Chapter 3 – Billionaire Chronicles

Tony Stark didn't really know what to do with a kid in his house. To be honest he didn't really know what to do with a kid period but when he had passed out practically on top of the billionaire he couldn't help but bend down and check for a pulse. In New York City druggies were pretty common but this kid struck something in Tony and he couldn't help but make sure he was okay. However, in doing so the teen immediately flinched, eyes still closed, and reached up to grab the billionaires arm.

"Ok kid, don't get too excited there," Tony said to the passed out teen trying to ignore the onlookers all while doing his best to shield the vulnerable teen to the phone vultures trying to record the scene. It wasn't until he went to peel the teens arm off of his that he realized his grip was really strong, and it wasn't until the teens hand was hanging off his suit cuff that he realized the kid was sticking.

So he was enhanced, great. How did he always wind up in these messes. "Ok Friday, you know the drill, wipe the phones, we're leaving, alert med we have a potentially dangerous teen with powers coming in." And he did wince slightly because in his heart, not that he had one, he knew this kid wasn't dangerous and he didn't quite know how but he did.

With that the two of them were hobbling away as Tony waved the onlookers on awkwardly trying to ignore how they ignored him.

When the two got to the car, Happy, the billionaire's body guard, furrowed his brow, probably trying to find out what in the world was going on between the two. Out of the corner of his eye Tony saw the mans hand twitch just an inch closer to the handgun in his belt.

"Don't Happy, he's harmless." A pause, "Well not harmless, because he's sticking to me," Tony did a little wave to which the kids hand, still stuck to him, shadowed the movement, "enhanced."

"What? Are we bringing kids home too now?" The bodyguard questioned raising an eyebrow as the misshapen teen.

"Just this one," Tony said sucking in air. Damn, he really needed to get out more. "I leave the tower one time and run into a passed out enhanced teenager." He grumbled to which Happy only scoffed.

"You got med ready," he questioned opening the door for the two. The interior was clean and was a normal temperature but even so he felt the teenager subconsciously draw closer to him and Tony did his best not to cringe away from the touch.

"Yeah." The billionaire responded tersely. He didn't like the way Happy was watching him all worried like and he just wanted to get this kid to the tower and then hide away in his lab figuring out what was going on with this kid.

The drive to the tower felt so long and Tony was stiff almost the entire way only shifting when his arm fell asleep due to the tight grasp of the now gasping teenager. His eyes were shut and his face was scrunched up and yet somehow he still looked incredibly young.

"How old is that kid, Tony." Happy asked when the kid practically threw his head into Tony's shoulder making the man in question let out a soft hiss.

"I don't know Happy, does it look like we had time for a conversation." The driver just rolled his eyes and continued driving as if Tony hadn't spoken at all which.. Rude.

When they did finally get there Happy opened the door again and Tony practically had to drag the kid out of the car.

"I get you like luxury cars kid, but you seem pretty sick." Tony said in the softest voice he could muster while still being attached to the kid at the wrist. He heard a soft sound from Happy and turned sharply to see the man with an amused smile on his face.

"You think this funny!" Tony said glaring daggers at the usually serious-faced man who immediately went back to his serious expression but Tony swore he still caught a suspicious looking glint in the body guards eye. "I could fire you y'know"

"Technically I work for Pepper." The bodyguard said monotone. Tony sighed exasperated as he finally heaved the teenager out of the car and the medical on standby quickly went to get him onto the stretcher. Tony would like to add that the kid was still stuck to him literally.

"Enhanced" was the only word Tony said and the meds just nodded like this happened everyday which at the Avengers / Stark Industries / Tony Starks tower it might as well have.

"You might have to come along for the ride." One of the doctors said, but Tony knew who she was with her black hair slicked back into a high ponytail and glasses perched high on her nose. She looked worried as her hand cupped the teen's forehead who now lay on a stretcher. Hey when did that happen?

"Do I have other choice?"

"Not unless you want this kid's whole hand to come off." Dr. Cho said shortly. Tony cringed immediately at the thought. So much for being a hero and nodded curtly hopping on the stretcher like a kid hopped onto the side of a shopping cart.

The team moved quickly through the halls stopping for no reason and yelling at anyone who seemed to be in there way. The teen was squirming at this point with beads of sweat dripping from his forehead to his chin.

"Hang in there, Kid." Tony found himself saying gently to the still sleeping kid. The kids curls that looked bouncy and fluffy when he first met him now were plastered onto his forehead from sweat but the kids eyes were rolled back and Tony could only see small pinkish slivers he was sure were supposed to be white. It was then that Tony looked a little closer at the hand attached to his suit and Was that a spider bite?!

"Dr. Cho!" One of the team members suddenly shouted and must of realized the fast growing bump on the teens hand at the same time that Tony did. "What is that?"

The younger woman, possibly in her late 20's pointed to the red thing that was quickly taking over the child's hand. Dr. Cho, still moving just as fast through the hallways, inspected it quickly and her eyes hardened.

"I don't think a normal spider would've caused this." Dr. Cho said absolutely no alarm was hinted in her voice and Tony wondered how she kept so calm in this situation. "You said he was enhanced?"

"Yeah," Tony waved his hand again and the kids arm followed it through the air.

"That could've been a direct result of whatever is going on with the bite. Lets take some samples when we get to the room. We don't know anything at this point so we're going have to redirect from the OR to the ICU for observation. He could have any myriad of enhancements and we could harm him even more during emergency surgery."

Tony didn't like anything the doctor said. How long was this kid going to be attached to him. "My AI was run the samples" Tony spoke up then, "How long will it take to detach us?"

Dr. Cho seemed to think for a moment before nodding to the same lady who had pointed out the bump. "We're almost there and then lets get these samples fast."

The other woman only nodded and as soon as they got to the room Tony was practically thrown forward from the force of the immediate stop. Objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by an opposite force Tony thought to himself before shaking his head to exit the stupor.

He watched the woman take the samples drawing up blood, and something yellowish greenish, from the wound guiding it into a vile through a pipe. The vile was placed in another section of the lab, apparently a detector, and seemed to float while it was scanned.

"FRIDAY?" He said eyes looking up at the ceiling. Friday couldn't see him being an AI and all but he still liked to look in the direction of the voice it was just more comforting. After a few moments and a faint whirring sound they heard the sound click from the ceiling symbolizing the end of the scan.

"Pulling up specs now, sir." The robot said. Just then a whole hologram appeared in the middle of the room as they all inspected the DNA strands being webbed together with something. In the upper left corner FRIDAY had detected whatever the outside force to be the DNA of a spider.

"What am I looking at?" Tony said, voice tense with, was that worry?

"Peter Parker, age 16, enrolled at Midtown Science and Technology and recent winner of the Internship at Advanced Idea Mechanics. Descendants of Richard and Mary Parker. It seems as though Peter has been injected with some sort of altered Spider DNA and is now undergoing a change that can be compared to metamorphosis. Without the cocoon of course."

Tony himself couldn't quite believe what he was reading. The first being that this kid was 16 and about to have his entire life altered, and the fact that this was the Peter Parker. He remembered reading many of the Parker's projects after they were published and had secretly regretted not finding them before Killian could, but to meet their kid who was also working at AIM…

"Peter appears to be seizing." The robot interrupted their thoughts and almost on cue the boy started to shake slowly at first and then sped up. The teen finally released whatever sticky thing was attaching him to Tony and the billionaire practically fell backwards onto his butt.

The med team was yelling things the dazed billionaire couldn't quite catch as he was led out of the room and into the hallway. Were the walls spinning?

…

The next time Tony was fully aware he was sitting in a waiting room chair drinking a plastic cup full of orange juice.

"What happened?" he asked to no one in particular and mostly to himself, but it was Happy that answered.

"You just became a little incoherent for a minute their Boss." Happy said, and was that worry that Tony caught his eye. Damn his bodyguard was getting soft.

"A minute?" Tony asked glancing around for a clock.

"Peter started seizing and then you freaked out but its only been about 10 minutes so they found a way to stop the seizing but not much else." Happy said. For some reason hearing that the kid was okay made Tony's incredibly fast heart rate slow down just a little.

Guess Happy's not the only one getting soft…

As soon as Dr. Cho exited the boy's- Peter's room Tony was on his feet practically dancing around trying to read the doctors facial expressions.

"What happened in there?" and he quite nearly shouted. Even Happy looked a little shocked at the outburst.

"Peter's stabilized for now, but he needs to be observed. It seems as though the enhancements may have just manifested when you found him. He is running quite a high fever, but doesn't seem to be experiencing any types of side effects other than the sweating, and he is of course not waking up just yet, but that could just be his body's way of recovering."

"So you're saying, that whatever happened, happened sometime this afternoon?" Tony asked, just his luck to find Peter Parker not only on the day of getting powers, but maybe even a few minutes after. Reminder to ask FRIDAY what the statistical chances of that even happening were.

"Yes, Mr. Stark, and I suspect he will make a full recovery. While taking a vial of blood, because no, Mr. Stark, FRIDAY is not good enough." Tony couldn't help the small glare that he shot the doctor, "We realized that he healed incredibly quickly. Of course all of this will be kept under wraps until we find out what to do. My doctors signed NDA's when they started working here for you and the Avengers.

Mental reminder to thank Pep next, Tony told himself before sitting back in his chair. "Thank you Doc." Tony Said softer this time and trying to convey his genuine gratitude. He was pretty sure Cho caught it but emotions had never been his strong suit, so he let it go.

As she exited the room, ponytail swooshing, Tony tried to gather his thoughts and think about everything that had just happened. A kid had stuck to him, hyperventilated, seized, and now had powers. Another thought came in then, that this kids life would never ever be the same.

….

Peter was definitely drifting maybe in heaven. If he was in heaven though he would've thought his parents would be there and that there would be no obnoxious beeping. He felt something tight in his nose and he went to pull it out.

"No can do kiddo." A man's voice spoke. Peter was sure he could place it but he couldn't quite figure out how to turn the lights on. The man sighed then, and Peter wondered if he had done something wrong. "Relax, we'll explain when you wake up for real." The voice said again. It was comforting and familiar so Peter listened to it.

The next time he woke up he wasn't as fuzzy anymore but he definitely wasn't super clear either because he was pretty sure someone had said Tony Stark or was it Mr. Stark? Either way, he one, didn't know where he was, and two, was pretty sure he was going crazy.

"How is he doing?"

"He's doing pretty good. Since you last saw him his heart rate has kicked up a little bit but that could be from the mutation in his blood just like his temperature. We don't quite know what about him is going to change and we just have to watch for anymore warning signs like seizing or a slowing heartrate." Oh that's good, she sounded like a doctor. The first guy just sounded panicked.

"Are you sure… Does he need any of Caps stuff. Or the good stuff as I call it." There the man was again. He sounded gruff and serious, would not want to end up on his bad side. Peter wondered if that was the guy who had spoken to him earlier, but the first guy sounded much nicer than whoever this was.

"I thought that, but he seems stronger than Steve, and we don't want to overdose him, and if we don't give him enough its not going to help." Caps stuff? Peter wished his massive headache would go away and he could shake the fizziness so he could figure out what was going on.

The third and final time he woke up his eyes were open and although he expected the world to be blurry it came out incredibly clear. Almost on instinct he went to take his glasses off only to find they weren't there. He couldn't help but let out a groan. His whole body hurt like he had just run a ten K or something.

"easy there kid." The man said. There he was again. Quicker than Peter meant to he turned – more like whipped – to the side and came face to face with a man who not only sounded familiar but looked like it too. Despite the new clarity in Peter's eyesight still unexplained he stared at the man. The goatee, the hair while slightly messy was still obviously recognizable. It was of course,the one and only Tony Stark.