Issue #10 (July 2021) Written by Jake Hawkins Featuring:
Black Panther
Killmonger
Storm
NHK NEWS STATION…
SHIBUYA, TOKYO…
A pair of guards each occupy a toll booth, one on the entrance and the other on the exit. The younger guard, only three weeks into his time on the job, looked up at the building behind them and let out a long whistle.
His partner in the other booth noticed the boredom clearly getting the best of him and caught his attention.
* “Hey man, don’t go getting lazy on me now.” The experienced guard advised him, and he too glanced back at the news headquarters. He watched as armed government officials worked the parking lot beyond and the front of the building, sweeping efficiently back and forth.
The young guard sighed, his shoulders sagging just a bit as he turned back to the bustling road in front of him.
“I’m surprised they haven’t scrambled the national guard already. Not every day a missile strikes a hospital wing.”
His partner nodded, his eyes too now looking up at the building he so rarely got to enter himself.
* “Never thought this would be the closest I’d get to the prime minister.” The guard smiled and took his uniform matching cap off to soak in the time he’s pondering as an achievement to himself. He turned back to his young co-worker just in time to be perplexed by his mortified expression.
The young guard snatched up his radio as he watched a city bus barrelling towards the guard station at breakneck speed.
* “We have an oncoming assault! Requesting complete premise lockdown!”
He dropped the radio receiver and leaped out of his shack just as the bus broke through the barricade. It smashed through a wave of cars as it reached the parking lot. The two guards walked cautiously towards where the bus finally reached the end of its road.
They stopped about twenty feet short, careful not to get in the way of the group of soldiers who rushed out of the building and towards the crash. One of them took point and approached the bus doors, with a weapon raised in one hand. The doors hissed open, and the soldier was surprised to see no one behind the wheel and the entire vehicle empty. He stepped into the bus and held a hand up for two more to follow, sweeping the bus.
On the 35th floor of the building, Prime Minister Tanahashi paced back and forth in the dressing room. The only people inside with him were his wife, Hakaru, and his chief of security.
Tanahashi paused as he watched his chief of security make a call. He didn’t speak, just listened before finally putting his cell phone down. The prime minister watched as Yamato struggled to face Hakaru and himself. He took a seat next to his wife, their hands wrapping together instinctively.
* “There seems to be a disturbance downstairs.” Yamato informed him.
“How could they know I’d be here?” Tanahashi wondered. “We considered several different places before coming here!”
“Our intel has informed us The Hand has seized control of most of the criminal underworld. What isn’t now under the Viper’s control, they have no doubt extinguished anyone who refused to bow.” Yamato confirmed, which caused Tanahashi to slam his fist against the oak table of the meeting room. “We need to get you out of here and to a safe location once they’ve given the all-clear.”
Tanahashi nodded, his expression as solemn as it could get. Yamato read the room and quickly left it to the prime minister and his wife. Hakaru put an arm around her husband, and the prime minister stroked at his grey beard for a moment before turning to her.
* “I was serving my second year on the House of Representatives the last time the Hand reared their heads here. I had never seen so many...powerful men and women tremble with fear. At just the mere thought of an idea…”
Hakaru placed her husband’s face in her hands, doing what she could to steady him.
* “I need to lock down the city. They are going to court war. I must-” The familiar portals created by the mutant Eden Fesi appeared against the far wall, and the couple froze, the defiant words Tanahashi was spewing fell silent. Viper emerged from the portal, a grey device with a handheld trigger in her hand. Coursing through the device was energy the same hue as the dark orange the portal was made of.
Viper gave the prime minister a smile. Somehow, he found the courage to stand, a decision he almost regretted instantly as another body emerged from the portal just before it dissipated. Killmonger stood before the prime minister, his eyes swimming with a pitch coal-black before finally, they settled on Tanahashi and Hikaru.
“War? Why would we court war with you, prime minister?” Killmonger crossed his arms, his curiosity with Tanahashi genuine.
Out front of the building, the soldiers continued to search the crashed bus. One of them stepped off and signalled to his captain near the front of the building. * “All clear! Sweep the perimeter.”
The soldier gave out instructions to those waiting orders outside the bus. No sooner did he turn back to the vehicle than the bus exploded. The blast rocked the entire block, and the captain struggled back to his feet, his mouth agape at the carnage he just witnessed.
*“Lockdown the building!” The captain yelled. Reinforcements in surplus trucks rounded the corner of the building, tires screeched on the pavement. In the distance, sirens blared as emergency services surely rushed to the scene.
Back inside the conference room, Hakaru shuddered at the muffled sounds of the explosion outside. Viper saw her reaction as she slipped the cell phone she used to trigger the bomb behind her. Viper’s smiled widened as she saw the fear on her face, but her attention turned its focus onto the man who now led the Hand as he stalked closer to Tanahashi.
“You presume to know what the Hand is capable of. You talk as if you have an idea of the way the beast thinks.” Killmonger was just an arm’s length away from Tanahashi now, and the prime minister felt his steely resolve continue to erode. “The...force that has driven the hand for centuries...it chose me for a reason. It was not to wage war, that much I can assure you.”
On the other side of the floor, Yamato and a group of armed guards rushed past the producer’s room, halting once he heard his name hailed on one of the guard’s radio. *“What have you got?” He barked after snatching the radio off the guard in front of his shoulder.
*“No further sign of explosives so far. We’ve swept the perimeter twice and the first five floors.” the captain answered. Yamato didn’t look a tad bit relieved.
*“I want the entire building swept clean in fifteen minutes! No less!” Yamato ordered, and he shoved the radio into the guard’s chest. *“Get back to the Prime Minister. And chart a safe route to the roof. I want him in the air the moment we get the all-clear.”
The guard nodded quickly, he turned on the dime, four other guards going with him. They make it halfway down the hallway when a portal opens directly on the floor in front of them, and rising out of it was none other than the Silver Samurai himself. His kabuto was tucked under his arm, and the group of guards took a step back, each raising their weapon as they did so.
Harada looked past the guards, his eyes locking onto Yamato and not even acknowledging the threat directly in front of him. Harada slowly raised his kabuto above him and placed it on his head, then he got into a stance, his hands on his sword hilt. Harada sprang into action, dancing around bullets and cutting down the first two men in front of him with a single swipe. Using his mutant abilities, the katana he wielded glowed softly with a tachyon field he focused through it. Yamato did his best to hide his horror as he backed down the hallway, barely able to hold his gaze on the sight of the Silver Samurai cleaving some of the guards in two with ease.
“All units available converge on the Prime Minister! Get a helicopter on the roof!” Yamato took a hard right and tore down the hall, past the studio where a pair of anchors were currently vamping as they awaited orders for an emergency broadcast. One of the anchors couldn’t help but watch as he burst into the staircase, the fear on his face causing her to shudder. Her co-anchor nudged her with his elbow, trying to catch her attention. But he too was distracted, once he saw the Silver Samurai, his armour now splattered with blood, following after Yamato.
The pair of them stared with disbelief off-camera, and the producer cut to an abrupt commercial break.
Back inside the meeting room, Killmonger towered over the prime minister before finally snatching him up by the neck. Hakaru leaped to her feet but didn’t make a move further. Fear held her in place, her gaze not leaving Killmonger as he held her husband with an iron grip.
“I would kill you quickly, just to underline the fact that you and the forces you command are not even a stumbling block in our path. But you have your uses yet I’m afraid. Not many, but still.”
Killmonger eased his grip and lowered Tanahashi. He dragged him across the floor towards the door and yanked it open, Viper followed after him, leaving the quietly sobbing Hakaru alone. The moment they hit the hallway; a horde of armed guards burst onto the floor out of the elevator.
Killmonger wasn’t the slightest bit concerned with the threat trained on him. He walked forward into the portal Viper created on the wall in front of him, and she followed behind closely after just escaping the bullets that flew towards them.
The portal reopened, this time directly behind the pair of anchors moments after they returned to live air.
Killmonger tossed Tanahashi in front of them, and he crashed hard through the flimsy desk the anchors sat behind. Neither of them dared move, nor did any of the crew. Killmonger looked directly into Camera 1, his eyes once again swimming with a deep black.
“Citizens of this land, I come before you having humbled the greatest symbol this country has to offer. The lauded and commendable Prime Minister, lays before my feet a broken creature. And with his death, the Hand lay claim to all of Japan.” Tanahashi struggled onto all fours as Killmonger finished his sermon, not daring to look up at him nor Camera 2 which was trained on his bruising face.
Across the city, the broadcast aired with almost every face turned in. It was almost as if the world itself had held its breath for Killmonger. Inside the studio, Harada entered, walking past the shell-shocked producers and EP’s with the headless body of Yamato slung over his shoulder.
His blade was once again sheathed, and gripped tightly in his right hand by the hair was Yamato’s head.
Harada dropped the body next to him, then tossed the head in front of the prime minister. It rolled to a stop right under his eyes, and he forced himself to look away, sickened. Tanahashi whispered a small prayer under his breath and said a final goodbye to his wife. None of this was missed by Killmonger, who was almost amused. Killmonger raises his arms wide, soaking in the fear and hatred he felt from the Prime Minister.
“We have torn down every defence, every safe hold and security measure the Prime Minister placed around himself. And we have begun to do the same to this city. What we begin in the next few moments with Prime Minister Tanahashi’s end, we will continue by wiping out every government official, policemen and so-called soldier that will no doubt be foolish enough to stand in our path.” Killmonger held out his left hand, and looked to Harada. Harada’s face twitched ever so subtly as he realized quickly what Killmonger was waiting for.
Nevertheless, he complied without hesitation and pulled his katana from its sheathe. He passed the blade to Killmonger, bowing deeply as he held it out. Killmonger took the blade carefully, and Harada stepped back. He watched as Killmonger held the blade high, gripping it tightly with both hands. Viper held her breath behind him, excited they had finally reached this moment.
Killmonger swung the blade down swiftly, and Tanahashi closed his eyes tight. However, the steel never met flesh when Killmonger stopped as a device on his wrist chimed. He quickly tossed the blade back to Harada and pressed a button on the side of the device.
A hologram radar emitted from the device, and on it showed two dots headed towards their current location.
“He’s figured out a way to track the mutant’s energy signature. Probably has for some time.” Killmonger kicked Tanahashi out of his way as he stared out at the skyline of Shibuya, allowing the radar to dissipate. Viper watched as Killmonger focused on how cloudy the sky was becoming at a rapid pace.
“Lord Killmonger, is he here?” Harada asked. Killmonger didn’t answer, instead, he held his hand out again, this time in Viper’s direction. He turned back to look at her just as a violent crack of thunder could be heard.
“Will its range extend this far?” Viper asked as she handed him a small transit resistor the size of an iPhone 7. “You didn’t really have sufficient time to test it.” Killmonger snatched the resistor from it and turned the small dial at the top of it.
“Let Taskmaster know he’s on duty,” Killmonger instructed Harada as he turned on the dime and walked past the pair of them.
“And what of him?” Harada asked, pointing the end of his blade in the face of the prime minister. Killmonger glanced back first at Tanahashi, then at the ship growing closer in the distance.
“Execute him. Our message has been felt, he no longer matters.” Killmonger exited the studio.
Viper kicked Tanahashi and followed after Killmonger.
Less than two miles and dwindling fast from the broadcasting station, the King’s elite Quinjet sped towards the chaos at hand. Thunder cracked hard as Shuri kept the ship steady. Behind her, W’kabi loaded his rifle.
“Ororo’s giving us a hell of a cover. Hopefully, it’s enough to mask any radar N’jadaka may be using.” W’kabi grabbed a shield off a rack as he passed, one sporting the crest of the Wakandan War Dogs. He joined Shuri in the cockpit and the princess quickly ran a scan across the building. “It certainly managed to knock out the power in the building. Good, no need to let N’jadaka pad his already too big ego.” Shuri observed with a bit of glee in the edge to her voice. She hailed her brother on the Kimoyo network, and the ship hovered above the wreckage left from the bus explosion.
“T’Challa, I’ve got the last residuals of that energy signature marked. Are you picking them up?” Shuri wondered.
High above the building, T’Challa’s skybike dove with breakneck speed, his cloak streaking in the wind kicked up by the worsening thunderstorm. “I am. They’re a less dense composition than the ones we’ve come accustomed to, but they’re otherwise the same.” T’Challa slid a lift on his custom-made vibranium gun upwards, and the weapon glowed a soft purple hue. He pulled out of the dive just outside the window of an empty office and burst through the glass onto the 35th floor.
“No sign of the Prime Minister yet, but my suit and my kimoyo card are picking up something else. Seems to be a frequency being transmitted from the building. Are you getting the same, Shuri?”
Shuri read the frequency emitting from the building for herself when suddenly a warning flashed in front of her of a hull breach. From below in the parking lot, Okoye and Taskmaster eyed the vibranium tipped spike that pierced the bottom of the Quinjet. Taskmaster let out a short, impressed whistle. Okoye ignored him and pulled her Kimoyo card from the back pocket of the red gi she wore, her familiar staff strapped to her back.
With a few swipes of her card, she used her own security protocols to take control of the aircraft from where she stood.
Inside the cockpit, Shuri’s face dropped as watched the vessel be wrenched from her grasp.
Frantically, she tried to stop the process to no avail. “T’Challa, we have a bigger issue.” Shuri uttered right as the power in the ship went completely dead.
The Quinjet went crashing forward in dead air directly into the building, levelling the first three floors.
Taskmaster clapped slowly, and Okoye continued to ignore him. She headed towards the building and put her Kimoyo card away once again. She then pulled her vibranium spear from her back, not breaking her stride for a moment.
“I doubt that ended their lives. We should move.” Okoye advised. Taskmaster grunted and followed after her.
As T’Challa passed the studio he felt the building rock from the crash, and he froze on the spot.
“Shuri?! Shuri, what has happened?!” T’Challa quickly pulled up a hologram layout of the Kimoyo network connections. He saw his own, and to Okoye’s. But his heart dropped when it listed his sister as offline, as well as his ship’s connection. The hologram dissipated and T’Challa looked to his right, where he saw Prime Minister Tanahashi cleaved clean in two, both halves of him in front of the Silver Samurai. T’Challa stepped inside the studio, Harada’s eyes on him as his helmet once again was tucked under his arm.
“I’m sure N’jadaka is disappointed his grand show didn’t have much of an audience. And now a man’s life has been taken for nothing. Too many lives.” T’Challa’s voice shook with rising fury, his mask dissipated, and he looked the Silver Samurai directly in the eye. “You have wetted your blade with enough blood, today Samurai, your journey ends here. But, I must know. What is the frequency he’s using for?”
Harada juts his chin, his head held high. He steps over the pieces of Tanahashi, sizing up T’Challa. “I want you to know, I understand your hatred for that man. I find it just.” Harada said.
He pulled on his helmet and placed his hand on the hilt of his blade. T’Challa however, didn’t flinch nor bat an eye as Harada prepared to do battle. “I was against his choice as the beast’s vessel for many reasons, and in every action he takes, he proves my reservations accurate.”
Harada sighs, lost in his own thoughts for a fraction of a moment. “I serve the Hand, because it has brought me a peace I have not known elsewhere, and yes, I see the irony at that statement.” Harada found his focus again, and gave his own menacing stare right back at T’Challa, his hand now gripping the hilt of his blade tightly. “I will make sure the will of the Hand spreads across this land and every other to keep my peace, no matter who I must follow to do so. As a king, this will be the last thing you understand.”
T’Challa’s fury only continued to grow and his mask covered his face once again right before he fired at the Silver Samurai. Harada was prepared and ducked out of harm’s way, drawing his blade and instinctively swinging it with a wide swathing arc. His timing was a hair off, as the moment T’Challa leaped across the room to close the distance between them he ducked under the attack.
Harada could do nothing to stop the uppercut that T’Challa landed flush under his chin. The blow sent him crashing into the ceiling and back down to the floor in front of the king. Harada spat a wad of blood and took advantage of T’Challa dropping his guard just enough with an upward slash of his blade.
The tachyon field surrounding his sword cut through even T’Challa’s nanite vibranium mesh suit. With a grunt of pain, T’Challa stumbled two steps back and looked down at the slash across his chest. Harada smirked when he noticed the suit did not mend itself, clearly disturbed by the tachyon field.
“All your genius, and yet nothing will stop me from cutting you down. How humbling a death you get to receive.” Harada boasted, and he lunged with his blade. The sudden, deceptive quickness of the Samurai was nothing the Black Panther couldn’t anticipate. He sidestepped the attack, then quickly kicked Harada at the wrist, sending his arms and blade upward. T’Challa used the opening to smash a left hook into the jaw of the Silver Samurai.
While his helmet took a decent brunt of it, the blow from the Black Panther was so fierce it still staggered Harada. T’Challa pulled his pistol again, but Harada swiped the weapon clean in two. T’Challa dropped the half still in his hand, thankful he still had all his fingers. Harada pressed his offensive tactics further and planted a kick that brushed T’Challa back. Blood seeped from the wound on the Black Panther, and as he forced himself to ignore the pain he decided to change tactics then and there.
“That’s your mistake samurai, you overestimate your importance. Especially if you think yourself to be my demise.” T’Challa charged and Harada acted on instinct. Once again, his quickness came into play, and his cross swipe T’Challa ducked under is missed just by a hair. Harada grit his teeth, realizing just how close he had come to taking off the king’s head. The miss, however, proved to be the Silver Samurai’s undoing. T’Challa slid under the blow and peppered Harada in the torso with a flurry of palm strikes.
Harada coughed up a spat of blood after the onslaught from T’Challa, and nearly dropped to the ground but managed to find his resolve. Before T’Challa could follow up he grabbed him by the throat and tossed him over the production board. The Black Panther landed hard and shook his head to clear the daze before it could set in.
T’Challa barely had a moment for a reprieve, as he rolled off the production control board seconds before the blade of Harada came down. Harada sliced the board clean in two, and even the panther had to marvel at the ability his tachyon field granted him. Harada leaped over the halves of the board and prepared to attack again, however he glanced down just in time to see a bunch of marble sized discs stuck to his armour. A massive sonic blast erupted from the discs and sent the Silver Samurai across the room and with enough force to go crashing through the far wall.
T’Challa’s mask retracted into his suit, and he crossed the studio until he reached where Harada landed. The samurai struggled to remove his helmet, gasping for air where he laid. He managed to toss his helmet aside, and began clutching at his crushed chest plate. T’Challa stood over him and in an act of mercy ripped the chest plate armour off of Harada. He then kicked his blade out of reach before delivering a quick, nasty chop that knocked Harada out, T’Challa stood upright and cracked his neck.
“Shuri, if you can hear this. I’m going after N’Jadaka.” T’Challa pulls up a meter on his kimoyo card scanning for the frequency emitting from the building. “The frequency’s getting stronger.” T’Challa dragged Harada by the ankle out of the office he’d crashed in and continued to track the signal.
In the city of Nakano, deep inside the research facility taken over by the Hand, Eden Fesi stirred awake. His body drained from the circular machine his arms and legs were hooked into that coursed with the spatial teleportation energy he generated. The massive rooftop doors of the facility retracted, and he mustered what strength he could to raise his head at the moonlit sky.
Across the main lab where N’Jadaka had spent a majority of his hours the last few weeks, a hulking personally redesigned Ultimo model was being unlatched from the steel couplings that held it in place. Eden was nothing short of horrified once he saw the eyes of the robotic construct come to life. The computers behind the device that held him ran all sorts of diagnostic tests before finally the very same frequency T’Challa was tracking so far away appeared on one of the monitors and sounded around the lab.
Ultimo propelled itself into the air by way of the jet propulsion technology implemented into its legs.
As Eden watched it rise through the open roof, he felt a searing pain as his prison kicked into gear, draining him of energy as a massive portal opened high in the skies above. He bit his tongue, refusing to cry out even if no one was around to hear him. His tongue bled, the blood seeping from between his lips as he grimaced through the ordeal. Finally Ultimo was out of sight, and the machine died down once again. Eden let out a sigh of relief, doing all he could not to pass out now that the pain had stopped, at least momentarily.
Back inside the news station headquarters, T’Challa reached a room at the end of a long hallway. He saw what was left of the destroyed security keypad and grimaced. T’Challa pushed aside the half open door and entered, dragging the unconscious Harada in his wake. Near the centre of the room stood Killmonger. His kimoyo card was hooked directly into a satellite transistor, a pair of hologram screens in front of him were the subject of his focus. On one screen held a diagram of the Ultimo unit, various output readings next it. On the other was various controls N’Jadaka was using to control the Ultimo unit. The ground shook along with the entire building, and T’Challa looked past Killmonger and Viper, who stood in front of him with her eyes locked on the panther, as he saw Ultimo land blocks away from the building.
In the skies above the building, Storm saw the robot and had to keep her jaw from coming agape. “T’Challa, I fear we have a far bigger problem than you were anticipating.”
T’Challa’s mask formed as he continued to cross the room. “Ororo, check on Shuri and W’kabi. Do not engage that thing on your own, mighty as you may be, beloved.”
Viper snickered as she heard T’Challa’s words to Storm, a reaction she could hardly contain.
T’Challa responded by slinging the body of Harada at Viper’s feet, where he rolled to an almost pathetic stop.
Viper’s expression flipped in an instant, nothing short of pure disgust on her face at both the sight of T’Challa and the Silver Samurai’s current state. She saw the nasty scar from Harada’s blade across the chest and abdomen of the Black Panther and snorted.
“Well, I know my samurai is always good for his pound of flesh.” She grunted and stepped over the body of Harada.
“I’m more than delighted I made things easy for you this time T’Challa.” Killmonger gloated, and he turned around once he slid a key function on the controls he’d implemented. He knew T’Challa’s mind was working feverishly to understand just how to stop him, and his fists clenched in anticipation of the next few moments. “You went to such lengths, crossed so many lines I know it tore you apart to do. And all of that, for what?” N’Jadaka couldn’t help but cackle as he walked forward until he was at Viper’s side, his eyes lingering on her with appreciation in them before he turned back to T’Challa. “For us to end up once again, eye to eye. And I can remind you that you are a failure.”
“Running your mouth Killmonger. You’ve been granted the abilities of the beast that cult was foolish enough to give you. And once again you’ve decided to use your brilliance for nothing but to wreak havoc on the lives of anyone you can.” T’Challa generated an energy blade in his hands, but his eyes were on Ultimo it as released a massive energy wave from both its eyes. It tore up the street in front of it, sending people scattering for cover and incinerating anything else that dared to be in the blasts path.
“This time I decided not to waste a moment, orphan king. Not a single one.” Killmonger smirked before stepping sideways into a portal that appeared in a flash and was gone just as quickly. He reappeared atop the Ultimo as it stomped down the street. A hatch slid open next to where Killmonger stood and he stepped inside after marvelling at the destruction the robot had caused in such little time. The controls reacted instinctively as Ultimo’s programming recognized him. A control column rose from the floor, right into the hands of N’Jadaka. He gripped the steering control tightly, his lips pursed as he stared at the building where he knew T’Challa was.
“Finally, I’ll give you the burial you should have given me.”