It was colder in the cemetery this time. Peter pulled his coat closer around him, and squatted next to the joint headstone instead of sitting on the wet ground. He set the small bouquet of fall-themed flowers at the base. It had been nice to have some money of his own to purchase something nice like this.
"Hey guys. Sorry, I haven't been by lately. Most of it's been good stuff. Man," he exclaimed, shaking his head in wonder. "I seriously have so much to tell you. I wish… I wish you could meet Mr. Stark. Ben, you'd love him!" he said quietly. "He's so much better than we thought. I mean, I know he used to be kinda crazy, but he's always been super smart, and he's so much… warmer than I expected. He's actually super nice. Like, crazy nice. At least to me."
Peter sat for a moment, reminding himself again about how safe and protected and seen he was in the Tower, by both Mr. Stark and, since this weekend, Ms. Potts. Even FRIDAY seemed to care about him. And meeting Dr. Banner had been completely amazing, even if he was in a hospital gown, and it had only been for a few minutes.
"This weekend was insane. Like literally insane. And I kinda got hurt pretty bad. Sorry about that; I know you wouldn't like that part. But guys"—Peter's voice shifted to a whisper for the next part—"I'm like a real-life superhero now. I have a suit, and a secret identity, I guess, and… yeah. I'm actually helping people. And now Mr. Stark and a bunch of people there know, too."
Peter looked up at the sky and sighed, then stood up and started pacing, a few leaves that had managed to dry crunching under his feet.
"Last night was not so good. I finally went home after healing up at the Tower, but my parents think I was doing an internship retreat or something. Anyway, they kinda freaked out and wanted to know why Ms. Potts was involved with me, and wanted to know more about Mr. Stark, and about what I'm working on, and I'm sorry , but I lied to them again. But less than before! I said he was working with us this weekend—like all the interns—and told them he was super nice. Because, you guys, I felt like they were going to tell me I couldn't do the internship anymore!"
Peter stopped pacing and walking back over to the headstones, crouching down next to them, his vision suddenly blurring.
"I couldn't let that happen. I… it's the only place I actually like being. I mean, school's okay, and Ned and MJ are amazing, really. But Mr. Stark acts like he really cares about me, and likes me. It's… I mean, it's not the same as having you guys, but it helps , you know? I tried to just tell my mom and dad about the arc reactor energy projects we've been working on, not mentioning Mr. Stark, but they were totally not impressed."
He ran a hand through his hair and pulled at it a bit, trying to regulate his emotions. "They were starting to say that it was a waste of my time though, doing all the engineering stuff there, if I wasn't getting them the connections they wanted. So I told them I'd finally worked with Mr. Stark some, and they stopped saying I should quit the internship finally. Sorry, that was a lot of words. I just—"
He sank down against his favorite tree trunk, ignoring the damp cold for a moment as tears finally flooded his eyes.
"Why can't you be here, though? It's… it's gonna be Thanksgiving, and all the holidays soon, and I don't even know what that looks like without going to your house. And I'm worried. I'm worried what's gonna happen when people find out about me. I mean, Mr. Stark's going to help, I think. If he can. But I just… I just wish you were here !" he finished in a whisper.
Peter gave himself about thirty seconds to really cry and get some of his feelings out, then he wiped his eyes firmly and stood up, gripping his backpack straps for support. He had to hurry to catch the train. It was Monday, but his parents had finally compromised, saying he should also come into their lab and get a feel for what they did, and maybe do some intern-type things there as well.
He doubted it would last long, because they'd acted excited about things like this before—getting Peter involved in their work—and then quickly lost interest and ignored him again. But he still had to go while they wanted him to. He needed to be careful not to put a foot out of line for a while, since they were feeling suspicious about what exactly he was up to as an intern at SI, and felt like it was a waste of his time. He couldn't lose that right now.
It had been months since he'd been in his parents' lab. Not really since the ill-fated day the spider had bitten him, actually. He recognized some of the other scientists and techs, and several smiled at him. But there were a lot of people here he'd never seen. The stuff they had set up was pretty cool, though. He understood it a little less than he did the engineering projects he was working on with Mr. Stark, but he had enough knowledge to mostly understand when they didn't mind explaining some of what they were working on. Honestly, everyone seemed kind of tense and rattled. He didn't remember it feeling this way before.
"Da—er, Richard, can I see some of the stuff you and Mary are working on?" Peter finally asked, when he'd been given a short tour of the current projects in the main lab. Most of them seemed kind of limited; more like pieces of a bigger puzzle rather than full projects on their own.
Richard turned from the screen he was looking at with one of the lab techs and frowned. "Um, not today, Peter. I'm really not sure why you came in today . It's not really a good time."
Peter's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Because you asked me to come in and help today?" he reminded his father carefully.
"Oh." Richard frowned again, looking confused for a moment. He visually scanned the room, and then said, "See all those beakers over there next to the back sink?"
Peter nodded, not liking where this was heading.
"Those need to be washed, dried, and sterilized. Do you know how to do that correctly?"
Peter bit back his natural sarcasm, and just nodded.
"Great. That should keep you busy for a while. When you're done, find me, and I'll see if we have something else for you to do."
Washing beakers. Cool. Cool cool cool.
The job was pretty mindless, and Peter found his thoughts drifting. There was a lot to think about. He felt a little bit better after making more sense of all the thoughts in his head at the cemetery, but there was still a lot to process.
He noticed a nearby conversation cutting into his thoughts. He constantly heard surrounding noises and conversations, but he had been doing better tuning them out as background noise. This one caught his attention, though. It was a man and a woman, and sounded like they were within a few rooms of where he was. The man sounded like he was from the area, but the woman had a Slavic accent.
"Are we any closer to obtaining failed experiment 18?"
"Gargan? No. Some government agency has him. Somethin' called SHIELD? I don't know if we'll be able to recover him or not. His enhancements seemed completely unstable. If they continue morphing at the previous rate, he might self-terminate like a few of the other trials."
"That would be best-case scenario at this point. We might have a better chance of getting a hold of him that way, so we can run tests on what went wrong. He was so promising," she said, sounding regretful.
"The actual scorpion tail was a surprise, though. Did we have any outcome predictions for that?"
"No! It makes me wonder if he has some latent genes that make him more susceptible to full mutation. None of the animal trials transformed to that extent."
Peter's eyes were wide as he stared at the wall, his hands slowly continuing washing. He felt the glass flex minutely under his grip and adjusted his pressure quickly. They were talking about the scorpion-guy he had fought. It? He? They had called him "Gargan." He was an experiment? Their experiment?
"That's one reason Parker is hoping to convince the Bauista woman. The preliminary gene scan indicates that she might be more stable. Of course that's all supposition, if the differences in animal genes translate the same way. If so, Gargan was a pretty poor subject."
"Yes, but he consented . Basically even volunteered. That was a determining factor!" The woman scoffed derisively.
"What are the chances this woman will be amenable?"
"It's uncertain. She is hesitant. She is one of the building's janitors, and got tested due to our incentives. I think if we offer enough, she will get on board. Turner says she has a sister with some huge medical bills."
"Can we get clearance for that kind of payment?"
"We can, but we'd prefer to negotiate it down. There's no reason to use excessive funds if we can get a subject willing to do it for less, or figure out a way to get her to accept."
"Any family other than the sister? Who will notice if she just disappears?" The man's voice was hesitant, but curious.
"We haven't explored that avenue yet. It is a possibility, if things don't progress as we hope. We have three other subjects who's preliminary results are promising as well."
"If we didn't have to keep it so quiet, I'm sure we could find plenty of good subjects," he said. "Lots of people need money, or would be curious enough about possible enhancements to let us do some lower level experiments, and we could better identify what predicts stability."
"Inane ethical strictures are holding the scientific community back from truly groundbreaking research," the woman spat. "Having to sneak around and hide our work is ridiculous. If the human race wants to survive and move forward, we need to explore options. The greater good needs to be considered."
"You know I agree with that. But for now, we have to deal with it. We aren't the only ones working on melding animal and human DNA to create a truly superior species, but I believe we are the closest to true breakthroughs."
"Of course we are. And Dr. Parker promises even better results with the next phase."
"He'd better. Our investors are feeling squirelly."
"Squirelly?"
The voices were starting to fade, and it seemed they were leaving the building.
"They're uncertain about the possibility of discovery, and want faster, more reliable results if they're going to keep—"
Peter finished up the last beaker and started transferring them all to the sterilizer. As soon as he started the cycle, he quietly slipped out of the lab and tried to find a way to the roof, using his extra spider-sense to keep from being seen. He finally slipped out a top story window after failing to find an outdoor door that was unlocked.
The young hero collapsed against an air handler, trying hard not to hyperventilate. His parents' lab was behind the scorpion guy? That thing was a monstrosity, and had been totally aggressive and out of control. At least it seemed like it. Had they meant for that to happen? From what he could tell, Gargan hadn't turned out how they hoped, but which parts were the failure? And had he escaped, or been released, or what? And if so, to what purpose?
And there was the whole issue that human experimentation on this level was definitely illegal (Right?) and the ethical concerns were pretty shocking. But they had done it anyway, and it sounded like they were planning to do it again. They had mentioned others whose enhancements had been unstable. What had happened to them? Were Peter's enhancements going to be unstable? He definitely wouldn't describe them as "stable" with how they'd appeared in stages.
Peter rubbed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing: In for three counts, hold for three, out for three. In, hold, out. Again.
He pulled uselessly at his hair, trying to figure out what he was going to do. No wonder he'd felt uneasy about talking to his parents after the spider bite. He'd known it was probably their alterations that had caused it to transfer some powers to him, but he hadn't realized that was the desired outcome!
They could not know . And he had to figure out what else they were up to. From the few snippets he'd heard, his enhancement process had gone much more smoothly than Gargan's. Maybe it had worked better than anything else they had tried. They would absolutely want to know why. (The curious part of him really wanted to know why, too. But a much larger part of him had no interest in becoming a human experiment or in helping them to develop this biotechnology.)
Suddenly Peter straightened, his eyes staring blankly out across the lights of the city. He could hear his father calling him from several floors below.
"Crap," he breathed, jumping to his feet and freezing for a moment to see if he felt any danger before crawling over the edge and down through the window, which thankfully slid open just easily the second time. He'd rather not be caught out on the roof. And definitely not slipping in the window.
He walked back into the lab a few minutes later, aiming for nonchalance, and his father spotted him. His face looked annoyed.
"Where have you been?"
"Uh, bathroom?" Peter said. "Then I was hungry?" he added, holding up the bag of chips he'd quickly snagged from a vending machine. "I finished the beakers," he pointed out meekly.
His dad glared at the finished job and then at Peter. "Don't just wander around," he snapped. "There are plenty of areas here that require different levels of clearance, which you certainly don't have."
Peter didn't even think about saying all the things in his head, which started with Well, at Stark Towers you can't access areas you shouldn't be in and ended with Yeah, pretty sure I figured that out when I was where I shouldn't be and unknowingly became part of your human experiments.
Instead he nodded and said, "Yes, sir. Is there anything else you want me to do?" Peter felt his face falsely brighten as he had an idea, and added, "You used to let me do a bunch of the shredding in your office. Is there any of that?" Maybe he'd find some interesting information that way.
His dad looked confused for a moment, like maybe he didn't remember Peter ever doing that.
"Um… I don't know where we keep that, so I guess not today," he said stiffly. "I actually have an IT issue," he said, sighing in annoyance. "And the people down there are useless. I need it fixed so we can finish up a timely experiment. You work with that sort of stuff at your internship, right?"
"Yes, sir." Not exactly , but Peter was pretty good with anything like that.
"Well, do you want to take a look? I'm certain you can do better than they can, because apparently no one who's actually competent with tech is currently in the building," he sneered.
"Uh, yeah. I can try," Peter said hesitantly. He had no idea what was going on, but he should be able to troubleshoot it.
His father turned on his heel and led the way to the elevator that would take him down to IT. Peter fell in step behind him and hoped he could figure out what was wrong. Then he frowned to himself. But what if he did fix it, and what they were working on was more of this human-animal DNA splicing, with a little human experimentation on the side? Was he aiding and abetting criminals at this point as Peter Parker even as he tried to get them off the streets as Spider-man?
Ugh. Now he was thinking of himself as two different people, and couldn't figure out if he was helping his parents or just helping them commit crimes. He scrubbed at his hair as he followed the man he looked so much like, but had almost nothing in common with. His life was a mess.
Tony sighed, and looked through the mess in front of him. "FRIDAY, explain. What do all these documents and laws have to do with the kid? Explain it in 'Legalese for Dummies,' sweetheart. I'm a scientist, not a lawyer."
If an AI could sigh, he was sure she would have sighed back at him. This really wasn't his wheelhouse. Pepper seemed to instinctively cut through to the most important parts of all this legalese, but Tony's (most probably ADHD) brain couldn't make sense of it if it didn't interest him.
"Boss, all of the information we've collected could, eventually , make a case for neglect, and with the right judge, could establish reasonable doubt about the best placement for Peter. But unless we can prove abandonment or abuse, they're not going to approve his removal. Even then, he'd go into the system. The only way to get custody in that case, would be SHIELD pushing for stewardship after revealing his enhancements, or if his parents voluntarily signed over guardianship."
Tony sat back and rubbed at his temples. "Well, the first is obviously not ideal, as we said, but let's keep it on the back burner for an emergency. I can't see any situation where the second would happen, but let's work on paperwork for both situations, in case we need something fast. Keep working on building the history in case we need to go before a judge for some reason. Worst case scenario, he'll just disappear until after he turns eighteen. I have a few places off the books."
The AI's disapproval came through clearly in her silence.
"Oh, c'mon, FRIDAY. That's only in a true emergency. Would you rather he disappears under his parents' 'care' instead, and becomes part of whatever they're working on?" he asked, coupling his tirade with an incredulous look at FRIDAY's closest sensor. "What did they do to that spider that caused… well, whatever he has going on? With their history, and their relationship, I don't see it turning out well for him," Tony was muttering that last part as he digitally shuffled through the case FRIDAY had assembled.
"I didn't actually say anything," FRIDAY said blandly. "You extrapolated all of that, which makes me think you might be feeling guilty about decisions you haven't even made yet."
"And I don't want to make them. But I'm also not going to leave Peter with his parents if they discover his secret." Tony leaned back, rubbing his eyes again. Why did they feel so gritty? "So we've got to explore all the angles, legal and legal-adjacent."
"That's not a thing, Boss," FRIDAY said flatly.
"Oh honey, if you think that , you definitely haven't been paying attention," Tony said with a smirk.
But his face faded almost immediately to a concerned frown as he considered the options. DUM-E whirred softly behind him, where he'd managed to sneak up on Tony. DUM-E wasn't that quiet when he moved, and Tony had been working at making him more soundless several years ago when he discovered what a bad idea it was. A DUM-E you couldn't hear was a DUM-E who could get into trouble far too easily. Tony must have been really distracted with the huge puzzle he had (figuratively) spread out all over his holo tables to not hear him approach.
"Hey buddy, whatcha got there?"
DUM-E pushed a tall aluminum cup at him hopefully. His motion was tentative, like he expected Tony to refuse.
"D, what have I said about smoothies? Your efforts are creative, but don't tend to agree with my gut," Tony said gently. Peter was so cute and considerate with the bots, treating them more like small children or puppies than robots. Tony was suddenly aware that the kid's tendencies were starting to rub off on him a little.
"Actually, Boss, this is a milkshake, not a smoothie, and I supervised very carefully," FRIDAY said. "It's safe to drink, and might even taste good. He used copious amounts of ice cream with the protein powder."
Tony looked at it doubtfully and raised an eyebrow at FRIDAY's nearest sensor.
"Ms. Potts did ask me to remind you to eat while she was gone, and the last time you ate something other than sunflower seeds, potato chips, or coffee was breakfast yesterday morning with Peter."
"Oh. Really? Dang it, I must have lost track of time," Tony said, a little startled. He'd been doing much better about eating regular meals since he got back together with Pepper. He gingerly took the "milkshake" (it was rather blue) from DUM-E. "Bottoms up, I guess?"
It was… well, not bad. The bot had been heavy handed with both the blueberries and the peanut butter protein powder, but Tony had had worse. When he drained it and handed the cup back to his robot child, DUM-E did a little celebratory shimmy with his camera, and dutifully took the cup to wash it out in the sink. Tony smiled after him, then frowned again as he turned back to his work.
"Boss," FRIDAY said patiently.
"What?" he snapped, now irritated. He'd eaten; what more did she want?"
"You also haven't slept since Ms. Potts left yesterday morning. You, yourself, asked me to remind you of the "New Leaf" protocol you set up. She will be home this evening. I recommend a nap before then.
Tony sighed, and sloppily swiped all of the files into their digital folder. "Fine. What time is it?"
"Two in the afternoon, Boss. Ms. Potts' ETA suggests she'll be back by 7 PM."
"Okay. Two hours then. Wait, no Peter today?" he checked, trying to remember what day it was.
"It's Monday. Not today." Her next sentence was a little tentative. "Actually, he's at his parents' lab this afternoon."
"What?" Tony's head shot up. "Why? When? And how do you know?"
"I know because he texted me to tell me, since you suggested to him that someone should know where he was if he wasn't here or at school. And he didn't say much about why. Just that they wanted him to work with them this afternoon."
"Right. Okay." Tony felt his eyebrows wrinkle in concern. "New priority for this afternoon between my nap and when Pep gets home: Bring up that project I sketched out in the hospital."
"I will, Boss, as soon as you nap," FRIDAY said.
Tony rolled his eyes. "Fine. But don't let me forget."
"I doubt you will. And I rather doubt you're going to sleep rather than finish designing this in your head. But at least lay down and rest your eyes for a few hours first? I'm sure Peter's fine for today."
"What makes you say that?"
She was silent for a moment. "I may have tapped into the cameras surrounding his parents' Oscorp lab. He has not left, and nothing untoward seems to be happening. At least not at street level. And we have no hint of his parents' discovering his enhancements yet."
"Huh. Who's 'legal-adjacent' now?" Tony asked with a little huff of laughter. "You've gone soft for the kid just like the rest of us."
"I'm merely concerned for his safety," his AI said primly. "As are you. But he's okay right now, so get some rest, Boss."
"You're probably right. I'm going." But his eyes still flicked back to the holo table. He definitely needed to finish that project before he saw Peter tomorrow.