Chapter Text
Tony Stark had spent the last four months trying to figure out who Spider-Man was under the mask, but he still was no closer to his identity. He seemed to move around every few months never staying in the same neighborhood for long. Tony had tried to follow him using cameras, but he could never figure out where he was going. He had even gone as far as to put a tracker on him after a fight where Spider-Man worked with the Avengers, but he had found it and sent Tony to Poughkeepsie NY chasing a tracker that was stuck to a train.
Spider-Man was clearly young, probably under 25, he was of under average height, he was enhanced, and he couldn’t stop talking. That was all Tony knew about him and no matter what he did he couldn’t find out more.
He had spent many a day over the last four months trying to figure out Spider-Man’s identity and that is what he was doing when Pepper came into his lab.
“You need to be on floor forty in ten minutes to look at the summer program kids’ projects.”
“Ughhhh. Do I have to? I’m a little busy here.”
“Yes, you have to, and you don’t seem busy it seems like you are still trying to figure out Spider-Man’s identity which you have been doing for four months without any luck. An hour to make some kids years won’t change the outcome.”
Tony knew Pepper was right, that didn’t mean he was going to admit that, so he just grumbled before tiding his desk before getting up. He followed Pepper into the elevator and down to the fortieth floor where the summer program kids were.
Stark Industries ran a program every summer for kids ranging from 13-18 where they spent the summer working for SI. Throughout the program, they all worked on individual projects which they presented at the end of the summer. That is where Tony was going now, to look at the finished projects as it was almost September.
When the elevator doors opened silence fell on the room of 45 high school-aged kids as they all watched Tony leave the elevator.
“Hello, Kiddies. I am excited to see your projects so let’s get started. Who’s first?”
Tony sat and politely watched all of the kids’ presentations, a few kids seemed to have promising futures, but they need some work. The second to last kid had just finished and the final student was introduced, “Peter Parker.” Tony watched as a young scrawny kid stepped up to the podium and plugged his computer into the projector and pulled a small battery out of his pocket. He set the battery on the podium where everyone could see before starting his presentation.
After a moment Tony realized, the kid wasn’t going to start talking so he read the first slide which talked about current batteries and about how they hadn’t progressed in many decades. After the kid had determined everyone had read the slide he went to the next page. They continued like this for a few minutes with Tony becoming more and more impressed with what the kid had created as it went on.
The battery was rechargeable and could power a car for 10+ hours on one charge. By the end of the presentation, Tony was impressed, this kid was clearly a genius. Once the kid was done Tony got the attention of the scientist who ran the program and told her he wanted to talk to the last kid. She nodded and went to get him.
After a few moments, the boy walked up to Tony and stood awkwardly looking at everything except for Tony.
“Hey, kid. Let’s pop out into the hallway, I want to talk to you.” The boy nodded and followed Tony as he stepped out into the hallway closing the door behind him. “That was a pretty impressive presentation, I think your project has a great future.” The kid's face lit up like the logo on the outside of the building. “I want to offer you an internship here. I know we don’t normally take high schoolers but I want that project of yours for SI and so I think we can make an exception. What do you think?” The kid nodded so vigorously Tony was wondering if his brain was rattling around in his head.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Of course, we will need to get permission from your parents.” The second Tony said the word parents the kid's face fell. “Or guardian.” The kid’s face raised slightly but he still looked a bit down.
“I will talk to the head of internships tonight and have them reach out to your adult on file.” The kid nodded and some of his previous joy returned.
“Thank you” Tony was surprised, he figured the kid just didn’t speak but he tried to hide that. He hadn’t spoken for almost 3 months after his mom died so he understood not wanted to talk.
“You’re welcome. Why don’t you get back to the group?” The kid nodded and went back into the room. Once the kid was gone Tony got in the elevator and went back up to his lab.
He went straight to his computer when he got there and had FRIDAY pull up the kid’s application for the program.
“Peter Parker, Age 14, School Midtown, Unweighted GPA 4.00.”
Tony looked further into the application and noticed that the person in the parent/guardian section had a different last name from Peter and that he had received a full scholarship to attend the program. The next thing he did was pull up the kid’s essay, program applicants had to write an essay explaining why they were interested in the program and how they got into science.
“I am interested in the Stark Industries Summer Program to gain real-world experience at the world's top technology company in the world. I one day hope to work at Stark Industries and hope that doing this program helps me to one day find a fulfilling career within the company.”
“My parents were both scientists before their death and they taught me my love for science at a very young age and even after their deaths my aunt and uncle continued to nurture my love for science. I got a chemistry kit for my fifth birthday and most of my few memories of my parents are of them teaching me how to use it. Now with my aunt and uncle gone, I feel that I owe it to not just my aunt and uncle but also my parents to follow my dreams and pursue a career in science.”
Tony just sat there rereading the essay for a few minutes before it really sunk in. No wonder he barely spoke. He was 14 and had already lost two sets of parents. Tony was 17 when he lost his parents but he didn’t speak for three months he couldn’t imagine losing two sets of parents by high school.