Arthur stood up, and twenty minutes later, he was seated on a half-empty flight towards Kenya.
'Let's sleep for the rest of the fourteen-hour flight. I will probably need it.'
____________________________________________
14 hours after leaving New York, Arthur could feel the plane beginning its descent to land at Nairobi's airport.
Sitting up straight, Arthur took stock of his situation and the next step of his plans.
'I suppose my power doesn't have any time limits. It has been active for 18 hours uninterrupted, and it hasn't even winded me a little.'
Testing the limits of his power was an integral part of his plan. He already knew that when he was Fading, he could still interact with physical objects, but physical objects could not interact with him if he didn't want them to.
No camera could see him. Airport scanners and metal detectors could not detect or scan him. Even his weight seemed to have no effect on the physical world, judging by the fact that the seat he had just been sitting in had no indentation or mark indicating that someone had been sitting on it for 14 hours. No matter how light a person was, sitting in the same seat for more than a few hours should have left some kind of mark.
Arthur was quite happy with the extent of his power, even if there were things he had already been almost certain would work.
He knew that the wording of his power was vague: 'Allows the user to make the universe forget him.'
It seemed easy to follow, until you realized what 'the universe' could ultimately mean.
Because 'the universe' could really mean everything. The laws of physics were a part of the universe. Maybe even Infinity Stones couldn't have any effect on him while his power was activated.
He didn't know the exact limits, but he knew that he had an extremely powerful advantage, especially in this early phase of the MCU, where cosmic and universal powers were almost nonexistent.
'Still, it's too soon to be flippant about non-cosmic threats. I need to remember how weak my body actually is right now.'
Arthur quickly refocused himself as he felt the plane land and come to a stop at the gate. Thirty minutes later, he was exiting the airport, using the same strategy as in New York: he followed a lone traveler as he called a taxi.
Only once he was in Nairobi's city center did he allow himself to take in the sight.
He was instantly hit by the bright equatorial sun, the smell of diesel, and the dust of the city in the middle of a humanitarian crisis.
Arthur knew, of course, that he couldn't yet change the lives of all these people. He also knew that throwing money at the problem wasn't going to make things change.
But he couldn't help wanting to help some of these people, curled up in alleys, begging for just a little bit of food. In some houses, he could see corpses through the windows. Some were just little kids who had died of starvation.
'But right now, I can do nothing but pity them.'
Steeling himself, he started looking for someone who seemed wealthy. Once he spotted his target, he calmly approached him, stole his wallet and watch, and got away.
After that, he counted how much money he had in the stolen wallet. He quickly stole a city map and a djellaba with a hood, then started walking toward a taxi stand.
Putting on the djellaba, his hat, and sunglasses, he thought, 'SHOW', before making his way toward the farthest driver he could find.
A young man leaning against an old, used SUV was looking at him like Arthur was a juicy cash cow waiting to be milked.
Before the man could speak, Arthur looked him dead in the eyes through his sunglasses and said,
"You. Drive me to the Ugandan South border. 50,000 Kenyan shillings. Half now, half once there. Yes or no?"
The driver seemed shocked and started looking left and right at the other drivers, hoping no one had heard the offer.
Then he looked back at Arthur and nodded once.
Arthur got into the car and gave the driver the first half of the money. He looked him in the eyes once more and spoke in a chilling tone.
"You trick me, you dead. Understood?"
The driver hurriedly nodded and started the car, looking shaken but excited to make as much money as possible. His client had agreed to pay him almost triple the standard rate for an eight-hour trip.
_________
24 hours after leaving New York
Arthur said goodbye to Peter Omondi, his driver, and immediately activated his power.
'FADE'
And started walking towards where Wakanda was supposed to be. Halfway there, he remembered that he didn't have a ride back, before shrugging.
"That's future Arthur's problem for future Arthur to think about. Let's focus on getting into Wakanda for now."
While procrastinating on a problem this big may seem like a bad idea, and it is, Arthur chose to concentrate on the now and directed his attention to scanning the foliage and trees to find something that might give him a clearer direction.
_____
2 hours later, he was starting to think coming here was not as great of a plan as he initially thought, because after spending the last two hours finding nothing but trees, prairies, and wild animals, a lot of wild animals, he was starting to be at the end of his rope.
And obviously, just as he was starting to think about going home, he saw a village in the distance, immediately realizing that it probably was one of the border villages.
Guarded by the Border Tribe, these villages have the goal of presenting to the world an impoverished image of a banal Third World country. They present a carefully crafted illusion to the outside world to hide the advanced nature of the country.
In reality, the Border Tribe are warriors, each individual trained and equipped with traditional cloaks woven with vibranium technology, capable of generating personal shields and spears made of vibranium.
They also have their own way to contact the capital of Wakanda.
'I suppose that's how I am going to infiltrate,' he thought, before making his way to the village, analyzing how every man and woman was dressed, and who seemed to defer to whom. He quickly deduced which one of them was the highest-ranking member. Unsurprisingly, it was a woman.
_____