Chapter 6
He should go to sleep.
These are not the days when he can be up more than two nights in a row, Tony knew that. Still, he had an excuse of sorts tonight; the kid's new, better suit should be ready soon. The Iron Spider.
Of course, Pepper would kill him for staying up so late again, but she was on a business trip and he was about finished anyway.
"Web combination #823..." Tony muttered in hopes that F.R.I.D.A.Y. recorded what he was doing.
"Boss?" The A.I.'s voice made the genius jump, especially because of the freaky coincidence.
"Yes, Fri? Did I forget to eat? I swear I'm trying, don't sack Pep on me again-"
"It's the Spider-Man suit, Boss. The suit's artificial intelligence came online," the AI reported.
What?
Tony's first reaction was worry. Did Peter get into a bad enough situation that the AI in his suit bypassed the protocols?
But as he thought on that, he realized how unlikely it was, knowing the protocols in place. They would only activate emergency measures, not the AI itself. Not to mention, the AI was very new and not as sentient as JARVIS was, so she wouldn't know bypassing protocols as an option it can take yet.
So, now curious, Tony asked his own AI what the heck happened.
"From what I can tell, Peter likely had hacked the suit to unlock its full capabilities. He is getting acquianted with Karen at this moment and going through all the new functions."
"Karen?"
"That's what he named the AI, Boss," chirped FRIDAY. Sharing in her good mood, Tony chuckled at the name.
"Well... I suppose he was bound to do that sooner or later. Still, keep an eye on them, will you? Karen's a baby too and I only planned Peter to get her when he was an adult, not a fourteen-year-old little grasshopper."
FRIDAY sounded suspiciously like she was smiling as she replied. "Sure thing, Boss."
"Dude, are you sure you wanna leave your backpack of clothes in an alleyway?" Ned's voice sounded from the call as Peter turned on the suit. It was the second day after they hacked the suit and after the long training yesterday, Peter could say he grasped most of how the suit works.
"Hello, Peter," greeted Karen. The boy did not almost jump out of his skin at her voice because he forgot he has an AI. Nuh-uh. Absolutely not. He was just slightly surprised.
With an annoyed tone at Ned's snickering, he answered. "Not many places I can leave it, Ned. It's not like I have a base."
"You could leave it on the roof, so people don't steal it."
Oh.
If that didn't make Peter feel like an idiot, ruminating on the half-dozen backpacks he had lost in his superheroing, nothing will.
"See, this is why you need a Guy in the Chair."
"Fine," he sighed. Backpack was now securely on the rooftop, where he hid it under some stuff he forgot the name for so it wouldn't get wet if it rained.
Then, the patrol began.
"There's been a theft of a grocery store, suspect nearby," Karen reported.
"Can you take me there?"
"Sure thing, Peter."
After a few minutes of gushing from Ned, they switched topics and now were talking about which actors would play which of the Avengers if a movie was made about them.
"Ned, I know you love Henry Cavill but he wouldn't be good for Captain America," Peter sighed as he swung to the next building, closing in on the marker on his HUD.
An indignant gasp sounded from the call. "You take that back! Henry Cavill is good for all the roles!"
While calming Ned down and chatting about other potential actors, Peter stopped the guy who was trying to leave with an also stolen bike. Not knowing what to do with the bike now, he spoke. "I could write a note or..."
"The bike belongs to a Liam Johnson. I am writing a private message to him with this address," Karen chimed in.
"Woah, how did you- ?"
"The owner posted a picture of the bike on social media just a minute ago."
"Huh." It was neat that Karen was able to come to conclusions like that to aid his superheroing. With a new confidence to his swings, Peter confirmed that the AIs message sounded good enough and searched for the nearest vantage point.
A few hours passed like this, Ned stopping the call when he realized he still hadn't had dinner and some homework was waiting to be completed on his desk.
Peter let himself enjoy the sunset for a few minutes, then he called Happy, leaving another voicemail. On one hand, he was glad that his Dad didn't give him his own number. Not that Peter wouldn't be able to reach him anyway, but on certain days, this distance is the only thing preventing him from bothering the man with these stupid little things.
After all, Tony Stark wouldn't exactly care much about his little patrols anyway, right?