Ta'Challa flashes back imaginatively to a memory. Flashback shows a kenetic, underground explosion cracking the ground. The cracks continue to spread until the entire Wakandan nation is sunk underground. Through the dust of the explosion, a flag carrying white and red stripes flies in the wind and more flags with it.
"No! I Won't let that happen!"
The flashback fades and a close up view of the mask Black Panther wears takes the place of imagination.
A cool wind from the cold night escapes from a closing door marked with the symbol of the Black Panther, the king of Wakanda. Beholding his sight was enough to drop a man to his knees. He has a true kings aura indeed. From the now ajarred door, a man approaches the throne. The man stands patiently, eerily, as if waiting for a ghost to speak.
This is the Mandla representative. He throws a fake smile to bow his head to begin.
"My king, it was not the intentions of the Mandla to bring worry." He raises his gaze again to lock eyes with the king himself.
Ta'Challa waits calmly for the man to finish.
"Our miners were on a mission to attempt an extraction on the Southern Vein. Our inability to successfully extract the vibranium from the vein proved to be our greatest failure. As I'm sure you know, this led to an underground explosion collapsing the entrances to our main tunnels and those running along the southern vein. Also a large portion of our village has been sunken deep underground. What a setback for the Mandla tribe, although I believe it can be overcome with help from the Royal families."
A deep hush enters
A repetative scratching the man hadn't noticed begins to stand alone in the silence.
When the scratching stops, Black Panther rises from his throne and approaches Ta'Kari Mandla, the representative.
"Ta'Kari do you see where you stand? Do you understand what an explosion of that caliber could trigger? Do your people know what they are doing?!"
Ta'Challa pauses his speech and advances closer. Slowly walking, his feet, absent from the sound of footsteps finally approach Ta'Kari as he continues
"I've shown mercy. I know your village. It was once the mainland for the old Black Panther. Even our earliest defenses were even in the name of Mandla.
Black Panther looks down to observes his claws. Seamlessly, his nanotech suit disables around his head, uncovering the face of Ta'Challa, king of Wakanda. His eyes roll to Ta'Kari, his head slowly catching up.
"No doubt the Mandla was once the most influential family in Wakanda. But—"
Just then, Ta'Challa builds a strong fist before letting it go to fall by his side. As if releasing built up tension for the Mandla he speaks.
"Low…Low you all have fallen."
Reacting his suit, his face is masked again. As if the entity of the real Black Panther had taken over his body again. His voice continues in a lower tone as he places his hand on Ta'Kari, walking him out.
"The once renowned Mandla tribe has expired its formal glory. The recklessness and greed of the Mandla is apparent and unmatched. Who else single handedly put the entire Wakandan nation in harms way? As a king I will meet any problem where it stands."
In a lower and slower tone
"Without hesitation."
"Ta'Kari, I'm sure you can tell I have no good words for the Mandla at this moment. In the coming years I will see to new lands for your tribe. Lands more fitting for the misfortunate Mandlan's. I'd suggest you prepare."
And with a strong knock, the decorated door again opens, allowing the whispers of life entry, and an exit for Ta'Kari Mandla.
Headed back to his throne he thinks to himself.
'Prepare my friend'
Almost one hundred years later, the Mandla tribe is fifty years into its new lands, now staying in the poor border regions, only miles away from literal exile.
The new lands were in ways unproblematic for the Mandla. Any land they had, the Mandla tribe could find its full potential. Not to mention they had already come from a low status. Fraud, theivery, and other major crimes were the more reliable choices for making quick money in New Mandla.
Since the great explosion, mining wasn't their biggest industry anymore. Instead, most Mandlans used their exponential gardening knowledge to change the dry dirt into usable soil which they could now grow fresh vegetables and other crops with. It wasn't until the other tribes completely disconnected from Mandla that crime started to run rampant in New Mandla, The Shadow Village of Wakanda.
During this time, a boy named Ne'Karo is born. Ta'Karo, his grandfather, gave the boy great lessons. And with such low income, the families in Mandla had poured all their combined wealth into a schooling system. A last attempt to save the futures of the youth in Mandla .
Many times Ne'Karo had to defend himself. People would insult his late father for being a drill operator during the time of the explosion. And his mother for dying and leaving him to be raised by his grandfather.
Things such as;
"I bet his dad was the one who did it"
"You think his grandpa hates him for killing his daughter?"
"I bet his mother was glad she didn't have to go a life looking at the child of a failure."
Ne'Karo had grown to ignore the insults. But, violence couldn't be ignored. Upon reaching the point of puberty there was a time Ne'Karo stood up to a boy named Ti'Kari. This boy was born into the representative family. Related to the representative who spoke with Ta'Challa a century ago. Even in the Mandla tribe there were differences in privilege among the families, and the representatives would fall on the higher end on privlage in Mandla.
Nonetheless, Ne'Karo won the fight, dispite being younger and a bit smaller. And from then on, Ta'Karo showed his grandson combat rituals he had learned from the Jabari Tribe.
His traning would go as such. The first week required him to knot his hands with heavy rocks and perform slow, sharp movements.
Next week he'd handle heavy logs. Picking them up over his shoulder and slamming them to the ground.
The last week was built on endurance. After a long 2 mile sprint, his grandfather would take an arm's length, wooden pole and smash it against the boy's frame.
By the age of eighteen, you can imagine the monster of a young man he had been disciplined into.
Growing up, seeing advanced Wakandan technologies fly overhead, made Ne'Karo very fascinated with technology. Often he would also help his grandfather repair old mining gear.
At the ripe age of 14 he could completely comprehend vibranium infrastructure blueprints and advanced crafting techniques needed for building with vibranium.
A bright future laid out for Ne'Karo, but his past was much more somber. With parents who were both dead by the time he was born. His father was a mine worker who died during the Mandla Explosion. And when his mother gave birth to him the Mandla Medical Group couldn't provide her with necessary medicines.
A woman, so high on painkillers she can't feel her body is denied the embrace of her newborn. Instead the baby is first given to an old man, the father of the new and soon to be late, mother .
Ta'Karo, is the father of Ze'Kari, Ne'Karo's mother. Ta'Karo was a prominent figure in vibranium crafting. He secretly worked on vibranium infrastructure projects across Wakanda and was an ultimate help to the stabilization of vibranium structures, mining equipment and energy channels. Unfortunately being from the Mandla, his genius ideas were usually discredited. He was like a shadow engineer, and he was also the one to raise Ne'Karo.
Again, by the age of eighteen, N'Karo had been across Wakanda and in other African countries gathering research. Years later, N'Karo would find a village that was know for strong herbal medicines. Outside the village of Warkatar, not far from New Mandla. There's a hidden jungle area where an assemblage of unique plants grow.