Things no doubt remained tense, but with Bucky now with us it helped even things a little more (I hadn't felt the need to lasso him to prove his honesty to everyone else). The Kirby remained on station; as did the Chinese strike force. For now it remained a standoff. Ordinarily Beijing would have called this off, but Mandarin was really running this show even though he was but a mere "operative". He hadn't made any more moronic announcements, which did seem odd given his MO to date. Nonetheless, there was always a madness methodology there to some extent. Mandarin was good...but he wasn't brother when it came to conflict; no one was.
"What's up hon?" said Peter as I stood alone in the Wakandan situation room, looking over monitors. The staffing was minimal at present. I gave a small head shake to his question. "Nothing. I'm just trying to anticipate his next move." "From what I hear of your brother you should be able to do that quite well," said Bucky joining us. I nodded. "Yes; but Mandarin is his own Sun Tzu; or at least prides himself on being such. It does add a little challenge still." "I wish I could help you more with finding him..." "Your debrief was solid," I told him. "We'll stop this..." "It sounds like only you two can with your power levels being what they are." "The Marvel reality is full of comparable superheroes." Bucky frowned at that. "Marvel?" I chuckled. "Never mind."
King T'challa joined us; we bowed to him. He eyed Bucky curiously; he was still getting used to seeing him here; it was definitely understandable. The king's eyes then traveled over to me. "Wonder woman, our standoff continues..." "Yes my king. Mandarin is hardly done with Wakanda." I could see the king remained tempted to go on offense. With Shield more directly present in the fray that could likely happen, but then there was still world war escalation potential. "What do you suggest?" I looked at the monitors/sighed. "If we get a location on him Peter and I will engage him directly." "Very well. There have been no more bombings by the Sobek followers; but that could easily change." "Yes highness. Regional cells are still a major concern as well. They likely have been activated from dormancy and are just awaiting strike orders." "We remain on the highest of alert. But I would like to see it resolved soon. Wakanda is a peace loving nation. I want us to get back to peaceful activity with our global neighbors." "Yes highness; I more than understand. This tension/disruption is what Mandarin wants. He thrives on the chaos. It's his key to engineering the global communist state that he seeks to create. We must remain firm." "Agreed. Please continue taking charge of this and apprise me of anything you need." "Yes sire."
I turned to Bucky. "Want to tag along?" "Sure; I'll need a fighter though. I'm not into Stark suits." "Totally cool." Peter said, "Honey, where are we going to go?" I looked at the monitors. "China." That shocked them both. "Why China?" said Bucky. My eyes narrowed at his question. "Mandarin is a demon now; he draws power from where his demon pantheon is rooted strongest - mainland China. That's what gives him his power over all of this; it helps him to amplify and channel it."
Peter frowned. "So let me get this straight - we're going to take on Mandarin where he's strongest...?" I nodded/lopsided grinned. "Precisely honey." "Isn't that...crazy?" "Maybe; but we're going for his throat now." Bucky said, "Somehow I don't think Stark suits will be enough to handle this." "It won't; but we're not always in our suit roles either. For us it's mostly a symbolic act anyway. In the end we're always still Spider Man and Wonder Woman; Olympians." Bucky scoffed. "And I'm the hundred year old sidekick." "No brother; you're our brother in arms," I said. He nodded once at that; quite okay with that view. "Let's go team," I said and led on. This China was not the Chinas I'd known in other realities but it was still very similar. I'd know how to culturally navigate it well enough when we got there. As for Mandarin, he wouldn't see this coming until it was too late. That's what I hoped for.
