Eugene "Flash" Thompson shifted nervously as the recruitment officer surveyed his resume. Flash was in his last semester of college and didn't yet have any promising job prospects. This spring career fair was kind of his last chance, his eleventh hour, before the career ship set sail and Flash was stuck working some desk job that he truly had no interest in whatsoever. The pressure was starting to set in and, in the process, it forced Flash to swallow his pride a bit.

The recruitment officer peered at Flash over the top of his glasses. "You believe that you are a fit for the position?"

It took all of Flash's self-control not to cross his arms. "Yes, sir."

The man only hmmed before shrugging. "Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. Stark Industries is a peculiar place. Fill out the application and I'll make sure it gets to the right person."

Flash could have nearly fainted from relief.

One application and a couple of phone interviews later, Flash was finally called in for an in-person interview with the hiring manager. His arrogance out on full display, Flash stalked into the SI foyer, feeling for all the world that he practically owned the place. After all, he was a shoo-in for the position, and, once he was given a chance to demonstrate how truly brilliant he was, he could easily move up the corporate ladder, maybe even work with Stark himself.

Receiving his level one clearance security badge of the desk (and looking longingly at the level three badge on the guard's lapel), Flash made his way up to the third floor, human resources and development. The secretary who greeted him raised an eyebrow at his apparent confidence before directing him to a separate waiting room.

Flash smirked as he flopped into a leather arm chair, his legs spread wide and hands clapped behind his neck. This all was just proof that he didn't really need to network so much. Go to one job fair, talk to one recruiter and BAM! You're set for life.

Or, at least, you would be, if the hiring manager ever showed up. Flash's eyes watched the clock on the wall as the minute hand clicked closer the 9:45, his appointment time.

And his eyes watched as the minute hand ticked right on past, with not another soul coming to speak to him.

With every passing second, Flash's annoyance grew. How dare they keep him waiting?

Flash's head turned swiftly as he heard muffled voices outside the frosted glass door of the room. He stood as a figure made its way to the door, pushing it open. The secretary from before opened the door, her eyebrows scrunched together in consternation. "I'm sorry, Mr. Thompson, but due to extenuating circumstances, the hiring manager will be out of the office today. If you could call back at a later time, we would be happy to reschedule your appointment at the earliest possible convenience."

Flash's mouth dropped open. "You're cancelling on me?"

The secretary's eyes flashed dangerously. "Mr. Thompson, perhaps you are not such a good fit for our company after—"

"Now, now, Isabel, no need for that at the moment," a male voice interrupted the secretary. Flash and Isabel both whirled around to look at the intruder. Flash practically froze when he realized that it was the Tony Stark. The man walked up to them, his face set neutrally, and shook Flash's hand. "Hi, Tony Stark, nice to meet you." He turned to the secretary. "What was the problem? All I got was Friday alerting me to a disturbance in HR."

Flash gaped at the man. "You're-you're-you're Tony Stark."

The man spared him a quick glance. "Yes. Good observation. Isabel?"

The woman shifted and crossed her arms. "Jackson just called in, his partner got into a car accident and so he was needed at the hospital." Isabel shot Flash a decidedly deadly glare. "I was just explaining to Mr. Thompson here that we would have to reschedule his interview—"

Stark clapped her on the shoulder. "Ah, no need for that! I can conduct his interview."

Isabel flushed. "Really, Mr. Stark, it's no trouble at al—"

He cut her off. "Nonsense! I think I should be able to tell if this guy is a fit for the position. After all, my name is the company name." Stark surveyed Flash with an insincere smile on his face. "Mr. Thompson, was it? Let's go see R&D."

This, Flash concluded, had to be the strangest interview of his whole life.

Mr. Stark led him on a wildly disorganized tour of the facilities, one second leading him to the fourth floor of finances up to the twentieth floor for biomedical research, back down to the second-floor cafeteria. Along the way, Stark asked all kinds of crazy questions (Stark looked oddly proud when Flash said that Spider-man was his favorite Avenger and strangely disappointed that Flash's favorite programming language was HTML). Throughout the whole process, Flash's skin was crawling, as he felt that Stark kept him under unnervingly intense scrutiny, despite the man's apparent ease and relaxation.

Finally, Stark led him to the twenty second floor. With a dramatic sweep of his arm, the sliding doors opened for the man as he proclaimed, "And this is our clean energy department. The project that you will potentially be assigned to is found here, Thompson, improved industrial energy efficiency." The man glanced over his shoulder at Stark and Flash felt the uncomfortable sensation that Stark didn't know what to think of him. "I think you should meet the R&D head before we make any final decisions, and he's supposed to the be checking the programming on the new Stark Hybrid Car."

Pausing in the middle of the lab, Stark yelled, "Hey, anyone know where Peter is?" There were a few headshakes and shrugs from people around the lab before someone called out, "I think that he claimed conference room 3 as his lair today, Mr. Stark. You know how he gets."

The first genuine smile that Flash had seen all day made its way to Stark's face. "Yeah, thanks, Sully." The man seemed to shake himself back to neutrality before offering Flash that same insincere smile. "Well, let's get while the getting's okay, or however that goes."

Stark led him past winding lab tables full of holo displays and half-built prototypes before finally stopping at an opaque white door with a large red "3" painted on it. "Hey Pete?" he called. Flash started at how gentle his voice was. "I've got a potential position filler here to talk to you."

There was some shuffling sound behind the door, followed by a minor crash and a muffled curse that had Stark's eyebrow twitching in mild alarm. "You okay?" he called.

The man behind the door sighed as he pulled it open. "Yeah, I just tripped on that one chair that always—' The man froze when he saw Flash. "Flash? Flash Thompson?"

Flash's jaw dropped down further than what probably should have been anatomically possible, because that was no way that Peter Penis Parker was head of Stark Industries' Research and Development. No freaking way.

Flash was startled out of his shock when Mr. Stark literally growled beside him. "Flash? You mean that this is the loser who—"

Peter cut him off. "Yes. And I'll ask you to let me handle it." Stark gave a sharp, unsatisfied nod.

Peter rounded on Flash and, had he not been paralyzed with shock, Flash would probably have been trembling under his predatory gaze. "So Flash, long time, no see. How've you been?"

"Umm…"

"I've been great myself, my last research project on cheap, clean transportation for developing nations was been lauded world wide as groundbreaking. How was college?"

"Well, I graduated from the University of Michigan—"

"Oh, that's cool, I graduated summa cum laude from MIT, with double majors in mechanical and chemical engineering myself. So, what made you decide to apply to SI?"

Flash felt as if he were caught in a hurricane, his mind barely capable of processing the facts that he was getting absolutely grilled by the head of SI R&D and that said head was Peter Parker, who had apparently not been lying about the Stark internship way back in high school.

"Oh, um, I always wanted to work here—"

"That's nice. Onto project specific questions, what polymer do you feel has the most potential when it comes to clean manufacturing?"

"Can you—"

"Where does the division line fall between the efficiency of automation and the necessity of human employment?"

"I think that—"

"And how about bridging the appeal divide between big box chains and local companies?"

"Umm—"

Peter flashed Flash a smirk that was positively savage. "Well, Mr. Thompson, I'm sorry to say that I don't think you'll be a very good fit for Stark Industries. Just make your way back down to the lobby and we won't trouble you anymore."

Flash's mind was frozen, but his feet led him uncertainly to the elevator.

What had just happened?

Peter felt a smug satisfaction well its way up to his chest as he watched Flash leave. Gosh, he wished that he had a picture of Flash's face when he saw Peter open the door. He looked so dumb with his eyes bugging out and his mouth gaping open.

Peter looked at Tony when the older man wrapped his arm around Pete's shoulders. The younger man grinned. "So? How did I do?"

Tony had a very satisfied grin on his face. "You completely wrecked him, kid. Well done."

Peter laughed. "It was a very unexpected flash from the past, thought." He grinned when his mentor groaned at the awful pun.

"Just when I think that maybe, maybe, you aren't as much of a dork as you were in high school, you go and make an absolutely terrible pun. At least you aren't wearing one of those gosh-awful—"

Tony was interrupted when Peter grinned and pulled off his hoody, revealing a shirt that said, I make bad science puns, but only periodically. Tony groaned. "Of course you are."

Peter grinned, nudging him in the side. "Come on, you know you love it."

Tony's grin softened into a smile. "Yeah, I do."