Atlantis didn't actually lack strong materials.
That much became obvious the moment scientists got their hands on fragments of Atlantean armor.
A civilization that survived beneath crushing ocean pressure for thousands of years had naturally developed extraordinary alloys. Their metals were dense, resilient, and absurdly durable under stress.
The problem was simple.
Wakanda had vibranium.
And vibranium was cheating.
A naturally occurring metal that bulldozed past conventional material science like it was made of cardboard.
Somewhere in the world, every engineer who had spent thirty years optimizing steel probably wanted to scream.
"That's vibranium?"
Agent Phil Coulson stared across the battlefield through binoculars.
Wakandan soldiers were plowing through Atlantean forces almost effortlessly.
Bullets bounced.
Blades shattered.
Energy weapons disappeared harmlessly against black armor lined with violet light.
The Atlanteans looked like they were beginning to question every life choice that had led them here.
Coulson lowered the binoculars slowly.
"Yeah, okay. I get why the whole planet's obsessed with this stuff."
S.W.O.R.D.'s archives already contained classified reports on vibranium, so none of this surprised him anymore.
If anything, he was jealous.
Wakanda had monopolized the only known vibranium reserve on Earth and quietly advanced for generations while the rest of humanity crawled forward one technological breakthrough at a time.
Material science determined the ceiling of civilization.
And when both energy and materials reached absurd levels simultaneously?
Technology exploded.
Still, Drex Valen had recently discovered something interesting himself.
Adamantium ore.
Not manufactured alloy.
Actual ore.
He'd remembered that adamantium wasn't originally a mutant-exclusive concept in every universe. Some continuities tied it to extraterrestrial meteor deposits.
The existence of Captain America's shield had already proven something similar existed somewhere on Earth.
So Drex found it.
And once he understood the atomic structure?
Manufacturing it became trivial.
Of course, none of that meant Wakanda was invincible.
If they truly were untouchable, they wouldn't have nearly collapsed against Thanos' disposable alien war beasts in other timelines.
The Atlanteans adapted quickly.
After the initial shock, they began targeting Wakanda's tactical weaknesses instead of trying to overpower vibranium head-on.
The battlefield shifted almost immediately.
Counterattacks.
Flanking maneuvers.
Ambushes.
Atlantean marine warriors tore through Wakandan formations with terrifying efficiency, leaving piles of casualties behind them.
"This stopped being a border skirmish hours ago," Coulson muttered.
Nearby, Emil Blonsky leaned against a jeep, cigar hanging from his mouth beneath mirrored sunglasses.
"The Director said we wait until both sides bleed enough."
Coulson shrugged.
"Classic balance-of-power strategy."
Then he glanced toward the battlefield again.
"We sure we brought enough people?"
S.W.O.R.D.'s "peacekeeping force" looked embarrassingly small considering they were supposedly monitoring two advanced civilizations at war.
Nobody answered.
Because at that exact moment, Wakanda deployed its war beasts.
The ground began to shake.
At first, the Atlanteans assumed it was distant seismic activity.
Then came the sound.
Heavy.
Rhythmic.
Like an army hammering the earth apart with giant drums.
Atlantean soldiers turned toward the horizon.
And froze.
"What the hell are those?"
"Elephants?"
"Idiot. Those are rhinos!"
Dozens of massive rhinoceroses thundered across the plains like armored tanks given biological form.
Each beast wore full vibranium war plating.
Their horns gleamed metallic black.
Their footsteps cracked the earth.
The creatures were far larger than normal rhinos, nearly double the size of anything found in the wild.
And fast.
Way too fast.
Energy blasts slammed into their armor and vanished instantly.
Absorbed.
The vibranium plating covered almost their entire bodies except for narrow gaps around the eyes.
The collision with Atlantean front lines looked less like cavalry and more like a natural disaster.
Soldiers were launched through the air.
But the Atlanteans got back up.
That was the frightening part.
Living beneath extreme oceanic pressure had transformed their bodies over generations. Even without armor, they were physically superior to ordinary humans.
Add powered exoskeletons on top of that and they became monsters in close combat.
If vibranium hadn't completely outclassed their materials, Atlantis probably could have rolled over Wakanda without suffering meaningful losses.
Instead, the battle settled into brutal equilibrium.
Wakanda only truly stabilized the front after deploying the vibranium rhinos.
The war dragged on until sunset.
Bodies littered the battlefield.
Smoke curled into the darkening sky.
Only then did S.W.O.R.D. finally step in.
Unfortunately, both sides were far past the point where a polite ceasefire request would accomplish anything.
Coulson sighed.
"So the whole 'let them hate each other enough to prevent future alliances' thing worked a little too well."
Then Blonsky transformed.
Bones cracked.
Muscles expanded.
The monstrous form of Super Abomination erupted onto the battlefield and started beating the hell out of everyone equally.
Atlantean.
Wakandan.
Didn't matter.
Anyone still fighting got smashed into the dirt.
Blonsky's kinetic absorption made him practically unstoppable here. Only Atlantean weapons posed any real threat to him at all.
The battlefield cooled down remarkably fast after that.
Nothing calmed people quite like being punched through a building by a giant monster.
For Atlantis, the incident became another harsh lesson about S.W.O.R.D.'s terrifying strength.
Blonsky alone already felt overwhelming.
And according to S.W.O.R.D.'s own structure?
He was only one of six S-Class heroes.
Not counting Drex Valen himself.
What the Atlanteans didn't know was that Drex had quietly started changing direction behind the scenes.
Instead of eliminating dangerous supervillains...
He was recruiting them.
Converting them.
Weaponizing them.
Because if Earth eventually faced Thanos, Drex wanted humanity to survive without needing him to personally solve everything.
Imagine it.
Super Abomination.
Red Hulk.
Green Hulk.
Thor.
Tony Stark.
Juggernaut.
The Thing.
That lineup alone could probably beat Thanos unconscious even if he already possessed two Infinity Stones.
Later, Atlantis and Wakanda agreed to temporary peace talks.
And only after the fighting stopped did both sides realize how stupid the entire conflict had been.
A relatively minor dispute had escalated into full-scale warfare.
Now both nations carried fresh graves and fresh hatred.
Even if diplomacy stabilized things temporarily, the blood debt remained.
Someday, it would erupt again.
Which was exactly what the United Nations and Drex wanted.
As long as Wakanda and Atlantis distrusted each other, cooperation between the two advanced civilizations would remain impossible.
Drex had originally planned to manipulate them into conflict eventually.
Instead, they'd handled it themselves within a week.
Honestly, that saved him time.
Apparently both civilizations had remarkably short tempers.
Not long after, Juggernaut, Cain Marko himself, officially joined S.W.O.R.D. as a new S-Class hero.
Six S-Class heroes now existed under S.W.O.R.D.'s banner.
Seven, technically, if someone counted Drex.
But nobody really put him in the same category anymore.
Late that night, Drex flipped through files and memory archives while leaning back in his chair.
"Now then," he murmured.
"What other useful psychopaths haven't shown up yet?"