Leo shot through the stratosphere at Mach 3, his body encased in a friction-defying golden aura that made him look like a falling star to any satellite lucky enough to track him. Below, the sprawling green canopy of the African continent rushed by in a verdant blur.
He slowed his pace as he neared the coordinates he had memorized. In his hand, a small, heavily modified smartphone pulsed with a signal, but to the naked eye, there was nothing below but a vast, uninhabited mountain range and dense, impenetrable jungle.
Leo didn't trust his eyes; he trusted his power.
"Golden Eyes, activate," he whispered.
The world shifted. The golden glow in Leander's eyes intensified, piercing through the electromagnetic spectrum. The colossal mountain range directly beneath him flickered like a dying television screen and then vanished entirely. In its place, a hidden paradise emerged—a hyper-advanced sci-fi metropolis bristling with sleek, vibranium-laced skyscrapers that curved toward the heavens, ringed by majestic rivers and rolling plains that had never seen a tourist's camera.
The illusion was breathtaking. Even knowing it was fake, Leander marveled at the craftsmanship. He blinked, switching his Golden Eyes off for a second. The mountains returned, complete with the sound of wind whistling through crags and the sight of mountain goats hopping between rocks. It was a flawless holographic deterrent, an advanced barrier designed at a staggering cost to hide the world's most precious resource from a world that would surely tear itself apart to possess it.
Only those with the correct digital signature could pass through the gate. For everyone else, the barrier was a death trap—a high-frequency energy field designed to incinerate anything from a stray bird to a nuclear missile.
Leander halted his flight, hovering just inches from the invisible threshold. He was past the visual "shell" now, meaning he could see the city, but he was still outside the actual energy defense layer. He reached out with his hand, feeling the air hum. An invisible shield pulsed with fierce, localized heat. It wasn't just a wall; it was a non-Newtonian energy fluid. If he tried to ram it at his current speed, he'd likely be flattened before he could even register the pain.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out the spent casing of his old arc reactor. With a thought, he reshaped the metal into a long, thin blade. He thrust the blade into the barrier to test its density.
The moment the metal touched the shield, there was no sound—only a clean, silent erasure. The blade was severed three centimeters in, the cut as smooth as a mirror and the edges glowing with orange heat. The shield didn't just block; it dismantled.
Deep inside Wakanda's central command tower, the serenity of the morning was interrupted. A massive hologram of the city's perimeter flickered, showing a tiny, pin-prick red dot on the northwestern sector of the shield.
The technician on duty, a young man in traditional woven patterns over a high-tech suit, frowned at his console. "Check the northern grid. We've got a localized energy displacement. Did a bird slip through the deterrent field?"
The armed guard standing nearby leaned over, peering at the screen. "Deterrent fields are at ninety-eight percent efficiency. It's probably a sensor ghost. If it were a real threat, the system would be screaming."
The technician nodded and reached for a toggle to clear the notification. Before his finger could touch the glass, the entire room erupted in a strobe of crimson light. A piercing alarm blared, and the hologram automatically zoomed in on the red spot. It wasn't a bird. The displacement was growing, and the energy readings were off the charts.
The two guards exchanged a look of pure shock and sprinted for the exit, their vibranium spears hummning to life.
Leander didn't have a key, so he decided to become the lock.
He coated his right arm in a concentrated layer of golden light—the essence of the Nirvana energy he had absorbed from the Destroyer. He thrust his arm resolutely into the blue ripples of the barrier.
The shield reacted violently. Blue laser ripples surged across the surface, converging on his arm. A massive amount of energy, enough to power a small city, slammed into Leander's slender limb. But instead of incinerating him, the energy met the golden glow and simply... melted.
He felt a wave of mild warmth, like sticking his hand into a sun-heated pool. There was no pain, only a strange sense of resonance. His body shuddered as the golden light expanded to cover his entire frame. Slowly, he began to sink into the barrier.
It was an incredible sensation. The destructive energy of the Wakandan shield wrapped around him like a warm cocoon. It felt less like a struggle and more like soaking in a hot spring. The golden aura acted as a filter, taking the raw, chaotic energy of the shield and refining it, drawing it into his pores. He felt his spirit points tick upward, replenishing the fatigue from his long-distance flight.
In the Great Hall of the Palace, King T'Chaka stood with his son, T'Challa. They were surrounded by the tribal elders, all of them staring at the massive hologram in the center of the room.
The "red dot" was now a distinct humanoid shape embedded halfway through their impenetrable shield.
T'Chaka's face was a mask of gravity. He knew the power of that shield. Unless someone was wearing a full suit of high-grade vibranium armor, they should have been vaporized the instant they touched it. And yet, this intruder was moving through it as if he were swimming through water.
T'Challa, who had only a year ago taken the Heart-Shaped Herb to become the new Black Panther, stood with his fists clenched. He felt a strange, primal vibration in the air. He was faster, stronger, and more durable than any man, but looking at that image, he felt a flicker of something he hadn't felt in a long time: dread.
From behind the King's ceremonial throne, ten-year-old Shuri peeked out, her eyes wide with scientific curiosity. She wasn't afraid; she was fascinated. She tapped a series of commands into her palm-pilot, her fingers blurring.
"Baba," she whispered, her voice filled with wonder. "The intruder isn't fighting the shield. He's... he's eating it. The energy displacement is being absorbed into his own bio-sign."
With a final, gentle push, Leander slid through the final layer of the barrier. He emerged into the central valley of Wakanda, the golden light of his aura fading back into his skin.
He hadn't flown twenty meters before the air around him began to scream. Seven or eight sleek, disc-shaped Talon fighters tore through the sky, surrounding him in a tight tactical formation. The belly of each craft opened, revealing dual-mounted sonic cannons that locked onto his chest with terrifying precision.
Leander didn't reach for a weapon. He simply hovered there, his golden wings shimmering faintly, looking down at the city of the future.
In the palace hall, the live hologram shifted to a high-definition feed of the intruder. The room went silent.
"It's... it's a child," one of the elders whispered.
Shuri's eyes sparkled. She hadn't expected the "invader" to be a boy who looked like he belonged in a classroom rather than a war zone.
T'Challa stared sternly at the screen. "A child who just walked through our greatest defense, Shuri. Do not be fooled by his age."
The moment Leander's feet cleared the shield, he felt it. Beneath the mountains, deep in the earth, was a heartbeat. It was the Great Mound—the colossal vibranium meteor that had shaped this nation. To Leander, who could sense every atom of metal for miles, it was like standing next to a sun.
He reached out his hand, his fingers twitching instinctively. He wanted to feel its texture, to understand the unique molecular structure of the alien metal.
Rumble.
A low, deep tremor shook the entire city of Birnin Zana. Skyscraper windows rattled, and the water in the rivers rippled in perfect concentric circles. The massive meteor, buried for millennia, had vibrated in response to his touch.
Leander saw the panic in the streets below—the people looking up in fear, the guards tightening their grips. A pang of guilt hit him. He wasn't here to be a conqueror; he was here to be a student.
He stilled his hand and cleared his throat. Using his control over the air, he projected his voice so that it echoed through the valley, reaching every speaker and every ear in the palace.
"My name is Leander Hayes," he announced, his voice calm and respectful. "I haven't come to fight. I've come to pay my respects to the King of Wakanda and to seek knowledge that only this land possesses."
In the Great Hall, T'Challa stepped forward, his vibranium-laced boots clicking on the floor. "Father, the meteor reacted to his presence. It didn't just vibrate; it resonated. He has a connection to the metal that we have never seen before. We cannot let him leave without understanding how."
King T'Chaka remained silent for a long moment, his eyes fixed on the calm, floating boy on the screen. He saw no malice in Leander's eyes, only a deep, quiet hunger for understanding.
"Bring him to the palace," T'Chaka finally commanded, his voice echoing with the authority of the Black Panther. "We will learn the truth of this Leander Hayes. Wakanda's secrets are safe for now, but the world is changing. Perhaps it is time we see who is knocking on our door."