Loving Gwen Stacy | A MARVEL STORY

8

I stepped back from the doorway, still in shock. Iron Man was standing outside of my apartment and looking for my cousin. How many people could say that?

"Elizabeth," my mom called out to me. "Aren't you going to invite Gwen in?" 

"Come on in," I retorted. "Mr. Tony "Iron Man" Stark." 

A smirk spread across his face. "Just Tony is fine."

"Right." I shook my head in disbelief. "Eli Parker. Peter's my cousin." 

Peter and I had been huge fans of the Avengers ever since they first showed up on Star Wars day all those years before. He always loved Iron Man, but I was partial to Black Widow myself. I could always get behind a hot, kickass girl who didn't need any powers besides self determination. My mom came up behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder to see who was at the door.

"Oh my," she exclaimed when she saw the billionaire. "Please, come have a seat." 

I watched as my mom instantly flipped a switch from being supportive mom into being accommodating hostess. She fluffed the pillows and motioned for him to sit on the couch as she cut three hefty slices of walnut date loaf.

"Can I get you some coffee or tea?" she asked.

"A tea would be lovely. I was just asking your sister," he flirted. "Where Peter is?"

My mom blushed profusely. 

"Oh please, this is my daughter Elizabeth. Peter should be home soon - You can wait here for him. Why... Why are you looking for him?"

Mr. Stark flashed her an award winning smile that would fool most women, and said, "Did he not tell you? He applied for a grant to work with me and he got it! Congratulations."

I saw right through him. As my mom was busy tending to the tea, I leaned over to the billionaire and hissed, "Cut the crap. Why are you here?"

"Your cousin is a very special boy," Tony shrugged. "I need his assistance with my work."

I sat silently, observing every move that Mr. Stark took. As the lock shifted, I flipped my attention to the door. Peter was about to lose his shit. 

"Hey Aunt May. Eli," he nodded curtly. He dropped his keys on the table as he pulled headphones out of his ears, but never took his eyes off of the stranger in the room. "Why is Iron Man in our living room?"

The Tin Man cleared his throat and told Peter some bull about a September Grant and asked to talk to him in his room about details.

"Sure," I smiled. "I helped Peter fill out the application, so if it's all the same to him, I would love to talk through the finer details."

I walked over to Pete and not-so-gently elbowed him in the ribs.

He squeaked a little before muttering, "Yeah. I'm fine with that."

As we walked into the room, Tony spat out the walnut-date loaf he had been holding in his mouth into the trash can. He wandered around the room, poking and prodding at Pete's stuff. "Ah retro tech," he remarked. "Thrift store? Salvation Army?"

"Um, the garbage," Peter responded. "Anyway, I definitely did not apply for your grant."

I slapped the side of his head. "Petey, he made it up. For such a good student, you can be really dumb sometimes."

"Smart kid," Tony said, as his dialed on a watch he wore around his wrist. "Quick question of the rhetorical variety. That's you, right?" 

He held up the video that Gwen had sent the two of us earlier in the month. Peter tried to shrug it off, but all color drained from his face. His olive skin went unnaturally gaunt as he failed to lie successfully. Once again, I was shocked at how bad at lying this superhero was.

"Yeah," Tony smirked. "Wow, look at you go," he said as Peter caught a car. "3,000 pounds at 40 miles per hour. Not easy, you must have mad skills." 

He walked around the room distracted as Peter once again tried to play him off. Stark reached for a baseball bat leaning against the wall and started to jab it toward the loose ceiling tile. As soon as he made contact, I rammed my elbow into the billionaire's chest while sweeping his leg out from under him. As he collapsed to the ground, Peter grabbed the bundle of costume and shoved it into the closet, raging steaming off him.

"Ow," he shook his head as I moved my foot off the back of his head. "I ate that walnut date thing and this is the response I get? Not cool, kid."

"Don't touch his stuff," I retorted. 

He shook his head and went back to his preplanned speech. "So - You're the Spider-ling. Crime fighting spider, you're Spiderboy?"

"Spiderman," I corrected.

"Not in that onesie," Tony laughed.

"It's not a onesie." Peter stomped angrily and sat on the side of his bed. 

I put a protective hand on his shoulder. He started describing how he was having a really good day, while Stark started to play with aspects of the suit. I moved towards the Tin Man, actually curious about the features myself. Something about the construction and design seemed so familiar.

"Peter, how did you make this webbing?" I questioned. "The tensile strength is off the charts."

He sent me a grateful smile. "I manufactured it using your design. Remember that physic project you did? The one you submitted to-"

"To try and land an internship with Stark Industries. I'm familiar." I glared at Tony. 

I remembered the many sleepless nights I had dedicated to that project, designing a safe and incognito way for military missions to access buildings with minimal effort. In the end, I landed on a multi-use fabric that could be woven and used as an adhesive for climbing and stopping high strength weapons. But without any money, I couldn't make a prototype. He must have adapted the design so that he could produce it himself. 

"That's how you've been climbing up walls?"

He nodded slightly, and then added, "And the spider thing."

Tony Stark tried on the goggles and started to pretend that he couldn't see. "Jesus, can you see in these?"

"Yes," Peter said sharply, grabbing everything away from the man. "When whatever happened, happened, it was like my senses were dialed up to 11, okay? There's way too much input and they just kind of help me focus."

Iron Man squinted at my kid cousin and said, "You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systematic, top to bottom. 100 point restoration, that's why I'm here. Why are you doing this? I gotta know, what's your MO? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?"

Peter let out a deep sigh. "Because," he started, clearly struggling to find the right words. "Because I've been me my whole life and I've had these powers for 6 months. I read books, I build computers, and yeah, I would love to play football. But I couldn't then, so I shouldn't now. When you can do the things that I can, and you don't and the bad things happen, they happen because of you."

I grabbed Peter's hand, knowing that he was referring to Ben's death. "Fighting for the little guy," I mumbled, remembering what I had yelled at my mom earlier this week in the principal's office.

Mr. Stark spoke again. "Ever been to Germany? You'll love Germany."

"I can't go to Germany!" he screeched. 

I elbowed him again. "Pete-"

"I have homework!"

"Please don't tell me you just said that," Stark groaned. 

"I'm not going without Eli," he stated matter of factly. "And she's... she's afraid of planes so she'll never go!"

"You're a terrible liar," I muttered. Then, turning to Tony with a plastered on smile, "I'd be happy to go. Next excuse?"

Stark walked towards the door and started to make some comment about how he was going to tell my mother about all of the hostile situations that Peter had been getting himself into. With a quick flick of his wrist, the Spiderman flung a long string of webbing, holding Tony hostage against the doorknob.

"Don't tell Aunt May." 

edited on march 25, 2019