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“Spider-Man hasn’t been seen in the last three months, Sir.”
Jarvis’ voice added to the weekly news summary, as Tony was drinking his third cup of coffee of the day.
“Three months? Any known reasons for it?”
“No, Sir. Spider-Man hasn’t been inactive for more than a month since he appeared six years ago. He started appearing less and less starting in July, and he was last seen stopping a bank robbery on the fifth of October. He left the scene seemingly uninjured but hasn’t been seen since. There are no reports of finding a body, neither did any villain claim that they had anything to do with his disappearance.”
“Well, that’s interesting.”
Spider-Man had sparked his interest about three years ago when he had a run-in with the kid. By then he had already known who Spider-Man was, he had read about the new superhero in Queens. Spider-Man had started out doing petty stuff, returning lost dogs, stopping purse snatchers, helping old ladies, that kind of stuff. But he became better over the years, and thanks to him the crime rates dropped significantly in Queens and its surroundings.
When Tony first met him Spider-Man was fighting the Vulture. He was in civilian, but before he could consider getting the suit there, the new hero defeated Vulture. His voice sounded surprisingly young as he shouted puns and jokes towards his enemy during the whole fight. The kid had a great sense of humor, too. After that, Tony asked Jarvis to give him updates on Spider-Man. He couldn’t deny being curious about Spider-Man’s secret identity, but once he mentioned finding out he got the whole speech from Pepper about respecting people’s privacy and not sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. So he let go of the matter for a while, honestly forgetting about it, until now.
“He could be on vacation. A very long vacation. Or maybe he’s ill,” He reasoned to Jarvis, “Does he have enhanced healing? I don’t remember him having magic healing.”
“Based on my research he does appear to have some form of enhanced healing.”
“Oh, nice. Wish I had that.”
“It would be certainly helpful with your hangovers, Sir.”
“Be nice, Jarvis, or I might delete you,” Tony managed to sound offended as he replied.
“Certainly, Sir,” The AI’s voice lacked sarcasm as if Tony didn’t make the same threat every other day.
“Remind me why am I awake this early?”
“It’s currently 11 AM Sir, and your meeting at Stark Industries started six minutes ago.”
“Oh, fuck. I knew I had to be somewhere. I gotta go, but keep an eye on Spidey, Jarvis and tell me if there is any development.”
“Of course, Sir.”
“Spider-Man hasn’t been seen for five months now, Sir.”
“Five months?! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You said to notify you if there was any development in his case, but there wasn’t. There still isn’t, but I thought you would find this information useful.”
“Yeah, fuck privacy, I really need to know what happened to Spidey. No one disappears for five months for no reason.”
It was surprisingly easy to find out Spider-Man’s secret identity. He had Jarvis analyze where he was spotted most often, his patrol route, and the places he visited. This helped him significantly narrow down where he could have lived. Hacking a few cameras, and accessing tenants lists was child’s play. Finally, he found a recording from five years ago, capturing the young hero climbing inside a building window in the area. That building only had three possible tenants at that time who fit the physical description of Spider-Man.
He easily ruled out one of them after finding a video of him on a cruise ship during the time Spider-Man was taking down an animal trafficker. It was a bit harder with the other two, but in the end, he was about 99.9% sure he knew who Spider-Man was: Peter Benjamin Parker. 21 years old, studying Physics at the Empire State University on a full science scholarship, with grades that even impressed Tony Stark. He moved into a shitty apartment near the university in August and soon started working as a food delivery guy and he also had a part-time job at a grocery store.
Getting into university and needing time to study could have been a good explanation for him stopping the superhero business, but he started studying there two years ago, and during the last year there was only a minimal decline in his activities as Spider-Man. So why stop now?
Well, there was only one way to get answers, so Tony ordered a pizza.
It came approximately forty minutes later, delivered by the one and only Peter Benjamin Parker. Tony instructed the receptionist to send the boy up to his living room.
He arrived soon, in a terribly designed uniform, with a pizza box in hand, looking rather nervous.
“Good afternoon Mr. Stark, Sir. Where should I put your pizza?”
“Just put it down there, will you?” Tony gestured towards the table.
He took a good look at the young man as he walked across the room. He was tall and scrawny, maybe even scrawnier than what could be considered healthy. He had messy brown hair, clearly in need of a good haircut, and when he turned towards Tony he noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He also looked much younger than 21, except for his eyes. Those were the eyes of an old man.
“Thank you for ordering from Pizza Dog. Enjoy your meal.”
He turned around, ready to leave, so Tony had to quickly come up with something to get him to stay.
“Hey, what’s the hurry? Do you want a slice? It’s better to eat in company, and as you can see I’m all alone.”
Fuck. That sounded creepy. He should’ve thought about this before. The kid looked at him, confused, then shook his head.
“Thank you for the offer, Mr. Stark, but I still have deliveries to make.”
He almost reached the door, so Tony just blurted something out.
“It’s just I have an idea that has been bugging me all day and I need someone to rant about it. I can even pay what you would get in the afternoon with the deliveries and whatnot. Just hear me out, for the sake of science?”
The kid hesitated, but then he shook his head.
“I would love to hear it, but I really have to go.”
“It’s about spiders.”
Now that made him stop.
“Fascinating creatures. Did you know that their web is about five times stronger than steel? And they’re fast and agile. Imagine if humans could be similar. Like that Spider-Guy.”
“Uhm, I don’t really like spiders, so I wouldn’t know a lot about this.
“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that the guy who used to spend half his life dressed up as a spider didn’t like them. Or is that the reason you dislike them, Peter?”
The kid completely froze, before composing himself.
“If that was a joke, I don’t get it. And my name isn’t Peter.”
“Oh come on, don’t play dumb. We can go back and forth for a while with me giving you proof after proof and you denying everything until you have no choice but to admit the truth, but that would take like half an hour and I have a meeting in one, so can we skip that part?”
The boy was still staring at him, considering his options. Tony sighed, walked up to him, and extended his hand.
“Peter Benjamin Parker aka Spider-Man. I don’t think I need to introduce myself, but for the record, I’m Tony Stark and I would love to have a chat about why you disappeared. Just a chat. I’m not telling your secret to SHIELD or anyone. I’m good at keeping secrets. Well, cross that, that‘s not true, but I promise I will keep this a secret. Just please sit down and talk to me?”
Peter collapsed onto one of the couches, staring at Tony with wide eyes.
“What do you want to know?”
“You disappeared! Completely vanished! It’s been five months since anyone has seen Spider-Man. The magazines are guessing you’re dead, but that’s clearly not true, since you look very much alive to me. So what happened? Did you retire? I mean, no shame in that, I plan on doing it someday, but aren’t you a little young to retire? Or did you lose your powers? Got blackmailed? Turned to the dark side and became a villain? Or-?”
“My aunt died.”
Those three words were enough to make Tony stop ranting. Fuck. He didn’t think of that option. What was he supposed to do now? He was shit at dealing with emotions, especially grief, and even shittier at helping others deal with them. The kid looked like he was about to cry, but he kept talking.
“She was my last living relative.”
“Shit, sorry kid. What happened?”
“Cancer. They noticed it too late. Took her in two months.”
“I’m sorry. Is that why you stopped?”
Peter shook his head.
“You know what’s funny? Being Spider-Man was the only thing that helped me feel better after she was gone. When I was in the suit I wasn’t constantly thinking about her.”
“So why did you stop then?”
Peter laughed bitterly.
“Because I can’t afford to be Spider-Man, Mr. Stark.”
Tony frowned.
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t. You were a billionaire the moment you were born. But me? I’m broke. I couldn’t afford our rent after Aunt May died, and then there were the medical bills and the funeral. I thought I could get by after that, I have a full scholarship, but I still have to pay for the books, the rent, the transport, and the food. Fucking high-metabolism, comes with the powers, I need to eat more than normal people. And I tried to do it, you know, to have a job and study and be Spider-Man, but I can’t. I just can’t. I thought about dropping out of uni but I promised May I would graduate, and I can’t break that promise. And maybe after I get my degree I’ll be able to get a job that allows me to have enough time and money to be Spider-Man again. But now? I have two jobs, a shitty apartment I can barely afford, I mostly eat ramen and I still have to study to keep my scholarship. You don’t think I don’t feel guilty every time I read about a mugging gone wrong or a bank robbery, knowing that I could have been there, that I should have been there? I want to be Spider-Man, but I can’t do it, I’m sorry. I’m just so tired.”
He was crying by the end of it, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed. Tony had no clue how to react. He walked over to Peter and awkwardly petted his shoulders.
“Hey, it’s okay kid. It’s not your fault. We’ll figure something out.”
Peter leaned away from his touch, then he suddenly stood up, wiped his face, and grabbed his bag.
“I have to go. I’m sorry to have disappointed you, Mr. Stark. Goodbye.”
And just like that, he was gone.
Tony’s first solution to any problem was to throw money at it until it resolved itself. This was his first idea regarding Peter, too. He wanted to buy the kid a house, stuff it full of food, hire a personal chef, whatever. But he got the feeling that maybe Peter wouldn’t be too happy about it. So he went to the only person he knew could turn his outlandish ideas into an acceptable reality. Pepper listened to him ranting about the whole situation without a word. Then, when he was finished, she walked over to him and hugged him.
“First of all, I’m proud that you want to help this boy. But yeah, buying a house isn’t gonna solve this. He’s proud. He will think this is charity, or that he will owe you.”
“But that’s not it! I just want him to be able to be Spider-Man again! And also to not starve.”
“Yes, I get that, but he won’t see it this way. How about you make it a more equal situation? A deal? You said the kid was really smart. Don’t we need new interns?”
A few days later two emails were sent to Peter Parker. One by Stark Industries, informing him that he had been selected for a paid internship with flexible hours. The work benefits also included housing and free access to the cafeteria. The other email was from Tony.
Hey kid,
Sorry about how our last meeting went. I shouldn’t have pushed you like that, but I’m not the best when it comes to human interactions, as you probably figured out. Anyways, by now you probably got the email from the company, and you’re overthinking the offer in a thousand different ways. Don’t. There are no strings attached, the offer stands whether you want to continue being Spider-Man or not, or if you want to work there but not meet me ever again. You’re damn smart, and Stark Industries needs people like you. I may have hacked your uni’s website to take a look at your essays, and I loved that theory on dark matter.
So that’s probably it. And if you do decide to continue the whole superhero thing again, please let me take a look at that suit. I have a hundred ideas for upgrades.
Tony