Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Secrets uncovered
2014
Tony POV
Tony was working on developing Nanotechnology when Bruce Banner ran into the lab, papers in hand. Tony paused his blasting rock music, wondering what Bruce had to tell him.
“I found it,” was all Bruce had to say.
“Are you serious?” Tony asked, abandoning his work entirely.
“Yes. It took some digging, and hacking, and with Nat’s help I was able to hack Oscorp’s files and find it.” Bruce explained. Tony was shocked, to say the least.
Oscorp was a small HYDRA-based corporation that worked in DNA mutation and biologically changing gene-based components of organisms. They used a lot of radioactive elements, and most of the scientist staff died from it, all at a similar time.
“It’s his work, right? And we can re-create it?” Tony asked.
“Yep, all 100% written by him,” Bruce added.
“Let’s get to work.”
Present day. (Post NWH. Tony lived but Peter was forgotten still.)
Peter’s POV
Peter woke up to his alarm blaring in his ears. He reached over and gently pressed the ‘stop’ button. He’d spent more money on alarm clocks than he cared to admit.
He groaned and rolled out of bed, trying to shake the grogginess off. He had to get to work. With a glance at the clock he could see he just had enough time to get to work.
Getting a job was hard with no proof of existence. But somehow he got THE job. He applied almost as a joke to be a junior scientist at SI (pretend the tower was never sold because it's so cool), and had somehow gotten the job.
Peter had no idea how, since he technically hadn’t even graduated high school, but maybe his research on genetic mutations he learned from reading his late father’s reports helped out.
He was thinking of what to research for his application project when he came upon copies of his Dad’s work in an old box. It was cool research and it was perfect timing.
He soon arrived at SI and scanned himself in, and headed to his lab. There, he worked on adding EDITH to his fabric Spider-Man suit. He had a small lab, like all other Junior Scientists, but it was his own space.
Mr. Stark had died, and he had gotten the EDITH glasses. Then after Peter was forgotten, it turns out he Mr. Stark barely survived and had been living in Wakanda for a couple years before coming back out to the public.
Peter wanted to give the glasses back, but he didn’t exist anymore so he decided to keep them as a reminder of who he was. EDITH remembered him, since she’s not a person. She didn’t have any records of him, only what he’d told her, etc.
Since getting the SI job his suit had gotten many upgrades and things. But no matter what he did it would never be like the suits Mr. Stark had made for him. Peter wished he could just go up a couple levels and ask Mr. Stark for help. Be he was no one.
Peter was getting bored so he pulled out his phone to play some music. After a while he ended up on instagram. The first post to pop up was a post from MJ of her and her new boyfriend kissing on the beach. Peter stared for a second then put his phone down, drowning himself in work and the music.
Before he knew it he was crying. Not just about MJ but about Mr. Stark. How he was nobody. He would never be who he was again. Old Peter would have immediately gone upstairs to help Mr. Stark with anything random if he had gotten this job. Old Peter would have been the one in that post. Old Peter-
His thoughts were stopped short by Mr. Stark coming into Peter’s lab. Peter froze, then wiped his tears away quickly, hoping Mr. Stark didn’t notice. He focused on his work again, pausing the music in the process.
“Hey uh… Peter, right? Peter Parker?” Mr. Stark asked.
“Yeah, that’s me…” He replied timidly. He was already in the middle of an emotional breakdown about Mr. Stark, and now he’s just… right here.
“I uh, wanted to know if you’d be open to talking to me a bit about that research you did when applying?”
Peter froze. He didn’t do the research bit of his application really, just read his Dad’s reports and modeled his project after that.
“Well, uhm the research is technically my Father’s but the project is all mine and-” Peter explained, but was cut off.
“Yeah, the project is irrelevant to me. I wanna know about the research. You said it was your Father’s?” Mr. Stark clarified.
“Yeah, uhm Richard Parker if that means anything. I came across it while going through his old stuff and thought it was interesting.” Peter said.
“Okay, okay. Do you know Spider-Man?” Mr. Stalked asked. Peter took a second to answer, hoping the man wouldn’t get suspicious. When Peter had stopped working he made sure to put the suit away in case someone would walk in.
“I’ve heard of the guy,” Peter replied after a hopefully not weird second.
“Well he’s a genetically mutated guy, and the spider that modified his DNA was well, created by me and Dr. Banner, but your father designed a lot of the research and early tests and models of those spiders. If you could give us those research documents you found that would be amazing…” He continued talking but Peter wasn’t listening.
Peter’s father created him. His Dad who disappeared when he was 11 created Spider-Man. His Dad’s work was coursing through his veins right now. His Dad was the reason he got to save people. And his other past father figure had also helped create him. Peter had only read a page or two of his Dad’s work before he got inspired. If he had read on, maybe he would have seen something about that spider. If it weren’t for his Dad, Peter would just be… Peter. Would he have gotten with MJ at all? Would he be remembered? Who would he be? What if his Dad never did spiders, and Peter never got bitten? Mr. Stark may have died, or MJ or Ned, or May would still be alive…
Suddenly the world started spinning and Peter felt himself begin to fall over. He tried to stop it but when his head hit the floor he knew that would be useless. He could hear Mr. Stark say something but he couldn’t comprehend it.
“It was you…” Peter managed to push out. Then the world went black.