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[Assistant]
Black to the Future
Uatu, the Watcher stands in his home on the moon. Suddenly, unexpectedly he is addressed from the ground. Uatu! What’s up buddy? He looks down, assuring the stranger that its presence is no surprise by any means. The small golden creature, one of King Solomon’s frogs, assures him he’s not trying to disrespect Uatu’s abilities. He’s been watching Uatu as long as he’s been watching him. He just wanted to know how it felt to feel his prediction come true.
The Watcher replies that, contrary to some misconceptions, he doesn’t see the future, nor does he travel through time like the frog. However, after observing the Earth since its creation, there are certain probabilities that are easy to calculate. He knew that once Storm and the Black Panther became husband and wife, that union would become the foundation of a dynasty… a dynasty that would rule the world.
the possible future:
High Tech Wakanda some decades in the future. A female Black Panther elegantly jumps over the rooftops enthusiastically cheered by the crowds. She is expected at the People’s Plaza in central Wakanda, where a wedding is taking place.
A little earlier in King T’Challa’s palace. T’Challa addresses three of his children, tall white-haired twin girls and a younger teenage boy, reminding them that today their brother is getting married. This wedding will not only make him happy, but will likely cement a Pax Africana. So, could they keep the family drama to a minimum? Yes, the kids obediently chorus. Good, now where’s their brother T’Wari? The kids look at each other embarrassed.
Queen Ororo is floating in the air amidst the birds. T’Challa calls her via comm-link. He warns her she is wearing herself out. No, she is renewing herself, she replies, before she has to smile and talk to all those people. She’s a nice girl, T’Challa tells her. That’s the politician in him talking, she chides him.
Walking outside the palace, he points out she is just a mother protecting her firstborn cub. As is her right and responsibility, she retorts. Nice isn’t enough for her prince.
T’Challa changes the subject. He called her because no one can find T’Wari. Even with all their tracking devices? Ororo asks. He defeats them all, comes the reply. That’s her boy, she states proudly. Well, T’Chaka is his, he reminds her, and he doesn’t want his day ruined by his pouty little brother. Ororo promises she’ll find him and flies off.
The twins protest they could have found him. T’Challa explains it’s not about finding him; it’s about the conversation when he’s found.
And so a little later… T’Wari angrily informs Ororo he is not going. Ororo lands gently and asks her son what is troubling him so much that he would insult his entire family as well as their new family. “New?” he asks scoffing. They grew up with the Cages! How can his brother marry a girl they were practically cousins with? Not long ago cousins did marry, Ororo points out and insists he tell her what’s really bothering him.
T’Wari admits he gets what this wedding is really about. It’s to give the Americans comfort. But why should they even bother? Why do they even care what they think? Because it’s right, Ororo replies with a smile. This is how Wakanda has saved its soul.
Flashback.:
Ororo reminds her son that Wakanda has not involved itself in the affairs of other nations unless it was absolutely necessary. The rise of European slavery sorely tested that policy. While Wakanda was virtually impenetrable from invasion, other African nations were targeted by pirates who trafficked in human lives. They acted without mercy. Battles were fierce, but the superior firepower of the Europeans gave them an advantage. Of course, every once in a while they faced firepower that they did not anticipate, such as another weather-controlling ancestor of Ororo, who fought them off.
In Wakanda, there was great debate over what to do. One of the King’s counselors insisted the Barbarians must be stopped. Which barbarians? another points out. The whites who buy humans, or the black who sell them? What’s his point, the first counselor asks. If you plan to solve this problem, be prepared to fight the world, comes the reply.
There was no easy solution, but there was only one answer. The king and chosen Black Panther decides that these developments are threatening the long-term interest of Wakanda and cannot continue to go on unchecked.
The first actions were subtle, Storm relates. Africans were bought and brought back to Wakanda, where they were trained for military acts. And so the war began. Slave ships sunk upon arrival in African harbors. Even if the culprit was captured, they had no idea who they really worked for.
African slavers (dressed like Europeans) meet to discuss the situation. One wonders if the Europeans are behind it. Why would they destroy their own property? another remarks. Maybe saboteurs… rivals… abolitionists. A last one states they know who is really behind it all. The others look at him, silent for a moment, none of them wanting to say the name. And if they tell the whites about them, then they will send them to fight them. And that is certain death.
Of course the slave traders were not going to have their business shut down by terrorism, so they tortured their African partners till one of them talked. Sure enough, this led to an army of Africans who were compelled to attack Wakanda… or be attacked by their European partners. Even after the tenth massacre, the Europeans would not stop.
Instead, alliances were formed. Business men and bureaucrats of different countries and different businesses began to whisper about a legendary African tribe that could not be defeated. It was understood that this had greater significance then the profitability of the slave trade. This was a challenge to their cultural heritage, to their continued dominance of the planet. Old rivalries were put aside to join forces to defeat the common threat.
Of course, Wakanda had spies in the corporate boardroom and the halls of parliament, so they knew trouble was coming.
The Panther faced a terrible decision. Wakanda was a mighty land, with wealth and weaponry that the rest of the world could not dream of. But to take on the rest of the world… alone? Was that fair to his people?
His advisors nervously address him. One of them points out that they cannot afford to look weak. The Europeans will attack them whether the Wakandans stand down or not. The other remarks that in spite of the righteousness of their cause what does it say to the king that no nation will stand with Wakanda… not even their fellow Africans? Why should they pay the price for this world of sin?
The first one insists that this world needs cleaning up. If Wakanda doesn’t put the world on a righteous path now, it will eventually corrupt them. The other retorts that while his colleague’s intentions are pure, the act of conquering and ruling the world will inevitably lead to a corruption of the soul that makes them the same as those who they oppose.
The Panther finally turns around, announcing he has a solution.
And so a message was sent, from London, England, to Washington DC to the West Indies… every branch of the slave trade… was touched… all the nation leaders woke up in their beds to find a message next to them. Some decided to still continue, deciding they would not be threatened by savages. While others like Abraham Lincoln decided to take up the Panther on this.
Present.
So what is she saying, T’Wari snorts, that his great-great-great whatever was a coward… or a sell-out?
His mother admonishes him to mind his tone and the boy apologizes. Second of all, she continues, she doesn’t understand why he still doesn’t have a better grasp of politics… or power. He had the greatest instructors in the world. Wakanda is not just a nation. It is a culture. If they sacrifice their values to protect the nation, they have already lost.
But why the accommodationist stance? he asks. They are a warrior people. A warrior is not a bully, Ororo drives home. Wakanda could have gone to war with the world, maybe they would have won, maybe they would have lost, but the very act of attacking all of the major western powers and their puppet states in Africa would require a ruthlessness that would threaten the moral fiber of the nation.
Instead, the decision was made to take a long-term view. Even if it took centuries, the world would eventually recognize that the Wakandan way is the correct path. And if not, God bless them, for they would not survive.
Why? T’Wari asks. Because man recognizes good? He doesn’t see many examples of that. Because a true warrior recognizes all of his strengths, Storm replies, and love is the mightiest weapon of all. She reminds him of how love makes people see beyond artificial boundaries of race to recognize the humanity of the others. The power of African art – referring for example to music – an expression of love - has seduced the world many times over. Mahatma Gandhi toppled an empire using love. Martin Luther King transformed a nation.
Her son replies cynically that he knows she is not really trying to sell him on that “love conquers all” thing. Her history as a warrior is, well… Does she even know how many peoples she’s struck with lightning? Swept up in tornadoes? Stabbed in knife fights? Unphased, Storm replies that she never even tried to count before… but that’s not the point. It is the point T’Wari retorts. Wakanda has maintained its cultural integrity because of its military might. Every generation a world power tries to conquer them… and Wakanda beats the snot out of them. And she was there leading the charge alongside his father for the greatest battle they ever fought. They took on the United States… and won!
It was horrible, she recalls. The whole world was at war. Fighting one another. It made the first superhero Civil War look quaint by comparison. But they gave Wakanda no choice, T’Wari insists.
Flashback:
After securing what they called a Pax Americana they (heroes like the Avengers, the FF and the Silver Surfer) turned their attention to international targets. Their first targets were easy ones to rally international support behind, even though the precedent was dangerous. No tears were shed over the death of Doom. Nor the destruction of Atlantis which was literally out of everyone’s eyesight.
The Black Panther’s close relationship with the U.S kept Wakanda off the target list for a while, but inevitably, any autonomous power with Wakanda’s resources and the ability to defend them was too much for them to tolerate and Stark and T’Challa fought. Eventually, war – soldiers in Iron Men suits – came to Wakanda’s doorsteps.
In their arrogance, they didn’t believe Wakanda was ready when suddenly the Iron Men were attacked by a giant mechanical Panther. Yes, they did underestimate Wakanda, Storm agrees. So… silly. When the Iron Men tried to kill it, it blew them apart. The final battle between the huge Iron Man and the Panther was brutal. When the Panther robot attacked the throat of the Iron Man machine, they made a terrible discovery. Stark was so bonded with his avatar that he received all of its injuries. Whatever their differences, they never wanted to end Tony’s life.
The death of Tony Stark shocked the whole world into rethinking the entire strategy of a global police force. Without Stark, they couldn’t execute it anyway.
In his last act as reigning Black Panther before he retired, T’Challa forged a peace agreement that lasts to this day.
And how does Aunt Shuri feel about being saddled with such an agreement just before she ascended the title? T’Wari asks grimly. Why doesn’t he ask her, Storm retorts. She says she never imagined she would become the Black Panther, let alone the most powerful one history.
But she knows how Auntie is, he mocks, always grateful and referential to T’Challa and Ororo. His mother sternly reminds him that his aunt is the first woman in over a century to win the right to wear a Panther’s vestment. Does he really think she lacks strength or integrity?
No, he admits. Now can they stop pretending his snit is about politics and deal with the real issue, she suggests. He has a crush on his brother’s bride to be. Always has, since they were kids. T’Wari is shocked. He’s the great warrior, Ororo points out, but he’s shy in social situations. His brother swept Danielle off her feet while T’Wari was still thinking about what to say. And he’s resented it ever since.
That’s not true, he replies weakly. Does she even think they are a good couple? They are well suited for each other, Ororo admits. The perfect woman waits for T’Wari too, but Ororo never believed it was Danielle. She asks him to come and flies away with him.
And so, a little later, in front of families, politicians and heroes Shuri, the Black Panther marries T’Chaka and Danielle Cage.
The crowd cheers as the newlyweds kiss. “Mister President,” Storm jokingly addresses the father of the bride. Who’d a thunk it, the former Power Man replies. Given his sterling leadership of the Avengers why not? T’Challa asks. After T’Challa kicked everybody’s butt, Luke replies, they were so desperate for someone who could deal with him, they didn’t even hold Luke’s prison record against him.
And a female Black Panther, smart move, he tells T’Challa. A real crowd pleaser. That frees him up to make the big moves without the spotlight on him. T’Challa replies that Shuri is doing a great job. He just helps where he can. Riiiight, Ororo and Luke chorus.
T’Wari addresses his brother T’Chaka, apologizing for his earlier tantrum and assuring him he is truly happy for him. No need for explanations, T’Chaka replies. He is here, that’s all that matters. T’Wari asks Danielle to look out for his brother. Danielle takes his hand and assures him he has been her brother all his life. Now they are going to act like strangers? She doesn’t think so.
Well, looks like that train wreck was averted, Luke observes. The four greatest words in the universe: Let Storm handle it, T’Challa agrees.
Ororo wonders whether that was a compliment or… Let him make it clear, her husband tells her and kisses his wife.
past:
Wait, is he telling him that’s going to happen? one of King Solomon’s frogs asks the other. “No, yes,” comes the reply. It is a possible future. He knows how alternate timelines work. They can’t have Wakandans rule the world, the other one replies. He doesn’t need to tell him that, the second one replies and tells him to shush. King Solomon is approaching.
Ah, there you are, the king exclaims and takes up one of the frogs. He thought he had lost them. If only he knew where they keep sneaking off to…


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[Assistant]
The Deadliest of the Species – part 1
Wakanda…Queen Ororo, also known as the X-Man Storm, is taking part in a visit to Wakanda’s rural districts. Her advisor M’dira believes appearances like this go a long way to getting average Wakandans to understand how much Ororo cares about their welfare. Ororo has less faith in PR, but accedes. She gives orders to leave the security detail outside. She doesn’t want the people to think she needs protection.
A speaker introduces her as X-Man and wife of their king.
The crowd unexpectedly admires her. It’s good to be king! a young man sighs. This is a pleasant surprise, Ororo whispers to M’dira, who explains that the rural Wakandans love the royal family.
Storm addresses the people, rather than boring them with a lecture she’d rather take their questions. The crowd asks about how she and T’Challa met and her family to questions when she is going to get pregnant.
The next moment, they point at the sky, shouting the king is returning. They recognize his ship this far away? Storm wonders.
However, something is wrong with the ship which gives off an automated mayday signal but doesn’t answer to radio contact. It heads for the city, about to crash.
Ororo flies upward, trying to use her winds to brace the ship but it moves too fast and crashes within the city. The army and the ambulances arrive soon, as does Storm. S’yan holds her back. He knows she wants to blast that thing open, but let the professionals do their job. Helplessly, she asks if he is in there. Let’s hope not, he replies darkly.
She steps in after them, and finds her injured husband muttering, it was an ambush. They never stood a chance. No! she cries heplessly as he sinks down.
flashbackFive hours ago:King T’Challa, accompanied by his bodyguards / ceremonial wives-in-training, the Dora Milaje, was in his highspeed ship which landed in front of an old European castle somewhere at the foot of mountains. They see the person they’ve come to meet swimming in as fast as they are flying.
The Black Panther is welcomed by a butler and he and the Dora Milaje are led to a pool within the castle out of which King Namor flies up. He welcomes T’Challa as a friend. They shake hands as Namor tells him he appreciates him coming on such short notice. They have much to discuss.
Present:The Wakandan royal castle. T’Challa’s mother Ramonda hurries outside, telling her daughter Shuri to hurry up or she is leaving without her. A highspeed vessel takes them to the hospital, where Ramonda is furious when she learns the doctors won’t release any information on her son’s current state. Where is he? she asks the politicians. S’yan asks her to let the doctors do their work. Move! Ramonda orders.
Suddenly, Ororo enters, telling them it’s okay and to let Ramonda in. As if they could stop her she huffs. Shuri asks what’s going on: They see for themselves a moment later: the badly injured T’Challa with the doctors working on him. Who did that? is the question.
flashback:Four hours ago the two heads of state sat down to talk as Namor reminisces that much has changes since they last talked. T’Challa agrees. Then he knows of whom he speaks, Namor remarks. Norman Osborn, T’Challa replies. His rise to power is a curious development, even by western standards. Which is why he called him here, Namor replies. Osborn has reached out. Made certain offers, certain overtures and a few of them have accepted. Doom, Loki, Emma Frost, the Hood, Namor himself.
He finds himself in interesting company, T’Challa observes. Osborn is a madman, comes the reply. The alliance will not hold. Which is exactly why he wants the Black Panther at the table, so that when things inevitably fall apart, leveller heads might guide the course of action.
T’Challa reminds him he did not join the Illuminati – an alliance of honorable men. Why would he join their Cabal? For Wakanda’s sake, Namor replies. A fickle wind blows, a storm is coming that will envelop everything within its path, even the sturdiest trees.
The Panther replies that weeks ago Skrull soldiers proclaimed themselves a hurricaine that would erase Wakanda from the map. Wakanda made widows of their wives and orphans of their children.
Namor gets up, he asked T’Challa here out of respect for their friendship. He hopes he will rethink his position while there is still time. His past allies are weak. In this new world Wakanda will be an island. They shake hands. Wakanda has always been an island, T’Challa tells him. Namor tells him goodbye and leaves.
Present:At the hospital Dr. B’gali comes to give the waiting ones the news. It’s too early to tell, he admits. T’Challa is in critical condition and currently in a coma. They are doing everything they can. Ramonda orders up-to-the minute reports. She wants to know any change in her son’s condition. Ororo looks at the tank holding her husband and turns away crying.
Sy’an tells the others it is time to have the conversation no one wants to have. Ramonda refuses at first, stating they don’t know yet. Here’s what they do know, he insists. Their king is in a coma. His bodyguards, the Dora Milaje, are missing or dead. And whoever did this to him must know he is too incapacitated, possibly dead, and might be ready to storm at Wakanda’s gate any moment. No one wants to discuss the worst case scenario, but they cannot avoid the obvious. As of this moment Wakanda has no Black Panther. What is he getting at? Shuri asks. He replies they must initiate the protocols. The queen mother knows he is correct. She agrees. Tradition and the safety of their nation demand a new Black Panther. The only question is who?
Three hours ago:The Black Panther and the Dora Milaje stepped out of the castle to face Doctor Doom and several of his robot creations. Unsurprised, T’Challa remarks he takes the wild guess Doom is not here to recruit him. Why bother? comes the reply. Doom knows what his answer would be. Then again diplomacy never has been his strong suit. Or T’Challa’s, he might add. Both of them have always preferred the direct approach.He’d hoped his wife could be here for this but he supposes his concubines will have to do.
The Dora Milaje draw their weapons as T’Challa warns Doom they are more than he can handle. Is that so? Doom asks. They are about to find out!


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[Assistant]
The Deadliest of the Species – part 2
The Queen Mother, Princess Shuri, Queen Ororo and several Wakandan government officials are gathered around a table, waiting for the royal physician B’gali to announce the state of the heavily injured King T’Challa. He informs them that his condition is tenuous, at best. He might not survive the night.
Silence greets his pronouncement. S’yan briefly thanks Dr. B’gali. With the doctor gone, Ramonda announces they have a great responsibility to T’Challa and Wakanda. Rumors of his conditions spread like wildfire. And whoever attacked him could be planning an invasion as they speak.
Let them come! Shuri announces, just because he’s down doesn’t mean Wakanda is defenseless. Her mother reminds her that the Black Panther is more than just the head of their military. He is the focal point, the spiritual grounding that has allowed them to thrive as a people for centuries. Without the Black Panther Wakanda cannot survive!
They still have one, Ororo corrects her. S’yan replies that T’Challa’s fate is in the hands of the Panther God now. Wakanda’s is in theirs. Or more specifically, in Ororo’s, the queen mother points out. S’yan agrees. Wakandan protocol dictates that leadership falls into the hands of the Queen until such time as the king can return. But since he is incapacitated, a new Black Panther must be chosen.
Ororo agrees and asks W’kabi why they don’t have more information on who T’Challa was meeting with. The giant warrior replies the king didn’t tell anyone and deactivated all of the tracking devices on the ship. S’yan announces they are poring over the wreckage and are checking satellite footage.
Ororo demands reports of their progress. She orders W’kabi to fortify Wakanda’s defenses immediately and alert their spies to keep an eye out for any indication of an attack. She wants all their field agents looking for who might be behind this. He leaves to do so.
Ororo announces their next task is to find the next Black Panther. S’yan had assumed it was her. Ororo corrects him that she is Queen of Wakanda, not the next Black Panther candidate by default. She will do everything in her power to assure that Wakanda is protected but her place is at her husband’s side. To find the new Black Panther, they need not leave this room. It is up to the Panther god to make the final choice but it is her belief that she stands among them. Someone who’s been trained for this moment her whole life. Everybody realizes she is talking about T’Challa’s younger sister, Shuri.
The queen mother immediately suggests she should take some time to consider all the factors, ignoring the withering glare her daughter shoots her. Ororo states her counsel is noted. The candidate is named. She tells Shuri to report to Zuri at once. She will immediately prepare to meet the Panther god and be judged by him. Shuri agrees and thanks her. Ororo seriously asks her not to thank her. More importantly don’t fail!
Three hours ago:
The Black Panther and two of his Dora Milaje were attacked by Dr. Doom leading several doombots. Doom announces T’Challa has no idea how much it pleases him that Doom will personally end his life. That will not happen, comes the reply. For all his posturing Doom has always been weak and now the Dora Milaje have had time to size up the situation, he is dead! He just doesn’t know it yet.
One of the warrior women attacks but Doom uses a shield to fend off her attack.
While she keeps him busy, the other Dora Milaje orders the plane’s autopilot to shoot the domboots. The second woman pushes the Panther ahead, telling him not to stop. Getting him to safety is the only thing that matters.
The other Dora Milaje attacks Doom fiercely and cleverly, even drawing blood.
The Panther refuses, shouting they must stay and fight! His bodyguard threatens that he either move or he will be carried away! No, she mutters a moment later, as even more robots emerge from the castle.
Present:
The Queen Mother Ramonda addresses Ororo, warning her Shuri is not ready. Not ready? Ororo interrupts her and reminds Ramonda her daughter is Wakandan royalty born and bred. She is the daughter of T’Chaka, the former King of Wakanda, and one of the greatest to ever don the habit of Black Panther. She has enjoyed the same education and training as T’Challa. Had he not claimed the mantle first, doubtlessly they would be addressing Shuri as the Black Panther today. Still, Ramonda fears, she is not ready for the challenges that lie ahead. Storm insists Shuri has been trained since birth to be the Panther. She’s ready now. Departing, she warns Ramonda not to cripple her daughter with her doubts.
Flashback, three hours ago:
One Dora Milaje is viciously fighting the robots, even attacking Doom himself. The other one notes the guns have stopped firing as she and the Panther have reached the plane. She calls for the autopilot, to find it is disabled.
The first Dor Milaje stands over Doom’s corpse, only to find it too is a robot. She calls after the others that it is a trap!
As T’Challa and the other Dora Milaje enter the plane they find the real Doom standing before them. His hand crackles with energy and Doom announces that upon T’Challa’s death he will raze his beloved Wakanda and wipe his legacy from the minds of its people. His only regret is T’Challa won’t be around to see it happen!
Another decoy? the Dora Milaje asks. No, the Panther replies curtly, it’s him. Doom fires at him.
The Dora Milaje outside the plane sees the detonation. Before Doom can finish the Black Panther and the second Dora Milaje off the first one fires at him from behind and orders her sister to go. She has ten seconds!
The second Dora Milaje picks up the heavily injured T’Challa and drags him to the plane. Doom has the other Dora Milaje by the throat as the plane takes off. Her death will not be a quick one, he promises. Go to hell! she replies and presses a button on her belt. An explosion takes her and also damages the plane.  Only Doom is left standing.
Aboard the plane, the injured Dora Milaje switches on the autopilot and sets the course for home. She turns to the burned T’Challa. Her swordsister is gone. She pleads with him not to leave her…
Present:
Ororo looks at her still husband in the tank and pleads the same. Ramonda joins her, telling her he needs her more than ever. But is she doing enough? Ororo wonders. She’s doing everything physically possible, comes the reply. It’s only natural that she worries and pressures herself.
T’Challa always pulls through, Ororo replies. He’s the strongest human being she’s ever known. She’s never seen him so weak. Something is happening. This time she is afraid for all of them. She would do anything to save him.
Does she mean that? Ramonda asks. With all her heart! Ororo promises. After some consideration, Ramonda reveals there is one last hope of bringing him back from the brink. It is so dangerous a road that she dared not speak of it in front of the others. She doesn’t care if she has to go to hell itself, Ororo replies, tell her what she knows!
Meanwhile on the far side of the African continent. A group of men in a circle sense that the Panther from which Wakanda draws its strength lies before them like a wounded gazelle. They must seize the opportunity and uncage the lion…


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The Deadliest of the Species -  part 3
Memories. Interspersed with blackness. One Dora Milaje desperately tries to fight back against Doctor Doom. An explosion.
"No!" With that cry, T'Challa awakes. Don't fear, beloved, the Dora Milaje, who appears before him tries to soothe him. She is here to take him home.
Somewhere in a small isolated hut in Wakanda. The old man Zawavari tells the Queen Mother Ramonda, who has brought Ororo here, that this is a surprise. He knows why they've come, Ramonda replies. Of course, comes the reply, he usually expects to see people only during a crisis. But T'Challa's always been uncomfortable with the old ways. What does she believe?
That nothing in life is certain, the Queen Mother replies. She will look anywhere for answers when her son's life is at stake. Will he help them? He will not, Zawavari replies but he will enable them to help themselves. At what prize? Ramonda asks.  Zawavari just grins and tells her to consider it a favor. As always, he lives to serve.
He explains that T'Challa's spirit is in limbo - the world between the living and dead. A wandering spirit cannot find its own way home. Someone must serve as a guide. A living person with a powerful lifeforce. He will transport Queen Ororo's spirit out of her body and into that place. The rest is up to her.
Ororo asks if the panther god might aid on this mission. The gods do not interfere in the affairs of the mortal world, comes the reply. Life and death are the natural order. Nothing more. To attempt to cheat death is to aspire to godhood. The ritual they are about to invoke is extremely dangerous. Is she sure she is up to it? Tell her what to do, is the reply.
Well, that's the thing, the old man replies He hasn't done this in over a century, so-- So tell her what he does know, Ororo stresses impatiently. Her task won't be easy, he warns. The tug of the afterlife is very strong. The longer one stays there, the more powerful the gravity. And there are rules. What she is about to face is the ultimate test of her resolve. Ramonda orders him to get to it. Just tell her. As she wishes, he replies with a smirk.
Meanwhile, Shuri is climbing a mountain. What might seem a challenge to others is rather disappointing to her, seeing as how Zuri warned her she'd be facing the greatest challenges on the path to the panther god. Please. Walking barefoot across fire - she was doing that for fun when she was twelve. Dodging arrows and spears - did that when she was eleven. Meditating for six hours in a scorpion filled pit - boring. And now rocks. She climbs rocks for -- The rock in her hand breaks off, interrupting her soliloquy. Instead of falling, she elegantly somersault until she can hold on to another ledge. Okay, she tells herself. Object lesson on overconfidence: don't mock the difficulties of a physical trial when the supernatural is involved. Come on, you were born for this! she tells herself. This is yours by right. Go get it!
Meanwhile, on the far side of the African continent, chanting men in a circle have called a being who appears surrounded by smoke. A powerfully built naked man with glowing eyes. Welcome, Morlun, one of them greets him. He thirsts, Morlun replies. They have just the thing to quench that thirst, he is told and he orders them to tell him.
Meanwhile, Zavawari whispers the conditions of the spell into Ororo's ear. There's always a catch, isn't there? she asks. It's the way of the universe, he agrees. So be it, she tells him. Let's get started. The wizard smiles.
Elsewhere, Shuri has finally reached the mountain top. Bigger mountain than she thought, she admits. Add that to the list of things mother thinks she canï¿½t do. So what else have they got? she asks with a cocky grin that falters a moment later.  The panther herb is surrounded and guarded by a horde of panther. Twenty-five of them, she counts. Taking catnaps round the herb. Beautiful and hers for the taking. Again she grins.
Morlun draws the life energy from those who summoned him. Their sacrifice is appreciated he remarks wryly. Now he has bigger game...
Elsewhere:
But she s dead! T'Challa tells the Dora Milaje. Of course, she agrees, She died for him. He knows where he is, doesn't he? Is this what it looks like? he asks. He didn't make it, she agrees. His injuries were too severe. No, T'Challa insists. Not like this. Like what? she asks. Did he really expect to die in bed? A man like him?
Gently, she strokes his face and asks him to let go. He is about to transition to a higher plane of consciousness. The petty concerns of his previous life will shrink to insignificance soon. No, he insists. His country, his family is in danger.  She smiles. The time for things like that is past. Now come. Where? he asks. She takes his hand and leads him toward a light. To his reward.
Elsewhere, Ororo has lain down. The wizard instructs her that she must keep T'Challa on the forefront of her consciousness. That's the only way she will find him. Her heart must lead the way. Concentrate on her husband. On her love. On what connects them both, he will handle the rest. He swallows bird's blood and the spell begins.
Ororo remembers how they met as teenagers, how they got married.
Elsewhere, Shuri tries to sneak past the sleeping Panthers and grabs the herb. Of course, the moment she touches it, the panthers awake and begin to growl. She jumps aside and dares them to get her. One jumps at her but she jumps down the slope and grabs a vine. Triumphantly she clutches the herb. Time to meet the panther god.
Elsewhere T'Challa stands facing the light. Doesn't it feel good? the Dora Milaje asks. Yes, he agrees, it warms his bones but-- He looks at her eyes, suddenly seeing death reflected within. He shoves here away and finally sees her true form, that of Death. Doesn't he trust her? Death asks.


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The Deadliest of the Species – part 4
Kingdom of the Man Ape:
T’Challa’s old enemy, the Man Ape, hears of the Black Panther’s death from his spy network and cheers. He has no time to enjoy his triumph though, as a moment later he is informed they are under attack. The Man-Ape sighs, figuring the rabble is looking for the next king to topple. Who is the aggressor? Wakandans? Nigerians? Americans? Neither a mob nor an army, he is told… Death is coming. A glowing man has killed the Man-Ape’s soldiers, Morlun, Devourer of Totems. The soldiers stand their ground for their king only to be consumed until it is the King’s turn who doesn’t stand a chance either.
A little later, a messenger who fled in time informs W’kabi and S’yan of Wakanda of what happened (though certainly speaking nicer of the Man-Ape’s role). He explains that Morlun sucked the very life essence out of him. Feasted on his mind and body, until all that remained were ashes. So how did he survive? W’kabi asks pointedly. With his dying breath, his king bade him leave, the messenger claims, to spread the word that he had died bravely in battle and to find some way to avenge his death.
Why come here? he is next asked. His master wasn’t fond of the Black Panther. They were both proud warrior kings, the messenger claims. They were more alike than different. His lord would never want a brother king to fall to evil without a warning and without a fight. Besides, he knows that with proper warning Wakanda would erect adequate defenses to stop Morlun and that the generous nation of Wakana would protect and reward someone who provides information that might aid their people…
S’yan orders W’kabi to put their forces on defense alert alpha. And have their network verify the man’s story. Under four eyes, S’yan tells him he fears they could be facing a tidal wave of refugees at the very time they should be closing their border. Better assume the worst and be prepared for it.
On another plane of reality, Death orders the Black Panther who refuses to come, insisting it’s not his time. Death tells him he will find no peace in the waking world, no justice. Nothing he could have done matters in the end. His life is over. It’s time to enjoy his just reward T’Challa thanks him, then refuses. His wife and his nation need him. He will not go. Perhaps there is another who can change his mind, Death decides and his father T’Chaka appears before him.
In Wakanda, S’yan is informed that the queen was last seen leaving with the queen mother. The tracking chip on the vehicle was disabled but they had them on satellite. Early reading suggests… S’yan angrily shouts not even the queen mother would think to look for answers there!
Soon, S’yan arrives at Zawavari’s cottage. Zawavari inform him he has a patient now. If he’d like to make an appointment… S’yan orders him to open the door or he will personally burn this place to the ground. Persuaded, Zawavari lets him in.
What is he doing here? Ramonda exclaims, seeing her brother-in-law. Isn’t that what he should be asking her, he retorts. T’Challa will nail all their hides to the wall when he learns that she consulted with this crackpot. She will do whatever it takes, Ramonda replies simply. S’yan wants to speak with the queen and asks were she is. Indisposed, comes the evasive reply. They don’t have time for that, he shouts out. The people think their king is dead! The queen needs to address the nation and allay the fears of the people, lest they have a panic on their hands. That’s a lot more important than wasting time on mystic mumbo jumbo that—Enough! she interrupts him and reminds him she is the queen mother and he will do as she says.
A silent contest of will follows, then he gives in and apologizes. Until her son and Ororo return, she will govern in their stead, she announces. Still, S’yan insists that relying on this crackpot’s voodoo is madness. He may be right, she concedes, but it’s the only hope they have. She’d better be right, he warns her. If she’s wrong her newfound authority will be short-lived.
As he leaves, Ramonda warns Zawavari, who witnessed the exchange amused, that this had better work. All he can do is open the door, the shaman replies. The rest is up to them.
Elsewhere in the palace, Zuri speaks to Shuri. They know she’s trained hard and is as ready as anyone could be. But there is no way to truly prepare for the unexpected. Warriors and kings know this. She knows this. S’yan joins them and sees everything is ready. They may begin. Zuri explains to Shuri that, once she ingests the herb, she will commune directly with  the Panther God. She is ready, but take nothing for granted, he warns her. Nothing is certain, even now.
Where is her mother? Shuri demands. She can’t be here, S’yan replies curtly. Can’t or doesn’t want to? Shuri pouts. S’yan orders her to grow up or her petulance will be the death of them all! She promises she is ready and bites into the herb. A moment later, she falls back unconscious. What now? S’yan asks. Now they wait, comes the reply.
On the astral plane:
T’Challa withdraws from his father. He’s not real, he states. He is, T’Chaka assures him. He’s been watching over him all his life and he’s so proud of the man he’s become. He touches T’Challa’s shoulder. The man he knew he’d become. And T’Challa acquiesces.
The Panther God’s realm:
Shuri finds herself on another plane of existence too, staring up at the giant white Panther God. “Oh my” she mutters and then stutters out a “hello.” Crouching in front of the Panther God, Shuri explains she’s prepared for this moment her whole life, to be ready to face it to request its blessing and that’s what she’s doing. She is ready, Shuri announces, ready to step out from her brother’s shadow, ready to embrace her destiny. To be what she was born to be. She is ready! She jumps up. Give her what she needs to save her people. The Panther God sniffs.
Elsewhere, T’Chaka implores his son. He’s worked so hard. Fought so many battles, endured so much. But even for the greatest of kings and champions there is an end to conflict. An end to battle. A time to lay down arms and rest. T’Challa refuses. There’s still so much to do. There will always be more battles, T’Chaka replies, but not for him. Let others take up the work. He can’t, he has to go back! T’Challa knees down in despair. He failed them. In the end, he wasn’t strong enough. His father comforts him. He is not to blame for being human. It’s time for him to give up the fight. He gently steers him toward the light.
“Give up,” T’Challa repeats. He is not his father! he shouts. T’Chaka turns into Death and sighs. If a peaceful path is not enough to persuade him…
Elsewhere…
The Panther God announces that for the ten thousand years the greatest of champions of her people have come before it. Their names are spoken in the hall of kin, their deeds are written on the scroll of destiny. And here she is, daughter of a great king and queen, sister to the greatest warrior her nation has ever known, and instead of humbling herself before her god, she declares her worthiness. Shuri looks up afraid.
It shows her images of her predecessors and asks what they would say to such a demand. How would they respond to such arrogance? The mantle of the Panther is not about entitlement but sacrifice! About putting the greater good before the pursuit of glory.
It shows her images of her past, sulking about being in her brother’s shadow. She sees the Panther as a trophy to be won or lost. Jealousy has festered in her heart since her brother took up the mantle of the Panther. Of all the enemies she faced, hubris is the one she has never defeated. She is not worthy to be the Black Panther! It isn’t her burden. It is not her destiny and never will be! Shuri begins to weep in shame. The Panther God turns away and orders her to leave and consider what she will do, knowing that she will never follow in her brother’s footsteps.
On the astral plane, Death sends animated corpses to torture T’Challa, trusting pain may show him the futility of denying the inevitable. T’Challa fights and holds his own. Death is impressed. His will to live is strong but the armies of the dead are endless. Still, T’Challa refuses to give up. His family, his wife and people are suffering because he failed to protect them! He’s going back to them and nothing will stand in his way!
Skeletons overwhelm him as Death states that his defeat is an actuality. He has already lost. He orders the skeletons to bring him to the light.
Suddenly, the skeletons are blown away as Storm appears, lightning crackling around her…


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The Deadliest of the Species – part 5
Outside the walled border of Wakanda stands the smirking Morlun. Within Wakanda itself, he is watched from the military control room by W’kabi, who coldly orders the launch of dozens of missiles. As the dust subsides, W’kabi orders the fill confirmed. Instead, however, they find Morlun walking undeterred amidst the flaming craters, walking toward them. Blood of the Panther God! W’kabi whispers.
In another realm Death mockingly observes that Storm travelled all the way from limbo to keep her husband from taking the final walk. Angrily, Storm orders him to release T’Challa. Death mocks her threats. Since her species crawled out of the mud, he’s faced warriors who thought they had the power to take what is his. He feasts on their remains. Still held down by skeletons, T’Challa remarks that he has faced Champions. Has he ever faced a goddess? Ororo blasts Death away. Given new courage, T’Challa battles his captors, asking Storm to tear this world apart. Her winds gather him up. With a smile, Ororo greets her husband.
Elsewhere, Shuri awakes, expected by Zuri and S’yan. Zuri announces there is no time to waste. They need to get her fitted for her vestments right away. They are facing a very dangerous foe and are going to need her. She failed, Shuri admits. She failed her brother, her country. The Panther god turned his back on her. She is… nothing.
The two men look at her silently. Zuri points out that the Panther God left her alive whereas usually those he rejects die. Shuri admits she doesn’t know why. Maybe it’s her punishment. To live with the shame of failing everyone she loves. They face an impossible situation, S’yan announces. They need the Panther. All their other weapons have failed. Shuri demands to know what’s going on.
In another realm, Storm and T’Challa wonder if their foe is dead, if that’s even possible! Not dead, T’Challa decides as he looks at Death’s still form, but defeated. For now. He hugs her, relieved, and she kisses him desperately. Perhaps the poet is right, after all, he muses. Love is stronger than death. Life isn’t a poem, she replies sadly, and this isn’t a storybook. What does she mean? He asks. They’ve won. Now it’s time for him to go home, she announces. She means time for them to go home, he corrects her. There’s something he needs to know, she replies…
Reality where Morlun has proved unstoppable. Wakanda has thrown missiles at him; mortars and bombs, laser cannons, vibranium core nuclear-tipped shells and ground assault. They haven’t even slowed his approach. At this rate, he will breach the wall within the hour. All ground forces are ready to fight to the death, W’kabi announces. And they have no Black Panther, S’yan adds. They are out of option. They are Wakandans, Shuri insists. They don’t run out of options.
Via a commlink, she asks her mother what about Storm. Ramonda brushes her question off and asks W’kabi if he has made arrangements to move T’Challa out of the way. When Shuri insists, Ramonda replies darkly that Storm isn’t coming back.
In the other world, T’Challa reels at his wife’s revelation. How could she agree to such a thing?! That was the price, she tells him. A life for a life. Her life for one that matters more to every living soul in Wakanda. Who knew of these terms? he asks. No one but her and the witch doctor Zawavari, she replies He repeats the name, then refuses to accept this. There must be a way…
There’s nothing so delicious as hope, Death mocks. His queen agreed to the terms. The contract is sacred. Eternal. One soul comes in, one soul goes out. Of course, if the two of them were to decide to take a little walk with him, he’d be more than happy to-- T’Challa steps on the skull, ordering it to be quiet. All the other skulls begin to speak, telling him he can’t defeat Death.
In Wakanda, S’yan berates Ramonda for squandering their most powerful weapon. It was Storm’s choice to make, the queen mother replies. He finds that hard to believe, he replies, pointing out she may have killed them all.
Shuri addresses Zawavari, asking why he is smiling. He replies that Wakanda is in danger because they are all stupid and blind. They are killing themselves. People she loves are dying, she replies. If he has something constructive to say, get to it! Zawavari point out that the Panther god found Shuri lacking… yet she returned alive. Doesn’t she find that interesting? Hasn’t she wondered even for a moment if the life given back to her has some meaning? Some purpose?
Yes, she replies calmly. She begins to understand. The Panther God spared her even after she failed. Her pride was her defeat. She trusted too much in the scientific training she had been given. Too much in her fighting skills and tactics, in her right to become Wakanda’s weapon in her hour of need. Just as all of them trust too much in bombs and bullets and the advanced toys of war that only Wakanda can create. How like a daughter of modern Wakanda she’s become. Zawavari is right and she knows what they have to do. She orders Zuri and W’kabi to stand guard outside the chamber door while she makes preparations. They are going to kill Morlun.
Soon, the two warriors stand guard. He can’t believe they are following a plan cooked up by a madman and a little girl, Zuri sighs. Does he have a better one? W’kabi asks. Then stop complaining and brace himself for the red tide of blood and battle that is coming their way. That’s awfully poetic for a city boy, Zuri laughs. He thinks he stole that from somewhere W’kabi admits.
They hear a booming noise and get ready while in the chamber Shuri dresses in the Black Panther uniform.
Morlun enters through the wall he has shattered. The two warriors tell each other it has been an honor. “For Wakanda!” they shout and attack. Morlun impales W’kabi, then crushes Zuri’s head. He thought this was a warrior nation. Such a disappointment. Now for the main course!
He walks to the chamber were T’Challa is kept, already believing he can taste his soul. Suddenly a spear impales him from behind. Monster, Shuri, now the new Black Panther, announces. He has faced the muscle of Wakanda. Now he faces its claws!


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The Deadliest of the Species – part 6
Morlun has reached the helpless T’Challa, floating in his tank. Only Shuri, now dressed in the Black Panther garb, stands between him and his quarry. Little girls! he mocks. He slaughters their armies, tears the hearts from their champions. And now they send little girls against him. Little girls with toys, he adds, referring to Shuri’s spear. If this is the best that Wakanda can manage, then it deserves to die, along with its crippled wreck of a king!
Wakanda has never been conquered! Shuri snarls. Everyone who tries dies! She hurls the spear at him. Unimpressed, Morlun swats it aside. He sniffs, then admits intrigued there is more to her than meets the eye.
On another plane, T’Challa has refused to sacrifice his wife’s life for his own. Ororo reminds him that they have no choice. The deal was made with powers they cannot control and she is willing to pay the price. He is not. When he again refuses, she reminds him that some things are beyond control. Her victory was to save the man she loves. She begs him to live for both of them!
In Wakanda, Shuri dodges the attacking Morlun, who threatens to snap her spine and feast on her soul while she is dying. As she kicks him, she quips, before or after he swallows his teeth? He swats her away and she lands hard. No more quips? he mocks as she gets to her feet. Or is she saving her breath to beg for her life? He can’t kill what he can’t catch! she retorts and runs. Morlun races after her.
Shuri calls her mother, telling her he is out of the chamber and right on her heels. Ramonda tells her to remember the plan and assures her she is proud of her. Angrily, Ramonda then turns to Zawavari, telling him he had better be ready.
Shuri runs outside and jumps onto a glider. She flies upwards with it. He tosses a boulder after her and misses. Spears are loosed from the glider at Morlun and form into a net to capture him. He is dragged after the glider.
On the astral plane, T’Challa decides to stay here with Ororo if she is trapped here. She pleads with him to go. Wakanda and the world need him. He doesn’t care. She does, Ororo protests. She didn’t come here to make a suicide pact. She came here to save him and Wakanda. Would he have her sacrifice be in vain? This isn’t a storybook. This isn’t a happy ending. But it is the right thing to do, and he knows it. He kisses her.
In the real world, Shuri drags Morlun over the jungle. How far now? She asks and is told she should be seeing the hut any second now. How is the Adamantium net holding up? That moment, he has freed himself. Shuri gets ready as he threatens to make her suffer. She dodges his attack and jumps, telling him to keep the bike. It’s last year’s model. She somersaults and manages to break her fall, whereas the bike lands hard with an explosion.
On the astral plane, Death tells Storm time’s up. T’Challa doesn’t accept that. He’ll have to go through him to take her soul. How noble, Death mocks. Pointless, futile, but noble. The armies of the dead rise up again. Death tells them they can do this forever literally. He has infinite patience and an endless army. Then they will fight him forever! the Black Panther promises. Death warns them if they choose to manifest in physical form they must follow physical limitations. They will tire. They will be taken. His armies never will tire. The life cycle demands that a soul be given and that demand cannot be denied.
In Wakanda, Ramonda asks Shuri for a report. The package has been delivered, she replies, looking at Zawavari’s hut. Morlun steps out of the debris, asking where they were. The part where she kills him, Shuri snarls. He hits her and she smashes through the hut’s walls. He follows her inside. Looks like he finishes off the Panther lineage right here, he grins. To die with that knowledge must be terrible.
Ramonda asks Zawavari what the hell he is waiting for. He bites off a chicken head and begins the spell. Fire engulfs both Morlun and Shuri. Morlun is gone a moment later. Did it work? Ramonda asks. He thinks so, the shaman replies. Thinks? Shuri snarls. For what this cost them, he had better pray it worked!
On the astral plane, T’Challa and Storm are still trying to hold off Death’s forces when suddenly Morlun appears amidst them, confused. What do they have here? Death asks. He can hear the screams of ten thousands souls in that meat. He recognizes the smell of the magic and commends Zawavari for being a clever old bastard. He tells Ororo and T’Challa to shoo. He’ll see them later. Just like that? they ask. Just like that, is the reply. This meat is infinitely more satisfying. He gestures and they disappear.
Morlun snarls he will not fall to hiss wretched horde. Looks like they are going to do this the hard way, Death replies…
Ororo awakes, her husband’s name on her lips. Where is her husband? she demands. Ramonda uses a phone asking the doctor for her son’s condition and is told he has awakened and lives. It’s a miracle!
One hour later, T’Challa is in a bed and the others are by his side. Ramonda expresses her joy at seeing Shuri alive but she thought unworthy candidates get eaten by the Panther God. Shuri agrees. The Panther God gave his verdict that she was unworthy. Zawavari harrumphs disdainfully. It’s clear as day. The Panther God is subtle and wise. When Shuri failed the first trial, she assumed she’d failed entirely. Everything she’d trained for her whole life had come to naught. Yet, despite that blow to her confidence, she threw herself into the fight knowing that it was probably a suicide mission. Not for glory but for her people. In doing so, she became the Black Panther. Morlun sensed it. That’s why he pursued her so ardently. He wanted to feast on the one true Black Panther.
Ramonda hugs her daughter, happy both her children have been returned from death. Shuri looks at the devastation outside. She dreamed about this her whole life. She thought it would be a glorious moment of joy and excitement. A kind of party that would fill the entire country with laughter and songs. Not one filled with so much pain and loss. A great leader is not defined by the best of times but on how she guides her people through the worst of times, Storm tells her. So be it, Shuri vows.


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Power – part 1
T’Challa mourns at the graves of W’kabi and Zuri, both of whom died defending them against Morlun.
Flanked by Storm and Ramonda, Shuri, the new princess regent, holds a speech to her people in the wake of Morlun’s attack that cost more than five hundred lives. She tells them they look at her and see the little sister of their nation’s great hero. A woman, a daughter, a single fist raised against a sea of enemies and a single voice. She is neither girl, nor woman nor sister nor daughter nor fragile voice in a raging storm! She raises her spear. She is Wakandan! And she is not alone!
A Wakandan news show. One of the two anchormen, N’dega, who is dressed in traditional Wakandan garb, states there has been a lot of muttering following the attack last month and the princess regent’s speech last week. People are concerned about a change of power at so crucial at time.
His colleague, M’toka, dressed in a Western suit, considers this normal coffeehouse chatter. N’dega clarifies that he isn’t talking about idle intellectuals posing hypotheticals over their decaf lattes. These are informed citizens expressing real concerns about policy.
Amused, M’toka asks if he is taking a page from his book. N’dega always criticized him and his “disgruntled liberal slackers.” N’dega points out that they are not talking Liberals or Conservatives. These are voices from across Wakanda that are concerned about a young and untried person stepping into the shoes of a seasoned leader.
He means a woman stepping into a man’s shoes? M’toka asks. N’dega refutes that. It’s not about gender. It’s about whose experience matters most.
M’toka begins that King T’Challa stepped down. Under suspicious circumstances, his colleague reminds him. Has anyone asked him who attacked him? Why has their new princess regent not demanded an answer?
M’toka is sure the royal family knows everything that happened. He urges his colleague to have some patience. When the princess regent returns from her visit to America, there will be a press release that will make everything clear.
Concerned, Ororo watches the news show while in an adjacent room T’Challa is going through physical training.
In the White House, US President Barack Obama welcomes Princess Shuri. After the friendly meeting, Shuri is accosted by Everett Ross of the State Department outside the Oval Office . He explains the president has asked him to serve as her liaison during her visit here. Shuri replies her brother has briefed her on him. He said Ross was a government spook but “occasionally useful.” She takes it he’s been assigned to spy on her. Such an ugly word, Ross admonishes. But accurate? Shuri presses. Not entirely inaccurate, he admits. Honesty in Washington, Shuri marvels. There really has been a change.
Later in the limo, Ross asks if they have any leads as to who attacked her brother. An investigation is underway, she replies curtly. Is that why she is here? he asks. She is here on a diplomatic mission as a newly appointed head of state, she replies. Really? he asks. If it was his brother who had been nearly killed, he thinks he’d move Heaven and Earth to find out who was responsible, no matter what it took or where it took him… even to the shores of a friendly nation. But that’s just him. He’s not a head of state.
Diplomacy is a tricky thing. There are a lot of things that a sitting president cannot directly say to a visiting peer. Just as there are things a visiting head of state cannot discuss openly with the president of a host nation, Shuri agrees. That’s where government spooks like him come in, Ross explains. He can discuss politics abstractly. For example, he could say just as a truism that vigilantism by foreign nationals is frowned upon on US soil. Friends don’t bring their vendettas to their shore. Friends openly ask for help.
Shuri appreciates his candor, but she is still new to her position as princess regent. She is still not entirely sure who her friends are. Ross can’t speak for the president, but it’s his view that the current administration would be willing to cooperate with an open investigation and unwilling to look the other way in mattes of vigilantism.
She’ll bear that in mind if she ever considers becoming a vigilante, she replies wryly. Ross changes the subject, recommending theaters and museums in Washington. That moment, the limousine is attacked by flying men in battle armor. Intending to leave no survivor, the first blast takes out the guards. They run and barely escape with their lives.
Meanwhile, in Wakanda, T’Challa ignores doctor’s orders and tries to move and train again. The doctor tells Ororo that he tried. Concerned, Ororo sees T’Challa fall. He gets up again to start the rehabilitation training. Ororo warns him it’s too soon. The doctor said it would be months before he could even think about rehab. He is still too weak. “Too weak?” he asks, thinking of Dr. Doom and begins the training. They’ll see…
Back in Washington, the armed men look for Shuri in the smoke. One of them has grabbed Everett Ross, and demands to know where the princess is. He is about to shoot Ross, when he is attacked by the Black Panther, who quickly takes him out. Next she attacks the other two men, sure and deadly, using their weaponry against each other. One grabs her from behind in a deadlock, squeezing the life out of her. But the Panther kicks him. Surprised, he falls down and Shuri elbows through his facemask.
A last man comes flying towards her. Before he can fire his wrist gun, she throws a throwing star at it, causing it to explode. The battle is over and only the Black Panther is left standing.
She orders her men that she wants everything before they lose control of the scene. Strip off all the equipment, take tissue samples, the works. They go to work and, shortly, one announces he has found something strange. That moment, their prisoners detonate and burn to ashes.
From a remote location, men watch this from computer screens, announcing to an unseen leader that the inferno failsafes have been activated. They won’t be able to collect DNA: They have captured voices and telemetry. They have complete analysis of her weapons and equipment. Exactly as planned, the leader agrees.
Later, Shuri answers a phone call from the president, thanking him for his concern. She and her people are fine and Mr. Ross will recover. After some polite exchanges, she turns to her people, asking what they’ve got.
Another guard tells her they may have a lead, but one that is making his blood run cold. The wrist cannons their attackers used are remarkably similar to flight suit back-up weapons of their own air guard. The powerpacks on the suits… he has seen the configuration in old catalogues of Stark Industries. Shuri asks them to find a connection between the attack on them and on her brother.
Elsewhere, T’Challa in his wheelchair slips away from his guards and visits an old woman in a hut. They are expecting him, she tells him. She presses a button and a hidden door slips open.
In the cellar, T’Challa joins a group of fighting women. Beloved! they greet him. Adored ones, we have work to do, he tells his Dora Milaje.


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Power – part 3
The assassin Ohyaku has the new Black Panther Shuri literally tied up with her steel whip, mocking that she put up a good fight for an amateur. Shuri kicks her and throws her over, ordering her to shut up. As she frees herself, she hears over her comm. device that twenty hostiles are inbound to her location. They come flying in. Shuri shouts she needs extraction now. A few seconds later, M’yra gets her out of the fight and the fly off. Strangely, Ohyaku seems pleased about how the fight went.
In Wakanda, T’Challa is spending time with the mystic, Zawavari, preparing for a ritual. T’Challa stresses he is not interested in a mystical journey. He needs this to get what he can’t get from weights and physical therapy. He needs power. The shaman warns him this may not be the safest path, but the fastest. The question is if the damaged vessel of his body will be able to contain the power. Save his warning for someone who hasn’t already seen the face of his own death, is the reply and T’Challa drinks. His eyes glow with energy, then he falls unconscious. He did warn him, Zawavari remarks.
On TV, conservative anchorman N’dega and his more liberal counterpart M’toka discuss the current economic crisis. After centuries of financial independence, superiority even, two major banks have failed, N’Dega announces. Two out of twenty, M’toka clarifies. Let’s not descend into panic journalism here. N’dega remarks that these two banks account for more than sixty percent of Wakanda’s international trade. They’ve succumbed to the fiscal virus that has been weakening economies around the world. M’toka believes it is too soon to view it as an indication of the direction their economy will take.
N’dega insists that Wakanda has incurred a national debt for the first time in history. And where is their royal family during this crisis? Where is their leadership? Ororo and the queen mother are… M’toka begins. N’dega cuts him off. The queen mother should be in retirement, not hustling spin control for an absentee princess regent. And why is Ororo even involved in politics? She is a foreigner and no longer their queen. The soft liberal view of “this too shall pass” is akin to burying your head in the sand. Wakanda is turning into a runaway train and there doesn’t seem to be anyone at the controls!
Watching all this with interest is Doctor Doom…
Elsewhere, Shuri has her people report on what they have learned. N’iix reminds her that Hellerman Exports was tied to the Broker, a man who has made a fortune selling stolen technologies to terrorist groups. On the client list, there are several only identified by initials and they might be stepping into dangerous waters here. The Broker keeps very detailed records on his clients including surveillance. There is a file that details at least forty transactions with someone called “Atl Salv.” Atlantean Salvage almost certainly. The client has been paid over a billion for this material. Like many of the biggest clients, he is known only by a codename: Rex.
Someone selling Atlantean technology nicknamed Rex. Please don’t tell her they are all thinking the same thing here, one of the guards jokes.
Elsewhere, King Namor watches news of Wakanda.
Shuri and her group are still going through the Broker’s records when there is a phone call. She is informed the decryption team has found a lead. Substantial money transfers to two former Wakanda nationals. Both former military. Both in the position to have access to the microchip used in the wrist cannon in the attack on the motorcycle cadre. Both living here in the United States. Military records, photos and last known addresses are being downloaded to Zakar’s security PDA.
Zakar informs them that one is in Philadelphia, the other in Brooklyn, Coney Island. Shuri decides to take Coney Island, while Zakar and M’yra are to follow the Philadelphia lead. N’iix is to stay and keep digging on their friend Rex. If they are guessing wrong on that, it could blow up in their faces. She needs proof…
On another plane, T’Challa faces the Panther god, announcing he is here because he needs to know what he must do to save his country. That’s the wrong question, the Panther tells him. He first needs to know what to do to save himself. He sees an image of Doctor Doom superimposed over a burning city.
Reality:
The Broker’s people announce Shuri’s people have broken the code but haven’t decoded the whole file yet. They need them to follow the trail in the right sequence. One step at a time. One of his men remarks Shuri can never beat the Sub-Mariner. The Broker doesn’t care. Maybe she’ll get lucky and kill that half-breed abomination. That would make her a queen worthy of the name. But if Namor kills her, as he almost certainly will, that opens the door even wider for them.
Shuri calls Reed Richards, who asks after T’Challa’s health and then inquires what he can do for her or the Black Panther.
She explains her people have discovered some disturbing links between weapons used in the attack on her and Namor. Reed demands she tell him everything.
In Wakanda, T’Challa awakens from his trance state.
In the meantime, his wife Ororo is appearing on TV with the two news hosts. N’dega introduces her as the former queen and then talks about the weakening economy and the protests. What’s behind Wakanda’s current crisis? Is it, as many suggest, the absence of their princess regent at a time when guidance is most critical?
Ororo replies there is a rather common tendency to use knee-jerk statements like “crisis” as a blanket label. That kind of thinking shows little faith in who they are as a people and no faith at all in princess Shuri.
They are talking about what is essentially an absentee ruler, N’dega insists. Since ascending the throne, Shuri has spent more time abroad then where she belongs!
She has great faith that princess Shuri is exactly where she belongs, Storm replies, and she is doing everything she needs to do to keep this country safe from enemies, foreign and domestic.
Meanwhile, Shuri stalks a man called D’arun, a Wakandan national living under the alias Darius Tun. Enlisted in Wakandan airforce, quickly promoted to officer training and flight school, specialized in weapon systems. Worked as a test pilot. When did he leave?
Flea tells her he was injured in a case, took severance and left Wakanda two years ago. The decrypted info from the Broker names him as source for targeting systems microchips.
Shuri climbs through the window into the apartment. D’arun tries to flee. Shuri slashes his back. Who is she? he asks. He knows, she tells him. She will ask once nicely. A name and two words. The Broker. Targeting microchips. He stammers. Shh, she tells him. His queen is getting impatient…
She is not his queen! he spits. She and her family have brought Wakanda to the point of ruin and disgrace. They were a proud people once and will be so again!
Disguising treason and greed behind a mask of self-righteousness, that’s  a new one! she scoffs. She is Wakanda! She is nothing! he shouts. She has betrayed the sacred heritage that made Wakanda great! If she were truly worthy to wear the Panther mantle, she would never have walked right into a trap!
Under his tunic, he reveals a harness strapped with explosives. Wakanda for Wakandans! he shouts and “Desturi,” then presses the red button and everything blows up.
Flea, who was in contact with Shuri, shouts her name.
In Wakanda, T’Challa witnesses the training of a young Dora Milae against a couple of Doombots. The bots quickly adapt to her combat style. T’Challa jumps into the arena and destroys the bot, telling her to show no mercy or hesitation. Quickly, he dismantles all three of them and the Dora Milaje marvel that he is fitter and more powerful than ever.
In New York, Shuri staggers out from the conflagration to find herself surrounded by Ohyaku and several armed cronies…


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[Assistant]
Power – part 4
Shuri, as the Black Panther, finds herself confronted by Ohyaku and her armed cronies. Ready for round two? Ohyaku grins. As a matter of fact she is, Shuri replies. It’s been a real bitch of a day and she could really use some recreational violence…
Ohyaku is happy to hear that. The kill’s no fun without a struggle. “Says the mouse to the cat,” Shuri retorts and attacks her foes with a flare grenade. Next she goes for Ohyaku. The other woman tries to strangle Shuri with one of her steel tentacles. Instead, Shuri maneuvers her to take her own man’s fire, then takes out the two cronies when Ohyaku attacks her again. Shuri takes her out with her bare hands, telling her she isn’t as scary as she thinks.
Meanwhile in Wakanda, anchormen M’Toka and N’Dega are again discussing Shuri’s speech. M’Toka points out she addressed the financial crisis and laid out the government’s step by step plan to deal with it.
N’Dega dismisses it as well written. But clever words are not what this country needs right now. They need real leadership that’s not phoned in! Does it really matter if Shuri wasn’t physically here to deliver the speech? The content matters. M’Toka opines.
N’Dega points out the world press are frying Shuri for what they are calling stunt politics. As a result, Wakanda has gone from global power to punch line.
M’Toka points out that Princess Ororo has been sent to deal with the farmers’ problems. She’ll set things right. Yes, the weather witch is coming to the rescue, N’Dega remarks sourly. Was she actually sent by the princess regent? Or is this another example of scramble tactics by whoever is left at the palace holding the ball?
Doctor Doom calls the Broker to inform him the match is lit. Wakanda is ready to burn. The Broker congratulates him on taking Storm and T’Challa out of action. Only one player left on the board. Doom replies he’s managed a clean sweep.
Storm has arrived at the stricken Wakandan fields. A scientist explains that they are seeing this problem all across Wakanda. Phytophthora infestans has devastated almost thirty percent of the potato crop and sixteen percent of the hybrid huckleberries. Stem blight disease has virtually wiped out the sweet potato harvest for this season. And they may lose the entire corn crop to Turcicum. These blights have never been seen on the continent before. They’ve used every specific and broad spectrum fungicide they have… they’ve consulted agricultural specialists in fifty nations. This is madness!
It’s unnatural, Ororo spells out. They should be in the middle of the harvest. This should be a time of abundance and celebration. Instead, every day hundreds of families are applying for food assistance. Something has to be done before Wakanda becomes a blighted desert. Dr. Deraja pleads he didn’t know who else to call.
Storm creates a thunderstorm, trying to clear the blight away. She realizes this is just a start. There are thousands of fields like this. It’s a wonderful start, he exclaims. Yes, agrees Doom, who secretly watches from afar. A wonderful start.
Shuri contacts her people, informing them her foes are dead. Someone must have remote-activated their inferno fail safes. However, she was able to place a telemetric uplink on them before they flared out.
Flea patches her through to Zakra and M’yra in Philadelphia. But they weren’t lucky either. Their target was ready for them and had twenty pounds of semtex strapped to him.  He shouted some obscenities about Shuri. Before he detonated he said one word: “Desturi” Shuri guesses. Same thing happened with her. Zakra and M’yra identify the word as Swahili meaning “custom” or “tradition,” though M’yra has heard it used for other purposes. Something she heard after she left the Dora Milaje…
My’ra’s story:
After she was injured and dismissed, she knocked around the continent for a while, did some mercenary work. Every once in a while, she’d be approached because of her skills and training. Sometimes because of her connections to the Wakandan royal family. You travel in certain circles, you tend to meet the wrong kind of people. Extreme type. For years, there’s been very quiet dissent in certain quarters… people who don’t like the way things have been run in Wakanda. Who don’t like that King T’Challa married a foreign-born woman. That don’t like the fact that vibranium and technology based on it have been sold to foreign governments and to vigilante groups like the Avengers and SHIELD. These people feel that Wakanda has moved away from its ages old connection to tradition and customs.
end of narration
Shuri summarizes that “Desturi” has become a watchword for a movement that wants to return to older traditions. It’s disheartening to know that an enlightened people such as their own can succumb to paranoia so thoroughly that xenophobia becomes their ideology. My’ra begins there is more than that. Shuri isn’t surprised.
In a tent in Wakanda, T’Challa sits cross-legged, while the shaman Zawavari writes runes on his body. Several Dora Milaje watch critically asking what language that is. Zawavari explains these are incantations and protective spells from a race that died out so long ago nobody remembers their name. Where did he learn them? In a dream.
The Dora Milaje Anake tells T’Challa that she doesn’t like this, they are warriors, not tricksters. He gets up and informs her if the war changes so must the warriors. He is ready for this.
He is surrounded by several sorcerers, Zawavari’s best acolytes, who are told to show no mercy. Doom showed him that mercy has no place in this kind of war. He tells them to try and kill him and they attack with their spells.
On the plane, Shuri is informed about the Wakandan harvest problems by Storm, who calls them unnatural. She’s brought rain to eighty fields so far, but something is badly wrong here. The rainfall sinks into the ground but the root system won’t hold it. They continue to wither as if they are in a drought. It doesn’t just go against science, it goes against nature.
What does T’Challa say about it? Shuri asks; he is the scientist in the family. He has barely said ten words to her since returning from limbo, Ororo confides.
Are they having problems? Shuri asks. She doesn’t even know if it’s about them, Ororo replies. Since he’s returned, he’s become reclusive… distant. Not just to her but to everyone. He spends most of the time in the gym doing endless rehab or in the library, reading old books or walking in the jungle.
And he still hasn’t said who attacked him? Shuri asks. Not to her, Ororo replies. To Shuri? He took her aside and gave her some advice and gave her a list of friends of his she can contact for advice. Beyond that nothing. He is keeping Shuri in the dark as much as Ororo. He has become a stranger to her as well.
The wizards attack T’Challa. Anake orders Zawavari to stop this. He chides her for her lack of faith. She calls this unholy darkness. What does she know of darkness? he scoffs. He’s walked through nightmare lands that would tear the sanity from her. He’s squatted in dripping lava in the bowels of the earth to palaver with eyeless toad things. He’s sacrificed his own boon, that he could listen to the faintest whispers of the elder gods. And why? Because T’Challa is his king, no matter who sits on the throne of Wakanda. And he has need of what only the darkness may offer. To save him, to save Wakanda, Zawavari has embraced darkness. To learn the secrets he needs he has become darkness.
Enough! he calls, and the attacks stop. He addresses T’Challa as “majesty.” Have the magics of his strongest acolytes hurt him? He is not dead, T’Challa replies. In fact he has never felt more alive.
In the USA, after a shower, Shuri asks her team if they have cracked the code on the hard drive. She is informed that the Broker or whoever he’s working for managed to plant a spycam on the royal quinjet. The video feed is spotty, however, so they can assume the onboard jamming system is interfering with it. The audio feed is almost completely incomprehensible. The digital images are inconsistent, jumbled. The time code verifies the footage was taken seconds before the shipboard system went into partial shutdown probably when the quinjet was attacked at 18:07:51.
The data is fragmented and out of order. However, a fragment contains a piece of the time code. He was able to go though each fragment and reassemble them in the correct order. There are gaps but they have clear images in the seconds leading up to the ambush.
They are shown a fragment from seconds before the attack. They unclearly witness the quinjet under attack. The next part does come through again. They replay the sequence. One thinks he understand the name “Namor.” Blood of the Panther God! Shuri exclaims.
She informs Reed Richards, who is troubled. He has been trying to contact Namor but he doesn’t reply. Perhaps he’ll take her calls, Shuri announces grimly. As another head of state.
Richards points out that despite Namor’s cold and ruthlessness he prizes honor and he and T’Challa have been friends and allies for years. Shuri doesn’t put much faith into old alliances. Look at Fury and SHIELD! Look at Tony Stark!
Richards asks her to bear in mind what he said. Has she learned anything from Ohyaku? Has she been able to verify the connection with Namor? Shuri replies she’s unable to answer questions that moment. Reed points out that she is flying into a dangerous situation without any reliable intelligence. Is that wise?
Shuri replies she needs answers. Reed suggests back-up. Storm perhaps. If she could wait for a day, he could come with her, and the rest of the FF… Shuri refuses. She wants to speak to Namor as a peer, not with an army at her back. Besides, she’s just going there to asks some questions. And if he refuses to answer? Reed asks. Her new weaponized uniform ready, Shuri announces she’ll insist.
Watching everything that is going on, Doom remarks “perfect”…


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Power – part 5
Her jet drops Shuri – in a new armor – at 35,000 feet.  Once outside, she unfurls the armor’s wings and flies downward.
Completely unaware of what is coming, King Namor sits on an island, reading a book. Shuri softly lands behind him.
Without turning around, Namor remarks that he can hear a school of fish change direction half an ocean away. When the currents within the deepest part of the ocean alter by a single degree, he knows. Have a reason to invade his island or this moment will end badly for her.
Shuri retorts this is an unclaimed island, in international waters. Not his kingdom. He knows who she is and why she is here. Namor turns around. He knows her brother, T’Challa, he announces, a good and honorable man which is something that has become increasingly difficult to find in this world.
She scoffs that he values honor? Without honor, life is meaningless, he remarks as he gets up. If she wears the crown of Wakanda, she should understand this simple truth. Then how was honor served by ambushing and nearly killing her brother? Shuri demands.
Namor calls her a child. She comes here, dressed for battle and filled with righteous outrage. She is either badly misinformed or delusional. Anger and arrogance are not effective tools of statecraft. T’Challa knew that better than anyone.
And he nearly died because of it, Shuri replies bitterly. He trusted in the honor of others. She doesn’t – trust is earned and can be lost. She has proof. Proof of what? Namor demands. Shuri continues he knows he betrayed T’Challa.
Namor warns her to be cautious. Patience isn’t his strong suit. When he turns his back on her, she grabs his shoulder and demands why he attacked T’Challa.  That’s a foolish and impudent question, he scoffs. He’s showed her courtesy and patience for T’Challa’s sake but she’s used up the last drop. Go home and learn manners! To hell with this! Shuri swears and kicks him with all the force of her armor. She didn’t come here to play games. But f he wants to play, let’s play!
Seeing what has happened, her crew worries.
Meanwhile, in Wakanda, anchormen M’toka and N’dega are at it again. The more conservative and nationalist N’dega asks his colleague if he really believes the blight that’s crippled Wakanda’s agriculture is an attack. Their country is highly capable of making their own trouble. What is he suggesting, a vegetable supervillain, Blight Man? The Plaguester?
M’toka points out that, according to the biologists, the blight is more widespread than anything on record. Some of these diseases and pests aren’t even native to Africa. He finds that highly suspicious.
N’dega blames the royal family. They have brought in foreign scientists and specialists. They’ve implemented foreign disaster protocols. M’toka points out that Princess Ororo has been working tirelessly during the crisis. N’dega replies that, instead of their perpetually absent princess regent or their former king taking action, they are given a foreign-born mutant. The people ask for leadership and what do the royals give them? A witch.
On the island, Shuri and Namor trade blows, secretly watched by the Broker, who in turn informs Dr. Doom.
Shuri’s team warns her that her power servos are down 54%. She huffs they may have underestimated Namor and tries another attack.
Angrily, he warns her that he faced Iron Man. Blasting him, Shuri scoffs Iron Man is so last century. Welcome to 21st century combat, Wakandan style! These are desert suns leeching the moisture from his body, she lectures, even as her people warn her about Namor’s strength. One of them warns her not to let Namor reach the water.
Too late, though, as he has already thrown himself into the floods and returns moments later, reinvigorated and furious. He grabs Shuri, shouting he gave her the chance to leave, for her brother’s sake!
In Wakanda, T’Challa addresses the Dora Milaje, warning them of their terrible enemies. They need to be even more terrible! They are about to go to war with the most terrible force on the planet. They face science and magic. They face armies of flesh and of steel. They face a mind that is dark and subtle. If they falter, even for a second, then they fall and Wakanda falls.
There has never been anything like them. They are a new order of warriors. They are secret. Even with his great magicks, the enemy doesn’t know of them. They have their own sorcery. Wakandan sorcery. They have weapons. Wakandan weapons. And they have their hearts. Wakandan hearts. Warrior hearts! The Dora Milaje cheer.
Aneka, an older Dora Milaje, warns them today is the final test. Today they do not train or playact at war. Today some of them may die. They will face robots and automated killing machines. They will face the darkest sorcery. They will try their level best to kill them. Those who survive earn the right to stand with their beloved when he storms the gates of hell. Those who fall will be forgotten. They are the Dora Milaje and do no remember the weak. They cannot pause for tears or regret. Not now, not ever. Not until this war is won.
She presses a button and the Dora Milaje are surrounded by robots. Fight or die! they are ordered. And the fighting starts…
Elsewhere, Storm has been called to help with the ailing Wakandan crops. She senses the wrongness in the fields. The scientist Dr. Allenby muses that nothing natural grows this fast. A bacteria in an ultra-rich medium doesn’t grow this fast. The organic matter that’s forming is greater than the component parts of the soil in which it grows. Where is this extra mass coming from?
Storm reports that she’s been across the fields a hundred times. She dropped soft and heavy rains on them. She’s restored the water tables and, as soon as she’s finished, the soil dries out again. She believes this is dark sorcery.
Several vans arrive with men spilling out them who accuse Storm of witchcraft and killing the crops. Dr. Allenby tries to talk reason. Someone tosses a bottle at her head.
Storm glows with electric energy and orders them to stop. “We are here to help you people,” she announces, only to have her words “you people” to be twisted around. One of the men claims she sets herself above hardworking Wakandans. Another vows they need to make Wakanda pure again. He reaches for something in his jacket. Dr. Allenby warns Storm he is reaching for a gun. Storm fires a lightning bolt at him. Angrily, the men shout that he was only reaching for fresh seeds.
In a news studio, anchormen N’Dega and M’toka discuss the event. The nationalist N’Dega criticizes Storm’s overreaction and is of the opinion she should have yielded to the rightful owners of the fields who didn’t want her questionable help and leave.
Elsewhere, the Broker congratulates Dr. Doom for taking out Storm and T’Challa. Only one player left on the field. Doom replies he thinks their old friend on the island has cleared away the last piece. Time now to set everything ablaze…
On the island, Namor orders the beaten Shuri to stay down and be sensible. Shuri coughs and vows she will kill him. Angrily, he goes for her throat, demanding why she is doing this.
Suddenly, he is held back by Mr. Fantastic. What the hell do they want? Namor demands of the Fantastic Four. He has his annoying habit of interfering when two friends are about to kill each other, Richards replies. Especially when they’ve been tricked. They have to talk and they don’t have a lot of time…
The Broker informs Dr. Doom that everything is in place. They have fifty Desturi agents in the government. Thirty action cells are on stand-by. Has he located T’Challa yet? Doom asks. The Broker explains he has gone to ground but he’s no longer a threat. Doom broke him. Whatever he was, whatever he had, he’s nothing now. Doom orders him to keep looking. Underestimating T’Challa has never been a clever move.
The test of the Dora Milaje is over. Twenty-eight still stand. Two have fallen. T’Challa gives orders to give word they died in an industrial accident and to make sure their families receive full compensation. Add their names to the scroll of the fallen. Aneka protests he said they’d forget any who fell. T’Challa lectures her they will always honor the fallen. They are warriors, not savages.
The Fantastic Four and Namor have joined Shuri and her crew in her ship where N’iix informs them they have both been played. He shows them the timecode of the video showing Namor below T’Challa’s quinjet seconds before the attack.
Namor contradicts him. He invited T’Challa to visit him on his island. T’Challa left in peace and friendship.
Shuri demands to know the nature of the visit. It was private and personal, Namor replies. If T’Challa chose not to share its content, he will respect that. But he gives his word he was unharmed when he left the island.
Richards believes him and can prove T’Challa was not ambushed on the island. Shuri protests N’iix ran the video file through their most sophisticated equipment. No offense, Richard replies, but he has better equipment. Richards begins a high tech speech as he shows them his results. The reconstructed file is different. There is a considerable gap between the time T’Challa arrived on the island and the ambush. The video image of Namor was attached to a different time code. He was framed, Shuri realizes.
Richard believes the Broker is behind this. Few others have the know-how to manipulate files like this. They only know about him that he traffics in stolen technology harvested from meta-human battles, then retro-engineers them for sale on the Black Market.
Why attack Wakanda? N’iix wonders. Vibranium, Richards explains. Flea adds their stockpile of Vibranium is protected by the army. There are lots of ways of getting past an army, Johnny Storm jokes. They kinda made a career of it. And is their army completely loyal? the Thing adds. Have they been watching their own news?
Shuri believes everything is under control at home. The most pressing issue is the Broker. Richards points out he has equipment to track him. Shuri asks him to find the Broker. She will tear him apart!
Elsewhere, Dr. Doom informs the Broker that Shuri and her friends should be putting the file together around now. They’ll be coming for him. Surrounded by an army of meta humans, the Broker grins. No problem…