Peter and Johnny stood back and looked at the finished product. They hadn't tested it yet and they had tweaked the plans a little but they both were fairly confident they had a working filtered water station. Davis and Wyatt were getting ready to turn it on. They had a test kit that would allow them to sample the water and make sure everything bad was being filtered out. Peter let out the breath he had unconsciously been holding as water flowed from the spigot. It would take an hour or so for the analysis to come back. They were using Wakandan tech that Peter had to admit was actually better than what he and Tony could have come up with on their own. Having unlimited access to vibranium helped tremendously but Shuri was in herself amazing. He knew his dad was planning to spend a decent amount of time with Shuri while he was there. Peter had to keep pushing back the insecurity that kept trying to surface when he thought about the idea of his dad spending time in a lab with someone other than him. He knew it was ridiculous but nevertheless it was still there. He forced it back again and looked over at Johnny. "I think the changes actually worked better than the original blueprints. We'll need to update the plans that go out with other teams." They had made the change due to some terrain issues but the end result had actually been more efficient than the original.
Johnny nodded. "Wyatt and I will test run it again next week when Sue, Reed, and Ben get here." They were effectively making up team two. The village they were going to was a little more remote and perfect for Ben. He could work out in the open without the fear of discovery from a world that wasn't quite ready to deal with rock-like creatures. "Have you heard anything else from T'Challa?"
Peter shook his head. "Just that they should have all the intel they need today sometime and we can go in tonight." If the water test came back good then their work here was done. They'd all head back to the capital city and then the boys would head out tonight with the Wakanda team to deal with the warlord.
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Wyatt tightened the gauntlet around his wrist as he looked down at the map displayed in front of him. He glanced over at Nakia who was standing opposite of him. "Do you think they know we're coming?"
"They move around daily, never spending more than one night in any given location. This makes them overly confident that they cannot be found so I do not think so." She glanced around the room. "But even if they are, we have more than enough support." She looked back to Wyatt. "You are confident that you will be able to find their location?"
Wyatt nodded. Tracking was something he had always been good at. It was the one "old way" that didn't bother him - mainly because there really wasn't any kind of technology that could surpass it. Scanners could only take you so far. He looked around the room. The plan was fairly simple. Their team would track and when they found the encampment, the rest would come in for support.
Nakia's people had been able to get the general vicinity out of the group of men Peter had captured a couple days ago but they had not been able to locate the encampment in real time. They were always a day or two behind. So that's where they would start. The five of them could move much faster than an entire encampment. Wyatt was confident that they could follow their trail and overtake them within 24 hours. He looked over at Peter as he joined them.
"You're on point. Spidey sense isn't really going to help." Peter looked down at the map before meeting Wyatt's eyes. It wasn't a large distance they were going to have to cover but the terrain was going to be challenging. It was an area full of caves which is why they hadn't been able to pick anything up on scanners.
Wyatt laughed. "I'll take care of tracking them, you just watch out for the things that can eat us."
Peter smirked in response. "Deal."
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Bobby and Davis looked at Wyatt skeptically as he studied seemingly nothing on the ground. They had watched him for the last couple hours lead them through winding passages that Wyatt had generously called trails. They still couldn't figure out exactly what he was following. But it never failed that when one of them was about to ask if he was sure they were on the right path they all spotted a sign that the larger camp had come through previously.
Peter and Johnny trudged among dutifully, never questioning Wyatt's lead. Johnny had seen him trail something before and Peter had complete faith in Wyatt's abilities. Johnny glanced back at Peter as he ascended a steep ridge behind him. "You said the Avengers had taken down one of these warlords before?"
Peter took a sip of water while Wyatt studied a shadow on the ground. He could see what Wyatt was looking at, he just didn't know what it meant. "The mission went off fine. They were no match for us. I just wasn't prepared what what we walked into." He knew Johnny would expect him to explain the statement. "Most of these warlords are also in the business of human trafficking." He took another sip of water. "Dad realized on the way back that he probably should have given me a heads up, but I not sure he knew what we were walking into either. I think we all thought it was just alien tech enhanced weapons." He looked over at Johnny as Davis and Bobby topped the ridge behind them. "It wasn't. We walked into a one room building that had about 50 women and young girls in it. Horrible conditions and they had not been treated well."
Davis clapped Peter on the shoulder before twisting the top off of his own canteen. "Even more of a reason to take them down." He had watched how his father, and by extension his father's men had treated people over the years and he was intimately familiar with the idea that true monsters exist and that you can't always tell by the way they look on the outside. The worst monsters by far looked very much human because that's what they were.
Wyatt stood up and looked back at the team. "We're close. Maybe a couple miles further up." He glanced up at the setting sun. He was losing the ability to see the faint shadows cast by hoof prints and footprints and he didn't want to risk using a flashlight at night. But, from the map of this area there were very few places they could get to from this point and he had a fairly good idea where they went.
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Under the cover of darkness, the five boys studied the encampment below them. Wyatt had taken them up and around so they could see their targets from above. He camp was backed up against a mountain riddled with caves that more than likely connected to other caves. Cutting off an escape route would have to be their first objective.
Wyatt glanced over at Peter who had a Wakandan scanner in his had, mapping the area below them. He was marking targets that were being transmitted back to Wakanda and to the team that was being deployed.
Closing his hand around the device and securing it back in his pocket, the Iron Spider suit formed around him. Leaving the mask off for now, he glanced around at his team. "Here's the plan..."
