Chapter 42: Doom’s Message

T'Challa, his guards, and the Future Foundation walked into a massive room, one filled with many devices, replacement Black Panther costumes, and weapons. There was a gigantic table at the center of it all, one capable of projecting images using small beads of Vibranium. In front of the table, there was a young lady with braided her wrapped in a bun, rewatching something via what looked to be a metallic projection of a person speaking.

Upon entry, T'Challa raised his arms, "This is the war room." He told the Future Foundation, prompting the woman at the table to turn around and face the group, revealing her young face being covered in dotted face paint. She wore traditional, warrior clothing, though her toned arms were showing since she lacked sleeves.

"Ah, if it isn't the Fantastic Four!" The young woman said enthusiastically, approaching the group before giving Sue a hug. "How have you been, Mrs. Richards?" She asked her, smiling over her shoulder.

"I've been great, Shuri. You've been staying out of trouble?" Sue teased, making Shuri laugh as the young lady took a few steps back to marvel at the Future Foundation's new suits. "I'm never in trouble, Mrs. Richards. I see you guys upgraded your costumes, what's it made of?"

Sue turned her head, looking toward Eren before asking him for the name again. "Oh, Eren, what did you call it? Spider..."

"Spider-Matter." Eren declared proudly, approaching the two ladies before introducing himself to Shuri. "I'm Eren, also known as Spider-Man." He told her. "I made Spider-Matter myself."

Shuri smiled, shaking the boy's hand before looking him up and down. "I'm Shuri, T'Challa's sister. You don't strike me as the scientific type." She told him, looking at him rather intensely. "Where are your parents from?" She asked, noticing some of his features seemed familiar to her, yet at the same time, they seemed foreign.

"Uh, America?" He told her with an uncertain tone.

Shuri rolled her eyes, sighing at the boy's unsatisfactory response. "I mean, where are their ancestors from?"

"Oh, you mean like where in Africa?" He asked her. "I don't know... It's not really something we Americans know, typically. I don't even know any of my mom's family members, she never really mentioned any of them."

What Eren said was true, his mother never once mentioned any of her family members. Eren asked a few times, but she told him that she no longer spoke with them due to some disagreements.

Shuri placed her hand on her chin, humming to herself as she thought to herself. "Wanna find out?" She asked him.

"Sure..." He agreed, though he didn't really have much interest in knowing. However, he was still just a little bit curious.

"Come with me." Shuri told him, directing him over to a computer on the opposite side of the room. Everyone else conversed amongst themselves as Shuri and Eren stood beside the terminal, pulling out a pack of cotton swabs. "Open your mouth." Shuri instructed, prompting Eren to reluctantly separate his lips before Shuri quickly swabbed the inside of his cheek.

"Hey!" Spider-Man said, not expecting her to be so aggressive.

Swiftly, the young woman placed the swab inside of the machine, typing away at the keyboard before a progress bar began loading at the center of it. Before long, the progress bar filled, showing a list of things that Eren could not read due to it being in Xhosa, the official language of Wakanda.

Next to each word, there was a percentage. At the top, one of them said 50%, while the others below it were a mixture of random percentages. Shuri laughed, "I knew it!" She said. "I knew, I knew it based on your facial features! You're half Wakandan!"

Eren was surprised, his jaw nearly dropped in disbelief. "I- I am?"

"Brother! Come look, Spiderman in half Wakandan." Shuri called out to T'Challa, spurring the young king to walk over to the screen and look for himself.

"It's Spider-Man." Eren corrected her.

"That's what I said. Spiderman." She repeated.

"No, you're saying Spiderman. It's Spider-Man with a hyphen. Between Spider and Man..." As Eren said this, Shuri looked at him with a weirded-out expression. In her mind, he was just saying the same thing as she, though the difference was massive to the young hero.

"Huh, interesting. Do you have an idea which side of your family it might be?" T'Challa said as he approached the terminal.

"I don't know... My mom's, maybe? I've never met a single family member from her side." Eren admitted, causing both siblings to look at each other.

"Eren, I think your mother was a Wakandan spy." Shuri told him. This revelation sent a jolt through Eren's body.

It all made too much sense. Her never mentioning any family was likely to protect Wakanda from being known by the outside world. She always worked double shifts for the Daily Bugle as an investigative journalist, leaking things before they were even close to being found out. Perhaps those weren't double shifts, but her doing her Wakandan duties. Her death could even be linked to her trying to gather intel for her people, leading to her getting caught up by Fisk.

'Project V!' Eren thought to himself. 'V stands for Vibranium! That's why she was looking into it!'

"I, think you might be right. Her name was Mary Parker, well, her American name... Can you gather any information from that?" Eren asked them, causing the two siblings to look at each other once more.

"We've never heard of that name..." T'Challa said. "Does she know you're here?"

Eren shook his head. "No... She's not alive." He confessed. "She died last year."

"I apologize, Eren." T'Challa told him. "Would you like to know what your mother's birth name?" He asked the boy, immediately getting a response in the form of a nod.

"Shuri, retrace his DNA and find out who his mother was." T'Challa ordered.

"Already on it, Brother." Shuri responded, typing away on the terminal for a few seconds as she began searching through the Wakandan databases. Eventually, she landed on one that was described as a woman, age forty-nine, and under the missing category since November. The file said she didn't have a family, though it was common for Wakandan spies to hide that from their higher-ups.

"That's her..." Eren said sadly, looking at the younger version of his mother's face on the computer screen. When she was sent to America, she was around the same age as him, taking on the role of a college student.

"Manyano N'dungane." T'Challa spoke, looking over his sister's shoulder. "That was your mother's birth name. I'm sorry that you had to find out in this way."

"No, there's no need to apologize. I-" Eren paused, taking in all of the information before clearing his head and putting on an unphased expression. "Thank you, King T'Challa. Princess Shuri. I appreciate you both telling me this." Eren bowed to them, again treating the royal siblings as royalty.

"No need for honorifics, my friend. Your mother would be proud that you have returned to her home in her stead to protect it." T'Challa told him, nearly causing the young man to tear up.

"Right." Spider-Man said, nodding at the king, though something still bothered him. "Why didn't she tell me..." Eren asked.

"It was forbidden and she probably also wanted to protect you. I think she didn't want you to get involved with us or her work. Have you told everyone about your secret, Spider-Man? Perhaps it is the same idea." T'Challa told him, hoping the young man would understand.

"Oh, yeah. I guess it is the same." Eren told the king. 'I guess this is how Harry must feel, the feeling of being lied to.' He thought to himself.

"We can talk more about this later if you'd like. Now is as good of a time as any to debrief everyone on the situation with Doom. Shuri." T'Challa looked at his sister, prompting her to run over to the round table at the center of the room and interact with the terminal connected to it.

Everyone else in the room surrounded the table as an image of a man sitting on a throne projected itself with the small beads made of Vibranium. The man in the chair was wearing a mask, with a hood covering his head. It was Dr. Doom, and this was his message.

"Hello, King T'Challa, it's an honor to finally get the chance to speak to you. I hope this message finds you well." Dr. Doom bowed respectfully from his throne, though it was received to be in a form of mockery by the king.

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"You may call me, Dr. Doom. I am the leader of the nation known as Latveria. You may find yourself confounded as to how I have come to learn of your nation of Wakanda, yes?

I shall spare you the details, merely understand that my knowledge of the planet and my mastership in sorcery are far above your comprehension, my liege.

You and your homeland possess something that I myself must acquire. Your Vibranium.

I will put this simply for you. Surrender your Vibranium, as well as lend me your army, and I will ensure that your nation is spared from the hand of Doom.

If you resist, I will see to it personally that your nation is destroyed by my hand.

I am certain you are thinking to yourself, 'No one man could have the power to destroy the most powerful warrior nation on the planet.' However, my strength is beyond your cognition, King T'Challa.

Fear not, for I will not be bothered to dispatch myself for such a leisurely task. I will rather send my brigade of three thousand Doombots in my stead.

If my army cannot produce sufficient progress in my absence, only then will I grace you with my presence. Only then, will you truly know Doom.

I will reiterate.

Surrender your army and your Vibranium to me. If you fail to do so, my brigade will conquer Wakanda by force.

You have two weeks to respond to this message and fulfill my requests. I anticipate my compassion to be appreciated by you. Best regards, King T'Challa."

The projection ended, causing the Vibranium beads that were taking the shape of the man to fall back down onto the table, however, the terminal began to make a sound, signaling that they had received another message.

"There's another one, Brother." Shuri said, hesitating to even click on it.

"Show me." T'Challa demanded. Doing as her brother wished, Shuri activated the message, prompting the beads to take the shape of Dr. Doom once more.

"And Reed..."

Dr. Doom saying the scientist's name struck a nerve. Doom knew Mr. Fantastic would show up in Wakanda, he was certain of it and was using this to further display just how advanced the sorcerer was.

"Tell little Valeria that Uncle Doom gives his regards." Dr. Doom chuckled behind his mask and the projection ended once more, leaving the room silent.

Eren was stunned, immediately understanding that this man was something far greater than any enemy he had ever faced. 'This guy is insane.' The hero thought to himself. 'How did he know Reed would be here? What does he mean by Uncle Doom?'

Eren looked over at Reed and could visibly see that he was upset, the man was shaking due to his anger. He got played, being sent her was all part of Doom's plan, but he wondered why.

"What did he mean by Uncle Doom? Is he your brother or something?" Eren asked the Future Foundation's leader, getting a frustrated head shake in response.

"No. He's... he was a close family friend, at least that's what he pretended to be. Damn it!" Reed could barely speak, he was fuming due to the fact that he could just imagine his lifelong rival chuckling to himself that he outsmarted Reed Richards this time.

Seeing her husband was frustrated, Sue spoke in his stead. "Victor helped me give birth to Valeria. We both would have died if it wasn't for his sorcery, but he said he'd only help us under one condition... if he got to name our daughter." Sue seemed disgusted by this fact, allowing such a man to do something as sacred as naming their daughter.

"He did it out of spite. Just so he could tell me that he named my daughter." Reed told him, still appearing visually upset.

"We had no choice." Sue added. "So he helped me give birth to Valeria and now he calls himself her uncle, despite them not having any blood relation. We shouldn't have left the kids alone, Reed. What if Victor wants to..." Sue thought about her children, her motherly instincts telling her that they needed her help.

"We can't just bring them here... Damn it." Richard muttered quietly.

"I think they'd be safer if they were here with us, personally." Johnny added. "He won't touch my niece and nephew while I'm here, I promise you that."

"I agree with Johnny. For once." The Thing agreed.

"If anything, I can take them far away from here with my speed." Eren suggested.

Reed sighed. "What if that's all part of Victor's plan? Bringing the kids here? What if he said what he said about Valeria to draw them here? He's playing a multilayered game here."

"This isn't a game, Reed! It's our kids! Our babies are home alone right now! Defenseless against anyone who might come for them!" Sue screamed at her husband passionately, in disbelief that he would even talk about the situation in such a way.

"They aren't alone. They have H.U.B.E.R.T. with them." Reed said calmly, though his calmness did nothing but infuriate his wife.

"Yeah? Your bargain bin Ultron is going to protect our kids from that man!? You heard what he said, we have no clue what he's truly capable of!" Sue screamed. Everyone in the room was dead silent, none of them had seen Sue this heated before.

"First off, H.U.B.E.R.T. is far superior to Stark's Ultron-" Reed defended his creation, generating an eye roll and face-palm from almost everyone in the room.

"Oh!? Sorry, I forgot H.U.B.E.R.T. being properly described is what's important right now!" Sue yelled over her husband. "This is exactly why we broke up all those years ago. All you cared about were your inventions and one-upping Victor! Get your head out of your ass and be a father!"

'Jesus...' Eren thought to himself, never having imagined Sue talking to her husband like that. She was usually so calm, collected, and sweet. It was as if all of the anger inside of her that built up over the years was being unleashed.

Reed was stunned, his wife bringing up his past self struck a nerve inside of him. 'Am I really being a bad father? Am I once again putting this foolish rivalry in between those I love again?' He thought.

Reluctantly, despite what he thought was best, he decided to agree with his wife. "You're right Sue. I'm sorry. T'Challa, is there somewhere safe for my kids to stay?" Reed asked.

"We have a Vibranium bunker for situations like this. They can hide there with my people when the time comes." T'Challa informed him.

"Okay, I'll take the ship back to the Baxter building and pick them up. I'll be back soon." As Reed said this, one of the warrior women walked in, slamming her pike on the ground to make her presence known.

"That won't be necessary." The woman said, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Pardon my intrusion, my king, but I believe these belong to your guests." Just as those words left her mouth, two more warrior women walked in with the Richards kids, both having guilty looks on their faces.

The two kids looked at each other before Franklin was quick to rat out his sister.

"Valeria made me do it!"

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