Icarus // T'Challa Udaku ON STANDBY

Prologue

I was shivering from the tip of my toes to the highest point of my skull. I hadn't seen him in a long time, a fucking long time.

The weather was even better than I had imagined. I never thought I would ever set foot in this mythical place. I had heard about it for a few months now, everybody wanted to come here and exploit this beautiful country and its powerful resources. Fortunately for me, from the many stories I had heard, I knew it was so much more.

Although it was breathtaking, the scenery was not on my mind at that exact minute. I was thinking about him. Last time our eyes met, he was screaming things at me breaking my tiny little human heart and, actually, I couldn't even see his browns irises through the tears flooding out of mine. It was in June, I think.

June, five years ago.

I had made many efforts to forget his very own existence, but the ink on my body kept reminding me the time when we both wanted to get married and have kids. You know, the cliché.

I walked out of the plane that had gotten me here, it resembled the Quinjet and it did not fit in the decor. Everything looked quite ancient, but also very developed, technology wise. I stepped on the solid ground, feeling the hot air slap my face. I wasn't good with heat and I hated summer. This was going to be fun.

I could see tall trees all around, people in military gear a few meters down from me and the most impressive was the big ass towers that were hovering me. They were connected by a long bridge, which I was currently standing under. They must've been even higher than the Empire State Building and they were made of solid concrete, covered with thousands of glass windows. I could see statues of different jungle animals all around the immense building. My eyes stuck on a giant bronze panther.

I took a deep breath and let it out almost automatically. I was not ready. Nobody was ready for what was about to happen.

Under my breath, but with a soft smile, I said to myself: "Hello, Wakanda."