After everyone finished building Harry's new armor, Peter, who also planned to make a proper suit, began to get anxious. He had had the idea for a long time, yet Harry's armor was already complete while his proper suit still existed only on his sketch paper.
To hide his identity, Peter still wore the Pajama Hoodie while helping people around his usual haunts. It was no wonder Iron Man later called him Pajama Baby after digging up videos of his early days.
"You can't do this!" Peter rolled around on the laboratory floor. "Harry's armor is already finished, but my suit is still at the sketch stage! This isn't fair!"
"Please! Harry has new armor, while I'm still wearing cheap discount pajamas bought at the mall!"
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Peter bounced all over the laboratory. He even hung upside down from the ceiling, swinging himself around with Silk like an acrobatic monkey.
Gwen rubbed her temples. "Peter, if you keep this up, I'm uploading videos of you swinging around the city in pajamas to YouTube."
Peter instantly froze as if someone had hit pause. "Uh... you recorded it?"
Harry smiled faintly. "Not just her. We all did."
Lin Hai calmly pulled out his phone. On the screen was footage of Peter, wearing his homemade red-and-blue "suit"—which was really just a hoodie, sweatpants, and a hand-sewn eye mask—getting scratched by a stray cat while catching a thief in Queens and yowling in pain.
How could they not save such embarrassing history of a good friend? It would be hilarious to pull it out in front of the mature and steady Peter Parker someday and watch thirty-something Peter completely lose it over this.
"Fine, fine, I surrender." Peter jumped down from the ceiling and pressed his hands together. "Big shots, please help poor Peter make a proper suit~"
In the end, unable to stand Peter throwing away all dignity and whining and rolling around for a suit, they agreed to help him make an official Spider-Suit. Only then did Peter cheer and stop his childish antics.
Even without Peter doing all this, everyone would have tried their best to help him, but...
Lin Hai quietly sidled up to Harry. "So? Did you record it?"
After Harry raised a hand and made an OK gesture, the two exchanged smiles. Everything was understood without words.
Gwen naturally saw their malicious grins from the side and covered her face with one hand. Immature boys, unfortunate Peter.
After making the Nova Armor for Harry and agreeing to make a Spider-Suit for Peter, the group returned to campus life for the next week to relax for a while.
Weekend, Osborn Tower, Harry's laboratory.
Since Peter's suit did not involve much advanced technology, the only thing requiring secrecy was the materials. And since only Peter and Lin Hai possessed the primary materials, everyone simply began making it in Harry's laboratory.
Gwen brought up an image on the laboratory's large screen, displaying Peter's body scan data. "Your combat style focuses on high-speed movement and agile evasion, so the suit can't be too heavy."
"But it can't be too flimsy either. Remember what you said last time? You got grazed by a gangster's bullet while stopping a robbery and nearly let Aunt May find out," Harry added.
After some discussion, they finalized the suit's materials.
The main material would be Peter's self-developed high-strength Silk, supplemented by Lin Hai's Diamond Fruit plant fibers. The proportion of Diamond Fruit plant fibers would be increased in areas that would not interfere with Peter performing difficult movements.
For example, the chest, back, arms, and legs. This drew on the design principles of many suits of armor and greatly improved the defensive capability of those areas.
Lin Hai also designed a pair of arm guards for Peter, made entirely from Diamond Fruit plant fibers. Initial estimates suggested they could withstand slashes from alloy steel blades and close-range pistol fire.
Harry helped modify Peter's goggles, adding multilayer coatings. Not only would they protect his eyes well, they could also prevent the blinding effects of flashbangs.
Next came the suit's overall appearance.
When Peter sketched out the design of "classic red-and-blue colors + web patterns + black Spider-Totem," the laboratory suddenly fell silent.
"It's actually not bad?" Harry said in surprise.
Gwen said, "It follows the principles of color psychology. Red conveys a sense of power, blue enhances trustworthiness, and the black spider emblem on the chest was probably inspired by the spider that bit you?"
Although Lin Hai had expected it, he still could not resist praising one thing while mocking another. "It's way better than the Green Goblin Armor's 'Halloween pumpkin' color scheme."
Harry: "???"
Was this joke never going away?
Gwen entered the design into the computer, and the rendered suit made everyone's eyes light up.
The streamlined red-and-blue design had web patterns that glimmered faintly under the lights. The black Spider-Totem on the chest looked proper and solemn. The arm guards, chest guard, leg guards, and other modules blended perfectly into the suit, providing extra protection without compromising its appearance.
This meant Peter's first proper suit no longer looked much like the first skintight suit Tony Stark would give him. Instead, it looked more like the second Iron Spider Suit.
Maybe it was just psychological, but the more Lin Hai looked at it, the more he felt that the Spider-Suit everyone had helped design looked far cooler than the one Tony Stark would give Peter in the future.
With the plan finalized, it was time to get to work.
Peter sat before a specialized spinning machine, continuously stretching Silk solution into strands, while Gwen adjusted the fiber density.
"Although Peter's Silk has greater tensile strength than steel wire, we need to make it more wear-resistant," she said, recording the data as she offered a new suggestion.
Lin Hai added the Diamond Fruit fiber structure to the mixing tank, allowing the two materials to combine more effectively and form a unique composite fabric.
Harry handled the suit's electronic components. "Built-in communicator, environmental sensors, and..."
"Wait!" Peter suddenly raised a hand. "Can we add a music player? Listening to music while swinging on Silk would be super cool!"
"Peter!" Gwen snapped.
Lin Hai said, "Well, well, who would've thought? I always thought you were an honest, low-key kid, Peter, but you actually want to be that guy carrying a speaker!"
Gwen, Peter, and Harry: "...???"
No one paid attention to Lin Hai. After spending so much time together, everyone had learned to ignore his occasional bouts of madness. As long as no one responded to him, he would return to normal on his own.
Harry quietly told Peter, "I can secretly add one for you, but don't tell Gwen. If she finds out, none of us will have a good time."
Half a month later, Peter's first proper suit was finally complete. The group once again came to the underground training ground at Harry's home to test the Spider-Suit.
"This is absolutely perfect!" Peter changed into the suit and struck all sorts of strange poses in front of the mirror.
"Peter, get over here already. That's enough narcissism for now; we still need to test it." Lin Hai stood at the edge of the arena. "The rules are simple: stop short of serious injury, and no lethal weapons."
Harry wore the Nova Armor, its blue-and-silver suit gleaming coldly beneath the lights.
Peter put on his arm guards, his Web Shooters ready to fire. "Come on, Nova! Let's see what Spider-Man can do! Duel me, armor boy!"
Peter attacked first, swinging on Silk around behind Harry. Harry twisted aside to evade and countered with an elbow strike!
Bang! Peter blocked with his arm guard, used the force to flip backward, and landed steadily.
"Your reaction speed? Is this that Peter Tingle Lin mentioned?" Harry was extremely surprised.
Peter's smugly raised lips immediately drooped as he shouted, "Don't call it that! It's Spider-Sense! Harry, can't you learn something good from Lin?!"
During the following exchange, Harry tried to predict Peter's movements, but Peter saw through his intentions and changed his rhythm of attack.
He no longer relied on Silk for rapid movement. Instead, he used the Taiji Footwork Lin Hai had taught him, his body as elusive as flowing water.
"What kind of weird move is that?" Harry threw a punch into empty air and nearly lost his balance.
"Chinese kung fu, bro!" Peter borrowed Harry's force and redirected it, flinging him three meters away.
Harry activated emergency acceleration, and the armor's hydraulic system went into full output. His sprinting speed instantly increased, but Peter had already prepared for it.
Whoosh! A strand of Silk stuck to the ceiling. Peter flipped through the air over Harry's head while another strand wrapped around his ankle.
Bang! Harry was yanked to the ground, while Peter landed lightly and pressed a finger against the neck connection of his helmet.
"Game over. Spider-Man wins, Nova loses." Peter looked utterly pleased with himself.
Harry lay on the ground, while multiple joints in his armor system had also become somewhat overloaded due to the intense fight.
"You dirty spider!" Harry called out between breaths.
"Smart spider~" Peter shrugged.
"This isn't fair!" Harry looked toward Lin Hai at the edge of the arena. "He has superpowers and martial arts training! Coach! I want to learn this too!"
Lin Hai raised an eyebrow. "Learn what? How to get beaten up?"
"Kung fu! Combat techniques!" Harry climbed to his feet. "I can't rely on armor forever."
Lin Hai knew Harry was right. Even Tony, as powerful as Iron Man, had begun practicing boxing after becoming Iron Man. Comic-book Tony had even installed martial arts systems in his armor.
He had originally planned to bring it up himself and have Harry study alongside Peter. Well, that saved him the trouble~
Peter patted Harry's shoulder. "If you really want to learn, welcome to the 'Beaten by Lin Hai Until You Question Your Life' Club. I finally won't be the only one getting beaten up forever. Yay~"
Gwen meticulously checked the data from both of their equipment. "The suit's performance meets the standards, but Harry, your operational proficiency still needs improvement."
Harry had no problem with that. One of his reasons for studying martial arts with Lin Hai was to improve his control over his own body, thereby improving his operational proficiency.
Lin Hai made the final decision. "Starting tomorrow, one to two hours of martial arts study and combat training every day."
The ever-elegant Harry opened his mouth wide. "I thought Peter was joking. Is it too late to back out now?"
Peter, Lin Hai, and Gwen: "No!"
That night, on a rooftop somewhere in Queens.
Peter stood against the wind in his brand-new suit.
"Now this is more like it!" He touched the spider emblem on his chest, then suddenly took a leap of faith—
Whoosh—!
Silk tore through the night sky as a red-and-blue figure soared freely through the concrete jungle.
In the distance, Lin Hai, Gwen, and Harry stood on the rooftop of Osborn Tower, watching through binoculars.
"Finally, we won't have to see him wearing that ridiculous pajama outfit anymore." Gwen sighed in relief.
Harry stroked his chin. "How much do you think I could make if I sold the Pajama Baby video to the Daily Bugle?"
Lin Hai began seriously considering the question as well. "Maybe enough to buy you another Nova Armor?"
Before you continue