Chapter 1

"Mr. Stark?" Peter sat on the edge of the metal table, practically vibrating from anxious nerves. He stuck his pressed together hands between his thighs as his left foot twitched in discomfort. "Could you tell, uh, tell me why you wanted to see my DNA?"

That was one of his questions for sure, but as good as it was it definitely wasn't his top one. The real top dollar question was why was he here in the Avenger's Compound with freaking Iron-Man of all people after turning down the same man's offer to join the best superhero team of the universe only a couple weeks earlier. The second place question was 'Why he was Tony Stark's personal lab?'. The DNA question took third.

When Happy had first shown up at school and dragged him away without a word, Peter was worried. Usually Mr. Stark or Happy or someone sent a text if they needed something, but Peter hadn't gotten any message. Which meant that this was an unplanned trip. Unplanned trips usually meant something was up, and if something was up it was usually Peter's fault. Did he do something wrong?

He couldn't think of anything that would draw Mr. Stark's attention enough to pull an unplanned trip. Patrol had gone fine. No injuries or bruises, he hadn't broken anything since he got the new suit back. He reported everyday like asked and Happy answered just slightly more often then he had before Homecoming— really that translated to one thirty second voicemail of Happy awkwardly telling Peter he had done a good job. Super weird, but it made Peter feel good on the inside regardless — so it couldn't come from that front.

He'd had even been keeping May's curfew, so Peter wasn't in trouble over that. Eleven pm on weekdays and two am on the weekends. He had grumbled about it for a week before May sat him down and told him some news that switched his attitude so fast it wasn't funny. In fact, Peter came home early every night just to spend some time with her. So really, he couldn't think of any reason why Mr. Stark would want to see him.

Did he do something bad and didn't know it? That single thought, of course, kicked his already active imagination into overdrive. It got terribly descriptive as bad scenario after bad scenario jumped through his brain as Happy slowly made his way down to the Compound. Every second on the drive to the Compound passed by with agonizing slowness. Peter was a living bundle of jumpy nerves by the time they made it to the Compound and to Tony Stark's workshop.

He nearly died when Mr. Stark ordered him onto the table with a stern voice. He nearly died again, this time from relief and a lot of confusion, when Mr. Stark turned on him wielding a mouth swab and ordered him to "Open up."

Mr. Stark plugged the saliva cover swab into a small hole in the console. He typed on the holographic keyboard for a couple seconds before he spun away and leaned against the table right next to Peter. "Well kid, you said your powers came from a spider bite right?"

Peter squinted at him suspiciously. What did that have to do with anything right now? "Right."

Mr. Stark drummed his fingers on the metal table, acting about as twitchy as Peter felt right now. "So the spider obviously did something that changed your body, which is why you're sticky and spidery. Now, we all know I'm a naturally curious person, so I figured I'd take a quick peek and your DNA and see what's up."

"Really? That's actually really cool Mr. Stark! Can you tell me if you find some like super-secret hidden powers or something like that?" Peter perked up. That was a super cool reason to drag him up here without any warning! "Do you think I might be venomous or something? I know some species of spiders do have poison, and since I don't know what type of spider bit me there might be a chance that I could develop poison! That would be so cool! But then I might have to be careful because if I bite someone then we'd had to get an antidote for my venom so it might not be as cool if I accidentally killed someone. It would probably have to go on a record and I do not want murder on any record linked to me."

Mr. Stark stared at him for a couple seconds before an amused grin spread across his face. "Sure kid. I'll let'cha know if I find anything."

Peter beamed. "Thanks Mr. Stark!"

They both went quiet and the content mood sunk into awkwardness. Mr. Stark sniffed and folded his arms. Peter stared at his knees and tried to keep his whole leg from twitching. Should, should he say something? 'Hey, Mr. Stark, how's your day going?' No, that was too typical. Really boring. How about 'How's Miss Potts? I saw that you two got engaged'. Was that too personal? It felt like it could be, but Peter wasn't sure if he was 'there yet' with Mr. Stark. Maybe not enough for a hug, but he definitely felt like they were a little closer now. Would it be okay for him to ask?

Mr. Stark sighed and shifted his position. "So… kid, how's your aunt?"

Peter's half-smile dropped and gloom rose up from the depths. His shoulders slumped. Mr. Stark must have sensed this was a bad question because he stiffened but Peter spoke before he could apologize. "She's doing fine. I'm still adjusting, but I'll be fine. May's gonna have her first treatment in a couple weeks. The hospital is giving us a discount because she worked there for so long, so we're not about to drown under more bills then usual, so you don't have to worry about us, Mr. Stark. It's no problem, really."

"Crap kid, that was a terrible question." Mr. Stark said. His folded arms tightened, which rumpled the face of the cat shirt he wore until the face somehow looked sad. "I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"You're fine. You didn't really know." Peter didn't sniff or fight off tears, though it was very close.

"Yeah." Mr. Stark leaned back more on the table, his eyes to the ceiling. "It still sucks though. When it's mentioned."

"Yeah." This time, Peter really did sniff.

Mr. Starked patted him on the shoulder, a quick patpat like he didn't want to touch Peter more then he had to. "Okay. That's enough emotions for today. Time to send you home before your aunt notices you've been here too long and decides she wants to have my head again. Happy will drive ya."

"Sure. Sounds good." Peter agreed and slowly slid off the table. "See ya later, Mr. Stark."

"Bye kid."

Peter glanced around the room as he meandered to the door. Mr. Stark's lab was actually pretty cool now that he could focus enough to look. Pieces of Iron-man suits were scattered across the entire room, all in different states of construction and deconstruction. There had to be at least twenty different holo-screens opened with schematics for different projects, and there was even this cool, mysterious glowing thing that kinda looked like a large version of a Chitari reactor squashed into a corner— He half wanted to touch it and see if it was warm, but Mr. Stark would yell at him and Peter had learned his lesson from the Decathlon field trip about touching weird alien technology —that flashed menacingly every five seconds. Peter vaguely wondered if it would explode. There were several metal tables like the one he sat on earlier, each one loaded with at least four mugs that smelt like old coffee and a lot of scrapped pieces of metal.

Really, it kind of reminded Peter of his bedroom. Just take away anything that looked even remotely cool and replace it with homework, candy wrappers, trinkets, clothes, and it would be pretty close match. It even had that same unorganized-organized mess sort of feel. May hated seeing his room a mess, but she knew there was no way around it. Peter was just too distracted to clean up. He couldn't concentrate long enough. If she stood and watched him to clean, then they would both get distracted and then nothing in their house would get done.

Actually, maybe he should do that when he got home before he went on patrol. It might cheer May up a little. He could concentrate long enough to make May happy. She needed it, and Peter needed it too.

Fingers snapped from behind him, and Peter turned to find that Mr. Stark was examining the DNA console closely, but he had dedicated one of his hands to snap at Peter without turning. "Actually, kid, before you go, could you get me some coffee real quick? It's just in the wall over by you."

"Uh, yeah, sure. No problem Mr. Stark." Peter scurried to the closest wall before he frowned and whispered under his breath as he stared at the smooth metal surface. "In the wall? How can it be in the wall?"

That question answered itself. A black outline of a box appeared on the wall and, to Peter's amazement, jutted out for a second and flipped over like one of the secret spy panels from the movies to reveal a modified industrial coffee machine.

"Holy crap!" Peter whispered.

The coffee machine went ding and a section of the bottom opened up and pushed a mug full of black steaming coffee out.

"Holy crap." Peter whispered again. He had so many questions.

Mr. Stark let out a quiet chuckle.

Peter grabbed the mug and ran back to the front of the room as fast as he could without tripping. He handed Mr. Stark the coffee reverently, still in amazement. "That's so cool Mr. Stark! How did you do that?"

Mr. Stark took a sip. "Pet project. I was tired of having to wait for coffee to be brought to me so I-"

The DNA console flashed and F.R.I.D.A.Y interrupted them. "Boss, I found something that might interest you."

Peter perked up. Did she find something with his DNA already? That was fast. Didn't DNA work actually take a really long time? All the YouTube videos he watched said that tv shows were full of crap when it came to the speed of DNA testing. He'd been pretty disappointed about that. It was always sad when tv science turned out to be fake, which was why Mr. Stark's tech was so cool. It was tv come to life, so it wasn't a surprise that his DNA analyzer was fast.

Mr. Stark took another sip of coffee before he gave his full attention to the AI. "Really? Wow, that was fast. Alright, spill already. Don't keep us waiting."

"It has to do with Mr. Parker's DNA." F.R.I.D.A.Y announced.

"No, really?" Mr. Stark snarked. "F.R.I.D.A.Y, please, call him Peter. Mr. Parker sounds way too stiff. And let me guess, the kid actually is venomous?"

"Unfortunately for Peter, no. I was running his DNA through my records when I found something interesting and I think you might find important."

There went the venomous idea. That was a disappointment and a relief at the same time. No accidental murders for Peter. Maybe there will be another surprise.

Mr. Stark raised an eyebrow at his mug. "Well don't hold us in anymore suspense F.R.I, I think the kid might die from excitement." He raised the mug to his mouth and took a long draught.

"It appears that Peter happens to share forty-nine percent of your DNA."

Coffee exploded from Mr. Stark's mouth. His coffee mug slammed onto the console as Mr. Stark bent over. Peter's jaw dropped and his face went white. Mr. Stark started to cough as two separate DNA visuals appeared on the DNA console. Lines popped onto the screen and highlighted the similarities between the two pieces of organic code.

"The DNA is too different to be a clone," F.R.I.D.A.Y continued. She almost sounded thoughtful. "It appears to be the kind of transfer that happens between parent and offspring."

Mr. Stark's choking sounds doubled.

A/N: Hey guys! Hope you like the rewritten chapter! ThanksJinMukang for the always awesome editing and emotional support!