PART 1 - Chapter 9 - Presenting, the Bombastic Bumblebee!
Where a suit doesn't make the man, it's the Spider in the Man that does.
It always felt amazing to create new tech.
Also, frustrating and infuriating.
But after eight days, his body had fully recovered, his reputation had been spread as the best beginner's luck in Poker ever (the three signed I.O.U. papers in his wallet as further evidence) and his next suit had been finally completed!
Peter had first thought about nanotechnology, maybe miniscule machines that he could program to become a suit, perhaps kept stored in a portable unit for ease, watch or belt perhaps.
He quickly crossed that out, since, as it was in his native Earth, this kind of tech was still way too difficult and expensive to obtain in this world.
Programmable matter had been something he had read about, some months before, and it showed great potential, smaller units that could expand and cover his body, smaller parts becoming interconnected, light as clothes, tough as armor.
That also had to be rejected. If he had access to that kind of tech, yes, maybe he could figure it out himself, but making it from scratch? Peter could admit he was good with technology, but he was no Hank Pym.
Eventually, Peter had finally struck gold with the third idea, by replicating the WayneTech' tear resistant fabric he had used to improve his suit, inserting a graphene core into the fabric, then doubling the layers and adding, between them, a ultra light carbon fiber weave that held the improved malleable circuitry in place.
That had been the beginning of what Peter started calling the 'NG Suit', next-generation thinking with the next-generation materials.
Also, because he had always been proud of being a major nerd.
Ted Kord had shown up at the labs on the fifth day of Peter's self-imposed isolation, coming to check on several projects. Peter promptly presented him a new highly protective fabric that Kord Industries could sell to racing car companies and competitive bikers or whoever wanted a material as soft as a blanket and as tough as hard plastic.
Said highly protective fabric - which he labeled Mesh of Multiple Malleable Material, or M4 - had been based on a far inferior prototype of the advanced material that he would be wearing himself, but would still be a darn good product to be sold as personal protection equipment.
Day seven came, and Peter had what he could call a solid foundation for the NG suit. The time came for the industrial 3D printer and textile fabricator, that Ted Kord had gotten him after approving the M4 for tests, to be put to use and help making the suit come into reality.
Twenty hours later, the NG suit was complete - a full body black ensemble, something that not fondly reminded him of a certain symbiotic problem he had experienced, with new white mechanically movable lenses already in place. But that was okay, the chassis and the inner workings were complete, now, it was time to decide how to paint this 'hot rod'.
Peter pressed the sleeve in his hand, stretching the material while waiting for the… spark.
'Red arms? Blue arms… Red torso, red shoulders, web pattern all over it, gotta keep the classic look.'
Several parts of the suit had either been reinforced with extra layers of carbon fiber, with special attention to the large spiders on his chest and back, while others had been fitted with more malleable alternatives, allowing him movement without compromising protection.
'Pants… blue. bright blue, as before, and the belt…', he took a peek at the dismantled acoustic-manipulator and sighed. 'Still a work in progress. Will keep the previous under belt design, for now.'
Gone were the 'boots', though.
Now, the pants were a single long design, reinforced knee pads added for a more athletic look, with the feet being protected by small plate-like portions that would help absorb the impact on his feet while not impeding his sticking-to-object abilities.
Also, they looked like armored cross-training sneakers and Peter could not object to the aesthetics, therefore, they were going to be white.
'And they will keep white for a long time, thanks to my Transparent Repellant Coating, the next amazing product to come out from my labs and straight to Kord Industries' R&D, to be unveiled probably next week or whenever Ted Kord decides to show up unannounced again. Since I mastered making adhesives, the next logical step would have to be protecting materials from the most common sticking substances, such as oil, water, dust and many other nasty stuff out there.'
Next, the new pair of web-shooters, set on a small mechanical arm frame. Though a bit heavier than the previous model, he had miniaturized a brand new multi-modular system with interlocked parts capable of shifting positions, giving himself an arsenal of tricks to use in the field. He just had to pick an option while pressing with his thumbs on the small controls hidden in the gloves, on the index fingers' sides, and the web shooters would shift the configuration to match the picked option, which would be shown on a wheel-like interface on his lenses - an idea he had shamelessly stolen from video-games.
Peter just had to do the last few adjustments before he could say he was comfortable to take them for a test run.
The biggest innovation of all, however, would be the almost imperceptible bump located on the spider-logo on his back. Peter pressed a button on his smartphone and that 'bump' split from the larger spider, eight tiny mechanical legs spreading and giving the small drone the appearance of a small triangular tarantula.
"Look out, Gotham City, here comes Spider-Man and his new sidekick, the W.A.S.P.-Spider!", he announced to himself, as the "Wholly Autonomous Silent Partner" Drone started crawling around the suit, still on the stand-by sentinel mode, its eight dark micro-cameras broadcasting an almost 360 degrees view of the lab.
'Thanks for the idea, Batman!', Peter thought as he checked the readings from its small sensors, heat spectrum, vibration, radiation, magnetism, everything he could manage to include in its diminutive size, directly to his smartphone and the mask's HUD.
'The only thing still bugging out is the propulsion system', Peter registered with no small amount of annoyance. He planned to make the small drone capable of flying - which he had managed... most of the times.
In fact, nine times out of ten, the tiny jets located on the drone's 'belly' would keep it silently hovering in the air at good speed and maneuverability.
'While the other ten percent of the time…', Peter focused on several charred spots on the walls of the laboratory and grimaced. 'That's why I'm keeping those deactivated until I can fix the problem, no reason to be carrying a potential live grenade on my back at all times.'
Another button pressed and the small drone refitted itself back into its docking station, its harder shell complementing the protection granted by the reinforced area.
Peter picked the mask from a mannequin's head, put it on and spoke "G.O.O.B.E.R., up.", and the newest version of the interface came up, loading much faster than before. Peter would have to apologize for Ted Kord later, but he saw the chance during the invasion, and took it.
'Right next to that Generator, there were several servers, probably connected to Palmera City's facility', Peter wondered, and using his previous version of the G.O.O.B.E.R., the hero managed to copy a good chunk of the (secret) core code used on Kord Industry's system, which meant that, after a better look and deep dismantling of it, now Spider-Man could hack into anything running Kord-OS much faster.
'Though a lot of stuff in this country runs either on Wayne's or Luthor's code, Kord's is the closest thing they have for a UNIX, so it's still useful.'
A small note came on his mask, a police alert over a break in at the Gotham's Museum of Things Stolen from other Countries - he was pretty sure it had a name, but, really, the descriptor fit better.
Peter looked into the 'mirror' - a monitor with a camera on, recording his progress on the experiments, seeing himself in the still all black experimental mask.
It was still daytime, so the chances of one of the Bats being on patrol would have been minimal, and he was already near Alan Wayne Museum (the official name was shorter and, big surprise, another tribute to the already too-recognizable Wayne Family).
'Great responsibilities, Parker. Great responsibilities.', he reminded himself, and he left through the window a few seconds later, completely dressed up and fully equipped, his lab computer promptly backing up everything he had been working on so far and deleting any self-incriminating evidence of his extracurricular activities.
"Get your jerseys here! We got caps, we got socks, we got jackets, come get your Gotham Rogues' official merch!"
The street vendors showed off the bright yellow and black sportswears, trying to get some sales before that evening's Football match.
One of the vendors had the worst luck, being assigned to try and sell the item that had always sold the least, the bright yellow jacket with black long stripes on the arms and the team's logo on the back, a gangster with their face in profile, covered with a black bandana.
The common Gothamite did not like to call much attention to themselves, so the version with the inverted colors was the one selling decently, while the Bumblebee Jacket - as it was called - had been put on sale.
This vendor heard two sudden noises, and when he turned to the side, one of the 'Bumblebees' had disappeared, the size-large one on a hanger for exposition, with several bills of ten stuck in its place with some sort of white goo.
'Well… at least I sold one', he admired his strange luck.
Spider-Man ran on walls and jumped with no fear, the bright yellow jacket zipped up over the completely black suit, a shining beacon of bad fashion swinging between skyscrapers.
But that was not the worst part of it all…
"Look, up in the sky!", someone had yelled.
"It's that The Signal?"
"I think that's Booster Gold!"
"Look, mom, it's Statix!"
"No, that's Black Adam."
"I thought he had a cape?"
"Maybe it's Speedy!"
"Speedy is a girl now, I think."
'Oh, boy', wondered Spider-Man, extending both feets and leapfrogging over a billboard. 'Not the kind of introduction I wanted to have with the NG.'
'Just my luck!'
To be Continued!
Author's notes:
Hey, how you all doing?
Right now, I'm on an airport waiting for my connection, but since it will take around seven hours, I decided to update this long awaited chapter!
So... hope you all like this chapter and, as soon as I can, I'll post the next one!
I think Spider-Man is the hero with the best wardrobe malfunctions, don't you?
Next chapter: bad look, bad guys and Batgirl!
