Little Bird's Vengeance Chapter 52 Deals and Revelations
The four young people sat together on the floor of Red Hood's old safehouse. Or possibly one of Red Hood's safehouses; he hadn't exactly been the most forthcoming. Red Robin had got Peter's permission to include Gwen in the conversation, and signalled Red Hood to accompany them with his passenger.
"What's this all about, then?" Peter demanded. It was more than a little galling that the otherworld teen seemed to be playing the tune they all followed; just what was he thinking, turning up at his school like that? "How did you find me? How do you know who I am?"
Red Hood laughed hollowly. "He always knows who everyone is," he said. "Believe me, lots of people find it seriously disturbing. Just ask the Titans."
"Knowledge is power, and power is life," Red Robin shrugged, leaning against the wall. "Like he said, I know everyone. It's nothing personal. And just like with everyone else, I just needed enough of a clue. Your school. I checked the records. Your kind of skills would be noticed by any competent gym teacher. So I looked through the most recent set of results. I was lucky; you really weren't Mr Sporty before whatever it was changed you. That made it pretty easy."
"You worked it out from the gym records?" Gwen asked, astonished. "That's…quite smart, but it can't be that simple."
"Peter's dramatic improvement was the most obvious clue, so I checked him out first. Lost his uncle to street crime shortly before Spiderman appeared. Fairly typical motive. Then I searched for security footage from the school, from shops, from your apartment block. I matched it up with what I'd seen Spiderman do, and there we go," Red Robin explained.
"I can't work out if you're trying to make it sound easy, or make you sound smart," Peter snarked. Red Robin didn't seem to care. Nothing wrong with being smart, but he was just using it to interfere it what was, quite frankly, none of his business.
"What was it that tipped you off on us?" Red Hood asked the other traveller.
"A quadruple somersault," Red Robin replied helpfully. He turned back to Peter. "I worked out the best kept secret in the world from nothing more than a bit of security footage showing one somersault. Trust me. It's near impossible to cover all your tracks."
Peter blinked, then it hit him. Red Robin thought he was upset because it had been possible to identify him. "Hey, I figured that one out," he protested. "But why did you do it?"
"Knowledge is power, and power is life," Red Robin repeated. "The more I know, the easier it is to plan each move. Besides, I found out something interesting. You're a science genius."
"Uh, yeah, a bit," Peter said, embarrassed. "So?"
"Stark's recruiting science geniuses, that's all," Red Robin said off-handedly. "And wouldn't that look great on your resume?"
"How are you going to explain why you want Peter to have an internship without revealing the whole Spiderman thing?" Gwen asked.
"I can set it up so the only people who know are the four in this room," Red Robin promised. "Stark and the others will know Spidey has the job; the records will say it's Peter Parker. Your pay will be bounced around a bit before it arrives in your account. I'll put a block in Jarvis's programming so he can't spill the beans. Sound good?"
"But…what gives you the right to start poking into my identity?" Peter demanded. Fringe benefits be damned; talk about arrogance.
Red Robin sighed. "Hood, you familiar with what happened when B made that trip to Metropolis during the first Hush incident?"
"Yeah," Hood said, leaning back against the wall. "Read about it when I bust into the cave for the records. Why?"
"Care to share?" Red Robin suggested.
"Yeah, okay," Hood shrugged. "Batman and Catwoman tailed Poison Ivy to Metropolis. Poison Ivy used plant toxins to take control of the local hero Superman and sent him against B. B used a kryptonite ring to hold Supes off while Catwoman nabbed Superman's wife and dangled her off a building. The realistic threat to his wife over-wrote the chemical reprogramming and snapped Superman out of it, allowing him to help B capture Ivy."
"By dangling his wife off a building?" Gwen asked, horrified.
"Three points. First, it worked. Second, she wasn't actually in any danger." Red Robin shrugged. "And third, Superman did tell B off quite a lot about that, but eventually agreed it was necessary."
"Why are you telling us this?" Peter asked, trembling slightly in anger and, just a little, fear for Gwen.
"This isn't easy," Red Robin said coldly. "What we do, it's risky. The worst that we've come across so far is taking our free will and turning us against innocents and allies. That's when you need someone who can stop you. Hood and I, we're only human. If we need to be taken down, it would be a lot easier than if it was, say, Thor."
"You're saying that you decided to find out my identity in case you need to kill me," Peter said coldly.
"Nah, he's saying that having someone who knows you provides a safeguard in the worst case scenario, and in the meantime, look at all the ways he can help you," Hood offered. "We're not sharing your ident with anyone without your permission, but we can get you a job. I'd recommend seeking an audience with Director Fury; he knows everything there is to know about keeping secrets and backup plans. But that's your decision. Do you want the job?"
Peter stopped and considered. There was no doubt the two Reds were manipulating him, but…they had a point. And working for Tony Stark…well, that would be even better than Gwen's Oscorp internship. "I'll think about it," he decided at last. "Now are you going to give us a lift to Gwen's place or not?"
AN: Dunno how in character you think this is for Spidey. I think it's pretty good for Tim, but feel free to disagree.
Also updating: Jason and the Argonauts. Coming soon: more JA, more Black and Red.
Please review!
Katara