Epilogue
Peter Parker Stark-Rogers stood at the podium as his mother and father stood behind him.
He was terrified, to say in the least. It had been a few days since the news had broken, and his parents had been working like crazy to clear up all the confusion. And while he may have been mostly covered on the legal front, there was still the perception of the rest of the world that had yet to be cleared.
His mom had told him to stay away from social media, but it was hard. He was a teenager, and he'd lived on the internet. His friends all interacted with him on the internet. And now he was supposed to just not open up Instagram or Twitter so he wouldn't see what the world was saying by accident?
He'd gotten a few peaks here and there, and it was very clear to him why his mother had asked him to stay away.
Because the world was not being kind to him.
MJ and Ned had texted him, saying that they were behind him one hundred percent and would testify if need be. And surprisingly enough, even Flash seemed to be on his side? The guy seemed shaken to find out that his hero was the same kid he bullied, but he told Peter that he was behind him, one hundred percent.
His mother was the first to speak, wanting to make her own statements and control the press before he was given a chance to do so. He hadn't done many of these conferences before, shy of when he was adopted.
"Hello, and thank you all for coming," Toni said, as she looked out at the room, "I'm sure all of you have a lot of questions, however I'd like to go by the same rules I always do. We'll say our piece and then answer questions. I'd also like to remind you that Peter is a minor, so please keep your comments of an appropriate nature."
His father placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and Peter had to do everything in his power to steady himself so his shaking wouldn't be visible.
"I want to start off by taking about something that happened in 2016. As you know, part of the provisions for James Buchanan Barnes' freedom was that he'd have the HYDRA conditioning removed from his head. And as part of that work, myself, Bruce Banner, and Ava Carter-Sousa worked on technology known as Binary Augmented Retro-Framing. Technology that was meant to allow the user to relive through certain memories by projecting it around them, and making the user feel as if they were fully emersed in the memory. I presented this to a group of graduates at MIT back in 2016," she told the room, who seemed to be a bit confused.
"At the time, I wanted to roll out the technology to veterans and other survivors who experienced PTSD, as it would be a method to be able to help treat it. As such, I had a team working on creating applications with the patent me, Doctor Banner, and Doctor Carter-Sousa had filed, with assistance from Doctor Stephen Strange. However, an employee at our company was unhappy with how we were choosing to use the technology and wanted to take the technology to other companies. For this and other reasons, we let that individual go, since he would be breaching an NDA and breaking our patented agreements if he had. That individual was known as Quentin Beck."
Murmurs immediately began to fill the room, and she silenced them all, "Yes. The same Quentin Beck who was also known as 'Mysterio'. Mysterio was not a superhero from another reality, who came here to defeat the Elementals. While I am certain the multiverse may in fact exist, this Beck was the same one who I'd let go from my company. And he'd taken the technology he'd briefly worked on at my company to create the very Elementals he claimed to defeat. You see, by leveraging my BARF technology, he was able to create the very Elementals that you all saw destroy the cities and he fought against to defeat. There never were any Elementals. All of them were just heavily advanced augmented reality, through the use of drones and projections."
She nodded at Peter, and he pressed a button on the drone that he and MJ had captured that day, bringing up the same vision of the Wind Elemental that they'd seen in Prague on the bridge.
Gasps emerged from the audience, as chatter began.
"How do we even know that any of this is true, and not just something you're telling us to help cover your son's tracks?" J Jonah Jameson said, as he stood up from the crowd. "You clearly have the means and technology to do so."
"I'll remind you what I said about keeping all questions until the end," Toni said as she glared at the man. She'd been especially furious with him over the statements he'd been making. "However, all of this has been discussed with the FBI. Ms Potts-Rhodes has been filing the necessary paperwork to show the breach in our technology. I was also on the Tower bridge that day, and I submitted unaltered footage from my own suit, as well as Peter's suit. We also removed the programming on the initial video which confirms that the footage had been altered and allowed the FBI to use their own methods to independently verify the real footage."
She took a deep breath, "The Feds are clearing Peter of any charges and are looking into Beck's accomplices. However, I'm sure that's not enough for you. So I'd like to now show the footage of that fight that we've given the FBI. The real footage that hasn't been altered."
She nodded at Natasha off stage, who began playing the clip of the fight on the bridge, where Beck was on the ground. They saw Beck lying on the ground, the illusion, as he spoke about manipulating Peter, before Peter stopped the real Beck from shooting Toni.
And then the part that had damned him started to play.
"Biometric scan complete. Welcome back, Peter. Protocol accepted. Shall I execute all cancellation protocols?" EDITH said.
"Yes," Peter told her on the screen, "Execute all cancellation protocols. Execute them now."
"Confirmed," EDITH said, as all the drones began to return towards the Stark satellite.
"Thank you," Peter said, as he turned back to Beck, "How could you do all of this? Do you have any idea how many people you hurt? How many could have died because of you? And for what? So you could be a hero? You could have done that for real! You didn't need all the illusions. You could have been one of the good guys!"
"You'll see, Peter," Beck laughed as it turned into a cough, "People need to believe in something. And nowadays, they'll believe anything."
And then the screen went blank.
"This video is the truth about what happened," Toni told them all, "Beck lied to you. He misled you. He tried to kill my son. He tried to kill me. He was the villain in this story, not the hero. And that's truth of what happened."
She nodded over to Peter, who took a deep breath, knowing it was time to speak, "I never wanted any of this to happen," Peter told them all, "I believed in Beck too. I thought he was a real hero. I thought he was a good guy. But he wanted to kill me because I knew the truth. He wanted to kill my friends. And he nearly succeeded. I know you must all be confused. I witnessed his illusions firsthand, and it was hard for me to tell what was real and what was not when he trapped me in them."
He looked over where Mr Jonah was sitting, and saw the man looking at him with pure hatred.
"I'm sure you also have no reason to believe me," he told them, "I know what Beck showed you. I know that you believed it to be the truth. But it wasn't. The truth was he lied to you too, just like he lied to me."
"The truth is, I am Spider-Man. I've been Spider-Man for years. Before my parents even adopted me. They didn't know at the time, and they found out afterwards. And I was grounded for lying to them. But everything I've done has been to make the world a better place. I know some people might call me a menace. A hooded vigilante. But I've signed a version of the Accords meant for minors that allows me to be in compliance of the law but kept my identity a secret, as long as my parents vouched for me. I train for hours. And I do the best I can to help everyone I could across," he paused.
"My Uncle Ben died because of a bad man. A man who murdered him in a burglary gone awry. Uncle Ben tried to stop him. Because he was a hero. A cop who risked his life every day to save others. And I never wanted another person to feel as helpless as I did. I never wanted another person to feel that way. So I became a hero. I just wanted to help people."
Toni gave him a proud smile, as she stood next to him.
"We will now be opening the floor up for questions," she said, "One at a time, and I will be selecting. Please remember to keep things civil. Other than that, we'll now begin. Ah Ben, how about you?"
"Thank you, Ms Stark-Rogers," Ben said, as he stood up, "Mr Parker Stark-Rogers, you claimed you got your powers before you were adopted. Can you tell us what your actual powers are, and how they came to be?"
"My powers are that of a spider, in essence," he said, after taking a deep breath. "I have super strength, enhanced hearing, rapid healing, and well, I stick to things. I also have a sort of sixth sense for danger. As for how I got my powers, I'd rather not go into the details of it, however it was because of an experiment gone wrong, that cannot be replicated because it was done so using my DNA in particular."
"Thank you," Ben said, as he sat back down.
"What are your thoughts on the current Avengers?" the next reporter his mother selected asked, "Your parents have stepped down, and the number of original members have greatly decreased, what with Hawk Eye's retirement as well, and Thor being off planet most of the time. Who is left to defend our planet in case of another alien attack?"
"My parents have always made it clear that they would fight in the case of a world threatening event," Peter said, "But besides that, we still have several other Avengers. There's Doctor Strange, Black Widow, and Agent Carter-Sousa, Hulk, in case of emergencies, The Winter Soldier and Falcon, Loki, Wanda, Vision, Pietro, and so many others. And well, Toni's successor Iron Lad whom she's been training for the last several months. The world is in good hands, in case anything ever happens again."
Toni sighed, as Mr Jameson stood up, and Peter knew that the question wouldn't be a great one.
"Mr Parker," Mr Jameson said, "One could say that you are only are here today because of the shelter your parents have given you. That without it, you would have crashed and burned years ago. Do you think you've taken advantage of the privilege you've been handed in order to be able to continue to wreak havoc on our city?"
He held his head up high, "I am aware of how lucky I've been because of my adoptive parents," he told him defiantly. "Every day, I'm reminded of that fact. Because without them, when my aunt and uncle died, I would have been all alone. I've never once taken for granted how much better they've made my life. And you're right. Maybe I'm not the perfect hero. I'm still learning. But I'm doing my best to help others out. I'm doing my best to make the world a better place. And that's enough."
Steve gave him a proud smile.
"Okay, that's all the time we have here today," Toni clapped her hands, "The details of the investigation into Quentin Beck will be made public after its conclusion. But for now, please respect the process. And please remember that my son is a minor. I have no issues with any of you coming after me. But do not come after my son. Am I clear?"
And with that, he and his parents turned to exit the stage, ending the press conference.
Family dinners were always an exciting time, at the Stark-Rogers household.
It had been nearly a month after everything had happened, and the story was finally dying down. Beck had been proved as the true culprit, and while there were still those who doubted the truth, the majority was now on his side.
The Daily Bugle was having a field day, releasing articles left and right on their thoughts about Peter, but it didn't matter to him. Not anymore. The people who mattered believed the truth. And that was all he cared about.
"I'm just saying, it would be nice if you could come home more often," Aunt Ava said, as Bruce had an arm wrapped around the back of her chair, "We miss you guys."
"I know," Uncle Harry sighed, "But that's what the job is. We travel, and we save the world."
"You could always stay home more often," Grandma Peggy told them, "I did once the two of you were born. I took up a desk job at SHIELD."
"You were the director of SHIELD," his dad pointed out, and Grandpa Daniel laughed.
"Desk job," Grandma Peggy insisted. "I sat at a desk. Therefore, a desk job."
"Aunt Peg's not wrong," his mother grinned. "It was technically a desk job."
"So you want me to take over for Fury, is that what you're saying?" Uncle Harry laughed, "Good luck trying to get the old man to retire. Not even death can stop him. He just keeps on coming back like a disease."
"Better not let Fury hear you say that," Natasha laughed, as she helped herself to another serving of enchiladas. "You know then that he'd ground your ass and you'd be stuck in a desk job."
"Language," his mother teased, and his father poked her side.
"Are they always this lively?" MJ asked, as she leaned over, and Peter grinned. It was hard to get the entire family together all the time like this, but when they did, family dinners were always entertaining.
"Worse, sometimes," he grinned.
"Mmmm," Meg babbled, as Toni fed her a bite of mashed corn. "Mmm."
"You're so close to Mama," Toni encouraged her, "Come on, Darling. You can do it."
"Not if I get to her first," Steve egged her on, and Toni stuck her tongue out at him.
"Real mature parents, you guys are," Uncle Rhodey said, as Aunt Pepper cradled their baby in her arms.
"Just you wait until Marie starts babbling," Toni warned her best friend, "See how quickly you change your tune and try and get her to say your name first."
"I love my wife and will be pleased if Marie says her name first," Uncle Rhodey said haughtily, and Toni burst out laughing.
"I love you, Darling, but I don't even remotely believe that you mean that," Aunt Pepper said, as she kissed her husband gently on the cheek.
"I feel so betrayed," Uncle Rhodey sighed as he stabbed into his cornbread.
"Aww Honey Bear," Toni grinned, "Just think of all the things I could teach her. What if she calls you Rhodey first?"
"You wouldn't dare," Uncle Rhodey narrowed his eyes. "She will not call me any of your ridiculous nicknames, and I'll come for you if you do."
"What are you gonna do?" she taunted.
"Nobody believes these two are gonna be your last," Uncle Rhodey told her seriously, "It's only a matter of time before you have more kids, Stark-Rogers. And when you do, I'll be ready to steal their first word."
"You wouldn't dare," she gasped, "Why does everyone keep thinking we're going to have more kids. We have four kids. Isn't that enough for you heathens?"
"I'm enjoying having all these siblings," Peter threw out there, as MJ snickered, "I wouldn't mind having more. Imagine the superhero team I could lead in the future."
"Dude, why would you be the leader?" Harley glared, "I'm literally her successor. I have her suit. I'd be the leader."
"Yeah, cause I have superpowers," Peter grinned, "I have a suit too, but I don't need just it to superhero. I can do that all on my own."
"You're corrupting my children," Toni glared at the table, "Look at them! Peter used to be such a sweet child. Never would have talked back to me. Never would have planned to have a superhero team to assert world domination. All of you have corrupted him."
"What was he like as a kid?" MJ piqued up then, clearly interested, and Peter looked at her in betrayal.
"He was adorable," Toni said wistfully, "Always eager to learn, like he is now. We'd have weekly lab sessions where he could come over and I'd teach him different things. And he always absorbed everything. Took him forever though to stop calling me Miss Stark, and call me Toni. He made an actual replica of my Iron Woman helmet when I first met him, and the rest was history."
"Sounds like he was quite the kid," MJ grinned.
"Ion!" Meg said then, and the entire table went quiet.
"Did she just say her first word?" Happy asked, looking shocked.
"Was her first word actually Iron?" Rhodey grinned.
"Did…was she trying to say Iron like Iron Woman?" Toni asked, looking over at Meg.
"Ion!" Meg confirmed.
"Do I win still, if she uses my superhero name?" Toni asked as she looked over at Steve.
"I mean, I guess?" he said, looking just as pleased. "I guess I'll have to focus all my attention onto Jamie now, won't I?"
"Come on, Man, you can't share my name without even getting a word out there," Bucky said, looking down at him.
"Please, if anything, it was my name first," Rhodey argued.
"Ion!" Meg clapped, as Pepper began cooing over her.
Jamie, of course, seemed unhappy then that his sister was getting all the attention, and decided he needed to do something drastic to get back their attention.
"Cap!" Jamie said, and Steve froze.
"Did he just?" Steve asked in surprise.
"I guess you got his first word after all," Toni grinned.
Morgan nodded wisely her two younger siblings, looking pleased with them both.
"Your siblings are adorable," MJ told him, and he smiled back at her as he pressed a kiss onto her cheek.
"Peter," she said, blushing slightly at the PDA.
"They're not watching," Peter grinned, "Perks of younger siblings. They hog all the attention."
After dinner, Peter and MJ escaped to his room to spend some time together. His parents had given him a lecture beforehand about keeping things PG in his room, reminding him that JARVIS and FRIDAY were watching, much to his embarrassment, but he appreciated that they trusted him enough.
"Nice room," MJ said as she took a seat on his bed, and he sat down beside her.
"You've been here before," he teased her, "With Ned."
"Boh," she said simply, and he laughed as he leaned forward to press a kiss to her lips.
"So, I've been thinking," Peter exhaled after a moment, and she sat up straighter.
"About?" she asked him gently.
"What to do in the fall," Peter said, "I know I've been putting off the decision, but I think I finally know what I want in the future. For my education, for us, for Spider-Man."
"Oh?" she said, and he could tell she was trying not to sound nervous. They hadn't really talked about their future, and he knew many couples were at that uncertain stage of their relationship because of partners going to different schools
"You're going to be at Harvard," he told her, "And I've been trying to decide where I want to go for school too. From the time I was young, I always wanted to follow my mother's footsteps. She was so brilliant, attending school at thirteen. My dad, Richard, did too. And it was my dream to go to MIT as well. To live up to their legacies. But then I became Spider-Man and I started to protect Queens, and I was having a hard time deciding if I wanted to leave the city behind. To give up being Spider-Man here, and leave my brother and sisters behind. And my parents."
He took a deep breath, "I know they try their best to hide it, but they had a hard time with what happened with Thanos. What happened the first time, when I…died. Mom barely slept for a month after everything was done because of nightmares, and I know she'd have FRIDAY and JARVIS report that I was okay to her so she'd be able to relax. And I felt guilty leaving them here, and going off and doing my own thing after they suffered so much. How could I when they gave up so much for me?"
"Peter," MJ told him gently, as she took his hand in hers, "They're your parents. They wouldn't want you to stop living your life because of them."
"I know," he sighed, "I know. It's why I didn't tell them that it was bothering me. The truth is that it was. But you're right. They wouldn't want that for me. After everything that happened, with Beck and Thanos, I need a chance to expand my horizons. Especially now that the world knows the truth about me. And I can't help but keep wondering what I would have done in this situation if I didn't have my parents behind me. Because without them, I don't know if I could have disproved what happened with Beck. I would have survived, but it would have been a lot harder. And I want the chance to be able to make it on my own. To not need my parents as much, even though I know I'll always have them to fall back upon if I need them."
He looked at her carefully, "Which is why I've decided that I want to go to MIT. They still have their offer for me open, and it's where I wanted to go before that. I want a chance to be able to live my life. To go to the school I always dreamed about attending."
She looked up at him in surprise.
"MIT is also a twenty-minute walk to Harvard," Peter told her, "Faster, if I'm swinging, probably. So I could see you all the time. I mean, if you were free. I'm sure you're going to be busy from all your classes. And with all the friends you'll make."
His voice had a teasing tone to cover up how nervous he was feeling, but her bright smile quickly told him that she didn't mind.
"I'm glad you're going to MIT," she said, squeezing his hand, "The two of us could be there together."
"Ned's gonna be so jealous," Peter laughed, knowing his friend would be attending Columbia in the fall.
"So jealous," MJ grinned, "Which is why you're going to let me be the one to break it to him."
"Deal," he nodded.
"Seriously, though, you aren't going to miss it here?" she asked him carefully.
"I will," Peter nodded, "Queens is where I grew up. And I lived in the Tower for years. I'm going to be missing so many of my siblings' firsts. But that's okay. Because I'll be doing many of my own things for the first time too. And I can't wait for that."
"You know, I'm sure your Mom and Dad wouldn't mind if you borrowed the quinjet to come visit. The flight's probably, what, twenty minutes?" MJ asked, and he nodded.
"Sounds about right," Peter nodded, "Harley comes home every weekend, if he's not too busy. So we probably could all come back to visit together."
There were four postulates of evolution:
1) Individuals within species are variable
2) Some of these variations are passed on to offspring
3) In every generation, more offspring are produced than can survive
4) The survival and reproduction of individuals are not random
He wasn't the same as his parents or his friends, especially with his genetic mutation. From the moment he'd been bitten, his life had changed.
He'd thought once that if it'd never happened that maybe his uncle wouldn't have died. And then maybe the shock wouldn't have killed his aunt.
He'd also thought that if he'd been faster, he could have saved his uncle, and then in turn his aunt wouldn't have died.
He'd lived with that guilt for so long. He'd lived with the guilt of the burden he'd put on Toni and Steve as well.
But he'd learnt to let it go, after years of blaming himself for it all.
He wouldn't be the same as his siblings. And he wasn't the same as his friends. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't survive. That he wouldn't continue to grow.
He was starting a new phase in his life, and he was excited to see where it would take him.
"Hey, do you think Harley will let me live with him?" Peter asked after a moment.
"I'm sure he'll jump on that idea the minute you mention you're going there," MJ said with a grin.
"Imagine, the adventures of Iron Lad and Spider-Man," Peter grinned.
"The world isn't ready for such a dynamic duo," MJ laughed.
"Well, they better brace themselves, cause it's coming," Peter teased.
"Peter, some of the others are about to head out," FRIDAY said, and Peter stood up. Aunt Pepper and Uncle Rhodey would be returning home for the night, and he knew Uncle Harry and Nat had a mission to prepare for. Harley was staying for the weekend, however.
"Shall we go break the news?" Peter asked, as he extended a handout to MJ.
"We shall," she grinned, as she slipped her arm through his.
Harley was elated to find out about Peter's plans, and he immediately started planning projects for the two of them to work on, much to Toni's chagrin.
But he knew deep down that she was secretly very pleased with his decision to attend the school.
He was ready for this new phase of his life, and everything life would throw at him. And he knew, no matter what, that he wouldn't be alone.
He'd have his family behind him, every step of the way.
A/N: And that's a wrap on this story! I don't have any more fics written out for this series but I'm always open to coming back and visiting it again. I haven't seen Winter Soldier and the Falcon yet, however based on how/where that goes, I can see some potential tie ins to this universe. I also do want to eventually write something for Harley's journey to becoming Iron Lad.
But for now, I'd like to thank you all for following this story and all your reviews. Your support is what keeps me going each week. Until next time!