Awntie, Awntie! It's Iron Man time!"
"Already?" Aunt May sighed, "I've barely started the dishes. Can you wait?"
"No! I want it now now now!" As Peter whined, two large hands lifted him by the chest into the air.
"Don't worry hon, the superhero Uncle Ben is here!" Uncle Ben and Peter both laughed as Peter rode on Uncle Ben's back all the way to the computer room. While he turned on the computer, Peter impatiently rocked his chair to the limits.
"Hey, hey. Calm down kiddo, I'm just as excited to see this as you are. Still. I can't believe you'd be okay watch something like this. I think it's terrifying, actually." he muttered. His eyes turned to look at a glass tank full of Spiders. On the top-right corner a label read "Property of Richard Parker". Beneath it were scribbles that barely spelled out '+ Peter.' Peter had insisted they bring it from Richard's house. Saying it was for "research."
"Then again..." The video played before Ben could finish his thought.
The whole screen was covered in ash. The video shaked like it was in an earthquake; the cameraman to terrified to check his grip.
The video Peter liked had been filmed years before he was born. The hero had already been a somewhat well-known hero before, but to Peter, this movement was when he truly began to shine.
Smoke filled the air as a crowd of peopled cowered behind the police line. Likewise, the cops stood behind a makeshift barrier; their guns at the ready.
"This....this is crazy! Some villain showed up to wreck the place, then he came! He's saved what, 20,30, 50 people and it hasn't even been 5 minutes! W-what the hell is this?" a small explosion erupted from the fiery wreckage and the camera caught several human-sized robots jumping out of the burning buildings. They ran towards the barrier, carrying survivors draped over their shoulders; sometimes inside the very suits themselves. Behind them, a giant ironclad robot lumbered towards them, shaped like a massive metal sumo wrestler.
The massive robot pointed at the crowd as it arm transformed into a Gatling gun. As the barrel began to spin, another large figure emerged out of the smoke and shot the robot. The robot exploded in a bright-blue light.
The man responsible for the shot walked out of the wreckage.
It was a 7-foot tall human robot, and Tony Stark's first Zeta-series suit. It was dressed in the classic red-and-gold paint, and had defined muscles along the body. Parts of the armor were torn off in places, and a pulsar ray flickered like a broken lightbulb. The faceplate was cracked; the usual sea-blue glow of the eyes were now dim.
He carried multiple unconscious survivors. On his shoulder, being cradled in his right arm, foam-glued to his back, he had to be carrying at least a dozen of them. Despite his face-plate being cracked, Tony didn't need a microphone to amplify his voice.
"Everyone stay calm! Help has arrived!" Tony yelled as he walked towards the police.
"Make sure these people get to the nearest Stark Industries building I have several world-class doctors (some of them robots) there. Oh, and if you meet this red-haired girl, tell her she owes me dinner!"
One of the police gave a small laugh. "You'd need magic to fix some of these injuries."
Tony shrugged, "Got that covered too. Just put the critically injured into any Iron man suits. I can fly them over."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Every suit needs a test drive." Tony grimaced as he walked to some of the survivors. His suit began peeling off into multiple drones that formed themselves into a stretcher around the injured. As he did this, police were resting the injured into the other suits, as if the suits were their coffins.
The man holding the camera grabbed Tony's shoulder. "Who are you?"
"Me? Tony Stark, handsome entrepreneur, richest and biggest philanthropist since the gilded age, and a superhero. Or a real menace, according to the Daily Bugle."
"Yes. But as a superhero, who are you?"
Until this point, Tony Stark had simply used his normal name whenever he did any superhero work. But where he was going, 'normal' wouldn't fit. Tony stared at his Iron Man suits move people towards the hospitals.
"I'm...the Iron Giant." The man shook his head.
"I was actually thinking something like 'Iron Man,' like the same name of your suits?" Tony Stark paused, thinking the name over.
"Are seriously one-upping me? After what I did? Are we doing a d*ck contest now?"
"Wha-no-"
"Because if you are, it's working. That's a good one" He rubbed his beard, unaware it was still beneath his mask. "You know, that name is really good. I'll have to buy it off you."
"R-real-"
"In court of course. You named a product. My product. I'm legally obliged to sue you. Soo, Sunday works for you right? Ok? Ok." Iron Man and the other suits blasted off into the sky, leaving a crowd of astonished bystanders to witness the rise of the strongest superhero in the world.
"He's the coolest ever!" Peter yelled, "And once I get my superpower, I'll be just like him!"
"That's right," Uncle Ben hoisted Peter onto his back. "You won't just be like Iron man, you'll be better than him! I just know it!
"Your nephew won't have a quirk." The doctor sighed.
Peter's heart skipped a beat.
"What?" Aunt May gasped. Beside her, Uncle Ben stared at the ground silently.
"It's the hard truth. You see, since quirks began to appear, scientist have studied the relationship between a quirk and the body. One strong correlation is the number of joints in a person's foot. A person with a quirk would have one joint." The doctor pointed at an x-ray of Peter's foot. "Your nephew has two."
"Furthermore, we've done blood tests: there is no sign of a meta-gene, mutant-gene, or any kind of abnormal characteristic. Your son is perfectly normal...relatively."
"Just so we are clear, could you describe the quirk the boy's parents had? And yours too."
"Well," Aunt May began, "His father had a second set of eyelids that acted like x-ray vision, and his mother could heat her hands to cook food without using an oven." She sighed, "oh her homemade lasagna."
"Other than that, my quirk lets me shoot water out of my hands. And, Ben doesn't...you know."
"Doesn't have a quirk," he muttered. "That's why he's got no powers, isn't it?"
The doctor nodded, "Usually, if a child had parents with quirks, the offspring would have a combination of the quirks, or an entirely new quirk. Peter should've had some uncanny ability appear by now."
"Unfortunately, recent data suggests the possibility that if a child has siblings that, unlike them, have no quirks, the original child's offspring may also be born without a quirk. It's the same principle as brown-eyed parents having blue-eyed children; a trait in a person which doesn't affect the initial individual, but can be passed on and affect their offspring. Your....disability, is evidence of such a trait."
"Of course, you can't blame yourself. Science is a fickle thing, and we can't change the past. You could be optimistic and say that the 'data is inadequate,' but the fact of the matter is that Peter will likely never have any sort of superpower. Even with the numerous power-giving accidents that can occur, people are getting smarter. By the time he's 6, Gamma bombs will no longer be thing. And please, if he ever asks, don't set him up for some Canadian secret experiment. His body is, frankly, too weak to handle any such procedures.
Uncle Ben slowly nodded his head. "Understood. Thank you, Dr. Octavius, you were a real help."
Doctor Octavius returned a warm smile, "anything for an old friend."
As Uncle Ben and Aunt May left the room, Peter turned to look at the X-ray on the wall. Wondering how something so small could make such a big impact on him.
"Peter!" Uncle Ben called out. He had been sleeping with May until he heard a loud CRASH from the computer room. Uncle Ben ran into the room, slamming the door aside.
Peter stared at the computer; blue lights flickering over his tear-filled face.
"Everyone stay calm! Help has arrived!" the computer said. Slowly, Peter turned to face Uncle Ben.
"I...I can still be like Iron Man, wight?" Peter cried.
Uncle Ben ran over and hugged Peter. "Peter, Peter," he whispered into his ear, "You're a smart boy with a lot of talent."
"But, no quirk."
"Yes." Uncle Ben was silent. "But...it's my fault. For making you believe in heroes. For filling your heads with daring heroics. For not seeing the signs earlier. For...for making you believe in a dream I could only have every time I slept. Peter...I'm...I'm" suddenly, Uncle Ben hugged Peter; crying. "I'm so sorry Peter!"
Silently, the two of them cried their sorrows away. Several minutes later, Aunt May came in and she, too, began crying alongside Ben.
But Uncle Ben, present-day Peter thought as he looked back on that moment, you never answered my question.
That's not what I needed you to say. I wanted you to say that it didn't matter that I didn't have a quirk. I could still become a superhero...
One as great and amazing as Iron Man.
Aaaaaaaaand done
Here's a long chapter so you don't get bored during quarantine ;3
Stay safe my dudes