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Africa, [May 1, 2012]
–Jack Sullivan–
“Hmm, this is taking longer than I expected,” He muttered to himself as he floated on top of the dockyard with the ships littered below. It was pretty late in the night here so he was not expecting any activity on the ships but it would seem that this entire area was a budding area for shady activities so he could see almost all of the ships having armed people. People were armed with rifles, and pistols, and most of them had those in their hands, ready to aim it and blow someone’s head off, instead of having them concealed. Well, it was not called no man’s land for nothing then. So far, his barriers had scanned all of the ships by flying overboard which yielded zero results so he began scanning them from the inside which was very slow going. So far, he had scanned about half of the ships, and the sun was already rising. If he went at the same pace, something unaccounted for might happen and he did not want that to happen. He had already wasted way too much time on this.
Klaue was not the person he would become in the future, armed with enhanced tech that would increase his danger rating. At this point, all the people below him had guns and grenades, at best. Things that could not breach his barriers even if he stayed in the same place and let them shoot continuously for hours on end.
He was hesitating because he or rather his signature green barriers were known globally now and while he had given no interviews where he had given the slightest hint of his whereabouts, he was pretty sure that SHIELD was actively tracking his energy signature to figure out where he was stating. That would mean that the moment he would use his bigger avatars, SHIELD and HYDRA would know and then they would investigate. He did not want that. For one, bringing more attention to the hidden nation of Wakanda would not go well with their ruling council, he would wager. Secondly, he would have to someday answer some questions that the government would have for him and he did not want them to come even closer in their quest to find Vibranium. After all, he still remembered the reason why Namor had come out and slaughtered the royal family of Wakanda. It was because of increased human activity searching for Vibranium deposits outside of Wakanda. So, keeping the government’s eye as far away from Vibranium as possible would be the best.
“Sigh. This sucks,” He muttered to himself as he increased the amount of barriers searching for Klaue. He had no other way of figuring out his location because all he knew was the face of Klaue, none of his subordinates was well-known or explored in the movies. He didn’t even know if Klaue was here or not but if the movies were to be believed, he did not move from this place for a long time so there was a pretty good chance that Klaue was…
“Got him,” He dispelled all the barriers except the ones that showed Klaue speaking with someone on his laptop at his desk. He carefully dropped himself in the water far away from Klaue’s ships and slowly began making his way towards him. His barriers meant that he was now in an airtight enclosure with enough oxygen for minutes for a normal person. He was not exactly a normal person so he could stay in an oxygen-deficient environment for far longer so that was a non-issue for him.
Slowly, he swam parallel to the ground as the downside of Klaue’s ship became visible to him. He could sense Klaue was done with his talk and was now smoking in his office. He conjured a small barrier right on top of his head to get a better view and saw that his office was completely empty. By now, he was right under Klaue’s ship. All he needed to know before he took action was to find out the location of the Vibranium, otherwise, this whole thing might turn out to be a failure because he was not very adept at interrogation techniques.
Well, that would be a lie since had multiple memories of Jack Sullivan, the HYDRA soldier who was trained on that and more but the memories were so brutal that he had already consciously suppressed them. He had a hunch that someday, in the future, he would have to consult someone about that because just letting that sit in his head without addressing it did not seem healthy but all that could come later. Now, he had to catch an actual terrorist and give back the Vibranium to Wakanda. Vibranium that could later be used to create an asteroid falling on Earth situation by a hyper-advanced AI who was convinced that humanity needed to experience an Extinction level event to evolve and become stronger because its code was completely compromised by some sort of failsafe that Thanos put in the scepter as part of its defenses.
Dispelling the barriers around Klaue, he created a minuscule one right below the ship and had it drilled right into the ship. His eyebrows shot up as he encountered resistance. Normal wood and steel would not give that much resistance. He willed the barrier to start spinning as a makeshift drill was made. As soon as some progress was made in the barrier, he could see that Klaue was startled as he immediately stood up from his chair and started shouting at his men. Also, the sirens that immediately rang and were now audible even underwater made him aware that Klaue was aware of the breach.
Good news, it meant that the VIbranium was probably here. Bad news, he might have to go for the flashy approach right now.
Okay, no problem, he would just have to hit hard and fast. Take the Vibranium, knock out Klaue and his crew and once that is done, just take them all underwater. Then, he could figure out a way to bring them both to Wakanda’s borders.
OR…
His eyes crinkled mischievously as he abandoned his previous plan. Instead, the barrier manifested above Klaue was dispelled and in its place, a much larger one appeared and covered Klaue completely in a cube. He could see Klaue’s eyes widening in realisation as he began banging on the barriers. Huh, so he was recognised then.
The next moment, multiple large barriers appeared underneath the ship as big holes were drilled into the ship, letting water into the hull. He then placed the same barriers in the ship and pulled.
He had already come out of the water and was not floating far above as he watched Klaue’s crew panic as his absence only exacerbated things. With a loud groan, the ship began falling apart as the water in the ship began doing its thing. Seeing that their boss was nowhere to be seen, the skeleton crew that manned the ship began jumping out of the now partially drowned ship. Some of them got lucky to find lifeboats but the majority of them just began swimming back to the shore. He would let them go, he had no plans of taking them with him after all.
He looked at the ship that was now completely submerged, along with Klaue of course. Klaue had stopped banging on the shields as he sat on the ground, looking oddly calm as he looked at the water gathering around him. Once the entire ship was underwater and even the bubbles had stopped coming, he willed for the barriers surrounding the Vault to break away from the ship, along with Klaue. In a matter of moments, the very big Vault was taken miles away into the ocean at top speed with him following suit.
He then willed the vault and Klaue to come out of the water. Klaue had long since stopped struggling and didn’t even show much of a reaction as he finally saw his abductor. Well, he then promptly began laughing loudly as he pointed at him.
Well, he was insane anyway, everyone knew that. You had to have the guts to steal from Wakanda, especially in the year he did. In 1992, America was way behind Wakanda who already had stealth fighters that didn’t need jet fuel to function. Even now, in 2012, the government did not actually have a viable way of running jets without burning fossil fuel. Well, Tony should have something soon but it remains to be seen if the stubborn government and Army would accept that or not. Plus, that could be seen as manufacturing weapons which was a big no-no for Stark and anything associated with his name. That was kind of his whole shtick for now, not manufacturing weapons for anyone else while he himself was in possession of arguably the most revolutionary weapon since the Nuclear Weapon itself.
He sighed and shook his head, ignoring Klaue as he focused on the Vault itself. It seemed very advanced for something that was installed on a ship that was half rotten. The unlocking mechanism seemed very advanced and had slots for fingers and even eyes. So, biometric unlock with a keypad for extra codes. Klaue apparently paid top dollar for something like this to be made. Made sense with the merchandise that was inside.
He looked at Klaue who raised his chin while smirking defiantly, thinking that a lock of this size would stop him. Did he not see him lifting an entire container ship, granted it was not exactly using his powers and the strain was immense but he could do it, granted conditions matched.
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The smirk was soon wiped off Klaue’s face as he watched his precious Vault deform and crumble as four barriers appeared around it and then pressed on all sides. The thing about such advanced Vaults was they usually had some sort of failsafe in the event of forced intrusions like the one he was doing but they usually did one of two things. Either they destroyed the materials inside, depriving the intruder of it forever or they exploded the vault, taking the intruder along with the merchandise.
In the current situation, the thing was that the intruder was him, someone with near unbreakable shields, so he was unscathed from the ensuing explosion. The merchandise inside was Vibranium, the strongest material on the planet so damaging it was out of the question.
This led to the current situation. Klaue looked on, resigned as the Vault he had paid probably a million dollars for, fell apart in pieces and dropped into the ocean below as all that was left was an entire row of shelves filled up with containers having raw untreated Vibranium inside them. The shelves seemed to be Wakandan-made as well, judging by the various symbols carved on them.
He glanced at Klaue who glared at him and with a gesture, created a barrier behind him that promptly dropped on his head, knocking him out. He had gotten a lot better with that gesture. It is really hard to accurately regulate the force needed to just knock out a person, instead of giving them permanent spinal damage. Dozens of rapists had died in his efforts to learn to subdue people non-lethally. Their sacrifice will be forgotten, as it should be considering their crimes and their non-repentant natures.
“Now, Wakanda. I really don’t want to deal with their xenophobia. It’s hypocrisy in its most ironical way,” He muttered to himself as a cocoon covered himself, Klaue, and the Vibranium as he opened a portal to the area where Killmonger had first introduced himself to the Border Tribe. God, it was going to be so exhausting dealing with them and he was an all-powerful super soldier.
Crossing the portal, he was immediately treated to the sight of dozens of Border Tribe members scrambling to gather in front of the road that led to their fake “third world” country. It figures they detected the portal.
They probably have been researching ways to neutralise him. Well, he hoped that they did not find much success in their endeavour, not that he was expecting this to turn into a fight.
He dispelled his Power Ranger armour and reverted back to the second skin he kept on himself, well, sans the mask of course. He was not going to reveal his face to a foreign nation, one that had killed hundreds of scientists around the world just to maintain its technological lead over the rest of the world. He really hoped that T’Challa would put an end to that ignominious practice because he would have some choice words with him if he did not do it.
He then slowly dropped down on the ground in front of the gathering Border Tribe members. He was sure that there were probably Raptors being mobilised in case things turned out to be bad but he was hoping not to go to that level.
“Greetings,” He bowed to the man who seemed to be in charge. He did not look like the Border Tribe head who was shown in the movies. Made sense as it would not be the same person who would be responsible for staying out and guarding their utopia without ever getting to experience it. That would suck.
“Outsider,” The person said as his gaze rolled over the blocks of green behind him. Oh yeah, he could turn his barriers opaque or translucent on will so he had hidden them for a grand reveal but judging from the reactions he was getting from the people here, he would have to show them Klaue if he wanted any chance of meeting T’Chaka or T’Challa. Come to think of it, shouldn’t T’Challa be in college or something?
“For what purpose have you come here? We do not welcome your people here,” He said and bared his teeth at him in a threatening gesture, the people behind him tensing as well. Well, there goes his grand reveal.
“Well, I have a gift that I am sure King T’Chaka would appreciate,” He said as he brought Klaue’s cage to the forefront, the mere activity of doing that without moving any part of his body causing the warriors behind him to draw their spears. The cage stopped the moment the first spear was drawn, causing the person in front of him to raise his hand, making the others calm down.
He raised an eyebrow internally. He must be someone influential if they were listening so easily to him.
Once the people calmed down, he brought and dropped Klaue’s cage in between both of them. He then willed the barrier to become translucent, the action once again startling some of the soldiers behind. Seriously, how trigger-happy were these people? It was like they were Americans, which was ironic since they were the “backward” people in the opinion of Wakandans.
“Who is that?”
He looked at the person in confusion. Did he not recognise the biggest criminal in Wakanda?
He looked at the cage only to see Klaue had collapsed on the barrier, face first. He rolled his eyes and waved his arm, the first visible action he had done since he landed here. The action even caused the pretty calm person in front of him to tense slightly but he soon calmed down as he saw that the only changes happening were to the cage as the barrier dispelled and Klaue collapsed on the ground, groaning in pain.
“All yours,” He gestured to Klaue. The person looked at him and then waved his hand once again, causing one of the people behind him to break the flank and come forward to check on Klaue. He slowly rolled him over and gasped as he saw Klaue’s face.
Ah, so he remembers then.
“Chief, it’s Klaue. Ulysses Klaue,”
“What?!” The Chief, as he was addressed, snapped towards Klaue and then after taking one look at him, ran towards Klaue and then opened his mouth to see the brand.
“Arrest him. Alert the King. We have Klaue in custody,” He declared which caused all of the men behind him to breakout in excitement. Some of them came forward and snapped on some cuffs on Klaue as they dragged his unconscious ass to prison.
“What do you want? Where did you find him? What is behind you?” The Chief came back and asked him. He raised an eyebrow internally as he was expecting him to demand something of him.
Apparently, his powers must have spooked them into actually behaving. What a great thing because he was sure that had it been anybody other than someone of his not-insignificant powers, they would have been either turned away or put into handcuffs and arrested on the spot.
“I want to meet King T’Chaka. Tell him I have very important news for him,” He said and then turned around, deliberately showing his back to them as a sign of trust not that they would have been able to do anything to his barriers. He did not exactly have a way to test his barriers against Vibranium spears but he had multiple layers so he supposed that he would be fine.
He then floated up to the block that had the stolen Vibranium in it and lay atop it.
“Tell me when he is ready to meet me,” He said and then closed his eyes. He was actually ready to leave altogether but it would be a waste if he could not squeeze some advantages out of this and barging in with force would destroy any chance of a diplomatic relationship between them. Well, that and he was unsure if there was another genius of Shuri’s calibre in Wakanda who could whip up some crazy out-of-this-world weapon that would breach his barriers.
As far as he knew, there were theories thrown around that Vibranium was actually the flesh of Celestials. That was why it had all those miraculous energy-manipulating properties, because it was made from beings who were once masters of energy and matter manipulations, making them gods. Celestials were also known users of cosmic energy, something that was so heavy that even most immortals are unable to use it properly. That energy was also very close to the Power Cosmic in terms of density and impact so he did not want to take any chances with Wakanda having some sort of super weapon that involved cosmic energy, however unlikely it may be.
Sometimes, it is better to just take a step back and let them take the next step. Especially, when it came to monarchies of the level of Wakanda. They most certainly have a very huge ego and if it were not for Klaue and his public status of being perhaps the most powerful known human on the planet, they would have dragged him in with Klaue as well and treated him as a criminal too.
He spread out his barriers around him and had them move around constantly, as a way of detecting their raptors and also increasing his awareness range. As far as he knew, they had a holographic shield generator but he had portals that could easily breach through them. They probably knew that but barging in straight into their kingdom and opening a portal in the city and then handing over his gift would have most certainly looked rude and even treasonous in their eyes, leading to deteriorating relations with Wakanda.
Ah, he hoped that the younger generation soon took charge of Wakanda. It would get so stuffy dealing with the older generation with a stick in their butts the whole time. Hopefully, T’Challa was already the Black Panther, which would make some things easier and some even more difficult.
He was still unsure of how to deal with the information surrounding Killmonger. It was not as if the King would take it kindly to him airing out his family laundry to everyone in the Kingdom but having a private audience with him would be difficult to get, especially with his powers since that might make King T’Chaka uncomfortable. After all, being in the presence of someone who could easily kill you in a moment would always be nerve-wracking for anyone, let alone someone like T’Chaka who had everything to lose and nothing to gain, from his perspective, from a meeting with him.
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Word Count - 3443
If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon
A/N - Biggest Chapter of the story yet.
Next - Wakanda meeting.