Pros and Cons of Anonymity
Disclaimer: Premise and characters belong to Marvel, I'm just playing with them.
Chapter Eight: Keeping Secrets
Pepper spent a night on the Medical Floor of the tower but as soon as she could stand, abet shakily, she insisted on herself, Nettie and Happy being transferred up to the penthouse. There, surrounded by friends and family, shielded from the world by the best security system in existence, she able to relax for the first time since she allowed herself to realize the Iron Man armor that had come when she needed it had been empty.
Curled on her side she watched Nettie sleep, feeling the gentle rise and fall under her hand as the baby breathed. "FRIDAY?" she whispered.
"Whatever you need Boss-Lady!" FRIDAY replied, her voice hushed but eager.
"Thanks, for coming for me. And for letting me fool myself that Tony was back for a bit, I needed that just then."
"I wasn't sure," FRIDAY said sounding like she'd have been blushing and shifting uncomfortably at the praise if she'd had the ability.
Pepper fussed with Nettie's baby blanket, making sure her toes were tucked in even though she was wearing footie pajamas already. Nettie had already expressed a strong negative opinion of swaddling and anything else that restricted her ability to reach for things that drew her attention.
" I always thought of Iron Man as the post-Afghanistan representation of Tony's self-destructive side," she said.
FRIDAY made an inquiring sound.
Pepper sighed, "It's armor, true, but if Tony just wanted to protect himself he never would have left his lab again. And if he wanted to make up for not realizing what Stane was up to- I didn't see it either and I didn't have the excuse of having that snake for a godfather either- I always thought Tony could have done more for the world as an innovator rather than as Iron Man. But he wanted to be out there, in the middle of everything, getting shot at."
She broke off for a moment, shifting carefully to try to get comfortable without waking Nettie in the process.
"We should have seen Stane for what he was but I never understood Tony feeling guilty about SI making weapons in the first place," Pepper admitted. "Maybe because what I brought to the company back then wasn't unique… Well, beyond not letting Tony drive me to distraction," a small smile graced Pepper's lips. "Tony was good- great at making weapons, things that maybe wouldn't have existed without him. Maybe creating a weapon he could keep under his direct control let him make peace between Howard's indoctrination that our country needed weapons, the best weapons, to be safe and Tony's experience seeing those same weapons turned against him. Still, I've always looked at Iron Man as, well, almost as a threat... Until yesterday, when it was just an extension of Tony."
Gwen and her mother looked up from breakfast in surprise when her father slammed the morning edition of the Bugle down hard enough to rattle the dishes.
"The coverage was that bad?" Mrs. Stacy asked.
"If Jameson were one of my detectives I'd have him fired," Captain Stacy growled. "Hang on a second." He picked up his phone. "Patty?" he said when the department's public relations officer picked up, "Could you call the Bugle and make sure Jameson's at the press conference this morning, I have a few things to say to him… Thanks Patty, don't know what I'd do without you."
Gwen picked up the paper, "This sounds pretty bad," she said.
"It completely ignores that Spider-Man was following my orders," Stacy said. "Jameson writes crap like this then questions Spider-Man keeping his identity from the public? He doesn't hesitate to pin responsibility for whole thing on the kid, doesn't even call the Goblin by name let alone acknowledge that he started the whole thing with an unprovoked attack. Jameson's practically calling for a witch hunt, all because he has some sort of grudge against Spider-Man"
"Kid?" Gwen asked curiously.
"You know me, anyone under the age of twenty-five is a kid as far as I'm concerned," Stacy deflected. He grinned, "And the thirty year olds are starting to look mighty young. I mean it's all relative, you're still my baby girl right?"
"Dad!" Gwen protested.
Several hours later Captain Stacy stood in on the steps of the precinct with a projector screen behind him and a laptop on the table beside him as he faced a group of reporters, his expression stern. He noted Jonah Jameson positioned front and center with grim satisfaction. "Before we get started, Mr. Jameson, I am appalled by the standards of journalistic integrity I saw demonstrated in the Bugle this morning," he said.
Jameson stood up and stepped forward, "The Bugle won't be hoodwinked by-"
"You collected just enough evidence to support the conclusion you'd made before starting your investigation," Stacy interrupted. "Barely two months ago I stood right here and told you that Spider-Man was working with the police. Still, yesterday you assumed that he was working alone without even taking the precursory caution of calling the department before printing your frankly uninformed opinion of what happened. I expect to see a retraction in tomorrow's paper or you can expect to be responding to libel charges.
"Now, for those of you interested in getting the whole story: Yesterday Spider-Man responded to an act of domestic terrorism. The individual known as the Goblin attacked Virginia Potts, CEO of Stark Industries as she was driven back from a SHRA conference. We believe the attack was more likely motivated by business concerns rather than the Super-Hero Registration Act, however we are investigating all possibilities.
"The Goblin set off several grenades while attempting to get past Ms. Potts' bodyguards. One of whom was killed in the attack. The family has requested that the name not be released at this time.
"Spider-Man was the first department responder on the scene. While he engaged the Goblin I had my officers clear a nearby parking garage and set an ambush. The ambush was not successful, we underestimated the efficacy of Goblin's body armor and he used his glider to set off a chain of explosions which destroyed the garage and killed eight of my officers. The police would have suffered much worse losses if Spider-Man hadn't contained the initial explosion.
"Contrary to what was printed in Bugle, this situation was nothing like Lagos," Stacy frowned severely at Jameson. "First: no one, not myself and not Spider-Man, had advanced knowledge of the Goblin's attack. We responded as best as we were able to the situation as it arose but no one chose to place the capture of a terrorist above the safety of the civilians in the area. Second: Spider-Man was working in concert with local law enforcement, specifically he was taking orders from me and did an exemplary job of following them. Yes, there were casualties on the route between the site of the Goblin's initial attack and the parking garage but it was MY judgement that if the fight had not been moved to an area we had evacuated before attempting to capture the Goblin the casualties would have been worse. It was also my judgement that, given the escalation seen in the Goblin's activities, that capturing him was a priority. Since there were civilian casualties Internal Affairs has already beginning a review of my decisions, you will have the results of the initial review within the week. Spider-Man and the officers involved will also have their actions reviewed to determine if they could have carried out my orders with less loss of life but given that the Goblin came specifically prepared to counter Spider-Man's known capabilities it is my personal judgement that Spider-Man performed remarkably under challenging circumstances."
"What evidence do you have that Spider-Man was working with you from the beginning, that you're not just covering for him?" Jameson demanded.
"Why would I?" Stacy said. "That Spider-Man was following my orders places ultimate responsibility for the lives lost on me. Why would I claim that if it weren't true? Further, Spider-Man's costume is equipped with cameras, like the dash-cams commonly used by police across the country and his communications with me during the fight were recorded per standard procedure." Stacy leaned down to key-up a video on the laptop, "If you don't believe me, believe your own eyes and ears."
When the video ended, Christine Everheart raised her hand, "Is the police's belief that the attack was about SI rather than Ms. Potts' involvement in SHRA because you learned that the Goblin was not an enhanced individual?"
Stacy's expression relaxed fractionally, "That's right. Mr. Hogan, head of Stark Industry's security confirmed that the Goblin's appearance is due to body armor. We now believe that we are looking for someone wearing a mask, not an Inhuman or other Enhanced individual."
Several weeks after the attack Pepper walked back and forth in front of her bedroom window looking out over the lights of the city as she rested Nettie against her shoulder and patted her back. As soon as Nettie burped her discontented cries tapered off into soft, snuffling breathes. Pepper carefully, gingerly lowered the sleeping baby into the hamper beside her bed and was about to go back to sleep herself when FRIDAY whispered, "Boss-Lady, I know the protocol is to lock down the lab after seventy-two hours but Harley's been there for eighteen now and I was thinking maybe…"
"That he hasn't built up Tony's tolerance to lack of sleep, food and other trivialities like that and maybe it would be best to keep it that way?" Pepper replied, her voice hushed. She pulled on a robe. "Looks like I'm not done putting people to bed quite yet." She leaned down and kissed Nettie on the forehead then headed down to Tony's lab.
"I thought Marlena was pulling him out of the lab at healthy intervals?" Pepper said as the elevator sank.
"Sort of," FRIDAY previcariated.
"And what does that mean?" Pepper asked sternly.
"Well, he's been having me wake him up after a couple hours of sleep so he could get back to the lab once his mom chased him out for the night," FRIDAY admitted.
Pepper groaned, "Why are you facilitating this FRIDAY?"
There was a measurable silence, an eternity for an AI. "It feels right, him being there, fixing it, finding a way to shut down that- that asshole!"
"No more helping him get around his mother. I can't imagine Tony would have been pleased to see Harley developing his self-destructive habits," Pepper said sternly but she spent several minutes standing in the door watching as as Harley manipulated holograms to test and discard hypotheses at a rapid pace. His hair hung over his forehead in greasy clumps and his eyes had the wild cast that Pepper had long since learned to associate with someone who only on their feet through shear pig-headed determination. Then she stepped further into the lab and asked, "How long has it been since you ate?"
Harley spun around and fell out of his chair with an undignified yelp. "You startled me!" he exclaimed then without pause for breath he held up one of the Goblin's devices, "I reverse engineered it, figured out how he screwed up the repulsors… Um... "
"Eleven hours ago," FRIDAY supplied.
"And now that I've got that it's only a matter of time until I counter it," Harley picked up with barely a beat dropped. His eyes flashed angrily, "Iron Man's not going be obsoleted on my watch. I just got to try a few more things and I'll have it. I know it. Just gotta keep going. I'll get it."
"You'll think better after some sleep," Pepper said firmly.
"No! No I've almost got it, I can't quit now," Harley whined.
"Trust me," Pepper replied taking him by the shoulders and turning him bodily toward the door. "What you need are fresh eyes. FRIDAY, save everything. Harley you're going upstairs, you're going to shower, get something to eat and then you're going to sleep for at least six hours. Then and only then will the lab doors unlock for you."
"But-"
"No buts, shower, food, sleep. In that order." Pepper started marching him toward the door ignoring all protests.
Once she'd loaded him onto the elevator, Pepper came back to the lab to double check that everything Harley had been working on had been theoretical and that there weren't any forgotten soldering irons or cutting torches lying about. For a moment as she surveyed the lab Pepper was smiling, remembering all the times she'd had to drag Tony out of it "I miss you every day, Tony," she said. "I don't know how I ever thought that missing out on the time we could have had would make losing you easier."
The next day Peter's stomach twisted with a nauseating mixture of guilt and determination as he forced himself to grin at Harry Osborn. "So, it's the last day of school before Christmas break and I don't have work this afternoon either. Do you want to go to the cafe and listen to the bands?"
"We'll get done pretty late," Harry pointed out hopefully. "The buses won't be running to your place."
"If you don't mind I could crash at your place?" Peter suggested.
"Your Aunt isn't freaking out anymore?" Harry asked.
Peter shook his head, "After spending Thanksgiving with your Dad she realized that she was totally overreacting."
"That's great!" Harry exclaimed.
After school, before he met up with Harry, Peter called home. " Aunt May? Captain Stacy has an idea. I'll be out all night but don't worry, I'll have plenty of backup."
The cafe was packed when when Peter and Harry arrived. "Sit with us!" Liz called, waving them over to join herself and Felicity.
The manager came out and took the stage during a break between sets. "I just want to remind everyone that ten percent of tonight's proceeds are going to a fund for the victims of last month's attack. So… everyone drink up!"
"Harry, does your dad know how the Goblin is connected to OsCorp?" Felicity asked.
"If he knew the first thing he'd do would be tell the police," Harry replied with a frown. "It's probably someone he fired."
Peter wanted to tell Harry about that worthless list OsCorp gave the police and how much time and effort it had taken to wring actual information out of it but Peter Parker had no reason to know any of that and Harry would have no reason to listen if Spider-Man just dropped out of the blue and started bad mouthing Harry's dad.
'This is my best bet,' Peter told himself. 'I'll find out what's really going on and make it public. Then Harry'll know how his Dad was involved and the police'll know what they need to catch the Goblin. And it's gotta be soon, before the Goblin has another chance to hurt Ms. Potts or her and Dr. Stark's baby.'
After the last band had packed up for the night, Peter and Harry walked a few blocks back to the OsCorp building. Norman was standing at the kitchen bar eating a late dinner while watching the news. "Peter, I'm glad everything's been smoothed over," he said with a smile when he saw the two boys.
"Yeah, me too," Peter said a bit weakly. "I know you worry when Harry stays over at my place."
"Your Aunt's home is lovely but distinctly lacking in measures to thwart a determined kidnapper," Norman agreed.
"It's not like I go to Pete's house regularly and both of us know better than to let anyone know when I'm staying over," Harry complained. "Minimal risk of anyone knowing I'm there. Come on, Pete, video game marathon!"
"Super Smash Brothers?" Peter suggested.
Harry grinned and slapped Peter on the back, "Good choice!"
"I expect you two in bed by two," Norman said. "You might not have school tomorrow but Peter has work in the afternoon and you've got an extra appointment with your German tutor, Harry."
"Yes sir," Peter agreed easily.
Several hours later Peter tossed aside his controller. "Goody two-shoes," Harry scoffed but he turned off the TV and stumbled off toward the bathroom. Peter waved then headed for his normal guest room. He spent a good half-hour laying in bed staring at the ceiling to be sure Harry had gone to bed then Peter took his backpack into the bathroom.
Peter locked the door behind him and quickly changed into Spider-Man. He adjusted the mask, making sure the wires running through the ribbing of the mask and costume had linked up properly then he whispered, "FRIDAY? You have a location for me?"
"Who do you think you're asking, Spidey?" FRIDAY replied teasingly. "I've had hours to hack OsCorp from the inside out. But you've got a long climb ahead of you, all four of the scientists on the Colonel's list have offices near the glider testing facility, ten floors down."
"Good thought, saving Mr. Osborn's lab for last," Peter agreed as he quickly unscrewed the vent cover and climbed in. "I really don't want to break into his private space if I don't have to."
"I thought we wanted to find something bad about Osborn so the police would have a reason to get your friend away from him?" FRIDAY asked.
Spider-Man crawled, head downward along the wall of the vent. His shoulders were a tight squeeze but with his abilities the actual climb was simple enough. "I don't want to find something that's not there," Peter replied firmly. "I mean, I'm worried yeah. And the police are pretty sure that Mr. Osborn is covering up something about the Goblin. I know it's not a disgruntled ex-employee like Harry thinks. I know who ever it is still has access to OsCorp's resources, they must to build the anti-repulsor tech and that smog that eats my webbing. But that doesn't mean Mr. Osborn's involved, he could be trying to deal with it internally, I know he's a little paranoid about people stealing his tech."
"Guilty conscious," FRIDAY opinioned. "After all, he stole the Boss' tech. It probably makes him feel better to assume everyone else is just as dishonest."
"Harry says he's not abusive and he didn't actually hit me with the bookend," Peter objected.
"Because you dodged."
"I don't want to get him in trouble unless he actually done something," Peter said. "I want to find out what's going on before anyone else gets hurt."
You're here," FRIDAY said. Spider-Man crawled past the vent then kicked it open and crawled out onto the ceiling of the four story ballroom where OsCorp had tested the glider. Open balconies lined the open space with offices and labs looking out into the ballroom. "Phineas Mason's lab is the middle door on the west wall."
Spider-Man crawled across the ceiling then swung down and forced the door open. The room inside was incredibly cluttered. Half-finished or possibly half-disassembled machines covered every flat surface and were piled up between the lab benches, even more hung from hooks attached to the ceiling until the lab looked more like a cavern. Tools were haphazardly mixed in with the machines and Spider-Man saw more than one electronic notepad propped up near an abandoned project. He picked up the closest pad and swiped the screen. "Password protected."
FRIDAY made a rude noise. "A welcome mat would take longer for me to trip over," she said and the screen opened.
Spider-Man scanned the data. "We know he worked on the glider, so that's not suspicious. Nothing on the anti-repulsor tech or my webbing but does this guy even know what organization means? It wouldn't be hard to miss something in this mess!"
"Not for me," FRIDAY said. "Move on to the next tablet."
"Don't you steal any of Mr. Osborn's intellectual property," Peter warned. "Even if he did take the repulsor tech, you're better than that."
"Sweet talker," FRIDAY replied. "I'll erase anything that doesn't directly pertain to the Goblin."
"This guy's got some weird hobbies but I don't think he's the Goblin," FRIDAY said. "Next office, right by the elevator, Ms. Melati Kusuma… She's working on her Ph.D., your friend Dr. Connors is her thesis adviser."
"Yeah?" Peter asked. "What's she studying?"
"Cellular regeneration," FRIDAY replied.
Spider-Man twisted the doorknob off and pushed open the door to reveal an office that couldn't have been more opposite of than Mason's if the pair had been trying. The aisle between the lab benches was wide and clear. Everything was in it's place, labeled and arranged to be easily accessible. Spider-Man tilted his head to the side consideringly. The tables in the lab were unusually low, even basin of the emergency eye-wash station was low and there was a ramp built over the stairs to the office level. "She's in a wheelchair?" he realized
"Mmm-hm," FRIDAY confirmed. "Double amputee, doesn't mean it couldn't be her. Look at Colonel Rhodes and we know the Goblin's armor. Not as classy as Iron Man but not everyone has a good sense of style."
"Well, I can't argue with that," Peter said. "The Goblin's style is anything but good. You note I'm not saying anything about red and gold when it comes to fashion."
"Says the human Arachn-" FRIDAY broke off with a horrible screech.
"FRIDAY?" Spider-Man asked. He shot a quick webline and swung to the ceiling.
"Will you come into my parlour? Oh wait, it's the Spider who's supposed to ask," The Goblin cackled as he rose up on his glider in the ballroom.
Spider-Man dove out of the lab a second before the Goblin's missile blew it up. "Well, guessing your not Ms. Kusuma, you wouldn't blow-up your own lab right?"
"Did you think I wouldn't see you worming your way into my systems?" the Goblin asked as a metal door slammed down behind Spider-Man. "You're hacker friend's in for a nasty surprise. As for you…" Spider-Man found himself dodging a barrage of grenades. Blast doors were dropping all around the testing area, isolating it from the rest of the building and the air was rapidly filling with the gas that dissolved webbing. In the middle of it all the Goblin hovered, throwing grenades and firing small missiles at Spider-Man.
The webcrawler dodged behind consoles and duck into doorways to evade the blasts. The Goblin cackled madly and kept firing. "How many rounds do you have?" Spidey exclaimed. "At least aim off screen once and awhile to make me feel better."
"You invade my stronghold and expect a show of weakness?" The Goblin laughed.
Spider-Man felt an odd heaviness in his limbs as he rolled from behind desk moments before it was blown up then leapt on to the wall. He pulled himself over the balustrade and threw himself out of the path of a grenade. He flipped himself up onto the next balcony. The Goblin made a leisurely turn, spraying the area with machine gun-fire. Spider-Man kept inches ahead of the bullets then scuttled across the ceiling. When he was above the Goblin he hurtled himself at the cackling maniac.
The Goblin juked the glider away. For a moment Spider-Man thought he was going to miss. Then his fingertips caught the edge of the board and he swung himself around to kick the Goblin off it. As the Goblin fell, Spider-Man shot a glob of webbing beneath him then drove his fist through the glider's power source. Spider-Man leapt free as the glider exploded. The Goblin landed with a splat in the contaminated webbing and Spider-Man landed in a crouch a moment after him. Then, to Spidey's surprise, he fell on his ass.
Spider-Man lunged to his feet and grabbed the Goblin's arm and threw him into a wall as the other struggled free of the half-liquid pile, puddle of webbing. The Goblin bounced off the wall and as he stumbled away from it Spidey punched him across the face, the force of his own blow threw Spider-Man off balance.
The Goblin grabbed at his mask fearfully, quickly backing away from Spider-Man. The young webcrawler tried to close the distances between them with an unsteady rush but the Goblin retreated and after a few moments more Spider-Man's legs gave out beneath him.
The Goblin stopped and stalked back toward Spider-Man, "I was starting to believe I wasn't the only one with a gas mask behind my mask," he said. "But it seems it was just your enhancement making you resistant to my paralytic gas. Or is that my enhancement, you stole your powers from me didn't you? But how did you make it work when all my other experiments fail? No matter, I'll dig the answer out of your corpse. Along with the means to create a more effective counter for your powers. In today's world effectiveness against the Enhanced will make or break a weapons manufacturer."
Spider-Man tried dragging himself away as the Goblin approached but his arms gave out.
"Now let's see who you are," The Goblin leaned down and ripped Spider-Man's mask off. "Peter?!" he exclaimed.
With the way the Goblin said his name, Peter knew. "Mr. Osborn," he slurred.