Peter wasn't exactly a fan of losing half his Saturday to school, but it's not like he could choose to not attend. His last class for the day, Physics, had just ended no more than fifteen minutes ago and he was currently making his way towards the Utonium Laboratory.
He'd caught a glimpse of Kaoru on a skateboard heading the same way he was, so he assumed she'd be at the lab when he arrived.
"Peter! Wait up!" A voice called out to him from behind. There were two obvious choices for who this could be, and by the sound of her voice it definitely wasn't Miyako.
"Hey, Momoko. What's up?" She had mentioned something about going to the lab today, last time he'd seen her.
"Well… I had a lot of Chemistry homework to get done before Monday, and I don't have the energy to solve it all on my own…"
"...so you want me to do it for you?" Peter inquisitively finished, raising an eyebrow.
"Not exactly do it for me, just… you know… give me a hand." She made a bashful expression and began to fidget with her hands. The sight made Peter sigh.
"I mean, I've got the homework completed with me right now. You can copy off it if you want."
"Perfect! And don't worry, I'll make sure to change the answers so it doesn't seem like I copied yours."
"Hold on," Peter realised something. "Can't you just ask Ken? You've known him way longer, and he's actually working in the field. He should be a better help than I could ever be."
Momoko visibly shuddered at his suggestion. "Last time we tried asking Ken for help with our homework, he made a robot to force us to do it ourselves."
"Sounds rough." Peter began walking again, readjusting his bag on his shoulder. The conversation had kind of fallen off a cliff with his comment, creating an uncomfortable silence between the two.
"Momoko! Peter!" Luckily, it wasn't long before Miyako arrived to break the ice. "Are you headed to the lab?" A few curious glances from others in the hallway followed her as she approached the pair. She seemed not to notice, though, or she was just ignoring them.
"Hey." Peter gave a brief greeting, trying to avoid gaining the ire of any of Miyako's many fans.
"Miyako, Peter agreed to help us with our Chemistry homework!" Momoko cheered. It was like she was a child who had just been told they could get a pet dog.
"I definitely didn't say that, but you can copy off my work. And don't escalate it any further than that."
"That's great! I was having trouble with the question on the electron levels or whatever." Miyako matched her alter ego's name. She seemed to always be positive and bubbly no matter who she was speaking to.
As the trio approached the exit, Momoko's and Miyako's belt buckles began to flash.
"What's that flashing for? I've noticed it a few times in class." Peter asked them directly, though they had already turned away from the exit back towards the building.
"It's the professor," Momoko told him in a hushed voice. "He's probably calling the Powerpuffs." She had already begun to run away from him.
"So we're going to the roof to transform." Miyako added, beginning to follow her friend.
Peter was left alone, though he wasn't exactly in objection to that. He'd been walking home by himself every day he'd been here, so today would just be the same.
Or at least it would be, if his destination weren't different. He pushed ahead, noticing people were once again paying no attention to him as he walked past.
As he left school grounds, Peter began to quicken his steps. His muscles had started feeling numb from inactivity throughout the day, so he had decided to give them a bit of a stretch.
He considered using his new strength and speed to join the baseball or football team, though he had quickly decided against it for two main reasons.
Firstly, it wouldn't be fair to all the other students. He wasn't exactly normal anymore, to be fair. Secondly, Peter just didn't want to have to commit all the necessary time to play a sport.
He kept to his thoughts as he rapidly approached the lab, stopping only to cross roads and avoid other pedestrians. Even when he arrived, he still hardly felt fatigued. He could probably make the run five more times–maybe more.
"Peter! You're just in time!" Utonium called to him as the doors slid open for him. "The girls just started fighting Mojo!"
"Does this happen every day?" Just yesterday the girls had been saving the city and they were doing it all again today.
"Most days." Ken sighed, pressing a button on the keypad in front of him. "And it's usually the same guys."
"Isn't there anything you can do to stop them more permanently?" Peter inquired, wondering how much of the city's coffers were just being spent on repairs and maintenance.
"Some of them have been put in permanent facilities, like the Gangrene Gang, but others like Fuzzy Lumpkins are too strong to lock up. And Mojo here keeps managing to break out of every cell the city puts him in." Utonium seemed annoyed by the failure. He'd probably been personally working on the project to lock them up.
"And you can't negate or remove their powers? Pretty sure Stark Industries has something for that."
"We tried everything we could think of, but it doesn't look like the Chemical Z powers can be nullified by traditional means. The only ones we can prevent are the transformation type powers, like the girls and Princess."
A booming sound maxed out the microphone on whatever camera stream they were watching the fight on.
"Where's this camera feed coming from?" Peter asked, watching as Powered Buttercup tore off one of the robot's four arms with her bare hands.
"We have a mix of sources," Utonium answered, glancing at another monitor. "This one is a publicly available surveillance camera. We sometimes use smartphone camera feeds from online and if there aren't any cameras nearby we have cameras built into the girls' costumes."
"Huh. How about that."
"Looks like they're handling Mojo just fine, as usual." Ken commented, also watching the battle on screen. "Though it does seem like Bubbles' jet boots need some maintenance, they're not performing as well as usual."
"You're exactly right, Ken." Utonium praised his son. "It just seems like its power settings aren't calibrated correctly, so she's struggling to hold it in a low power state."
"Wait, their flight comes from their boots?" Peter asked, wanting to better understand how the girls' powers worked. "I thought they could fly without them."
"All their powers come from their costumes. If they're not wearing them, even if they're transformed, they aren't the Powerpuffs." Utonium answered.
Peter found it fairly bizarre that that was the case. He could understand for heroes like Iron Man, who wore a mechanical exoskeleton that gave him superpowers. But for regular looking clothes to give the Powerpuff Girls Z their powers just seemed unbelievable.
"So anyone could wear their power belts and become a Powerpuff?"
"From our experiments; no. Only the girls seem to be able to initiate the transformation. But once transformed, they can give the outfit to anyone to give them superpowers until they change back."
"Ken had a blast flying around the room. He sometimes borrows Miyako's boots so he can take them for a spin. Maybe that's why they always need to be recalibrated." The professor laughed at his own joke, though Ken did not. He watched as the girls knocked Mojo out and handed him off to the New Tokyo Police.
Three new video streams replaced the camera feed they were watching, each having a different Powerpuff's face on it.
"Something's wrong with my boots," Rolling Bubbles told the professor with a frown. "I couldn't float like normal."
"We saw. When you get back, we'll fix them for you," Ken was quick to reply to her, calming her worries.
"Besides that, we're done giving Mojo the beatdown," Powered Buttercup relayed, giving a thumbs up to her camera. "Oh, that guy's here again."
Peter suddenly found himself brought into the conversation, so he nodded and waved. "I'll be here fairly often from now on, so you should probably start getting used to it."
"We'll be there in a minute, 'kay?" Hyper Blossom winked at the display before her camera feed shut off. Buttercup and Bubbles soon followed suit.
Utonium moved over a few metres, unfolding a small workbench from the wall. He opened a drawer that had been hidden in the wall, and he pulled out a strange set of z-shaped screwdrivers.
"We made these custom screwdriver bits to make it harder for people to tamper with the girls' gear." Utonium told Peter as he searched for a specific size. "It means we have to machine the screws and bolts ourselves, but I think it's worth the extra work."
"Right. So how do you recalibrate the jet boots?"
"First we have to open them up and disconnect the circuit that controls the jet power. Then we just hook it up to our custom-made calibration machine and start it. When it's finished, we take them for a test run and we're done."
"And I'm assuming Ken does the test run," Peter joked. Utonium laughed at the continuation, but nodded.
The light mood was interrupted by Blossom's sudden arrival from an automatically opening window, followed by Buttercup. A few short moments later, Bubbles joined them.
"And we're all here!" Momoko and Buttercup rescinded their transformations straight away, their costumes fading away in a bath of light. Miyako, however, simply removed her boots and walked towards Utonium.
"Thank you, Miyako," he said as she handed him the sky blue boots. "Let's open them up and take a look inside."
Peter watched as he flipped them over. There were three small screws in the bottom of each boot that held the shell together. Once removed, the outer layer of material could be removed, revealing a small circuit board.
Utonium disconnected one of the wires going into the thruster, replacing it with a wire coming from the calibration machine. He placed the boots on the surface of the machine and secured them in place.
Once the machine was turned on, the jet boots flared to life. They cycled from low to high power multiple times before settling at idle.
"That should do the trick," Utonium remarked as he removed the boots from the calibrator. "Ken, do you want to test them out?"
Ken had had enough of the joke. "No! That was one time! Miyako, you can test them."
The blonde seemed a little hurt by Ken's outburst, but complied. She put on the boots and flew out the window.
"She'll be back in a minute," Momoko informed Peter, moving to play with Poochie. "You're a good boy, aren't you?" She scratched the robot dog behind the ears, picking him up as she did so.
"Alright, with that dealt with-" Utonium paused for a second as Kaoru switched the TV on for sports, "We can start our work for the afternoon."
Ken, Utonium, Peter, and Momoko, with Poochie in hand, moved over to the next room to get to work. They settled at a large laboratory table with a few raised stools surrounding it.
"So… what's on the agenda for today?" Peter asked, not exactly sure what the scientists had been working on recently.
"I was thinking…" Ken began, walking over to a retractable whiteboard. "We should come up with ideas for your hero costume!"
"Don't you… you know, have actual work to do?" Peter asked, taking a look at the notes that were already present on the board. "And I thought I told you I was going to design my costume myself." A few ideas on the whiteboard were actually pretty good–though it was only the ones about tech and not the ones about design.
"I think helping a new superhero make their debut is part of our job description, considering we manage the Powerpuffs," the professor said with a smile.
"The boots are working properly now. Thank you, professor!" Rolling Bubbles flew through the open window and landed in front of the group. When she saw the whiteboard covered with costume ideas, she gasped. "Are you coming up with outfit designs without me?"
"Relax," Peter reassured her, shaking his head. "Ken just brought up the topic. You haven't missed anything."
"Oh, good. I came up with some ideas too." Miyako raised her right hand and her costume was replaced with a casual outfit. A bag also appeared on her back, making Peter wonder further about the mechanics of the transformation itself. From the bag she fished a sketchbook.
She flipped through the pages of sketches, most of various dresses from what Peter could tell, before she settled on a page headed with a cartoonish spider.
"Here, what do you think?" She placed the book on the bench for everyone to see.
The first page was an outline of a person's body. It was wearing something akin to a male interpretation of the Powerpuff Girls Z's costumes, with some additional spider theming. It retained the small jacket, though the P was replaced with a small spider insignia. There was a simple undershirt underneath with a plain pair of shorts, joined with a belt akin to the one the girls always wore.
The gloves were the same, bulky bracelets and all. The boots, however, were the main difference between the girls' costumes and this one. They lacked the thick soles or jet boosters, but instead had thin soles throughout. It was a very conservative design overall.
"Miyako, I don't exactly think that that's my style." Peter tried to be nice in rejecting her design idea. "I'm not sure about wearing shorts and a t-shirt for fighting criminals. Also, there's nothing hiding who I am. I don't have science magic protecting my secret identity like you guys do."
"Oh." She didn't seem too disappointed by his reply, but remained lively. "Luckily, I have more." She flipped to the next page which had many thumbnail sketches of different costume parts. Peter scanned the page, noting any that stood out to him. There were some accessories he found strange to include, like a cobweb themed scarf and a backpack.
"I like the idea of these," Peter commented, pointing out a pair of large white goggles that would hide his identity. He figured he could also build some sort of HUD into it with some of the tech in the lab. "They look pretty decent and functional, and large enough that they won't block my vision. And this."
Peter pointed at a long-sleeved hoodie design. It was black around his body, turning red for the hood and arms. A small white spider insignia adorned the front. The hoodie also paired well with a pair of fingerless red gloves further down the page.
"What if we add some blue to it? Keep the shoulders red but make the arms blue," Peter suggested, and Miyako got to work sketching it in a blank space on the bottom left of the page. "And maybe throw in these gloves."
The new design retained the black body, but the red in the shoulders turned to blue in a pointed fashion as it travelled down the arm. The red gloves extended up the lower arm almost to the shoulder, ending in a point similar to what Miyako had drawn for the shoulders.
"That's great!" Peter thought back to the simple design he had come up with the previous night. "What if you add a black webbing pattern over the red parts?"
Not much time passed before Miyako was finished sketching out the new design.
"What do you think?" The blonde asked, taking a half-step away from the bench.
"It's perfect," Peter praised.
"It's only half a costume, though." Ken pointed out. They were still missing pants, boots, and a mask.
"Can you add those goggles onto it?" Utonium asked, peering over Ken and Peter to see the design.
Miyako got to work once more on the costume, sketching a head on top of the previously void neck space. On it, she drew the same bug-eyed goggles. They seemed to match fairly well with the rest of the costume, even though there were no primary colours to match them.
"Now we can continue the theme to the lower body…" Miyako muttered as she continued sketching out the costume. She drew on a pair of skin-tight blue pants and a pair of high-ankle red boots, adding a pair of sewn-in knee guards for extra protection.
"That's great, but we'll probably have to modify those boots," Peter pointed out. "Turns out my feet can't stick to walls through thick shoe soles."
"Easy peasy." Ken seemed confident that the modification was possible, so Peter didn't see any reason to alter the design.
"Actually, there was one other thing I wanted to add to the costume." He figured now was as good a time as any to bring up the spinnerets he was developing. "I realised there was one thing a spider can do that I can't."
"And what's that?" Momoko called, clearly having had enough of playing with Poochie. She had moved over to the other side of Miyako to peek at the costume designs. "Oh! Are you going to have a cape?"
"No, I'm not gonna wear a cape." Peter was disappointed she had even suggested the idea. "And what I was going to say is that I can't spin webs."
"That is true," Utonium realised, scratching his chin. "It's definitely strange, but why are you bringing it up now?"
"Well I was thinking about it," Peter said, rummaging around his bag for the drawings he had made yesterday. "And I think I've come up with a way to make artificial webs. Or at least I'm halfway there."
Ken looked at the drawings, evaluating them objectively. Utonium joined him, and together they discussed the purpose of different parts and whether or not it would function or be possible to machine.
"This… web-shooter of yours does seem like it would function the way you want it to. The only thing I'm wondering right now is what type of fluid you're going to use in it?"
"I'm not exactly much of a chemist, but on the other side of that page I've got some equations that should answer that question." Peter's reply elicited Ken and Utonium to flip the page over and scan the equations listed.
"Hold on, polymerisation when exposed to air?" Ken was shocked at the implications of what Peter had suggested. "Are you sure this will work?"
"Hold on, Ken. With the conditions for the reaction here, it actually does seem like it could work!" Utonium was shocked that a regular school student had come up with a chemical reaction with these parameters. "This is incredible, Peter! How did you come up with this?"
"I'm not sure, professor. It's almost like the equations just… came to me," Peter's explanation was vague, but it did seem to satisfy Utonium's curiosity for now.
"We need to test this. Ken, you start making the web shooter with Peter. I'll gather the chemicals we'll need."
"Just like that?" Peter asked, wondering how this had escalated so quickly.
"Right!" Ken seemed to ignore his outburst and focused on the task his father had given him. He made his way over to the nearest PC and opened some CAD software, immediately beginning to shape the spinneret nozzles.
"Is there anything you need me to do?" Peter asked the young genius as he rapidly built up a 3D version of the sketches. He estimated any dimensions that Peter hadn't defined as he went.
"Do you know how to use this software?" Ken asked in turn.
"I'm sure I can figure it out…"
"Good. You do this and I'll get the 3D printer ready." Ken left the computer for Peter to use.
Peter had never used this software specifically, though he had used a similar software a few years ago. Picking up the differences was fairly straightforward, and before long he was continuing right where Ken had left off. The time began to fly away as they worked, occasionally replying to any questions Momoko or Miyako had.
About a half hour later, whatever sports game Kaoru was watching had finished, so she had wandered in to see what they were working on. She had seen Peter and Ken watching the carriages of the 3D printer move back and forth, building the model they had just created.
"What's that?" She asked, completely out of the loop.
"We're testing something out. Peter designed it," Ken offered, barely turning away from the printer for a moment.
"It's a nozzle that'll weave high pressure fluid into spider silk-like webbing. It should have similar strength properties, too." Peter gave a bit more information than Ken had, hoping that would sate her slight curiosity.
Fifteen minutes later, Utonium burst into the room with an assortment of chemicals. He had likely been to multiple chemists, from the branding of the paper bags he was carrying.
"Are you ready?" He asked, setting out the bags on the table.
Ken had already assembled the prototype spinneret on the bench. "Ready as we'll ever be."
A few minutes later, the workbench was covered with chemistry glassware. A few beakers lay strewn on their sides, having been knocked over in the rush to test this formula. Before long, the fluid had been completed and inserted into small, pressurised containers to be fitted to the artificial spinneret.
Peter carefully clipped the cartridge into the 3D printed prototype, holding it up for everyone to see. He pointed it towards a nearby wall and pressed the switch to open the nozzle.
In an instant, a thin webline stretched from the prototype to the wall, its tri-weave pattern clearly visible.
"It worked!" Peter yelled, unable to contain his excitement.
"This could be revolutionary," Utonium muttered, taking a closer look at the webline.
"Cool!" Momoko was excited by the new device. "But what's it for?"
Peter gave the line a few tugs and it seemed to hold. The line was still attached to the prototype, so he had to slice it with a scalpel. He then pointed the spinneret upwards for his next test.
"Well, if it works properly…" Peter once again pressed the switch. Similarly to before, a webline nearly instantly stretched up to the tall ceiling and attached itself to it. "It should be strong enough to climb."
Peter detached the line from the prototype with the scalpel and set it down on the bench. He then reached up and grasped the webline in his hands, feeling its smooth but tacky surface. Then he lifted his body weight onto the web.
The rope stretched slightly as his force was placed on it, but it seemed to hold up perfectly fine. Seeing its success, he slowly began to climb the webline.
It was a completely different feeling to climbing a wall. Both his hands and feet had to be placed towards the centre of his body, making it a more awkward climbing position.
Beneath him, Kaoru moved forward and grabbed onto the webline. She looked up and found Peter was once again on the ceiling, seemingly analysing how the web had adhered itself to the surface.
Before long, he dropped back down and reported his findings to Ken and the professor.
"It's easily strong enough to carry my weight. Maybe we can test it using the strength machine from yesterday?" Peter was impressed he had come up with such a compound. "I was thinking we could machine some wrist-mounted versions to wear. That way I can swing around on weblines."
"Great idea. I'll start modelling it now." Utonium's excitement for the project seemed to only grow with each success. "I should be done at around 6."
"Another hour?" Kaoru asked, seeming slightly annoyed. "That blows. Whatever, I'm outta here."
So they were down one Powerpuff. Well, they weren't exactly obligated to stay or anything.
"You guys can leave too, if you want." Peter told Momoko and Miyako, who seemed to also be inspecting the webline.
"If it's going to take another hour, I can start working on making your costume," Miyako replied, looking up to face Peter and Ken. "Actually, I should go to the textile store now, before it closes."
"I'll go with her." Momoko added, and the pair hurriedly exited the room.
"We can start on the goggles, then." Ken suggested to Peter, booting up a separate computer. "We can vacuum form the lenses from acrylic and project a HUD onto it from the inside."
"And we can link the HUD to the web-shooters to display how much web fluid is left in each cartridge." Peter finished with a smile. "We can also have it link to my phone for calls!"
"I've got a miniature projector that I've been meaning to use for a project like this! I'll see if I can find it." Ken rushed off in the direction of the storage room, leaving Peter with the computer open on some programming software.
Before long, he returned with two small cylindrical devices, perfect for their use-case. He connected them to the computer via a small computer board and they got to work.
Before the clock had reached 10, they had most of the parts of the costume ready. The goggles functioned, linking themselves with low-power kinetically charged sensors in each web-shooters which measured the level of web fluid. They hadn't implemented the phone link yet, though.
The web-shooters themselves were quite slim, fitting onto his wrists with palm-mounted triggers. They automatically cut the webline after the button is released, too, alleviating an issue with the prototype.
The costume itself was nearly complete. The only thing it was missing was the black web pattern over the red parts, but Miyako assured him it would be a fairly easy task to complete by simply sewing them in. The boots and gloves hadn't been made yet, but Peter didn't consider them a priority.
Momoko had spent her free time jumping around, seeing what different people were working on. She had been the first person to test the wrist-mounted spinnerets and wear the goggles. She also occasionally handed out candy, which Peter accepted this time.
Peter had donned the costume-in-progress and it felt pretty weird wearing it. On one hand, it was mostly just custom-made casual clothing, so it wasn't uncomfortable. On the other hand, he was essentially wearing a superhero costume in front of two actual superheroes and two scientists, so it felt pretty awkward.
"There's one thing I want to try with these new web-shooters. I'll need to go outside." From the moment Peter thought up these nifty devices, there was only one thing he wanted to do with them. Swing like a spider in the wind.
Once outside, he climbed to the top of the round building. There weren't any other buildings nearby, so this would have to suffice. Miyako and Momoko transformed and flew into the air to get a better view of what Peter was attempting to do.
Peter stood near the edge of the building's roof, preparing himself to do something daring. He knew he wasn't in much danger, because Blossom or Bubbles would catch him if he fell.
He took a deep breath, before running and jumping off the edge of the building. He could feel the winds from higher up buffeting his face as he fell towards the ground.
Not wanting to hit the pavement at this speed, he shot out his left arm, pointing it towards the building in a spot perpendicular to his direction of motion. He shot a webline, holding his breath for the split-second as it flew.
As soon as the web made contact with the building, it stuck fast. It was instantly in tension, pulling Peter out of his suicide dive and into a somewhat controlled swing.
It must've looked pretty awkward from the ground. His other limbs weren't exactly sure what to do as he flew through the air, but he didn't spin out of control.
As he approached the point on the wall beneath where his web was attached, he turned his body nearly horizontal so his feet would be touching the wall. He ran along the wall, building up some more momentum, before leaping back off of it.
He released the original webline, beginning to appreciate the sensation of weightlessness as gravity tried to take hold of him once again.
Peter fired a second webline farther ahead, leaning into the swing this time. Because he was more prepared, he didn't even touch the wall this time. His momentum managed to carry him past the point his web was grounded to and back into the air.
He continued swinging for a few more minutes, absolutely thrilled that they were working properly.
Then, when he went to shoot his next webline, nothing happened. In the momentary shock, he continued to try to fire the same web-shooter repeatedly, to no avail. He didn't have time to further troubleshoot, but he figured he would survive the impact of the fall.
He had landed from the soaring ceilings inside the lab with no issue, so he'd probably only be a little sore from the landing.
But before he found out how much it would actually hurt, a yo-yo wrapped itself around his waist, hoisting him back into the air. He'd have to take back what he had said about the yo-yo earlier.
"You know, swinging is my thing," Hyper Blossom commented as she pulled him to safety. "I can lend it to you, but you'll have to pay me for each swing."
"How's a yen rounded down sound?" Peter responded, moving his attention over to why the web-shooter had malfunctioned. He pulled a small screwdriver from his pocket and unscrewed the top panel, exposing the mechanism.
"I suppose that will do." She put on a strange, haughty voice as she said that, but Peter ignored it. She'd probably had too much candy again.
He immediately identified the problem with the spinneret. The nozzles had clogged with webbing. He'd have to add some kind of anti-stick surface finish to them to prevent this from becoming a recurring problem.
"I'd say that was a partial success," Peter announced as Blossom lowered him where Ken and the professor stood. "Now I wanna try swinging in the city."
"Peter! Are you alright? What happened?" Utonium seemed fairly distraught. It was probably because it was his web-shooter design that had failed.
"Relax, it's just a minor hitch. We need to stop the web fluid from clogging up the nozzles, then we should be golden."
Peter looked up at the glittering but barely visible weblines hanging off the building, a new feeling of excitement rushing through him. Maybe this hero thing wouldn't be so bad, after all.
And that's a wrap! It's a day late, I know, but I was struggling to make the middle of the chapter flow properly. Anyways, it's done now.
By the way, remember to follow and/or favourite the story and consider leaving a review. Even if you don't have anything too important to say, it's just nice to hear from people. Just say hi and what you liked or disliked about the chapter, if you want.
Maximum Rhapsody: This chapter probably answered the first part of your review. To add to that, I'll probably have Utonium, Ken, and Miyako help with some other costumes and tech further down the line, too.
As for Chemical Z, I did consider using it in the web fluid but I decided against it. I didn't want it to feel too much like a macguffin. That doesn't mean I won't use it later, but I'll only bring it in when absolutely necessary. If something doesn't need it, it probably won't use Chemical Z.
This might be a bit of a spoiler, but I've been considering giving Peter some form of shock attack, kinda like Miles' venom blasts. It'd probably be called a Z-Venom or something. I'm not sure yet, though. If it seems necessary, I'll put it in.
Thanks for all your reviews, I like reading and responding to them.