Once Upon a December

12

WAKANDAN BATTLEFIELD

Carriers hovered over the ground with Wakandan soldiers and Natasha, Steve, Bucky and Nessa on board, Rhodey and Sam kept pace overhead, and Bruce was in the Hulkbuster armor.

"How we looking, Bruce?" Natasha asked.

Bruce leapt and jogged along, keeping up with the carriers, and utterly delighted said, "Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it. Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-" He stumbled on a rock and a carrier went by, from which Okoye gave him a dubious look. He stood. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

"I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line," Rhodey warned.

The heat signatures were Proxima and Obsidian.

The carrier pilots swerved into U-turns, causing their craft to tilt and allowed the practiced soldiers to slide over one side into a run, not coming to a complete hault. A Dora Milaje shouted a command nearby as the last Wakandans joined ranks.

"Mie Effa! Ya Hu! Mie Effa! Ya Hu! Mie Effa! Ya Hu! Mie Effa! Ya Hu! Mie Effa! Ya Hu!" the Jabari warriors cried.

(Win them!)

M'Baku, Lord of Jabari, rallied his soldiers with a war chant. He stopped as T'Challa neared him.

T'Challa clasped wrists with M'Baku before saying, "Thank you for standing with us."

M'Baku replied, "Of course, brother."

Black Panther, Captain America and Black Widow walked to the edge of the barrier, where Proxima and Obsidian stood. Proxima tested the strength of the barrier by drawing her sword across it considerably.

"Where's your other friend?" Natasha asked.

"You will pay for his life with yours," Proxima retorted. "Thanos will have that Stone."

"That's not gonna happen," Steve retorted.

"You are in Wakanda now," T'Challa told her. "Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood."

"We... have blood to spare," Proxima replied, brandishing her sword with a snarl, and the ship behind her started raising their outer hulls to allow their "passengers" to disembark.

The four heroes returned to the massed forces.

Bucky and Nessa asked in a tone that was a touch sardonic, "Did they surrender?"

"Not exactly," Steve replied.

Black Panther led the Wakandans in the war cry "Yibambe!" and told them to hold fast as the Outriders bound toward the barrier; Proxima dropped her sword arm down in the signal to attack.

Bucky, flatly astonished at the number of Outriders, said, "What the hell."

"Looks like we pissed her off," Natasha commented.

Okoye, horrified as the Outriders bombarded the force-field, squeezing limbs and bodies partly through only to be bisected, said, "They're killing themselves."

As a few of the Outriders managed to squeeze through intact, the Border Tribe took a knee and raised their shields. The Kingsguard behind them leveled their sonic spears over their comrades' shoulders, and on Black Panther's command, fired at the approaching monsters. The Winter Soldier used his M-249 machine, Nessa used her machine gun and Bruce fired the Hulkbuster's hand repulsors.

Sam, sending Redwings into the fight as he flew, swooping to fire at them with his Steyr pistols, said, "You seen the teeth on those things?"

"All right, back up, Sam," Rhodey told him. "You're gonna get your wings singed." He flew over the heaviest concentration of Outriders and dropped a barrage of missiles, all exploding fantastically.