The Quinjet's engines roared over the Pacific as the rear hatch slowly opened, howling wind flooding the cabin. A red-and-gold armored suit dropped in like a meteor, and Iron Man landed steadily. His faceplate snapped open, revealing Tony Stark's face, forever wearing a teasing smile.
"Did anyone miss me?"
Seeing everyone's disheveled hair and innocent expressions after the sudden rush of air, Tony knew the answer. He simply kept smiling and told J.A.R.V.I.S. to close the hatch.
"That kid got busy the moment you left, Tony." Janet did not look up, her fingers swiftly sliding across her tablet as she monitored Avengers Tower's real-time status. "I've never seen anyone so addicted to the 'superhero business.'"
Tony swept his gaze over his teammates. Hank was still studying the data on the smuggled Vibranium samples. Bruce Banner wore noise-canceling headphones, probably listening to some kind of yoga music that kept him calm. Even Captain America in the pilot's seat was unusually distracted, his blue eyes fixed on the empty sky beyond the window as though it held some answer.
As for Thor, well, he was probably still in Asgard.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Tony shrugged, plopped down beside Steve, and pretended to glance over the flight data. "I arranged it this way because I didn't want the tower sitting idle. What do you think, Captain?"
"The kid can handle protecting New York. I was thinking about something else." Steve withdrew his gaze, paused, then continued. "Maybe we could invite King T'Challa to join the Avengers. I knew his grandfather. We fought side by side during the war. I know every generation of Black Panther has been an elite warrior."
After saying that, the Captain added something that seemed contradictory. "But we can't interfere in Wakanda's internal affairs. We're not the United States government... The biggest trouble in this operation may not be the enemy, but politics."
Tony curled his lips into that "I can do anything" smile. "Politics? I've dealt with more politicians than armored suits I've designed. Trust me, Captain. He's just the king of an African country. I can handle him."
—A few hours later, the Avengers' Quinjet was struck by a Vibranium weapon and made an emergency landing in the depths of Wakanda's rainforest, trailing black smoke. It looked like they would not be getting back for at least a month.
Naturally, Peter had no idea the Avengers would be offline in New York for several days. Tony had barely left before Peter got to work. He tossed his backpack onto the table, stuffed his old suit inside, then slipped into the lab to research a new one. He even dug out that ancient camera, casually tossed it to J.A.R.V.I.S., and asked it to develop the photos inside.
"Alright, let's get to work!" Peter rubbed his hands together, staring at the rotating model of his old suit in the holographic projection. His mind raced as he issued every instruction he could think of. "J.A.R.V.I.S., keep an eye on New York for me. Notify me immediately if anything happens. Also, pull up the surveillance footage from the Osborn Tech Expo on March twelfth. Can you do that?"
Mr. Stark has archived the relevant data.
"Fine." Peter was not surprised in the least. His fingers swiped across the virtual screen. "And list everything Herman stole. I want to see what he actually took."
A detailed list of stolen items appeared above the table. As Peter studied the design of his old suit, he asked, "What material are the Captain's suits made from?"
Stark Industries' latest high-stretch composite fiber material. Its primary structure is...
"Then use the same kind, but increase the web spacing in the red sections by 1.2 times..." As he spoke, he pulled the mask off the projection, tossed it aside, and designed a new pair of rounder white lenses to replace the original narrow black ones. Though it was his first time using the system, he picked it up at an astonishing pace.
"This looks friendlier, don't you think, J.A.R.V.I.S.?"
If you wish to convey positive emotions, brighter colors are recommended.
"Good idea."
Several minutes later, a brand-new Spider-Man emerged from the restroom on one of the tower's upper floors. The new suit's red-and-blue colors were brighter, and the 3D-printed composite fabric fit his body perfectly. Webbed wings had been added beneath his arms for gliding, while the white lenses could change size with his facial expressions to convey his emotions.
The spider emblem on his chest had shrunk by a size, while the design on his back had changed from a menacing spider into a round, chibi-style design. A closer look revealed that it was actually an ingenious storage device: the suit could automatically fold into a palm-sized spider disc for convenient carrying.
Concealed pockets at both sides of his waist replaced the old, obtrusive belt. A spider-shaped light was hidden at the center of his waist, designed specifically for dark environments such as sewers. Of course, the coolest feature was the tactical display built into the lenses, which could connect to the Avengers' satellites and provide real-time communication and analysis.
In short, it looked like a classic suit with some high-tech upgrades. Not only that, but to avoid accidents, Peter made two sets.
"Alright, I'm uploading the keyword search program I wrote. I can't believe I memorized the entire code." Peter tapped at the projected virtual keyboard. "J.A.R.V.I.S., can you access the Avengers' cooperative network with the New York police? You should have authorization, right?"
Hack into New York police and fire department systems completed.
"Hack?!" Peter froze. He had not expected the Avengers to skip the proper channels. But there was no time to worry about that now. Getting the system was what mattered. Surely the NYPD would not mind... right?
"Uh, integrate my program into it, then match it against dispatch information from every police station and fire department. Analyze the overall situation."
His lenses immediately projected real-time incident reports: where crimes were occurring, whether the police or fire department could arrive in time, whether the criminals' weapons required Spider-Man's intervention. Everything was clear at a glance. This system would let him avoid trivial matters the police could handle themselves and focus on situations where Spider-Man was needed more.
Next, he pulled up the Osborn Tech Expo surveillance footage that Stark had somehow acquired. Using footage from different angles, he created a holographic reconstruction. This investigative method had appeared in Iron Man 3, but Peter was now using it to recreate the events leading up to his bite. He poured himself a cup of water from the dispenser, then stood aside and watched everything unfold in the reconstructed model.
The holographic projection recreated the scene from that day. Gwen and he had been chatting and laughing as they walked among the exhibits when, without warning, the glass case holding the mutated spider shattered. The crowd instantly descended into chaos. The image zoomed in. Carl bent down to pick up the spider, silently approached, and pressed the deadly creature against the back of Peter's neck.
"What caused the display case to shatter?"
No relevant records in the Osborn database.
"No records?"
Peter continued watching. He instinctively slapped away the mutated spider that had bitten him. In the corner of the footage, a blurry figure suddenly crouched down—but the image seemed to have been deliberately altered, and Peter could never make out the person's face.
"Can you pull up that person's information? The one who crouched down?"
Data encrypted. Warning: this segment was externally tampered with.
Someone had altered the data? S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra? Well, they might be the same group. Realizing he would get nowhere, Peter set the matter aside for now and turned to the list of high-tech products Herman had stolen: an exoskeletal spinal neural connector, an extreme-environment survival device, a light-particle projector...
He pulled up the holographic projection of the light-particle projector from the list.
"A fishbowl?"
Light-particle projection device, developed by Horizon Labs. Its function is to manipulate light-particle reflections and generate virtual images.
"He stole nothing but prototypes. Someone must be responsible for finishing them—J.A.R.V.I.S., look into researchers in the light-particle field."
No matching individual found.
"Or special effects artists with related research?"
J.A.R.V.I.S. seemed to lag for half a second, clearly not expecting such a leap in logic, but it swiftly pulled up the matching file anyway:
Quentin Beck, Hollywood's most creative special effects artist, missing for one month.
Found you.
Mysterio.
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