Getting Started

"I don't know, how much are you willing to buy it for" I asked him back?

Tony thought for a moment before responding "That, depends I could give you a lump sum right now or I can give it to you as a percentage."

"What's the difference" I asked?

"The lump sum is me just buying it, I won't try and shortchange you. So I think a good number would be about 20 million."

I gulped a little at that insane number but, still managed to keep my cool "and the percentage? "

"That would be Stark Industries giving you a fixed a percentage of all the profits we make using your product, It would be around 1%."

"So it's either alot of money now or less of it spread over a long time."

"That's not exactly right" he stopped me "true the lump sum would give you more right now but, think about it. With Stark Industries power and connections we could turn your product into a multi billion dollar business. After all think of how many people are injured every day in muggings, car crashes, or even just from slipping.

Not to mention that there is no expiration date on it either so as long as we're still selling it you'll still be making money."

I raised my eyebrow "so your telling me the percentage option is better in every way?"

"Exactly" he smiled.

"Then why are you offering it to me? It's not exactly a good business strategy to just give away money."

"Because" he laughed "that option comes with a catch."

"What kind of catch" I asked suspiciously?

"Nothing major" he waved his hands dismissively "you'd just have come work for Stark Industries is all."

"So the first option is you buying my product and the second is buying me, do I have that right?"

"Pretty, much" he nodded.

"Then, I pick the first one" I spoke with out hesitation.

"Don't be so hasty" he tried to convince me "It's not just money we can offer you. I can give you a fully stocked lab just like this one as well as the freedom to research whatever you want."

I stopped for a moment to think about it, honestly it was tempting, really tempting. The scientist in me was screaming at me to yes, just so I could play with all of his fancy toys.

Eventually I sighed and let a wry smile "Sorry but, I think I I'll have to pass on that. I'm not really the kind of person who likes to be under others. That's why I started my own company."

"Well, that's a shame" Tony shook his head "I guess that means next time we meet we'll be rival business men."

"I guess so" I laughed "Stark Industries better watch out."

"Oh, getting a little cocky are you" he mocked?

"Haha, just a little."

"What is your company called anyway" he asked?

"Marvel Industries."

"Good name" he nodded.

After that Tony and I spent the next hour or so talking about science and all the latest breakthroughs. It was actually pretty fun to have someone I could talk to as an equal.

"But, all good things have to end, eventually we had to finalize our exchange. I gave Tony my notes on the Medspray and after looking through everything to make sure it was all good he transferred me my twenty million.

He told me good bye and that he had another project he had to go work on, some kind of laser system for an excavator.

We traded phone numbers before he escorted me back to the lobby and I waved him off.

On the bus trip home I was happily browsing the internet on my phone buying anything I wanted.

While we were talking I told Tony about wanting to build a lab near where I lived in Queens. Wanting to help me out he checked his companies database, and saw that they owned an old warehouse there that they used to store unfinished projects. That they had to stop working on for one reason or another.

He told me he was willing to sell it to me for cheap, and of course I agreed.

I just needed to wait for all of the old projects to be moved out. After I bought the warehouse from him I asked if he knew where I could buy some equipment for my new lab and he gave me a list if companies that sold reliable equipment for a decent price.

It wasn't as good as the stuff his company had but, it was still infinitely better then what most Spidermen start out with.

I ended up spending half of the twenty million dollars I just made before I even got halfway home. I definitely wasn't going to tell Aunt May about that.

By the time I got home Uncle Ben and Aunt May were already there.

They knew I had some kind of meeting at Stark Industries today but m, weren't sure what it was for. It was kind of funny watching their reactions when I told the about my Medspray and how Tony sold me a lab.

The next few days passed in a blur with me focusing on the other parts of being Spiderman. Like brainstorming a few different costume designs, as well as creating a few new types of webs that I thought might come in handy like shock and incendiary.

All I was waiting for now was for Tony to move everything out of my lab and for all the equipment to be set up and tomorrow was the day all that would be finished.

I couldn't wait to get started.