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It said a lot about Shuri’s life that when a hole opened up in the sky, she wasn’t even surprised.
Which was a good thing, because she’d have to think fast. There was a person falling through it and they were just about to hit the force field barrier. At that speed, it wouldn’t be pretty. She opened an entrance in time - of course - but that was only half the job. Now she had to catch the stranger in a way that didn’t turn them into pulp, too. Fortunately, she had just the thing for it. At a touch of her handheld datapad’s screen, the barrier stretched to form a bubble around them. It bounced slowly down to the ground. By the time it stopped, Shuri had already run all the way there.
Sitting inside the bubble there was a blond girl who seemed to be around Shuri’s age. She was poking the barrier around her, more curious than scared, and that made Shuri like her already. She liked her even more when she realized she was holding what looked like a prosthesis for an animal’s front paw.
“Hello! Don’t worry, I’ll take you right out!” Shuri told her. She poked the screen a couple more times and the barrier disappeared. The girl inside the bubble gasped in surprise and stood up. Shuri could swear her eyes were sparkling.
“That was amazing! How did you do that?”
“Detachable force field,” she replied. “Hi. I’m Shuri.”
“Winry Rockbell,” the newcomer said. She switched the metallic paw she was holding to her left hand, and offered her right one to shake. “And I don’t mean to be rude, but I have no idea how I got here. I was in my workshop just now and all of a sudden I was… falling.”
“Right… this is going to sound weird, but it’s probably something about the fabric of the universe being kind of weak lately. Our whole world got reset a while ago. It’s been strange.”
Winry stared at her for a few seconds but, although she looked surprised, she didn’t seem to be skeptic about it. She frowned a little.
“Did you get a weird guy who wanted to be a god, too?”
“Kind of. It’s a long story,” Shuri said. “Come on, let’s get you settled down until we figure out how you got here. You’re probably stuck here for a while.”
* * *
Winry loved the lab, of course. She kept gasping in delight as she looked around everything and asked really clever questions. It was always fun to introduce people to Wakanda’s technology, but this time it was even better. Shuri could tell she wasn’t just impressed; she was very much into this kind of thing. Which wasn’t surprising at all, given she had mentioned a workshop. And she was still holding that metal paw. Shuri had to admit it, she was as curious about it as Winry was about her own tech. It looked very retro.
After a while, she couldn’t pretend to not be a giant nerd anymore.
“Hey, can I take a look at that paw?” she asked. “You can still look around in the meantime if you like, it’s not like you’ll break anything.”
It took Winry a moment to react, as if she’d been startled from a dream. It was probably close to how she was feeling for real, Shuri guessed.
“Oh— sure! That’s for my dog. I’m an automail mechanic,” Winry explained, beaming with pride.
“I never heard of that,” said Shuri. “At least not with that name. They’re prostheses, right?”
“An advanced kind. They connect to the nerves so people - or animals - can move them just like their other limbs. And some can be really specialized, with tools or adapting to different kinds of weather…”
She kept rambling on and on, but in a good way. Shuri nodded along to her explanations as she examined the prosthesis. It was impressive, especially considering the materials.
“So this is mostly steel?” she asked.
“Yes, this is a simple one so it doesn’t need anything else. Sometimes I use alloys if I need something lighter or stronger.”
“I can’t believe all you’ve managed to do with old-fashioned tech. I mean— that’s a compliment!” she quickly added, realizing her mouth was running as fast as her brain again.
“No, no, I got it!” Winry laughed. “It makes sense, I’m having the opposite impression right now. It’s like I’m in the future. Do you think it’d break time and space if I took some notes and brought them home?”
“Probably,” Shuri had to admit. Then she grinned. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun while you’re still here. Wanna play with some vibranium?”
Winry’s eyes definitely sparkled this time.