No matter how often Okoye came to New York, she would never fully understand their ways. In Wakanda, the air didn't carry the stench of hubris and unbridled smog. The people did not walk with their heads stitched to their cell phones, and their minds focused on how big their cheeseburger was going to be.
Okoye did not want to be here, traversing through a jungle of broke sidewalk, and decaying architecture. Still, she had been called upon to serve her king and country, and it is the duty of all Dora Milaje to to heed it. Even if it meant something as trivial as an undercover investigation to New York City.
"But it is more than just an investigation," King T'challa informed her. "This is a matter of Wakandan security." T'challa had not been king for very long, and the whole country was still mourning the loss of King Azari, however, a nation must not dwell on the past.
When T'challa summoned Okoye to the throne room, she knew that her mission, whatever it was, would need to take priority over her personal issues with the outside world. And truth be told, she did not like outsiders.
"What is it your highness?" she asked with a deep kneel.
T'challa sat on his throne, his palms folded over the armrests, and a scowl sitting upon his face like an unearned crown. "Wakanda has been infiltrated."
Okoye's head snapped to face T'challa's "That is impossible," she said, a sharp edge to her voice, and the sound of fear echoing in it, "No one has ever breached Wakanda's borders without our allowance."
T'challa nodded, "That is true, however no Wakandan king has ever lost his life on foreign soil. With the passing of King Azari we have learned that there is a first time for all things,"
Okoye nodded, "What is your will my king?"
"Going over our records, it would seem that traces of our Vibranium have gone missing. Clearly there is a connection between the two."
So an outsider not only managed to intrude upon Wakanda's borders, but also make off with amounts of Wakanda's treasured vibranium?
"Our sources have found a correlation between the missing Vibranium, the breach in our systems, and a strange energy signature that was present at the time the Vibranium disappeared."
Of course, even if this outsider managed to come into Wakanda, their still would be no way he, or she, would have made it out without someone catching wind of it.
"However," T'challa said, "We still do not have any kind of facial or genetic evidence to link whoever did this to the crime. In short, all we have is this strange energy signature, and nothing else."
No facial recognition? No DNA at the crime scene? Just a strange energy signature? If that were the case, then Wakanda and was essentially looking for a ghost.
"Okoye," T'challa stood, "As leader of the Dora Milaje, it is up to you to follow this signature, and retrieve Wakanda's Vibranium. I want to know who managed to breach out borders and how."
Okoye bowed her head and nodded, "Understood my king."
"But it must be done quietly. We do not need to advertise to the world Wakanda's breach of security. The country is already reeling from the loss of its king, we need not add to its woes."
To aid her, King T'challa had given a specially designed tracker that located the strange energy. It was patched through the Wakandan satellite, which meant that no matter where that energy signature showed up, Okoye would be able to locate it.
"Thank you my king," Okoye said, "I shall depart immediately."
What was the phrase that New Yorkers had? Oh yes.
"This place sucks."
And it did. Okoye had been on the trail of this energy anomaly for days now. The only thing she had going for her, was that the anomaly (whatever it was) seemed to be located somewhere in Harlem. But even that wasn't set in stone. Some days, it'd be located in Idaho. Others it would appear in Alaska. There was no rhyme or reason behind them, they just showed up randomly. She wasn't any closer to finding who, or what, had stolen Wakanda's Vibranium, and no matter how many low life thugs she tailed, or how many undercover HYDRA agents she shook down, she still couldn't locate any clues that lead her to the Vibranium.
Until the sky lit up one day.
Okoye was walking through the New York alleyway, trying to find another lead, when the sky above Harlem poured light from above like a rain storm. Lennox and Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard was awash in reds and greens and yellows. And Okoye knew that could only mean one thing, an Asgardian was making their arrival.
Wakandans always wondered what it was about New York that attracted so many from so far. Norse gods, aliens, sorcerers. And not only that, Okoye's mystery thief seemed to make their home in this city as well. Perhaps there was a connection?
She ran through the crowds of New York, past the men who tried to call out to her, past the overcrowded busses, and children who straddled home with too full bookbags. And with the speed that only a Dora Milaje could possess, she found herself smack in the middle of a crowded street overlooking the drama unfolding.
An Asgardian woman stood strong and undaunted, and standing in front, stood another woman, her hair frizzled and unkempt. She looked as though she had been through a battle. And finally a woman whose hair defied gravity itself, pointed her pistol and glared.
"My name is Detective Mercedes Knight," she said, "And I'm going to have to ask you ladies to come with me."
From Wakanda's records, Okoye was familiar with...most of the women in this scene. Mercedes was a detective working in Harlem, the woman next to her, Claire Temple, was a nurse who was currently setting up a clinic. And finally, the tall beauty who stood in the shadows with her arms folded, was none other than Ororo Munroe.
A member of the X men, a woman who could control the very sky, and a person who had caught the eye of Wakanda's current king. And that alone was impressive. But Okoye did not recognize the one called Uhura, and their wasn't anything about her in the Wakandan database, which managed to have information on every aspect of the world, from the lineage of Ancient Ones in Tibet to the members of every HYDRA agents both retired and currently active. So, if there was nothing on this Uhura woman, than that meant she didn't exist.
And yet her she was. Strange. Almost as strange as the band of women who now stood before Okoye. A detective who knew the rounds of Harlem, a nurse who had patched up more advanced humans than anyone else, a woman who could control the weather, an Asgardian warrior, and finally a woman who did not exist. And now, here stood Okoye, leader of the Dora Milaje, looking for a thief who had stolen part of her country's greatest treasure. Could all of this mean something?
In Wakanda, they are taught that there is no such thing as consequences. All is arranged towards some grand design that can only be understood upon completion. Perhaps there was something more going on here.
"Perhaps," Okoye said, "I should keep my eye on them."