Iron Shapeshifter

"There's really no end to the black technology in Iron Man's armor!"

In another abandoned factory on the outskirts of New York City, Ben, transformed into Grey Matter, had practically unscrewed every single screw from the armor.

Before him lay circuit boards, and with his wide pupils, Ben could make out seven or eight parts of how they worked.

"The neural units in the helmet can link with the wearer's armor, making it easier to control."

Something as heavy as armor could not possibly be driven by Tony's physical strength alone. But if every tiny movement had to be relayed to Jarvis, that would be far too troublesome. Not to mention that War Machine was not equipped with an artificial intelligence like Jarvis, yet it could still move.

"There's still a lot I don't understand... I know too little physics." Ben sighed and jumped down from the armor.

The knowledge was actually all in his head, but his brain was like a storage file: it merely recorded it, without letting him put it to use. While his Grey Matter transformation had not ended yet, he decided to read some more.

About half an hour later, Ben finally waited for the Little Broken Watch to exit protection mode again.

He pressed the button. The watch core popped up and began to turn, its symbol stopping on a broad-bodied creature. Ben pressed down on the core, and black skin began to cover him while green patterns, like circuit boards, etched themselves across his body!

"Upgrade!"

Galvanic Mechamorphs were an intelligent life civilization created by Azmuth on Galvan Prime's moon—Galvan B. Their life forms resembled amoebas. They could merge with and control mechanical objects, even adding new functions to machines and carrying out modifications beyond all reason.

At that moment, Ben planned to use Upgrade to see if he could make this armor, which had no power source, move again.

Upgrade stood over two meters tall. Normally, they could maintain a posture like a bear standing upright, but they could also turn their bodies into a liquid-like state.

"This feeling is really strange." As Ben spoke to himself, the circular symbol on his head flickered.

"All right, let's see just how much Upgrade can improve Mark 3." Ben pressed his huge palm against the armor without its core. The next moment, his body seemed to melt into liquid, and his black-and-green form began to cling to the armor like Venom.

Almost instantly, the originally red-and-gold armor became black with green patterns spread all over it.

At the same time, the Omnitrix core filled the vacant Arc Reactor slot. More importantly, Ben felt as though the armor had come alive—or rather, as though he had become the armor itself!

He tried to rise from the ground, metal and mechanical noises sounding as his limbs moved.

"I've merged with the armor!" Ben looked down at his palm in amazement.

Unlike simply transforming into Upgrade, after merging with the armor, he seemed to gain all of its support functions, and even his body felt much harder.

He casually tested jumping and a few other movements, only to find that they felt almost no different from moving his own body.

The armor merged with Upgrade had not changed much in appearance, but with a thought from Ben, he could make it completely different!

For example, he could turn the armor's entire hand into thrusters or beam emitters. It was practically an instant upgrade of Mark 3 to the Nano Technology level seen in the future Infinity War.

Of course, that did not mean the armor truly possessed Nano Technology. In reality, it was merely a manifestation of Upgrade's own biological traits.

"Let's see how the weapon systems work." He assumed an attacking stance. The next moment, weapon systems popped out from his arms, shoulders... every part of the armor, with small bombs lined up in neat rows!

"These bombs were originally just consumables, but now Upgrade's traits can replicate them infinitely."

"I'm basically a mobile armory!" Ben grew more excited the longer he looked. If he had not been worried about being detected, he would have even wanted to rush out of the abandoned factory and fly around in the sky.

After about half an hour of playing while merged with the armor, the Little Broken Watch began flashing red, and a piercing alarm echoed through the factory.

Ben was forcibly separated from the armor and returned to his original form. At the same time, the armor that had moved freely like a person moments ago collapsed with a crash, like building blocks with a piece removed.

Looking at the scattered parts all over the floor, Ben patted himself. "What a shame. Once Upgrade leaves the object it merged with, all of its modifications become completely ineffective."

That meant it would actually be difficult for Ben to fight while transformed into Upgrade and merged with Iron Armor. After all, he could not carry this pile of parts everywhere. They were large, heavy, troublesome, and too easily discovered by Tony, their rightful owner.

"If only Upgrade could devour technological creations like Goop."

Goop was an Upgrade with a genetic defect. In terms of appearance, the patterns and core on Goop's body were red, as if it stood on the verge of an uncontrollable rampage, or like a program infected by a virus.

But Goop's abilities far surpassed Upgrade's. It could devour technology, integrate it into its body, and replicate and upgrade it infinitely. It had even copied the Omnitrix core before.

If it were Goop, it could completely "devour" Mark 3 and transform into Iron Armor whenever and wherever it wanted.

"Forget it. I don't want the Omnitrix to be contaminated."

For the rest of the time, Ben repeatedly waited for the Omnitrix's cooldown to end before transforming into Alien Hero, continuing until the sky gradually darkened...

New York was not safe at night.

Here, if someone wandered the streets alone at night, getting robbed was practically an everyday occurrence.

Especially when someone had to cross twelve blocks after getting off work at nine o'clock, then take a subway with barely anyone on it, the journey became even harder.

May Parker hunched herself against the cold wind.

Years of exhausting labor had made her look somewhat frail, her graying hair dry and hanging loose.

She kept anxiously looking toward the end of the road, and every dark figure passing by made her uneasy.

That morning, her nephew had promised to pick her up after school. Yet she had now stood in the cold wind for several hours without seeing any sign of Peter.

She could have gone back earlier, but she was afraid Peter was only running a little late. If she left ahead of time, Peter might miss her.

But now...

"Could something have happened to Peter?"

The long wait made her deeply worried, because Peter had never done this before—never made her wait alone for so long. And he might not have gone home either. Otherwise, once he got there, he would realize that he had forgotten Aunt May.

The more time passed, the more worried May became.

If Peter had merely forgotten her for a while, that would have been fine. She was afraid something might have happened to him.

At that moment, she desperately wanted to go home and confirm whether her nephew had safely returned.

But just as she was about to leave, a black shadow suddenly rushed out from the end of the street.

May instinctively gripped her bag tighter.

Thanks to Mosasaurus for the 500-point donation. Thank you, boss.