01x02 The Necessary to be a Hero

"But…" Iron Man then says, "You DO have a quirk…"

"WHAT!?!?!?"

It could just be a joke, a bad joke. Peter didn't move, waiting for the hero to tell him that… but nothing happened. The static body of the Number 1 hero indicated one of two possibilities; the mask hid his true expression, or, he was speaking the truth. Somehow, Peter had a quirk.

"B-bu-bu-but… how?" The boy asks quietly, more to himself, as if he hopes to wake up from this "dream". He looks at his hand as he moves it. He didn't feel any different...

"You said that you were a normal kid," The Hero starts to answer the question, "but my sensors scanned an abnormally high energy for someone 'quirkless'..." He says, making air quotes with his fingers as if he thought the boy was messing with him.

"How's that possible!?" The boy says, assuming that was true. "I-I never developed a quirk, the doctor said there was no way. I-I... I even have two joints in my pinky." He says raising his leg to prove his point. There was a rumor that Iron Man supposedly had an X-ray capability in his HUD. The hero stops for a moment, staring at the boy's raised foot, confirming the boy's assumption. He really was analysing his skeleton...

"Well, that's true..." The hero speaks, turning his attention back to the boy's face. "So what? I'm not a doctor. Does it mean something?"

"W-well, there are studies that show a correlation between the pinky joints and the probab…" the boy begins to recite the information that had been haunting his life for the past ten years, until being interrupted by Tony.

"Okay, okay… I get it!" The hero says, raising his arms in surrender, anxious for the boy to quiet down. "Like I said, I don't have a PHD in 'Quirk Studies', but one thing I know for sure; this energy that you're releasing is not normal!"

"But how do you know that!?" The boy asks with a head full of doubts; did he then have a Quirk? But what was it? What could he do? Could he become a hero now?

"Because that is the same energy that I…" The hero for a moment seemed to be angry with the boy, but something then his tone changes "...that I produce…" he says almost like a whisper. Peter couldn't hear what he said.

The armor then begins to shake slightly; the armor's eyes, which normally cast a light blue light, begin to flash red; the hero then begins to look at the armor, which begins to disassemble, returning to being the separate microbots that were before...

"No... no, no, no, no...not now...dammit!" the hero complains frightened, while spinning trying to see what happens, until he has his back to the boy and with all the armor retracted...

"Mr. Iron Man…?" Peter asked, a little scared. He knew something wasn't right.

The hero starts to turn slowly towards the boy, but the one in front of him was not, scratch that, could NOT be Tony Stark, the Iron Man. The man in front of him was much thinner. Iron Man never relied on his own muscles to act as a hero, but his posts on social media in gyms doing exercise were famous, at least, so the boy remembers. WERE. His ribs were visible through his shirt, his face was more gaunt, his skin paler, hair messy, hands bony; and in his chest, a technological cylinder emitting a pulsating blue light could be seen, as if it were stuck in its ribcage.

This man was a cheap knock-off of Tony Stark, and yet, he forces a smile and opens his hands, shaking his bony fingers as if he surprised someone at a birthday party...

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"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Peter screams frightened by the vision of the man in front of him.

"Look kid, that was rude…" The man says standing up and putting on the glasses that had fallen to the ground.

"W-w-who are you!? You can't be Iron Man! You're an impostor! But he was here right now... where could he have gone?" The boy doubts and starts looking around as if looking for Iron Man, who had left him with some stuntman.

"Hey! Hey!" The skinny man catches the boy's attention by clapping his hands. "I AM Iron Man!" The man finishes by pointing to himself.

"B-but, why are you so…" Peter tries to find the ideal word; Fallen? Ugly? Horrible? Deplorable? Vanquished? "...skinny?"

"Ah…" The hero sighs tired. "Everyone needs context, and you probably won't stay quiet if I don't tell you anyway. Oh and what I'm about to tell you, don't even dream of posting it on the internet…" He says heading for the security fence of the building and sitting with his back against it. Then he lifts his shirt and what the boy sees there scares him even more. In his chest, as predicted by the boy, a metallic cylinder was fitted in the middle of the ribs, with what appeared to be a kind of power source; but that wasn't the worst of it. There these gray lines that left the place and spread across the man's pale, skeletal chest, like veins of a corpse under his skin, but they followed a pattern almost like lines on a circuit...

"Actually boy, I don't have a Quirk, don't have powers, or at least, didn't had any. This here, in my chest is an Arc Reactor; a multi-isotope radio-decay cell that releases a type of energy from a chemical element that I created myself; it is now a part of me, and it allows me to be Iron Man… Or at least, it did. With the improvement of the armors, more and more energy was needed, which in itself was not a problem, until a fight with a villain a couple years ago… he utilized something, a virus, maybe an unknown technology, I don't know exactly! Not yet at least. But one thing I am sure; He corrupted my reactor, infected it and now it is poisoning me, little by little. The use of the armor only speeds up the process, that's why I can only utilize it for three hours a day tops, so that the effects don't kill me…"

"Couple of years…" The boy Peter started to scan his memories,"...it was your fight with Dr. Doom!"

"Looks like someone did their fanboy homework..." The hero jokes without showing an ounce of humor. "...yeah, he basically turned off my heart and severely damaged my lungs, that's why I need the reactor to live, even if it's killing me…"

"Wait, you're dying!? How long do you have left? There must be someway to reduce it, right?" asks Peter, eagerly to learn more

"Ya got a load of questions, don't you?" The hero asks sarcastically "With the poisoning in the way it is, it would take some decades to kill me entirely. And yes, there would be ways to decrease the infection: medication, chemotherapy...but not while I wear the armor…"

"So being a hero…" Starts Peter,

"...is what is killing me." Tony completes the phrase. "Yeah…"

"But what about the other armors? They demand a lot less energy! You could use the Mark XXXIII, it's super-efficient distribution of energy would be perfect, or the Mark XX, it is for long range and it could help…" The boy remembers the armor chapter of his notebook, where he kept the notes on all the armors that the hero used in the past.

"I can't...if I use an armor other than the Mark L, the villains will know something is wrong, they will know I am chickening out!" The hero says, already losing his patience and standing up. "I have to keep myself at my peak! Because that is what heroes do. It is necessary to keep the 'Symbol of Hope' standing!"

Peter stays static; equally shocked and amazed. Shocked by all the information he could access at that moment, which had turned his world upside down. But also amazed, to see his favorite hero risking his life to the fullest to keep the peace, to keep fighting... a true hero.

But at what price…?

"And that is where your situation comes in." The hero says walking towards the boy. "My last resources were focused on trying to find a way to transfer my energy to another living being, another person, so that they could follow my legacy without the need of an reactor on their chest…"

"Obviously I am not doing experiments on humans, so we are still testing on animals of the most diverse types; birds, mammals, reptiles, arthropods… but none is showing great results. None can absorb and use the energy, all it does at most is to improve the physical performance of the animals; irradiated fish swim faster, irradiated mammals are stronger, reptiles are more resistant...and in your blood, along with the reactor energy, pieces of the DNA's of the AR01987 were also identified; a spider, the most promising guinea pig in this case..."

Peter then remembers the sting he felt at the back of his neck, when he woke up from fainting... quickly running his hand over there, feeling the area more sensitive and swollen, and feeling something sticky near; taking what appeared to be a hair covered with glue and pulling it out of the wound, seeing what appeared to be a kind of very malleable and sticky hair, just like a web. When he realizes, Iron Man is in front of him, staring deep into his eyes behind the high-tech glasses, and with a bony hand outstretched holding a card. Peter takes it and sees that it is a business card from the Stark industries.

"Call me so we can schedule a medical appointment…" Peter couldn't believe it, he had gained powers and was now holding the number one hero's phone, he couldn't believe his luck… "Rest assured, I have the best doctors...and we will do our best to take any remnants of the spider and the energy out of you as soon as possible, and you will be able to return to your peaceful life…" the hero says passing by Peter, quickly tapping his shoulder with his bony hand, as if saying something that would relieve the boy and heading towards the stairs.

"What do you mean by taking it out of me…?" The boy asks the man that already had his hand in the door handle.

"Didn't you hear what I just said!?" The hero asks, a little angry now. "We didn't test 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 has changed your DNA!"

"But that way I will go back to being a quirkless…" The boy replies. "...I will not be able to become a hero…"

"Sorry kid, but maybe life decided that you won't become a hero, and this is definitely not the right way to become one…" Tony says opening the door and going in the direction of the stairs. "But you can still become a police officer, I know that they are mocked because people think that they just lock the villains that the heroes captured, but it still is a dignified profession, I think…" He says and turns to go down the stairs and exit the building.

Peter just stands in the same place, not knowing what to say, what to do; a roller coaster of emotion has just run over him. He almost died, he 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 will need to withdraw it, along with his idol telling him that he could not be a hero.

He looks at things in his hands, the notebook crumpled and still damp, open on the page that contained the hero's signature. And in his other hand, Tony Stark's business card from Stark Industries.

A contrast... on the 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 I could use them as a hero. All of this together with the signature, the mark of the man who motivated his passion, the man who inspired him, who made it possible for him to acquire a Quirk, even if it was unintentional.

And on the other hand, Anthony Stark's business card. The reality check he had been avoiding for all his life. They would take away his quirk, the first and last chance he'll ever get to become what he wanted to become. It was a confirmation that all this would be left in the past...forgotten, wiped out…

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Tony really had to start doing prior research on the buildings he intended to land on; especially when his armor was close to retracting… 30 floors, he was too old for that…

"All right 'Friday', sleep time is over!" He says touchinghis glasses, activating the holographic lenses that showed him a lot of information about the day and his surroundings.

"Good afternoon Mr. Stark, in what way can I be useful today?" asks the artificial intelligence

"Call a cab, I need to get to the Avenger's HQ to send Carnage to prison and..." The man asks going to check on the prisoner on his waist; the place where the chamber was supposed to be after the armor be collected, but there was nothing there "...'Friday', where is the chamber?

"It was removed from the armor in the coordinates; 40,7950875N and -73,94…"

"What do you mean by 'removed from the armor'!? Why did it happened!?" Asks the hero indignant.

"Because of the passenger; Peter Parker, we needed a weight removal so we didn't exceed the energy limit. The passenger was chosen for being a civilian with no criminal record" The intelligence answers in a completely neutral tone.

"God…" Tony say touching his forehead on the wall and closing his fist while lightly punching the wall.

"I am sorry Mr. Stark, by any chance I should 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 says, scared with the fear of agreeing and forgetting about that configurations. "We just need to find the chamber, it is enoughly resistant to not break in the fall, but nothing more than that..."

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In a dark and relatively far from urban traffic alley, a high-tech container that contained a super psychopath had fallen; the outer metallic frame had withstood the impact of the fall, but the glass had cracked. It hadn't broken completely yet, and the red goo was still trapped inside, aware of the now fragility of its captivity. The villain tried to break it in any way, but his current constitution did not help him; without a host, his shape was not very strong, besides that he was dying due to the atmosphere, he needed a host soon…

Though he didn't know it, his freedom was only a few meters away. Three boys were sitting talking near some dumpsters, and now they had just gotten up and were walking towards him…

"That was tense…" commented one of the boys to the other two; more specifically for the brunette who was leading "Weren't you and Parker friends when you both were kids?"

"Yeah, you were kinda harsh with him today" Agrees the other boy.

"..." The boy took some time to answer, having memories flowing through his mind for a few seconds. "It is his fault for getting in my way." He says kicking the nearest thing from his feet; a metal and glass object that hits the wall and the glass shatters for already being cracked, freeing what was trapped inside...

"You shouldn't waste your time with him…"

"... It's just that… I have wanted to be a hero since I was little, I may not have a Quirk, but I can still try my hardest, can't I?..."

"Hunff…" Grunts Flash, riled up by the words of the boy. "Someone got to teach that useless nerd how the world really works!" He says activating his Quirk, again covering his arm with the black goo and smashing the soda can that he drank, without any effort. "I hate when he talks about heroes!"

"Hehehehe" both henchmen laugh because of Flash's way.

"Hey, I got an idea!" comments one of the boys. "We should go to the arcade, distract you, get your head out of this, ya know?"

"Whatever…" Answers Flash.

"Or we could go hidden to the bar near the station" Comments the other com a little different intentions. "Get some ladies…"

"Now that is a good idea" Answers the other, as if he had forgotten about the arcade.

"Idiots! If we get caught, no way M.A will let me in!" He says, angry with his colleagues' attitude, not mad with the idea itself, but with how it could affect his future as a pro hero.

"Hey, what's that!?" Both boys say at the same time when they see something moving behind Flash, both pointing to the thing that was growing before their eyes.

Flash turns around, thinking it's some kind of stupid prank that the morons thought he was going to fall on; but he was wrong, growing up behind him was an amorphous creature, like an angry, red ooze, much like his own individuality; it grows to be larger than the boys, showing large white eyes and pointed teeth in a deformed mouth;

"Perfect, I love young hosts with so much power!!!" The creature says staring at the Flash boy in front of him, who remained static...

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Leaving the building, Tony quickly takes out his cell phone, connecting to his private satellite, tries to track security cameras close to the coordinates where he had dropped the container; since it prevented most types of radiation from leaving, preventing the location of any source of energy released by the symbiote, and it was not as if it released anything… but all this proved to be unnecessary when a tremor could be felt on the floor, shaking buildings and objects. Quickly detecting where the tremor had come from, Tony could identify a proximity to the coordinates, and by analyzing a nearby traffic camera, he could identify an alley that was located a few blocks away ... but what made him really tremble was what he saw; Carnage, loose, insane, but he looked a lot bigger than he should and with a hostage, a boy, maybe he was using his Quirk to cause the tremors.

"'Friday' I need the fastest walking route to the street…" But before he could finish his command, he observed a huge cloud of black smoke rising to the skies... he had started a fire too. "... forget it!" The man says while starting to run in the direction of the disaster.

From the top of the same building, a boy remained in place, until he fell to the ground due to a tremor that had made the entire building sway, and quickly saw the rise of a huge cloud of smoke on the horizon, indicating the likely action of a villain;

"A villain! I wonder which hero will show up and…" He starts running towards the stairs, for a lively second to see heroes in action and take notes on their Quirks... but the harsh reality of recent events comes back to him like a run over, and he stops.

"Sorry kid, but maybe life decided that you won't become a hero, and this is definitely not the right way to become one…"

Iron Man's words hammer back into his mind, making him sink into the truth that he never wanted to admit to himself…

The boy closes his eyes and sighs, now heading for the stairs slowly, in no hurry or excitement, just wanting to get home... and maybe send an email to Mr. Connors, asking him where he went to high school...

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Chaos. That was the only word that described the atmosphere of that, just moments away, peaceful commercial district; people ran and screamed in fright, a fire started and now engulfed several nearby stores and buildings. Some heroes had already arrived, among them; The Thing, Falcon and Rocket stared at the villain. Carnage was already well known, but not that way, he looked bigger, and he was definitely stronger.

"He sure wasn't that big the last time." Comments The Thing.

"Something must have happened…" says Falcon, observing the villain through Red Wing, his falcon, adventures partner, utilizing an equipped camera on the bird, trying to find an opening.

"I don't care about his size!!!" Rocket says already cocking his gun, making it increase the size of the firing barrel, prepared to fire "He is gonna to explode the same way!!!"

"Wait!!!" Falcon warns him before he could pull the trigger "...he got a hostage!"

At the same time, it was possible to notice the presence of the hostage; a dark-haired boy came out of the Carnage, still being held by it. The boy tried to free himself, shouting and forcing his way out; he tries to use his Quirk, increasing the size of his arms and thereby his strength, growing claws and thorns in the back... but nothing seemed to work... the villain was pierced, but quickly regenerated, as if absorbing power of the boy...

"HOW YOU DARE TO PUT A CHILD IN DANGER!?!?!" Screams The Thing, now running towards the villain.

The stony hero runs a few meters, leaving his colleagues behind; until he jumps, falling with his fist extended towards the villain; his attack, so destructive at other times, that it had already shaken the strongest villains, had minimum to no effect when it came into contact with the symbiote. His fist was almost sucked into the villain and trapped...

"What the heck is this!?" The hero asks himself seeing the composition of the villain, he was more solid before. "It looks like it's just ooze…"

Before he could do anything else; whether attacking in another way or letting go, the villain forms a huge red and black hand with claws, like a bigger and more evil version of what the boy created a little while, and beats it with all his strength on the hero, making the same fly for back and hit your back on an iron garage gate.

"Thing!" Falcon screams worried with his friend, and because of that, he barely escapes from another of the villain's attack, flying up, dodging by a few centimeters of another claw that was projected in his direction

"That's right! Don't get close!" The villain demands, observing the level of his power when facing professional heroes "Get back, or I'll kill the boy!"

From the middle of the villain, young Eugene struggled with everything he had, trying to escape the cling of the sticky villain; he managed to release part of his face from the tangle of red and black goo, the second arising from his own Quirk that was being used by the villain...

"AHHHH!!! LET ME GOOOOOO!!!" the boy says using his power to cover his arms with black goo, increasing them, and trying to stretch them out of the villain "YOU'RE GONNA REGRET LURKING OUT FROM THE SEWER YOU CAME FROM!!!"

Unfortunately, what Flash did not know was that his Quirk and that of the psychopath were very similar, but the villain had much more control and used a technique still unknown to the boy; the absorption, that's why Carnage didn't shaked up, he absorbed the boy's power, by being connected with him, instead of getting hurt by the boy's attacks, he just got bigger and stronger…

"HAHAHA, fool! With your power, I will be able to defeat Iron Man with just one punch!!!"

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A little away, but still watching the action, was the audience; being turned away by the police who assisted the heroes;

"It is Carnage, but he is stronger than before…" comments one of the pedestrians in the audience for other person by his side

"Look, it's him!" A woman in the crowd is filled with hope by the vision of the hero getting closer "It's the new Ant-Man!!! He will stop the villain!!!"

And indeed, from a distance, the new heir to the Ant Man cloak was approaching, heading towards the conflict to help, but he stopped a short distance from the conflict, watching his weakness in front of him...

"A one-way street!?" He says trying to fit his feet in the street and his body between two buildings "I need at least a double-way to pass through!" The same says, seeing how useless he would be in that situation.

The two Flash henchmen were still in the same place, trembling, looking around just to see chaos, confusion and destruction, a falling piece of building would be the end of them ... if it wasn't for an treant hero, wrapping his arm around the boys, lifting them off the floor and pulling them to a safe place.

"I am Groot!" He says while helping more people to get off the closer buildings. "I am Groot!"

"Don't look at me!" Mr. Fantastic, who was participating in the action as well answered, as if he understood what Groot just said. "I got my hands full as well…" He says stretching his arms to secure the bases of some posts or other structures, tying his own body so that they didn't move. "Where is the rescue? How are you doing up there!?" He asks referring to the other heroes.

"We can't hit him, his body is a lot fluid without a host…" The Thing says analyzing the villain. "And beyond that, he seems to be using the boy's Quirk to cause all this trembles and damages, we have to take him out of there someway."

"Watch out!" Falcon warns his companion and both barely dodge the smashing hand of the villain that came in the direction of both.

"None of us has the necessary Quirk to deal with him in this form…" Rocket says a little back, analyzing the villain with his portable holographic viewfinder.

"We will then only have to minimize the damage until someone with the right Quirk appears…" Falcon responds a few meters from the ground watching the villain, who simply stared at the heroes, waiting for the right moment for the next attack.

"Sorry kid, you'll just have to wait a little longer..." Thinks The Thing with pity for the boy who was going through it all. "Dammit! If I had more power, I would be able to send this guy away!"

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Back with the crowd held by the police; a tired, breathless Tony reaches the crowd, keeping his glasses on his face and the hood over his head so he won't be recognized. He stops, leaning against the nearest post due to the race that he had to do, since no taxi was available at the moment...he stops for a moment, catching his breath, he then raises his head and watches the scene; he didn't imagine that things could get so bad…

"'Friday', analysis." The hero says weakly, wishing that the situation didn't get worse.

"Individual V0492 seems to be quite stable in view of the lack of a host; he seems to be taking energy from the hostage..."

"The hostage… information!" The hero says, still looking forward, trying to think up a way to help.

"Eugene Thompson, 14 years old, Quirk; Symbiont; It is capable of secreting an organic black substance that molds itself in its body and being able to acquire several formats; it also gives him greater strength, speed and regeneration capacities, much like that of Carnage himself... " The artificial intelligence says. "...he appears to be having his power combined with that of Carnage, this is what seems to be keeping him stable."

Stable would not be the word used by Tony, the villain was uncontrollable; its fluidity in the symbiotic format and the strength of having a host together, this was certainly one, if not the worst possible combination. Of course, it could be disintegrated with the wave disruptor; it showed to be quite functional before, but how would he use it? He couldn't draw attention because he was without the armor, it would break the public's trust in him; he could wear the armor, but that was a long-term risk. His only option was to contact one of the heroes who knew of his condition, disassemble the disruptor and convert it into a portable device and… shit! Who was he kidding? It would take too long, and they didn't have all that time, a life was at risk... there had to be another way, there was always one... he hoped at least… He did not believe that he had been so disconnected that he did not realize that the container had fallen; he ended up wasting a lot of time with that boy, he knew he should have left before and now there he was, useless, huddled in a corner, hoping with all his might that someone would come…

"I am pathetic…"

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Walking without a specific direction, Peter was crestfallen, not paying much attention to what was happening around him. He flipped through the pages of his notebook, observing the diagrams and notes of the most different heroes he had ever witnessed fighting; live or over the internet;

Groot…

"He will never be a hero, better find out this now then later…"

The new Ant-Man…

Until the Iron Man's signature;

"...sometimes life decides that you won't become a hero…"

"You knew it…" The boy whispers to himself, feeling the tears start to form… "Idiot, don't cry! Deep down you knew, you knew that there was no way, and you thought it would happen now? That after being bitten by a radioactive spider you would go swinging from buildings in a web? Defeating villains and getting a girl in the end…? You were just occulting reality, that's why you worked so hard, uselessly trying to prove something...

Suddenly, the boy hears a crash, coming from somewhere close to where he was; he turns in the direction of the noise, and notices a crowd of people across the street, at the mouth of an alley, maybe that was where the tremors came from...his feet had taken him there without meaning to...he then crosses the street.

"Why did I come here? I know my notes are useless now, what could I…"

The words die in his mind and his eyes widen when he recognizes the villain who was the reason for all that uproar, the same one that attacked him just over an hour ago; Carnage…

"Wait, it can't be...I saw Iron Man capturing him, I saw..." The boy then remembers the containment chamber that Tony had put the psychopath on; also remembering clearly how it was not with him when they landed in the building, and that is where he understands; "...if he dropped it...it's because it's all my fault..."

"Why aren't the heroes doing anything?" A man near Peter asks another person in the crowd

"Apparently the heroes are no match to this one." replies the person asked "Besides the villain captured a child, things are not looking very good for him..."

"He captured someone?" Peter wonders, recalling the feeling "I wonder how long he's been there..."

"Wait, I'm confused," says a guy from the crowd, "wasn't that the same villain that Iron Man was chasing this morning?"

"What? Iron Man? Really? So where is he !?" Asks another astonished person.

"Well, can anyone call him or something?" Asks a woman.

"Seriously, why hasn't he come yet to help these heroes?" Another one questions.

On the opposite side of the crowd, Tony, listening to all these comments, can do no more than just sink deeper into his own thoughts; how much people depended on him, and there he was, unable to do anything, useless, failed; "Pathetic..." The hero blamed himself.

Likewise, the brown haired boy was also drowning in his emotions; pain, suffering, sadness, fear, all that had been his fault, he thought; "I am the one who should be blaming ... if I hadn't been so incisive, so petulant... he spent all of his necessary energy to act like a hero to me, talking to me and saving me too..."

"I'm useless..." thinks Tony, pulling the hood even more while putting his hand on the reactor, cursing it...

"He cannot wear the armor, and none of the other heroes has any quirk suitable for facing Carnage..."

"I'm pathetic..."

"It's all my fault...sorry...I'm so sorry...Help will come and save the day, I'm sure..." The boy thinks feeling the weight of his actions fall on his shoulders, feeling the weight of a life in his arms, and yet, he clings to the little flame of hope in his heart, desperate for not knowing what else to do...

"I...I'm not a real hero..." The same weight falls on Tony's back; Did anything matter in the end?

"Someone, a real hero will come..." The boy tries to justify himself, grab that hope again, until he hears the hostage's grunt, a familiar grunt; when he sees it, a dark hair was recognizable in the middle of the red goo...the victim struggled to survive, until he opens his eyes...it was Flash...the boy who tormented him...his classmate and ex-friend...his gray eyes stared at Parker...as if pleading...

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...help me…

The boy did not think twice, nor did he even think, his body moved; the hand holding the notebook was opened and it fell, his legs moved by themselves, he passed quickly through the crowd; Tony's eyes widen when he witnesses the scene, as do the other heroes; no one expected it, and when consciousness returned to his brain, he was already running towards the villain and Flash, running through the wreckage and the symbiote pieces along the way.

"NO!!! YOU IDIOT!!!" Screams The Thing at the boy.

"YOU'LL END UP KILLING YOURSELF" Screams Rocket right after the first hero.

But Peter didn't really care, or even listen, all of his conscious and rational part; who told him it was a bad idea, had been completely turned off, all that worked was his muscles like gear, and an inner feeling like fuel, a feeling that made him run faster, approaching the villain...

"So it's you again!?" Recognizes the villain.

"Pa-parker?" Flash was only seconds away from falling unconscious, but he was able, for just a second, distinguish who approached.

"What am I doing?" the brunette asks himself, recovering a little of his conscience "Why am I running? And why can't I stop?"

"Now you die!" The villain says, about to stick his claws in the approaching boy

"What do I do?" he now wondered, since he couldn't stop, he had to improvise a strategy "What would a hero do?" He changes his question while thinking about the things you were able to do. His mind then turns to his notebook, the same one he had dropped, but it didn't matter, he had the notes decorated. Then he remembers, page 25, the page of the earthly hero Groot; restrict your opponent. The boy then in a quick movement, grabs his backpack, unzips it quickly and throws it in the villain's face, in order to restrict his field of vision.

"Take that!" The boy screams as he tosses the yellow backpack into the villain's big eyes; the attack itself was not very effective, but his Iron Man lunchbox hit the Carnage's eye, which howled and went back and forth with his head and body, absorbing the impact and letting go for a moment the part that prevented Flash from breathing, it pulls a lot of air and starts coughing and taking a deep breath. "Flash!" The boy says going in the direction of where the colleague was and starting to try to pull the goo out of him, in an attempt to free him.

"What the...?" Flash says as he regains consciousness, seeing Peter try to free him. "Why are you here!?"

"I dont know!" Parker replied, still trying to pull the goo that held Flash "My legs, they just started to move!" He tried to remove the goo, but it was useless, it regenerated very quickly...

"I don't know why I did what I did..." the voices from his past then intermingled; his colleagues teasing him, his own voice as a child full of expectations and dreams, his uncles consoling him, the doctor pointing out the harsh reality, Iron Man, so much telling him that he couldn't be a hero, along with his way of saying that he had everything under control in that old video; "...maybe it was because of his look..."

"Flash, I couldn't just stand and watch you die..." the same says with a runny nose and eyes while staring at the boy.

"Enough of this bullcrap!!!" Carnage recomposes and goes towards the boys, ready to end it once and for all.

Even though Carnage announced his attack, Peter didn't know which side he would attack on, but something inside him warned about the villain on his right, whether it was luck or intuition, he couldn't say, but when he turned around, Carnage's head was coming towards him; with his mouth open, ready to devour the boy's head, and then, in an act of pure self-defense, he extends his arms to protect his face, but something else happens. Something starts to grow inside the boy's forearm; something that wanted to leave. The boy did not see, but a vein grew inside his arm, like a snake that crawled in a straight line towards his fist. When it suddenly escapes; something pierces the boy's wrist from the inside out. He howls in pain, blood spreads, and a line, like a shot of a white substance, comes out of the wound; but it was something solid, a thread, a fiber... a web. It comes into contact with the villain's face and spreads, covering his face completely; closing your mouth and blinding you. While the boy put his hand on his arm to stop the bleeding…

Upon hearing the boy's howl of pain, not knowing the real cause, something ignited inside Tony, an uncontrollable flame, an unbeatable will; he couldn't, he couldn't stand still, he couldn't let that poor boy without any power being able to take so much risk to save someone, and he, the number one hero, with all available resources, doing nothing. He then whispers;

" 'Friday' decrease vital functions by 20% and put me in the armor"

"Sir, I should warn..."

"Just do it!" He says impatiently and the artificial intelligence quickly obeys the order, a few seconds and the wave of mini-robots completely covers his body, activating sensors, turbines, circuits, he felt a slight shortness of breath and thermal discomfort, but that was nothing...

"NOW YOU PISSED ME OFF KID!!!" Carnage says after getting rid of the web and was about to crush the boy, who was now paralyzed, holding the bleeding fist.

"SAVE THE BOY!!!" Screams The Thing as he tries to reach for the boy. "HE WILL KILL HIM…"

But before the heroes could reach the boy, and even before the villain reached him, a small explosion forms and a crater too, beside the boy. Peter opens his eyes, and sees; by his side; Iron Man protected him with a blue energy shield, which barred Carnage's arm, and protected the boy.

"Iron Man…"

"I am a great teacher," he had returned to his fun way of being, "but I admit that I was not following my own teachings very well..." The same says pushing Carnage's arm to the side, disabling the shield and starting to form something else in his right arm, while the left reached out and grabbed Flash's shirt to get him out of there. "We pros have to take chances sometimes... because that's what heroes do!"

When he can see, the hero's right arm had turned into a larger version of the last device he had used to disintegrate the villain; but this one occupied the hero's entire arm. With his left hand he grabs Flash and quickly grabs Peter too, while the other; he punches in the direction of the villain and activates the device; launching a concentrated sound wave in Carnage, which completely disintegrates the villain and causes a good gust of wind around him; making Ant-Man have to create a barricade with his arms for the crowd watching the fight and the other heroes get together so they wouldn't be carried away by the force of the wind; that was strong enough to create a small tornado that soon dissipated.

Standing, in the same pose that had destroyed the villain; Iron Man was there, the two boys beside him, lying and almost unconscious from the experience, until they feel raindrops falling from the sky; pedestrians and heroes look up, and see the clouds moving in the same direction like a cyclone; the hero had changed the weather, with a single punch ... Everyone is starting to shout and applaud the number one hero who stood up while breathing hard inside the armor; but even so, he raises his arm, in a sign of victory and the crowd goes even more crazy. The hero then looks at young Peter, still somewhat catatonic for the experience, as if internally thanking the boy...

"After that, the heroes collected all the scattered pieces of Carnage, and the villain went into police custody, where he belonged..."

Peter stared at the armored hero who was currently taking pictures and answering questions from journalists and fans. The boy then rubs his freshly bandaged wrist and returns to paying attention to the sermon he was receiving;

"You idiot! Did you happen to want to die!?" Asks Rocket getting close to the boy and starting to punch his head. "Hellooo, somebody home? Because it sure doesn't look that way!!!" He screams at the poor boy's ear.

"There was no reason for you to put your danger like that!" says The Thing, irritated while crossing his arms...

"I took a big scolding from the heroes that day, while Flash was celebrated for his bravery..."

"You were amazing kid, I'm impressed" Ant-Man says looking at the brunette with a sullen face "And this quirk of yours is a whole nother level."

"When you become a pro, remember to come to my agency…" Falcon says. "I would love to have you as a partner while you train."

But the brunette didn't pay attention to any of that, he just thought of one thing, Peter Parker...

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...and the part of the villain that remained in his body certainly increased the fury he felt...

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It was late afternoon when the boy Peter was walking calmly towards Queens to his uncles' house. Luckily the cops hadn't called his aunt May; she would be furious if she found out what he did. Uncle Ben would probably defend him, but still... He had to come up with an excuse to be studying at the library for his delay; of course, Ben had not fallen for it, even on the phone he could not deceive him;

"You lie like your father Peter, very badly…" His voice echoed through the boy's head, that thought had made him smile, thinking of the many similarities he had of his parents that he did not even remember their faces... but the events of the day did not leave him to think about it.

"I wish I could have apologized to Iron Man..." The boy thinks, "but he was surrounded by reporters and I didn't want to disturb him. Well, now that I have his phone number I can call and apologize ... when we go to make an appointment for the removal..." he thinks sadly while looking at his bandaged fist, what he had done… he had used a power...

"Oi! Wall-Crawler!" The boy hears a voice behind him and hurried steps, he turns and faces Flash.

"Flash…?" he was surprised by the appearance of the brunette, he was panting after the race he runned to reach the boy, what would he be doing there…?

"Listen up! I would never ask for a weakling like you to help me…" He says shaking, clenching his fists and staring at the floor, "so don't even think you can look down on me! Understood! I was fine alone! You're just a failed Quirkless who won't even be able to become a mall security guard! You didn't help me!"

He finishes releasing his fury at the boy, turns his back and stomps out. The Parker boy stands still for a moment, not being affected by the boy's words since he had heard the same say these things a few times… besides, he was already thinking about giving up…

"Wow…"

The brunette turns around, frightened. He stares at the man leaning against a garden who was watching him while drinking something from a glass with a straw; the man, Tony Stark, without armor, with only his coat, his baggy clothes, because of his thinness, and his glasses.

"Iron Man?" The boy asks.

"That was, definitely, the weirdest 'thank you' I have ever heard…" He says commenting what he had just witnessed, and extends the glass to the boy "Milkshake?"

"N-no, thanks…" The boy refuses.

"Okay, well, it's over anyways." He says, immediately throwing the glass in a garbage nearby and turning to face the boy with his arms crossed "And just call me Tony...no, too intimate...Mr. Stark is good!"

"What are you doing here?"

"You are a very rude boy, haven't you been taught manners?" He says playful but soon returns to the more serious face "Ok, ok, let's get straight to the point; I came here to thank you and also to answer your question from earlier...if you hadn't told me about your life, if you hadn't run towards that fight...I would have been just a useless observer, cheering in the crowd...so, thank you."

"Oh no! It was my fault he was there to begin with…" The brunette says trying to look less embarrassed "It was me who hindered your hard work, I spent your energy and not to mention your time and…"

"Hey Hey!" Mr. Stark says interrupting the boy "I'm not done, calm down! You told me you had no powers, then you received one, which you still know nothing about. But even so, you faced danger in order to save a life, and that inspired me to act…"

The boy stops and starts to face the hero in front of him, paying attention to everything he said...

"There are stories of all heroes, how they became extraordinary, and everyone has one thing in common; their bodies act before they have a chance to think, as if it acted on its own free will…"

The boy's eyes start to water, the tears start to accumulate and he lowers his head, embarrassed by the words of the hero in front of him, for it was the first time that someone described him with the characteristics of a hero...

"For some reason, I remembered my aunt's and uncles' words at that moment;

'Oh Peter, I wish things were different…'

'I'm sorry Peter…'"

His heart sinks when he hears the words spoken by his idol...

"That's what happened to you today…"

"You never told me, aunt May, uncle Ben, at that time, what I wanted you to say was...the words I wanted to hear..."

"Young man...you can also become a hero."

"Dreams can also come true ... oh, besides, I forgot to mention; this is the story of how I became the greatest hero in the world"

"Your Quirk came from an experiment of mine, so you're my responsibility." The man says, approaching the boy and placing his hands on his shoulders, looks him in the eye "So it's my duty to take care of you so that you don't kill yourself or anything, you know? These life insurances are really expensive…but anyway, you proved yourself worthy of a hero, and you are a perfect candidate to inherit my power…"

The boy looks into those eyes deeply, completely grateful for everything, for the chance, the opportunity, he would not let him down, he would show himself worthy and would try his best...

"I accept, I will do my best!" The boy says determined.

"Okay, that's what I wanted to hear," The man says smiling, "although you didn't have much of a choice, but it's part of life." He says, lightly beating the boy on the arm and starting to walk away "Go home boy, rest and tomorrow morning we will start training." he says walking and leaving the boy behind.

"But it would not be easy, training to become the heir to the power of Iron Man. It wouldn't prove to be a task not simple, as I would soon discover..."