AN: Okay, to be honest, I wanted to post this chapter almost right after I saw Black Panther, because that movie was just so epic! But at the time, I was close to finishing up Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys, so I had to suppress that urge for a little while. Oh well, at least I can still post this chapter after an epic MCU movie has come out, and let me tell you Avengers Infinity War most definitely qualifies for the list of epic movies, to put it mildly. That thing lived up to all the hype it had going for it, and then obliterated that scale to go even more epic than anything ever before! And that's without the post-credits scene that you absolutely have to see!
Sora: Ahem. Maybe you could get to the point before you get too far off track?
AN: Right, sorry. Thank you for helping me avert my total fan-boy freak out over the greatest Avengers movie to date, because like I was saying, we're finally back again for the newest chapter of Hearts of Avengers!
[audience applause]
Yes, thank you, thank you! You're all wonderful and very patient, for which I'm also quite glad. Anyways, let's answer a couple of reviews before we get right into things.
First off, let's start with a review that was posted for Chapter 4, by guest reviewer "stime4", and his question about Cap being able to talk while under the effects of Stop. I'd just like to point out that the spell used in Dream Drop Distance was a much, much, MUCH more advanced version of the spell, so of course it was going to have a total freeze effect like that. The one that Sora used was just the initial, most basic version of Stop. You know, the one you start out with when you first learn the spell, so it's not going to be quite as effective, and have the side-effect of not being a total time-freeze like Mickey's Stopza.
Next up, let's address the matter of how many of you are curious if Sora will visit the world of Star Wars in this story. I'll admit that initially, I had no real plans to include the world of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but after thinking it over, I do think I might go for something there. I've just got to decide between the worlds of Star Wars Rebels vs the newest trilogy, as in the movies that include The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and whatever number three of that trilogy is going to be called.
Iron Man: Why's that such a big deal? And why's the Clone Wars not included in that list?
AN: Well in answer to the latter question, it's because I'm exploring the world in the era of the Clone Wars in my Keyblades Unleashed series, aka the series that include Keyblade of Future Past, Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys, and the soon to be coming story of Kingdom Hearts Keyblade Legion, so I wanted to go with another point in the Star Wars era. And before anyone asks why I'm not going for the original trilogy, it's because I don't want to mess with the classics like that. At least, not too much, hence the reason why Rebels is one of my choices.
As for why it's such a big deal, well, I've recently gotten a bit of a thing where I don't really like the idea of starting stories that include series that are not quite finished as of this moment, hence the reason why I have not posted my possible idea of a Spider-Man & Arrow-verse crossover at this time. It just feels like I would be interfering in the story and throwing off the conclusion too greatly to be able to react and make up for it later on. It's...It's a silly idea and maybe a little weird and cray, I'll admit, but normal's overrated. Anyway, I'm leaning more towards Rebels at this time, or maybe even a point that takes place post-Rebels finale, so that we can see an interpretation of how Sabine found Ezra.
Wasp: Maybe if you go with Rebels, you should only follow that story line in the sequel for this story.
AN: Yeah, maybe. Well, it's something to think about, and we've still got a pretty decent amount of time until we've reached the halfway point of this story.
While we're doing a general review response, I'd also like to go ahead and clear up something that a lot of people made a slightly incorrect assumption about. I'm gonna go ahead and say it now, Ven&Aqua are not, I repeat NOT going to be a couple in this story series. Yes, I have them set up as a couple in Keyblades Unleashed, but this is an entirely different series, so that means that a few things are going to be different in comparison. Don't get me wrong, I do like those two being together in a romantic sense, but this time around, they're going to have more of a sibling bond than a romantic one. And furthermore, even though we've seen it like a zillion times already, Aqua's actually going to be paired up with Terra in this series. Sorry to all Ven&Aqua shippers and fans out there. Hope that did not make you decide to stop following this story, because I can promise that there are plenty of other reasons to keep following it.
Ven&Terra: [glaring at each other heatedly like rivals in love]
AN: Stop that.
Ven&Terra: What?
AN: Moving on, let's go with a quick response for our guest reviewer "SpideyRocks75", yeah, Spider-Man and friends will be tagging along with Sora to one of the other worlds in this story, and not only that, but it will also have some unexpected consequences in the aftermath.
Spidey: Uh, I feel like I should be worried about that.
AN: Well don't be. It's not even that bad, or at least, I don't think it is, and I sincerely hope that no one else will. Oh, and before I forget, there's a matter that "Dragon Rider 66" brought up that I meant to mention at the end of the last chapter: the design of Sora's new helmet. I'm so sorry I didn't explain that sooner, but I am going to tell you all right now that said helmet is actually a very accurate match to the one he wore when he visited the world of Tron Legacy in Dream Drop Distance. Sorry again for not making that clear before.
Any other questions that were posed are ones that I cannot answer at this time without giving away major spoilers, be it for this chapter or future chapters, although I can already see you guys begging me to tell you who Ven is going to end up being paired with after reading what I said about him and Aqua not being together romantically in this story, so if you really want to know that badly, please by all means, go ahead and ask. I'll give you all a hint in the next chapter.
Although before I let you all get into the story, I would like to make a quick mention to "Monkey D. Conan". I plan to have Sora meet Doctor Strange at some point after Gamma World, at which point he will have learned all the three basic elemental spells that he has in each game (Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder), and as for learning Spidey's secret identity...well, I'll leave that as a surprise for now. As for that whole pairing between Loki & Maleficent [shivers at the thought of such villain love] yeah, I'm guessing you can see my thoughts on that, and yet, as disturbing as it is, I can still see it being a thing. I may or may not run with it later, but you'll just have to wait and see for the moment. Also, the whole Princess Bride moment you had there, I definitely got it, and appreciate it. I really liked that movie, myself.
Moving back to general review responses for a quick moment though...for all of you who have guessed that Night Hunter is actually Riku...well, there is a chance that you might be right, but I think you'll find something happening later on that will make you wonder about that. Trust me, it'll be something you won't see coming at all.
Riku: I'm suddenly a little nervous about that.
AN: Well, we don't have time for that now. Right now, we need to start the chapter and fly on over to Wakanda! Avengers, to the chapter, and Wakanda forever!...
I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter VI
Apparently, despite all the crazy stuff that had happened to him on his first day of high school, Sora ended up having a much better day in comparison to the rest of his teammates. When he finally got home that night, after spending so much time with Peter, Miles, Anya, and Gwen, Sora found a very sad mood had found its way into the mansion. It did not really start worrying him until after he found Wasp looking like she had been close to tears at some point, and after he did, he just had to ask what the hell had happened to his teammates while he was imprisoned in a school building. Whatever joking tone Sora had used when he asked the question was quickly dropped after Hank had told him the whole story.
Apparently Tony's meeting and dealings with Simon Williams had gone very badly, and the man had stormed out in anger, thinking that Tony was going to destroy everything that he had been working on for his whole life. As it turned out, Simon's solution to the problem actually ended up tying into the AIM deal that Thor and Wasp had tried to bust, because it was later that same day that Simon had actually gone to AIM in the hopes that they could give him the ability to get his revenge on Tony. As a result of both the experiment he was put into, and by some extension, Thor and Wasp's surprise arrival at the AIM base, Simon had been transformed into a being of ionic energy. It was not until after Simon had gone on to attack Iron Man at Stark Industries that he realized that the energy he was now made of was highly unstable, and as a result, Simon was slowly coming apart at the seams. The Avengers had initially arrived on the scene to help stop Simon from hurting Tony, but in the end, they had to scramble in an attempt to get Simon into the ARC Reactor of Stark Tower in the hopes that its energy would stabilize Simon. Needless to say, their efforts failed, and they had all watched as Simon disintegrated before their very eyes.
No one had been more upset about it than Tony, because he never got the chance to really explain to Simon that he did not want to destroy Simon's work. Tony's efforts to buy out Williams Innovations were all done in the hopes of saving it. He knew that Simon had some brilliant ideas and technology in development, but none of it would have made it out into the world because the company had been going under. He had been hoping that he could work with Simon so that they could see all of his inventions and work through to completion, and maybe even beyond that, but because of what had happened, Simon was now lost to them thinking that Tony had been the bad guy in the whole affair. It had left Tony really broken up afterwards, and he had spent the rest of his day tinkering in the armory, both so he could repair his damaged suits and so that he could continue his efforts to learn about the mystery intruder that had saved Sora and Captain America from Zemo and the Heartless.
Sora's first question had naturally been why they had not called him when all of this was happening, and the team all insisted that they did not want to pull him out of his first day of school so suddenly. They had honestly believed that they could handle things since the Heartless were not involved in the matter, and considering that Midtown High had been the site of the most recent Heartless attack, Sora could honestly not blame them for that reasoning. Besides, it did mean that he was able to save the school and his new friends, while also getting the chance to meet Spider-Man. Sure, there was still the matter of this Night Hunter to worry about, but Sora was honestly more excited over the fact that he had gotten to meet one of the most well-known superheroes in New York than anything else. When he told the others about that, they had all asked why he had not asked Spidey to join the team, and he immediately told them about how the web-head had already swung off before he got the chance to ask.
They all shrugged that off for the moment. After all, if Sora had encountered Spider-Man once, there was always the chance he could run into said web-head again, so he could always ask when that time finally came. For now though, they were more interested in finally solving the mystery of who their mystery intruder was. That was the main reason why most of the Avengers had all gathered in the Assembly Hall a few days later, and while reviewing the footage from the mansion's security cameras was boring, it was also necessary since that was the only part of the security system that seemed to have noticed anything to indicate that there was an intruder in the building besides Zemo and the Heartless. Sora probably would have had an easier time paying attention though if he was not struggling to stay awake. He had no idea how he had let Hank talk him into having a late night study session that lasted until nearly midnight on a Friday night.
Sora quickly woke up though when they finally came to the part of the video recap of the fight he and Captain America had against Zemo, and he was now paying just as much attention to it as the super soldier was. It took a couple more seconds than they would have liked, but eventually, they did see the part where Cap's shield came flying through the Heartless and into the path of Zemo's blade, before a set of daggers sailed through another wave of Heartless. A minute later, the camera panned around to show the person who had thrown both items, and Cap and Sora both immediately shouted, "That's him!"
JARVIS immediately froze the image right when the man had leapt up into the air, and they were all greeted with a sight that could only be described in a small number of ways. "Wait, what am I looking for again? A giant cat," Janet questioned as she squinted at the image on the holo-screen.
"It was a man," Captain America insisted.
"A man in a black, cat-themed suit, but definitely a man," Sora added, barely stifling a yawn as he spoke.
Janet gave him a small glance, clearly noticing when he had yawned, and then threw a look at Hank as she said, "No more study sessions that last until three in the morning."
"It did not last until three in the morning," Hank insisted for what was probably the fourth time since they all got here. After another minute or so, which included Janet giving him a look that Hank knew to mean he was in trouble if he said the wrong thing, he then added, "It lasted until two in the morning, and besides, Sora needed the help with his science homework."
While this conversation was entertaining, they were getting off track, and Cap took the liberty of bringing their attention back to why they were here. "Can the projectionist make this brighter," the super soldier questioned.
The question had confused everyone else in the room a little, until they remembered that Steve was still not quite caught up on how much modern technology had changed and advanced since the forties. Tony made a quick mental note to give his father's old friend a crash course on modern video technology at the least later before he replied, "Uh, sure. JARVIS, run a full spectrum analysis, will you? And…make it brighter."
A minute later, they watched as JARVIS zoomed in on the image of the cat-suited man, until he was the only thing in view, and the image was enhanced to the point where they could make out the full details of the intruder. A minute later, the image was substituted for a black silhouette while various waves were shown to be flowing into him. "Look at that. Whatever he's wearing, it's absorbent to all energy sepctra," Ant-Man noted with great intrigue. "And what he did to JARVIS…The system still doesn't register there having been another person there aside from Cap, Sora, Zemo, Jan, and the Heartless."
"Okay, fine, I'll admit it. Whoever this intruder is, he's got some okay technology," Tony finally huffed, begrudgingly. Clearly, he was not too fond of how this guy had eluded his security so easily, and given the week he had been having, no one could blame him for being a little irritable.
"All I know is that this man in black saved my life and Sora's too," Captain America interrupted, not wanting Tony to stew in his frustrations for too long. "He's an ally, not an enemy."
"Intruder alert," JARVIS suddenly announced as the mansion's alarms began blaring. The five Avengers who were currently present all quickly ran outside to see who was trying to get in, and the minute they had gotten out the front door, they were just in time to see the stranger in black leap down from atop the main gate and then flex his fingers as his gloves sharpened into claws.
"So he's not an Avenger," Steve asked, just to make sure he was not misinterpreting the situation.
"Definitely not," Iron Man replied as his face mask snapped closed.
"If he is, this is the first I've heard of it," Sora quipped, right when the stranger rushed towards them, clearly intent on attacking them.
Iron Man was the first of the team to act by blasting into the air, thinking he could handle the guy on his own, but that quickly changed when the man slashed across his ARC reactor with his claws. Not only did the blow actually damage Tony's suit a little, but the unexpected effectiveness also served to push Tony back and into ground below. Tony then listened as JARVIS gave him a damage report, his suit sparking with electricity as the AI did so, but he made sure to keep an eye on the mystery man as his systems worked to repair themselves. It was good thing he did too, because he had a feeling that the glowing energy surrounding the dagger the stranger just pulled from his belt was probably a bad sign.
"You think you're fast? Dodge these," Wasp suddenly shouted as she flew in to blast the stranger with her stingers. While her cry did draw the stranger's attention, he did not do anything to try and repel her attack. Instead, he simply remained standing and let her shots hit him, allowing Janet to see that the blasts had no effect at all. "What happened?"
"Well, he didn't dodge them," Ant-Man informed his partner as he flew up to her side on an ant. "I did mention that his suit seemed to be absorbent to-WATCH OUT!"
Hank's warning came just seconds before he and Wasp had avoided being hit by a purple energy blast that the stranger had fired from his daggers. When he did not cease firing, Cap took the chance to charge and shove him down, but the man simply back flipped onto his feet again. When Captain America tried to hit their opponent by throwing his shield at him, the stranger just leaned back in order to avoid the disk, and then let it sail past him and back to the captain. Steve could not help but flinch a little, since the shield had nearly hit him when it returned to him, and the stranger looked ready to attempt another strike when he noticed several ants starting to encase his body.
"Now, are you ready to talk about this," Hank demanded. The man's only reply was to tap an unseen control on his wrist, causing his suit to start releasing a unique sound wave from his suit that repelled the ants off him and blasted Ant-Man away. Hank had quickly returned to normal size before he landed on the ground again, and deactivated his helmet while gazing at this stranger in shock. "That sound…That's Vibranium," Hank exclaimed in shock.
Janet did not seem to care as much about that detail as her boyfriend, because she quickly flew past him with stingers charged, saying, "You know what? I've had just about enough of super-tech-cat-ninja guy."
"I agree," Hank nodded as he tapped his belt so that he could become Giant-Man, thankful that while her stingers were not having an effect on the mystery man, they were helping to keep him busy while he went big. Apparently, the stranger was not distracted enough, because he quickly spun away from Hank's hand just as he was about to grab him, and then struck several nerves on Giant-Man's body as he descended back to the ground. When he landed, Giant-Man had fallen to his knees soon after, leaving only one Avenger to take a shot at attempting to subdue him.
He did not have to wait long, because Sora had immediately came charging in with Keyblade in hand, and the two were soon engaging in close-combat, Sora's Kingdom Key against the stranger's daggers. The fight seemed to be somewhat evenly matched this time though, but given how easily this guy had taken down his teammates, he was very sure that this guy was holding back against him for some reason. Knowing this actually got on Sora's nerves a little bit, and he proved it when he increased the ferocity of his attacks, only to find his Keyblade blocked or parried by the stranger's daggers most of the time, while the stranger himself seemed to dodge the rest of his strikes. Thankfully, the mystery man did not land any hits against Sora, but the Keybearer had a feeling that this guy was not really trying to hit back. That was quickly disproven when the man finally did launch an attack on Sora that hit him in his left side, making Sora stagger a little as the man spun around to land another pair of blows from behind him. When the stranger jumped at Sora again, he was fully prepared to bring his daggers down on the boy, but Sora managed to regain his balance just enough to block the strike with his Keyblade, and the two's weapons were soon locked together with one another.
While he was doing his best to push this guy back or break their lock, Sora could have sworn he heard a soft chuckle before the stranger finally spoke up, and said, "You do seem to have spirit, and while they are admirable for one so young, your skills leave something to be desired. Clearly you have not possessed that Keyblade for very long, young wielder. Then again, I suppose I am being a little biased in comparing you to the last Keybearer I had met."
That had surprised Sora a little. Not only was this guy taking nearly the whole team of Avengers apart on his own, but he had also met another Keyblade wielder before him? Was it that Ventus guy that Sora had heard about from Tony? Or maybe it was the infamous Master Aqua that he kept hearing about. Before he could ask, the stranger finally seemed to push him down, and Sora was forced to struggle a little harder just so he could have enough space to roll back from the guy. Sora was instantly on his feet again though, and ready to continue, when he saw Iron Man come up behind their intruder and aim a wrist-rocket at the back of his head.
"Don't even think about it," Tony warned, though part of him was hoping that this guy would try something so that he could see how well his suit held up against a miniature rocket being fired at point-blank.
Tony never got the chance though, as the stranger just stood up straight, holstered his daggers, and then clasped his hands behind his back, while shouting, "Enough!"
That surprised everyone, almost as much as the fact that this guy had said that like he had been the one commanding the situation the whole time. Then again, considering how easily he was beating them all, it could be argued that he had been, but still, the way he said it still rubbed the team the wrong way. "What's your game, Mister," Captain America demanded with a glare. "You save mine and Sora's lives, then attack us, and now you believe you expect us to believe you're just going to surrender?"
"I am not surrendering, Captain. I have simply seen enough. I wanted to assess your abilities firsthand. Though I will admit, I was especially curious about those of the young Keybearer that is among your number. Needless to say, he needs a great deal of improvement," the man calmly explained, almost sounding like he was a sensei at the end when he addressed Sora's abilities. He then pulled back his mask, revealing the face of a young, African man with short black hair when he did, but the thing that really caught Sora's attention was the sad expression he wore on his otherwise serious face. "I am T'Challa."
"The prince of Wakanda," Hank gasped in astonishment, having returned to normal size during T'Challa's explanation for why he had appeared here just now.
When Sora's expression turned confused, Tony took it upon himself to explain what he assumed the kid was wondering about. "Wakanda's an African nation that's kept itself hidden away and isolated from the rest of the world, mainly because their greatest resource has proven to be the reason behind many of the attacks that they had faced over the years: Vibranium." Sora's confused look lightened a little, but given how it was still there, Tony knew that there was still question on his mind. "Vibranium is a really strong, practically indestructible metal, and it's what Cap's shield is made out of."
"Really? Wow," Sora commented as he glanced between the prince and Cap's shield for a minute, truly impressed by that knowledge. Still, that did leave one question unanswered, and it was the same one that all of the Avengers were wondering. "So what's the prince of an entire nation doing here?"
Everyone fixed their gaze on T'Challa at that moment, and the prince hesitated for a minute before he finally revealed the reason for his presence. "I need your help."
A few minutes later, the five Avengers had brought T'Challa down to the Assembly Hall so that they could hear the details of his request for help. To be honest, while he was more curious about who the Keyblade wielder T'Challa had met was, Sora was actually feeling a little nervous around the guy. This was a man who had single-handedly taken down nearly the whole team, and from what they could tell, he had no powers whatsoever. Sure, his suit was made of an indestructible material, as were his daggers, but unlike Tony, who's armor provided him with almost all of his powers, this guy clearly had a great deal of training to make him dangerous. Glancing to some of his friends, Sora saw that the rest of his teammates looked slightly uneasy about T'Challa as well, but they did seem to be handling it pretty well. Hank was especially calm, but that was probably because they were trying to talk things out now as opposed to fighting each other like they had earlier. Then again, he did indicate earlier that he knew the prince, so maybe that had something to do with it as well. Either way, uneasy or not, the Avengers were not going to turn away from someone asking them for help, even if he had gone about it in a weird way, but they still did not quite get why he had come to them in the first place.
"What do you need our help for? You kind of mopped the floor with all five of us," Wasp pointed out, getting right to the heart of the matter.
"Yeah, well, for the record, I was holding back," Tony scoffed a little smugly.
"Same here. I had him right where I wanted him before Tony jumped in," Sora boasted.
"Sure you did, kiddo," Janet teased, seeing right through Sora's false bravado.
"I did," Sora tried to insist. "Tried" being the keyword.
"No, you did not," T'Challa informed him, a small smile on his face that could be considered either smug or teasing.
"Either way, Jan's right," Tony interrupted before they got too far off track with teasing Sora. He still had to hide a small smirk when the kid crossed his arms in a huff, even as he continued, "We're kind of busy dealing with an army of escaped supervillains."
"My country has been overthrown by just such a villain," T'Challa revealed, securing the team's attention even more firmly than before. "A brutal fiend called M'Baku the Man-Ape. I need your help to get passed the Wakandan people so I can restore the throne."
"Wait a minute. Did you just say that you need us to help get past your own people," Sora questioned, not more than a little lost.
Captain America shared Sora's skepticism, and he did not hesitate to inform T'Challa of the flaw in his decision to seek out their help. "If your people are following this 'Man-Ape' of their own free will, that's the end of the story. That's what the people want."
"You do not understand. The people are the problem. They follow the old ways," T'Challa argued, and he then looked away while he began to recount all the events and reasons that had led him to where he was now. "Man-Ape won the throne in combat. They feel they must follow him, no matter if it destroys everything, and the Man-Ape will destroy…everything. I would have been captured and imprisoned by M'Baku had my sister and a friend of ours not helped me in my escape. I just hope that they are both still all right."
From the sounds of what T'Challa was saying, the situation did seem rather dire for his country, but Janet was still left confused about something. "I don't get it," Wasp admitted. "I'm sure he's bad news and all, but how can he destroy everything?"
Hank had the answer, and he was quick to provide an image of it while going into an explanation. "Vibranium. I've studied it firsthand. It's nothing to mess around with."
"And legend has it Wakanda is sitting on a mountain of it," Tony piped in.
"The Vibranium Mound," T'Challa solemnly confirmed. "It is our treasure and our responsibility. For centuries, we have defended it against any who would exploit it."
"That kind of resource should belong to everyone. Vibranium has the potential to change the world," Hank argued.
"I agree, but not necessarily for the better," T'Challa said, throwing a pointed look at Tony when he did.
When he felt all eyes falling on him, Tony quickly adopted a sheepish expression as he admitted, "Uh, yeah, Stark Industries investigated the possibility of using Vibranium to make weapons."
While he was willing to cut Tony a break after what had happened with Simon, Hank could not stop himself from scowling a little at Tony after he heard that, feeling that this was another example of why Tony was not even half the hero he tried claiming to be. Sora on the other hand had a different reaction to this. "I know that it seems tough and all, given how T'Challa seems to use weapons made of the stuff, but how could anyone else really hope to make weapons using Vibranium if Wakanda is the only place that's really worked with it?"
"Not all of it. Remember, Cap's shield is made of Vibranium, and after so many people saw how effective it was in World War II, a lot people were interested in making more things like it," Tony revealed to the kid. "That was a long time ago, in the case of my company's own research and investigations. My people tried to deal with King T'Chaka. Where is he now?"
T'Challa did not say anything in reply, but from the way he lowered his head, they all quickly figured out why he had remained silent. All feelings of unease were forgotten now, partly because the revelation was coupled with the fact that this likely meant that T'Challa now bared the burden of being his people's rightful king. Such a thing was not as important as the fact that T'Challa had lost his father though, and Sora had quickly walked over to him, placed a comforting hand on the young kind's shoulder, and said, "I'm sorry about your father. My own dad disappeared a long time ago when I was really young, so I can kind of relate. Just be thankful that you at least got to spend some time with your father before he passed."
The Keybearer's words seemed well received, given T'Challa's smile of thanks, and more than that, the whole team was slowly starting to reconsider their hesitance in providing T'Challa aid in his quest. "If this Man-Ape is going to put lives in danger, we have to do something," Captain America stated, showing that he was willing to help out even if the others were not.
"Lives are in danger, Avenger," T'Challa immediately insisted. He then reached into his belt and pulled out a small flash drive as he said, "Computer, satellite view of Wakanda."
"Wakanda can't be seen on satellite. Trust me, I've tried," Tony quickly told T'Challa even as the computer brought up a map of Africa.
"Maybe that's because the people in Wakanda have a way to keep anyone from seeing them unless they want to be seen," Sora suggested.
"Please. Like that could stop me or my tech, even if it were possible," Tony scoffed. "Wakanda's mostly farmers and tribal warriors."
"Zoom in," T'Challa suddenly commanded JARVIS, cutting into the argument. A minute later, an image of Wakanda appeared on the holographic display, clear as day, much to Tony's disbelief.
"Okay, how exactly do you know my systems inside and out," Tony demanded, hardly believing what was happening right now.
"I've studied them. Inside and out," was T'Challa's simple reply, and one could have sworn he sounded slightly smug when he said it.
"You were saying, Tony," Sora teased with a grin, earning him a mild scowl from Iron Man in reply.
The image of Wakanda continued to zoom in until they could see a large mountain where several people were gathered, and when they began to notice the full details, Captain America quickly recognized the green and yellow uniforms along with the emblem that many of them were wearing. "HYDRA."
Sora had heard about the terrorist group, both from his teammates and some of his own reading in regards to things on this world, but he did not really look into them that much until after Zemo had gotten into the mansion. Apparently, they had started out as a war organization for the Nazis in World War II, and were led by Captain America's greatest enemy, Red Skull. Even after the Skull had apparently fallen, HYDRA somehow managed to find a way to survive, until they eventually became one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world. Many times when HYDRA showed themselves, only SHIELD or some superheroes ever seemed able to handle them, so Sora was quickly beginning to understand why T'Challa was so desperate for their help. If the Wakandan people did not get in the way, then HYDRA certainly would, and as good as T'Challa seemed to be, no one was able to take on an entire army all by themselves without even a little bit of help.
The image on the monitor then zoomed in a little more so that it could focus on two particular individuals that appeared to be calling the shots for HYDRA, and Tony quickly recognized one of them. "That's Grim Reaper, one of Strucker's guys, but who's Abe Lincoln there?"
"I've met him. Ulysses Klaw," Hank revealed. "He created a device that converts Vibranium into a sonic weapon."
"Guess we know why he's there then," Sora commented just as the holographic monitor deactivated.
The room was silent for a moment afterwards, but one could easily tell that Avengers had now made up their minds on what they should do regarding T'Challa's request. "So, who's up for invading Wakanda," Wasp asked.
"I'm in," Sora replied with his hand up.
It was only a matter of minutes before the Quinjet had taken off with the five Avengers and their new friend on board, but most of them did wish that they had the full team with them right now. "Thor and Hulk still aren't responding to their ID cards," Tony groaned a few hours later when the sun had disappeared and became replaced by the moon and night sky. "I know Thor's probably taking a trip to fantasy land or something, but why's Hulk not answering?"
"Well, I did hear them heading out earlier. Said something about settling who was strongest between them or something and that they were going to an area Hulk knew about where no one could get hurt," Sora revealed.
"Why didn't they just use the training room," Tony asked.
Sora merely shrugged and said, "I think it was something along the lines of not wanting to break it beyond repair even for your stuff." The two then fell silent for a moment before Sora finally asked, "So can I fly the jet now?"
"No, Sora. There's no way in hell that I'm letting a kid who doesn't even have his learner's permit fly my very expensive jet," Tony tiredly denied for what was probably the fifth time since they had first stepped into the hangar. Sora had been asking him to let him fly the Quinjets even before that, and while Tony was willing to let the kid at least fly the thing in the simulator, Tony was not too eager to let the kid try his hand at the real thing. It did not matter that Sora was a really great pilot in the simulator, Tony was just not going to budge on this.
Sora pouted a little at Tony's latest denial, and then watched as a map was brought up for everyone to see, allowing them to review the flight path that T'Challa had recommended for them. To be honest though, most of the Avengers were a little concerned about said route, and it showed as Janet recounted their route aloud again. "So we need to go through Torment Forest, past Piranha Cove, but we to avoid the Chasm of…what was it? Icy Clouds?"
"Chilling Mists," T'Challa corrected.
"Right," Wasp nodded, but she still mentally groaned over how dangerous the whole thing was once more.
Hank had remained quiet for the most part since they took off, but he did not miss the way that Cap had been gazing out of the window oddly right from when they had leveled out at their current altitude. When that did not change, the size-changer finally asked, "You okay, Cap?"
Steve just sighed, "In my day, if something went this high, we didn't call it an airplane."
"What did you call it?"
Steve turned to the scientist with a small smile but otherwise serious expression, answered, "Science fiction."
Sora had smirked a little when he overheard Cap's answer, but his smile quickly faded when his gaze fell on T'Challa once again. Apparently, the Wakandan did not miss this fact, and he immediately asked, "Is there something that troubles you, Keybearer?"
"I was just…I was wondering if you could tell me about the Keyblade wielder you met before me. The one you mentioned during our fight at the mansion," Sora admitted, finally unable to withstand the suspense his curiosity was driving in regards to this matter.
If his face could be seen right then, everyone would have noticed T'Challa's nostalgic smile as he recounted the tale of his last encounter with a wielder of the Keyblade. "It was many years ago when I was very young. As I previously mentioned, the Vibranium Mound is both my people's treasure and our responsibility. As such, many devious fiends have come seeking to steel some Vibranium from us so that they could exploit it for their own selfish gain. One such villain had actually tricked a young man into helping him in his attempt. My father had managed to stop it, but only the young man was captured, having been left behind to take the true culprit's place. He would have faced punishment for the crime had he not later provided us with assistance in dealing with fowl creatures that then invaded our city. While our weapons did have some effect against these beasts, it was not too significant, but thankfully, the Keyblade wielded by the young man, named Terra was able to slay them quite easily. After witnessing his strength and prowess in battle, as well as seeing how Terra had not hesitated to protect our people from these creatures that he called Unversed, my father was willing to pardon the Keybearer for his crimes, so long as he promised to not allow others to deceive him into leading them to Wakanda again. Terra gave his word, and then led the hunt in finding the true criminal before parting for an unknown destination. Before he left, I had the privilege to speak with him so that I could ask what drove him in his own quest, and he told me that everything he did, even if it were to lead him down a dangerous path, he did for both the sake of innocents, and for his closest friends. From that moment on, I have considered him as a good friend, and as an inspiration as to the kind of man I wanted to be one day."
Sora was honestly amazed by what he had learned. He knew that there was a third Keyblade wielder to have come here around the same time as Ventus and Aqua, but this was the first time he had ever heard anything about him. From the sound of things, Terra was a very brave and strong person, and Sora wanted to ask T'Challa to tell him more, but his earlier sleepiness made itself known once more as he let loose a small yawn. When he noticed how tired the kid still seemed to be, Tony quickly recommended, "Why don't you try and catch up on some sleep, Sora? Even at top speed, it's still going to be a little bit before we finally reach Wakanda. Besides, can't have you fighting bad guys while your only half awake."
"Okay. Thanks Tony," Sora yawned once again, and after leaning his seat back a little, Sora quickly slipped into slumber land, sure that the rest of their flight was going to be relatively smooth, even with the very dangerous sounding route that T'Challa had recommended to them.
It had been a very beautiful day ever since they had woken up, and while they did make sure to get some light training and sparring in, the three pupils of Master Eraqus decided that it would be nice to just sit and relax as they watched the sky begin changing to the colors of sunset. Normally, they probably would not be relaxing like this until night had fallen so that they could do some stargazing, but today was just too nice to not take some time to sit and relax for a while. At least, that was the case for two of the three. Unlike his two friends, Ven was still down in the dumps over how he was not able to win a single spar against either one of them that day. Sure, he had only just started training with the two older pupils, but he still wished that he could win one spar against them, or at least not get thrown back so quickly.
Apparently, the oldest of the three, a tall, strong looking man seemed to notice the blonde's dismay, and decided that he needed to say something to cheer the kid up. The man did not have to think for long, because he quickly got an idea when he glanced down at the toy sword that his friend was holding. "Ven. You see all those dents and nicks you got," the older boy asked.
Ven did indeed see what his older friend was talking about, but he did not really get why he was bringing it up. Aqua had though, and she was happy to explain the other boy's reasoning for pointing them out. "Each one of those is proof you're learning."
The other boy nodded in confirmation of that, and then grabbed his own wooden sword, which was actually made to look like a basic Keyblade instead of a regular sword, and then said, "You're trying too hard to move your body. You need to learn to let your body move you. Right?"
Aqua nodded in response to her friend's words, but their young friend just looked confused. "I don't get it, Terra. How can I let my body move me," Ven asked, truly not getting what that meant.
Terra rubbed his chin in thought for a minute, trying to figure out a way to explain it, until he just gave up and said, "It's not really something that can be easily explained. What it means for you is something only you can figure out." Terra's explanation did not seem to raise Ven's spirits that much, and after glancing at his wooden Keyblade, he quickly thought of another approach. The other two then watched as Terra stood up, cleared his throat, and raised the toy sword while he recited, "In your hand, take this blade. And so long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be made."
"What's THAT about," Aqua giggled, clearly amused by Terra's antics, while Ven just looked on in confusion. "Who went and made you Master?"
"Being a Keyblade Master is all I've dreamed about," Terra explained.
Ven and Aqua quickly exchanged a small look before the blue haired girl reminded their friend, "Well, you're not the only one."
"I know," Terra nodded with a smile. He then knelt back down to Ven and held out the wooden Keyblade to his younger friend as he finished, "You, me, and Ven all share the same dream."
Ven looked at Terra's offered toy sword, and let out a happy smile at last, along with a short chuckle as he grasped the shaft of the wooden Keyblade. In that moment, a bond had been formed between him and the older boy. One that Ven was not really sure how to describe, but if he did have to put it into words, he would say that this was how it felt to have an older brother. Looking over to Aqua, Ven could feel a similar bond forming with her as she smiled at him reassuringly, the only difference being that it had the feeling of being the nature of a caring older sister, and somehow he just knew that these guys would definitely be more than just his friends. They would be like his new family, and more than anything, he wished that one day soon, they would all manage to reach that dream that all three of them shared.
While his most recent dream was a bit startling and confusing, mainly because of how he was seeing all of it through Ventus's eyes like he had during that vision he had on his first day of school, it was not the thing that had awoken Sora from his nap. No, what woke him up were the blaring alarms and explosions that were now ringing loudly and a quick glance told him that the latter sounds were not something done by his friends. "What happened? What's going on," Sora cried out in fright.
"We've been hit by Wakanda's defense tech," Hank shouted over the explosions that were rattling the Quinjet.
"But I thought that the Quinjet had the best cloaking tech that Tony's company could make," Sora protested.
"As I have previously informed Stark, Wakandan defense tech is better," T'Challa calmly explained, not appearing the least bit worried about their current situation, but still holding on so that he did not fall over.
When another explosion suddenly rattled the ship and they began heading down in a steep nosedive, everyone knew that they were heading right into a crash landing, and they all beginning to think that they would need to bail out. Thankfully, Tony managed to keep the Quinjet from taking too much more damage in their landing, somehow, but that did not stop them from slamming through the canopy of the forest below them. They did not even come to a stop until the Quinjet was finally caught in a large mess of vines and branches, but they all still held their breath until they were sure that they were not going to be moving anymore in a way that would have bad consequences for them.
After making sure everyone was okay, the group quickly exited the downed aircraft and made their way to the jungle floor below them. Even though they were all still alive and in one piece, not everyone was too happy with how things had turned out. "You owe me a jet," Tony growled at T'Challa as he landed amongst his teammates and their acquaintance.
"You chose not to listen to me, Stark. It was a mistake," T'Challa easily reminded him, immediately giving Sora a good idea as to how they had been spotted in their approach to Wakanda when he did. That did not mean that it was cooling Tony's temper any.
"You and me need to have a little talk, kitty," Tony retorted as he stormed over to T'Challa.
Sora was quick to get in between the two though, knowing that this was going to turn into a fight that they did not have time for if someone did not do something, and said, "Hey, I get that we're all mad right now about what happened, but in case you guys forgot, there's still the matter of some bad guys to fight and a country to save! Remember?"
"Yeah, Sora's right. We should really be somewhere else right now. You know, like in a big fight against HYDRA," Janet added, hoping to help drive the point home.
That got Iron Man to cool down, and he quickly shifted into his command mode so he could begin giving out orders to his team. "Right, here's the plan: we take down HYDRA and protect the Vibranium Mound. Then we deal with Man-Ape."
"That feels more like a summary of our goals than a plan," Sora whispered to Hank.
"Well in the mind of Tony Stark, that's all the planning that's necessary," Hank grumbled.
"Do not underestimate the Wakandan army, which is heading this way," T'Challa warned the iron Avenger, having spotted the flaw in his plan as easily as Sora had. What he did and said next though did not seem to be that much better in comparison. "I wish you well, but I will deal with Man-Ape myself."
The team all watched as T'Challa took off into the forest, climbing over tree branches, and swinging through the air like a regular jungle man, until he disappeared from sight. Seeing that, Wasp could only stare from where she had perched herself on Hank's shoulder and say, "And he left."
"You have got to be kidding me. What…I," Iron Man groaned, barely able to believe that the guy had just ditched them like that. He somehow managed to get it together somewhat, and then looked to two members of his team, and said, "Okay, fine. Cap, Sora, go after him."
"What? But what if you…" Sora started to argue, until Steve placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and gave him a hard stare that said not to argue.
"Understood," Captain America replied, and he then turned to start leading the way after T'Challa, silently telling Sora that he should do the same.
"Yeah, okay," Sora eventually sighed, and he too began racing after the rightful king of Wakanda, easily keeping pace and jumping up into the trees along with Cap so that they could catch up a little faster.
"Wow, he didn't argue with me or anything," Tony commented in slight surprise. His tone quickly turned into a joking nature as he glanced to his remaining teammates and said, "Uh, everyone, take notes."
"He's a soldier. He follows orders and makes sure that others do the same. Even bad ones," Ant-Man reminded Tony with a small glare, earning him glare in return from Tony and an eye-roll from Janet. To be honest, Jan was a little annoyed with how antagonistic Hank was still acting towards Tony, even after what happened with Simon, but she was glad that her partner was at least letting up a little after said event. Still, this time, she could understand Hank's frustration. "Now, it's just the three of us against all of Wakanda, HYDRA, and a supervillain."
"That's how much faith I have in you two," Iron Man reassured his two teammates, his voice just brimming with confidence. When the insect themed heroes just gave him skeptical looks in return Tony quickly added, "Come on, I've dealt with HYDRA before. And Wakanda, not a problem."
Just as Tony had said that, Wakanda decided to prove once again why it was unwise to underestimate her people, because Tony's sensors had instantly let out a warning that helped him to dodge a spear that would have gone through his helmet if he had not moved aside just in time. Not only that, but when the spear impacted the ground, they all quickly realized that its tip was made of Vibranium, because it quickly started glowing until the point where it finally exploded, sending all three Avengers flying. Iron Man ended up knocked right into the trunk of a really thick and large tree, and when he looked up, he quickly paused at the sight of the Wakandan army all pointing sharp spears at him with angry looks. A quick scan of the spears allowed Tony to see that the spears were made with Vibranium as well, just like that first one, and that ended up being what finally drew Tony to admit, "Okay, maybe a little problem."
What none of the Avengers or the Wakandans knew, was that high up in the shadow of trees, another figure was looking down at them, and watching as the two groups engaged one another in a fight. "These guys are the ones you got to help you out? The two that just left seemed way better suited for handling this than these three," the figure muttered under her breath. She then saw Iron Man blast a few Wakandans away with his repulsors, while Wasp zapped some others with her stingers, distracting them long enough for Ant-Man to shrink down and come in with some quick knock out blows, and then added, "Well, at least they aren't completely helpless. Still, I should probably keep an eye on them for a bit."
While the Avengers were battling against the Wakandan army, Klaw was demonstrating his vibranium powered sonic weapon to Grim Reaper and Man-Ape, shattering a large panther statue to provide an example of its capabilities. "And that is only scratching the surface of the metal's potential," Klaw explained excitedly. "An army equipped with these could…"
"It'll do," Grim Reaper interrupted. The cloaked man then turned to Man-Ape with a small bow as he said, "Baron Strucker and HYDRA thank you for your…openness, Your Highness."
"You think me a fool," Man-Ape demanded. "I know you outsiders value the Vibranium more than the gold you offer."
"I'm not one to judge," Reaper assured the current king of Wakanda.
"The Vibranium has corrupted Wakanda! Weakened it! I will restore my land to its natural state without the Panther Tribe's technology! If HYDRA will pay my price, they are welcome to it," Man-Ape then informed Strucker's liaison.
"They will pay more for the Vibranium," Klaw assured M'Baku. "Let me…"
"Klaw, watch yourself," Reaper warned the man.
"If Strucker thinks he can cut me out, he is sorely mistaken," Klaw retorted. "Only I have the technology to tap into the Vibranium's power! You do as I say, or that metal will blow up right in your face!"
"Now that's not very friendly, is it," Grim Reaper asked rhetorically as he raised his scythe arm to Klaw's throat.
"Lord M'Baku," a shaman suddenly interrupted. "Wakandan defenses have shot down an unidentified aircraft! An army division has engaged outsiders within our borders!"
Man-Ape roared in anger for a moment before he turned to Reaper and warned him, "If HYDRA crosses me, you will not live to regret it."
"No, this isn't HYDRA. This is something else," Reaper corrected, and he had a hunch that he knew exactly what it was.
T'Challa easily swung through the trees in the jungles of his home, taking in the clean, forest air with a happiness that could only come from being home again after so long. Thinking of the fact that he was home only served to remind him of why had left though, and he knew that his happiness would only become complete after he had made Man-Ape pay for what he had done. That was all that he needed to move even faster than he already was, but it was still not fast enough to lose the two Avengers that were currently following behind him. Still, he was impressed that they were able to keep up with him in his natural environment, and given how he had dragged the Avengers into all of this, he owed them a few words to show that much at the very least.
"Your tenacity is admirable, Captain, and your own abilities at traversing this place is quite impressive for one so young, Keybearer, but you are both still very out of place in the jungle," T'Challa praised the two after finally coming to a stop, allowing both Avengers to finally catch up to him, properly.
"Hey, you're the one who came to us asking for help, and part of that help includes not letting you take off on your own," Sora easily replied. "What if something happens to you before you even get there like a HYDRA ambush, or a sneak attack from Wakandan warriors, or even the Heartless showing up?"
Apparently, T'Challa did not want to hear any of it, because he was quick to argue with the kid. "This is my burden to bear, alone."
"So the Avengers were what? A distraction," Captain America questioned, heatedly. He clearly did not like what T'Challa was implying here. "You're just using us to get past your own people?"
"To be fair, he did say that was why he needed our help to begin with," Sora pointed out. "But that still doesn't mean that's all we're good for."
"Man-Ape is mine," T'Challa growled, showing even more of what he intended to do when he had cornered his foe.
"Well, we've got our orders. Besides, we both owe you one," Steve reminded him.
"He's right. You saved our lives, remember? So why not let us help out," Sora questioned, and his tone of voice showed that he had a really hard time understanding why T'Challa was so opposed to them being here right now.
Black Panther looked like he was getting ready to fight the two with more than words after that, and Sora and Cap both quickly tensed in response, showing that they would be ready if things came to that. Thankfully, they did not, as T'Challa relaxed his fighting stance and turned away from them, unclenched his fists, and immediately began explaining with more emotion in his voice than the other two had ever heard since they had met him. They just wish that it was an emotion other than pain. "Man-Ape took my father, and I did nothing! I failed him."
"So what're you going to do when you've got Man-Ape? Kill him? Make him suffer to the point where he can somehow grasp how you felt before finally ending his life," Sora questioned, starting to get a little angry himself, surprising both Steve and T'Challa a little. "Look, I know it hurts to have something like that taken from you. My home was lost to darkness and my mom and best friends may be either gone or lost somewhere on another world. Every time I see a Heartless, my mind just goes back to the fact that they were responsible for all of that, and sometimes, I can't help but wonder if someone else had helped them. That suspicion has only grown after I met a guy calling himself Night Hunter, but that's beside the point."
"And just what is the point you are trying to make, child," T'Challa demanded, wanting Sora to just get right to it.
"That despite all of that, if I ever do find out that Night Hunter or someone else is responsible for helping the Heartless destroy my home, I don't want to kill them if I can help it. I just want them to face justice," Sora replied with full conviction, leaving Steve feeling proud of the kid while T'Challa was a little shocked by him.
"But why," T'Challa asked, still sounding pretty angry. "This would be a villain who destroyed your home and perhaps your loved ones along with it, assuming that they did not survive. How can you not want to exact vengeance upon them?"
"Who said I didn't? Of course I want to make them pay for what they did," Sora admitted, definitely getting angry with T'Challa's attitude on the matter. When he realized that he was starting to raise his voice a little, he quickly took a deep, calming breath before he went on with what he was saying. "That wouldn't mean anything would change though. Mom always told me that my dad had a saying: if someone hurts us and we hurt them back in the same way, then we would just be sinking to their level, and when that happens, we become no better than the person who hurt us. That's why I'm choosing to be a hero and an Avenger. What do you plan to choose?"
T'Challa had fallen silent after all of that. Sure, most of his silence was due to Sora's heated admission, but the rest of it was definitely because of what he had to say afterwards. This young boy, who was probably not that much older than a friend of his, had been hurt so much, and yet he was not wavering at all in his beliefs of justice. It was actually rather admirable, and made him wonder what that made him for going after Man-Ape in the way that he currently was. Captain America was just as surprised by what Sora said. This was the first time he knew of that Sora had admitted to thinking that there was something else behind what happened to his island home besides the Heartless, and he had to wonder just how long Sora had been wondering about that. Had this always been there, or did it only just start after his encounter with Night Hunter? Steve was not entirely sure, but he did make a note in his head to ask about it later.
The silence held in the air for a few more moments, and Sora was starting to get a little nervous about how T'Challa would answer him, but before the young king could, the three heard something in the trees coming towards them. Thinking that they had been found out, they all quickly tensed for a fight, and it was a good thing that they had gotten on guard, because a second later, T'Challa was leaping out of the way of a sonic blast, while Cap had to turn his back towards another so that he could block it with his shield. Sora then rolled aside of a third blast before summoning his Keyblade and spinning it around a few times so that he could block all the blasts that came afterwards as best as he could. Captain America then jumped to stand at Sora's back, his shield now on his arm and able to help him block any shots that Sora could have missed, but it seemed like they were both able to keep up on their own fairly well. Knowing that quickly told Steve that this was not a large force, but likely just a single person, or even two people working in sync with one another.
It turned out to be the former, as T'Challa proved when he finally made his move on their attacker, spinning down behind them from the trees, and then pinning them to the ground with his claws sharpened and ready to strike. When he saw that the person in question was a young woman that looked about sixteen at best with dark hair and dressed in Wakandan armor that was slightly modified so that it was a mix between traditional and modern, the rightful king halted any further strikes, and that served as a signal for the two Avengers to stand down as well. They did not drop their guard though, because for all they knew, this person could use T'Challa's hesitance to their advantage and begin attacking again.
That idea went out the window a little while after T'Challa had let it known that he did indeed recognize this person by uttering her name aloud. "Shuri!"
"T'Challa," the girl asked in awe, hesitantly taking the hand that T'Challa offered to her so he could help her up.
Once Shuri was on her feet, T'Challa pulled back his mask, allowing her to see his smiling face as he proclaimed, "It is so good to see you are still all right."
Shuri immediately smiled and wrapped her arms around T'Challa tightly as she cheered, "Welcome home, brother!"
"Brother," Sora questioned, dismissing his Keyblade and reminding the siblings that he and Cap were still here.
"I'm guessing this is the sister you had told us about," Steve stated with a smile, slipping his shield onto his back again, seeing as it did not seem like he would need it at the moment.
"Yes she is," T'Challa confirmed. "Captain, Keyblade Samurai, this is Shuri, Wakanda's brightest young scientific mind and leader in Wakandan technology advancement, expert statesman, expert academic, princess of our nation, and my little baby sister."
"Oh stop that. I haven't been your baby sister for several years now," Shuri scolded, playfully swatting his chest as she did. She then looked over the two Avengers for a moment before she finally asked, "Are these outsiders the best help you could find for saving our home? The boy looks like he's younger than me."
"Hey! We're right here," Sora snapped in retort, clearly annoyed.
"They are both more than capable enough, Shuri," T'Challa assured his sister. "Captain America is a veteran of World War II after all, one who wields a shield made of Vibranium, and Sora is a Keyblade Wielder, like Terra. Surely, you saw his weapon before."
Shuri's eyes widened a little at the latter statement, and she immediately cast a look towards Sora, clearly asking if he could prove that. Sora just grinned in reply before he held his hand out in front of him and summoned Kingdom Key into his grip, making Shuri's eyes widen even more than they already had. "I thought I had been imagining it," Shuri whispered as she stepped forward with a hand held out to the Keyblade, as if she meant to touch it in order to verify its authenticity. "And yet…it's real. Another actual Keyblade, right before my eyes. Though, I never would've thought it would be in the hands of someone so young."
"Yeah, I seem to get that a lot," Sora shrugged in response. He then watched Shuri as she continued to study the Keyblade in fascination, until he asked, "Would you like to hold it for a minute?" When Shuri gave him a surprised in look in response, Sora quickly added, "It'll jump right back into my hand after said minute is up, but I doubt Kingdom Key would mind if I let you hold it for a little bit."
Shuri seemed slightly hesitant to take Sora up on his offer, until she finally nodded with an eager smile. Sora then carefully passed the Keyblade over to her, not noticing the slight smiles that Steve and T'Challa were giving them as it happened, and Shuri could not help but marvel at the magnificent weapon right from the second its handle had touched her palm. She ran her hand over the metal of Kingdom Key's shaft for a moment, feeling how it was cool yet at the same time, somehow incredibly warm, and she was about to try a practice swing or two, just to get a feel for it when the Kingdom Key finally disappeared in a flash of light before reappearing in the grasp of its true owner. You would think that Shuri would have been a little upset by that, but instead, she only grinned even more, apparently impressed by how the weapon seemed to show a kind of loyalty to its wielder, and that made Sora smile in return.
After another moment, Shuri finally commented, "It's actually lighter than I thought it would be." She and Sora shared a short laugh afterwards, and once it had passed, the princess of the two said, "Thank you for letting me get a better look at your Keyblade. I think you and I could be good friends, Keyblade Samurai."
"Same here, Shuri, but please, just call me Sora," the youngest Avenger smiled in reply.
As much as he enjoyed seeing Shuri make a few more friends her own age, T'Challa still had to interrupt the moment she was sharing with Sora. There were still matters of greater importance to attend to after all. "Tell me, Shuri, what has happened while I have been gone," Black Panther questioned.
Shuri's smile immediately disappeared when she heard that question, and she immediately locked her gaze to her brother as she began to explain. "Exactly what we feared would happen if M'Baku were to seize power. He's been selling Vibranium to outsiders in exchange for mere gold, shutting down all research on new technology involving Vibranium, including medical, and anyone who dares to question him is either subject to his cruelty right then and there, or are just simply taken away and never seen again. Our mutual friend and I have done all we can to sabotage him and his outsider allies, but even with the resources that we were able to secure from my lab, we are not able to do too much."
"And what about mother? Have you seen her," T'Challa asked, his voice showing how desperate he was for a good answer.
"We have, and we already rescued her. Nakia took her somewhere safe as soon as we managed to get her out of the prison that M'Baku put her in," Shuri smiled in reply.
T'Challa let out a sigh of relief when he heard that, while Steve and Sora both smiled at hearing that their friend still had one living parent. That just left one more matter to address. "Where is Man-Ape right now," Steve asked.
"He's either finishing up his meeting with the outsiders or sitting in father's chair at the ceremonial battle ground," Shuri scowled in reply, clearly not liking the fact that M'Baku was sitting where her father had any more than her brother did.
"Then I know where I am going," T'Challa determined. He was just about to head out when Sora grabbed his arm, and he turned back to see the boy giving him a slightly pleading look. T'Challa knew what Sora was silently asking him, but he could not quite answer the boy's question just yet, so instead, he simply begged, "Please Keyblade Samurai, let me do this."
Hearing how desperate T'Challa was, Sora found he could do nothing more than let the rightful king go, and they all watched as T'Challa took off into the jungle on his own again. All three of them could understand how T'Challa was feeling right now, Shuri especially so, but they still did not like how he was so insistent on doing things alone. Shuri was the first to speak out against letting her brother go off on his own like this, and said, "We can't let my brother fight alone like this. M'Baku defeated my father through some sort of underhanded trickery, and I know that he will do the same to T'Challa if we don't help him."
"Who said anything about letting him go it alone," Captain America asked with a smirk. "Like I said before, Sora and I have got our orders, and letting him go it alone would mean that we were defying those orders."
Shuri looked to Sora, and when he gave her the same reassuring smile she had to smile in return, grateful that these two were so willing to help her and her brother like this. "Follow me then. I know this jungle better than either of you, and I know a few shortcuts that will help to make sure we get there sooner."
Both Avengers nodded in agreement, and just like that, they were all racing after T'Challa once again. As they were going though, Sora glanced over to Shuri and asked, "So is there some sort of formality thing regarding how the ruler of your nation should talk, because I couldn't help but notice that you use contractions while for the most part, your brother doesn't."
"Really? He's been doing that with you too? I thought it was just something he did when among family or the elders," Shuri admitted with a smile. Sora could only laugh along with her after that, and Steve had to smile at seeing the two getting the chance to act like the kids they were despite the circumstances that they were caught in the middle of. Lord knows that these kids needed that kind of thing when living in this world of heroes, villains, and national politics.
Back at the Quinjet, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Wasp's Wakandan attackers were now all lying on the ground unconscious as the three sat atop the damaged Quinjet to catch their breath. While he was sitting there, Tony coughed, "Okay, so that was…a little harder than it should've been."
Ant-Man just mentally shook his head at Stark as he studied a spear that he had taken from one of their attackers. "For an uncharted African nation, they've got tech that's decades ahead of anything we've got," Hank observed. "If HYDRA gets their hands on any of this…"
"They won't," Tony assured Hank as he stood up and closed his face mask up once again. "But I kind of wish Thor and Hulk would answer their stupid phones."
"Considering how often Hulk has accidentally crushed his ID card or any other form of phone that we've gotten for him, I'm surprised that's really bothering you that much," Wasp commented.
"Hey, the last ID card I gave Hulk is supposed to be able to hold up against his strength unless he's a lot more pissed off than we've ever seen him be before now. As for the phones…I'm working on that," Tony defended, and he quickly took off into the air, flying towards the Vibranium mine with Wasp and Ant-Man following after him.
While the three were flying away, their mystery observer was left rather impressed with the fact that the three had managed to fight off the Wakandan forces, and without any interference on her part. Even so, she was not entirely certain that they could kick HYDRA out of the Vibranium mine without something happening along the way, so that gave her all the more reason to follow them. The fact that she was quickly learning to like these guys more and more every minute had very little to do with it.
While that was going on, the shaman that had alerted M'Baku to the invading outsiders had approached Man-Ape's throne to report on the situation at hand. "Our warriors in the jungle do not respond. I beg you, rid Wakanda of all the outsiders," the shaman pleaded with his current king. "T'Chaka would never…"
"I AM KING, not the Black Panther," M'Baku roared in response. "The Black Panther is no more!"
"You are wrong M'Baku," a voice called out, and both Man-Ape and the shaman turned to see the very warrior that Man-Ape had just mentioned standing before them. "The Black Panther challenges you for the throne of Wakanda!"
"T'Challa," the shaman gasped in surprise and hidden joy. "A challenge has been issued. By tribal law, you must…"
"I have no use for tradition," M'Baku only growled in reply. "Crush the Panther cub."
The shaman could only watch as the very guards that T'Chaka had trained attacked the son of their former king. T'Challa was quick to defend himself, but he was quickly overwhelmed by the combined strength of the two women due to the fact that he did not wish to fight back and harm them, and soon enough he was pinned down beneath their spears. "You do not have to do this," T'Challa told the two.
They seemed to consider their former prince's words for a moment, but in the end they raised their spears to strike down that last of the Panther Tribe. Just before they could hit him, a red, white, and blue blur suddenly soared over T'Challa and snapped the spear heads off, followed by a blast of vibrational energy that knocked one of the two away, while the other was forced back by a blast of ice. Turning to the source, T'Challa started to scowl a little when he laid eyes on Captain America, Sora, and Shuri, and was about to snap at them for interfering when Cap beat him to it. "You can face Man-Ape alone," the super soldier stated once his shield had returned to his hand.
"But anyone else is fair game for us," Shuri told her brother, her gauntlets charging up for another blast already.
"Besides, we can't let you have all the fun," Sora finished as he dropped down into his battle stance.
Hearing that, T'Challa found all of his protests dying in his throat, and while he was happy that they had come for him, the rest of the people here were not too sure how to react. At least, not until Man-Ape stood up and broke the silence. "Tear the outsiders and the treacherous princess apart. I will deal with the Panther."
While Black Panther, Captain America, Sora, and Shuri were facing off against Man-Ape and the two Wakandan royal guards, Iron Man, Wasp, and Ant-Man had stormed into the Vibranium mine to engage HYDRA and Klaw. Though, Klaw was a much more hesitant to fight against the Avengers than his HYDRA partner was. "Are you all insane?! We cannot do this in the Vibranium mine," Klaw shouted out, but Iron Man, Wasp, and Reaper did not seem to listen, while Pym just flew up to Klaw.
"Do you know what I like most about Africa," Hank asked Klaw. "Dorylus mandibularis, better known as African Army Ants."
As he said this, said ants had begun crawling up to Klaw and entrapping him in their grasp, forcing the evil scientist to force the insects back with his sonic weapon, and that, combined with Wasp's attacks on Reaper and Iron Man blasting HYDRA soldiers left and right, caused the vibranium mound to start sparking with energy. "Pym, you fool," Klaw shouted as he pointed his weapon at the Ant-Man in warning. "If the Vibranium mound absorbs too much energy…"
"It'll overload, and with that much Vibranium the explosion will take out half of Africa," Pym finished in fear. "Wasp! Iron Man!"
Sadly, Ant-Man's moment of distraction, allowed a HYDRA soldier an opening to exploit, only for that soldier's shot to hit the vibranium mound. Klaw fired his sonic weapon at the soldier in warning to stay back, but Grim Reaper misunderstood his intentions, and armed a laser on his scythe as he said, "I think we're done with you, Klaw."
Grim Reaper fired his weapon and the blast instantly sent Klaw falling down into the vibranium mound, with his sonic weapon still firing. The minute he hit the mound, the continuous burst from his weapon caused him to suddenly start to change and distort until he suddenly turned into a being of pure energy that seemed to resonate with the vibranium. The thing that was once Klaw then shouted out, "The sound…The sound! I am the sound! I can hear you. HYDRA, you snakes."
The minute he shouted that, Klaw shot off a pair of energy tendrils at some HYDRA soldiers that were moving carts of vibranium out of the mine, sending them falling to the ground, or causing them to get caught in his grasp. It did not last long though, as Wasp and Iron Man were quick to open fire on the monster that stood before them, freeing the captured soldiers as they did, and saving others as well in the process. They only made a minor note of Grim Reaper ordering all the remaining HYDRA forces to retreat with whatever they already had, as they flew up to think of a way to deal with the new, more pressing matter before them. "So does anyone have a plan? Mine is ear plugs, but it's kind of short-term," Wasp joked.
Iron Man's response was to simply fire a repulsor at Klaw, but it only resulted in Klaw smashing Tony into the ground, and the vibranium mound sparking even more than it was before. Wasp quickly flew up and started firing her stingers at Klaw, giving Ant-Man some time to get to Tony and help the armored hero to his feet. "Blasting him wasn't your best plan," Hank told Stark as he lifted the Avenger leader to his feet.
"No kidding," Tony retorted. He then got serious and said, "Hank, you know vibranium better than anyone else. What happened, and how do we stop it?"
"Whatever's happened to Klaw, it appears that he's become some kind of sound form. His body is now made of pure sound," Hank studied.
"So we have to shut him up. How," Tony then asked.
"I saw Klaw transform. I can't explain it, but his sound form is somehow being projected from his sonic emitter, and we can contain it with the same thing that created it. Vibranium." Hank then turned to Wasp as he said, "Jan, you keep Klaw busy. Tony and I have work to do."
Janet nodded to Hank as the two scientists headed off to do their work, but the minute she glanced back at Klaw and his sound form, she had to question Hank's sanity in asking little, tiny her to keep that huge monster busy on her own. Shaking herself out of this momentary lapse of fear, the Wasp quickly flew up to engage Klaw once again.
Back in the Wakanda capital, Cap and Sora were doing their best against the two female guards, but even with Shuri's help, they found the two to be quite the challenge. Now that's not to say that they were underestimating these two because they were women, they both knew better than to do that, but they were holding back because they were T'Challa's people, and they did not want to hurt them more than necessary. As the woman in red charged at the captain, she leaped into the air, and landed a kick into Cap's shield before pushing off. The minute she tried to charge him though, Steve had retaliated by slamming his shield into her. Sora's battle against the woman in yellow was going about as well, but thankfully, Sora had one ace up his sleeve that the royal guard of Wakanda did not: magic. Sure, his control of said abilities were not perfect, but after practicing what he did know in the mansion's training room for a while, he was now able to get his Keyblade to at least shoot ice shards and fireballs at someone whenever he wanted, and that was proving to be a big help against his opponent. Whenever he needed a little extra breathing room, he would fire off a blast of fire at the ground to create a smokescreen, and then roll back before charging in to slash at her again, and whenever she tried to attack him from a distance, Sora was quick to fire off a blast of ice that prevented her strike from hitting.
Of course, having Shuri ready to blast either of the two with her gauntlets definitely helped, but she was not just sitting back and playing support the entire time. Eventually, when she saw Sora's strategy was starting to fail, she quickly jumped in to provide her new friend as much support as she could, and from what Sora saw, she was almost as good of a fighter as her older brother, if not better. Sure, she tended to use her gauntlets to fight back against their opponent for the most part, but she also displayed quite the acrobatic and martial art ability as well, and would often find a way to use her gauntlets to help supplement or even enhance her strikes when necessary. With Shuri's help, it seemed that Sora was going to be able to turn the tide on this fight a lot more quickly, and the smile that he shared with her told him that she was thinking the same thing.
As for the fight between Black Panther and Man-Ape, M'Baku was living up to his name in each of his attacks, as he slammed his fists into the ground and threw about his massive size and power against T'Challa, but thankfully the young Panther's smaller size and quick reflexes allowed him to stay ahead of Man-Ape and simply leap aside, around, and over M'Baku while tiring him out at the same time. The minute T'Challa saw that his opponent was beginning to tire just enough, he pulled out one of vibranium daggers and charged at the Man-Ape before landing a flying kick onto the larger man, followed by a slash with his dagger. T'Challa then followed up with a series of precision strikes against M'Baku, while M'Baku simply continued to try and land a blow against the Panther, until finally, Man-Ape was lying face down on the ground. "Shall I show you the same mercy you showed my father," T'Challa demanded as he combined two of his vibranium daggers into an energy staff.
"Ask him yourself when you join him," Man-Ape retorted, and he immediately pulled out a small device that began to emit a powerful sound wave. As the sound wave continued to resonate, T'Challa grasped his head and cried out in pain, dropping his staff as he did, and allowing M'Baku to rise up as he continued to subject the Black Panther to the sonic attack.
Captain America, Sora, and Shuri all saw this and immediately tried to move and help him, but they were quickly blocked off by the two royal guards once again, and soon found themselves forced to watch as the brave young man continued to suffer his opponent's treacherous attack, much to Shuri's displeasure. "Get out of my way! He's killing my brother, can't you see that," Shuri begged, but despite the reluctance that the two guards seemed to show in their eyes from holding the three back, it did not look like they were going to move.
"A gift from Klaw," M'Baku explained. "Fitting. You meet your end the same way your father did, but you are not even the man he was. You go to outsiders for help, but no outsider can help you now."
Suddenly, the sound of an explosion caught his attention, and M'Baku turned to see something erupt from the mountain in which the vibranium mine lay just before Grim Reaper's transport flew off. Seeing M'Baku's moment of distraction, T'Challa rose to his feet, and began to push against the assault of the sonic device that Man-Ape was using against him, even as M'Baku increased its intensity and tried to back away. "I am not the same man as my father M'Baku," T'Challa told the man as he raised his clawed glove and extended said claws. "For my rage, is greater!"
With that declaration, T'Challa drew his hand back and then unleashed a mighty slash onto M'Baku's chest, knocking the evil tyrant that threatened his home for so long down. When Man-Ape looked up again, barely able to rise, and just in time to see T'Challa crushing the sonic device beneath his boot and then proceed to stand over him once again, right in the perfect position to end his life. When he realized this, M'Baku immediately goaded, "Well what are you waiting for, cub? Claim your vengeance. That is what you want, yes? To end my life and avenge your father? Then do it."
T'Challa glared down at M'Baku, his fury towards the man building more and more with each passing second, and he could feel his fingers just itching to run the claws of his gloves through the man that murdered his father and nearly destroyed his home. He was fully prepared to end this man, but when he glanced over to the ones who had helped him get here, he saw Sora giving him a steady look that reminded him of the boy's words from earlier. Not only that, but he also saw that his sister had a sad, pleading look on her face, and he knew she was silently begging him to not bloody his hands like this. When he saw how those two were both looking at him, T'Challa finally understood what Sora was trying to tell him, and he simply lowered his claws, retracting them into his gloves as he did. "I will not kill you, M'Baku," T'Challa declared. "I am not the same man my father was, but I am also not a monster who would kill needlessly and without honor like you. If I were to end your life, then I would truly be disgracing my father's memory and legacy. Make no mistake though, you will face justice for your crimes against Wakanda, and our nation will never again have to fear your tyranny so long as I draw breath."
With his piece said, T'Challa reared his fist back and dealt one final blow to Man-Ape, knocking him out, right when the Wakandan people began to approach the arena to see what had happened for themselves. When he noticed his people had gathered here, T'Challa pointed an accusing finger at Man-Ape and shouted, "This is the man who has brought catastrophe to our land! The one who took your king through cowardice and dishonor!"
Everyone stared in silence for a few moments, until the shaman approached the edge of the circle and raised his staff and began to chant, "T'Challa! T'Challa! T'Challa!"
The chant was soon joined by the rest of T'Challa's people, and he raised a hand to the two royal guards who still stood ready to fight Captain America, Sora, and Shuri, immediately allowing them to stand down. After allowing the chant to continue for a few more moments, T'Challa crossed his arms over his chest, and shouted, "Wakanda forever!"
"Wakanda forever," the people replied as they repeated his salute.
"Wakanda forever," Shuri repeated, doing the same as her brother and people, before giving Sora a small look that implied he should do the same.
Sora was not opposed to doing so, and once he had dismissed his Keyblade, he immediately went to stand next to Shuri, crossed his arms like the Panther siblings had, and declared, "Wakanda forever!"
Captain America looked on in silence, not following his younger friend's example, but still showing his respect with a smile and salute to T'Challa all the same. At that very moment, the Black Panther had been reborn, and Wakanda's true king had freed his land.
Back inside the vibranium mine, Wasp was continuing to do her best to distract Klaw, but soon enough, the man turned sound form released a powerful sound wave that caused Jan to stop and cover her ears in a vain attempt to block out the sound, and things became even worse when the being rose out of the mountain and the wave spread to the rest of Wakanda, causing the people chanting outside, Captain America, Sora, Shuri and T'Challa to stop and cover their own ears as well. It probably would have escalated even further had a bright light not suddenly lit up the cavern right in front of Klaw's face. The sound monster let out a roar of agony as it moved to cover its eyes, and Janet had to wonder both who had done that, and how this thing could even still see when it did not appear to really have eyes. At least, not in the sense that she could tell.
She soon had at least one of her questions answered when someone garbed in a tan cloak that covered nearly all of their body, save for the bottom half of their legs and their black over-the-knee socks beneath tan knee-length sneaker boots raced out of the shadows and circled around Klaw from the opposite side of where she was. A moment later, the cloaked individual withdrew what looked like a large shuriken and tossed it directly at Klaw, hoping to get his attention for a moment. Her attack did not necessarily seem to hurt claw, but it did get his attention, since he turned and snarled in her direction. "You again," Klaw growled. "Rotten, interfering, interloper! You should've stayed in whatever hole you crawled out of!"
The figure just caught their shuriken on its return trip and gave a two-finger salute in return to Klaw before they turned to rushing around the mine in an effort to avoid getting hit by the sound monster. When they noticed Wasp watching them, the figure smiled and gave a little wave to the size-changer before redirecting Janet's attention onto the task at hand. Wasp was certainly not complaining, because whoever this person was, they were making her job of distracting this thing much easier. It did not stop her from mentally shouting for Hank and Tony to hurry the hell up though.
As that was going on, Tony was just finishing drilling a hole into some raw vibranium ore as he told Hank, "Honestly, I thought this plan would be a little more high-tech."
"The vibranium should contain the sound from Klaw's sonic emitter. There's just a small chance that the vibrational shockwave could cause destructive interference and then explode," Hank then warned Tony as the armored hero scooped up the vibranium he needed.
Tony paused to stare at Hank for a minute and then stood up as he said, "I heard destructive and explode."
"Of course we'll have to get to the emitter first," Hank then continued, almost like Iron Man had not said anything. "You'll have to fly into Klaw. It might…tingle…a lot."
"Great," Iron Man said sarcastically as he looked towards the sound form. He then leaped into the air and blasted towards Klaw at his maximum speed. The minute he was inside, he was bombarded with a massive amount of sound and commented, "This is less like tingled, and more like horrible pain!"
A minute after he had said that, J.A.R.V.I.S. had begun a countdown to structural integrity failure, and just when he reached two, Iron Man slammed the sonic emitter into the vibranium container, slapped the lid over it, and then ended up crashing down into the rocks behind Klaw. Shortly after, the sound form vanished, and Klaw emerged in its place, restored to his normal form. "I can't believe that worked," Hank softly exclaimed as the vibranium began to stop building energy and finally calm. "Tony, you did great! How do you feel," he then asked.
"Great, now make me stop vibrating," Iron Man replied, his voice as shaky as his body was at the moment due to flying through the sound form.
Janet could not help but giggle at their fearless leader's comment and situation, and then turned to try and find the person who had helped her distract Klaw. When she did though, Janet was surprised to see that whoever they were, the figure had already disappeared without a trace. She had to wonder if it was a Wakandan who was not willing to accept M'Baku as their leader, but somehow, she was not entirely sure that was the case.
A few minutes later, after Hank and Wasp had finally gotten Iron Man to stop vibrating, the three met up with T'Challa and their fellow Avengers in the Wakanda capital. Sora was just about to introduce Shuri to the other three, but before he could utter a word they were surrounded by Wakandan warriors once again. This time, none of them made an aggressive move against them, and instead decided to see how this would play out. "The true king of Wakanda has returned," the shaman from earlier declared as he stepped forward and kneeled before T'Challa. "Now we may purify our land of the outsiders and return to the old ways."
"Rise, my friend," T'Challa told the shaman as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Outsiders may have threatened Wakanda, but outsiders saved us as well. The old ways allowed Man-Ape to do this, and the old ways must change." As he said this, the warriors pointing weapons at the Avengers immediately stood down, and T'Challa then addressed the people. "My first order as king is to let the council lead Wakanda. A council of the people, headed up by my mother, Ramonda and my sister, Shuri. We can no longer hide ourselves away waiting for our enemies to come to us. What happens in Wakanda affects the world. So I will go out into the world, and I will fight alongside our new allies!"
Captain America nodded in acceptance of T'Challa when he said this while Sora smiled at both him and Shuri, but right when he was about to praise Shuri for her new job, Iron Man had to point out a few things to the Panther sibling who just decided that he would be joining the team. "You attacked us, you used us, you abandoned us, and now you want to join us? Why should we trust you," the armored hero asked.
"You shouldn't. I will earn your trust, should you allow me to join you," Black Panther offered as he stepped up to Iron Man.
Tony still did not seem willing to accept this, but then Wasp flew up to him and whispered, "He's probably our best bet for a ride home too."
"You're in," Tony then immediately said, and the two leaders shook hands, sealing the deal. Sora could only smile eager for the chance to be on a team with an actual king, until Shuri suddenly gave him a light punch in the arm.
"Be sure to look out for my brother, Sora, because I'll be coming after you if something happens to him," Shuri informed her new friend, but Sora could tell from her smile that she was joking.
"Something tells me that you'd have to get there before the rest of your nation's army," Sora joked in reply, earning a laugh from her in response.
"Which may be all the more reason why it is good that I am joining you," T'Challa interrupted, surprising the two a little. "If you will allow me, Sora, I can teach you how to become a better fighter. As I said, your current skills, while impressive, require a great deal of improvement, and I would consider it an honor to help one of the newest Keybearers to become a better warrior."
Sora was surprised by that offer, right to the point where he had barely registered that T'Challa was holding his hand out in hopes of sealing this deal with a handshake as well, but when it finally caught up with him, Sora could only grin as he accepted the offered hand and said, "The honor would be all mine, Your Highness."
Both Panther siblings laughed a little at Sora's reply, and while Tony was still scowling at T'Challa a little from behind the mask of his helmet, he was still able to come to the same silent conclusion as the rest of his team. Things at Avengers Mansion were going to get a lot more interesting with Black Panther now on board with them, and Sora was likely going to regret accepting that offer for training before he knew it. All the while, none of them suspected that the same person who had been watching Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Wasp all this time, and who helped Wasp keep Klaw distracted, was now staring down at the spiky haired boy in awe, hardly believing what she had just heard. The only thing that was more unbelievable to her was what she had seen the boy carrying a moment ago, but after she had gotten over her shock, she immediately grinned widely, and quietly commented, "Well, that makes it official. I've got to stick with these guys and the kid especially."
A few hours later, the Avengers had returned home with their newest member in a jet provided by T'Challa's people, and the moment that the jet had been raised up from the water in the hangar, they were all ready to just go right to bed and sleep off the excitement that they had just gone through for the next few days. That plan was quickly derailed when T'Challa looked to the back of the ship, pulled off his mask to show his smiling face, and said, "Doctor Pym, would you be so kind as to inform our stowaway that we have arrived, and perhaps help her to disembark from the jet in case she is still feeling woozy?"
"Huh," was the most intelligent reply that Hank had at that moment, but he still turned to the back of the plane and found the stowaway that T'Challa was talking about. A minute later, the rest of the Avengers were all watching as Hank guided the cloaked figure from the Vibranium mine down the boarding ramp and into the hangar, while said figured lightly groaned a bit as if they had an upset stomach. "I'm guessing you get a little airsick."
"Yeah, but it's a small price to pay for following through on what I had to do," the figure replied, and the sound of her voice definitely proved that this person was likely a young woman, probably just a little older than Sora. She then turned her attention to T'Challa and asked, "How'd you know I was back there, anyway?"
"Your airsickness gave you away before we had even left Wakandan airspace," Panther replied with an easy-going smile.
"Wait a minute. Back up. Do you know this person," Tony demanded.
"Yes. She appeared in Wakanda a few years ago. At first, we were not too eager to welcome her, but when she told us that her home had been lost my father felt that we could not turn her away. Ever since, she has not only been considered as one of the few outsiders to be welcome in Wakanda, but also as an honorary member of the Dora Milaje after she helped them to fend off a group of pirates that had invaded in the hopes of seizing the Vibranium," T'Challa explained with a smile.
"Wait, what exactly happened to your home," Janet asked.
"The same thing that I'm guessing had happened to the world of the chosen Keyblade Wielder over there. It was destroyed by the Heartless," the girl replied, her gaze clearly locking on to Sora when she mentioned a chosen Keyblade Wielder.
They were all shocked to hear that this person not only knew about the Heartless, but that she apparently knew about the Keyblade as well, or at least a little more beyond what the larger public knew. Still, the fact that she had so accurately guessed what had happened to Sora's world, and had called referenced the fact that he was from another world at all without a care in the world made them all wonder the very question that Sora eventually asked once he found his voice again. "Who are you?"
All remaining signs of motion sickness seemed to leave the girl after that, as she immediately straightened up, allowing everyone to see the smile on her face as she declared, "I'm glad you asked."
"Oh, here we go," T'Challa quietly groaned, indicated he had seen and heard whatever was about to happen next a few times before.
The girl then assumed what they could only assume she believed to be a dramatic pose, and began a little speech. "I am the champion of the earth and the sky. I am the conqueror of evil. The single white rose of Hollow Bastion…" At the moment that she paused, she finally cast off her cloak in a single, fluid motion, revealing herself to the Avengers in full at last, and allowing them to see a girl with a young face, short black hair, and wearing a black headband with white lining, an unzipped, dark grey combat vest over a navy blue tank top with white floral designs, dark shorts, a white wristband on her right arm, and a grey, fingerless glove on her left. "The great ninja Yuffie Kisaragi! Feast your eyes on…Whoa, whoa! OW!"
Part way through the last bit, Yuffie had ended up losing her footing as she tried to spin around in order to show off, and ended up banging her head against the deck railing of the hangar when she finally fell back, making each of the Avengers wince at the painful sight. Janet was the first to approach the girl, and immediately asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Trust me, I've taken worse hits," Yuffie reassured the size-changer while she rubbed the back of her head.
"Uh, is she always like this," Tony whispered to T'Challa.
"Unfortunately, yes for the most part, but it does prove rather entertaining from time to time," T'Challa replied, a tired smile slowly taking shape on his face.
"Hey! I heard that, Kitty-Cat," Yuffie retorted.
Sora and Steve could not suppress their amused snorts even if they had tried, but Tony made no effort to hide his amusement at all. "'Kitty-Cat,'" the Keybearer of the chuckling trio asked.
T'Challa merely groaned in reply before he said, "I thought I asked you to stop calling me that, Yuffie."
"And like I keep telling you, I'm gonna keep calling you that until you stop being a big old Kitty-Cat, or when you finally stop calling Shuri your baby sister," Yuffie easily replied, grinning all the while.
"I'm sorry, but is there a reason why you followed us here, Miss Kisaragi," Cap interrupted, finally asking the question that everyone was wondering.
"Well several reasons actually," Yuffie admitted, standing up straight once again. "First off, I overheard T'Challa say that he was going to help get the chosen one trained up a little more, and I figured, why settle for just one trainer when you can have two? I may not be Cloud Strife or Lightning Farron, but I do know a thing or two about martial arts that could come in handy for him. Second, I saw you guys fighting off the Wakandan army, those HYDRA goons, and even that freaky sound monster that Klaw turned into, and if I can just say one thing, you guys were incredible. I mean, sure, it's pretty obvious that some of you don't really know how to fight, but you've definitely got some sick moves and abilities that seem to make up for that…somewhat."
"Wait, you were spying on us," Tony asked, crossing his arms when he noticed how Yuffie looked at him when she mentioned some of them not knowing how to fight.
"Only because I was curious about the kind of backup that Kitty-Cat brought back with him when Shuri and I helped him get out of M'Baku's reach," Yuffie insisted. "Besides, I plan on going back home one day so that I can take back my world from the Heartless, and I know the rest of my friends are planning to do the same, wherever they are. Sure, I could probably go in with some new moves and abilities, but if I could possibly bring back some superhero backup, or at the very least, the Keyblade's chosen one, then all the better. Plus, you guys can't tell me you wouldn't mind having an extra hand or two catching all those bad guys that escaped from the supervillain prisons, can you?"
"So wait, are you saying you want to join us," Hank asked, incredulously.
"Mmm…Yep, that pretty much sums it up," Yuffie confirmed. "So, please?"
Everyone was silent for a moment, wondering whether or not it would be a good idea to include Yuffie on the team. Sure, she seemed competent enough, given what Wasp had said about the fighting abilities the ninja displayed in the Vibranium mine, and her stealth abilities had to be pretty good if she was able to keep out of most of their notice for so long now, but she was still really young, probably not much older than Sora. Including the Keybearer on their team had already left some of them feeling a little uneasy, so adding another kid to their line-up was not really something that sat well with many of them. Still, T'Challa seemed to indicate that she was more than able to handle herself since she had earned a place in Wakanda's Special Forces group, and if Yuffie was as skilled as she implied, she would likely be a big help in their future fights. All this made it really hard for the team to really decide one way or the other, at least for most of them.
"You're in," Sora agreed on behalf of the others, earning him surprised looks from his teammates. "What? Like we can really say no after all that she went through just to get here and ask? Besides, as cool as it is hanging out with all of you guys, it still wouldn't hurt to have teammates closer to my own age."
"Well, I guess that makes it official, right," Yuffie asked, grinning at the team in the hopes that they would say yes.
Iron Man glanced around for a minute, looking to see if anyone would object, and when he received none, he finally sighed and said, "Okay, sure. Welcome to the Avengers, Yuffie." That earned him a loud cheer from the ninja girl, who immediately hugged him in response as she said thank you several times over before dragging Sora off to the training room so that she could start showing him a few fighting techniques right away, and as they watched the two leave, Tony looked to the sky and muttered, "What did we just get ourselves into?"
AN: So as you have all probably noticed by now, quite a few things from the Black Panther movie found their way into this chapter, like T'Challa's sister, Shuri (who is sporting her battle attire from the movie, btw), a mention of Nakia, and of course, the Wakandan salute: Wakanda forever!
Black Panther&Shuri: Wakanda forever!
AN: Yeah, thank you, we got it. I had been planning on adding that into the chapter ever since I first saw it in the movie, and I automatically thought that it was just too cool to not add in. And stuff from that movie is not the only thing that made an appearance here. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for everyone's favorite ninja from Final Fantasy 7, Yuffie!
[audience applause]
Yeah, having Yuffie show up here serves a few different purposes. For one thing, it adds both another girl and someone closer to Sora's age to the Avengers, but also, I just felt that it was a little weird to just add in Sora to the Avengers' line-up and no one else from Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. Yes, Sora's still going to be a central figure in this story, as far as new additions to the team goes, but he's not going to be the only one there the entire time. At the moment though, Yuffie is the only Final Fantasy character that will be joining the Avengers, officially speaking, but don't worry, others will show up later on, including Tidus, Wakka, and a few other members of the Final Fantasy X crew as well, along with all the gang from Traverse Town. Just to be clear though, I made Yuffie at least a couple years older than Sora, so in this story, she's technically sixteen, and will be a junior when Tony gets her enrolled at Midtown.
Yuffie: Aw, do I have to?
Sora: Hey, if I have to endure that torture, then yes! You do too!
AN: Not quite how I would have put it, but still correct all the same. Btw, did everyone catch that little flashback to the days of the BBS trio? Because yeah, I had to include it in here, if for no other reason than to finally give Terra a proper debut into this story. Plus, that little scene between the three is actually one of my favorites from BBS since it shows that those three had been really close for such a long time, and through thick and thin at that, while showing just how much Terra and Aqua care about Ventus, whether it be as a good friend or as a surrogate little brother. Sure, you could also say that it shows something that could be considered as beginnings for a romantic relationship between Aqua and Ven, but like I said before, that's not a thing in this story.
Ventus: Okay, we get it.
AN: Just making sure, man. Don't get all up in a huff about it. You've already got the girl in the Keyblades Unleashed series, so that means that you and Aqua are together in two of my stories while Terra's technically only paired up with her in one. Be happy for that if nothing else.
Anyways, yeah, T'Challa and Yuffie are going to teach Sora a bit more on how to fight, so he can better hone his hand-to-hand and sword fighting abilities. Someone mentioned that I could have something like that happen for Sora here since Doctor Strange is going to be teaching him magic, and I had to admit, it definitely makes sense that Sora would go with that. I mean come on, you can't really say that someone would avoid getting that kind of training if they're living under the same roof as two very experienced, well-trained fighters. Three if you count Cap. Well, unless you're Iron Man.
Iron Man: Not funny.
AN: Said the guy that Cap knocked down to the mat several times over before he could even blink. But more on that later, there's another chapter for people to prepare for, and they likely want to know what's coming next. So, why keep them from the hint? Onto the Preview!...
Coming out of another round of training with Yuffie and T'Challa, Sora finds himself and his new ninja friend whisked away to another world at last, and it's not like anything he's expecting. An entire city that had been submerged underwater for thousands of years, explorers from the surface that claim to be looking for it for scientific purposes, but may be hiding ill intentions, and magic crystals with incredible abilities are just a few things that the two will find. Just what other wonders can they uncover, and how can the Heartless even think of threatening a place that seems as peaceful as this submerged civilization? Well in the case of the latter question, quite easily, since Sora and Yuffie find themselves dealing with said monsters almost right from the moment that they arrive, and they'll meet a couple other familiar faces as well while they're here. Discover a lost empire and more, in the next thrilling chapter.
Well, that's a wrap on that for now. And yeah, we're going to another world at last! Hooray! Until then...
Please read and review, and see ya real soon, fellow true believers!