Chapter 2
Tony is tinkering with the coding in his iron man nanotech suit when he spots Captain America on the TV across his lab. Captain America is on a coffee date with the glorified mass murderer James Buchanan Barnes. Practically snarling in anger he closes the file.
“JARVIS! Where is he?”
“Captain America is at a coffee shop near central park, sir. Shall I deploy the alpha iron fleet?”
“Yes.” Tony steps into his private elevator and taps the nano chest piece. The armor assembles around him, and within seconds he’s standing in a state of the art exoskeleton. The elevators open, a few blocks away from Stark tower and Tony takes flight. From various hidden locations around the city, half a dozen of Tony’s iron clones join the flight.
Within minutes, the coffee shop is within sight. Through his HUD, Tony watches as the mass murderer sees him and alerts Captain America. He yells out a warning just as Tony flies through the window and tackles the Captain, sending him flying through the wall. Barnes steps up behind him smoothly and goes to punch the suit, but Jarvis alerts Tony in time and he flips Barnes, sending him flying though the broken window for his clones to deal with.
To his side, Captain America staggers to his feet and launches himself at iron man. Without the vibranium shield Howard Stark made to deflect iron man’s repulsor blasts, it’s almost pathetic how outmatched Steve. Tony presses forward, continuously firing with his gauntlets. This time, Tony can feel the impending victory. Captain America is alone, outmatched, and in plain view of the rest of the USA. Tony can finally prove how weak, immoral and unworthy Steve Rogers is. Steve runs out of room and corners himself behind the destroyed coffee shop counter and Tony smiles inside the mask. At last, his mission will come to a clos-
A loud roar and the crackling of lighting interrupts Tony as he’s blasted with millions of volts. Jarvis crackles over his earpiece that Thor has arrived, and the rest of the avengers are in route. Tony snarls in anger.
“Jarvis, deploy iron man fleets beta and delta!” In the distance, iron man clones rise from all over the city, and head toward his location.
Tony leaves Captain America in the corner and flies up to engage Thor. His suit converts the extra lightning from Thor into energy and quadruples his repulsor blasts, charging through the air to meet Thor.
.
..
...
Half an hour later, the rest of the avengers have shown up. Tony switches from frontal attack to sentry observation, not that the avengers can tell the difference. The lead iron man clones are designed to look exactly like Tony Stark’s nanotech suit.
In the sky Thor is grappling through the air with several iron man suits, while the Falcon is swooping around with two semi automatic guns. At the sight, Tony huffs in amusement. As if he would be stupid enough to design a suit that wasn't bullet proof.
On the ground, Black Widow is making her way through the chaos, with Captain America’s shield in hand. Hawkeye has stationed himself on a nearby roof with Barnes, and is shooting defective EMP arrows at the iron suits, while Barnes fights off the iron clones trying to get to Hawkeye. Tony frowns and re-tasks another iron clone to speed up the fight. Despite the EMP arrows sporadic success, dragging a iron clone back so the avengers can’t examine it is always a pain.
The only avenger that’s really causing problems is the Hulk. He’s launching himself from building to building grabbing clones out of the air. The iron clones can’t get in close to really defeat him, without getting destroyed. Five out of six times, Jarvis is able to direct the iron clone out of the way in time. For such a mindless, bull-headed beast, he’s annoyingly capable and Tony’s biggest opponent. Tony re-tasks one of the iron clones fighting Thor and Falcon to help out with the Hulk. Tony watches in dismay as the Hulk launches himself into another clone, slamming it into a bridge. Large chunks of concrete started flying.
Tony’s dismay turns to alarm as Jarvis alerts him of a small child crying underneath the shadow of an incoming chunk of concrete.
His blood turns to ice.
Tony directs all his energy into the thrusters and speeds towards the kid. There’s not enough time to reach her in time, but god he still has to try. She’s just a kid, he cannot let a damn kid die-
Just in time, a red spandex figure picks up the child and swings away just as the concrete slams down in the spot mere milliseconds after.
Thank God.
Tony feels light headed in relief. He exhales slowly as a plan forms.
As soon as Spider-Man sets the kid down in a safe environment and goes to swing away, Tony flies in, grabs him around the waist and then accelerates upward.
Spider-Man flails. He tries to struggle out of iron man’s grasp, pushing and shoving at the iron man armor. When Tony judges they are sufficiently high enough and away from other buildings, he slows down and orders Jarvis to retract both their masks.
“-ease you said wouldn’t hurt me please don’t-” Peter Parker’s face is pure fear. To Tony’s horror, his eyes are watery and there’s a tear falling down his cheek.
“Kid, no I’m not going to hurt you, it’s just for show.” Tony tries to reassure him. “I needed a chance to give you this.” Tony holds up a small earpiece.
Peter stares at it, and then back at Tony with uncertainty, and a bit of fear. It's… progress. At least the tears have stopped.
“I can’t exactly hand you this in the middle of battle, in front of the avengers and all of New York, kiddo. We can’t have anyone thinking that Spider-Baby associates with the evil Iron Man.”
Peter awkwardly dries his eyes and takes the earpiece. “A warning would’ve been nice, Mr. Stark. I thought you were going to drop me like last time.” Peter mutters softly.
Immediate guilt smacks Tony in the face. His mouth tastes like sandpaper, and there’s a dull screaming in the back of his head. He nearly killed this kid before, what on earth was he thinking, swooping him up like this? The poor thing was traumatized, and literally shaking in his arms.
“I’m sorry, Peter-”
Peter shakes his head. “No, it’s… I get it. This is the easiest cover.” Peter closes his eyes for a second, and when he opens them, Tony can tell that the scared kid is gone. This is Spider-Man. “What’s the plan?”
“Hulk is sending debris everywhere at civilians. You’re doing a good job getting people out of the way, but from what I can tell, you’re swinging around randomly looking for civilians?”
Peter nods hesitantly. “It’s basically that and my spider sense- it tells me where there’s danger or when someone is going to get hurt.
“Jarvis is going to direct you where to go to save the most people. He has eyes everywhere with the iron man clones, so it’ll be more efficient.”
“Sounds good, Mr. Stark.” Peter leans and looks down at the battle far below them. In a small yet somehow confident voice, he says, “You have to drop me.”
Tony stares in shock and horror. His heart thumps heavily in his chest. No, no, no. He’s not going to traumatize the kid again. “No kid-”
“We need to hold up my cover right? Can’t have Spider-Man working with a supervillain.”
Tony looks away in shame. He put the kid in this situation. “...How close do you need to be to a building to catch on?”
Peter looks over Tony’s shoulder. “At this height, falling straight down… maybe 25, 30 feet?”
Tony nods. “Okay here’s the plan. You’re going to start struggling. When we get 20 feet from that building,” Tony points to the empty building behind him, “You’re going to get out of my grasp, and attached your webs to the building and swing away.”
Tony hesitates. Should he tell him? The answer comes to him immediately. Guarding a top-secret tech invention doesn’t come close to beating giving the kid assurance and security that he won’t die as he plummets at terminal velocity to the ground. “There’s an invisible iron man clone hovering near the bottom of the building. If your webs don’t catch, you’ll be okay. You’re not getting hurt again, kid.”
Peter stares at Tony with something that looks like… awe? “An invisible iron man clone-”
A loud roar interrupts Peter. They both look down and see Hulk hanging off a building with one arm and demolishing an iron man clone with the other. The metal is already beyond functioning, completely destroyed and disfigured, and Hulk is still punching it. But that’s not what bothers Tony.
“Mr. Stark that building-”
“Yea, I see it.” The building is apart to crumble under the force of the Hulk’s punches through the suit.
Jarvis suddenly speaks up through Tony and Peter’s ear-pieces. “There are still people in that building, sirs. A family of 4 in the top left corner.
“Right, kid the plan. You’re ready?” Tony confirms.
Peter nods, and their masks go back on. The plan goes off, exactly as planned. Peter struggles, Tony flies towards the building and Peter falls. Tony’s heart jumps into his throat. Despite Peter saying he’ll be able to attach himself to the building and the iron man clone waiting at the bottom, Tony worries. Instead of immediately flying off as he previously planned, he waits a moment longer, staring at Peter fall.
Peter falls down one story.
Then two.
Then four, and eight, and Tony can tell he’s reaching terminal velocity. He panics-his heart suddenly racing a million beats per minute. He orders Jarvis to get the invisible iron man armor in place, ready to catch Peter. But still he worries.
What if his web shooters jammed?
What if he overestimated how far he can reach the building and 20 feet is too far?
What if-
Peter shoots his webs at the build and elegantly swings in a perfect arc. Tony exhales in relief, feeling the tension he previously didn’t notice creeping out of his limbs. He watches as Peter changes direction and swings towards the trapped family.
Right, the battle.
Tony resumes century mode, observing the battle. So far it’s going well. Black Widow and Captain America are exhausted, despite their stupidly idiotic statements of “I can do this all day” (No, dimwit you cannot! And I’ll enjoy proving you wrong). Tony can tell they cannot go on for much longer. He gives them another half an hour at most. He smiles, thinking maybe victory will be his today.
Tony checks in with Peter. “Hey kid, how are we doing?”
Peter’s response is immediate. “Really good Mr. Stark! Mr. Jarvis is like the best guy in the chair ever-”
“He’s an AI kid. Just a rather very intelligent system. Not human.”
“He’s still the best! I’ve been able to save so many people! There was the family with the bathtub from that building-”
“-bathtub?”
“And then the old lady and her son gave me a churro! I don’t even know why she had a churro in the middle of a battle-but it was still really nice! Even though I didn’t get to eat it-”
“-kid-”
“There was also this guy filming the battle. I mean I get why, but still there was this huge piece of concrete flying straight at him. You’d think he’d see it and move right? Unless he didn’t see it. I didn’t get the chance to ask because Mr. Jarvis had already directed me -”
“Underoos!”
“-to these kids. I think they were in kindergarten, they were about the same height as me in kindergarten. Anyway, they were hiding inside a building, out of sight and it’s really good that Mr. Jarvis is helping me because I would not have gotten there in time without-”
“SPIDER-MAN!”
“Uh, yes Mr. Stark?”
“When I ask how you’re doing, I don’t want a sports commentary of everything that happened. Just a few words or a sentence on injuries and equipment, that kind of thing.”
“Sorry Mr. Stark. I’m not injured, and the suit is holding up really well!”
“Good job kid. Let me know if that changes.”
“Okay, copy that!”
Shaking his head fondly, Tony turns back to the battle.
Tony turns to Hawkeye and Barnes… who are doing better than expected? Tony’s pleasant mood instantly evaporates. Hawkeye has a few cuts and burns but they look minor. Barnes has a few more burns from Tony’s repulsors and a trail of blood drops from his cheek from a head wound, but it’s hardly deterring them. Tony frowns, and then he spots the fallen iron clone with an EMP arrow embedded in its head. Ah, that explains it.
“Jarvis, deploy 2 more iron man clones to deal with the Hawkeye-Barnes team. And steal the bow, while you’re at it.” Usually the EMP arrows took out parts of the iron man clones, so the clone would still be able to retreat. Tony wondered if it was the placement of the arrow, or if the avenger’s tech guy managed to get something right for once.
“Yes sir, deploying clones now.”
Tony watches sadistically as the additional iron man clones arrive and overwhelm Barnes. On Jarvis’ instruction, they target Barnes’ weak spots, the shoulder when the vibranium arm is attached. The arm may be a work of perfection, but it’s attached to a demon. A demon that despite enhancements, is still a very fleshy and vulnerable human. A blast from the iron man clone sends Barnes to his knees, and another blast to the back of his head sends him sprawling on the ground.
Tony snarls as the iron man clone picks up on Haweye’s worried exclamation of “Winter!” The bastard isn’t even pretending not to be the mindless killing machine that murdered his parents? He’s still going under the same. goddamn. name?! Tony launches himself at the roof, picks up Barnes by the legs and accelerates upward, looking around. He spots the Falcon flying with a dented wing, and changes course, throwing Barnes at Falcon. Tony watches in angry satisfaction as they both plummet to the ground.
Underneath him, the iron man clones have overwhelmed Hawkeye and stolen his bow. Hawkeye retreats inside the building and Tony counts it as a win.
So far, Falcon, Barnes, and Hawkeye are officially down. Black Widow and Captain America are expected to be defeated soon, leaving Thor and Hulk. Those two are always the toughest to defeat. Eventually, after a few hours Thor will go down (usually after a couple stab wounds. Tony suspects Thor has a natural resistance to fire and heat, and he’s still working on a solution). Hulk on the other hand, he’s only been able to defeat the hulk a few times. On one memorable occasion, he had tricked the avengers into thinking they had won, and watched as Black Widow reverted the Hulk into his human host. Then he had attacked and swiftly knocked out the man in a single blow. He had gone down like a brick.
Another time he had used him as a personal wrecking ball to decimate an entire building. While it had effectively defeated the Hulk, the list of injuries and deaths from that fight was… unacceptable. Even if Tony managed to find an abandoned building to smash Hulk into, there wasn’t enough space. Debris from the building would go flying and destroy other buildings, hitting numerous people and children... it simply wasn’t an option.
An alert on his HUD stops his internal debate. The Spider-Man suit has taken on damage. Immediately, Tony tells Jarvis to direct him to Peter and he contacts Peter.
“Hey kid, how are you doing?”
“I’m-I’m alright, Mr. Stark.” Peter replies, breathing hard.
“Really? Cause you don’t sound too good.”
“I’m good Mr. Stark! I just- I just need a break. Just one minute.”
“Uh huh. Anything you want to tell me? Take any hits? Got injured?”
“I-I may have gotten too close? To the Hulk?” Peter’s mutters, still breathing heavily. “I dodged most of it but some of the flying concrete got me.”
“Geez, kid.” Tony pulls up a report from the Spider-Man armor. There’s a short list of injuries-all of them minor. Tony isn’t too worried, until he sees a head wound on the list. “Stay down kid, you’re done. You did a good job.”
“What? No, there’s still people out there-”
“Stay down! Or I’ll call Aunt May.”
“Wait! But I can’t just leave! People are still getting hurt!”
Tony sighs, and looks around. Most of the avengers are down, but Thor is still battling the iron man clones pretty strongly, and Hulk is nowhere close to being defeated. Tony’s pretty sure he can take down Thor, given time but Hulk…
In the end, the decision is easy.
“Jarvis, issue the full retreat protocol, and activate my ghost protocol.” As Tony speaks, all the iron man clones stop battling at once, look up into the air and take off in unison. The lack of metal clashing against weapons and angry roaring creates an eerie silence. Meanwhile, Tony’s own armor goes invisible as soon as he finds a blind spot from surveillance cameras.
Peter is silent for a moment. “...Just like that?” He questions softly. Tony is relieved to hear that he’s breathing a little easier now.
“Just like that, kid.”
“... so if I asked you to stop attacking the avengers?” Tony can hear the hesitance in his voice. They haven't talked about it yet, the reason why Tony is fighting the avengers.
“It’s not that easy.” Tony replies dryly. “I have reasons for doing what I do. I don’t have pressing deadlines, so I can call this off to protect you, but.”
“Oh.” Tony doesn’t say it, but the message is clear. Even for Peter, Tony won’t give up his mission- the attacks. There’s a silence as Peter processes this.
Tony turns the final corner, and spots Peter pulling on a shirt not quite hidden by a dumpster. He silently ducks into the alley and retracts his armor. “You know, if you don’t want to be mistaken for a sex worker or worst, someone finding out your identity, you really should choose a better place to change.”
Peter startles, and then turns to look at Tony. There’s a faint blush on his face. "This is New York! No ones going to pay attention to some random kid in an alley!"
“Uh huh, totally.” Tony lets the faulty argument slide as he approaches Peter. He has more pressing issues to deal with. Slowly, he steps close to Peter and hesitantly lays a gentle hand on Peter’s head, allowing Peter to move away. When he doesn’t, Tony tilts his head so he can look at the injury. “It’s not too bad, just a shallow wound. You’ll live.” He snaps his fingers, and the invisible iron man he had waiting at the bottom of the building while Peter was falling appears. Its chest piece opens up, and Tony pulls out a first aid kit.
Peter opens gaps. “Wait- Mr. Stark, has he been following me around?”
Tony nods. “Stay still. I’m going to clean and bandage this.” He pulls out a small damp cloth and wipes it over the area, cleaning it before cutting a gauze pad and sticking it to his head.
“Do you have invisibility on all your suits?”
“No, just these two. It’s still a working prototype.”
“That’s so cool… I mean with my spidey-senses I could tell that something was there, especially when it got close cause the repulsors make a low humming noise and there’s a slight distortion around the edges of the suit when it moves-”
Tony laughs. “I’m glad you like it kiddo. Thanks for the feedback. Are you injured anywhere else?”
“I might have a few bruises on my back and legs? But I can handle that when I get home, Mr. Stark.”
“Uh huh, you better.” Tony gives Peter another glance over. He looks alright, just a little tired. Then Tony’s eyes fall on Peter’s cheek and his tone switches to exasperated. “I’m not having any spider-baby’s get hurt on my watch.”
“Mr. Starkkkkkk!” Peter whines at the nickname.
“Kid, if you want me to stop calling you spider-baby, a good first step would be to stop looking like a baby with food all around your mouth!” Tony pulls down his sleeve and goes to wipe off the flecks of cheetos on Peter’s cheek.
Peter jerks away and wipes it away himself looking mildly embarrassed.
There’s an awkward silence as they both realize that it’s time for Tony to leave.
“Do you need anything else? I could get you,” Tony looks down at his wrist watch “An early dinner? Or maybe a ride home?”
“It’s alright Mr. Stark, the apartment’s only a few blocks away.”
Tony nods and then pats Peter’s shoulder. “I’ll see you around Spider-Man.” Tony begins walking to the entrance of the alley-way. He’s about to activate his suit when Peter’s question stops him in his tracks.
“Mr. Stark, I know that you don’t hurt kids. And I’m 15. But-But what happens when I turn 18?”
Tony turns around to face Peter. “Kid I’m not going to hurt you. Full stop. You’re a true hero, you’re good. The media, they portray the avengers as ‘heroes’. The avengers are worshiped by everyone, they’re seen as modern day gods. But they aren’t actually ‘heroes’, hell they aren’t even the good guys.”
“A true hero is someone who has the courage and the means to help people out of their selfless will. Not for fame, job, pay or any other sort of personal interest. The avengers, they aren’t true heroes. They don’t even come close. Telling you all their faults would literally take hours, Peter. The avengers are not good people, they’re glorified killers.”
“But you, kid. You are a true hero. You’re only 15 years old and you’re risking your life to help others, taking care of your city before you’ve really lived. You have these powers, and the regular thing for a teenager would be to what, play sports? Get popular at school? But that isn’t what you did. You spend your afternoons and nights patrolling the city helping out people anonymously. When we met, you almost gave your life trying to help save innocent civilians. You do all of this, for nothing in return.”
“Peter Parker, you are the best of us.”
Peter stares in shock at Tony, who just smiles faintly in return. “You really think…”
“Yea, I really do Peter.” Tony looks straight at Peter, still smiling. “I’m not your parent or even guardian, but I’m still really proud of you.”
At that, Peter quickly closes the distance between them, flings his arms around Tony and hugs him tight. He buries his face in the crook of Tony’s neck. Tony almost staggers back in surprise and the intensity. He can feel his heart beating loudly in his chest, as emotion welled up inside him. Cautiously, he lays a hand at the back of Peter’s head, slowly moving his fingers through Peter’s soft hair. Against his neck, Tony feels Peter smile, and something in Tony settles.
And for the first time in a long time, Tony feels at peace with himself.