Revelations - Part 2
Tony lowered his shirt, "With the improvement of the armors, more and more energy was needed, which in itself wasn't a problem. That was, until a fight with a villain a couple years ago… He utilized something, a techno-organic virus of some sort. I don't know everything about it, at least not yet. But one thing I'm sure of, is that it corrupted my reactor. It's infected now and it's slowly poisoning me. Using the armor only speeds up the process, which is why I can only wear it for three hours a day tops, that way the effects don't kill me…"
"A couple years ago…" The boy thought back. "Was it your fight with Whiplash?"
"Looks like someone does their fanboy homework..." The hero joked. "Nah, this fight never made the news. The guy stopped my heart and severely damaged my lungs in the process, it's not exactly something I wanted getting out..."
"Couldn't you, y'know, replace the corrupted reactor with a new one?" Peter asked, hesitantly. "Maybe an alternative power source?"
Tony shook his head in defeat, "Tried that once, but the poison's already so far into my body that it was a moot point. And nothing but the reactor comes close to the power output I need to keep my armor functioning."
"H-How long do you have left? There must be some way to reduce it, right?" asks Peter, eager to learn more and wanting to help somehow.
"You ask a lot of questions, don't ya?" The hero quipped sarcastically. "With the poison in me the way it is now, it could theoretically take decades to kill me completely. And yeah, there's ways to decrease the infection: medication, chemotherapy... But not while I'm wearing the armor. And the more I use it, the faster it spreads."
"So being a hero…" Peter began.
"...Is what's killing me," Tony finished the sentence, "Yeah."
"But what about one of the older armors?" Asked the boy, "You said they use less energy, right?"
"I can't. If I use an armor other than the Mark L, the villains will know something's wrong, they'll know I'm not at my best!" The hero said, losing his patience and standing up. "I have to keep myself moving at my peak! Because that's what heroes do. I've gotta keep the whole 'Symbol of Hope' thing going!"
Peter stood static; both shocked and amazed. Shocked by all the information absorbed, which had turned his world upside down. But also amazed, to see his favorite hero risking his very life to the fullest just to keep the peace, to keep fighting... A true hero, but at what price?
"And that brings us to your situation," Tony continued , walking towards the boy. "My resources were focused on trying to find a way to transfer my power to another living being, another person, so that they could continue my legacy without needing a reactor on their chest."
"Now obviously, I'm not doing human testing. We've been working on different subjects; birds, mammals, reptiles, arthropods… But none of them produced great results. They couldn't absorb or use the energy. At most, all it did was improve the physical performance of the animals; irradiated fish swam faster, mammals became stronger, reptiles became more resistant to the elements, you get it."
Tony lowered his glasses slightly, "Naturally all this is top secret and I'm not doing this work within Stark Industries. We've been outsourcing that to one of my subsidiary companies so it stays quiet. That Carnage guy I caught sometimes moonlights doing corporate espionage. He was leaving OsCorp with one of our most promising guinea pigs. A spider, to be more precise..."
Peter then remembered the sting he felt at the back of his neck. Running his hand over it, he found an area that was more sensitive and swollen. There was something sticky at the center; pinching what felt like a hair covered in glue, he pulling it out of the wound. He saw what appeared to be a kind of very malleable and sticky hair, just like a web. Peter pulled the rest up the back of his shirt. And at the end, was a very dead spider.
When he realized what he was seeing, Iron Man immediately moved in front of the boy. He stared first at the specimen, and then at the boy through his high-tech glasses.
Yeah, that's it, he thought reluctantly. Subject AF-01962. Parts of its DNA is already mixing with his blood, along with traces of reactor energy...
The hero looked deeply into the boy's eyes with a mix of curiosity and sympathy. And with a bony hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, handing it to Peter. It was for Stark Industries.
"Call me so we can schedule a medical appointment," he said. Peter couldn't believe it, first he gained a quirk, and now he's holding the phone of the number one hero. It was quite a day he'd been having. "Rest assured, I have the best doctors," Tony went on. "And we'll do our best to take out any remnants of the spider and the energy within you as soon as possible. Then you'll be able to return to your normal life."
He walked past Peter, quickly patting his shoulder as if meaning to relieve the boy and went over towards the doorway leading to the stairs. "What do you mean, 'take out of me'?" Peter asked the man, who already had his hand in the door handle.
"Didn't you hear what I just said!?" The hero asked, more than a little irritated. "We haven't tested it on human subjects! Do you know how dangerous it can be!? You just got bitten by a spider that passed the last months under the same kind of radiation that I use to fly and melt metal! And now, it's fundamentally altered your DNA!"
"But if that happens, I'll go back to being Quirkless…" The boy replied haltingly. "I'll never get to be a hero…"
"I'm sorry kid," Tony replied. He seemed to genuinely sympathize with Peter, "But maybe life decided that you won't become a hero. And this definitely isn't the right way to become one…"
Tony opens the door, "Look, you can still become a police officer. I know it's not the same thing, they don't really fight the super villains or whatever, but it's still a noble profession." With that, he enters the building and starts to walk down the stairs.
Peter was left standing in the place, not knowing what to say, what to do. A roller coaster of emotion has just run over him. He almost died, he's met his idol and the greatest hero of all time, he discovered that he received a Quirk in the most unlikely way possible, and now he discovered that he would have to lose it, as well as his idol telling him that he couldn't be a hero.
He looked at objects in his hands, the crumpled notebook, open on the page with the hero's signature. And in his other hand, the business card from Stark Industries.
A contrast: in one hand, the hope of being a hero. All the study and dedication, the hours spent, the weekends lost, wasted on notes and studies so that he could use them as a hero. Added to that was the signature, the mark of the man who motivated his very passion. The man who inspired him, who made it possible for him to acquire a Quirk, even if it was unintentional.
And in the other hand, the reality check he'd been avoiding all his life. They'd would take away his quirk, the first and last chance he'll ever get to become what he wanted to be. It was a confirmation that all this would be left in the past. Completely forgotten and wiped out, just like he was...
Tony meanwhile, was making his way downstairs. His thoughts were still on the boy he left on the roof. Poor kid, he thought. I wish I could help, but that power is way too dangerous for you to handle.
"All right Friday, break time's over!" He touched his glasses, activating the holographic lenses that showed him a flow of information about the day and his surroundings. His artificial intelligence came online and spoke to him in a woman's Irish accent.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Stark," she said. "How can I be of service today?"
"Call a cab, I need to get to the HQ. We'll send Carnage to prison and..." The man's hand felt for the chamber that was supposed to be resting on his waist, but there was nothing. "Uh, Friday? Where's the chamber?
"It was jettisoned from the armor at the coordinates; 407.950.875N and -73-"
"Whoa-whoa-whoa! What do you mean, 'jettisoned from the armor'!? Why the hell did that happen!?" The hero asked indignantly.
"With the added passenger, Peter Parker, we needed to remove excess weight so you didn't exceed the energy limit and pass out. The passenger whom remained was chosen for being a civilian with no criminal record," she replied in a completely neutral tone.
"Oh God…" Tony say touching his forehead to the wall, closing his fist while lightly punching it.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark," Friday apologized. "By chance should I deactivate the energy economy and change the armor's priority of individuals without a criminal record for individuals with one?"
"No! For the love of God, no!" He said, for fear of agreeing and forgetting about the configurations. "We just need to find the chamber. It's resistant enough to not break from the fall, but it won't be able to handle much more than that..."