The Name on Your Lips - Starker

Benjamin Richards

He knew it had been a stupid idea.

There had been a heavy feeling of anxiety pressing down on his chest as he waited for the other shoe to drop. He waited for F.R.I.D.A.Y. or some other advanced background check program to rip through the identity he had built over the past five years like paper.

Seeing the entry level position at Stark Industries had just been too tempting. He tried to brush it off. He tried to ignore it and find another job elsewhere, one that would be safer and less of a risk. With a portfolio filled with glowing references from his professors, a high GPA, and plenty of lab experience under his belt, he had already received multiple job offers upon finishing his Master’s Degree.

But it had been a persistent itch that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t ignore it. It was as if his enhanced senses knew Stark Industries was where he needed to be, no matter the risk.

Up until that point, he had felt pretty confident in the identity he had fabricated. The documents that had been faked and the electronic footprint he had tailored had all been enough to get him in and out of university without issue. The part-time job and internship he found that claimed they had done a background check using the Social Security Number he had procured didn’t have any problems.

But this was Stark Industries. This was another beast entirely.

A part of him glowed with pride when he was told that he, Benjamin Richards, had been hired. There was a separate piece of him, though, that wondered if he would arrive to his first day and immediately be escorted out in handcuffs.

The day prior, he spent a significant amount of time just practicing his signature over and over again on blank pages of battered school notebooks he would never have otherwise used after graduation. Knowing he would be expected to sign employment contracts and potentially even NDAs on day one, he needed to ensure it looked as if he had been signing that particular name his whole life.

He'd had plenty of practice letting his new name roll off his tongue with ease over the past few years. It had been a surprisingly simple transition given his intense aversion to the name of Peter Parker now that it felt like heavy sand in his mouth. Knowing that no one he loved would ever be speaking his name again, he had changed it altogether to avoid the ache he felt whenever the name of Peter Parker formed on his lips. Considering he had to build an identity from scratch anyway, it made no difference in the level of complexity.

Signatures were few and far between, though, so he felt as if practice was necessary.

He internally berated himself when he discovered the next day that of course the tech conglomerate would rely primarily on electronic signatures and fingerprint scans.

The request of a fingerprint scan made him hesitate at first, but for only a split second. Once upon a time Stark Industries had a thorough collection of Peter’s biometrics that he would use to move about the labs as Tony Stark’s protégé. However, he already knew from experience how much of a ghost Peter Parker really was, even when facing such a complex system such as F.R.I.D.A.Y. 

No, he had no concerns about SI finding remnants of Peter Parker. His only concern was them finding out that he didn’t actually exist.

When he finished out his first week without issue, his confidence grew. As time went on, his concern of being found out lessened each and every day.

Still, just as he had in college, he made an effort to keep his head down with his work. The less attention he drew to himself, the less likely he was to get caught.

Of course, just like in college, he failed miserably at staying unseen. It didn’t matter how little he socialized with his colleagues or how much he stayed out of work drama, he was still noticed for being an incredibly intelligent and diligent worker.