The lovely woman with hair down to the floor was Medusa, Black Bolt's wife. The reverse-jointed, hoofed, brown-skinned man was Gorgon, a great general of the Inhumans. As for the last one, the dog, Daisy only knew it was called Lockjaw; the forced teleportation earlier had been this big dog's ability.
The big dog had punched through the Tesseract's energy interference to teleport them in by force; the moment it landed, blood began seeping from the corners of its mouth, its eyes bulging, looking about ready to keel over. Daisy couldn't help sneaking a couple more sidelong glances.
By rights, the use of Terrigen Crystals was strictly regulated. To limit power within their own ranks and prevent kinsmen from evolving some heaven-defying ability that could challenge the royal family, the Inhumans had set up a Genetic Council, ostensibly responsible for screening out ordinary people whose genes weren't good enough, to keep them from wasting Terrigen Crystals.
To say that Black Bolt would flout the wishes of the common folk at the bottom and use a Terrigen Crystal on his own pet dog, that rather subverted tradition. As a fair and just king, Black Bolt wouldn't do something so open to censure.
But to say this big dog had once been a person? Daisy looked at its doggy head and doggy face, its tongue lolling out so long, and no matter how she looked at it, it didn't seem likely. Then again, considering that some Inhumans went straight from beings made of flesh and blood into brick-and-stone structures, couldn't one turn into a dog as well?
The big dog seemed to feel her gaze and twisted its head to glare back at her.
The Inhuman man, woman, and dog hadn't taken their king's side, but they hadn't joined Daisy and Thor's camp either.
Just as Black Bolt could notice Daisy even while mind-controlled, her genetic traits were far too conspicuous in Inhuman eyes, far too dazzling; it was hard not to see her.
"Good heavens, Earth actually has an Inhuman with genetic compatibility this high now. Utterly unbelievable! A miracle. Without any screening, a naturally conceived Inhuman can reach compatibility this perfect? I can't detect a single flaw in her genes—" Gorgon, with his big reverse-jointed hooves, couldn't help exclaiming.
Beside him, the Inhuman queen, Medusa, with her floor-length hair, was likewise astonished.
Medusa's genes already ranked among the very best of Inhuman women, but that head of long hair still betrayed a genetic mismatch. Out of the comparing instinct between women, she sized Daisy up from head to toe, and in the end had to admit she saw no genetic flaw on Daisy at all.
"An Inhuman is bound to have a flaw. That much can't be wrong. This Earthling's flaw is probably the especially well-hidden kind." Bested on the genetic front, Medusa was grasping for a way to save face.
"Who are you people? Are you Earth's enemies or its friends?" Daisy had been worrying over the Inhuman matter, but seeing that Thor was only staring hard at Loki, turning a deaf ear to it all, she couldn't be bothered to fuss either.
The pleasantries still had to be said. She looked toward Medusa and Gorgon; these two didn't seem to be mind-controlled. Maybe Supergiant hadn't deemed them worthy?
"We are your sisters and brothers. We've come to help you. There's no time to explain now, but today we'll fight at your side." Medusa took up a position ahead and to Daisy's left, declaring her stance.
"Who's this big guy in black?" Daisy asked, knowing full well.
"He is my husband, the King of our people."
After that brief exchange, Medusa and Gorgon had, for the time being, joined Earth's side.
"You don't know each other? From the looks of it, it seems you've finished conferring? Then, for the sake of Lord Thanos's great cause, can you hand me the cube now?" Supergiant's voice was still ethereal, still courteous, yet carried an air that brooked no doubt, like buying something at the supermarket.
"Woman, you'll die on Earth. There's still time to leave now." Daisy gave as good as she got.
"That would be a great pity, then. Attack. Prince of Asgard, as promised, bring me the cube. As for you, Black Bolt, these rabble are yours to deal with." Supergiant retreated a couple of steps, and Loki and Black Bolt charged in at the same time.
Loki lunged straight for the Tesseract off to the rear, and the one who met him was, naturally, Thor. The Mind Scepter gave off waves of golden light, and say what you would, Loki now wielded the long weapon with real skill, quickly clashing with the somewhat hesitant, tentative Thor.
As for Black Bolt, he went straight for Daisy, who was fully on guard.
"Come on, then. Let me see this so-called king." Daisy quietly set up a magnetic field in front of her, and as she raised her arms, Black Bolt's attack arrived.
A formless shockwave burst from his mouth, mighty as wind and thunder, its energy immense to the extreme, pure to the extreme, spreading in a fan. All room to maneuver or dodge was completely sealed off. Daisy could only take it head-on.
The energy came crashing down and blotted out everything, like a great wave breaking through a levee, carrying a crushing, world-shaking force, rushing at her face; the ground, instruments, and metal in its path were all blasted into powder.
Gorgon and Medusa were within the fan-shaped attack range too, only their positions were slightly off to the side. Whether by intent or not, Black Bolt let both of them avoid the direct front of the blast.
Even so, facing an energy strike as swift as wind and thunder, the two joined forces to defend. Gorgon's distinctive hoof stamped hard into the ground, sending a shockwave back in the opposite direction that canceled out part of the attack. Then Medusa's hair grew wildly, wrapping the two of them and the dog in layer upon layer, seven or eight layers thick, only to be swatted more than ten meters (about 33 feet) away by the energy's aftershock like a ball of yarn, the big dog, Lockjaw, letting out a string of whimpers from inside its cocoon of hair.
And that was only the aftershock. Daisy, meeting the strike head-on, had it ten times harder than they did.
The magnetic field slowed it only slightly before being shattered. Only then could she make out the nature of Black Bolt's attack. This wasn't any kind of sound wave at all. She could emit sound waves too, and they didn't carry force like this.
The way Daisy saw it, Black Bolt's title had a whiff of misleading the enemy about it. This guy said nothing, made no sound, but he was pretty sly, really. If you defended based on the assumption of sound waves, you'd die a miserable death.
It was purely an energy attack resembling a sound-wave impact. Ordinarily he absorbed the electron energy in the environment and stored it in his body's cells, then released it all at once when needed. This tactic carried the sense of biding one's time and then astonishing everyone with a single strike. Simple, practical, and colossally powerful.
With a boom, the energy strike landed on her bracers. The Vibranium bracers absorbed only thirty percent of the energy before hitting their limit; Daisy hurriedly used the property of resonance to disperse the excess energy into her surroundings. Even so, the energy strike still forced her back more than ten meters, her combat boots plowing two deep furrows into the ground.
Daisy gritted her teeth and, through sheer force, held off the blow. The tremendous impact left blood streaming from her mouth and nose, but in the end, she'd blocked it.
She swiped a hand across her lips, looked at the crimson blood on her fingers, and didn't do anything flashy like spitting out a mouthful of bloody foam. Instead, she stuck out her tongue and licked the blood back up. This blood could not be left behind on the battlefield.