Black Panther: Rise of the Princess (COMPLETE)

Chapter 44: Shuri

"Your Highness?" Peter called through my communicator. "I could use that taser right about now!"

"On my way," I told him, blasting the control panel of the ship to bits. I smashed through the window as the ship began to fall out of the sky, leaping to the next closest carrier. My foot slid when I landed, but otherwise, I made it safely.

The airspace around the ship was impressive. Like a true spider, Peter had made a web between many of the ships, but instead of trapping flies, drones were rendered immobile. Although there were still plenty to shoot down, the majority of the drones had either been caught, or ran into each other trying to avoid being caught.

The spider-furry landed beside me and pointed out at his trap. "What do you think?"

"Not bad, Spider-Man," I commented. "You're certainly not making HYDRA's job any easier."

"That's the idea," he replied, handing me a strand of web. "This next part is all you, though. Shock this, and half of these things go down."

I switched my blasters to electrocute. Originally, I had set them to a mild voltage, one that would knock out a human, but not cause any permanent damage. Now, though, I charged both of them to their full capacity. Drones required no mercy.

Holding onto the web with both hands, I let the charge travel down the line. It was a spectacular thing to watch, really. The energy travelled to a central intersection, where all of the other webs connected to the strand Peter had handed me. It spread across the entire airspace, short-circuiting hundreds of drones. In an instant, HYDRA's forces were cut in half.

HYDRA seemed to realize it, too. The six fighter jets that were left seemed to receive new orders, and abandoned their former targets, locking instead on Peter and I.

I rose to take them out, but Peter held my arm. "Stay on this ship. It's the last carrier, and if we can take out the fighters and the carriers in one sweep, that means less work for everyone else."

Switching the channel on my communicator, I connected to the commander of our forces. "Focus on the drones, Spider-Man and I will handle the other ships!"

They responded, but two HYDRA fighters began shooting at me, so I can't say that listened to what they said. Peter and I had to split up, and it was time to do some damage.

I dodged the fire, no problem, and I saw what Peter was getting at. As long as I was on the carrier, most of the shots that missed me hit HYDRA's ship instead. Peter was already leading fighters to the engines, so I jumped over to the cockpit. The windows shattered within seconds, and the pilots ducked for cover.

An explosion went off near the rear of the ship, and alarms started blaring on the control panels. One of the pilots started yelling in Spanish, so they must have been from the center in Buenos Aires. The pilots jumped ship, dooming all other passengers. All that was left were the fighters.

I had to try to jump to the fighters. Ten minutes wasn't much, but it was as much practice as I was going to get. Releasing my claws, I got a running start and intercepted a fighter on its way to attack the SHIELD forces.

Of course, the fighter tried to shake me off, but it wasn't about to rip away from vibranium claws in its hull. All it did manage to do was attract attention from their allies. Two other fighters came up behind us and began firing, which only damaged them, not me. Even if the bullets had hit me, I had my suit on. Bast, these soldiers were dense.

Sliding from the front of the ship to the rear, I dragged my claws through the left thruster, disabling it. The ship was still able to fly, but it began swerving and spinning out of control, forcing the other two fighters to either clear out or risk running into the rogue ship. One fighter opted to stay back, the other tried to knock me off. The right wing of the fighter crashed into their windshield, and the rest is history. The two fighters went down, and I had to jump to the third one to remain airborne.

Unfortunately, the pilot saw me coming, and tried to flee from my range. The jump would have been fine if he hadn't, but now I barely managed to grab the edge of the wing as he made a hard turn to the left. At 160 kilometers an hour, it was all I could do to hold on. 

"Peter, I could use some help please!" I shouted into my communicator, dangling from the side of the ship.

He took a while to respond. At least, it seemed like it. "Okay, I see you. Wait for my mark, then drop. I've gotcha."

How much longer was his mark going to take? "Now would be nice!" I tried to look for him, but all I could see was the filthy undercarriage of the fighter. Was that the fuel tank?

"Okay, in three, two, one!"

In a split second, I swiped at the fuel tank before releasing my grip from the wing. Gasoline poured from the gash in the poorly designed fighter. I watched it before I felt a tug on my arm, and a web pulled me to the side. Peter slowed my fall, catching my arm as I flew past him.

He kept me stable as I regained my balance on the fighter he was hitching a ride on. Of course, as  Spider-Man, he did not have to worry about falling off. In the distance, the fighter I had came from slowly descended to the ground, trailing fuel as it crashed on the plains. 

"Nice work," he commented, eying the fighter, "but we've still got two more, this one and one more."

"Beneath the fighters is an exposed fuel tank," I told him. "Whoever designed these did a terrible job."

He pointed out the last fighter, 100 meters away. "Get your blasters ready, then."

I fired them up, and as our ship sped towards the other, Peter shot his webs at the wings, connecting the two fighters. Quickly, I aimed my wrists at the last ship and fired, not only damaging the fuel tank, but burning the gasoline inside it. The fuel exploded, and the fighter came crashing down. Peter pulled it towards the one we were standing on before pulling me. "Jump off!" He yelled, and I followed his command, not seeing any other options. 

His suit released a parachute, and he kept a strong grip on my arm, slowing my fall as well. Above us, the two fighters collided, taking both of them out at once. All of HYDRA's forces were destroyed. 

We won.