Old draft of chapter 00052.
Added 2023-04-21 05:59:56 +0000 UTCThis is the old draft, check it out if you want to see what was changed.
This chapter really didn't go how I wanted it to... Honestly I kinda don't like it, give me some feed back and tell me what you think about it and how I might be able to improve it.
N'Jadaka, Bear and Klaue were first taken to the outer area of the capital city of Wakanda next to a giant panther statue. It was a facility that they used for what seemed like prisoners. Bear was allowed to stay with N'Jadaka while they did a blood test. But that isn't saying much, the room they were brought to was almost completely bare besides a table and some chairs for them to use.
Someone came into the room, took a blood sample and then left. It was about an hour later when Okoye came inside and said, "Sorry for the wait N'Jadaka, we just wanted to make sure you were who you said you were."
N'Jadaka smiled as he said, "It's fine, I expected I would have to be tested. So what happens now?"
Okoye glanced at Bear as she said, "We have one small matter to deal with, your friend Bear didn't come up when we looked for him. His face doesn't exist anywhere digitally."
N'Jadaka looked over to Bear for a moment before he said, "He almost always wears his mask and he doesn't normally travel in places that have working electricity, much less cameras to take his picture."
"Could you give us more info about him? His real name perhaps and where he was born along with the year?"
N'Jadaka glanced back at Okoye as he said, "Give her your information, Bear."
Okoye looked at Bear as he said in a heavy Russian accent, "Mishka Medvedev, Yakutsk, U.S.S.R. 10-12-1963"
Okoye raised an eyebrow as she asked, "Doesn't that mean bear bear in Russian?"
Bear just smiled as N'Jadaka looked at Okoye and asked, "You speak Russian? "
"All Dora Milaje are required to speak at least five languages fluently. I speak ten. If you will excuse me for a few minutes I need to run his information." She left the room right after.
It was another ten minutes before she came back. She glanced at Bear before she looked at N'Jadaka and said, "Bear can join you, but he needs to be cuffed."
N'Jadaka nodded his head and said, "That's fine, Bear let her cuff you."
Bear grunted as he put his hands out. Okoye came forward and put a small bead on each of Bear's wrist. Within a second they each expanded and turned into a pair of heavy duty handcuffs that magnetically locked his wrists together.
Okoye stepped back as she said, "The king and tribal leader's are awaiting you in the Council Chambers, please follow me."
N'Jadaka and Bear were led out of the room and back to the royal talon fighter. Within a few minutes they were taken to the heart of the city and a tall beautiful golden spire. On each side of the spire were tall onyx colored panther statues each one was half the height of the spire. The aircraft landed in front of the spire on a large platform. As the aircraft opened its rear hatch N'Jadaka and Bear were greeted by ten women of the Dora Milaje. There were five women in a line to each side of the aircraft’s ramp.
Okoye walked out onto the ramp and stopped to look at N'Jadaka as she said, "Follow me and once inside the council chambers do not speak unless you are spoken to."
N'Jadaka nodded his head before he and Bear silently followed Okoye down the ramp. Once on the ground the Dora Milaje formed up around them as they walked. N'Jadaka wasn't sure if they were considered prisoners or V.I.P. guests with this type of treatment. But he decided to put his trust in Bear and his team that everything would be okay.
As they walked through the spire, N'Jadaka took in the details of the place. It was a masterpiece of construction, but it was also a masterpiece of art. Everything flowed together organically and looked almost like it was natural. Even the things you could tell were man made, somehow blended into the structure naturally. They were led to a unique elevator that was easily big enough to hold all of them.
The elevator was stationed on the outside of the building and enclosed in glass. It was actually more of a single half circle platform than what a typical elevator looked like. Which gave it an amazing view of the beautiful city outside. Another interesting thing about the platform was how it operated. Since there were no walls, there were no buttons to push. N'Jadaka noticed Okoye use the beads around her wrist which showed a holographic display she used to control the elevator.
As they rode the platform to the top of the spire, almost no motion was felt at all by anyone on the platform. Even though you could see the city becoming smaller below you. It made for a very strange and disconcerted feeling.
On the top floor they were guided to a set of tall ornate double doors that opened up into a large rounded meeting chamber. There was a reddish brown platform in the middle of the room, it almost looked to be made of clay. Upon the clay platform rested six metal colored chairs and a throne made out of metal and wood. The throne was at the back of the clay platform. It was a lot bigger compared to the chairs and had two points coming out of the back near the arm rests that reached up over the throne and stopped at points just before they connected with each other. On each side of the throne were three chairs in a row. All of the chairs were currently filled with people.
The man seated on the throne was older, his hair had started to become white showing his advancing age. But he still looked strong and capable as a leader. His face was unreadable as he studied N'Jadaka and Bear as they approached the middle of the room.
The woman in the chair to the man’s left was currently holding his hand. She showed no sign of her age at all, but with where she was seated and how she was interacting with the king. N'Jadaka knew that she was the queen.
Everyone else seated in the chairs had a quiet and subdued demeanor. N'Jadaka took a moment to look at everyone as he came to a stop just before he stepped on the clay platform. The Dora Milaje who were guiding him spread out, but four of them stayed right behind him and Bear. Okoye walked forward and stopped before the man on the throne as she said, “My king, I have bought N'Jadaka son of N’Jobu and his companion Bear as asked.” She then stepped to the right side of the throne and took up her position next to it.
The man was quiet for a few moments before he said in a deep voice, “Today is a day for celebration and also for mourning. Today my lost brother’s son has returned and even brought us a gift. But his coming also brings news which we have feared for years, that my younger brother is dead.”
The man lowered his head and everyone except for N'Jadaka and Bear followed suit. N'Jadaka gritted his teeth a little, but said nothing while he waited for everyone to finish. The whole room was quiet for a few minutes before the king started to raise his head as he said, “N'Jadaka, I am sorry for not bringing you home sooner, if I knew my brother had a son. Then I would have gone to find you myself years ago.”
The tribal leaders and the queen nodded their heads in agreement with the king's statement, N'Jadaka only tightened his fists slightly. The king smiled as he said, “N'Jadaka you have also done the country of your fathers birth a great service by bringing us the criminal Ulysses Klaue. Someone who has escaped our grasp for years and was a master at evading us. For that you have mine and the rest of the countries thanks.”
King T'Chaka frowned slightly as he said, “Unfortunately you have also broken a taboo, you have told an outsider our secrets. We can overlook this issue since you weren’t raised here, but your companion Bear will now have to be a permanent guest of Wakanda.”
N'Jadaka frowned as he said, “So he is now a prisoner of Wakanda?”
The king glanced at Okoye and she shot a glare at N'Jadaka from next to the king as she said, “You were told not to speak unless spoken to, know your place N’Jadaka.”
N'Jadaka shook his head as he said, “Naw, I don’t think so. I am already tired of this bullshit, I am gonna say my piece and then we are gonna dip.” N'Jadaka glared at Okoye and said, “And for the record, my name is Erik Stevens.”
All of the Dora Milaje looked like they wanted to attack Erik and Bear, before T'Chaka raised his right hand in the arm as a calming signal. T’Chaka glowered at Erik as he said, “It seems you are just like your father. I had hoped you would be different, but it seems the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”
T’Chaka watched Erik and he let out a sigh. Erik glared back at T’Chaka, until T’Chaka said, “You and your companion Bear are ordered to stay in Wakanda. You can never leave and you will be watched at all times. If you try to leave you will be forcefully confined.”
As T’Chaka looked towards Okoye, Erik started to laugh. T’Chaka instantly looked back at Erik with an angry glare as he said, “Stop laughing boy, or you will regret it.”
Erik laughed more as he said, “What are you gonna do if I don’t? Kill me like you did my father?”
The whole room went quiet, as everyone looked at the king who hadn’t reacted to the accusation. As they did, Bear un-clipped his mask and slipped it onto his face. Only T’Chaka could have noticed his actions, but he was busy glaring at Erik. T’Chaka glared at the young man in front of him and saw so much of his younger brother in the boy.
T’Chaka finally spoke and there was some heat in his voice as he said, “Your father was a traitor to Wakanda and he was killed for it. I left you in Oakland for a reason, because I knew you were going to be tainted by your fathers ideals. You should have stayed away, there was nothing here for you.”
T’Chaka raised his right hand again as it looked like other people were going to talk and said, “We will talk after N’Jadaka and his companion are removed. Okoye, I wan…”
“No! You will listen to what I have to say and then I will leave.”
T’Chaka glared back at Erik as he said, “If he speaks again I want him to be restrained and gagged.”
“Fuck you.”
As the Dora Milaje went to restrain Erik a cloud of smoke appeared around Erik and Bear, when it cleared a second later both of them were next to T’Chaka. Bear had a kunai to T’Chaka’s throat and Erik seemed a little dazed, but Erik shook his head and then said, “Like I said, I am going to say my piece and then we are leaving.”
Everyone was shocked at what just happened including Okoye, who looked at W'Kabi as she said, “I thought you said he had no weapons?”
W'Kabi looked at the man holding a weapon to the king's throat as he said, “He was checked, he didn’t have that when we stopped them at the border.”
Okoye was slowly getting ready to attack Erik, she was confident that the king wouldn’t have any issue handling Bear. He was still the black panther and he should be able to react before the man was able to stab him with his weapon. She stopped when she felt a cold blade against her neck and someone said, “If you wanna keep your head I would suggest not moving anymore.”
Okoye wasn’t the only one who stopped moving. Everyone stopped moving because there were now three more people in the room wearing masks. A man with a cat mask was behind Okoye, another man in a crow mask was holding a blade to the queen's throat and the last man in a wolf mask was standing next to Erik as a guard.
Erik looked around at everyone and said, “Now that I have your undivided attention I’m gonna say my piece. He pointed at T’Chaka as he said, “As much as I want to kill you, I won’t. After meeting you, I realized you aren’t worth killing. You are just some old man stuck in his ways and fearful of change. It’s why you never listened to my father or tried to help him. It’s also why you killed him and left me in Oakland.”
Erik looked around at the other people in the room before he said, “All of you are just like him, stuck in traditions and afraid of change. One day you might wake up and realize that Wakanda isn’t as great as you think it is. That sooner or later the rest of the world will catch up to Wakanda and then what will you do?”
Erik looked at Bear as he said, “Let's get out of here, I am over this place.”
Bear nodded his head and a few seconds later Erik and the four masked men faded away. As soon as they disappeared the Dora Milaje took up positions around the king and queen along with the tribal leaders. Okoye used the beads on her wrist and scanned the room to find where they went. She also sent messages to the main security center and told them to make sure the shield was up, she wouldn’t let Erik and the men with him escape.
When she was finished she kneeled in front of the king who was holding his wife as she said, “My king, this was my fault. I take all responsibility for what happened.”
T’Chaka looked down at Okoye and said, “It’s not your fault, whoever he had with him had technology on par with us. We need to figure out who they are and find out how they acquired that level of technology.”
The queen touched her husband's face as she asked, “Is that really the best idea? They could have killed us, they didn’t because the boy said he didn’t want to kill us. Let's leave them be for now.”
T’Chaka was quiet for a few moments before he said, “I will heed your wisdom love, but we will need to figure out how they were able to get inside here and leave.”
Okoye looked up as she said, “I will talk with the research division and have them check over everything, we will figure out what happened and find a solution my king.”
T’Chaka nodded his head and then let out a sigh as he said, “I guess I owe all of you the truth now. Go back to your positions and I will tell you what happened with my brother.”
vvvvv
Erik, Ezekiel and the others watched as T’Chaka started to tell everyone what really happened with his brother N’Jobu. Erik looked at Ezekiel who had changed back into his normal looking self and said, “That didn’t go the way I thought it would.”
Ezekiel tilted his right hand back and forth a few times in front of himself as he said, “It went about how I thought it would. You feel better?”
Erik shrugged as he said, “Not really, but I will get over it. Now what?”
Ezekiel looked at Tao as he said, “Mind going to the storage facility? I want more vibranium.”
Tao let out a sigh before she said, “From a chauffeur to a getaway driver and now a thief...”
Comments
Thanks for the feed back! I wasn't sure if anyone was going to give some or not. I need to finish the next chapter and post it, it's about 1800 words atm. So I will finish it tomorrow. Once it is done, read it and tell me what you think of it and this one together. I kinda wrote this one a certain way with how I wanted the next chapter to go with Erik. But I could change it up because I am still not 100% on it. I do like it now that I have this part done though.
Pewpewcachoo
2023-04-25 07:25:40 +0000 UTCI read the chapter and I agree it is not too conducive to the direction of the story so far .Ezekiel is being incredibly short sighted in indulging Erik and making enemies that would be incredibly important in the future . You can’t handle deceit with deceit. Wakanda is justifiably worried about foreign interference and has acted accordingly. By Erik speaking rudely and not presenting his case , he pretty much guarantees that nothing is done. Erik is not the only one to have experienced discrimination . Unless Wakanda plays no further part in this story, then this is a huge blunder on Ezekiel’s part. If he showed up to a meet , say at the UN and discreetly met with Tchaka and showed him some of the future and with the support of Tao then this could have been handled much better.
Dec
2023-04-25 06:02:20 +0000 UTC