Nick Fury's face was grim as he studied the video footage sent to him just half an hour ago. It documented the full assault of the "Black Hulk" on the Zandalar tribe—a brutal rampage that left Benghazi and much of Libya in chaos. With the Zandalari clan eliminated, the power vacuum was drawing in opportunists eager to claim the abandoned territory.
But Fury's primary concern wasn't the political unrest—it was the unknown entity responsible. The devastation in Libya had caught the attention of global leaders, prompting top officials in the five major powers to demand answers. Was Zod behind this? If so, he had overstepped by using a monstrous force for such a lethal intervention. To investigate, Fury knew S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't the only agency at work; the CIA and FBI were also mobilizing in the United States, while Russia's Leviathan organization had started their own inquiries. Across the globe, intelligence agencies were converging on this mystery.
Fury's headache was compounded by the realization that Zod could legally stonewall them, thanks to his well-crafted "trade secrets." The Superhero Association, after all, operated as a corporation, and the superheroes were marketed as its "flagship products." Zod controlled a lucrative industry of movies, comics, toys, and media franchises that had recently dominated Hollywood. These franchises were making billions at the box office, much to the envy of other studios.
And it wasn't just Marvel; Zod had also acquired DC Comics, wiping out Superman-centered narratives in favor of creating new heroes and launching a distinct DC Universe franchise. The whole enterprise, shielded by Zod's claims of intellectual property and business confidentiality, made Fury's pursuit of answers nearly impossible.
He recalled losing one of his agents, Natasha Romanoff, who was embedded in Zod's Blade Technology Industries. The agent had been their best hope of investigating the World Serpent—a hidden empire Zod was rumored to be building. Her expulsion was a bitter reminder of the power Zod wielded.
Meanwhile, after obliterating the Zandalar tribe, Zodhis and his monstrous creation, Hercules, returned to a massive undersea base deep within the Pacific. The World Serpent organization had expanded its operations to over fifty hidden bases across the seafloor, guarded by advanced sentry robots. Constructed with an atomic alloy casing, these bases could withstand earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural threats that frequently occurred underwater.
Though Zodhis's bases were secure from most threats, he was cautious of Atlantis, an ancient civilization with its own secrets and underwater cities in the Atlantic. The Atlanteans traced their history back over ten thousand years and were descendants of an advanced civilization with ties to the sea god. When Atlantis had sunk, they had managed to preserve their culture and heritage in the ocean depths.
To remain hidden from these formidable neighbors, Zodhis manipulated the local magnetic fields surrounding his bases. This cloaking effect rendered them undetectable to Atlantean instruments and even invisible to the naked eye.
The origins of the Atlantean civilization stretched back to the Celestials, a godlike race who visited Earth multiple times over the millennia. On their first visit, over four billion years ago, they experimented with primitive humans, introducing the X-gene—the genetic basis for mutants. This early genetic tampering gave rise to three distinct races: the Eternals, Deviants, and humans.
The Eternals, possessing nearly limitless lifespans and cosmic energy manipulation, established cities across Earth, including Arctic City in Siberia, Olympia in Greece, and an Undersea City in the Pacific. When conflicts arose among them, Zuras, the Eternals' leader, exiled his brother, Alars, to space. Alars later became the progenitor of the Titan race, including Thanos, the infamous "Mad Titan."
In stark contrast, the Deviants developed a civilization centered in Lemuria, a continent they populated through extensive genetic experimentation. Known for their unpredictability and hostility, the Deviants sought global dominance, triggering several conflicts. Their eventual downfall came in 16,000 BC, when the Celestials returned to Earth and destroyed Lemuria, an event that also sank Atlantis.
This ancient history of Earth's lost civilizations was recorded only in fragments by organizations like Kamar-Taj, whose influence in those early days was still limited. Atlantis, now nestled in the Atlantic, kept its distance from the Pacific Ocean, unaware of the World Serpent's network expanding beneath the surface.
By 2003, Zodhis's World Serpent organization had over 100,000 members, each operating under his covert empire. Underground bases spanned continents, and in just a few short years, Zodhis had developed the infrastructure of a world power in the shadows. It was only a matter of time before the world would realize the true scale of the World Serpent's ambition.