Spider Man: Duty And Loss - Chapter 105

The first thing Peter saw when he opened his eyes was the silver lining that rimmed his lenses. A small holographic readout appeared in the corner of his eye as a marker with Shuri’s name popped up for a second before disappearing. His eyes shifted to her form for a second before moving back to the mirror.

He focused a bit more on the lenses and was surprised when his lenses also seemed to narrow. ‘Photo lenses which readjust?’ The thought popped into his head as he looked at the mask that covered his face.

Like he already noticed his eyes were the usual white, but silver rimmed instead of black. The silver blended into black as it connected to the other lines that traveled the rest of the mask, connecting to the rest of his body.

What Peter found weird as he traced the lines that ran his body was the fact they were depressed in the suit as if engraved on it or more like an indent throughout it. This was a major change from the usual pronounced lines that framed the suit and stood out from it.

Looking at the web pattern for a few more seconds Peter took in a few of the other changed details he could see at first glance. No big changes could be seen from his past mask other than the facts stated before.

The mask ran down to a slightly more pronounced neck line, which Peter realized was where his new necklace would have sat. Following the line down, it curved perfectly to the center of his chest where the previous spider pendant had become the new symbol in the middle of his chest.

The color seemed to have bled out of the pendant leaving it blackish silver and unlike the rest of the web pattern, stood out from his body. Moving down from the neck line was a more advanced design of his previous suit. Still containing the Red and Blue design of the past, the red dominated the middle of his chest and his arms, running down his forearm to his hands, while the underside of his arms kept the blue pattern. Leading from his chest, the red color went all the way down to his waist before turning blue for his pants leading down to his feet before it turned red once again for his boots.

Though red dominated the center of his chest region, blue dominated his obliques and the underside of his arms causing Peter to smile. It was the exact same color pallet from his old suit. Unlike the old suit the materials that made up his new one were obviously better.

Gone was the homemade feel that came with cheaper fabrics and now Peter marveled at the intricate way the, what he assumed was vibranium, weaved together on himself. The suit while looking more metallic and sleeker somehow didn’t look too high tech.

If he were to say it, Peter thought it looked like mesh or Kevlar that covered his body instead of what he guessed was some type of liquid metal. It did solidify in places such as his forearms producing a more solid look, but the rest looked soft to the touch.

These places included his boots and gloves looking more solid and a separate part of the suit while still keeping an air tight connection, as well as a sort of belt that went around his waist. Peter could just feel the small bumps on his wrist that denoted the fact it already incorporated web shooter which slightly surprised him. ‘Well I guess Shuri and Crystal would have thought of everything.’

Looking a bit closer with his eyes, he noticed around the chest area the same ancient Wakandan symbols he saw on the pendant but spread out. They were very small but still noticeable as they weaved around his body.

Peter gripped his fingers once or twice as he felt the new suit on his body. Surprisingly he could still feel the grip of his hand, something that was muffled in his old suit, but he had made due as he couldn’t make the material thinner.

But with the new suit, he felt none of that; it was almost as if he didn’t have gloves on at all. ‘Was it a transferred feeling or is the suit thin in the soles of the feet and hands?’ Peter finally stopped looking at himself and turned to Shuri, who hadn’t said a word yet.

The two looked at each other for a few seconds, Peter not finding the words to express what he was feeling at that second. Finally he just shook his head and gave a small smile as he looked at her. “Ok then, what did you jam pack into this bad boy?”

Shuri returned a bigger smile as she heard the playfulness in his voice. Motioning for him to turn to the mirror again she stood up next to him and started to speak explaining the features of the suit. “Well this bad boy as you put it is called the Wakandan Spider-S. S for Shuri of course. Not as original as I would like, but I thought we could think of a better name later.”

Peter returned her smile and nodded his head as she went on. “First of Crystal if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to speak to him face to face. “Peter’s eyes raised slightly as the read out he was suddenly reading disappeared before his very eyes and he watched as his mask seemed to turn into dust and travel down his body, moving to rest inside the pendant on his chest.

Shuri gave a small smirk at the surprised expression on his face before he schooled his features. “If you couldn’t tell already I made this bad boy out of bleeding edge technology, even in Wakandan standards. Sure we have Nano tech but this stuff is Vibranium Nano tech. What you just saw were millions of Nano-bots disassembling and returning back to their charging base. Aka, the Pendant.”

Peter looked down at the pendant on his chest as he watched the last of the dust disappear. “To create the Vibranium Nano tech was harder than I would have liked. As with Adamantium, to create such minuscule processors and programming with just vibranium was particularly impossible, even with our resources. It takes forever to make them, I’ve only been able to produce enough to get your suit ready and one for my brother, though I been trying to upgrade them so my brothers suit isn’t done yet.”

Shuri motioned to the necklace on the Black Panther mannequin behind them. “Though yours won’t have everything that I’m working on right now, it still has more than enough of the basic functions and perks. First off…”

She trailed off for a second as she walked over to the side to pick up a small steel dagger, that for the life of him Peter had no clue how he missed it and before he could do anything she had already walked back over and stabbed him with said dagger.

Peter thought to move out of the way, but his spider sense didn’t go off so he watched to see what would happen. On contact with his side the dagger stopped in place and didn’t move. Though it didn’t break Peter could just catch some damage to the tip of the blade. If Shuri were to continue stabbing him the tip would easily break.

“Being made completely of vibranium, the suit is practically indestructible. As you know vibranium absorbs kinetic energy as it comes into contact with it and is strong in and of itself, this means that bullets, explosions, knives, swords. Most of all of them won’t do any damage to you. The only thing that could possible damage this suit would be Adamantium or other Vibranium based weapons…but Wakanda is the only one with weapons like that.”

Peter gave a small nod as his fingers brushed over where he had been stabbed. He felt nothing from the action and there was no scratch to the suit. “Moving on.” Shuri put the dagger away as she pulled up a holo-screen in front of herself.

“Because of the Nano-bots programming, something both Crystal and I worked on, you could potentially with enough of them create other construct while using the suit, so long as the design and inner workings of whatever you create is done properly, but I wouldn’t suggest doing that.”

She pulled a small hologram of the necklace up for Peter to look at. “I was a bit restricted with the size of the pendant and necklace. I put as many Nano-bots as I could in the links of the necklace and chucked a ton of them into the pendant, aka why its a bit heavier than usual, though that shouldn’t matter much. What does matter is the fact that I only had enough to cover your mass as well as a bit for self repair.”

She held up her hand as she flipped the screen for Peter to see clearly. “If and I mean IF, someone was to damage the suit all the effected Nano-bots would basically be destroyed and cannot be replaced. The system will then take from the existing reserves to repair itself. Of course afterwards you would have to come back here to get some new ones….But as I said it shouldn’t really ever get damaged.”

Peter nodded his head as he looked at the screen. His eyes drifted over some of the specs that the Nano-bots possessed. They all came equipped with self sustaining energy sources, something possible with Wakandan technology and vibranium, as well as a secure connection to certain satellites and data ports so that they can receive updates to programming and information collection.

“As you can see, the suit can connect to the internet as well as cross reference all databases that are out there. You can thank Crystal for that, basically it’s a better system than Iron –man’s suit…on that subject…” Shuri trailed off and before Peter knew it his helmet was back on. “…With this connection comes something else you’ll love, but I’ll let her tell you.”

“What?” Not understanding what she was getting at Peter’s voice had just fallen, when a new voice reached his ear. “Well it’s simple Peter, I am now the AI of the suit and will better be able to aid you in your endeavors.”

The bell like voice of Crystal sounded in his ear, startling Peter for a second. But his mind quickly accepted the fact. As Shuri said it was exactly like Iron-Man’s suit and his connection to his own servers. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Shuri and Crystal had implemented such a perk.

Actually Peter was happy about Crystal watching his back, it would just be like using the normal comms device, only better. “Good.” Peter nodded his head while Shuri decided to continue while his mask was still up.

“As long as Crystal is in there I would say you have no worries, about anyone trying to hack the suit to gain access, and you’ll be able to use perks such as facial recognition and all your new Web combos.”

“Web combos?” Crystal decided to speak up and explain instead of Shuri. “After consulting with Shuri and using some of your previously discovered formulas, we have been able to replicate and design Web spinners that can be changed at will by the Nano-bots to address different enemies.”

“Though there are a lot of web types to choose from, there are too many to talk about right now. Just know that web bullets, electric webs, web bombs, web mines and much more will be available. Not just that, the Nano-bots are able to produce many of the chemicals needed for each web so you will no longer have to restock on them.”

“As the webs are able to produce such chemicals and energy by themselves, the suit is almost completely self sustaining other than the replacement of lost Nano-bots.” Peter didn’t know what to say as Crystal stopped talking, His smile wouldn’t go away at this point. They had really gone to the nines for him on this one.

Shuri decided to step in again at this point. “Not only that the Nano-bots are conductive to electricity and can use it as a source of power. Basically if Electro ever attacks you again he’ll be helping you instead of hurting you. They can also be used to replicate the surrounding environment meaning it can turn invisible.”

Shuri held up her hand though as Peter turned to her in excitement. “But the amount of power used in such a state drains the batteries very quickly, meaning it doesn’t last for long periods of time. Like with everything in the suit, everything it does uses power from the Nano-bots, though you technically have excess Nano-bots and they replenish their power given enough time, if used for too long you will run out.”

She turned to a screen for a second to look at a few numbers before turning back. “From estimations if you continuously use excess power for 36 hours straight the Nano-bots will deactivate. Not likely to happen, but something to know about.”

Peter gave a small nod as the mask once again retracted from his face. It made sense that the Nano-bots while self-sustaining couldn’t run over clocked for too much time. But that was of course if they were over clocked. If he were to just wear the suit and walk around the bots would be able to replenish energy at a fast enough rate to stay on indefinitely.

Peter at that moment really wanted to go out for a swing to test the new suit but knew that he couldn’t. As he was lost in his thoughts Shuri spoke up. “There another highlight you should know about. As you should notice, the black web design on your suit seems more link an engraving. I was going to just leave that as an energy pathway for the connected Nano-bots to use when channeling energy, which it still does, but Crystal did bring up a while back that you were once again using subject V.”

Peter furrowed his brows as he looked at the black web pattern “You mean Venom? What did you do?” Venom hearing his name slowly moved its way out of Peter’s body, crawling out of the back side of his neck before resting on his shoulder and looking at Shuri.

Shuri looked at Venom for a few seconds before motioning towards the pattern. “Well it’s simple actually. I made it like that so that Venom could integrate with the suit.” Peter’s eyes truly rose at those words. He looked down at venom for a second and they both shared a look, before he gave a small nod.

With the nod Venom began to slowly sink into his shoulder, not like he usually did though. Instead of sinking into Peters body Venom began to run down and through the web pattern that covered the suit, slowly but surely filling out the entire suit.

With Venom resting comfortably in the lines of the suit, instead of engravings as they once looked, the suit now looked like it should have, the web pattern standing out from the suit. If a person where to look at the suit now they would think it was just a more advanced version of the original, except if they looked closer they would see that the black lines that ran down Spider-Man’s body like a web, now slightly wriggled and moved about.

Shuri nodded her head as she watched Venom get comfortable in the suit before pulling up a new screen to her right. “I put in sensors to monitor Venom while he’s in the suit, something you can look at when you have your mask on. Not only that…Crystal.”

No words were said but ever so slowly a small clear layer of material covered Venom, practically trapping venom to the web like lines. Venom didn’t struggle from the sudden confinement, he actually seemed to relax and stop moving once the tubing completely covered him.

Something seemed to change in the suit for a second, before Peter suddenly felt the inrush of power that Venom usually gave him when the two were connected, when he was in the black suit. Peter’s eyes widened at the rush of power before he looked down at Venom, before over at Shuri. “What just happened?” Shuri looked down at her screen for a few seconds before a small smile came to her lips. “It worked in the end then.”

“What worked?” Peter asked the question as he looked back at the mirror. He gripped his hand once or twice as he felt his new power and looked at the suit. The web like lines seemed to glow a small black color underlining their new power as Venom rested inside.

Shuri walked to his side as she explained. “When I found out you were going to be using Venom again, Crystal and I had to come up with a way for Venom to still power you up while not covering the suit or your body underneath the suit. It just wouldn’t work.”

Shuri pulled up a new screen with the suit displayed along with certain points that were highlighted on Peters body. “The general design is basic. To make it easier we’ll call the web pattern on the suit VT or Venom tubing. As the VT covers your whole body while in the suit, certain points in the VT directly connect to your body, directly connecting to it instead of sitting over it.”

The screen changed once again to focus on the VT. “The VT encases Venom and if allowed, connects Venom directly to your body, giving you your usual power ups.” The image of the VT changed to show a few different specs and numbers up close as Peter read the information.

“Crystal as the AI of the suit controls the Nano-bots connecting and disconnecting Venom and yourself. This is a safety precaution encase something like in the past happens.” Shuri gave Peter a stern look that he could say nothing to. He knew exactly what she was talking about, though he was beginning to trust venom again, it wasn’t a bad idea after thinking of their strained past.

“I still don’t fully trust Venom yet and neither does Crystal. Even if I did, I would still put in these safety measures to make sure you’re safe. If at any time Crystal thinks you’re being negatively affected by it, she will immediately cut your connection and lock your body down as well as Venom.”

Her eyes held a new seriousness that screamed her inner worries for his well being. She held his eyes until he gave a small nod of understanding before she continued. “The VT won’t just house Venom, it will also protect him. The clear film or tubing that encases him is completely fire and sound proof getting rid of his only weaknesses from what I’ve been told. I’ve actually been working on something similar for my brothers suit, an absorption and redirection of kinetic energy and sound vibrations, but I haven’t got some of the calculations and test done yet…maybe you would like to help me?”

Peter turned to look at Shuri and nodded without hesitation, he loved to work on new problems and scientific wonders. To work with Shuri on vibranium would be a dream come true. He also loved a challenge. Shuri gave a bright smile at the confirmation. “Crystal if you would.” Peter suddenly felt an influx of strength from Venom, his power didn’t double, but he defiantly felt strong, faster. “What just happened?” Shuri shook her head in amus.e.m.e.nt before answering.

“As I said before the Nano-Bots can create a multitude of chemicals given enough time, after reading the file on Venom all I programmed them to do was create an excess of phenylethylamine when instructed. This is of course the chemical found in a humans brain as well as chocolate, and something I hear Venom loves to eat. Basically we are flooding Venom with his favorite food which should make him produce more energy like any other biological organism, aka increasing your strength, speed, reactions gained from the Symbiote.”

She looked at a few of the numbers on the screen while continuing. “I wasn’t sure if it would work, but either way you can keep him fed and happy.” ‘I like her.’ Venom’s content voice rang in Peters head before turning quiet again.

“That’s about everything I had to mention. There are a few smaller things you can find out as you use the suit and Crystal will tell you the rest…but there was one last important thing…” Peter turned back to Shuri with a raised eyebrow.

What else could there be?! Peter was a bit overwhelmed with everything that had happened so far and the last thing he was expecting was for Shuri to pull him into another hug. Her hands wrapped around his body and she spoke quietly.

“Happy Birthday Peter.”

Peter held her close as his emotions rose up, it had been a long time since someone had celebrated his birthday…not since Aunt May.

He held her close so she wouldn’t see the tears beginning to build in his eyes.