Weaving through the jungle, the three of them quickly approached the city of Wakanda.
To accommodate T'Challa, Batman and Venom Robin didn't exert their full speed. Fortunately, although T'Challa had not yet consumed the Heart-Shaped Herb, he was a trained Wakandan warrior and was by no means as slow as a turtle.
An hour later, the three of them stopped at the edge of the jungle. On one hand, they needed to let T'Challa catch his breath; on the other, this was where they would part ways.
Out of his need to control the plan, Batman refrained from asking T'Challa certain questions, but Venom Robin couldn't help himself. Taking advantage of the fact that Batman was still there, he asked:
"Back on the Batwing, you said sabotaging the sonic weapon's wiring was to handle Shuri. What's that about? Don't tell me Wakanda has some kind of sibling rivalry for the throne going on."
"No, my concern is that once she discovers I have returned, she will do whatever it takes to find me. That contradicts our plan for a covert operation," T'Challa said.
Standing aside, Batman silently canceled the contingency plan he had formed against Shuri. While on the Batwing, he had prepared for the worst-case scenario regarding T'Challa's sister, but it seemed he had overthought things.
"Can't we just work together from the inside out?" Venom Robin asked, not understanding.
"No. After I was imprisoned by M'Baku the Man-Ape, she and my mother were also confined to a location within the Royal City. Any attempt on my part to contact her would highly likely be discovered by the Man-Ape... I would rather bear all the danger myself," T'Challa explained.
"If you ask me, you're just being stubborn and old-fashioned," Venom Robin scoffed.
T'Challa looked toward Batman, clearly having no intention of bickering with Venom Robin, who, despite sporting the fearsome Venom appearance, still possessed the psychological age of a child.
Batman didn't criticize T'Challa's mindset. Instead, he began his pre-battle briefing:
"Robin, you and T'Challa will head to the Wakandan Temple. Be careful not to act recklessly, but prioritize your safety and T'Challa's.
"T'Challa, as you mentioned before, you need to become the Black Panther first. Robin will protect you, but after that, I need you to separate from him. You must infiltrate a broadcasting room or information center—somewhere capable of transmitting the news of your return as the Black Panther to all of Wakanda.
"After that, Robin, I want you to find M'Baku the Man-Ape. You don't need to defeat him; just keep him too busy to issue commands.
"T'Challa, on your way to the temple with Robin, tell him about M'Baku's physical features and characteristics so Robin doesn't target the wrong person.
"I will proceed alone to the Vibranium mound to liberate the Wakandans and search for Ulysses Klaue."
Only then did T'Challa realize he had overlooked a relatively important piece of information. "Right, Batman, I haven't told you what Ulysses Klaue looks like. He looks like..."
"He looks like Lincoln," Batman said. "I've already investigated him."
T'Challa breathed a sigh of relief. After all, he had never personally been on a battlefield before. Although his Wakandan military education taught him the importance of pre-battle intelligence, it was hard to avoid forgetting a few things when the moment actually arrived.
Fortunately, Batman was exceptionally experienced.
"If everything goes smoothly, we will ultimately rendezvous on the plains in front of the Royal City, where T'Challa will challenge M'Baku to reclaim the Wakandan throne.
"If the plan doesn't go smoothly... Robin, you have my permission to unlock your Venom or Eclipse Knight forms.
"During the execution of the plan, with the exception of Robin, whoever completes their respective task first—whether it's me or T'Challa—the next step is to immediately conduct an energy peak detection across all of Wakanda."
T'Challa gave Batman a puzzled look.
"Don't look at me like that," Batman said expressionlessly. "When I flew the Batwing into Wakanda, I already grasped the general principles of the barrier separating Wakanda from the outside world, but now is not the time to discuss it.
"In short, monitor the energy levels across Wakanda and look for anomalies. I need to go meet whoever is behind this so-called conspiracy against me."
"What if the entity behind this conspiracy is on the level of Khonshu the Moon God, or even higher? This is too risky. After I become the Black Panther, I can commune with the spirits of my ancestors to see if they have a way to help you," T'Challa said.
"You can try, but I cannot be unprepared," Batman replied.
T'Challa said no more. He clenched his right hand into a fist and struck his chest over his heart firmly.
As soon as the words left T'Challa's mouth, Venom Robin, who had been waiting impatiently, grinned. He suddenly crouched low and lunged forward, scooping T'Challa up and slinging him sideways across his shoulder.
In the next second, kicking up a cloud of dust, the two sped off toward the city of Wakanda.
Batman didn't waste time watching them leave. The moment Venom Robin hoisted T'Challa, Batman turned, swept his expansive cape back, and departed in the opposite direction.
Half an hour later, within the mountain range not far from the city of Wakanda, Batman lay silently prone on a ridge, peering down at the base of the mountain.
There sat a modest, modern factory. It wasn't a smelting facility for processed Vibranium, but rather a facility suspected to be an armory.
Half of the factory was open-air, while the other half extended deep into the mountains.
From Batman's vantage point, he couldn't see the Wakandans engaged in mining, but he could spot international mercenaries moving about inside.
"Ulysses Klaue is not yet in sight. I will need to initiate Plan 12-C."
To catch the bandits, one must first capture their leader—but since Klaue was currently nowhere to be found, Batman decided to start with the international mercenaries.
The closest mercenary was less than ten meters away from Batman on an elevated platform, holding a firearm and serving as a lookout.
Having flown all the way from New York to this point, even with the extreme speed of the Batwing, the time had already crept to around four or five in the morning.
The sky was not yet bright; instead, it was that pitch-black period right before dawn—the exact hour when a sentry pulling an all-night shift would feel the most exhausted.
This particular sentry was reasonably dutiful. Every five or six minutes, he would raise his binoculars to look toward the Wakandan Royal City, aiming to prevent M'Baku the Man-Ape from launching a midnight raid with his forces.
"Yaaawn—" The sentry let out a yawn and looked down at his watch. Seeing that five minutes had passed since his last scan, he quickly grabbed the binoculars hanging around his neck and brought them to his eyes.
"Huh?" The sentry let out a puzzled grunt. During his previous scans, he had seen the lights of the distant Royal City, but other than that, his night-vision binoculars had shown nothing but a sea of green.
But this time, why was the view through his binoculars completely stark white?
Is it dawn already?
This slightly absurd thought crossed the sentry's mind, and he pulled the binoculars away. The very next second, his heart skipped a beat.
Standing right before him, hanging silently upside down, was a humanoid figure clad entirely in pitch black. The stark white view he had just seen through his night-vision binoculars was actually the creature's pair of glowing, pale-white eyes.
The sentry opened his mouth, but before the air from his lungs could pass through his vocal cords to make a sound, his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground.
Meanwhile, out in space, just along the outer perimeter of the core region of Earth's Van Allen radiation belt...
"I still think this mission is far too risky. Now, all we can do is hope Ben Grimm doesn't let his piloting skills fail us," Susan Storm said, standing by the porthole.
"Even during the Cold War arms race, neither the US nor the Soviet Union could overcome the problem of high-energy charged particles in the Van Allen belt," Ben Grimm joked as he maneuvered the spacecraft. "But Reed is smarter than everyone from back then combined. Don't sweat it, Sue."
"Exactly. Our objective is to take advantage of the solar storm hitting the Van Allen belt to measure cosmic radiation parameters. I'm not foolish enough to slam us head-on into those charged particles," Reed Richards said with a smile.
Johnny Storm remained silent on the side, merely frowning as he inspected his spacesuit. No matter how he looked at it, this dark-blue-dominated suit felt completely awkward.
"I'm telling you, Reed, couldn't you have designed a cooler spacesuit just for me? Flame-red, maybe with some patterns? If I knew it'd look like this, I would've just worn my motorcycle leathers."
"Johnny, hush," Susan said, turning to her younger brother.
"Solar storm arrival in one minute," a synthesized electronic voice announced over the ship's comms.
Johnny shook his head, forcing his gaze away from the spacesuit to look at the data on the spacecraft's instruments.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Johnny glanced at Susan by the porthole, then at Reed busy at the other end of the cabin, before looking back down at the readings.
"Guys?" Johnny said hesitantly. "The solar storm data... looks like there's a problem?"
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