Spiderman Oneshots

The Spider (3)

Harley made it home and collapsed, shivering, trying not to let the hot tears escape as his breaths came fast and jagged. His worst fear had come true. The Spider, the monstrous supervillain that haunted his nightmares, knew who he was. Knew everything about him. He wasn't even safe here, at home. His family weren't safe. The Spider would go after them all. His family, his teachers, his team, his classmates, probably even his tutor and the guy who delivered his takeaway. And it was Harley's fault. How had he found out? How long had he known? How long had he been toying with Harley, laughing at his futile attempts to fight? He'd demonstrated just how powerful he was - all the villains of New York feared him enough to obey him, but he'd never actually made an attempt on Harley's life - yet.

Harley had to tell Tony. He'd told him not to worry, that it was just a hunch, that there was no way the Spider could know his identity. Tony would be so mad. He would probably take away Harley's suit - not that it would do any good now. Harley would never be safe.

No.

He couldn't think like this. The people of Queens were counting on him. The Spider was a villain, and villains always lost eventually. Harley needed to push back, needed to find his identity, needed to thwart his evil plans and put him behind bars. Harley was Iron Lad. Iron Lad was a hero. And heroes always found a way to save the day.

As if on cue, Harley's superhero phone buzzed with a message. It was the tech store owner he'd spoken to a few weeks ago, texting him a list of the stolen items. Harley scanned through them eagerly, searching for something that stood out. Several items were dismissed immediately as useless or irrelevant to the Spider, and soon Harley had a rough idea of the pieces the Spider had actually needed to take.

The next day, Harley went to Stark Tower with renewed hope as soon as his tutoring session with Peter ended.

"You okay, kid?" Tony asked when he walked into the lab.

"Kind of. Is there any way my family could stay here for a bit? It's just, the Spider is upping his attacks and I don't want to put them in danger."

"Of course, I'll get that arranged right away." Tony went to leave, then hesitated. "Is the Spider going to be an issue? You know I can make time to help if you need it."

Harley shook his head. "I've got it under control now."

"If you're sure." The older man left, and Harley went to his bench, pulling out the list of items he'd compiled. The next hour was spent finding each object in the equipment store and working out what it did in the hope that it would give him a broader view of the Spider's plan.

By the end of the third hour, there was just one component Harley hadn't been able to work out the function of. He would ask Mr Stark, but he had no idea where his mentor had gone off to, and he'd already asked so much of him. 

"FRIDAY, what can you tell me about this?"

"I'm afraid my databases are currently being backed up so I am unable to access that information. However, there is an intern currently on the R&D floor that took one from the general store a month ago. If you would like, I can direct you there?"

"Yes please." Harley followed the lights to the right floor, then looked up in shock when he realised that the intern FRIDAY mentioned was actually Peter, his young tutor. He'd almost forgotten that the boy interned here.

"Harley! Hi," Peter looked up expectantly. "Can I help you with something? Is this about the tutoring, because I'm actually a bit busy right-"

"No, it's related to your internship. FRIDAY told me you took an advanced component from a store last month."