Chapter 1
“That’s a suit.”
“No way Peter, its a 2017 toyota camry.” Harley rolled his eyes, “You want a ride?”
“In the suit or the camry?” Peter asked, half joking.
“You are impossible Parker.” Harley leaned up against the suit, and waited for Peter’s response beyond staring at it with a bewildered look. “Well? Thoughts? I didn’t spend six months working on this just for you to stare at me like a poster of Meghan Fox did I?”
“What? No? She wasn’t even, how did you know I had a poster of her in my room?” Peter’s cheeks blushed pink.
“I didn’t.” Harley smirked.
“Well I’m not saying I’m attracted to it-”
“I hope not.”
“-I’m just surprised is all.” Peter inched forward, and walked around the suit in circles, and looked over details. It looked a lot like an iron man suit, with a few notable exceptions, mainly the two silver spikes that sat on top of the shoulder plates. “You went a little heavy metal there.” He smiled, circling again to get a better look. Instead of the usual, red and gold color scheme it seemed that he’d gone with red and silver, with the arms and legs all brandishing silver additionse.
“So, thoughts? Should I just fly it into the sun or can I use it?”
“Do not fly it into the sun, that would probably speed up climate change or something. It looks-nice.”
“That’s all you have to say? No Harley you're a genius, wow I wish I had thought of this, they should really give you a nobel peace prize or the next best thing.”
“I would never say any of that to you. You’d get such a big head that you’d probably fly yourself into the sun thinking you're invincible or something. I’ve only told you that your a genius once and I said then I'd never do it again.”
“You said it after I taught you how to put a poptart in the microwave.” Harley stared at him, “I don’t think that was the one time to use it.”
“I said what I said, I can’t go back on my own word.”
“Fine, be that way Parker. Maybe I had other ways to make pop tarts faster than the toaster but you’ll never know now that you’ve insulted my genius by not recognizing it.” Harley shrugged and tapped the chestplate of the suit three times, it opened and he stepped inside giving Peter a knowing smirk. “Have fun on the ground poptart boy.” He gave a mock salute as the suit lifted off into the air, it went up about ten feet before crashing to the ground with a large bang. The hull opened a few seconds later, and Harley came bursting out on a sea of airbags.
Peter ran over with a grief stricken look on his face, “Are you okay?” Harley let out a breath, and stayed silent. “Dude? Lee? Come on-”
“I’m good Pete. I’m good.” The other boy replied, reaching out his hand so Peter could pull him up.
Peter’s face cracked into a wide smile ad he started to laugh. “Good because now I can laugh at you!” He said, “What was that? I was right all along, your only a genius when it comes to microwaving pop tarts, which as I discovered minutes later was right on the box the whole time.”
Harley narrowed his eyes, “Croissant dropper.”
“Oh wow let me give you my surprised pikachu face that you used that insult again, just admit it you made a nice exoskeleton but the suit doesn’t run… bro.”
“You called me bro Im touched. Look it has some kinks.”
“Major kinks.”
“You can’t even fly.”
“And neither can you.”
“Oh ouch.” Harley replied, “Your right, your right.”
Before he could say anything else, the door to the cabin opened and tiny footsteps could be heard walking across the deck and down the stairs to where the two boys stood. Morgan Stark stopped about a foot behind Peter and surveyed the boys in front of her. She moved closer and peered around Peter’s leg, “Holy sh-”
Peter spun around and put his hand over her mouth. “Woah there little lady, I think you were about to say a bad word, what did Mommy tell you about that?”
“She told me not to say shit.”
Peter faceplamed, “Oh My Gosh-”
Morgan smiled, “Oops.” Peter rolled his eyes and then tousled her hair before picking her up and spinning her around, when he was done the two of them were facing Harley who was still laying on top of the airbags. “What the heck are you doing?” She asked him.
“I’m-” Harley started before Peter cut him off.
“See Morgan your brother here has gotten what the doctors call a spectacular ego, and because of this underlying illness he’s prone to do things he can’t do just because he thinks he can, its truly debilitating.”
Morgan stared at Peter and blinked a couple of times. “What?”
“He’s stupid, he is very very stupid.” Peter smiled back, “Sometimes I forget I’m talking to a seven year old.”
“Try once a day.” Harley chimed in.
Peter was about to reply with what would surely be another meme reference when the door opened again, since Morgan was already outside they knew the only person that could be coming out of the house was the one who would surely yell at them for the events that occured in the backyard minutes before. Both boys turned their heads to the doorway in horror, of the lecture they knew was coming. “What the heck is going on out here?” Pepper walked off the deck and out into the grass, to find Harley who for some reason was still sitting in the remains of his pretty damaged suit. She let out a sigh, “Well Tony’s memory is truly living on through the two of you.”
“Aww thanks Pep.” Harley said, still unable to get up.
“I didn’t mean it as a compliment.” She said, “Boys, we have company.”
“Shoot.” They both said at the same time, not knowing who was over but assuming it was someone important. Peter scrambled over to help Harley out of the suit, and the two of them ran back over to Pepper and stood neatly in a row, with Harely picking Morgan up for good measure. Pepper just laughed at them as the figure of a young woman become visible on the deck.
“I don’t know you guys well enough to know if I should expect better.” The young woman said, walked off the deck and onto the grass. “But something tells me that this-” She gestured to the scene behind them, mainly the damaged suit and the five foot crater in the ground where it fell. “Happens a lot.”
The boys nodded.
“Well that's always fun.” She said. “I’m Cassie Lang by the way.” She stuck out her hand for them to shake. “I’m sure you don’t remember me, so I’ll give you a hint.” She turned to Peter, “Nice shirt.”
“Your dad is Ant Man.” Harley said with a wide smile, “I didn’t need the hint.”
“Good with faces I see.” Cassie replied.
“The ones worth remembering.”
“Oh my god.” Peter grumbled, putting his face in hands. He pulled Morgan out of Harleys arms and into his own, ”You do not need to see this Morg your too young.” He covered her eyes dramatically and after a few seconds, Morgan pushed his hand away and giggled.
“I’m gonna kill you.” Harley said through gritted teeth.
“So uh, Cassie what brings you to the middle of nowhere?”
“You guys actually. I was in the area on a tour of MIT-”
“I wouldn’t say MIT is in the area-” Peter eyed Harley again.
Cassie rolled her eyes before continuing, “And I heard you guys were also going, I mean obviously you would be coming because your legacies and I wanted to come and meet you just cause-” She dug her fingers into her palms and then took a breath. “Because I’m very awkward as you can tell and I was kind of hoping to have some prerequisite friends. That and my baby sister cries very loudly and I’ve found that I do not like children all that much.” She turned to Morgan, “No offence, you seem very cool and mature for your age.”
“Thank you?” Morgan answered.
“Now that I’ve said all this outloud I realize how dumb it sounds and how painfully awkard I am so I’m just gonna get back in the car and-” She took a couple of steps backwards, and started walking back towards the car.
“You can’t be more awkward than Peter.” Harley said, suddenly, “Like I think it’s impossible.”
“Ouch.” Cassie laughed, “You guys really are brothers, huh?”
“Yeah I guess I put up with him.” Peter elbowed Harley in the shoulder and smiled, before turning to Cassie. “We will be friends with you on the one condition that you get us both ant man suits and then we all build a lego house that we can play in.”
“That is oddly specific.”
“How long have you been thinking of that one?”
“Since I first saw Ant-Man in person.” Peter said, “Actually scratch that since I heard of him, ever. I mean think about it-”
“Yeah I don’t think I can do that, sorry to crush your dream Spiderboy.”
“So you know about that then?”
“I think it was the picture of you in the suit hanging in the kitchen that kind clued me in.”
“Your making fun of Peter already?” Harley laughed, “You really are gonna fit in with us.” He paused and then said, “Me and Peter were going to make the hour long drive to the grocery store to pick up some things, maybe you would like to come with us?”
“We were?” Peter asked, but then Harley elbowed him in the rib and he didn’t say anything else.
“Uh sure, I will take all the crying free hours I can get as long as someone else is driving.”
“It’s settled then.” He turned to Pepper, “We will be back in an hour.”
“Please don’t cause anymore property damage.” Pepper told him, “And have fun.”
And naturally because they were giving that warning Peter and Harley did in fact end up causing some property damage. Though it was significantly less than they had the first time. Cassie joined in because well she was there and what else was she supposed to do? The three of them made it to the store, and then realize they didn’t have anything to buy. The truth was they didn’t need to buy anything, Harley just wanted an excuse to hang out with Cassie somewhere where Peter wasn’t obligated to make fun of him, just to keep his spot as Morgan’s favorite brother.
So the three of them mindlessly walked the isles, picking out various things that they ethier wanted or thought they might need, even though none of them were cooking dinner. “So why MIT?” Peter asked her, as they were halfway through the cracker isle. Harley was a couple feet behind them, deciding what kind of saltine crackers to get. For some reason, he loved those things, and refused to buy certain brands because he’d tried them all and knew which ones tasted like paper with salt on top.
“Is it bad to say I wanted out of California? I just need a change of scenery, too many bad memories you know?”
“Yeah, I get it.”
“No one really talks about the snap anymore and it’s weird.” Cassie shrugged, “It was this huge thing, and now everyone’s moving on, my dad had a new daughter and I want to move on too. But it’s hard when-” She trailed off and Peter didn’t press her any further. “But also its MIT y’know? Half the kids in my class are super jealous I got in. I mean it’s no Harvard but I did get mentioned in the principals commencement speech.”
“Always after the recognition of the school administrators, respect.”
“I mean, what else is there to strive for even?”
“Well don’t tell that to Harley, I don’t even think they have teachers in Tennessee, their all taught by sheep or something.”
She giggled in response, “I pegged him as more of a class clown anyway.”
“Yeah.” Peter turned back and looked at Harley who was deciding over two different brands of saltine crackers. “He doesn’t realize how smart he is, given his suit doesn’t work but I think I can help him with that.”
“At least he knew to put the airbags in.”
“True, true.”
“I could help you guys too if you don’t mind a third wheel.” She told him, “I know I haven’t been trained by Tony Stark himself or anything but my dad has an engineering degree and I read through a lot of his books while he was y’know-”
“Yeah, I mean we’re gonna need all the help we can get. And I’m gonna need backup when I tell him the shoulder spikes need to go.”
“Oh yes, yes they very much do.”
Ten minutes later, Harley had found the ‘right’ kind of crackers and the three of them were out in the parking lot getting into the car. It had suddenly gotten very dark, and they’d almost pulled out when Peter gasped. “Wait, stop the car.” He said, seriously.
“What?” Harley and Cassie asked at the same time.
“Somethings wrong.”
“Like what?” Cassie looked out of the car and didn’t see anything.
“Something.” Peter repeated.
Harley turned back to Cassie, “It’s his spider sense he can tell when somethings up, he just never knows what it is.”
“Shut up.” Peter swatted near the other boys face. “Wait a second-” He thought he saw the wisp of something go around the back of the store, and he got out of the car, Harley and Cassie on his heels.
“So we’re just following him?” Cassie asked no one in particular.
“He’s gonna find something.” Harley answered. “Right Pete?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Peter kept walking, until he saw the lights of a truck around the back of the store. When he took a first glance, it all looked normal so he turned back to the other two and started walking towards the car, but then something else caught his eye. “Wait a minute-” He turned back around and saw what the ‘employees’ were putting into the truck, boxes of money. What looked like thousands of dollars of bills stacked up into fruit boxes. “Holy Crap.”
Harley and Cassie turned the corner to get a better look. “Holy Crap.”
“So we’re putting a stop to this right?” Cassie said, zipping up her hoodie and rolling up her sleeves, she started to walk off but Harley stopped her.
“Woah there cowboy, we need maybe an attack plan?”
“I have a plan-attack.” She replied.
“You guys don’t have any weapons.” Harley said.
“Wait what weapon do you have?” Peter asked, his voice a whisper.
“Uh, this one.” Harley pulled away his own sleeve to reveal a watch, that with a sleep move of his hand, turned into a miniature iron man gauntlet.
“What? That’s so cool, where did you get that?”
“It came in a box, from Tony.”
“All I got was a pair of glasses-”
“He gave you two whole suits dude!”
“Guys!” Cassie shussed them, “Are we doing this or not?”
“Well I have my web shooters.” Peter added, “But what about you Cassie?”
“Oh I have the Ant-Man suit, dad gave it to me for my birthday.” She rolled up her sleeves some more, “I just won’t need it.”
“Well alright then.” Peter said, eyes wide, as Cassie and Harley followed him around the corner to confront the bad guys. “Hey guys! Something tells me those aren’t fruits your carrying!” He shouted, getting their attention.
“Really?” Harley sighed, “That’s the best spiderman, quip-master can do?”
“I’m off my game right now, and I’m hungry.” Peter shrugged.
“Uh guys!”
Before they knew it, standing in front of them were three black clad men(?) with ski masks covering their faces, two brandished guns and the one all the way to right had only a knife. “You kids think your gonna stop us or something?” One of them laughed, “Yeah right, you guys can barely lift your own grocery bags, I’m sure you're too young to even have your license.”
“I will have you know-” Harley started.
“Shut up!” Cassie and Peter reprimanded him.
“Okay I’m gonna let you take point on this Peter because you have experience but I call knife guy, that’s all I’m gonna say!”
“Oh come on!” Both boys said at the same time.
“Knife guy is gonna be the easiest guy-”
“Uh duh, that’s why I want him, he’s clearly the weak link.”
“I’m right here.” Knife guy said with a sigh.
“We don’t have time for this!” The tallest of the bunch shouted, “Get them!” He commanded the other two.
“Let’s do this.” Harley narrowed his eyes and aimed his gauntlet, just not at the right place. Instead of hitting anywhere near the bad guys, the blast went instead right through the truck behind them, leaving a gaping whole right where the grocery store logo used to be. “So this thing is harder to use than it looks.” He nodded his head.
“Your telling me you’ve never used it before? Not even for fun?”
“Bold of you to assume I knew how to work it before I found the blueprint for it in the workshop. I thought he gave me a regular watch.”
“I cannot with you right now.” Peter faceplamed.
“You guys are the worst! Stop arguing we’re in the middle of a battle!” Cassie said, as she dodged a punch from knife guy and kicked him in both of his shins, sending him down onto the ground. Five minutes later, all three bad guys were webbed up to the remains of the truck, along with a note that said, Sorry about the truck but we did stop the robbers? Money launderers? We’re not really sure.
“That was a disaster, or like something worse than a disaster if that exists.” Peter said, once they were in the car, burying his head in his hands. “But also totally exhilarating at the same time.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Cassie replied, “That was-great, and sure it was a little rough around the edges-”
“A lot.” Both boys corrected her.
“It’s really the end result that matters.” She smiled and leaned back into her seat, “I knew we would make an amazing team.”
“Well I wouldn’t say amazing-” Harley said, “But we do have chemistry.”
“Maybe if we practice, train a little bit, we can make this a real thing. The three of us college students by day, crime fighters by night.” He said, “I mean I was planning on being the friendly campus spiderman anyway but it’ll be nice to have company.”
“I’m in, but Cassie has to promise to actually use the ant man, suit.” Harley said.
“Why? Because you want to see it in action?” She smirked.
“Yes, one hundred percent.” Peter replied.
“No because that was kind of dangerous, and something could really happen to you.” He looked to Peter, “Something could happen to all of us. We can be heroes but we need to play it safe.”
“Yeah.” Cassie agreed. “I’ll actually put the thing on, I just hate the helmet.”
“Well that means we’re gonna have to get your suit up and running Lee.” Peter smirked, “And I think we should make it a team effort.” He paused, “Y’know just so you don’t screw it up.”