THWA: Glad you enjoyed it. It'll be in a bit. No, Kang will not be appearing.
TW: Glad to hear it.
Kwisatz Haderach: I wouldn't call it xenophobia as much as fear of change. Wakandians have been taught since birth that they hide for protection, it's ingrained in them. You can't change that overnight, it takes time. You'll see.
Ellie Bishop: There's always someone who will be unhappy. There's a reason the saying is 'heavy is the head that wears the crown'. It won't be easy, but Thor can do it. Yep LOL! Yeah, in hindsight, it's fun seeing Wanda and Bucky's relationship grow slowly. Yep. Yeah, eventually time is going to fight back.
Guest: Glad you enjoyed it. Yep, Hela will have more problems to deal with than just Thor this time around. Well the majority of Black Panther takes place around a week after the bombing in Vienna, so it's a decent question but I doubt it will ever get answered, as the MCU is really shying away from any of the big questions. Toomes was actually one of the more honorable villains in the MCU, he was actually one of the few bright spots of Homecoming. It's a shame that his good points were dismissed because he was against Tony and they never followed up on that tease at the end of Homecoming. Do not get me started on Phase Four.
Wakanda
Mid-afternoon
T'Challa was in the throne room, going over some forms, which were in holographic form. The Wakandian form of paperwork, a part of being king that T'Challa was already beginning to hate.
"Are you going to speak or just watch me work?" T'Challa said dryly, having noticed the presence in the room for quite some time.
"Merely trying to put my words together," W'Kabi said as he walked forward. "Permission to speak freely?"
"You never need my permission W'Kabi," T'Challa said as he dismissed the holograms, turning to his longtime friend, already having a good idea what this was about.
"I wanted change for Wakanda, and I knew you would bring it. But asking the Jibari to join the council and exposing our secret to the world? The man I knew would never do this. What has happened?" W'Kabi demanded and T'Challa was silent for a long moment.
"I have learned things W'Kabi. Things about my family, about the world. It has changed my perspective on…many things," T'Challa said wearily, knowing he couldn't explain everything to W'Kabi. "What I said was true; we cannot survive in hiding anymore. If we do not evolve with the rest of the world, it will destroy us. We will not be able to stop what is coming."
"What is coming?" W'Kabi demanded and T'Challa remained silent. "Now you keep secrets from me?"
"I am king now W'Kabi, there are things I can no longer tell you. But every decision I make, every action is for the benefit of Wakanda. Every single one," T'Challa said in a voice that left no room for argument.
But W'Kabi still argued. "And M'Baku? We cannot trust him."
"For too long have we allowed prejudice and different beliefs to divide us from the Jibari. I have given M'Baku a seat on the council, and this matter is not up for debate. If you wish to continue this discussion, you may bring it up at the next council meeting. But unless you have something else to add, you are dismissed," T'Challa ordered.
W'Kabi growled, knowing it was not a request from his friend but an order from his king. So, with a reluctant bow, W'Kabi stood and stormed out of the throne room. T'Challa watched him go, sensing the beginning of a rift with his oldest friend. He merely hoped capturing Klaue in this timeline would prevent W'Kabi from becoming a full blown traitor.
Brooklyn
Same time
Natasha looked around the restaurant Steve had brought her to. It was a cozy little Italian place, nothing too fancy but homey.
"Nice place. You come here often?" Natasha as she looked across the table at Steve.
"Ever since I was a kid," Steve said, surprising her. "This is one of the few restaurants that was around when I was young. The original owner was a friend of my mom; he always made sure I had something to eat. I tried to pay him back once but he refused. Now I stop in here from time to time."
Before the conversation could continue, their server came to take their orders. Steve and Natasha gave their orders and the server walked off. It didn't escape Natasha's notice how friendly Steve and their server, Enzo she saw from his name tag, were.
"You really do come here a lot," Natasha said with a slight smile.
"After I first came out of the ice, it was one of the few places I recognized as still standing. I'd come here whenever a mission took us to New York and we had a minute. Haven't been back here since…well, since Ultron," Steve mused, not sure whether he should feel guilty for that or not.
"Understandable. We've been busy since then," Natasha pointed out, as running and training the Avengers wasn't easy.
Steve nodded, although part of him felt like that was just an excuse. That maybe the man longing for the past had finally grown up. That he didn't need to long for the past anymore.
"So, any idea what Tony wanted to borrow Vision for?" Natasha asked, breaking Steve out of his thoughts.
"No. And do we really want to talk about Tony right now?" Steve asked and she shook her head.
"Not really," Natasha admitted and a silence that was both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time settled over them. "Why is this so awkward?"
"Because we're making it awkward. It doesn't have to be. This doesn't have to be some huge thing. We can take it slow Nat. For now, it's just a meal between two friends. It doesn't have to be anything else unless we make it," Steve said calmly and Natasha mused over his words.
"Alright. Just two friends sharing a meal. I think we can manage that," Natasha said, shooting a grin at Steve.
"After all we've been through, I hope so," Steve said with a chuckle.
Toomes's workshop
Not long after
Toomes was working on the wings of his suit, knowing they needed work after the last test flight if they were gonna pull off the next job.
"Hey Toomes," Shocker said as he approached. "I want to talk to you about the job."
"If this is about another raise-" Toomes began in a growl.
"No, nothing like that. I just had an idea," Toomes raised an eyebrow as he stopped what he was doing, turning around. "I have a cousin, he needs work. I was hoping to bring him in."
"We'll talk about that later. For now, we have a job to do," Toomes ordered. "I'm not bringing in any more for tonight's job. Now get ready, we take off in an hour."
Unseen to either of them, Scott, shrunken down in his suit, was a few feet away when he taped the Comms in his helmet.
"Hey, did you get that?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, I got it," Tony said with a heavy sigh.
"You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped," Scott awkwardly tried to comfort Tony.
"No, guess not," Tony said lowly and paused. "Stay in position. We're gonna stop Toomes before he and his crew head to their next heist."
Brooklyn
Same time
"She actually shot at you?" Natasha asked, pausing in her meal and staring at Steve in a mix of shock and horror as he recounted the story of how they found out if the shield worked or not.
"In front of Howard and several other soldiers," Steve admitted.
"And she was still allowed to train troops and participate in the planning of missions? If I had pulled a stunt like that, Fury would have had my head," Natasha said, disbelief winning out. "She could have killed you if the shield hadn't worked properly or anyone else in the room if the bullets had ricocheted off the shield."
"It was a different time. I don't think Peggy was actually trying to kill me, but you're right, I probably should have distanced myself after that," Steve mused. "Looking back, Peggy had a violent temper that I overlooked. I was just too caught in my feelings; I had never really felt like that about someone before."
"She was your first crush. You wanted her to be perfect, so you overlooked her flaws," Natasha noted and Steve didn't disagree.
"I realize now we were never meant to be, she was just my first love, not the love of my live", Steve said, rubbing his head. "Nat, I don't know where this will go, but I want to find out."
"Me too," Natasha said with a soft smile she had only ever given Clint and his family. "Just…don't break my heart?"
"I'll do everything I can not to," Steve said gently, seeing the rare vulnerability shining in Natasha's eyes.
He knew how hard it was for Natasha to let her guard down and open up to someone. And a voice that sounded suspiciously like Bucky asked him if she could let her guard down and open up her heart, why couldn't he?
For too long, he'd put people at a distance. No, not people, women. He'd cut himself off after coming out of the ice, refusing all Natasha's attempts to set him up on dates, almost starting something with Sharon but never really trying to seek her out after the Uprising of Hydra. And remaining completely oblivious to how Natasha felt about him when others were able to see it clear as day.
No more, Steve decided. No more playing it safe. Whether he and Nat crashed and burned or not, it wouldn't be because Steve was going to sabotage whatever was between them. Steve was going all in.
Toomes's workshop
Not long after
Toomes and his crew were getting ready for the heist when Shocker realized his Gauntlet was missing.
"Hey, anyone seen my Gauntlet?" Shocker asked.
"What's the matter can't keep track of your weapons, Shocker?" Toomes asked using the man's chosen alias mockingly.
Shocker growled before he spotted something that caused his jaw to drop to the floor. Near the door was his Gauntlet, being carried away by what could only be described as an army of ants.
"Uh oh," Scott said as he spotted this. "We've been spotted. Need back up!"
"What the Hell is that?" Toomes asked as he stared in disbelief.
"Whatever it is, it's getting away!" Shocker snarled.
"Not for long," another memory of Toomes's crew said as he pulled out the anti-Gravity gun and used it to stop the ants.
Seconds later, an energy beam shot out and struck the Anti-Gravity gun, knocking it out of the crewmember's hands. Toomes and his crew looked startled as the gun landed on the ground, blasted in two as Vision appeared visible to them.
"It would be wise to surrender now," Vision said calmly.
"What the fuck is an Avenger doing here?!" Shocker exclaimed.
As if in answer, Tony, in his Iron Man suit, came down through the open roof and landed in front of the crew.
"So that's what this is," Toomes said as he began to feel consumed by rage. "All that talk about amends and a new job, was any of it true?"
"Every word. You just didn't wanna hear it," Tony told him. "Last chance Adrian. Walk away, I can set you up with that job just like I promised. It doesn't have to be like this."
"I think it does Stark," Toomes sneered.
Another member of Toomes's crew then began firing the Chitauri gun at the two Avengers. Tony flew out of the way as the blast struck one out of the walls, creating a hole in it. Vision immediately rushed forward, tackling the man into the wall and yanking the gun from him.
With a snarl, Toomes took off into the air before firing his own Chitauri Gun at Tony. Tony did his best to dodge the beams from the gun even as the garage was being destroyed.
"You're gonna pay for everything you took from me Stark!" Toomes snarled as he flew towards Tony.
Tony dodged, flying up into the air before firing a repulsor beam at Toomes, which struck the Chitauri Gun. The weapon flew out of Toomes's hands before Tony flew in, kicking the wings and sending Toomes crashing into a work bench.
Shocker was trying to grab his gauntlet from the ants when Scott enlarged, kicking him in the back. Angry, Shocker turned around when Scott shrunk down. Shocker looked around confused when he found himself tossed over, hitting a peace of broken equipment face fist and getting knocked out.
"Yeah! How do you like that?!" Scott cheered.
Toomes roared in rage as he flew at Tony, tackling the armored Avenger and slamming him into the side of a wall.
"You've always been making it hard for guys like me. You don't care about who you hurt so long as you get what you want!" Toomes snarled. "You build yourself back up while you crush the rest of us! Someone has to stop you!"
Tony didn't respond, shooting a repulsor beam at Toomes's wings. The blast hit one of the fans in the wings and the resulting shockwave sent Toomes flying back, hitting the wall and falling to the floor. Grunting in pain, Toomes looked up, seeing one of his wings was completely trashed, looking like it had gone a few rounds with the world's biggest blender.
"Stay down, final warning," Tony said as he aimed his gauntlet at Toomes.
"What are you gonna do, kill me?" Toomes demanded as he got to his feet. "Go ahead, show everyone who you really are, hero."
For a long moment, Tony simply stared at Toomes from behind his visor. Then, Tony used his gauntlet to unleash a sonic wave at Toomes. Toomes fell to his knees, trying to block out the sound as he held his ears. Tony then flew over, slugging Toomes with his free hand. Tony caused his sonic attack as Toomes went down to the ground, out cold.
Tony stared down at Toomes for a moment before looking over his shoulder, seeing that while Scott had restrained Shocker, Vision had the other members of Toomes's crew unconscious. It was over.
Certain parts of Steve and Natasha's date were taken from Aragorn II Elessar's story 'Lost and Found' with his permission, although I modified it a bit to suit Steve and Natasha.
Like I said before, I don't consider myself a good writer of romance, so I apologize if the Steve/Natasha scenes sucked.
And now Toomes has been dealt with, so the first big threat has officially been taken off the board so to speak.
