Chapter 47: Meeting an Armored Avenger I

Holy shit.

Holy fucking shit.

Peter's eyes went back and forth from Tony's hand to his face while his mind tried to piece together a semi-coherent response.

Tony Stark was in front of him!

God, say something! Don't just stand there!

Slowly, Peter went for the taller man's hand and awkwardly shook it while Tony just smirked.

Or just, you know, don't say anything.

That's cool, too.

The two just stood there for a second, Peter's mind working overtime to absorb everything that was happening before finally, finally giving him something to say.

"So uh, you've heard of me?" Peter asked, Tony only nodded with the level of smug he always had in interviews. "That's cool, I've heard of you also, as well, too."

Fuck! What was that?!

That was horrible!

He was the worst .

"I-I mean, I'm sorry it's just that I wasn't expecting seeing you here or like, anywhere during my life and just-" Peter cut himself off, taking a second to gather his thoughts before continuing. "What are you even doing in Japan? Or here? Or like, talking to me?"

Alright! That was kinda coherent! Awkward but coherent!

Hell yeah!

But seriously, what was Tony freaking Stark doing here?

Or even bothering talking to him?

Seriously, the guy was probably the richest dude ever, the most famous quirkless hero, one of the best engineers on the whole planet, one of the smartest dudes on the planet along with being a freaking Avenger .

You know, one of the most famous hero teams in the world?

Wait, why would an openly quirkless hero be in Japan? What was probably one of the most quirkless hating countries in the world?

Thing was, every country had a different ratio of quirkless/quirked people along with different opinions.

America, on one hand, had a ratio of about 60/40 ratio with most quirkless people being in rural areas, with them not being hated per se but just… kinda ignored and neglected.

Still, that didn't stop a select few quirkless people from finding ways to be heroes, with the ones who actually succeeded in that being either rich, trained by the government for years, or both.

Even so, Peter could count the number of quirkless heroes on one hand.

And Japan…

Yeah.

That got to the hate crime level of stuff.

Japan had an outright hate for the quirkless, something Peter never understood since it was such an advanced country compared to others, but he couldn't change that.

So you would understand why guys like Tony Stark were not very well-liked by the general public around these parts.

The sound of Tony chuckling snapped him out of his thoughts, the man shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Why am I here? Well, Stark Industries just so happens to be in the middle of setting up an office in town, so I thought I'd drop by UA's famous sports festival! Besides, I fund over 70% of it." He said as if it was a normal thing to fund over 70% of the sports festival .

Man, Ben was right when he said it was weird talking to rich people.

Well, he also said to never trust a man wearing a tie, but Peter could ignore that for now.

It was Ironman!

The guy couldn't be that bad in person, right?

"Say, got a minute to chat? I was walking back to my private viewing booth and you guys have an hour to kill before the next event so why don't we get to know each other? You're a very interesting guy, Parker."

What? He was just gonna go have a casual conversation with Tony Stark? Just like that?

"Uh, that sounds super cool and all but I was gonna go to Recovery Girl to g-" Peter tried only for Tony to begin walking away while motioning to follow

"Oh, c'mon kid! I won't take too much of your time!" He called back, hands in his pockets as the sound of his expensive shoes hitting the floor echoed through the hall.

Or just cut him off! That's cool!

Peter stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do before simply just sighing and jogging after the hero.

"Wait, you said you knew me, right?" Peter asked after catching up to the man, Tony only nodded without looking at him. "How? Sorry to say but I'm pretty sure we've never met before."

Tony stopped in his tracks and smiled at the boy, checking his watch for a moment.

"Oh, I just have a habit of keeping tabs on illegal genetic mutations." He said nonchalantly, Peter froze.

Illegal genetic mutation?

Wait, genetic mutation… did that mean that he knew about the-

"Yes, I know that you actually got your 'quirk' from a spider bite. The big leagues like to keep an eye on unregistered non-quirk genetic mutations and have been watching you for as long as you've been doing whatever a spider can to see what your intentions were." The man stated nonchalantly, even pulling out his phone halfway through the statement.

What… the hell?

At that moment, all that childish glee and excitement started to slowly fade away from him.

He was being watched by 'The Big Leagues' for over a year ? That was so messed up!

People were spying on him? His whole life and identity just cause he was bitten by that stupid spider?

Peter was about to say something but Tony beat him to it.

"Don't worry, they're not watching your every move anymore; once it was clear that you were more keen on using your abilities to wear a colorful sweatsuit while swinging around and helping old ladies cross the street rather than being an actual threat, you were left relatively alone."

There were so many things going through his mind right now, all his thoughts were starting to meld together.

"Wait, what do you mean relatively ? And who the hell was even spying on me? Dude, do you understand how messed up it is to drop this all on me?"

Seriously, Peter was meeting one of his favorite heroes! And the guy admitted to people secretly monitoring him?

Who the hell does that?!

He dragged his hands down his face in growing frustration with the situation, it was taking all the strength in his body to not start pacing there and then.

"You just- what the hell? How do you even know people were spying on me? How do-" Peter stopped mid-sentence as a thought occurred to him.

Tony Stark was one of the richest, smartest, most influential men on the planet who undoubtedly had connections to countless types of organizations.

Organizations which could be described as being 'The Big Leagues'.

"Were you… in on it? Was I being spied on by some shadowy organization along with one of my favorite heroes?"

Peter's voice started small before growing louder, it sounded hurt and betrayed but overall sounded angry.

To his credit, the general look of smugness on Tony's face was swapped with one of small guilt as he seemed to bite the inside of his cheek.

Oh my god.

Oh my god, he was in on it! Of course, he was!

He had posters of this guy in his room! He was one of the reasons Peter had wanted to go into engineering before the spider!

Tony Stark was one of his heroes, and he had been secretly monitoring him for over a year?

Unbelievable.

Peter scoffed, running his unhurt hand through his hair before beginning to walk away from the man.

He didn't need this.

He didn't need someone thinking he'd do something bad or that he was dangerous.

He didn't need any more people calling him a menace than there are now.

Ben was right.

Never trust a man wearing a tie.

"Kid, wait! Just… let me explain, this stuff is way bigger than just you." Tony started, running in front of the shorter boy. "Your situation is nothing but a genetic miracle, a miracle that has happened once too many times to not warrant a look into, so could we just talk for a minute? So I can explain this whole thing?"

Peter wanted to refuse, to just curse the guy out for just dropping all of this stuff on him out of nowhere.

But looking at his face, the guy looked… weirdly insistent yet a bit genuine. As if whatever he wanted to say to him was actually important for him to know.

So against his better judgment and whatever rational part there was in his brain, Peter decided to talk things out.

He looked away for a moment, rubbing his eyes for a moment before nodding tiredly.

Tony sighed before nodding slowly, beginning to walk down the hall with the teen behind him.

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