(Civil War didn't happen in this)
Aaaanndd he was late. Again.
Late to what? To a meeting obviously. It's not like this was out of the blue. Tony was always late for everything. He liked being the centre of attention, so making a dramatic entrance was always his thing. But this time tony was late, late. Like really late.
Pepper said the meeting was at 3:45 pm. So tony was planning to show up at 3:50 pm. But guess what?
Right now it's 4:30.
Great, it's not like tony listened to a word being said in his meetings anyway. He always just played on his phone and pretended like he was listening.
Pepper always did all the talking. But the problem was that she was already mad at Tony. Nowadays it's not all unicorns and rainbows with their relationship. They would always argue. He was always out of the house or in his lab. But it's not like Pepper was perfect either.
Tony felt like Pepper wasn't satisfying him anymore.
Don't get him wrong, he loved her. Well...
He used to love her.
He didn't know why. He just fell out of love. Right now his main priority was to get to that damn meeting.
The billionaire was tying his tie while also attempting to put on his shoes. Quickly gelled his hair back and popped a mint in his mouth.
Running out the door a robotic voice stopped him.
"Sir, the meeting will be finishing in approximately 2 minutes. I recommend just waiting for Mrs Potts to come back home as she will be on her way soon." FRIDAY spoke.
FRIDAY, Stark's Industries Artificial Intelligence.
Tony let out a loud, grumpy and annoyed sigh. The meeting was supposed to finish at 5:40 pm. But it must've cut short. In annoyance, he threw his tie off and made his way to the labs. The iron man suite got damaged last time he used it in battle.
Nick Fury has been on his ass all month calling him almost every day. Ever since that spiderman dude has beat the Lizard, he has been in the paper. And it made Nick go crazy. Nobody knew that spider's identity. Nobody. SHIELD needed that information.
They needed spiderman's name and age at the very least. But all they had was an estimated height and that wasn't good enough for Mr eyepatch.
Tony started unscrewing some bolts in the iron arm. When he was trying to cooperate with spidey, he wouldn't budge. Stubborn little spider. That little shit caught Tony mid punch and bent his suite with only his grip. Spiderman was strong that was for sure. Most likely nearly as strong as thor, or maybe even stronger.
Pepper's Pov
I was fuming. He had missed yet another meeting. This was the third time in a row. Their meeting ended shorter than expected because Tony never showed up. They needed Tony to sign and discuss on some important paperwork.
But of course, he never came. I am so done with this. I have been working my ass off for hours everyday overworking myself and all Tony did all day was drink and lock himself in a cramped messy underground lab.
I stomped my way inside, thanking my driver. "FRIDAY, Is Tony in his laboratory?" I asked, clearly not even attempting to hide my anger. FRIDAY responded with a yes. With that, I took a deep breath and went to the master bedroom to cool off.
No way was I going to confront Tony again, as I did for the past week. Every time I try to talk to Tony with our issues it ends up with a screaming argument.
The rest of the avengers feel uncomfortable being around us while we argue. I can't blame them.
I just changed into my pyjama's and turned on Netflix on the TV in my bedroom. Wanda and Natasha weren't here at the moment, they went shopping. So It was just me for now.
Tony's pov
"FRIDAY, has Pepper come home yet?" my voice getting shaky. I felt guilt building up, but I would never admit it. 'Conversations' with pepper just ended up as screaming matches. Never turned out good.
"Yes Mr Stark, she is in the master bedroom"
I sighed and just continued adjusting the iron man suit blueprints. I knew I needed to plan, a new strategy on getting a hold of that Spiderman.
But honestly, I wouldn't know where to start. I mean that man escaped everything I have tried. How do you catch somebody that can outsmart you almost instantly? I've tried everything.
I've sent Black Widow to spy on him, but he some how always knew she was there. I even sent Hawkeye to shoot a tranquillizing arrow at him, apparently, Clint never misses a target. Bullshit. That arachnid has dodged every arrow aimed at him.
Maybe I should get the hulk on him. Or Thor? Thor was out of world for another week or so but when he returns, ill ask him. Hulk it is then.
"FRIDAY, tell everyone else to meet me. we're having an avengers meeting."
"Yes Sir" It spoke out. I dropped my blueprints and swiftly snatched my StarkPad.
Once everyone was gathered together, 25 or so minutes later, I took a quivery breath. It was embarrassing talking about this vigilante.
It was just one man in spandex, and the avengers couldn't take him down. This was certainly humiliating.
Natasha, Wanda, Steve, Scott, Vision, Bruce, Sam, Rhodey and Bucky all sat around a large elegant metal table. Shaped like a rectangle. I stared at the beautiful view. Half the walls were made out of glass so the gorgeous view was always seen in almost every room in this building.
Rapidly, I put my confident face on while the team was bustling around taking their seats. I stayed stood up. It made me feel important.
"What's this about Stark, this better not be a repeat of last time because we got things to do." Sam sat there with his arms crossed. His furrowed eyebrows indicated he wasn't happy to be ordered for this get-together. "No worries, this is about Spiderman."
The room went quiet for a couple of moments. Everybody knew he was a masked hero, but nobody liked the 'masked' part. He's definitely been difficult and it was discomfiting.
"Okay. So what's our next move on him? nothing has worked so far" Scott stated. I thought for a moment. This is definitely irritating me.
"We send the big green jelly bean out. Its the best idea I have" I tried to sound reasonable and self-assured, but I don't know if I've accomplished that.
"You've got to be joking Tony. Hulk will destroy half the city trying to catch this guy. With his anger problems at least 50 buildings are guaranteed to slump down." Clint chuckled, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
"Alight birdbrain, what do you suggest in that thick skull of your's?!" At this point I allowed my voice to sound just slightly a bit worried.
"Alright, maybe The Hulk isn't the best option. But what about Thor? With his Mjolnir and Strength, combined with Wanda's Mind games, the Spiderman won't stand a chance." Steve spoke up.
Steve, well It's awkward between us. There have been many times where we have flirted, a lot. I've never seen myself as Gay, but Steve is different. It feels like he gets me.
Sounds very cliche but I can't imagine a life without knowing him. Steve has always been there for me. No matter the situation there has always been this spark between us.
I know it's very wrong for me to have feelings for Steve because I'm with Pepper. But it's been months trying to fix things with me and Pepper but things just get worse. I don't even think Cap feels the same way towards me though.
Sure, he has sent signals to me saying he wants something more. But I don't know if this will turn out great. Things are so complicated right now.
"-ony!"
"Tony!"
Suddenly I feel an arm shaking me out of my thoughts. It was Bruce. "You okay Tony?" I looked around and realised I had just spaced out. Clearing my throat, I fixed my posture and plastered a grin. "Sorry, yes. Thor will be a good option, Wanda you?" I calmed myself quickly.
"Uh, no. I just said that last time I went out there I couldn't get inside of spiderman's head. It's as if he is blocking me out or something. His mentality is stronger than we thought." I groaned. "I can still use some magic on him, it just won't be much." She tried explaining.
Steve suddenly stood up, making some people jump. "Alright! We send Thor and Wanda next week. Until then Clint and Natasha your up. If that still doesn't work me and Tony will go. Maybe bring Scott." He turned to look at Scott on his left. "Your shrinking will help put Spiderman into confusion while I and Tony try to get a hit on him."
Damn, I love it when Steve gets all-controlling and direct, I have to admit it turns me on.
I walked over to the mini-fridge in the room and pulled out some whiskey. Pouring into an expensive glass I walked back over listening to the conversation again.
"Something I have noticed about him is that his voice sounds young. He definitely doesn't sound 25." Her voice calm, Wanda was always a great listener.
"So, you think he's a teenager? no way. A teenager doesn't fight criminals every day. getting shot or stabbed once in while and definitely teenagers cant lift cars." I interrupted. maybe Spiderman's voice is a little squeaky but surely he isn't some teenager in spandex risking his goddamn life every night.
"Tony's right. But just to be sure, let's get FRIDAY to do a voice analysis on him to get an estimated age." Bruce added.
Moments later I and bruce arrived in his lab. We pulled up a recording of spiderman in one of my battles. In the video, I was trying to hit him with my repulsers.
I remember that day. I found spidey sitting on a rooftop probably watching the view. The sun was setting and so I went down to chat with spiderman. To convince him of spilling his identity to SHIELD. We only talked a while before he started trying to swing away.
But my stubborn ass didn't allow to be defeated that easily. I started shooting at him. He, to no surprise, dodged everything. But without me realising, just as my iron hand was about to launch again. He shot one of his webs onto my hand and the repulser instead of blasting towards him got stuck and my metal arm exploded.
Very embarrassing. My arm got burnt that day. It took a couple of days to heal but with bruce's help, it didn't hurt so much.
Ding
The computer signalled that the voice analysis was done. I looked over at the results. The screen made me choke on my own spit. It said he was about 19. That means he just finished Teenage hood. Spiderman has been around for about 2 years now. Which stated he started being spiderman when he was just 17. I couldn't believe I got beat by a kid. Yes, he is technically an adult but 19 is still very young. None of the avengers started fighting such dangerous crime at that sort of age.
Bruce gave me a look. I crossed my arms and looked at him back. "Tony, he fought a giant lizard when he was 17 and locked up a drug addict maniac goblin at the age of just 19. Not even mentioning all the mob bosses and dangerous criminals that roam the streets of new york every day. Who the hell is this spiderman?" Bruce confronted in a stern voice.
"Yes Bruce, I can do the math. And I don't know how he does it. I don't know what technology makes somebody stick to walls like that or how he dodges bullets. I don't know what magic he uses to know every attack that is about to come to him. I don't know, how at such a young age is can lift fucking trucks up or swing on thin tiny white strings. How the hell he can combat fight better than Natasha who has taken years to learn that. I don't know Bruce! and I hate that! I hate that this guy can take a couple of minutes to outsmart the Avengers." I was out of breath from my sudden outburst.
How can a kid be so good at this whole vigilante thing? Bruce was a little shocked by this whole situation. He leaned on a table and started thinking. I could tell he wasn't very happy with this situation either.
A couple of minutes later of discussing and trying to write down some potential weaknesses for spiderman, FRIDAY's mechanical voice came booming turning our attention to its voice. "Sir, Spiderman has been detected in Queens again."
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