Flame

Chapter 33

The ride in the queen jet is incredibly awkward and incredibly quiet, I'm sitting over in the corner on my own not really wanting to talk to them, especially Steve.

"You okay?" Nat asks me as she walks over

"never better" I reply sarcastically as I glance over at Steve

"He missed you, you know" Nat tells me

"Doesn't change the fact he lied to me for years" I reply as the jet lands and we walk off and I see T'Challa standing there with some of his soldiers

"Should we bow?" Bruce asks Rhodey making me smile

"Yeah, he's a king." Rhodey replies

"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something." Steve says as he shakes hands with T'Challa as Bruce bows awkwardly to T'Challa making me laugh

"What are you doing?" Rhodey asks pretending to be shocked, making me smile

"Uh, we don't do that here." T'Challa says as Bruce shoots Rhodey a look, and is answered with a big grin "So how big of an assault can we expect?" T'challa asks us

"Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault." Bruce says as we walk towards the building

"How we looking?" I ask walking beside Steve

"You will have my King's Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." T'challa lists before getting interrupted by Barnes who is smiling as he walks toward Steve, passing some Kingsguard taking Vision and Wanda to another facility "A semi-stable, 100-year-old man." Barnes says as he and Steve hug

"How you been, Buck?" Steve asks him

"Uh, not bad, for the end of the world." Barnes says as he looks at me and smiles and he goes to say something to me but I stop him before he can "Please don't. Safe your breath for when you need it" I tell him with a slight glare before following T'Challa inside

Shuri scans the Stone with her kimoyo beads while Vision lies on the examination table and She flips her hand over and studies the hologram projected over her palm

"Whoa. The structure is polymorphic." Shuri states

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially." Bruce tells her

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri asks while smiling

"Because, we didn't think of it." Bruce replies uncertain

"I'm sure you did your best." Shuri says with a reassuring smile

"Can you do it?" Wanda asks

"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." Shuri explains to us before turning to T'challa "It will take time, brother."

"How long?" Steve asks

"As long as you can give me." Shuri says as Okoye's kimoyo beads chime an alarm; she flicks one bead into her palm, where it projects the globe with a pulsing location marker "Something's entered the atmosphere." She tells us as we all walk over to the window as an alien vessel slams into the field at full attack acceleration

"It's s too late. We need to destroy the stone now." Vision says trying to get up from the table

"Vision, get your ass back on the table." I tell him as I turn to him

"We will hold them off" T'challa says as he, Okoye and the guards head for the door

"Wanda, as soon as the stone's out of his head... you blow it to hell." Steve orders her

"I will." Wanda says

"Evacuate the city. Engage all defense procedures."T'challa orders before he stops, turns, and points at Steve "And get this man a shield."