Better than a Mission
Peter
It’s been a month since Mr. Stark introduced himself to me and took me to Germany to help him fight Captain America and the rest of the Avengers that sided with him. Almost every day, I gave updates to Happy Hogan who Mr. Stark told me was my “point man”. Although, I don’t exactly know what he meant by that but I’m guessing he means that I can contact him through Happy.
Patrolling around Queens has been so much better thanks to the suit that Mr. Stark gave me. It’s a hundred times more comfortable than the homemade suit that I used to wear. It even has its own AI, Karen, who helps me through all the different programs that were integrated into the suit plus I also talk to her whenever I got a little bit bored.
I am starting to get just a tiny bit impatient to hear news from Mr. Stark about a new mission. Helping people and stopping small crimes from happening in Queens is great but I feel like I can do so much more. I want to be just like Tony Stark, one of the best heroes the world has; saving the world from large evil threats like Loki and Ultron.
He’s my favorite Avenger because he’s a genius and he’s selfless. I hear and read from a lot of people that Iron Man isn’t the type of hero who would be willing to sacrifice his own life to save others but I completely disagree with them. I was 10 years old but I can vividly remember that day when that alien army, led by Loki, was trying to take over New York. Iron Man was the one who saved the city from total destruction when he flew into the wormhole to direct the missile away from the city. Actually even before that, Iron Man was my favorite superhero but after that day, I liked him even more.
It’s almost 9, which is my curfew, so I started my way home. I patrol right after school ends at 2:45pm up until around 8:30pm but I still don’t feel that tired when my patrolling ends. I take my suit off behind some dumpsters near the apartment building where I live with my Aunt May and stuff it in my backpack.
I get home right on time and I see my aunt seated infront of the tv watching some random show. “Hi May,” I greet her as I enter our apartment.
“Hey Peter, I’m sorry I ate dinner ahead of you. I was real hungry but I left dinner in the fridge, you can just heat it up.”
“Thanks May,” I say and head for the kitchen.
I open the fridge to find a big plate of pesto pasta that looks suspiciously too green. My Aunt May isn’t exactly the best cook but she tries. I grab the plate and heat it up in the microwave. Even though May gives me large servings every meal, I never feel completely full when I finish. I could probably eat five times as much as an average teenager but I don’t tell her because May doesn’t know that I got bit by a mutated spider and now I’m Spiderman.
I finished my dinner, do the dishes and take a quick shower before I headed to bed. As I lay on my bed, I check my phone for any messages from Happy but as usual, he hasn’t replied to any of my texts. I hope that I hear from Happy or Mr. Stark soon or else I’m going to start getting paranoid and think that they forgot about me. I put my phone on the bedside table and turn off the lights. It’s just another day without any news from Mr. Stark.
It’s Friday afternoon and school has just ended. I have the entire weekend free from homework and school projects because I did it all ahead of time to make room for a full weekend of patrolling as Spiderman. I wanted to help as many people as I could so that I can somehow get Mr. Stark’s attention and he’ll make me do another mission with him.
I was about to put on my suit when my phone rang. It was from someone who wasn’t in my contacts. I put my suit back into my backpack, in case someone might see me, and I answer the call.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Parker?” a familiar voice says.
“Mr. Stark! Wha- why are you calling me? I mean, it’s great to finally hear from you! Where’s the mission going to be? I hope it’s out of the country! Going to Germany was real-,” I rambled but Mr. Stark cut me.
“Where are you kid?” he asks.
“Um, I’m in an alleyway beside the building that I live in,” I answer.
“Great, I’ll pick you up in 5 minutes. End call,” he says and the phone call ends.
He’s picking me up in 5 minutes! Does this mean I’m going on a mission again? This is awesome! I hurriedly get my suit on and place my regular clothes into my backpack. I hide my backpack in its usual spot behind the dumpster and secure it with some webbing. I waited for a couple of minutes then I hear a sound of a sports car stopping in front of the building.
I leave the alley and hastily made my way to the car. I see Mr. Stark in the driver’s seat, wearing sunglasses and an expensive looking stylish suit. He spots me making my way towards him and he lowered the car window.
“Why are you in the suit?” he asks.
I’m confused, “aren’t you taking me on a mission?”
“No,” he sighs and opens the car door. “Get in before anyone sees you,” he says and I quickly stepped into the car.
He speeds through the streets of Queens and I noticed that we were heading for upstate New York. I wanted to ask him where he was taking me but he looked annoyed so I just kept my mouth shut during the entire car ride.
We arrived at our destination and I couldn’t believe where I was. We were in the Avengers headquarters! The compound was surrounded by tall trees with a big green open field that was a nice contrast against the crisp white building located on the north side of the compound. The building had the big “A” Avengers logo on one side while the rest of it was surrounded by floor to ceiling glass windows. Mr. Stark got out of the car while I stared in awe at what I was seeing.
“Get out of the car Spiderman, don’t wanna come in?” I hear Mr. Stark say.
His voice brought me back to reality and I exit the car to follow him inside to the lobby. It was empty except for a couple of large gray sofas grouped together on one side and a black reception counter in the middle. A grand glass staircase that leads up to the second floor occupied the rest of the space in the lobby. I also noticed that nobody was here. Where is everyone?
Mr. Stark walked towards one of the three elevators and I walked a little more briskly to keep up with him. The elevator immediately opened and we both stepped inside. I saw that there were no buttons on the elevator to pick the floor you wanted to go to.
“Hey Friday, take us to my lab please,” Mr. Stark says.
A pleasant woman’s voice answers, “welcome back boss, I’ll take you there right away” and the elevator started going up.
“That’s so cool!” I couldn’t stop myself from saying. I see Mr. Stark smile at my remark and I was smiling even harder than I already was.
“Hello Peter Parker, it’s nice to finally meet you,” the AI says through the hidden speakers.
“Uh hi- hi! It’s nice to meet you too!” I say feeling just a little awkward even though I’m used to talking to Karen who is also an AI. It’s just a bit different with Mr. Stark here with me. I feel self-conscious like I have to keep myself composed and cool whenever he’s around. I want to impress him in every way possible.
The elevator stops and the doors open revealing a huge open space full of various equipment, large holographic monitors, and a glass display of all the Iron Man suits. I felt like I was going to die of happiness as I got out of the elevator and looked around the laboratory. This is what heaven looks like for me!
“Your lab looks amazing Mr. Stark!”
“Of course it does kid,” he chuckles.
I continued to look around, basically bouncing from pure excitement. I couldn’t even dream that I would be able to see Tony Stark’s laboratory in person but here I am! All the Iron Man suits! The advanced tech! Everything looked so cool!
“So kid, clearly I’m not taking you on a mission,” Mr. Stark starts.
“I think this is even better than taking me out on a mission Mr. Stark! I can’t believe I’m in your laboratory!”
“I’m glad you think that way because you’re going to be spending the weekend with me here.”
“What? For real?! Awesome! Um, but what about my Aunt May? Does she know that I’ll be staying with you?”
“Yeah, I already notified her and told her I’m taking you to another Stark Internship retreat” Mr. Stark replies.
“That’s absolutely great Mr. Stark!”
“Please Peter, you can call me Tony.”
“Oh okay Mr. Sta- I mean Tony,” I say awkwardly. The two of us suddenly became quiet and I just felt even more awkward.
Tony clears his throat and says, “so Peter, I’ve got the entire weekend planned for us. This afternoon, I’m just going to show you around the lab and the compound, let you get settled and rest up since you’ve been busy with school and your after school patrolling.”
Mr. Stark knows about my daily patrols? I thought my messages were just seen and ignored but I guess I was wrong. It makes me feel stupidly happy to know that Mr. Stark knows all about my Spiderman activities.
“Then tomorrow until Sunday, we can get working on upgrades on your Spiderman suit and have some test runs on whatever we come up with, sound good?”
“Yes!”
“Why don’t you change into something else before I give you the grand tour?”
“Um, I didn’t bring any clothes with me,” I say taking off my mask.
“That’s not a problem,” Tony says and heads towards the elevator. “Come with me Pete.”
I follow him and soon we arrive at a floor with a long hallway with doors on each side that looked like it was a floor on a 5 star hotel. The hallway was carpeted so when we walked our steps didn’t make any sounds. I continued to follow Tony and he stops in front of the door at the very end of the hallway. He opens it and we both step inside.
The room was probably as big as the entire apartment that May and I live in. It had floor to ceiling windows on its entire right side while the rest of the walls were painted a nice shade of blue that I like which was similar to the color of my Spiderman suit. A king sized bed that faced the windows was surrounded by a dozen pillows with a very cozy looking white comforter.
On another side of the room is a large wooden desk with a high-tech computer and a black leather chair. Two doors are on the opposite end of the large desk that I’m guessing one of them leads to a bathroom but the other one I don’t know what it’s for.
“Welcome to your room Peter, pretty nice right?”
“It’s beyond nice Mr. Stark! I mean Tony!”
“The door on the left side of the desk is the bathroom while the right one leads to the closet where you’ll find plenty of comfortable clothes that will fit you. I’ll let you get changed and I’ll wait for you in the lobby.”
Before I could say anything, Tony leaves and I was alone in the beautiful room. My room! I can’t believe this! I’m running out of words and adjectives to describe how I’m feeling today. This is literally the best day ever!
I do a back flip and land right on the huge bed. I feel like a little kid again bouncing up and down on the comfortable bed. I jumped out of the bed before I could break it and I opened the door on the right side of the desk that Tony says leads to a closet. I’m hoping I can get changed out of my suit since it can feel a little bit stuffy sometimes to always be in the Spiderman suit.
I twisted the doorknob open and for the I-don’t-know-how-many-times-today I was in shock with what I was seeing. This wasn’t the regular closet that I expected it to be. It was a room full of clothes that were arranged like an expensive store rather than a closet. There were probably a hundred pieces of clothing in the room; shoes, shirts, pants, formal suits, belts, and even neck ties.
I didn’t know what clothes to pick. I just wanted to wear a comfortable t-shirt, a hoodie and ordinary jeans. I spot a corner in the room where I saw a lot of different t-shirts that were totally my type, the ones that had nerdy graphic designs on it. I picked a red one that had the periodic table on it and grabbed a pair of blue jeans that I found on another corner in the room.
I turned my attention at the entire wall that was dedicated solely for shoes. There were rows and rows of shelves with different kinds of shoes. I was getting overwhelmed by all the choices. I probably stared at the hundred pairs of shoes in front of me for a solid three minutes before I just decided to go with a pair of black Converse shoes.
I noticed that there was an empty space in between the shelves where all the color coordinated dress shirts were hanged. Curious, I touched a small button that caught my eye. The once empty space was now filled with various holograms and a perfect space to put in my Spiderman suit. I placed my Spiderman suit that I tried to neatly fold into the space where I’m supposing is for the suit. It fits perfectly and a blue hologram pops out with a notification that says: suit cleaning in progress. In just a minute the notification changes to: suit cleaning complete. This is beyond amazing.
I looked around the closet a little bit more because everything looked so fascinating before I left the room and headed down to the lobby where Mr. Stark told me to meet. As I rode the elevator down, I tried to pinch myself. Maybe this is all just a dream. I yell, “ow!” when I feel the sting on my arm from my own doing.
Nope, I am definitely not dreaming.