Saving Grace

Seventy Four

Grace, donning Savior with the helmet down, stands on a ship — a flying ship, low to the ground, carrying mainly warriors of Wakanda — with Nat.

Nat presses the comm in her ear. "How we looking, Bruce?"

Grace hears his response through her own comm. "Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it," he says, then jumping over one of the ships. He's in the Hulk Buster suit, courtesy of Grace getting it for them via Savior. It flew right to Wakanda at top speed, though they had to let it in through the force field. Bruce shouts as if he were on a rollercoaster, running faster than some of the flying ships. "This is amazing, man; it's like being the Hulk without actually-!" He then trips over a rock and runs right into the ground, everyone else passing him as he gets up. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

"I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line," Rhodey says not long afterward. He and Sam are flying above. Grace would have, but Nat wanted to keep her close. She was nervous something would happen, and there was no arguing with her, even if Grace wanted to. She was nervous too, though she reminded herself that that was probably better than being overconfident and therefore incautious and unprepared.

The ships stop near the edge of the force field, tilting so the warriors can slide off and onto the ground. Grace opts to fly out, landing next to Nat. Warriors led by a man dressed significantly different from T'Challa begin to chant in a language Grace doesn't understand but wishes she did. It fights off her nerves and boosts her confidence, things she desperately needs right now. If Thanos steps off one of those crafts, she has no idea what she's gonna do.

At the front of the line, T'Challa shakes the man's hand when they stop chanting. "Thank you for standing with us," he says. The man's response is indecipherable to Grace, but his tone and expression convey solidarity and brotherhood.

T'Challa, Steve, and Nat walk forward to go speak with two specks of aliens that stand on the other side of the force field. Grace wants to go, but both Nat and Steve tell her to stay back. When they leave, Bucky moves over to stand next to Grace, his gun in a resting position across his chest, but ready to be raised at a moment's notice. Everyone watches the conversation from afar, hearing nothing until one of the aliens raises a sword.

And then the crafts begin to rise.

When T'Challa, Nat, and Steve come back, Bucky asks, "Did they surrender?"

Steve gets back in his position in line. "Not exactly." Bucky moves over so that Nat can stand next to Grace, and then they all watch as aliens that, from here, look simply like ugly, rabid animals come racing out of the crafts, heading straight for the forcefield. The forest begins to burn. T'Challa and his army begin chanting.

Thousands of the horrible, alien animals, all sharp teeth and disgusting grey skin, coming charging out of the forest. Grace raises her helmet.

"What the crap," Bucky says.

"What are those?" Sai asks, and Grace can see her trying to figure it out, scanning them from afar.

"Looks like we ticked her off," Nat remarks, referring to the alien they'd spoken to before.

The animals begin hitting the force field, all of them running on two legs, and the force field kills them. They try to push through savagely, splitting themselves in half, none of them stopping, even when they see others falling.

With horror, Okoye says, "They're killing themselves."

All of them trying to get in at once weakens the force field, and some of them manage to get through, though patches of Pepto-Bismol pink muscle are torn through their skin.