Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 107: Quirky Friendship

The deep beat of music pounded through the room as Peter and Shuri looked at the screens before them. Having spent the last 2 days working together on her Brothers new suit, Peter could honestly say he hadn't had this much fun in a long time.

While it was a challenge to figure out how to perfect the kinetic redistribution, absorption, storage and redirection of Vibranium's unique property,it's inherent absorbing of kinetic energy and vibrations; with research already compiled by Shuri and both their heads, they were close to cracking the science of the whole procedure.

Specifically peter was focused in on the reprogramming of the nano-bots; what frequency they would have to vibrate at to hold the kinetic charge and how fast they would have to move to keep/store the kinetic force for longer periods of time.

While it doesn't look like they could keep the kinetic charge for an indefinite amount of time, it could hold for well into the hour if their projections were correct. Peter bobbed his head to the beat a little as he switched between screens, eyes flashing from one equation to another.

He was tempted to throw caution to the wind and full on break out into dance, but he held himself back in the lab. His eyes stopped for a second as they rested on one equation that was flashing by on the screen. Reaching his hand out and grabbing it, he pulled it over to another screen with a different equation.

His mind raced as he started to combine the two, to see if the new idea in his mind would work. After a total of 15 minutes starring at the screen without blinking and rearranging both formulas they finally seemed to click into place and a small loading bar popped up under the equation.

With Crystal running the probability analysis of all the equations and running virtual scenarios to see if they would work, it was a quick process to figure out if a new idea would work. As the loading bar turned a deep green in confirmation that it worked a bright smile appeared on Peter's face. He might have just cracked the problem right open.

Peter turned in excitement to tell Shuri the news, but that was when he realized what she was doing. Off on her own side of the lab, with her backed turned towards him, Shuri was dancing like her life depended on it. Lost in her own world her hands flashed over the screens picking apart equations and putting them back together in a whirlwind of movement as she let the beat control her movements. 'Was this what she was usually like?' Peter hadn't seen her like this before, and the sight entranced him.

Peter's eyes couldn't help but be mesmerized as he watched the scene.The small smile on her face that could just be scene, the curves of her body as she gracefully moved about, it didn't help that she was wearing a gorgeous black backless top, that showed off her flawless skin.

Peter wasn't sure how long he stood there as he watched Shuri dance around the lab doing her work, but he caught himself at least 4 minutes later and snapped himself out of his stupor. "Crystal, could you stop the music for a second."

As the music suddenly cut out, Shuri froze in surprise for a second, before realizing what just happened. Turning around in an almost robotic manner, Peter could just see her face take a darker shade of red and gave her a teasing smirk.

This just made her a bit more embarrassed as she fully turned to face him. Peter thought to hold in a laugh as he started to speak. "I think I might have cracked it." A big smile replaced her embarrassed look as she moved over to Peter and slung her hand over his shoulder, forcing the both of them to look at the equation floating in front of Peter.

"Are you sure it's going to work?" Peter gave a small shrug. "We won't know unless we try." He nudged his head in a certain direction, over in the corner the newly improved and waiting for modification black panther suit sat ready on its dummy.

(1 hour later)

Shuri and Peter both stood in front of the suit as it finished calibrating. Making sure that the new programming was installed properly and ready to go, Peter stepped up for a closer look at the suit. He quite liked the suit's black and silver design and couldn't help but draw a few parallels between it and his own new suit.

Peter wasn't completely sure, but in his opinion he thought that his own suit might have got just that tad bit more of the personal touch from Shuri. Especially as the panther suit didn't contain the small ancient Wakandan engravings that would have taken a long time to program, etch and get right, that his own suit had.

The thought brought a small smile to his lips at the thought she had put into his present. Looking it over one last time he Turned to shrug in Shuri's direction before, he reared his fist back and lightly struck the suit in the abdominal region.

Peter had to admit he was impressed as he felt his fist stop cold on the suits body. While he felt that the mannequin did rock from the force behind his punch, nearly all of it was nullified and his hand stopped still on the suits outer layer.

*Bzzt* The suit let out a small amount of noise as a ripple of purple spread out from the impact and radiated outwards to the rest of the suit. Shuri read the readings on the screen before her, mumbling a few words before speaking up.

"Everything seems to be working, the absorption went off without a hitch and the distribution of force to the rest of the nano-bot 'skin' is working fine…" She stopped for a few seconds as she tapped a few keys. "The storage of Kinetic energy is working as expected." Peter lent half an ear to her words as he continued to look at the pulsing purple glow that shimmered over the suit.

The purple throbbing was a tell-tale sign that the nano-bots where pulsing the kinetic energy that they just gained as to keep the force that was just absorbed. Of course it pulsed and shifted at the absolute minimum that they could afford so that the suit didn't glow a blinding purple or vibrate too much.

A person still had to wear the suit while the kinetic energy was stored. Shuri once again tapped a few keys and slowly but surely the purple glow pulsed up in almost a pattern fashion, as they concentrated back into the abdomen.

"The Redirection can be tested in-depth tomorrow or the day after. For now I've focused it into the abdominals that you just struck. While it will be more practical to redirect it to the hands during combat, for tests sake once you lightly tap the concentrated region it should produce all the stored kinetic energy back your way in a focused manner."

*Gulp*

Peter rolled his shoulders as he nodded at her words. He knew what this test was about, it was why he had only lightly hit the suit. If he had done a more powerful blow…well Peter didn't want to think about it.

He set his legs as he prepared to lightly tap the suit, prepared for the backlash. A small amount of sweat rolled down his forehead as he pumped himself up, taking deep breaths to prepare himself. Counting to 10 in his head, Shuri rolled her eyes behind him at her console watching his antics.

"Big baby." She mumbled those words under her breath as he tapped the center of the suit. Time seemed to freeze as they waited for something to happen, but after waiting a full 10 seconds nothing happened.

Peter let his shoulders slump in relief as he stepped back from the suit. Though he was ready for the backlash, it wouldn't be a fun process. Shuri frowned as she looked back over the equations and programming they had just put in.

From Crystals readings, it should have worked. Running the numbers again, the frown just got worse as she got up from her seat and moved over to Peter. "I don't get it, it should have worked." She rubbed her chin in thought as her mind worked to figure out what went wrong.

Peter moved over to the console Shuri was just at as he also looked over the numbers. In the end he too couldn't figure out what went wrong. Shuri let out a small sigh as she dropped her hands to her sides.

'Looks like it's back to another few hours looking for a solution.' She suddenly felt the need to stretch, she wasn't too sure how long they had been down in the lab. She had made it a habit years ago to get rid of any time telling device in her lab. Sometimes she would be hold up for days with her experiments, before her family would have to drag her out for something to eat.

*Sigh* Shuri let out one last sigh as her hand came up and she gently rested her hand on the failed experiment. "What did we do wrong?" And as those words left her mouth…*Bang* *Ooof* Peter's eyes widened for a second as he caught sight of the flying form of Shuri as she crossed the room and landed on the ground.

Quickly assessing if she was hurt with his eyes and seeing nothing wrong, he struggled to keep the laugh trying to make its way out.

Shuri blinked her eyes in surprise as she found herself looking at the roof of the lab. She stayed there for a few seconds as she came to terms with what just happened, before snapping her head in Peter's direction when she heard a small giggle.

Her eyes spat flames as they spoke to him. 'No one hears of this.' That's the message that she wanted to convey, but all it did was make Peter break down and start laughing harder. Tears came out of his eyes as he clutched his stomach.

"Hahahaha. Oh, please say you got that on camera Crystal." Shuri didn't think it was possible for her eyes to get wider, but at those words she looked to one of the cameras located in the corner of the lab, a look of pure terror in her eyes.

"Affirmative, Peter." Peter sucked in a few lungs fulls of air as he tried to straighten himself. "Make a few copies of the clips, and send one to my phone right away."Shruri's head once again snapped in Peter's direction "NOOOO DELETE IT!" Crystal seemed to ignore the pleading of Shuri as she replied. "Right away peter."

Though the small smugness in her voice wasn't missed by Shuri and a few words slipped out before she could think on them. "Damn advanced AI Bitch." There seemed to be a pregnant pause in the room as Peter looked her way in shock and was that pity in his eyes? Before she could think more on the matter Crystal's voice once again came over the speakers.

"Sorry I didn't quite hear you Shuri? Did you say post on the official Wakanda Social Media page?" Shuri was at a loss for words as her face turned pure white in terror. She could only numbly shake her head in denial as she shivered in fright. "Sorry my processors must be acting up." Shuri's shoulders slumped in defeat as she let out a sigh of relief, before picking herself up after that near disaster making her way back over to her console.

Pushing the still Shocked Peter out of the way, she read over the test data before her as she mumbled a few curses under her breath, making sure that nor Crystal or Peter could hear what she was saying.

Looking over at the suit and starring daggers at the only outlet for her anger and the reason for the whole situation, a small evil glint appeared in her eyes. She slowly pulled up her personal note section off to the side and left herself a small reminder.

'Have Brother test out suit when showing it off'

The evil smirk got even wider as she closed the small screen.

Chapter end