Black Panther: a Kane Chronicles au

Chapter 2

The hovercraft dropped, jolting Carter awake.

"Gotcha!" Walt called from the drivers seat. "We're almost there, your highness." The sarcasm was hard to miss, but Walt was Cater's oldest friend so he didn't mind. He leaned his head over to look out the window. Endless miles of scruffy savannah passed below him, patches of brown and green in the rapidly setting sun.

"Who's she undercover to fight now?"

Walt flipped a switch above him. "Boko Haram. They're trafficking young girls not far from our border."

Carter chewed his lip. "I feel a little bad pulling her out."

"Don't. It's your coronation, she has to be there."

Carter was more nervous to Zia again than he was for his coronation. They hadn't ended things badly, but they had ended things. But he'd be lying if he said he'd stopped thinking of her.

"You gonna suit up, man?" Walt asked.

Carter knit his brows in concentration and pressed the amulet on his chest. His black hoodie and pants melted, uranium fibers crawling up his skin to engulf him. He extended his claws with a pleasing shink and admired their gleam. His right hand was a little dull from a previous encounter with a motorcycle wheel and a man with a metal arm, but it would suffice.

"And... night vision is on," Carter said, his voice a little muffled.

Walt stopped the hovercraft and released the hatch. The ground was black tangle of trees below.

"Go get em, tiger," Walt said with a flash of his white teeth.

Carter rolled his eyes. "I won't dignify that with a response."

Then he dropped from the hovercraft.

His suit absorbed most of the impact, and he landed lightly on his feet. It was now completely dark, but that was fine. Carter spotted three heat signatures ahead, one of which was clearly an engine. Creeping forward, Carter unsheathed his claws and listened to the commotion.

"Why are we stopped!" one man yelled.

"Somethings in the road up ahead," another said, slinging his AR-15 over his shoulder. "I'm going to check it out."

The back of the truck was covered, probably to hide the trafficked girls. The two men crept around to the front of the truck, their feet crunching the vegetation. Carter knew Zia would make her move then. And sure enough, the back of the truck blew out with an ear-splitting bang! launching the rest of the truck into chaos. If it weren't for Carter's night vision, he would have been blind but the flashes and pops of machine gun fire didn't bother him.

He deflected two bullets off his arm, then whirled around and slashed his claws across a man's chest. He immediately flipped over another, grabbing his gun as he did so and cracking his skull with it. He landed lightly, and turned to the rest of the fight when an unmistakable click rang out behind him. Carter froze. His suit was bulletproof, but this was point blank. Could his suit even deflect that much power? But he never had to find out. He turned his head to the side just in time to see a woman strike the man in the back of the knees with a spear, then whirl around and slam his head into the truck. Carter blinked. She was dressed like the other trafficked girls, but there was no mistaking that deadly light in her dark eyes.

"Zia," Carter cleared his throat.

"Should have known I was going to have to save your ass," Zia said. "What are you doing here?"

Carter swept the area for heat signatures, finding only the girls huddles together. "It's my coronation. Your presence is requested."

"Yeah, I bet it is. Give me a second, yeah?"