For high school sophomores, the first day of school held no special allure. Everyone found it far more productive to stay busy with Homecoming preparations. Peter and the others, however, headed toward the new Web Base after classes ended.
The old Web Base had been destroyed during Doctor Octopus's invasion when Dr. Jonathan was abducted. Furthermore, too many people knew its location. Norman Osborn had generously planned to rebuild a base, but this time, he wasn't the direct owner. The base's official designation was moved from Harry's mother Emily's research project to a different entity, while the foundation itself was personally overseen by Norman.
Osborn Tech had now begun to push many of the scientific research projects left behind by Harry's mother on a large scale.
"So, the Web Base's new address moved from your old man's place to your father-in-law's."
The three of them took the subway together and arrived near the new base. This location was a familiar one—it was the same dock where they had fought Riot and the others during the Symbiote tide. A warehouse there had been leased by "The Vulture," Adrian Toomes.
Well, strictly speaking, in this universe, he had never actually been the Vulture, so it was better just to call him Mr. Toomes.
Due to the abrupt downfall of A.I.M., Adrian had found himself in a state of confusion and dread for a month or two, as the company collapsed before he could even spend the money he'd been given. Later, he realized that no person or department was coming to reclaim the funds. Consequently, he took advantage of the area's reconstruction to lease a new, inexpensive warehouse as a base for his new projects.
Moreover, this base actually involved investments from Stark, Osborn, S.H.I.E.L.D., and even Peter himself.
Tony simply spent a little money to prevent a capable man from turning into a villain. Norman, of course, did it for his son's sake. Peter's situation was slightly more complex; it wasn't convenient for him to use the various Spider-Man merchandise royalties to improve his family's life due to the risk of his identity being discovered, and Uncle Ben had expressed that there was no need for it anyway.
A significant portion of the money was donated by Peter to F.E.A.S.T., but he planned to use another portion for equipment upgrades. Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Connors were experts in scientific research, but they weren't particularly skilled as engineers.
Peter didn't know many engineers. Tony wouldn't mind upgrading Spider-Man's gear, but it would undoubtedly be done in an Iron Man style. Shocker was currently locked up in the mansion prison; even if he weren't, Peter didn't quite trust him given the explosive power of the Shocker gauntlets, let alone the fact that they weren't that close.
To find someone relatively trustworthy, not managed by S.H.I.E.L.D., and easy to protect (or monitor), Adrian Toomes was indeed the most suitable candidate for the job. Furthermore, he didn't know Peter was Spider-Man; he only knew he was building equipment for Spider-Man and didn't even realize the Web Base was located beneath his own warehouse. (The entrance wasn't even inside the warehouse.)
As for S.H.I.E.L.D.... Peter suspected they just wanted to have a finger in every pie.
"The 'father-in-law' comment is a bit much. Where's Peter?"
Harry, having muttered a complaint about Amadeus's remark, looked around and found Peter missing. Amadeus didn't seem to mind: "He went to inspect the goods as the client. He needs to find a place to change clothes, doesn't he? He might already be waiting for us in Toomes's studio."
As they spoke, the two walked into the dock warehouse bearing the "Toomes Studio" sign. Sure enough, Peter had already donned his nano-suit and arrived in the warehouse. Not only that, he was currently riding a motorcycle along the warehouse walls. After driving for a while, he landed on the ground, the bike completely unscathed.
"It's absolutely perfect, Mr. Toomes. My old base hadn't even managed to build a Spider-Cycle by the time it was destroyed, and you finished it in less than three months."
"It's not that complicated, Spider-Man. Anti-gravity devices are my specialty. Using them for shock absorption and wall-crawling makes it quite easy to satisfy your requirements," Toomes said while sipping coffee. In the back of the studio sat his proudest creation—the Vulture flight wings. Peter hopped off the motorcycle after his trial run, and Harry, approaching with a hint of excitement, asked: "Can I try it?"
"Don't even think about it, Harold." Only after saying this did Toomes realize his tone was a bit harsh. "Let me put it this way: riding this bike on the ground is fine, but if you ride it up a wall and then drop down, your body definitely won't be able to take the impact. Ultimately, this machine isn't meant for normal humans. Sorry, Spider-Man, but you all should know what I mean."
Harry sighed helplessly, and Toomes continued leading them deeper into the studio as he spoke: "Then there's these. The blueprints you sent me, Spider-Man, are fantastic. I didn't realize you were quite the engineer yourself. Speaking of which, with the Avengers' resources, you should have been able to handle these yourself."
"Yeah, but mostly it's a lack of time. Plus, we encountered some... situations before. Certain AI enemies. To prepare for cases like that, I felt it was better to find someone to manufacture some equipment using more 'primitive' technology."
Many of the blueprints Peter gave Adrian weren't for himself. Rather, they were items others could use for self-defense—such as web grenades or spider-bots that could be controlled like R6 drones. Additionally, he had found a large number of Doctor Octopus's octo-bot blueprints; with a few stylistic modifications, they could be turned into spider-bots.
On one hand, this equipment was meant to give the support team a sense of participation so they had things to do during Peter's missions. On the other hand, it served to protect them, as many items were well-suited for self-defense. Furthermore, Spider-Man wasn't just him alone; these things could be used by Cindy and the others as well.
And the surprise Adrian had prepared didn't end there.
"And there's this. A little something I found at a used car market and put together with the remaining budget. Maybe you'll have a use for it, Spider-Man."
Lifting the waterproof tarp, Adrian showed Peter his final project: a convertible off-road Jeep with a Spider-Man paint job and powerful shock absorption.
"A Spider-Buggy? Fantastic! But I'll need to get a driver's license... oh, I mean, I'll need to get a Spider-Man version of a license."
Peter, nearly slipping up, quickly added the correction. But hearing this, Amadeus whispered to Harry with some confusion: "Wait, does Peter have a motorcycle license?"
"No. Whether it's cars or motorcycles, he doesn't have a single license."
Harry shrugged as he spoke: "And besides, which traffic cop would dare check Spider-Man's license?"
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