Peter crept down the hall on the ceiling, sticking to the walls and avoiding people in general. He was officially on the hunt. He was currently tracking by scent. He could smell the person who'd tripped him; he would find him and strike fear into his heart.

He got to the break room and the scent was much stronger. He peeked in through a window and saw the cots were set up. It looked like everyone was settled in for the evening. He could feel in his body that it was now evening.

"TIM, can you cut the power to the break room? I want it to be as dark as possible in there so I can freak out Alistair," Peter whispered into his phone. That was where his AI was stored. He noticed Tony and Bruce looking over the projects, and his own project sitting off to the side, abandoned. "Actually, forgo that. I'll go into stealth mode. When I get to Alistair's side, I want you to hack into Mr. Stark's PA system so that everyone can hear the conversation he is having with his little friends."

"That is a much better plan, sir," TIM told him. "I will do that with pleasure."

Peter made himself invisible, one of his spider powers, then strolled over to Alistair and his little group of cronies. They were laughing at Peter's misfortunes.

TIM, in his attempt to hack into Stark's system, met JARVIS. They were similar systems, so they were able to communicate.

"Who are you?" JARVIS asked suspiciously. He held off on alerting Tony until he heard the entire story. After all, he was speaking with an AI. A very young AI, but still, an AI.

"My name is TIM. I'm Peter Parker's AI. I've been told to get close enough to Mr. Sims to broadcast his conversation with his friends. He's attempting to discredit Peter. We both think everyone should know the quality of his personage."

"Very well," JARVIS said, granting permission. TIM didn't hack into JARVIS because the elder AI would never have allowed it.

Peter hid under Alistair's cot and made sure his phone would pick up every word of the conversation.

"I can't believe you stuffed that poor kid in the escape room," James laughed. "Did you see the look in his eyes when you tripped him? It was hilarious!"

"I'm not going to let some fifteen-year-old little punk beat us out of what is rightfully ours," Alistair sneered. "I can't believe that Tony Stark would allow someone so young into a program like this anyway."

"And I can't believe you would try to pass off one of Peter Parker's winning science fair designs as your own original creation to Mr. Stark," Peter's disembodied voice sneered. His voice turned silky smooth and deadly, very unlike the normally chipper, bright voice he used. The effect was chilling. "It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow, but know this, Alistair Sims. I know your kind. I know your nature. I will never stop hunting you. You might think you have won, but I know you are going to be a cheat and a liar your entire life. You'd better look over your shoulder because you never know when, or what or why."

Alistair's mouth went dry, and he saw Tony and Bruce stalking over. All the other candidates were staring at him with animosity in their eyes. Plagiarism in the scientific community was nearly as bad as in the literature or musical world.

"Pack your bags and get your ass out of here," Tony hissed. "And take your friends, too. They knew what you had done and they did nothing to correct the damage you did."

"And now that I think about it, I recognize your entry," Bruce added with a growl. "That kid has won the Stark Science award six times, and he's won the last four years in a row. You've really cooked your goose but good."

Sims jumped up and went to grab his bags. In doing so, he managed to step on Peter's hand and he leaped back with a horrified yelp. Peter suppressed a gasp of pain. It was a minor pain compared to some of the things he'd gone through in the past. "I just stepped on something!"

"Yeah, right. Save it for the jury," Tony snarled. "Somebody go let Parker out of the escape room, for pity's sake."

Peter let out an involuntary snort, then froze. Tony and Bruce froze and slowly turned around. "What was that?" Tony said suspiciously, looking around like a snake looking for prey.

"Sir, Parker isn't in the room," Happy radioed over the PA system. "It looks like he tried to hack into the door lock but somebody put a randomizer on it. The air vent is open. He must have crawled through the it."

Peter could feel his defense mechanism slipping. He could only maintain it for so long under the best of circumstances, and he'd been without food for an extended period of time. He could feel his blood sugar starting of bottom out.

One of the college freshmen, Gwen Stacy, tapped on Bruce's arm. "Sir, there is something under Sim's cot. He really did step on something."

Peter knew he was visible to the naked eye, so he groaned and rolled out from under the cot. Sims screeched and grabbed his bags. He high tailed it out of the room, cronies trailing behind.

"That was a pretty neat trick, kid," Tony said, staring him down. Peter blushed. "That must be some pretty cool tech you have there."

Peter was relieved. Great, Tony thought it was tech. What a relief. "You wouldn't happen to have a protein bar on hand, would you? I'm experiencing a low blood sugar right now."

TIM chose that moment to speak up. "Low blood sugar? Your sugar is currently 48. You need some sugar pronto."

"What was that? A snarky AI?" Tony was a little bit stunned. Snarky AI's were his territory, not some little supposed genius kid.

"Yeah, I modeled TIM after JARVIS. I guess that's why he sounds a bit like him," Peter said a bit uncomfortably. He really hoped Stark didn't ask what TIMH stood for, but he knew that was probably impossible.

It was actually Bruce that asked the question. Crap. "Is that an acronym? Tony always has acronyms for his stuff."

Peter blushed bright red. Gwen ran up with a protein bar and a snickers bar, and he gratefully accepted them. "T.I.M.H. It stands for Tony is my Hero."

Tony just stared at him, then laughed. "Kid, I'm honored. Now, tell me what your project is. We had a chance to look over everyone's project, but we didn't look at yours. What is it?"

Peter was secretly glad that Tony didn't make a big deal out of his acronym "I made a gamma scanner. I know there's a lot of danger in the labs, so I wanted to make equipment that can scan scientists to make sure they haven't been exposed to gamma radiation. It's more accurate than a Geiger counter."

"We can test it right now. Bruce, do you feel up to testing it?" Tony was eager to find out if the apparatus worked.

Bruce was excited by any potential new technology, so he agreed. "Sure, why not." Peter ran over to the machine and plugged it in. It gave a long, low whine, then leveled off.

"Ok, it's warmed up. Step in front of it. If you still have gamma radiation in your blood, it will light up," Peter directed. Bruce did as Peter directed, albeit a bit nervously. He was glad that most of the students were asleep and not around.

The scanner lit up light a Christmas tree. Bruce looked at it nervously, studying the gauges and dials, trying to make sense of the information it was giving. "So, what does this mean?"

Peter couldn't help but give him sass. "You never want to give blood."

Tony looked at the kid in shock, then he burst out in laughter. "He got you good, Bruce. That was classic."

Bruce looked at him in mock outrage. "You know, sometimes I really hate you." He moved away from the machine in order to get it to stop exposing his secret.

"Ok, everyone," Tony said loudly, waking up those that had fallen asleep and getting the attention of those who were not paying attention, "I've made my choice as to my choice of intern. I have chosen Peter Parker. The rest of you, thank you for your time. You may leave at any time."

The group didn't choose to stay. Grumbling, they got up and left en masse. The only one that didn't grumble was Gwen. She gave Peter a brilliant smile and half wave. Peter smiled back shyly and returned her wave. "Bye, Gwen."

"Bye, Pete. See ya around," she said as she left. Peter sighed dreamily and started taking care of his gamma unit. His mind was on Gwen and not his research. As he reached across it to turn it off, he triggered it. It lit up and even sounded an alarm.

"Oh, shit," Peter said in dismay. He was hoping the gamma in his blood had dissipated, not gotten more concentrated. "I guess I'd really better not give blood."

Tony and Bruce came running over. "Ok, kid," Tony said. "Tell us why you just triggered your own machine."

Peter looked up at him like a fly caught in a spider web. "Um. I went to Oscorp on a field trip a couple of months ago and had a run in with one of their genetically modified radioactive spiders. It bit me on the hand."

"I think we need to filter your blood," Tony said seriously. "Let me guess. You freak out every time you get cut and think you're going to bleed, right?"

"Uh, yeah. It's a bit of a kill joy to tell the truth," Peter admitted. "I've gotten a bit banged up in the last couple of months and it's a little scary."

"We're going to take you up to medbay. Don't be worried," Bruce added, seeing the alarm on Peter's face, "Dr. Cho can be trusted. She's the doctor to the Avengers."

"I need to call my aunt. She will be worried when I don't come home," Peter told Tony. "Ever since Uncle Ben died, she's been ultra protective. It makes it a little difficult to get out of the house without her knowing."

"Sure. I'll call her and let her know the news," Tony reassured him. "By the way, how did you know that Alistair was the one that shoved you into the escape room?"

Peter tapped his nose. "I tracked him by scent. I got out through the vent and hunted him down. He really pissed me off, you know?"

"So, I gathered from that little speech you gave him. Scared the shit out of him. It serves him right," Tony said with satisfaction.