New York City, New York

September 2, 23:21 UTC

The Black Panther swiftly leapt from rooftop to rooftop, briefly yet thoroughly scanning the New York City streets for any sort of trouble that might warrant an Avenger's help. It was Friday night, usually the most active night for crime, but tonight was a quiet night. The only threat he'd faced so far was a mugger with a gun – trying to pull of the typical "rob a vulnerable woman walking home alone in a dark alley" crime.

Panther was always assigned Friday night patrol duty, as the other Avengers were rarely available on Friday nights. Tony was usually working late at Stark Industries, so he could avoid the need to take his work home over the weekend. Hank was usually working in his lab. Janet was usually partying, of course. Thor often spent the weekend visiting his family in Asgard (a routine that developed shortly after Loki's near-conquest of the nine realms). Steve and Clint were usually assigned out of town missions, and then there was the Hulk, who didn't have an assigned patrol duty night. Hulk usually helped out whoever was currently on patrol, as he wasn't trusted to do much on his own. The team rarely even knew where he was. The Black Panther was the perfect hero for Friday night duty, as, being from another country, Panther rarely had anything to do with his time besides fight crime. Furthermore, he enjoyed getting time alone. Black Panther, more of a loner than Hulk, was very quiet and usually kept to himself. Unlike the other Avengers, he preferred to patrol New York City alone.

Nonetheless, Black Panther was highly skilled – probably more so than at least half the team. The Avengers knew they could trust him, despite the usual lack of much communication between the Panther and his teammates. Black Panther was very independent and could handle almost anything on his own, but what awaited the unsuspecting hero tonight was a threat that would pose a new level of danger.

Just as he was almost ready to retire to the mansion for the night, Panther heard a clatter, so faint that only someone with superior Wakandan hearing like himself could detect it, coming from directly below him. He looked down to see that he was standing on the rooftop of Big Apple Bank, which was being robbed. Black Panther was excited. He finally had something fun to do. The Panther, liking to do everything in a very neat and precise manner, used his claws to carve a hole in the roof, just large enough so that he could squeeze through it. Black Panther did just that, landing on his feet.

Panther followed the faint noises his superior hearing picked up, which led him to the bank's vault .It was being quickly emptied by, to the Panther's surprise, two costumed supervillains – Whirlwind and Griffin. Both of these villains had escaped the supervillain prison known as the Big House during what Iron Man said was referred to as "the breakout." Ultimately revealed to have been caused by Thor's evil half-brother, Loki, the breakout was an event where the four major supervillain prisons around the country suddenly malfunctioned and released all their prisoners. A total of 74 villains escaped. More than half of these villains were still at large. Whirlwind and Griffin were two of the escaped villains who hadn't yet been recaptured. Panther briefly pondered the reason why two powerful supervillains would resort to robbing a bank. At least he'd be able to single-handedly recapture two more of the escaped prisoners. Iron Man would certainly be glad.

Taking advantage of the two villains not having noticed his presence, Panther threw four of his vibranium claws at the bags in their hands, which were being quickly filled with money. The claws hit the bottoms of the bags, ripping holes in them and consequently causing the money in them to begin rapidly pouring out. This caught the villains' attention and they turned around to see the Black Panther standing only a few feet away from them.

"I apologize for spoiling your Friday night outing, but this money does not belong to either of you," Panther told the two super-powered robbers.

"An Avenger," exclaimed Whirlwind, "but where are your friends? I'd hardly call this a fair fight."

"I don't need my teammates to take care of you two," Panther said confidently.

"We'll see about that," said Griffin as he became airborne and flew at the Panther's torso. Simultaneously, Whirlwind began spinning in Panther's direction.

Unfortunately for Griffin, the Black Panther's reflexes were too quick. Just before Griffin hit him, Panther jumped into the air and landed on Griffin's back.

"Hey, get off me," cried Griffin in shock.

Griffin began to lose concentration and control of his flight, almost running into a wall. He turned just before hitting the wall and began flying in the direction of the vault. Griffin tried to stop himself, but it was too late. Panther jumped off of him just before he entered the vault and dealt Griffin one final kick that sent him crashing into vault. Before Griffin could come to his senses, Panther slammed the vault's door shut – locking Griffin in.

"Hey! Let me outta here," Panther heard a muffled voice from behind the vault's door cry. "Whirlwind, you gotta help me!"

Panther then turned his attention to Whirlwind, who was spinning closer and closer to him. Panther quickly dove out of the way, landing about fifteen feet away from Whirlwind, and threw two vibranium claws at his spinning foe – hitting Whirlwind in the head and knocking him off his feet.

"The Wakandan elders are more formidable foes than you," Panther taunted.

Whirlwind replied with an angry grunt as he stood up and started spinning again. Black Panther saw thousands of dollar bills fly through the air as Whirlwind spun at him. Panther attempted to hit him with more vibranium claws, but Whirlwind was spinning faster and with more rage than before. The claws were deflected and flew back at Panther, who dodged all but one of them – which hit his chest, tearing through both his costume and his skin. Panther was surprised by the sting of the claw. He saw a drop of blood trickle out of a cut left by the claw. Panther tried not to lose focus on the task at hand. He'd deal with his injuries later. Whirlwind's spinning was generating powerful winds from ten feet away. The winds almost knocked Black Panther off his feet, making it difficult to quickly run away from the spinning supervillain – who would reach Panther in a matter of seconds. Thinking fast, Panther jumped up and grabbed onto a ceiling fan. Whirlwind immediately began spinning his arms like helicopter rotors and became airborne.

"Thought you could get away that easily? I'm insulted," said Whirlwind.

"You are misguided, my friend," retorted Panther. "If you are spinning your arms trying to keep yourself airborne, you can neither spin nor protect the rest of your body."

Before Whirlwind could do more than display shock from the sudden realization, Panther dove at him and kicked him in the face. Whirlwind fell to the ground.

"Are you done yet?" Panther asked as he landed on the ground.

"I am, but you're not," replied Whirlwind.

Panther was confused, but this confusion didn't last long. He was soon knocked to the ground by a powerful blow to the back of his head from a crowbar. In too much pain to stand, Panther turned onto his back to try to get a look at the person who just attacked him, but his vision was blurred. All Panther could see was a tall, skinny, menacing man. Whirlwind was standing next to him. Panther's eyes began to feel heavy, and subsequently the feeling of heaviness spread to the rest of his body. Everything was going black – as black as his costume.

"The first stage of the plan is complete," Panther heard the mysterious figure mumble in a solemn tone. The last thing he heard before completely losing consciousness was a quiet, calm, evil chuckle – giving Panther the impression that, whoever this was, he was certainly much more formidable than the Wakandan elders.