"I assume that your team was briefed on Wakanda's situation by SHIELD?" T'Challa asked the group as both Peter and Bruce finally sat down.
"We were briefed on a situation in Wakanda, SHIELD didn't know the specifics. Your shields block even them out."
T'Challa nodded, taking this in.
"We have increased shielding to maximum capacity, to ward off any threats in our vulnerability."
He sighed, shaking his head.
"It began six days ago. Patrol groups 1 and 12 were out along the country's borders and, having finished our three day round of patrol, were waiting for groups 3 and 5 to meet us at the checkpoints to relieve us and begin their patrol. However, they never showed, and my radio calls were met with silence. I led Patrol 1 into the city and left 12 to begin another round.
"Upon entering the city, we were met with mass panic - an epidemic had swept through the city, leaving more than half the population bedridden, there had already been hundreds of casualties and our physicians had no cure or treatment; they had not even found the source of the epidemic. We issued a city-wide quarantine, hoping to avoid further spread of whatever this illness was.
"Our patrol then rushed to the capital. There were only a few select members of the facility who were still on their feet, and most were soon falling ill. Including the king."
T'Challa cleared his throat, the reason for the king's illness finally explained, and the seriousness of the situation further pressed upon them.
"The next few days, our remaining researchers kept working on a cure and our people kept dying. We soon found that the illness had never been contagious; our water supply had been poisoned with radiation which had affected any who ingested the water. The only people left unscathed were our two patrols, who never had contact with the poisoned water. At that point, we realized that this was an attack on Wakanda. We increased shielding, and would have increased patrol, had it been possible, however, the entirety of the defense squadron that hadn't been on patrol was taken by the illness.
"Patrols 1 and 12 have been switching patrols one day on and one off shifts, protecting the borders and attacking any unknown forces until a cure can be found. However, my troops are growing weary; they are spread thin, only having minimal rest the past five days. And our researchers, the few who can still stand, are unable to find a cure to the poisoning.
"Our city will not be able to continue much longer if we cannot stop the way things are going right now."
Bruce cleared his throat, surprising everyone in the doleful silence.
"I...uh, I may have an idea as to what you're dealing with here. Based on some vegetation I observed along your borders, I think the water supply may have been contaminated with a form of Galván radiation; which is normally very benign, but if it had somehow reacted with another active radiation it could possibly-"
T'Challa stopped him. "You are familiar with this form of radiation?"
Bruce paused, gathering his thoughts after being interrupted.
"Not...totally, but I'm an expert in radiation and I've worked with it once-"
T'Challa looked at Bruce, his gaze as hopeful as they had ever seen it.
"Will you go to the labs and consult with our researchers; help them find a cure?"
"Yes, of course. I mean, I'll try."
The was the barest hint of a smile on T'Challa's face.
"Excellent. Shuri will again lead you there. Thank you, Dr. Banner."
"Not at all, that's what I'm here for."
Bruce stood up abruptly after a pause, realizing that he was expected to go now, and followed Shuri out of the room.
The Captain spoke up.
"The rest of us would be willing to work with your security detail, T'Challa. Wherever you need us; we're here to help."
T'Challa nodded.
"That would be very helpful, Captain. The patrolmen that we do have are spread thin because they are filling the roles of others who have taken ill. Hawkeye, the Widow, and yourself can join the patrols."
Tony looked up sharply at this.
"Hey, what am I, Aquaman? Give me my suit and I'll be able to run this whole patrol thing on my own."
"I am afraid that that is not possible, Mr. Stark."
Tony opened his mouth, ready to continue debating, but T'Challa put up his hand, continuing.
"My father has had your equipment locked in the treasury, with express orders for none of you to be given any weapons. I have already tried to reason with him, but he will not hear it. He does not trust outsiders and is very suspicious of you."
"But, with JARVIS I could so much more of a help to you."
"No matter the sense of the suggestion, the king's command cannot be overridden, except by the king himself."
Tony groaned, slouching down into his chair. Then, he brightened.
"Hey, you could let me take a look at your shields and defenses. I'm sure I could at least double the efficiency of whatever system you've got right now."
Tony looked expectantly at T'Challa, who had paused, considering the suggestion. In the pause, Tony suddenly realized how intrusive his request had been; T'Challa would be letting a near stranger look into the defense system of their entire country, which was invasive enough, but also to reprogram and mess with it at a time when they didn't know where the next attack was going to come from. To allow that, the Wakandans would have to show something that they didn't seem to have in ample supply: trust.
"You know what, that's okay, I'll just go-"
"Thank you, Mr. Stark. I will appreciate your assistance."
"Oh." Tony was taken aback. He had expected to be firmly shut down and warned off. Instead, his offer was embraced. "Well, great! When do we get started?"
"I will take you to system controls myself." T'Challa looked back at the rest of the group.
"Hawkeye, Black Widow; you will be assigned to Patrol 12. They are leaving from their round in-" he glanced at a clock on the wall. "-five minutes. Do you recall the way to the front courtyard?"
Natasha nodded, standing, with Hawkeye following suit. Being the super spies that they were, they both probably already had half the building mapped out in their heads.
Before turning to go out the door, Hawkeye looked back to T'Challa.
"So I'm guessing I won't be able to get my bow for this?"
T'Challa just shook his head.
Hawkeye sighed.
"Thought not."
Then he and the Black Widow quickly left the room, hurrying to catch up with their newly assigned patrol group.
T'Challa turned to Captain America.
"Captain, I will have you stationed with Patrol 1. During their off rotation, half the team is getting a few hours of rest while the other half of the team is delivering supplies throughout the city to the affected families. I will have you join that half today and you will go on patrol with them tomorrow."
Captain America nodded.
"Whatever you need, T'Challa."
T'Challa shoulders relaxed as if he had been tense for the duration of their meeting.
"Excellent, now if you all could follow me; Captain, I will show you to where the supplies are being coordinated, and Mr. Stark to the shield maintenance area."
…..
"...and the research lab will be right down the hall here. T'Challa has been seeing to the higher education of any citizens interested and sends them all across the world to the best universities to get the best education available, making our researchers some of the best in their field. T'Challa hopes to eventually start a university of our own here in Wakanda, once there are enough people here to teach at one."
Shuri stopped in front of the door to the lab and placed her hand on a scanning mat on the wall, which scanned her hand and unlocked the door.
"That's really quite impressive." Bruce acknowledged, amazed at the foresight of T'Challa, especially being as young as he was. He had to be in his early twenties at the most.
"That is what I told T'Challa when he first brought up the idea a couple years ago. Though our father was less than pleased with the idea of Wakandans interacting with foreigners."
Shuri sighed, leading Bruce into the lab.
"Here are the facilities, you are welcome to use whatever equipment or supplies that you need. Down there is Dr. Chana. He's been working on the cure and will be able to brief you on their progress so far."
She pointed the only other man in the room who was off at the other end looking into a microscope, leaning heavily on the table.
"Dr. Chana?" Shuri began walking towards the man, past lab counters with various sets of equipment, papers, and experiments scattered across them, Bruce following her close behind.
"Dr. Chana? This is Dr. Bruce Banner. He's an expert in radiation and has offered to help- Dr. Chana?"
As they got closer to the doctor, it became clear he was struggling to hold himself upright, his arms shaking with the effort. They soon gave out and he began to slump forward, Shuri catching him before he hit the ground.
"Dr. Chana, I thought you said that you had not been affected."
"I...held out...for as long as...I could."
His words came out in wheezes and it was clear that all his weight was being supported by Shuri.
Bruce bent to help Shuri with the doctor, sure that they needed to go and take him somewhere to lie down.
The doctor gesture for him to stop and pointed to the folder on the table.
"That folder...contains everything we have on the poisoning. Find...the cure...Banner, before... before..."
The doctor descended into a fit of coughing before he could finish and Shuri began to walk him out of the room, leaving Bruce alone in the lab.
He looked down at the table and picked up the disturbingly thinly filled folder. He opened the folder, revealing it held three sheets of paper; and as he read he fought back the increasing weight of responsibly as it became clearer and clearer that he may be their only hope.
…
T'Challa and Peter stood in the room, leaning against the wall, while Tony was on his back messing with wires underneath the console. There were computer screens lining it, showing various readouts and images from along the borders. A couple of the screens showed the current patrol, 12, running past and scouting the border. Peter even caught a glimpse of Hawkeye and the Black Widow through the various trees and foliage.
He looked to T'Challa who was also watching the screens.
"You have life sign readings and security cameras lining the borders, right?"
T'Challa nodded.
"Yes."
"So why the need for patrol teams? It's a little redundant, isn't it?"
T'Challa inclined his head.
"Perhaps. But also consider this; no matter how advanced our security is, how sophisticated the technology, there will always be someone or some organization that can beat it. Our patrols have no blind spots, no power outages, and cannot be hacked. Though our technology guards the city, we are that much safer because of the patrols."
Tony scooted out from under the console, shutting the panel closed as he did so.
"He's got a point there, Pete. I know that I would much rather come across an automated security protocol rather than trained guards. Way easier to get past; and a lot less work. One of the reasons I keep Happy and his team around the Stark Tower. But then again, you can never beat a good old fashioned automated shield protocol. Speaking of which..."
He stood up and pulled over a rolling chair, plunking down in front of a control screen and beginning to flip switches and pull up control readings.
"You guys do have a scanning system within your shield, right?"
T'Challa raised an eyebrow at Tony's somewhat chaotic method.
"Indeed."
"Well then, let's see how far we can get this baby to go."
…
Steve rode in the back of a jeep-like vehicle with the other patrolmen down the streets of Wakanda as they delivered various amounts of food, medicine, and other supplies to nearly every house they rode past.
The commander of the team, and the only one there who could speak English, told the Captain about what they were doing.
Though not many had ever happened before, when city wide epidemics or attacks occurred, it was tradition for the king to support the people until the crisis was over. This meant providing food, power, medicine, supplies, and anything else that the people needed. There was actually a team of volunteers that were usually the ones to help give out the supplies, but they had all taken ill with the poisoning. The two remaining squadrons had taken it upon themselves to fulfill those duties when they could.
Steve listen, impressed with the sense of community that these people seemed to have. It was heartening to see people helping their fellow man just because of the fact that he needed help.
The vehicle came to a stop at the end of a street and all it's occupants hopped out, grabbing a box or basket of supplies to be delivered at the appropriate house.
Steve grabbed the box nearest to him and walked to a nearby house that matched the address written on top.
He knocked on the door and stood waiting for it to open. He heard shuffling inside and house, and heavy coughs before the door was slowly opened by a small woman wrapped in a shawl. As she looked up, he was startled by the almost unnatural blue of her eyes. He cleared his throat, moving past the unsettling physical feature.
"Ma'am, these some supplies for your household."
He indicated the box he was carrying.
The woman stared at him in shock for a moment, looking as if she were about to slam the door. But she glanced past the Captain and saw the other soldiers delivering supplies and realization of what he was there for dawned on her face.
She opened the door wider for him and pointed to a table in another room.
"Tafadhali, kuweka zaidi ya hapo."
"Sure thing." He said, getting the message. He walked over and set the box on the table; the woman following behind him.
"Asante."
Steve nodded.
"You're welcome."
He turned to go but before he could, a boy walked into the room, rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken up, the sickly paleness of his face and unnatural blue of his eyes matching that of his mother's.
"Mama?"
He broke out into a fit of coughing before finally realizing that there was someone else in the room.
When his eyes lit on Steve a smile blossomed on his face.
"Captain America?!"
The Captain raised his eyebrows, surprised that the boy could identify him when it was clear that his mother didn't even speak English.
The boy looked over to his mother.
"Mama, wake Kapteni Kaskazini! Kutoka Avengers!"
The mother looked as though she were getting ready to shoo the little boy out of the room. But before she could, he ran over to the Captain and shook his hand, causing the Captain to chuckle at his enthusiasm.
"It is an...honor to...meet you Captain America. You are...amazing!" The boy spoke in broken English, struggling with some of words, but his excitement came through loud and clear, shining through on his face.
"Are you here to help fight bad guys that attacked us?"
The Captain sobered a bit at this, the realization hitting him that this family was suffering from the radiation poisoning and this little boy was in a very real danger of dying from it.
The Captain lowered himself so that he was eye level with the boy.
"What's your name, son?"
The boy smiled proudly.
"Paki, just like my dad!"
The Captain put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Paki, I'm going to do everything that I can to stop the bad guys."
…
Hawkeye muttered another curse as yet another branch managed to smack him in the face.
Natasha looked over at him a suppressed smile, silently laughing at his antics.
They were about five hours into the patrol and that was the fourth branch that had hit him.
Patrol 12, consisting of twenty people, was split into groups of five, each taking a quadrant of the border to patrol. The system of patrol that each quadrant used was two members keeping a stationary look out while the other three jogged the perimeter, each following different routes and all five changing roles periodically.
Clint and Natasha were jogging together for this stretch, Clint now grumbling, rubbing his bruised forehead and quickly ducking as another branch came into his path.
"The Amazon was easier to run through than this."
Natasha quirked an eyebrow at this.
"I seem to recall you falling on your face while we were running through the Amazon."
Clint scoffed.
"Okay, one - I tripped over that branch because there was a giant cobra hanging from a tree, as you well know, and two - because I fell I dodged that poison dart that would have hit me in the face and which I seem to recall hitting a certain redheaded Russian just ahead of me."
Natasha rolled her eyes, gracefully jumping over a tall above-ground tree root.
"Nothing I wasn't already immune to anyway; it barely caused a scratch."
Clint laughed.
"All in all, I think I ran the Amazon better than you did."
"In your dreams, Barton," she said, playfully shoving him, only causing him to laugh more.
She began to turn away, their congruent stretch of run ending, her path branching away from his.
"See you next round?" he smiled.
"Nope, I have stationary next."
"Lucky." He groaned, turning to go finish his circuit and then begin another.
She ran up to the designated tree and waited at the bottom while Cora, the Wakandan in the branches, climbed down.
"Minden tiszta?" Cora asked, jumping from a low branch and landing near Natasha.
"Minden tiszta." Natasha assented, climbing up into the tree as Cora sprinted off to begin the round.
Clint and Natasha had originally run into a language barrier dilemma, none of the other members of their quadrant patrol speaking English. But after some initial confusion and less than helpful gesturing, they discovered that Cora happened to speak Hungarian, a language both Natasha and Clint spoke. She became their translator at that point, all their communications having to go through her.
Natasha settled into a high branch in the tree and gazed out at the view it offered. The sun was setting behind the city, outlining the skyline in warm oranges and yellows. The city streets were arranged in an orderly grid, the houses and buildings in neat rows. The foliage and tall trees began just outside the circular wall that enclosed the city.
She glanced around, counting the different figures she saw traversing through the woods, making sure that the proper number was accounted for, no more, no less.
A familiar purple and black clad figure stuck out among them and she smiled and shook her head as the figure collided with yet another tree, holding his head as the branch continued to sway behind him.
…
Bruce sighed, running his hands through his hair, his patience levels wearing thin after staring at this problem all day and coming up with painfully few answers.
He'd had little to work with from the start; the information the Wakandans had managed to gather had been helpful but excruciatingly incomplete. They had the symptoms of the poisoning:
Detriment of the lungs leading to wheezing and coughing and eventual collapse.
High fever eventually leading to brain damage.
Dehydration caused by perspiration
A discoloration of the irises, resulting in an unnatural hue of blue in the eye beginning at the intermediate to late stages of the poisoning.
They had determined that the city water supply, a nearby mountain spring, had been artificially poisoned with a strain of Galván radiation, (as he had suspected), infecting any who drank the water for the next thirty-six hours. At that point the poisoned water had run its course and the water had been safe to drink once more; the radiation having already begun to do its damage.
The final page detailed their findings on how the Galván radiation had reacted to become as lethal as it had. There was an incomplete equation of how the Galván radiation had reacted with the radiation produced by the deposit of vibranium that the city sat on top of. Both types were completely harmless on their own, but apparently very harmful to humans and animals when they reacted together.
It looked as though Dr. Chana had been trying to complete the equation when he collapsed; and Bruce had spent the following hours trying to do the same. Both of these radiations were exceptionally rare and their introduction to each other was almost completely unheard of.
It frustrated Bruce to no end that he had no idea how these two were combining together so lethally. And then even once he finally figured that out, he'd have no idea on how to counteract the damage done by it.
Normally, these were the types of problems that he loved working on; but not when thousands of lives hung in the balance and when it seemed like every frustration seemed to make him more and more angry. Angry as in ready to senselessly start smashing everything in sight and begin to speak monosyllabically. He felt like he was constantly reigning himself in and calming himself before he could continue. He couldn't explain why, but it felt like his temper was bursting out of control, especially when trying to focus on this problem.
Bruce took a deep breath in, trying to settle his mind once more, when he heard a knock at the door. He looked up to see T'Challa in the doorway looking slightly concerned.
"You are working alone, Dr. Banner?"
Bruce was at first confused by the question, of course he was working alone, but then he realized that T'Challa probably considered a stranger messing around in the countries' research lab and best hope of a cure to be a threatening situation.
"Don't worry, T'Challa, I haven't touched anything besides what was vital to the research."
"Where is Dr. Chana?"
"He fell ill to the poisoning earlier this morning. The infirmary would be my best guess."
"You have been working here all day?"
"...Yes."
"Dr. Banner, I did not expect you to take over the entire program on your own. I fully expected that at least two of our researchers would be here to assist you; I was unaware they had fallen ill. Please, take a break and come dine with the rest of your team."
Bruce paused, taken aback by the turn of conversation. He'd thought that getting thrown back into the cell was in his near future, not dinner. Part of him desperately wanted to set down the work and take this deserved meal break, a big part of him. Most of him, really. But a small part of him reminded the bigger part that while he was taking that break, thousands of people would be suffering and hundreds would be dying.
He shook his head.
"Thanks T'Challa, but I don't really need to. I'm going to keep working here, if that's alright."
T'Challa nodded.
"Thank you Dr. Banner, for what you are doing for Wakanda. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask. "
He turned to go, then looked back, an afterthought having occurred to him.
"I will send some food down here for you Dr. Banner, incase you decide you do want it later."
Bruce nodded.
"Thank you T'Challa."
T'Challa left the room and Bruce again reintegrated himself into his work; T'Challa's presence and the reminder that lives were at stake again reinforcing the importance of solving the problem in a timely manner.
Bruce stared down at his papers, the now increasingly familiar frustration and anxiety returning. He sighed. It was going to be a long night.
To miss quote one of my favourite authors: I wrote this chapter like you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once. It seems like it was really had to actually write this chapter, (the beginning is a little dry, not gonna lie) but once I finally had some inspiration, it all came pouring out.
Hope it's still enjoyable! Thanks to everyone who reviews, favorites, reads, or even just glance at the story. You're what keeps me up late at night writing this stuff.