Chapter 45: Wolf Among Panthers.....

The Ceremony of The Second was in full swing, and from what Bronte could see, it looked like a brutal circus event. With all due respect to the people of Wakanda and their customs, he wasn't raised to play with violence to such a degree. This wasn't the Xavier Institute. The people in the pit weren't all Mutants trying to learn control of their abilities. It was full of men and women with swords and spears made of metals people would kill for..... metals they were trying to kill with. And there was a kid inside.

Once again, Illyana's words about magic and its required mindset rang true.

He darted across the clear morning skies as a black blur, collecting and ruffling the winds surrounding him creating a turbulent snowballing affect as he flew faster, collecting more wind.....more power.

The giant man wearing a white pelt closed in on Azari as he bled into the sanded grounds. The others around them didn't spare a glance over at the giant and broken child as they battled their opponents gladiator style.

"Something about killing Panthers...."

Bronte's peripherals caught T'Challa stand, hands balled into fists and eyes furious as his political position held him fast to the sidelines.

Then the boom of his winds washed over the crowd surrounding the pit, lifting dresses and ruffling beautifully done course hairstyles as if a jet flew overhead.

The massive man standing over Azari raised the club in his hands. The massive muscles in his arms hardened like wires pulled taught as he flexed and swung.

Another boom shook the area followed by an explosion as sands rose and spun in a mineral vortex, knocking combatants off their feet and into the stone walls.

The crowd yelled and covered their eyes from the assault in shock.

When the sands settled, Bronte stood kneeling over Azari with the massive man's club lodged in his back as blood leaked down his torn black shirt.

"Interference! Interference!" Some of the Tribe elders yelled into the pit as people recovered. T'Challa and Ororo were on the scene talking with them-- or at least trying to immediately.

Bronte toned them out as he turned to face the massive man. He had to be over seven feet tall, corded with thick muscle that failed to hide itself beneath the white furred pelt he wore. Now that he was closer, he could smell how rank it was. Something pungent and musty like an ape.

Bronte took the club out of his back with little more than a grunt and tossed it off to the side.

"Who are you, young man?"

"Don't worry about that." The other combatants were only just recovering from the blast. Some weren't. The man he faced was undeniably durable. Inhumanely so.

"When M'Baku asks a question, you answer." He said before hitting his chest, causing the white powder covering it to rise like smoke.

"M'Baku....." Bronte's hair flashed in and out of white, ".....I heard you wanted me dead once."

"I want you dead now!" M'Baku took a heavy-footed step forward and punched down at Bronte.

He could almost feel the giant man's mass cutting through the air. Bronte slipped the jab and popped his claws, letting them rip open the underside of the giant's arms as he circled behind him.

"AAAck!" M'Baku yelled as his blood died the sands. He spun around to backhand Bronte only to cut through air and lose function in his leg from the back of his knee being severed.

Bronte was frontside again, leaping over Azari to jump off the rock and kick M'Baku in the face.

The man went down like an evergreen in the Canadian Rockies.

"WHO..... are you!?" A voice rippled through the chaos of the crowd as it settled in M'Baku's defeat.

Bronte turned to face the crowd, the others still recovering from their stunned states. The Tribe Elders stood on risen ends of the crowd staring holes through him. They all wore different colors. Some had beautiful markings on their skin.... others had piercings in places he'd never seen before.

"Bronte..... Bronte Connors."

"He is my son." Ororo cut in.

The crowd inhaled in shock.

One of the elders leaned in to get a better look at him.

".....I remember you. So now..... you come to take the throne that you believe is yours."

"No, Ma'am." Bronte replied, "I'm good on that."

M'Baku's eyes opened and Bronte popped his claws reflexively. M'Baku chuckled as he looked around. What was so funny.

"Then what are you doing in our ceremony?" One of the other Elders asked.

"Stopping a kid from being killed."

The Elders looked at him as if his brain was full of rocks.....

"Prince Azari chose to enter this Ceremony on his own. He wishes to fight beside his father... for his people."

Bronte's face twisted up in confusion. Now it was his turn to look at them as if they were dumb while the first few inside the pit got to their feet.

"Word..... but he's a child. Am I tripping?" Bronte looked to the King and Queen, "What is this? Did yall allow this? He needs medical attention, now!" A storm collected in the thick dark clouds overhead.

"It's far more complex than that, Bronte. I understand where you come from it would be a lot more cut and dry. Not here..." T'Challa held Ororo's hand, their faces looked pained in ways he couldn't describe even if he tried as Kymera hid her face in their bulk.

Bronte felt his blood heat up.

"Yes..... you are tripping, young man." One of the older women belonging to the Tribe Elders replied to his initial question as the crowd watched it all unfold..... and begin. "This is not your underdeveloped and internally misunderstood home of America. This is Wakanda..... and we are at war. In times of war, children are few and far between. If you can fight, you are man.... or woman..... because this is how the enemy shall see you."

Bronte threw up his hands in reference to the world around them, "Is that not a contradiction? Ya'll have the power and technology to protect the ones that need it. Let's be real.... he was about to di..."

Bronte trailed off as he turned to find Azari on his feet. Blood dripped on the sands from his back.

Suddenly his blue eyes went full white and his oddly cut hair gained an electrical hue and aura. He growled and sent a blast at Bronte.

Bronte absorbed the impact of the lightning with his claws as it pushed him across the sands, superheating the metal coating them.

"STOP!" The winds blasting from his mouth frayed the lightning and forced it to dissipate. Bronte turned his head as he looked at the young prince in disbelief. "You deadass right now?"

"By intervening in my fight.... being that we share blood, you make me look weaker." Azari explained.

"Motherf--... You are weak! You can barely stand." Bronte replied angrily.

Before he could say any more, liquid metal splashed onto his claws, slowly beginning to coat it as it pulsed with a purple glow. Vibranium.

"What the--" Bronte trailed off as he looked over to find Tosin in the shadows, glowing as he moved like water. The metal coating his claws copied his movements, lifting Bronte off his feet and slamming him into the sand in front of him.

"I thought you weren't getting involved." Tosin looked down at him angrily only to be knocked back by the kinetic explosion caused from the lightning on Bronte's claws interacted with the recent Vibranium coating.

He got to his feet just in time to see the others facing him. All except for Azari.... and M'Baku who laughed despite his pain.

"HAHAHAH!! You do not belong here, young man! These people see your difference as clear as day, you can't even hide it. You are a Wolf in a land of Panthers. How did you think things would go?!"

"The way they always do." Bronte activated his Storm-State and the crowd shouted.