"Bucky's bound to be lost, I'm going to go search for him," Steve argued.
"No, it's dark and late. You'll only make sure the both of you get lost." Natasha and the others agreed that wandering around in the dark, especially after what Wanda had seen, was a stupid idea.
"Bucky's great with survival and all that. If he can wear the same clothes for a whole week, he can survive a night out there. He's probably found an old house full of dogs and decided he prefers them." Clint twirled a pen in between his fingers. He'd been taking inventory of the basement all day; supplies were beginning to wear down.
"You know where he's headed, don't you?" Pietro piped up, deciding that the concoction they were all eating wasn't for him. "He's pretty smart. He'll head down to the town centre and go find an empty house to spend the night in. You know him."
Steve didn't seem to be all that reassured, but decided to let it go. A few hours couldn't hurt too much, right?
"Alright, but tomorrow I'm heading into town to go look around for him." Steve hoped that he'd be allowed to do that. Even if it meant his friends cared, he did want to look for Bucky.
"I'll head down too. I can walk now, and I need to go slap some sense into Reed." Tony was agreeing, which brought relief to Steve.
"I guess I should head down, too. If it goes south, I can run everybody out." Pietro shrugged, subtly sliding away from the plate of food.
Bruce nodded, volunteering himself forward. Conversation died and everyone returned to eating.
The next morning, they set off.
"T'Challa, we have located where they are staying." Jakarra spoke up, marching into the leader's camp. His half-brother was busy removing the 'Black Panther' suit, as Shuri had titled it.
The taller boy turned, pulling on a plain burgundy shirt. "Excellent. Have they made any act of violence towards the scouts?"
Jakarra, or Jake, shook his head. "They haven't left the house we tracked them to. We could have found it days ago if you had just crossed that bridge."
T'Challa rolled his eyes. "You try crossing that bridge. I would rather walk over hot coals."
Jake sighed and turned to go speak with the others.
T'Challa began to change his trousers, thinking about what he should do next. He and his brothers, sisters and cousins had been living with their hermit parents since birth, and had not really spoken to anyone from "the outside world". They'd been taught how to hunt and fight en masse, and educated away from society from the comfort of the large manor house hidden away in the middle of the woods the head of the family, T'Chaka. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen anyone who he wasn't related to, and he was pretty sure his brothers and sisters hadn't, either.
As the eldest, T'Challa would always be put in charge whenever the current head of house, T'Chaka, was absent. The head of house was usually called the Black Panther, and wore the traditional attire, based off of what their distant ancestors wore when hunting.
T'Challa had never seen someone so pale and gaunt as the girl he had seen in the woods; all his family had beautiful dark skin, hair and eyes, strong muscles, and none possessed the red powers she had demonstrated.
He had also never seen anyone like the person she called to aid; Pietro, she had shouted. He just appeared, hair even whiter than his skin, and then disappeared, taking the red-clad girl with him.
While T'Challa did have some pretty extreme jumping, leaping and fighting skills, he had never seen anything of that caliber. He'd made the decision not to mention their powers to the others - it would likely scare them, and make Jake thing that attacking was an even better idea. T'Challa had his work cut out trying to convince him to hold fire as it was.
T'Challa exited the tent he'd set up in simple, lightweight clothing. When the Wall came, it had cut them off from their manor and the seniors of the family, but had left them a considerable amount of their home valley to work with. Life was not too different for the Wakanda family.
The others were gathered around a bonfire, cooking lunch. They were talking excitedly. Apparently, the Housemen had found Shuri's bow and arrows, which was exciting them.
"Do you think they know how to shoot?" Hunter was chuckling at the idea of someone trying to use Shuri's bow. It was famously hard to hold and use; even T'Challa had difficulty with it.
"Hey," T'Challa called, running. He sat beside the fire and listened to the others as the creatures someone had brought in roasted over the flames.
He couldn't help but think about the red mist the girl had summoned, and where it came from. He was curious, like a cat, as Hunter would say.
He wanted to return, speak with the two he had seen, and learn about their abilities. His training and tactics, however, told him to wait. If he disappeared for long enough, the one who had seen him would begin to doubt that he really existed, and would think him a hallucination.
He decided to return in a week or so, and spectate from the trees until then. He'd figure out these new people, and then he would tell his family.
"Tony, my friend," Reed smirked confidently, padding from the gate in the makeshift wall and over to the group of newcomers. "What do I owe the pleasure?"
"I'll-" Tony was about to spit a sassy one-liner, but a hand covered his mouth. Reed's friends were attacking Tony's group! He tried desperately to shout to Bruce that now would be a great time to go green, but his lungs screamed for air and his vision faded.