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The kid was smart. Tony could give him that.

Spider-Man had given a suggestion to stop the Living Laser and clearly knew what he was talking about. So Tony had invited him over to Stark Industries; he figured the kid would enjoy getting a sneak peek at some of his in-progress projects.

That’s not to say that Tony had been keeping an eye on Spider-Man, but he knew enough about the kid to know he should probably look at him a little closer.

“You know, all that thinking can’t possibly be good for your blood pressure, Sir.”

Tony sat up a little straighter and turned his head slightly, “Spider-Man. Glad to see you took me up on my invitation.”

“Of course, Sir,” the kid flipped over his head and landed perfectly in front of his desk. “It’s an honor. I-uh… I’m a big fan.”

Tony straightened his tie and stood up, “JARVIS, power down. Make sure the security systems are up.”

“Yes, Sir. Shall I advise the laboratory staff of your incoming arrival?”

Tony glanced over at Spider-Man, who was looking up at the ceiling in what he assumed was awe, “Why not? Let’s make sure they have nothing but the best for Spider-Man.”

The boy’s head immediately flew down, “For me?”

Tony jerked his head toward the exit and began walking, “Fury was smart to bring you onboard, kid. How old did you say you were?”

“Uh… I didn’t,” Spider-Man rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Can’t really say either.”

Tony raised a brow, but didn’t push the subject, “You into chemistry? I’m assuming you made your webs yourself? Or are they organic? ‘Cause if so… maybe I don’t want to hear specifics.”

“No, I…” he looked down at his wrist, “I made my own web shooters and fluid when I started.”

“How?”

He chuckled nervously, “Trade secret?”

Tony offered him a singular huff but headed toward the nearest elevator. He didn’t often come to work in person unless Pepper bugged him, but he figured the kid wouldn’t have passed up the chance to visit.

Spider-Man stayed back for a moment before a thwip sound came from Tony’s right and the kid pulled himself into the elevator, landing perfectly on the back wall.

“Interesting,” Tony pressed the button to the lab floor. “Do you have some kind of adhesive properties on your gloves and boots?”

“No, I… on my skin. Microscopic hairs like-”

“Like the setae of a gecko,” Tony interrupted right before the ding of the elevator signaled the door opening. “I assume whatever turned you into… this affected your genome and not just your phenotype.”

“Radioactive spider bite mutated my DNA into… this,” the kid said. “I highly recommend not trying that at home.”

“Noted,” Tony stepped out of the elevator. The kid launched himself forward and landed right next to him, not a single falter in his step.

‘Note to self,’ Tony thought, ‘add enhanced agility to the list of abilities.’

Spider-Man was looking around, the white lenses of his eyes wider than normal.

Impressed. Check.

The corner of Tony’s lips twitched upward, “Tell you what, kid. You let me have a blood sample and I can show you exactly what genes were mutated.”

“No offense, Mr. Stark, Sir, but the last time someone took a sample of my blood, I ended up fighting a symbiote that really wanted to complete itself by taking over my body.”

Tony turned to him, eyebrow raised as they walked through the emptier section of the lab.

“It’s a long story that ends with me being electrocuted so bad I can still barely feel my fingertips.”

“A symbiote?”

“Black, gooey, murderous, answered to the very ominous name of Venom.”

Tony reached forward and placed his palm on the nearby reader, “You assumed the symbiote was made from your blood?”

“It said as much when it bonded to me,” Spider-Man explains. “I still have yet to figure out the mechanics on that one.”

Tony hummed and the doors slid open.

“This is the most experimental, highly classified section of the factory,” Tony announced. “This is where dreams become reality.”

The hall was full of robotics, active and inactive, and scientists were wandering about, working on their creations.

“Cool!” the kid leaned forward slightly. “I have a place like this…!”

After a beat of silence, he added, “Okay, nothing like this.”

Tony walked him through the lab. He didn’t have to ask what the kid thought; he was amazed.

Seriously, Tony was sure he’d forgotten what the word “cool!” meant by now.

“Check it out,” Tony spun on his heel to face Spider-Man while approaching the large structure. “A molecular disruption chamber. Don’t go in there when it’s hot.”

The kid leaned in slightly before turning to him, “Oh yeah? What happens?”

Tony pinched his fingers together, a smirk tugging at his lips, “Unless you fine-tune the frequency-”

He snapped, “-it’ll scatter you into multiple parallel dimensions.”

“… yikes.”

Tony sighed and reached up to rub at his goatee, “Listen, I know Fury is training you, trying to bring you up to his level. Personally, I think you should aim higher.”

“How’d you know about that?”

Tony scoffed, “C’mon, my company built the Helicarrier.”

“Huh,” the kid tilted his head curiously and narrowed one eye,  “the way you were sniping at each other, I never would have pegged you guys working together.”

He raised a brow, “You get along with the people you work with?”

Tony doubted those other kids didn’t get on the kid’s nerves now and then. They were - what Tony assumed - teenagers.

The kid turned away for a moment, “Good point.”

“Anyway, if you really wanna kick up your game,” Tony walked toward a nearby opening vault, “I had an hour to kill, so I came up with this.”

“Woah…” the kid’s eyes widened again.

“You wanna take it out for a spin?” Tony smirked.

“Yes!”

So Fury wouldn’t be happy with him. So what?

“It should be specific to your measurements,” Tony explained. “The interface is complex at first, and I highly suggest not starting off with 10% power unless you want to end up punching a hole through the ceiling.”

“Speaking from experience?” the kid immediately circled around the red and gold armor, analyzing each part of it.

“Listen, kid, in giving you this Iron Spider suit… I’m all but giving you my suit.”

“I won’t let you down, Mr. Stark,” the boy said.

“I hope not,” Tony crossed his arms. “I don’t give my toys out to just anybody, you know?”

“J, upload yourself to the Iron Spider armor,” Tony’s eyes flicked toward the suit for a moment.

“Yes, Sir.”

Spider-Man’s eyes went up to the ceiling again, “That voice… I’m assuming it’s some kind of AI?”

“That’s JARVIS. He runs shop for me. Both for Stark Industries and the Avengers. And now your suit too.”

“Cool…!”

“Upload complete.”

The suit opened and Spider-Man gasped.

“I got rid of the blue,” Tony waved a hand in the air to bring up the suit specs, “and the webbing.”

The kid turned away from the armor to look at the holographic blueprints, “Woah…”

He jumped up, flipped, and landed by Tony without hesitation, “Repulsors and mechanical arms…”

“Careful when you use them, those are sharp.”

“Mr. Stark… I don’t know what to say…”

“Don’t, kid,” Tony shook his head. “Just go and try it on.”

Spider-Man clearly didn’t need to be told twice. He jumped forward and turned on his heel to step back into the suit, which began closing around him.

“J?” Tony asked.

“Running diagnostic checks, Sir.”

“Pull them up.”

“Of course, Sir.”

A couple more holographic screens appeared and Tony read the new blocks of text as they appeared and disappeared.

“Everything seems to check out.”

“This is so cool!”

Spider-Man slowly moved his arms in the armor and stretched before attempting a flip and landing with a metallic clank and a lot less agility than usual.

“Huh,” the kid murmured. “I’m assuming this is made from the same material as your armor? A titanium-gold alloy?”

“Yeah.”

He flipped again, this time landing on a wall, and immediately flailed when he didn’t stick. He fell to the ground chest first with another clank.

“You haven’t had it for five minutes and you’re already scratching it.”

He scrambled to his feet, “My bad. I was just testing-”

“Relax, kid. I’m pulling your leg.”

“Oh,” he laughed nervously, “right. I was just testing to verify. I thought I wouldn’t be able to crawl walls, and… I was right.”

“Who needs wall-crawling when you can fly?” Tony raises a brow.

Spider-Man gasped and looked up at him, “You’re not saying… you are!”

Immediately after, he straightened and the thrusters powered up, flying him up toward the ceiling, “Oh man…! This is so-”

“Cool?” Tony finished for him.

The kid immediately cut power to the thrusters and landed in front of Tony.

The mask opened to reveal Spider-Man’s normal mask, “Mr. Stark, I don’t know what to say-”

“Don’t.”

“Thank you,” the kid said anyway.

Tony opened his mouth to respond, to tell him something, some more information on the specs, or some kind of tip, but Spider-Man’s watch buzzed.

He jumped and immediately stepped out of the suit before looking down at his wrist.

“Uh… not to take your suit and run but…” he pointed to the now-visible watch, “... duty calls.”

“Go,” he waved the kid off, “don’t let me keep you.”

“Mr. Stark,” JARVIS spoke up, interrupting the screens where Tony was watching his old teammates, “Spider-Man has entered the Mansion and is approaching your location-”

“Got it, JARVIS. Thanks,” Tony brushed him off and waved at the holographic screens to change them to something else. He pulled up the Daily Bugle channel.

After a few moments, he heard, “Oh, man, don’t tell me you actually listen to the stupid stuff that comes outta J. Jonah Loudmouth .”

Tony spun in his chair to face the kid, who was crouched on the ceiling, “Makes for good background noise.”

He scoffed, “Yeah. Like nails on a chalkboard.”

Tony chuckled once, “J, mute.”

The room immediately goes silent and Spider-Man straightens, hanging off the ceiling with his fingertips before letting himself drop.

“Heard you gave Fury the suit.”

“I… didn’t give him the suit,” the kid protested. “Just… realized I work better without it, y’know?”

He immediately backtracked when Tony turned to look at him, eyebrow raised.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, Mr. Stark, I do, I really do-”

“I get it, kid,” he said. “In any case, you did good work today. I might be feeling the buzz from that shock for the next few days-”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

Tony smirked slightly and leaned back against his desk, arms crossed, “But you did… good.”

The kid murmured his thanks and fell silent for a while, stiff as a board. Then, he sighed and reached up to pull his mask off.

Tony had seen his face through the suit’s communications system, but to see the kid right in front of him…

He really was just a kid.

“You lowered your firewalls when the Living Laser told you to.”

Tony hummed, “Yeah.”

“I told you not to.”

“He would’ve killed you. Wouldn’t have done my job right if you didn’t get to go home.”

The boy looked up at him, his eyebrows pinched together.

“Thanks…” he murmured. “For saving me.”

Tony waved him off, “It’s what I do, kid.”

“And for believing in me,” he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I know I’m nowhere near as smart as you-”

“Well, that’s a high bar,” Tony glanced at Jameson’s segment.

The kid chuckled nervously.

After a beat, Tony added, “But you’re one of the most promising kids I’ve ever met. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Fury was right to bring you on.”

He turned to Spider-Man, “You might not be Avenger-ready yet, but with the training SHIELD’s giving you, and that intellect? Who knows… maybe you’ll end up on the call list if we ever need to assemble again.”

The kid beamed.

“Don’t stop,” he continued. “Aim high. Higher than SHIELD. Higher than the Avengers. You’ve got the heart, kid.”

Then, he grinned, “But for now… isn’t it a school night?”

The kid’s eyes widened slightly and he started heading to the nearby window, “It was an honor to meet you, Sir..”

Tony nodded, “You need anything, you know where to find me. My door’s always open.”

Spider-Man smiled widely, “Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“Anytime.”

The kid pulled his mask on and pushed the window open before jumping onto the windowsill.

“Oh,” the billionaire added, “and call me Tony.”

The kid gave one final glance back at Tony, waved, and shot a web out before taking off toward the city.

The suit of armor was in good hands, regardless of if it was in storage. The kid was exceptional. His team was worth keeping an eye on, further proving that the Avengers were unnecessary. (After all, it seemed as if Fury was intent on training the next heroes.)

Yeah, Tony had nothing to worry about.