Chapter 45: Chapter 41: Wakanda (part 2)
***Kar-el P.O.V.
I slowly followed the border guards while admiring the beauty of Wakanda. I noticed that the kingdom is not that big both in terms of size and population.
"Hey, miss?" The woman pulling my bindings didn't react at all to my callings. Thankfully not all of them were so unapproachable. The captain walking in front turned to look behind and raised an eyebrow.
"Does your kingdom accept people from outside ?" I increased my pace to walk beside her.
"We do not." Her answer was as blunt as her expression.
"Interesting. So is it common to marry relatives in your kingdom? Given that your kingdom is one of the oldest civilizations on earth and since you don't accept new people among your ranks, at some point everyone should have become related to one another." Others didn't react even when I accused them of incest.
"Our medical science is advanced enough to remove the side effects of consanguineous mating." I felt like there was more to it than she was telling me.
"So sexual relationships between distant cousins is quite common?" She just nodded silently.
The rest of the journey was filled with silence.
As soon as I entered the council hall, the man sitting on the head seat grabbed my attention. While he did carry enough charisma to attract attention from others, there was something else in him that attracted my attention.
The life equation inside me reacted to the aura that was surrounding him. I could see a purple halo around his body. He has the blessing of a powerful being.
"You are standing before the tribal council led by the elders and his majesty the king T'chaka himself." When the bald woman standing below him made such an announcement, I finally broke eye contact with him and looked around.
The guards that led me here bowed in respect to the council while I finally focused on others in the room. Beside king T'chaka, 6 elderly people of different colors were sitting in a curve observing me.
Then there were a bunch of bald women standing guard with Spears in their hands. It was easy to judge the difference in skill between these women and the border guards.
"I hope you didn't have much trouble while traveling here." I focused on T'chaka when he tried to start the conversation.
"Nothing big. Just itching a bit due to these bindings." I shrugged at his attempt to mock me.
"I see. I have heard from my guards that you wish to retrieve something from us." He continued.
"Indeed, I can sense its location. While traveling here, I noticed that it has been kept 5 km from here, inside an underground cave." I noticed that one of the elders reacted a bit when I mentioned the underground cave.
"What does it look like?" That very same elder asked me.
"I'm not sure. But you must hand it to me." Whether by diplomacy or by violence would be up to you all.
"Keep your attitude in check, alien. This is Wakanda, not your home planet." The only female elder sternly reminded me.
"Kryptonian," I replied.
"Enough." T'chaka raised his hand and everyone quieted down," Listen Kryptonian. First, you claim that there is something with us that belongs to you and yet you can't tell what it is exactly. How can we be sure that whatever it may be, indeed belongs to you? What if we hand it over to you and sometime later the rightful owner of that object comes to take it back from us?"
"That is indeed a valid point." I could see the logic in the argument.
"I can prove to you that the object indeed belongs to me as soon as I can come in contact with it. It will react to my presence" Or the life equation inside me.
The council turned silent after I presented an alternative solution to the problem.
After some thinking, T'chaka spoke once again," What if you observed the true owner of that object wield it and discovered how to use it?"
"We can debate the whole day on whether it indeed belongs to me or not and it would still not end if you keep making scenarios like that. Let me be upfront then, do you plan to hand it over or not?" Things will not progress further like this. It seems like I need to change my approach.
As soon as I asked him that, the border guards keeping an eye on me raised their weapons with practiced precision and pointed them at my neck.
"Keep your tongue in check, Kryptonian. Such behavior will not be tolerated again. The next time you show any sign of insulting behavior towards the king would be the last time you would be able to speak. The Dora Milaje will make sure of that." The head of the bald woman walked toward me as she spoke.
"Heh", I couldn't help myself, " I wish you luck on that." It seemed like my words irked her the wrong way because she was about to act on the provocation but T'chaka spoke first which made her stop.
"What if we don't want to?" He answered with another question for my question.
"Of course, if diplomacy doesn't work. I will try the next best option." My mood was already bad after meeting with The Ancient One. If Wakanda wants to become subject to my wrath then who am I to stop them?
"And what is that option?" T'chaka asked in return even though he already knew the answer.
The Dora Milaje were already approaching me by the time he asked that question while the border guards tried to stab me in non-vital areas.
It seems like they wanted to capture me alive. Most likely to study my race.
"I will take it by force obviously." Their weapons stopped in mid-air as they couldn't pierce my natural gravitational field.
Their faces showed confusion as they gritted their teeth while trying their hardest to pierce the barrier. Dora Milaje quickly joined them in attacking me while the elders prepared to evacuate.
Their struggles didn't last for long though. Every one of them flew away from me and hit the walls of the council hall as I for the first time utilized my newfound gravity manipulation and turned them highly repulsive to my own gravity field and highly attracted to the gravity field of the walls.
Basically, I became the south pole while they and the walls became the north poles.
Of course, the manipulation didn't last for long but it was enough for them to hit the walls at the speed of 60km/s.
Some injured their heads while others injured other parts of their body. While they recovered from the disorientation of the attack, I finally focused on the ropes that bound my whole body.
"I wonder how long these bindings can hold," I muttered as I slowly released my control on my strength. Since Vibranium is present in some quantity in the ropes, they certainly can hold a lot of things under control without breaking.
Plus, it also absorbs the potential energy used by its captive and then uses the same energy to keep them under control.
They only started to show signs of breaking after I increased the level of output enough to easily lift a medium-sized island. And then at once, it couldn't handle the pressure and broke into multiple pieces with a static explosion.
" Greed, an undeniable desire," I slowly floated up from the ground and fired concentrated blasts of lasers at the gates and backdoors to make them fall. The elders and T'chaka stopped once they realized that they couldn't escape from those paths.
"I don't blame you guys. Every intelligent species in the universe except for some very rare exceptions suffer from the seven deadly sins. Even I too can't say that I am not greedy." Realizing that the council was under threat, Dora Milaje forced themselves to stand up even at the cost of enduring pain and started firing energy blasts at me.
Sadly for them, all it did was cause some discomfort.
"Though this time, you guys swallowed more than you can chew. Things can still be salvaged. Do not force me to take action against you because of your blunder." I honestly prefer not to unnecessarily turn a possible ally into an adversary if things could work out just by showing my strength.
Even though I don't fear Wakanda, it would still force me to invest some resources to keep an eye on them if they become an adversary. Because even though they can't hurt me, they could interfere with my plans by becoming unnecessary variables.
"PROTECT THE KING WITH YOUR LIVES!!!" The leader of Dora Milaje shouted at her sisters while standing in front of her king.
"Do you really think you could protect him if I wish to kill him?" I shook my head in disappointment.
"I don't even need to lift a finger to kill everyone in this room if I wish for it." They thought I was talking about my heat vision as they quickly pulled their energy shields and covered the king from all sides.
"What do you think would happen if the gravity of this room suddenly becomes 20 times of what it is now?" I looked at the head of Dora Milaje as I descended back to the ground.
"Why have you not done it yet then?" T'chaka asked solemnly. He didn't show any sign of fear at the prospect of death.
"Because I'm not a killer by nature. While I indeed can kill if required, I prefer to not do it if it can be avoided. Now the question that you must ask yourself should be if you want to force me to kill?"
"Make no mistake in your judgment because your kingdom's future depends on it. I will not leave a seed of revenge alive if it comes to killing. Everyone would die no matter what their age might be."
"The sweet girl that was inside this room prior to my visit included. Let me be clear once again, do not force me to do this. I just want to retrieve what is mine. Nothing more, nothing less."
T'chaka took a deep breath after I finished speaking. He looked into my eyes and then outside the window. He finally reached a decision and put his left hand on the shoulder of the chief of Dora milaje. She understood his command and ordered her colleagues to stop attacking me.
"What proof do you have that you will not go back on your words?" T'chaka walked in front of me without his guard's protection signifying the olive branch he was extending toward me. He stopped 2 feet away from me.
"You have my word on that. I do not hold you accountable because of the greed you have shown today. It is natural among intelligent species. Since you have found a reason and chose to give up on that stubborn idea, I shall put this behind us." I extended my hand for a handshake and he carefully accepted it.
"I came here to make friendly relations with your kingdom. Sadly, you took my patience as a sign of weakness instead. I am aware that what has happened just now might make it tough for you to accept that hand of friendship but I have not given up on the idea yet."
"Maybe not today but with time we might come to friendly terms. For now, we can stay neutral with one another if you agree." I turned around and pushed the broken pillars and pieces of walls blocking the entrance with my gravity manipulation.
All I had to do was change the center of gravity for those objects from the core of the earth to something else for some time.
Elders followed us as we both walked outside.
"It is indeed true that things didn't start with good results between us but we can work on that. Come, I shall myself give you what you want as a way to build a new bridge of good relationship between Wakanda and Kryptonians." I nodded to T'chaka once he proposed the idea.
I did not correct him when he thought that I represent the Kryptonian race as a whole. Why should I correct him if his misunderstanding is helping me? Sometimes it's better to let people assume things and enjoy the benefits since technically keeping quiet isn't lying.
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We should be focusing on shield and other important instruments once this Wakanda trip is over, which should be over at the start of the next chapter hopefully.
I was hoping to finish it in this chapter but it's already pretty big. Kar-el won't be lazing around now and doing simple tasks like he was doing after coming to MCU because of the influence of He Who remains.
Proofreader and editor: Mootje
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