Chapter 17- A Monster, and a Gift

POV- Wong

Earlier today, I was just a librarian, managing the library of the mystic arts, and dealing with late returns and Kaecillius' trainees, were the biggest of my concerns. Being loaned out by the Ancient One was unnerving, and being loaned out for a non-mystical matter was unheard of. The group who I was travelling with was a collection of children, led by a child, and supervised by one of the Avengers, Hawkeye, whose archery would surpass even the masters we have who used such a weapon.

"Wong, don't get shot, they already know we are here, so don't bother being subtle." 'What kind of instruction is that?' The group would laugh and joke, even in battle, making them seem like a joke themselves, in complete contrast with the efficiency and power they had when they took down their opponents. Just the archer, Robin, and Firestar had eliminated over two dozen opponents in under a minute, a feat quite impressive without magic. As we go to move inside the ship, I summon my Tao, but the leader, Leviathan, retracted his 'kagune,' as he called them, and formed a long, bladed tail reminiscent of a centipede, with a beaked mask forming over his face. "What in the realms is-" I managed to utter before he leapt forward, laughing with glee. 'He's enjoying this, the hunt.'

"We'd better follow him Mr Wong." Following behind Spiderman down empty hallways, we hear the screams and gunfire of the ship's inhabitants. Shooting webs to launch himself into the room, Spiderman shoots off as I chase. 'Damn power users. Even with Mordo's boots, I wouldn't be able to keep up. A flash of black and red darts across the room, followed by the sounds of another pained yell.

Parrying a few bullets that had been directed at me, I draw a whip of eldritch energy, wrapping around one of the shooters, flinging them into another, then against the floor. Leviathan laughed the entire time, darting between people and crushing or stabbing them with the tail or his limbs, using a savage if rudimentary fighting method, almost instinctive.

Progressing through room after room, clearing small clusters of armed men, using everything from machetes to machine guns, still concerned about triggering an explosion on the ship.

"We just got word from Klaue, use the big guns." Again sprinting in like a rabid beast, the gunfire sounds heavier, and for once I see the monster fall back, even if only for a second, a hole the size of a fist bore through his chest. Not that it seemed to matter, now using his centipede tail to protect himself from gunfire as he spins through the air, joined by Spiderman who seemed to instinctively dodge the gunfire, he rains hell upon them, red knives piercing their bodies from above.

"Firing!" A bright green energy beam aimed at Spiderman, who'd taken down three of the men carrying 50 Cal weapons, through just as before the acrobatic hero dodged the beam. With a flip off the wall, he runs across the roof, then uses his webbing to throw the gun barrel sideways towards the man's allies, blasting them against the steel walls. My own contribution was rather limited, not that it was necessary, as I struck out with the whips and bound those still conscious, dropping them through a portal onto the deck. In a room with 18 people, I had detained 3, and Peter 5, as he, like me tried to limit the casualties.

With only a few rooms left, I point Leviathan at the room they were hiding in, feeling like I was merely steering an unstoppable monster in the direction I wanted. He was so rational, and according to his team supervisor, quite intelligent, but when activating the kakuja, the centipede form, he was nothing but a well-behaved monster. I opened the locked door before my teammates reached it with a moment of concentration and some orange energy manipulation.

"ARRRGHH"

The monster was now without part of his head, having taken an axe to the face, made of highly reflective and obviously sharp metal. Despite this, however, one of the men we came here to kill, Erik Stevens, was slapped against a wall, standing up quickly but there were obvious injuries, including his laboured breathing. Watching Leviathan's face simply reform was disgusting, but as I shield myself from Klaue's alien gun, firing bursts of plasma hot enough to melt steel, he does, face now fully reformed, but without the mask, now revealing a teenager, with a haunting red eye.

"All of this, because of some kid. That'd be funny if it weren't tragic." The speaker, now pointing his blaster at the unmasked monster, fired, only to have his only human arm remaining ripped from him by Leviathan's trademark kagune. Now with barbed kagune whipping around the room, he strode to Stevens almost calmly.

"No, I still find it pretty amusing," he said, raking Stevens with the needles and holding him in the air, his axe hanging limply in his grip as the broken arm refused to give up. "Spidey, Wong, the cripple's yours." With that, he flung the man into the air, then with all 4 kagune stabbed him, like spears running through his body, retracting, and stabbing, never letting the body drop until it inevitably came apart in a collection of gore on the ground.

"God, I'm gonna be sick in my mask." Taking off his mask to avoid blowing chunks, as I've heard it called, inside his mask, Spiderman was too, a teenager just as young as Leviathan. "Wooh, much better." Webbing shut the barrel of the alien weapon, he performs a dive, rolling as he hits the floor to avoid the recently drawn handgun. "Hey, is that a mechanical arm? Cool. But unfortunately, I prefer unarmed opponents." Ripping the vibranium arm off Klaue he laughs to himself, smacking him with the arm and muttering something about "hitting himself."

'These kids are brutal. And there are few acts I wouldn't expect them to OH FUCK! He's eating him.' Ripping into Stevens with his hands, he scoops up the mangled gore and consumes it, though the tired look on his face fades as he eats, and after a moment, is basically brimming with energy and enthusiasm. Klaue began to scream in horror, probably fearing a similar fate.

"Please I'll give you anything, money, weapons, vibranium, anything. I can take you to Wakanda just please don't kill me, keep that fucking thing away from me!"

"Well, that's rude. But I will accept your offer. Perhaps T'challa would like a gift when we pick up Shuri later. Bind him and drop him on the deck." Removing all pieces of tech from his body took time, but after finding a detonator he probably had planned to use before being separated from his arms, it was worth it. "Now we just need to move the materials, Wong can you help with that?"

While I'm not fond of being used like a teleporter, I can understand the utility of the portals and the need to remove these weapons and materials from the ship. "I'll send a text to T'challa telling him to expect us in two hours, with the vibranium and a gift." And he was right, it took almost an hour and a half to carry the volatile weaponry and explosive material through the portals, as they couldn't be dropped through them, and we couldn't use a forklift as one wouldn't fit inside some of the storage rooms.

POV- Nathan Cross

Holy shit vibranium hurts. It cut through me so quickly that I was honestly a little concerned, not that even my enhanced speed could have dodged that first swing, as Killmonger had stood beside the door waiting. Preparing the gift for Wakanda was an easy decision, as although the vibranium could be used, it wasn't worth pissing off Wakanda and potentially T'challa and Shuri, for some metal gear that we probably wouldn't find that useful anyway. Adamantium on the other hand, I would rip from the earth if I had to.

With a glowing portal and a gift, we travelled to Wakanda, specifically the border of it, as breaching their barriers could be considered impolite. "Do you plan on mentioning the man you killed, considering who he was?"

"A violent thief who associated with an arms dealer? A dude with no interest in ruling Wakanda, but taking revenge on it? No. If Klaue tells them, I'll take the responsibility, but I won't bring it up if I don't have to. And make sure to bow when you meet the royal family."

"Umm, Nathan, you still don't have a mask, since the last one was…"

"Split in half by a vibranium axe? Thank you, Robin, I had noticed though."

"But your identity?"

"Will be kept a secret inside this incredibly isolated nation."

Being escorted through the barrier by order of the King, we were shown to a transporter, similar to an open-roof bus, that hovers over the ground, providing comfort regardless of environmental surfaces. The mix between archaic and futuristic designs was interesting, if a little nonsensical. While I believe that understanding tradition and culture can be good things, the only thing that separates Wakanda from some of the ancient exhibits our school saw at an excursion to the museum from 10, 000 years ago, is the vibranium. A meteor that just happened to land there, that they claimed was a gift from the gods, though I doubt Bast took credit for that, and jealously guarded it from others, despite the advanced tech and medicine Wakanda has access to. Maybe I should take all their vibranium, just to help them evolve beyond the vibranium parasites they have become. Finally being escorted to the palace throne room we are named and guided in, to stand before their royal family.

"Pfft." Looking at the idiots, everyone but Clint who already knew, who were bowing made it a struggle not to laugh, made worse by the glares they were sending me after realising that I had pranked them.

"We don't do that here," T'challa said, obviously amused by the scene. "It is a pleasure to have you in our home, though I admit, I was surprised to hear of it." He looked from Clint to me, "We had discussed a meeting between Shuri and your team in the coming weeks."

"That would have been the case, but I decided to apprehend someone with information to key figures around the world, who happened to possess something of yours, and decided to visit you and your sister. We brought a gift if that helps."

"And what gift would that be?" Ramonda asked, curious as to what we would stop mid-mission to gift them.

Giving a signal to Wong, he drops Klaue into the room, bound and without arms. "The man who snuck into your country, and stole your vibranium, with plans to make over $2 billion dollars from selling it. And the vibranium he had on his ship, though I believe it best not to simply drop it on these floors."

With spears immediately levelled at Klaue, the Dora Milaje grew anxious at the idea that we have vibranium, regardless of our claim to want no part of it. "Will you be returning all of it?" Shuri asked from the side, "The research that could be put into it would progress your technologies quite substantially."

"That might be, however, when used with a blade it is simply a resilient weapon, and the time spent turning it into anything else could take years, if not decades to become even remotely useful." A soft smile shone at her, which was quickly mirrored by one of her own, though hers had a trace of mischief. "Wong, could you please follow them, and return their alien metal? And Robin, Firestar, Peter, could you have a discussion with Shuri while I and Clint plan our next target?"

Excited to explore their new setting, everyone left for their duties, including Wong, who seemed fascinated by the technological creations harnessed from the apparently non-magical metal. "So, who's next? The file says we can begin targeting a group of smugglers in Thailand, known for transporting weapons, animals, and people, or we can take a trip to Madripoor, and crush the international drug, arms and people trade by almost half in an instant. It will be dangerous, illegal and-"

"Stop, you had me at dangerous. Besides, you're right, we can force prices to hike up drastically by removing Madripoor's 'export' business, but we must be aware of the effect it will have internationally. The after effects. What if we send the rest to the smugglers in Thailand, tell them to kill or detain them all, free everyone captured, while we," waving a finger between Clint and myself, go to Madripoor, and alter their business operation slightly. Remove some of the big wigs, as well as any of the internationally wanted criminals that fled to Madripoor, whether alive or dead," I concede, noticing his sharp gaze. "It won't be a permanent solution, but by allowing the chaos in Madripoor to grow, we can limit outsider forces getting supplies for a while."

T'challa chose that moment to put in a word, "Wouldn't it be better to choose someone to hold control over Madripoor, limiting the quantity of goods being exported in exchange for quality, and thus limiting supplies exported?"

"Wow, you should be a king or something, you're pretty good at this," I joke, something he laughs at, his warm grin accepting its intended nature. "Yes, that would have been my first idea, but since we don't have someone like th-PowerBroker!!"

"Who?" Clint asked.

"Umm, no one. Yet. But I think I know someone who could manage that pirate island, with some support. Luckily, you are an archer, and I have my kakuja which hasn't seen a public audience yet. Mainly because it's wild."

"Thanks, T'challa, did you want Shuri to join the others on their job? And does she have her own panther suit or?"

"She will have a panther suit, and to be honest, I'm not sure I could stop her from going now that you're all here."

"She's a wild one too huh?"

"You have no idea."