Spiderman Oneshots

Never meet your heroes

An hour later, Peter sat back in his desk chair and stretched. On the news, the drones around the city were dropping out of the sky. Peter had found a bug in the system that allowed him to disable them all. He'd saved the day and proved himself, just in a different way to expected.

His job was done, but he found himself unable to take his eyes off the computer chip. Slowly, he leaned forwards again, and began to type, fingers aching. He knew more about Iron Man than maybe any other citizen, but he still shared the opinion of everyone else. Iron Man fought the Avengers, and the Avengers were the good guys, which meant Iron Man was evil. No matter how clever or cool or whatever.

But Peter had met his heroes, and he'd been wrong about them. So maybe, he thought, quickly tracing the signal the bot was receiving directions from, he just might be wrong about his villain.

"Tony Stark?" Peter's jaw dropped as he stood in the doorway of the Iron Man lair he'd discovered. The famous billionaire was lounging behind a hologram display on an easy chair with a paparazzi smile. The Iron Man armour stood in full view and half-assembled robots were scattered across the work surfaces. Peter felt unable to move. He didn't know what he'd expected but it definitely wasn't this. Tony Stark seemed perfectly at ease despite the vigilante stood in his secret lair. "I... what?"

"Mr Parker, come on in."

If it had been possible for Peter's jaw to drop any lower without dislocating, it would have done. He wanted to ask how he knew - but he was Tony Stark, the somewhat eccentric genius billionaire who ran Stark Industries. Of course he knew.

"You're Tony Stark," Peter repeated. He was aware that this was Iron Man, a supervillain, but also... He knew who Peter was. That was more than Steve Rogers had managed. Peter had looked up to this man since he had taken apart his first PC. He took a step closer. "Why did you let me find you?"

Tony raised a brow. "You underestimate yourself. I don't let you find me, I just chose not to run once I realised you were coming."

"So what happens now?"

"That," Tony uncrossed his legs and stood up, "is very much up to you."

Peter stood his ground. Tony was right: Peter's choices would determine where this went. He could inform the Avengers of Tony's identity and location. He could fight him here and now. Or... he could not.

"I applied to intern at your company so many times," Peter told him, testing the waters. Tony tilted his head, intrigued by Peter's choice.

"If I'd know how good you were at programming I would have hired you a long time ago. Talent like that shouldn't be wasted."

"Programming's just a hobby. Mechanics is my real passion. I've been studying your drones for years."

"Is that so. I imagine you wouldn't be interested in working with me now?"

"I... wouldn't say that." Peter pushed as much meaning into his words as possible.

"You haven't tried to attack me yet," Tony observed.

"You haven't given me a reason to."

"Are you not a hero? Am I not a villain?"

"I met my hero today. Now I'm not sure what exactly the word means."

"Let me guess: Steve Rogers? No need to look embarrassed, kid. My dad talked about him so much that he was my hero as a kid too, even when I thought he was dead. Then I met the guy, and, well."

"So it's Captain America you have a problem with? Not all 'heroes'?"

"I have no problem, and maybe even a level of respect, for heroes who are exactly that: people who help others simply because they can. People who work overtime at hospitals. People who volunteer. People who stay at home and quietly stop a drone attack, or go out and help keep the streets safe. Not people who fight for the sake of it, mindlessly destroy property, and only save lives for the recognition and reputation it upholds. Those people deserve to be put in their place once in a while."

Peter decided not to question the hypocrisy of that statement. After all, he was just a teenage boy facing a very rich, very powerful man surrounded by weapons of his own creation.

Also, because Tony had a point. And... Peter had spent so long watching footage from attacks to analyse the movement of the drones. Now he cast his mind back, trying to remember. Had any of the drones ever touched a building or citizen? Or was all the property damage and injury just collateral from the Avengers' attempts to stop them? If that was the case, as Peter was beginning to realise, then it still wasn't moral, but it wasn't necessarily evil.

Maybe good and bad weren't quite as straightforward as Peter had initially thought.

Maybe, when Tony offered Peter a job, he accepted.