The ship lurched as Anna swerved hard to dodge, and my hands shot out, catching Illyana and Shuri before they could be thrown to the floor. The engines roared, drowning everything out as missiles screamed past us in rapid succession.
"What the hell are they doing!?" Shuri screeched, pulling free from my grip and sliding into the second pilot's chair. She snatched up a headset and jammed it on. "I repeat, this is Princess Shuri. I'm currently—"
Anna dipped the nose of the ship sharply, narrowly avoiding another missile I hadn't even seen coming.
Shit!
[Rolling Gold Gacha Ticket]
[Midas' Bag of Holding]
|Rare Item|
A small pouch the size of a human hand that contains a 1km x 1km square of space inside it. Whoever puts their hand inside can pull out what they are looking for, no problem; the weight of the pouch does not change.
A small brown pouch appeared in my hand.
Not what I really need right now!
Another high-pitched whine cut through the air, and the Quinjet lurched again as Anna forced it into another evasive maneuver.
She was doing her best, but I could feel the turbulence spike as something exploded nearby. Shuri had already abandoned comms, her fingers flying across the cockpit controls as warning lights flared and alarms blared around us.
Should I try to teleport them to the ground?
No. We'd be sitting ducks, and I wasn't confident I could carry all three of them while dodging whatever targeting systems Wakanda had locked onto us.
I shoved the pouch into my pocket, pushed Illyana into a seat, and gave her a quick, reassuring look.
"Jack!?" Illyana screamed.
"Do your best to get away!" I shouted as I sprinted toward the back of the Quinjet. Anna yelled something in response, but it was lost as the jet swerved violently again.
I took a breath. The air crackled as I ignited my lightsaber.
My feet pounded against the floor, momentum building with every step. A flick of my wrist sent my saber carving a clean hole through a section of the cargo ramp.
Then I jumped.
The wind hit me like a wall, tearing at me as the air screamed in my ears.
Spatial Displacement was already slotted in, and I began chaining teleports in rapid succession.
Three Wakandan ships trailed behind us.
I didn't think. I simply shot forward.
Space warped again and again as I blinked across the sky, closing the distance in bursts. I aimed for the nearest one and landed hard on its surface.
Through the cockpit glass, I caught the pilot's expression of pure shock.
I grinned.
Then my lightsaber cut through the glass.
My hand shot forward, grabbing the pilot by the throat as the ship jerked violently off course. The Wakandan craft swerved as I ripped him free.
[Feat Achieved! Air Piracy]
[+1 Silver Gacha Ticket]
"AAHHH!" the pilot screamed as we blinked through space again and again.
Then his face shifted.
His skin sloughed away, revealing green, reptilian features beneath.
Just like I thought. They'd already infiltrated deep into Wakanda.
Under normal circumstances, that would've been very bad.
For this situation, though, it meant I could take these ships down without a speck of guilt.
I let go of the Skrull, and his scream ripped through the air as he plummeted toward the ground.
The other two jets broke formation, swerving wide as they realized something was wrong.
My head started to spin, even with the Sun Princess Ring dulling the worst of it. I grit my teeth and kept chaining teleports, forcing myself to stay on them.
[Rolling Silver Gacha Ticket]
[THWOMP]
|Common Familiar|
Mario - "URNGH" Giant sentient(?) angry boulder creature. You can summon the THWOMP above your targets for him to slam down with strength, or summon him in front of you to act as a wall. If the THWOMP suffers damage, it will be mended over time inside the gacha.
Something clicked in the back of my mind. I locked onto one of the distant planes and willed it forward.
A massive, spiked stone block materialized high above it and came crashing down.
The jet swerved at the last possible second, narrowly escaping as the THWOMP slammed through empty sky with a thunderous boom.
The other Wakandan ship pivoted and unleashed a flurry of beam fire straight at me. I dropped downward, blinking through space to avoid the barrage as it tore past where I'd been a split second earlier.
The nausea worsened with every jump, but it didn't matter as long as I kept their attention on me.
I tried to chase the one that fired, but the bastards learned quickly. The moment I started closing the distance, the jet angled upward and began climbing hard, forcing me to burn more teleports just to keep up.
The THWOMP snapped back into my awareness, ready again. I summoned it once more.
The massive stone screamed through the sky again, forcing the Wakandan ship into another evasive dive.
Both ships looped around in the air and came barreling toward me, abandoning the chase.
Good. Let's fight, you bastards!
—
T'Challa tapped his fingers lightly against the armrest of his personal craft. He had mobilized the Dora Milaje and the Royal Guard as quickly as possible toward Shuri's last known position, yet they had still arrived too late.
All that remained was a hastily abandoned campsite.
A thin thread of rage coiled in his chest at the thought of someone daring to take his sister. He forced it down with a slow breath. There would be time for anger, but not if it clouded his judgment.
"How far are we from the target?" he asked, his gaze fixed beyond the canopy of the Royal Talon Fighter. Their formation cut through the sky, his craft flanked by several Dragon Flyer Jets as they pursued the faint traces his people had recovered.
"We should have visual within the next few minutes, my prince," the pilot replied.
T'Challa exhaled quietly. A firm hand came to rest on his shoulder.
"She will be fine, T'Challa." Okoye's voice was steady, her expression hard but reassuring. "Shuri is wise, and they would not have taken her without purpose."
He inclined his head in acknowledgment. Okoye was right. Their enemies would not abduct one of Wakanda's greatest minds only to kill her.
Yet the thought that followed remained unspoken, lingering like a shadow. There were fates worse than death.
His hand tightened around his forearm, the Panther Habit's claws pressing against the skin of his suit.
"This reeks, Okoye." He drew in a measured breath. "The Maglev train is down, and now our Airtowers are suddenly scheduled for maintenance on the very day my sister is taken?"
The order would have gone unnoticed if he had not overridden it with his royal authority to mobilize his own craft and escort.
On the surface, the maintenance appeared routine. The timing, however...
"Traitors," Okoye said, her tone sharpening as she gave voice to the thought. "There are too many coincidences."
"Perhaps," T'Challa replied, though his frown deepened. "But it does not feel like the whole of it. I fear Wakanda may be facing something far worse."
Shuri's last words troubled him the most. S'Yan had been hospitalized, yet she had spoken as if she had seen him. Wakanda possessed advanced holographic technology, so some sort of disguise was not out of the question. But the idea that another nation could replicate it so perfectly, perhaps even better than Wakanda, was difficult to accept.
Or perhaps he was chasing shadows, and the truth was simply betrayal within their own ranks.
He did not know which possibility he found more troubling.
"My prince, we will have visual on the signal in one minute!"
T'Challa steadied himself. Worry could wait. For now, there was only one priority.
Finding Shuri.
"T'Challa... you will want to see this." Okoye stared at a holographic transmission in her hand, her composure strained. "The Dora Milaje I dispatched on the ground recovered this."
"What is it—"
He stopped as the image appeared before his eyes.
The wreckage of a Dragon Flyer lay crumpled against the earth, which alone made no sense. With the Airtowers under supposed maintenance, no such craft should have been airborne.
But it was not the crash that held his attention.
It was the body.
Green skin with reptilian features.
He forced himself to speak, though the question felt almost absurd. "Is it... some kind of costume?"
Okoye did not take offense at the implication of her subordinates not checking. She simply shook her head.
"It is real."
T'Challa had seen the heights of Wakandan innovation. He had traveled the Earth and seen its wonders, but this...
An alien corpse sat in Wakanda.
Even saying the thought felt absurd.
"My prince," the pilot called out. "We have visual."
As the Royal Talon Fighter approached, T'Challa felt his anger spike at the sight of two more unauthorized Dragon Flyers in the air. The emotion rose fast, but it faltered just as quickly, replaced by something closer to disbelief.
The Dragon Flyers were not merely traveling.
They were fighting.
For a moment, the scene felt unreal, as though his own eyes were feeding him something false.
"Enhance this image."
The pilot complied at once, and a holographic display flickered to life, zooming in on the figure at the center of the chaos.
"By the gods..." Okoye murmured.
T'Challa could not fault her reaction. He watched as a man quite literally teleported across the sky, space folding and snapping around him with each movement. One instant he was there, and the next he was gone, reappearing meters away in rapid succession.
Then, as if that alone was not enough, a massive square boulder materialized high above one of the Dragon Flyers, appearing from nowhere before plummeting downward. The craft swerved just in time, the stone crashing past it with thunderous force.
It was madness.
A single man was dogfighting jets.
T'Challa exhaled slowly, forcing clarity back into his thoughts despite the absurdity of what he was witnessing. "Ping those ships. I want to know what is happening."
The pilot relayed the command at once. T'Challa kept his gaze fixed on the impossible figure, unwilling to look away.
"My prince, they are refusing to respond."
The Dragon Flyers abruptly broke formation, ascending in different directions as if attempting to scatter. The strange man, in contrast, dropped toward the ground.
T'Challa frowned. He did not like what the evidence suggested, but it left him little room for hesitation.
"Shoot them down," he ordered. "They have violated airspace restrictions, ignored all communications, and taken to the skies without authorization. In my name as prince, I declare them rogue."
Missiles tore through the air in response.
The fleeing Dragon Flyers attempted evasive maneuvers, but it made little difference. The Royal Talon Fighter outclassed them completely, and with his escort cutting off their escape, both crafts were destroyed within moments.
The immediate threat was dealt with.
That left the more troubling matter.
T'Challa leaned forward slightly as the display zoomed in, revealing the young man on the ground beside the enormous stone.
"Take us down," he said. "I will deal with this... aberration myself."
"T'Challa, you should not—" Okoye began.
"No." He cut her off, his tone firm. "Forgive me, Okoye, but something is deeply wrong in Wakanda. I will fulfill my duty as the Black Panther, regardless of the risk."
Okoye met his gaze with a sharp glare before exhaling. "Then I will stand with you."
A small smile touched his face as he reached for his helmet. The Royal Talon Fighter descended, touching down a short distance from the stranger.
More Dragon Flyers followed, carrying several Dora Milaje who disembarked and moved into formation.
Under normal circumstances, he might have called it excessive.
Today, he was not so certain.
T'Challa stepped forward with his guard, his focus sharpening as he approached. As the distance closed, his attention shifted to the massive boulder beside the man.
It was not merely stone.
Eyes and a mouth were carved into its surface, and they moved, tracking their approach with something that resembled awareness.
He heard Okoye murmur a quiet prayer as every weapon in their ranks settled on the lone figure.
The young man was on one knee, pale, with one hand pressed to his head as if fighting through something.
If he were weakened, it gave them an advantage.
T'Challa opened his mouth to speak—
"Yo... T'Challa and Okoye. Funny running into you here."
A ripple of surprise moved through the Dora Milaje, and T'Challa himself stilled.
Of course...
This day had no intention of becoming any less strange.
***
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Comments and Thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Likes are like a drug to me and boost my creative juices.
I have advanced chapters on my Pa tre on/daisyberry if you wanna read ahead.
There is no still familiar space btw it's simply that THWOMP has a summon aspect intrinsic to its description.