Chapter 25: The Suit Development
The workshop smelled like ozone and burnt metal.
Justin stood before three holographic displays showing different armor concepts, each one a failure in its own way. Too heavy. Too slow. Too complex. He'd been designing for six hours straight, his Scientific Intuition churning through configurations faster than most engineers could sketch them.
None of them were right.
"You're thinking about it wrong," Maya said from behind him.
Justin turned. She was leaning against a workbench, arms crossed, watching him spiral.
"Explain."
"You're trying to compete with Iron Man. Match his capabilities. But that's his game, not yours." Maya pulled up a new display. "Tony built a suit for aerial superiority and solo heroics. You need something different."
"Like what?"
"A tank."
Justin blinked. Then his Scientific Intuition engaged, and he saw it—the design philosophy he'd been missing. Not elegant like Tony's suits. Not beautiful. Brutal. Heavy. Built to take punishment and keep moving.
Built to protect others instead of showcasing individual glory.
"Show me," Justin said.
They worked through the night, Maya and Justin trading ideas while Ivan Vanko contributed reactor specifications. The design that emerged was nothing like Iron Man.
Eight feet tall when Justin was inside. Layered Prometheus Steel armor over exotic alloy framework—transmuted materials that his Scientific Intuition confirmed could withstand plasma heat and kinetic impacts that would shred Tony's suits. Three Vanko-type arc reactors providing redundant power, because single points of failure got people killed.
Integrated transmutation circle on both palms, allowing field modifications. AEGIS neural link for tactical overlay. Modular weapon mounts. And deliberately limited flight—jump jets for tactical mobility, not sustained aerial combat.
"It's ugly," Vanko observed.
"It's functional," Justin corrected. "Tony's suits are works of art. This is pure engineering."
"Is exactly right approach," Vanko said approvingly. "Stark builds for ego. You build for victory."
Maya was frowning at the weight specifications. "This thing is going to move like a truck. You'll never match Iron Man's agility."
"Don't need to. Tony can have the skies. I'll hold the ground." Justin highlighted the armor layering. "When aliens pour through a portal above Manhattan, someone needs to protect the civilians who can't fly away. That's me. That's what this suit does."
"When aliens—" Maya stopped. "You're still preparing for that invasion you won't explain."
"Yes."
"And this suit is specifically designed to fight them."
"Yes."
Maya studied the design. Then she nodded. "Okay. Let's build it."
The first prototype took three weeks.
Justin stood in his private testing facility, staring at the Prometheus Combat Exoskeleton. It looked like something designed by someone who'd given up on aesthetic entirely—all brutal angles and thick plating, painted matte gray that absorbed light instead of reflecting it.
It was perfect.
"Name?" Maya asked from the control station.
Justin had prepared for this. "Prometheus Combat Exoskeleton. Personal Variant."
Vanko snorted. "Is long name."
"Then people will shorten it naturally. Let the media pick what sticks." Justin walked toward the suit. "Besides, 'Hammer Armor' sounds like something the old me would have built. This isn't that."
"No," Maya agreed quietly. "This is definitely not that."
The suit opened like a flower, back panels splitting to allow entry. Justin stepped inside, feeling the neural interface activate as the armor closed around him. Heads-up display flickered to life, AEGIS's voice immediate in his ears.
"Good morning, sir. Prometheus systems online. All reactors functioning at optimal capacity. Shall we begin field testing?"
"Let's see what this thing can do."
The test began simple. Movement. Basic maneuvers. The suit was heavy—Justin felt every step like walking in concrete boots. But his Scientific Intuition integrated with AEGIS's tactical systems, and suddenly the weight became leverage. Every movement calculated for maximum efficiency.
He ran. Jumped. The suit's servos amplified his strength, letting him move despite the mass. Jump jets fired, carrying him twenty feet into the air. Not flight. Just enhanced mobility.
Perfect.
"Increasing difficulty," Maya announced. "Simulated combat scenario based on your... specifications."
The training ground transformed. Holographic enemies appeared—human-sized figures on flying platforms, exactly like the Chitauri soldiers he remembered from his previous life's movies. His Scientific Intuition had analyzed every frame of footage, extrapolated their combat patterns, and fed the data to AEGIS.
They attacked.
Justin moved like violence in motion. The suit's arm-mounted weapons fired—plasma bolts he'd designed specifically for organic-armored targets. The first holographic Chitauri disintegrated. Then three more appeared behind him.
The suit's tactical overlay showed their positions instantly. Justin spun, servos screaming, and caught one with an armored fist that would have pulverized human bone. The hologram flickered out.
More came. A dozen. Two dozen. Justin held his ground, using the suit's mass as an advantage. Where Tony's suits danced, Justin's suit anchored. He became a fortress, weapons blazing, armor absorbing hits that registered on his HUD but didn't compromise functionality.
A simulated Leviathan appeared—the massive flying organic ship-creatures that would pour through the portal. Justin's plasma weapons were useless against something that size. But his transmutation circles weren't.
He pressed both palms to the ground.
Geometric patterns erupted across the concrete, glowing bright. The floor reshaped itself, concrete transmuting into improvised spikes that erupted upward, skewering the holographic Leviathan. The simulation declared it destroyed.
Maya's voice crackled through comms. "That was supposed to be impossible. The test didn't account for you modifying the environment."
"The real battle won't account for limitations either." Justin deactivated the transmutation circles, feeling the void marks burn beneath his armor. Worth it. "Continue. Maximum difficulty."
The next wave came harder. Faster. More enemies. The suit took damage—armor cracking under sustained assault, warnings flashing across his HUD. But Justin's regeneration factor meant he could take risks. An energy blast that shorted out his left arm's weapon? He'd heal from the electrical feedback. Shrapnel that penetrated to his actual body? Already closing.
And when armor failed completely, when the Prometheus Steel cracked under impossible stress, he used the transmutation circles to field-repair. Scavenged metal from destroyed enemies. Concrete from the floor. Whatever materials were available, reshaped on the fly into patches that kept him fighting.
Thirty minutes of sustained combat. The suit was falling apart. Justin was bleeding inside it, his regeneration working overtime. But he was still standing. Still fighting.
Still winning.
"Simulation complete," AEGIS announced. "Performance exceeded all projected parameters. However, sir, I must note that you sustained injuries that would have killed a normal pilot three times over."
Justin climbed out of the wreckage of his armor, his body already healing. Maya was staring at him with something between awe and horror.
"You're insane," she said.
"I'm prepared." Justin looked at the destroyed prototype. "This works. The design is sound. We build a production model, reinforce the weak points, and we'll have something that can hold a position against anything."
"Anything," Maya repeated. "Including flying alien warships and an invasion force you won't explain."
"Especially those."
Vanko approached, examining the damage. "Stark's suits would have failed catastrophically. Pilot dead. But yours? Yours keeps fighting. Is good philosophy. Brutal, but good."
Justin reviewed the combat footage on his tablet. The suit looked primitive compared to Iron Man's sleek designs—no elegance, no art. Just brutal efficiency.
But when the invasion came, when thousands of aliens poured through that portal, Tony would be in the sky doing what he did best.
And Justin would be on the ground, holding the line, protecting the people who couldn't fly away.
Different tools for different jobs.
"Build the production model," Justin said. "I want it ready in three months."
"Three months?" Maya's voice rose. "Justin, this is cutting-edge technology. The kind that usually takes years—"
"We don't have years. We have three months, maybe less." Justin met her eyes. "Trust me on this, Maya. We need to be ready."
She held his gaze for a long moment. Then nodded. "Three months. But you're explaining why when this is over."
"Deal."
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