Chapter 11: The Man and the Spider
Stark Tower Level 89 - Tony Stark's Personal Laboratory
Tony POV
THE NEXT DAY
I sit in my lab tinkering with some old parts. By now I've finished the Space Suit, the Sea Suit, and the Adapt Armor and they are temporarily in this room, but hidden behind the wall, before I transfer them to my vault.
The elevator door slides open and I hear footsteps in the other end of the lab. "Sir, Mr. Parker is here."
"Mr. Stark?" Peter walks around looking for me until he finally finds me, "Uh…hi."
I slap him on the shoulder and push him down to the chair next to me, "Hey Peter, by any chance do you know the atomic number of Selenium."
He looks a bit taken back but lets himself loosen his shoulders, "I think it's 34, why?"
I toss the scrap metal that I was working on across the room and one of my robot arms catches it, "Just wondering, I was thinking of making some glass parts for an Iron Man suit." I glance at him, "Are you a fan of Iron Man?"
The boy nearly falls out of his chair, "A fan? Of course! I mean, I've always been a huge supporter of your work but when you managed to produce a man-made superhero… it's just amazing!"
I laugh, "So is Iron Man your favorite superhero?"
Peter scratches the back of his head, "Well… you were definitely my favorite before… Spider-Man."
I turn my head, "Oh yeah… of course… I mean that's cool…"
"It's nothing personal! I've just met him a couple times: he lets me take pictures of him for the Daily Bugle."
I abruptly turn to face him, I knew there was something good about this kid. Maybe I could use him to get Spider-Man to join the team, "Really? That's cool… do you know who he is?"
Peter laughs, "He would never tell me that!"
I scratch my chin, "You know, you are a pretty lucky kid; you have an awesome internship with the coolest guy in the world, you're a genius, and you seem to be tight with that Spider-fellow."
Peter's smile falters, "Yeah, I guess." What did I say? Time to change the subject.
"So, do you wanna help me on some programming?"
His faces turns a shade of red, "I mean if that's okay with you, Mr. Stark."
"Don't be so nervous, Peter. And Mr. Stark was my father, call me Tony." I clap my hands together, "Let's get started."
000000
Peter POV
"So first, you have to decrypt the software to reboot it and then we are going to make some updates. This is gonna be going directly to my armors so if you mess up I could die in battle," Tony explains.
My eyes widen, "No pressure there," I mumble. Tony laughs. I sigh, Pepper did say that he could be sarcastically intense and a pain in the ass. But how could I complain? I'm TALKING WITH TONY STARK! And sure, I've met him when he's Iron Man, and I'm in my mask but this is real. This has to be the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. Uh, besides that whole super spider power stuff and being a superhero. That is also pretty cool.
I take a rolling chair and glide up to a holographic computer monitor. Taking a deep breath, I begin to decrypt the software while Tony is decrypting another.
"So kid," he begins, "what's your story?"
Where to begin? Well I'm basically a giant nerd that was bit by a radioactive spider and now I swing around the city at night like a lunatic in a unitard. "Uh… I'm from Forest Hills, Queens. I go to Midtown High school, where I specialize in the science program. I'm second in my class."
Tony rolls his eyes, "Blah, blah, blah… I knew all of that all ready when I did a full background check on you last night."
"YOU WHAT?!"
He shrugs, "Well, I had to make sure that you weren't one of Justin Hammer's spies or something."
I exhale, I guess he has a point. "Well… my father was Richard Parker, a founder and geneticist at Oscorp. But he and my mom disappeared eight years ago, and they left me with my Aunt May and Uncle Ben. About a year ago, my uncle Ben was shot during a convenient store robbery. So now it's just me and Aunt May and we don't really have that much money so hopefully this internship will get me a scholarship."
Tony was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth, "That's pretty tragic, kid. And believe me, you have my condolences, but what I've learned in life is that this is the stuff that makes you who you are. Look at me, for example, my dad was a dick to me and then died in a plane crash. If that hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't be Iron Man and the world would have been destroyed like a gazillion times. I'm not saying that I save the world on a daily basis… it's more like a bi-weekly thing, actually."
I smile, "I completely understand. With great power comes great responsibility."
Tony smirks, "You are a little poet aren't you?"
I shrug, "Actually my uncle told me that before he died but it's kind of like my motto."
Tony shakes his head, "You kids these days and you're catchphrases. You know when I was kid, we used to say things like groovy and ice cold."
"Is that back when you rode dinosaurs to school?" I quip.
"Hey! No one gets to make fun of my age but me!" After that we pretty much decrypt in silence, save for the Metallica music playing. After a while we begin small talk about sports (which I honestly have no idea about), science, music… All while having battles of witty comments. "So do you think that Pepper would look good as a brunette?"
"Um, I'm only 16, I don't think I'm supposed to be butting into your marriage."
"Yeah, but do you think she would be mad if I told her that?"
"Yes."
"But what if its true, you know maybe its to time to—"
"You should probably order the flowers and chocolate now."
"Hey! You're the one that just said you're too young to know about love," Tony argues.
I cross my arms, "Actually, I am in a very loving relationship with my girlfriend."
Tony's eyebrows raise as if he is surprise, "You? A girlfriend? I mean, no offense… but really?" I nod in pride. "Lemme see a photo."
I whip out my pro-grade camera from my bag. "This is her on the Brooklyn Bridge," I say and show him a picture of Gwen, hair flowing in the wind as she smiles at the camera.
"WHOA! For a teenage girl she's pretty ho—" I glare at him. "—nest."
"Nice save," I say. I scroll through more of my camera's photographs (a lot of them being of Spider-Man), "And this is us together at one of your lectures, her name is Gwen."
Tony nearly starts cracking up, "Wait. So she's pretty and smart?"
I grin, "Remember how I'm second in my class… well she's first."
"Wow, Pete you really know how to pick 'em. And a little competition is sexy," Tony makes a fake animal noise and my cheeks burn red. Quickly, I return to decoding.
