Hey, so I know Tony sold Stark/Avengers Tower in Homecoming...
*spoilers for marvel movies following*
but can we pretend it was one of those "oh Tony is spontaneous and doesn't really think ahead and iron man is recommended for the avengers but not tony because he's unstable" moments and he bought it back after Civil War (for a way over inflated price because the buyers got very upset with him) because he's an emotional guy and was like screw it if no one wants to be an Avenger with me anymore than fine I'll get my tower back none of you are invited over anymore? and rhodey and pepper were just like *sigh* okay tony whatever floats your boat? and secretly tony just wants to bond with his favorite new son *cough* spiderkid? he's lowkey depressed because cap tried to kill him and he learned bucky killed his parents so what does he do, he finds a project to obsess over and now its redecorating his old tower? yeah? and then he's like aw petey likes my labs thats so cute hey sciency kids of new york here's a little student center haha try and fail to be as smart as me? look may i'm sorry peter is spiderman and i brought him to avengers war but look i'm keeping a close eye on him look where i live now it's a literal internship now yayyyy? okay thanks)
TL;DR: Stark Tower was sold, yes, but Tony got it back to prove a point. And now it's featured in my story. Thanks.
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"Leo, you're on fire again."
Malcolm made the comment with a stressed exhale, the toll of the mission at hand weighing heavily on him. Chiron had placed him at the forefront of what Leo liked to call Mission-Super-Top-Secret-Save-Percy-and-Annabeth-and-Meet-The-Freaking-Man-Himself-Tony-Freaking-Stark-Iron-Man, or what Chiron liked to call "a cautious adventure, we don't need suspicion thrown your way, we don't need to confirm fears about demigods being a security threat ."
Leo liked his version better.
He quickly extinguished himself and placed his excited energy elsewhere, working quickly to meet the son of Athena's demands to pack some ratty looking backpacks with ambrosia and snacks and textbooks.
"I can't wait to learn about," Leo twisted one particularly heavy book in his hands to read the spine, "Clinical Kinesiology and Anatomy." He dropped it into the bag with a frown. "What does that even mean?"
Malcolm grimaced, shoving a black Chromebook charger into his blue pack. "Fancy word for anatomy. You've got to pretend to know this stuff if they ask."
"Well, you have a book on 'how to build a bad-ass robot dragon'? Then I would actually know what I was talking about."
The son of Athena glared at him, in a way that was all too familiar with Annabeth's. Leo raised his hands in surrender, turning away.
"Touchy, touchy!" He muttered, redirecting his attention to a child of Athena who wasn't looking to viciously murder him on the spot.
Mary Kate glanced up from where she stood, wringing her hands back and forth, at the light shuffle approaching her. A nervous smile tugged on her lips. "Leo," she nodded, pulling at a brown bracelet. Her eyes flicked to his momentarily before refocusing on the toes of her sneakers.
The son of fire grinned, shooting hand guns at her. "What's up, Mitnick?"
The girl wrinkled her nose in laughter. The slight breeze ruffled a few strands of caramel hair across her freckled face as she bounced with a giggle. "Nice reference."
Leo gave an exaggerated bow. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all night."
The daughter of Athena forced a small laugh, before glancing back down at her fingers. Leo noticed the attitude change instantly and bumped her shoulder slightly. "What's up? You nervous?"
To his surprise, she met his gaze with strikingly sharp blue eyes and nodded, her eyebrows knitting together under fringed bangs. "We could get arrested for this. I don't even know if I can hack into this... this database without triggering some kind of firewall. What if a database doesn't exist? What if the information isn't even, like... I don't know," she pulled a hand through her short waves, exhaling sharply. "I just have a bad feeling about this."
Leo nodded, processing her words. She wasn't wrong. As much as he loved Percy and Annabeth, he wasn't too fond of the idea of being locked up in a government facility or being shot. Part of him wanted to leave them to their own devices; they were the two of the most powerful demigods on the planet, they could escape anything. They escaped Tartarus for gods' sake, surely a few aliens and a man in a metal suit couldn't stop them.
But if Percy had taught him anything, it was to never let a friend down.
Also, there was the off-chance that he could meet Tony Stark, so...
He straightened. "I mean, yeah. But you're really good at this, right? Plus, Malcolm has a good plan, and I can light stuff on fire. What can go wrong?"
Mary Kate pursed her lips together in concentration. She dug the toe of her yellow converse into the dirt, obviously reluctant to go on the mission. Leo kind of felt bad for her. "Hey, you'll do great. You hacked into Google, you got this."
"Yeah, but Stark Industries is Tony Stark. That man is a genius," she stressed. "Look at his suits! You've read about his AI's, right? Google has nothing on Tony Stark's privatized server."
Leo winced. He didn't have a response... because she wasn't wrong.
"You're supposed to tell me I'm wrong, that I'm a demigod, that'll I do fine," she teased.
Leo forced a smile. "You're wrong, you're a demigod, you'll do fine."
She rolled her eyes, but her smile relaxed him. Her eyes caught something behind him and she raised a hand in greeting. Leo turned to see who she was looking at, praying it wasn't Malcolm with an axe, sighing when he noticed one of the Hecate campers trotting toward them.
The girl stood to stand in front of them, blinking at Leo, unimpressed.
"Hey... Lauren?" Leo offered. She could be a Lauren, with straight blonde hair and blue eyes. Gods, he was bad at names. To be fair, he isolated himself in Bunker 9 all the time, but-
No, he was just really bad at names. Oops.
"It's Harriet," she sighed. "Apparently I'm joining you on this quest."
Mary Kate frowned. "Why?" she asked, unabashed.
"So I can save your butts if you fail at your job," the blonde responded coldly, glancing over to where Malcolm had begun to walk towards them. "The Mist," she elaborated, seeing the confusion etched onto Leo's face.
"Ah, right," Leo nodded as though he understood.
(He didn't understand).
He didn't have to ponder it long, however, when their leader appeared.
"Alright, we got everyone," he sighed, dropping a heavy book bag on the ground. "I'll get into more details on the way there, but basically, we're going to go sit in the little student center they have, for the wi-fi, alright?"
Leo gaped. "They have a student center? Since when?"
"It opened early this summer. The Apollo and Athena kids made us some fake student ID's so we can get in," he announced, passing out small blue cards. Leo glanced down at his, scowling at the rather unflattering photo they had stolen from his time at the Wilderness School. According to the shiny piece of plastic, he was a proud sophomore of Midtown School of Science and Technology.
"Hey, isn't this where Annabeth wanted to go? Midtown?" Leo interrupted, admiring the fine details of the card.
A hint of sadness washed over Malcolm's face. "Yeah. It's hard to transfer in, though, especially with the attendance problem and everything."
"She didn't get in?" Mary Kate asked, confused, and Malcolm was fully aware they had already drifted off topic.
"She didn't apply, it ended up making more sense for her to go to Goode-"
Leo snorted. "She just wanted to stake claim to her man."
"No," Malcolm said harshly, knowing the full extent of her reasoning, while the two girls giggled softly. "But moving on. Bad tangent."
Mary Kate eyed her own ID, skepticism written on her features. "Why would we go to study in the middle of July? School doesn't start until September here."
Malcolm nodded. "Yeah, that's why we "go" to Midtown. They're specialized, they have labs open and optional classes over the summer."
Harriet looked disgusted. "Why the Hades would anyone optionally go to school in the summer?"
"To learn?" Mary Kate defended. "To practice hacking so Iron Man doesn't shoot us with a tank missile when you fail?"
"Okay, but if there's a way to go, between that or anything else? I would gladly be blown to bits by Stark tech," Leo argued. The other two considered it briefly before nodding along.
Malcolm shook his head, tense. "Guys, stop. We have to go, come on. We're already late."
He stormed away towards the tree on the hill, leaving the three.
"He's really worried about them," Mary Kate said softly as they watched him go. The silence that fell over them allowed the fact to settle heavily in their stomachs, before they grabbed their equipment and lumbered quietly after him.
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The drive was long.
Long for four demigods at least; it was only supposed to last an hour and a half, but with their late start, traffic made it almost two. Malcolm obsessed over the details, not that Leo could really blame him.
Everything was pretty high stakes.
It retrospect, the plan seemed simple. Pretend to study, Mary Kate would hack on her laptop while the rest kept a lookout. If something went wrong, Harriet could pull an Obi-Wan on the staff and wipe their memories.
Everything would be fine.
Leo's excitement peaked when Argus pulled up to the curb outside of the tower, the bright blue letters STARK crisp and beautiful against the Manhattan skyline. The panels leading up the high-rise glistened against the sun, and he could almost hear Annabeth raving about the architecture, about the clean-energy, about the streamlined design and hidden supports.
Percy's eyes would glaze over when she began her academic rants, but Leo would've appreciated someone to oogle the building with him. At the moment, his company was uncomfortably silent.
"Are you guys ready?" Malcolm huffed, shouldering his bag.
Mary Kate took a shaky breath, patting her purple laptop bag. "No, but let's do it."
A minute later their feet were echoing off the lobby walls, their shadows elongated by the late afternoon sun. The son of Athena led the three through security then to the main reception desk as Leo struggled to not burst into flames in awe. He stared at the elevator as Malcolm talked.
Had Tony Stark used that elevator? What about the Avengers?
Forget the elevator to Olympus. If he could get a trip to the top ten floors of this place, which was honest to gods the true, real Elysium, he'd cry.
Fingers snapped in front of his face. "Leo," Malcolm said sharply. "They need to see your ID."
"Oh, right, sorry man," he laughed, whipping it out of his back pocket and displaying it proudly for the lady behind the desk, who looked less than impressed.
"Name, and age?" she asked, bored as she squinted at the card, her fingers flying as she typed information into the computer.
"Leo Valdez, sixteen."
She hummed a response before snatching the card from him, immediately placing it in some form of scanner. Blue light emitted from the device before it buzzed with a bright green. With nonchalance, her nimble hands plucked the card back before placing it into his hands. He watched with wide eyes as another card emerged, one to which she placed in a small plastic ID holder with a blue StarkTowerLearningCenter lanyard before handing it to him.
He stared at it in wonder. "Do I get to...?" he faltered off as he looked at the other three, all with their own lanyards around his next. "I get to keep this," he said incredulously. "That is awesome."
The secretary frowned. "The entrance is down the hall to the left. Just scan your cards and you can enter. Do be aware that security is strict here and foolishness will not be tolerated."
"Yes ma'am," Malcolm nodded. "Thank you, have a great day," he said before leading the others away.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Mary Kate snickered. "Foolishness will not be tolerated," she mimicked. Leo laughed.
"Yeah, that kind of killed the whole mood, didn't it? What, does she not trust us or something? We're just here to study, after all."
The son of Athena shot him a warning glance before stopping in front of a large, frosted glass window with STUDENT CENTER etched in the center. He hesitated slightly, smiling just a bit.
"This is pretty freaking cool," he mumbled before placing his card against the black scanner to the side.
"MALCOLM PACE, LEVEL 1, WELCOME," a female voice echoed from the ceiling.
All four of their heads shot up.
"Oh my gods, this is the best thing ever," Leo nearly squealed, pushing Malcolm through the open door. "My turn."
"LEO VALDEZ, LEVEL 1, WELCOME."
He rushed in without waiting for the others, circling the area like a kid in a candy store. He was a kid in a candy store. The room was huge; a small kitchen lined the wall to his left, complete with a mini-fridge, microwave, and coffee maker, while tables and chairs littered the center. There was a loft to the left, where Leo could spot a massive computer lab. Below lay an actual chemistry lab, and he could just see the door to a machine shop. A few older adults wandered the area, which he guessed were the chaperones of this whole insane area.
He had died and gone to Elysium.
"Leo?" Mary Kate appeared next to him, slightly concerned with his frozen state.
"Pinch me," he squeaked.
"Ew, no," she sniffed. "Come on, time to get this over with."
He followed her to one of the circular mahogany tables , plopping down in one of the many leather rolling chairs, thinking to himself that he could stay there forever.
And he just might.
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(A/N I'm sorry, I had to.)
"Uh, Mister Stark?" Peter glanced up from his spot across the lab, where he'd been tinkering with his web shooters for the past four hours. He had a new web formula that had a much stronger tensile strength, which worked great for swinging around Queens and webbing up bad guys, but not-so-great for his shooters. He had learned that the very hard way the night before, when they jammed in the middle of a fall.
He was thankful for his accelerated healing (and Mister Stark's medics). May was already tentative on letting him keep his night job as Spider-Man, and coming home with a few broken ribs and sprained wrist because he was careless wouldn't be good for his case.
"Are those shooters done yet?" Tony raised an eyebrow in response.
Peter frowned. "No? But-"
"Nope. Finish, then we'll talk."
"It's just-"
"Zip it, kid, until you can prove to me you're not going to fall off another building."
"I didn't fall off the building-"
"Yeah? What was that then? Cliff-diving into concrete?"
"I told you, I-!"
"Eh! Don't want to hear it."
Peter sighed. Evidently, he was still kind of mad about the whole falling thing.
He poked at the accessories for another second or two when he heard the phone ring again, the vibration jarring. Then it buzzed again, and again, and-
"Mister Stark, your phone is ringing," he said in exasperation, throwing his hands down.
The man sniffed, looking up sharply. Peter met his glower with pleading eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he demanded.
The teen shifted uncomfortably, pointing to his head. "Eleven," he said simply, referring to his weird spider enhanced senses.
Tony's face softened slightly. "FRIDAY, dim the lights." Peter opened his mouth to argue that it wasn't bothering him, but didn't get the chance before the man spoke again.
"Who's spamming me, FRI? Pepper? Ross? If it's Ross tell him-"
"There appears to be an attempted breach in the servers, sir."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's way below my pay grade. Send it to Happy," he demanded, turning back to his project.
"It's a domestic threat, sir."
Peter knit his eyebrows together in confusion as he met Mr. Stark's gaze. What does that mean? he mouthed.
The man straightened, rubbing a hand over his face. "Domestic how?"
"The breach is originated in the Learning Center, sir."
Without prompt, a blue hologram flickered into place, displaying the security feed of the main level. Tony narrowed his eyes at the young girl hovered over a laptop, typing furiously. She was flanked by a taller guy to her left, and a short latino to her right, watching her work intently. A blonde sat reading out of a textbook in the corner.
"Those the only four in there?"
"Other than your hired personnel, yes sir."
Tony clenched his jaw. "What are they trying to get into?"
"That is yet to be detected, sir."
"Then it's not my problem, send it to Happy!" Tony dismissed again, swiping a hand through the screen. It dissipated, but not before FRIDAY continued.
"The students responsible entered with Midtown Science and Technology badges. I am programmed to alert you when-"
"Yeah, the kid doesn't need to know that," Tony cut the AI off before it could continue. He pursed his lips at the teenager's confused expression across the room. "Pete, your friends are here. They want to know if you can play."
"I don't know those guys," the brunette responded, shaking his head. "I don't even think they actually go to my school."
"Doesn't matter, you're grounded anyway. FRIDAY, cut their access and alert security to escort them out."
"Would you like them to be prosecuted?"
"No. I've got bigger problems than high school wannabes."
"Yes, boss."
Tony smiled, rubbing his hands together as the AI faded out. He walked over to where Peter sat, poking one of the shooters as though it might come alive.
"Alright, kid, let's get these done. Tell me what you've got."
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"Well, that went well," Harriet commented at the curb, staring at the building they were just kicked out of.
"At least we weren't arrested?" Leo offered, poorly hiding his disappointment of the whole scenario.
He glanced back at Malcolm and Mary Kate, who were both whispering quietly to each other.
"Whoa, what's going on?" he interrupted, swinging a finger between the both of them. "Are we spreading rumors, because I can confirm that Nico and Will have made out in the infirmary."
Malcolm scowled. "No, and..." he paused. "You just forced that into this conversation, why did you feel the need to do that?"
"Because I'm mega upset we just got booted from the most beautiful place I've ever seen and that we've gotten no further in finding our friends and I've been dying to tell somebody since it happened last month and-"
"Whoa, calm down," Mary Kate held out a hand, gesturing to his chest. He glanced down, cursing before patting down a small flame. Apparently he had gotten a little to... ahem, heated. "We're not... no. We've got an idea though."
Harriet narrowed her eyes. "An idea."
"A plan," Malcolm clarified. "And this one might actually work."
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any ideas? predictions? hopes? concerns? random life events you want to vent to me about? detrimental fears about tony passing in avengers endgame? (endgame, big reputation, big reputation, oooOOOOHH yOU anD mE...)
love you all and sorry for the pain i put you through,
JustAnotherGirlmcg
p.s. how were your guy's valentine's days?!?