Chapter Four

Tony felt giddy.

He knew he shouldn't show it, it would ruin his tough Iron Man persona, but what the hell who cared. He was feeling positively ecstatic that his plan had worked. Banner has said the plan wouldn't work. Natasha had just scoffed and shook her head. Steve had just given a sigh as if Tony were delusional, but the joke was on them.

The plan had worked beautifully, and he was surprised he hadn't thought about it before. Spiderman was such a goody goody that of course he would be the first one on the scene to help people. He had practically fallen into Tony's arms. Of course, Tony was a fucking genius.

He felt Spiderman squirm underneath his grip while they were more than fifty feet in the air. "Easy, Pal I wouldn't want to drop you and have your head crack open."

Spiderman gasped and Tony rolled his eyes as they approached Avengers HQ miles away from New York. Hopefully, the lack of tall buildings would prevent Spiderman from crawling all over the place. If it didn't well Tony wasn't afraid to use violence.

"It was a joke, pal. Do you honestly think I would drop you after I went through all this trouble to get you?"

Spiderman didn't respond, which annoyed Tony. A normal person would at least be throwing vague insults right about now. "Not very talkative are you? Don't worry I'll fix that. Door!"

The double doors leading to Tony's lab flew open. Once he got inside he sat Peter on a chair and ordered Dum-e to tie him up. He half expected Spiderman to fight or to at least attempt to get away, but he didn't. Instead, he remained frozen in place as Tony's robot tied him to a chair.

Tony sighed. This wasn't as exciting as he had anticipated. Perhaps everyone was right, and he was exaggerating.

"Alright my little insect let's see what we have here." Tony pulled off the mask with ease expecting to see a grown man. Only it wasn't. It was a kid. He took in the boy's waxy pale skin, his big brown eyes, and his curly brown hair. He was looking at Tony like a wounded animal and Tony thought he couldn't be older than thirteen, though he was so slim and small he was probably younger.

Suddenly, Tony felt like a bully as he stepped away. "For fuck's sakes, you're a baby!"

Then something more horrendous happened, the boy burst into tears. Fat tears fell down his cheeks and his entire body was trembling behind the ropes. The boy also started stammering and Tony could hardly understand what he was saying.

"Please, please don't tell my aunt, Mr. Stark. It would kill her. Please, I've never done something like this before. I'm a straight A student. I'm in the decathlon team. I was only Spiderman because I wanted to help people. Please, you got to believe me."

"Kid, kid slow down I can't understand you." The guilt started settling in Tony's chest and he started feeling like a jerk. He didn't mean to make the kid cry. He grabbed a bunch of tissues and pressed it against Spiderman's nose. "Stop crying and blow otherwise Child Protective Services will be jumping down my throat."

Thankfully, Peter did as he was told, and he blew his nose and stopped crying. Tony nearly sighed in relief. "What's your name, kid?"

"Peter. Peter Parker." He hiccupped.

"How old are you, Peter Parker?"

"Fourteen."

"Fuck." When Tony saw Peter's eyes watering again he quickly changed tactics. "Sorry about the swearing. Pepper thinks I have a problem and Rogers does too."

"Captain America lives here?"

"Unfortunately." Tony ran a hand through his short hair. What now? He hadn't expected Spiderman to be a kid. Especially one who had just graduated middle school. "I'm Tony Stark."

"I know who you are. Everyone knows."

"Right." Tony started untying him, feeling more and more like a criminal with each passing minute. "Sorry about this. I thought you were a grown man. I wasn't expecting a kid."

Peter threw him an annoyed look. "I'm not a kid. I'm fourteen. That's a teenager." Peter didn't think it was wise to mention he was the shortest boy in his Freshman class. Mr. Stark did not need to know that embarrassing fact.

Tony snorted as he tossed the ropes over his shoulder. "You can't drink or vote that still constitutes as a kid for me. Want to tell me how you got your cute spider abilities?" Peter hesitated. "Or we can stay here all day. I really do not have much to do."

He watched in half amusement/half horror when Peter turned pale and started acting like a chicken with his head cut off. "Oh school! How could I've have forgotten about school? May and Jake are going to kill me for ditching."

"May and Jake?"

"My aunt and her new husband."

"So, your step-uncle?"

Peter curled his lip in annoyance. "Jake is not my uncle. Uncle Ben was my uncle, but now he's dead." His voice cracked toward the end.

Tony started feeling uncomfortable and wondering if he shouldn't call in a psychologist. It seemed the kid had issues, even more than him. "Fine your Aunt May and Jake. Don't worry about them kid, I'll sort it all out. I did technically set up a trap to kidnap you."

"Yes, but I was supposed to go to school." Peter looked like a sad kicked puppy. "Spiderman is only for after school. It's something I promised myself."

Tony pressed a hand on his shoulder. "Chill, kid. No one said being a superhero was easy."

"But I'm not a superhero. Not like you. I'm just a friendly neighborhood Spiderman."

The kid sounded so small and miserable that Tony did not know what to say. "Chin up, kid. You'll be fine especially since I know it's just a ten-year-old slinging around in a pair of pajamas. I'll help." Peter threw him a dirty look. "Who else knows about your little secret?"

Peter looked sheepish. "No one."

"No friends or family?"

"Nope, you're the first one to find out actually. When people are around me they get hurt."

"I think you're being a bit melodramatic, kid. Well, you're lucky the NYPD hasn't hauled you ass to jail and called Auntie dearest."

"Believe me, Mr. Stark I can handle the NYPD." Peter had grown cheeky as if Tony wasn't stressed out at the idea of dealing with a fourteen-year-old superhero.

Tony leaned back against his chair liking the kid more and more. At least he wasn't meek like he had been at the beginning. "Alright, hot stuff. Why don't you tell me how you got like this. I'm assuming it wasn't from birth. Come on, tell me I've heard it all. Science experiment? Curse?" Tony winced. "Foreign torture?"

"A spider actually. I got bit by one," Peter said quietly. "A tiny black and red spider. I was bitten when I went through one of the classified sections of Oscorp's laboratory."

Tony took a deep breath, Oscorp ran by Norman Osborn, Tony's main competition. Pepper thought Norman was charming, Tony would have used the word creepy. He set up a recording machine. "Ok, kid how about you start from the beginning?"

-End of Chapter Four-

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