Black Paint-ther vs. Klaw

Black Paint-ther VS Klaw

By SF_THRAWN

(Authors note: This story takes place in the year 1992. Some things may not be 100% accurate.)

Just a normal day…

 By Miles Allen

It started like all normal Saturdays. I was throwing pebbles at Sean’s window. When he finally opened up he looked at me and grumbled a little. A minute later he walked out of his house with Spider-Page in his pocket and hopefully money so that I would not have to cover him. Some time later we finally got the whole gang together: it was me, Sean, Bryan and Vincent. We rolled to the grocery store to pick up some drinks and stuff. We were ragging on Sean and how he called cookies ‘biscuits’ even though he was raised in America. Once we arrived at our final destination we saw a sad site: a freshman asking passing people for coins.

“Aww, couldn’t afford your issue of Guardians of the Galaxy?” Bryan jeered.

The freshman held up an origami Starhawk and said “One day you will need me! One day!!!”

“When pigs fly!” Vincent said.

“Oh! How about when the Guardians get their own movie?” Sean yelled.

We all started to die of laughter because there was absolutely NO WAY that the Guardians would get their own movie.

“You guys suck!” he yelled back.

Normally we would not do that but we had strong opinions on comics and such. We have been pushed out of everywhere else. We would bring lost kids here and introduce them to the wonderful world of comics. We loved the little store. 

When we found out that… 

By Vincent Tomas

Because Wednesday was a school day we had to pick up our comics on Saturdays. It sort of became a tradition for all of us because we eventually realised that we all kept on going at the same time on the same day, staying for the same time but almost never getting the same thing so we became good friends real quick. 

“Sup, Haruto Jr.” Miles said.

“Oh! Hey Miles, Sean, Bryan and Vincent… Hey Vince, how’s Carrie?” Haruto Jr. asked.

“Ah, Carrie is doing good. Learning the ways of the force and all that jazz.” I responded.

“Oh? Who’s this Carrie now?” Sean asked.

“Just a girl.” I said.

“Just. A. Girl.” Bryan repeated, slowly.

“Can we please get our comics and go?” I pleaded.

“I’m hurt,” Haruto Jr. said in a pouty voice. “In the feelings.”

Once we got out of the store we headed downtown past the schools and rounding the hill cruising to the public park. Once we got there we pulled our bikes off to the side of the road and ventured into the forest and entered our ‘secret lair.’ It was behind a dumpster but that was the price to pay for secrecy. In the center was a tree whose large branches were big enough to support all of us. We put down the bag full of food and passed around the soda. We were all either deep in a bag of chips or deep in our comics. I had just crushed my third can of TaB and closed the issue of ‘Quasar’ that I had been reading. 

“I’m so bored!” Bryan wailed.

“Boo-hoo! What do you want to do! Start a war?” Sean asked.

“Sure,” he said “let’s start a war.”

As they were about to duke it out Miles stepped in.

“Hold it! How about we go to the library, I heard that they are throwing away their old Apple 2 systems. Maybe we can finally make that connected system that Bryan has been talking about,” he said.

That was the great thing about Miles. He always would put himself out there to protect others.

#52 is missing…

 By Miles Allen

I was riding home from the library with my comics and an Apple 2 in my front carriage when I saw the cop cars. I raced home and ran inside to see my dad talking to someone who looked like a detective. He had his face in his hands and glass was on the floor where it should not be. Then it hit me, why the detectives were there.

“Dad is it-” I began.

“Yes,” he said, his voice sad. 

I looked at my feet. The issue was the thing that got my father fighting for equal rights, it was the thing that was personally given to him by Stan Lee himself. The day we moved here he hung it up in the hallway for us to see when we walked out the door, into the wider world. Then I thought about my collection. I bolted upstairs and into my room where nothing had been touched. The rest of the day progressed quickly. Bryan set up the W.E.B. [Wide. Entwined. Binary-periodic entanglement] system. I fiddled with paper, still trying to come up with an origami character. Over the W.E.B. I told my people what had happened. Bryan said he would tell the OrigAvengers, Sean said that he would keep an ear out and Vincent said “ ;^( ” whatever that means. But this felt a little more personal than “ ;^( ” so I looked through my collection for the backup issue of the stolen story to find what I had been looking for; Inspiration. “Fantastic Four #52” would not go unavenged.

And the OrigAvengers suck… 

By Miles Allen

I was walking through the hallway when I saw the OrigAvengers (With the help of Spider-Page) tackle someone wearing a fishbowl on his head.

“You will never stop me!” he yelled, “For I am Mysterio-rigami and the name is still in the works!”

“Just shut up!” the Iron Fold girl said.

Bryan and Sean walked up to me holding up Unshreddible Hulk and Spider-Page.

“So, any word?” I asked.

“No, but we do have a hypothesis,” Hulk said.

“Our hypothesis has to deal with the Black Panther and his villains,” Sean said.

“It’s sick,” Spider-Page said.

“The villain in question is Klaw. we think this because whoever it was attacked your father like Klaw did in the comics,” Hulk said. (He was a very intelligent Hulk. More like Bruce Banner.)

Then Director Ainsley came up behind us. “Why is an OrigAvenger talking to Spider-Page and a civilian?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, civilian?” I asked as I turned around.

“I’m sorry kid, but this is OrigAvengers business,” he said.

I slapped the eyepatch off his face and looked him in his eyes. I saw only fear. I looked around and saw all of my fellow Kirby students look at me. They thought that I was a monster. I walked off to my other class. I did not want to be late. Bryan tried to stop me but I looked him in his eyes and only saw worry for me. He handed me a folded square of paper. I just shoved it into my pocket. The rest of the day zoomed by. As I was riding home I heard the steady whir of another bike behind me. I sped up and so did my pursuer so I kicked my foot out and slid off the still moving bike, I then reached up and close lined my pursuer.

“What was that for?” she asked.

Wait, I just close lined a girl. I looked down at her in shock.

“I am so sorry,” I started to plead for forgiveness.

“No, no. It’s fine,” she said.

“It’s really not.” I said.

“Well if you insist then you can start by letting me help you. I’m Cyndi, Cyndi Conners,” she said as she pulled out a Wasp finger puppet

“It’s good to meet a fighter these days,” The Wasp said.

But I found Hatch-22… 

By Miles Allen

Me and Cyndi rode our bikes to the nearest pay phone so I could call my Dad.

“Hey,” I began, “I might be a little late home.”

“And why might that be?” he asked.

“Well because I have a lead on who stole the comic,” I said.

“Well that’s great, have fu-, WAIT, you have a lead?” He asked.

“Yes, now I need to go.” I said

Before he could finish his sentence I hung up the phone and walked out of the booth to see Cyndi look very upset.

“Where is the paper that Bryan gave you?” The Wasp said.

I took it out of my pocket and handed it to her. She looked at it for a bit before she threw it away and told me to follow her. After some time I realised where she was leading me. It was Saru’s but instead of going inside we parked our bikes and walked around back where Haruto Jr. was waiting. 

“I got your message,” he said.

“Wait, how did you get the time to send him a message?” I asked

“It was Bryan,” The Wasp said. “He told Haruto that we would be coming by‘

Haruto Jr. then held out a floppy disk in a baggy that was labeled ‘Hatch-22’ 

[SOME TIME LATER]

I plugged in the floppy disc extension into the Apple 2 W.E.B. System. After the disc loaded a tab popped up that had some code on it. Most of it was cryptic but two things stood out. “Kane is ready for NYC-CC 1996 [LTS CNCCL T.]” and “To Klaw, Miles Allen has FF-#52, [HV FN]” I stopped breathing for a second. Whoever wrote this clearly had overheard me talking about it. I told Cyndi about what was on it. She told me that I should personally look into it. So the next day at school I decided to take action, no, WE decided to take action. Me and The Black Paint-ther would take action, we were sick of being tormented. 

And then the Storm came… 

By Miles Allen

The next day I intentionally broke into F.O.L.D. headquarters. I wanted an audience and this was how I did it: I knew that they would get a notification that I had gotten in so I was expecting them. I sat in the Director’s chair and waited for him to walk in. When he did the room stood still. The other agents looked at me and then at him like they were waiting for his reaction. My plan was working perfectly, now I just hoped that I would not be perceived as a threat.

“What do yo-” he began.

“No,” I said “This is not your time to talk.”

“What do you mea-” he tried to say.

I just held up my hand and waited for him to stop.

“It is my turn,” I said as I walked up to him “I have watched from the shadows for long enough and what I have seen is not pleasing to me. There is so much bad history in these halls and you have just painted them another color. But now that job is mine, something has been stolen from me and I feel that it has gone ignored by you and your lousy team. So, we are going to fix that.”

“I’m sorry,” He paused, he was waiting for me to interrupt him, “We?” 

I held up Black Paint-ther.

“Yes, we.” I said

Then another set of footsteps walked down the stairs and a girl appeared. She was my age and complection, a little smaller than me but in her hands was a piece of paper that she was fiddling with. She started to put it away but then saw the Black Paint-ther pulled it back out.

“I want in,” she said.

“I’m sorry we don’t just-” Director Ainsley tried to say.

I held up my hand, “As long as I am in this room with you, you don’t call the shots.”

And then the Storm came… (PT.2)
By- Trisha A’Late

Here we go! Let me start from the beginning. My name is Trisha A’Late (pronounced A’l-A-Ti) and I have been living in Africa for all of my life. I had been fixed on Marvel and the X-Men for as long as I can remember. So when the chance to go to school where Stan Lee himself learned, I had to take it, even though it was for two years. I was walking around the hall just looking around when I heard the weirdest thing.

“Yes, we,” someone said.

So I walked down the stairs. This kid looked at me. He was roughly like me except he was taller than me. He looked down at my hands where I was making origami. I started to put it away because EZ-Storm was not completely ready and not as good as the one back in Africa.

But I saw his origami Black Panther so I pulled it back out. 

“I want in.” I said

“I’m sorry we don’t jus-” the other person in the room tried to say.

Then he held up his hand, “As long as I am in this room with you, you don’t call the shots.”

We walked out of the room and I continued to fold EZ-Storm. He put away his Black Panther and walked off to class, I still had no clue where to go. 

At the end of the day I went back to the home I was staying in. I was spinning in a rolling chair when I saw the kid who had the Black Panther enter the house next to us so I thought that it would be a good idea to ask him to ‘give me a tour of town.’ I walked over to his house and knocked on his door when his dad answered. 

“Hi! How can I help you?” he asked

“Oh, hi! I was wondering if I could talk to your son for a minute,” I said.

Soon the kid walked down his stared at me. He shook my hand in an oddly respectful manner.

“How may I help you?” he asked.

“I was wondering if you could show me about town?” I said awkwardly

He grabbed a jacket off the coat wall.

“Hey! I will be right back,” he yelled into the house right before he closed the door.

We eventually found ourselves drinking milk-shakes at a Dairy Queen when a group of Jocks came up to us.

“Look at that,” one of them said.

“What?” The second one said.

“Those people over there.” The third one said as me pointed at us.

“The boss is going to be so happy when we tell him that we found the,” he sneered, “Nerd.”

I did not understand why he sneered but Miles clearly did. 

“IS THAT A BAD THING?” Miles yelled

“Well judging by the way you are acting I think you know my opinion.”

Miles then ran up to him and socked him in his jaw. He crumpled to the ground as the third jock tryed to pull Miles off of the first kid, the second kid just ran away. Miles then grabbed the third kid by his shirt and pushed him into the ground and started to wail down on the both of them. I had to pry Miles off of the poor Jocks. Their last words before running away where.

“Klaw wants to meet you. Football field, Lunch, tomorrow. Don’t be late”

Klaw 

By- Cass Tyler

I just created Ulysses Klaw because I thought having a calling card would give me major street cred. So I might have stolen Miles’ father’s comic, but he had it coming! It was the first appearance of Black Panther and because I had made Klaw it just made sense so I broke in and stole it. I didn’t mean to hurt him, it just seemed right at the time. But seeing as it is the first appearance of Black Panther I am TOTALLY going to sell it. 

So Miles, if you are reading this I am sorry, but I will give you a chance to win it back. I had some of my jock friends deliver a message to Miles. (I hope they did it respectfully.) Honestly I hope that he does not show up, I could really use some cash right now seeing as the MCP had a price for me to pay and seeing as my entire life is public to the school I had to pay in cash instead of a secret. (500$ for the record) Oh, the MCP is this kid some of us jocks know. He gives us info on the opposite teams. He is an interesting character, always operating from the shadows and dealing in secrets, the whole deal. I have heard rumors that he has been in this school forever going back as far as 1965! That’s like, 100 years! Now that I think about it I wonder why he is so small for a really old dude.

With backup… 

By- Trisha A’Late

We deciphered what they said and quickly devised a plan. I woke up early in the morning and met Miles. He headed off to school to prepare for the coming conflict. He gave me a list of addresses and told me to wake them all up. First on the list was Sean Cates. He woke up quickly and as soon as I told him the plan he was immediately on board. Next was Cyndi Conners, she put on The Wasp and told me that she was ‘Itching for a fight.’ Then there was Bryan Brock and as soon as he saw Cyndi he joined. Last but not least was Vincent Tomas, who was currently in retirement. He said that he would come for moral support but he said that we should go pick up one more person: Carrie Morse.

“OMG! Vincent! It’s so good to see you,” she said as she hugged him.

He awkwardly returned the hug and then Sean started to slow clap followed by a whistle from Bryan while me and Cyndi started to nervous giggle. She soon got ready and climbed on the back of Vincent’s bike. When school started we were called over the PA system to go to the F.O.L.D. base for a ‘Very important meeting.’ When we got there we saw Haruto Jr. sitting down, glaring at us.

“You were not going to tell me?” he asked

“Tell you what?” Carrie asked, looking at Vincent.

“Oh!” I said “Miles contacted you?”

“Yes! For something going on at lunch, right?” he asked.

“Yep, some jock stole his father’s issue of the first appearance of Black Panther and then the jock challenged him to a thing at lunch. And so he asked all of us to be here so that no shady business could go down.”

Then lunch came around and a whole plethora of shady things happened.

And then the fight happened. 

By- Miles Allen

I walked on the field to see Cass Tyler hold my father’s issue of ‘Fantastic Four #52.’ He put it down on a nearby bench and walked up to me.

“I’m sorry that I stole from you and the fact that my people are morons,” he said.

“I just want to know how this is going to work,” I said.

“Ok, well, the rules are simple. We will put our puppets into these lacrosse sticks and the first person to lose their puppet wins. Also your people and my teammates will surround us to make sure that there is no shady business.”

I looked behind me to see Trisha, Sean, Cyndi, Bryan, Vincent, Carrie and Haruto Jr. give me smiles and a big thumbs up. They were there holding hockey sticks so that me or Kat could not run away. I put Black Paint-there in the net and got ready. Cass started off strong by going for my arm so I slid out of his way. I then jabbed for his net but he pulled away and hit me in my side with the blunt end of the stick.

“Come on!” Sean yelled.

“You got this!” Bryan yelled.

“Get up!” Carrie yelled.

“I’ll give you a 50% discount!” Haruto Jr. yelled

Cass was about to push Black Paint-ther out of the net when I ducked out of the way and then I pushed him, then I heard a loud blast of ear piercing feedback, and saw another jock slam a microphone on a speaker like he was playing a drum. Then out of nowhere some F.O.L.D agents tackled him and then the Director walked out onto the field. He gave me a firm thumbs up.

“Don’t quit!”Cyndi yelled.

“Never give up!” Vincent yelled.

“Do it, OrigAvenger!” the Director yelled.

I fell on the ground. Cass flipped my body so I was facing up,

“I’m sorry,” Cass said “The MCP wants you to lose. This is not up to me.”

I looked at Black Paint-ther and remembered what I was fighting for. This was more than just a comic, this was about who I would become in the future. I could just give up and go about being a normal kid, but there was nothing normal about me. I was different. I was, no, I AM the Black Panther.

“Show him who you are!!!” Trisha yelled! 

I pulled the stick to me as he was about to swipe Black Paint-ther off of the stick and win. I slowly rose, blocking all of Cass’s attacks along the way. I clashed with his stick and pulled it towards me, I lodged it under my armpit and hit his hand with my stick, making him drop it. I kicked Klaw away from the net stomping on it. Then I held up Black Paint-ther and grabbed the comic as my friends roared.

Epilogue 

By- Everyone [technically]

(Only Miles, Trisha, Vincent, Carrie, Cyndi and Haruto Jr. showed up)

[Recorded on a tape recorder]

Trisha: Wow, you got the X-Men here!

Haruto Jr.: Yep! It’s our best seller.

Miles: Can we please get back on track?

Vincent: Yes, the case on who the MCP is.

Carrie: That head thing from Tron?

Everyone else: What?

Carrie: That old movie. You know, Tron!

Cyndi: No one here has seen Tron.

Carrie: Well, you should.

Vincent [to himself]: Supreme? No, not possible.

Cyndi [Looks at watch]: Well I have to go.

Miles: Hey Vincent, Are we still on for that double date?

Carrie: Yep!

[Carrie, Vincent, Miles and Trisha leave]

Haruto Jr.: I saw Tron… It was good.

[Silence]

Haruto Jr.: Well I gotta’ take out the trash,

[Silence followed by a bag rustleing]

Haruto Jr.: Kid i’m sorry but you can’t be back here. Kid? KID! NO DON-

???: Sean, Sean, Sean, Where are you…

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