I See Red
A/N I truly have no business starting another story. All I know is I'm restless and frustrated with my health and doctors so I just want a change of pace. I have been playing around in the anime fandoms for so long now they are like old sweaters, comfortable and familiar but just not what I need right now. They haven't been holding my attention like they should, and anything I've tried to write for them has been crap. I've dabbled a bit in the Marvel universe but I have never posted anything, so hopefully playing with fresh characters in a different world will help me break through my little wall.
As far as world goes, this is mainly going off the Marvel cinematic universe as it is much easier to follow than the many, many generations of comics. Though I have read quite a bit of Marvel and will sprinkle a few tidbits in, such as Hawkeye being deaf. For Spider-Man I remember the Toby Maguire ones vaguely, but to be perfectly honest I haven't watched them since they were in theaters, so I am basing my characterization solely off of Andrew Garfield's version plus a sprinkling of comics just like the Avengers.
The X-Men characters I am bringing in are Gambit and Deadpool, because of this I am automatically rating the story M, I think it may be barely possible to write Deadpool at a T level, but in all honesty I swear like a sailor myself and I happen to like his flirtatious personality, plus I'm a Sociology/Psychology double major in college so the whole insanity aspect is freaking interesting to me. I WANT to write Deadpool with the M rating in other words. As for Gambit, I am going almost solely off the comics for this one, I love his characterization. I prefer characters who are chaotic neutral or those that are more or less bribed to be good, and make it very obvious it is a choice what side they fight for. I think it makes things interesting when you really aren't sure what's going to happen from one issue to the next, otherwise it gets too predictable.
Pairings in this one are loose and flexible. I don't really want to write graphic anything, het or slash, so I'm just going to put a bunch of attractive flirtatious people together in a room and push some boundaries. People with delicate sensibilities might not like this story, but there isn't going to be any heavy smut, so overall this is a gen fic.
Chapter One
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Tony glared sharply at Fury, then pleadingly at Pepper, before landing a suspicious gaze on the lanky teen standing in his still rubble coated living room. "I don't remember signing up for babysitting duty." He grumbled. No amount of red and blue spandex could hide the gangly look of a teenager still not filled out, this guy was still mostly arms and legs, though his vigilante work had given him nicely muscled shoulders and a strong core, it didn't cancel out the basic biology of being not quite full grown.
"And I didn't sign up for the old folk's home," The new guy shot back, his voice strong and clear, even through the mask covering his face. Though the tone still sounded young, very young, definitely a kid under all that spandex to Tony's horror.
"Stark, behave yourself." Fury warned, not bothering to correct the teen which just made Tony more irritated, which was Fury's goal actually. "Spider-Man here needs a place to stay while his Aunt recovers in the hospital from the injuries sustained in the Chitauri invasion while her nephew was helping us, call it payment for services rendered."
"I get that," Tony defended, "But why here?" He whined.
"Where else do you suggest we house him? Thanks to that damn Daily Bugle, a good portion of New York thinks he's one step shy of Loki, so suck it up Stark and get a guest room ready." Fury demanded, staring down Iron-Man even as Pepper tapped away on her tablet, updating the security protocols on the Tower to recognize Spider-Man as an occupant.
Tony glowered, knowing he'd lost this battle the moment Pepper had gotten involved. She was always trying to make him more responsible. That whole puppy incident was her idea, though he did have to admit she had chosen wisely as the dog neither shed nor barked too much, but as Shih Tzus were little more than living rugs, there really wasn't much he could do with it and the money gained from the charity auction had funded his Candyland laboratory for a month and the little girl whose parents had won the puppy in the auction had looked pleased with the dog if a little spoiled in the riding frock was anything to go by.
"Do I at least get to know the kid's name?" Tony burst out, running a hand through his already messy hair and stalking towards his fully stocked bar. First aliens, and now arachnids, what did he ever do to the letter a to make it hate him?
Fury smirked and spared a glance at the stubbornly silent vigilante next to him, "That's actually a good question, maybe he'll tell you what he wouldn't tell us."
Tony jerked his head up and spun around, nothing but sheer practice preventing him from spilling the amber contents of his short glass all over himself, "Wait, there is actually something SHIELD doesn't know about him? And you're okay with this?"
Fury just shrugged. "Unlike some other people in the room, anonymity is something he worked very hard to achieve."
"So you just want me to open up my tower to some dorky kid in a mask without knowing a thing about him, and be perfectly fine with this?" Tony demanded incredulously, downing about two shots worth of scotch at once, letting the burn take the edge off his rage. He needed that, and was sorely tempted to pour himself another, but it wasn't even two yet and Pepper was still in the room. She would filet him if he so much as touched the bottle again before the sun went down.
"I'm not a dork!" Spider-Man defended himself once the tirade seemed to ebb for a moment, "Geek maybe, but not a dork."
Tony just raised an eyebrow at him, "Oh really? Then what's the difference?" When silence was the only answer, his lips curled up into a smirk. "Thought so. Please, just tell me you're not a minor and I'll feel a lot better about this." More silence, and actually three heads turned to look at the suited up superhuman.
Peter was glad for the mask, because his face was an identical bright red at the moment, "Ah about that, not so much, I'm seventeen."
"You have got to be kidding!" Tony protested, pinching the ridge between his eyes, not wanting to look at Fury on the off chance he got the crazy urge to punch him… again. He wasn't sure he could stop himself this time. "You really are making me babysit!"
"Hey! I've had my abilities for longer than you've had the suit!" Peter protested, getting irritated with all the slights. "Look I'm young, I get it, but I've been at this for a few years now. Quit discounting me just because of how old I am alright? I'll be gone just as soon as Aunt May is better, and really is it such a surprise I'm not eighteen yet? If I wasn't a minor I wouldn't need to ask for a place to stay I could just go home, but I can't. Sorry it's such a freaking inconvenience for everyone."
"Don't listen to him," Pepper advised, trying to diffuse the situation. "I don't see there being any problem with giving you a place to stay for a while, even with the damage caused by the battle we still have plenty of rooms. May I ask what happened to your Aunt? That way we can prepare for how long you may be with us."
"She was shot by one of the Chitauri," He reported, his rage obvious with every clipped word, "My Aunt is a nurse and after I left to help fight off the invasion she went to help the people evacuating. They didn't like that she was giving people hope and tried to take her away, I managed to get back in time to deflect the shot so it didn't kill her but the hospital said it will take a few weeks to heal up. The guns the Chitauri used, they didn't fire normal bullets and the wounds don't heal like a typical gunshot."
"We kept at least one of every kind of gun we found, Bruce and I are running every test we can think of on them; this aside from what SHIELD itself is doing with the ones they took from the battle." Tony spoke slowly with his eyes narrowing on the fuming teen. "Ever since the battle with the Lizard I've kept an eye on you, can't say I'm thrilled to have you dropped on my door step but if you're here you will make yourself useful. Do that and we just might be able to heal your Aunt and the others that were shot with a Chitauri weapon a little faster. That's the goal anyway."
"You want me to help in the lab?" This time only two people showed genuine surprise at the sheer thrill in the young voice, as Fury was not in any way shocked.
"Don't get too worked up kid, as long as you can tell the difference between 1/16 and 1/32 we can use you. I never said you would actually touch any of the weapons. That is a whole new level of clearance you just don't have. Tell him One-Eye, someone doesn't have a permission slip for this ride." Tony just wanted a gopher, the idea of the teen doing anything more than handing them screwdrivers and brewing coffee drove him dangerously close to an aneurysm.
Fury glanced at Peter again, the indignation rising off him like a cloud, "You should show him what you have on your wrist." He advised calmly; showing was worth more than telling when it came to Iron Man.
"This is getting ridiculous," Peter grumbled as he released the web shooter from his left wrist; leaving the one on his dominant hand just in case.
Tony caught the small object easily before inspecting it carefully. "I take it you built this or there wouldn't have been any point in showing me, so straight to the point then. How long ago did you make this?"
"This pair is about six months old, but the original design is from two years ago." Peter admitted, a touch of pride entering his voice. "I haven't really messed with the design much since then because they work great."
"We'll just have to see about that," Tony tried to keep the excitement out of his voice, but at the very least Pepper heard it and Fury suspected that the young Spider just earned a little respect.
Tony Stark had once turned a box of scraps into an arc reactor to save his own hide, now this skinny little kid had turned what looked like a pile of spare parts and an old watch into a sophisticated device that effectively turned New York into his own personal jungle gym. Not bad. For an amateur anyway.
He turned the web shooter over and saw the silver cartridge loaded inside, "I figured your webbing wasn't coming from you personally, so what is it?" Every news cast of Spider-Man made sure to get a good long look at him swinging from building to building, somehow managing to look graceful dangling from the end of the thin strands even if he happened to have rounds of bullets flying at him, so not hard to guess what was in the canister.
"Originally it was a bio-cable bought from Oscorp." Peter answered promptly, seeing no need to lie. "My girlfriend works there and she ran a sample of it with their equipment so I can synthesize it myself now instead of having to mail order it all the time. I was afraid the regular order would give me away and I didn't want to resort to stealing. Despite what the news says I'm not a criminal."
"You did copy the formula of what has to be a patented product though," Tony pointed out, but considering his grin he didn't seem to care this his biggest rival in the science industry was missing out on a regular sale. "That is beyond the grey side of legal, and you know it."
"Actually, I didn't copy the exact formula. I kinda used it as a base and played around with it until I made it my own thing." Peter admitted. "Still not exactly legal, but better than straight up taking it I guess. Plus, it would be nearly impossible to reproduce the real thing, not unless I wanted to herd a gigantic hive of large radioactive spiders; which -despite my name- trust me, I do not."
"And when in the Hell did you manage that!?" Tony was even less able to hold in his shock this time around, and the excitement that had sparked with seeing the webshooters was growing as he realized this kid had potential beyond punching muggers in back alleys; that's what Cap was for.
"I didn't manage a stable version until a year ago, I considered it my sweet sixteen present," Peter responded with a shrug. "I'm decent at engineering and physics, but better at biology and chemistry."
Tony glanced down at the homemade contraption in his hand and felt a little thrill; if this was decent, what was better? "Okay, so maybe this might not be so bad." He grudgingly admitted.