The doors of the plane opened and Peter had to brace himself against the blast of air that came rushing through. Fortunately, his mask kept his face from being blown askew like a dog sticking its head out the window. They were getting ready to parachute down into what SHIELD assumed was the general vicinity of Wakanda. Even with his relative fearlessness concerning heights, the scene was rather daunting. He shook himself, looking away from the door; it was just like web-parachuting from a skyscraper. Except like one thousand times higher. But still.
They had partnered up for the parachute down. Bruce was strapped with Steve and looking slightly green; Peter hoped that was from the height and not…something else. Clint and Natasha strapped on the parachute with such efficiency it made Peter wonder just how often their missions required them to jump from heights together. Peter, in turn, was being fastened to Tony, who had on his Iron Man suit. Bruce had said that flying with Tony on the suit would put less strain on the stitches than parachuting would. Peter was almost positively sure that the wound was nearly healed and wouldn't cause him any trouble, but he went along with Bruce's suggestion anyway. Hey, he got to ride on the Iron Man suit - who was he to complain?
He latched the final buckle, his back now strapped to the front of the Iron Man suit.
Captain America yelled out to the group.
"Everyone ready?"
They all gave him a thumbs up.
The Captain looked back at the pilot who motioned that it was time to jump.
"All right, let's do this!"
Clint and Natasha jumped off first with practiced skill and grace, quickly falling and becoming smaller and smaller in the distance. The Captain and Bruce jumped next, Bruce's eyes shut tight, the Captain jumping with the resolve of a soldier. They too disappeared quickly, both parachutes opening at about the same time.
Iron man stood at the edge of the doors.
"Here we go!"
He jumped off the edge, but instead of just falling down, they blasted down, Tony firing the repulsors as they cut through the air.
Peter couldn't help but shout as they quickly approached the Captain and Bruce, wind pushing past his face and catching his breath.
"WHOOOO!"
They slowed slightly as they passed the rest of the team, looping around in the air until the others landed.
As Clint and Natasha approached the ground, Peter and Tony landed next to them, Bruce and Steve touching down a few yards away. Natasha unstrapped herself from Clint and as he began to roll up the parachute, she pulled out a GPS locator.
The straps around Peter retracted into the Iron Man suit and he stepped forward before looking back at Tony, who had lifted up his face plate.
"That...was awesome!"
Tony smiled knowingly, about to reply when Bruce and Steve caught up to the group, Bruce looking pretty shaken.
"I am never doing that again."
Tony laughed. "Aw, come on, Bruce! You can't tell me that not even a small part of you enjoyed falling from twelve thousand feet."
"Especially not the small part," Bruce groaned.
Tony shook his head at this, him and Captain America walking over towards the Black Widow to consult the locator and decide which direction to begin walking. Some foliage seemed to catch Bruce's eye and he walked over to look at it, taking his glasses out of his pocket and putting them on for closer inspection. Peter, deciding that whatever Brue was looking at would be more interesting than looking at their directions, walked over to stand next to him.
"Find something interesting already?"
Bruce indicated the leaf he held in his hand.
"It's very minor. I only noticed because I was looking for any signs of radiation in the area. But the leaves have a slight bluish hue. "
Peter leaned closer to the leaf and saw that the tiny veins in the leaf did indeed look more blue than green.
"You think that it's some kind of strange African plant?"
Bruce shook his head, letting go of the leaf. "I'm more inclined to think of it as the result of radiation. However, there's only one kind that I know of to have this kind of effect on vegetation, Galván radiation. It is extremely rare, which might be why SHIELD couldn't identify it, but also generally harmless. It really shouldn't be any cause for concern…"
Bruce took off his glasses and put them on his head, rubbing his eyes with his hand.
"…Unless it's combined with a select few other radiations, but even then…" Bruce sighed.
Peter looked at him.
"You feeling okay, Bruce?"
Bruce put the glasses back on and gave him a weak smile.
"I've just been having trouble…concentrating, lately."
Peter narrowed his eyes, concerned about what - or more worryingly, who - was making it difficult for Bruce to concentrate.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud cry and a spear striking the shield of Captain America.
Suddenly, they were under attack.
…
Bruce blinked as their mission became way more exciting than he had anticipated it would be. They were suddenly surrounded by a group of hostile natives all charging at them. At the first sign of trouble, Clint had jumped into a tree branch, pulled out his bow, and begun firing arrows to ward off attackers in a matter of seconds. Natasha was engaged with three in hand to hand combat, but for the first time in his life, Bruce saw that she was struggling to maintain the upper hand.
Tony shot into the air to try to take on their attackers from above. Cap had thrown his shield to take out as many of the attackers as possible, only to be surprised when one of them caught it straight out of the air. He was now throwing punches, but the warriors' training appeared to rival that of the Widow and Hawkeye's and the punches seemed to be hitting nothing but air.
Peter and Bruce were slightly separated from the skirmish, for which Bruce was grateful. He had almost zero fighting ability, because, honestly, anytime that he did get into a fight, it was him that was fighting for long. Now was not a good time for the Other Guy to make an appearance, especially since in the past couple of days he had been more and more anxious to do just that.
Bruce looked around; the people the Avengers were fighting looked to be indigenous - very possibly the Wakandans that they were trying to help. He tried to think of some way to prevent everyone from killing each other before they could even offer assistance, though at this point it didn't look like the warriors would be very receptive to the Avenger's help. Peter looked like he was getting ready to jump into the action, when a previously hidden warrior jumped out of his cover and struck Peter behind the head. The attacker was smaller than the rest, perhaps just a boy, but also amply quick. As Peter turned, raising his hands in defense, the small warrior struck a blow at Peter's unprotected rib cage and side. Brue realized with panic that it was Peter's wounded side as Peter immediately clutched it, bending over in pain.
The attacker drew back his arm, readying for a knockout blow, when Bruce, not thinking that it wouldn't do much good, shouted, "Stop!"
The warrior, surprised at the outburst, smoothly shifted his body and directed the blow to Bruce instead, hitting him squarely in the jaw.
Bruce crumpled to the ground, not because the blow had been that devastating, but because suddenly, holding back the Hulk was the only thing he could focus on. His vision became tinted green and the anger was overwhelming. He curled on the ground, clutching his head. He was barely holding down the Hulk and any further distraction or provocation would unleash him.
"Wait!" Tony shouted. The Avengers stopped fighting, and the warriors cautiously surrounded, still braced for battle but not fighting.
The Iron Man suit shook to the ground as he landed near Bruce.
"Kukaa nyuma au mimi kumuua!" The warrior shouted at Tony in a foreign language, making a show of shoving his spear close to Bruce's neck.
Tony raised his hands in surrender, not understanding the words, but getting the message.
"Shuri, kusimama chini." The man who had caught Captain America's shield walked forward into view, all the other warriors looked to him as he spoke, his authority obvious.
The small warrior answered defensively.
"Mtu huyu ni Hulk na ni tishio kwa mji wetu."
Tony, recognizing the word 'Hulk', interjected.
"Look, guys, he's only going to Hulk out if you keep hitting him like that."
The leader met the small warrior's gaze until he finally took his spear away from Bruce; however, he still stood guardedly next to him. Then the leader finally looked to the Avengers.
"My name is T'Challa, commander of the Wakandan guard. For what reason do you trespass into our land?"
The group was slightly taken aback by his fluent English. Captain America spoke.
"We're the Avengers. It was made known to us that your country was in distress, and we're here to help you in any way possible."
T'Challa seemed to consider this for a moment.
"We will allow you to live, and will take you to the city. However, you must come peacefully, and unarmed."
The Captain stood tall and looked the commander in the eye.
"We agree."
"Remove their weapons." T'Challa ordered. He then walked over to the warrior near Bruce and spoke to him in hushed tones. Peter stood to the side, mostly recovered from the blow, though he kept a protective hand on his side, and watched over Bruce who was still desperately clutching his head.
The warriors moved in to follow their orders.
"Whoa, whoa! We're not just going to give them our weapons-" Hawkeye protested, the Black Widow still armed in a wary stance.
"It's fine, guys." The Captain handed his only side arm to the warrior next to him. "We're on a peaceful mission here, remember?"
Hawkeye mumbled a retort before jumping off his branch and handing off his bow and quiver.
"Do not scratch that." He threatened lowly to the man who now held his bow.
The Black Widow had begun stripping herself of her arsenal, pulling off so many guns, ammo packages, and knives, that it took two people to hold it all.
Peter gave them his web-shooters, the only form of weapon that he had.
"You too, Tony," the Captain said pointedly as he walked over and knelt beside Bruce, Tony smirking over at Hawkeye.
"What! Me? You can't possibly expect- this isn't even a weapon!"
The Captain leveled his gaze.
"Fine." Tony pressed a button and the suit began disassembling and folded into a suitcase. A warrior came over and picked it up.
"Be careful with that, it might explode." Tony said casually before walking over to help Cap lift Bruce up, throwing his arms over both of their shoulders. He was still really tense, obviously having trouble fighting the Hulk, for whatever reason.
The Avengers started walking, following T'Challa to the city, surrounded by Wakandans on all sides.
"You got this Bruce. Just tell the Big Guy that now's not a good time for a visit."