Time to shake things up...
Chapter 5: The Door
Stephen proposed they choose twelve powerful countries and go through recent quotes and actions of their leaders. The rest of the group agreed that was probably the best strategy for their project. Peter was assigned to China, the UK, and France. He put off the work all week, too disinterested in the topic to care. History had always been one of his worst subjects. Luckily, they didn't have time in class to catch up with their groups, so none of his partners knew about his procrastination.
Friday night, he sat down and forced himself to get to work. He'd been scrolling through newsclips and articles for two hours now, finding absolutely nothing usable for the project. Which was probably a good thing, as far as the world was concerned, but not good for this project. Exhausted and fed up, Peter got up from his stool for a much-needed bathroom break. He told himself that he'd give it another half an hour before he went to bed. Mr. Stark and May had disappeared upstairs forty-five minutes ago.
Despite living here for weeks, Peter still managed to forget the layout sometimes. He didn't notice until he'd walked all the way down the wrong hallway. Probably a sign he needed to forget about the extra half hour of work and just go to bed. Right as he realized he'd gone down the wrong hallway, Peter tripped over his own foot and fell forward into the wall. He put his hands out to stop himself from crashing face-first, but instead of stopping, he continued to fall forward as the wall gave way. "What the fuck?" barely managed to cross his mind before he was falling down a short staircase. As soon as he came to a stop, Peter turned around to figure out how exactly he'd fallen through a solid wall. Turns out, it wasn't a solid wall. At the top of the little staircase, a portion of the wall hung open like a door. So Mr. Stark had a secret door in his gigantic house. That didn't give off bad vibes at all.
There were only so many things a billionaire might keep in a secret room of his mansion, and none of them were pleasant. Peter braced himself to encounter caged exotic animals—or worse, caged people, as he slowly clambered to his feet and turned around. What he saw robbed him of every coherent thought except for "You've got to be kidding me."
This room wasn't a hidden prison, it was a hidden lab. With Iron Man suits all around the perimeter. Peter reflexively brought a hand up to cover his open mouth. His entire childhood, he'd wanted to meet Iron Man, the guy who put his life on the line to protect people all over the world, and who did so with the most incredible technological innovation since the Internet. There was no way that Mr. Stark was the man behind that golden metal mask. Peter refused to believe it. This was all just a dream. There was no secret door in Mr. Stark's house. Aunt May did not marry Peter's childhood hero. Peter slowly backed out of the room, dragging the wall closed behind him, and went upstairs to go to bed. He'd fall asleep, wake up, and probably not even remember that this dream happened.
~0~
He woke up Saturday morning to find May watching the news. A hostage situation had broken out somewhere in Somalia, and Iron Man had flown out to help. The dream came rushing back to him. "Is Mr. Stark home?" he asked May.
"No. He had an emergency meeting for Stark Industries."
"Okay. Good morning, by the way," Peter said hurriedly. He then tiptoed down the hallway where he'd found the door. Trying to remember the exact spot he'd tripped last night, Peter pressed his hands against the wall. Nothing happened. He tried a new spot. Still nothing. A third spot, with one hand placed right in front of him at forehead height and the other off to his right, and the wall swung inward. This time, Peter walked down the stairs and into the secret lab.
One of the Iron Man suits was missing from its spot.
Mr. Stark wasn't home.
Iron Man was on the television right now, over seven thousand miles away.
It was all real.
Peter had no idea what to do. This was definitely supposed to stay a secret, given Mr. Stark hid it all behind an honest-to-goodness secret door. Did May know? Considering she was calmly watching news footage of Iron Man on the front lines of an armed conflict, Peter thought not. When Uncle Ben was alive and working on the police force, she used to live in a constant state of anxiety for his safety. Protecting people from criminals on a global scale was definitely a few steps up from that, even encased in metal armor.
But May had to know. Mr. Stark couldn't possibly have married her without first telling her about his little side-hustle, could he? Peter's face grew hot with rage at the possibility that May didn't know. He stormed out of the lab and closed the secret door behind him, hoping that Mr. Stark didn't have security cameras running that would reveal to him Peter's accidental snooping. On his way back, he passed May, mouth already open to ask her if she knew, when he stopped in his tracks. What if she did know, and she was in on keeping it a secret from Peter? Would she be mad at him for finding it? She knew how much Peter adored Iron Man, yet still hadn't told him, so there must be a good reason they kept him in the dark.
On the other hand, if she didn't know, and they both came to this revelation at the same time, then what would happen? Surely, she'd confront Mr. Stark about it, and then what? What if he was mad? Peter didn't want to know what a man as powerful as Tony Stark could do to them if they angered him—especially now that Peter knew he had access to highly weaponized armor. He couldn't decide what to do, so he did nothing.
"Peter? You okay?" May asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He sat down on the sofa two cushions over from her. "What's happening here?" he asked, gesturing to the TV.
"They stopped live footage already. He had the situation under control within minutes."
Peter smiled. "Sounds like Iron Man."
She turned to face him, expression serious. For a moment, Peter feared that his poker face hadn't fooled her, but her next words proved him wrong. "If you spot something like that happening, you turn and you run the other way," she said sternly.
"Yeah, yeah of course." Peter knew he'd never be the kind of hero who fought on the front lines like that. His best hope of earning that kind of honor was to invent something that helped those kinds of heroes. Besides, he owed it to May not to put himself in harm's way. She'd lost so much already.
"Come here, let me give you a hug."
Peter reluctantly slid down the couch to accept the embrace. Nothing about their relationship had felt normal since she married Mr. Stark, but now that Peter knew this secret, things felt even more out of whack than ever before. He nearly started crying right then and there, the familiarity of his aunt's loving arms juxtaposed with the isolation that had enclosed him since the wedding forged this awkward impersonation of a family.
~0~
Peter never knew how to act around Mr. Stark in the first place, but this discovery only magnified his awkwardness tenfold. Not only that, but he found himself stumbling and fumbling over his words around other people, too. He spent the weekend finally finishing his share of the group project for history, and when they met after school on Monday to work on it, he could barely get a sentence out when it was his turn to contribute to the conversation. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't focus on the project. Iron Man and Mr. Stark tugged at his train of thought like a super powerful magnet.
"Hey, are you okay?" Shuri asked him after Monica and Stephen left.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"I find that hard to believe, considering you were spaced out the whole time. This isn't my favorite subject either but I know you still care about getting a good grade."
"I do, I do. It was just a long weekend."
"Is something going on at home?"
Shuri didn't even know that he moved here because his aunt married Tony Stark. Nobody at school except the administration knew. Peter wanted to keep it that way, especially now that he knew Mr. Stark's secret. He noticed Shuri scrutinizing his face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you're okay. That's what friends are for."
"Friends also tell the truth, and I'm telling you I'm fine," he said with as much levity as he could muster.
"Okay. I believe you. But I'm always here to talk if something does happen."
"Thanks." His phone buzzed with a message from Happy. "My ride's here. I gotta go."
"See you tomorrow."
"How was school, kiddo?" Happy asked as Peter climbed into the backseat.
"Good."
"You teens and your wordiness."
Peter managed a wry chuckle. He glanced up at Happy in the rearview mirror. The man always maintained a gruff exterior, but Peter caught him watching Downton Abbey with literal tears in his eyes just a few days ago. He suspected the man was just a big softie. How he became Mr. Stark's personal bodyguard and chauffeur, Peter didn't know. Why would a man with access to such high-tech armor even need a bodyguard?
"How long have you known Mr. Stark?" Peter asked.
"Oh, so we decided to be chatty today?"
"Just making conversation."
"Since the nineties."
"That's a long time."
"I guess to you, it is."
"What was he like? Back then?"
"An absolute terror. But that hasn't really changed."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah. It's just a different kind of terror now."
Peter couldn't help but notice the similarity to the word terrorism, a term often associated with Iron Man. "What do you mean?"
Happy sighed. "He's grown up in a lot of ways."
"But he was already a grown-up in the nineties." He became CEO of Stark Industries way back in nineteen ninety-one.
"Peter, you're probably too young to recognize this yet, but most grown-ups aren't really grown up. And for most of his adult life, Tony was probably even less grown than most of them. But he finally hit an emotional growth spurt, so to speak. He's really changed."
"What happened?"
Happy made eye contact through the mirror. "He met your Aunt May."
Peter crossed his arms and glared out the window. The idea that his aunt had caused Mr. Stark's "emotional growth spurt" made him sick to his stomach.
"Mope all you want, it's the truth."
"I'm sure he was thrilled when he found out the woman of his dreams came with the kid he never wanted."
"Well, you're not the f—you're not the kid he never wanted. Tony was excited when he found out May had a kid. Especially one who loves science and tech—and eighties space movies—as much as he does."
Peter couldn't deny that Mr. Stark had at least tried to connect with him. He recognized that he initially disliked the man pretty much exclusively on principle, but knowing that hadn't been enough to not reflexively dislike him. And now, he resented Mr. Stark's hiding this massive secret from both him and May. It was one thing to keep your identity secret from the world, from your family? It reminded him of those classic movies about women and children in the fifties who didn't know their husband or father was a ruthless hitman. They always found out eventually, and more often than not it was when the guy ended up getting killed by some rival mobsters. Peter didn't want May to find out Mr. Stark's secret when he failed to come home and the news pulled a dead man out of a broken Iron Man suit.
~0~
Iron Man was on the news again. Naturally, Peter took advantage of Mr. Stark's guaranteed absence to snoop around his lab. One of the benches contained a half-disassembled helmet. Peter resisted the urge to try it on. Mr. Stark probably had biometric scanners in all his suits; he would know if it had been on Peter's head.
The theater kids apparently thought it would be funny to blast Rebecca Black in the hallways on the way out of school today, so that abominable song had been stuck in Peter's head ever since. As he looked through drawers of scrap metal and wires, he mumbled it under his breath. He found a glass case containing a glowing blue circle, with an inscription that read, "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart." He wondered what that was all about.
There were two really cool looking robots in the corner, one of which was wearing a white conical dunce cap for some reason. Peter reached the chorus of the song, "It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday."
"Yes?" a female voice answered.
A frightened squeal escaped him and he spun around frantically, searching for the person who had spoken, but the lab was empty except for him and the suits. "Who said that?"
"I did."
"Who are you? Where are you?"
"I am FRIDAY: Female replacement intelligent digital assistant youth. I am an artificial intelligence programmed by Mr. Stark to assist him in all laboratory protocols."
"Why did he program you as an Irish girl?"
"Perhaps he finds my voice calming. I'm told my predecessor had a rich North West London accent."
"Cool, cool. You didn't answer my other question. Where are you?"
"My services are accessible from within this lab and from any piece of Stark technology Mr. Stark chooses to upload me to."
"So you're in his suits?"
"Yes. I assist him with analysis, flight plans, and intel."
"Cool." Peter was totally nerding out, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. Mr. Stark had a practically sentient artificial intelligence programmed into his lab? He may have been mad at the man, but he was still impressed. "Can you show me the most awesome thing in this lab?"
A holo screen popped up above one of the lab tables. But it didn't display schematics for an Iron Man suit that could turn into a truck like a Transformer, or a chemical compound that could dissolve steel. It was essentially a glorified mirror. Peter waved at his holographic reflection and dodged side to side to prove that it was a live feed. "FRIDAY? Are you for real?"
"My apologies. Your question appears to have activated my Ego Boost protocol."
"That's a thing?"
"Yes."
Peter laughed. He'd learned more about Mr. Stark's personality from ten minutes in this lab than he had from weeks of interacting with him in person. Hopefully, his and May's time away from home would keep aligning and allow Peter to come back and explore some more down here. He had a feeling he'd only scratched the surface of the wonders contained in this lab.
