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Peter hated deciding between colleges. If he hadn’t been snapped, then he would not be sitting in homeroom ready to scream. The date to be exact: March 14th, or pi day. While this date seemed insignificant, today MIT released acceptance letters and somewhere deep down inside he needed to follow in Tony’s footsteps.
Over two years went by since the final battle against Thanos, Peter figured he probably could have dropped out of high school. To his dismay, May ordered him back to Midtown High without listening to his extremely compelling argument.
“I’m an avenger, May!”
“Peter,”
“Oh c’mon, y’know I really-”
“Peter,”
“This is so unfair I-”
“Peter,”
“Okay, okay, fine,”
Peter never articulated himself well in front of his aunt.
Someone tapped his shoulder behind him. Peter turned to see Ned. “What’s up, man?”
“Wanna hang after school? I heard they’re releasing the trailer for the new Star Wars show and I figured we could watch it together.” Ned asked
“Ah, I can’t. I promised Pepper I’d take Morgan out so…”
“Oh no, it’s cool. I’ll still wait to watch it with you.”
“Are you stressed?”
Ned laughed, “Is this about the whole MIT thing again? Don’t worry. I’m sure Iron Man wrote you a recommendation letter the day you met.”
Peter sighed, he knew his connection to Tony would likely be the reason he got into the electrical engineering program. He needed to continue Mr. Stark’s- no Tony’s legacy. “I mean yeah man. If I don’t get in, I feel like he’ll be disappointed.”
“Hey weirdo,” MJ said walking into the room.
Peter offered a small smile to his girlfriend, “Hey you,”
“You’re really bad at comebacks. So Star Wars today?”
“No, he’s hanging out with the little sis,” Ned answered for Peter.
The bell rang moments later. The three parted ways. Peter looked down at his phone waiting for the email that would change his life. Just a few more hours.
-
“You keep looking at your phone,” Morgan complained.
Peter looked up from the screen with a guilty smile, “I know I’m sorry. I’ll turn it off.” he powered the phone off before plopping down on the living room couch. “What do you even do in elementary school? Isn’t that too easy?”
“Yeah, I’ve been doing stuff outside it. Wanna see?”
“Sure yeah! What is it?”
“Just come see,”
The two traveled down to Tony’s old workshop now recreated into Morgan’s “playroom” so to speak except her playroom just had everything Tony’s workshop had sans the sharp and dangerous objects. Peter used it often for new project ideas.
“Remember when we talked about missing daddy.” Morgan began, going over to one of the smaller tablets.
Peter decided to not correct Morgan, he long ago accepted Tony as a father figure and that Morgan was his little sister. It only felt right. “Yes, that was last week.” Peter nodded, looking down at his shoes. Talking about Tony’s death around Morgan unsettled the adults, but Peter never minded. Morgan was an adult in her own right especially now at seven years old.
Morgan sat down pressing the screen before she paused, “So, I created something to remember him. I just don’t know how to get it to work.”
That piqued Peter’s curiosity. He rounded the table to look down at the tablet. There were schematics on the screen for a project named ‘STARK’. The vague name did not give away any new details. “Alright, how can I help?”
“It’s some of the coding.”
“Darn, I could’ve brought Ned if I knew you needed coding.”
“No, I think you know how to do this. It’s for an intelligence computer. I was trying to make someone like JARVIS or FRIDAY.” Morgan said, pushing the tablet towards Peter. “Except the AI is not them,”
Peter furrowed his eyebrows, “So… who is it?”
“You’re dense.”
“Hey! That’s not nice. You can’t just insult me. Listen not everyone can be as smart as you are.” Peter laughed, giving Morgan a soft push.
Morgan stuck her tongue out, “Fine, its a program that uses daddy as the voice and intelligence system. He left so much stuff lying around and even instructions to create a program like his. I figured I could try… bad idea?”
That struck a chord. Peter bit his lip squinting at the screen. Hell, he could certainly try to get it to work. “Did you follow all the steps?”
Morgan nodded, pointing to another set of instructions lying out on the table. “Yes, I just don’t know anything about this stuff. I tried teaching myself, but I wanted you to help me. You’re smart,” she said.
With some ease, Peter and Morgan immersed themselves into the work in front of them. He barely noticed the time as they slaved over catching errors in their coding. Getting an artificial intelligence program to the par that Tony Stark created was incredibly difficult. Yet here the eighteen and seven-year-old were slaving away. Each failure led to more successes and Peter started to understand a bit better what he was doing. His bloodshot eyes rose to see the clock well past dinner time. So much for being a responsible brother.
“Maybe we should take a break, Morgan? Pepper is going to get mad if I don’t feed you.” Peter sighed, rubbing his face.
“No, we’re almost there. We just need to finish. I spent weeks on this.”
“Y’know I think Tony spent more than a few weeks on JARVIS.”
“He said he spent a week.”
“Well, he was a grown up with a bachelor’s and master’s degree. You’re seven.” Peter laughed.
“Age doesn’t matter.” Morgan huffed, pouting.
“Hey I’m just teasing. You’re way smarter than Tony, okay? He knew that as soon as you were born I’m sure. Isn’t the whole point of parenting to make sure your kids are better than you?” Peter said.
“Well, Peter, I imagine parenting is more complicated. Would you like me to summarize the average parents' duties from day to day?” a new voice responded.
Morgan and Peter froze looking down at their work.
That should not have worked.
“Uh… no thanks, FRIDAY?”
“Cut the crap, Pete. We both know my voice is better than FRIDAY’s.”
Peter’s eyes widened, “No way! Morgan what the hell you fucking did it!”
“Yeah, I fucking did it!”
“Language, young lady.”
“Morgan, how did you get so much personality in this?”
“Daddy created most of it. A note of the files said I needed your help. It’s supposed to be his little legacy. Kind of like the video he left us…” Morgan said, smiling softly. “Do you like it? I think I can even get it installed into your suit if you wanted.”
“Most certainly, already did it.”
“Tony, I’m glad you somehow have control of yourself as a computer.” Peter laughed, feeling tears start to form in his eyes. “Learn that at MIT?” Peter choked.
Immediately small arms wrapped around his form. Peter started to cry unsure of where the emotion came from. He noticed Morgan bury her face into the old t-shirt he stole from Tony’s closet. Pepper let Peter take some of the clothes just because Peter didn’t have much and she needed it gone.
“Oh, hey, hey, this is a good moment,” Peter mumbled to Morgan. “We got a semi-authentic Tony Stark to nag us forever!”
The memory of the arc reactor floating in the middle of the lake made Peter’s heart stop. He let out more tears as he sunk to his knees and pulled Morgan closer. However long it took to work through their grief, the new Tony Stark decided to chime in.
A hologram image of the man appeared out of nowhere. Tony showed the typical characteristics of his every day look, a blank tank top and work pants. “Touching moment, but you both haven’t had dinner.”
“Are these supposed to be some kind of nanny protocols?” Peter laughed, running his fingers through Morgan’s soft brown hair. “Maybe we can remove those like Ned did with my suit a couple of years ago.”
“Nope, nada, can not- I made sure to make this program full proof including the parenting bits that all AI’s must take on.”
Peter and Morgan stared at Tony’s image in awe. Every now and then they watched the old hologram video he taped right before he went to find the infinity stones. This… this was nothing like that.
“I miss you, daddy,” Morgan said, lip trembling at the sight of her father.
“Oh pumpkin,” Tony sighed, bending down. “I’m always here remember? Peter’s a walking Tony Stark- a lot more awkward though.”
The three laughed at the jab at Peter.
“What time is it anyway?” Peter asked.
“By my clock, about 9 at night,” Tony replied, standing back up.
“I better check to see if Aunt May messaged me. She’s gonna kill me if I don’t respond.” Peter said, turning his phone on.
Notifications began to pop up on his phone. An email about some club meeting being canceled, another message from MJ asking some question about homework. He sighed, “I don’t think I’m going to hear back from them, Tony.”
“Who?” Morgan asked.
“MIT,” Peter whispered, eyes still glossy. “What if I don’t get in?”
“MIT’s overrated. Any school would be lucky to have a bright kid like you, Pete. You know that.”
There may have been a seven-year-old adopted sister in his lap and his father-figure hologram in front of him like a force ghost, but at this moment, Peter felt like he was home and that he could never disappoint Tony.
Peter shrugged, “I just figured I’d be like you, Mr. Stark. That’s all.”
“You’re better. You both are-”
A ding signaling a notification went through the workshop.
Peter saw the email read change to acceptance status.
“Maybe I shouldn’t look at it-”
“Do it now, your family is here,” Morgan said, sliding out of Peter’s lap.
The word family made Peter’s throat tighten. He tried to hold back his tears realizing how far he had come since losing his parents. With an amazing aunt, a kind sister, a robot father, Ned, MJ, and even Pepper, he finally started to feel at ease with himself. “Alright, yeah, you’re right, Morgan.”
Within seconds, Peter logged in and clicked the notification.
The page kept failing to load.
Peter groaned hitting the refresh button again.
Then the letter appeared.
“Dear Mr. Parker…” Peter began, scanning the words on the paper for any sign that he made it into Tony’s alma mater. “C’mon…”
“Accepted?” Morgan asked.
“Um…” Peter blinked, showing Morgan the phone. “Yeah?”
“Yes!” Morgan hollered.
The two embraced one another. In the background, AI Tony began to holler screaming something about how his kid got into MIT. For a moment, the infinity stones were a forgotten memory. Peter held Morgan as close as he could unable to process the emotions coursing through him.
“I did it. I did it,” he repeated over and over.
“You’re my kid, of course, you did it,”
“Hey, you two need dinner down here?” a woman’s voice called out.
“Yes, mummy!” Morgan replied.
“Watch out for her cooking,”
“What are you two- Tony?” Pepper asked, dropping the water glasses in her hands. “What the-”