Chapter Two
Disclaimer: no, sadly these properties are not mine, as much as I would wish them to be. I don't make any money off of it either.
CHAPTER TWO
DECEMBER 2016
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Steve asked, as they stared at the door. It was the top story of a Brooklyn apartment complex, probably some sort of loft.
It was probably overkill to have most of the Avengers team come to the meeting, but Black Widow had been sent to interrogate this man Peter Parker and Tony, who was interested in the man's research decided to tag along.
Then so did Steve because he had "nothing better to do," and then Brucie decided that he wanted to talk to the man about this bio-mechanical research he was doing. Maybe not the entire Avengers. Clint and Thor had sat this one out.
"My hacking skills are the best in the world spangles," Tony told him, "I've never been more sure except when that one time with the twin models from January edition and even then."
"Tony," Bruce chided.
They knocked on the door first. The man who they had tracked down was registered under Peter Parker in the company database. He was registered at the owner of the company and held many of the patents. The biotech company was up and coming and focused more on genetic manipulation and biology studies than Tony's company or it would have made it onto his register much earlier.
The tech they created was beautiful and undoubtedly saved millions of lives already. From what Tony could gather, if anyone had a shot at curing cancer, it was this think tank. Tony was impressed and it took a lot to get him impressed.
Hopefully he could court the owner into becoming an auxiliary of Stark Industries.
They knocked again and no one answered.
"We can't just leave," Tony said with a frown. He was a busy guy and he had arranged his schedule for this. Or rather, he had told Peper he would be doing this and she had sighed and arranged his schedule for him.
Natasha grinned and leaned against the door. She did something with her hands and probably picked the lock lighting fast. The door clicked open.
She said, "I have no idea how that happened. It was just unlocked."
Tony snorted. Steve looked uncomfortable, and Bruce looked between everyone as if trying to figure out where he stood.
"Well," Tony trapezed forward and pushed the door partially open, "I for one, am going in."
Then a voice came from inside the room. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Tony blinked, "What?"
"There are biotech sensors on the ground. The second you walk through that door you will be shot with a tranquilizing gun and the police will be informed of your transgression." The voice on the other side of the door sighed. "Let me disable them."
Then a pause, "Alright come in." The voice sounded resigned as if he was annoyed and yet expecting the group.
Tony and co entered the flat with precaution. First thing that struck him was how beautiful the interior was. All exposed brick, there were only curtains hanging or glass panels to separate the rooms. On the far wall he could see a large flat screen TV with a surrounding area more set into the ground. To his left there was a beautiful state of the art kitchen, and in the corner there was an amazing computer setup that Tony would love to get his hands on. On the surrounding benches there were a could of experiments. The entire corner was glassed in with a biohazard sign handing on what looked like the pressurized entrance.
For a small interior lab, it was gorgeous. There was a lot of natural lighting shining into it and a figure with their back turned to them.
Between the kitchen on the left and the lab in the corner there was a long table set up with textbooks sitting on top of it. That seemed strange to Tony, and he briefly wondered if this man had a child.
To his right, there was a curtain that was entirely pushed back. There was another set of computer in the right corner with a million screens, and a bed directly to his right. It was very low to the ground, and the space felt very open and modern. Between the bed and the computers there was an open mat with a punching back and double bars. A sink was attached to the wall and it looked like the perfect space to spar.
Overall, it seemed like something that Tony would pick out for a loft. Gorgeous, expensive, and yet not flashy. It was a practical living space owned by someone who had money.
The group made their way to the lab. The individual had on a long white coat. "Give me two minutes," he said, and his voice picked up in the speaker system of the apartment. Ah, Tony realized that that was why the voice sounded so strange at the door.
Natasha eyed the man and seemed to be suspicious, but wasn't she always. Tony walked to the long table next to the lab noticing a camera that was sitting on it. There was a small laptop that it was plugged into. Tony recognized it as self built and wondered how good the man was with technology.
It was a beautiful camera. Tony picked it up.
"Please don't touch that," the man said. Tony glanced up.
The man had turned around in the lap and Tony blinked. He could hear a little noise of confusion from Bruce.
Steve stepped forward. The man that had been working in the lap seemed not to be a man but a boy about sixteen or seventeen. His hair was wild looking and the lab coat made him seem like a child playing dress-up.
He shrugged off the coat, hung it up on a hook inside of the glass walls, and pressed his hand on the inside of the glass making a print and opening the door.
He was dressed like a traditional nerdy hipster. With big glasses, dark jeans, and a button up top.
"Mr. Stark, please don't touch that."
"Huh," Tony flipped the thing around in his hands. It was a fairly small camera. He saw the markings for Hasselblad H4D 200 MS. Tony kept that in mind.
"Please," the boy sounded insistent. Tony rolled his eyes and set it down on the table.
Steve stepped forward. "I'm sorry we umm…"
"Broke into my apartment," the kid supplied with a deadpan.
"Yes, umm that, but we have a couple of questions to ask your father if you don't mind." Steve stood there awkwardly hunched over.
"There would be quite difficult as seeing that my father is dead," the boy remarked.
Steve opened his mouth and to probably give out an apology when Natasha decided to streamline the process and just spit it out. "We want to talk to Peter Parker. He is a hard man to find.
The boy nodded and said, "Okay, sit down. Do you want anything? Water? Coffee? I would offer something stronger but I'm not old enough myself."
They stared at each other and Tony grinned, "That never stopped me, but I think we're okay."
The made a whatever gesture and sat down at the table. The rest of the Avengers followed.
The kid got right to the point, "So what do you want from me?"
Natasha gave him a look and said, "Peter Parker?"
"Yes," the kid looked at her like no fucking kidding.
Tony's jaw dropped. "No way, you're what fifteen? Sixteen?"
"Seventeen," Peter Parker glared at him, "But at least I'm not an old man."
"Mr. Parker," Natasha started, "It says here that you are the owner of the Benjamin Richard Company."
"I went to great lengths not to make that public knowledge, but yes, that is true." Peter picked up the camera in front of him and almost as if by habit started to take it apart.
Bruce spoke up, "Peter, I think what we are trying to understand is how a multimillion dollar corporation and business is owned by a seventeen year old. You're not even out of high school as far as we know and you have patents in your name that are in every hospital in the United States."
Peter suddenly looked excited, "Bruce Banner! Mr. Banner, it's so exciting to meet you. You are my absolute idol. You're work on how gamma radiation interacts with molecular structure was groundbreaking. I would love to get your insights on a couple things that I'm working on."
Tony made an indignant sound. "What am I? A wall flower."
"Mr. Stark," the boy glared, "you played with my camera."
Peter frowned at the ground and glanced them all over. He sighed and shifted in his seat so that he was criss-crossed. He looked even more like a child.
"Although I don't know how this is Avenger's business, I started the company just over a year ago. I had a couple of patents to my name and I wanted to mass produce them. It just grew. Yes, I am still in high school, but I don't understand how any of this should be your concern. You should be out saving the world not looking into nerdy teenagers trying to help modern medicine. I'm not doing anything bad and I'm diligent as following a human process for every bit of research we do. If you want to look at company policy, you are more than welcome." The boy sounded earnest.
"I do," Tony said, "but I also would love it if you and your corporation became auxiliaries of mine. You are clearly brilliant and I will put any money you want into whatever research you want."
"I'm sorry Mr. Stark," Peter looked a little overwhelmed. "I would actually like to keep BRC in my own hands. I worked really hard for it to be successful."
"Hmph," Tony grunted, "Offer still stands."
"I think that is besides the point. Mr. Parker, Peter. Do you mind if I call you Peter?"
"Sure," the boy blushed. It was obvious from the way that he was avoiding looking at Captain America that he had been trying to keep his cool.
"Peter, what we want to know is how one of your parents fell into Spider-Man's hands. One of your first one's in fact. A biochemically engineered thread that is supposed to work with the human body. It's impossibly thin and strong and yet degrades over time." Right now it was being used at one of the main threads to treat internal wounds. Honestly, it was one of the Company's biggest patents and it was derived from the formula he used in his own webslingers.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Peter scrunched up his face in confusion.
"Spider-Man's web substance is an almost perfect match for what you sell. A few of the genetic markers are off but incredibly easy to change. It's a brilliant substance, but we just want to know if you gave it to Spider-Man?"
Peter shook his head, "No." He almost added on it must be a coincidence, but there were too many scientists in the room to believe that lie.
"Peter," Steve urged on.
"I mean, I'm trying to think here. Maybe he stole it? The media does villainize him," Peter tried to waylay blame.
"Peter," Natasha started, "It seems you disagree with the media's take on Spider-man."
Peter shrugged helplessly. "I go to school in Midtown. I'm New York raised and bred. It's hard to hate the guy that saved a couple of my friends. That being said, I have no idea how he got his hands on the substance."
"Well," Tony glanced around the apartment, "I'm not going to accuse you of stealing it from him."
Peter smiled sheepishly. "If you need anything else, I'm here to help. Otherwise, I have an experiment I was in the middle of and would like to get back to it before it blows up on me."
The two scientists in the room winced internally. They knew how those things went. Natasha looked like she had more questions to pry out of the boy, but Captain America made the decision.
"Thank you for your help Peter. Please get in touch if you remember anything pertaining to Spider-man."
Peter looked at the group as if exhausted and far beyond his years. "I will," he said, and turned his back to the superheros to make his way back to the lab.
Tony noticed something as he was walking out the door. The artwork that Peter had hung up on his walls was from impossible angles where no human being could possibly go. Either Peter was lying, and Spider-man had taken the photography, or there was some other explanation that was escaping Tony. Tony bet on the first. It seemed that this would not be the last they would be seeing of the brilliant young man.