Summary: Black Panther and War Machine team up to foil Mr. Sinister's latest plan, but what happens when they find out that he was hired by an old enemy of the Black Panther?

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes or The Princess and the Frog.


If Rhodey thought that working for Tony Stark was a pain in the butt sometimes, he would surely regret working with the Black Panther.

It's not that he and the prince of Wakanda, now king, were any different. In fact, they were quite similar, because they both served in their own armies, have access to awesome technology and, of course, they're the same race. But there's a big difference between a ghetto African and native African.

Onto the main story, T'Challa went to Tony Stark for help because his people has been kidnapped by Mr. Sinister, a revolutionary creepy scientist who performed cruelly gruesome experiments to create the perfect mutant. Predictably enough, Tony refused, not because he was being selfish, but because he wasn't good with people as Henry Pym, a.k.a. Ant-Man stated. Jim Rhodes, on the other hand, aside form being a trained pilot, expert engineer and gifted soldier, was also a good diplomat who knew how to interact with people. Needless to say, this was all that Black Panther needed to save his people.

"The it's settled," Tony said after he and T'Challa conversed "Rhodey, go get your armor. You're going to Wakanda and help T'Challa save his tribe"

"But why don't YOU go?" Rhodes asked in indignation "You're the one with technology, and besides, Hank is more diplomatic than-"

"And he is an annoyance when he wants to be," Stark cut him off, then added "Just don't tell Hank i said that."

"He is right, Rhodes. Dr. Pym left Wakanda in order to pursue aquatic research. Even though my people follows the new ways now, still it is not enough. Mr. Sinister has obtained access to my people's technology and has rigged the security system to destroy any outside sign. You and Stark are the only ones i can resort to." T'Challa stated.

"But why me?" Rhodey asked again.

"In case you've forgotten, Rhodey, you're a diplomat, you know how to deal with people better than me. I admit that i'm not ver social, but that's how i am. Besides, you and Black Panther are from the same race, they're your people too, except for the different cultures, but you understand."

Rhodey groaned in exasperation about how this was going to turn.

"Okay fine, you win. But if i don't survive, tell Pepper to send my last payment via email."

"Don't worry, i got it covered."

"Just give me a minute while i go for my armor" said the black ex-soldier as he stepped out of his boss' office and went to the laboratory. Like Tony, Rhodey changed into an undersuit for the Iron Man Armory. Unlike Iron Man's red and yellow color scheme, Rhodey's is black and grey with orange eyes. Also, like his boss, Rhodey had access to JARVIS.

"JARVIS, you know what to do"

"Very good Mr. Rhodes, initiating the Mark VI." the artificial intelligence system responded.

The Mark VI rises out of the floor allowing Rhodey to step in. He steps into the boots and the suit builds itself around his legs. It then attaches itself to his arms. The chest assembles itself then the helmet is put on. War Machine's eyes begin to glow.

While Tony and T'Challa were patiently waiting for Rhodey, to come out, he eventually re-entered the office as War Machine.

"Okay, when do we start?"

"Right now, my friend" the clad-in-black hero replied.


Both heroes parted their way to Wakanda, flying up to the sky. War Machine was flying with his repulsors and jet boots, while Black Panther was riding a technologically advanced Panther winger.

"This vehicle of yours is truly impressive, your majesty," Rhodey complied.

"It is, my friend. I am not one to brag, but my people's technology has decades beyond Stark Industries."

"That's a lot of time."

"Indeed. Now we must focus on saving my people from Mr. Sinister. Who knows what kind of vile experiments he could be performing right now."

"Well, trust me, you don't really want to know. Tony and i faced him while helping the X-Men. Just let's say that he would make me not want to go see a real doctor for sometime."

Their conversation was interrupted when they were shot from above.

"We're under attack!" exclaimed Rhodey.

"And i know exactly why" Black Panther said as he looked below. They were being shot by blue-wearing masked goons, armed with wicked-looking rifles. He took the chance to turn his vehicle around and activated its repulsors, releasing beams of Vibranium and aiming at the offenders. War Machine did the same with his repulsors, flies forward and fires an arm mounted rocket. The rocket splits apart as Rhodey flies up. Each individual projectile then attaches itself to a gun and explodes knocking out several of the soldiers. Then, he noted a missile approaching them.

"T'Challa, look out!" he warned as the prince of Wakanda turned around and saw the missile. Thinking fast, he turned his vehicle around and fired a bomb at the device, which exploded in five seconds.

"That was easy" commented Rhodey.

"A little too easy" Black Panther said, because as soon as the missile was destroyed, it released a strange gas that spread in the air. The strange thing, however, was that the gas was moving towards the heroes, as if it was alive.

"It was a trap!" he exclaimed as he and Rhodey tried to wave the gas off, but with no success. Soon, they were knocked unconscious and fell to the ground.


"You and Stark usually go through these predicaments?"

"You have no idea."

Right now, Black Panther and War Machine hung upside down from a pole in a room that was filled with acid. They were both bound with arms and legs tied to restraints from an electromagnetic sphere and tied with ropes.

"I swear, i feel like a bondage victim. On a very bad gay porn!" groaned Rhodey in exasperation. Then, a low, evil chuckle was heard. Both heroes saw in front of them a man. Or more fittingly, a mutant. This mutant had a humanoid form, well built, jet-black short hair, a fancy goatee, and deeply red shining eyes with no visible pupils, as well as a red diamond encrusted upon his forehead. He was wearing a navy blue metal suit with red gems and a scraped cape in the form of spikes.

"Oh War Machine, you don't have nothing to worry about. At least for now." the sinister (no pun intended) mutant said.

"You're sick, Sinister!" Rhodey exclaimed "You won't get away with this!"

"On the contrary, yes i will. You and your majesty, the new king of Wakanda, will be part of my newest experiment." explained the mad biologist while pulling a syringe containing a purple liquid "Once i inject this chemical into your bodies, this time perfected, i shall create the perfect example of a new mutant race!"

Black Panther looked both disgusted and outraged. "You are insane, Sinister. You are putting my people's lives in danger just for your own amusement!"

"You think that i'm doing this just for the hell of it?" hollored Sinister in anger and indignation, to which he took the prince of Wakanda by the neck and lowered him to his level, then spoke in a calmer tone "Actually, i'm not doing this for fun. I'm doing it in the name of science, of course!"

"You're like an evil version of Hank Pym." muttered Rhodey "Or more like an exreme version of Dr. Mengele."

"Mengele?" Sinister asked in a relatively calm tone of voice as he approached the two black heroes (again, no pun intended) even more.

"Let me tell you something about Mengele, baby: MENGELE'S EXPERIMENTS ARE A CASE OF FRUIT LOOPS, COMPARED TO MINE!"

"Oh, sorry Sinister, we didn't mean to tick you off," Rhodey replied sarcastically.

"Or interrupt your lessons," T'Challa followed, also in the mood of taunting the mutant scientist.

"Hey, this is no time for the funny stuff!" exclaimed Sinister.

"You should've seen the villains Tony and i fought in ocassion. Now those were some clever foes" War Machine told Black Panther, ignoring the outraged Sinister.

"I will bet" agreed Black Panther.

"Well, once this chemical in injected, it will flood through your circulatory system, where it will..." he was interrupted as the two heroes continued chatting.

"Ever heard of A.I.M.?" asked the black military man.

"Of course. They are a criminal organization bent on using technology to take over the world." the black prince replied.

"And they have half of Tony's tech. And guess who's the guy behind them."

"I bet he must be a dangerous foe to not cross paths with."

"Actually, he's just M.O.D.O.C.. And trust me, his head is bigger than the rest of his body. In fact, i think he's just a really gigantic head."

"Like Thor told me the other day, he was like a Frost Giant's head in an infant's body."

"Bingo"

"I can't believe they're not listening to me," grumbled Sinister before exploding "YOUR BLOOD! This chemical will infect your blood, until it reaches your heart! And then, your remaining organs will follow. Soon you will become a wonder of science, a new advance for a new generation of..."

"What about the Leader?" Black Panther asked, interrupting Sinister again.

"Oh boy, haven't heard of him in ages since he was thrown away in the Cube. His head must be at least 3 feet tall"

"I always get him and M.O.D.O.C. confused"

"You're not the only one, Panther"

"ENOUGH!" Sinister angrily interrupted them "I have no time for this silliness. I shall dip you down the Virus Essex, and we'll see if you actually become the next stage of the new generation. If you don't, oh well, you can always serve as my bodyguards."

"You ready for this, your Highness?" Rhodey asked.

"I was trained to be ready." Black Panther replied cutting one of his arm restraints with a miniature laser built into his glove fingerprints. As for War Machine, he burned through the last of the restraints with his repulsers and the two landed on the ground.

"Well don't just stand there! Get them!" Sinister hollored to his mutant henchmen, who proceeded to ambush the heroes.

"I will fight the ones on the left, you will fight the ones on the right," Black Panther commanded.

"Roger that"

And so, the two heroes began beating the crap out of the mutants.

"You'll never make it through my maze!" hollored Sinister as he pulled a lever and the laboratory pulled giant razor blades and the grounds began to move, turning into block structures of some kind of video game. He hopped onto one and began flying away.

"Quick, we must not let him flee!" Black Panther shouted as he began leaping the squares.

"I'm on it" said Rhodey as he began flying up to where Sinister was going.

"Don't come any closer, you filthy humans!" the mad scientist snarled as he pressed a button on his control remote to pull machine guns that begin to shoot lasers, but the two black heroes were too quick for them and dodged at every chance.

"Let's see if you can dodge THIS!" Sinister screamed as he pressed another button, releasing a time bomb hanging from the roof. Its chronometer was setting for two minutes with fifty-eight seconds. Black Panther and War Machine noticed this.

"There must be a way to defuse this bomb, but how?" Black Panther wondered. Rhodey made a quick scan of the bomb and finds out that, inside its generator, there was a purple energy surrounding it. He quickly came to a conclusion.

"He's using Vibranium to energize the bomb. And what is worse is that he modified it to explode at a 50 meter scale." Rhodey analyzed.

"Which in turn will produce a curtain of Vibranium energy that will infect anyone, human or animal." Black Panther concluded.

"Exacty, and there's nothing you two can do to stop me!" laughed Sinister. Black Panther, through his mask, smirked.

"Do you really think that, Sinister? Because you see, you are not the only one possessing Vibranium in his hands" the Wakandian king said as he pulled two Vibranium gems and attached them to his wrists. Sinister's eyes widened in anger.

"Stop him! He must not destroy the bomb!"

The mutants leaped upon Black Panther, but due to his feline reflexes, he easily dodged them and attacked them, knocking them out.

"Rhodes, take this piece of Vibranium and stab the bomb with it!" he said while throwing one of his Vibranium daggers at Rhodey, who caught it.

"You got it" With that, he began flying up to the bomb, but noticed that Sinister was holding a plasma disrupter aimed at him.

"You won't ruin my chances of creating the next generation!"

"By new generation, you mean that everyone will be as ugly as you?" War Machine asked sarcastically. He sure has been hanging out a lot with Tony, and was sure that sarcasm would serve him one day. Needless to say, this only made the revolutionistic genetist angrier. Sinister fired the disrupter at the armored hero, who used the shielding technology that his friend provided to his armor. He activated his repulstors and shot at Sinister's hands, disarming him. He then flew up to him and knocked him out of the platform. He reached the bomb and pulled thew Vibranium dagger, then dived it through the bomb...only to get it blocked out, because it turned out that the bomb was also wearing shielding. He stood in shock as Sinister chuckled.

"Your boss is not the only one with shielding technology, War Machine" Sinister boasted.

"Are you sure?" T'Challa's voice was heard from behind. Sinister turned around, only to be kicked in the jaw by Black Panther, who took the control out of his hands and pressed the button, deactivating the shielding. This allowed Rhodey to try and stab the bomb with the Vibranium piece, neutralizing the effects of the bomb with the same mineral that energized it.

"No, no, you two ruined everything!" Sinister snapped. In response, Rhodey punched him in the jaw, knocking the evil genetist out.

"Put a sock in it. Next stop, the Raft"

"First, we must release my people" Black Panther said.

"But how do we know where to find them?"

"Use your scanners. You can guide me through this place until we find out where my people is imprisoned"

"Sounds like a plan. Activate scanners" Using the scanners, War Machine looked around the place, analyzing every single part of the building in hopes of finding human life. Finally he found it. The room had metal walls; there were no windows or any decorations; there was a metal door with a strange control panel by it; a desk with a lamp on it; a wooden chair next to it; another metal door on the right side of the room; a dresser; a round table; a few boxes on top of each other; and the most shocking, the Wakandian people were locked in an energy cell.

"I found the room, your Majesty. Along with your people."

"Then we have no time to lose, my friend. Please guide me"

"Alright"

Both black heroes ran through the building, with War Machine guiding Black Panther up to the room where the villagers were imprisoned. They finally arrived at the room, and T'Challa wasted no time in using his other dagger to break the lock in the cage, releasing his group.

"King T'Challa!" exclaimed N'Gassi, the tribe's shaman.

"N'Gassi!" exclaimed an equally relieved Black Panther as they hugged like master and student.

"I am glad that you came to rescue us" the elder said.

"I did not do this alone, N'Gassi. I came with help." the prince replied as he gestured to Rhodey. "This is James Rhodes, he works for Stark Industries in the United States. He is also known as War Machine" The shaman walked up next to the armored hero.

"You helped our governor and risked your life to save us. You do have honor, noble warrior"

"Yeah, well, comes from years in the Force. Besides, you're my people too, despite the different cultures."

"True, you do not follow our ways and you were not born in Wakanda, and yet, you were willing to save us and help our king. That shows that you know about equality"

"Okay stop, you're making me blush"

"All hail king T'Challa and our new ally, War Machine!" N'Gassi exclaimed to the people, who began cheering for the two heroes. T'Challa removed his mask while Rhodey took off his helmet, they both exchanged a smile as they were praised. All celebration, however, was interrupted when they heard someone clapping. They all turned around to see someone whom T'Challa really wished to never see again.


Cliffhanger! THis is the end of chapter one. Please review and i'll tell you the surprise that is awaiting our heroes.