"The Plumbers?"
The moment they heard the name of a mysterious superpowered organization, the two youngsters, Harry and Peter, immediately got excited.
"Sounds a little like the Justice League," Peter said.
Clearly, our little Spider was a DC fan.
"One day I'll turn into a Kryptonian just to show you," Bant said casually.
Then he handed Peter and Harry each a Plumber badge and officially appointed them as Plumber members.
Peter immediately raised a hand and asked, "Why are we called Plumbers?"
The name did not sound very cool at all. Did being Spider-Man mean he was fated to be tied to sewers for life?
"Because Uncle Ben is a plumber."
Bant answered, "Like father, like son. You can pick scientist or plumber."
In truth, Bant was just following Ben 10's naming system.
"You two are junior members for now. Technically you should still be trainees, but Earth is short on manpower at the moment, so I'm making an exception and promoting you straight to full members," Bant said.
"Your immediate superiors are Magisters."
He pressed the Enter key on the keyboard, and a series of character profiles appeared before Peter and Harry.
Among them were Loki, Brunnhilde, Looma, Bill, and Khyber.
"They're all Magisters. And by the way, none of them are on Earth right now. Our Plumbers are an interstellar, universe-level organization."
"Seriously?"
Harry felt like his eyes were starting to spin.
Peter bumped him with his shoulder and said, "It's true. Later I'll tell you the story of how Little Bant helped the people of another planet overthrow a tyrant."
Then his eyes landed on Looma.
"Huh? She looks a lot like Four Arms!"
"They're the same species."
"Is she going to become one of my future sisters-in-law or something?" Peter scratched his head and asked. "I don't think crushing Mary Jane's or Felicia's head would be any harder for her than crushing a rotten orange."
"Shut up."
Bant smacked him upside the head.
Then Harry asked, "What about you? What's your rank?"
"Obviously I'm the Chief Magister."
Bant said it as if it were only natural.
At least for now, Chief Magister was the highest-ranking position in the Plumbers, the direct superior of all Magisters.
"Not bad. You're only two ranks above us."
Harry nodded, already perfectly satisfied with that.
"By the way, the identity of Chief Magister is supposed to be classified, so I assigned it exclusively to Grey Matter, who's got the highest IQ. The rest of the time, just treat me like a Magister."
After that, Bant explained the nicknames of the alien heroes he used most often, and told the two of them that when outsiders were present, they could treat different alien heroes as different Magisters.
"That's kind of a hassle."
Then he went on to explain the authority Magisters possessed. In theory, once someone became a Magister, they had the ability to take charge of an entire planet or even a whole star sector on their own.
Within their jurisdiction, they had the right to establish local Plumber bases, recruit branch members, form special squads, and so on.
That had Harry and Peter so fired up they were practically seeing stars, already fantasizing about the day they would become Magisters themselves.
The earlier you start drawing the pie, the better.
"So what's our actual mission?" Harry cracked his knuckles, eager to get started immediately.
"Don't be in such a hurry. You'll get your chance, just not right now," Bant said.
After all, out in the cosmos, there was still a purple sweet potato freak running around collecting the Infinity Stones.
Even though Loki had now been brought under Bant's command, Thanos's weakest army in the universe, the Chitauri, had not lost a single bit of its military strength.
If nothing unexpected happened, the Battle of New York from Avengers 1 would still take place.
Before that happened, Earth's Plumber branch still needed to gather a lot more fighting power.
"So let's upgrade your gear first."
With a wave of Bant's hand, all the character profiles on the virtual screen disappeared, and the rows of Spider suits folded back into the walls.
Then the data for the Green Goblin armor was pulled up.
"First of all, we're changing your codename," Bant said without even thinking.
Green Goblin. What kind of genius came up with that stupid name?
And as Harry himself had said, with Storm already being the first Green Goblin, Harry becoming the second Green Goblin did feel a little awkward.
Anyone who did not know better might think Storm was Harry's real father.
Poor Norman Osborn. Even after no longer being the Green Goblin, he was still metaphorically green all over...
"Got any suggestions?"
Harry did not care much about the name.
Bant briefly thought, since Peter was already Spider-themed, maybe Harry could join him for some kind of insect duo. But then he reconsidered. Spiders were not insects.
"No rush on the codename. We can think about that later. Let's upgrade the armor first."
Bant stretched out his hand and swiped across the holographic display, stripping away the Green Goblin armor's outdated functions.
"You're still controlling the glider with the button on your wrist?" Bant covered his face. "What if you can't press it? We're switching it to thought control. Relax, I'm not cutting your brain open. I'm just tweaking the helmet a little."
He modified the Green Goblin helmet so it worked more like Iron Man's, using weak electrical currents to transmit signals and control the armor.
"The pumpkin bombs have decent power, but you're not seriously planning to throw them by hand every time, are you?"
"Shrink the bombs and launch them directly... no, forget it. Better to just add energy weapons."
Bant muttered to himself while continuing to work.
In the end, he kept the classic pumpkin bombs, but added laser weapons to both forearms of the armor.
"And this too."
Bant pulled out several round discs.
Peter clapped a hand over his mouth and shouted, "Neurotoxin?"
"Relax. Weakened version. No lethal dose," Bant explained. "But because the toxicity has been reduced, it won't be as effective against enemies with thicker skin."
"Oh, right, Peter. Later on I'll add an electric shock function to your web-shooters too."
"And the glider... don't even think about true anti-gravity for now, but sonic boom capability might be possible. Oh, and what do you think of Shocker's weapons? Should we add those too?"
Bant kept operating away while Harry and Peter found themselves unable to get a word in.
Meanwhile, when George Stacy arrived at the crime scene yet again, it was no surprise that all he found was a giant burned-out mess.
By the time the firefighters finally arrived and put out the flames, all they were left with was a half-dead Rhino whose condition was anyone's guess.
Kingpin, of course, also learned through informants in the police department that every villain he had sent out had been wiped out.
Along with his fury came an even deeper understanding of Spider-Man's strength.
Even though Eunice had cut off all communications inside the factory later on, Kingpin knew perfectly well that Green Goblin alone had no ability to wipe out all the enemies there.
The only possible explanation was that Spider-Man had shown up.
After suffering setback after setback at Spider-Man's hands, Kingpin finally quieted down.
That did not mean he was going to let Spider-Man off easily, but neither was he such an idiot that he would knowingly charge ahead to die.
Spider-Man could wait.
At worst, he could just temporarily give up Hell's Kitchen.
At the end of the day, Hell's Kitchen was only a few city blocks, while the territory he controlled stretched across the entire East Coast.
As for S.H.I.E.L.D., which had been watching the whole thing unfold, the result was hardly unexpected.
A bunch of villains had kidnapped the very people they were targeting. That was like robbers ignoring a bank and choosing to hit an armored truck full of armed guards instead. If they did not crash and burn, who would?
"This teaches us a lesson too," Nick said.
"Bant Parker is not someone you want to mess with!"
Hearing that, Captain America deeply agreed.
He had interacted with Spider-Man before, and afterward had read quite a lot of information on him. He could confirm that the little bug was a decent kid, kind-hearted at the very least, and someone who would never cross the line no matter what he did.
But Bant was different.
With him involved this time, those villains had died horribly, and not the slightest room for mercy had been left behind.
Only Rhino had gotten a little lucky. His thick hide had let him crawl out of the flames alive, but even now he was only half alive.
Looking at the miserable condition of those people, Nick Fury could not help recalling the incident a few weeks ago, when he had tried to break into Plymouth.
That same sense of having narrowly escaped death washed over him again.
That kid really did kill people for real.
"You've all seen Spider-Man's combat power. We absolutely have to recruit them into the Avengers."
Captain America and Coulson nodded.
"If they stand with us, they'll be an incredibly reliable force."
"But on the other hand..." Natasha's eyes shifted slightly. "If they became our enemy, they'd also be the hardest to deal with."
"Then make sure that doesn't happen," Nick Fury said.
At that, Natasha rolled her eyes.
"Funny, considering somebody almost managed to make exactly that happen."
Nick Fury gave a dry cough and pretended not to hear. Then he picked up the stack of documents, tapped them neatly into alignment on the table, and said, "I'm heading out."
"Just wait. You'll see how I pull Spider-Man over to our side."
Nick Fury was brimming with confidence.
He had done a thorough investigation.
Unlike Bant Parker, Peter Parker was a simple, pure little virgin... boy, someone who respected the elderly, was not racist, and was perfectly capable of normal communication.
More importantly, he had fought side by side with Captain America before. The two sides could absolutely talk.
When the time came, Nick only needed to bring Natasha and Captain America along with him. Natasha would stand on Peter's left and offer him the tiniest little perk, not too much, just lower the neckline a bit and let a little lace show. Captain America would stand on Peter's right and show off his ass, no, his righteous heart. Then Nick himself would walk up, put a hand on Peter's shoulder, and say:
Kid, the organization needs you.
Done.
"Will that really work?"
Coulson felt Nick Fury was being a bit too shameless.
But Nick Fury felt no shame at all.
"It's a lock!"
/-\
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