Peter-Age 13

She was by far the prettiest girl he'd ever seen.

Her soft flaxen hair fell in a perfect curtain to her shoulders and her eyes always had a sparkle in them, as if there were tiny suns inside those orbs. She wasn't like the other girls in his grade whom were all only concerned about clothes and boys, she was studious. She even shared Peter's favorite subject, science. Her seat was next to his and it gave him an excuse to try to talk to her if he was having (err…pretending to have) trouble with the class assignments. Every time he spoke to her, his heart rate tripled and the speech function in his brain shut down yet somehow she didn't notice and talked to him the same way he'd see her talk to her own friends. He felt a giddiness build inside of him whenever she passed by him in the hall and pretty soon Peter couldn't deny it.

He had a crush on Gwen Stacy.

It was only natural that his desire to impress her bubbled inside him upon his teacher's announcement of the upcoming science fair. A flurry of ideas ran through his head from the lamest of ideas that made him want to facepalm himself to ones that were way too ridiculous to do for a school fair. But his dad was Tony Stark and Uncle Bruce was in town; they could easily come up with an awesome experiment that would impress Gwen and earn him at LEAST second place; not that he really cared about winning, making Gwen notice him would be his reward.


"Science fair? I thought these things didn't happen until high school…" Tony thought aloud as he read the handout Peter had just given him.

Peter shrugged and helped himself to some more spaghetti. "I've seen it happen in elementary school on TV."

"I entered one in middle school, but didn't even place, won third place in another when I was a sophomore, and got first place when I was senior." Bruce counted on his fingers and nodded at Peter from across the table. "You're a really smart kid and you have smart dads to help you; you're bound to get first place if not be in the top three."

"I already have an idea!" Peter blurted out. "I could make a bunch of paper mache volcanoes and use different household acids to see which one-"

"Too boring." Tony decided immediately and grabbed another breadstick. "You should have a presentation, project…thing on something more exciting. Something like…gamma radiation!"

Bruce shook his head, smiling at Tony's lame joke. "I think the world's okay with only one Hulk; we don't need miniature versions of me running around."

"I agree with Uncle Bruce but I still want to do something really cool." Peter sighed. "Something that'll hopefully impress Gwen…" He muttered under his breath, apparently loud enough for Tony to hear.

"Who's Gwen?" Tony asked.

"No one." Peter replied quickly, his face quickly turning a deep shade of crimson.

"Oh, she's a girl? You like her?" Tony teased, leaning a little closer to his son and raised his eyebrows up and down.

"S-She's just a girl in my science class who I talk to a lot…" Peter quickly shoved some spaghetti into his mouth.

"Is she pretty?" Tony leaned a closer to Peter.

"Tony, give Peter a break." Bruce laughed, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "He'll talk about her when he feels like it but for now, we just have to think of a cool project to do that's not overly complex and doesn't involve deadly radiation of any kind."

"Well we're doing a unit on energy and renewable sources and there's this thing I read about on the internet that seemed kind of cool..." Peter said

"Enlighten me." Tony commanded.

"It's a little weird though…" Peter looked at the ground as he put his plate in the dishwasher.

"Just spit it out!" Tony crossed his arms.

Peter mumbled something inaudible under his breath.

"Speak up!" Tony put his hands to his ears for emphasis.

"A potato battery." Peter finally said.

You could almost hear the cartoony record screech followed by chirping crickets. Tony raised an eyebrow and Bruce gave his nephew a quizzical look. If Steve was there, he would've given Peter a look similar to those of Tony and Bruce's. Was Peter joking? Are potatoes even capable of producing anything other than calories? Peter grabbed his laptop from the living room and quickly typed in something before turning it around to show his dad and uncle. Sure enough, before them was a webpage with instructions on how to make this so-called potato battery.

"We're talking about energy resources and stuff in science so I thought it was relevant and kind of cool…plus doesn't it just sound funny?" Peter smiled to himself proudly.

"Chemical energy converted into electrical energy…" Bruce murmured to himself as he skimmed the page. "It's an electrochemical battery, which makes sense given that it's a potato."

"But wouldn't the potato get baked when the electrons when the zinc and copper ions react?" Tony crossed his arms but then shook his head. "Wait a second…the potato is acting as a buffer between the two. I think I get it now, it's just incredibly weird.

"But weird science is fun!" Peter chirped. "Plus I'm sure Gwen will like it!"

"She'll get a good laugh out of it, no doubt." Bruce replied, still reading the webpage.

"So can I do it?" Peter finally asked.

"Why the hell not?" Tony shrugged before turning to Bruce. "Can you help him with this? I'm really busy for the next few days and even though I'd love to procrastinate, I can't because I have a huge convention coming up and I have to have something ready by then. Please Bruce?"

"Sure, I'm here for another week anyway; I'd love to help." Bruce nodded and rubbed Peter's shoulder.

"Thank you SO much, you are a life-saver!" Tony sighed in relief. "Do whatever you need to do but please don't get mashed potatoes all over the house."


A day, a trip the grocery store, a trip to AC Moore, a Def Leppard CD, and a half hour of digging through Tony's workshop later, the seemingly mythical potato battery was ready to be made. An LED clock sat before them, ready to have its new power source installed.

"Insert a nail into one end of potato, insert copper wire into other end, use an alligator clip to connect the wire…easy enough." Bruce nodded.

"Would it be possible to power Stark Towers on just potatoes?" Peter inquired as he hammered the nails into the potatoes.

"Probably not, these only produce one or two volts and this is a series circuit; we'd need a parallel circuit and A LOT of potatoes, probably every single one in Idaho." Bruce laughed and attached the copper wires to the other end of the potatoes. "The Ark Reactor is good anyway."

Peter picked up the copper wires and clipped them to the empty battery compartment in the clock. Sure enough, the numbers of the clock flashed on, proving that the mythical potato battery actually worked. Bruce chuckled a bit at the ridiculousness of it all but hey, it'll certainly make an interesting experiment compared to the other kids' cliché 'which paper towel can hold the most water?'. The scientist glanced at Peter, already working with a furious excitement on his poster. Spidey smiled to himself at the thought of finally making Gwen notice him as someone other than the-kid-she-sits-next-to-in-science.


The day of the fair arrived and the gym was packed with overly-confident kids that thought their lame experiments would win. Bruce sat next to Peter as Tony's replacement, seeing as he was forced to attend a boring business meeting that even he couldn't back out of and Steve was still away. Peter ran his tie through his fingers and shuffled his feet against the gym's wooden floor as he spotted Gwen across the room setting up her experiment with a blonde-haired woman, who he assumed was her mom. Gwen was professionally beautiful in her deep purple blouse and knee-length black skirt along with a pair of black ballet flats. Her hair was pulled away from her face in a high ponytail so Peter could admire the soft curves of her face.

"Hi Peter."

Peter almost jumped at her voice; he didn't even notice that she had walked over. Oh god, he hoped he wasn't blushing.

"Hi Gwen, what's up?" He smiled sheepishly.

"I just finished setting up my project; I'm really excited to present it." She nodded. "What's your project?" She asked as she peeked over his shoulder.

Peter stiffened as his mouth dried up. He had even rehearsed what he was going to say to her! Why did his brain have to glitch now of all times!

"It's a potato battery," Bruce said, saving Peter. "It converts chemical energy from the potato into electrical energy to run this clock." He ran his finger along the system as he explained.

Gwen laughed, showing off her perfectly white teeth and peter let his muscles relax.

"That's hilarious!" She composed herself after a few moments but her radiant smile lingered on her face. "I just took a few tadpoles from the pond in my backyard and studied how they react to different conditions such as cold water, room temperature water, water with a lot of algae…stuff like that."

Peter nodded his world-famous grin still present. "That's cool and could actually provide some good information unlike this."

"But at least the teachers will get a kick out of it! Well, I have to get back to my project, the fair's about to start. Good luck!" She threw him a small wave and jogged across the gym back to her project.

Peter could only wiggle his fingers awkwardly at her back before he hooked up the delicious starch to the clock.

"She seems like a nice girl and her experiment doesn't sound too bad either." Bruce whispered.

"She's an angel…" Peter sighed, watching her as she explained her experiment to the judges.

Peter drummed his fingers against the table as the judges made their way around the gym, growing bored from seeing so many over-used experiments from kids who had thrown something together last night. He glanced anxiously at his battery every few seconds and even muttered an impromptu prayer that he would at least place, despite not being religious. Unlike Peter, Bruce stood calmly beside him and rubbed his back reassuringly as the judges examined the class clown's experiment next to his. Peter checked the potato one last time before the group of bored teachers approached him.

"Mr. Parker, what experiment have you provided us today?" A portly teacher asked him.

"Well…it's a potato battery." He shuffled his feet. "It can be used as an alternate energy source for small objects around the house."

She scribbled something down. "How does it work?"

"The chemical energy in the potato is converted into electrical energy that powers the clock." Peter replied and tapped the clock.

"The potato is a buffer between the zinc and copper ions and even if they did react in the potato, they would only generate a miniscule amount of heat." Bruce added.

"Very amusing, Mr. Parker. It would be even more amusing if it actually worked." Another teacher said before they curtly moved on to the next experiment.

Peter whipped his head around and glowing numbers of the clock were gone. He checked the wires and the clips and even tightened them in hopes of making it work again. Everything was in order and the potato was fresh as well…what was wrong with it? Bruce let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

"I guess the potato ran out of power, given that it only produces one or two volts." He shook his head.

"So we hooked it up too early! Did we bring an extra?" Peter looked hopefully at his uncle, his chocolate eyes diming.

Bruce bit his lip and shook his head, unable to meet his nephew's eyes. "I didn't think of it…I'm so sorry kiddo."

Peter slammed his fists against the table, knocking his failed experiment onto the floor. "Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!"

"Watch your mouth, Parker!" The principal shouted from across the gym.

Peter growled under his breath and kicked the potato against the wall, his shoulder slumped as the winners were announced.


Peter almost couldn't look Tony in the eyes that afternoon when he told him what had happened. Tony was so sure he would place and he failed him, he failed the great Tony Stark. He imminently retreated to his room before his dad could even respond to his story and slammed the door shut, locking in his chagrin with him. Bruce and Tony conversed down the hall as Peter lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling and tossing a bouncy ball between his hands. Even though not too much work had been put into it, he still embarrassed himself in front of Gwen. He avoided her entirely as she carried her second place out of the gym with her experiment; he couldn't even bring himself to congratulate her.

"Peter." Tony gently knocked on the door. "Can I come in?"

The boy's lack of response meant yes in Tony's mind and he entered, taking a seat on his son's bed. Peter rolled onto his side away from Tony.

"I'm not mad or disappointed at you at all, stuff like this happens." Tony said gently.

"But I've never seen it happen to you." Peter said and rolled onto his other side to face Tony.

Tony smiled gently at his son. "Even I make mistakes and not everything works out perfectly. When I first built the Iron Man suit, if I flew too high a lot of ice would build up and I almost fell into the ocean because I couldn't move." Peter's eyes grew wide. "You know what I did? I learned from my mistake and fixed that problem."

Peter thought for a few moments, wondering how the hell an icing problem on a suit applied to a potato battery. "So the next time there's a science fair I should make sure I have extra supplies."

Tony nodded and ruffled his hair. "Exactly, learn from your mistakes and don't dwell on them. And for dinner I propose we have…" He clapped his hands together. "Burgers and POTATO fries."

Peter slapped his dad's arm in response.


Potato batteries are a thing. Seriously, google it.

I thought I'd do something a little more light-hearted and fun after Peter's brush with the Green Goblin and I wanted to feature Bruce so I came up with this. I'm fairly happy with this chapter and I'm sorry to say this might be the last chapter I post for a while, seeing as school starts in two weeks for me and I'm taking two honors classes and an AP class so my free time is going to go out the window.

This story has also been up for a year now and is my most followed and favorite story! Thanks so much guys, you have no clue how happy seeing review, favorite, and follow notifications in my e-mail make me. It encourages me to keep writing and it makes me happy to know that people like my stuff!

Also keep a lookout for my upcoming fic, Fallen King. It's a Great Depression AU when Tony is a successful businessman and he goes from the top of the world to the lowest of the low in a week and he winds up in a Hooverville with others in his position and they all try to survive the depression together. There may be some pairings but I'm not sure yet.

Enjoy!
~Yukihikari-chan