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1.
Looking out into the sea of new hires, Amelia Potter stood as tall as she could and cleared her throat. This only grabbed the attention of a few of them, the rest were still chattering amongst themselves, no doubt excited about their orientation at Stark Industries. Even though most of them were fully grown adults, there was a level of grade school field trip excitement in the air.
The group had just finished the harrowing journey of getting their pictures taken, ID badges printed and properly scanned into the Stark Industries databases, and had been corralled into the small room they used just for this sort of thing.
“Excuse me,” Amelia called out, voice loud and strong, piercing through the conversations. “May I please have your attention.”
Waiting until all eyes were on her and the room was pretty much silent, Amelia continued. “My name is Amelia Potter,” she paused for a moment, hearing a little giggling sound, finding the Harry Potter fan in the room. “And I will be your orientation guide for today. As you can see, you’re grouped in with several other new hires from many, many different departments, so today’s events are more of a general introduction to SI. Tomorrow you’ll be visiting with your department heads, who will give you a more detailed orientation.”
As usual, there was some chatter and a few sighs of frustration. She knew people just wanted to get to their jobs and start, but the general orientation was very important still. The group had their paperwork armageddon the day before, they should be happy today is really just an extended version of their official SI Tours.
“If you’ll please follow me,” she pointed towards the door. “We’ll begin our tour just this way.”
Beginning her tour she made sure to speak loudly and clearly for all of those following behind her. It was mostly pointing and talking, showing them where certain things were, like the cafeteria and security office. Answering a few questions here and there, the group was pretty normal. There was, however, a young guy in the back that seemed a little more excited than the rest of the group. He wasn’t really dressed for a first day job orientation either, but his babyface and short stature made Amelia assume he was a recent college graduate, at his first job ever.
Stopping the group in the hallway, she pointed at the door and security card reader. “We will now be entering the private employee only area of SI. This is one of the many security checkpoints throughout the building. This one allows any badged SI employee in but others might limit you based on your clearance. Now, one at a time, please come up and try your brand new badges here.”
One by one, the employees came up, held their badges up to the small square, and were allowed entry. The Young Guy was last in line, standing awkwardly with both hands shoved into his pockets, teetering from foot to foot.
“Uh,” Young Guy said, shrugging, his shoulders basically at his ears. “I don’t have a badge.”
“I’m sorry?” Amelia questioned, wondering how he managed to lose his badge within an hour of getting it. “What happened to it? Did you drop it or leave it behind somewhere?”
“Oh, I never had one, to begin with.”
Amelia’s brows furrowed. “Did you not stop at security when you arrived this morning? That should have been the first thing you did. What’s your name?”
Looking down at her Starkpad, she opened the list of employees. She usually didn’t do a roll call, because they’d already been vetted through security by the time they reached her.
“Um, my name is Peter Parker but uh, technically I’m not an employee here, or at least, I mean, I’m an intern. Mr. Stark’s intern to be exact but not officially? I don’t know, it’s a gray area. I should ask more questions about it but I dunno, it works. I saw you giving tours and I thought it’d be cool to see what actual real employees see. Sorry if I’m intruding or anything, I don’t mean to be. I can go now if you want me to.”
Having never had this happen to her during her 6 years of doing this, Amelia was at a loss. She didn’t even think a random person could just show up at employee orientation. How did this Young Guy even get past security to get in the building without getting some kind of badge?
“How’d you get in here? You had to have gotten a badge at security.”
“Ah, well, Happy usually brings me in from the garage elevator and I usually go straight up to Mr. Stark’s lab, but FRIDAY told me he was still in a meeting, so I just started walking around?”
Mouth opening and closing for a moment, Amelia took a second to gather her wits about her. Nothing Young Guy was saying made a lick of sense. Mr. Stark did not have interns, especially ones that were so young looking.
“Stay right where you are,” she said in the sternest voice she could. “I don’t know who you think you are but this is highly irregular.”
“I’m Mr. Stark’s intern, I promise. I know I don’t look it but I am.”
“Mr. Stark doesn’t have personal interns.”
“Not usually, yeah but I’m uh, well, I guess I’m special?”
Yeah, that was it, Amelia was calling security.
By now, the group of actual employees was gathered back by the door, holding it open.
“You,” she pointed at the guy. “Don’t move,” she turned around to face the others. “Can all of you please wait on the other side of the security door? I will be with you shortly.”
There was a displeasing sigh from the group but the door started to shut anyway. It didn't stop the group of actual new hires from gathering as close to the door as possible. She was a little relieved in knowing they couldn’t really hear a lot of what was happening. She had to find some way to save her reputation.
Pressing a button on her Starkpad, a voice answered. “SI Security, this is Robert.”
“Hi Robert, it’s Amelia Potter. I need security sent up to Hall H, by security door 17. I’ve got an individual here, who says his name is Peter Parker and came to the employee tour but he is not an employee here and doesn’t have any badge.”
“Did you call security on me?” Young Guy squeaked loudly, taking a step back. “Man, Happy’s gonna be so annoyed with me.”
“Sending someone now,” came the reply before the person hung up.
Amelia didn’t feel in immediate danger, Young Guy. He had a very disarming look about him, which in retrospect was probably a ploy and he could potentially harm her. Amelia almost had half a mind to go stand on the other side of the security door, but then who would stop Young Guy from running when security did show up?
Amelia was just about to start lecturing him when a voice shouted from down the hall.
“There you are!”
Amelia turned to see, of all people, Tony Stark hurrying down the hallway. Standing up even straighter she took one step to the right, blocking the Young Guy from view. If Mr. Stark saw that she allowed some random guy in the employee orientation, she could be fired.
Mr. Stark, surprisingly, seemed to look around her. Amelia cleared her throat as he approached. “Mr. Stark,” she said sharply, gathering all the authority she could muster. “I’m sorry, sir. I had just called security already, but I’m handling the situation.”
“Yeah, well about that,” Mr. Stark leaned his head to look behind Amelia. “I canceled security, you don’t need to worry about him.”
“But, Mr. Stark, sir, he’s not an employee here,” Amelia insisted.
“He kinda is,” Mr. Stark answered. “He just shouldn’t be wandering around aimlessly.”
“I wasn’t wandering around,” Young Guy spoke up finally, still standing a safe distance from Amelia. “I just joined the group when I saw them.”
“And do you just go around joining any group you see? What would happen if you saw a group of random people walking in the street? Would you follow them? Because kid, this is how you’d end up joining a cult.”
“Of course not, Mr. Stark. It’s just you never gave me a tour so I wanted one. I thought it’d be okay, I didn’t realize we’d have to have badges and stuff. And I’d never join a cult, Mr. Stark, I’m not that gullible.”
The sound of gasping and chatter from the other side of the door caused all three of them to turn and see the huddled mass of new hires, all with their phones out and pointed, at the group.
Mr. Stark let out a very loud sigh. “FRI,” he called out. “Start the I Know Nothing Protocol and get Happy over here. Pete, get your butt upstairs to the lab where you belong.”
“Fine,” Youg Guy pouted. “Sorry I hijacked your tour, Ms. Potter, I didn’t mean to cause any problems. You’re a really good tour guide! Have a nice day!”
“It’s…,” Amelia started, “uh okay, I guess.”
Young Guy gave her a big smile, which only served to make him look so much younger before scampering off towards the elevator. Mr. Stark turned to Amelia and shrugged. “Sorry about that, the kid’s excitable and all that. Maybe I should have actually given him a tour, now that I think about it. Hey, maybe if you’re free next Wednesday you can show him around.”
“He’s actually your intern?” Amelia questioned, more surprised by the second. She felt way too behind on the conversation, things were happening so quickly.
“Yup. Happy will be here in a minute to debrief you and the rest of the lot. Don’t worry nothing bad will happen, just some erasing of footage, Pete’s a minor after all, wouldn’t want his picture getting out. Anyways, thanks for your help today..,” he trailed looking at her badge.
“Amelia,” she supplied, really unsure as to what was even happening anymore. She’d lost control of the situation way too quickly to easily recover. “Amelia Potter.”
“Ah yes, Miss Potter. I’ll have Happy coordinate with you and Pete about a tour.”
Saluting her and giving a jolly wave to the onlookers, Mr. Stark turned and headed back to the elevator. Amelia waited until he was completely gone before opening the security door again, letting the new hires rush in excitedly.
They all started asking her many, many questions and for the first time in a long time, Amelia had no idea how to even answer them.
2.
Luke Geniser really, really, really liked this job.
Really.
It was a childhood, lifelong dream for him to work at the prestigious Stark Industries. He fantasized about it since he was a kid, making fake SI lanyards, and dressing up as Tony Stark for Halloween way past the age in which it was cute to do so. He applied for every single job available, from janitor to head of R&D whenever he had the chance, regardless of his skill set.
He pushed himself beyond his limit to get straight A’s and awards and praise from all his teachers in every single subject, relevant or not. It took endless sleepless nights studying, thousands of dollars in coffee, and even more in college credits but Luke Geniser made working at Stark Industries a reality at the tender age of 27 and a half.
Which was so incredibly impressive, that Luke couldn’t help but feel proud.
So when he waltzed into his lab after going to get some coffee to see a 12 year old rummaging through the supply closet, he was a little confused.
“Excuse me?” Luke questioned, clearing his throat and watching the child turn around, an item clutched in his dirty grubby little hands.
“Oh, sorry,” the child started, giving Luke a friendly smile. “I had just come in here to grab the uh,” he held up a small tool, waving it back and forth, “the uh, thingy.”
“Vernier caliper,” Luke supplied, because really, if this child snuck into Stark Industries to steal, he should know the name of the tool he was stealing.
“Yes! Sorry! I should remember the name, maybe if I associate it with a caterpillar it would be easier to remember,” the child answered casually, as if he wasn’t in a multi-million dollar corporation, attempting to loot random lab tools.
“Who the hell are you?” Luke questioned, concerned as to why the child didn’t look guilty in the least, he actually looked rather angelic. Luke could see how he might have disarmed a few people into letting him in. “And why do you need a vernier caliper?”
“Oh, I don’t need them, Mr. Stark does. He lost the pair he was using and told me to just grab a pair from whatever lab I could get into. Which really wasn’t helpful so I had to ask FRIDAY what lab was open and where it was and she said this one was good. So I just came in and grabbed them! Oh and I admired your robot too, it’s really cool and I hope you’re able to complete it. The world needs more helpful robots, not like those evil Rumba vacuums.”
Luke stared at the boy, mouth agape because there was no way this toddler thought Mr. Stark sent him to do anything. Was it bring your kid to work day or something? Maybe he was lost from a school tour and took advantage and scampered off to steal some vernier calipers as some kind of souvenir for his trip. He wasn’t even going to touch the whole, evil Rumba thing either, one mystery at a time.
“None of what you said is true,” Luke insisted. “Mr. Stark owns the company, I’m sure he has his own vernier calipers and why would he send a 4th grader to retrieve them.”
“First of all, I’m in High School so rude, but secondly he did have a pair but he lost them and he was in the middle of something, so he sent me to get them. I’m his intern, so that’s like, part of my job, I guess.”
Eyes getting larger, Luke’s brain did not compute. “No, Mr. Stark doesn’t have an intern. I would know if Mr. Stark took interns because I would want to be his intern. That doesn’t exist and I don’t know who you think you are walking around trying to steal lab supplies.”
The child put down the vernier calipers on the table, before backing away with his hands up. “Okay dude, if like, your measure thingy are so important-”
“Vernier calipers. If you can’t call them by their proper name you don’t deserve to be Mr. Stark’s imaginary intern.”
“Alright, dude, I’m kinda getting some bad vibes here so I’ll just go find another set of, uh vernier calipers to borrow for my very real internship with Mr. Stark. I’m sorry for disturbing you and your very important work. Just like, please don’t call security on me. Happy was really annoyed the last time.”
Luke was too busy having a crisis to actually care what the child was saying. It wasn’t fair that some 4th could just be here doing things and it took Luke his entire adulthood to work here. He was about to sputter something else out, maybe demand to see his ID or badge, when a voice he recognized immediately started from down the hallway.
“Kid? Where the hell did you go and why are you taking so long? FRI said you were in this lab, please don’t tell me you got distracted by someone’s dog again or got in some line you know nothing about.”
Mr. Tony Stark waltzed into the room like he owned the place, which he did but still. Luke had been working at SI for almost a year and he’d never gotten this close to Mr. Tony Stark before. He’d only seen the man from a distance, in a large group setting, not alone in his lab with a toddler standing there.
“Ah,” Mr. Tony Stark said, looking at the child. “There you are. Did you find me another pair of calipers?”
“Yes but uh, we can’t borrow this pair, Mr. Stark.”
Mr. Tony Stark looked up at Luke, frowning. “Why not? I own the company, therefore I own each pair of them. Are you using them?”
Luke started, mouth agape, eyes still very, very wide at what he was seeing. Maybe the high schooler wasn’t lying, maybe he was Mr. Tony Stark’s intern, which is unfair, but damn. Luke totally misjudged this one. “Um, no?”
“Okay,” Mr. Tony Stark said, walking over and taking them from where the child had put them down a moment before. He looked back at Luke. “I’ll have Pete return these when I’m done, okay?”
“Er,” Luke said, slowly losing the ability to talk. He had no idea what to even say to the man, now that he was up close and personal. Mr. Tony Stark seemed to narrow his eyes onto Luke, before looking behind him at the robot.
“Is that your project?” Mr. Tony Stark asked.
“Er, um, yes.”
“It’s cool,” the kid, whose name he figured might be Pete, jumped in. “I was looking at the schematics before I went to find the measuring thingy and it’s really cool once it’ll be finished. I was just telling,” the child looked at him, “Right, uh, well, I don’t actually know your name, sorry. Hi,” the child extended his hand. “I’m Peter. Peter Parker.”
“Luke,” he finally responded, brain starting to turn again. “Luke Geniser.” He didn’t shake Peter’s hand, but that didn’t seem to deter the child from talking again.
“Really? Your name is Luke? That’s so cool, you know, I love Star Wars. Luke Skywalker is my favorite.”
Luke was at a loss for words again, unsure even how to answer the child happily babbling in front of him.
“Kid,” Mr. Tony Stark said with a chuckle. “Why don’t you head back to the lab.”
“Aw, but Mr. Stark,” Peter said with a frown. “You never let me talk to anyone when I’m here.”
“That’s because you’ll talk their ear off and I might not get you back from them once they figure out you’re a genius.”
The child crossed his arms over his chest, making an exaggerated pouting face. Luke wanted to scream, or possibly, cry because if Mr. Tony Stark was calling him a genius, he’d be a lot happier and a lot less sassy.
“You’re just saying that because without me, who would fetch things for you and correct all of your Math errors?”
Luke thought for sure this child was pushing his luck, he must be secretly related to Mr. Tony Stark in some way. Maybe a stepchild? A nephew? There was no way just some random intern was allowed to speak to him like that.
Mr. Tony Stark mirrored the child’s pose, arms crossed, face in hard set. They stared at each other in complete silence for several long minutes. Luke felt like he should excuse himself from whatever was happening, but the child cracked a smile and dropped the pout. “Fine,” he said. “But you gotta let me come down here more often and talk to people. Luke’s robot is really cool and I want to see it when it’s done.” The child turned to Luke, waving his hand. “Bye, nice meeting you!”
And without any further issues, Peter disappeared just as quickly as appeared, leaving Luke alone with his longtime obsession and favorite person on the planet, Mr. Tony Stark.
“He’s enthusiastic,” Mr. Tony Stark said, jerking his head towards the door. “Maybe a little too much, but anyway, the robot looks good, and thanks for letting me borrow the tool.”
Luke blinked a few times, words once again became really hard to come up with. He was jealous of how easily the child seemed to talk to Mr. Tony Stark. The whole thing didn’t feel like an internship, there had to be something else underneath the whole thing.
Mr. Tony Stark stared at him for a minute, as if he was simply waiting for a bus and not a person to actually come up with words. “Er, thanks. It’s an uh, honor to meet you, sir. I’ve been wanting to work here since I was in diapers.”
“Ouch,” Mr. Tony Stark said furrowing his brows. “And I think the kid made me feel like an old man.”
“Oh, oh oh,” Luke repeated, feeling like an idiot. “Sorry, sir. You’re not old!”
Mr. Tony Stark chuckled, flinging his hand in the direction of the door. “It’s fine, Pete makes me feel like an old man at least once a day. Yesterday he told me he heard Nine Inch Nails on the oldies station and I practically turned to dust. I refuse to believe anything from the 80s belongs on an oldie station.”
Luke, very wisely, did not inform Mr. Tony Stark that he wasn’t even born until the 90s, instead, he just nodded his head, bobbling maybe a bit too much because Mr. Tony Stark was giving him a very weird look.
“Anyways,” Mr. Tony Stark said. “Thanks again, sorry for the interruption.”
He was out the door a minute later and Luke stood there, blinking at his lab door, feeling utterly lost.
3.
Working in the cafeteria at Stark Industries wasn’t the most glamorous job, but Missy Snow really didn’t care. It was a good paying job, with good hours that allowed her to finish getting her psychology degree online easily enough. And if she was being honest, it was kinda a boring easy job anyway.
There weren’t many employees that needed her help, to begin with, she mostly sat at her register, scanning employee meal cards and occasionally some cash or credit cards. Stark Industries provided employees with a meal card plan, some liked to use it, and others insisted on paying for their own food. Even though she’d only been working there a few months, she knew most employees and their preferred meals by heart, even if she didn’t know their names.
It was late in the evening on a Thursday, the cafeteria would be closing in an hour. Missy’s brain was already working on her Kant essay, when a young boy appeared in Missy’s line, pushing a tray of nachos towards her. She’d never seen the boy before, she wasn’t even sure if he was legally allowed to be an employee, he looked so young.
“Hi!” He said in a bright voice, smiling.
“Hi,” Missy responded, looking down at the nachos and then back to the boy. Usually, people had their meal cards out in their hands already. Since he didn’t seem to know the procedure, she was glad no one was behind him. Being the only cashier available, she had to keep things moving. “Card?”
“Oh, uh, um, sure,” he said, using a lot of adverbs and not content. He patted his front pockets, back pockets, and then front again.
“If you don’t have your card,” Missy jumped in, eyeing two people by the pizza bar, who might be heading in line soon. “You can pay cash or credit.”
“Oh, oh, um, that’s actually worse because I am perpetually broke. Like, I know the nachos are like $5 and that seems like something a teenager might have but I do not. I used my last $5 to buy food at the zoo last week to feed some goats and I don’t regret it at all. But yeah, I think that was the last of my cash. I don’t have a credit card either, or well, I mean, Mr. Stark gave me one for emergencies but I keep it in my apartment, which also, now that I think about that I’m really not going to have a money emergency while home…”
Missy had no idea what this boy was even talking about or why it was her problem. Eyeing the plate of nachos, she sighed, she’d have to leave it in the back room for everyone to eat since they couldn’t undo the nachos. She hoped he didn’t use the hottest salsa, she could grab a handful on her way out if he didn’t.
“So, what you’re saying is, you don’t have any money or an employee card to pay for this?” Missy asked, looking him over again. She should be asking who he is and why he’s here, trying to buy nachos from Stark Industries at 7 pm on a Thursday with no parental guidance and worst of all, no money to be found. “Are your parents here? Can one of them get their employee card?”
“My parents are dead,” the boy responded in a flat, unaffected tone that took Missy by surprise. “So, no they don’t work here.”
When Missy didn’t come up with a suitable answer, the boy jumped back into the conversation. “Sorry if that was a little blunt, Mr. Stark keeps telling me I shouldn't just say it like that but really, it’s the truth, so how else am I supposed to say it.”
Raising her eyebrows, Missy realized he had referred to Mr. Stark twice now, which didn’t sound logical at all. “Are you talking about Tony Stark?”
“Yup. He’s my boss and the reason I’m down here. I had a nacho craving and instead of ordering he said it would be faster to just run down here and grab it but apparently he forgot I needed to actually pay for my meal.”
“Are you for real?” Missy blurted out. “Is this some kind of prank? Did James put you up to this? You’re Rita’s boy, aren’t you?”
“I have no idea who any of those people are but this isn’t a prank. I’m just a broke intern for Mr. Stark and I really want nachos.”
Missy didn’t believe him for a second, she reached over for her small radio. She’d been planning on calling James, to find out if the jerk was setting her up or whatever, when a familiar sound of, Black in Black, came blaring from the boy’s jeans.
Scrambling for his pockets, he pulled out a very expensive and sleek looking Starkphone, answering the call. “Hi, Mr. Stark! Oh, no I didn’t join any group…that was only ONE time, Mr. Stark, I know my way around this place, geez. I’m getting my nachos right now but uh, I kinda don’t have money to pay for them.” He gave her another smile and a shrug, Missy rolled her eyes.
This was clearly a prank, he was talking to James without a doubt. Eyeing the two other rightful employees with their pizza, they hovered a little back from the line. Maybe they were in on it too, tapping it so everyone could laugh later.
“I know!” the boy squeaked on the line. “I don’t have it with me, Mr. Stark, that’s the problem… no, no, please don’t do that, it’s fine, I promise.” Giving Missy some serious panicked eyes, he shrugged again, moving the phone away from his face slightly. “Sorry, he’s mad because I never have money on me and he keeps trying to give me money, which I don’t want. Like, at all.”
There was a loud squeaking sound from the phone, he pulled it back to his ear. “Yes, Mr. Stark, sorry! I know you could hear me! I just didn’t want to hear you anymore, so okay… fine... Yes.. hold on, I didn’t try that, let me just..” He pulled the phone away again, hit a few buttons, and then held the phone up to Missy’s face. “Mr. Stark wants to talk to you.”
Missy was expecting to see James’s face, laughing his head off at her, so when she really saw Tony Stark looking back at her it came as a complete shock. “This is fake!” She yelped, physically recoiling away from the phone.
“Uh,” the boy said, pulling the phone back a little. The fake Tony Stark laughed really loudly, the phone speakers were really good, it made the laugh sound like it was all around him. “It’s not, I promise!”
“Geez, kid, what are you doing to my employees?” Fake Tony Stark asked, the boy flushed a light pink, shaking his head.
“Nothing, I swear! I just want my lukewarm nachos!” He gestured towards the plate, which was starting to look a little sad, the chips getting soggy from the copious amounts of cheese sauce. The two other employees had crept closer, clearly wanting to see how this was going to go.
Missy straightened up, refusing to fall for something like this. If it wasn't a prank, then this kid was trying to steal while using a pretty convincing Deep Fake of some sort. “Listen, kid and Fake Tony Stark, I don’t know what kind of prank or con you’re running but the buck stops here.”
The boy still held up the phone, Fake Tony Stark laughed again, louder this time. “Geez, why is it so hard to believe I sent the kid down for nachos? Look at him, he doesn’t look like he could lie to save his life.”
“Hey!” the boy injected, face getting redder. “I can lie! I lie all the time, Mr. Stark and I’m such a good liar that you don’t even notice that I am lying! I am a master liar and manipulator.” The kid set his face to a scowl, lips pressed together but Missy didn’t really find it all that intimidating at all.
“Not helping your case, kiddo, if you want them to believe what we’re both saying,” Fake Tony Stark said, clearing his throat a little. “Turn me back towards the cashier, Pete.”
The boy did, turning the phone so Missy got a full view of Fake Tony Stark. Whoever did this Deep Fake was really good at it. “Hi there,” Fake Tony Stark squinted, obviously looking at her name tag. “Melissa. It’s me, Tony Stark and while I know that’s hard to believe, it’s true. The troublemaker you have in front of you,” the kid said hey, very quietly but Fake Tony Stark ignored him. “Is my personal intern, Peter Parker. I must admit, I never thought about getting him an employee meal card, so he doesn’t have one. I, however, do and you can use that one.”
Missy looked back to the kid, well, Peter Parker, eyeing him from the top of his curly hair to the dirty and old looking sneakers. The two employees with their probably now cold pizza had approached closer, trying to get a view of the phone no doubt. Missry straightened up in her chair, looking past the phone to catch Peter’s line of sight. “Do you have an ID on you, Peter Parker?”
“Um,” Peter said, biting on his lower lip, reaching his free hand into his back pocket to pull out a very old brown wallet. “Sorry, Mr. Stark, gotta put you down,” he announced before putting the phone down next to the plate of nachos, giving Fake Tony Stark a view of the ceiling. Carding through the wallet, he started mumbling. “I have a library card? It doesn’t have my picture but it got my name. I uh, have a stamp card for a free donut, free sub, free drink, and oh hey, I’m ready to get my free churro, sweet.”
“Focus Pete.” Fake Tony Stark’s voice came from the speaker. “You’ve got to have some kind of ID on you. What about your school ID or state ID?”
“Hmm, very good question, Mr. Stark. I think my school ID is upstairs in my backpack and I lost my state ID like 6 months ago, please don’t tell May. So yeah, I don’t think I have any actual ID on me that’s like, real.”
Both Missy and Fake Tony Stark sighed very loudly, but Peter reached his hand in and pulled something else out. “I do have this fake Jedi Master badge that Ned made me! It’s got my name and picture on it.”
Peter held out the card, over the phone, showing Missy an ID with Peter’s picture, his name, and Jedi Master written underneath it. It was lamentation, but very clearly homemade.
“Are you kidding me?” Fake Tony Stark squawked from his spot. “Pete, please, abandon the nachos and get back up here. We’re getting you proper identification.”
“Mr. Stark,” Peter said with a very serious tone, as he grabbed the phone back, holding it between him and Missy. “I am not abandoning my nachos. I don’t leave anyone behind, Mr. Stark and that includes food.”
The other two employees were laughing loudly, holding their phones up to capture the extremely random and most likely fake routine that was happening. Missy couldn’t believe what she was seeing, it had to be some weird stage performance. There was no way Real Tony Stark would not only have an intern but have this weird relationship with one. This was a departure from reality at the highest order.
“Okay,” Missy cut in on the banter going on between Peter Parker and Fake Tony Stark. “Honestly, at this point, you can have the nachos. It’s not that much money and you’re holding up the line. I applaud the effort of going this far into a prank just for a plate of nachos though.”
Peter looked a little sheepish and the Fake Tony Stark continued to laugh. “I swear, it’s real, I’ll have Mr. Stark pay you back, I promise.”
Without saying goodbye Peter Parker ended the call with Fake Tony Stark, grabbed his plate of nachos, and was out of Missy’s line a minute later, shouting. “Thank you!” As he ran out of the cafeteria.
Missy tried not to think too much about the whole thing, she should have reported it to security but a single plate of $5 nachos wasn’t going to break Stark Industries and if Peter Parker was some elite spy or con artist, he was sure to get caught by actual security at one point.
Waving on the two employees with cold pizza forward, she went back to work.
4.
If there was one thing that Leroy Levale knew was when you can’t figure out a problem, sometimes it’s best you walk away.
It didn’t happen too often, he was, of course, a genius but sometimes even a genius hit a wall. And this wall, it was a big one. He’d spent the better part of a work week staring at a very complex chemical formula that just didn’t want to work. He’d taken it apart over and over again, looked at every single individual part, but it still didn’t work right.
He even called over some of his favorite employees, casually asking them to find the problem, trying to frame it as a complicated lesson and not a cry for help. Aghast, even his smartest employee, Mary Ellen couldn't figure out the problem.
So, Leroy did what anyone completely stuck could do, head down to the cafeteria to eat copious amounts of greasy junk food and coffee. It was late, the cafeteria nearly empty, save for a handful of overzealous interns staying late to try and curry favor, no doubt. Once he satisfied his stomach and brain, he took his coffee cup and headed back to his lab.
He still had at least 2 hours before security would remind him the building was closing, maybe those 2 hours, with a very empty lab would be his inspiration hours. Pushing open the lab door, Leroy was greeted with a very unusual sight, a young boy, standing in front of his whiteboard, using his shirt sleeve to erase some of his very important, very difficult formulas.
“Hey! Don’t touch that!” Leroy practically shouted, rushing over to see what horrors awaited him. If the young boy destroyed his work, he was going to have a massive crying breakdown at work.
The young boy made a startled sound, turning and dropping the marker on the ground. “Sorry, sorry!!”
“What do you think you’re doing?” Leroy said upon arrival, sizing up the short brown haired boy wearing a science pun t-shirt, jeans, and very scuffed up and used shoes. Looking like a teenager, Leroy didn’t believe for a second the young boy belonged there. “Where did you come from? How’d you get in here?”
“Oh um, I was just like, walking by the door the other day and I heard you talking about how you couldn’t figure out the formula, so I came in yesterday and took a picture of it to see if I could solve it for you. I asked FRIDAY to tell me when you left so I could come in and fix it for you. I thought you’d appreciate it and I didn’t want to like, just burst in here fixing errors or anything so like, I thought I could be an error fixing angle or ghost or something. I realize now it was a bad call, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t just touch things that don’t belong to me. And as for where I came from and how I got here, uh, I was upstairs in Mr. Stark’s lab and he’s in the ‘zone’ or whatever he calls it so I just kinda left. He sometimes doesn’t realize I’m gone, it’s actually really funny-”
Leroy held up a single finger, causing the young boy to snap his mouth shut. While Leroy didn’t like gossip, he wasn’t immune to it and he’d heard about a young boy claiming to be Tony Stark’s intern showing up randomly throughout the building. He just figured it was some random mystery, a Stark Industries cryptid if you will.
Never did he think he’d have a sighting.
“Are you Peter Parker?” Leroy questioned, narrowing his eyes at the young boy, looking for any signs of deceit.
“Oh yeah, that’s me, hi!” Possibly Fabled Intern Peter Parker reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge and lanyard, this one with his face on it and INTERN written underneath it. “Mr. Stark got me a badge so I can get nachos whenever I want.”
Leroy took the badge from him, looking for the special holographic insignia that makes it a real Stark Industries ID badge. When he found it, on the back, shiny as it should, he handed it back to Fabled Intern Peter Parker. “That’s all very well, but you shouldn’t just come in here and change my formula without consulting me.”
“I know, I know, I’m sorry but look, I promise this fixes it. I can show you all my work, I swear. Can I? Please? Dr…?”
“Levale, Dr. Leroy Levale.”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, are you really Dr. Leroy Levale? First of all, nice to meet a fellow member of the Name Alliteration Club! But more importantly, I just got done reading your newly published paper on NiFe-layered double hydroxides. Oh man, I should have realized this was your formula! I just read about the modifications you were doing to the iron content and this,” he pointed enthusiastically to the board, “is just that, isn’t it?”
Being a genius and a world renowned scientist, working at Stark Industries, Leroy wasn’t usually phased when someone else with a genius IQ walked into the room. Not that he wanted to brag or anything, but he was most likely a whole lot smarter than them. But this young boy couldn't be older than 15 and there was no way he could have read the paper and understood it enough to correct the formula before him. “How old are you?”
“16, sir. Well, just turned actually. I know, I know, I look like I’m 12. That’s usually the number I get assigned.”
If Fabled Intern Peter Parker really was Tony Stark’s intern, then he must be smart enough to be Tony Stark’s intern. “Show me,” Leroy said, squatting down to pick up the fallen marker.
“Really?” Fabled Intern Peter Parker’s face lit up like a Christmas tree and he grabbed the marker. “Oh my gosh, this is an honor, sir, honestly, a big honor.”
“Call me Leroy,” he corrected, as Fabled Intern Peter Parker started writing on the board. “And explain as you go.”
By the time an hour rolled by, not only had Fabled Intern Peter Parker correctly fixed the formula error, but he also managed to improve it. All while acting as if it was no big deal that he was understanding and explaining complex chemistry formulas well beyond his age and school work. It was no surprise that Tony Stark snatched this kid up as quickly as he could. Leroy was just pissed Stark was hiding Fabled Intern Peter Parker away.
“Kid!” Thinking of the devil, Stark walked into the lab, arms crossed and looking annoyed. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. It’s time to go home, it’s way past your curfew.”
“Mr. Stark!” Fabled Intern Peter Parker squeaked, looking at his watch. “Sorry! I got carried away with Leroy and his work. It’s really awesome, Mr. Stark, he’s super smart and cool.”
Leroy’s chest puffed a little, not deflating when Stark looked over at him. “You stealin’ my intern, Leroy?”
“Your intern, Stark, wandered down here all by himself. I’m the one that should be offended, how could you keep this genius all to yourself?”
Fabled Intern Peter Parker flushed red, placing the marker back on the whiteboard ledge and rushing over to stand next to Stark. “Finders keepers,” Stark answered, putting an arm around his shoulder. “Find your own protégé.”
“Mr. Stark,” Fabled Intern Peter Parker said in a whine. “I like helping! You gotta let me help people when I can.”
Rolling his eyes, Stark’s territorial grip seemed to tighten on Fabled Intern Peter Parker’s shoulder. “Nuh uh, I’m the boss so I get to decide who gets access to my intern and who doesn’t.”
“Your intern, Stark, just solved an incredibly complex chemical formula that neither I nor anyone else in my department could manage to figure out in a week. And he did it in a day.”
If someone told Leroy that Tony Stark, of all people, could look happy about someone else being smarter than them, he wouldn’t believe it. But Stark turned into Fabled Intern Peter Parker. “Awe, kid. That’s fantastic, I always knew you were smarter than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Fabled Intern Peter Parker’s face flushed bright red, he pulled out of Stark’s grasp. “Aw, come on guys. It was just one little formula, that’s all. I’m sure Leroy would have gotten it eventually.”
“I don’t get how this kid can be so modest all the time,” Stark said with a smile and Leroy agreed. Anyone with Fabled Intern Peter Parker’s level of genius should be singing it through the mountain tops. Instead, he wanted to solve the formula without anyone even knowing he did it.
“He didn't even want anyone in the lab to know he did it,” Leroy added. “Only came in to solve it while he thought I left for the day.”
“Pete!” Stark exclaimed. “Where you going all Good Will Hunting in my building?”
“I don’t know what that is, Mr. Stark.”
Leroy felt the look on Stark’s face down to his very soul. God, he was getting old. Even he wasn’t as bright as Fabled Intern Peter Parker when he was a teen. In a few years, the kid could probably be his boss or even Stark’s at the rate he seemed to be going. He clearly had Stark wrapped around his little finger.
“God, I’m old,” Stark said under his breath, before clearing his throat. “Anyway, it’s way past the time for all good lil’ interns to go to bed, Pete. Why don’t you go grab your things from the lab and meet me in the garage? I’ll drive you home tonight.”
“Alright,” Fabled Intern Peter Parker said, sounding upset he had to leave. “It was nice meeting you Leroy and thank you for letting me help with the formula. If I’m ever allowed out of the castle again, I promise to come visit you.”
“That’s enough Rapunzel,” Stark said, eyeing Fabled Intern Peter Parker before the kid gave a cheery wave and headed out the door. Once Fabled Intern Peter Parker was gone he turned back to Leroy. “There’s zero chance you’re not gonna tell everyone in the department about this.”
“There’s zero chance I’m not telling everyone on this floor about this, let alone the department, Stark. You can’t keep that genius out there locked up forever, you need to share him with this department at least a few times.”
Leroy felt lucky he had a good relationship with Stark, he was his boss and underneath all the bravado a pretty decent human. He seemed even more decent in just the small interaction he just witnessed.
“Fine, fine, I couldn’t keep him away even if I tried. I’ll allow Pete to come visit every once in a while, fair?
“Fair,” Leroy said, taking the win where he could. After Stark left, Leroy took a minute to gaze upon the finished formula. He couldn’t wait to share it with his team tomorrow, especially when he would get to tell them exactly who had done most of the work.
5.
Being a nurse practitioner at Stark Industries wasn’t really as exciting as most people assumed. Anytime Davey Welegy told anyone his occupations, whether it be dates, friends, or strangers, they always assumed he saw some really interesting shit.
Truth was, he really didn’t.
These weren’t babies running around with dangerous chemicals, they were knowledgeable scientists. And yes, they blew shit up all the time, but no one really truly got hurt from it. They also falsely assumed Davey treated the Avengers, all the time, which he didn’t. They all lived at the Compound and got their medical care done there.
(Davey’s ex-boyfriend, on the other hand, is a nurse there, he came home with some wild stories which Davey is legally not allowed to even mention he knew about.)
What Davey deals with is more akin to a college campus sometimes. The worst thing was when Dr. Sheppard spilled hot coffee on his lap to avoid spilling it on his laptop and even then it wasn’t even first degree burns.
Figuring it was going to be a normal evening, Davey set off collecting an inventory of bandages and other products. He had just finished counting his 24th packet of bandages when a loud commotion came from down the hall. Tossing his Starkpad on the desk, Davey hurried over to the door, poking his head out in the hallway.
Out of everything he could see, seeing Tony Stark bridal carrying Spider-man down the hallway was not one of them.
“Come on,” Tony was mumbling. “Almost there kiddo.”
There was a lot of blood on Spider-man and Tony, Davey could see Spider-man holding their hands down against their stomach, where gushes of blood were originating.
“Over here,” Davey called out before going back inside to prep the bed. It was the evening shift, so Davey was the only hand currently on deck and he grabbed what he thought he’d need, turning to see Tony laying a squirming Spider-man on the table. “What happened?” Davey asked as he came over to inspect the superhero.
“Bullet to the side,” Tony answered.
Davey could easily see where it entered, Spider-man was putting pressure on a gushing wound towards the right hip. “Is it still in?”
“Yes,” Spider-man answered, letting out a little cry when Davey moved to touch the area and then let out a moan. “Tony.”
“Hey, it’s alright kid, we’re gonna fix you right up. Me and…” Tony trailed walking over to stand on the other side of Spider-man.
“Davey,” he supplied. “And you can move your hand okay? I need to see it.”
Spider-man lifted their hand, showing off the small cut in the fabric of their suit, dark red blood still spilling over. “I need to take his suit off,” Davey said, placing a white bandage against the wound, watching as it immediately turned red.
“No,” Spider-man said, as Tony reached over his chest. “Please.”
“Kid, we’ve got to, okay? Davey here promises to keep your secret, right Davey?”
“I’ll sign all the NDAs you need but I have to get this bullet out of you.”
Spider-man nodded their nod, a small movement before Tony pressed the spider emblem, the suit sagged allowing for it to be taken off a lot easier. “Can you do it?” Davey asked Tony. “I can call someone else but it’ll take them time to get here.”
“Yeah, of course, the less people seeing this… the better,” Tony answered, helping Spider-man remove their arms carefully from the suit before peeling it away from their chest. Davey couldn’t help but notice how… young the body looked. Sure Spider-man was built, with strong abs but this was not an adult.
“This is going to hurt a little, Spidey, okay? I’m just going to have Tony here help move the suit away from the area. It’s just like pulling off a bandaid, ready?”
Spider-man nodded. “Okay.”
Catching Tony’s eye, he nodded, getting the suit ready to pull when Davey was. “One, two, three!” Davey removed his hands for a moment, allowing Tony to pull the suit down to Spider-man’s waist, just out of the way enough for him to work.
Spider-man let out a pained cry, but Tony was there an instant later, grabbing the hero’s hand and holding it within his own. “You’re alright, kiddo. I think we should take this mask off you too, then.”
Without meaning to, Davey held his breath as the mask slowly came off, revealing a teenager with curly brown hair matted to his pale face. His eyes were full of tears, streaks were leaking down his face. “Oh Pete,” Tony said with a softness Davey had never witnessed before. Reaching over, Tony wiped the tears away.
So, Spider-man was really Spider-teen and was still bleeding from a gunshot wound on his side.
Right.
Davey got to work, ordering Tony to grab a few things off the table and rummage through cabinets to find other things. While doing so, Davey turned his attention to Spider-teen. “Hi,” he said, catching the teen’s eyes.
“Hi,” The teen said back in a small voice.
“It doesn’t look like the bullet has hit anything major, I’m going to try and get it out in a minute. I’m going to have Tony here give you some pain medicine in just a second.”
“Won’t work,” Spider-teen answered, eyes welling with more tears as Tony came back with the items, placing them on the tray next to Davey.
“His metabolism,” Tony supplied. “It’s… different. He’s also got healing abilities but this is the first time Pete’s been shot and we just don’t know how his body is going to take it.”
Shaking his head, Davey gave Tony a level look. “You want me to remove a bullet from this kid’s side without an anesthetic?”
“Yes,” Tony answered simply. “And I know it’s not a good thing, trust me, but Peter’s strong, he’ll be fine.”
As soon as Davey heard the full name, something clicked into place.
This was Peter Parker, Tony’s Fabled Intern.
Which was probably a cover for being Spider-man.
Holy shit.
Shaking his head, he tried to push the excitement of knowing the true identity of both Fabled Intern Peter Parker and Spider-man, but he had more important things to do. “Okay,” Davey answered.
Removing his hand briefly, Davey went to squirt water on the wound, when he realized, to his horror and amazement, it was a lot smaller and not bleeding nearly as much. He must have been staring with wide eyes because Peter spoke up. “My skin usually knits itself together, happened after I got stabbed too.”
“Since when did you get stabbed?” Came Tony’s outraged shout.
“It wasn’t bad,” Peter answered back, squeezing his eyes shut as Davey cleaned the wound as best he could. He was going to have to move fast now if he wanted to get the bullet out without having to cut the teenager open again.
“I don’t care if you didn’t think it was bad! You come to me the second you get injured! I’m not going to find out you died from sepsis because you forgot to tell me you got stabbed.”
“My healing,” Peter said with a lot of conviction for someone who was in a lot of pain. “Would totally take care of it.”
“And we’re totally never going to test that theory because medical care is much better than healing powers, right Davey?”
“Um,” Davey answered, as he readied his tweezers. “Sure. I mean I’m not very familiar with healing powers, to be honest. Okay, Peter, I’m going to get the bullet out. I need you to try and be as still as possible. Okay?”
“Okay,” Peter affirmed, eyes immediately darting back over to Tony. Wordlessly, he held his hand out, which Tony grabbed onto. “Okay,” Peter repeated.
Taking a deep breath, Davey went to work. He could feel Peter tense up the second he got his tweezers in there, he briefly looked up at Tony hoping he could convey the needed message, Peter needed a distraction.
“So,” Tony said conversationally as if he was at dinner and not an operating table. “Now that I have you in a place you can’t escape from, how about you tell me about that girl you’ve got a crush on.”
“Mr. Starrrrrk,” Peter whined, but this time not in pain.
“Come on, Petey, I know you like her, and I know you told May you liked her too.”
“Stop talking to May!” Peter said through clenched teeth, Davey had just located the bullet and was starting to take it out. He suspected that whatever healing Peter had helped a lot more than he thought.
“Absolutely not. She sends me all these adorable baby pictures of you and she tells me all the embarrassing stories I need. Like when you were a toddler and fell asleep face first on a plate of spaghetti, she even showed me the pictures.”
“Got it,” Davey said to them, as he pulled out the bullet. He watched in amazement as Peter’s skin started pulling itself back together. “I was going to say you needed stitches, but now I’m not too sure. You doing okay, Peter?”
“Yeah,” Peter answered, the color was starting to return to his face, he had a much less pained look too, but his hand was still safely inside of Tony’s. “I think… I think I’ll be fine now, thank you.”
“I’m going to wash the area one more time and put on a bandage, just to be safe.”
Cleaning out the much smaller looking wound again, he applied a small bandage over the area. When he finished, Peter was looking good as new, even with the large amounts of blood now flaked to his skin. “You should be able to shower with this bandage on, which you might want to do soon. Other than that, I really don’t know what else to provide you with. I’m assuming you have a normal doctor?”
“Uh,” Peter said looking at Tony. “Not really?”
Making an aspirated sound, he finally let go of Peter’s hand. “We will work on that, along with how to avoid getting a bullet to the side and scaring the shit out of your mentor.”
“Well,” Davey jumped in. “I’ll just,” he waved his hands, suddenly feeling terribly awkward standing there. All the adrenaline of the moment wore off and now, Davey was super close to freaking out about this. He needed to excuse himself before he could embarrass himself.
“Thank you,” Peter said with a chipper smile.
“Yeah, thanks, Davey. I’ll send down a few NDAs tomorrow, okay?”
“I absolutely don’t doubt it and it’s very nice to meet the Fabled Intern Peter Parker and the Amazing Spider-man.”
“See!” Peter said, bringing his finger up towards Tony’s face. “Told ya people call me that! You didn’t believe me! I’m like a myth, a legend around here!”
“God,” Tony said, sounding positively parental. “I really wish you didn’t say that to him, now I’m never going to hear the end of it.”
Davey smiled, before taking his leave out of the small room, towards the shower. By the time he finished and headed back into the room, Tony and Peter were long gone, leaving behind a small mess to clean up.
“Holy shit,” Davey said to the space. “That was the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
He finally had a great story to tell, too bad he’d never be able to tell a single soul about it.
+1
Robyn Boehner was vibrating with excitement as they walked into the Stark Industries Official Press Conference Room. Trying very hard to keep a professional neutral face, they knew they were failing miserably. Growing up with Tony Stark’s famous press conference reveals, a jaw dropping, famous and exciting reveal sure to leave everyone amazed. Robyn always yearned for their own Tony Stark Moment, as they liked to call it. It wasn’t fair that after Robyn got their degree, Pepper Potts took over as CEO and then had less amazing press conferences.
Not to say that Pepper Potts wasn’t amazing, but she didn’t steal the scene as Tony Stark did. There were no “I am Iron Man” moments from Pepper, even when Tony Stark was lurking in the background.
Robyn had missed the wedding announcement press conference because Edward beat them to the punch but this time, when Robbie was offering up gigs, they were first in line for this one. And maybe, Edward was better suited for the job, he was more a science guy while they were more of an on the streets real people story person, Robyn did care, they wanted their Tony Stark Moment.
Finding their name tapped to the back of a chair, Robyn took a seat in the nearly empty room. They were early, because well, sometimes it pays to be the first one in the room. There was no information regarding today’s press conference, just that Tony Stark himself was making some sort of official announcement. A one word sentence that could have many, many, meetings from the mundane to the fantastical.
From their seat, Robyn could see the behind the stage area, the curtain not quite closing it off completely. Someone, not Tony Stark, was standing barely visible, save for a pair of ratty old looking sneakers. Robyn leaned forward a little more, trying to get a better look without being too suspicious.
The sneaker owner looked nervously past the curtain, even from that distance Robyn could feel the nerves. They were actually surprised to see a young looking boy, dressed in a nice looking suit. Robyn wondered who they were, not able to recognize the face from anything they knew about SI in the past. Robyn’s heart thumped loudly, could this be Tony Stark’s announcement? Is this his secret son?
A moment later someone else took a step out from behind the curtain, Robyn held their breath as Tony Stark appeared, putting an arm around the young boy. They were talking, but Robyn wasn’t remotely close enough to hear it. Instead, they focused on both of their body language, the way the young boy seemed to relax as Tony Stark pulled him closer, in a sort of half hug. It didn’t take long for both of them to move out of view again, standing further behind the curtained area.
Robyn fiddled with their phone, getting ready to record what was probably going to be a very awesome Tony Stark Moment. After a good 15 minutes, the press conference had finally started. The Press Director of SI came out first, a very intimidating woman named Clea Jones who spoke with such an authoritative voice, that it left zero room for misinterpretation.
“Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us today. Mr. Stark will come out once I’m finished to announce The September Foundation, a charity geared towards finding and assisting underprivileged youth with grants and other assistance. Once he is finished there will be very limited time for questions. I hope you all understand that you’ve been invited here and will treat Mr. Stark and anyone else who comes up here with great respect.”
There was a general murmur among the journalists, most of which didn't seem phased. They had heard this kinda spiel before, knew that SI had a zero tolerance for reporters being out of line and they didn’t plan on doing anything as such.
Ms. Jones cleared her throat one more time. “Alright then, Mr. Stark, if you please.”
When Tony Stark entered a room, it was like magic. Camera flashes went off, from the second he stepped out until he reached the podium. Smiling and offering a little wave, he didn’t seem to have a prepared speech.
Robyn couldn’t be happier, that was exactly what they were hoping for.
“Thanks, CJ,” Mr. Stark called out, nodding in the direction Ms. Jones had gone in.
“When I started the September Foundation, I was hoping to provide young kids an opportunity they wouldn't normally have. We offered scholarships and some other fun educational activities to those who applied and some who we scouted out. This was never really a public endeavor for us and if I’m being honest, I was rarely involved in handling things.
But then something changed. A little over a year ago, I discovered the application of a bright 14 year old from Queens. He was smart, way too smart for his age, on paper alone, I saw a lot of myself in him. I took a chance and visited the young man’s home and was astonished by his kindness and genius and of course, took a personal interest in making sure he had the resources he needed.
Now, listen, I know what you all might be thinking. I heard a few rumors here and there, especially since there’s a bit of a tale going around about a certain teenager being seen around Stark Towers. I know a few of you have run some pieces on what they expect is my secret love child, I mean, hell, why wouldn’t it be?”
This elicited a chuckle through the crowd.
“But the kid I’m about to introduce you all to, he’s not mine by blood, trust me. But this kid, he’s smart and he’s good and one day, he’s going to change the world far better than I could even think to. He’s been an intern here at Stark Industries for quite a while and I tried to keep him secret, but he kept showing up and introducing himself anyways.
So, I think it’s about time we formally introduce him to the world at large.”
Looking over his shoulder, towards the curtain, Robyn could see the same sneakers by the edge.
“Alright, everyone, meet Peter Parker.”
The room applauded politely as Peter Parker made his way from behind the curtain, head bowed down, shoulders up to his ears, and face bright red. He stopped a good foot away from Tony Stark, who seemed to have none of that, and pulled the boy into his side, wrapping a protective arm around his shoulders.
“Say hi, Pete,” Mr. Stark said. Peter offered a wave without saying a word.
“Aw, come on Pete, you’re gonna have to get used to this if you’re going to be my heir.”
The crowd went from mildly interesting to widely loud in a matter of seconds. Peter’s face went bright red. “Opps,” Mr. Stark said, while Peter just looked like he wished the ground swallowed him up. “Uh, surprise, Pete!”
Looking out at the room, Mr. Stark shrugged. “Well, that wasn’t supposed to be announced yet, but hey, why not right? If I don’t say something I’m not supposed to then it’s not a real press conference, you know? Anyways, questions?”
Every single hand went up.
It looked like Robyn got their Tony Stark Moment after all.