Revamped!

[Not gonna lie, the end of this chapter made me numb when I wrote it so enjoy!] [2020: That's always nice to hear before reading something].


Chapter 77: Escaping SHIELD Island Part Four

SHIELD Island - 2 hours 27 Minutes till Detonation

At the sound of a sudden thunderstorm that encapsulates the entire island, Xavier, Emily, Daniel, and James all throw themselves to the ground for cover. Their first instinct is that Iqadi is making the storm but then they hear a burst of deep, roaring laughter that echoes through the jungle as the dark clouds settle. The group looks up, feeling content that they finally heard Apollo laugh like that for the first time since he arrived, yet at the same time, they still have to search for Iqadi and defeat their monster.

"Look!" Xavier says, standing on his feet.

He immediately points at the monster who's bent over and screeching. It suddenly dawns on the group that this threat of a monster has heightened senses due to its blindness. Because of the deafening and loud thunderstorm, its ears must be ringing like sirens.

Emily emits a high frequency that she and her friends can't hear but is making the monster suffer. It continues to writhe around, lashing its limbs at them. Daniel ducks behind a tree, not needing his Hulk to come out and draw more attention to his team from other inmates who already know they're here; same applies to James growing into a giant. James shrinks and flies around the monster in circles, constantly firing bioelectricity at it.

"James, get out!" Xavier exclaims.

James grows back to his natural size and dives out of the way. Once the monster's chest is exposed, Xavier whips his shield right at it. It pierces the monster and it falls over. Emily turns off her frequency and Xavier picks up his shield before they all continue trekking.

-o-

2 Hours and 02 Minutes Till Detonation

Angela, Merida, Imanu, and Apollo approach the beach at the other end of the island. Before their eyes, they see a jet in the middle of the sand. They could only assume that to be Iqadi's jet since it's a Wakandian structure. They can't help but feel closer to finding Iqadi because of her jet but what strikes them as odd is that Iqadi's jet has no damage to it although Iqadi crash-landed here.

"This makes no sense," Merida says as they all walk closer to the jet. "I know that as teenagers, we called Iqadi the embodiment of perfection but there's no way in hell she could crash her plane in such a pristine condition."

"Again," Angela mutters, "not fair."

Angela opens a panel on the plane's exterior and scans the internal compartments. Still, she sees nothing wrong with the jet.

"Everything is fine," Angela says. "Her computer and engine systems working perfectly."

"Turn on the exterior camera," Imanu orders.

Angela does so and turns her tablet around so they could view the footage together.

The video gives a perspective from the jet's dashboard. It shows a growing windstorm outside as Iqadi's behind the camera, trying to control a jet that's being forced down by something.

"I don't think she crash-landed," Apollo says.

"Neither do I," Angela says, adding an ultraviolet filter on the video to see if there are any details their naked eyes are missing.

The ultraviolet filter hues the video and now shows purple energy rays pulling Iqadi's jet down. Iqadi's jet slams on the sand and slides across the beach. The princess falls out of her pilot's seat and her head hits the controls before she falls to the ground.

Hours pass and Iqadi finally wakes up. She looks around and her first instinct is to exit the jet. Iqadi steps out onto the beach still dazed and confused as to what happened and where she is. She turns to the forest and sees a group of SHIELD Island's prison inmates coming out from behind the trees.

Iqadi yells in her dialect, her tone asking for help but nobody can understand her. The inmates all look at one another.

"This isn't a SHIELD agent," one inmate says.

"No…" Another one replies. "This is better. This is the Princess of Wakanda."

They walk closer to Iqadi, weapons drawn. Iqadi gets in her fighting stance and calls the elements before her camera crashes and the video ends.

"She was forced down," Merida says. "We can figure out why later but at least we know that she was alive at some point on this island."

"By whom?" Imanu questions. "Who on the island can force down an entire jet? The agents posted here?"

"A couple, actually, not counting the agents. They have that technology to accept supplies coming in from overhead without having a jet fly in."

They hear coughing coming from someone nearby. They raise their weapons and shield Imanu. A cough came from the sand and their first guess is that it's an inmate. When they get closer to check, they see that it's Iqadi lying under some broken tree branches, seeming unharmed.

"Iqadi!" Angela exclaims, pushing off the extra branches. "Someone comm the others!"

Iqadi rolls on her side, shoving a fist into the sand as she wheezes and gasps for air. She looks up to see who's there and the sun hits her eyes and she's immediately blinded. Iqadi ducks her head and once her eyes readjust to the brightness, she looks up again and instantly makes eye contact with Imanu.

She mutters something inaudible, likely in her dialect, and holds a hand out for Imanu. He steps forwards and takes it, feeling nothing but grateful that his wife is here and that she isn't dead. Imanu tightly grips her hand and proceeds to pull him up. To his surprise, Iqadi pulls him down and he lands on top of her. She kisses the hell out of Imanu, taking his face into hers passionately.

Imanu kisses her back and can't help but stare at her with slightly parted lips when they separate.

-o-

1 Hour and 51 Minutes Till Detonation

"According to our map of the island, the agents' headquarters should be here," Daniel says, pointing ahead at a rock wall.

James brushes away the vines and snaps them off, revealing a numeric entrance slot. He doesn't have the key to it but considering that the entire island has a security breach that Emily is still fixing, he blasts the lock off. James pushes the door open and they all enter.

"Is anyone here?" Xavier asks.

"Scanning for life," Emily says as her suit does the task. "Negative."

"As expected."

The group walks upstairs to where the control centre of the headquarters is. James blasts off the lock again so they enter. Right before their eyes, they see every agent assigned to this island dead and discarded on the ground. Everyone is silent, unsure of what to do with this.

"This is to psych us out," Xavier states, walking around the bodies to get to the island's controls.

"So they're not real?" Emily questions.

"Oh, they are. There's just no way in hell they all died here."

Emily says nothing afterwards since that all makes sense. The Xavier she knew before he went to The Academy wouldn't take that so easily, but Agent or Captain Rogers would. And he's right. There's no way that the agents were here at once. Some had to be on duty at various points along the island. It explains why they didn't run into any agents or their bodies on their way here. To wander from the morbid thought, Emily heads over to the controls to see if she can do anything with the timer set to blow up the island manually. She tries to rewire the system as the boys try to locate the others, Iqadi, and possible inmates through the island's camera system.

"Okay," Emily states. "Here's the best I could do. The clock is still ticking down for our sake and once the timer hits zero, the system goes back up and, if we're not out by then, we'll all be trapped here until the next agents arrive for their shift."

"We still have a lot of time," Xavier says. "We just need to find everyone else but all I'm getting on the feed is greenery and nothingness. This island is huge."

To all their surprises, there's a sudden pounding from the inside of one of the storage closets along with a series of blood-curdling screams. The group turns around, ready to fire their weapons but get distracted by a sudden thunderstorm on the island. Xavier and James cautiously go to the closet. James blasts it open and Iqadi stumbles out, still spazzing with her eyes opaque in white.

Iqadi falls to the ground, unable to breathe since her extreme claustrophobia started acting up while she was trapped in there. Once she sees that she no longer contained, she calms down and the storm only remains as dark clouds and heavy winds. Xavier pulls her up and holds her steady. They all see all the cuts on Iqadi's face and hands, blood staining her suit and clumping in her hair (unsure if it's even her blood).

Despite all that, Iqadi smiles.

"My friends…" Iqadi mutters, looking at them. "Or half of you, at least. Where am I? Where are we?"

"SHIELD's prison island," Xavier replies. "Are you okay?"

"Now I am."

"Angela," James calls over comms, "we have Iqadi."

Angela: What?! How could you?! We have Iqadi.

James looks at the others who all heard that, including Iqadi herself. Daniel finds the others on the live security feed and sees them on the beach with Iqadi and her jet. They're are skeptical as they all examine the Iqadis with them at the moment.

"I'm real," Iqadi says as Xavier takes a step back from her.

Nobody answers because they know that the Iqadi with the other team is doing the same.

-o-

1 Hour and 42 Minutes Till Detonation

Everyone on the beach holds their weapons firmly, still skeptical whether the Iqadi with them is the real Iqadi. Imanu steps back from Iqadi and her face drops and it breaks his heart. She sees her husband not trusting her, betraying her.

"Imanu, darling…" Iqadi mutters. "You believe that I'm your wife, don't you?"

They stare at each other, tensions rising exponentially. Imanu watches as the wind picks up and blows Iqadi's hair in front of her face. Imanu feels tears form in his eyes as he takes a deep breath.

Everything next happens in a matter of seconds.

Imanu takes his gun out, points it right at Iqadi, and fires until the empty weapon clicks. Tears pour down his cheeks as Angela, Merida, and Apollo scream, Angela runs over and leaps on Imanu, knocking him to the ground. Merida runs over to Iqadi who has fallen dead on the bloodstained sand before she got there.


[What a cliffhanger].