Stark Industries

The sun was shining over New York on a bright, cold winter's morning. Stark Tower rose from the streets, the sun glistening off of the many glass windows that sat in the building right up to the top. On the skyscraper across the road, Spider-Man sat watching the streets below. Birds were flying overhead singing away in their chirpy tones, starting to migrate to the south as the autumnal weather was creeping in and winter a short way off. The sounds of the cars below were ruining the chorus of the birds, to a degree that Peter could not listen anymore.

He looked down to the streets below him, where he could see a group assembling, at the entrance to Star Tower, of his class mates.

'Time to go,' he thought.

He leapt off the building down into an adjacent alleyway, throwing on his civilian clothes, hiding all sign of him being Spider-Man. He emerged and headed over to the awaiting group. He spotted Harry who was waiting at the back.

“Hey, how are you doing?" asked Harry.

"Good thanks. Doctor Smith not here yet?"

"No, there is a rumour going round that he has disappeared," Harry answered, just as another teacher arrived, panting from the running he had done.

"I am very sorry I am late. I was only told this morning that Doctor Smith was unavailable."

"What has happened to him sir?" someone piped up.

"From what I know, the school caretaker saw him get into a blue box and dematerialised out of existence and now the caretaker is in the mental hospital."

"So who is going to replace Doctor Smith?" someone else asked.

"At the moment, we don't know, but for now, we better go inside as Mr Stark will be waiting."

The group moved into the building and waited in the large atrium while the teacher went and made their presence known. They had to stand there for a few minutes before it was time to move on into the company. A lady walked over to the group and introduced herself.

"Hello and welcome to Stark Industries. My name is Pepper Potts and I will be showing you around today. If you would follow me, I think we will start in the development labs."

The group moved off down one of the corridors leading off of the atrium. They passed several doors, through which they saw many interesting and weird things being experimented on. They soon reached the end of the corridor and a large set of double doors.

"Oi, Miss Potts, is this like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Is someone from the group going to get sucked up a pipe?" Flash shouted out.

"Very funny young man, but if you are unwise like Augustus Gloop, then you might be taking a trip to the fudge vats."

She gave a small wink to the rest of the group and turned to put a pin code into a reader sat next to the door. As she did so, Flash pulled a face at her back.

"Mr Thompson!" the substitute teacher shouted out, "get over here now!"

After Flash had been told off, Miss Potts lead the group through the double doors and into the development labs. They were the best thing Peter had ever seen. The futuristic look helped even more to awe the students. Robots were scattered around the room manipulating experiments or building the finest looking machines anyone had seen. However, those details were soon overshadowed by another sight that took the breath away from everyone.

Standing in the middle of the room, directing all the robots and other members of staff was none other than Iron Man himself. The legend that was Tony Stark was dressed in his suit, clearly immersed in his work.

"J.A.R.V.I.S how is the Refluxaugmenter reacting with the helmec pump?" Tony asked his automated helper.

"They are working well sir. We are coming up to speed now," a male, British voice replied.

"Ok, let's increase the power by an additional 30%," Stark said.

"Increasing power now," J.A.R.V.I.S replied.

There was a sound that signified an increase in power. Everyone watched on in fascination.

"Looking good!" Tony cried.

However, his confidence was soon to disappear. He device they were working on suddenly started to spark before suddenly there was a loud bang and the device exploded, showering the things around it in more sparks.

"Well, I think we need to go in smaller steps next time," Tony said.

"Noted sir," replied J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Um Tony, the kids from Midtown High are here to see you," Pepper interrupted, coughing from the smoke that had filled the room.

"Oh, sorry I didn't know you were there. J.A.R.V.I.S why didn't you tell me they were there?"

"You had disabled my visual sensors for more power sir."

"So I did."

Tony Stark walked over to an above in the wall and backed into it. Once he was in place, his suit began to hiss and disassemble itself. Within seconds, he was free and able to move out to talk to the group.

"Well welcome to Stark Industries, sorry about that explosion, it is something we have been working on for a while, but we just can't get right. Who has any questions for me?"

Everyone's hands shot up, eager to get to talk to the great Tony Stark.

"Any questions that aren't related to me being Iron Man and the richest man in New York?"

Several hands were lowered. Tony looked around the group and his eyes fixed on Peter.

"Yes, how about you," he asked pointing at him.

"If you were to wire in a smaller version of your Arc reactor into this device you are working, could you override the need for the extra power going to the helmec pump and concentrate it on the mainframe?"

"Such a geek Parker!" Flash called out.

"Mr Thompson I will not tell you again," the substitute teacher angrily snapped at him.

"J.A.R.V.I.S run Mr Parker's idea through the simulator, will it work?"

"Computing theory," J.A.R.V.I.S said.

The group waited for a few moments while Peter's idea was simulated. After what seemed like ages, a reply came.

"There is a 95% chance of complete operation."

"Well well, it seems you might have solved my problem," Tony said, clearly impressed at what Peter had done. "Mr Parker, I think at some point you and I need to have a chat, see if there are anymore of my problems you can help with."

"I'd be honoured to help sir," Peter replied.

"Please, call me Tony."

"Hey Tony, who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl this year?" Flash called out.

"However, to you Mr Thompson, I am Mr Stark."

Woah, Flash got owned by Tony Stark. The whole group gasped at the slam Tony had put down against Flash.

"Yes sir," was all Flash could say as he shrank into his shell.

What happened next however, was not something anyone predicted would happen. The tinted glass wall that looked out onto the street suddenly disintegrated into several thousand shards, showering everyone in the room.

"Everyone out now!" Tony shouted at the panicking group.

They didn't need to be told twice as they ran for the door and bundled out. Harry ran over to Peter.

"Now is your time to shine buddy, I'll try and cover for you."

"Thanks."

Harry ran off with the rest of the group, while Peter slipped behind a tall cabinet unit and changed into his costume.

A figure appeared in the gaping hole, one that Peter had met before, Doctor Octopus. He needed to think of a shorter nickname for him. Doctor Octopus was too long to say, what about Doc Ock, that sounded better. Tony was still in the room and as soon as he saw Doc Ock, he began to run towards his suit. However, before he could reach it, one of Doc Ock's metal tentacles shot out and slammed into it, rendering it useless. Tony was left without any protection. All of his other suits were in the workshop having an upgrade fitted. Now he was regretting doing them all at the same time.

"Tony Stark, just the person I want," Doc Ock hissed.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Tony asked.

"I am Doctor Octopus and I want your Arc reactor."

Just before Doc Ock could bring another tentacle up to grab Tony, Spider-Man reacted and shot a web out, attaching it to Tony's back, before pulling him out of the way.

"You again," the doctor screeched as Spider-Man came into view, squatting on top of a glass display case. "You may have thwarted me last time, but you will not defeat me this time."

"Well Mr Octopus you forgot to add suckers to your arms, because you suck!" Spider-Man jeered.

Spidey shot a web out and attached it to Doc Ock's chest. Giving it a hard yank, he pulled the doctor towards him and slammed his feet in his stomach, causing Ock to get winded. Before he could get to his feet, Spider-Man picked up a broken part of Iron Man's suit and threw it at the Doctor. Before it managed to hit him, one of the tentacles knocked it out of harms way. They hoisted the doctor to his feet and began to engage in the fighting. Spider-Man ducked and dived around the arms as they threw themselves around him.

Unbeknownst to Doc Ock, Spider-Man and Tony Stark, Harry Osborn had snuck back into the room and was now kneeling down next to a strange looking piece of technology. It was shaped a little like a boomerang, but had little extra spikes sticking out from it, all over its body. With a little fiddling around, Harry managed to activate it and without really knowing what it was going to do, threw it towards Doc Ock.

Spider-Man's spider sense alerted him to the presence of the weapon. He managed just in time, to move to the left to allow the weapon to hit a couple of Doc Ock's tentacles. On impact, the spikes drove themselves deep into the metal and sent several hundred volts into the arms, disabling them. And then without much warning, there was a frantic beeping noise emitted from the device, before it exploded, taking two of the tentacles with it. As they blew away, a sharp shard managed o snag on Spider-Man's mask, ripping a large chunk from it. He flipped back out of the way of the rest of the debris. Tony cowered in a corner, arms over his face to shield him from the dust and sharp fragments.

Once the dust had settled, Spider-Man brought his face up off of the floor and looked over to where Doc Ock had landed and much to his disappointment, he had once again vanished. However, the two ruined tentacles remained behind. He heard a movement behind him and saw Harry walking over towards him, covered in a thick layer of dust.

"Hey, that was so cool," he said as he reached down and offered a helping hand.

Peter grasped it and used Harry to get up to his feet.

"What are you doing in here? I thought you were with the rest of the group."

"I thought you might want some help, you almost didn't get out of the last encounter."

"Yeah thanks, I didn't think I would have stopped him this time either."

There was another noise in the room which made both teenagers whip round. They had forgotten that the great Tony Stark was still in the room. They saw him getting up, looking at the pair of them in surprise.

"So," Tony started, "not only are you a brilliant scientist, but one of the best superheroes this world has ever seen, apart from me obviously."

Peter suddenly realised how Tony had identified him, the mask. It showed to the world his identity.

"Please Mr Stark, you can't tell anyone who I am," Peter began to beg.

"Mr Parker don't worry, I know the importance of hiding ones identity, even if I didn't do it myself. Is there anything I can do for you I thanks for helping to stop that maniac?"

"Please, all I need is to be able to get out of here without anyone seeing me."

"Are you sure that is all you want?"

"Well," Harry said, "there is something else you might be able to help with."

"Oh yes, what is it you would like?"

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