Assembled: Earth's Last Heroes (A Riordanverse and MCU crossover)

Chapter 21: T'Challa

earlier

Beep Boop Beep Boop

"With all due respect, we are on an important mission and I do not think being distracted by electronic devices is appropriate." grumbled the King of Wakanda as they walked through the winding labyrinth of corridors, trying his best to keep his cool. Secretly, the technology and the walking tree's attitude vaguely reminded him of Shuri. He wondered for a second if she was alright, but since she was not in Valhalla as she deserved to be, she must be alive, and, he hoped, safe with the other Avengers. He pushed those thoughts away and continued to look.

Beside him, Sam Wilson was attempting to make friendly conversation with the tree, but it wasn't working.

"Hey, is that Galaga?"

"I am Groot!"

"I don't speak Tree but I can tell that was not a nice answer."

As they argued behind him, T'Challa plowed on, passing cabinets and cabinets filled with dishes and utensils.

"I have no idea where we're going," muttered Sam as he looked around. "Everything looks the same."

That was true, everything was white and every aisle had sinks in the same positions, dishes all polished to perfection, to the point that you might as well use one as a mirror. It was reminiscent of a stock photo of a porcelain shop, except much more high-quality and without the stupid watermark.

"Well, then we are lucky that the tree had at least some sense to mark our path." Before entering the maze of corridors and rows of plates, T'Challa had advised Groot to trace their path so that they might find their way out should they get lost. The tree didn't go without complaining, but he had finally agreed to tie one of his roots to the door and as they walked, it unraveled, leaving a clear, marked path.

Suddenly, there was a snap as the root Groot had been using to mark their path snapped in half. He yelped, and screamed, "I AM GROOT!"

T'Challa immediately instinctively crossed his arms in front of his chest, and stretched his fingers but then slumped in frustration when the claws wouldn't come out no matter what. More than anything at this point, he felt regret. He still remembered his coronation as king, going into the Ancestral Plains to meet his predecessors and seeing his beloved father for the first time after the United Nations building had blown up. The last time he'd seen his father, however, he'd been at the brink of death, yelling at him in grief and rage over the monumental mistake of leaving the small boy who would grow up to be Erik Killmonger behind all those years ago in Oakland. So much had changed, and Wakanda, now open to the world, had never been the same after that incident that had changed his life. Now he would never see his father again, never fulfil the destiny of Wakandan kings to reside in the Ancestral Plains forever after death. He was stuck here, and not that it was bad, but he would never belong in this version of the afterlife. As this went through his head, he could imagine what Shuri would say: "Don't worry, brother. There is always a solution to any problem. We brought you from the brink of death once, if that is possible anything is." But the problem now was that he was dead in a place that he would never accept being dead in. What was the solution to that?

Groot's constant cursing in I-am-Groot-ish snapped him out of his thoughts. Sam grunted in frustration. "He's extended it for too long. Groot, this might be too much to ask, but--"

Groot nodded in extreme irritation. "I am Groot."

"Thanks, bud," grinned Sam and Groot extended another root and masterfully intertwined it with the old one, and they continued walking pointlessly around what seemed like endless aisles.

After an hour of non-stop walking around the ginormous kitchen, they were ready to give up and were walking back to where they'd came from when all of a sudden, T'Challa's ears perked up. There was something. He felt a tingling sensation go through his body and his instincts told him to run the other way immediately. But whenever he felt this, he would always do the opposite.

He looked around him and noticed Groot with the same apprehension on his wooden face.

"I am Groot," said Groot, pointing towards a shiny glass door that seemed to have materialised out of nowhere. It had no handle or hinges and it was just standing there, completely defying the laws of physics. But then again, T'Challa had seen too many things that had broken the laws of reality to be surprised at this point.

"How..." began Sam, but was silenced by T'Challa putting his finger to his mouth.

They slowly crept towards the door and tried to push it open. It was locked.

Sam sighed. "It must be nothing, just another random storage room to store the stupid cooking stuff."

"Then how did it just magically appear?" asked T'Challa. He knew that these things didn't just happen by coincidence. Something had to have triggered it. He began to thoroughly examine the door for any clues to how it had appeared and how they could open it. There was nothing. Just a stupid, useless board in the middle of the road. He sighed, then turned around and started to walk back again.

Suddenly, Sam yelped. T'Challa turned and saw that Sam's foot was caught in what looked like a metal boot on top of a floor tile that had sunk into the ground. Woody vines had begun to snake up his foot and seemed to be squeezing hard. T'Challa noticed that the more he struggled, the tighter the vines became, and within seconds, the vines had reached his waist.

"Don't move!" yelled T'Challa.

Sam listened and stopped struggling but was still frantically waving his arms around, hoping the vines would stop entangling him.

Meanwhile, T'Challa was frantically racking his brain to find any information about this vine and how to stop it. Suddenly, an idea came into his mind. It was absurd, but it was worth a try.

He rushed to the counters and rummaged around to find a lighter and grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall.

"Here, take this and spray when I tell you to," he commanded, thrusting the fire extinguisher into Groots arms. He then turned to Sam and said, "I need you to trust me, alright? And take a deep breath."

Sam nodded weakly. T'Challa clicked the lighter and a small, orange flame emerged from it. He gingerly walked over to Sam. Sam stared at him with wide eyes, but didn't flinch when he lit one of the bottom vines with the lighter. When the fire had burnt away the bottom vines, T'Challa yelled, "Now!" and within seconds, the fire was replaced with a haze of smoke.

As the smoke cleared away, T'Challa saw the vines sink back down to wherever they came from and breathed a huge sigh of relief as the vines revealed a conscious and unharmed Sam gagging and coughing from the smoke.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah *cough* than *cough* thanks," Sam choked out.

All of a sudden, the glass door swung open and a sign appeared on the door. It said, Congratulations. You have proven yourself worthy and passed the first test.

Test? What? That was a test? And how was basic common sense supposed to prove that they were worthy? There were a million questions in his head but he pushed them all away. He had to focus and find out what was inside the glass door now.

"So, I guess we go in?" asked Sam, clapping T'Challa on the back. Somehow, the King didn't mind. Not anymore.

"Yes," said T'Challa, putting on a face of pure determination.

And so the three of them approached the glass door together, with no idea of what would happen to them inside.