Leo stood between Jemma and Skye, listening to Coulson brief them on their newest mission.
"Shield has a very fragile relationship with Wakanda," he was informing them, flashing a map of Africa on the screen on which the nation was coloured in red."And we do our best to keep it a good one because we purchase a lot of important resources from them,"
"They have one of the only known Vibranium mounds in the world," Leo put in excitedly. "They've been selling it to Shield for decades now, do you think we'll get to see it?"
"It's off limits to any foreigner," May reminded him. "Fragile relationship, remember?"
"Oh yeah... right," he mumbled disappointedly.
Jemma placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's radioactive anyway," she pointed out sympathetically. "You'd be exposed to more radiation than if you were getting an x-ray going to visit that. I'm sure we'll see some Zakedels though," she added, smiling in an attempt to cheer him, and he brightened at the thought of the clever little monkeys. "Oh and perhaps a golden haired tarantula," she bubbled. "Their venom contains several kinds of neurotoxic proteins found nowhere else in the world."
"Fun," Skye said sarcastically. "Scary spiders, check. Isn't anyone going to mention that their computer systems are the stuff?" She gushed, as thrilled as Jemma was about the tarantulas and as Leo had been a minute ago about the Vibranium mound. "They were developed completely separate from the rest of the world, their code is nearly impossible to hack. Even I'd have trouble with it."
"I bet you could do it though," Trip guessed, nudging her affectionately on her other side and she grinned at him.
"Maybe," she said.
"Guys, focus," Coulson ordered and they returned their attention to him. "We aren't there for mining or monkeys or neurotoxins or hacking, we're there for this."
He switched the image on the screen so that a clean, fleshless human skeleton appeared.
"This is Iroro O'Gherti," he said solemnly. "She was 19 years old, living in the small village of Shuria. Yesterday Iroro, her sister and a friend were out in the bush when they ran into one of these," the image changed again to a group of people holding up a butchered plant, brightly coloured with long green vines and wicked thorns on what almost looked like a flower, but was too chopped up for Leo to have identified it even if he were familiar with tropical plants. "It... ate Iroro. The other two went for help but it was too late."
"It ate her?" Skye gasped. "She was eaten by a plant?"
"Poor girl," Jemma put in. "There are many species of carnivorous plants, all around the world, but I've never seen one so big. Wakanda is know for its mutant species though, even some of the people have developed certain attributes due to the high levels of radiation. Increased intelligence, super strength. One woman even claimed she could see the future but," she scoffed, "that can't be possible, it'd be as complicated as time travel, imagine all the damage it would do even if there was a reasonable explanation."
"You haven't explained me yet," Skye teased, referring to her telekinetic abilities and Jemma rose an eyebrow at her.
"Give me another week, I'll work it out," she replied smugly and Leo smiled fondly at her, even though she was turned away from him.
Of course she would, there wasn't a problem Jemma couldn't solve, no answer she couldn't find.
"If they killed it, why do they need us?" Trip wondered, bringing their attention back to the case.
"Because there are more of them," Coulson said, changing the image once more to a map of the area around Shuria. "The red dots, here, here and here," he pointed, "represent locations in which there have been confirmed sightings and unconfirmed reports are coming in from all over the region."
"So it's a new species?" Jemma asked, almost excitedly and Leo felt his insides twist around nervously because he knew that look.
She wanted to investigate, go poke her nose in it. The expression 'curiosity killed the cat' came to mind but he pushed away the thought, reminding himself that Jemma was far more sensible than any cat. She'd be fine and besides no plant was going to eat his sweetheart if he was around, not without him putting up one hell of a fight anyway. He made a note to pack something to cut through thick plant flesh, like a laser.
"Looks that way," May replied. "Are we going in to exterminate it?"
"Well, that's where things get tricky," Coulson sighed. "Under Wakandian law, all novel species are protected, destroying them is illegal unless they're considered a food source. Those villagers almost faced fines for killing the one plant but the government decided to let it go because..."
"Because it ate a teenage girl," May offered and he nodded.
"Yeah," he answered.
"So what do we then?" Leo inquired. "We can't just quarantine off all the areas they grow."
"They could spread across the whole country," Jemma agreed. "If it's an efficient enough predator and can survive and reproduce easily it may not take long for that to happen."
"And then we'd have a serious problem," Leo added grimly.
"Still it doesn't seem right to wipe out an entire species," Jemma lamented.
"It probably does for the people who live there," Skye reasoned.
"Can't they make an exception?" May asked. "The government must care what happens to its people."
"I'm sure they do," Coulson replied. "But the researchers there have began studying the remains of the plant and they've isolated novel compounds from it which could have life saving medical applications in the region for people suffering from exposure to the high levels of radiation, especially Vibranium miners."
"So it's bad that it's eating people, but they want to keep it around because it could be a the key to a miracle drug," Trip summarized.
"Exactly," Coulson nodded.
This was becoming more and more complicated by the second. Kill the damn things, don't kill the damn things... people would probably die as a consequence of either decision. All Leo had wanted was to see a few Zakadels in the wild, maybe a vervet monkey or two and catch a glimpse of the Vibranium mound or at least get to see some of the incredible technology the country was famous for. But, of course, as a Shield agent he had other things to be concerned about, like the great plant debate. And as Jemma's partner, best friend and boyfriend, he had her boundless curiosity to worry about. Usually it was adorable, refreshing, contagious, but now the thought of her going anywhere near those things filled him with dread. Couldn't the problem have been giant robots? How cool would that be? Then they wouldn't need to send her nose first into danger.
'She's an agent, she has job to do,' he scolded himself. 'You're being ridiculous.'
However he remembered Iroro's bones, picked clean by whatever horrible juices and enzymes or acid or both were inside those things and didn't feel at all like he was being ridiculous.
/-/-/
Leo glanced up again at Jemma from where he sat on the sofa beside her. He was sitting with his back against one arm and she was leaning against the other with her legs sticking out to one side towards him so that their feet were touching and she could play with his toes when she wanted his attention. Which was about every three minutes, whenever she discovered something else to get excited about, but he didn't mind, she was adorable and her dancing toes tickled his own pleasantly.
"You'll be careful, right?" he asked her, placing his tablet on the table. He'd been trying to figure out how to bring this up without sounding paranoid and overprotective, stealing glimpses of her gorgeous face as she read up on carnivorous plant species.
"What do you mean," she wondered, attention on the article she was reading on coniine, a toxic alkaloid found in the nectar of Sarracenia flava.
"When we find the plants.." he said slowly, "the kind that killed Iroro, you won't... I mean I know you'll want to figure out everything out about them that you can but... Jemma please don't go getting yourself eaten by a plant." he blurted out. "I couldn't handle it if anything happened to you."
She tilted her head to the side and looked at him as if he were being silly. "Do you really think I want to get eaten by plant?" she inquired, raising her eyebrows at him.
"No, of course not," he mumbled. "But you're the biochemist, you're the one they're going to send in there-"
"Not alone," she reminded him, moving towards him and taking his hand, pulling it to her lips so she could softly kiss his fingers. "I know it's scary sweetheart, but we're a team, all of us and this is what we do. It'll be fine."
He nodded before reaching into his pocket. "Here, I want you to have these, just in case," he said, handing her a small army of gadgets and she sighed as she set aside what she had been looking at to take them. "This is a beacon, you can set it off if you're in trouble, a miniature laser to get you out of a pinch, a localized EMP..."
"Aren't you going to be with me the whole time?" she asked, confused. "What could I possibly need this for?" she added, holding up one of their noisemakers.
"So we can hear you from the belly of the beast," he explained, as if it were obvious. "And of course I'll be with you, like I said it's just a precaution."
She gave him a small, patient smile and placed his offerings on the table before holding out her hands to him.
"Come here," she invited and he shuffled over into her arms, resting his chin against the top of her shoulder and his cheek against hers, holding her tightly against him. "We're going to solve this problem together," she insured him, "like we always do and everyone is going to be fine and no one is going to get eaten. And we'll definitely see some Zakadels and try out a few new gadgets. It'll be fun, you'll see."
"OK," he murmured.
"I'll keep them in my bag though," she decided, referring to the gadgets. "And the laser in my pocket, just in case."
"Thanks," he whispered. "And maybe after we can go hunting for those golden haired tarantulas." he offered sitting up, still holding her around her sides and she kissed his nose before nuzzling her own against it.
"After we go monkey watching," she promised, eyes sparkling.
"That would be nice," he smiled, returning her nose nuzzle and moving his hand up to cup the side of her face.
"I had a feeling you'd think that," she giggled, lifting her hand to place over it and leaning into his palm.
He giggled with her before he kissed her lovely lips and she returned the kiss, slowly, wrapping her arms around his neck and making his stomach flip over.
Something clacked on the table and they both jumped, tangled together for a moment as they tried to spring apart.
"Sorry, just wanted to get my book," Coulson apologized. "Land of Laughs, first edition." He showed them the cover. "Didn't mean to scare you."
"No, no," Jemma giggled uncomfortably, her face tomato red.
"We were just... er..." Leo fumbled, matching her colouring.
"Reading up on a few things-" Jemma continued.
"I mean before..." Leo put in.
"We started..." Jemma added.
"Taking a break," "Doing the other thing," they told him.
"Sure, sounds good," Coulson dismissed, more interested in his book. "Wheels down in twenty." He updated them over his shoulder
They exhaled together when he left and Leo was grateful Coulson hadn't said anything to make the situation more embarrassing, but that was their leader, smooth as his well waxed car Lola.
"That was-" Leo said.
"Awkward," Jemma finished.
"Did you want to-" he started to say but she kissed him again and he stopped talking because his insides were doing acrobatics that would make a Zakadel jealous and he realized this was exactly what he wanted to be doing.
/-/-/
They were greeted by one of the villagers, a man named Zambuli, who would lead them to Shuria from the airport where they left the Bus.
"We are very glad that you are here to help," he told them with a slight Wakandian accent, smiling welcomingly as he shook each of their hands in turn. "We lost two hunters yesterday to those flesh eating fiends, they snatch them straight off their hover boards."
"Hunters?" Leo wondered in a hushed voice on Jemma's left as Zambuli conversed with Coulson.
"The people here have kept the traditional hunting and gathering traditions, despite all their technological advances," Skye explained quietly. "It's a huge source of conflict between the older generation and the younger one, who would rather let go of the old ways. Or at least that's what I got from what the younger Wakandians are tweeting... and from chatrooms. I've learned some pretty sweet code from a few Wakandian friends I made online and a lot of them said they wanted their parents off their backs about not believing in Bast."
"Bast?" Trip asked, joining their conversation.
"The panther goddess," Jemma explained, because she knew this one. "The primary deity of Wakanda."
They gathered into the truck, Jemma pausing to take a look around, Leo doing the same beside her. While she deciphered the species of trees by the foliage, she knew he was searching the branches for monkeys.
A few security drones, zooming above their heads around the airport, caught their attention momentarily before May called them into the truck.
"There are many more of those to see in Shuria," Zambuli assured them, amused as they slowly climbed in, eyes on the drones.
The route they took brought them through part of the Wakandian wilderness and as they bumped along the road Leo spotted a pair of vervet monkeys hanging from one of the nearby trees and bounced a little in his seat, chattering on about them as he beamed at her and pointing to be sure she saw them.
She smiled warmly at him, delighted at the way his smile stretched across his face and his eyes shone excitedly, before she looked back out the window, taking his hand as subtly as she could and stroking it lovingly with the bottom of her thumb.
The small laser in her pocket was pushed into her side by the door of the truck as they hit a sharp turn and she remembered his insistence that she pack it. She was glad he'd let go of that paranoia for the moment to enjoy the beautiful country.
They had new species of flora and fauna to see, giant mutant plants brimming with tantalizing new chemical compounds to discover and a country filled with new and exciting technology to explore. It was going to be a great trip, provided no one else was eaten, which Jemma was sure was not going to happen.
/-/-/
Thank you for all the likes, reviews, follows and reads! You guys are mutantly awesome!
The Fringe reference is the book Land of Laughs. Peter's sketchy book friend tries to rip someone off by paying less than he should for a first edition to add to his shop, but Peter intervenes (much to his friends annoyance).
The Zakadels are from notapepper's story Oh to be Young and a huge thank you to them for all the great information they have given me on these guys! And for making them up in the first place :)
So, if you are reading one of my stories for the first time, Skye has super powers in this universe. Telekinisis which, at this point, she is still trying to figure out how to work.
Most of the stuff on Wakanda is based on wikipedia and the marvel comic database.