THE SECRET AVENGERS ARRIVES AT THE HIDDEN COUNTRY OF WAKANDA. It's beautiful with how drastically different their technology and lifestyle are compared to anywhere around the world. The structures of the buildings were designed elegantly, and the city was filled with people dressed in their own culture. Darcy was fascinated and curious about how Wakanda managed to stay under the radar for as long as they have.
Crowding inside one of their main buildings, Darcy stood off from the group as she admires the view from the top floor. A conversation between Bruce and Shuri continues as they examined Vision. Darcy hasn't seen Wakanda since she and Bucky received help from their alternate egos, but the woman chose to leave soon, then her friend. A way of leaving that part of her behind.
Darcy forced herself out of her thoughts--she was starting to worry about the aliens that abruptly arrived, and Darcy was a little spooked out by the fact that aliens are real. She faces the group and glances at the humanoid lying on the table, who was glancing up back at Shuri as he listens attentively.
After studying the holographic projection in her palm, Shuri was gobsmacked. "Whoa. The structure is polymorphic."
"Right. We had to attach each neuron non-sequentially."
"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?"
Bruce was silent as Vision looks over at the scientist. "Because . . . we didn't think of it," he responds with uncertainty.
Shur smiles. "I'm sure you did your best."
"Can you do it?" Wanda asks worriedly.
"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here," Shuri informs, giving Wanda a careful look.
Darcy furrows her brows, a heavy feeling at the way the teen worded herself. "I'm assuming there's bad news."
Shuri nods. "One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures," Darcy could only nod, though it didn't soothe anyone. Then, Shuri looks at her brother. "It will take time, brother."
"How long?" Steve inquires.
"As long as you can give me."
To make matters worse, the Kimoyo Beads trill around Okoye's wrists, along with the alarms blaring through the building. Darcy drops her arms in an alerting stance; she examines the room with caution, confused just like the others. Her hand hovers over the bo-staff that she had perched against her back. Darcy's eyes so happened to meet Steve's.
Steve man didn't reveal any emotion, but when he saw hers, he lifts his hand, reassuring the woman that it's okay. Darcy looked as if she was going into attack mode.
Pulling one of the beads from the chain of the others, Okoye rolls it into her palm, and a holographic picture paints the air with a map. Darcy glances at it, fascinated. The technology is highly different from when she remembers; it was overwhelming.
"Something's entered the atmosphere."
Darcy's brows were pressed into one another, causing frown lines to form on her forehead, the woman looks out the window. A bright light was falling from the sky, leaving a trail of thick smoke. Darcy's eyes widened when the object was aimed to land right on top of Wakanda. Darcy doesn't flinch when it hits an invisible magnetic force-field. The object explodes, causing all heads to turn to catch a glimpse of the object, but thankfully the force-field was strong enough to prevent it from entering into their safety net.
Just outside the dome, multiple ships were falling out of the sky and landing just outside of their shelter, blowing gusts of wind towards the dome. It was unknown as to what hides behind those closed doors, and to be quite frank, Darcy didn't want to find out.
"It's too late," Vision weakly announces. His eyes were stuck upon the scene that was beginning to unfold outside. "We need to destroy the stone now."
Turning around abruptly, Natasha stares sternly at her friend. "Vision, get your ass back on the table," then she walks over to help him.
T'Challa walks around a woman, looking towards Steve with a knowing look. "We will hold them off," the King walks away.
Then, Steve looks to Wanda. "Wanda, as soon as that stone's out of his head . . . you blow it to hell."
The woman nods, determined. "I will."
"Evacuate the city. Engage all defenses," T'Challa pauses his movements as he turns to look at Steve, noticing that he was missing something. The King then announces. "And get this man a shield."
Steve nods. He begins to follow everyone out of the room, and Darcy took this as a sign that everyone was heading out now. The woman trails after them, but Steve had other plans for Darcy that she wasn't expecting. Steve stops Darcy from walking out of the room, he frowns slightly.
Darcy looks at Steve in confusion, furrowing her brows softly. "What are you doing?"
Steve sighs. "I need you to stay up here," the frown that began forming on Darcy's face made him quickly backtrack. "Just in case something goes south. I need you up here and ready to defend Vision if it comes to that."
"No. I'm going out there, and I'm gonna fight those sons-of-bitches," Darcy narrows her eyes distastefully.
Steve almost chuckles. "Look, Darc, I get that you want to help, but what would Peggy say if she knew I let her daughter fight a bunch of aliens."
Darcy doesn't back down, something she had gained from her mother--that stubborn ol' woman. "She'd say, 'Darcy's an independent woman, who can fight for herself,'" Steve chuckles, bowing his head as he was hesitant to let her go, but Darcy wasn't going to let him stop her. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll stick with Natasha," Darcy nods, but she doesn't wait for a response as she squeezes past the large man and through the door. "I can handle myself."
Steve purses his lips as he can hear the change in Darcy's voice. It wasn't the soft and caring voice; this was dark and dangerous.
💜
Darcy couldn't believe this was where her life had lead to--fighting aliens. This wasn't like fighting Hydra or fighting someone like Steve; this was different on a whole other level. All her years of training for S.H.I.E.L.D. and training to be better in Martial Arts, yet it all felt like it won't be good enough for today. Everything she had done in her life wasn't to prepare for a moment like this--fighting aliens was the least of her worries.
Yet, here Darcy is, flying through the field of Wakanda in a ship that was cruising quickly through the empty fields.
In her ear, a man began cheering as a red and gold armored suit started gliding through the air and landing a few feet before her. Bruce was hilarious. He was enjoying the suit and proved to himself that he didn't need Hulk to beat Thanos. However, Bruce tripped over a rock, landing face front as he grunts from the harsh landing. Darcy sucks air through her teeth harshly, wincing a bit, a little embarrassed for the man.
"I'm okay," Bruce reassures. "I'm okay."
Then, two figures flew above them as they were making their way closer towards the dome, in bird's eye view.
"I've got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line," Rhodes informs, while he and the Falcon flew past everyone.
Darcy felt her heart racing as the ship was coming to a stop. She hadn't realized that her hands were practically trembling at her sides. Her mother would say that it's okay to be scared because it's an instinct, but there's no bravery without fear.
The Carter women are not quitters. Darcy wants to be powerful and strong as her mother once was.
Boarding off the boat, the Jabari men were chanting and grunting to their own cultural chant as their leader thrusts his spear into the sky multiple times before turning to shake T'Challa's hand.
"Thank you for standing with us."
"Of course, brother," M'Baku responds in Xhosa.
Then, Natasha nods to T'Challa and Steve knowingly, and the trio began making their way towards the dome-where two of the aliens were heading.
Darcy furrows her brows and a bit worried as she watches with caution. She closes her fist around her staff, tightening it as Darcy squints her eyes from the harsh sunlight that was beginning to glare harshly down from above.
From afar, Darcy captures the female alien raising her arm, seeming to signal something that she was hoping to avoid, but Darcy knew that wouldn't happen. The rumbling began to vibrate the Earth as the ships were stretching themselves open, the trio began to make their way back towards the group.
"They surrender?" Bucky asks, knowing the answer.
"Not exactly."
Suddenly, T'Challa began to chant in Xhosa as the trees started to shake from something that was crawling through the Earth with rapid speed. It was quiet on their end until Proxima Midnight thrusts her blade forward. An army of alien monsters was crawling from behind the trees. The scene was horrifying. The army was twice as big and definitely not something anyone had been expecting.
Darcy's hard facade simmers down to a shocked expression, she mutters under her breath.
"Looks like we pissed her off."
Finally, the aliens slammed their bodies into the dome, some bouncing backward while others were shoving their arms through the force-field. Some cried out as they were trying to tear the shield apart, but some fell to their knees when their limbs were cut off. Even so, they were falling to their death as they were forcing themselves through the barrier.
"They're killing themselves to get in," Darcy voices her thoughts.
Shields were built when a few aliens made it through the barrier alive; they started running across the field with hunger in their eyes and rumbling in their stomachs as they march forward. T'Challa shouts something in Xhosa as his men raise their spears, blasters shooting out as they shoot down the aliens.
Bucky was blazing his gun as he was putting down as many aliens as possible, but the bullets seemed to do little to no harm as he had to waste multiple bullets on one. Falcon and War Machine were in charge of blasting more of the aliens if they were to keep coming in. Rhodes had dropped multiple grenades, creating a large explosion, but the aliens were still running through it.
"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us, there's nothing between them and Vision."
"Then we better keep 'em in front of us."
"How do we do that?"
T'Challa glances down at Okoye. He knows what he has to do to prevent Thanos from taking the stone and killing a friend.
He purses his lips. "We open the barrier," the Black Panther presses onto his comm; he was directing his call to his sister. "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen."
"Requesting confirmation, My King," a soft voice responds. "You said open the barrier?"
"On my signal," Darcy mentally prepares herself. She unsheathes her bo-staff, spinning it skillfully and slamming it into the ground before her--she doesn't notice the grin on Steve's face.
"This will be the end of Wakanda," M'Baku raises his chest.
"Then it will be the noblest ending in history."
Beside Darcy, Steve opens his new shield on his right, preparing for a battle that was unlike any other. This was far different from the battle in New York.
When T'Challa shouts out a command, their personal shield is taken down, and Darcy is swallowing her fear down. The man in a panther suit was walking forward as he was staring down the enemies with a glare as he stands his ground. And it was a perfect moment to let Wakanda go down in history, knowing that they had fought for something greater than anything they've ever fought.
Today, this fight will be remembered, and in the end, and they shall see who's the last standing.
"Wakanda forever!"
Everyone lets out a battle cry and begins running down the field. Darcy's speed matches with Natasha's. With his signal, the blue force-field began to open in the section he called; opening up, the aliens begin to flood in.
Their snarls were loud, but Darcy wasn't going to let the fear pull her away from something as big as this. This was her fight just as much as it is any of theirs, and she's here to fight until the end.
Passing everyone ahead, Steve left Darcy's side as he outruns everyone until he caught up with T'Challa, both running at the same pace with their super speed. They jumped over the small stream of water until they collided with the aliens, the fight begins.
Darcy grunts as she uses her staff to plant it into the ground to kick herself up; the woman kicks the alien down. Landing on the Outrider, Darcy spins her staff over her head and into the Outrider's chest, the alien shrieks. The woman pushes herself up when another Outrider rushes towards her; Darcy dodges it with her quick reflexes, flinging herself across from her spot and rolling on the dirt.
Snarling her own teeth, Darcy picks up her staff and swings it to its side, causing a snarl to release from the Outrider's mouth. It tried clawing at her, but Darcy jumps back with a grunt; Darcy glanced over her shoulder when a loud growl was coming from behind; the woman thrusts the staff backward. Pressing the button on her staff, a blade expands from the tip of the staff and through the Outrider's chest, releasing a weak snarl.
She pulls the blade out, and with a battle cry, Darcy swings the blade forward and slices the Outrider's arm off. Then, Darcy spins around and stabs it completely, and she releases it as it drops down lifelessly.
"Not bad," Natasha shouts to the woman.
Darcy shrugs, smirking. "Thanks--watch out!" She exclaims as an alien was running after Natasha, but the woman twists her staff into two batons, skillfully beating the alien to the ground.
Huffing, Natasha gestures for the woman to follow. "Come on. We've got hell to finish."
Nodding, Darcy follows after the woman as Natasha rushes towards another alien as she goes for another. Darcy throws her staff around the Outrider's neck, causing it to claw at her frantically, but the brunette ducks. Gritting her teeth, Darcy had to yank with all her strength to shove the creature down to its back, and there, Darcy untwists the staff into two batons. The woman pierces the sharp blade into its chest with a shout, leaving its body to quiver before falling still.
To her surprise, a creature had attacked her from behind, causing Darcy to fall forward as the creature threw her once more. Then, a group of Outriders was rushing toward Darcy, and the only thing she could do was roll herself into a ball to try to protect herself. They were pulling on her arms and legs, and even when she tried reaching for her batons, one of the creatures would snatch her arms and try dragging her further from them.
Darcy grunts when sharp claws pierced into the skin of her arms and legs. Her body was being dragged again as soon as she reached for her batons; Darcy kicks her feet in hopes that she could loosen their grips, but the ugly creatures kept their strong grip. It hurt. The way they were pounding their arms down upon her body, or the sharp claws that were scratching her skin.
Darcy felt overpowered.
On cue, a portal produced from the sky shot down until it hit the Earth's soil, burning a symbol in its wake. Several of the monsters were unlucky and were instantly killed in the process, and some began to run around it while a few stood before it, confused.
Suddenly, an axe flew through the air and knocking off the aliens off of two others before finally getting to Darcy. Electricity sparked above her as the creatures let out a painful shriek, flinging back from the powerful hit of the axe. Darcy was puzzled as to who had saved her and what the hell that was.
Natasha rushes to Darcy's side to make sure she was okay, but Darcy's attention was turned towards the man in armor. Lightning bolts were bouncing from the metal of his suit and down towards the axe--it was like blue fire on the axe, beautiful as ever.
Darcy was in awe; the man was unfamiliar to her, even the two strange-looking figures that stood at each side of him. Her mind was running, trying to grasp onto the thought of seeing a tree-like figure standing beside the man with electricity bolting from his body to a raccoon with an actual gun. Something about this trio was strange and very weird to Darcy, something she'd never seen back in the seventies or eighties.
Bruce booms with laughter. "You guys are so screwed now!"
Then, the man that Darcy has yet to learn more about began to wrap himself in lightning. The lightning grew brighter as he was making his way towards Proxima Midnight. The lighting increased in size.
"Bring me, Thanos!"
The powerful God almighty leaps into the air as the lightning from the ground practically lifts him into the air, and the sky became darker as he raises his axe. Lighting shot from the sky and attached themselves onto the god, giving him more power as he slams his axe into the ground killing the creatures around him.
Darcy smirks. They have a chance now.