Chapter 28: Mystery
J'Zaki pulled the blanket off his shoulders and looked over to Ororo who was sitting by the window. The moonlight coming down from above made her white hair stand out even more. It took him a few moments to recover and remember that they were still in danger. Or at least there was a chance of that.
Even though they had left the hotel as fast as possible and found a motel that accepted cash, there was no guarantee that Xavier couldn't find them. So they decided to split the times that they would sleep, with Ororo offering to take the first watch.
"I'm up, Ro. Go ahead and get some rest," J'Zaki walked over and placed the blanket over her shoulders before carrying the young woman to the bed. He could tell that she was exhausted and was barely able to keep her eyes open. Ororo's mutation was much more powerful than J'Zaki's but also more draining. She also lacked the physical and mental enhancements that he had which meant that the drain was more obvious between the two when they used their powers.
"Wait!" Ororo grabbed J'Zaki's arm when he was about to pull away. "I've been thinking about something and it is bothering me. Those robots we fought and the team that we've seen twice now. We have never heard of them before."
"So? We don't hear about a lot of stuff."
"But this was the middle of New York in the middle of the day. Even if the fight barely lasted a minute, cops and the Avengers should have swarmed the location after we were done. But even when I was looking up Avenger sightings, no one was mentioned in New York today.
And then there's also your father. He hasn't left Wakanda in nearly 3 months. That seems like a long time to make a plan as basic as the one they came up with."
J'Zaki picked up on what Ororo was saying. Their opponent was most likely far more powerful than they had expected.
"I'll do some research. Get some rest though. If they do come for us, we both need to be ready for them."
Ororo nodded and her eyes closed. After hearing her breath get slower and more stable, J'Zaki walked over to the seat she was in and opened up the laptop he had brought with him. This was something that Shuri made for him and gave him direct access to Shuri's lab and database.
He decided to go through it and look for any information that he could find. And he came up with the same stuff Shuri had given him before. At first, he was thinking that it was because Shuri had truly betrayed him and sided with their father but it seems like she had truly given him everything she had. It just looked so small because Shuri made the font much smaller.
But besides the information that Shuri had given him on Xavier, there was nothing else. No information on the giant robots that had attacked, the team that fought them, or anything more than the modern myths of mutants.
Which meant one of two things. Either Xavier's side was manipulating the information or the other side was. Or an even worse possibility, they both were.
'This smells like HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. but different. Somehow on a much smaller but also much larger scale. Either way, Xavier is a dangerous outlier I wasn't prepared for. If he can get into my father's mind like he got into mine, but without him being able to kick the man out, then he has access to everything about Wakanda. It seems that Wakanda has less time than I expected. I'll need to speed up my plans.'
-- Over in Wakanda at the same time --
T'Chaka was in the middle of a meeting when he felt a connection in his mind. He saw that all of the other tribal elders had frozen and a white man appeared in front of him. It was the same man that offered to help him with his issue regarding his two sons and the man that somehow gained information on all of Wakanda.
"Xavier."
"King T'Chaka," Xavier gave a small bow. "We have a small issue. J'Zaki and Ororo refused the offer and destroyed part of my mansion when they were doing so."
"I told you that my son was not one to be so easily convinced. You should have heeded my advice."
"Hmm. I can see where I went wrong. But I cannot let him go now. He acted earlier today and saved my team from sentinels. I stopped the flow of information but I wasn't the only one who saw him. He has gained the attention of the Brotherhood."
This caused T'Chaka to be enraged. He only agreed for J'Zaki to join the school because Xavier said he would protect T'Chaka from the Brotherhood and help him keep peace in Wakanda. But it seemed like neither goal would be accomplished.
"Then I shall bring him back to Wakanda. Thank you for your help Professor, but this will be an internal matter from now on," T'Chaka was ready to dismiss Xavier but the latter was not so easily forced away.
"Apologies, your majesty. But that shall not happen. I will not speak of Wakanda to anyone but I cannot allow J'Zaki to return any time soon. Please forgive the intrusion."
T'Chaka was about to curse out Xavier when he felt a fog over his mind. The memories of his conversations with Xavier were quickly being erased and replaced with random things. T'Chaka also believed that he sent J'Zaki and Ororo on a mission to act as War Dogs in New York. By the time Xavier was done, he had erased every trace of himself from T'Chaka.
And so the king returned to his meeting, thinking that he had just blanked out because the River Tribe elder had said something stupid once again.
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