Hello there!
Welcome to next Issue of Spider-Verse I: When I Swing By.
I kind of consider this the last part of the Origin Arc, like a season 1 finale.
Anyways, hope you'll enjoy and now to story time.
Inside JFK International Airport, Aiden and Peter where just outside a kiosk picking up some snacks and some other things as the rest of the Arclight group, consisting of the interns, Thomas and Dr. Warren where gathering for the trip to the Stark Expo.
"I'm not sure I should go." Aiden mumbled as he pretended to be interested in a magazine.
"What?" Peter said, "Why not?"
"Not sure if you noticed, Pete." Aiden said, "But there is this Emerald Elf flying around New York."
"I think it's Green Goblin, at least according to the Bugle." Peter said, "But come on Aiden, I'm sure it will be fine. If someone deserves a vacation, it's you."
"Yeah, what if things won't be fine." Aiden said seriously, "What if he attacks again, and I'm not there to stop it?"
"You can't always be there." Peter said as they finished paying for their snacks.
"But it's like when you can do the things but you don't and then the bad things happen." Aiden argued as they are about to rejoin the group, "They happen because of you..."
"...That's sounds like saying 'With great power, comes great responsibility' but with extra steps." Peter said, "Doesn't roll off the tongue as well."
"Yeah, okay." Aiden admitted.
"Boys, It's almost time to depart." Thomas said as he comes walking up to them, looking on his Rolex, "Seems they are running on time."
"That's a relief." Aiden said after paying for their purchases, they walked back to rejoin the group, "Where's Gwen?"
"Don't know." Thomas said with a shrug, "I haven't seen her yet."
Just as he said that, Gwen comes running up to them carrying a white suit case along with a black backpack, hanging from her shoulder. "There she is!" Peter said gesturing to her, "Why are you so late?"
"Oh, I had to buy some last minutes snacks." Gwen said, indicating her backpack.
"...They have convenient stores in Florida as well." Aiden pointed out.
"If our plane crashes on the way there, I won't go hungry and have to resort to cannibalisms." Gwen said with a smirk as she looked Aiden over, "Although, you do look like a tasty snack."
"Thank you." Aiden said with a smile, "I'll take that as a compliment."
Thomas had a smile of his own as he watched his son look at the blonde girl.
"Now everyone, before we depart." Peter said, holding up his camera, "It's time for a groupie."
"Want me to take it for you?" Thomas offered.
Handing him the camera, Aiden, Peter and Gwen all huddled together, and each struck various posses as Thomas took the photo of the three friends.
Putting his handbag in the compartment above them, Aiden sat at the window with Thomas next to him.
"So, its a three hour flight." Thomas said as he relaxed in his seat, "Brought any games?"
"What?" Aiden said, not having paid any attention to what his father had said. Looking into the direction his son had looked, Thomas noticed Gwen sitting next to Dr. Warren a few rows in front of them.
"Oh, I see." Thomas said with a knowing smile as he got up from his seat, "Leave it to your dad."
"What?" Aiden repeated confused as he watched his father walk between the seats.
The blonde girl was in a conversation with Dr. Warren, mostly with her listening while he talked. She pretended to be interested out of politeness and was almost thankful when she heard someone say her name.
"Gwen." Thomas said leaning against the seat, "Switch seats with me."
"Why?" Dr. Warren said annoyed before the blonde could say anything.
"Because we have some things to talk about, Miles." Thomas said sternly, "And I'm her boss. So what I say goes, or else she's fired."
"It's okay. Like you said, your the boss, Mr. A." Gwen said quickly as she stood up, "It was nice talking to you Dr. Warren."
Aiden had watched the entire conversation by looking over his seat. He saw Gwen stand up and walk past Thomas, who turned to look at Aiden, giving him a discreet thumbs up before taking the seat which Gwen had sat in a few moments ago.
"Your dad wanted to switch seats." Gwen said, sitting next to Aiden before letting out a sigh.
"Thought you where enjoying yourself with Dr. Warren." Aiden teased.
"He's nice enough, just a bit too excited." Gwen said with a laugh, before pulling a clutter of strings, "Want to share earbuds?"
"Sure." Aiden said with a smile as she began to untangle them.
Once the plane had taken off and was flying now for some time. Aiden heard a small snort next to him, turning to his side he saw that Gwen had fallen asleep next to him, her head resting on his shoulder.
With a small smile, Aiden rested his own head against the girl and soon he too fell asleep. Peter passed the sleeping duo on his way to the toilet. With a smile, he took a quick picture of them sleeping.
Three hours later and another half hour ride, the Arclight group finally arrived at the hotel adjacent to the park where the Stark Expo was being held. After checking in at the hotel, the five of them entered the room which was a large apartment with three bedroom's and a living area.
"This is so cool!" Gwen said, looking around the large lobby, a massive fountain right in the middle as they where being checked in.
"Alright gang. The main demonstration is late this afternoon." Thomas said, handing out the keycards for the hotel rooms, "So get settled in and rest up because we have a big evening ahead of us."
The group began to make his way to the elevator when Aiden was suddenly stopped when Peter tucked at his shirt.
"Holy shit!" Peter said suddenly with wide eyes, "Aiden, do you know who that is?"
Looking into the same direction as his best friend, Aiden saw a with dark brown hair wearing a fine business suit and a pair of dark tinted sunglasses. Next to him was a red haired woman wearing a blue dress. They were talking to another man in a fine business suit.
"...I think that's Elon Musk." Aiden said a bit confused, while it was a big deal, he just didn't get why his friend would be excited about that.
"What? No! The other one!" Peter hissed, "The one with the sunglasses."
"Yes, I know! That is..." Aiden said excitedly before turning serious, "Yeah, I have no idea."
"Oh my god, Aiden!" Gwen said disappointed, "That's..."
"Tony Stark! The prodigal son has returned!" Thomas said happily was he was approached, "It's good to see you again."
"Thomas it's been a while." Tony said, shaking hands with the old family friend, "You look good, been working out?"
"A little." Thomas said with a laugh before gesturing to his side, "You remember my son, Aiden."
"Vaguely." Tony said before shaking hands with Aiden, "Whoa, now that's a strong grip."
"Been working out." Aiden said cheekily.
Up in their shared hotel room, Peter was sitting on his bed as he was working on his laptop. Aiden meanwhile was sitting on the ceiling, reading up on some of his summer homework.
"Can't believe you shook hands with Tony Stark." Peter mumbled rather jealously.
"Sorry I touched hands with your man crush." Aiden teased him just as the two of them, heard a knock on the door.
"Can you get it?" Peter said not looking up from his laptop, "I really need to finish this."
Closing his book and dropping it on his bed, Aiden crawled over the ceiling towards the door. Dropping to the floor, he opened it to see a most wonderful sight.
It was Gwen, holding a towel, while dressed in light blue flip-flops, wearing a white and black bathing suit with a magenta and blue pattern on the side which looked like a spider's web.
"Hey Aiden." Gwen said with a wave, "I'm going for a swim before dinner. Want to join me?"
"Really, uhm..." Aiden said feeling the heat rise to his face, "I was going to study..."
"Come on, you don't need to study." Gwen said, taking his hand, "Your one of the smartest people I know. So get your swimming trunks and come on!"
"Sure!" Aiden said quickly, "Be right there!"
Upon closing the door, he immediately he took his shirt off as he ran past Peter and towards his suitcase. Changing into a blue swimming trunks with a white flora pattern and black flipflops, he graped a towel and ran to the door.
"Well that was quick." Gwen said with a smile
"Pete, your coming?" Aiden said called over his shoulder.
"I'm fine. Like I already said, I really need to finish this project." Peter said with a wave, again not looking up from his laptop, "Have fun you two."
Closing the door, Peter got a smirk on his face, "Aiden, make me proud buddy..." he said.
Taking the elevator down towards the pool area of the hotel, Aiden watched the floors go by and not noticing Gwen's blue eyes trailing down.
"Holy shit." she muttered softly.
"Sorry?" Aiden said, glancing at her.
"You never mentioned you where this buff." Gwen said, using her index finger to softly touch the muscle's on his stomach, "Your shredded!"
"Well... I like to work out... You know, stay in shape." he said amused, "Why do you sounds so surprised?"
"Because I always thought you weighted thirty pounds soaking wet." Gwen teased.
Coming into the large swimming pool located at the hotel. It was softly lit, and everything was made of white marble. Dropping their towels on nearby lounge chairs, Aiden kicked off his flip flops and jumped into the pool, splashing water around him
It was so deep that his feet couldn't touch the bottom, and he actually did a couple of lengths before swimming back to the side and treading water. A loud splash throwing water over him, Aiden had swallowed a considerable amount of water in shock. He stood up, sputtering, and saw Gwen surfacing with her blonde hair now wet.
"This water is nice." Gwen said, swimming close to him.
"Y-Yeah." Aiden said, feeling his face heat up which had nothing to do with the water, "I-its nice."
"You look cute when your blushing." Gwen teased him.
"I am not blushing." Aiden protested.
"Yeah, right." Gwen said taking a great breath and disappeared under the surface.
Taking a deep breath himself, Aiden submerged himself where he saw Gwen swimming.
Later that evening, Aiden was sitting with Peter, Gwen and the rest of the Arclight group as multiple different tech companies from Stark Industries to even Oscorp. Watching what technologies each company was developing was certainly something Peter was much more invested in but even Aiden could see how cool some of it would be.
Now they were listening to the presentation made by the owner of Hammer Industries, Justin Hammer, who came on stage doing some sort of weird dance that made Aiden think of a certain regional manager of Dunder Mifflin.
"Today, I present to you, the new face of the United States military." Justin Hammer said as from the floor a fours sets of eight armored drones, each for a specific branch in the military, rose from the stage below.
"But as revolutionary as this tech is..." Hammer continued.
But Aiden wasn't listening anymore as the sensation in his head, which he recognized as his spider-sense began to tingle. He had learned to trust it every time he felt it. He looked around as he tried to pin point where the danger was coming from.
It directed him towards the stage, where the drones started to become online. Gwen's voice called out to him, but she sounded like she was so far away. "Aiden?"
"Oh..." Aiden muttered as he saw the drones take aim, "Poop."
Pulling Peter and Gwen down as bullets soared over the audience. Panic and chaos erupted from the main stage as the drones began to attack the Expo.
"Aiden!" Gwen shouted over the screams as she grabbed his hand, "Come on!"
The trio ran through the chaos as people pushed and rushed to get themselves away from the drones.
During the chaos, Aiden was separated from Peter and Gwen. Seizing this opportunity, he rushed through the fleeing crowd and slid behind a pillar. Taking his clothes off, he was glad he had taken his Spider-Suit with him, and even more glad he had put it on under his clothes.
Putting his clothes high up on the pillar with his web.
As he was about to put his mask on, he didn't noticed a red haired woman from the backseat of a luxury Audi was snapping a few pictures before he put his mask on before he shot a web and swung away.
Swinging through the air, he evaded a few missiles, shooting a web and swinging around to launch it back at the drone, engulfing it in flames. He landed as his spider-sense went off, he shot two web strings to pull down to people in the way before he quickly evaded their machine gun fire.
Blitzing forward, Spider-Man found out he was strong enough to punch through the drones like wet tissue paper.
"This looks important." Spider-Man said as he ripped out the drones motherboard, shutting it down.
Dropping it to the floor, Spider-Man saw people looking in amazement at him. "What are you doing?" he shouted, shooting a web, "Get the heck out of here!"
Swinging through the air, picking off drones where he could while putting people out of harm's way. Sticking to the side of the building to scout out the area, he spotted a kid with a Spider-Man mask on, who had lost his parents and a drone coming towards him.
Swinging down to land next to the kid, Spider-Man shot a string of web sticking to the drone who took aim at the kid, before pulling it down and smashing it into the ground, starling the kid.
"Nice going kid!" Spider-Man said before swinging away again.
The boy looked in amazement when he got saved by his hero, just as his father came running up to him.
"Miles!" Jefferson Davis said as he picked up his young son as his wife, Rio Morales, came running up to them.
Seeing drones designed for anti-air artillery, Spider-Man rushes forward. Using his speed and agility to his advantage, he blitz around them breaking their cannons of with his fists or webbing them up, causing them to explode.
But one managed to hit it's target, another drone but instead of the rather dull grey colors of the Hammer Drones, the one that had been shot out of the air and crashed into the ground, had the colors of red and gold.
It also looked more advanced than the Hammer Drones. As it got up, the red and gold let out a groan. Spider-Man's look surprised as apparently a person was inside this one.
"You okay?" Spider-Man said to the person in red and gold powdered armor.
"Yeah." the man said standing back up, his voice having some sort of synthesizer over it, making him sound like a robot, "Wait, your that Spider-Kid right? From NYC?"
"It's Spider-Man actually." he corrected him.
"Really? Never would have guess. Because you sound like your voice hasn't even broken yet." the man said, suddenly looking up, "Alright Spidey, the party is going to be here soon. We got hostiles incoming."
"Good thing I brought the punch." Spider-Man said, cracking his knuckles, "Just try to keep up, Tin Man."
"It's Iron Man." the man said as the two heroes stood back-to-back as more and more of the last Hammer Drones touched down and surrounded them.
"This party is getting crazy." Spider-Man said, "Let's rock!"
Spider-Man and Iron Man fought in synch, with his spider strength he punched through the drones while the man of Iron used Repulsor Rays from his gauntlets. Vaulting over a spray of bullets with a sideward spin, Spider-Man shot a string of web before pulling it down.
Sliding underneath another one, he webbed up it's legs before pulling it down and jumping over to kick another one right through the motherboard.
"Get down kid!" Iron Man shouted as he charged up and attack on the back of his hands.
Laying down on the ground, Spider-Man saw Iron Man spin around as a laser of burning red energy shot from each of his gauntlets slicing what remained of the Hammer Drones in multiple pieces.
Metal fell to the ground as the burning smell filled the night sky, Spider-Man saw the red spots on the gauntlets cool down and he got up with an upward kick.
"Noice." Spider-Man said with a low whistle as he saw the carnage he and his fellow hero had wracked on the Drones, "But couldn't you have opened with that one?"
"Yeah, sorry chief." Iron Man said, "I can only use it once. It's a one-off." dropping the now empty energy cells from his gauntlet.
"But it's like in a video game, you don't sit on kill streaks." Spider-Man pointed out, "You just use that shit as soon as you get it."
A loud boom overheard was heard as another suit of powered armor touched down. One much bigger and bulkier than Iron Man's and painted in a dark metallic grey.
"What do you think, Tony?" the Iron Monger said staring the Iron Man down, "In your quest to rid the world of weapons, you gave her it's greatest. And now I'm going to kill you with it."
The Iron Monger raised his gauntlet to unleash a bullet rain of minigun fire from his right wrist, but Spider-Man evaded by jumping up and swinging around on his web as Iron Man took to the air.
"...Friend of yours?" Spider-Man said swinging next to Iron Man.
"Used to. That's the guy who sold my designs to Hammer so he could make his drone." Iron Man said, looking down to the Iron Monger, "Can I count on you for this final fight, Spidey?"
"Would be kind of lame to ditch you now." Spider-Man said before swinging down, "Let's do this."
Upon landing Spider-Man shot a web while sliding under the minigun arm, forcing it down as Iron Monger tried to hit Spider-Man with his free hand but his fist was caught in mid-swing. Being pressed down on, Spider-Man released the fist, before delivering a swift punch to the chest, just barely missing the glowing circle, leaving a dent.
The Iron Monger recovered to find himself being blasted by Iron Man's Repulsor Rays as he landed, but he blocked it with his free hand.
"Spidey!" Iron Man shouted, "Try to destroy the Arc Reactor in his chest. It's the glowy thing!"
"Got it." Spider-Man said, holding up his thumb.
As Iron Man kept Iron Monger busy, Spider-Man zipped over with his web and delivers a heavy punch to the Iron Monger chest plate and follows up with a ferocious kick, which was caught by the his free hand before slamming him into the ground.
"Stupid insect!" Iron Monger growled.
"That's a common misconception." Spider-Man said, blinding the Iron Monger with a quick shot of his web, getting his leg free.
Iron Monger is forced to use his oversized hands to remove the webbing as he felt Iron Man jump him from behind, digging his hand between the plating as he ripped out a large cable.
"You won't need this, right?" Iron Man said before he was violently throw backwards by the Iron Monger.
Blinded and having his targeting systems demolished, Iron Monger was forced to open up his helmet to reveal the face of Obadiah Stane.
Spider-Man zipped forward again, sticking to the large suit before digging his hand through the glass protecting the Arc Reactor. A surge of energy shot through his body, like spider's with knifes for legs crawled all over his body but he didn't let go as the Iron Monger attempted to shake him off.
With no way to reach him with his arms, Iron Monger used his jet boots to charge forward and slam full frontal into the side of a building.
He moved back to find Spider-Man embedded into the wall before falling down to the ground.
"Time to swat the insect." Iron Monger said, raising his arm to fill him with led.
"You see, spider's are not insects." Spider-Man groaned in pain, "They are arachnids." raising his hand to reveal the glowing Arc Reactor sticking to his hand.
Iron Monger had a second to look shocked before his suit powered down, trapping him in the metal contraption.
"I believe this is yours." Spider-Man said crawling back to his feet before tossing the Arc Reactor to Iron Man.
"Thanks kid." Iron Man said as he caught it, "I guess I could learn a thing or two from you about this superhero stuff."
"Please, I'm pretty new to this hero business." Spider-Man said, "I'm just making it up as I..."
"This isn't over Tony!" Iron Monger suddenly shouted, wrestling against his restrains attempting to free himself, "I will..."
But he was silenced when Spider-Man shot some web at his lower face. "Hey, the adults are talking." he said annoyed, "Anyway, I pretty much make it up as I go... Still it's nice to know I'm not the only one out there."
"Likewise." Iron Man said storing the spare Arc Reactor in his armor before he began to prepare lift off, "I owe you one. See you around Spider-Man."
Spider-Man gave him a two finger solute before shooting a web as he swung away.
A quick change of clothing later, Aiden comes limping to to the first responders where to his relieve he saw that everyone from the Arclight group was save and unharmed.
"Aiden!" Thomas shouted upon seeing him.
But before he could go approach his son, Aiden was nearly tackled to the ground by a blur of blonde. Suppressing a groan as arms wrapped around his upper body as Gwen pressed her head against his chest.
"I was so worried when you got separated. Thank God your okay." Gwen said before letting go of him, "What happened to your face?"
"It's nothing." Aiden said as Gwen dragged him to the medic's, "If you think this is bad, you should see the other guy."
Dr. Warren woke them after only a few hours sleep. With the attack on the Expo resulting in it being canceled, they disappointedly where already going home but it was understandable after the events of yesterday.
Sitting on a bench in the busy airport, a half awake Aiden was sitting between Peter and Gwen as they waited for their departure time. Peter was trying his best to stay awake while the blonde never tried and was resting her head on Aiden's shoulder.
"...Obadiah Stane, former partner in Stark Industries, has been arrested for the attack on the Stark Expo last night. Stane is being accused of conspiring with terrorist, along with secretly selling the designs of the Hammer Drones to hurt the competition..."
A news reader said on the nearby television, but the broadcast suddenly changed to the conference room at Stark Industries, where Tony Stark was about to give a statement about the incident and how Iron Man and Spider-Man where involved.
"...Been a while since I have been in front of you, so I'll stick to the cards this time." Tony said, showing off the couple of cards he was holding, "There has been speculation that I was involved in a brawl with a man with the abilities of a spider..."
"Honestly Mr. Stark." one reporter said raising her hand, "Do you honestly expect us to believe a bodyguard along with an superhero from New York..."
"I know that it's confusing." Tony interrupted her, "It is one thing to question the official story and another thing to make wild accusations or insinuate that I am a superhero."
"I never said you where a superhero." the reporter corrected him.
"...Well good. That would be outlandish and... fantastic." Tony quickly backpaddled before turning to look at his cards, "The truth is... The truth is while I have no idea who the Spider-Man is. I am Iron Man."
"What the fuck!" Peter shouted in shock.
And that's the Issue, hope you enjoy.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite and follows this story.
If you enjoyed it, don't forget to leave a review.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day and I hope to see you people next time. Bye for now.