Chapter 9: Inspiration strikes

Peter wished he had a way to write down his ideas, as he paced back and forth on the ceiling, hands in his pants pockets. He had a lot of planning to do, that much was for sure. He missed his old Stark pad, a gift he had gotten to help him design new versions of his suit and help around at the tower… but it had been lost even before he ended up in Gotham. There was no way he would be able to afford such a piece of tech nowadays.

Well, he had less technology but at least here no one knew his secret identity and, to the people of the city, there wasn't even a Spider-Man yet, only a mysterious "unidentified meta".

He sighed as he remembered that the police had arrived just in time to see the worst part of the fight, when he lost his cool and lashed out in anger, instead of doing what he should really have done and go save the civilians. That probably had not been a good first impression, especially if violent mutants-… metas- were a common occurrence.

The shock and rage he has felt at Firefly's actions had overpowered him. Even during the worst parts of puberty, his temper had never caused him so much trouble. Ever since what happened after Mysterio's death, since Thanos came to earth, even, his emotions had become harder and harder to control.

Nobody had warned him that being a vigilante could have this kind of effects, and he was confused as to why it was happening to him. He did not want to change, he liked who he was before, a happy, optimistic teenager.

But now it felt like that he had trouble smiling and acting like he usually would more days than not. Maybe that was just a side effect of growing up, he had recently turned seventeen after all.

As he spun the thoughts in his head, trying to make himself feel better, he could hear Gotham move from the outside of his windows. Only a small part of his ceiling was flat and high enough for him to walk on it without knocking his head on the floor and, when he stood there, he could spot the sky. It was surprisingly blue that day. He couldn't see the civilians road but he didn't mind. He trusted his ears to warn him, now that his Spider sense was gone.

It seemed like, as he had to compensate with the ability's disappearance, he got more attuned to his basic senses. He felt like they were sharper, in a way.

He groaned, leaning his forehead against the ceiling. Once again, he had gotten sidetracked. Without a proper support to take notes, it was dreadfully easy for him to lose focus, always had been.

Understanding he wouldn't be getting much done until he set up a proper workspace for himself, Peter resigned himself to spending the money he had earned the previous night. He needed food anyways.

His dirty clothing did not seem out of place as he walked around the Bowery, ducking into a convenience store before anyone could stop him and try to rob him. More people were out that day, it seemed like gothamites did not stay cowed for very long and the threat of hidden explosives wasn't enough to keep them inside more than a few days.

After grabbing enough ramen noodles to last him for a week and some onions and garlic to flavor them, he got himself a notebook and some cheap pens. He didn't want to spend all that he had, but he did need a lot of supplies to start up his research and get himself a new suit. He couldn't really avoid spending his cash, no matter how uncomfortable it made him to think he might end up broke again.

Shopping in the Bowery was a bit like a treasure hunt, paired with a very dark version of hide and seek. More than once, not wanting to get into a fight and attract attention to himself, Peter ducked behind a dumpster or car to avoid being spotted by weapons carrying stranger. Most people here carried guns openly as a way to discourage others from assaulting them. The fact that he didn't most likely made him a bigger target.

Even if he had the money for a gun, he wouldn't feel comfortable owning one. He didn't need more ways to harm people, his body was strong enough to do that for him, whenever he lost focus or control.

A second hand blanket, simple plastic trashcan and some more tools later, Peter gave himself a small budget to find himself some new clothes. Thrift stores around there had a surprisingly large amount of children and teenager's clothes available and he was more than able to find some more cheap used shirts and pants. Carrying the plastic bags he'd been given to put it all in in one hand, he snuck around thugs and suspicious alleyways until he found his last stop of the day.

Soap and laundry detergent acquired, he managed to head back to his apartment without getting into any altercation, using the heights to his advantages by heading back to his favorite mode of transportation : roof jumping.

He opened the window to his apartment from the outside, having left it unlocked for that very purpose. He dropped his grocery bags on the desk under him, sliding down after them. The wood groaned but held, allowing him to hop down.

He should probably get a chair or a stool for this desk eventually but furniture tended to be expensive, if he remembered correctly. It had taken May many years to refurbish their New York home after they had to sell everything to pay for Uncle Ben's hospital bills and funeral. The fact that they still had to hand over their money even though he had died shortly after arriving at the clinic had confused his younger self greatly.

They had tried to avoid hospitals after that, afraid to be stuck with unfathomably high bills again. It had helped him out as Spider-Man, since it meant their first-aid shelf was always fully stocked when his healing did not always kick in fast enough for him to recover in a few days.

Doing laundry for the first time in a week was enough of a draw for him to make his way to the basement. He hoped not to encounter anyone, still more than suspicious of the kind of people who lived there if "No cannibalism" was one of the ground rules.

The basement was blessedly empty when he reached it. Most of the other tenants were probably at work, he suspected.

Peter looked through the small communal kitchen briefly. It was small but well equipped, with a microwave, two fridges, an oven, a teapot and several drawers no doubt full of more appliances. It would become cramped pretty quickly, though, if more than two or so people tried to use it at once.

A door at the back of the room led him to the laundry room. It had four machines, three for washing and one for drying. Once again, he was struck by the fact that the place would get tiny really fast with even a small amount of tenants in it.

Maybe the bigger units had more appliances than his. He still hadn't been able to estimate just how much larger those were but it wasn't like he could break into them to check. He'd just have to keep listening and figure it out from the sounds. It was good practice for night recon, he supposed.

Stuffing all of his new clothes into the machine as well as his blanket, Peter turned the thing on, grinning as it immediately started rumbling loudly. An ancient model, that one. It reminded him of his childhood. He used to love sitting in the bathroom and watching the colorful fabric spin through the glass, wondering how it would feel to be tumbled around like this.

He had brought his notebook down with him so he sat in front of the washing machine and set it on his lap, finding the nostalgia oddly comforting. That was a safe memory, with no pain attached to it. It was a relief to find out he still had those.

He started writing. The most important thing for now was for him to gather his thoughts into something more organized. A plan of some sort.

TO DO LIST :

1- ASSEMBLE AN OFFICE AND WORKSHOP AREA. 

- GET COMPUTER TOOLS done 

- GET READING MATERIALS 

- GET CRAFTING SUPPLIES 

- GET A SEWING MACHINE 

- GET A CHAIR

2- PREP A SPIDER SUIT 

- SCAVENGE THE IRON SPIDER 

- WORK ON NEW SUIT SCHEMATICS 

- FIND MATERIALS 

- PROCURE MORE SEWING TOOLS

3 - GATHER INTEL 

- FIND A MAP OF GOTHAM 

- IDENTIFY MAIN GANGS

- LEARN ABOUT VIGILANTE 

- RESEARCH MAIN ROGUES

Peter tapped the pen on his chin, trying to decide if he wanted to add anything more quite yet. This was quite a large amount of tasks already, but there was one thing he had to eventually think about, he just had no idea how to achieve it.

4 - GO TO COLLEGE

Going to university was an old dream of his, one that he didn't want to give up quite yet. He'd wanted to study engineering and computer sciences, back in the days, but now he wasn't so sure anymore.

Peter felt foolish, scratching up the last line, frowning. He didn't know what he wanted to learn, and he didn't even legally exist in this world as far as he could tell. Trying to go to school was pointless. Even his high school diploma was useless, in the end. It had probably been erased from reality too, because of Stephen's spell.

His financial situation didn't leave him a lot of choices as to what it he could cross off of the list. A sewing machine was out of the question right now, as it would need to be heavily modified to work on a Spider suit, and that required expensive components, on top of the original machine itself.

Same went for the crafting materials. Both the web fluid and the suit had many different parts in them, and each of them needed a lot of quality elements to function properly.

If the Iron Spider had still been intact, he could have used it as a base but, as it was now, it was pointless to try. Its back and boots had been lost to the fire, and several other parts of its body had been burned severely. There was no way around scraping it, Peter thought glumly. Every square inch of the outfit was filled with valuable technology and, from what he had left, he could probably make several pieces of equipment.

His hands started to move instinctively, sketching a few concepts. He could either try to replicate the Iron Spider and use most of its components to create a tech oriented suit, mostly made of metal with little other materials, or he could split up the nanotechnology and computer systems in between different outfits. That would take longer to craft, as he would need a higher amount of good, resilient fabric… but it might also be easier to produce, and each suit would be faster to finish.

The second option would be more expensive in the long run but could also allow him more flexibility. He found himself envisioning a fire-proof spider suit, one that could have given him a leg up during the Firefly confrontation.

Didn't one of the Gotham rogues use gas in his attacks? He could design a toxin resistant suit, with an air filtering system installed. He wouldn't be able to power the tech in the same way, but there were ways around it. He could move to batteries, either replaceable or chargeable, but that would be a bit awkward…

Kinetic energy, maybe? He did use a lot of strength and speed as Spider-Man and-…

Peter gasped, ideas flowing in his mind. A limiter, maybe? He scribbled down in the notebook, moving from sketches to equations to short sentences. The pages were filling quickly and by the time he switched his wet clothes to the dryer, he had several good concepts to explore.

His first instinct was to focus on his original idea, the fire-resistant suit, but his logical mind made him doubt slightly. Firefly had not been a meta and, with how beaten up he had been at the end of their confrontation, it would most likely take him months to recover, perhaps even more.

He needed more intel on the main rogues in town, find out if anymore of them used explosives and flames. If they didn't, he might have to push it back for later.

The dryer beeped and he yelped in surprise. He had been so focused on the suits he could potentially make that he hadn't noticed the machine had finished its cycle. Two hours had passed since he had first stepped into the laundry room, but he felt like it had been much shorter.

He wished he had more time before his shift to work more on his projects but, as he left the basement, he could tell the sun was starting to go down. The light coming in from the entrance hall windows had an orange tint to it, something a bit like gold.

He kept scribbling ideas until the last possible minute, wishing he could bring the notebook with him out on his deliveries. He wasn't able to see in the dark however, so it would be pointless as most of the roofs were only lit by the moon. Maybe a flashlight should be his next investment.

He had missed having a project to work on but now that he had his own private space, he would make sure to keep himself busy. He was a good problem solver and this town was, so far, throwing him off balance. That was something he would fix, and a lot of that would come from his designs.

For the first time since the fight, he started to feel like there could be a way for Spider-Man to adapt to this new universe. Thanks to the Iron Spider he had Nanobots and plenty of complex computer components to use, once he had taken them out. Now all he had to do was save money, get more supplies and tools, and make sure he wasn't kicked out.

As long as he kept his head down, everything should be fine.

Notes:

Based on comic Peter who makes a lot of his own specialized suits… I also thought it would be a fun thing to have him do.

Shorter chapter today cause I spent the day out. Already wanna start writing fight scenes again but gonna have to settle on spider suit rambling.