Chapter 8
Tommy was in the middle of doing absolutely nothing when he got a text from Wilbur. He risked getting yelled at by his boss to look at it.
<Wilbur> how would you feel about changing jobs
<Wilbur> to something a little different
<Wilbur> a little more science-y
<Wilbur> with cooler people
<Tommy> ???
<Tommy> what the fuck are you talking about
<Wilbur> my employer wants to offer you a job
<Wilbur> you would make more money, and we can offer the same hours if you want
<Wilbur> or any other hours
<Tommy> what do you mean your boss wants to give me a job
<Tommy> I don’t even know who your boss is
<Wilbur> yeah but he knows who you are
<Tommy> what the fuck does that mean
<Wilbur> it means I’ve talked about you and Tubbo and Ranboo have talked about you and he looked up your grades and he wants you to come work for him
<Tommy> that’s a little weird but ok
<Tommy> have you ever talked about the sugar daddy joke ??
<Wilbur> lmao no
<Tommy> okya so that increases my chances significantly
<Tommy> …..
<Tommy> more money, you say?
<Wilbur> yeah
<Wilbur> like, a lot more
<Wilbur> promise
<Tommy> hold on let me ask my brother
<Tommy> how far from the tailor’s is it
<Wilbur> not enough to be debilitating
<Tommy> alright hold on
Tommy leaned on the counter, switching to his brother’s messages.
<Tommy> how would u feel if I switched jobs
<Charlie> I dunno
<Charlie> why would you do that
<Tommy> because the new one pays more
<Tommy> it would be the same hours, and it won’t be too different a change I don’t think
<Charlie> sure, man, whatever, just don’t do anything illegal
<Tommy> pog
Tommy grinned, switching back.
<Tommy> m brother says its ok
<Tommy> how would I get this job
<Wilbur> you got practice today?
<Tommy> nah not on a weekend
<Wilbur> ok give me two seconds
<Tommy> ok
<Wilbur> boss says he can meet you after you’re off if you want to
<Tommy> woah, he wants to meet me like meet me, not just have someone else interview me?
<Wilbur> he wants to meet you
<Tommy> sick
<Tommy> I want you to know that if this is some sort of elaborate kidnapping then I can and will kick your ass
<Wilbur> it’s not a kidnapping lmao
<Wilbur> though I am going to ask if you’re comfortable getting into my car,,
<Tommy> nOt A kIdNaPpInG he says
<Wilbur> it’s not !
<Tommy> whatever, man, if I have to
<Wilbur> sweet
<Wilbur> I’ll wait outside when you get off, ok?
<Tommy> ok
Tommy leaned into the room Mr. Whitman was in. “Hey, how much notice would you want beforehand if one of us quit?” He asked
“Depends on who. For you? I don’t really care. I can find a replacement pretty easily.” Mr. Whitman grunted.
“Old man.” Tommy muttered to himself as he turned back.
A good time later that felt longer than it was, and he was off of work. Wilbur was waiting for him outside, this time being less of a creep and just sitting in his car. When Tommy walked out the door, Wilbur stepped out of his car and waved, grinning.
“Is that really your car?” Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah?” Wilbur gave him a weird look. “Why?”
Tommy shrugged. “I thought it’d be cooler. I was expecting something more expensive.”
“I’m not into expensive cars.” Wilbur scoffed. “Do you know how often cars get destroyed in this city? Even if I did have an expensive car, I certainly wouldn't be driving it around here.”
“You know what, that’s fair.” Tommy nodded. Wilbur gestured for him to get in. He did, climbing into the passenger seat. “So where are we going?” He asked.
“We’re gonna head over to Manhattan.” Wilbur told him. “Buckle, man.”
Tommy stuck his tongue out, buckling. “Alright.” He immediately looked for seat adjuster buttons.
“Is that necessary?” Wilbur raised an eyebrow at him, pulling out onto the street.
“Yes, absolutely.” Tommy grinned, leaning his chair back as far as it would go.
“You’re so annoying.” Wilbur rolled his eyes. “What kind of music do you like?”
Tommy paused, thinking. “I’ve been listening to a lot of indie, trying to find your stuff, but I kind of like the genre.” He admitted.
Wilbur smiled at him. “Hell yeah.”
“I like the Minecraft soundtrack, too. And Able Sisters.” He grinned.
“I should have expected something weird.” Wilbur sighed.
“What do you mean, the Minecraft soundtrack hits so hard!”
Wilbur laughed, pulling out his phone during a red light. The soundtrack started playing over the car’s speakers. Tommy cheered, making semi-musical noises along with it. The two got into a conversation about Minecraft and its music, and Tommy was involved enough that he didn’t pay attention to where they went. Even as Wilbur parked and they got out, he didn’t notice.
“And of course, Ravagers are really fuckin’ annoying-” He paused, cutting himself off. He recognized those doors. Wilbur pulled one open, holding it for him. He stepped back instead, craning his neck to look up the lengths of the Stark tower. “Ayo, Wilbur, what the fuck are we doing here?”
“Come on.” Wilbur smirked knowingly, gesturing for him to go inside.
“What do you mean, ‘come on’? Do you work at the fucking Stark tower?” Tommy hissed at him, walking back up the steps.
“More or less.” Wilbur shrugged, his eyes bright with mischief.
“Oh you motherfucker. Why are you so cryptic all the goddamn time? Is this why you wouldn’t tell me exactly where we were going?” Tommy hissed, walking through the doors.
“That’s part of it, yeah.” Wilbur grinned, following him inside.
This was the first time Tommy had ever been inside of the Stark tower in person. He spun, taking the whole lobby in. He barely processed when Wilbur called out to someone, too distracted looking around. As he faced forward again, his eyes caught Tubbo and Ranboo, one grinning and the other waving; He experienced a bit of shock, remembering that the two worked with Wilbur, at the Stark tower, apparently. Then his gaze landed on the man striding behind them.
Tommy froze in his tracks. Sam Stark walked toward him, in all his glory. Momentary panic flashed through Tommy’s mind; He knew. But his senses weren’t going off. And the smile on the man’s face wasn’t the real one that Tommy had seen once, it was the one he flashed the press and the public, the fake smile that was meant to be more attractive to all the people who watched him on the daily. He couldn’t have known. This would all be going down a lot differently if he did.
His reaction must have been normal for him, because Stark didn’t waver, stopping to stand in front of him. Wilbur nudged his arm, and he cleared his throat, straightening. “Hi.” He said, taking a sharp breath in.
“That’s my boss, Tommy.” Wilbur grinned at him.
“You didn’t tell him that beforehand?” Stark asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No, no he didn’t.” Tommy said loudly, glaring at him. Wilbur just grinned unapologetically.
“Tommy!” Tubbo bounced in his face. “You’re going to get a job here, boss man!”
“This is your boss?” Tommy asked incredulously.
“Unfortunately.” Ranboo deadpanned.
Stark laughed. “Hey, I’m not that bad!” He protested, the real smile slipping in for a second.
“Sure, you’re not.” Tubbo agreed unconvincingly.
“Guys, get out of the way.” Wilbur said pointedly.
“Yeah, sorry.” Ranboo stepped back, pulling Tubbo with him.
“Sam Stark.” The other said, holding out a hand.
“Yeah, I know.” Tommy said. “I’m Tommy Parker.”
“Yeah, I know.” Stark quirked an eyebrow, smirking. “Call me Sam. Would you mind talking with me?”
Tommy took a quick second to process that he was now on a first-name basis with one of the most powerful people in the world, then responded, “Yeah. I better. It’s a weekend. You’re lucky you asked on a Saturday, because otherwise I would be at gymnastics practice right now.”
“Gymnastics practice.” Sam echoed.
“Tommy, do a flip.” Tubbo egged.
“Not in the middle of the Stark Tower lobby, I won’t.” Tommy told him.
“Well let’s get out of the lobby, then.” Sam said, turning and walking farther into the building, towards the elevators.
Tommy followed along, as well as his three friends. “What the fuck is happening.” He whisper-shouted at Wilbur. The other just smirked at him.
“Just go with it.” Ranboo told him.
Sam led them right past security. Another joined his side, their voice sending a jolt through Tommy. “I hope you don’t have any weapons on you.” Punz, head of the Tower’s security, said coolly, raising an eyebrow.
“Other than my good looks? No.” Tommy said, the only thing he could think of at the moment. Punz had spent more time with him when they’d met when he was Spider-Man than Sam had. It was way more likely for them to recognize him and his mannerisms than it was for Sam to. That was not good.
Punz rolled his eyes. The group stepped into the elevator. “Can you take us to the lab floors, Friday?” Sam said, raising his gaze.
“Sure, boss.” The AI that Tommy had heard the other day said.
“Sick.” Tommy whispered.
“This is gonna be great.” Tubbo grinned at him.
“What do you guys do here?” Tommy asked.
“Uh, well-”
The elevator doors opened, and he cut himself off. Sam stepped out, and Tommy followed. “Now do a flip.” Tubbo prodded him.
Tommy shot a look at Wilbur. Wilbur glanced at Sam, and nodded, shrugging. “Alright, fine.” He said, stepping away from them. He made sure he wasn’t going to run into anybody, and threw himself into the air, drawing back on the superstrength just like he did during practice.
“Hell yeah!” Tubbo cheered.
Ranboo was mildly impressed. “That was kind of cool. I don’t think I can do that without, like, the help of a wall or something.”
Tommy’s cheeks burned a little. “Okay, moving on.” He said, trying to turn the topic away.
“Moving on,” Sam said, smiling at him. He turned, walking farther into the floor they were on. He opened a door, seemingly to a lab, holding it open for him and the four following behind.
“Mr. Stark!” A light-skinned woman with braided blond hair greeted immediately, pushing her wheelie chair over and almost falling over in the process. “Hi! Is this the guy?” She must have been around twenty-five.
“This is the guy.” Sam nodded.
Tommy reeled. More than one person knew about him? “What the fuck is happening?” He said again, baffled.
“Come here.” The woman smiled, pushing her chair over to a different table and very lightly crashing into it. She picked up a notebook, with a few complicated math equations on it. “Here. These are from one of our recent labs. Solve them.” She said simply.
“You’re going to make me do math?” Tommy raised an eyebrow, taking the notebook and a pencil she handed him.
“Hell yeah, we are.” She grinned.
“Okay.” He said slowly, taking a serious look at the equations. Tubbo, Ranboo, and Wilbur lingered slightly distanced from him, while Sam stepped up next to him to watch.
Slowly, the pieces started clicking together. He worked through them, slowly at first, rearranging the numbers and symbols and variables so they made slightly more sense. Then he began simplifying, so he eventually ended up with the answer. It didn’t take him very long to get through all of them, though a little longer than he would have taken if he hadn’t scratched down most of his work. When he was done, he presented the notebook back to the woman.
She quickly scanned over his work. “All right.” She smirked knowingly, handing the notebook to Sam and wheeling away.
Sam looked over the problems, then glanced back at Wilbur, a weird spark that Tommy couldn’t quite decipher in his eyes. “This is impressive for someone your age.” Sam told him.
“Is it?” Tommy asked. He really didn’t know.
“Yes. Your brother is a chemist, right?”
Tommy blinked at the question. “Charlie? Yeah, mostly. He doesn’t actually have his full degree yet, but he’s got a job already.”
Sam nodded. “That’s what I thought. You two are incredibly smart.”
“Yeah.” Tommy admitted, shrugging.
“You go to Midtown High.”
Tommy nodded, even though it was less of a question and more of a statement.
“I’ve looked at your grades. Straight A’s, all across the board.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” Tommy said, quirking an eyebrow slightly.
“School feels easy to you, right?” Sam asked.
Tommy shrugged, nodding. “Yeah, for the most part.”
Sam nodded. “What did Wilbur tell you this was?” He asked.
“Job interview.” Tommy said.
“That’s not entirely right.” Sam told him. Tommy shot him a confused look. “What I really want is to enrich you.”
“What do you mean?” Tommy asked.
“You’re a smart kid. You should be challenged. I don’t think you’re getting that at school. Do you think so?”
Tommy shook his head after a second. The hardest thing he’d really done recently was trying to figure out the formula for a chemical mixture that would react the same way his organic webs did. “No, not really.” He said.
“Yeah. I can help you improve here, help you be better.”
Tommy thought for a moment. “I don’t really want another two hours of school.” He said.
Sam shook his head. “It wouldn’t be. I’m not a teacher. I would like to have you up here, helping with stuff. If you want… I could use help. Not for stuff for the company, but stuff for the Avengers. We have a lot more people now, who constantly ask for new things.”
Tommy’s eyes went wide, and his body stilled in shock. “What? You want me to help make hero shit? Why? I’m definitely more of a chemistry kind of guy.”
Sam smiled, raising an eyebrow. “That’s the point of enrichment, isn’t it? To get you out of your comfort zone so you can learn.”
Tommy scrunched his face. “Are you sure you’re not a teacher, because you sure fuckin’ sound like one.”
Sam laughed. “Sorry.”
Tommy breathed in, holding it as he thought. “I don’t know. I want to, this sounds sick as hell. Are there any drawbacks to this?”
Sam shrugged. “There’s a good chance you’d be talking with the Avengers on a daily basis. Which is a drawback just because you’ll have to deal with their dumbassery.”
“Okay, that’s fair.” Tommy nodded.
“I don’t think there’s any safety risk. We’re not going to be actively bringing you on missions.” Sam joked. Tommy quirked an eyebrow, thinking about the airport.
“I don’t know. Maybe you should call my brother before I do anything, so he knows what’s going on.” Tommy said. “He doesn’t even know I’m at the Stark Tower right now yet.”
“I can do that.” Sam nodded. He shifted, moving back out of the room. Tommy followed, and his friends trailed after.
“So, Wilbur, Tubbo, Ranboo.” Sam said as soon as the door was shut, “Do you want to tell him, or do you want me to tell him?”
“Tell me what?” Tommy asked.
“About what they do here.” Sam said.
The three glanced at each other. Tommy watched in confusion. They all seemed to reach the same silent conclusion. “We’ll tell him.” Wilbur said. Sam nodded.
“Tommy, I’m a witch.” Tubbo told him bluntly.
“You’re- what?”
“A witch.” Tubbo grinned. He twisted his fingers, and red magic swirled around his fingertips. Ranboo’s phone floated into the air, the same red magic holding it.
Tommy’s jaw dropped. The dots connected in his mind. Twins from Russia? Work for Sam Stark? “Holy fucking shit, no way.” He gaped.
“Hey!” Ranboo protested, grabbing his phone.
Tommy pointed at him. “And you’re the other one!”
“The fast guy, yeah.” Ranboo nodded, a little awkward. Tommy was still reeling. These two were really the ones who’d been fighting on the other side of him two months ago. He hadn’t paid much attention to who they were during it, as he was more focused on not getting crushed by Tubbo and his stupid boxes.
“I don’t know if you know me as well, but I’m Ant-Man.” Wilbur told him.
Tommy remembered the giant that he’d taken down using his knowledge of Star Wars. That was Wilbur? His jaw dropped further. “What the hell? I… What the hell?”
“And Sam’s Iron Man.” Tubbo smirked.
“I knew that already, you dumbass.” Tommy snarked, elbowing him. He had made three new friends and all of them were the exact people who could try to arrest him one day. Great. “So you're telling me I'm friends with three superheroes?”
“That's exactly what we’re telling you.” Tubbo nodded smugly.
“I don't know how you didn't know already.” Ranboo commented, raising an eyebrow. “Our names have been mostly within public access since the Accords were put in place.”
“I don't pay attention to that shit.” Tommy scoffed. He always figured it wasn't his business to know the heroes' identities even if he technically could now, so he never looked. Maybe he should start. “Do I know any other superheroes? My maths teacher, maybe? He slinks off at random times.”
“Not as far as we're aware.” Wilbur raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, I have shit to do.” Punz cut it, slightly irritated.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I can walk him out.” Wilbur said.
“Alright.” Sam nodded, flashing Tommy a quick smile. “I’ll call your brother later.”
“Yeah, okay. Can I warn him, just so he doesn’t answer like a nerd?”
“Sure.” Sam told him, turning to walk away. “Come on, Punz.”
Punz gave him one last hard look, then turned to follow. Tubbo pulled on his sleeve, tugging him back toward the elevator. “So, what do you think?” He grinned.
“I think that this is a lot of stuff I wasn’t prepared for when I got up this morning.” Tommy told him.
“Yeah, why didn’t you tell him before?” Ranboo asked Wilbur.
“I thought it would be funny.” Wilbur grinned. “It was. Worth it.”
“You’re a bitch.” Tommy said, elbowing him. “I want to work here. This is so cool.” He used to dream about working here. The thought had been on the backburner for a long time, since his family situation had been a bigger problem at the moment. Then by the time he was able to live with Charlie, he’d been bitten, and he’d chucked the idea out entirely. He was his own superhero now, and he had shit to do. But anything was possible, he supposed.
“What do you think your brother will say?” Tubbo asked.
“He won’t care.” Tommy said. “He’ll say yes. He’ll probably make a joke about how I’m trying to outdo him, or something.”
“We’re going to bother you so much when you get here.” Tubbo told him.
“Not enough to do it at school?” Ranboo asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What do you mean? Are you actually coming to Midtown?” Tommy asked.
“Yeah! Sam hooked us up. We’re starting on Monday.” Tubbo said excitedly.
“That’s sick,” Tommy said.
“Yeah. I’m just going to be glad to be out of this tower without a babysitter.” Ranboo rolled his eyes.
“For safety.” Wilbur corrected.
“I know why. That doesn’t mean I like it.” Ranboo told him.
“Are you guys going to come to school like this? The magic twins?” Tommy asked.
“Nope,” Tubbo said. “We’re going to change our names, and be normal.”
“Won’t people recognize you anyway?”
Ranboo shook his head. “We’re minors. They put our names out there, but not our faces. The government gave Sam permission to register us with different names so we don’t get harassed.”
Tommy nodded. “That makes sense. Is Sam your guardian, then?”
“Unfortunately.” Tubbo nodded.
“He’s way better than a murderous robot,” Ranboo told him.
“I know that. That doesn’t mean I like it.” Tubbo parroted his words from earlier.
“You should. The man’s rich.” The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out.
“Let’s go get cookies, Will.” Tubbo prodded.
“Cookies?” Tommy asked, an eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, there’s a place that makes really good cookies. It’s the best,” Tubbo told him. “Come with us.”
“Woah, I haven’t agreed to this.” Wilbur protested.
“Yeah, well we’re going. You have to come be our supervision.” Tubbo stuck his tongue out.
Wilbur groaned. “You are so annoying. Why do you always pick me to drag with you?”
“Because you’re a bitch, that’s why.” Tommy snarked.
“Yeah!” Tubbo agreed.
“Fine, fine. Just don’t make a mess of my car.” Wilbur crossed his arms.
Tubbo grinned at him. “Come on, Tommy.” He said, grabbing his and Ranboo’s sleeves and pulling them towards the door. Wilbur had to lengthen his stride to keep up.
“I don’t have any money, though.” Tommy told him.
“Neither do we.” Tubbo grinned. Wilbur just rolled his eyes.