Caged Bird [T'Challa]

Fourteen

Hunter felt so numb as she sat alone in the room Erik had locked her in. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her knees as she slowly rocked herself, trying to block out the memories that tried to resurface.

She jumped when the door opened and Ayo walked in. The Dora Milaje looked so guilty it almost crushed the shifter's heart. Almost, but there was still a wave of bitterness overlapping it. "What do you want?" Her voice was hoarse and quiet. The warrior had to strain her ears to even hear it.

"I'm here to get you out. T'Challa is alive, but we need your help to take down Erik. The border tribe is siding with him."

Hunter didn't need to hear anything else. She jumped out of the bed, not bothering to change out of the large shirt and shorts or even put on shoes.

The two women got on the first jet that they reached, heading for the lab. "How do you want me to do this? Injure or kill?"

Ayo landed the jet out of sight before she led the blonde off of it. "Injure only." Was all the warrior said before she returned to the ranks of her kin. All around her, Wakandans were fighting each other. It was heartbreaking how divided they looked. It was all because of one man, and she had her sights set on him as she began to walk to where he was fighting Okoye and a few other of the Dora Milaje.

She began to think of words like strong, fierce, hate and soon a large tiger was stalking towards the group instead of a disheveled woman. He had just thrown the Dora Milaje off of him when she pounced on him. She tried her best to bite through the suit, but not even her sharp teeth could pierce through the vibranium.

Her claws bounced off of the suit as if she had barely even touched him. She felt a stinging pain in her side before Erik used the kinetic energy that her attacks had created to throw her off of him. His helmet disappeared as she changed back to her human form, gasping for the air that he had knocked out of her lungs. "I see, so that's how it's gonna be? You're first then." The helmet reformed on his head as he began to stalk towards her.

He stood over her, his feet on each side of her as he raised his blade over his head. "Erik stop." Hunter begged of him, causing him to actually pause. "This isn't the way to go about this. Do you really want to be like the people you claim to hate so much..?"

He didn't move for a moment before he readjusted the grip. "You're too good for this world. I'll do you a solid and take you out." Hunter closed her eyes as soon as the blade was about to come down. She waited for the pain, for anything, but it never came. She saw Nakia attacking him. She managed to get Erik away from Hunter with her ring blades as Shuri fired her sonic gloves at him. The two seemed to really have him on the ropes until he slashed into Nakia's leg and threw her out onto the battle field.

Hunter forced her body up and into a fighting stance as Shuri unleashed a nonstop wave of sonic energy on Erik. It seemed to be disrupting the suit he wore as it slowly began to break apart. Erik grasped at the ground until he felt his blade in his hand, using it to knock the gloves away from him.

This gave him enough time to crush one of them, effectively causing the other to malfunction as well. Hunter rushed forward to stop him from doing anything else, but Erik shifted and threw the princess into Hunter.

The two girls flew back, teetering on the edge of where the carts brought up the vibranium. Hunter shifted so her body covered Shuri's as Erik approached. "Don't you dare touch her." Hunter growled softly.

Erik smirked and twirled his blade around. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you go together." He raised his blade, but didn't have the chance to strike the girls as T'Challa slammed into him, sending them both down the mines.

"Brother!" "T'Challa!"

Hunter and Shuri turned, trying to see them somewhere, but they had fallen to far for the human eye to see. Hunter scrambled to her feet. "I'm going after him." She began to focus on the shift.

"No. T'Challa is the only one who really stands a chance against him." Shuri protested, stopping Hunter from shifting.

As Hunter slumped down to the ground, the stinging in her side was brought back to her attention. As she brought her hand up to her side, she looked down to see a long gash that started under her armpit and stopped at her hip. As the adrenaline faded from her system, she became hyper aware of the pain and the amount of blood she had lost as spots began to cloud her vision.

"Hunter? Hunter! Stay with me!" Shuri cried out as the blonde collapses.

"Just a nap..."