Chapter 9
“It’s elevator time!” Emily announced in a rather sing-song voice. There is only so many time you can gather a group of children into an elevator before it becomes the most boring task on earth after all. “I believe our final stop on today’s education exploration is Q&A sessions with a certain group of staff” emphasising the last part as to pique their interest without revealing too much.
As the class got of the elevator on a lower floor they were ushered towards a mid-sized press room which containing around 40 seats – perfect for their class. Upon the stage, where usually one would find either a podium for a speech, or a long desk with microphones, instead sat a group of couches loosely arching in a semi-circle pointing to the audience.
“Right everyone, if you could all find a seat and get settled, the team will be in, in just a moment.”
The group of interns found their seats nearing the back, and making sure to be at the edge of the row. Not only due to the fact that Peter found comfort in being able to always easily exit an area – which the rest all knew, and the habit became ingrained in them also – but it made sense given that the teen was still holding a sleeping Morgan, and you never know when a toddler might start crying and need to be taken out.
Chatter amongst the students began growing louder and louder but suddenly halted and was replaced with a sea of gasps as The Avengers made their way into the room and up on stage. The majority of the team were all there, Nat, Bucky, Steve, Clint, Bruce, Wanda, Sam, and Scott. Shuri and T’Chilla were in Wakanda. Carol, Thor, and Loki were all ‘off world’. And Tony was... well… off doing whatever it is Tony does somewhere else in the building.
As the hero’s made themselves comfortable on the couches, Steve stood at the front of the platform.
“So, Midtown Tech, huh? Well I hope you’ve all enjoyed your time around Stark Industries, but as the business isn’t the only thing that goes on in this tower, we thought we’d give you youngsters a little treat and hold a Q&A session for you all, how does that sound?”
There was a wave of cheers and chatters of excitement before Emily got them all to calm down again. Steve just gave a chuckle and made his way to a free spot on the sofa to sit down. All hands flew up, with the teenagers desperate to get there moment to speak to a hero.
“My question is for Black Widow and Scarlet Witch – How do you deal with being around so many men all the time?” Betty asked, after being first chosen by Emily, earning a chuckle from both women on the stage.
“These guys are all basically just large toddlers, and so you treat them as such let them have a wee bit of time to play their games, and ultimately it’s easier to get them to do what you want” Nat answered with a cheeky grin on her face
“Yeah, even the smart ones take temper tantrums when it comes to bedtime” Wanda chimed in
“cough, Stark, Cough” Sam added, earning a laugh from the whole room, whilst Peter and Harley shared a knowing look – Both having enough first-hand experience to last them a lifetime.
“Who’s the strongest Avenger? Captain America, Winter Solider, or Thor?” came the next question.
“HA!” Sam exclaimed, whilst the rest bar Steve gave a giggle “Much to the dismay of Cap’, surprisingly, the answer is actually Spider-man”
Harley gave Peter a slap on the back and a kiss on the cheek, whilst Ned leaned over to whisper about how awesome that was.
“Seriously?” the student questioned again.
“Yup! Remember that time he stopped the train? And that time he held the Staten Island ferry together?” Clint explained
“We haven’t ever actually measured for comparison” Steve attempted to defend.
“When was the last time you held a ferry together?” Nat retaliated, joining in on the conversation “And let’s not forget that time you dropped part of an airport on him…”
The next few questions came and passed with Peter starting to lose focus. Most of the questions were all things the teen already knew, and Morgan was starting to stir in his arms. As the child became more awake and aware of her surrounding, she began to get restless with the need to move around.
Moments late the door opened and the room fell silent as one Tony Stark was stood in the door way, complete in his dark grey three piece suit and signature tinted glasses – red today, which matched his red tie.
“Daddy!” Morgan exclaimed and she leaped from Peter’s hold, and bounded across the room. Tony braced himself for the impact as he swept her up and gave her a tight squeeze, before resting the child on his hip.
“Oh Mr Stark, Sir, have you come to join the Q&A? I don’t think we were expecting you today” Emily was the first to speak up.
“I certainly wasn’t planning on dealing with so many tiny humans today, I just came to find my children, and Fri told me they were in here. But I suppose this is better than the meeting I just escaped, so have at it”
“Children? Plural?” Came the teasing question from Nat on stage as he made his way up to join the team.
“Uh, sure, why not” he gave with a shrug. The team has been teasing him for months about how paternal he was becoming with Peter – making sure he ate properly, got enough sleep, did his homework, he even threatened to ground him on numerous occasions when he hid his injuries. There was also Harley, and he was definitely the rebellious one of the pair. Now with his slip up with the word ‘children’ there really wasn’t much he could do to deny it.
Before any answers could be gotten about the mans ‘children’, Flash’s hand shot straight up, and he never waited to be called before speaking.
“Mr Stark, Sir, how old do you need to be for an internship here? I mean, I know it’s college level, but you see, we have someone in our class who’s been lying about having an internship here”
“Well we usually use college level as a general rule…”
“HA!” the kid cut him off, whipping around and pointing at Peter.
“I wasn’t finished speaking, don’t interrupt me.” His demeanour turned dark for a beat, before continuing “We do in fact have 3? 4? High school interns, that all actually happen to be here just now” he motioned to the group “MJ and Ted here are both interns, so is Harley who is the same age but is home-schooled and does a mix of high school and MIT classes. And last but not least, my boy Pete. He’s in you class whilst also taking a few MIT courses, is my personal intern, and has also managed to take over a few labs as their director. Kid’s pretty insane.” He explained, whilst giving a proud and fond smile towards Peter, making him blush.
Flash very clearly began to fill with frustration and rage when “but why him?” slipped from his lips before he could stop himself.
“Kid’s a genius” Tony gave with a slight shrug.
“Not compared to some” again the words fell from the teens mouth before he could remember who he was speaking to, slightly mortified with himself, but also desperate for answers.
“If it’s yourself you are trying to compare him to, then I can assure you he is. I’m pretty sure it was yourself that mixed those chemicals in one of the labs earlier today? – Yeah Fri sent me the report of that, along with the video evidence, and Mr Turner we will be having words - Pete is the only person who can keep up with me in my personal lab, and his knowledge and understanding of chemistry, physics, and engineering, is beyond what I would expect from most of my college interns. If he can do all that now, there’s no telling how far he’ll reach by the time he is their age.”
Peter was honestly just wishing the ground would swallow him up as his blush reached new heights and he pulled his knees to his chest.
“Now, anybody else have any questions?” Tony added, giving Flash his queue to sit back down.
“Uh, Mr Stark, you said you have more than one child in this room, is Harley your son?” Betty asked.
“Peter’s my big brother!” Morgan spoke up, bouncing herself with excitement in Tony’s arms.
“Peter’s your son!?” she clarified in shock.
The man on stage chuckled whilst the teen in question’s eyes grew to the size of saucers.
“Nah, not legally nor biologically” was all he was planning to say, before he noticed the glare that Nat was giving him off the side “but I guess none of that is really important, is it? So yeah, he basically is” and with that the whole room erupted into a million questions, some between peers, but most trying to get the attention of Peter.
‘Ahem’ Tony cleared his throat at on stage, successfully silencing and regaining the attention of the room as soon as he noticed the signs that Peter was about the flee.
“Do we have any questions that AREN’T about Peter or my interns?”
A few more questions were asked about iron man (‘is it hard to move in the suit?’ ‘What do you see?’ ‘What’s it like to fly?’) Before the session drew to an end.