Marvel: A New God's Reign

Chapter 78: A God Never Rests Easy

---

"Every war begins with a talk."

-Madara Uchiha, (Naruto Shippuden)

---

<[Meta Enterprises HQ, Neo Genosha]>

<(Atem POV)>

"GYAAAAA!" A blood-curdling scream echoed throughout the entire building, leaving everyone inside the establishment wondering just which unfortunate soul had angered their boss this time.

"You already took all the Vibranium I had, what more do you want from me? Please, just let me go. I give you my word that I won't try to sneak into the country ever again, I won't even step foot on this continent if you tell me not to... Please, I can be of use to you guys if you just let me go back." Ulysses Klaue begged with literal tears in his eyes as he softly ran his fingers over the scorch marks on his skin made by one of the fire-manipulating metahumans torturing him.

"Klaue, you and I both know that this is not happening because you tried to sneak into my country to try your luck in the metahuman organ trafficking business. If I wanted to punish you for that, I would have already killed you instead of wasting my time like this talking to you. What I want is a piece of knowledge that you have stored in that evil, scheming little mind of yours. I want to know everything you know about Wakanda, its people, and its security, as simple as that. The moment you tell me everything is the moment you go free; you get my drift?" I asked without trying to mince my words as I stared at his ugly snot-filled face with a bored expression.

By the way, I wasn't exaggerating here. The only real thing Klaue had that was even slightly valuable to me was the information he possessed about Wakanda. Of course, I would have liked to glean that information directly from his mind and avoid all this unnecessary drama, but it seems that Klaue who knew of the existence of metahumans, and telepaths, was very cautious of someone trying to get inside his head to get information about his "business" and had somehow sealed his most important memories including everything he knew about Wakanda deep inside his mind to avoid exactly these types of situations.

The entire thing was done in a very skilled and smart way. Not only had he artificially developed natural mental shields around his mind, but it was also done in such a way that if any telepath or mind reader no matter how powerful or skilled ever tried to forcefully extract this sealed information from inside his mind, then his entire brain would automatically shut down with the hidden memories being shredded and scrambled beyond recognition. It was almost like he had made himself into some sort of secure hard disk that only he could open through his own voluntary will.

Even powers like truth compulsion, mind reading, or mind-controlling him to give us the intel weren't successful in extracting the information we wanted from him. Of course, old-style physical torture to "make" him tell us everything voluntarily was still a valid method for bypassing this little security protocol he had implanted in his mind. And even if that didn't work, then we would have no choice but to resort to magic. But since we didn't have a solid idea how magic would affect him in this case, we were trying the safer option first.

"I-I can't do that. They will kill me. The only reason those bald Wakandan bitches hadn't been actively hunting me is that they know that I am not stupid enough to voluntarily spread sensitive intel about their nation amongst others. However, the moment I start spreading that information, they will go to absolutely any length necessary to eliminate me along with everyone else who has access to that intel." Ulysses begged in a pleading tone.

"So, that means you are more afraid of Wakandans than you are afraid of Metahumans, huh?" I calmly asked him before gesturing to a girl standing silently a few feet away from us. "Do you know what people fear the most, Klaue?... Of course, you don't, because their fears are never the same. Different people fear different things. Sometimes, even if people don't know what they are afraid of or why they are scared of it in the first place, it doesn't change the fact that they are still terrified." I stated before resting my gaze on the young girl who calmly put her palms around the bound Ulysses' head who was desperately trying to move away from the girl but wasn't able to because of shackles tightly binding him to his place.