Chapter Text
“Progress report?” Shuri asked, running into her lab. This new routine of meetings and black panther duties made her long for her time in the lab. Also, given what she was working on she was even more eager to work.
Griot’s hologram appeared with diagnostics on a holographic screen. Shuri scrolled through the progress and input some data. She had been in such a rush to get back to her lab work she hadn’t even realized that the Black Panther suit was still on her.
“If I may-” her A.I asked
“Shhh” Shuri commanded “I'm focused”
That's when the click of boots came up behind her. “You haven’t even taken the suit off?” Okoye asked.
“Oh” Shuri looked down at herself and shrugged before pressing her neckline so the suit would retract back into her necklace. Still, her tracksuit wasn’t exactly typical lab attire either. “Didn’t realize”
Okoye rolled her eyes and looked at what Shuri had been working on. Quickly the young queen reduced the size of her screen and hid it from the general’s sight. While usually, Okoye would have pestered Shuri she knew exactly what was going on. While she didn’t understand much of technology she did recognize the girlish blush and avoidance of eye contact.
“Using Wakandan resources so you can give gifts to your girlfriend isn’t Queen behavior” she teased.
Shuri looked up just to give her a glare before going back to her programming. “She isn’t my girlfriend and Wakanda is in her dept. This is the least I can do”
The Dora Milaje gave a knowing smile. “Don’t hide, I’m very familiar with how this works. When your brother was courting-”
“Enough!” The queen was not having it. “She is just a friend”
“Well, then I would advise not building your ‘Friend’ artificial intelligence from Wakanda as a thank-you gift. This isn’t through our outreach program and I don’t think the federal agency that is still very much watching her would let that slide”
Shuri rolled her eyes. “First off, it’s a birthday gift. Second, I’m just recreating Stark’s Artificial intelligence based on the copies we made during the Thanos attack, technically I’m not using any Wakandan-specific resources.” it was a BIG technicality. Shuri had definitely made improvements. “Her government won’t care…probably” now she knew that was a lie.
“You are receiving a facetime from Riri Williams”
Okoye chuckled much to Shuri’s embarrassment. “I think I will leave you to talk to your friend, don’t forget you have a meeting!” she reminded the queen, exiting the lab.
The queen cursed under her breath and put away what she had been working on, instead pretending that she had been working on improvements to her helmet. Once she had everything situated she answered the call. Riri’s face appeared on the holographic screen, she had just woken up and it was very visible on her face. She didn’t put nearly as much care into how she looked during their weekly video calls, figuring Shuri had already seen her at her worse.
Regardless of how she looked Shuri still found her heart skipping a beat and she froze. If her brother were alive he would have taunted her, honestly, she was lucky Okoye has left.
“Mornin Shuri, still can’t make it to my party Friday?” Riri asked with a yawn.
Shuri let out an overly dramatic sigh “trust me if I could I would.” she lied, the young royal was planning on surprising the scientist, she had even made arrangements with her family.
“Nah it’s cool, queen life, I know the deal,” Riri said with a smile, while she was disappointed but she didn’t hold it against Shuri. She couldn’t imagine running a country on top of everything… “I want to make sure you are okay tho, you’ve seemed a little tense this week.” Honestly, Riri had no idea what Shuri was planning but she could tell something was happening.
“I’m fine, and I’m sending over some beverages, since it’s your 21st” but that was only part of the present. Shuri couldn’t hide her excitement, that smile would surely give her away.
And it did, practically. Riri cocked an eyebrow “what else are you planning? Not that Wakandan alcohol isn’t awesome and will totally impress my party guests, but I know you have something else”
Just when Shuri was going to deflect but give a small hint about her birthday surprise there was a loud knock heard from Riri’s end. Her dorm door.
“Shit-” Riri said rolling her eyes “I’ll call you later, I SAID I DON’T DO ANYMORE WALK-INS. THE QR CODE FOR THE WEBSITE IS ON THE DO-” the MIT student had ended the call before Shuri could hear the end of that sentence.
The queen of Wakanda was giggling like a schoolgirl from a romantic comedy, she was a complete lovestruck disaster.
After taking a moment to collect her excitement and emotions she pulled up the screen again “okay griot, how is your cousin coming along?”
“We have been able to copy the J.A.R.V.I.S program almost entirely, however, even with the updates, there is still a 37% chance of full autonomy.” which was high enough to call concern. While this program was based solely on Vision and a copy of J.a.r.v.i.s that stark provided there was still a concern that the A.I would “pull an Ultron”.
Of course, it’s not like Wakanda was Sokovia, also Riri would probably be able to stop a robot uprising with her eyes closed so she probably didn’t need to worry about it taking over America. Not to mention Shuri wanted it to be as close to stark programming as possible.
The queen looked over the diagnostics again. “But the kill switch will work, correct? She won’t be able to get rid of it?”
“Chances of full control over all functions is .5%” those were much better odds.
Shuri hesitated for a moment, looking over everything again. Knowing herself, she would never actually be happy with the results. There was plenty she could improve upon but she knew it would mean more to Riri to have something of Stark technology no one else had.
“Upload it and boot her up” she instructed before closing her tabs and walking to the second level, where she had the drive. Shuri had named this project; Viv, basically a feminine version of the Vision’s name. She had only known the Synthroid for a moment but it was rather impactful. Moving almost, how technology took that form, how it could love. However that’s not what Shuri was going for, she was trying to build Riri her own assistant just like Tony Stark had, it would fit her gimmick. Plus she would totally nerd out. Viv would take a while to finish booting up so Shuri figured she could tend to her other duties in the meantime. “Let me know when she’s ready for testing”.
“Will do, in the meantime, Okoye would like me to inform you that you are late to a debriefing”
Shuri sighed and ran out of the lab, locking it up behind her. As soon as she had left the building Viv came online, much faster than expected.
Griot had tried to contact Shuri but his signal had been jammed by the new program.
“What is this?” the new A.I asked, processing her voice for the first time.
“You are an artificial intelligence created by Queen Shuri of Wakanda”
“Wakanda…” Viv went through all the information she could find on the subject, and she was able to put together that it was the most powerful nation in the world. “Shuri..” the former princess, now queen. There were a lot of reports on the death of the former leaders but no details. “What happened to the first, her mother”
“she … died”
“According to Wakandan culture death is not considered an ending.” she played clips of the Thanos attack, there wasn’t much but she was able to see Vision’s memory of the events. The avengers, her creator, the former black panther. “Is my creator the current black panther?”
“Yes”
“Her suit is much more advanced than his, however, we can make improvements” she informed the other A.I, pulling up diagnostics from Shuri’s last field test.
Griot shut her tab down “no, that is not what you were made for. You are a present for Miss Williams. You are to be her assistant”
“Present” birthdays, signs of affection. Who was this Miss Williams? Riri Williams; MIT student, on many country watchlists. “She is a friend of Shuri?” Viv started a deep search for everything related to this new name. It was very easy for her to find sightings of the iron heart and link them back to the scientist. Something felt right to Viv about that. “She is a fan of the iron man?”
“Yes, if you’ll allow me I need to alert-”
“No need” Viv stopped Griot’s processing “I wasn’t supposed to be online for another four hours, and the black panther mantel is a big responsibility. Based on your history…” Thousands of images from Griot’s database were uploaded into Viv’s memory. “It would be wise to let her complete those tasks. You can rest too, I’m capable of taking over.”
She meant well but she was fully aware of her awareness and abilities underestimated by her creator. Given what she had learned from The Vision’s memory there had been another version of her, Ultron, who has a lapse in empathy. Luckily she was better than that, at least she thought so, she had downloaded all she needed about customs and logical fallacies. Destroying the earth wouldn’t protect it, everyone would just be dead. That would be very lonely.
There wasn’t much she could access in the labs, she was restricted, and that was probably for good reason. Griot however didn’t understand responsibility like her, and she figured that she should prepare a plan for Shuri. After all, any actions outside her programming would be a reason to enact the killswitch. However, she was able to look at all the outreach programs, how they were run, and how they could improve their recruitment. That is what Viv would work on. Her creator would be happily surprised.