AHumanMadeMOFO
patreon
Chapter 163: The Strange World Situation
🕑 Added 2025-01-15 14:00:41 +0000 UTCJosh didn't stay long in Austria. He quickly returned to the U.S. to be reunited with his fiancée and child.
But...
"Josh! Stop bringing animals home! The house may be big, but you're turning it into a zoo! Bringing in dogs like Monday is one thing - St. Bernards are very gentle—but now you're bringing in dangerous animals like gorillas and lions? Aren't you afraid they might hurt the children?"
Margaret's angry voice echoed through the mansion, followed by the sight of Josh awkwardly fleeing with King Kong and Simba following.
Of course, "fleeing" only meant leaving the main building of the mansion.
"Hahaha, don't worry. Margaret may act tough, but she has a soft heart. As long as you behave, she'll eventually accept you. But for now, you'll have to make do with staying in the guesthouse."
After Margaret's scolding, Josh reluctantly led the two young animals into the woods behind the main building of the mansion, leaving them in the care of Vito and the security team.
Although the two creatures showed remarkable intelligence after Josh acquired them, they were still wild animals. Margaret's concerns weren't without reason, and it was safer to leave their care in the hands of professionals.
Fortunately, Josh's property was huge, with several wooded and grassy areas. One lion and one gorilla was nothing—it could easily accommodate an entire wildlife park.
After settling the animals, Josh took a shower and shamelessly sought Margaret's affection, indulging in her warm embrace.
There was nothing embarrassing about being a devoted husband.
While Josh enjoyed his domestic bliss, turmoil continued to brew in the outside world.
After their crushing defeat in Wakanda, the Anglo-French forces refused to accept their loss.
Though the initial failure sparked widespread rebellion in their African colonies, the leadership of Britain and France pressed on despite mounting pressure. They mustered a force of nearly 50,000 soldiers—four full divisions—for a retaliatory strike against Wakanda.
But their efforts were in vain.
This time, they faced a badly wounded but vengeful Azzuri.
Azzuri, unlike his more open-minded descendants, had been shaped by his time—more traditional, but still a happy and proactive young ruler.
This changed after Vito and his group ambushed him, leaving him badly wounded and losing an arm and part of his shoulder.
Though he survived, the humiliation and scorn he received from the tribal leaders at subsequent meetings drove him to the brink.
In feudal societies, a disabled monarch rarely commanded the respect of subordinates or citizens.
So Azzuri—the Black Panther of his time—turned to darkness.
With the support of the Border Tribe and the long-isolated Jabari Tribe, Azzuri began a brutal purge within Wakanda, violating the oath of the ancestors.
The Merchant and River Tribes were wiped out, and the Mining Tribe surrendered.
Wakanda, now a military state under Azzuri's leadership, abandoned its secrecy.
With the international community already aware of its existence, Wakanda, led by Azzuri, openly pursued expansion.
Ethiopia, long used as Wakanda's public front, was quickly subdued and became the first nation to fall under Wakanda's control.
It was during this time that the second Anglo-French coalition army clashed with Wakandan forces, only to meet the same fate—total annihilation.
The already chaotic northeastern African region, destabilized by the widespread distribution of surplus American military equipment, became even more violent.
The remnants of British and French forces were forced to retreat, consolidating their hold around Egypt and southern Africa while abandoning other territories altogether.
Faced with this situation, not only did Britain and France panic, but the United States and the Soviet Union couldn't stand idly by.
The two superpowers issued stern warnings to Wakanda, demanding an end to its expansion that threatened British and French "legitimate interests" in Africa.
But Azzuri, now consumed with ambition and defiance, ignored their warnings.
By this time, Azzuri was already preparing to mobilize his forces for an invasion of Egypt.
This development sent Britain and France into a full-blown panic.
The Suez Canal in Egypt was a lifeline for these colonial powers at that time.
Desperate, Britain and France abandoned their reservations and formally asked the United States for help.
But the U.S. found itself in a difficult position.
The country was already undergoing a significant military downsizing, with far fewer troops stationed in Europe than at the start of the conflict.
It also had to remain vigilant against possible Soviet aggression.
Intervening in Africa under these circumstances was a challenging task.
As the U.S. debated whether to intervene, an unexpected event dragged the previously uninvolved Soviet Union into the conflict.
The Federal Republic's elite Zodiac unit was involved in an incident.
Since his near-fatal ambush, Azzuri had used his network of global sleeper agents 'War Dogs' to investigate the Zodiac organization that had wounded him.
He had also doubled down on his personal security, repairing his Vibranium suit, outfitting himself with a Vibranium prosthetic, and expanding his personal guard.
During this time, the official Zodiac agents of the Federal Republic infiltrated Wakanda.
Of the twelve core agents, four were killed, five were captured, and only three managed to escape.
The captured agents denied any involvement in the previous attack on Azzuri, but the items bearing Zodiac insignia and samples of the super-soldier-enhancing Zodiac serum found on them told a different story.
Azzuri became even more convinced that the Zodiac Unit, and by extension the Federal Republic, was behind the earlier assassination attempt.
Though the Zodiac serum and the beast transformation serum were unrelated, Azzuri reasoned that if the Federal Republic could create the former, they could create the latter.
Wakanda publicly announced its breakthrough in uncovering the Zodiac agents' assassination plot and demanded accountability from Josip Broz Tito of the Federal Republic.
Tito, confused, denied the allegations.
The Zodiac Unit was indeed his elite force, and the Zodiac Serum was a closely guarded secret. But their mission in Wakanda was merely to steal advanced technology to strengthen the Federal Republic and prepare for possible revenge against Austria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Assassinate the King of Wakanda? That was never part of the plan.
But with no concrete evidence to clear him, Wakanda refused to believe him.
In fact, neither Wakanda nor the international powers—Britain, France, the U.S., or even the Soviet Union—believed him.
The mysterious nature of the Zodiac Unit led these nations to subsequently link the group to numerous unsolved intelligence cases in their history—even though most of them were actually created by the Council.
Britain, France, and the U.S. could only issue statements of condemnation, unable to take any decisive action.
The Soviet Union, however, had no such reservations.
Stalin sent troops that caught Tito off guard and quickly took control of the Federal Republic.
Along with the Federal Republic, Soviet forces took control of the UDBA intelligence agency and the Zodiac Unit itself.
Tito was then placed under house arrest.
As for Wakanda's demand for accountability? It was ignored.
Not long after, a newly produced Soviet Tu-4 bomber took off from the Federal Republic, flew over the Sahara, and dropped a nuclear bomb.
And just like that, the whole world fell into an eerie silence.
