The Ewa Plain bunker was a charnel house. Outside, the fury of the Pearl Harbor attack still raged, a symphony of explosions, gunfire, and dying screams. Inside, the air was thick with the scent of ozone, blood, and the strange, oceanic tang of Namor the Sub-Mariner. His bioluminescent patterns pulsed with an agitated rhythm, his glowing eyes fixed on Thomas MacIntyre and Tony Beaulieu.
"Sanctuary?" Namor's voice, when he finally spoke, was not the confused babble Elias had anticipated. It was deep, resonant, filled with an ancient, regal authority that belied his apparent disorientation moments before. It was also laced with a profound, cold anger. "From whom? For what purpose? Your surface world is tearing itself apart. Why should I trust any of you?" His English was perfect, if slightly archaic, hinting at a forgotten, perhaps forcibly submerged, intellect.
Thomas, facing this elemental being, felt a primal fear that even his Barbarian core couldn't entirely suppress. But Elias's orders were clear. "They," Thomas rumbled, gesturing to the dead Japanese, "wanted to use you. As a weapon. Like those who held you captive here. We… my employer… offers a different path. Understanding. Alliance. Against common enemies."
Namor scoffed, a sound like waves crashing on rocks. "Your 'employer'. Another surface dweller seeking to exploit the power of Atlantis for his petty wars." Yet, his gaze lingered on Thomas, then on Beaulieu. He could sense their altered nature, the faint, primal scent of the Feral Striker empowerment. They were not ordinary humans. "You are… different. Changed. Like me, yet… not."
Jean-Paul Dubois and Angus Macgregor, their bone claws still slick with blood, rejoined them from the bunker entrance, their expressions grim. They flanked Thomas, forming a protective, if ultimately futile, line against the Atlantean king.
"More of your… creations?" Namor asked, his eyes narrowing on Dubois and Macgregor.
"Allies," Thomas corrected firmly. "The situation here is untenable. American forces will be here in minutes. They will try to recapture you, or kill you. We offer a way out. A chance to learn who did this to you, and why." This was Elias's pre-arranged talking point.
Namor considered this. His immediate rage at his captors and the Japanese intruders was cooling, replaced by a cold, calculating intelligence. He was free, but in hostile territory, disoriented by years of captivity and experimentation. He needed information. He needed time to assess. These surface dwellers, for all their strangeness, represented an immediate, albeit risky, avenue of escape.
"Very well," Namor declared, his decision abrupt. "I will accompany you. For now. But know this: if this is a deception, your 'employer' will learn the true meaning of an ocean's wrath." A tangible aura of immense pressure emanated from him, a silent promise of devastating power.
The System pinged in Elias's mind: [Prime Conduit (Namor the Sub-Mariner) – Temporary, Conditional Alliance Secured. Loyalty Meter: 2% (Extreme Distrust, Pragmatic Self-Preservation – Highly Volatile). Objective: Safe Extraction & Information Exchange.]
Only 2%. But it was a start. Any alliance with a being of Namor's power was a monumental achievement.
The extraction from Pearl Harbor was a desperate race against time and collapsing order. The main base was an inferno. American patrols, disorganized but furious, were beginning to form cordons. Thomas MacIntyre, leading his Feral Striker pack and their astonishingly powerful, if sullen, Atlantean "guest," used the widespread chaos as cover. Their pre-arranged fallback point was the inconspicuous warehouse near the docks.
They moved through back alleys, through burning canefields, avoiding military checkpoints by sheer instinct and the Feral Strikers' heightened senses. Macgregor's ability to scent patrols and ambushes, Dubois's brute strength in clearing obstacles, and Beaulieu's silent agility were all pushed to their limits. Namor, despite his regal bearing, moved with surprising speed and stealth on land, his bare feet seeming to find purchase on any surface. He said little, observing everything with those unnervingly luminous eyes.
Reaching the warehouse was a minor miracle. O'Malley, Miller's engineering partner from Logan's support team who had been smuggled in with the Feral Strikers to provide technical assistance, had managed to get their "emergency" short-range radio operational, bypassing the overwhelmed civilian lines. Miller himself, the stoic ex-Mountie, was providing armed overwatch, his calm demeanor a stark contrast to the pandemonium outside.
Elias, via Anya's comms hub in London, established a shaky link. "Thomas! Report!"
"Package secured, Mr. Thorne," Thomas replied, his voice tight. "He's… cooperative. For now. Situation here is… bad. Whole island's a hornet's nest."
"Understood. Evacuation plan is now primary. The 'Blackwood Shipping' freighter, 'The North Star,' is currently sixty miles offshore, feigning engine trouble. O'Malley, can you get a signal to her captain for an unscheduled coastal rendezvous, citing extreme distress from the attack and need for immediate medical evacuation?"
"Might take some doing, Mr. Thorne," O'Malley's voice crackled back. "Every band is jammed with military traffic. But I'll make her squeal."
While O'Malley worked his technical magic, Elias turned his attention, metaphorically, to Namor. He couldn't speak to him directly yet, but through Thomas, he began a delicate psychological dance. He instructed Thomas to offer Namor simple comforts – clean water (Namor drank prodigious amounts, his body seeming to draw sustenance from it), uncontaminated food (he rejected most of it, his metabolism clearly different), and most importantly, information.
Thomas, guided by Elias, relayed what little they knew about "Project Riptide" – the US Navy's attempt to study and perhaps weaponize Namor after he had been found, injured and disoriented, years earlier following a deep-sea seismic event (information gleaned from System analysis of the bunker's residual data and some pre-war scientific rumors Finch had unearthed). He spoke of Hydra's global reach, their obsession with acquiring powerful beings and artifacts, subtly painting them as a common enemy.
Namor listened, his expression unreadable, but the bioluminescent patterns on his skin pulsed less erratically. He was absorbing the information, processing it with an alien, powerful intellect.
The rendezvous with The North Star was set for a secluded cove on Oahu's rugged North Shore, accessible by a series of treacherous volcanic trails, far from the immediate chaos of Pearl Harbor. The journey, undertaken under the cover of approaching darkness, was another testament to the Feral Strikers' endurance and Namor's raw power. He moved through the waterlogged jungle paths and over jagged lava rock with an ease that left even Macgregor breathless. On several occasions, when they encountered American patrols searching for Japanese stragglers or looters, Namor simply… vanished into the shadows or the water, only to reappear silently once the threat had passed.
The North Star, its lights doused, was waiting. Getting Namor aboard the rolling freighter in the heavy surf was a challenge, but he accomplished it with a surge of aquatic power that parted the waves.
Once aboard and steaming away from the burning Hawaiian islands, Elias, again through Thomas acting as intermediary, finally had a chance for a more direct, albeit still remote, exchange.
"Prince Namor," Elias's voice, filtered through the radio, was calm and respectful. "You are safe, for now. My organization extends its… condolences for your long and unjust captivity. We had no part in it."
Namor, standing on the freighter's wet deck, the sea spray invigorating him, turned his glowing eyes towards the radio speaker Thomas held. "Your 'organization,' surface dweller. What is its purpose? And what do you want with the Prince of Atlantis?"
"My purpose, Prince Namor," Elias replied, "is to navigate the storm that is engulfing your world and mine. To gather those with unique capabilities, to protect them from exploitation by factions like Hydra or your former captors, and to forge a… more stable future. I want an alliance. Your knowledge of the oceans, your inherent power, would be invaluable. In return, I can offer you information, resources, and perhaps, vengeance against those who wronged you and threaten your realm – for surely Atlantis has not been spared the surface world's encroaching madness."
It was a carefully constructed appeal, touching on Namor's pride, his power, his presumed loyalty to his undersea kingdom, and his desire for retribution.
Namor was silent for a long moment, the only sounds the thrum of the freighter's engines and the crash of waves. Then, he spoke. "Atlantis… endures. But your surface wars send their poisons deep. This 'Hydra'… their stench reaches even the abyssal plains. If your path leads to their destruction, and if you do not seek to make me a pawn as others have… then perhaps, surface man, our interests may align. For a time."
[Prime Conduit (Namor the Sub-Mariner) – Alliance Solidified (Conditional). Loyalty Meter: 15% (Pragmatic Alliance against Mutual Threat (Hydra); Profound Distrust of Surface World Persists; Assessment of Host's Intentions Ongoing). Potential for Unique Aquatic/Elemental Troop Template Research: UNLOCKED.]
Fifteen percent. A fragile alliance, bought with chaos and promises. But Elias now had two Prime Conduits, however volatile, within his sphere of influence. Logan, the feral berserker. And Namor, the regal, elemental king of the seas. The war had just gained an entirely new dimension, reaching from the highest mountains of Bavaria to the deepest trenches of the Pacific. Elias Thorne was riding the wave of chaos, and his power, his reach, his ambition, were growing with every passing, blood-soaked day.