24

Chapter 24: we are one of a kind, irreplaceableNotes:

1) My mental health has taken a downturn recently and might get even worse next week since I'm getting exam results back so I might get writer's block, who knows. I'm pretty sure writing this is the only thing getting me through the week so we'll see.

2) I don't think I've ever been more offended than ao3 telling me I've exceeded how many tags I can use.

3) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

His stomach dropped.

How had she figured it out? She had only known him for a few hours yet had worked out his identity! He sighed, slumping slightly before looking at her smug expression. It wasn't worth denying he was Spider-Man to one of the smartest people in the world.

"How did you figure it out?" He asked weakly, fiddling with the lightsaber as he wondered how she had worked it out. Was it his voice? He knew it was identifiable if someone met him as himself and then as Spider-Man, but she hadn't met him before then. He was at a complete loss.

"Twitter had various videos of you, especially after the Christmas period when you had a snowball fight with those kids." Oh right, a few videos had circulated online of him swinging around at Christmas and interacting with New Yorkers. "I had seen a few and remembered you fought with my brother in Berlin and decided to research you a bit."

He tilted his head in confusion. "Research? How?"

She waved the question away. "You have a massive online presence, yes? It's easy enough to work out some of your personality from your actions. Plus there's footage from the airport fight that the Black Panther suit caught."

He had barely interacted with T'Challa throughout that fight. The most he had done with the king was stand near him when they had all lined up to fight Captain America, Bucky, Wanda, Clint and Sam. Then the fight had promptly gone to hell with Captain America dropping a loading bridge onto him and Scott using his suit to become huge later on.

"What? I wasn't really near him though," he replied.

Shuri typed something new into the projected keyboard on the table. "While you didn't fight together, the cameras inside the lenses of the suit caught everything even if the action was in the peripherals. Most of the footage with you in it was when Ant Man used the capabilities of his suit to become big."

A screen popped up and displayed the beginning of the chaotic fight that involved Scott. His crimson and silver suit covered most of the frame until Shuri pressed play.

"Hey guys!" He exclaimed as he rolled onto an airplane before sprinting along its length. The camera was set up as if it was on a control tower used for communicating with airplanes.

Had T'Challa set up cameras around the area to record the fight? What for? Maybe if the UN demanded evidence for the fight he would present it, or maybe it was to analyse his enemies? Nah, he must be overthinking it by now.

"Remember that really old movie 'the Empire Strikes Back'?" He dropped down where one of the wings were before shooting a web at Ant Man's shoulder and pulling himself up before swinging around his torso, wrapping the long web as he went. "You know that part when they're on the snow planet with the blocking thingies?"

He smiled sheepishly at his Star Wars reference as they continued watching him, Tony and Rhodey take down Scott before the video cut off. He hadn't thought much about his references during fights because he just said whatever he thought. It was what made a few videos of him go viral on YouTube and Twitter like the one of him saving a bus from crashing into a car.

The same video made the news and caught Tony's attention, hence his whole beginning as Spider-Man with all the fancy suits. He would have carried on in his homemade suit until he had earned enough money through some random means and then made a new suit from something like spandex.

"So that's how I pieced it together," Shuri stated.

"With camera footage, my voice, Star Wars references and actually meeting me?" He asked, completely bewildered. Shuri was insanely smart and if she could deduce he was Spider-Man from all of that then he feared ever opposing her in something that wasn't a friendly rivalry. She would destroy him easily, at least in terms of intelligence.

"Yep."

"You're amazing."

"I know." She smirked. "About that lightsaber battle."

"Wait, you're not gonna ask about my abilities and everything?" He asked. He knew that the scientific community would have a field day with his DNA, especially with how quickly he could train his strength and stamina.

"There's plenty of time for that later. You're here for a week, we'll have time to see what you can't do. Now, I want to see if you're a worthy competitor."

"Where would we fight? I don't want to damage any of the cool stuff in here." He gestured to all of the prototypes and gadgets on the white tables as well as the holograms on the other side of the room.

She grinned. "I have an idea."

Shuri's idea turned out to be the Dora Milaje training grounds.

It was insane to say the least.

The training grounds in question were massive rectangles of dirt that seemed dark orange in the sunlight. Various plants formed a border around the massive area, all of them flourishing in the summer conditions and creating areas of shade that he knew he would use to rest later.

It felt surreal to say the least. Being allowed in Wakanda was one thing, being allowed on the private Dora Milaje training grounds was another. Shuri had assured him that no one would wander onto the training grounds for a few hours so they had time to have their battle but there was a nagging feeling in his head that said someone would watch at some point.

Eh, it would be cool either way. He had asked if he could video their fights to send to Ned and Michelle and she had agreed after watching one of his and Ned's fights and seeing who Michelle was in the video with the snowball fight on Christmas morning.

The sun beat down on his back as he faced Shuri who had changed into a pair of trainers -she had called them sneakers and he had burst out laughing after she showed him the stealth ability she had built into them- and had put on a pair of sunglasses once they had walked outside.

"Ready?" She asked, her lightsaber in her right hand.

"Take me on, sunglasses girl," he exclaimed, charging towards her as he activated his lightsaber. It glowed blue under the afternoon light as Shuri activated her lightsaber, pure white light emerging as a blade as she turned to the side and easily dodged his first attack.

Swivelling around, he swung again and she rose her lightsaber to block it before masterfully throwing his momentum forwards. The blades swooshed and clanged as they continued to fight and she drove him backwards right towards the edge of the dirt rectangle.

He dodged to the side before countering her strike with a slew of slashes, throwing himself to the floor and springing up where she wasn't looking before raising his blade in an attempt to finish this part of the match.

"I think not!" Shuri exclaimed as she twisted around and pressed a button on her lightsaber handle, another blade emerging from the other side like Darth Maul's lightsaber except a different colour.

"Oh shit," he muttered, adrenaline flowing through his system as he defended against her whilst smiling because how could he not? He was literally having a lightsaber fight against the Princess of Wakanda and having the best time of his life!

Countering against her double blades was much more complicated than it seemed in the movies. Then again, he wasn't a Jedi knight. Internally thanking his Spidey-sense for warning him about a surprise hit to his side, he dodged and backflipped about a metre away to give himself some breathing room.

As amazing as the fight was, he felt as if there was a key element missing from the fight. Something crucial…

He lowered himself to the ground in his signature pose, his hand outstretched to the side with his blade close to the dirt. "All women are queens!" He proclaimed, watching as Shuri realised what he was doing.

"If she breathes, she's a thot!" She declared, sprinting towards him at the same time he stood up. Their roles had switched and they exclaimed their ideologies as their blades collided with few intervals, swooshing and creating bursts of light with each clang!

Moving swiftly to avoid Shuri's blades hitting him, he raised his lightsaber above his head just as Shuri swing down and tried to land the killing blow.

His eyes widened as she disarmed him, her blade at his neck as she smirked. He dropped to the dirt, rolling along the floor to reach his lightsaber. Coiling like a spring, he threw himself upwards as his hand latched around his lightsaber handle.

Spidey-sense buzzing at the back of his head, he rolled away before jumping above Shuri's lightsaber as it swung towards his face, twisting in the air as he turned on his lightsaber and countered her next strike.

They carried on fighting until Shuri cleverly unbalanced him by kicking his feet out from under him before pinning him to the ground with her lightsaber to his throat.

"Do you accept defeat, oh noble Jedi?" She asked, confidence oozing from her tone.

He sighed, flopping onto the sun-warmed ground as he panted. "I accept defeat."

His adrenaline faded away as Shuri sat next to him, his heart thundering in his ears as he listened to her chuckle about his surprise when she unsheathed her double-bladed lightsaber.

"It was as if you were a deer caught in the headlights," she laughed, leaning on her elbows as her heart rate calmed to an acceptable level.

"It was so unexpected though!" He exclaimed. "I was completely caught off guard."

"You fought valiantly for someone who hasn't fought in many lightsaber fights."

"Oh no, I've fought in many with Ned – my best friend. He bought me a lightsaber for Christmas."

"What colour was it?"

"Blue. Why?"

She hummed thoughtfully before replying. "Blue means justice and protection. He knows you are Spider-Man, yes?" He nodded. "It's very thoughtful. I can see why since all I've seen Spider-Man do is save anyone and everyone, even if it was only in the media. I don't know what the Daily Bugle is talking about when they criticise you."

"You read the Daily Bugle?" He asked, his eyebrow furrowing as he tried to work out why she would read a foreign –and pretty shit- newspaper. All JJJ did on there was exploit any mistake he made and embellish it to the point it would take up a whole page.

"Only when I did my research on you, though I didn't believe anything he wrote. The Daily Bugle doesn't have a good reputation anywhere." He huffed at that. "How can you stand it?"

He hesitated before replying. "Well, when life gives you lemons." He shrugged, smiling when Shuri recognised the Vine before continuing. "But seriously, he's like an annoying fly. I can swat him away but I'll still hear him. All I can do is keep my identity a secret so he doesn't find anything relevant to throw at me."

He couldn't let people find out his identity like last time. Hell, he needed to sort out some loose ends like Beck. He was probably somewhere in America plotting his revenge against Tony and Peter needed to find him to prevent what happened last time from happening again. The whole reason JJJ had found out his identity was because on of Beck's henchmen had a whole video file from the bridge.

As long as he prevented Tony from dying during Thanos's attacks, the future wouldn't be in such a perilous position. The world needed its reassurance that there were still heroes left.

...but what if it didn't? What if it needed the reassurance that there were new heroes around? Tony wouldn't be around forever and he would want to step down at some point, especially if he wanted a family.

He would want Morgan to be part of his and Pepper's life and finally have a well-deserved rest. Maybe the world needed to be told the original Avengers would retire at some point and rest. They deserved it after the multiple disasters over the past few years.

"That's probably for the best," Shuri said as she stretched her arms out before standing up and offering him a hand. "Ready to duel again?"

He grinned. "Of course."

After a few more lightsaber battles -the total had reached 3 to Shuri, 2 to him- they had both sat in the shade and drank from their water bottles as some figures approached the Dora Milaje training grounds.

The sun had lowered considerably and covered the land in orange sunbeams as the figures approached, their shadows lengthening as they crossed over the dirt. Tony had put on a different pair of sunglasses and had changed into a lighter t-shirt with a different rock band on it and stood next to T'Challa whilst Okoye looked at him and Shuri amusedly.

It must have been a weird sight. A random boy who had entered the nation a few hours ago sitting next to royalty. He could see why it was amusing.

"I see you finally found someone to have duels with," T'Challa chuckled, gesturing to the discarded lightsabers a yard away from them.

Shuri smiled, pleased with herself and presumably how the afternoon went. "That and the fact he understands my jokes that you begged mother to provide a translator for at one point."

"I was in dire need of one."

"Ah, you are not cultured in the way of memes," she said dramatically, daintily placing her hand against her forehead before chuckling.

He met Tony's eyes as the siblings continued to banter, giving him a subtle thumbs up when Tony gave him a questioning smile to ask how everything had gone.

"Well, dinner is soon and I believe our guests must be hungry by now." He blushed when his stomach rumbled at T'Challa's subtle reminder that he hadn't eaten since the plane and needed something with how much activity he had been doing over the past few hours.

"Y-yeah," he chuckled, blushing in embarrassment as Shuri laughed.

He hadn't tried any food since he had arrived but if the rumours from Reddit were true, the food in Wakanda was some of the best cuisine in the world. He could only imagine what he was going to try until he went into the dining hall.

Notes:

What IronDad and SpiderSon interactions do you want in Wakanda? Also Peter and Wanda interactions? I know someone asked for DoctorDad but it's all coming in future chapters I swear!

I'm thinking of doing spin-offs for this series where it's like 'What If..?' so I can experiment like 'what if Ned was in the final battle?' or 'what if Peter snapped with the Infinity stones?'

Opinions?