Author's Note: I have not been consistent at all. Trying to get back on track. I'll be updating very, very soon. I promise. Next chapter is already in the works. Things have been crazy for a while and are barely getting to a manageable point. Don't worry, I got this. Next chapter will not disappoint. In the meantime, enjoy!
Back in the compound, Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, and Peter sat around, bored. So far nothing had gone on. The two men had left the room right after they went in and hadn't been back for hours. The connection to the laptop was limited. For any useful information, the laptop had to be turned on. And for the time being, it was a matter of waiting. Evening was approaching before finally, the screens started beeping. Everyone got up from their either reclined or slouched positions. Tony raced to the screens to start going through the data as fast as possible. After a few seconds, he didn't seem happy.
"Billions of dollars worth of Oscorp and Stark tech have been exchanged under the radar. The cannon, force field generator, and a whole lot more we haven't seen yet." Tony kept scrolling through the list.
Peter crossed his arms, "So, if I'm getting all this, Stane is a bad guy and is trying to replicate your tech? That would explain all of this. But how would he get access to Oscorp?"
"Stane has a lot of resources. I'm sure he's found a way in. Now we just have to figure out what the big plan is. The problem is that whatever he's building has fire power. Major fire power. More than we have combined." Tony kept going through the files.
However, as the data went past the screen, it halted. Numbers started flashing by and eventually stopped. "What's going on?" Rhodey asked as Tony typed furiously on the keyboard.
"A hidden encryption. I must have tripped something."
The whole display went black. Then a snowy image showed up. "Iron Man. Spider-Man. I saw a security breach in my system and knew it had to be you two. Must say I'm honored to have two of New York's finest vigilantes. By now you have seen our dirty little secrets. Unfortunately for you boys, there is so much more. Too little, too late I'm afraid." The voice was heavily muffled and even Tony couldn't decode any of the image or audio. "Come play. I have some new toys I'm sure you'll be dying to see." The video blinked off, and so did the data stream. They were cut off. A blinking red dot appeared on a grid map of Long Island. It was there for a few seconds then disappeared as well, reverting back to Tony's normal screens.
"Oh man, and I thought I was bad." Peter remarked. The message was eery and sounded extremely dangerous. Naturally he had to be there. After all, who could decline an invitation like that? "Going downtown?"
"Oh yes." Tony got up and activated his armor.
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"Keep moving!" A repulser beam flew out, illuminating the area around it. His arc reactor and face plate, the only other light in the room.
There were sounds of more fire, and more lights went flying around. "I was just going to sit over there. But I guess I won't now." A cannon blast moved past Spider-Man, showing him for just a moment before hitting a wall.
Tony rolled his eyes from behind his helmet. When he and Peter arrived at the old subway station, all power was turned off upon arrival. They were greeted by enforced doors keeping them locked in with the cannon from days ago. This time, however, the weapon was shielded by the force field. It's power source? A modified sphere using Stark's laser harness technology, similar to the device used to create the living laser. With some help from Oscorp tech, the former harness was creating the energy it was originally intended to make.
This was getting really old really fast. Peter had nothing to rely on but his spidey-sense to dodge the potentially painful blasts. "Any ideas on how to shut it down?" It was going so fast, alternating between Spider-Man and Iron Man. Any time one would get close, the laser would fire at it.
"Working on it." Algorithms were moving past Tony's vision as Rhodey controlled the suit.
"You need to think of something and fast. I can't do this forever." Rhodey came in through the line.
"I second that. That last one almost took my head off." Peter chimed in.
"Working on it!" Tony repeated, still going through all the information, trying to make sense of most of it. The work was much sloppier than what he came up with.
A few close calls later, finally he figured something out. "Okay, judging by the upgrades in the power source, it looks like the fix in the instability is just a patch. If we can somehow get into the systems, I could probably take that patch out, causing the sphere to implode and shut down the cannon."
Peter nodded, "okay, okay. Good." He moved out of the way as a laser incinerated the wall next to him. "But, uh, how do you plan on getting through to the systems with that forcefield?"
Rhodey moved Tony's suit out of the way of a blast. "Almost there." Tony had nightvision technology integrated into the armor's optical systems. He was looking for a way to get that forcefield down around the power source. If they could get that sphere powered down, they could shut down the cannon and the field generator. "There! Jump down about fifty feet to your right and feel around for a doorway. Restroom. " Restroom meant mirror.
"Got it" Peter leaped through the air until landing on the ground. He still had to avoid fire, but once behind the wall, he was almost safe. He quickly traced along the wall along the beyond gross men's room and finally found the surface of what he was looking for. He made quick work of the mounts and took the mirror, as well as a few chunks of wall and ran out.
Tony was quick to retrieve the mirror from Peter and angled the mirror to deflect the beam, just enough to keep the mirror from melting. but plenty accurate to disable the forcefield. Once it was down, the light of the field flickering caught Peter's eye and the webhead launched the sphere to Iron Man who caught it and started editing the systems.
In a matter of seconds, Tony started getting the patch to reverse. Any alterations to the systems were being deleted. Fifteen seconds went by and the device shorted. Tony crushed the sphere into useless scrap. No one would be getting that thing working again.
With the power source down, the other two fields came down quickly. Iron Man's blasts were more than enough to get rid of the cannon and the generator. The threat was demolished.
"Nice work." Peter congratulated the armored hero. It almost seemed too easy, despite being nearly roasted. Kind of anti-climatic. But any master plan you could walk away from….
"Same. We don't make a half bad team." Tony agreed, following up the stairs. Melting through the metal cage was easy now that he had time. Spider-man and Iron Man exited the subway, getting ready to get home.
But it wasn't close to being over yet.
Cars flew up in fiery explosions. Alarms blared in every direction. Lights were flickering everywhere throughout the city. And it was coming straight for the teen heroes.
"We're not done." Peter stated, webbing up into the air to confront the explosions.
Tony took to the skies, not far behind.
Two figures came walking slowly down the streets, destruction in their path. At first neither hero knew who they were, but as they approached, they figured it out. There was a dramatic costume change, but the two walking down the streets were definitely newly improved Unicorn and Killer Shrike. Bigger guys, bigger suits, and much bigger guns. These hardly seemed like the same two idiots from a few months back. Tony's scans showed so much energy, it was tipping the scales. Oscorp, Stark Industries, both intertwined into two walking weapons.
Spider-Man perched on a street light. "Something tells me they're not here to turn themselves in."
