In those days, Western Africa from Libya to Benin was joined with Portugal and most of Spain. The nation was one the largest in the world as a result of its low GDP output relative to other regions. In accordance with Kara's will, Africans were to be evacuated and reassigned to other areas of the world. By the 31st century, Africa's rainforests and animal life had taken a severe hit while human mining and farming techniques had ruined the land. Several African cities were not spared the nuclear wars, and many of these cities were in a state of decay. A proposal to redistribute wealth from other continents to Africa to balance the empire was denied. Instead, Africans were "encouraged" to accept reassignments elsewhere. For this reason, the entire continent of Africa was represented by two governors out of a total of 50.
However, Africa was not entirely devoid of people. There were still people assigned to missions in Africa that were loyal to the regime and then there were other kingdoms that refused to comply. One of those kingdoms, the Dahomey, was located in Benin and was currently being blockaded by the Imperial Sixth fleet for "allegedly" engaging in the slave trade. Brainiac 5 tasked Imperial units in the area to terminate the slave traders and rescue any slaves they found for reassignment.
One night, an Imperial special forces team was hanging out in the field having captured a significant number of former slaves, all women, from the Dahomey. Carelessly overconfident, they didn't do an adequate recon of the area, nor did they have guarding checkpoints. The Dahomey all-woman warrior unit called the Agojie snuck up on them in the middle of the night. Even so, the Agojie did not suddenly unleash in a surprise ambush. Rather, they all rose from the thick vegetation to show the Imperials their numbers, paused for dramatic effect, and then gave a warrior cry that woke up the entire camp. Nonetheless, it became a total slaughter as the Imperial special forces team was brutally butchered by blade weapons.
"Where are our slaves?" Amanda demanded of the Imperial commander as she had a blade to his throat.
"We are farmers. We took no one," he lied.
Upon finding where the ex-slaves were gathered, Amanda executed the Imperial commander with her blade.
The next day, the few Agojie that had died were buried, sort of, not really. A blanket was placed over the bodies as they remained above ground. "General, the prisoners are ready to march," her XO informed her.
"We will need more warriors if we are to survive what comes next," Amanda said grimly.
The Agojie then brought back their returned slaves to Abomey.
Mon arrived on the scene and inspected the site of the massacre. A platoon of Imperial special forces was with him. Mon carefully eyed the battle scene as he got a sense of what happened. He eyed a female body, a dead Agojie. "Killed by...women," Mon mused.
"It's Dahomey. To solidify his rule, King Finn had to make major concessions which included elevating his female guard into an actual attack unit. The kingdom simply does not have enough men to defend itself," Brainiac 5 informed him.
"Why should I be here and not somewhere else?" Mon asked dismissively.
"There is a rumor that you're a man of chivalry and that you would never kill a woman in combat," Brainiac 5 lied.
"Well...in that case...I shall put that rumor to rest," Mon replied.
Abomey
King Finn addressed his council in his palace. "The Imperials have entered our land. They have broken the peace. When they come for our slaves, we will not give them up."
"That would be war," one counselor warned.
"I do not fear their might," King Finn said boldly.
"My King, the Imperials have billions of drones, fleets, and superheroes. We are so fucked," the timid counselor reminded him. "We need time to prepare our armies."
"The Agojie are ready," Amanda said confidently.
"How many did you lose in this last battle?" the counselor shot back.
"I recall...one?" Amanda answered.
"My King, I hear rumors that there is a new Imperial general. That Prince Mon-El is here, personally," the counselor advised King Finn.
"I agree. Dahomey has prospered in the peace," a female counselor advised.
"The slave trade is where we prosper, and the Imperials know this. That is why they have blockaded our ports and invaded our lands," Amanda said.
"The Imperials have come to trade. We give them what they want, human cargo, in return for what we need," another counselor said.
"We sell our slaves for more weapons, so we capture more slaves, so we can sell more slaves for more weapons...for what?" Amanda asked incredulously. "They are bleeding us of our wealth."
"What do you suggest we do, Amanda?" the female counselor asked.
"We have other things to sell to them like palm oil," Amanda suggested.
"We have already gathered a sizeable number of slaves. Perhaps, we pay now, buy us some time," another counselor suggested.
"I promise, this will be our last," King Finn ruled.
Shortly thereafter, Mon arrived at the palace with his special forces unit. He eyed the Agojie with a smirk and then addressed Amanda. "I am Prince Mon-El. Where is your king?" he asked her.
"Gifts for the empire," King Finn said as he appeared.
Mon eyed the various compartments filled with supplies. "Why should I accept this gift when I can take everything?" Mon asked.
"We only seek peace with you, Prince Mon," King Finn replied.
"And yet, I do not seek peace," Mon shook his head.
"Are you threatening us?" King Finn asked.
"Yeah," Mon said wide-eyed. Immediately, the Agojie were on high alert with swords ready.
"No, you seek to bait us. We will not take it. Let us talk," King Finn said reasonably to Mon. "In return for twenty slaves of our choosing, you will reopen the port."
Mon smiled at King Finn's cooperation. While it would be too easy for him to just destroy them all, it would be too quick. Mon would toy with them for a while longer to see what they would do. "I'll enjoy the feast you have prepared," he replied and then left with his unit.
Ouidah
The Agojie came to the port city of Ouidah under Imperial control and handed over tribute and slaves in return for peace. "We bring tribute from King Finn," Amanda said to Mon.
"Dahomey does not have soldiers man enough, they have to use their women," Mon mocked. "I will make good use of these women...in the kitchen."
"You misunderstand. These women are not for you as tribute. This is your tribute," Amanda said as she dumped open a compartment filled with the heads of the special forces unit they had killed the other night. "Let it be known to all, Dahomey fears no one. Not even you."
The Agojie then ran off in all directions with Amanda staying behind to distract Mon. With her sword out, Amanda challenged Mon to a duel. Mon casually took out his own sword and entertained her for a while. The two clashed repeatedly at the same speed. Mon got the better of the fight as he simply toyed with her, getting a scratch on her here and there. Eventually, Mon disarmed Amanda of her sword.
"Run," Mon smiled at her.
Amanda fled the scene as Imperial soldiers ran after her. She eventually reached the city walls and jumped off into the ocean where she escaped. Imperial soldiers fired into the water to take her out. The Agojie, in boats on the water, picked Amanda up and exited the area. In response, Brainiac 5 closed the port to the Dahomey.
Abomey
King Finn began a half-assed attempt to go legitimate by ordering his people to harvest palm oil. However, King Finn resisted attempts by the Imperials to trade palm oil for slaves to weaken their position. As a result, the surrounding regions established an embargo on all Dahomey trade.
Ouidah
Brainiac 5 and Mon sat down for a meeting on what to do with the Dahomey. "I see that we're not on the same page. You wish to prolong the conflict and bring about open war with the Dahomey. I seek to dissolve them peacefully and quickly," Brainiac 5 said.
"You don't give a shit about this area and neither do I? So, how do we proceed?" Mon wondered.
"What do you want?" Brainiac 5 asked.
"I want the world to know that Prince Mon of the Insane treats men and women on the battlefield exactly the same. Give me a decent battle, and I may stick around," Mon said.
"Why would I want you to stay in Africa?" Brainiac 5 asked.
"So long as I am in Africa, I am not anywhere else," Mon replied.
Abomey
Brainiac 5 tried a different approach with King Finn by giving him a giant bribe in return for slaves. "I do not like this robot," one counselor said to Amanda.
"Finally, we agree," she replied.
Brainiac 5 approached King Finn in his palace courtyard while he sat on his cushioned couch. "Peace be with you, Barney Dox," King Finn said politely. Brainiac 5 handed him a sword. "You have my thanks."
"I understand your mother was made a slave, sold by your brother. I have the ability to find her and when I do, I will bring her back to you, to her home," Brainiac 5 said generously.
"You have come on a good day. Our beautiful Agojie are about to perform their initiation ritual," King Finn said. "Sit, please sit."
Brainiac 5 watched passively as non-ranked Agojie came forth and then raced into a thicket of thorns. Immediately, the young girls cried out as they were cut up trying to get through it. Some of them got through it with relative ease while many others struggled. Assuming they got through it, the girls then ran around a track, up a wall, and then did Judo with male wrestlers. Finally, they cut off the heads of scarecrows with their swords. The winner eventually came before King Finn.
"Well done to all of you. You are the strongest warriors in Africa. Welcome to the king's guard," King Finn declared.
Brainiac 5 merely watched as the African women celebrated their accomplishments. After things had settled down, Brainiac 5 entertained business with King Finn. "One of your wives told me that you're ready to end the slave trade," he lied.
"She does not speak for me," King Finn said miffed.
"She said it was your general's wish," Brainiac 5 lied hoping to create internal dissension.
"The general will obey my wishes," King Finn said defensively.
"We want an end to the slave trade. What do you want?" Brainiac 5 asked.
"I want my people to prosper as those of people of other lands do," King Finn said vaguely.
"The people of the empire prosper because they are not slaves," Brainiac 5 countered.
"Every Imperial citizen is given housing, medical care, education, food and water, and assigned an occupation to work for you. They're not given any currency for their work, only provisions that you dictate. How is this not slavery?" King Finn asked.
"If you do not stop the trade, you will be nothing," Brainiac 5 warned. "Assuming I allow you to live, you will be king of mud. If we do not come to an accord, you will be unprotected."
"Unprotected," King Finn mused. "I am a king with or without your respect."
Not long afterward, Mon moved a company-sized element on a plateau looking over Abomey to bait the Agojie into attacking. "They are a day's journey from us on that plateau. They will set up camp there," Amanda observed with three other military leaders with her. "They expect us to defend ourselves behind our walls."
"Is that not...what we're doing?" one asked incredulously. "We are outnumbered."
"Their size makes them arrogant," Amanda said confidently.
The Agojie then prepared for the battle ahead by taking large jars filled with explosives and then covering them up with mud to look like termite mounds. They then placed these mounds around the base of the plateau where they figured the Imperials would camp the following day. However, as they went about doing this, Imperial scouts were watching.
"The fuck they doing?" Mon wondered as he eyed their work.
Instead of the entire Imperial army coming down to meet the Agojie, only Mon did. He teleported in the middle of the termite minefield, so to speak. Upon seeing him bait them, Amanda reluctantly tossed a torch on streams of oil leading to the termite mounds. After a few long minutes, the flames eventually reached all the termite mines causing explosions all around Mon.
Mon emerged from the explosions unaffected and continued to bait the Agojie to come to him. With a cry, the Agojie and the Dohamey infantry charged at him. The Dohamey infantrymen fired their rifles at Mon without effect. Agojie women then leaped over the kneeling infantrymen with machete blades. Mon multiplied himself to match the entire Dohamey army. In doing so, he divided his power level a few hundredfold. Even so, the Mon clones were still difficult to kill. Even when they were killed, the energy from the clone simply went back to the original. The original Mon would make more clones of himself as he lost a few here and there.
Mon threw #1 on the ground in a judo move and then slew her in the gut with his sword. The #2 Agojie warrior whirled a double-bladed staff at him. Mon blocked her strikes, took hold of the staff, and attempted to disarm her. He brought her close to him and then stabbed her through. As she fell to her knees, he sliced her head off.
To their credit, the Agojie, utilizing a number of blade weapon styles, got numerous hits on Mon's clones and killed a few of them with some great effort. Whenever a clone died, they simply evaporated. Mon toss #3 off a cliff where her head hit a rock, killing her. He then tossed #4 and slit her throat. Suddenly, Mon got shot at by #5 holding a rifle. Mon pointed his index finger at her and fired a beam that went through her gut.
Satisfied with his fun, Mon signaled for the artillery on the plateau to begin. The artillery barrage blasted the surviving Agojie. Immediately, Agojie women were getting ripped open, and their limbs thrown into the air. Machine-gun fire from the plateau killed scores of them. Mon lazily fired on still resisting Agojie with his hands as all of his clones evaporated from the battlefield.
"Fall back!" Amanda ordered as her army was being slaughtered.
Mon signaled a halt as the Agojie retreated back into the jungle. Wounded Agojie still on the battlefield were collected and sent to Ouidah as POWs. "Impressive, most impressive," Mon nodded at their effort.
Ouidah
At the POW camp, the prisoners were quickly processed and treated for their injuries. Mon took one of the prisoners aside who seemed lightly injured. "Tell your king, I'm going to slit the throats of all the prisoners," Mon lied. "Now, go," he ordered. The poor girl then ran off to inform King Finn of the false news.
In reality, Brainiac 5 dealt with the prisoners his way. "After you have been treated for your injuries, you will be given an offer to join the empire. You will be given the occupation of your choosing. If you are not qualified for your chosen occupation, you will be trained and educated. If you accept this offer, you will be reassigned elsewhere in the empire. However, should you not accept this generous offer, you will be treated as a prisoner of war until this conflict is over."
There were some that stubbornly refused while others did accept the offer. Two Agojie women refused and were to be processed as prisoners of war. During the process, they escaped and caused a ruckus. Mon fired on one of them, killing her. The other went to the first one's aid only to be recaptured.
"They will now come to us," Brainiac 5 warned Mon.
"Let's hope so," Mon smiled.
As predicted, the Agojie came into Ouidah at night to rescue the prisoners who were prominently displayed in the square as bait. Amanda and the Agojie unlocked the cage and were immediately shot at from all directions from the second-floor balconies of the surrounding buildings. The gates out of the square became locked with the Agojie completely trapped. The Imperials continued to shoot from the buildings picking them off one by one. Mon then teleported next to Amanda's position for a final duel.
Amanda got the better of the fight as she elbowed Mon to the face and then swiped at his cheek. Mon swung at her with a miss. Amanda sliced into his gut and then nearly took his ear off. Mon decided to take the fight a little more seriously. He punched her to the face and disarmed her. He then punched her hard to the chest where she hit a wall of a building hard. Mon dropped his sword and then punched Amanda to the face several times. He then took her by the neck.
"Does Mon-El have to choke a bitch?" he asked her.
Amanda suddenly stabbed him in the gut with a knife. "You do not remember me. Now, you will never forget," she taunted him. Mon fell to the ground in a dramatic death only to suddenly evaporate.
The real Mon gave Amanda applause and signaled the Imperials to stop shooting. "Not bad for a middle-aged woman," Mon complimented.
"A real warrior would not hide behind clones. He would fight at our level, like a mortal," Amanda lectured.
"Bitch, please, I'm merely on vacation," Mon said dismissively.
"You have destroyed my Agojie, my culture, my kingdom, my whole way of life," Amanda accused.
"No doubt this day is the most important day of your life and for your civilization, but, for me, it's simply Tuesday," Mon reminded her.
Brainiac 5 then approached Amanda. "Join the empire and we will provide a place for you. Do not waste your life defending slavery."
"I am loyal to my king," she refused.
"He's already dead, along with all of his wives, and his heirs. You saved yourself from the purge by disobeying your king's orders and attempting to rescue your comrades," Brainiac 5 informed her.
"No," Amanda said doubtfully.
Brainiac 5 signalled for the gates to be opened. "See for yourself," he invited.
Amanda turned away from him and gathered the surviving Agojie who were still loyal to the king. They then departed from the city with a sense of dread. Mon turned to Brainiac 5. "You're impatient."
"I think we have made our point.
Amanda and her surviving Agojie reached Abomey only to find it empty. The Dahomey army had attempted to attack Contonou, Atchoukpa, and Porto-Novo in a vain attempt to capture slaves to continue the trade. They came with several thousand men and women warriors and were slaughtered by Imperialist firepower. Dahomey were destroyed as a people and either joined the empire or became exiles in their own land. Afterward, Brainiac 5 forced the new Dahomey king to be his puppet in every way.
After the war was over, Mon met up with Brainiac 5. "Time for me to go back and play with the fake Kara."
"You noticed?" Brainiac 5 mocked.
"This was fun. Find me another tribe to fight," Mon requested and then teleported back to Metropolis.