Martin's hunger for Vibranium had always been blatant; ruthless, unapologetic, and unrelenting.
To claim it, he hadn't hesitated to mobilize a private army, all but broadcasting a message to the world: Cross me, and I'll burn you to ash.
The annihilation of what had been hailed as the strongest surface fleet on Earth, reduced to scrap and corpses, was his blood-soaked offering. A single nuclear detonation marked the ritual, cementing Martin's iron-fisted reputation as a warlord without restraint.
But now, he had stumbled upon an unexpected bonus beyond the Vibranium mines.
"I thought it'd take years to crack the code on unlocking the Autobot faction," Martin mused aloud, eyes gleaming. "Never imagined it would fall into my lap this soon... Truly, Wakanda, you have my admiration for your generosity."
He placed a hand over his heart, offering an exaggerated bow. "Rest easy. My original plan was to massacre every last one of you and incinerate the remains. But now, I'll go the extra mile, gather your ashes and scatter them into the sea. Let them drift with your gods, aimless and forgotten."
T'Challa's fury boiled over.
General Okoye didn't wait, she hurled her Vibranium spear straight at Martin.
But before it could strike, Bruce Banner let out a guttural roar and transformed. The Hulk surged forward, intercepting the spear and taking the hit for Martin.
Martin glanced at the Green Giant, mildly intrigued, but said nothing. Instead, he chuckled darkly.
"Die. All of you."
A storm erupted.
The Panther Goddess, Bast, finally moved. Her divine radiance shimmered across the sky, crackling with the primal fury of nature itself. Waves of psychic force roared forward like a celestial tsunami, aiming straight for Martin.
Yet he looked unfazed.
"Truth is," Martin said flatly, "I've never battled a god before. Never even seen one in action. But I do know one thing, you're not a real god."
He scoffed.
From the moment he laid eyes on Bast, he knew. This wasn't a deity as mortals understood it, not flesh and blood, but a spectral construct, a sentient amalgam of faith, ancestral will, and psychic resonance.
According to memories from his past life, Bast had long served as a metaphysical bridge, linking Wakanda's monarchs and bestowing divine right.
But in reality, she was the cumulative echo of centuries of royal spirits, compounded over time into something powerful, but still bound by what she was: a belief, not a being.
She had grown stronger across the ages, yes. Had the world continued as it was, she would've become a true cosmic force by Earth's final breath.
But fate had other plans.
She encountered Martin, and his greed knew no gods.
"Today," he whispered, "A god will fall."
With a contemptuous backhand, Martin swatted the confused Hulk aside like a rag doll. Then the AllSpark within his chest, pulsing with raw, Cybertronian life force, erupted. Energy and consciousness flooded him, violently elevating his existence to a terrifying new tier.
Bast was precisely the kind of enemy Martin relished.
A being made of faith and mental constructs? Child's play for someone wielding the raw force of the AllSpark.
"You have committed atrocities against Wakanda," Bast intoned, her voice resonating across spirit and sky. "The souls of our fallen cry out for justice. You will suffer a million years of atonement!"
Martin's expression didn't change.
"I've never lost sleep over the dead."
With that, he lunged.
His Polarity Gauntlet locked into place, warping local magnetic fields as he surged forward. The AllSpark's power flared again, unstoppable and absolute.
BOOM!
The Earth trembled. A surge of psychic energy detonated outward, birthing a soul-storm that rippled across the continent. Thoughtforms shattered. Astral shadows shrieked. Wakanda itself cried out in anguish.
"Who—what are you?!" Bast roared, shaken to her core.
Martin didn't answer.
Psychic warfare was Bast's domain. But even in her own field, Martin overwhelmed her.
In desperation, Bast's radiant form scattered into countless motes of light and made a beeline toward Hulk. She aimed to possess him, to bend the strongest body on Earth to her will and use it as a vessel in this battle.
"Foolish," Martin sneered.
To claim the Hulk wasn't just a crime against Bruce, it was an insult to the unfathomable entity that lurked behind the Hulk.
Bast had no clue.
She saw only the immediate move, the tactical necessity. She needed a physical anchor. Her soul-force alone couldn't hold against Martin's monstrous hybrid form.
"If I take this beast's body, your end will come swiftly!" Bast roared as she surged into Hulk's core.
At first, silence.
Then, a green radiance burst outward. A wild, chaotic beam of primordial rage shot forth.
And then, eyes opened.
Eyes that crossed time. Eyes that pierced dimensions. Eyes that looked beyond the multiverse, and back down upon Earth.
Bast froze.
A devastating pressure choked her spirit. A suffocating will surged forth, a will so ancient, so merciless, it nearly annihilated her with a glance.
"What insect dares...?"
The voice rumbled like the cracking of stars.
From that impossible green light, a gaze flicked downward.
And in that instant, Bast was shattered.
Her scream echoed across the astral plane as her form splintered. Her spirit, amassed over eons, dissolved in a heartbeat. She fled, what was left of her, a ragged psychic fragment retreating through the mindscape in terror.
She never even knew what hit her.
She had faced countless threats.
But this...
This was something else.
As she reformed, barely clinging to her essence, she found Martin waiting, smiling.
A cruel, cold smile.
"Bast... perish."
He raised his hand, palm open.
A divine executioner.
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