"Hey Danny, do you know how to solve this?" Wanda asked Danny,
Danny looked over at Wanda's notebook but wasn't sure how to help her
"I'm not sure, you should probably ask Shuri," Danny replied.
"Shuri, can you help me solve this," Wanda asked Shuri
"Uhh huh," She replied blankly, staring at a holo projection from her Kimoyo beads.
Danny and Wanda both looked at each other in confusion and leaned over to see what had Shuri so enticed. On her screen was what looked like a report, but it was written in Xhosa
"What are you looking at?" Danny asked
"Huh, oh, it's a report of the Vibranium inventory," Shuri explained
"What's so interesting about an inventory report?" Danny asked.
"It says here that one of the cars on the vibranium transport train malfunctioned and was taken in for maintenance," She replied, scratching the left side of her neck with her right hand.
"What's so bad about that," Danny asked
"The trains get routine maintenance and have never malfunctioned," Shuri replied matter of factly
"You should look into it anyways," Wanda suggested
"You guys are probably right, but not right now. We've got homework to do'' Shuri said, turning off her beads right before a knock appeared on her bedroom window, startling the three kids. They reluctantly looked at the window, where a redhead with black webbed details was looking through.
Shuri stood up to open the window, and Peter crawled in and landed on the floor.
"You know we have a door right," Wanda said
"Forgot my key, and all the windows were closed,"
"How's May," Shuri asked, turning her beads back on, forgetting what she had said just moments ago.
"She doing well, she wants you guys to come with me next week,"
"That's fine with me," Wanda replied
"Me too," Danny said
"Mmmm hmmm," Shuri hummed and went back to looking at her report, already forgetting about the homework.
"I'm gonna go stretch my legs and get some air," Danny said, speeding out of the room and running circles around the property for a few minutes before returning.
"You good?" Peter asked
"Yep," Danny said.
"I think we should probably go to my room, it looks like Shuri needs some alone time," Wanda whispered to the other two, causing them both to chuckle.
They agreed, and left, leaving Shuri alone with only one goal in mind.
Shuri spent her evening solely working on this mystery. She looked into files on recent repairs, but nothing mentioned the train car. She looked through every recent report she had been sent and filled three pages of her notebook with various equations and calculations all pointing to the same answer. Somehow one of the cars from the malfunctioned train had just vanished. She just couldn't figure out how. Instead of giving herself a headache, the princess decided to try to sleep on it to replenish her ideas, and for the first time in a while, she had a dream.
In said dream, Shuri was back in Wakanda with the rest of her teammates, showing them the fantastic view of the golden city she could get from her balcony. Her three friends stood there simply fascinated. Dream Shuri then called out to someone to take a picture of them. When Shuri said their name, it was muffled and distorted. The team turned around, and a girl in a purple jean jacket stood there pointing a camera at them. But it was no canon, it was a surveillance camera. A red light flashed from her camera, and Shuri's eyes shot open with a revelation.
"How could I be so stupid," She accidentally said aloud.
She practically jumped out of her bed and checked the time on her phone. 3:47. She still had just over 3 hours before she was meant to wake up. Just enough time for her to figure this out.
She took a quick shower and got dressed in some warm clothes. She grabbed her notebook from her desk and walked down the stairs and into the large living room. She glanced over at the storeroom door under the stairs debating whether she should go to the basement, but she decided against it and just sat on the L shaped couch.
She turned on her beads and placed them on the table, pulling up all the security footage from the last week of the vibranium train line. She watched every single video closely, sometimes even frame by frame, until she finally saw it. 6:16 pm on Sunday. She wasn't sure at first but as she was about to watch the clip again, a pair of fingers snapped in front of her face. She flinched, and reluctantly turned her head, only to let out a sigh of relief as she saw Peter standing behind her.
"Are you alright?" He asked
"Yeah, I'm fine," She lied. She was worried, and a little disoriented from the sunlight after spending half her night looking into a 'malfunction'.
Pete vaulted over the back of the couch, landing next to Shuri.
"What's up with this footage that's got you so freaked?" He asked
She zoomed in on the hologram before asking Pete to take a look at the video. She played the video which without examination just looked like the vibranium car switching paths from the usual transport lane. The camera angle shifted, and the car was moving through a path that led to a large guarded door with "maintenance" written in Xhosa on the top.
"The train went to maintenance?" Peter said, a little confused.
"Look again," Shuri said, showing Peter the video at 0.25 speed, but Peter still wasn't sure what she was talking about.
"Look, the train shifts lanes with ten cars," Shuri said playing the video from the first angle "And reaches maintenance with nine," Shuri added, and after rewatching the video, Peter saw it.
"How is that possible?" He questioned.
"I don't know, these two cameras are right next to each other. If someone did steal the missing car they'd have less than a split-second window," Shuri exclaimed
"I'm gonna try to go back to Wakanda after school and figure this out," Shuri said, standing up after hearing Wanda's door open and close.
"Do you want me and the other to come with you?" Peter asked
"No, getting outsiders into Wakanda is hard enough, even if you guys are my teammates. But try not to mention this to anybody, I sent this to my brother and he asked me to keep it in the dark until he figures it out," Shuri explained, and Peter nodded just as Wanda reached the bottom of the stairs wearing her favourite red leather jacket.
"Morning," She said greeting the two
"Morning," they both said in unison.
"Where's Danny?" Peter asked.
"He's almost ready," Wanda replied,
"Speaking of, I should go get ready, '' Shuri said, taking her beads off the table and rushing up the stairs and into her room.
As Shuri made it to the top of the stairs, a blue streak raced into the living room, right next to the fridge. Danny opened it and grabbed the very last Capri-sun
"You drink way too many of those," Wanda commented, noticing that Danny had finished the entire box.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Danny replied
"You guys ready?' Shuri asked, running down the stairs. Peter and Wanda stared at her for a few seconds amazed at how fast she got dressed.
"Yes," Danny replied on behalf of the other two and threw his empty capri-sun in the trash.
"Yeah, let's go," Wanda said, speaking up and they made their way down to HQ and into the car.
When they arrived at school. Danny, Peter and Shuri went straight to their physics class, handed their homework to the teacher, and sat down in their usual seats, with Danny taking out his sketchbook.
"Morning class," The teacher said, starting the class,
The class replied with a gloomy "Morning," before someone knocked on the door.
"Oh right, it seems Danny isn't our only new student," The teacher said, motioning for the person outside to come in. The door opened, and the mystery girl that had been on Danny's mind since the day before walked in.
"Everybody, this is Kate," the teacher said, introducing her. " You can take a seat next to Danny," She said, pointing towards him. As Kate walked towards him, Danny looked down at his sketchbook and saw that it was open on the portrait he was drawing of her. To save himself from the embarrassment, he threw his book into his bag and turned his head to the side, looking out the window as if he didn't see her. Kate took a good look at Peter, before placing her skateboard on the floor beside her chair and sitting down next to Danny. They continued in the lesson without uttering a single word to each other, up until the last few moments of the period.
"Okay class, your assignment is to complete the packet on thermal dynamics in your table pairs, due Friday," she announced to the class whilst writing what she had just said on the board.
Danny packed his bag, stood up, and scooted behind Kate, only half hearing what the teacher had said.
"Hey Danny," Kate said to him confidentially in a surprising mix of an Essex and New York accent.
Danny froze for a second, before turning around to face her
"Yeah," He replied in a friendly but nervous tone.
"It's probably better if we get started early, we can work at my house tonight," she said, whilst writing something on a sticky note and handing it to him.
"Uhh, yeah, yeah, I'll come around 5," Danny replied nervously.
"Cool," Kate said, standing up and facing him.
The worry Danny had of this "Mystery girl" had ceased, and he grew a little pink in the cheeks
"Uhh, I think your friends are waiting for you," Kate said, snapping Danny out of his trance.
He looked around and saw that the class was now empty, except for the teacher, and all his friends including Wanda were looking at him through the window.
"Right, see you at 5 then," Danny said, turning around and walking through the door with a smile on his face.
"Got a date with the new girl," MJ asked
"No, it's just homework," Danny replied, just before Wanda snatched the sticky note from his hand.
"Hey!" Danny exclaimed
"What time are you guys 'studying'," Wanda asked, saying the last part sarcastically
"At 5," Danny replied, taking the note back.
"I'm surprised you even talked to her and didn't just stare the whole time," MJ said mockingly
"I do not stare," Danny replied
"Sure you don't" Shuri replied sarcastically.
The mocking continued until the team returned home. Where they were greeted by an unusual surprise.
They left the car, only to see Monica waiting for them in HQ.
"Finally, you're here," She said.
"Is there a problem?" Peter asked.
"Sort of. You've been called in at the Avengers base, you might have a new assignment,"
"I've kind of got something to do right now," Shuri said, but was cut off by Monica saying "This concerns you the most,"
"Looks like you're gonna have to cancel that date," Wanda said to Danny.
"Wait, Danny has a date," Monica asked.
"It's not a date," Danny said, taking out his phone and turning around.
He keyed in Kate's number and typed in a message telling her that something had come up and he couldn't make it. A few moments later, the three dots appeared, and Kate responded by saying that it was fine and he could come by tomorrow. Danny sent a thumbs up back and put his phone in his pocket before turning back around to face the others.
"You done?" Monica asked, and Danny nodded in response
"Good, it's faster if we fly there," Monica said, motioning for the team to follow her back into the elevator.
Once in, Monica lifted the panel containing the elevator buttons. She pressed the right button, and after the usual elevator ding they shifted right for a few seconds before coming to a stop, and the doors opened revealing a massive hangar filled with about 2 dozen different air vehicles. All range from one or two-person pods to high-speed jets. All the vehicles were sitting on raised circular pads that each had a tram track leading to the centre, where the team's imminent ride was parked
The team gasped in shock, seeing the hangar and the many aircraft for the first time.
"What's that," Danny asked, pointing at the jet in the centre that they were walking towards, which looked like an updated and modernised version of a quin jet with a crimson and space grey paint job.
"That is the Empire State Jet, and she's all yours," Monica said and the rear doors of the jet opened. Monica sat in the pilot seat whilst the others sat in the back.
"How fast does this thing go," Danny asked from the back.
"Faster than you," Monica replied, pressing a button on the centre console. A screen between the pilot and co-pilot lit up with a familiar gold pattern
"Good evening Newyorkers," Ava said through the cockpit speakers.
"Ava open the hangar doors," Monica ordered and booted up the engine
"Of course Captain," Ava said, and a mechanical whirring filled the hangar. A large empty section of the field above them sank a little, before splitting in half and sliding outward, creating an opening to fly through. The jet took off vertically, exiting the hangar before the back thrusters charged up a blue colour.
"You might wanna hold onto something," Monica said before they shot through the sky.