered the containment unit, the explosion of water and energy throwing everything into chaos again. I saw Shang-Chi and his allies—Death Dealer, Katy Chen, and Jimmy Woo—burst from their cells in the chaos, joining the fight.
Kamala turned to me, drenched but determined. "What now?"
I cracked my neck, "Now," I said, smiling faintly, "you guys run and get into the life pod with Zemo. While I fight him off."
~~~
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