The AI hour
There was something off about Peter.
At first, Tony had thought that the kid was traumatized from his kidnapping, but it went deeper than that. The way he held himself, the way he talked was wrong.
Tony had rushed to find his kid as soon as he got a call from Pete’s friends.
“Holy shit Pete. Are you hurt?”
The kid shook his head. “I don’t know what... I don’t-“
“It’s okay, kiddo. I’ve got you.”
“FRI, scan all footage of Peter Parker and compare to the last three weeks.”
“On it, boss.”
He watched as videos and memories flashed by, Peter’s ecstatic smile cropping up in nearly every video on one side of the screen.
“Analysis complete. It appears that Peter Parker in recent footage has only a 54% match in behavioral and speech patterns to my existing database.”
“Holy shit. That can’t be right. Do me.”
“Alright.”
His analysis took a much shorter time than Peter’s.
“98% match, boss.”
Tony drummed his fingers on the table. “Alright, FRI, just notify me whenever Pete exhibits extremely abnormal behavior, okay?”
“Got it, boss.”
He got the notification in the middle of the night, and snuck around the compound to the lab on tiptoe.
Peter didn’t even notice when Tony pushed open the door. He was sitting in the corner of the lab, muttering to himself about parts, in an accent, no less.
Tony inched closer and Peter turned, inadvertently showing what he was working on.
A harness holding four mechanical octopus limbs.
Acting on instinct, Tony double tapped his arc reactor, diverting the nanoparticles to just a gauntlet, which he held pointed at Peter.
“You’re not my kid. Are you. Are you?”
The kid stood up, a devilish grin bastardizing his features, and pulled on the extra legs.
“Oh, Stark. Your kid has been dead for weeks.”
And then the kid attacked.