Tony was eager to uncover the secrets of Wakanda; it was a place of mystery and deep contradictions.
After the truth had first been exposed by Arthuria, countless eyes had turned to it, and despite seeing nothing strange at first, it didn't take long before cracks appeared in the carefully maintained illusion.
People had plenty of time on their hands. Many had lost their jobs due to the financial crisis and the events surrounding Arthuria's conquest of England, and now they sat at home waiting for replies to job offers.
And with this time on their hands, some of them decided to dig into the rumor about Wakanda. After all, everyone was paying a lot of attention to Arthuria and her every word and action.
So while some people cared more about the mutant issue, others looked to the heart of Africa.
And using nothing more than publicly available information, they showed the world just how powerful that random, chaotic mess of data could be in the hands of those who knew how to use it.
Strange inconsistencies were found—numbers that didn't match, odd appearances and disappearances on satellite images. Small things on their own, but many such examples were uncovered, and together with Arthuria's words, more people began to take interest in the situation.
And that, in turn, found more evidence of something going on, which finally culminated in Wakanda itself admitting the truth.
They showed off the real Wakanda: where people spent a few weeks living in small mud huts before returning to air-conditioned apartments with all the amenities—treating the rough life of some African people like a part-time job.
They had flying vehicles that made even SHIELD's most advanced quinjets look like old relics, yet also included real rhinos in their military.
They had super-advanced treatments for cancer, yet the military used spears and shields.
There were many such strange contradictions—places where their choices made no sense—and that was only within what they themselves admitted about themselves.
And now that Tony had seen the place, he had to admit he'd seen these strange things too. Even the royal guards carried spears.
Surely there were better weapons to use, right?
It was one thing for Arthuria and her knights to use swords and other cold weapons; after all, they were immensely powerful—and Asgard as well. Those weren't human at all. Monsters merely looking like humans.
But surely the Wakandans weren't that strong too, right?
He looked once more at the guards escorting them along. The many sensors in his glasses scanned them, yet all he got back was a totally normal human.
Which was entirely different from Arthuria and her knights, and the Asgardians. Arthuria couldn't be scanned at all, and her knights seemed like pure energy to his best attempts at scanning them.
The Asgardians, too, were completely different from humans; both their internals and their energy readings were completely off.
So far, only Prince T'Challa seemed to be enhanced, and it was a minor enhancement on Steve's level—far from enough to justify using cold weapons.
Yes, it was a strange place, but that didn't mean Tony wasn't interested. Their technology, no matter how strangely they decided to use it, was very impressive.
The escort finally stopped inside what Tony could only describe as a cathedral built for engineers.
The space was vast, circular, and layered vertically rather than horizontally. Platforms hovered at staggered heights, connected by translucent bridges that shifted position as people moved. Walls doubled as displays, equations, and schematics blooming and fading in response to unseen inputs. The air itself hummed with energy and machinery.
Tony's HUD went wild.
And then it froze.
"…That's rude," Tony muttered, tapping the side of his glasses.
"Your sensors won't work in here," a voice said calmly.
Tony looked up.
She stood on a raised platform, hands clasped behind her back like she was waiting for a class to arrive. Slim, young, dressed in functional Wakandan techwear with no ornamentation whatsoever. Dark eyes, sharp and curious, flicked over the group in a single, efficient scan.
Tony wasn't someone easily defeated, and with a few more taps against the side of his glasses, he forced his way past the block and scanned the child standing before them.
"Shuri," he said aloud, reading as the data streamed in. "No last name listed. Fourteen. Classified as a prodigy. Didn't follow your brother to Oxford."
He tilted his head slightly, eyes flicking back up to her face.
"Interesting choice."
Shuri stiffened.
Her confidence didn't shatter—but it cracked. Just slightly.
"You shouldn't be able to do that," she said coolly.
Tony smiled.
"Kid," he replied, "if 'shouldn't' had stopped me, I'd have died in that cave years ago."
Shuri's jaw tightened—but she didn't snap back.
That, more than anything else, impressed Tony.
Instead, she turned and flicked her wrist.
The room responded instantly.
Holograms surged outward—not broad city models this time, but tight, focused schematics. Crystalline lattice structures unfolded in layered detail, vibranium matrices rotating slowly in midair.
"Your glasses bypassed my perimeter filters," she said evenly. "That is on me."
She glanced back at him.
"But if you think that means you understand Wakandan systems, you're wrong."
Reed leaned forward despite himself.
"That lattice configuration…" he murmured. "That's not a simple alloy matrix."
"It isn't an alloy at all," Shuri replied. "Vibranium is a metamaterial. It absorbs energy, yes—but more importantly, it redistributes intent."
Tony blinked.
"…Intent isn't a unit of measurement."
"It is here," she shot back.
Doom's head tilted slightly.
"Explain."
Shuri inhaled once, steadying herself.
"Vibranium doesn't just absorb kinetic or thermal input," she continued. "It responds to applied force by reorganizing at a sub-molecular level. The material anticipates stress vectors before they fully manifest."
She looked directly at Tony now.
"You build systems that react faster than humans," she said. "We build materials that react faster than physics."
The room went quiet.
Tony didn't grin.
He didn't interrupt.
He simply stared at the lattice, mind racing.
"…Okay," he said finally. "That's cute."
Shuri bristled.
"But," Tony added immediately, eyes still locked on the projection, "it isn't nearly as impressive as you make it out to be. This isn't magic; it's material science."
"I admit it is good," Reed spoke up as he continued reading the data presented before them. It reminded him of his own unstable molecule fabric. "You have the raw vibranium in a fully energy-dead state, which makes it neutral to energy input, removing blocks and weaknesses."
"A sub-material," Doom added, "useful for wires and fabrics, but lacking strength."
Shuri stared at the projections in silence.
For a long moment, she said nothing.
Tony watched her, then couldn't hold himself back. "Aren't you supposed to be in school anyway?" he asked mockingly.
Shuri's eyes narrowed.
"Unlike you," she shot back, "I didn't need to waste my time in school to learn how to actually invent."
Reed winced slightly.
Tony's smile vanished.
"Oh," he said softly. "Now you've done it."
Shuri didn't look away.
"Your work is impressive—for someone who had to learn in public," she said coolly. "But you're still bound by what you think is possible."
She turned her palm upward.
A new hologram bloomed—this one smaller, denser, a lattice interwoven with kinetic filaments.
"This is Kimoyo fiber," she said quietly. "It can conduct energy, replicate data, and reconfigure its physical properties on command."
She looked at Tony.
"It's also woven into my brother's suit."
She looked at Doom.
"And it can be layered in nanostrata to resist magical interference."
She looked at Reed.
"And its tensile strength exceeds any synthetic material you've ever synthesized."
She looked at all three of them.
"And I designed it when I was twelve."
Silence.
Shuri let it hang for exactly three seconds.
But the smirk on her lips quickly faded as she found herself ignored. The three men were far more interested in the projections before them. They weren't looking at her, but at the design presented.
"You made a mistake," Doom spoke first, pointing to one section of the projection. "You clearly have no idea about magic at all. This would do nothing."
Shuri blinked.
She looked where he was pointing, back at the projection, then at him.
"…How would you know that?"
Doom glanced at her.
"Because I am a master of both science and magic," he replied flatly. "And this design is amateurish."
Reed was already moving, stretching one arm across the space to touch a different part of the lattice.
"It isn't bad; it's quite ingenious, in fact," he said thoughtfully. "But it's clearly derivative work based on existing theories I published years ago, utilizing the properties of vibranium." He added, looking at Shuri. "Still, your adaptation is… interesting."
Tony stayed silent, head tilted as he watched the equations flicker at the edges of the projection.
Then he stepped forward.
"It's not the nanostrata that's interesting," he said. "It's the power source."
He pointed to a tiny, pulsing node embedded at the lattice's core.
"A battery," he said, "but one made purely of vibranium—and charged from kinetic energy. Meaning a suit of it could be charged just by wearing it."
Honestly, all three of them were shocked that Shuri would so openly show off all the key technologies she had invented like that.
Personally, Tony believed it was because she didn't think they would understand it anyway. He'd seen it before—the result of being the smartest person around. You just didn't expect anyone else to keep up.
Shuri stood very still.
This was not at all what she had expected. She had wanted to show her superiority before these men—to show that she was the smartest person in the world. That even at a third of their age, she was better.
That Wakandan technology was better.
Her technology was better.
Yet here they were, picking apart her life's work as if it were a child's school project.
It was insulting.
Doom pointed out another flaw in the magical shielding. Reed commented on a potential inefficiency in the energy redistribution loop. Tony, after a long, silent pause, simply said:
"Cute."
That was it.
One word.
And it hurt worse than all the technical critiques combined.
"Look," Shuri finally snapped, "you're guests here. Maybe you should act like it."
Tony blinked at her.
"Kid," he said slowly, "if I acted like a guest, I wouldn't have learned anything."
He gestured at the lattice.
"You're brilliant. No doubt. But you've been raised in an echo chamber. You think because you're the smartest person in Wakanda, you're the smartest person on Earth."
He leaned in.
"You're not."
Shuri's face tightened.
Doom crossed his arms.
"Arrogant child," he said. "Your isolation has made you weak."
Reed, for once, didn't intervene.
Instead, he studied Shuri's face.
"What do you hope to accomplish here?" he asked quietly. "Why show us this at all?"
Shuri's jaw worked.
"Because I want to prove Wakanda doesn't need anyone," she said, voice trembling slightly with frustration. "That we're not some backward village stuck in the past."
"Hold it there, girl," Tony said. "We know Wakanda isn't some backward third-world country. We are here to see what Wakanda has—what you really are."
Tony's words hung in the air.
For a long moment, Shuri said nothing.
Then she exhaled.
Slowly.
"Fine," she said at last.
Shuri straightened, hands folding behind her back again—not stiff this time, but composed.
"I wanted to impress you," she admitted. "I wanted to show you that Wakanda didn't need approval from outsiders. That we didn't need saving. Or teaching."
She looked at the lattice one last time, then waved it away. The hologram dissolved into motes of light.
"That was a mistake," she continued. "Not because I was wrong—but because I framed it like a competition."
Reed nodded once, approving.
Doom said nothing.
Tony's expression softened—just a fraction.
"You're not wrong about one thing," Shuri went on. "Wakandan technology is different. Based on vibranium."
Shuri hesitated—just for a heartbeat—then turned.
"Come," she said, already walking toward one of the hovering bridges. "If you want to understand Wakandan technology, not as weapons or miracles, but as systems… then I'll show you properly."
The bridge shifted into place beneath her feet.
"No posturing," she added over her shoulder. "No demonstrations for effect. Just what we built. Why we built it. And where it still fails."
Tony glanced at Reed.
"Did the fourteen-year-old just invite us to a peer review?"
Reed's smile widened.
"It appears so."
Doom followed without comment.
Tony stepped onto the bridge last, hands in his pockets, eyes already scanning the next chamber beyond.
"Alright, Princess," he said. "Show us what Wakanda actually does with all that vibranium."
Shuri didn't look back.