Thirteen - Battle Wakanda
"Long live the king!"
A Dora guard knocked at Kalyna's chamber door where the princess had locked herself away. She needed to think, but couldn't focus on what to do.
She had gone and retrieved her suit necklace from the lab. Now that she had it, she had to come up with a plan of action - what ever that might be.
"Princess. The king has requested that you join him at the lab and that I escort you."
"Very well. Thank you."
When they arrived she found the rest of the Dora as well as much of the Border Tribe surrounding the lab, jets taking off and tech being brought out.
"Hey Princess." Erik approached. He was still shirtless - and had been since the challenge - but wore a long coat. She noticed something right away - the big, flashy necklace around his neck.
"The Golden Jaguar."
"Heard you like this one." He flashed her that signature gold-toothed grin and winked. "Come and witness the future."
Of course while T'Challa would go with the more subtle, smaller necklace, Erik would go with the flashiest one.
He strode over to one of the weapon's cases. "Damn - see, a hand-held spear strong enough to stop a tank, and we've got hundreds of 'em." He watched the departing planes with pride. "Ah, the beginnings of our empire. Oh yeah, the world's gonna find out exactly who we are-"
CRASH! Suddenly, one of the planes went down in the courtyard without warning, striking the open field and bursting into flames. Erik, Kalyna, the Border Tribe, and the Dora took off running to see what had happened. With a flash of purple a figure emerged from behind the fallen plane and began approaching them.
Kalyna squinted to try and better see the figure. Her eyes shot open. Wait, she would recognize that ridiculous suit anywhere.
She felt as though the air had been knocked from her. "T'Challa, T'Challa - T'CHALLA!" But, it couldn't be, he was dead, she saw him die.
"KALYNA!"
But there he was, approaching them. She realized she had seen him fall, but hadn't seen what had happened after. He wasn't dead after all!
"My King!" She was now beaming, tears streaming down her face.
"My Queen!"
She laughed in disbelief.
T'Challa strode forward, arms outstretched. "N'Jadaka!"
Erik just smirked. "Wassup?!"
"I never yielded! And as you can see, I am not dead!" Even T'Challa seemed surprised at this.
"He lives," gasped Okoye.
"All that challenge shit is over with. I'm King now!" Erik turned to W'Kabi who stood to his left. "Hey W'Kabi, get rid of this clown. And y'all get those planes in the air!" With that, the transports resumed. W'Kabi turned to face T'Challa.
"W'Kabi!" cried Okoye. "The challenge is not complete!"
But W'Kabi raised his sword and gave a great yell, and with that the Border Tribe charged on T'Challa.
"Ayo, to the king!" Okoye turned to Erik and raised her spear. "You are filled with so much hatred you are not fit to be King! Now move, or you will be moved."
"Hey you two-" Erik stopped a couple of Border Tribe warriors before they too charged. "Get the queen outta here. Take her inside."
Before Kalyna knew it they had taken her by the arms and were leading her inside the lab. She pumped her fist into the air. "Long live the king!" she yelled as they dragged her away and as Erik faced the Dora, the suit replacing his coat.
"Unhand me!" She squirmed and struggled, but they held on. When that didn't work she ignited her arms and finally, this caused them to let go. They were inside the lab now, and she slammed them into the wall.
"Kalyna?"
She spun around to see three cloaked figures. "Shuri?"
"Kalyna!" Shuri threw off her disguise and pulled her friend into a crushing hug. "Oh thank Bast! I was so worried about you!"
"I was worried about you too! Oh, Nakia!" Kalyna hugged her too. Then she recognized Agent Ross as the third figure. "Ross!" She hugged him too. This surprised him - evidently he'd never been hugged by a monarch before. "Wait, where's your mother?"
"She's safe, don't worry. Are you alright?"
"Yes, you?"
"Yes. T'Challa-"
"He's alive!"
"Yes!"
"How?"
Shuri was just opening her mouth to explain when there was a rumble and crash from outside, reminding them of the raging battle.
"No time to explain! Come on!" Shuri in the lead, they all rushed into the lab. She nodded to Kalyna's necklace. "I see you're already thinking ahead. Here, take this-" She placed a communication device behind Kalyna's ear. "Now go, we'll catch up. Show them the wrath of the Firebird!"
"See you out there."
"Good luck, Kalyna!" Nakia called.
"You too!"
Moments later she was back out in the open courtyard, which had become a full-on battlefield. Time to suit up. Time to become the Firebird.
She pressed one of the beads on her bracelet. There was a flash, and her dress fell away to reveal her new and improved Firebird suit, courtesy of Shuri. And new and improved it was.
It was made of red leather and vibranium. Despite being heavily armoured it was not stiff and was instead lightweight. It was complete with gauntlets, finger-less gloves, knee, shin, and shoulder pads, and a high neck. The chest-plate had a bird with its wings outstretched etched into it, complete with gold and bronze detailing.
She hadn't seen the completed product before now and took a moment to admire it with a grin. "Now that's what I call an upgrade!"
With that, all ready, she charged into battle, casting flames across the field.
"Nice suit," T'Challa commented over the radio.
She smiled. "You too."
There was a sudden blast as Erik used the kinetic energy from his suit to disarm the Dora, sending them crashing into the open field.
"WAKANDA FOREVER!"
"YES!" Kalyna cheered as Nakia and Shuri charged at him, all suited up themselves. They fought strong, and managed to partially disarm him, until he used the kinetic energy to blast them away as well.
Now was Kalyna's turn to charge. "KILLMONGER!"
An evil grin split across his face as he pointed his blade towards her and charged. "Let's go, Princess!"
They met in the middle, throwing punches and kicks.
"Outta my way, Princess."
"No, you get out of the way." She swung at him again and he swiftly blocked it.
She separated them with a wall of flames. They paced back and forth, eyeing each other through the heatwaves.
"Too bad - I was starting to think we'd make a pretty bad-ass couple."
"In your dreams! I gave you my word, and you gave me yours but you backed down from it! A true king keeps to his word."
"Yeah well you know what? I lied! How do you think I got this far? By lying, cheating, killing. And I don't care about Sokovia. Why d'ya think I took out the king and queen?"
Time stopped. "What?"
"Yeah, that's right. I got your folks. I told you I've been preparing my whole life for this - I knew it would weaken Wakanda if I took out the leaders of its ally. I could show you the scars for them, one for your mom, one for your dad, just like the bullets that killed 'em: two shots, one bullet each."
Everything felt fuzzy, she herself felt sick. However, this quickly boiled into rage.
She barely heard Shuri yelling, "Kalyna, no! The kinetic energy-"
But her warning came too late. That, and nothing could have stopped Kalyna as she charged forward - yelling, screaming, flames engulfing her - and lunged at Erik.
There was a mixed flash of orange and gold as the flames and kinetic energy met. A blast like thunder shook the whole courtyard - everyone in the battle felt it. The shock-wave it created shattered the front window of the lab.
Both were blown back, but Erik barely compared to her.
"KALYNA!" T'Challa saw the whole thing and raced forward, diving out and just managing to catch her limp body from striking the ground with the force of a blow that would have likely killed her instantly.
He just caught her, rolling, hoping the shields on his suit would provide her with some protection. Once the dizziness had passed, he looked down at her.
Her mask was gone, her whole body hazy with smoke. The air smelled sour, likely her burnt suit which was torn, cracked, broken, singed. Even her hair was charred and her face burnt.
"Kalyna?" He removed his own mask, the battle around him fading away, and reached out to touch her face. She didn't move. She was unconscious, and in critical condition.
"T'Challa!" Nakia was rushing over. "Oh, no!"
"She is alive, but barely. We need to get her away from the fight." T'Challa was now seething with anger.
"You go, I will tend to her," Nakia promised.
T'Challa was obviously torn, but she nodded encouragingly. He grasped her hand quickly but tightly in thanks, before rising to face his cousin.
Shuri was just as upset, and had lashed out at Erik herself. He had disabled her gauntlets and was now approaching her with a blade.
"Shuri! No!" Moments later, T'Challa struck Erik, sending them both plunging down the mine shaft of the lab. Blue, electric-looking vibranium flashed and glowed around them as they fell.
He just caught Shuri's cry of, "Brother!" echoing down the mine shaft.
Character growth, she likes his suit ;)
Whew, so a lot happened in that chapter! I hope you enjoyed - one more chapter left! Thank you so much for reading! :)