Chapter Text
Peter didn’t like to talk about ‘the blip.’ Ned couldn’t stop talking about it, because it had changed all of their lives in strange ways, but the two of them hadn’t experienced ‘the blip’ in the same way. Ned had been in class when it had happened. He’d been dusted midway through a math test, along with MJ, Flash, and about 70 other students and teachers at Midtown High. Then he’d returned five years later to find his parents and grandparents still alive, his apartment as it always had been, and Midtown High ready to accept him back to repeat his sophomore year along with the other kids that had been dusted.
Peter had come back to find aunt May dead and another family living in his Queens apartment.
He’d been dusted in Tony’s arms on an alien planet with a red atmosphere, and come back to find himself on a battlefield fighting Thanos yet again, confused and disoriented. Tony had found him there on the battlefield outside the mostly destroyed Avenger’s compound in upstate New York and then pulled Peter into a tight hug, tears in his eyes and voice choked. “Oh my God, kid, you’re really here. You’re back. I never got to tell you that I love you.”
Peter had barely been given three sentences to describe what was going on before being forced to fight yet another horde of aliens across an expansive battlefield. “It’s been five years. We brought you back. We have to get the glove away from Thanos and kill him before he kills all of you again.”
It had only taken a few seconds after that for Peter to notice that Tony’s gauntlet had six empty spaces. Spaces the size of magical stones. He’d known then that Tony had plans on using the stones… on being the one to kill Thanos. He’d also known that there was no way he would survive if he did. There was no way Peter was going to let that happen.
A lot of the battle was a blur for him after that. Bruce had told him later that it had gone on for another fifteen minutes after the dusted had been brought back, but that’s not how Peter remembered it. It felt like only moments. He’d tailed Mr. Stark around the battlefield with one goal: keep Mr. Stark alive. He hadn’t known at that point that aunt May was dead… that he didn’t have a life in Queens to return to. All he knew was that he loved Mr. Stark and couldn’t let him die.
Steve and Thor had wrestled the glove off of Thanos and Clint had pried two of the stones out of it. Mr. Stark had the stones into his gauntlet before Peter could stop him. He tried to snatch the third stone Clint had pried out of the glove before Tony could get it, but Tony got to it first. There was only one thing Peter could do in that moment, and that was to take Thanos’ glove. Clint had dropped it and dove into a crater to avoid a blast from a Chitauri weapon. When Mr. Stark turned to take another stone, he found Peter wearing the enormous glove.
“What’re you doing Pete?”
“You can’t have the other three.”
“This is the only way. There’s a plan in place.”
“Then change the plan. You just told me I was dead for five years. I’m not gonna come back just to watch you die.”
Thanos had gotten free from where nine people were holding him down, and was coming after the glove and the stones. Before Mr. Stark could argue with Peter about it, Peter reached forward and took his hand, Infinity stone gauntlet to Thanos’ glove. “Snap together to get rid of him!” Peter had shouted. He hadn’t given Mr. Stark a choice but to comply because Thanos had lunged at them, arms outstretched for the stones. Then they had snapped. Together. Thanos hit the ground in front of them, bursting into gray dust, his army of aliens turning to dust all around the battlefield. Mr. Stark and Peter hit the ground, arms still tangled together, Infinity stones turning to dust. That was how the others found them, Peter unconscious lying across Mr. Stark. That had been six months ago.
Peter slammed his locker in the hall of Midtown high a little too hard, causing Ned to look up at him, frown firmly in place. He’d been going on all morning about how odd it was to be going to school as sophomores when the seniors had only been middle schoolers when they’d ‘blipped’.
“You ok Peter?” Ned asked.
Peter gave him a tired look and said, “Fine. I’m fine.” He was tired. He hadn’t slept well the night before. He’d dreamt of the two months after the battle, lying in bed in Mr. Stark’s cabin upstate recuperating. It had been painful, but his body had healed his burnt arm and face. It had been even more painful lying there knowing that aunt May wasn’t coming to see him… to pick him up and take him back to Queens. Mr. and Mrs. Stark had gained full custody of him. It was both the best and worst thing that had happened to him. He’d lost aunt May and gained a father in Tony, along with a mother and little sister. He never slept well these days. He knew Tony didn’t either, mostly because he was still recovering. It had taken Peter two full months to heal physically, even though it had taken him another three to be strong enough to start training to be Spider Man again. It had taken Tony four months just to be able to get up out of bed, and another two for him to regain full use of his left arm. He didn’t have Peter’s healing abilities, and his left arm would be scarred for life. At least he was alive.
“Move it Penis,” a senior sneered, shoving between Peter and Ned. Ned sneered at the guy’s back.
“What’s his problem?”
Peter shrugged. At least one thing hadn’t changed for him. No one knew he was Spider Man. No one knew he lived with the Starks back in Stark Tower. He was still just the dorky kid with a single friend that everyone at school liked to pick on. It was different kids picking on him now, because most of the kids he’d gone to school with before were off at college, but it didn’t matter.
“What’s wrong with you Parker?” Flash asked, also shoving past him, knocking into him hard enough that he had to take a step back to catch himself from falling. Flash was one of the few kids he still knew there. A lot of the kids that had blipped at Midtown had been from other years. Peter, Flash, Ned, MJ and four others were all that had come back after the blip to repeat their sophomore year.
“I want to take comfort in the fact that school hasn’t changed at all,” Ned said, “but this actually sucks.”
Peter murmured his agreement as they started towards history class. It had only taken a few days of Flash’s loud mouth for the name ‘Penis Parker’ to start floating around the school again. By the end of Peter’s second week back, there were a dozen upperclassmen calling him names in the halls, trying to trip him at lunch, and laughing at him as Flash knocked the books out of Peter’s hands. They flocked to him like sharks who caught the scent of blood in water. All it had taken was for Flash to cut him once.
The world knew that the Hulk had snapped the dusted back into existence, and that Iron Man and Spider Man had snapped Thanos and his army away, removing the threat of everyone disappearing again. No one knew that innocent, exhausted looking Peter Parker, sitting in the back row of history class was a hero. Peter preferred it that way. He had never even been able to get the kids at school to believe he’d had an internship at Stark Industries. No one would believe that he was Spider Man, and he was too tired to fight with them about it.
* * *
Peter flopped down next to Tony on the couch in the penthouse living room, backpack at his feet. Tony looked up from the Stark tablet he was working on and looked Peter up and down. They both had bags under their eyes. “You look beat kid,” he commented.
Peter hummed in agreement. “What are you working on?”
“Still catching up on work. For five months all I heard was, ‘take it easy, you can work later.’ Now all I hear is, ‘Tony, you’re so far behind. You’ve got to start catching up.’”
Peter laughed. He’d heard Pepper getting on to him for the last few weeks to go through the thousand emails that had piled up. There were important documents he needed to catch up on signing, and months old projects from R and D that needed to be reviewed. Peter would gladly skip school for a couple weeks (or the rest of the year) to help him if he could.
“You know you could just let me do homeschool and then I could have time to help you.”
“No can do, you know what Pepper said. You have to try school at least until spring term before we’ll consider an online homeschool program.”
“I can tell you already what I’m going to say at the end of January,” Peter said. They wanted him to try to get back into a ‘normal routine’ at Midtown. Peter had as far as attending classes went. He had a 4.2 GPA, only one point lower than what he’d had before the blip. But he had hated every minute of it. School was loud and overwhelming for him and for his senses. It always had been, but now that he was lacking sleep and frequently flashing back to Titan, it just made him miserable.
They were quiet for several minutes as Tony continued to scroll through months of back emails. By the time Tony looked up at Peter again, he found him asleep, head resting against the back of the couch. A nap sounded like an excellent idea to Tony. Peter was tired because his sleep was broken every night. Tony was tired because he was still trying to recover. He put the tablet to sleep and then scooted down on the couch a little so his head could rest against the backrest too. Neither of them woke forty minutes later as Happy came up in the elevator with Morgan.
“Come on, I’ll take you to see auntie Nat,” Happy said, not wanting Morgan to wake them.
“No uncle Happy. I wanna nap too.” She went to the couch and climbed up, wedging herself between Peter and Tony.
Happy went over and turned the TV onto her favorite cartoon, making sure the volume was low, and then went to get her a snack in the kitchen. He wasn’t supposed to be babysitting, but didn’t want to just leave Morgan there with no supervision. Morgan loved spending time with Peter, and preferred to be there in the penthouse with him if he was home.
It seemed Morgan wasn’t lying when she’d said she wanted a nap too. By the time he brought over a sliced up apple and a juice box for her, he found her sleeping soundly across boss and mini-boss. Peter’s head had slipped sideways and was lying on Tony’s shoulder. Happy set the sliced apple on the coffee table with the juice box, and left them there to sleep, heading back to his office ten floors below.
* * *
Uncle Ben had always said that a curse had been placed on their family. They were never sure by who, but the mysterious curse was known as ‘Parker luck.’ Whenever something bad happened, it was due to ‘Parker luck,’ or rather, a lack thereof. Parker luck had been responsible for the plane crash that had killed Peter’s parents. It had been responsible for Uncle Ben being gunned down in the streets by a trigger happy mugger. It had been responsible for aunt May dying in a car crash the day of the blip. Peter had begun to think that it wasn’t ‘Parker luck’ but just Peter. His parents, May and Ben didn’t have bad luck. Peter did. Shitty things happened to him on a frequent enough basis that he was certain he must be the unluckiest Parker to ever have lived. It didn’t surprise him then to find out that the Alpha level students in the Midtown Honor Society would be going on a field trip to Stark Industries in the last week of Winter term as a reward for their hard work.
The last time Peter had gone on an honor society field trip at the end of the 8th grade, he’d been bitten by a radioactive spider. Sometimes that felt like bad luck and sometimes it felt like the best thing that had ever happened to him, because he loved being Spider Man. Sometimes Parker luck worked like that though. Get bitten, become Spider Man. Be Spider Man, die on Titan. Lose aunt May, get Tony Stark as an awesome dad. One thing always gave way to another. He just wished it didn’t have to be that way.
“So, are we excited for this field trip or not?” Ned asked Peter cautiously as they left school and headed out to the black SUV waiting for them. Ned was supposed to stay the night since it was Friday afternoon. “Because, if you’re excited, then I’m excited, and if you’re bummed out, I’m bummed out.”
Peter appreciated his friend’s attempt to sympathize, but looked at him as they got into the back seat and said, “You can be excited if you want to you know, even if I’m not.”
“Right,” Ned said, “but I’ve seen the tower already, and besides that you’re way more important.”
“What are you talking about?” Happy asked by way of greeting from the front seat as Ned and Peter buckled up and he pulled away.
“We have to go on a field trip to the tower next week,” Peter said.
“I hate tour groups at the tower,” Happy commented. Peter didn’t say it out loud, but he and Happy were in agreement. “Why are you unhappy about it?” Happy asked, seeing Peter’s stony face in the rearview mirror.
Ned didn’t give him a chance to answer and said, “Because 90 percent of the school are complete jerks to us.”
“To me anyway,” Peter mumbled. Ned could have other friends if he wanted to, but he chose to stick by Peter’s side for some reason. Peter had never understood why, though he appreciated it all the same.
“Jerks how?”
“Well there’s this one guy, Flash-”
Happy didn’t give Ned a chance to finish the thought.
“Is he bothering you again?” Happy asked Peter. “You haven’t said anything since going back to school so I thought maybe he didn’t blip and was already gone.”
Back when Peter really was just an intern and had been going to the tower three afternoons a week before the blip to spend time with Tony in his lab, Peter had frequently gotten into Happy’s car bruised, brooding or both, and it had come out rather quickly that he’d been getting bullied by Flash Thompson.
“No he blipped too,” Ned said. “Now we’re stuck with him. It’s not just him though. Almost everyone’s a jerk.”
“That still doesn’t explain why a field trip to the tower is going to be bad.” Happy turned down a different street, and then pulled into a drive through at McDonalds. When Ned stayed the night every other Friday, they always got McDonald’s on the way back to the tower. Then, one Saturday a month when Peter went to stay over at Ned’s house, Peter picked up pizza on the way there. Two for Ned’s family, and two for Peter and Ned.
“When Peter said he had an internship at Stark Industries no one believed him except me, because I was already his guy in the chair.”
Happy snorted at that. Ned always called himself Peter’s ‘guy in the chair,’ despite that he rarely ever did any kind of techie side-kick work for him, especially since Tony had installed Karen into the spider suit.
“This is going to suck,” Peter said. He looked at Ned and said, “We are not happy about this field trip.” Ned gave a nod to say he understood and then tried to match the stony look on Peter’s face. It only made Peter laugh though.
After they got their food (six bags of it, including a bag for Tony and Morgan, who they would be picking up from school in a few minutes on their way to the tower), Happy looked in the rearview mirror and said, “You’re more than just an intern, you’re the future CEO of the company. Don’t let the jerks at school get to you.”
“Morgan’s the future CEO of the company,” Peter mumbled, digging around in one of his bags of food to get to the french fries.
“You’re older and you’re the one Tony and Pepper chose. Even just for the Emergency Transfer Protocol, there’s no way Morgan could take care of things as a 5 year old.”
Ned watched Peter as he stuffed several fries into his mouth, but Peter didn’t explain what Happy meant by that. He knew Ned would pester him later after they got back to the penthouse and to his room, but he didn’t want to discuss it in front of Happy. Right now he wanted to just eat and then see Morgan. As soon as they picked her up, the car would be filled with happy chatter about learning to read and playground disputes with other Kindergarteners. That was often the highlight of his day, at least until he got to sit down with Tony and Morgan to watch a movie, or to spend time with Tony in his lab after dinner. If he could just boil his day down to those things then life would be a lot better in his opinion. If he had his way he’d skip this field trip, and skip every other day at Midtown High as well. He wanted to learn, he just didn’t want to be part of the mass of mindless students thrumming in the hallways anymore.
* * *
Ned waited to ask about the Emergency Transfer Protocol until they were playing video games later that night around 10 PM, both sitting on the floor at the foot of Peter’s bed on a soft gray rug, pillows and sleeping bags piled around them. The lights were off and the glow of the huge flatscreen TV on the wall lit up their faces as they played Fortnite. Peter had FRIDAY projecting a separate screen next to the big screen for Ned to play on. Morgan was sprawled across the foot of the bed behind them in her pajamas, sleeping, one arm hanging off the bed, the other clutching a stuffed alpaca wearing a pink tutu named Gerald. She’d wanted to be part of the ‘sleepover’ too, but she had conked out around eight thirty. Peter was sure Tony would come in soon to take her back to her room.
“So-” Ned started, trailing away.
Peter already knew what he was going to ask about though.
“You already know they made me future CEO,” Peter said. He’d told Ned that months ago, back when school had started. Peter had still been recovering, but had been well enough to start school at the start of the year with the other sophomores.
“Yeah.”
“The Emergency Transfer Protocol means if something happens to Tony and Pepper now, I become CEO right away. Or if they were incapacitated and someone needed to step in right away.”
“Holy shi- cow dude,” Ned said, curbing his language as he turned to look over his shoulder at Morgan, sleeping above him. He didn’t want to be told off for cursing in front of her. “But you’re like… 15.”
“I know. I’ve been trying not to think about it. I told them they shouldn’t, but da- Tony and Pepper both insisted. Something about a guy that once stepped in as temporary CEO for Tony until he was 21 and messed everything up or something… I don’t know.” Peter still wanted to ask about that and get more details, but it had seemed like a sensitive topic, at least for Tony, so he hadn’t asked for clarification. Maybe he’d ask Pepper or Happy, or Rhody the next time he saw him.
Ned set down his controller since he’d already died in the game and turned towards Peter. Bathed in the glow of the TV and holo screen he said, “So let me get this straight. At any moment you could become CEO of Stark Industries? You’d be like… so freaking rich! Dude, we could like, fly to France or something, just because!”
Peter gave him a sideways glance. “What would we do in France?”
“I don’t know,” Ned said, “that’s not the point. The point is we could just up and go.”
“I don’t think that’s what they had in mind. I’m supposed to do whatever’s best for the company and make sure it’s still here for when Morgan grows up to take over.”
There was a knock on his bedroom door, which was slightly open, and they looked up to see Tony leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed. “That’s not what you’re supposed to do,” he said quietly, eyes moving to Morgan’s sleeping form on the bed. “It would be nice if you didn’t dissolve the company or tank the stocks, but if that happens, it happens. We have two trust funds set up in any case, one for you and one for Morgan. The point isn’t for you to take over until Morgan’s ready. At some point after Pepper and I retire, the company will be yours Pete.”
Peter frowned, setting his controller down too and looked up at Tony. “Morgan’s your daughter though. It should be her company.”
“And I know you’d put her in a high paying position here if she ever wanted it,” Tony said. “She’s not our only kid though. You’re our son, and the oldest, and you have an interest in science, tech, and green energy.” Morgan wants to be a ballerina who lives in an ice castle when she grows up, went unsaid. She was only five though. Peter was sure in a few years she’d be into computers and science too.
Tony moved across the room and scooped Morgan up into his arms, stuffed alpaca balanced on top of her. “You’re not going out tonight, right?” Tony asked Peter on his way out the door. “I don’t want to explain to Ned’s mother again how the two of you ended up in New Jersey at four AM when you were supposed to be here sleeping.”
“I took that tracker off of my phone,” Ned called after him, but he was already out the door and headed for Morgan’s room on the other side of the penthouse. Ned looked at Peter and said, “Are we going out? Cuz I was just gonna ask if we could have FRIDAY connect to my phone and route any incoming calls to your cell. I did take that tracking app off of it, but you know my mom. I have a feeling she probably installed another one that’s disguised as something else.”
Peter huffed a laugh and then turned back to the game so they could start another one. Two months ago Ned had insisted he go out with Peter to see Peter in action fighting crime. A wild series of events had led to them crossing the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, where Peter ended up getting hurt. They had realized at that point that they had not brought any money to take a cab or bus back into New York. Ned’s phone had been on silent all night, and he hadn’t realized his mom had been calling to ask what he was doing wandering around New York and then crossing into New Jersey. They’d ended up calling Tony to come get them, who then had to come up with a crazy excuse about Peter and Ned being in the car with him all night as they helped Happy find his missing dog, a toy yorkie who had run away. Happy didn’t have a dog, but to this day Mrs. Leeds still asked Peter whenever he went over to Ned’s how ‘Little Mr. McFluffin’ was doing.
“You know you already told me they adopted you right?” Ned asked, bringing Peter out of his train of thought.
“Huh?”
“You already said they adopted you. A lot of times you go to call him dad though, and then you stop and say Mr. Stark, or Tony instead.”
Peter’s cheeks started to heat up. “I know.”
“Just sayin’, I’m right here. You don’t have to pretend.”
He sighed. He did think of Pepper and Tony as mom and dad. He called Tony dad when they were alone, and sometimes called Pepper mom. It always made them smile. He’d thought of Tony as his dad for a long time… since before the blip, even though he’d only been an ‘intern’ back then. He knew the teachers at school had to know, because his report cards came to the tower, and Tony and Pepper were listed as his contacts. Happy and Rhody were listed as his emergency contacts. He hadn’t told anyone else yet though. He would be made fun of and called a liar, but that wasn’t the only reason. Telling others would make it real. It was real. Aunt May was dead, but somehow having everyone else know would mean that this was permanent and that aunt May wasn’t coming back. He’d never got to go to her funeral… to see her being put in the ground, but he remembered what that was like, seeing uncle Ben’s casket go into the ground. That had felt so permanent… so final.
Ned seemed to know what Peter was thinking because he said quietly, “May would want this.”
“What?” He frowned. “Did I say that out loud?”
Ned turned and dug around in his backpack, pulling out a huge bag of gummy worms and opened it up, holding it out to Peter so he could take one. “No. I just know you dude. May would want you to be happy though… to have Mr. and Mrs. Stark, and Morgan.”
“Yeah.”
Ned handed another gummy worm to him and said, “And she’d want us to jet set off to France instead of going to second period Spanish class.”
Peter snorted and took the gummy worm he was holding and threw it at him.
As they slept later that night, sometime after one in the morning after Ned’s mother had insisted Ned send her a photo of them in Peter’s room in front of the clock, Peter lay in his sleeping bag staring at the ceiling. Money wasn’t important to him. He’d been happy living in the little apartment with May and Ben. Living here with the Starks… having money didn’t even come close to the best thing about this.
Having Tony come to pick them up at four am after sneaking out, and then making up a ridiculous story to give to Ned’s mother… falling asleep on the couch watching a movie and waking up in a pile of tangled limbs because Morgan was sprawled across all of them… knowing there was someone to come home to each day no matter how crappy his day at school had been… those were the best things. Who cared about money when he had a family?
Notes:
Would two snaps at the same time across two gloves wielded by two people work? I don't know, but I think it would. I think two snaps on two different hands of the same person would work too. This isn't supposed to be a fix it, I just chose to write a post blip story in which Tony is still alive and this is how I decided to do it. The story is really all about what happens in chapter 2 and 3 on the field trip, I just had to get us there with chapter 1. I hope you enjoy the rest of the fic.
Chapter 2: ETP: Just Another One Of Those Odd Things About Post Blip Life
Notes:
Warning: Flash curses a lot in this chapter and the next. Just thought I'd let you know in case you don't like to read that sort of thing.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Roger Harrington both loved and hated field trips. Because he was in charge of Academic Decathlon and the Honor Society at Midtown School Of Science And Technology, it meant he ended up chaperoning most of the school’s yearly trips. Field trip days meant days he wouldn’t have papers and tests to grade. They also meant trips to interesting places, be it a local museum, or another country, depending on how well funded they were that year. It was just one of those things about Midtown: most of the students came from well-off families, and the school liked to show appreciation for superior academic performance, meaning field trips to places normal schools, and normal science teachers wouldn’t get to take.
At the same time he hated field trips. The last few years (if you didn’t count the blip, and personally Roger wasn’t going to since he’d blipped too), had seen a run of unfortunate events surrounding field trips for Academic Decathlon as well as Honor Society. He was beginning to think he was cursed. There had been an incident at the Washington National Monument where he and several of his AcaDec students had almost died (and would have if not for the intervention of Spider Man, who was somehow also in DC at the time). Later on there was a field trip to the New York Art Museum for the Honor Society students where Flash had almost been hit by a city bus, but had been saved again by Spider Man at the last possible second. Just a month and a half ago AcaDec had been rewarded for being invited to nationals with a field trip to Ellis Island where they were supposed to take a tour. Spider Man didn’t intervene there, but nevertheless, the tour group had been lucky to escape unharmed after some crazy supervillain had set a series of wild octopus-like creatures loose on the island. Iron Man had come with the Black Widow to handle that thankfully. Roger was never sure if it was because of the octo-creatures, or because his newly adopted son was there and in danger. Either way, he chalked it up as yet another close call. His series of unfortunate field trips had become legend amongst the Midtown staff, to the point that many of them were refusing to go on field trips anymore, and even more field trips had been added to his schedule to lead.
Not all of the field trips he’d led in recent years had gone haywire, and Roger Harrington could only hope that today’s Honor Society trip to Stark Industries wouldn’t be a crazy one. He didn’t know for certain if Iron Man or any of the other Avengers would be in the tower, but he hoped that given their likely presence, that if anything did go wrong, the Avengers would handle it swiftly, and none of his students would be in danger. Again. He didn’t think anything could ever make him give up field trip duty (not even the rowdy teens he had to chaperone), because he truly did love this part of his job, but if crazy things kept happening, he was going to start demanding hazard pay.
“Flash,” he called out, standing at the front of the bus, clipboard in hand.
“Here.”
“Michelle, yes, you’re right here at the front, Mr. Leeds?”
“Here.”
He looked up and found Ned midway down the school bus. “And I see Mr. Parker is with you.” He emphasized the name Parker as he checked Peter’s name off the list. He’d received an email at the start of that school year along with Peter’s other teachers about his change in guardianship, and Peter’s desire to keep going by the name Parker, despite that his name was officially Peter Benjamin Parker Stark now. Peter had also approached him earlier that morning and asked him to keep it under wraps that he lived at Stark Tower.
He found two more students with his eyes and checked them off the list as well, but before he could call out another name, Flash was shouting at Peter from the back of the bus. He reached up and rubbed his forehead hard. Flash was starting in on Peter early today.
“You gonna show us around Parker?” he laughed. “Gonna finally prove to us that you’ve got that internship at Stark Industries?”
“That’s enough Mr. Thompson,” Roger said. Flash gave a cocky grin across the bus aisle to Peter, and several other students laughed. The 14 kids on this bus were Midtown’s best and brightest, at least according to their GPA’s. Anyone who had a 3.8 or above was admitted to the Midtown Honor Society, and those with a 4.1 or above were listed as Alpha members of the society and were rewarded with periodic field trips like this one. Flash was smart, he was certainly bright, but Roger didn’t know if he would ever classify him as the ‘best’ of the students at Midtown. He would almost rather take any other student in his place, even one with failing grades.
After he finished calling roll he sat down in the front seat across from Michelle and the bus driver closed the door and pulled away from the front of the school.
Twenty minutes later when they pulled up in front of Stark Industries, he stood up to give his required spiel about behaving themselves and being good representatives for Midtown.
“You know the drill,” he said. “Stay with the group, follow all rules set out for us by the tour guide, and be respectful at all times.” Here he paused to look at Flash. “Mr. Thompson, that means both to the employees at Stark Industries, and also to your classmates.”
“Why are you singling me out?” Flash asked, hand in the air.
“You know why.”
Another little ripple of laughter went through the students on the bus.
“Need I remind you all,” he said, “that we’ve all had to sign NDAs. Your parents have had to as well. You’ll be asked to turn your phones in at the front desk before we enter. Anything you see here will have to be kept to yourself. I’ll advise you all to make a good impression, as you may want to come back some day and apply for an internship as a college student, or later on, a job.”
“Because only college students get internships here right Mr. Harrington?” Flash asked, shooting another grin across the aisle at Peter. He looked pleased with himself. Roger didn’t know if Peter had ever really had an internship at Stark Industries before the blip, but given that he’d been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Stark after the blip, he had to assume that Peter had known them in some capacity.
“This is going to be a long day,” Michelle said, rubbing her forehead as though she had a headache already. Roger silently agreed with her.
“Last warning Mr. Thompson,” he said. “I do not want to have to send you back to the bus to sit by yourself for the rest of the day.”
He held up both hands like he was holding up a white flag, and Roger hoped that would be the end of his harassment of Peter that day. He could be a model student when he chose to be.
Roger thanked the bus driver, told them the tour would end around two, and then stepped off the bus, leading the group of sophomores, juniors and seniors across the plaza and into the front entrance of Stark Tower.
A tour guide seemed to be waiting for them. She went over a similar spiel as the one Roger had just given the students, but also talked about security protocols. “It’s very important that you stay with the group. Anyone who strays, even on accident, will be seen as a security risk.” She gestured to a large man with a stern face wearing a smart black suit and said, “Our head of security, Mr. Hogan, takes security here very seriously. Anyone causing issues, straying away from the group, or trying to take photos with any sort of device, will be escorted off of the property immediately and be trespassed. Everyone line-up here at the scanner. Drop your phone into the box and pass through the biometric scanner, then wait directly on the other side.”
Roger waited at the back of the line, right behind Peter and Ned. He leaned down to Peter and asked quietly, “Do you know if we’ll be seeing Mr. Stark on the tour today?”
Peter huffed and said, “I seriously hope not.”
“Dude,” Ned whispered. “You know you could shut Flash up once and for all if your dad came down to the tour, right?”
“Or he could embarrass me, or the both of us. You know he still hasn’t come up with a punishment for the thing in New Jersey.”
“Yeah, let’s hope we don’t see him then,” Ned said. Tony had promised the both of them to come up with a creative punishment for that incident.
Roger wondered what thing in New Jersey the boys were referring to, but didn’t think he’d ever get an answer. Peter rambled about a lot of things, and Ned was talkative, but both had been quiet about Peter’s involvement with his new family and living situation.
The line moved up quickly and soon it was Ned’s turn to drop his phone into the container and pass through the scanner. “Sir,” Ned said, looking up at Happy as he passed. “How’s Mr. McFluffin?” He grinned and looked pleased with himself.
“Don’t start with me,” the security guard said. When it was Peter’s turn, Mr. Hogan held up his hand and stopped Peter from passing through the scanner. Peter looked up at him, both confused and worried.
“Random security check. Hold up your arms.”
Peter held up both of his arms and mumbled, “Is this really necessary?”
“I know you’re an intern Parker,” Mr. Hogan said loudly, waving a metal detector over Peter and then patting down his pockets, “but the rules are the rules. We have to check every 5th and 14th person through the detector.”
“Right,” Peter said, “I uh, forgot.” He still looked confused until Mr. Hogan winked at him and then let him pass through the detector. Roger wondered just how well Peter knew the man. It had clearly been for Peter’s benefit. He noted as he dropped his phone in the bin and passed through the scanner that Flash was staring dumbly at Peter from the other side, standing amongst the group of field trip students. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad day after all, at least not for Peter, who had rambled on that morning to him about this field trip and how he’d rather just go to the nurse’s office for the day.
* * *
“I don’t know how you did that,” Flash said, falling in at the back of the line next to Peter, “but you’re not an intern here. There’s no way. That security guy was a friend of your family or something.”
“He’s Peter’s uncle,” Ned said absentmindedly, looking down at the tour pamphlet he’d been handed.
“Ned,” Peter groaned. “You are not helping.”
Ned looked up at Peter, confused for a moment, and then over at Flash, who was once again looking smug.
“Nice try Penis,” Flash whispered, not wanting to draw the attention of Mr. Harrington.
“I’m not an intern now,” Peter said. “I was before. Just forget it.”
“No, you were never an intern,” Flash said.
“Flash, why don’t you go up to the front of the line or something?” Ned said with a sneer, though Peter could tell by his friend’s voice that he was really begging. “You can have a good day and we can have a good day, or you can stand back here all day not paying attention and being an ass.”
“He’ll choose that one,” MJ said from up ahead of them, not turning to look at them. They were in the cafeteria standing in line for a free Starbucks Coffee as the first stop on their tour. It was only eight AM and they were supposed to be there at the tower until two PM. Peter knew they’d stop back in the cafeteria again for lunch at noon.
“Shut up MJ,” Flash sneered at her. Whether or not she heard him, they didn’t know because her back was to them and she didn’t respond, too interested in the book she was reading.
“You want something?” Peter asked Ned, pulling a wrapped cookie out of the basket on top of the counter as they got closer to the front of the line where they could order their drinks.
“Yeah,” he said, reaching up and taking a cookie too. “What about Mo?” Ned rarely ever called Morgan that, but Peter figured he had used her nickname because Flash was right there listening.
Peter held up the cookie. “This is for her.”
Ned grinned. It was a huge cookie. “She’s gonna love that and your mom is going to hate it.”
Flash scoffed and turned around again. “His mom? Get real Ned. He lives with a foster family somewhere. Isn’t that right Penis?”
“Totally,” Peter said, rolling his eyes.
“What are you even doing getting extra stuff?” Flash asked, eyeing the cookies they had grabbed. “The tour guide said we only get a free coffee.”
“I’m buying these,” Peter said. Then, wondering if doing something nice for Flash would get him to shut up, he asked, “Do you want one?”
“Whatever Parker.”
“Do you want one MJ?” She looked up from her book and turned to see what Peter had that he was offering her. “Chocolate chip.” Then she looked back down at her book. Peter took a chocolate chip cookie out of the metal basket and Flash scoffed again.
“Not that you have any money to do it, but you won’t be able to buy friends Parker. That’s just pathetic.”
MJ looked back up, this time glaring at Flash. “How would you know Flash? Have you tried buying friends in the past?”
He spluttered for a moment, mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. “No, that would be pathetic, like I said. You know what, why don’t you stand back here with these two losers?” He pushed past her, cutting in line, and kept his back firmly towards them.
MJ looked at Peter and then Ned, tilted her head upwards and said with a small smile, “What’s up losers?” and then went back to her book. Peter was used to being called a loser, a dork, a nerd, pathetic, Penis, and a variety of other things at school. Several of the upperclassmen in their group were ones that often bullied him, even though they seemed to have taken Mr. Harrington’s words to heart that morning about being respectful or they’d be spending the day alone on the bus with the bus driver. When MJ called him a loser, Peter got the feeling she didn’t mean it. She treated everybody with an equal amount of contempt, thinly veiled dislike, or sarcasm. She rarely smiled at anyone like she had at he and Ned though, and more often than not she left him alone and went after Flash when Flash was being over the top rude to him.
When they had ordered their drinks, Peter put the three cookies on the counter and then pulled out his wallet and the black debit card Tony had given him. He kept his allowance on it, but Tony also put a weekly food allowance on it, knowing Peter needed to eat more than an average person did. He currently had $570 saved up, so buying a few cookies was no big deal. There were barely any markings on the card at all aside from his name. Peter had asked about it, wondering what bank they used, and Tony had said it was an exclusive bank, and that if he ever saw someone using a card like this, it meant they had real money.
“Thanks,” MJ said after Peter handed her cookie to her, and she closed her book, tucking it under her arm so she could unwrap it and still hold her iced coffee in her other hand.
“If everyone will follow me please,” the tour guide said now that their entire group had gone through and had coffee. “You can drink your coffee while we walk. Please be careful not to spill. I’ll point out trash receptacles as we tour so you can get rid of your empty cups. Our first stop will be business level 10. We’ll need to use an elevator. Stark Tower has 93 stories. It’s not the tallest tower in the city but it has a nice view at the top…”
Peter tuned her out as their group piled on to an empty elevator and started moving upward. She was describing how the tower was divided. Business took up levels 10-37. Levels 38-40 belonged to Legal. 41-60 belonged to Clean Energy. The entirety of level 61 and 62 were clean energy power generators. 63-75 belonged to the R and D department. The CEO’s office was on level 76. Random offices that didn’t belong to other departments were on levels 77-80. Happy’s office and apartment along with another apartment she didn’t mention but Peter knew belonged to Rhody when he came to stay were on level 81. Medical was on 82, and then level 83-91 were set aside for Avenger use. The penthouse was on 92, and more power generation equipment was on 93.
They paused outside the elevator on level 10 so the tour guide could answer a host of questions the class had about the Avengers, and then continued on to look through the lowest level business offices. This floor in particular was dedicated to advertising of Stark Industries products, and the group listened politely as some poor employee talked to them for 30 minutes about ad campaigns and what kind of degree they would need to work in advertising. Peter thought advertising sounded boring and that the employee they were talking to thought so too, or else was being forced to talk to them as punishment of some sort.
They stopped in Finance on level 37, Legal on level 38, and a clean energy lab on level 42. Peter had seen all of it to some extent, and was bored until they got into the clean energy lab. This particular lab was focused on wave power and had a huge pool that could generate different types of waves to test devices that could harness the energy of waves. Any energy harvested here was sent into the tower’s clean energy system to run lights, elevators, computers, and other things.
It was nearing lunch time and Peter was hoping it was growing close to twelve. Without his phone he didn’t know what time it was unless he asked FRIDAY, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He was seriously considering eating the cookie he’d gotten for Morgan because his stomach was grumbling unhappily at him when the tour guide said, “We’re due in the cafeteria in five minutes where lunch will be provided to you all free of charge. If you’ll all please follow me back to the elevator we can head down.”
“Dude, that new wave generator is so cool,” Ned said, walking next to Peter. Peter’s stomach grumbled again. “What’s for lunch?” Peter shrugged. He hoped it was something more than just a salad. If not he was going to have to use his card to buy something more substantial. The entire tour had been relatively boring and he had seriously considered disappearing up to the penthouse for the rest of the afternoon and then just showing up at the bus at two to go back to school. He’d mentioned as much to Ned, who had been enthusiastic about the idea of going up to Peter’s room to play video games, but Mr. Harrington had come up behind them, putting one hand on each of their shoulders and saying, “Not today boys. I lost a student on a field trip once… it wasn’t pretty.”
Peter sighed as the elevator carried them down. Instead of lying on his bed playing video games and eating leftover pizza from the night before, he was crammed into an elevator with 13 other kids, Mr. Harrington and their tour guide. The elevator’s at Stark Tower were roomy, but it still made him feel claustrophobic being around this many other people. He could smell that the senior in the corner was sweating profusely, and hear too many heartbeats at once. He was relieved when the elevator came to a stop just two floors down and the door opened to let in some fresh air.
“Peter.”
Peter looked up from where he was crammed in the back against the wall behind everyone else and found Happy standing just outside, holding a Stark tablet and looking… well, whatever that look was it wasn’t good. Worried? Stressed? Anxious? Maybe all of it.
Ned moved aside to let Peter come up, though Flash didn’t realize or didn’t care that Happy was calling for Peter and wouldn’t move, so Peter pushed past him roughly.
“There you are. We have a problem.”
“What is it?” The look on Happy’s face alone was enough to make his heart start beating hard. It was an uncomfortable feeling.
“We have a code ETP.”
Peter shook his head. “No we don’t.”
Happy shot him a look that was both sorry and serious and said, “Yeah, we do.” He turned the Stark tablet towards him to show that it was flashing blue and had the words, ‘Emergency Transfer Protocol: Peter Stark’ in all caps.
Peter shook his head again. “No.” Happy just stared and Peter said more forcefully, “No. Forget it.”
Happy reached forward, put his hand on Peter’s shoulder and pulled him out of the elevator and Mr. Harrington stepped to the front of the group to put his hand on the elevator door to keep it from closing. “Look, I don’t like it anymore than you do, but this is what’s happening.”
“Excuse me,” Mr. Harrington said, voice tinged with concern, “what’s going on?” Happy glanced up at him but then looked back down at Peter, hand still on Peter’s shoulder.
“But they’re not… they’re not dead,” Peter whispered, knowing full well everyone on the elevator behind him could still hear him. “Right?” There were only two reasons the Emergency Transfer Protocol would be put in place. Either there was some sort of emergency in the tower and Pepper and Tony were both incapacitated or missing, or the more horrifying of the two options, they were both dead. He hadn’t seen Pepper for two days because she’d flown out to Japan for a series of trade agreement meetings, but he’d seen his dad just that morning before going to school. Tony had made blueberry pancakes and then taken Morgan down a few levels to spend the day with Cap because her school was out that day.
“Pepper’s still in Japan. I have no idea where boss is, all I know is I got an alert on my tablet and phone from FRIDAY that Emergency Transfer Protocol has been activated. You’re up kid.”’
“You’re not joking,” Peter said, staring at him. His heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest. Everyone else in the tour group had fallen away from him, and it was as if it were just he and Happy there staring at each other.
In answer to Peter’s question there was the sound of an explosion somewhere outside the building, and the building shook, causing several people in the elevator two feet behind him to shout in surprise and fear. The tour group came rushing back to him in that moment, reminding him that he was there on a field trip.
Happy pointed at his face and said, “Does this look like I’m joking to you?”
“FRIDAY?” Peter asked, voice wavering a little.
“Yes boss,” came her voice through the speakers in the ceiling.
Peter hung his head. Well shit. If she had called him boss, and not mini-boss or Peter, then the protocol really had been activated.
“Why did the tower AI just call Penis boss?” Flash asked somewhere behind him, voice high and anxious. Just after the start of the tour, the group had been told about FRIDAY, but only a few people could talk to FRIDAY and get a response, and their tour guide wasn’t one of them so they hadn’t been able to get a demonstration.
When Peter looked back up, Happy was tapping away on his tablet, which Peter knew was the special security tablet Tony had designed for him. It had exclusive access to all of the tower’s sensors and security cameras. If he wanted to Happy could shut down elevators, activate fire suppression systems, or notify the police with the touch of a button.
“What was the explosion, what’s happening?” Peter’s voice had grown serious. His mind had started spinning, like a switch had been flipped, sending him into Spider Man mode. He didn’t know anything about being a CEO, temporary or otherwise. Tony and Pepper had promised to give him training when he was older, but they hadn’t gotten that far yet. What he did have experience with was being Spider Man. He had two years of fighting bad guys, fighting against the Avengers, fighting with them on Titan and against Thanos on earth under his belt. Peter’s mind was sharpest and most keen when he was in danger, or there were people who needed saving.
“The compound’s under attack. It looks like seven people with powers are attacking from the outside. Cap’s already out there, so is Nat.” Happy looked up from his tablet and said, “What’s that look? I know that look. I can see it in your eyes. Forget it boss. You’ve got to channel your mom right now, not your dad. You can’t suit up. You’ve got to put the needs of the company and its employees and guests first.”
There was another explosion and Peter could hear it was from the North side of the building.
“Evacuate everyone out the south side of the building. That means the parking garage entrance.”
Happy tapped, swiped and then tapped on the pad and said, “Evacuations underway. The first four floors started evacuating after the first explosion. FRIDAY’s keeping tabs on heat signatures throughout the building.”
Peter turned around and his eyes found their tour guide. “Go with Happy.” He had never met her, but everyone that worked in the building knew Happy, and Peter had a feeling they’d all been briefed on the ETP. She obeyed him without a word.
“Where are you going?” Happy asked.
“To get Morgan.”
He stepped back into the elevator and slammed the button to get up to the 80th floor. This elevator wouldn’t go all the way up to the penthouse. They’d have to get up to the 80th floor and change elevators.
“Peter, what’s happening right now?” Mr. Harrington asked, voice low and serious.
“I’m in charge of the company and this tour from this point forward. You need to listen to me and do what I say so you can get out of here.”
Flash pushed his way forward and said, “Like hell! What the hell is this Parker? You’re not in charge of shit!”
Peter ignored him and found Ned’s eyes. They were alight with excitement and energy and clearly said, ‘Dude, France!!’
Peter could suddenly see the appeal. He’d rather be in France, or Egypt, or literally anywhere else than at the tower right at this moment. He didn’t know what had happened to Tony for FRIDAY to transfer control over to him, and he didn’t know why Tony thought he could do this… emergency or not. Happy clearly didn’t want him to suit up as Spider Man to go help Cap and Nat fight whoever was attacking the tower. He really didn’t know what to do aside from get to Morgan and then help evacuate and get the tour group out. Cap had been watching Morgan that morning. If he was out fighting right now, it meant Morgan was still somewhere high up in the tower, either in the Avenger’s rooms or the penthouse. “FRIDAY, where is Morgan?” His throat was tight and his voice was tense. He couldn’t help it.
“Morgan is in the penthouse.”
“Did you hear me Penis?” Flash said. “I’m not going anywhere with you!” His hand shot out towards Peter to grab his shirt but Peter’s adrenaline was pumping and before Flash could touch him, his own fist shot out and slammed into Flash’s nose. Flash fell backwards into the group of students. The elevator door opened, revealing the 80th floor and Peter stepped out, breathing heavily.
“Mr. Harrington, get them out and follow me.” He pointed to the floor by his feet. “We’re taking another elevator.”
The science teacher hesitated, took in Peter’s tense posture and serious expression, and then said, “Everyone out of the elevator. Follow Mr. Parker.”
“What?” Flash said, voice sounding nasally. “You can’t be serious! He’s not in charge of anything!”
MJ shoved Flash from behind and forced him to take a step forward and out of the elevator.
“Boss, two of the attackers have moved into the building through a broken window on floor 38.” That was the floor they had just left Happy on!
“Happy?” Peter asked.
“Mr. Hogan is on level 37 evacuating staff in the business department.”
“The fuck,” Flash said, shrugging Mr. Harrington’s hands off of him. “I’m not going anywhere until I know what the fuck is happening.”
Peter pushed the button for the elevator to the upper levels, knowing FRIDAY would only allow access to those with permission, and it slid open. “Everyone in. If Flash wants to stay here and get killed, let him.”
Flash went into the elevator without a fight however and glared at Peter as he stepped inside and the door closed. Peter hit the P button for the penthouse and the elevator started moving upwards.
“Whoa dude,” Ned said to Flash with a little laugh, despite that there was nervousness in his voice, “You can tell everyone now that the CEO of Stark Industries punched you in the face!”
“He’s not the fucking CEO,” Flash said.
Peter ignored him, but was surprised when Mr. Harrington said a moment later, “I’m not so sure Flash.”
“Mr. Harrington, you can’t seriously believe-”
“Have you ever stopped to consider that others have information you don’t? Your teachers for instance? The head of tower security? The tower’s AI?”
Flash shut his mouth and concentrated on holding his hand over his still bleeding nose. Peter hadn’t felt it crack when he’d hit it, but he was sure Flash would have one hell of a bruise by the time he went home that night, that is, if he got to go home. Peter hoped they would be able to get everyone out and worried about all the people still in the building as another explosion shook the elevator.
His peers shifted nervously around him and Peter said, “Don’t worry, it’s not like the elevator in DC at the monument. This one is overengineered. Nothing could make it fall.”
“He’s right,” Ned said. “There are fail-safes at every floor. I’ve seen the system.”
“You’ve been here before?” one of the seniors named Greg asked, voice filled with anxiety.
“A bunch of times,” Ned said. Out of all of them, he seemed the least worried. Excitement could be heard as he said, “After DC, skyscrapers make me nervous. The first time I came here I used a holo display to explode out the elevator system to see all the inner workings and base components. It’s amazing.”
Peter’s foot tapped the ground nervously as the elevator rose, moving past level 88 and up to 89. He was worried about Morgan being alone, but also about getting to her before something could happen to her.
“FRIDAY is the penthouse locked down?”
“Yes boss.”
“Unlock it for me. As soon as we’re in, lock it down again.”
“Yes boss.”
They passed level 91, and MJ looked over at Flash’s face, reached up and tilted his head back, and then let go and said, “You deserved that.”
“Shut up.”
Peter couldn’t help but feel like the entire situation was surreal. A dream. This must be a dream, he thought. Ned’s excitement, MJ’s typical sarcasm, and the fact that he had somehow woken up that morning a regular student at Midtown about to go on a field trip and had suddenly become CEO of the world’s leading company of technology and clean energy… where was his dad?
The door slid open and Peter strode out of the elevator without a word. “Morgan?” He strode further into the penthouse and called out, “Morgan? Where are you?”
The door to Morgan’s room opened and she came running out. “PETEY!” She launched herself at him and he scooped her up. It was at that moment that he realized he was shaking.
“Did uncle Steve drop you off up here?”
She nodded and said, “There were explosions. He said he had to go to work and told me to stay here and have a tea party.”
Peter breathed a sigh of relief that she was safe and then turned around, Morgan still in his arms and said, “Everyone out of the elevator. The penthouse is getting locked down again.”
“How do you even have access to Tony Stark’s penthouse?” a junior asked, looking up at the tall ceilings and wall of windows in awe.
Peter ignored him, looking around at his home. He didn’t want any of them here, aside from Ned, MJ, and Mr. Harrington. He knew Tony’s lab was locked, but he didn’t want them looking through Tony and Pepper’s bedroom, breaking things or making a mess. The Stark’s took their privacy seriously, and he didn’t want that to be broken the one time he’d become CEO.
“This way,” he said, moving into the kitchen, Morgan still hanging around his neck. He opened the door to his bedroom and pointed inside. “You can stay in here. The penthouse is the safest level in the tower, even if security has been breached. The windows up here are all bullet proof and blast proof, and the AI has extra security up here.”
Mr. Harrington motioned for the others to go where Peter had told them, and Ned led the way like he’d been there a hundred times, because he had.
As soon as the elevator door closed, FRIDAY said, "Penthouse secure boss." Boss. Boss. That bothered him to be called that. That was Tony’s name. Happy had even called him boss earlier. Sometimes he called Peter mini-boss, because that’s what Tony had said to call him. Not boss. He shook himself mentally as the rest of the group filtered into his bedroom and he shut the door.
“Morgan,” he said, trying to force his voice to be calm and not as hard as it had been with the others the past few minutes.
She pulled back a little from him, a smile on her face. She didn’t seem concerned or frightened at all, even after several explosions. Peter wished he had her innocence still… that he didn’t know that those explosions meant danger, destruction, and quite possibly death. “Yeah Petey?” she asked.
“I have to go take care of something. You’re gonna stay here with uncle Ned and do what he says ok? He’ll take care of you.”
Peter could tell Ned was beaming from where he stood beside Peter’s bed. Peter had never called him uncle Ned before, and he knew that later on his friend would enthuse about how he was Morgan’s uncle, and that since she also called Captain America ‘uncle’ that would make Ned and Cap somehow related.
“Okay Petey pie,” she said.
Peter’s face turned red at the nickname, but no one around him sniggered or laughed at him. They all felt the seriousness of the situation too much. Peter gave her a kiss on the cheek, hugged her tightly and then handed her to Ned. Ned barely had her in his arms for two seconds before MJ strode forward and took her from him.
“Hey,” Ned said.
“Nope,” MJ said, sitting down on the edge of Peter’s bed and sitting Morgan beside her. “Ned is not in charge of your little sister.”
Peter laughed then. He didn’t even know why. Ned was perfectly capable of taking care of Morgan. He had a little sister of his own just a couple years older than her. Something about the absurdity of the entire situation made him want to laugh at it all. He still hadn’t said anything about living here, or being adopted, or about Morgan being his sister, but MJ seemed to know and trust that it was all true already. She always knew everything about everybody.
“Fine,” Peter said, accepting that. He looked up at the group. “Technically Ned is the only one allowed in the penthouse. That means he’s in charge. Mr. Harrington is in charge in charge, but Ned says what goes. If he tells you not to touch something, you leave it. You want to know if you can do something? Ask him. Ned can bring in food and water for you. There’s a bathroom over there. You can turn on the TV, play video games, whatever, just stay in this room. There’s no reason for anyone aside from Ned to be out in the penthouse.”
“I’m in charge too,” Morgan said from her spot on the bed.
“Right, yeah, Morgan’s pretty much in charge of everyone’s life, so yeah.”
“Are you sure you should be going back out Peter?” Mr. Harrington asked. He looked worried for Peter’s safety.
“I have to make sure the tower’s evacuated.” He left them there then, closing the door behind him, had FRIDAY give him access to the elevator again, and as soon as he was one floor down, had her lock the penthouse down. “FRIDAY, I’m giving permission to Ned to access your systems to contact me and Happy.”
“New protocol initiated. Ned Leeds, access granted to AI communication for boss and Mr. Hogan.”
“Thanks.”
FRIDAY chirped in response as the elevator carried Peter downward.
Notes:
Let me know what you think of how it's going so far for Peter in the comments. Thanks to those who have left Kudos on this work.
Chapter 3: Just So Long As We Can End This Day On A Good Note
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Happy had said to channel Pepper, not Tony. Peter had known exactly what he’d meant. He knew that if given the chance his dad would be into an Iron Man suit and out into the fray in half a second. Peter was the same way. He would much rather be fighting bad guys than riding back down through the tower in an elevator, mind spinning as he tried to figure out what he was supposed to be doing. He wasn’t cut out to be a CEO.
He’d asked FRIDAY to give him a level by level readout of heat signatures, as well as an update every time he stopped at a new level in the tower of where the intruders were located and what they were doing. Aside from the tour group and Morgan up in the penthouse, there was no one else on the upper levels. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator on the 80th floor to switch elevators, he had FRIDAY lock down the elevator going into the upper tower. “Keep it locked down unless it’s me or an Avenger that needs it,” Peter said. He would leave it open for Happy, but Happy didn’t have super powers and could easily be overpowered by the intruders and forced to use his security clearance to go up to the penthouse. This made sure he wouldn’t.
Peter was good at a lot of things. He was great at math and as a general rule was great at problem solving, but especially when it came to things like this. He often had to come up with ways to beat enemies that were bigger, stronger, and scarier than he was, which meant planning a few steps ahead and outsmarting them.
“Level 80 clear,” FRIDAY’s voice said. “Two intruders on level 38. One intruder on level 7.”
“7,” Peter said. “What’s there? Is that level clear?”
“Level 7, employee gym and spa. Four employees are being held hostage by the intruder on level 7.”
“Does Happy know?”
“He has been notified.”
“What level is he on?”
“Mr. Hogan is evacuating people on level 24.”
“Tell him the tour group and Morgan are on lockdown in the penthouse and that I’m evacuating the upper levels above 38.”
FRIDAY chirped to let him know she’d complied.
As he went down to level 79, he found a handful of people hiding under their desks, and had them take the elevator all the way down to the parking garage. “FRIDAY, do not open the elevator door to let them out anywhere but the parking garage,” he instructed, making sure the employees heard him. Then he looked at the group of frightened people standing in the elevator and said, “Get out of the parking garage and away from the building as fast as you can. There are intruders taking hostages on other levels. Don’t stop until you get out.”
He rode down one floor with them, getting off at the 78th floor, and then sent them on their way down through the building.
“FRIDAY, as soon as they’re out, get the elevator back up for me,” he said.
There was one employee on the 78th floor, ignoring the order to evacuate and acting as though nothing was going on at all. He was sitting at his desk doing paperwork, and it looked as though he had just made himself a fresh cup of coffee.
“Kid, I lived through the battle of New York, a huge earthquake in LA, and the tsunami in 2008. A couple of explosions aren’t going to bother me, and this report is due tomorrow at 9 AM.”
“Out,” Peter said. “The intruders are taking hostages on other levels.”
“Look at you giving me orders like you own the place. Good for you kid. No offense, but I don’t know you from anybody. Now buzz off, I really do have work to do.”
“FRIDAY,” Peter said, hands on his hips and growing irritated. He needed to get down to other levels and then figure out how to take care of the hostages on level 7 and this guy was just slowing him down.
“Peter Stark is the current emergency CEO of Stark Industries, with the power to hire and fire any and all employees. CEO Emergency Transfer Protocol was initiated at 11:50 AM this morning by Tony Stark.”
Peter raised his brows at the man, as if asking if that was enough reason for him to get moving.
“Shit kid, I mean, sir,” the guy said, frowning as if he found the situation bizarre. Peter felt it was bizarre too. He stood up, gathering his papers to him along with his mug of coffee. “Sorry. How was I to know? I didn’t even know Mr. Stark had a son.”
Peter took him to the elevator and rode down with him, but told him to come with him instead of going down. There were no intruders this high up yet and it wasn’t worth sending one guy down to the parking garage by himself. FRIDAY said there were two people on level 77, and Peter figured they could ride down with him.
The guy drank his coffee casually as he followed Peter onto level 77, clutching his papers under one arm. They found one woman working, and another under her desk. The guy from the floor above was helpful when he told the two women that Peter was ‘the real deal’ and got them to come with them back to the elevator.
He gave them the same instructions as he’d given the previous group, not to stop on the way down and to exit through the parking garage and get away from the building, rode down two levels to level 75 because FRIDAY said level 76 was already clear, and then sent them on their way down. Similar scenes played out down through the tower. For the most part people had evacuated, but he found people hiding, working, or just having a lunch break and watching out the windows as Cap and Nat fought four meta humans with powers. Two of them could fly, and one of them had some sort of device he was riding on, like a flying high tech motorcycle. The fourth one was able to teleport from what Peter could see, teleporting from one spot in the air to the next to keep himself up high. He had glowing blue orbs that exploded when he threw them.
“Hey, get back from the windows!” Peter yelled at a couple of scientists. They were watching the fight, and didn’t look like they cared to do what Peter had told them. “Those windows aren’t blast proof!” he yelled at them, rushing over to pull them away from the windows and towards the elevator.
“Hey, it’s the Stark kid,” one of them said. “Brian look, it’s the kid Barker texted us about that shoo’d him out of the building.”
“If you know who I am it means you need to do as I say.”
Both shrugged, like they didn’t mind listening to him, and moved towards him, but at that moment one of the glowing orbs had been thrown and had exploded. Even though it exploded two floors below them, the windows on that level still shattered, sending glass flying. A piece flew past Peter’s face, slicing his cheek open. He had been further away than the two scientists, who had both taken several shards of glass to the back and been knocked down.
Peter lowered his head and shook it, shards of glass falling out of his hair, and then moved forward to help the two men on the floor.
“C’mon, get up,” Peter said, dragging one to his feet and then another. There was nothing he could do for them medically. The Med Bay had already been evacuated, and that was almost 30 floors above them anyway. He needed these two to get down to the parking garage and get out. Luckily he had four people from floors above waiting in the elevator that could help.
“Go straight down, don’t stop, help them get out of the parking garage.”
“Sure,” a wary looking man said, looking at the blood coming through the back of the gray lab coats of the two scientists.
“If I find out you left them in the parking garage or the elevator, you’re all fired,” Peter said.
“We’ll get them out,” a woman said.
He sent them on their way after they dropped him off on the floor below, and then he had FRIDAY lock down the floor above. “Don’t let the elevator stop at that floor anymore,” he told the AI. With the windows blasted open, it was an entry point into the building and he didn’t want intruders coming in any higher than they were already and making their way up towards the penthouse.
It took Peter almost an hour to evacuate all the floors down to level 38, where FRIDAY informed him that 2 intruders were still hanging around. He asked her about the levels below and was informed that aside from level 7 and level 1, Happy had gotten the rest of the tower evacuated.
“Who’s on level 1?” Peter asked.
“Mr. Hogan and two security guards.”
Peter rode the rest of the way down to the lobby and found Happy in the security office, talking by radio to other security officers that were already outside the building coordinating the evacuation.
“Kid,” Happy said, relief in his voice and washing over his face. He pulled Peter into the office and shut the door.
“What are we doing on level 7?” Peter asked. Another explosion rocked the building, this one larger than most of the others had been.
“There’s currently one intruder and four employees up there. Tony called in on comms and said the guy on 7 has knives for fingers. He’d take care of it but he’s a little busy outside dodging bombs.”
“He’s out there?” Peter asked for confirmation.
“Yeah, I guess as soon as the attack started he suited up and put the Emergency Transfer Protocol in place since he knew you were here on your field trip.”
There was another explosion, followed right away by another one. Happy ducked along with the other two security guards, and grimmaced, before standing upright again, radio still in hand. “Tony said they’re using him for target practice. He’s distracting them while Cap and Nat try to take down the others one at a time. They’ve already incapacitated one.”
Peter looked Happy in the eye and said, “I know you told me to channel Pepper but-”
There was another explosion, this one large. It sounded like it had hit the side of the building again, just a few floors above them. Peter leaned forward and whispered, so the other two guards in the room couldn’t hear, “Happy, in order to be CEO I need Spider Man.”
One of the glowing bombs hit the ground outside then, and a dozen windows at the front of the lobby shattered. They could hear that they had, and Peter was grateful that they were in the security office behind a closed door to protect them from all the glass.
“Kid, you go wild,” Happy said.
Peter sighed in relief. It was his decision, but knowing that Happy approved made him feel like it was the right one.
“You guys get out of the building. Go down to the parking garage and out that way.”
“I’m staying,” Happy said.
Peter stared at him.
“Don’t give me that look. I’m more than the head of security. My top priority is the safety of you, Morgan, and Mr. and Mrs. boss. I’m not leaving until you do.”
“Ok, wait in the parking garage then. I’ll take care of the guy on level 7 and then get the tour group and Morgan down to you.”
“And the ones on level 38?” Happy asked.
“I just need everyone to get out right now,” Peter said.
“Good,” Happy said. “Ignore the ones on 38.”
Peter couldn’t imagine what was on level 38 that would be keeping the two intruders there. It was one of the Legal levels. He would have thought if someone was going to attack the tower it would be to steal stuff from R and D, or to kidnap Tony, Pepper, or Morgan.
They all went to the elevator together and rode down to the parking garage first. The two security guards stepped off the elevator, but then Happy turned to Peter and said, “Let’s go kid.”
“What? No, you’re getting off here.”
Happy crossed his arms. “Not today mini-boss.”
Peter was surprised to find anger flaring within himself at the name. He still didn’t want to be called boss, but now that the tower was practically empty, he needed Happy out too so he could go to work clearing level 7. He didn’t give Happy warning and reached out and shoved him off the elevator. Happy looked startled and so did the two security guards. Peter was small and didn’t look like he had enough power to push the large man off.
He slammed his hand on the up button and as the elevator door closed he gave Happy a sorry look and said, “It’s boss today.” As he rode upwards, he only hoped his uncle would forgive him and wouldn’t stay mad at him for too long. Happy was more than his uncle, he was his friend, and one of the few connections he still had to his pre-blip life.
* * *
They were all hungry and Ned had decided that it would be ok for Mr. Harrington to come out into the kitchen to help him reheat pizza to take into Peter’s bedroom. Ned stood in the open bedroom door to watch the kids inside. As his guy in the chair, and as Peter’s only friend, Ned wasn’t going to let Flash or the others mess with Peter's stuff.
One guy had tried to go through Peter’s wardrobe, and Ned had planted himself in front of it. “Don’t be an ass. Peter’s letting you sit in here and play his video games. He could have left you to die on your own.”
The guy had huffed and then flopped down on the ground to play games with a few of the other seniors. Everyone else was watching the game or sitting there in silence, a scared look on their faces.
“They uh, really like pizza don’t they,” Mr. Harrington said, and Ned turned to look into the kitchen from Peter’s door. His bedroom was right beside the kitchen.
“Well,” Ned said, looking at the stack of five pizza boxes Mr. Harrington had pulled out onto the counter. He was heating up two slices at a time in the microwave and then handing them to Ned on a paper towel, who then gave them to someone else in the room. Morgan was eating the cookie Peter had bought for her and had declared she didn’t need pizza or anything else. “Those are from Saturday,” Ned lied. “I was staying over.”
“Our good fortune then I guess,” Mr. Harrington said as the microwave dinged and he pulled two fresh pieces out. Ned took them and handed them to Flash, who looked sullen. His nose had stopped bleeding but his face was severely bruised around his nose. He looked a real mess.
“Ned.” He looked down and found Morgan staring up at him. “I want Gerald. Gerald needs to eat some of my cookie too.”
“Where is he?” Ned asked.
“In my room.” She pointed out the open door and across the penthouse.
“Go get him and come right back ok?”
“Can I bring Gerald’s tutu?”
“Gerald definitely needs his tutu,” Ned said. “The blue one maybe. He wore the pink one all weekend.”
“Yay!” She ran past him and across the penthouse. Mr. Harrington watched her go, and she disappeared into her bedroom, closing the door behind her with a snap.
“Gerald?” he asked.
Ned shrugged. “He’s an alpaca. I guess they had an alpaca named Gerald where they lived before. They couldn’t bring him so they got her a stuffed animal. He likes tea parties and tutus. Also, he’s the president of the United States.”
MJ snorted behind him. “At least he wears a tutu when he’s in the oval office.”
“You have no idea,” Ned said as Mr. Harrington handed in two more slices of pizza and he handed them to MJ. “He has one in every color.”
“Is that what’s in Parker’s closet?” Flash asked. “Tutus in every color?” He smirked, but no one else laughed, and a couple of the other kids gave him a dirty look.
“Dude, if you only knew what was in his closet,” Ned said.
“Frilly dresses with a lot of lace?” Flash asked.
Ned didn’t even look at him, watching for Morgan to come back out of her room. She did a moment later, Gerald dressed in his blue tutu, and Morgan wearing one that matched. She had a pink tutu in her hands and as she skipped past Ned and into Peter’s room, she dropped it in front of him.
“Uh, thanks Morgan,” Ned said. He picked it up so it wouldn’t get stepped on when Mr. Harrington came back in, as he only had a couple more slices of pizza to heat up, and tried not to look at Flash, who looked like he wanted to see Ned in a pink tutu that was clearly too small for him.
MJ held out her hand for it and then took the pink tutu and set it on the bed.
“Ned, Peter would like you to know he is returning to the penthouse,” FRIDAY said. It startled them, and everyone but Morgan, who was used to it, jumped a little. They’d been jumping at every explosion that they heard below them. They couldn’t tell what exactly was going on outside because Mr. Harrington had told them all to stay away from the windows, despite Peter’s reassurances that they were blast proof.
“Uh, thanks FRIDAY,” he said. FRIDAY didn’t respond. Mr. Harrington handed two slices of pizza to Ned.
“Morgan, are you sure you don’t even want a bite?”
She shook her head, and otherwise ignored him as she helped Gerald dance across Peter’s bed. “This is a good sleepover,” she said. “Lots of people! It’s a sleepover party, and since Peter’s not here, it’s president Gerald’s party.”
Ned took a bite, and then heard the elevator doors open and Peter’s voice. “FRIDAY, lock the penthouse down.”
He rushed in, eyes darting around as if to see what had been going on while he was gone, and then paused briefly at the edge of the kitchen.
“We’re just eating leftovers,” Mr. Harrington said.
“Yeah, that’s uh, that’s good.”
“And Gerald is having a tutu sleepover,” Ned told him.
They stared at each other for several more moments, and then Peter ran out of the kitchen and down the three steps to the glass door to Tony’s lab.
“Hey Penis, pretty sure you’re not supposed to be in there. That’s Mr. Stark’s lab.”
Peter ignored Flash, punched in a code, pulled the door open with too much force, and disappeared inside. Mr. Harrington, Ned, and Flash, standing behind him in Peter’s room, watched.
“It’s his lab idiot, he lives here,” Ned said.
“Whatever. He only has access because he’s the temporary boss or whatever. As soon as Mr. Stark gets back Penis will be in trouble.”
Peter raced back out of the lab a minute later, something silver strapped to both wrists. He closed the door, told FRIDAY to secure the lab, and then crossed the living area back to the kitchen. Ned had that look of excitement in his eyes again at the devices on Peter’s wrists.
“Peter?” Mr. Harrington asked as Peter passed him and stormed into his room.
“There’s hostages on level 7, and two intruders on level 38. And the bad guys are using my dad for target practice outside,” he said, throwing his wardrobe doors open.
Peter knew there were 14 kids in his room, 13 of them watching as Peter pulled clothes out of his wardrobe and threw them over his head. A sweatshirt landed on Morgan on his bed and she giggled. “Petey pie!” she said with a laugh.
Mr. Harrington had come to stand in the door, watching him as well. A shoe, a pair of pajama pants, a t-shirt, and a winter glove all came flying out of the wardrobe and onto the floor. Finally he’d found what he needed and pulled it out. He fell back onto the bed and started to yank his shoes off and then his shirt.
“Holy shit Parker, what the fuck?”
Peter turned and sent out a web that hit Flash in the mouth, essentially sealing it shut, and then turned back to his task. He wasn’t going to pull his pants off, the shoes and shirt were good enough for now. He stepped into the red and blue spandex and pulled it up over his shoulders and then hit the spider symbol on the front, causing the suit to shrink so it fit perfectly on him. It was a little bulky over his pants, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t the first time he’d worn the suit over clothes when there was an emergency.
Peter realized he hadn’t grabbed his mask and his head disappeared into the wardrobe again, rummaging around for it. He finally came out with it, pointed at Flash and said, “Stop saying dirty words in front of my sister. Our mom is gonna be ticked off at you if she starts saying them.”
“Shit!” Morgan said happily, still not looking up from Gerald as he danced on Peter’s bed. The eyes that had been glued to Peter suddenly shifted to Flash, who had been struggling to get the sticky webbing off of his mouth. All he’d succeeded in doing was getting the fingers of his left hand caught in it.
“That one’s not on you,” Peter said, “she got that one from dad.” He pointed at Flash and said, “That’ll dissolve in two hours. You deserve that,” and then hurried past everyone and out of the crowded bedroom.
Mr. Harrington and Ned stepped back out and Ned closed the bedroom door. Peter could hear that several people had rushed to the door to listen and see what they could hear on the other side. They had no idea it was mostly soundproof to keep Peter from waking up at night when Tony was up late working in his lab or getting a late night snack.
“You’re going to level seven?” Ned asked. He held up both hands and said, “Please lemme be the guy in the chair.”
“You are my guy in the chair,” Peter said. He pointed at the pizza Ned had set down on the kitchen island and said, “I’m starving.”
“Take it.”
Peter snatched the two slices and turned to go but Mr. Harrington said, “Peter. Uh… Spider Man, I mean.”
Peter spun back around. Mr. Harrington pointed at the cut on Peter’s face. It had already scabbed over.
“Oh, a window exploded and I was too close.”
“Are you uh… are you really him? Those aren’t just… pajamas?”
Peter grinned at him, pulled the mask on over his head, pulled it back up over his mouth so he could take a bite of pizza, and then said with a full mouth, “See you Mr. Harrington. I’ll be back to get you all out after the hostages are free. Stay here. There’s ice cream in the fridge, but you guys are doing dishes.”
Peter turned and ran back to the elevator. FRIDAY opened it for him and he was gone with his two slices of pizza.
“Ned?” Roger asked.
“Yes sir?”
They were quiet for a few moments, staring at the elevator to be sure Peter wasn’t coming back. “All those field trips… the elevator in Washington…”
“Yeah, we’ve just sworn never to talk about that again.”
“But were they because…”
Ned gave him a guilty look. “To be fair, the thing in Washington was half my fault. I hacked his suit, and there was this piece of alien tech, and these guys selling weapons, and… then the elevator thing. You have no idea how much trouble I was in for hacking that suit. You wouldn’t believe how long I had to hear about hacking a million dollar suit from Mr. Stark. Like, it’s been more than five years and I’m still in trouble for that. 0 out of 10, I do not recommend.”
“Right. I’ll uh, keep that in mind.”
Ned grinned. “Everything else… that’s all on Spider Man though.”
“The octopus creatures on Ellis Island?”
“Never piss off a guy called Doc-Ock.”
* * *
Peter leaned around a corner, trying not to lean out far enough to be seen. Happy wasn’t kidding when he said the guy holding hostages had blades for fingers. He was a regular Edward Scissorhands, only he looked far less friendly. The blades extending out of his fingertips were about two inches long, and Peter wondered if they retracted, and if they didn’t, how the guy managed to live life like that. He shouted at the hostages, who were huddled together on the floor. They jumped when he shouted, and to Peter it seemed like the guy was unhinged, shouting at them for no reason.
A moment later, Peter jumped so hard he felt like it was possible he had actually left his body and then found himself back inside it when a hand came down on his shoulder. Peter spun around, face pale and heart racing to find Happy, looking pissed.
“I swear to God kid, you pull a stunt like that again and I will ground you myself,” he whisper yelled at Peter. “Do you know how many flights of stairs I just had to climb to get back up here? Ten. Three from the parking garage and then seven to get up here. Ten floors Peter. Ten. And I’m pretty sure you bruised my sternum too.”
Peter just stared at him, mouth open. Happy kept going. “If you were really the boss, you’d know that I’m paid to do a job, and I’m gonna do it, understand me? You can fire me if you want to, but I’m not going anywhere, because your dad pays me to keep you and Morgan safe and that’s what I’m going to do, got it?” Happy ended with his hands on his hips, looking more irritated than angry by the end of his tirade. Peter didn’t know if it was just that he’d had an intensely crappy day, or if it was that Happy was there with him to help him figure things out, but he felt overwhelmed with emotions then, and surprised the man by hugging him.
“What are you- geez kid,” he hugged him back. “It’s all right.”
Peter pulled away and then flashed him a grin. “I’m just glad you’re not still mad at me uncle Happy,” he said.
“Oh I am so mad at you right now.” He pointed at Peter and said, “You don’t get to do that when I’m mad at you. You don’t get to call me uncle Happy when you’ve done something wrong.”
“Ok uncle Happy,” Peter said, turning to peer back around the corner. The guy with finger blades was still there, pacing circles around the hostages.
Peter pulled back around the corner, held up his hand to show Happy, and then used his other hand to indicate how long the blades were on the guy. “He’s got ten blades this long. They could grow back if they break off, or retract so he can punch, or he could have the ability to launch them like projectiles, or he might be able to-”
“Kid, slow down.”
Peter took a deep breath and then said, “You can’t go in there. I mean it. I have to go in there alone. I can’t take him on and worry about you. I’ll go in and distract him, and send the hostages out to you. You can get them down to the parking garage.”
Happy gave a nod. “Don’t get too close to him. Use your webs.”
Peter pulled his mask back on. He’d been sweaty and had pulled it off while he was scouting out the situation. “Karen? Taser webs please, but only when I’m aiming at Edward Scissorhands. When I’m not, swap them back to regular webs.”
He didn’t look back at Happy before he crouched down, ran around the corner, and entered the employee gym.
* * *
Scissor guy could not shoot the blades out of his fingertips. He could however shoot chewed up bits of metal out of his mouth like sharp little torpedoes, and by the time Peter had him incapacitated, Peter was thoroughly cut up. He’d distracted the guy long enough for the hostages to run out to Happy, and then learned the hard way that scissor guy also had super strength and could pick up treadmills and heavy weights and toss them at Peter like they weighed nothing at all.
He would throw something heavy at Peter, and then while he was dodging, shoot sharp metal from his mouth at him and use the second or two Peter was dodging to rush towards him. Wash, rinse, repeat until he was close enough to Peter to slash at him with his bladed fingers. Peter’s plan to use taser webs would have worked, except for the fact that some of the internal wiring had been cut up in various parts of his suit from the projectile blades that had hit him, and Karen was short circuiting. Now whenever Peter aimed at scissor guy, he got regular webs. When he aimed at the walls or gym equipment, he got taser webs. Peter had had to get creative then. He’d started using his webs to pull the guy off his feet, or to pull himself to the guy, launching himself at him and using his momentum to put force behind his kicks. Peter didn’t know how long it had gone on, minutes, or half an hour, but he was exhausted by the end of it, and bleeding from over a dozen cuts, some of them deep.
He webbed scissor guy to the floor, to the walls and to the ceiling, and then got on comms and told the team outside that scissor guy was incapacitated but that he didn’t know for how long since he suspected the blades on his fingers could cut through his webs.
Then he went out of the gym and promptly collapsed onto the floor. Happy was by his side in an instant.
“Shit,” Happy said.
“That’s what Morgan said upstairs,” Peter said, feeling too tired to stand up. Two slices of pizza and a cup of coffee weren’t doing it for him. He needed more to eat to have the energy to fight, especially when he was still recovering from the snap six months prior. He tired more easily than he used to. He couldn’t imagine that his dad was doing much better outside. Maybe that’s why he was just flying around being a distraction. That probably took less energy than actually fighting.
“I’m fine, I just need to eat and go to sleep,” Peter said.
“Come on,” Happy said, lifting him up and helping him to the elevator. “This is why you need me to stay.”
“I thought you were going down with the hostages to the parking garage.”
“What kind of body guard would I be then?”
“Flash will laugh when he finds out Spider Man has a bodyguard.”
“What about an uncle?”
Peter grinned up at him as the elevator started to rise towards the penthouse. “He already made fun of me for that today.”
“Little shit,” Happy said. “Wait til I get up there.”
“I already punched him in the elevator and webbed his mouth closed after I went back up for my suit.”
“Oh, Tony will love that,” Happy said. Peter wasn’t sure if it was because there were now 14 new people who knew he was Spider Man, or if it was because Peter had given Flash what he deserved.
There was blood all over Peter’s suit, the elevator, and Happy’s suit by the time they got back up to the penthouse and got inside. Ned paled when he saw the blood dripping down Peter’s arm, and slammed the bedroom door closed so no one else would see. It opened right away again and Mr. Harrington came out, before sticking his head back inside and saying, “MJ, keep Morgan inside.” He shut the door and hurried across the living area to help lift Peter up from the other side, helping support his weight. They got him into the kitchen and lowered him into a chair at the glass kitchen table in front of the wall of windows looking out over the city and the battle.
“First aid kit,” Happy shouted at Ned.
“FRIDAY, open the lab door for Ned,” Peter said, and Ned rushed past them and down into the lab. He’d only been in there twice, but both times it had been to see something really good that Peter and his dad had been working on, and both times had ended up in Peter or Mr. Stark needing the first aid kit, so he knew where it was.
Ned came back out with a big black metal box and set it on the floor next to Peter. Happy tapped the spider symbol on the front of Peter’s suit, relaxing the fabric, and then pulled it away from his shoulders, letting it pool around his waist. Happy and Mr. Harrington were both surprised when Ned came back a minute later and set the last remaining box of cold leftover pizza on the table in front of Peter. Peter laid his head on the table, reached up, took a piece of cold pizza, and started eating it.
“Is now really a good time for him to be eating?” Mr. Harrington asked, handing a roll of gauze up to Happy, who was trying to wrap up two deep cuts on Peter’s upper right arm.
“Mm hungry,” Peter said around the food.
“He needs to eat enough so he can heal. He heals super fast,” Ned said.
“Kid faced off with a guy that has knives for fingers and who can spit metal fragments,” Happy grumbled. “Believe it or not this isn’t the worst shape he’s ever been in.”
“Given what happened with Thanos,” Mr. Harrington said, “I can believe it.”
“I’d take him down to the med bay, but it’s empty, and there’s still two intruders on level 38.”
“I’ll get them in a minute,” Peter said, starting in on his second slice of pizza, head still down on the table. Happy only scoffed in response.
By the time Peter moved on to his fourth piece of pizza, he was able to lift his head up again because he wasn’t feeling as dizzy. Happy and Mr. Harrington had cleaned most of the blood off of his face and arms, wrapped and bandaged the deepest cuts, and got him squared away as best as they could.
It had been twenty minutes since they’d heard any explosions, and Happy wondered if the Avengers had finished dealing with the people attacking the tower. He looked over and realized that Peter’s bedroom door was open again and that the teenagers inside had been watching them clean Peter up, though they were now trying to pretend they hadn’t been.
Mr. Harrington and Happy stepped away from the table to go wash their hands in the kitchen and Ned sat down with Peter.
“I don’t know how he keeps his grades up so high if he’s out as Spider Man,” Roger said.
Happy huffed. “He’s smart. I think school’s easy for him. He’s been trying to convince his parents to homeschool him.”
“That would be a shame to lose him from Midtown. He would be missed.”
Ned and Peter had started talking animatedly at the table and Happy turned back to look at them.
“Then he slashed out at me like, whoosh,” Peter said. He was smiling and rambling again. The color had come back into his face now that he’d eaten. “Then I used my webs to yank him forward, and he flew over me and went headfirst into a stair stepping machine.”
“Just like the guy we fought in Jersey,” Ned said with enthusiasm.
Mr. Harrington gave a serious sideways look at Happy and said, “Please tell me Ned doesn’t have-”
Happy laughed. “Definitely not. They snuck out and went on an adventure a couple months ago without permission and then realized they didn’t have any money to get back and had to call boss at four AM to ask him to come get them.”
Roger grinned. It was good to know that despite the things Peter had been through… despite his powers, that he was able to still just be a kid, and do the dumb things kids his age sometimes did.
* * *
Tony sat down heavily on the black leather couch in the living room next to Peter and glanced over at him. He had cuts all over his face and his arms, but it looked like he’d recently showered. Happy had filled Tony in on the day’s events inside the tower while he was in the Med Bay having the doctors fuss at him for going out as Iron Man when he was still weak and healing. About forty minutes after Happy and Peter’s teacher had patched him up, FRIDAY had given them the all clear, and Happy had taken Mr. Harrington and the students down to the parking garage and then out to the bus. Before they drove away, Happy had given them all a lecture about NDA’s, Peter, Spider Man, anything they’d seen in the penthouse, the events of that day, and the lawsuits they’d face if they told anyone a single detail.
“Rough day?” Tony asked Peter as they sat shoulder to shoulder on the leather couch.
“The worst.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Some jerk made me CEO and I had to evacuate a whole building full of people that were just sitting around drinking coffee and watching the fight outside.”
Tony laughed. “Those are the scientists and engineers. There’s this one guy who lived through a tsunami and the Battle of New York and-”
“Yup, met him.”
Tony reached up and put his arm around Peter’s shoulders, and Peter leaned into him. With his other hand he tousled Peter’s hair. “You did pretty good for your first day as CEO. Think you can transfer that power back over now, or were you planning on taking over the company today?”
“FRIDAY, cancel the Emergency Transfer Protocol.”
“ETP canceled.”
Tony laughed softly. “Gives you a little more appreciation for what Pepper does, doesn’t it?”
“She’s the best,” Peter murmured into his dad’s shirt. Tony could tell he was already drifting off to sleep.
“You’ll make a great CEO someday kid.”
Peter didn’t respond, and Tony closed his eyes as well, letting his head fall back against the couch. Morgan came out from her room and crawled up onto Tony’s lap, hitting several bruises he had incurred that day and causing him to groan.
“Hey munchkin.”
“Hi daddy. Petey Pie webbed up Flash’s mouth cuz he was saying bad words, and uncle Ned let me have a cookie for lunch, and auntie MJ agreed with me that all presidents should wear tutus. It was a great day!”
He ran his fingers through her hair and she relaxed into him. Pepper would be back later that night to help deal with the cleanup and the PR mess from the battle that day. Tony couldn’t wait for her to return. He hated when she left, because it meant that even for a few days, his family felt incomplete.
Morgan fell asleep, Gerald clutched to her chest, and Tony dozed off soon after.
* * *
Because of the NDAs, Flash couldn’t even tell people that he’d been punched by the CEO of Stark Industries, not to mention had his mouth webbed shut by him. Instead he’d ended up telling people that he got caught in the fight at the tower and been punched by one of the bad guys. None of the other students that had gone on the field trip corroborated his story, though they didn’t deny it either.
Flash had remained quiet after that around Peter, no doubt remembering how hard he could punch when he was stressed out, hangry, and suddenly thrust into the role of leadership.
The upperclassmen who had gone on that outing, and who had seen Peter take charge and then come back later, sliced up from head to toe from saving hostages, had also decided they would no longer pick on him. It went beyond that though, because they told others they caught taunting him or calling him names to knock it off. 14 new people knew that Peter was Spider Man. That was 14 more people than had known before, and who appreciated the fact that Peter had helped defeat Thanos. Well, maybe 13. He doubted Flash appreciated him or Spider Man at all now that he knew the red and blue vigilante's true identity, no matter that Peter had now saved Flash's life three times.
One more good thing had come of the field trip to the tower too: Ned and Peter had found a new friend in MJ. She didn’t come to the tower often after that, but when she did, Morgan insisted that MJ was her friend and that Peter could keep Ned. She sat with them at lunch during school, made sarcastic comments that Peter came to appreciate more and more about classes and jerks they encountered, and sometimes went out with them after school to Delmar’s to get a sandwich.
At the end of January when spring term was near, Pepper asked Peter if he was still set on being homeschooled.
“I uh… I think maybe I’d like to finish out the year at Midtown,” Peter said.
Pepper smiled at him. “That’s great honey. Having a routine to follow is a good thing and going to school helps with that.”
Maybe it did. Peter didn’t know. He did know that having friends certainly helped make life better, and that having a few more people that knew about Spider Man didn’t hurt. It was Parker luck finally changing for the better.
Notes:
A/N: Hey, I hope you guys enjoyed the story and my take on this trope. Why did Tony enact ETP? He knew Peter was there for school, and knew Peter was capable of helping Happy get the building evacuated and keeping Morgan safe. Having Peter inside handling things meant Tony could focus on keeping as many of the bad guys out as he could without having to worry about everything going on inside the building. Was he right to put that on Peter? Was he wrong? The great thing is we don’t have to care if it was or wasn’t, we only care about reading a good story. I personally think it was in character for Tony to do that. This was meant to be a fast and fun read, not too long or detailed, and I hope I accomplished that. Check out my profile for other longer works and upcoming Iron Dad stories I have planned. Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of this story and what other Iron Dad tropes you’d like me to tackle.
If you have really awesome Iron Dad stories you think I’d like to read, in this trope or others, drop them in the comments too. I’m still new to Iron Dad and am still sorting through the mountain of works looking for awesome stories to read!
I’m thinking about potentially making this into a series with some one-shots, and a longer prequel about life for Peter and Tony immediately after that final battle with Thanos. Let me know if this is something you’d like to see.
Thanks to everyone who bookmarked this, added it to a collection, left a kudos, or left me a comment to know what you thought about the story! All of that means more than you know :p
Pages Navigation
Purple_Yooniverse1013 on Chapter 1 Thu 27 Jul 2023 07:23PM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 1 Fri 28 Jul 2023 06:26AM UTC
Comment Actions
Asvire on Chapter 1 Sat 09 Sep 2023 05:27AM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 1 Wed 13 Sep 2023 07:42PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevStark (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sun 10 Sep 2023 12:29AM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 1 Wed 13 Sep 2023 07:36PM UTC
Comment Actions
junker5 on Chapter 1 Sun 01 Oct 2023 02:49PM UTC
Comment Actions
AshKing1 on Chapter 1 Wed 11 Oct 2023 06:29AM UTC
Comment Actions
TheCutiepie on Chapter 1 Fri 03 Nov 2023 03:31PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kcat92 on Chapter 1 Sun 28 Apr 2024 01:59AM UTC
Comment Actions
seriesly on Chapter 1 Thu 03 Oct 2024 09:07PM UTC
Comment Actions
Depressedgarbage on Chapter 1 Tue 24 Dec 2024 07:32PM UTC
Comment Actions
Solei98 on Chapter 1 Wed 02 Apr 2025 03:48AM UTC
Last Edited Wed 02 Apr 2025 03:50AM UTC
Comment Actions
18Milka05 on Chapter 1 Thu 21 Aug 2025 02:18AM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 1 Thu 21 Aug 2025 02:54AM UTC
Comment Actions
oriocookie on Chapter 2 Sun 05 Feb 2023 10:24PM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 2 Sun 05 Feb 2023 11:22PM UTC
Comment Actions
themastererper on Chapter 2 Wed 05 Feb 2025 01:28AM UTC
Comment Actions
MirrorGem on Chapter 2 Sun 05 Feb 2023 10:46PM UTC
Last Edited Sun 05 Feb 2023 10:46PM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 2 Sun 05 Feb 2023 11:22PM UTC
Comment Actions
Asliing on Chapter 2 Sun 05 Feb 2023 10:54PM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 2 Sun 05 Feb 2023 11:23PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kali3 (Guest) on Chapter 2 Mon 06 Feb 2023 12:18AM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 2 Mon 06 Feb 2023 03:13AM UTC
Comment Actions
butterflygrl on Chapter 2 Mon 06 Feb 2023 03:36AM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 2 Mon 06 Feb 2023 03:40AM UTC
Comment Actions
BlackSmith2020 on Chapter 2 Sat 26 Aug 2023 12:30AM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 2 Sat 02 Sep 2023 12:25AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevStark (Guest) on Chapter 2 Sun 10 Sep 2023 12:42AM UTC
Comment Actions
JAWorley on Chapter 2 Wed 13 Sep 2023 07:36PM UTC
Comment Actions
junker5 on Chapter 2 Sun 01 Oct 2023 03:06PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kcat92 on Chapter 2 Sun 28 Apr 2024 02:19AM UTC
Comment Actions
Pages Navigation