Black Panther: Rise of the Princess (COMPLETE)

Chapter 28: Peter

Shuri unplugged from the network and waved her hand over to a third tab, where the downloaded files were waiting. "It has already started analyzing," she let me know, and I stepped around her to observe.

"Mind if I play with it while you pilot the panther?" She nodded without taking her eyes off of her screen. It was good enough for me.

We really had gotten everything. The ship's computer was sifting through the busy work, but we had access to every record on HYDRA's system. Once the maintenance and political files were out of the way, I saw the mission reports, most of which were concerned with the outpost up north. I opened the first one that popped up.

At first it looked like a retrieval mission, but the squad didn't go in for a person, but resources. Wakandan resources, mostly vibranium. I read through some of the details, before nudging Shuri lightly to get her attention. "It looks like HYDRA has been going in undercover and transferring vibranium from the outpost to here. It doesn't mention any inside agents. Yet."

"Did it mention anything about your cyborgs from last week?" She asked, still focused on her own job.

"I haven't gotten there yet, give me a minute," I complained, which earned an eye roll from the Princess. I kept scrolling, and down at the bottom, a few references were listed. Other reports, mostly, but one stood out. It was an official transfer receipt, to Germany. I didn't recognize the location off the top of my head, but it was good enough. This base had been supplying the same one the Avengers snuck into.

Odd thing was, the amounts were inconsistent. Several crates of vibranium that had been stolen were omitted from the transfer, even though it looked like it was on a cycle timed in sync with the raids. This base was keeping some of the good for themselves.

"Find anything yet?" Shuri asked, interrupting my train of thought.

"About what?"

"They cyborgs, genius."

I groaned. "Yeah, this is where it came from. Not all of it got transferred, and even though the Germany base is down, this one hasn't stopped stealing from the outreach center."

She finally looked away from her work and glanced over my shoulder. Both of the reports were up, so she saw the same discrepancy I did. "Well, that explains this," she concluded, and it was my turn to see what she had been doing. I leaned over, and the live stream from the mini-panther was trained on a very large warehouse, stocked to the brim with crates bearing Wakandan labeling. I couldn't read it, but I could guess what was inside the crates.

"Looks like all our targets are in one place, then," I commented. "Now if the leader is in this building too, then we can kill all of the birds with one stone."

I started searching through the personnel files, but Shuri stared at me. "I thought it was 'kill two birds with one stone.'"

"It is."

"Then why were you harassing me about my metaphor earlier?!?"

"That was different! 'Timer' has a different function than 'alarm'!"

"It was the same thing you did!"

"I just increased a value. Totally different."

"Hypocrite," she mumbled under her breath, but it was clear that I had won. Again.

I found what I was looking for. "Here," I pointed out, and she stopped griping long enough to pay attention. "Somebody something-or-other, Commander of the Stockholm HYDRA base. He's supposed to be stationed here, so unless he's out for lunch, he should be in there too."

She read through a few of the details, things like his appearance and his experience. "Any spies?"

"Uh," I looked through a few of the other high-ranking officers, but I didn't recognize anything. "Not that I can tell. Your ship could probably find something, though."

"Pffh, 'probably'," she mocked me, and set an algorithm to work. "At any rate, the spy won't be here. We can worry about them later. Do you think you can get into the base if I open the doors from here?"

I shrugged and nodded, but I had a better idea. "I think it would be easier if you came with, and we opened the doors from there."

She ignored me at first, but I know she heard me. After multiple moments of silence, she stubbornly said, "I don't have a suit yet."

"Key word: yet," I retorted. "You already have your brother's suit to go off of, and it took you about sixty seconds to make that mini-panther."

Shuri glared at me, mostly because I was right.

"You're both Black Panther's, right?" I confirmed, even though we both knew it and it was starting to annoy her, but I wasn't about to crack into HYDRA's base on my own. I didn't even do it on my own the last time. "You could punch your brother in the face sooner this way," I suggested, and I think that was what won her over.

I saw a grin turn up the corners of her mouth, ever so slightly, despite her efforts to fight it off. Without making eye contact, she opened a new screen, starting fresh with a blank design. I think she transposed the suit from T'Challa's form to hers, so it would fit better, and I saw a few other things too, not that I had any idea what they were. "I wish I had my blasters with me."

"Why can't you put the blasters on the suit?" I asked, confused.

"The Black Panther suit has never had blasters," she insisted, shaking her head at me. "It's not tradition."

"Is it tradition to have two Black Panthers?" I asked, and she glared at me again.

"If you keep saying things like that, I will throw you off of the ship. I might even do it literally."

I laughed. "Whatever you say, Princess. I'm just saying it would probably come in handy."

Shuri looked at me, then back at her design. In the end, she admitted, "Maybe. If you say so."

Good enough for me.