A few days later.
Bant and Mary Jane were heading to school together. Peter had left a little earlier than the two of them and was already waiting for the bus at the stop.
Mary Jane smiled and said, "I can't believe you've already started a company, and you're still taking the school bus to class."
"I don't want to be too flashy," Bant said.
That was the truth.
He did not want having money to completely change the path of his life. Besides, Aunt May and Uncle Ben were still living in Queens. If his identity were exposed, the lives of those two elders would be affected too.
At the very least, Mary Jane's aunt would probably not even dare walk up and talk to Aunt May anymore.
As for safety, over the past few days, Bant had already been upgrading and modifying those steel robots.
With the intelligence of the Minicons and the help of the Transformers, that was not too difficult.
The original steel robots had been far too bulky.
Bant's main task was stripping away all the heavy, unnecessary outer armor that had only been designed to distinguish them from Iron Man, reducing their weight as much as possible.
On top of that, he removed all the heavy weapons mounted on them.
After all, Bant had not bought them to turn them into weapons. He had bought them to protect Uncle Ben and Aunt May, so those war-oriented weapons naturally had no further use.
In exchange, Bant installed all sorts of defensive systems inside them. The energy shield from before was naturally essential.
Besides that, the original ammunition had been replaced with medical packs, and their internal systems had been loaded with all kinds of anti-reconnaissance and medical knowledge, so they could provide emergency treatment at any time.
Of course, the ability to strike back at enemies was still absolutely necessary.
But again, Hammer's weapons were only suited for indiscriminate battlefield bombardment. They were not suitable for urban combat.
Replacing them with concentrated laser weaponry worked much better.
It made them lighter, more powerful, and far less likely to cause collateral damage.
The only problem was that the steel robots were still too large.
Bant could not have them following Uncle Ben and Aunt May around every second of the day, so he simply gave the two of them alarm devices. The moment an emergency occurred, the steel warriors would deploy immediately.
"I'm getting on first."
While the two were talking, the school bus arrived. Peter waved at them and got on first.
Bant and Mary Jane quickly followed after him.
The moment Bant stepped on board, Flash stood up as if he had been waiting for him and waved excitedly.
"Bant, did you go to the Expo? I seriously can't believe something like that happened. I heard Spider-Man even showed up!"
Flash looked full of regret.
He had never been particularly interested in expos, so he had not cared much about it at all.
But the next day, when the Daily Bugle ran Peter's photos of Spider-Man and loudly pushed fake news claiming Spider-Man had caused chaos at the Stark World Expo, Flash finally realized what he had missed.
He had missed a perfect chance to meet his idol!
"I went, but I didn't see Spider-Man. I only visited the Plamos pavilion."
Bant nodded calmly, then rejected the seat Flash had tried to clear for him by shoving Liz aside, and instead sat somewhere else with Mary Jane.
As of now, the identity of Plamos's boss was still a mystery in the eyes of ordinary people.
Just as Bant had said, he did not want to be too flashy.
Flash draped one arm over the back of his seat and turned around.
"Then you went for nothing."
"Oh, right. Do you know about Hacker? You know, the black Spider-Man. The Daily Bugle said Spider-Man called him Hacker."
He asked that with great curiosity.
"I've heard a little. Why?"
"We were just talking about it. Who do you think is stronger, those two Spider-Men?" Flash asked.
The moment he said that, quite a few people on the bus turned to look over.
Though to be fair, a lot of eyes had already been on Bant from the second he boarded.
Clearly, before he got on, they had already been discussing this question over and over again.
At that moment, even Peter could not help looking toward Bant.
In Peter's eyes, Bant was obviously far stronger than he was. It was not as if they had never fought before. But in terms of actual ability, even if Peter went all out, he was still no match for Bant.
At first, Bant had only been winning because his fighting technique was better.
But little by little, Peter realized that the two of them were no longer even using the same stat sheet.
Bant's strength had clearly surpassed his by a lot.
And in every other area, Peter lost out too. If nothing else, even the Spider suit had been built for him by Bant. Otherwise, he might still be running around in baby pajamas.
Even so, Peter still wanted to hear how Bant would evaluate him.
"Which Spider-Man is stronger?"
Bant was a little surprised, but it also felt perfectly natural.
Sure enough, no matter what universe it was, comparing combat strength was a topic people could never escape.
So he said very calmly,
"Of course Spider-Man is stronger."
Naturally, he meant Peter.
"What?" Peter clearly had not expected Bant to say that he was the stronger one, and a surprised expression immediately appeared on his face.
Flash, on the other hand, instantly looked smug when he heard Bant affirm Spider-Man.
"See? Bant agrees with me. As expected of my best bro!"
But clearly, the others did not share that opinion.
Especially Peter. He was confused about why Bant would say he was stronger, so he said,
"Spider-Man fought the Green Goblin for more than a month and still couldn't take him down. But Hacker only showed up once and took him down immediately..."
Flash cut him off on the spot.
"Shut up, Peter. Who understands Spider-Man better, you or me?!"
As he spoke, he proudly showed off the T-shirt on his chest, printed with a cartoon Spider-Man logo.
Peter: ...
"Actually, Flash isn't wrong," Bant said, taking over the conversation. "If you judge which Spider-Man is stronger based purely on power and combat ability, then that's way too shallow."
"Exactly!"
Flash nodded solemnly, as if he were some great authority.
"Maybe Hacker is powerful, and maybe Iron Man is powerful, but Spider-Man is the real hero. He's the only one who helps every New Yorker. While all the other superheroes are focused on giant crises, only Spider-Man cares about how your day is going."
To be fair, Flash really did understand Spider-Man.
That speech nearly moved Peter.
He genuinely had not expected Flash to defend him so fiercely, and it made him feel as though everything he had done all this time had been worth it.
Being New York's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man did not seem like such a bad thing after all.
"Peter, that look on your face is disgusting. Get away from me!"
Flash shoved Peter aside with a face full of disgust, then got ready to keep preaching the gospel of his idol to everyone else.
But at that moment, a hand reached in from off to the side and hooked around his shoulder.
Bant leaned over and asked in a dangerous tone, "Flash, where did you buy that Spider-Man shirt?"
Unforgivable!
Did they not realize that if the real Spider-Man had not received Bant's support, he would still be selling photos just to survive?
And yet these shameless capitalists dared to sell shirts with Spider-Man's image on them without Spider-Man's permission?
Outrageous!
They needed to be punished severely!
Hadn't people always said foreign countries respected copyright more?
Clearly not.
"Oh, this?" Flash said. "I bought it from Nike. I heard they're releasing a Hacker version soon too. Too bad they don't make an Iron Man one, or I could collect all the heroes."
Bant: ?
"Good. Very good."
He nodded angrily, then picked up his phone and sent Eunice a message.
Clearly, the other side had taken both him and Peter for soft targets. They assumed that masked heroes like Spider-Man would never come after them for legal trouble, which was why they were being this brazen.
By comparison, they would never dare do something like this to a hero such as Tony Stark.
He had not even gotten to enjoy the fame and profit tied to being Spider-Man yet, and someone else had already beaten him to it?
Death sentence. Absolutely death sentence!
The moment Eunice received Bant's message, she immediately began contacting the legal department to prepare a lawsuit over the company's copyright infringement.
Of course, later on he would have to find Peter and get him, in full Spider-Man costume, to grant him official authorization.
From that day forward, every single piece of Spider-Man merchandise would be released exclusively through Plamos!
After taking care of that, Bant patted Flash heavily on the shoulder and said in heartfelt pain,
"Flash, don't tell me you didn't know this shirt is bootleg merchandise? They don't have Spider-Man's rights at all. This is a serious violation of Spider-Man's basic rights!
You're Spider-Man's number one fan. How can you wear their shirt? This is practically blasphemy against Spider-Man! Do you really think Spider-Man would support a company that violates other people's rights?"
Hearing that, Flash froze.
"You're right!"
He immediately looked like he wanted to rip his shirt off right then and there, but Bant stopped him.
"You don't have to go that far yet. Just remember this: Spider-Man has already reached a partnership with Plamos, so from now on, all official Spider-Man merchandise will be sold by Plamos."
Peter: ???
He had no idea when he had ever reached a partnership with Plamos.
But in a certain sense, his Spider suit had been made by Plamos anyway, so whatever Bant said went.
Flash nodded, then asked suspiciously, "But how do you know that? Unless..."
His doubtful gaze swept over Bant.
"Unless you're actually Spider-Man?"
"I'm not. I'm really not," Bant denied immediately.
Flash did not actually doubt him much. It had only been a casual guess, like one of those movie scenes where the superhero is secretly by your side. He did not really think Bant was Spider-Man.
Still, he was very confused.
"If you're not Spider-Man, how do you know something that secret? What, are you the boss of Plamos or something?"
Bant: ???
Beside him, Peter burst out laughing.
The corner of Bant's eye immediately twitched toward him, then Bant slapped his own forehead and said,
"A friend told me. He just happens to be an internal member of Plamos."
Actually, when Bant saw Peter daring to laugh at him, he had originally been planning to tell Flash that Peter was really Spider-Man's personal photographer, just to shift the heat onto him.
But after thinking about it for a moment, Bant gave up on the idea.
After all, Plamos had already grown to this level. Even if Peter truly wanted to reveal his identity now, there would not be much to worry about.
Any criminals who wanted to strike at Spider-Man by targeting Uncle Ben or Aunt May instead, if they really dared try it, those steel soldiers would teach them exactly what overwhelming firepower meant!
And if some idiot decided to target Bant himself, that would be even funnier.
Bant would happily let them choose from the alien heroes stored inside his watch. Hundreds of customized ways to die, mixed and matched freely. Even the King of Sakaar would approve!
Still, fewer complications meant fewer problems.
Besides, the reason Jameson never printed Peter's name beneath the Bugle photos was not only because he wanted to keep hold of the guy who could always get Spider-Man pictures, but also because it offered Peter a certain degree of protection.
By the time the group arrived at school, they were all so stunned by the newly rebuilt campus that they could barely speak.
Midtown High had originally been just an ordinary public school. It had not been especially bad, but it had never been all that great either.
But now, Midtown High had become ridiculously luxurious. Even the front gate had been built to look like some kind of Arc de Triomphe.
"This is way too exaggerated, isn't it?"
"Oscorp paid for it," Bant explained. "Uncle Norman plans to transfer Harry here so he can attend school with us."
Originally, Harry had been attending a private school.
But Norman had looked at it and realized that so-called elite education had not really helped Harry grow. Instead, it was these last few months of spending time around Bant and Peter that had helped him mature.
Harry had been fully in charge of Plamos's phone business the whole time, and when it came to promoting the Plamos car, he had shown real talent as well.
Using the chaos at the Stark Expo as a stage to showcase the car's energy shield had been, without question, a clever move.
So after thinking it through, Norman simply decided to transfer Harry over to Midtown High so he could study together with Bant and Peter.
And since Midtown High was already being rebuilt anyway, Norman took the opportunity to donate a large sum of money, which also served as compensation for Connors, a former Oscorp employee, destroying the school.
Though admittedly, that money seemed to have gone mostly into the flashy parts...
Once the group passed through the front gate, they immediately stepped from that luxurious facade back into the same plain, simple campus as before.
"I can't understand this. Why would they specifically install an escalator for a two-story cafeteria, but make everyone climb stairs for a six-story dorm building?"
Peter found it ridiculous.
Bant, on the other hand, saw right through the issue at a glance.
"You innocent child. The leaders don't need to go to the student dorms, but they still have to eat."
"I just hope the classrooms have air conditioning," Mary Jane said. "By the way, Bant, now you finally have time to come watch us rehearse, right?"
Bant nodded and said, "Sure. And when you get famous one day, I'll have you become the public spokesperson for Plamos."
"Oh, give me a break. I'm not planning on becoming a star anymore."
Mary Jane shook her head.
She had once thought about becoming an actress or a singer, but she had already given up on that dream. Playing in a band was just a hobby now.
Hearing that, Bant looked surprised.
"What happened?"
Mary Jane said angrily, "Felicia told me that if those actresses want to get famous, barely any of them make it without powerful backing behind them. And the price is having to accept being exploited behind the scenes. It's disgusting."
She shook her head, her bright red hair swaying as she condemned the ugliness of society.
"That's easy enough to fix. Conveniently, I am powerful backing."
Bant pointed at himself.
"Miss Mary Jane, would you like me to back you up?"
Mary Jane rolled her eyes.
"Do you really want to support me? You're obviously just after my body. Tch. Shameless."
I'm too embarrassed to say it out loud, but that's exactly what you mean.
"Well? Are you willing or not?"
"Hmph. Of course I am!"
/-\
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