Begins several years before The Black Panther Movie and ends several years after. This is an alternate universe (with certain events from the comic and the cinematic universes which have been altered and intermingled together) containing multiple M...
Tamika sat staring at the centrifuge unable to collect herself enough to remove the tubes even though the machine had stopped awhile ago. She was exhausted. Her eyes literally felt like heavy weights as she struggled to keep them open and to stop from nodding off and collapsing right onto the laboratory bench.
"Shit." She removed her gloves and rubbed at her weary eyes. She never got much sleep anymore but last night she literally got none at all. In fact she was not sure if she had not been up for forty eight hours straight already. She was losing time. It all seemed to be blurring together.
Besides the fact that she had finally stumbled across her target; Lady A, a hacker and a dark web dealer who had ties to the weapons dealer who was supplying automatic weapons locally. She felt like things were now slipping through her fingers left and right. The lack of sleep was starting to get to her. She had begun hallucinating. Seeing things... people in her apartment at night that weren't even there. Two days ago, the third kid died. Shot to death just a few blocks from the studio apartment Tamika had been renting since the summer she did an internship with the Fantastic four. Susan had offered to let her stay in Manhattan at the Baxter Building but that would have encroached on Wildstreak's secret nightly activities. So she opted to live just north in the Bronx. She crossed paths with the Fantastic four more than once as the summer got underway so in the end she had to come clean about who she truly was. But even then she stayed in her apartment in the Bronx. That was her place. Even though lately it had begun to feel like a very heavy place to be.
For several weeks after Erik first left Boston, Tamika was devastated.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Not understanding how he could just leave her so abruptly and coldly without even saying goodbye. And her night terrors became even worse than before. She was barely able to get out of the bed in the morning to finish school. Unable to sleep she spent most of her nights out in the city as Wildstreak searching out as much danger as possible to distract her from her haunted thoughts.
Tamika found herself being comforted by Fred. He was there and willing to be a stand in for the man who broke her heart. It was a poor substitute, but she was able to function again. Besides, she was tired of being strong. Of springing back from every horrible set back and tragedy in her life. She just wanted someone to take care of her for once. So she set aside any guilt and allowed Fred to do so. Even if she didn't love him. Even if she knew she never would.
Eventually, she became numb to the thought of Erik. After all she always understood who Erik was. For a short while she chose to overlook the red flags. But in the end, she either accepted him or drove herself mad trying to change him. There was no other option.
Meanwhile life moved on and summer break started. She spent the break in New York working at the Baxter Building. Exchanging ideas with other brilliant minds, including an international correspondence with Dr Michael Morbius, a Nobel prize winning biochemist from Greece who suffered from a debilitating genetic blood disease.
The high pace life of the city was exactly what she needed. She began to encounter others like herself who also roamed the streets at night. Their methods were not exactly righteous but they got the job done. By day Tamika did so well with her internship, Susan Storm asked her to return to Manhattan the next summer. And it was one of the best summers of her life. She not only grew and developed in the lab but also outside of the lab too.
After Stark unleashed Ultron, and Ultron recovered the data from Fury's destroyed file, the name Von Strucker resurfaced again as well as the country of Wakanda.
Eventually news reached Tamika that Wakanda had gone completely dark since the data on Fury's secret file was leaked with all the other classified encrypted data. No trade, no outside online connections. No possible way to even enter their terrain without Klaue who was the only outsider who knew a way across the border. They even started to call back their few outreach missions. What was with this strange place??
By the next fall, the announcement of the Sokovia Accords tore through the enhanced persons' community. And Tamika started to worry for herself, but with Fury gone she hoped Wildstreak was low key enough that no one would really bother to notice her.
Whelp. She was wrong. She did not slip by the notice of the new Superhuman registry. In fact, because of her new relationship with the Fantastic four, she was near the top of the list. She was for all intents and purposes, a cyborg. And a cyborg who already had significant training in her regular human body. The enhancements only made her more dangerous. But Tamika refused to give up her suit or to be tagged just because she had a prothestic device implanted in her spine. And Susan Storm agreed with her. Both of them chose to fight among Captain America's anti-registry group.
While with the anti-registry faction, Tamika encountered all types as the civil war raged on for weeks managing to destroy most of downtown New York. This included a mysterious enhanced person called the Black Panther. She was told he was from Wakanda too. Huuummm?
Eventually the war ended, and Tamika graduated and settled down in New York City. Thinking of Erik and how hard his life had been, she wanted to use the power of her bionic exoskeleton to help the invisible and silent population that he always spoke of as both a high school science teacher by day and a vigilante by night.
Fred moved with her to New York and eventually by admitted that he had romantic feelings for her all along. Though Tamika was reluctant at first knowing her feelings were never going to match his feelings, they did eventually become a couple. And Tamika found herself content and relatively happy again. Though... she did often wonder what happened to Erik.
Lately, she began to have the strange feeling that he was close by. She would wake up in the middle of the night in the midst of one her night terrors and swear there was a form standing in the shadow of the bedroom watching over her. She would sense Erik following her through the apartment as she rolled herself to the kitchen for a glass of water wanting to comfort her. She still felt him following her and watching her back as she stalked the streets at night. Lingering in shadow and watching over, ready to protect her. Tamika knew she was just driving herself nuts. Literally crazy. But she still could not completely shake Erik Stevens from her mind... nor her heart.
Over the last few weeks Fred helped her finally track down this ever elusive Lady A. The entire encounter had been bothering Tamika since it occurred earlier that morning before the sun rose. Not just because the petite and beautiful Lady A looked nothing like the criminal tech mastermind she expected. But also because they clearly had a lot more in common than expected. Number one being Erik Stevens.
Though he never left her thoughts, his name had not crossed her radar in years. She wasn't even sure if he was going by that name anymore. The fact that the name Erik Stevens was untraceable even to a social security number would suggest the name was adopted. But obviously, Lady A whose own real name was Linda Ade knew Erik well. She not only knew him but was in some sort of relationship with Erik. Still Tamika was suspicious how Ade knew about her connection to Erik. She couldn't imagine Erik mentioned her. Even more surprising, Ade seemed threatened by Tamika.
"He's moved on." Was the first thing out Ade's mouth as she stood across from Wildstreak with a shooter in between them.
"What? Who?" Tamika was confused about who they were talking about and why they weren't talking about the illegal weapons Ade and her boss had been flooding into the New York streets. Not to mention the drugs and the underage girls that Lady A was clearly auctioning across the dark web.
Ade smirked wryly, "don't pretend you've forgotten the gorgeous man with attitude and locs who once slept in your bed. Im well aware of just how unforgettable he is."
Tamika lower her hands and frowned. This was not where she supposed the conversation was heading. "Erik Stevens?"
"Yes Erik. We both know him well."
But Ade called him something else. Killmonger. Tamika thought that was a strange name. Still somehow it fit Erik.
