Arc Nine. Chapter Two-Hundred Sixty-Nine. Human Recourses

Once AIM and Parker Incs problems were fixed, it was the last pain in his ass that Peter needed to deal with. One of a more personal nature.

Friday sat nervously twiddling her fingers as Tony glared at her, and then at Peter and Pepper.

"So, Friday will be joining Parker Inc, and while Jocasta and Vision are staying with you, I'll agree to help with their maintenance and diagnostics." Peter offered, and Tony's glare didn't change.

Peter sighed, "you have to meet me halfway here only. I-" but Tony interrupted him,

"No, that's not why I'm glaring, I agree. I agree with everything. Pepper, Friday, the help." and Peter shrugged,

"Then what? I haven't done anything." and Tony took out his phone and slid it over to Peter, touching the display and a manifest sprung up.

"Wakanda. You took my vibranium, and I want it back?" and Peter laughed,

"Shuri took your vibranium and maybe applied a little pressure. I had nothing to do with it." but Tony shook his head.

"And the fact that while Wakanda has officially shut its borders, and word is civil war, Latveria is suddenly strutting on the world's stage like a preening peacock as Doom suddenly uncovers a whole mountain of, what are they calling it, adamantium? An alloy of vibranium and you don't see a problem with that, you don't think that they aren't connected?"

Peter frowned, as they weren't. "One moment." and he took out his phone. "Shuri, adamantium in Latveria?" and after nodding and listening, "okay, thanks, love you." he hung up. "Not Wakanda. Shuri says a small meteorite must have hit Central Europe, probably a fragment, and that's why the Red Skull and Hydra were all over the country. Seems to make pulse weapons you need it. But I still don't see how that's my fault." It was a lie, as Peter already knew about the vibranium alloy, but telling Tony that would only encourage his suspicions that once more, Peter was out to get him.

"Oh?" was all Tony said and flicking the screen on his phone, a headline popped up. 'Today, Lateveria filed an official complaint against Parker Inc. Citing damages to a delicate project.' "As you can see, Doom seems to have it out for you, and it's making waves Pete. He cut off all my contracts, citing my involvement with your little schemes as the cause." but Peter shrugged.

"Doom was an asshole who got spanked for being naughty and is now crying like a little bitch about it." and Peter sighed, "Fine. Miss Potts, is it too much to ask if Tony actually acts like a decent human being that we assign part of our vibranium rights to Stark Industries." and Tony raised an eyebrow, smirking,

"Miss Potts huh? I prefer Pep." and Pepper coughed,

"And I prefer a professional working environment, but yes. If Mr Stark can act like a decent human being for at least one minute, we can."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Fine. Peter, I am sorry. After arranging for my medical issues to be fixed I had time to think. I was a jackass and a giant baby, and I messed up. Miss Potts, I am sorry I ruined our perfectly good relationship by acting like a spoiled man child, and I am sorry." and as he leant back and crossed his arms, "there, happy?"

Peter nodded and showed Tony his phone, set to record, "impressive, proof Tony Stark actually does have a heart. Miss Potts, I'll leave the contracts and the dollar fee to you. And sorry." Pepper scrunched up her face in confusion

"Sorry?"

"Yup, one last jab. I know you're used to having Tony's balls in your hand, so I know I can trust you to squeeze hard enough we all get what we want" and while Tony rolled his eyes and pulled a face, Pepper coughed and laughed lightly.

"I can forgive that. Tony, I'll send over the contracts later, and the ones for Peter's maintenance fee for Jocasta and Vision. Friday will be pro bono as she will be working for us."

"And any vibranium needed to fix their components will be coming from your own supply," Peter added. The three synthezoids were all varying vibranium content, Ultron created Vision first, and his outer shell was almost pure vibranium but Jocasta and Friday were both made of an alloy, a mix of carbon nanopolymer and vibranium, with the polymer being a much higher percentage. Their outer bodies were softer and would need to be carefully maintained, almost like a normal human body.

"Really? You won't meet halfway there either?" But Peter shook his head,

"Not on Jocasta and Vision." and Friday grinned, "and if we develop a synthskin coating to disguise their features, you can speak to Pepper about that as well."

"Really? Even though-" Tony began but Pepper glared at him, raising his hands in surrender "Fine fine, we can work something out."

"Last thing, Nanotech." and Tony shrugged.

"Yeah, I ditched that. The number of particles needed was exorbitantly high, and even with a housing chamber, there was no way I could maintain enough for a suit without doing something stupid like hollowing out my bones. I'm going back to mechanical. I have a contract and another dollar amount set up to pay you back for that. Stark Tech is leaving nanotech alone."

Peter looked over at Pepper "uh, that was easy." and Tony laughed,

"Yeah, take a look at this" and as he switched his phone around Peter saw a huge suit of armour, more than five times the size of a regular Iron Man Suit, "That's the Hulkbuster, the Venombuster isn't as big though, I don't think you need it."

Pepper rolled her eyes, but Peter smiled, "Oh that's great Tony. I can come down and help you test it. Punch you through a wall this time."

Pepper tutted, and both Peter and Tony looked over at her "What?" they both asked at the same time, and while Tony tutted, Peter laughed. "Jinx, first punch is mine." and Tony shook his head,

"And you made me apologise for being childish," he said, but Pepper shrugged,

"Peter has eight others to make sure he behaves, and he does."

Superpowered girlfriends were scary, and while Maya had been cured of the Extremis virus the lingering after-effects were enough that he knew a single Enhanced girlfriend could be intimidating, let alone eight.

In all honesty, Tony had forgiven Peter for Pepper. She was definitely in the past now, and with a situation developing with Maya, it was never going to re-ignite. He was more hurt by her jumping ship, but even then he couldn't blame her. His self-destructive behaviour hurt her more than anyone.

"Well, then I guess I'll see you later, Friday, Miss Potts, Peter," and After Peter showed him out of the warehouse he saw Friday sitting with an apprehensive look on her face,

"I messed up." and Peter gave Pepper a quizzical look, who just shrugged.

"I got into an argument with Jocasta about coming here, and I don't think she wants to speak to me again. She was really mad." and Peter moved over and knelt down in front of Friday,

"People fight and argue Friday. You're sisters and families fight. I mean, I have to go round and clean my mom's gutter, cause I sorta lied about being Venom. It's normal, and she'll forgive you," and Friday pursed her lips and nodded,

"But, first, we need to get you a job. Pepper has a huge list of positions, and we can see what you like."

"Fighting, I really liked taking out those Hydra scumbags, even if mom didn't know we were there," and Pepper looked angry and then confused,

"Hydra? You were at the Triskelion?" and Friday bit her lip

"Uh, Tony had us looking out for you, we stopped a unit of guys from sneaking up on you. Uh. Please don't tell him, I promised we would keep it a secret," and Pepper sighed

"I'll maybe go a bit easier on him," and shaking her head, moved away to head outside and make a few phone calls. As she stared at her phone, "I'll head to the office and get the paperwork drawn up. You have a meeting anyway. Eddie and Cindy are coming around with Natasha, to set up your second home team," and Peter nodded,

It wasn't long before Natasha dragging an exhausted-looking Cindy and Eddie behind her arrived at the warehouse. Peter already had coffee and a light meal prepared for the three, and Friday was happy to help herself to some as well. Her form could eat and drink and while she had held off a little it was always exciting for her to discover new things.

"So?" and Nat smirked and shrugged,

"Salvageable, who knows what junk they learned in San Francisco." and Eddie sat down at the table and lay his head down on it.

"We did just fine." while he closed his eyes. Cindy stretched and disappeared into the bathhouse, and they heard the shower start up moments later.

"She's surprisingly compliant, I thought you all said she was a bitch?" and Peter shrugged and then laughed,

"She likes women, guess the sexy spy is too distracting," and Nat sighed and shook her head.

"No!" Cindy shouted from the bathhouse, "I asked Ghost and while she didn't share everything, she told me enough, plus watching her kick Eddie around like a football made me realise I was next" and as she came out Ghost morphed into a set of clean white tracksuit top and bottom, leaving her midriff bare. "I'm not dumb, and Natasha is my boss." before she grabbed herself some coffee and sat down at the table.

"Plus they both had heart attacks when I came at them as War Widow." and Peter laughed. As he looked at the grumpy looking Cindy, Eddie lifted his head from the table and rubbed his eyes.

"Armour and a Symbiote is cheating." he said before scrunching his eyes and rubbing them, "coffee?" and Peter nodded, pointing at the pot,

"Food should be ready soon, pasta bake, plenty of veggies plus chicken," Eddie grunted in agreement, pouring himself a cup and keeping it black but adding six sugars.

"Do we get armour as well? I remember you doing a good job of breaking my ribs," and Peter looked over at Nat, sliding out a tablet from under the table he powered it on and switched it to 3D,

"All three of you get it. Nat has hers as Widow was insistent, but each member gets body armour, designed on the harness. If you want upgrades then that's for you to talk to Nat and Liv about, not loading you up with gadgets for you to not use half of them. And you can't get too armoured, you'll be wasting half your other powers if you do."

Friday looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated,

"And yes Friday, you too. Nat is here to test your combat capabilities, and we still have some equipment for testing. You'll be on the home team though. Jean decided to get her education sorted first, and a better grip on her powers."

"So me, Cindy and Eddie?" Friday asked

"Yup. Laura and Felicia are with me. Wanda is with Stephen, and Liv and Gwen are happy in their labs. You'll be officially an employee of mine, and get a salary too." Peter said, "The Home Team will stay Stateside, but my team will deploy internationally. Once Shuri has finalised and stabilized Wakanda we're also getting a fourth. Shuri is going to allow Nakia, the Dora Milaje who is technically supposed to be guarding me, to join Parker Inc. She's unofficially still Wakandan but for appearance sake, she's not."

It had been a huge headache for Peter and Shuri, was there really any point in him having a guard if he was super-powered but after discussing it, they had agreed on one.

Nakia was all cleared and when she arrived, another one of the houses would be filled. Then a small problem of her training came into the light. She refused to deal with Nat, as her Dora training was 'better' but Peter had a simple solution. Widow would take a small holiday, and with their enhancements, at an equal level they would fight, and if Nakati lost, she would submit to Nat's training, if she won, well, that was something Peter didn't really want to think about, as Nakati had simply smiled and said she would claim her prize as she saw fit.

As Nat took Friday away, and Cindy and Eddie both made themselves sides to go with the pasta bake, Peter lifted his phone,

Tomorrow, watch, it's not good.

Peter sighed, as Coulson was warning him ahead of schedule about the president's speech.