Black Panther: Rise of the Princess (COMPLETE)

Chapter 43: Shuri

Once T'Challa and Okoye and the other men were in a more advantageous position, we started taking out the drones. It was not difficult, as most of them turned to attack us as soon as they recognized us. I stood back to back with Peter, and did our best to keep them away from anyone else.

Peter began jumping up on top of them, about ten meters into the air. He webbed them up together while I stayed on the ground. I would have joined him, but I had only spent a day getting used to my enhanced abilities. There was no guarantee that I could accurately calculate my jumps yet.

After some time, multiple drones were wrapped up in a floating cluster above my head. He yelled down at me, asking, "You think you can wipe them out?"

In response, I fired up my blasters to a more powerful setting. I jumped up next to them, and right before I started to fall back to the ground, I fired both arms at the bundle. It exploded in a cloud of smoke and debris, and fell down a second after I landed.

There was no time to celebrate, though, because more drones kept appearing. I switched to claws and returned to keeping them from ripping my head off.

"Try that again," I suggested. "They seem to be attacking me anyways. I'll keep them occupied until you trap them in your webs."

"Just make sure you don't get shot down," he said, catching two more. "Move if you have to, I can still catch them."

It wasn't the gunfire I was concerned about, though. The claws protruding from them were a bigger issue. To prove it to Peter, I let myself be shot for a few seconds, then released the kinetic energy on the next cluster. The debris flew quite a bit farther that time.

"Actually," I corrected smugly, dodging a swipe from the nearest drone and clawing its arm off, "I'll take the fire. My suit can handle it."

He groaned. "I should have known. I shouldn't have said anything."

I switched back to blasters for a moment. "I don't mind talking. The last time T'Challa did not speak during a mission, he got captured."

"Fair point. I dunno, someone said once that I talk too much during missions."

"That was not me."

"Yeah, I know, genius."

We continued to take out as many drones as we could, but the second wave had shown up, and the fighters were no longer able to concentrate on the drones higher up in the sky. Thankfully, the debris from the other ships were knocking down the drones immediately underneath it, but more drones came from that debris, too, which created a new problem.

"Shuri, we have to take out those drones before they get back up to the fight. Start heading that way!"

"Does it matter which direction? I cannot run ten steps without another piece of a ship flying down!"

"Just get over there! I'll follow you!"

We took as much fire as we could, but we could only draw so much attention. More of the drones were locking on the fighters, and the SHIELD ships in particular were taking damage. There were still three HYDRA carrier ships to destroy, and over twenty HYDRA fighter jets. 

"Peter, this isn't working!" I called out. "I hope you have some other plan up your sleeve!"

He landed on the ground next to me, covering my back for a few seconds. Then he asked, "How do you feel about heights?"

I clawed three drones in one swipe. "I can handle them. What are you thinking?"

"Hang on," he instructed, and he wrapped an arm under my shoulders and we both made to jump. When we had reached the vertex of the jump, he sent a long range web out to the highest HYDRA fighter. Somehow, he was able to pull us to the nearest carrier ship without either of us dying.

"Huh, that worked," he mumbled under his breath. "Do what you can up here. If the drones won't stay on the ground, then we'll fight in the air with them."

"Our cluster plan might not work up here," I reminded him.

He leapt onto a passing drone. "Probably not, but I can tangle them. Do you have a taser setting on those blasters?"

I looked around on the carrier. "Sure, but I'll keep myself busy until you need me."

"Just don't die before then!"

"I do not plan to," I assured him, and I clawed the lock off of the roof access to the carrier I was on. Kicking the door open, I jumped in and looked around at the interior. 

My arrival set off an alarm, but I wasn't concerned about that. I just began running towards the front of the ship, towards the cockpit. Some soldiers came up behind me and began firing, but I jumped and spun, firing my blasters at them before I landed. The two wide pulses knocked all of them to the ground.

The two guards standing at the cockpit entrance did not have enough time to react when I got there. I have to say, their bulletproof vests are not doing them much good. Clearly, HYDRA cut their budget on armor in favor of other investments.

Blasting the doors open, I took a look around at who was in the cockpit. It was bigger than I had anticipated, and looked more like a bridge. A leader was standing in the middle, with five other technicians flying the ship. They all turned to look at me when I barged in, and drew their weapons when they realized who I was.

"It's the King!" The leader, probably a captain, shouted, but I was amused enough to laugh.

"Close," I corrected. "I'm the princess."

"Open fire!" The captain ordered, but their bullets did nothing against my suit. I allowed myself a giggle before jumping down to the technicians. I knocked them all out quickly before advancing on the captain.

He kept firing, but I simply walked towards him, unfazed by the bullets. I backed him up right until he was leaning against the main control console of the ship. "That's not possible," he cried, cowering. "There's only one! They said there was only one of you!"

"There was," I told him, "but the impossible has never stopped me before."

I have to admit, I slightly enjoyed the look on his face as I punched him in the jaw. Slightly