Black Cat

Chapter 2 - "None of us are exactly alien experts, right?"

They were all sat and gathered together as they discussed the situation they were all in. "We've got to assume they're coming back, right?" Rhodey said as Felicia crossed her arms over her chest, and she nervously chewed on her lip. She didn't know how she truly felt about fighting aliens. Obviously, she knew they had existed from what happened in New York in 2012, but actually fighting them was another thing.

"And they can clearly find us." Wanda added in as she looked down to the floor.

"But can we really assume anything at this point?" Felicia spoke up, and everyone's eyes landed on her. Felicia swallowed nervously with having all of their eyes on her, and not on her as Black Cat. "I just mean, assumption might help us in other situations. We can assume the aliens will be back, but we can't assume anything about them. None of us are exactly alien experts, right?" She asked as she looked at them all.

"She's right!" Bruce Banner said. "And it's because of that that we need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?" He questioned them all, and Felicia looked off away at the mention of Hawkeye, she didn't want to pretend that she belonged here and that she knew everything there was to know.

"After the whole accords situation, he and Scott took a deal." Natasha explained to the man who had been elsewhere during the whole accords predicament. "It was tough on both of their families, they're now on house arrest!"

Felicia noticed that the man looked utterly confused. "Who's Scott?" He questioned.

"Ant-Man!" Steve clarified for him.

"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?" Bruce questioned, and Felicia scoffed out a small laugh at that. "Okay, look...Thanos has the biggest army in the universe. And he is not going to stop until he...he gets...Vision's stone." The man stuttered out and Felicia's eyes travelled to the stone at the centre of Vision's head.

"Well, then we have to protect it!" Natasha stated firmly.

"Against an entire army from space?" Felicia questioned in disbelief with a raised brow. "Can the eight of us fight an entire army on our own? I mean, it seems very improbable that we'd win!"

"We can try!" Steve nodded at her.

"No, we have to destroy it!" Vision voiced up. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also, its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something, very similar to its own signature, perhaps... its molecular integrity could fail." Felicia noted him and Wanda share a look with one another.

"And you, with it." Wanda told the synthezoid in worry. "We're not having this conversation."

"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it."

"That's too high a price!" Wanda argued as she shook her head, and Felicia could tell that the woman cared deeply for him, and Felicia smiled softly. She was glad that Wanda was happy because she deserved it after her twin brother was killed.

Vision took Wanda's face in his hands as he looked intensely at her. "Only you have the power to pay it." As soon as he said that Wanda pulled away from him and walked back away from him a little. "Thanos threatens half the Universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

"But it should." Steve told him, before he looked up from the floor and looked towards Vision. "We don't trade lives, Vision."

Vision cut across the room to stand before Steve, and he looked at the man. "Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people." He reminded him. "Tell me, why is this any different?" Steve let out a breath knowing that Vision was right. Vision doing this would save half the universe from the chaos Thanos wanted to unleash upon it.

"Because you might have a choice." Bruce spoke up, and Felicia looked towards him in interest. "Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. J.A.R.V.I.S., Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another."

"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda questioned.

"I'm saying that if we take out the stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left." Bruce clarified for those around the room. "Perhaps the best parts."

"Can we even do that?" Natasha asked.

"Not me!" Bruce revealed to them all. "Not here!" Felicia knew that Shuri might be able to do it, she had intelligence to do so, and she had the highly advanced technology to do so as well.

"You better find someone, and somewhere fast." Rhodey told them all. "Ross isn't exactly just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back."

"I might actually know someone who will be able to do it." Felicia revealed to them all with a shrug. "I'm 100% sure she can handle the complexity of removing the Stone from Vision safely." Felicia looked over to Steve. "I'm sure T'Challa will gladly help us, if you contact him, of course!"

"Yeah!" Steve nodded along with her. "We know somewhere!" Felicia grinned upon realising that she'd be seeing Shuri and Okoye again, sooner than she had planned. She was supposed to go back to Wakanda every three months in order for Okoye to determine if her power was safe or dangerous. Each time it was still determined dangerous she would stay for a week or so, and would be told to come back three months later.

"How exactly do you know them?" Steve asked her in an undertone.

"His general and sister have been helping me with something." Felicia replied with a small shrug.

•••

Felicia was sat on the quinjet as Sam flew them through the barrier that lead them to the real Wakanada that was hidden from the unwanted eyes of the outside world, and they had landed after a few minutes. Felicia climbed out of the quinjet and walked towards where T'Challa was waiting for them. Natasha and Steve lead the group, and she was walking beside Rhodey and Bruce, as the others followed behind them.

"Should we bow?" Bruce suddenly spoke up from the other side of Rhodey.

Rhodey side eyed Felicia, and she looked back at him with a devilish smirk, and she nodded discreetly. Rhodey turned back to Bruce completely serious. "Yeah, he's a king!" Rhodey told the man. "Felicia here didn't the first time she met him, and he almost had her beheaded!" Felicia struggled to hold in her laugh, and she leant forwards and nodded her head towards Bruce, confirming Rhodey's bizarre and untrue story.

"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something." Steve told King T'Challa as he shook hands with the man.

That was when Bruce then awkwardly bowed to the man, and Felicia broke out into laughter at the sight, as Rhodey turned to look at him. "What are you doing?" Rhodey asked in mock shock, as he joined Felicia in laughing at the man.

"Uh, we don't do that here." T'Challa told him, and Bruce shot Rhodey a look, who only grinned back at him. T'Challa looked to Felicia. "I see you're still up to your usual antics, Felicia." He told her with a shake of his head, since she had made her brothers do the same when they first visited.

"What can I say?" Felicia shrugged at the man. "It amuses me!"

"So how big of an assault can we expect?" T'Challa asked them all as he began to lead them towards what Felicia knew to be the administrative building.

" Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault." Bruce replied.

"How we looking?" Natasha questioned the King curiously.

"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." T'Challa trailed off as Bucky Barnes joined them all with a smile. As he did, he passed some of the Kingsguard taking Vision and Wanda to probably go see Shuri.

"A semi-stable, 100-year-old man." Bucky finished the King's sentence. Felicia and the rest of the group watched as the two old friends shared a hug upon seeing each other once more.

"How you been, Buck?" Steve asked.

"Uh, not bad!" Bucky replied. "For the end of the world." Then Bucky's eyes landed on her, and he joined her once more. Ever since she had accidentally crushed him with several pounds of gravity, they had been close. "Nice to see you again, kid!"

"Likewise, old man!" She smirked back at him.