Field Day

I am so screwed. No. Not screwed. I am so fucked. Absolutely, positively fucked. Why didn’t I just tell Mr. Stark why he couldn’t bring the Avengers here? Honestly. He would’ve understood. Surely. But no. I had to freak out. Like an idiot. A stupid idiot. And now I’m fucked. Mr. Stark would’ve understood the risk of them being there. All I had to say was ‘No, sir. Please, we’ll go up there Saturday, I have a class trip and I don’t like the risk of being outed by the Avengers.’ And he would’ve understood. Mr. Stark is an understanding guy. BUT NO!

Peter’s head rested against the window of the bus as they drove from Midtown to Stark Industries, his eyes flickering over the buildings that they passed in effort to drown out the excited chatter of the other students attending the trip. He understood their excitement. Hell, if he wasn’t so nervous about the possibility of the Avengers showing up while he was on this damn trip, Peter would probably be excited himself. He was constantly blown away by the work that Mr. Stark and his scientists did. Peter was a firm believer in the fact that Tony Stark didn’t get enough credit for being Tony Stark. A lot of people overlooked it in favour of the fact that he was Iron Man, but that wasn’t the point. Tony had worked in weapons technology for years, and the moment he saw what it was doing to the world, he had stopped. Tony was just a normal guy with a big brain and an even bigger heart, who had seen the damage happening to the world and decided he was going to make a change. And a lot of people seemed to forget that. They all idolised the man in the mask, and not the man behind it. The man who was working towards sustainable energy worldwide. The man who wasn’t a God like Thor, he wasn’t a trained assassin like Natasha. A man who hadn’t been injected with some serum and turned into a super soldier or exposed himself to radiation. Tony Stark was just a normal guy, who saw there was bad in the world and decided that he wasn’t to change that. That was the man who was Peter’s hero. That was the man who made Peter passionate about being Spiderman. Because Tony understood it. He understood the responsibility behind power.

8:57am MJ
What you thinkin about?

Peter glanced over at MJ who was watching him from over the top of her book and tapped the seat beside him, waiting for her to swap seats. MJ closed her book and slipped it into her bag before slipping over from one side of the bus to the empty space by Peter, looking at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.
Peter shifted his arm to rest on the back of the chair behind where MJ was, feeling somewhat awkward in the motion, but remaining there despite. “I have a big meeting with Mr Stark tonight that I forgot about. Told him I had a robotics club meeting – which I obviously don’t – and now I’m just trying to figure out what to tell him.” He shrugged, admitting part of his mistake.
MJ shook her head, giving him a light shove, “All that time you’ve had off school is making you irresponsible, Parker,” her tone was teasing, but there was clear concern written in her eyes.
Peter smiled faintly, “I’ll text him later, apologise when I go to the meeting. I just feel bad. He’s done so much for me and I lied to him instead of admitting forgetting.”
Peter was about to continue when Flash let out a loud laugh a few rows in front of them, turning around to face Peter and MJ. “Hey Dickwad, Ben and I were just placing bets on how long it’ll take for your ‘internship’ to be outed as fake. He says you wont last 10 minutes…I think you won’t last 5.”
MJ practically snarled, “Oh buzz off, Flash. Take yourself and your greasy hair and go bother someone who cares.”
Peter’s hand dropped from the back of the chair to wrap around MJ’s shoulder, glancing at her in a look that breathed ‘please don’t’.
“That’s right, hold back your dog, Penis.” Flash snapped, laughing with his friends.
It was Peter’s turn to get defensive now, “SHUT UP FLASH, SHUT UP!” he cried launching across the chair ready to punch to boy one. He was pulled back by MJ and Ned before he was able to make contact, but it was clear that Flash had become terrified by the reaction, it being the first display of real anger that Peter had ever shown.
And rightfully so, Peter thought bitterly to himself, fuming with anger. Lucky there are people around, I could kill you with one punch you dirty weasel.
Mr H turned around from the front seat, raising an eyebrow. “What’s going on back there?” he asked loudly. Flash shook his head quickly, unwilling to admit doing anything wrong or that he was scared of Peter – even if it were just for a brief moment. “Nothing, sir. Just a bit of joking around between friends.”
Peter shuddered in anger, unable to help it from bubbling through him. Really if it weren’t for MJ tracing soothing patterns against his back, he probably would’ve launched again. How could someone be so disgusting. How could they get away with it?

It wasn’t long after that the bus pulled up in front of the tower and Mr Harrington stepped off, marking off names as they exited to ensure everyone was there.
“Dude, that was a close call,” Ned murmured quietly to Peter as they stood aside from the group. “If you’d actually hit him, your secret would be kaput.”
Peter shook his head at Ned, taking a deep breath, “He’s just lucky.” He grumbled, before following the pack of teenagers to the entrance. After Mr H. had signed them in, they were lead into a small conference room on the first floor, where Pepper was waiting for them.
“Hello, Midtown School of Science and Technology…” Pepper greeted them all with a professional smile, her eyes landing on Peter at the back of the room, offering him a more genuine smile. “My name is Pepper Potts. I am the Co-CEO of Stark Industries. I normally would not be involved in guiding these tours, but we have some important guests in the tower today and I want to make sure that that doesn’t take away from your experience. Shortly I will be issuing you all with a lanyard tag, which you are to keep on you and visible at all times. We take security here very seriously at Stark Industries, as I’m sure you were all made aware reading the NDA’s you signed. If any information learned today gets made public, we will take legal action. In the same way, if you are found in the tower away from the group or without your lanyard, you will be removed and permanently banned from re-entering. Throughout the tour, you will learn about some of the ways that SI has been creating renewable energies. You will have the chance to create your own environmentally impacting robot in groups of four, with the chance to win a monetary grant for the winning team. And you will be able to sit in on a meeting between some of our top scientists within the building. At the end of the day, we will be sitting down for a Q&A with myself and possibly Mr. Stark if he is available come the time. Before we get started, does anyone have any questions?”
There was a quiet murmur around the students, but nobody spoke up. Pepper nodded and began reading out the names of the students, handing out each lanyard as she did.
Peter shifted his bag around to pull out his for when he used the front entrance, slipping it around his neck quickly.

The group were moved from the room towards a set of security checks. “We’re about to enter the secure area of the building. I want you to have your lanyards facing outwards, away from your body. And step one at a time through the screener.” Pepper explained, stepping through herself first.
“Pepper Potts, clearance level A. Welcome back, Miss Potts,” Friday’s voice sounded throughout the room, causing a lot of students to look around in search of a person or speaker box.
“That, boys and girls, is Friday. She is an AI that runs through the entire building, and fun fact, in the Iron Man suit. Created by none-other than Mr. Tony Stark himself, Friday is the best state-of-the-art security system and helping hand that I’ve ever come across.” Pepper explained, before motioning for the next person to go through.

“Charles Dunkin, clearance level E. All electronic devices disarmed.” Friday’s voice echoed throughout the room.
“Eugene Thompson, clearance level E. All electronic devices disarmed.”
“Disarmed?” Flash snapped quickly, glancing around. “What does it mean by disarmed?” he demanded, looking at Pepper in an almost accusing manner.
Pepper looked at him a moment. “If you’d read the NDA’s, you would know that Friday has disabled any photography abilities on your phones, tablets, et-cetera, until you leave the building, so as not to risk any private knowledge photographed and leaked to the public.”
Flash wanted to make a snarky comment, but kept to himself, not prepared for a fight in the moment.
The class continued through, MJ, Ned, and Peter hovering towards the back of the group with Mr Harrington, allowing the others to go through first.
“Michelle Jones, clearance level E. All electronic devices disarmed.”
“Ned Leeds, clearance level E. All electronic devices disarmed.”
“Peter Parker, clearance level A. Welcome back Peter. Mr Stark has been notified of your arrival.”
“Roger Harrington, clearance level E. All electronic devices disarmed.”
“Hold up!” Flash was the one to acknowledge it. “Why did is Parker level A and the rest of us level E? What’s up with the levels?”
Peter rolled his eyes, giving Flash a small glare, to which he almost saw a fearful look in response, which did give him quite a bit of satisfaction.
“Mr Parker has an internship within Stark Industries, were you not aware?” Pepper quipped without missing a beat. "Clearance Level E is for tour groups, such as yourself. Level A is for people who are trusted.” At the wording of Pepper’s response, MJ snorted, covering her mouth a little. It was a clear jab at the fact that Pepper didn’t trust, nor care for Flash’s remarks.
“Why are you laughing Michelle? You’re level E too.” Flash snapped, taking one step forward and then immediately taking two backwards when Peter stepped in between them.
It was quite nice having this newfound authority over Flash’s behaviour, Peter almost wished he’d lashed out at an earlier time.