AN: Hello all! I hope you're all ready for another chapter of Excelsior! I'm so excited to hear what you guys think of it :)

As always, eternal thanks to my lovely beta annbe11. Coincidently, she has just posted a brand new story called Rajah's Curse. If anyone here is a fan of either Aladdin or Tiger's Curse, I sincerely encourage you to head over and check out what she has to offer. It is promising to be a really fun ride.

Anyway, on with the show!


Having What It Takes

It was the whistling of the wind and the whine of the engines that dragged Critical Mass back to consciousness. The sounds started out muted, almost as if he were listening to them through earmuffs, but they gradually became sharper and louder. He could feel metallic vibrations coursing through his limbs worsen his seasickness, headache and the pain in his ribs. Vision was the last to come as he made the effort of opening his eyes. Images blurred together for a moment before focusing. Critical Mass took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in some sort of steel pyramid and it sounded like he was being taken somewhere.

The last memories of his fight with Iron Man came to the forefront of his mind and he grit his teeth in fury.

"That bastard!" he yelled, slamming a fist against one of the walls of his prison. "How dare he try to arrest me! Nothing can stop me!" Energy gathered in his hands as he pointed his arms toward the top of the pyramid. "Nothing can contain CRITICAL MASS!" he roared as he fired.

The cage he was currently sitting in had been designed to contain the Incredible Hulk. In its days of use it could stand up to his incalculable strength and rage, at least for long enough to move him to a less densely populated area. However, this cage had been built fifteen years ago and hadn't been used in ten. Its metal walls were fatigued, its engines weren't adjusted, and its power core had been in need of a tune-up for almost a decade.

When Critical Mass' energy blast struck the peak of the pyramid, where the armor was closest to the power core, it started a chain reaction that caused energy to surge through the circuits and blow out two of the cage's engines. The next thing Critical Mass knew, he and the cage were falling. Weightlessness had a hold on his considerable person for a scant few seconds before his cage crashed down to Earth, slamming him down to the metal bottom. Outside his prison, people screamed, alarms went wild, and cars crashed into each other in an attempt to avoid his sudden arrival.

The metal walls buckled and cracked, letting Critical Mass see the world outside. He began to raise his hands to blast his way out, but his left arm screamed in agony as he tried to move it. The arm seemed dislocated. He hissed in pain, but turned his attention to getting out. He would deal with that later. Right now, escape was more important.

A few good blasts were enough to open a hole large enough for him to climb out and he was once again out in the sunshine. While some bystanders were taking this opportunity to head for the hills, a few others were just standing there and staring like idiots.

Critical Mass stood up to his full height and that seemed to be enough to make a number of people run. When he looked over his shoulder, however, he saw a group of three teenagers staring at him from outside a burger restaurant. One of them was a muscle-bound boy with blond hair who was glaring at him. Little twerp. Another of the boys was, unbelievably, still holding and eating his hamburger. He seemed like a few textbooks short of a lesson plan.

Critical Mass grinned. He'd do.

With all of the speed he could muster, Critical Mass lunged at the snacking kid, eager to make him a hostage to keep the pros off his back. Things changed before he had the chance, however.

"Move, idiot!" yelled the blond boy as he shoved the hungry kid out of Critical Mass' path. Instead of grabbing the first kid by the collar, his hand instead latched onto the blond boy's arm. The two of them stared at each other before Critical Mass mentally shrugged. Beggars couldn't be choosers, after all.


Peter walked down the sidewalk with stumbling steps, the sounds of city washing over him without him even noticing. He idly kicked a broken piece of asphalt and it clattered across the sidewalk.

He felt numb. He didn't know what to do. For so long, Peter had held onto a glimmer of hope that – despite everything – he could be a hero. That he could save lives. That he could be a person to make Uncle Ben proud. Over time, that glimmer had desperately tried to shine. Even as everyone around him doubted his dream or made fun of him, that light had endured.

But now…

What I'm looking at doesn't have what it takes.

Peter hunched his shoulders and, as Iron Man's words continued to echo in his head, he knew. He knew that light was as good as gone. Iron Man, Peter's idol since childhood, could see the truth that Peter had been hiding from for his entire life.

There was no way he could be a hero.

An explosion jolted him from his thoughts. Looking up in alarm, Peter saw smoke billowing up into the sky not too far from where he was.

"It must be another villain attack," said Peter. A part of him wanted to see what was going on and watch the heroes in action, but his body didn't move to follow that impulse. "What's the point?" he said quietly. Watching heroes work and dreaming he could be one of them was just a waste of time.

Peter just shoved his hands into his pockets and kept walking. He tried to put the nearby villain attack out of his mind, but the explosions were increasing in frequency as well as volume. It seemed like, without intending to, he was getting closer to the site of the attack.

As he reached the corner, he suddenly found himself on the same street as the villain attack. He could see a crowd of people further down the street as well as a few overturned and burning cars. Two police cruisers sat near the crowd of onlookers, their lights still flashing even though the officers were no longer there. Beyond that, Peter saw that May's favorite burger restaurant had gotten its front destroyed.

What could do something like that?

From where he stood on the corner, he couldn't see what heroes were involved or who the villain was. He could feel himself start to walk toward the crowd, but even as he wondered why he even bothered. The dream was meaningless now. Still, it would be good to at least get an idea of what was going on. As Peter came closer to the crowd, he heard some of the bystanders talking amongst each other.

"What's going on? Why aren't the heroes doing anything?"

"I heard he has a hostage. Some kid who got in the way."

"He's throwing around energy blasts too. Nobody can get close to him."

"Wait… is he sitting on him?!"

Peter managed to make it to the edge of the crowd and stretched himself upward, trying to get a look at the scene. His eyes widened in surprise when he finally saw the villain responsible for the attack. Critical Mass' pink-and-purple suit was just as memorable as his waistline.

It's that villain that Iron Man was chasing! How did he escape that cage?!

Peter shifted his stance again, finally getting a clear view of the situation. Critical Mass was in the center of the road. Pro Heroes had him penned in from the south and north side, but none of them were making moves to stop him. The villain was shouting at the heroes, waving his arm from side to side and ordering them to stay back. He was also sitting on the legs of a teenage boy who looked very desperate to escape but was unable to do so.

Peter felt his heart stop when he finally got a good look at Critical Mass' hostage.

"Eugene…" he gasped.

He has Eugene! He's gonna get hurt! The heroes need to do something! Why aren't the heroes doing anything?! Somebody please do SOMETHING!

Peter's thoughts ground to a halt as an idea came to him. All thoughts of Iron Man's words and his classmates' insults were driven from his mind. Right now, all that mattered was that Eugene was in danger.

And Peter knew how he could save him.


Tony had been two blocks away when he heard the explosions. Without another thought, he had run to get to the scene. When he caught sight of the villain that he had sent toward lockup mere minutes ago, he swore like an angry sailor. He pulled out his sunglasses when he was finished being angry at the world and put them on, activating the display on the lenses.

"FRIDAY, send me the suit. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man got loose from his cage and he's sitting on a hostage. I need to take this guy down."

"No."

Tony blinked, taken aback.

"No?"

"I'm not sending you a suit, Tony. You've done too much today and you're going to hurt yourself if you keep pushing. Let the other pros handle this."

Tony attempted to glare at his sunglass lenses, as if he could intimidate FRIDAY through them.

"Now you listen to me, you jumped-up antivirus," snapped Tony. "This guy has a hostage and none of these wannabe heroes are doing a damn thing about it! I'm the only capable person here, so this is on me. That boy is gonna get hurt if I don't help right now."

"I won't do it," she said. "I won't let you risk killing yourself like this."

Tony was about to completely lose his temper at the AI when something in his peripheral's caught his attention.

"No," he said to himself. "No way."

It was the kid from earlier, trying to get a clear look at what was going on. Suddenly, a change came over the kid's expression and he slung his backpack off and took a knee. Tony's eyebrows climbed toward his hairline as the kid pulled first one and then two beakers from his backpack, both filled with liquid and covered with plastic wrap. The kid removed the covers and started mixing the beakers together with practiced efficiency. He stopped when the solution turned white and foamed up to fill one of the beakers.

Then the kid did something that almost turned Tony's hair white.

He ran through the crowd and charged at the villain.

One of the pro heroes turned the mallet on his arm back into a hand and made a grab at the kid. The boy twisted away. The pro shouted at him. The kid kept running. Critical Mass turned his head to the disturbance. Tony's mouth went dry.

As the seconds ticked by, the world seemed to move in slow motion. Critical Mass' arm started to point in the direction of the kid, ready to wipe him off the face of the Earth. The kid's face was drawn with determination as he ran toward his death. The kid cocked back his arm the beaker in hand. Both the pro and hostage shouted at him.

Tony tried to run toward the kid. He needed to do something. He was the only one who could. The crowd resisted his efforts and he was pushed away. He couldn't get through. No suit. No help. Just this frail, broken body.

Take away the suit, and what are you? asked a voice from the past.

Nothing, his mind answered.

The words echoed in his mind as the scene played out before him. This kid was about to throw his life away after his dreams were shattered, courtesy of Tony Stark. And the man himself could do nothing but watch like a bystander, useless without a suit to help him.

Then the kid got within spitting distance of the villain and snapped his arm forward, letting the beaker fly. It flipped end over end as it arced through the air before it impacted the side of the villain's face. The sharp sound of cheap science lab glass shattering into pieces seemed to snap Tony's world back into focus.

Critical Mass yelled in surprise as a foamy white substance splattered across the left side of his face, covering one of his eyes. The fat man lifted a hand to wipe the stuff away, but Tony was surprised when his hand stuck fast to his face. Critical Mass began to struggle against it, yelling in frustration as he seemed unable to get his hand free. His increasingly forceful attempts to get himself free threw him off balance and he rolled over onto his side, still fighting against the foam. When he had finally rolled over, the kid darted in again and grabbed the arms of the villain's hostage.

"What the fuck are you doing, Parker?!" the other boy demanded as he tried to pull himself free. One of his legs was still under Critical Mass' bulk and the two boys strained against it.

"I had to help, Eugene!" said the kid as he pulled harder on the other boy's arms.

There was a tearing sound as Critical Mass finally succeeded in removing his hand from his face and his attention immediately snapped to the kid. His hand once again raised toward the kid. Blood dripped from a few shards of glass embedded in his palm. The villain had murder in his eyes as he looked at the kid.

And Tony couldn't do a damn thing to help.

Before anything could happen, though, another shape zoomed toward the sprawled villain. A loud CLONG rang against the buildings before Critical Mass crossed his eyes and passed out. The mallet-handed hero stood over him, letting out several deep breaths.

The whole street seemed to let out a big sigh of relief before the pros finally swung into action. In short order, the hostage was freed, Critical Mass was restrained, and some of the pro heroes began laying into the kid – Peter – for doing something so stupid. Tony swore he could feel the heat of their words all the way from where he stood.

He stayed where he stood, watching the scene get all wrapped up. Police vehicles came to drag away Critical Mass and reporters arrived to make sure this exploit got a soundbite in the next news broadcast. Through it all, the pro heroes involved with the incident took their time to individually give some moral support to that Eugene kid and reprimand Peter for doing something so foolish. His expression didn't change, no matter what they said, and Tony could understand why.

These were not the harshest words the kid had heard that afternoon.

When the scene was finally cleaned up, the two students were sent on their way. Tony followed just enough to watch them go. They had barely walked to the end of the block before Eugene grabbed Peter by the collar and slammed him against the wall.

"Listen up, Parker," the larger boy snarled, pointing an accusatory finger at Peter's face. "You didn't save me. You didn't do shit. So as far as I'm concerned, I don't owe you a fucking thing. Got it?"

Peter said nothing but just gave a little nod. Eugene released him and stormed off down the road, leaving Peter slumped against the wall. It took a few long moments before Peter started walking again.

"Kids these days," Tony said with a shake of his head. As he turned away from the scene, his mind thinking back to what he had said and, more importantly, what he had just seen.

"Hey FRIDAY?"

"I'm here, boss."

"Have the car pick me up. Also…" He sighed and rubbed his forehead, hoping he wasn't going to regret this decision. "I want you to run a name for me."


I'm gonna have a heck of a time explaining this to Aunt May.

Peter walked down the sidewalk of Metropolitan Avenue, coming close to finally being home. After all of the bizarre things that had happened to him over the course of the day, he honestly just wanted to curl up in bed and forget the rest of the world existed.

At least I know the formula works. For a little, that is. Maybe I can make some tweaks to it, see if I can keep the bonds from breaking down so soon. Maybe I might try some trace amounts of potassium carbonate. That might help it dry and not be as… gooey. Man, that means I'll need to steal from the chemistry lab again.

"Hey! Hey, kid!"

The sound of someone calling him knocked Peter out of his thoughts and he turned to the street. A shiny black sedan was idling next to the curb and a man in sunglasses was sticking his head out the rear passenger-side window.

"Y-yes?" Peter asked, not sure what else to do.

The man took off his glasses and Peter got a proper look at his face. It was a face he had seen in textbooks, old videos, and especially the poster he had on his wall. But the face before him was older. It was gaunt, lean. Those dark eyes slightly sunk into almost bruised hollows. His skin looked washed out, almost greying. Against all odds, however, a spark of excitement seemed to light up in his eyes as he gave Peter a grin.

"Can I offer you a ride?" Tony Stark asked. Peter blinked for a moment before he shook his head.

"Sorry. My aunt told me not to accept rides from strangers."

"Hm. Smart advice, I guess," Stark said with a nod. "Do you think we can talk at least?"

"I'm not sure what we really have left to talk about," Peter said. Angry horns suddenly started blasting, originating from the three cars that were waiting right behind Stark's car. "Also, I think you're blocking the lane, Mr. Stark."

"This isn't about them, kid," Stark said, waving away those concerns. "And if anything, their suffering is your fault for not accepting the ride when I offered it."

Peter sighed and started walking again, wanting to get away from the cruel reminder of the day he had had. Then he almost had to laugh as Mr. Stark's car starting inching down the road, matching his pace exactly. The other cars on the street finally had enough and they all started passing him in the other lane with some parting honks of the horn.

"What was that stuff you used on Jumbotron back there?" Mr. Stark asked. "It had some pretty crazy sticking power. Who made it?"

"I did," said Peter. "Well, it's a formula left by my dad, but he never got it working. I think I might be close, though."

"So why did you run out there?"

"I… I just felt like I needed to help."

Peter had come to the crosswalk, but Mr. Stark's car swerved into the next road to block his way. That was when Mr. Stark got out of the car and stood before him. Peter met his eyes and desperately tried to control the roiling of nerves in his gut.

"You… you do know that you're really close to being the villain of some spy flick, right?"

"Don't think so. I don't have a cat." Mr. Stark cleared his throat and crossed his arms. "Try to think, kid. You chose to use your science project to fight the bad guy. What made you do that?"

Peter sighed and looked down at the concrete beneath his shoes.

"I-it's just something that my uncle told me. Before he died, I mean."

"Oh," Mr. Stark said softly. "I'm sorry." There were a few moments of awkward silence before he spoke again. "What did he tell you?"

Peter swallowed and opened his mouth, hoping his voice wouldn't break as he said this.

"With great power comes great responsibility," he said, meeting Mr. Stark's gaze again. "That's why I want to be a hero, Mr. Stark. That's why I want to get into SLA. I know that everything I've got up here," he said as he tapped at his temple, "will all be wasted if I don't use it to make the world a better place."

Mr. Stark was silent as he gave Peter a scrutinizing look. The man let out a breath and lifted his hand to massage his forehead.

"…Shit," he muttered. As he lowered his hand, he grinned. He took a step forward and clapped Peter on the shoulder. "You want a job, kid?"

"What?" Peter asked in surprise, staring up at Stark.

"I asked if you wanted a job," he said. "I'll admit that I've been thinking of getting a lab assistant for a while, and I think you might just fit the bill. But even more than that, I think I can probably help you." Mr. Stark released Peter's shoulder and crossed his arms again. "Kid, I meant what I said back in the alley. As you are now, you're not ready to be a hero. But we've got a good six months until the SLA entrance exams, so I think we have enough time to make you ready." Mr. Stark smiled at Peter and held a hand out to him. "What do you say, kid?"

Peter stared at Mr. Stark's hand, scarcely able to believe this was actually happening. A part of him was convinced that he was about to wake up and find out that all of this was a ridiculous dream. But he knew deep down that he was nowhere near capable of imagining something as crazy as this day had been.

Peter clasped Mr. Stark's hand with his own and shook.

"Absolutely, Mr. Stark," he said giving his hero a big stupid grin. "I-I-I'd be so honored."

"Cool," said Mr. Stark as he gave Peter another clap on the shoulder before letting go of his hand. "I'll have my driver pick you up outside Midtown Middle School on Friday. Expect a text from me. Text back if you have any questions before then." Mr. Stark then hopped into his car and slammed the door closed.

"Wait," said Peter, feeling very confused. "How do you know…"

"See you on Friday, kid. You're gonna love it."

With that, the car sped away and Peter was left standing on the curb alone. Staring after the car, Peter slowly grinned and laughed.

I just got a job from Tony Stark. Wait until Ned hears about this!

Man, I am really gonna have a heck of a time explaining this to Aunt May.


AN: Hope you all enjoyed that chapter. I am so excited about what's going to come next and I can't wait to share it with you. I don't know whether I'll write a chapter for this story or for Hammer of the Bat next. I might flip a coin for it.

I hope that everyone is staying safe out there and I hope you all have a great week.