It was an early Saturday morning in Queens. Peter was yawning in his bus seat headed towards Brooklyn. On that cold March morning, he was dressed warmly and carried gym clothes in his backpack. Other than Physical Education, Peter had previously not been much of an athlete. But the previous day's events proved that his quirk may have given him more of an aptitude for it.
"Hope you got enough sleep last night," said the man seated next to him.
Peter smiled, "As much as I could, Uncle Ben. To be honest, I'm so excited about working with Mr. Stark I couldn't stop thinking about it!"
Peter's uncle smiled broadly at the boy. He was an older man in his mid-fifties. Broad shouldered and slightly pudgy, Ben had a the look of a man who had seen a lot during his life but hadn't let it wear him down. He had a perpetually warm expression and sported grey hair worn in a ponytail.
"Well that's certainly understandable," he said. "Your Aunt's still processing the fact that you developed a Quirk, let alone that you were personally invited to meet with Iron Man, of all people!"
Peter had previously recounted a shortened, somewhat tamer version of the afternoon's events to his guardians. And while they reacted as expected over the thought of their nephew encountering a villain, the fact that Peter somehow manifested a quirk in that moment was cause for both celebration. His cover story regarding Iron Man was that the hero was impressed by his actions and wanted to speak with him.
Aunt May had been particularly worried by the news she heard about the Carnage attack, perhaps fearing her nephew would encounter another villain during his commute. And so it was that Ben insisted on accompanying Peter on the bus to Stark Industries. At least for the first day.
"Now... You wanna tell me what really happened?" He asked in a serious tone. Benjamin Parker wasn't noted for being a particularly intimidating man. But when he got serious, there was something about his manner that made him a very respected man in the community.
Peter then told his uncle the whole story. Carnage, the "rescue" of Flash, even his first encounter with Iron Man; leaving out only the situation of Iron Man and his Quirk. Ignoring the flight and the conversation in the building, Peter wove a very convincing story. Since he didn't lie, just omitted a few parts.
Ben stared at his nephew for a bit. Peter couldn't tell whether his uncle believed his story, but he was sure of one thing; if he looked away, the older man would definitely be more suspicious. Fortunately, his uncle breaks his gaze first, leaning back in his seat and let out a tired breath.
"I know you dreamt of being a hero Peter..." His Uncle said, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his shirt. He did this when he was embarrassed or touched on an uncomfortable subject.
"But throwing yourself headfirst in danger isn't going to help anything," he went on. "It would just end up killing you, and you know May would kill me if that happened." He ends it with a little humor.
"Got it, Ben. I'm sorry..." The boy said, absorbing his uncle's words. But he soon felt Ben's callused hand ruffle his hair. Peter looked up and saw his Uncle smiling as he withdrew his hand from the boy's head.
"It's okay Peter. And honestly, I'm proud of you for wanting to do the right thing," said Ben. "Just promise you'll be more rational in the future, okay?"
Peter nodded in response.
"We'll have to get you some new glasses, seeing as your old ones are busted," he chuckled at his pun. This made the boy realize that his new powers had also corrected his myopia.
Ben looked out the bus window. "Here we are," he said as they came to a stop. "Jeez, this place is even bigger in person."
Peter looked up excitedly at the skyscraper. Emblazoned near the top was the word "STARK".
"Call us when you're ready and I'll come meet you here," Ben smiled at the boy.
"I will," said Peter, anxious to get off the bus.
"Don't forget your bag!" Said his Uncle, tossing it to the retreating boy. He caught it with a wink and hopped off the bus.
As the boy entered the building, he was amazed by how high tech and futuristic everything looked. The first floor was the reception area. At the desk, a red-haired women typed on a computer. She gave him a warm smile.
"Hi there." She shook the boy's hand. "You're Peter Parker, right?"
Peter nodded.
"I'm Virginia Potts, you can call me Pepper. Friday's updating her systems, so for now, I'm taking her place."
"As a secretary?" Peter asked.
Pepper held up her arm and smirked. A robotic hand quickly encased it, her palm pulsing with energy, "As a defense system."
Virginia 'Pepper' Potts. Hero Name: Rescue. Quirk; Technopath. She generates an invisible electronic field around her body, letting her utilize and manipulate technology within her field of vision.
"Mr. Stark left this note for me to give you," she went on, handing Peter a letter. "Said he wanted you to come to this location instead."
The boy was somewhat disappointed he wouldn't be able to see the interior of the Stark Industries building, but he was sure the hero had a good reason for the sudden change. This just meant he'd have to take another bus...
Is this the right place? Peter thought as he stood in front of a dilapidated looking building. The address was for an old boxing gym in Hell's Kitchen: Fogwell's Gym. The door creaked open, and Tony Stark stuck his head out the door.
"What're you waiting for, another invitation?" Quipped the hero. "Get in, before someone sees ya!"
Peter quickly entered and took in his surroundings. Around him, the wall plaster had peeled off in places, exposing bare clay bricks. A few old posters hung on the wall, as old and faded as the building itself. At the center of the gym was a boxing ring. Several old heavy bags hung from chains. Multiple weights, exercise gear and gymnastics equipment was scattered all around. The place smelled of sweat and leather.
"Kinda shabby, I know. But it's best that we keep things low-profile," Tony said. He sat on a bench near the far end of the room. He wore his old Mark 42 suit, "I'm borrowing the place from a guy I know, promised I'd fix it up in return, add a few upgrades so Quirk users might have a place to train."
He stuck out his hand, "So, what do you say we get started?"
Peter shook it excitedly, "Yes Iron-, I mean Mr. Stark!"
"Kid, drop the formalities. I told ya to call me Tony," he went on.
"Um, s-sure!" The boy replied.
Tony aimed his gauntlet at Peter, who was surprised by a beam of light that passed through his body, as if scanning it. In a short time, the hero finished the analysis and projects a mini holographic figure of the boy above his forearm.
"Whoa..." said Peter, more than a little amazed.
"It looks like the effects from the spider bite have stabilized within your body," Tony noted, reading the results. "You're not feeling sick or anything, right?"
Peter shook his head, "No, not at all!"
Tony breathes a quick sigh of relief, "Well, that's one less lawsuit I'll need to worry about." The hologram of Peter was quickly surrounded by graphs and equations that the boy didn't immediately recognize.
"Okay, according to the primary analysis, two things are obvious," Iron Man said, deactivating his helmet so his head was exposed. "First; your sweat glands seem to have changed. They're capable of producing some kind of protein gel that solidifies on air contact, ejecting through the wrist."
"...Like a spider's web..." The boy said, staring at the hole on his wrist.
"Exactly." Tony replied, without looking at the boy. "But it seems that the amount you produce is too big to come out at once. That's why they broke your skin and it hurt you."
"So, what do we do about that?" Peter asked.
"Let's put it aside for now, we have other things to focus on." The hero made a motion and the image zoomed in on the boy's hand. Some tiny hairs on his palm came into view. "Like the second thing; you also apparently grew a special type of 'setules' in your hands and feet…"
"I read about those once," Peter said. "Microscopic hairs that let spiders and geckos climb vertical surfaces or even upside down." The boy stared at his hand, trying to find the tiny hairs, but failing. They were just too small.
"If you say so, kid. I'm not too fascinated by biology, but you can already do it," The hero said, bringing up footage of the Carnage encounter.
"I got this from the one traffic cam that wasn't destroyed in the fight. At this point here," Tony froze the video at the moment where Peter jumped to avoid an attack and lands on the concrete support. "You stuck to the wall. It wasn't for long, but it was there."
Peter looks at the video, "It all went by so fast, I could barely process everything. But something else happened." The events of the fight proceeds to where Carnage is about to strike the two boys.
"Before you arrived, before I shot the web..." He thought back, "It's like I felt Carnage coming. I didn't see him or hear him, but I knew…" Tony rewound the video, and sure enough, it showed Peter turning quickly and shooting his web as if on instinct.
"Hmmm…" Tony pondered the new information, and goes back to the stats from Peter's body. "Your normal body hair seems to have grown a bit in size. And your nerve skin sensors have increased the number of connections with the epithelial cells, which could mean…"
"...That I gained a super sensitivity in the skin..." The boy came to the same conclusion. "I read that some spiders hunt using reflexes with a nerve-conduction velocity so fast that some researchers believe it almost borders on precognition. Like an instant awareness of danger."
"A 'Spider Sense'..." Tony tried out the phrase. "I like it." He turned off the hologram and walks over to the bench press, picking up a 50lb weight. "You also demonstrated improved strength and agility. That's what most of the guinea pigs presented anyways, so no surprise there."
Without warning, he throws the weight like a frisbee at the boy, who dodged it Matrix style. The disk imbedded into the wall with a loud crash. Tony looked at Peter with slight exasperation, "You were supposed to catch that, kid."
The boy blushed with embarrassment, "Um, s-sorry." Peter grabbed onto the weight, and with zero effort, yanked it out of the wall.
"Eh, that works. It still serves my point," Tony shrugged. "You might have these powers now, but your body isn't used to them. You were completely exhausted after barely using them for the first time, yes?"
Peter nodded, "I felt like I could sleep for a week."
"Well, you've got a lot of catching up to do then," Tony went on. "That kid yesterday was talking about the M.A Entrance Exam. You're serious about enrolling, huh?"
"I've wanted to go since I was 4," the boy replied.
"I had a feeling," said Tony. "So I came up with a plan to help speed up your development."
He brought up a chart listing the multiple exercises and types of training Peter would be doing.
"Still, you'd be competing against kids who've had a lifetime to develop and understand their Quirks," Tony warned. "You've only got 6 months to figure it all out. You sure you're up for it?"
Peter nodded determinedly, "I always knew that I'd have to work harder than everyone else..."
The boy read through the proposed exercises, the necessary diet, even the hours of sleep.
"But now that I have a real chance, and I won't stop until I make it happen!" He declared.
"That's the spirit!" Tony says, smacking the boy on the back with his armored arm. Peter was knocked over face first onto the floor. "Whoops, my bad..."
.
.
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Barber's Chair
• We've got Fogwell's Gym, a mainstay from the original Daredevil comics. Instead of moving junk off a beach for almost a year, Peter will be cleaning junk out of and restoring an old gymnasium.
