"Shuri?" T'Challa knocks on the door of his sister's room.
"Enter!" She calls back in Xhosa, reverting back to their shared mother tongue.
"Okoye needs some PR from you." He tells Shuri as she hunches over her desk in a casual sweater.
"What?" She gasps, standing up in indignation. "No, I'm a student now! I've got homework!"
"Oh, really?" T'Challa crosses his arms over his chest and gives Shuri a dubious look. "Is that your homework, then?" He points to a sketch of the new spiderman suit that she was designing.
"Ugh, no." Shuri admits, flashing her brother a furious look.
"It's only quick, you can just shoot an encouraging video before you start classes." T'Challa adds.
"Alright, alright I'll send the video soon, now will you just leave?" She huffs and the Wakandan king exits for his next meeting.
Boosting up her laptop and cameras, Shuri pulls on a more presentable outfit and adds a touch of makeup using her desk mirror.
Filming in front of the window for better lighting, she smiles brightly and wishes everyone to stay safe and keep hopeful for the end of lockdown. Shuri adds how sorry she is that she unable to come home to Wakanda, which is the most genuine part and ends the video. She quickly uploads the video to Wakanda's most popular video streaming site using the Royal Family's official account, and on YouTube too for those keeping up to date on Wakandan media but residing outside of the country.
Within minutes, it's garnered well over half a million likes and many more views, for Shuri is well loved by her people and by her fellow academics across the world. On a whim, she scrolls aimlessly through the comments, abruptly stopping upon one that reads, Thank you for making this video despite your busy schedule! It made my day to hear you encourage us during this hard time. Thank you again! And yet others saying, You visited my school just before lockdown began, and inspired to me start learning coding. I'm not very good at it, but I hope to practise and show you one day!
Shuri clicks one of her stray inventions distractedly. These people really want to hear from me, and if it's making their day better, then maybe it's worth a shot, she thinks. What could I post about?
As if on cue, Peter sticks his head in to the room.
"Hey, the door was open so I thought I'd drop in. Whatcha up to?"
"T'Challa asked me to make a video for encouragement to post on social media and I got a bunch of requests and DMs to make more videos."
"That's so cool! You could call you channel 'TechPrincess'."
Shuri pulls a face.
"Does it have to have the word 'princess' in it?"
"Okay fine, maybe 'TheQueensCode', how about that?"
"Hmm, it sounds very mysterious," She adjusts her necklace so the mic is placed right for her upcoming classes. "I like it, and Queens is the place you're from, right?"
"Ahh yep," Peter chuckles, pleased that Shuri remembered.
"Okay, I guess that works then. What should my first video be?"
"It could be about anything. Technology's your specialty but you could always add some extra videos in about your other interests." He suggests excitedly. "Maybe I should create an official Spiderman account too," Peter muses.
"Yeah? Called, "MJ, will you please date me since I'm too scared to ask you irl?" she jokes.
"Stop if!" He blushed as Shuri laughs at Peter's bug-eyed expression.
"Wait," She adds, already full of laughter, "You could be SpidersByte, get it?"
"Because I'm into tech too, yeah I got it." He smiles.
"And that way," Shuri continues, "We can be seen online together as well without any suspicion! Our cover is that I reached out to design you a new suit and that's how we got in touch."
Peter shakes his head, still grinning wildly.
"Sure, Shuri. Whatever you say."
She flashes him a triumphant look, and adds
"Maybe it will become a reality."
But before Peter can respond with a fresh excuse to keep his old suit, Cindy rings Shuri to remind her about class.
"Morning! Just a quick reminder, we have class- Ms Warren's marking the roll now."
"Okay, cool thanks I'll log on now. See you soon." She speaks into her necklace and it alters the sound, then transmits it directly to Cindy's phone.
"Go, you're next on the roll; I'll talk to you later." Shuri shoos Peter out of her room.
He hurries down the corridor, running almost at full speed which was quite fast when you considered all the exercise Peter got from chasing bad guys all day…and running from discovers pranks that he and Shuri set up around the Facility.
"What the-" Peter screeches to a stop before he can run into his aunt.
"Well, good morning to you too, Peter." Aunt May says. "Care to tell me where you've been?"
"Sorry," He puffs, "Got class now, was with Shuri. Bye!" Peter speeds off, leaving his aunt standing in the hallway, extremely confused but amused by her nephew's close friendship with the Princess of Wakanda.
That afternoon, after finishing the newest truckload of Mr Donner's homework, and messing up her answers to the extension science questions, Shuri shoots the first part of her new video series.
"Hey guys! Welcome to my channel, TheQueensCode. It sounds so mysterious, doesn't it? Well, basically I'm just going to be uploading anything on my mind and stuff that I think you'll all be interested in. For my first video, I'll teach you all a really simple code that everyone can easily do. Ready?"
And by the end of the day, Shuri's amassed tens of thousands of fans that flock to watch the princess's video and be inspired to start learning coding. Teachers showed their students, parents showed their kids, and even those who'd only ever used rotary phones took a shot!
Throughout the week, Shuri posts new videos on coding, eventually moving onto harder topics, but still explaining them easily, so that even beginners could understand. Brands asked her to promote their products in their videos, and she garnered a massive fanbase, especially with her popular reaction videos. Still, Shuri didn't let her growth in fame get to her, she still attended classes as 'Sadie Fitzgerald' and continued meeting up with the Decathlon team, pitching in some new ideas and concepts to the group every now and then.
As Shuri is filming a new video, she accidently knocks her camera off its stand. Falling to the floor with a smash, it now resembles a mess of snapped wires and cogs sticking out of the body.
Sighing in frustration, Shuri picks the broken device up. Examining it carefully, she mutters,
"It's fixable…using the rest of the tools back in my lab."
Pursing her lips in thought, Shuri jumps up as a new thought springs into her mind. Surely I could scramble something together from the outdated technology that Tony has, she plans. Heading down to the labs, she takes a quick peek inside.
Looks just like the first time, Shuri smiles softly at the memory of her first visit to the Avengers Facility, spying the operation table she had used to help heal Peter after his spar with Natasha. Shuri replays the memory of her discovery of Peter's secret identity, his cute blushing face flashing immediately her mind. And travelling further downward, she recalls the feel of his muscled, toned body beneath her gloved fingers, the way Peter tensed as Shuri had smoothed the gel over his fading bruises. But it was the heart underneath that surprised her the most. Shuri never ever expected to find that the famous Spider-Man, who had a massive fanbase in Wakanda and internationally, was less than a year younger than herself. And it made her fall the slightest bit more for Peter, as he showed all his scars and hopeless moments, and Shuri vows to do all she can do to help him stop hurting.
She walks towards the lab's benches and curiously examines the area. A holographic screen pops up, filled with scientific working out and complex diagrams and Shuri peruses them casually. Hmm, what an interesting hypothesis, she notes. Continuing along the benches, Shuri hunts high and low for the missing tool she needs.
"Uh, can I help you, your majesty?" A voice asks from behind.
"Oh! You startled me." She exclaims, pressing a hand over her heart. "And it's just Shuri, thank you. Who are you?"
The man gestures to himself, clothed in a white doctors gown and face framed by thick black glasses, fumbles forward with his hand outstretched.
"I'm Dr Bruce Banner, I mean Bruce."
"Oh yes, I'm sorry I didn't recognise you."
"Ah, that's okay. I um, heard your talk in New Brunswick on the relative growth of microorganisms in their affected natural habitats, and it was really interesting. I think you had some great pieces of evidence and your scientific skills really stood out in that presentation."
"Thank you," Shuri replies with a pleased smile. "What field do you work in?"
"I've got um, seven PhDs, so I work around a bit."
"Woah!" She marvels at the genius standing in front of her. "How come I've never heard of you before?"
"I tend to stay undercover, some trouble with the law, and well, I had an accident with Gamma radiation a couple of years ago too," Bruce shrugs.
"Okay," Shuri eyes the scientist and says, "So what are the PhDs in?"
"Nuclear physics, radio physics, engineering, biochemistry, Computer science, mathematics, and robotics." He lists, using his fingers to count.
She raised her eyebrows, thoroughly impressed.
"They sound very intense."
He grins and shrugs again, suddenly looking bashful.
"Yeah, but I've seen the machines you create. I mean you're only, what, eighteen? You'll do much more than I ever will." Bruce chuckles, opening up a screen to get back to his work.
Shuri smiles at the hard working scientist in front of her. Scooping up the tool she found, she adds a quiet, "Bye," and heads off back to her room.
Deep in thought, Shuri wonders at the similarity between Bruce and her father, as T'Chaka's words of encouragement play in her head.
My daughter, you will exceed everyone's expectations with your wit, charm and most of all, your intelligence. Never let anyone's opinion take precedence over your own. You are from the Goddess Bast's family, you have a Panther's strength and instinct. Use it to help others.
And as Shuri repairs her broken camera, she sends a promise to her father that she will help find a cure.
"Peter!" Ned exclaims excitedly, staring directly into the camera of his computer.
"Hey, what's up?" Peter replies looking up from his work to smile at his friend.
"Look!" Ned thrusts his phone at the camera and Peter squints at the screen. "Princess Shuri has a YouTube and Instagram account!"
"Oh, yeah?" Peter bites back a laugh, remembering how he was the one who gave her the name for her handle and was in the room when Shuri set it up.
"Wow, 14.5M followers already? She's even verified now! So cool." Ned gushes. "Do you remember when she came in to talk to us and she brought all her gadgets? Man, and when you saved her I swear the princess stared at you for so long, it was unbelievable!"
"Do you think MJ remembers?" Peter asks, a little shyly but full of hope.
Ned nods enthusiastically.
"Yeah, of course! You know what? I'll text the group chat right now, and we can slip it into the convo."
"Okay!" Peter blushes slightly, and reaches for his phone.
Swiping away the clutter of Instagram notifications, Peter opens messages and quickly texts Shuri,
Congrats, you're verified noww, what a celeb
Adding a shocked face emoji and a wink face, he presses send.
"Ok, I've texted the group, what do you think MJ will say?"
"Not sure," Peter stutters, red faced dreaming about his Decathlon leader's reaction.
"And…she's read it!" Ned says happily.
Ned: Guys, check out Princess Shuri's ig account!
Cindy: Wow, her tutorials are so helpful, really in depth
Abe: Remember when she came to our school? I swear I almost died of happiness when we got to stay behind and chat to her
Charles: the gadgets were so advanced too, we're so far behind when it comes to our nanotechnology
Flash: you know what wasn't nano sized? Her chest in that dress, ha
Sally: ew gross, flash
Peter: yeah that's really rude
Flash: oh shut up, parker, you're just jealous that she wasn't impressed with your big fake hero act with saving her
Ned: from the explosion you caused, flash
MJ: Ned has a point, and besides, it wasn't fake, if Peter hadn't saved the princess, we'd probably have all been sued or something.
Sadie: um, hi? Sorry not sure what's going on right now
Cindy: that's ok, basically the princess of Wakanda came to our school before we went online and flash accidently set off a gadget and peter pushed her out of the way
Abe: it was epic
Sadie: wow, that sounds so cool! You guys are lucky to have met her, she sounds amazing
MJ: she is
Peter suppresses a smile at the conversation, secretly laughing at how Shuri had tricked them all. Well, except him of course, it was only Peter and Shuri who knew the truth.
A new message pops up from the princess.
Thanks, and I think it's about time Spiderman joined social media,
Her message adds a brown winking face at the end. Peter chuckles and replys with,
Maybe, is TheSpidersByte ready to be launched?
Definitely, meet me in my room and we'll shoot the first video.
Done, see you soon
"Hey, what do you think about Sadie?" Ned asks.
"Um, yeah she's good. And really smart." Peter says with a smile, knowing he definitely wasn't lying.
"I know right, and pretty too!" Ned says.
Peter laughs,
"I mean, yeah I guess so."
"She reminds me of someone, I don't know who, though." Ned muses.
Peter shrugs.
"I'm not sure."
"You know, this sounds crazy, but I swear Sadie looks similar to the princess. I mean, they almost look similar, but sound totally different. Sadie's voice is unaccented but Princess Shuri's has more of a quiet, pleasant sound."
"Don't tell me you have a crush on Shuri, I mean Princess Shuri?" Peter smirks.
Ned laughs,
"She's not my type but c'mon you gotta admit she's pretty."
Peter chuckles,
"Yeah, okay. I agree."
"Ha, you admit it too! I wonder how she's going, are you still in contact with her? I mean you did escort her to the facility and everything."
Peter mumbles,
"Yeah, I hope she's okay."
His phone vibrates, seeing a message from the very person they were talking about.
U coming?
Yep, give me five minutes
Okay, don't be late! I've got everything set up now
"Sorry, Ned. I've got to go. See you tomorrow?"
"Ugh yep, not Monday." Ned rolls his eyes. "I've got to finish the science homework anyway. See you then!"
Peter sighs, relieved at the end of the call. Shuri, Sadie, Shuri, Sadie, the names all bounce around his head. Still the same, funny, charismatic and yes, admittedly and obviously pretty, no beautiful, person. Peter felt extremely lucky to be able to see her everyday and have someone to confide all his troubles in.
Oh no, I'm late… Shuri's going to kill me!
And with that final thought, Peter jumps up from his chair and hurries downstairs to the guest suites.
Knocking timidly on the door, which is brutally yanked open, Peter steps inside the darkened room and the door slammed shut behind in.
"Shuri?"
"Just in time, thought I'd have to go up there and hunt you down myself." Her wide smile is the salient image in the black room and it's only through a combination of his memory and spider senses that Peter avoids tripping over anything. "Ready to go viral, Spider?"