Chapter 11: How A Superhero Learns to ….
AN: Title Taken from the Scripts song Superheroes
Tony shrunk down everything again pulling up a final document recognizable to everyone there. He made it bigger and the silence grew cold and stony. "There's one thing that almost everyone had in common. Most the people I named, with a few exceptions were on the Project Insight list."
"They targeted every single one of the original Avengers. Of course the most important people in SHIELD, ex agents or otherwise. Most of our allies too. Peggy, Maria, Fury (though they thought he was already dead), May, an Antoine Triplet (the grandson of Gabe Jones), Rhodey, Sharon Carter, Jane Foster, Darcy, Erik Selvig, Pepper Potts, Betty Ross, even Bruce's cousin Jennifer. T'challa as Wakanda's heir. Then the Pyms and Scott Lang because of his infamous stunt as a cat burglar. "
"Then there's a few names not as recognizable. Nelson and Murdock were on the list. So was Luke Cage under his real name. Trish Walker because of her Radio show. Christine Palmer, one of the worlds best Neurosurgeons and her colleague the now injured and recuperating and missing Stephen Strange."
"Are we recruiting them too?" Steve asked at the last two names.
"No," Tony said. "No reason too. Strange is also a narcisstic jerk."
"Sound familiar," Clint scoffed.
Tony rolled his eyes. "But that's not the reason I brought up Project Insight. The list also had few interesting names. The ones that surprised me most were the children."
"Children?" asked everyone in the room.
"Cassie Lang for one," Tony nodded. "A few child geniuses and prodigies. A few had my special attention. That's why I'm talking to you about this now. I've kept my on this list and the names since DC. Mostly it's senators, politiicians, heroes, police, soldiers and the like. But this was one of the most interesting."
Tony sighed. He had gotten Peter's permission to do this but he was still a bit nervous about it. Finally he decided it was time. Tony zoomed in on Peter's name pulling up the picture of Peter's face. "Meet Peter Parker."
"How old is this kid?" Hill asked skeptically.
"Fifteen. But he's one of the most dangerous on the list. Especially to our enemies," Tony said. Everyone looked at him doubtfully. Except Fury. He was stony and silent. Then he spoke.
"If the kid is as good as his parents I don't doubt it. I've seen what you've been doing with him too Stark."
Tony looked at Fury surprised. "What do you mean?"
"Richard Parker was a famous scientist. I'm sure you know that. But you probably didn't know he was on the project that made Banner the Hulk. He quit a few months after Banner joined. His excuse was he wanted to stop travelling back and forth and stay with his family. In reality he brought the information to our attention. His wife Mary was one of our best agents."
"Does May know about this?" Tony asked suddenly. "Because Peter sure as hell doesn't."
"No one knew. But the plane crash that killed the Parker's sure wasn't an accident," Fury said.
Tony cursed under his breath. "I put the kid on a plane. Happy said he was scared out of his mind. Fudge. He was on a plane for me twice."
No one heard him. Steve was already asking the next question. He was hoping the suspicions he had were wrong. "Is that why he was on the list? Is he as smart as his parents?"
"Yes. Very. His IQ is around the same as mine," Tony admitted. Interested sounds rose from around the table. "But that's not the only reason he was on the list. The other is more simple. The kid's a natural hero."
Tony pulled up some footage especially familiar to Natasha, Clint and Fury. It was of the Stark Expo with Hammer drones zooming around. Then Tony moved the footage to a specific spot letting them see a kid in an Ironman mask facing down one of the drones. "This is the Stark Expo. He was no older than ten I think. But he tried to confuse the Hammer drone into thinking it was me. Most kids that age would have run."
"Did you know about this when your recruited him to fight Steve at the airport?" Natasha asked. The whole table turned to her.
"So he is Spiderman," Steve said not as surprised as he should have been.
Tony nodded pulling up more footage. These were recognizable YouTube videos of Spiderman. "I actually only knew Peter was Spiderman because I kept tabs on him from Insight. I thought there wasn't anything special about him besides his brains. But I found out about his powers a month before the accords. He only told me about the Expo a few weeks ago."
"It sounds made up but Pete said he was bitten by a radioactive spider. He's still not sure about everything he can do. He does know he has superstrength, somewhere in between Hulk and Cap. He can also stick to any surface. He never gets nausesous. Even when pacing on the ceiling."
Maria snickered at the idea.
"Super healing, super senses and metabolisim as well. Extra agility and something he calls his spider sense that warns hims of incoming danger. Plus with his brains he developed web slingers himself to swing across the city. It dissolves a few hours later. And some goggles to help him deal with his senses. I made a few tech upgrades when he joined up."
"You brought a child into this," Steve said finally.
"One who was already out fighting. In a hoodie," Tony pointed out.
"He's 15 Tony!" Steve protested.
"I know Steve," Tony said somberly. "I want him to stop. I've asked him too. I tried in so many ways. Then when he wouldn't I gave him the suit for protection. Then he went and took away all the monitoring protocols I had on there and didn't listen to my instructions. So I took the suit away."
Everyone looked at Tony surprised he would do that. Clint raised an eyebrow. "You actually tried to discipline the kid and take away the suit?"
"He actually stopped for a bit. Until he discovered the weapons dealer he was after was his homecoming date's father. Went after him with his hoodie outfit. Got trapped under a building and pulled onto the plane transferring things from the tower to the facility. That's what the dealer was trying to steal from. And Peter… he went without his suit, stopped a plane with a broken wing from crashing into the city, battled this dealer, then saved his life when he got hurt trying to get away."
Tony took a deep breath. Then he looked at Steve. "I took away his suit. He said he was nothing without it. Then he showed me. He showed me what he could be without that suit of armor. Peter was always meant to be a hero. No matter how young he is."
Steve took a gasp as he recognized the words from his first conversation with Tony. A lot had changed since then. But Tony obviously thought he had the same opinion of him. He wanted to make sure Steve didn't think of Peter in that way. He looked at the table around him.
"Peter lost his parents. Then he lost his uncle right in front of him days after he got those powers. But according to him he needs to help people because he can. Something about responsibility. And he's the reason I decided to think like that too and see the other side of the Accords. The reason I could come to a compromise. This kid is going to be a greater hero than all of us."
Steve agreed about the potential and ability of the kid. But he was still just that. A kid. "He's a kid. He can get himself killed. He might have the right intentions. He might be brave. But bravery comes close to plain stupid. You said you took away his suit. Why? I'm guessing because the incident on the ferry. People could have died."
"People could have died for any reason Steve," Tony explained. "Yes, Peter made a mistake. So have you and I. We learn from them. He has too."
"He's too young Tony," Steve said stubbornly.
"You're being to hard on him," Tony said.
"I'm the only one being hard on him," Steve said.
"Rogers is right," Fury said. "He's still a kid. But Stark is right too. Parker won't stop no matter what we tell him. We're not forcing him into this fight for us. This was his own decision."
"It's a much different situation then mine," Natasha nodded. "Or even Clint's. The kid isn't trained. But he's choosing the fight. And he's choosing it to do some good."
Tony nodded. "That's why he has all those monitors on the suit. FRIDAY is the Training Wheels protocol back up?"
"Yes, sir. The Baby Monitor as well."
"Baby Monitor?" Maria scoffed. "Stark you his parent or something?"
"It's to keep him safe," Tony squawked. "But that brings up the other part I wanted to say. Peter might have the abilities. They can get him through a fight. He has skills and he's started to teach himself. But he needs more training. In fact there's several kids out there with potential like his. Kids with the power, the skill, but not the training or help to do so. They have the potential to be the next generation of heroes, to become greater than us. Which is why I propose this…"
"The Avengers Academy?" Clint asked skeptically reading what Tony pulled on to the screen.
"Mostly it'll be the kids getting training from us. We'll help train them so they can be prepared for anything. This way when they go out, because they will and we won't be able to stop them, they'll have the training. We won't be around forever. Especially with this job. People will take our take our place. We can ensure that those people will be trusted this way," Tony explained.
"It still sounds like we're using child soldiers," Clint said.
Natasha leaned over to whisper a few things to him. He sat and looked at Tony. Then back at her. "We both were young when we started. You much younger than I was. I was already in my late teenage years. Why should we subject other kids to this?"
"Because they're already doing it themselves," Natasha told him. "Tony might be right Clint. Let's listen to what he's proposing."
"Fine."
Tony sighed. "Okay, so yeah. I didn't force these kids into becoming heroes. I might have had an impact though. Like I did with Peter. Especially with this kid. I know he was on SHIELD records after Extremis and the Mandarin. And he was on the Insight List too."
A picture of a teenager with shaggy blonde teenager appeared. He was grinning widely and covered in grease smudges. Tony shook his head with a fond grin.
Fury raised his eyebrow. "This is the kid from Rose Hill?"
"What's Rose Hill?" Steve and Clint asked.
Tony's face fell. "It's a long story. One that I managed to put Bruce to sleep with actually. And he's not easily bored. But Harley was 10 when came with his potato gun ready to stop the person breaking into his garage and workshop. Instead he found me and the suit. He helped me fix it, and then stop Extremis soldiers from destroying his town. Then he played my backup on comms while I saved Pepper. In return I gave him a state of the art lab."
"You gave a kid a lab?" Maria asked. "We didn't know about that part. That's stupidly dangerous."
"Not when these are kids like Harley and Peter. Both of them are smart. They understand how the suit functions better than almost everyone. They read papers people three times their age don't understand. Which is why I kept an eye on Harley."
"So why haven't we heard about this kid before?" Steve asked.
"Hydra came out. His name was on the Insight List. I moved him to be safe. That was the first time I saw him again. I still kept a watch on him. He and I kept in touch for a bit. But it was touch and go as we traced down Hydra and I created Ultron."
"Get to the point," Fury ordered.
"Like I said. Harley is smart. He's also determined and knows the workings of my suit almost better than everyone. So when he heard about what happened with Ultron he got upset. He started to create parts of his own suit. He didn't have the right tools, but it would have been successful. I've seen the plans."
"This kid created his own suit?" Natasha asked. "Even Vanko was barely successful with that."
"He doesn't have the full suit. Like I said he doesn't have the right tools or resources. Just working gauntlets."
"How old is he?" asked Steve.
"13. Very nearly 14. But Harley thinks he can protect the world just as well as Ultron or Vision. I had no clue about any of this. I only got the chance to call him up again after Siberia while I was on bed rest."
"And that's when you heard?" Clint asked.
"Kind of. We were discussing some science and mechanics. I told him that I was using his retroreflector idea for my planes. Then he told me he still planned to use them on his suit. That's when he made a stupid excuse and hung up."
"So you're going to let him build these suits?" asked Steve slightly furious.
"To be honest I would have given my suits and a lot of other things to Harley one day anyway. He's meant to be part of the Ironman legacy which is why I want him as part of the Academy."
Everyone took that in slowly. Then Maria asked the next important question. "Are you moving the kid out here just to be part of this Academy? What about his parents?"
"Harley lives with his single mother and younger sister. In a small town like his he won't have the learning opportunities his mom wants for him anyway. So when he starts High School next year it will be at Midtown Tech and Science. He'll be near Peter then. We're still figuring out where he'll live. Possibly with the Parkers."
There was another moment of silence. Then Natasha raised her hand and looked at Tony with a skeptical look. "Do you have replacements and protegee's for all of us or just yourself Stark?"
Tony smirked. "As of right now they're not really replacements. But I want Peter to be the Avengers Academy team leader. I was hoping Cap would be okay with that."
Steve seemed to think about that for a moment. Then he nodded. "I'm still hesistant about training children. But the kid was good when I met him briefly. He's got the potential. And the heart of a real hero and leader. I'm only agreeing because I can tell that they'll get themselves hurt without this training."
Tony grinned. "Good, so if Peter is replacing a mix of me, Steve and probably some others. Harley as Ironman then we need one more replacement. Like I said I wanted to start off small. Three students is good. Which is why I propose the last replacement or protégée. Kate Bishop, age 14."
Pictures came up on the screen of a girl in prep school uniforms and holding a bow. The last picture was of her in a feminine Hawkeye costume with other friends dressed as the Avengers.
"An archer?" Clint asked suddenly interested.
"And amazing at a lot else," Tony said. "Kate is part of a NY socialite family. She has no mother. Her father Derek is an a^^. He has a new woman never much older than Kate on his arm each week."
"And this girl is a hero?" Steve asked skeptically. "The other two at least already had proof of that."
"She's determined to be nothing like her father. But she has picked up a lot of negotiation, evasion and even a few espionage techniques."
Natasha smirked as Clint's grin grew even wider. They exchanged glances as the others looked interested and maybe a little even scared.
Tony continued. "This picture was taken at a Halloween party. Kate went as Hawkeye with her real bow and arrows. Her friends were the other Avengers."
"We're not recruiting them too are we?" Steve asked.
"No. Because Kate was the only one who took action when men came to take these rich girls hostage. She took down most of them herself so her friends and the other partygoers could run and the police could take care of the rest."
Clint laughed full out. Then he looked at Natasha with one of the largest grins they had ever seen on his face. Which was saying a lot. "You think we could be related?"
"You wish," Natasha rolled her eyes.
Tony ignored them finishing his speech. "As of now Kate, Harley and Peter are the only recruits for the Academy. I've already mentioned something to Harley about meeting others and getting training. Peter knows that too. But if Kate got a visit from her heroes to tell her about this I'd be happy. And you could probably convince Derek Bishop too."
Natasha exchanged looks with Clint. They both nodded.
"Good," Tony grinned. "Mostly these kids will focus on their own lives. Training will be on weekends or after school. We'll all help with it, but there might be specific mentorships too. I'm still working this all out."
Fury shook his head. "You've done a better job of assembling this then I could have imagined Stark. You're doing a good job with parker. Hopefully you will with these other kids too. Then you've got other heroes and people to help do the jobs you can't."
Tony looked surprised. "Thanks I guess."
"I'll be in touch. Tell me when you have all these people meet up," Fury said. "I'd like to be there. Until then I'm happy to see that I left the Avengers in good hands."