Chapter 3
He didn't get a chance to talk to either MJ or Ned about Harley until his free period. They all have the same free period, and they usually spent it getting ready for Academic Decathalon. That day though was Monday, and Mondays were always rough at the Tower.
"C'mon," Peter said, clasping his hands together as he turned his big eyes on MJ. "I need to head over to the tower, I've already got like, three Code Blue messages from Halima and Adam."
MJ narrowed her eyes at him and glanced down at her notes. She sighed. "Fine, but this means no skipping out on Wednesday's practice, even if there are to be spider things to be done," she said, pointing at him with her pen.
"You're a lifesaver," he said, saluting her and grabbing his bag.
"Yeah, yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now scram spiderthing."
"Text us about New Kid!" Ned called after him, and Peter waved at him. He would text them as soon as he figured out what Halima and Adam were freaking out about.
--
Peter slung himself over to the Tower but entered on the ground floor. As far as the other interns know, he's just a regular high school kid with no reason to be flying through the upper entrances. FRIDAY ushered him through the turnstiles quickly, letting him skip the line. His work phone began buzzing as soon as he walked through the turnstile, FRIDAY had alerted the other MINIONS that he was at the Tower.
[HALIMA] I'm going to need you to either run my programs or help me with three orientations.
[PETER] Three? This late in the year?
[ADAM] BOSS just let us know two hours ago.
[PETER] I'm on my way up
Peter made his way to the 51st floor, where the MINIONS resided. Or as other companies like to say, the interns resided. "What's going on?" he asked as soon as he saw Halima's bright red headscarf.
"A fuck-ton," Adam said. He winced when Halima hit his arm. "It's true!" he yelped.
Peter grinned but rolled his eyes. "Okay I get that, but I need specifics."
"Boss thought you were such a good fit despite your age that he went looking for more teenagers, or they found him, we aren't quite sure exactly how this all happened to be honest," Halima told him. Her mouth was slightly turned down, and he could tell she was stressed.
Peter's own mouth was downturned. How come Tony hadn't told him any of this. "Do we know anything about them?"
Adam nodded and grabbed his StarkPad off of his desk. "Yeah, we know their names, ages, and whatever FRIDAY grabbed for us. Which wasn't a lot, they're all your age or younger even. The first person, Halima and I sort of knew about, but we weren't sure when she was going to get here."
Halima took over. "Princess Shuri is arriving today to start her work-study and an investigative report into American Culture and Work Standards. Adam and I have been emailing with her to try and convince her to terrify Hammer into selling us his company, but she said her brother wouldn't let her. "
"Understandable," Peter said, "not wanting to cause any international accidents."
Peter wasn't surprised about Shuri, it would be exciting and a little nervewracking to be working near a princess, but from what he had seen and heard of her, he had a feeling they would get along. "Okay, I didn't expect her to be here so soon, but what can you do? Who are the other two?"
"A RiRi Williams, a 15-year-old student at MIT who has created her own repulsor technology using stolen parts from her school labs," Adam said, flipping his StarkPad around to show Peter a picture.
Peter sighed, scrubbing at his face. "So basically a miniature Tony Stark, don't we have enough of them?"
"We get called his Mini-Me's enough," Halima said, shaking her head.
"Tony paid off all of the stolen parts and made sure she was enrolled in online classes before moving her into the Tower. She's been here all day but was willing to wait for Shuri and Harley to come in so they could have their orientation all at the same time." Halima said, taking back the StarkPad from Adam and flipping to a picture of the New Kid.
"Harley," Peter said flatly.
He heard a laugh coming from the elevator, and he turned around. Harley Keener was standing there, his book bag on his back with a huge grin on his face. "Well, that secret didn't keep for long," he said.