Right, this took longer to get out than it probably should have. No excuse this time, but at least I posted some other stuff in the interim. Check them out if you like my work, and be sure to leave a review on them or this story if you could, really helps motivate and remind me to keep writing. Speaking of motivation, I have found out that just having a summer job is not the best idea for a student seeing as I am borderline broke after fixing my car two weeks ago. I'll survive, but if you want to help me out and give me a better incentive to continue writing I've started a P atreon. Just go to P atreon Wingdknight to check it out.
"Are you serious? You got an internship with Ironman?!" Ned Leads, Peter's best friend since they were in diapers, almost yelled during lunch the day after Peter had met the two's shared idol Tony Stark and had been given a job offer.
"I know right?" Peter grinned widely, "I start tonight. Two hours- at least- every day working alongside Mr. Stark in high tech labs working with state of the art equipment! And I might even get to meet the other Avengers! It's like a dream come true!" 'Except for the whole Mr. Stark knowing my secret ID and everything, but I'm getting a Stark approved costume out of it so who cares!'
"How did you even get an internship?" Ned asked, "Was there some kind of contest I didn't know about or something?"
Peter paled, how was he supposed to answer that one? 'Oh yeah I have radioactive spider powers and when Mr. Stark found out he offered me a job because he hated the costume I wear when fighting bad guys'? That wouldn't really go over well now would it? "I-uh, I sent Stark Industries an email with a new adhesive chemical formula." He didn't but Mr. Stark did bring up his webbing formula when he recruited him, "It must have impressed them a lot!"
"Whoa, really? When did you design a new adhesive? How strong is it? Can it stop Ironman? What about Thor? Oh! Can it stop the Hulk?" Ned asked his friend, obviously excited about the prospect of his best friend making something that impressed one of the smartest and greatest inventors in the world.
Luckily for Peter, before he had to come up with a convincing lie about his webs that didn't give away his super hero ID the bell for the end of lunch rang out. 'Saved by the bell.' Peter mentally sighed throwing away his lunch trey, 'gotta be more careful.'
The rest of the day passed in a daze for the webswinger- dull classes that he already knew the material of, a decathlon team meeting where he didn't do anything but subtly stare at Liz and Michele, and a twenty minute train ride from Midtown High to Stark Tower, more commonly known as Avenger's tower after the Battle of New York, even if the Avengers were no longer stationed in the tower. I wasn't until he was in the lobby of the skyscraper that Peter really came back to himself. This was the center for scientific advancement in the world- surpassed only by the Baxter building with Reed Richards' private lab- the technology in this building alone was worth more than some countries national reserves. It was a science nerd's wet dream to work here, and Peter was not only going to be the youngest person ever to have access to the building's labs, but he would be working personally with Tony Stark and maybe even other members of the Avengers, possibly the most powerful group of people on the face of the Earth! Eat your heart out Flash, you jerk!
"Can I help you?" A nearby secretary asks Peter, breaking him out of his awe inspired revera.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, uh. I'm Peter Parker, Mr. Stark's new intern. Do I need a security pass or something or do I just head up stairs or..?" Peter asked the middle aged Indian woman whose name tag identified her as 'June'.
The woman in question merely raised an eyebrow, looking the teen up and down quizzically and taking in his worn sneakers, slightly ripped jeans and old sweatshirt. She snorted, "Nice try kid." She told him, "But this isn't my first day on the job. If you really want to meet the Avengers so much maybe you should come up with a better cover story." She mocked him.
"What?" Peter asked shocked, "No, I'm actually the new intern. Mr. Stark recruited me yesterday." He tried to explain, "Seriously, just like, call him or something! I promise I'm not lying." He told her.
The woman sighed, "Look kid, Stark Industries is one of the most advanced technological companies in the world and Mr. Stark is the head scientist, he doesn't have time to deal with a fanboy's poor excuse of a meet and greet tactic. So please leave before I have to get security to escort you out." She told Peter.
Before Peter could tell her again that he wasn't pulling her leg a third voice joined their conversation. "No need June, kid's story is legit. The Boss really did hire him… for some reason." The newcomer, a middle aged, slightly overweight, caucasian man with black hair told the secretary.
The woman's eyes widened in surprise, "Mr. Hogan." She greeted the other man, "I'm sorry, I wasn't informed." She apologised.
The now named Mr. Hogan waved her off, "It's fine, its not exactly normal for someone in Tony's place to hire a scraggly kid to work for him. I'll take him from here." He assured her. "Come on kid." He beckoned Peter to follow him as he made his way toward the elevators.
Peter quickly scrambled after the older man, not wanting to be under the gaze of the admittingly intimidating secretary any longer. "T-thank you Mr. Hogan." Peter blurted out as the elevator doors closed and the man used a key card to send them to the top floor. "I thought Mr. Stark was going to leave me a pass or something in the lobby. Guess we didn't really iron out all that many details about what I'd be doing to be honest." Peter babbled, trying to cover up his nerves with noise.
"Apparently not." Mr. Hogan told the teen, turning only his head to look at the shorter man out of the corner of his eye as he addressed him. "Look, Tony told me why he recruited you- and before you go crazy, the only one who know outside of Tony and myself is Rodey, or as you will address him Colonel James Rhodes, or War Machine if you are on Avengers business." Hogan told him facing forward again, "Now I don't know what he was thinking when he thought picking up some wall crawling kid in a hoodie who goes around punching muggers in the face was a good idea, but I've been assigned to be your handler when you're on the streets and in costume." He informed Peter, "What that means is that whenever you catch on to organized crime, make contact with terrorist cells, run into someone with hyper advanced tech, is enhanced, fights like a trained super assassin, or appears to be a mutant, you will inform me ASAP. I don't care about how many back alley thugs you stick to walls or if you stop some punk holding up a corner store so don't bother me with that kind of stuff alright?" He asked, continuing before the wallcrawler could reply, "If you are ever injured and can't make it back to the tower or some other form of suitable medical care you are to call me and I will get you somewhere with people who can patch you up. In short, it's my job to relay any information you gather of higher tier threats to the proper authorities or the Avengers if necessary, and it is also my job to keep you alive and in as good shape and health as possible. Understand?"
Peter swallowed hard, "Y-yes sir." He squeaked.
Mr. Hogan nodded, "good. Now, Tony doesn't care if you keep your identity from the other Avengers, he has already informed them that he hired Peter Parker as a science and general aid for himself and the rest of the team, and has told them that he reached out to Spider-Man to possibly work with them and that it is likely for you to come by in costume for various reasons. As your handler I suggest you try to convince either Ms. Romanoff or Captain Rogers to teach you- as Spider-Man- some combat skills-"
Here Peter couldn't help but cut him off, "I already have combat teachers." He told him, "Daredevil has been teaching me some of his acrobatic fighting style and Punisher is teaching me military takedowns."
Mr. Hogan half turned to face the teen again, "That's great kid, but let me assure you, as good as those two are, Captain America and the Black Widow are better. Tony always says to go for the top shelf whenever you have the chance, I suggest you take that to heart."
Peter looked back down at the floor, "Right. I'll keep that in mind."
Mr. Hogan nodded while the elevator bell chimed, signaling their arrival to the top floor of the tower, "Good. Now lets meet your new bosses."
The two existed the elevator into what looked like a high end living and entertainment room with one wall being made completely out of floor to ceiling windows. To the right was a fully equipped bar, to the left was a state of the art entertainment set up complete with XBox, Playstation, a giant plasma screen TV, two large couches, and three plush chairs. This in itself would have made it a teenager's dream- nerd or not- but the real kicker was that using said entertainment center to play Mario Party was Hawkeye, the world's greatest archer, and Tony Stark, the Iron Man and one of the smartest people on the planet. And it seemed Hawkeye was winning.
"And… GAME! Looks like I win again tin can." The S.H.I.E.L.D agent proclaimed proudly.
"What?! No way! How the hell do you keep beating me at video games? Technology is my thing!" Tony cried.
Hawkeye smirked at the billionaire, "Best eyes on the planet hotshot, and trained to have some of the best reflexes to boot. You never stood a chance." He boasted.
"Mmhmm!" Mr. Hogan loudly cleared his throat, catching the two Avengers' attention. "Mr. Stark, I got Peter Parker for you." He told his boss.
"Thanks Happy." Stark told him, walking over to greet the teen, Hawkeye close behind him, obviously curious about the newcomer.
"So kid," Stark started, "Did Happy tell you the ground rules?" He asked the younger genius.
"What? Oh- uh. He told me I'm your science assistant and the Avengers' general help guy right?" Peter stammered out.
Stark nodded, "Pretty much yeah. You will be spending a good chunk of your time here working with me in one of the labs, but seeing as some of the stuff I do is way to sensitive, dangerous, or covered in government red tape, you can't be in there the whole time. So when you aren't assisting me with my work or working on your own projects, you will be helping the Avengers around the tower. You know, change out the targets on the firing range, replacing punching bags in the gym, picking out beer or whisky bottles, you could help Sam cook if you know how, god knows none of us do, maybe a grocery run now and then if we run out of something before the weekly delivery we order in. You know, normal intern stuff." Stark told him, "Oh, just never give Pietro coffee or anything with large amounts of caffeine or sugar. Guy puts Roadrunner to shame."
Peter blinked at the list his idol had given him. Only about half of those sounded like normal intern things, but what would he know? He never had a real job before. "Got it." Peter affirmed.
"Good" The Iron Avenger nodded, "In that case how about I show you around the labs and introduce you to everyone today and you head home? No sense throwing you in the deep end on your first day." Stark suggested.
Peter smiled at the offer, "Yeah, that sounds good."
The older man smiled at that, "Right, to start us off, you've already met Happy." Stark gestured at the man who had brought Peter to the floor, "He's my head of security and an old buddy from his high school days. And this guy is Clint Barton, also known as Legolas, a fellow Avenger and one of the several freeloaders who live both in my tower and one of my upstate compounds, though we mostly use that place for team training and weapon storage seeing as it doesn't have as nice a view and is in the middle of freaking nowhere." He introduced the blond man who in turn gave Peter a small nod and a smirk that could have been an even smaller smile, "Now if you follow me, we can find the rest of said freeloaders and I can show you a few of the labs you will be working with me in along with a small one that I've set aside for your own personal use. No need to thank me, I'm just awesome like that." The billionaire went on, leading Peter out of the living room to show him the rest of the tower and its inhabitants. It seemed like Peter's new 'internship' was off to a good start, he just hoped it could stay that way.
There you guys go, another chapter, mostly filler but I at least set some things up this time. On my profile is a poll on what this story should focus on first/ for most of the story, the Chaos or the Tantric. Please go leave your vote along with a review if you could be so kind.
PS: Again, as a broke student I ask that you at least check out my P atreon at P atreon Wingdknight to show your support of my writing.
Wingd Knight out.