Issue #6 (Sept 2018) Written by Jake Hawkins Featuring:
Black Panther
MEDICAL WING OF THE GOLDEN PALACE BIRNIN ZANA
Aneka’s eyes snapped open, and she realized at once where she was. She wiped her eyes groggily before pulling the tubes from her nose and swinging her legs off the bed. On the table next to her where some of the most beautiful flowers one could find if they ventured along the rivers of Birnin Bashenga.
She got to her feet, her legs wobbly from having been inactive for the last week. No sooner had she moved from the bed that a crew of the palace’s medical officials rushed into the room, shocked to see her up and about.
“Beloved, the toxin has just cleared your bloodstream. You need to rest at least a few more days until we know if there will be any lasting effects.” The lead doctor advised as he and the others looked her over. She grabbed the doctor by his lapel and yanked him to her face.
“Where is the king? Where is the queen mother?”
TOKYO, JAPAN
Okoye was slapped awake by a ninja of the Hand, who backed away from the General as the door to her prison chamber slid open. N’Jadaka and Viper walked into the large but dimly lit cell, a curl smiling on Viper’s face as she glanced over at the new leader of the Hand.
“The great and fearless General Okoye! Daughter of the legendary replacement king, proud champion of Wakanda.” Kilmonger taunted as he reached her. Okoye raised her head just enough to meet the eyes of her country’s greatest tormenter, the man who had done everything he could to take T’Challa’s birthright. “Quite the battle I hear you and Shuri gave the Taskmaster, but I should expect nothing less from one of the greatest warriors I have ever had the honor of waging war against.”
Okoye spat the floor in front of Kilmonger before turning away from him in disgust. Incensed by the general’s actions, Viper grabbed her by the face and forced her to face him once again. A smile came across the face of Kilmonger as he noticed the torment in Okoye’s eyes.
“Why am I still alive, usurper?” Okoye rasped, her breathing shallow.
“You should be honored that I have chosen you to join the Hand. A woman with your immense skills and knowledge of battle can help me spearhead the will of the beasts across this world. You have been drafted in to a war far greater than any could imagine, Okoye. Hold your head high!”
“My father, what have you done with him?” Okoye asked, raising her head fully as to not show any hint of fear or weakness.
“Regent S’Yan’s fate was not mine to decide, as you know up until just a few days ago, I was nothing more than a shell of a man.” Kilmonger stepped closer to Okoye, and they were almost nose to nose. “I have your orphan king to thank for that. However, from what I have heard your father has already joined King T’Chaka in the Djalia. Thank Bast that you will not be joining him yet.”
The door to the cell slid open once again and this time Baron Mordo joined the group. “We need to awaken the animal inside of you general. The beast I know lies dormant inside all of us. You have become a great warrior on your own, now just imagine what you will be capable of once you are set free from the leash T’Challa has had you tethered to the moment he became king!” Okoye merely looked disgusted as Mordo reached them, dark magic generating at his fingers as he put his hands on both sides of her head.
Okoye screamed in pain as Mordo’s spell began to do its work, which signaled Kilmonger and Viper to leave. “Welcome to the great awakening General Okoye.” He called after her as the doors to the cell slid shut, her scream echoed through the hallway of the underground temple.
Back inside the golden palace, Akili watched as a pair of scientists continued their attempts to open the massive casket shaped container the king had retrieved from Hydra. “Why is it that no one can give me a straight answer around here, they merely continue to point me in your direction. Was there an impromptu challenge day that I’m not aware of?” Akili turned to see Aneka, now dressed in the uniform of the Dora Milaje instead of the hospital gown as she entered the room.
“Beloved. I prayed to Bast for a swift recovery. We couldn’t afford to lose you too.” Akili rushed across the room and embraced her, ever thankful that she was once again on her feet.
“It will take far more than M’baku and his underlings to wrench me from this world. Now tell me, where is the king?” Akili’s eyes sank to the ground as he turned back towards the scientists and their work.
“I’m not sure I should be the one to inform you of recent events, but I suppose the toughest tasks always fall upon the shoulders of the reluctant. At least that’s what T’Challa would say.” Aneka sat down a few feet away from him, bracing herself for whatever was to come next.
ANOTHER DIMENSION LOS ANGELES YEAR 2035
T’Challa helped Storm to her feet, tossing her arm around his shoulder as he watched W’kabi desperately attempt to hold off the Ultron sentries raining bolts of dark matter on what was left of the building.
“Can you fight beloved?” T’Challa asked Ororo, his eyes scanning the impromptu battlefield before him.
“You should know very well I cannot be humbled so easily” Storm replied fiercely as she stepped in front of the king and created a gust of wind powerful enough to repel the sentries dark matter blasts. “This won’t keep them at bay for long!”
At that moment H.E.R.B.I.E’s screen flickered back to life and the robot rose into the air once more. “Terribly sorry about that King T’Challa, I had no idea he had found a way into my protocol system until it was far too late.” The bot apologized as his systems became functional once again.
“Just get the jet back online, now!” T’Challa commanded as he grabbed a rifle similar to W’Kabi’s from the ship and surged back into the maw of the battle. The sentries took note of T’Challa’s switch to offense and converged on his location, eager to destroy the king of Wakanda. T’Challa slid to a stop and dropped to one knee before aiming the rifle at a cluster of Ultron underling’s speeding towards him. He loaded a purple disc into the side of the weapon before finally pulling the trigger. A mass of purple and black sped towards the sentries, exploding once it got within ten feet of its targets. The blast caused each of the Sentries to disintegrate at a molecular level, bypassing the vibranium casing they were built with.
Before T’Challa could load another, he’s blasted from behind, the rifle sent flying across the field. T’Challa struggled to all fours, raising his head to see more sentries closing in on him. At least he drew them away from the others he thought solemnly, they had a chance to get back home if the sentries were hellbent on eliminating him first. An energy sword materialized in T’Chall’s hand, and he staggered to his feet, ready to handle the onslaught that was sure to come.
Before either the Ultrons or T’Challa could act further, the familiar sound of repulsor rays alert are heard as a blast rips through two of the sentries. T’Challa turned to see an Iron Man armor he wasn’t familiar with descending into the battle, two massive cannons sprouting from his shoulders and unleashing a steady pace of repulsor blasts on the sentries.
“You gonna gawk or you wanna get out of here?” The voice of Tony Stark called to T’Challa as he continued his assault. “Carol I need an evac, I think their Quinjet is down!”
A short distance away, H.E.R.B.I.E continued its desperate attempts to bring power back to the Quinjet as Storm and W’kabi battled to keep the sentries at bay. W’Kabi was tackled by a sentry surging into the hovel at jet like speed, slamming the Wakandan into what was left of a nearby wall with terrible force. Blood trickled from W’kabi’s mouth, a clear sign of the internal injuries he was suffering from. The sentry raised a hand to his face that transformed into a cannon, a flurry of dark matter building in its housing at It prepared to finish the human off.
“Mr. Richards weird little buddy is making some traction on the ship, but they sure are getting bottled in down here.” Miles Morales, now at least in his mid-twenties, informed Tony through their coms system as he swung into the hovel, dropkicking the sentry in the side of the face and sending it through a cluster of debris. “What’s the call Major?”
Inside a rundown Quinjet that was barely holding together and sitting high above the battlefield, Carol Danvers sat at the pilot controls, thrusting her arms into a pair of housing units on each side of her. “We’re not here to putz around with these things, I’ll cover your exit just make sure that bird gets back in the air and they follow us back to basepoint.” Captain Marvel instructed Miles as energy began to surge through her.
On the battlefield below, rays of photon concussion blasts wipe out a group of sentries battling Stark, who uses the opportunity to rise towards the Quinjet operated by Carol just as T’Challa’s own vessel was once again functioning. T’Challa, W’kabi and Storm rushed onto the jet with Miles right behind him as the bay doors closed and they followed after Carol’s ship, creating some distance between themselves and their attackers.
Miles ripped his mask off, letting out a sigh of relief as he watched them follow after the lead Quinjet. “Hey wow, this thing is way better than ours! Old man Stark always said your original designs for these buckets were groundbreaking but this is slapping!” Miles remarked as he wandered around the jet. T’Challa sat in silence next to W’kabi, deep in thought as his fingers intertwined with Storm’s, his mind racing after everything he had just seen.
Thirty minutes later they landed next to Carol’s jet where Captain Marvel was personally waiting for them to disembark outside a derelict military facility. Miles led the group off the jet, beaming brightly at the success of their mission. T’Challa and Carol’s eyes met and the two embraced, tears welling in her eyes that she quickly wiped away.
“We thought you were dead, all of you. How the hell are you here?” She asked as she led them deeper into the ragtag facility they were using as a base. There were streaks of gray in her blonde hair, and T’Challa could see in her face how the years of war had worn on her. She barely resembled the Carol he remembered, and that hurt his heart, though he didn’t show any hint of such a wound.
“We were, well are. At least in this world.” T’Challa answered as they reached a massive group of screens overseeing various locations across earth.
“What do you mean this world? Is there another I’m not hip to?” Miles asked as he threw a frozen pizza into the rickety microwave sitting on the floor near him.
“They came here through the dimensional rift we picked up. Them showing up here was nothing short of blood in the water to Ultron.” Tony chimed in, but his voice didn’t come from the suit of armor that helped in the rescue efforts, rather T’Challa and company turned around to see a significantly grayer haired Tony Stark hovering towards them in a chair powered by his repulsor technology.
“Tony...what happened to you?” Storm asked, horrified by everything they had witnessed up to this point.
“The same god damn thing that happened to the world.” A grizzly voice chimed in as Frank Castle joined the group. On his back was the familiar vibranium shield that once belonged to Captain America, something that did not go unnoticed to T’Challa.
“Where did you get that?” He asked as his mask morphed away, pointing to the shield on Frank’s back.
“Well he damn sure ain’t around to sling it no more. Figured it might as well be put to good use.” Frank responded nonchalantly as he lit a cigar.
“What has happened to this world?” W’kabi answered, cutting through the tension building in the room.
“There was a war, a war still being battled at this very moment that ripped the galaxy in half. Ultron and Thanos went to battle over possession of the infinity stones. Unfortunately, the only true losers in this entire mess has been anyone not on either side.” Tony informed them as archived footage from over the years played across a few of the screens.
“The more important question is what brings you all to this hell anyway?” Frank wondered aloud as he puffed on his cigar. “This ain’t exactly a prime vacation spot.”
“We were assisting Reed Richards in tracking his son across the multiverse. Upon landing here, we discovered he is not in this particular dimension.” T’Challa informed the team as he sat down, puzzled as to how to resolve their current plight. “I need to open another breach to get us home. Tony, I will need your assistance.”
“Lead the way. I’ve missed picking your brain anyway T’Challa.” Tony replied as he slapped T’Challa on the back and they strode towards the makeshift lab he had been putting together in his spare time.
Storm approached Carol as Frank began to polish his set of guns and Miles scarfed down a few slices of pizza. “How long has this war been going on?”
“Twelve years now. There aren’t too many of us putting up a fight left. Ultron’s been rounding up mutants the past couple of years trying to figure out a way to harness their powers as weapons for his sentries. I never imagined the world could come to something like this.” Carol answered, refusing to meet Ororo’s eyes as watched the monitors in front of them. “Whatever you do when you get back home, make sure things never get this bad. Please.” Carol finally turned to Storm, the severity of her request biting through the air.
W’kabi joined Tony and T’Challa in the small lab, watching as the pair of super geniuses worked to repair a shabby dimensional gate that looked as if it was barely holding together. H.E.R.B.I.E floated a few feet away, adjusting the controls on the terminal to the correct frequency.
“How could we have let something like this happen Tony? We do what we do to make sure this exact madness is prevented; how could we have slipped up so miserably?” T’Challa wondered as he installed a vibranium stabilizer to the gate.
Tony took a deep breath before answering T’Challa as he continued to work. “For all the wonderful things we try to accomplish with the gifts we have, we’re still just human beings. All of this had made me take a real hard look at whether we were destined to be wiped out long ago. The only thing that kept humanity thriving as long as it has, was us...” Tony hung his head at the thought of everything he had been through the last decade before he booted up the gate. A blue and white swirl of energy came to life in front of them, and Tony somehow managed a smile.
“You won’t have long, Ultron’s probably detected the rift the moment we booted up the gate.” Tony told him sternly, stressing the gravity of the situation.
“You’ve put yourselves in terrible danger for us. We owe you a great debt.” W’kabi stressed as T’Challa and H.E.R.B.I.E headed back to their jet. T’Challa used his kimoyo card to cast the gate’s window high above the facility before they boarded the Quinjet. Sirens went off around the building as Carol rushed back over to the group of screens. The central monitor showed a group of Ultron sentries headed directly towards their location.
“You all have to leave, you’re only going to get one shot at it!” Tony informed them as he pressed a key on the arm of his chair and a pair of his armors shot through the roof to cut off the sentries.
“We can’t just leave you all here, we’re the reason they found you!” W’kabi stressed, his eyes on the monitor as Tony’s iron puppets battled Ultron’s minions.
“if it means you all get to a world far from anything like this, it’s now shame in being the sacrificial lamb. Now go!” Carol demanded before energy surrounded her body and she too took off into the air to join the fight. T’Challa closed the doors of the ship without another word. Seconds later T’Challas Quinjet blasted through the roof and into the rift, leaving behind the decimated world.
BIRNIN ZANA WAKANDA
Aneka stood on the shores of near the palace, staring at what was left of Necropolis. She didn’t make a move as she heard footsteps approach her from behind, too stunned that Ramonda had been lost in an effort to protect her.
“Akili told me you’d be here, thrusting the weight of the world on yourself. You’ve been spending too much time with both our brothers.” Surprised to hear the voice of Shuri, Aneka turned and rushed to embrace the princess, fighting back tears as they greeted one another.
“Akili told me about your message. Was there any sign of Okoye?” She asked, the worry in her voice more than palpable.
“The entire floor of the building was destroyed. But I’m sure she has to be alive, they wouldn’t have gone through such trouble to separate us if they had any intention of killing her.”
“Has there been any word from the king?” Aneka wondered as they both sat on the beach and gazed at the ruins of Necropolis.
“Not yet, but we both know T’Challa has a knack-” Suddenly a massive portal opened in the skies above the palace and the royal Quinjet came tumbling out, landing with a loud crash atop of palace. “...for appearances.” Shuri finished, the two of them in awe of the sight in front of them.
THRONE ROOM OF THE GOLDEN PALACE
T’Challa sat deep in thought on the throne once occupied by his ancestors, surrounded by the people he trusted most.
“Brother, never have we been surrounded by so many enemies without an idea of where to cast the first stone. What is our move from here?” Shuri pressed her brother, eager to atone for failing Okoye.
“The energy signatures from the portals utilized by Bullseye, we can track them if we program their particular frequency pattern into our satellites. It may not get us exactly where we need to be, but it will be a step closer to discovering who sent Taskmaster after the pair of you and may provide us an answer as to who has been behind the recent string of events.” T’Challa instructed his sister, noticing the fire behind his sister’s eyes. Without another word, Shuri rushed from the room, programming their satellites on her kimoyo card as she went. No sooner had she left that Akili rushed into the room, out of breath with a haggard expression on his face.
“My king, we have a problem in the beta lab! Please, come quickly!” T’Challa rushed from the throne and followed Akili out of the room, W’kabi and Aneka right on his heels.
Inside the lab, the casket retrieved by T’Challa sat opened. Its contents however, were busy wreaking havoc on the room and its occupants. A man tossed a lab tech into a set of instruments, his metallic arm augmenting his strength. Aneka, Akili, and T’Challa entered the room, and the crazed young man pounced towards them, eager to free himself from wherever he currently was.
“Put him down, but do not kill him.” T’Challa ordered his subordinates, and Akili rushed into battle eagerly. He threw a kick towards the young man’s head but was picked out of mid-air and tossed aside by the ankle, cracking his head against a nearby table. Aneka wasted no time springing into action herself, using the momentary distraction to leap onto the back of the man and apply a sleeper hold, all the while raining elbows down on his head. He tossed her overhead into a set of computers, sending her crashing with uncanny power.
Aneka managed to avoid the follow up blow, ducking aside just as the metal arm came crashing through the computer right where her head had just been. She quickly pulled an oval shaped device from her waist and placed it directly on her attacker’s chest, which sent him flying with breakneck speed, crashing through the observatory window on the other side of the lab.
T’Challa, Aneka, W’kabi and Akili surrounded the now unconscious young man, all of them confused as to who or what he was, and how he came to be in Hydra’s possession.