Black Panther: Rise of the Princess (COMPLETE)

Chapter 31: T'Challa

As I ran away from Okoye, I couldn't help but feel slightly smug. I had told her that the two of them would do it, and look at them: they were already working as a team, and a very efficient one as well. They were keeping track of HYDRA's soldiers and everything besides.

I almost didn't want to split them up. I felt that Okoye would have rather been with me or Shuri, but the two of us needed to find this Commander that Shuri mentioned. They were terrorizing a country we were responsible for, and we needed to be the ones to make sure he did so no longer.

"This way," Shuri led me, and we turned down a hallway with a set of stairs at the end of it. We prowled up and met a squad of eight soldiers at the top. Each of us activated our mask and prepared to fight.

Despite receiving the power of the Black Panther earlier, Shuri still avoided trying to defeat them by strength. She always had, since she had never been comfortable using her fists, even as a child. Her slashes were perfect, though. Her form was flawless, not only physically, but effectively as well. Shuri was never a ruthless fighter, but she was smart enough to know where to land her strikes to be the most effective. It was the reason she won most of our fights during training, until I learned to control my own strength. Where I was a sword, she was a dagger. Small, but sharp and swift.

Needless to say, she handled her four soldiers easily. When we took a moment to breath, I gestured to her. "I see you've made some upgrades to the suit."

She observed her wrist blasters. "I had to put in something for me. This design does not fit me well at all, so it will not be the last one either."

I chucked. "Fair enough. I expected as much."

"And for the record, next time, tell me when you want to pull a stunt like that," she admonished me, punching my arm as we ran on. "A warning at least, or something!"

"If you insist," I laughed, but she clearly was not as amused as I was.

We approached the wing of offices on the second floor. All of the nameplates were in German and in Swedish, no less, but they all were captains and directors. None of them belonged to commanders. Still, we checked them, and knocked out the people foolish enough to try and hide in them.

Of course, the last office belonged to the Commander. It was guarded by two soldiers, but Shuri knocked them unconscious before they could raise any alarm. We approached the door, and she disabled the lock. Before entering, Shuri looked at me for confirmation. I couldn't see her face through the mask, but I knew what she was looking for: a plan, a real plan, that would ensure that we would not die.

I stepped back, prepared to respond to any resistance waiting within. "Keep those blasters on the Commander. Let me talk to him before we bring him down."

"Just don't let him get to far," she warned me. "He has already lost any trust he had after the parade."

I nodded, and she opened the door for me.

Three men were standing inside. Two of them were high ranking officials, who drew their weapons on us upon our entry the third, who was seated and clearly the Commander we were searching for, froze and did not move. I threw the two against the wall, sending a message to the Commander. There were no second chances on the table here.

Shuri stepped around me and trained her wrists on the Commander. She did not speak, as usual during these types of missions. I was the diplomat, she was the innovator. I would carry the conversation, but my sister was watching my back and front, and the second she suspected something, Shuri would move to counter it.

The Commander appeared to be stuck to his chair, but he put on a brave smile and greeted us. "I wasn't expecting a visit, your Majesty," he commented in English, but with a heavy German accent. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"You owe it to the lives of whom you have stolen life from," I answered him evenly, responding in the language he preferred. "You are lucky there were not more, or I would not have the mercy to hesitate before killing you."

"Ah," he said, trying to appear casual, but I could see the sweat rolling down his temple, and he dried his hands on his pants. If he was trying to be subtle, he was failing.

"You don't seem very comfortable," I commented, teasing him ever so slightly.

He rolled his chair backwards as if he was going to stand up, but he leaned backwards instead. "Well, you see, your sudden visit startled me, if you had simply extended a warni-"

"I don't remember receiving a warning before your float endangered over one hundred of our people," I interrupted. "Try to hurt anyone else, and you will find yourself in a much more painful situation than this."

He recoiled as if he had been slapped in the face. The Commander staggered to his feet and retreated to the back wall of his office. "Please," he begged, "don't hurt me, I had no choice!"

"You always have a choice," I corrected him, advancing forwards. "Even cowards like you have a choice."

I closed my fist behind my back, and Shuri hit him with two stun blasts, for good measure. Neither of us had any time who chose their own safety over the greater good, especially those loyal to HYDRA.

Grabbing the collar of his jacket, I dragged the Commander to the door. "Use anything you need to shut down this facility," I told Shuri. "We need to make sure this does not happen again."

"I've already sent a message to the D'Arku," she replied, taking the Commander's chair and awakening his computer. "The Outreach Center will be here soon to retrieve the vibranium, and I'm sure they would not mind carting away the soldiers."

"I should have known," I said, smiling, and I walked back the way we came.