Spider-Man? Who's He?

Ch. 5

Peter was struggling with his voice modifier. He had asked FRIDAY about it in the suit, but she said she couldn't tell him. Karen was no help as she couldn't hack his dad's computer without raising alarms. That meant his only other option was to pretend to be interested in the suit and all it could do. His dad was easy to kiss up too, though. He loved talking about his Iron Man suit. Peter would definitely be learning more than necessary when he asked his dad.

"Why the sudden interest?" Tony asked after Peter asked. Peter shrugged but Tony was still waiting for an answer.

"I wanted to start robotics again next year, but I know they covered a bunch of things I wasn't there for," Peter said. He'd thought up that lie ahead of time with Karen's help. "I want to be able to stay at the top, you know? And if I know all about the Iron Man suit, then I'll have even more advanced knowledge."

"Well, you've come to the right place," his dad said. He unlocked his computer and pulled up all the Iron Man files. Peter couldn't believe it. Was he really going to send Peter all the files? He could make Spider-Man even cooler if he had all that tech! "What do you want to learn about first?" Tony asked. He didn't look like he was sending Peter the files, but that was okay. Peter had a photographic memory and he now knew his dad's computer password.

"I was thinking the helmet," Peter said, pointing to his head. "You know, work top to bottom." Tony nodded proudly.

"Good thinking!" he said. He pulled Harley's computer chair over to his desk and told Peter to sit, he was about to learn so much about the Iron Man suit he could make one himself. "But if you do, you're grounded for life. Not to mention what your mom would do." Peter nodded, eyes wide. He knew he would be in so much trouble if he did.

"Got it," he said.

* * *

Peter had definitely heard enough about the Iron Man suit he could recreate it in a coma. His dad had spent all afternoon, before and after dinner, explaining every small detail to Peter. Some things Peter made sure to remember; they could be useful when out at Spider-Man. For example, being able to answer phone calls through the suit without his phone. That would be nice. His mom wouldn't yell at him from not answering her seven calls while at Ned's house. Being able to scan buildings for heat signatures would be great too. Then he could quickly find people in burning buildings or see if an abandoned alleyway really was abandoned (it hadn't been one time). There were many other things Peter wanted to add to Karen's abilities, but he first needed to get the voice modifier in. Unfortunately, Iron Man didn't have a very good one. It was still fairly easy to tell who was speaking, but it was a start.

"Goodnight, Peter," FRIDAY said, turning off his bedroom lights. He set an alarm on his phone for three hours then fell asleep. He needed to get down to his dad's lab and read all those files. He hadn't been able to look at all he wanted, but he knew he would be fine if he could just read through them all once.

Despite knowing why he was waking up at 2:00AM, he still didn't like it. He grabbed his phone and tiptoed out of his room. A light was on in the bathroom, so he hurried past it and rushed down the stairs as silently as he could. He knew some creaked, though, so he climbed onto the wall and scurried down to the lab. He carefully climbed off the wall and scanned his hand print. The doors opened, much louder than Peter wanted, and he ran inside. He quickly logged onto his dad's computer and found the Iron Man suit files. He opened each one and skimmed through it as fast as he could, making sure he glanced at every word and read it to himself.

It took a lot longer than he expected. He was a fast reader, but there were a lot of files he wanted to read through. He skipped the ones he didn't need right away and the ones he didn't want anyway, but he still wasn't done until 5:30AM. He closed all the files, erased the day's history and logged off his dad's computer. Unfortunately, he knew his mom was probably up by now. Sneaking back into his just for another hour and a half of sleep would be risky. He knew it would be riskier to just stay in the lab, though, as if he waited any longer to go upstairs, more people would be awake and his dad would be really suspicious. It was best if he just went now.

He relied on his spidey sense the entire way. He crept up the stairs, not using the wall in case his mom saw him, and tiptoed quickly across the living room. He stopped, holding his breath when he heard someone walking down the bedroom hall. He pressed himself against the wall, not even blinking as the person approached. As a last thought, he crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling, laying flat. His mom walked by underneath him and into the kitchen. Once she was out of sight, he raced across the ceiling to his room so fast that by the time he reached his room, he was panting. He silently opened and closed his door, stepping into his room. He hurried over to his bed and burrowed down under the covers before relaxing. He was safe.