Shuri or why kidnapping is really a bad idea especially when the person you kidnap is a pair of badass
This was clearly annoying, Shuri hadn’t planned to be captured and while she was used to it happening often each time she went outside of Wakanda’s borders.
She had other things she wanted to do after testing the jet herself to drop Everett on American soil and go to the movies perhaps.
Unfortunately the plane had been struck with and EMP and filled with sleeping gas not even a minute after she landed.
She had woken up in a tiny room -seemingly an office in an abandoned factory- almost entirely in the dark, she was tied up to a chair with Ross still sleeping by her side and a camera in front of them, she had sworn profanities at the camera but if anyone heard her, nobody had said anything.
She was in the middle of sharpening her chair’s foot to cut her bonds when someone finally entered the room, a white tall brunet with a bitchy air on her face and a smile as fake as Santa Claus.
“You better be telling me that you were mistaken on who you caught and let me get the hell out of here or else I’ll swear you’ll regret it.” The chick raised unimpressed eyebrows before answering.
“I work for a group of scientist called the Advanced Idea Mecanic or AIM for short and we’re trying to recruit, brilliant minds like yours to work on technology for the future” Shuri deadpanned at the gall of that woman.
“Usually when you recruit you send a mail or something, I don’t want to be rude but one does not simply kidnap to have positive response.” She smiled inwardly at the joke and the chick smiled with fake sweetness before answering.
“I understand your concern though even if you don’t appreciate our methods, in the end you will comply.” The princess spat in the woman’s face.
“You can have it but that’s all you’ll get.” The kick in the ribs was totally worth the pissed look on the bitch’s face, plus now that she was down she had the opportunity to continue sharpening the chair’s foot.
“Okay everyone, we’ll start recording in a minute, wake up the CIA dude, I think he’ll be better off in front of camera to read our demands.”
Eight armed henchmen entered the room and started to wake Everett with a bucket of water and she snarled at the bastards, they better hope she doesn’t free herself otherwise they would regret not having the counter terrorist teams coming to kick their asses. Genius coughed up as he woke up
“ What the fuck ?” he looked around him confused and noticed the armed goons in the room and Shuri sprawled on the floor. “What’s going on ?”
“Bitch here wants us on TV to say that they took hostages and wants me to work for her. Doesn’t know your government doesn’t negotiate with terrorists like her” She received another kick to the stomach.
“well you weren’t supposed to tell about the work part, we’ll have to deal with that leater though I’m glad we neither are terrorist or dealing with American government. Anyway here’s your text, don’t worry we’ll let you keep it for the recording.” Bitchy went behind the camera and plugged a laptop to it leaving them to their devices.
“it’s stupid, Wakanda doesn’t have that much vibranium and I’m pretty sure Stark won’t endanger millions just to save the two of us.”
The first part wasn’t true but Shuri knew what he was trying to do: having the terrorist give up on their demands and release them. One of the goon put the gun on Everett’s throat and Shuri’s was became even more impatient to pull his guts out.
“Leave him alone, his concern is justified but you see I’m pretty sure Dr Stark wouldn’t let himself be guilty of the death of a man, no matter the alternative as for the vibranium of course it’s too much, though when my demand won’t be met by the wakandan authority I’ll fake kill Princess Shuri and end you, that way I’ll have a new brilliant mind added to our research team, Stark’s work and all of Wakanda’s vibranium, with a little bit of chance they will even turn against each other for causing that failure.”
Shuri shuddered a bit at the thought of what she would do if she succeeded and she started to cut the thick ropes that bound her wrist on the now cutting edge of her chair.
“Well, it’s a good plan I have to admit I’m disappointed that you forgot to mention the part where I break free and shove this chair so deep into your throat that you’ll permanently have something to put your sorry ass on.”
And while the Princess tried to think about how she could technically put that threat to execution the guards shuddered at her fierce outburst of rage and tried not to come to close to her as they tried to help her up
“You better hope that you’ll be arrested soon because otherwise she’s really going to kill you and knowing her, it’ll probably be slow and painful.” Everett tried to back her threat up but the goons were obviously more loyal to whatever payroll they were on than they were afraid of her, at least that meant that she would have the opportunity to kick their asses.
“Well, we’re ready, I’ll record and I’ll shoot a bullet in your legs for each take that we’ll have to do.” She had said that with certain happiness in her voice, Shuri tried not to bolt at her for that, she had to wait until their guards were down to attack.
“I’m Everett Ross, CIA operative and I have recently been captured, a group of individual. I along princess Shuri of Wakanda will be tortured and killed on live television in twelve hours if the demands of our captors aren’t met, those are for Doctor Antony Stark to transfer on a crypted line all of his research and other intellectual properties and for Wakanda to deliver a hundred tons of Vibranium to an undisclosed location without the intervention of any governmental authorities, please- he took a pause to dramatically roll his eyes- don’t let us die.”
Bitch gave a big smile entering a bunch of commands on her computer
“hey, congratulations, you did it on your first try ! Even professional actors don’t always pull something like it, I’m impressed. It’ll be on every major news channel and radio station within thirty minutes, we’ll just have to wait it out, oh and before I forget, I want at least three guards to constantly look over our prisoners, they look like their up to something, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d have to kill them because of an escape attempt.”
The head of wakandan design group cursed inwardly before deciding to play the waiting game, she had a plan and at one point, she would put it to execution, take their gun and shoot her way out, she just had to be patient.
{loading sixhourslater.exe}
The guards took shifts but eventually they kept being wary and in sufficient numbers, by basing herself on her stomach Shuri assumed that about six hours had already passed when all hell broke loose, the sound of an explosion had rang out and the one of the guard pulled his talkie from his belt.
“we’re under attack, kill Ross and shove his body outside, we need them to back off, Stark has yet to send us the data. Over.” Shuri’s blood ran cold and she spat the sonic grenade that she had kept in her mouth trying to think of a solution quickly.
“copy that, Over” the sentence had snapped Shuri out of her panic and she knew what to do.
She threw the grenade she had timed for one second and stood up to shield Ross with her body, Wakanda couldn’t afford to lose such an ally, she couldn’t afford to let him die, she was sure her brother would understand, her last thoughts were about how she missed the opportunity to see one last of those American movie Baba liked so much. The shots rang out and then nothing.
Literally nothing, no last pain, no going to the spiritual plane to see her ancestor and no absolute nothingness.
She opened her eyes only to see that something – Iron man- had appeared out of nowhere in an orange an grey armor to shield her and block the shot, the response was a quick series of energy blasts that knocked the guards against the wall of the tiny room.
“Thank you so much, how did you get there and why did you attack before knocking out those idiots, and how does the…” she was cut off as, before her a woman, a pale redhead with green eyes in military clothes, stepped out of the armor and started to speak while she took equipment from the unconscious guards
“we’ll talk about that later, this room is surrounded by enemies so it’ll be hard to clean the place, we have a Quinjet in stationary flight, we make a breakthrough towards it, Princess Shuri you get in the armor, Agent Ross you and I will take their rifles and bullet-proof vest.” Shuri felt anger rise up.
“I don’t know how to pilot this thing and I won’t cower up inside the tin can while you guys get shot at by those fuckers !” The redhead looked at her for a second before resuming her looting
“you won’t have to pilot the armor and I’m telling you to do so because it’s the rational choice, I’m not going to cause a diplomatic incident if I get shot, Agent Ross here is a trained CIA agent thus less likely to get hurt in a firefight and would certainly have difficulty to enter the armor plus your people will probably miss their princess if your popularity is anything to go by.” before Shuri could protest the ‘Colonizer’ cut her off
“I agree with the lady, it’s tactically the best decision and I couldn’t look T’Challa in the eyes if another member of the royal family got hurt because of my incompetence.” His tone had gone soft and he looked at her with resolve in his eyes.
She sighed, nodded at the redhead and the armor wrapped herself around her, if she wanted to be optimistic she could tell herself that it was a unique opportunity of industrial spying on the second best weaponry in the world -her works was above all the others-.
“Alright I’ll go do some more recon you can cut his bond and help him suit up.” With that the woman left the room and the armor on its own provided a blade that Shuri used to cut off the ropes.
When she was over she started to hear gunshots and screams, she might not be able to see it but hearing them suffer was a good thing.
“Vision to Friday, Iron Man and I are engaged by the enemy and requires assistance, do you copy?” a British voice had come through the armor comms and Shuri panicked at the information and tried to stay calm
“Friday if it’s who I think it is, isn’t exactly disponible right now, she’s shooting down bad guys, to get us out of here “ another goon stepped into the room and the guy shot at her but the bullet didn’t even bruised her before Rossy put a bullet in his head.
“Oh that’s unfortunate, well, when you will be safe, tell her that her assistance would be a great deal of help. Over.” They were in NYC -if they didn’t took a car trip- why did everyone had an accent.
“Friday to Shuri, I cleared the path you should be good to go, though pass first, they didn’t had strong explosives or other weaponry that could harm you, over.”
“it’s Shuri, the Vision dude wants you to help him once we’re on the jet oh and just so you can know apparently there is an enemy heading towards us really fast.” The armor started on its own to sprint toward the plane’s location, the HUD that displayed the map and the position of the enemies was really convenient, perhaps she could start working on a similar tech once she’d be back home.
“I know I heard and don’t worry about that I got you covered.” As she and the agent were running something dropped through the factory ceiling and she could see through the dust a man with what seemed to be red wings and two handguns.
She immediately stopped and shielded Ross while pointing her hands towards the man, she didn’t knew how to use the weapons or even if they were activated while she piloted but she felt the need to protect the agent and gamble that the man would scram off once she’d have weapons pointed at him.
“drop your weapon birdbrain and maybe I’ll be merciful towards your ass” the words had come with obvious determination and an Irish accent. Friday was standing on top of stairs with a body sprawled on her acting as a shield while she was pointing her gun towards him
“I’d like to see you try you criminal, I’ll have you know that-“ gunshots cut him off and the armor grabbed Ross before diving towards the exit off the building.
“Last warning asshole” the woman still carried herself professionally but the newfound venom in her voice showed clearly that it was personal. They quickly reached the plane and the armor left Shuri alone before disappearing -cloaking the scientist realized- probably going back to its user
“Shit, we’ll land the plane somewhere safe and I’ll go back to help them, they clearly are in need of reinforcement.” Everett snorted before sitting on the pilot seat.
“I was about to say the same thing and I think we can agree that neither of us wants to see the other on the battlefield, we both wants to be here so I propose a compromise I pilot and you blow them up with the Quinjet’s weapons.” Shuri scowled deeply before deciding to grab the command of the jet’s weapons.
“if you die I’ll kill you, you hear me Genius” she then aimed at the winged guy who had shot up out of the factory lacking a wing and successfully hit him with a lightning bolt, she would have rather had the guy blown up but this was good enough.
“how come you are so good with your aim, you were about this impressive with blasters you trained a lot?” As they arrived over the battlefield she could see the actual Iron Man a green and pink dude who she supposed was Vision fighting alongside Friday -armor nowhere to be seen (pun intended of course)- against Barnes, the captain and the rest of their merry band of douchebags save for Lang,
She had hated their stay in Wakanda and felt like they had been using her brother’s generosity to get what they wanted, she guessed Bridbrain was Wilson she had never saw him with his gear and it was less than impressive.
“Simple geometry Sherlock, even if you’d be more of a Watson to me, I’m drawing plans since I’m six, after some time I learned to estimates angles with the naked eye and project on different plans, that comes in handy when shooting.”
She tried to shoot the at Rogers but he hid behind some kind of shield that looked like it was made of energy, he still received a kick in the guts from Friday who sent him a few feets backwards.
“Makes sense, hey what are Okoye and Nakia doing here.” And she indeed saw them teaming up to fight Barnes who was holding his own against some of Wakanda’s fiercest warriors.
“They were supposed to be your extraction team along with four SWAT agents who would have gone in while Boss and Vision raided the front door just after I knocked out the guard in your cell, unfortunately Rogers and his team of assholes just barged in without scouting the place, localizing and securing you.”
The voice of Friday had unexpectedly come in the mic, how could she still find time to talk when fighting -and apparently matching- against the Black Widow who had come to defend Rogers wasn’t something they wanted to question.
“okay now that makes sense, you want me to take down Barton, his cover shots are a pain in the ass.” The man had been firing arrow from a rooftop toward each member of the team and being outnumbered they hadn’t anyone to take care of him and Stark had seemingly started to sustain damage between those shots and Scott shrinking and exploding out of his armor
“Nah I got it, I’d rather have you assisting Vision, he is very reluctant to use violence, and if it keeps on going this way he might get injured.” Ross started to fly the plane towards the pink dude.
He was indeed getting slammed against the walls, dragged by a red mist which came from the small redhead’s hands, without hesitation Shuri took a shot at her and while the missile was blocked by red mist Vision was now able to disengage the fight.
When she looked at Barton she could see him being swallowed up by the orange and silver armor that then shut itself down, leaving him trapped within a four hundred pounds coffin.
“Shit Nakia is harmed and Friday is getting her ass kicked, they’ll need medical assistance can you guys land, Vision will provide you cover.” Stark’s concern for his teammate and a total stranger was somewhat touching and Ross obeyed, started to lower their altitude.
Unfortunately that meant that Roger’s team was taking it as an opportunity to run away, the Ant-guy had disappeared, Okoye was dragging Nakia toward the plane leaving Barnes the opportunity to run, and Tony was carrying Friday who had been knocked out by Steve and Natasha who had begun their retreat, she could also see that the witch had flown on the rooftop and was tearing Friday’s armor pieces by pieces.
“they’re getting away, should we pursue them, I mean we have a fully operational jet, it would be easy to launch an attack.” Tony who had placed Friday on a medical bed just shook his head.
“Don’t bother, the mission was a success, no thanks to them and they are injured people on this plane, if they start attacking we won’t be able to all jump out of it and I’m not even talking about how crowded the city is, we wouldn’t even have the opportunity to attack safely. Let’s go home.” And with those words said, Ross headed the plane towards the Avengers compound.
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“Alright, your ID had been checked, you’re free to go, Miss Shuri is waiting for you in the common room, it’s the door on your left, then straight to the end of the hallway.”
Karen thanked the receptionist for her help and went to see the Wakandan princess, she had managed to pull an exclusive interview for the Bulletin about the hostage situation she had witnessed just three days ago with the help of Ellison’s connections, she had been invited to the Avengers Compound -god it was intimidating, interviewing a princess into a superhero facility-
Moved by her curiosity had started parallel reconstruction of the scene on her own, based on the footage, and the witness she previously interviewed she would compare this to Shuri’s interview and write her article based on that.
“Oh you’re here, I didn’t expect you to be early. Oh and by the way I loved your article on Hammer tech, it’s a masterpiece and their PR are probably still praying Satan for him to kill you.” The voice had come from the upper floor and while she turned around to see the Wakandan Princess in formal clothes and with a cup of coffee in her hands.
“Well they were complete assholes so making their lives difficult wasn’t too hard, hopefully I hope you’ll help me write an article about as pertinent as this one.” Shuri laughed easily before sitting down on the couch in front of Karen turned her phone off and leaned toward the journalist
“Alright ask away, what do you want to know.” Karen took her notebook and prepared herself to write down the answers
“to have a good start, could you tell me what happened that day? ” Shuri looked amused before answering
“Well, a good friend of me and my brother Everett Ross, had been to Wakanda and I offered to drive him back to the US but when I arrived the plane was struck with an EMP and filled with sleeping gas, after that I fell asleep and when I woke up, I was in a warehouse, Evie was tasked with reading the statement you probably saw on TV and then the rescue mission arrived.”
“I need to ask, it’s Captain Rogers faction who arrived before the other Avengers then got attacked by them, do you think the other team of Avengers or the normal counter terrorist should have been present since they endangered the rescue mission.” Shuri shook her head.
“The building had been already infiltrated by a member of the real Avengers and they were preparing the extraction team composed of Wakanda’s elite force and SWAT members that should have entered the building to get us out of here once the path was clear and we were secured.” Karen was bubbling with excitement, she had exclusive news and they weren’t anything like what the public thought
“What happened instead wasn’t as safe, when Steve Rogers charged without precaution, the men that were guarding us were ordered to kill agent Ross and we only owe his survival to Rescue, the soon to be newest recruit of the Avengers, after that the three of us had been exposed unnecessary danger and were attacked by ex-Avenger Sam Wilson. Despite their goodwill, Steve Rogers and his team only sabotaged the mission.”
Karen was left speechless by the revelation. She had thought that operating within law borders had its limit and that surely Rogers was right to refuse his field of action to be reduced but this was putting him in a new light and she had to admit that if the accords allowed the Avengers to cooperate the authorities, they could be way more efficient.
“The Bulletin readers will be interested with that, otherwise Wakanda had played a major role in pushing forwards the Accords, do the royal family wants to involve itself more with the Avengers Initiative or do they consider the work to be finished.”
Shuri snorted and tried to muffle her laughter before regaining her composure
“We’ll continue to think on the text, I enjoy saying that just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved and that we should continuously try to better whatever tool we have at our disposition, the accords haven’t met their marks yet but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t prepare as much as we can so it never will” those were wise words
“as for the involvement of the royal family, if T’Challa continues to work on the political side of things, I have been invited to take part in the Avengers initiative research team and from now on I’ll be working with Dr Stark, Dr Cho and other famous scientists in the compound labs, it'll be a great opportunity.” This was definitively going to be one of her best article.