Overcome, T'Challa dropped to his knees. His head bowed low, his breath trembling. "[I am sorry,]" he whispered in Wakandan isiXhosa.
T'Chaka did not hesitate. "[Stand up. You are to become the king.]"
T'Challa rose slowly, and his gaze locked on the father he had loved, admired, and lost. They began to walk through the purple-hued savanna that stretched endlessly around them
"What troubles you, my son?" T'Chaka asked gently.
"I am not ready, Baba."
T'Chaka raised a brow. "Have you not spent your whole life preparing for this? Have you not studied, trained, and stood beside me in almost every matter of the kingdom?"
"That is not what I meant. I am not ready to be without you." His fingers curled into fists at his sides. "I watched you die. I could do nothing."
"And you blame yourself." T'Chaka nodded knowingly. "I recognize this burden. I carried it too, after my father passed."
They walked in silence for several moments.
T'Challa's arms fell. "The kingdom has fallen to M'Baku. He, as the White Gorilla's Champion, has allowed Hydra of all people to mine our vibranium."
T'Chaka's eyes narrowed. "And to combat this, you have found allies to help you reclaim what was lost."
"Yes. The Avengers. They seem like good people."
"Outsiders?" The former king's tone carried no judgment.
"I had no choice, Baba. The Dora Milaje follow the throne, not the man. They stand with M'Baku. I needed help."
"I do not condemn your choice. In need, you requested help. It would be arrogant to think you could do it on your own without risk."
"Still, I brought outsiders to our home... I wanted to be just like you."
"No, you need to be better than me." T'Chaka stopped beneath the shadow of a great baobab tree.
"I'm not sure if I can."
"A man who has not prepared his children for his own death has failed as a father." He placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Have I ever failed you?"
T'Challa shook his head. "Never." He looked down at the violet-tinged soil. "But if you couldn't defeat Man-Ape... what chance do I have?"
The older man exhaled quietly. "I was arrogant, too. I held back and believed the challenge had passed. I had gone complacent and thought M'Baku would accept defeat with honor." T'Chaka's eyes grew distant. "I grew comfortable in my role as king. Too comfortable."
"You were the greatest king Wakanda has ever known," T'Challa insisted.
"No. I was a good king who made mistakes. The question is not whether you will make mistakes, T'Challa. You will. The question is whether you will learn from them."
"But, I'm not strong enough," T'Challa admitted.
"Not yet." His father's eyes lifted to something beyond T'Challa's shoulder. "But someone else wishes to see you."
From the shadows beneath the tree, a massive translucent panther emerged, clearly divine. Both men dropped to one knee, moved by instinct and reverence.
The panther goddess approached. Her luminous eyes locked onto T'Challa's. She raised a paw and placed it gently on his forehead.
The world around him went dark.
T'Challa found himself standing alone in darkness.
In a blink, his life played before him. Every moment. Every triumph, every mistake. Every joy and heartbreak. The grief of losing his father, the weight of the crown, the fear of failing his people. He felt it all at once.
"A king must honor tradition while embracing progress. Show strength and compassion. Look inward to Wakanda and outward to the world." The panther goddess showed approval and smiled. Then her form dissolved into a shimmering violet mist.
It swirled around him, seeping into his body. T'Challa felt strength coursing through him.
The savanna reformed around him, and T'Chaka stood waiting with pride in his eyes. "You have been deemed worthy, my son. I leave my kingdom to you."
T'Challa felt the goddess's blessing. "I will not fail our people."
"You might, but you will try again. That is what makes a true king."
T'Challa stepped forward. "Before I return... tell me how to protect Wakanda. I want to be a great king, Baba. Like you."
T'Chaka looked at him for a long moment. "You will struggle," he said plainly. "So surround yourself with those you trust. Those Avengers, perhaps? You are a good man with a good heart... and it is hard for a good man to be king."
His vision began to break apart.
T'Chaka's voice came one last time, fading: "Remember who you are, T'Challa. Son of T'Chaka. The Black Panther. Protector of Wakanda."
And then...
"Breathe, T'Challa. Breathe!"
T'Challa jolted upward, coughing violently. His body ached, but his senses felt sharp. His muscles felt stronger.
Shuri knelt over him, her hands still on his chest, her eyes wide with concern and hope.
He looked up, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "He was there. Father."
"What did he tell you?" Shuri and his mother asked, helping him sit upright.
T'Challa took a deep breath, feeling Bast's blessing. "It is time to take back our home." He rose to his feet. "And that I am ready."
Outside, the Avengers were buying him time, fighting for a land not their own. T'Challa was the Black Panther, blessed by Bast, heir to the throne of Wakanda.
And he was ready for war.
#
The vibranium-tipped spear sliced at Steve's head. He pivoted and drove his shield into the guard's midsection. She absorbed the impact and spun away to rejoin her sisters in the growing semicircle.
Steve adjusted Blood trickled from a cut above his eye. His breathing came heavier now. Fifteen minutes of continuous combat against so many opponents was taking its toll even on his enhanced physiology.
Two Dora Milaje darted forward simultaneously from opposite directions. Steve blocked the first with his shield, catching the second spear shaft with his free hand. The impact sent vibrations up his arm. He twisted, using the captured spear to sweep its owner off her feet while kicking back at the first attacker.
Both women recovered quickly, rolling away and rejoining the formation.
Steve took the momenta to catch his breath. The hallway was littered with unconscious guards, but more arrived. As their numbers grew, his options dwindled.
A tall woman of high rank stepped forward. Unlike the others, who carried vibranium spears, she wielded twin ring blades.
Steve calculated his odds. Not good. In open space, he might have a chance. Here, however, he wouldn't hold out for long. Still, all he needed was to buy T'Challa enough time.
The first wave came at him with coordinated precision. Steve deflected, dodged, and countered, his shield becoming both weapon and barrier. He knocked one guard unconscious with a precisely angled throw that rebounded off the wall, catching her behind the helmet. Another flipped over his shoulder, using her momentum against her.
But they were too many, too skilled. A spear tip grazed his thigh. A kick connected with his ribs. He felt something crack but pushed through the pain.
She moved like lightning. Steve barely managed to get his shield up in time. The impact drove him back against the door. He ducked under her second swing, attempting to sweep her legs, but she jumped, both feet connecting with his chest in a powerful kick.
Steve staggered, his back hitting the door again. Before he could recover, Okoye was on him, one blade pressed against his throat. The blade drew back for the finishing blow.
The door behind Steve burst open. A dark figure launched through the opening, intercepting Okoye's strike with a forearm.
T'Challa's body seemed to radiate power. "Enough!"
Okoye stepped back. The Dora Milaje remained poised to attack
Steve nodded to T'Challa. "Good timing."
"You do not have to do this," he implored the Wakandan bodyguards. "You know who I am. You know what M'Baku has done to our country, allowing outsiders to plunder our resources while claiming to protect our traditions."
The guards exchanged glances and hesitated. Several of them lowered their spears slightly.
"We serve the throne." Okoye seemed to carry less conviction.
"You serve Wakanda," T'Challa countered. "As do I. As did my father, and his father before him." He stepped forward. "Look at me, Okoye. Look at what I have become."
Okoye noticed the faint purple glow. "Bast has blessed you…"
"She has deemed me worthy to rule." T'Challa extended his hand. "Join me. Help me reclaim what belongs to our people."
For a moment, Steve thought he'd gotten through to them. Several of the Dora Milaje lowered their weapons further. Okoye's expression softened almost imperceptibly but only for a moment. As one, they raised their spears toward T'Challa and Steve.
"So be it." T'Challa glanced at Steve. "Captain?"
Steve grinned. "Ready when you are, Your Highness."
T'Challa launched forward as he engaged three Dora Milaje simultaneously.
Steve took the right flank as he deflected spears and knocked warriors aside. He was careful to use only enough force to incapacitate, not seriously injure. These weren't his enemies, not really.
Okoye's ring blades clashed against T'Challa's vibranium-laced suit. "You bring shame to your father's memory."
"I honor it," T'Challa countered, catching her blade and twisting it from her grasp. "By remembering what he taught me about putting Wakanda first."
Their battle spilled down the corridor.
Steve caught a spear thrown at T'Challa's back, returning it with enough force to pin its owner's garment to the wall. "On your left." Another guard lunged at T'Challa.
Black Panther grabbed the attacker's arm and used her momentum to send her crashing into two others.
Soon, the duo was surrounded by unconscious or immobilized royal guards. Okoye remained with a ring blade held defensively.
"Stand down, General." T'Challa was not even winded from the battle. "I do not wish to hurt you."
She assessed the situation, then dropped her weapon. "This changes nothing. I serve the throne."
"Then I will reclaim it," T'Challa replied. "For all of Wakanda."
Steve joined him, shield back on his arm. "The path is clear."
T'Challa nodded. "M'Baku awaits."
"Your people need their king back."
"Then let us not keep them waiting." T'Challa moved forward. "The time has come to end this."
#
The throne room doors towered before them. T'Challa paused.
"You know, once we enter, there's no turning back," Steve said, adjusting his shield on his arm.
T'Challa nodded.
The massive doors swung open. The throne room stretched before them. M'Baku sat upon the vibranium throne, his massive frame draped in white furs, the ceremonial gorilla mask pushed back to reveal his face.
Tribal elders stood in a semicircle before him, their discussion falling silent as the doors opened.
Two Dora Milaje flanked the throne, spears at the ready. Tribal warriors lined the walls.
M'Baku snorted. "The prodigal prince returns with his foreign dog at his heel."
T'Challa stepped forward, Steve a half-step behind. "I come to reclaim what is mine by right of blood and blessing."
"Your right died with your father," M'Baku rose from the throne, his height imposing even from across the room. "As will you."
T'Challa glared. "Now I stand before you, having undergone the ritual of the heart-shaped herb. I am the Black Panther, blessed by Bast herself."
Murmurs rippled through the assembled elders. M'Baku's expression darkened. 'Great, another one.'
"Now, the Black Panther challenges you for the throne of Wakanda!"
"T'Challa." The Wakandan elder breathed, relief evident in his tone and a spark of hope in his dark eyes. He turned to M'Baku. "A challenge has been issued. By tribal law, you must-"
"I have no use for this tradition." Man-Ape cut the elder off with a growl. "Crush the panther cub." He ordered the two female Wakandan warriors flanking the throne.
The Dora Milaje advanced on T'Challa. He stood his ground, eyes locked on M'Baku.
"You would deny me ritual combat?" T'Challa asked. "Are you afraid to face me yourself?"
M'Baku's laughter filled the hall. "Afraid? Of you? The prince who ran from his kingdom at the first sign of defeat?"
The Dora Milaje slashed at T'Challa. He evaded the first strike, ducking beneath the weapon's arc, but the second caught him in the side. The force drove him back.
T'Challa skillfully evaded the next volley of attacks, but the women proved to be very well trained. And they should be. The Dora Milaje were trained by the late King T'Chaka, the previous Black Panther.
The spears slammed against the prince's side, the force enough to slam him into the ground.
M'Baku laughed darkly at how he had turned the prince's own kingdom and culture against him as the Dora Milaje had their spears aimed for the finishing blow.
"Your father trained them well, cub." He sneered, enjoying the bit of entertainment.
"You do not have to do this." T'Challa groaned softly in pain, imploring the two Wakandan bodyguards, hoping that they would see past tradition and rejoin the side of the true royal line.
The words seemed to reach the warrioresses. They looked to one another, hesitating, but ultimately raised their spears for the finishing blow.
Steve moved with lightning speed, his shield flying across the room to strike the spears aside just before they could descend on T'Challa. The vibranium disc ricocheted off a pillar and returned to his hand.
"You can face Man-Ape alone," Cap stated, holding his shield up defensively. "Anyone else is fair game."
"Tear the outsiders apart." Man-Ape roared, rising from the throne. "I will deal with the Panther."
The Dora Milaje followed the command of their "king", now focusing on Captain America, leaving T'Challa to face M'Baku as he wished.
T'Challa rose to his feet, eyes locked on the usurper. "For my father."
Elsewhere
Wakandan forces converged on their position. Thor raised Mjolnir to gather storm clouds above.
The Wakandan spear passed harmlessly through Ben's amorphous body. The green slime reconnected seamlessly.
"Sorry. You've got to be more solid than that to hurt me." Goop stretched his arm fifteen feet across the battlefield, wrapping around the ankles of three advancing warriors. With a quick yank, he pulled their feet from under them, sending them tumbling to the ground.
Nearby, Thor deflected energy blasts to the sky with Mjolnir.
Goop flattened his body to avoid another barrage of energy weapons. The blasts passed through his thinned form, striking the ground behind him.
A Wakandan commander shouted orders in her native tongue, and the formation shifted. Warriors readied what appeared to be specialized weapons.
"I don't like the look of those," Goop muttered.
The weapons discharged simultaneously, not firing energy blasts but instead creating intersecting force fields that surrounded Goop's fluid form. His Anti-Gravity Projector sparked as it encountered the energy barrier, suddenly unable to maintain cohesion of his slime body.
"Clever," Goop acknowledged as his form began to destabilize, spreading into a formless puddle within the containment field. "Some kind of polarity reversal affecting my projector."
Thor noticed his ally's predicament. "Do you require aid!" Before he could intervene, a massive energy blast struck him in the chest.
The Wakandan forces were closing in. In the distance, he could see more troops emerging from the tree line, accompanied by cybernetically enhanced rhinos.
"Time for a change in strategy," he decided.
Emerald light flashed, momentarily blinding the nearest Wakandan warriors. The containment field fluctuated. It shattered as the light faded, revealing a very different figure.
He was a humanoid plant creature with a flame-patterned head. "SWAMPFIRE!"
The Wakandan warriors hesitated, confronted with this new threat. Their momentary confusion gave Swampfire the opening he needed. He thrust both palms into the soil.
The earth erupted as massive vines shot upward, coiling around everyone.
Swampfire directed more vines to disarm rather than harm the skilled warriors. "Should've brought weed killer."
A section of warriors broke through, vibranium weapons slicing through the entangling vegetation. They charged Swampfire, who met them with a cloud of methane gas expelled from the pores in his palms. The soldiers staggered, overwhelmed by the noxious fumes.
Thor rejoined the battle, landing beside Swampfire. He deflected another energy blast. "I find your current form's odor somewhat... challenging."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Swampfire regenerated an arm that had been severed. The limb regrew in seconds. "Comes with the territory."
The cybernetically-enhanced rhinos charged through the remaining vine barriers.
Swampfire planted his feet, hands outstretched toward the massive beasts. Massive seed pods erupted from his palms, landing in the path of the charging rhinos. The pods burst open, releasing a cloud of yellow spores.
The rhinos' pace slowed dramatically. The spores settled on their cybernetic implants, rapidly growing into small flowering plants that sent tendrils into the technology's seams. The rhinos gradually came to a halt before knocking out as the plant life disabled their cybernetic enhancements.
Another wave of Wakandan infantry charged through the underbrush. Energy shields flickered to life around them as they raised their weapons.
Concentrated energy blasts fired, which Thor deflected casually.
Thor hurled Mjolnir to the ground before the charging warriors, the impact sending several flying backward. The hammer returned to Thor's outstretched hand as he leapt into battle.
Swampfire faced his own squad of approaching soldiers.
The warriors launched vibranium spears that impaled Swampfire's torso and limbs, pinning him temporarily to a tree.
"Okay, that's just rude," Swampfire muttered, looking down at the spears protruding his body. He pulled himself free, regenerating as he extracted the weapons. "My turn."
He thrust his palms forward, releasing another spray of methane. They recoiled at the horrific stench, several dropping to their knees, retching before collapsing unconscious. The others backed away.
"Not bad!" Thor batted away three warriors simultaneously.
Swampfire fired sticky mud from his palms that caught several more warriors, adhering them to trees and each other.
A high-pitched whine cut through the air. Thor looked up, squinting at seemingly empty sky. "Something approaches."
The air shimmered as three Wakandan VTOL craft decloaked, hovering menacingly above the treeline. Energy weapons powered up with an ominous hum.
"I'll handle the ground forces," Swampfire called. "You take the flying things!"
Thor grinned, twirling Mjolnir. "With pleasure." He launched himself skyward, hammer leading the way.
The lead aircraft opened fire, energy blasts cutting through the air where Thor had been a moment before. The Asgardian prince rolled mid-flight, bringing Mjolnir down on the craft's wing. Metal crumpled beneath the blow, sending the aircraft into a controlled spin.
"Your technology is impressive," Thor announced as he landed atop the craft's fuselage. "But I am mighty!" He struck the hull, damaging the engines but leaving the pilot's compartment intact. The craft began a controlled descent toward a clearing.
A shadow passed overhead as Thor grappled with the second aircraft. Lightning arced from Mjolnir into its weapons systems, disabling them. The pilots ejected toward the jungle canopy.
"The third one comes for you!" Thor called in a warning.
Swampfire looked up to see the remaining VTOL swooping low, missile pods opening along its wings. "Oh, come on!"
Four missiles launched simultaneously, heat-seekers tracking the natural warmth of Swampfire's flame-topped form. He braced himself, generating maximum heat to draw all four projectiles toward him and away from any nearby Wakandan forces.
The missiles struck in rapid succession. The explosion consumed Swampfire completely, sending chunks of plant matter scattering across the battlefield in a shower of green debris.
Thor landed beside the smoking crater, concern etched on his features. "Ben!"
A chunk of plant matter near his foot twitched. Then another. All across the battlefield, pieces of Swampfire began to move, vine-like tendrils extending from each fragment. The pieces pulled themselves together, reconstituting first into a shambling approximation of humanoid form, then rapidly regenerating into Swampfire's complete body.
"That…" Swampfire stretched his neck. "Was unpleasant."
Thor laughed, clapping him on the shoulder hard enough to dislodge an arm, which Swampfire calmly reattached. "You are a warrior of unique talents!"
Their moment of camaraderie was interrupted as a swarm of combat drones descended through the trees. Each was roughly the size of a basketball with miniaturized weapons systems.
"Really?" Swampfire groaned. "How many toys does this place have?"
"The Panther did say that they are one of the most advanced nations on Midgard," Thor reminded him.
#
Omnitrix DNA Entry:
Name: Swampfire
Species: Methanosian
Home World: Methanos
Powers and Abilities:
Methanosians are bipedal plant-like creatures whose height normally varies from 6 to 9 feet tall. Methanosians come in an array of colors, petal patterns, and abilities. Methanosians can release volatile organic compounds that allow them to communicate with and control nearby plant life. As a result of growing in such a saturated environment, Methanosian bodies are soaked in methane and have, over time, learned to generate it. As they age, they learn how to pool the methane to various pores in their bodies and ignite it, allowing them to create fire. Methanosians possess a quick form of regeneration, allowing them to heal or reattach severed limbs.
#
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