chapter 1
Tony Stark was a lot of things. He was a genius, billionaire, playboy, thalamphtopist for goodness sakes. But he was also a dad. Well, kind of. When Tony was 25, he learned that he had gotten a one night stand pregnant. He added father to his long list of titles. And he enjoyed every second of it. He had a son. Marco Stark. For one and a half, wonderful years, Tony got to be a dad. Marco’s mother had chosen not to be involved in his life, so it was just the two of them. Plus Happy, Pepper, and Rhodey. And for those one and a half years, Tony had been the happiest he had ever been.
Then Marco was gone. One day he had just disappeared from his room without a trace. Nobody knew where Marco Stark went. The public helped look, but nobody could find him. It was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. After years and years of searching, Tony accepted the fact that he would most likely never see Marco again. As much as it pained him, everyone thought that he was dead.
Tony didn’t necessarily move on with his life, but he lived his life the best that he could. He had his own makeshift family with the Avengers. He had Pepper keeping him sane and being an amazing wife. He had his two best friends, Happy and Rhodey, who had been there for him no matter what challenge he was going through. He had his support system all around him, a lifeline. But he always thought of Marco, and what his life would be like if he had never gone missing.
August 29th was always a hard day for Tony. It was the day that Marco went missing. Every year, he would sit in his lab and feel sorry for himself. He would drink an inhumane amount of coffee until Pepper dragged him out and made him do some bonding activity. This August 29th was the 22nd anniversary of Marco’s disappearance, and for once in his life, Tony had something good to do. In honor of Marco, he had created a facial recognition system that was able to age up children with 99.4 percent accuracy and then scan almost every database in the world, whether that be the internet, security camera footage or Instagram.
“Tony, are you sure that you want to do this? What if you find nothing? What if you find a picture in a newspaper's obituary section?”
“Pep, I have to try. What if he’s alive? It’s been 22 years. I’m tired of not even knowing if my son is alive. And even if he’s dead, or we can’t find anything on him, it will give me the closure I need.”
“Okay. But for the record, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Pepper Potts-Stark responded. She loved Tony more than anything, and she hated seeing him like this. She knew that if it came up that Marco was dead, Tony would be a wreck. She knew he held onto the sliver of hope that he was still alive somewhere.
“Friday, can you run one of Marco’s pictures through the system please?”
“Putting through the system now, Boss”
“Great, thanks”
“Tony” Pepper said, taking his hand, “Whatever happens, happens. If we find him, that’s wonderful. If we don’t, then I think that-”
Pepper didn’t get to finish her sentence because the robotic voice of Friday interrupted her, saying
“Boss, I have analyzed the data. I have found a match”
Tony looked shocked. His face said a million different things. Happy, surprised, relieved, worried. Who knows what could be going through his head now. His son wasn’t wiped off of the face of the earth.
Tony heald back tears, and said “Friday, I want as much information as possible”
“Peter Benjamin Parker. 23 years old. Lives in Queens, New York. His parents, Richard and Mary Parker died when he was four. Legal guardianship was transferred over to Ben and May Parker, his aunt and uncle. Ben Parker died nine years ago, leaving May Parker as his guardian. He is a senior at ESU, studying biochemistry. He went to highschool at Midtown School of Science and Technology, and graduated top of his class with a GPA of 4.8. He has no criminal record.”
“Holy shit Pep. Marco. My son. He’s alive. Holy shit. I need to meet him! Call Happy, and Friday I want an address asap! Or would it be faster to take the suit? Shit, Marco is alive!”
Tony got up from his chair, practically sprinting out of his lab. Pepper chased after him, yelling at him to stop.
“Tony! This isn’t a good idea! You can’t just show up at some random 20 year olds house and tell him that he’s your missing son? Do you know how insane you sound? And the press? We have to make a plan!”