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It's Peter's second time to the Compound & a month after May found out his spider secrets when Tony finds out how smart the kid actually is. 12:30 P.M. is when Happy picks Peter up from his apartment and 30 minutes later, maybe a couple driving laws broken, Peter gazes up at the Compound. The sight still hasn't gotten old yet. The Avengers Compound does not belong to just the Avengers anymore, but for the several Stark Industries professionals or researchers. From what Peter could pick up with his enhanced hearing, all of the ex-Avengers' shit has been packed up and their rooms are now available. It's only still named after the Avengers as a sort of sign for the future or something cheesy like that.
Peter doesn't ask any questions about it though; he doesn't want to go snooping around again. Last couple times he snooped, it ended with him crashing a plane on Coney Island's beach and before that, he wandered away from his class to get bitten by one of Oscorp’s radioactive spiders. He's just lucky he got superpowers from the bite and not cancer or some shit. The one-time Parker Luck worked in favour. So, Pete's keeping low and only staying focused on the task at hand. Calm and concentrated. Which is first seeing Mr Stark for another suit maintenance check before going home at 3.
Happy leads Peter all the way to Tony's private lab, only accessible to 4 other people than the man himself. Black Sabbath is not blaring for once. The lab is incredible as always, maybe a bit shinier now with some of the counter space cleared off; the last couple of visits, Mr Stark had been stacked with paperwork. Peter assumes that's where he's going to lay out his suit so they - mainly Mr Stark - can go over it. Tony is there too, of course, his lab and all, but he is currently sitting at one of the monitors.
U & DUM-E race across the lab to Peter, chirping & beeping gleefully, and he bends down to pat them quickly. Over the last visit, both of the bots took quite a liking to Peter and no one knows why. Although, it makes Tony feel both ecstatic at the fact and mildly concerned about what those implications could lead to. A reckless & rebellious teen + bots with history of causing fires = a rightful sceptic Tony.
"Hey Spiderling," Tony stands up, "go lay out the suit on the table. Gotta talk to Hap!"
Peter does as he is told but still listens quietly as Tony takes Happy to the side to have a 'secret' conversation. It’s hard to keep it a secret with enhanced hearing. "Alright, Hap, kid's busy. What's going on? Anything I should know about?"
"No, not anything you should worry about. The way he talks about his non-spider life sounds fine to me." Peter should really clean his backpack sometime too. Where is the suit? "I think the biggest problem he has right now is what to wear to some Halloween party he's going to next month." After a minute of digging, Peter finally sets the suit on the table and spreads it out.
"It doesn't sound like he's going to do any drinking or drugs or something as stupid?" The suit is finely laid out with seconds and Peter is trying not to listen to Tony & Happy.
"You mean little goodie-two-shoes over there? No-" Peter chimes Happy out fully as he finds interest in an equation lingering unsolved on one of the screens.
Peter recognises & feels slightly remorseful that he is one of those assholes who can give 2% effort to school and still pass with flying colours. Hell, he is a top candidate for their class Valedictorian, even with all his absences. It definitely comes in handy with the whole Spider-Man thing going on, but other students (read: Flash Thompson) gets jealous of his ability. Not a skill you want to flaunt in a school full of people who consider themselves the smartest people around. So, imagine his surprise when for the first time in a while, he finds an equation that doesn't look so easy. An actual challenge for once.
Peter nearly jumps out of his skin as a hand comes down on his shoulder and interrupts his train of thought. Tony just stands there like the smug bastard he is. "Whoa! Hey, Mr Stark."
"Hey kid, are you staring off into space?" The man jokes, leading Peter to the table.
"Yeah, uh no. I was solving that equation on the screen." Peter waves his hand loosely in the direction. Peter sees Tony’s eyes squint at him. He gulps.
"You solved that equation?"
"Yeah. Sorry, was I not supposed?" Don't overstep the line, Peter. If you're not supposed to know, then just forget it.
"Are you sure you solved it?" Tony asks disbelieving and now Peter is confused. Mr Stark is not mad, whew. Take that as a win. "What's it about?"
"Well, I'm haven't seen a formula like this before, but I'm positive it's to synthesise a strain of algae for increasing water filtration. Though, to me, the formula is unbalanced and would probably end up killing any living organisms in the area," Peter explains calmly. Calmly as in not about to shit himself anymore.
Tony only looks at the screen, back to Peter, back to the screen, and repeats this a couple more times. "Well, I'll be..." Tony trails off as he begins to pull something up on one of the monitors. "I got a task for you, Underoos."
"Yes! Of course. I'm ready for it. Whatever it is." Please be a mission. Please be a mission. Please be a mission. Please be a mission. Come on Parker, high hopes, high goals.
"First off, hand over your phone." Peter fishes it out, hands it to the man, and Tony is sHoOkEd™. Being around his own technology all the time, he is not used to seeing old dinosaur phones like this. But overall, how did the kid crack every inch of the screen? How can he even see the screen in fact? "Yeah, we definitely need to get an upgrade on this." Peter is unimpressed. You know, Peter worked hard to be able to keep his phone running. "And I thought the onesie was bad."
Peter makes a small offended noise. "Come on, man. Not cool." Why do people always point out his things? Besides Happy. Happy is his new favourite now.
"Oh, right, we were doing that." Tony moves the screen over to Peter. "Now, I knew you were smart with those webs you made yourself, but I don't think I realised how much. So, what you're going to do, Mr Parker, is take a couple of tests for me to see."
This is why you shouldn't have high hopes, Parker, they hit the ground hard, and die. Painfully. He should still probably keep on Mr Stark's good side though. You can't blame Peter though; weekends are for not school time. And tests are a school time thing.
"Uh, yeah, sure, I can do that." So, Peter does. He's never really taken a standard IQ test, because he's 15 and why the fuck would he need to? Although he and Ned tried once before high school, they're pretty sure it was a scam for $20. Like 98% sure. Who knows maybe the test download will get onto his computer someday? High hopes, Parker.
Meanwhile, as Peter is lost in memory and concentration, Tony is on the other side of the room. Pretending to be upgrading the suit, but he is utterly raptured by how fluently Peter is moving through the IQ assessment. Friday can handle all the checks herself. Baby girl is growing up fast. Besides no significant damage is done on the suit and Peter is not directly throwing himself into knives anymore. Improvement, good.
It seems almost no time has passed - it's only been 13 minutes - before Peter is already skipping to the next test set up for him. This one is what Tony is more curious about: the official Stark Industries Intelligence Assessment. Originally, Tony really wanted to call it the Stark High Intelligence Test, but Pepper didn't allow for the acronym to go through and was not thrilled either.
Within half an hour, Peter is trying to sit still across from Tony as the man goes through files to find his results. Let's just say Tony really has nailed down the Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist mask down. Otherwise, he would have flipped his shit at seeing Peter having an IQ of 186 as a young 15-year-old. Yeah, that is definitely smart. Top-notch smart. Probably his, Banner's, or maybe even Reed's score when they were his age. Oh, good lord. What does that mean for the future?
"So, Peter, you are a certified super genius," Tony announces happily.
There's a short pause before, "... what?"
"You're an actual super genius." Peter still stares blankly, not believing a single word. "186 IQ, one of the highest that I ever have seen. So yeah, super genius level." Tony goes to the Stark assessment. "Not only that, but you got an 89% on the S.I.I.A. which is the highest anybody has gotten beside me and Banner." Poor Peter feels like he is about to pass out. Everything is bright, Mr Stark is a bit muffled, and he feels like really warm all of a sudden.
"I-uh... yeah, I- okay." Peter cuts himself off before he can embarrass himself too badly for repair. How is he supposed to respond to THAT?
"Cat got your tongue?" Tony chuckles as Peter looks completely lost, more so than usual. "Moving on, this gives me an idea." He gives the kid a sly look. “Would you like to be an actual intern?”
The next hour and a half are spent hashing out the details of what will be Peter's real, actual internship at SI, but only for a month. Trial basis as a high school student. Tony calls Happy back to the lab to talk about carpool times, who does not look at all like his name when told about the update. He actually, secretly, very deep down is looking forward to spending time with the kid. There's just something about him that makes everyone like him.
Friday alerts the three that it is time for Peter to head home, so Happy sends him out on his own to wait at the car. "You sure about this Tony?" Happy asks, sounding unusually concerned.
"Yeah. I think the kid has potential. He built those webs with nothing but a regular high school chem set. He's going to change the world."
There's a small skid sound followed by a thud in the hallway, and Happy follows grumbling out, "Or destroy it."