Black Panther: Rise of the Princess (COMPLETE)

Chapter 42: Peter

A few minutes ago:

We knew that we couldn't just join the forces right away, not with HYDRA in the mix. We needed to be a threat they couldn't anticipate or prepare for, even if it meant that we kept it a secret from T'Challa.

And obviously, we had to make a dramatic entrance. If there was one thing I learned from college, it was that if you're going to show up late for class, it had better be worth it. Once it's too late, either roll up in heely's with a Starbucks in hand or don't show up at all.

We switched the ship to stealth mode and set out to the rendezvous point. By the time we got there, no one else had shown up yet. We saw T'Challa and Okoye's ship land in the field, just before HYDRA came to join the party.

Shuri set the ship to autopilot and we hid on the side of the ship, where we would be he least noticeable, despite hovering a thousand feet in the air. She was wearing her new and improved Black Panther suit, which looked incredible. Compared to her brother's, this one had Shuri's innovative taste all over it. She still had blasters on the wrists, but they were smaller and a little more elegant, and I saw evidence of a few other tricks hiding in the folds.

We had our masks off while we waited for HYDRA. I just liked the wind in my hair, especially since I had been wearing my suit for a while, but I looked up over at Shuri after a while to see her glaring down at the ship on the ground. I had only known her for about a couple of days, but I could tell she was thinking about the many ways she could kill someone and the insults she could hurl at said someone.

"You still pissed at your brother?" I asked, sitting on the side of the ship.

Shuri spammed, startled by my sudden inquiry, but she chuckled. Unfortunately for someone down there, it wasn't a 'Oh, you're so funny' chuckle, but a 'Oh, you have no idea what is running through my head right now and you should be scared' chuckle.

"Not him," she answered assuringly. "Although I do plan on speaking with him after this is over. It is D'Arku who will end up in a cell later this evening, if he does not die before then."

Ah. That made more sense. I mean, if the Princess of Wakanda killed the King, that wasn't going to look too good. "Did you have any idea?" I asked, aware that it was a sensitive topic, but also an important one.

She pulled herself up to the ledge she had been holding onto so she could sit. "No, and I should have. That concerns me more than anything else."

"It's not like you expected it, though. I mean, we just found out HYDRA was back like what, a week ago?"

"He was my friend, Peter," she confessed. "I put him in charge of the outreach centers because I thought he would be good at organizing them. I never doubted his loyalty."

Don't say it don't say it don't say i- "Well, he was good at organizing them. For HYDRA."

Shuri glared at me and I cowered.

"Sorry, sorry, too soon."

She turned back to the ground. "I am beginning to understand why your people are so suspicious and secretive."

My heart nearly broke for her just then. She was right, absolutely right, but that shouldn't mean that it was right for Wakanda. Our culture had been scarred by betrayal and exploitation, I knew that as well as anyone. Compared to a country even as young as the U.S., Wakanda hadn't seen anything yet. Why did they have to slip into the paranoia too?

I followed her gaze to the ship. "You shouldn't. I wish we believed in loyalty like you do. This is...not a good problem, but..." I sighed, frustrated. "It's the right problem to have. Better than the opposite."

"I wished I believed that still," she told me, drawing up her knees to her chest. "Perhaps D'Arku can redeem himself, but we cannot fix human nature. Even those that are worthy of trust will be exploited by those who are not."

Shuri smirked, in a defeated way. "If only we could take all of the honest people somewhere they could do good."

I hesitated, not sure if I could say anything, but I couldn't just leave her without any hope. "I don't know about all of them, but what if we narrowed it down to...like a team? Maybe six?"

She side-eyed me. "What do you mean?"

"I-"

Her bracelet went off. "Incoming. HYDRA is here."

"I'll explain later," I promised. "Eyes up, Princess."

Four ships came to a stop about 700 feet below us. Each of the ships had four fighters in the hangars. They encircled T'Challa and the others, but the invisible Wakandan forces copied them, and the ships went down in seconds.

Too easy.

"Why would HYDRA want their ships to be shot down?" I asked, and Shuri got to work on her bracelet.

"I'm detecting energy read outs from the debris," she reported. "Individual units, by the looks of things."

"Not good," I decided. Individual units couldn't be taken out in one shot. "Anything else?"

"The other ships are coming."

"Trojan distraction," I moaned. "They have to take out these ships, but that means they have to fight the units. If they fight the units, they aren't fighting the other ships. You ready?"

She nodded. "After you."

I leapt off our ship as Shuri commanded it to return to Wakanda in sentinel mode. She followed me down, and we watched the scene on the ground play out as we approached the diver out of the sky.

It didn't take long for us to see that the 'individual units' were drones. Unfortunately for HYDRA, even with vibranium, they were nowhere near EDITH's standard. If I could take on Quinten's murderbots, alone, Shuri and I were gonna be fine.