Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

Peter had finished the scroll. Regardless of the temptation, he still took his time, making sure he understood it. He was just about to head downstairs when his phone vibrated.

I am sorry to interrupt your time with Jean, but I have scheduled a meeting with Director Coulson. Mister Stark is instant that you are there, as you have information we need.

Peter groaned and cursed Charles. He tapped away, be there in ten minutes. I know the way.

It was inconvenient but allowed him to spring his own plans on the group. He knew Coulson and Stark would be annoying to get a sit-down meeting with, so. He still grumbled, "Stupid Charles." He set the scrolls to one side, grabbed a manilla folder, and headed downstairs.

He stuck his head into the bathhouse and saw Liv eagerly pleasing Jean, "Sorry, Charles needs me. Raincheck?"

Gwen burst out from under the water, where she had been pleasuring Liv. "Sucks to be you," before she dived back under the water.

Peter slumped, "Yup, it does."

⁂

Peter and Tony sat staring at each other. They had been civil since the incident, but Friday insisted they spend some time together. She was still learning to cope with having feelings and emotions and wanted Peter to be part of that. Vision was recovering, but was still angry with Peter. Jocasta was her normal self and just ignored him. It meant there was an uneasy truce between the pair, and if they had a choice, would not be sat alone like this.

Peter had been surprised to see Tony there. Given he was a manufacturer, and Charles built a space colony in six months, he wasn't that surprised. It would also explain why Charles had them both here. Tony was the expert, but Peter was the link to Shuri.

Eventually, after several silent cups of the terrible coffee, Charles arrived. Behind him, followed Coulson and Ross. He smiled at Peter as he moved to his seat.

"While I know things are not perfect between the four of us, there are things we need to discuss," Charles started. "Avalon is not a secret, but the how is. I want to change that, and have government backing."

Coulson looked over at Ross, "You want the military to back you. President Ellis will back any laws you insist upon, but all it takes is an idiot with a missile to crack that dome."

"Not really," Charles sipped a coffee, "the domes are almost indestructible. What we want is a secure location for shipping, transport and personnel. Something we don't want local law enforcement involved in."

Tony snorted, "because most of them are idiots, who'll shoot first and ask questions later."

"While not as succinctly put, yes. Federal protection means government protection. State laws are fickle, and I don't want to suddenly find our technology being seized."

"Why don't you just relocate back to Earth? The Sentinels are scrapped, and the ARCA is being rewritten. The Xandarisn don't like it any more than you did."

"Because they aren't human. The assholes who started this are already making waves. Earth for Earthlings. Humanity First just included them, they didn't stop because they lost." Peter added. Even after Malik was publically outed as Hydra, Humanity First didn't disband. They might not be as popular as before, but like cockroaches, they scurried away to return later.

“I agree with Peter. You created a weapon to hunt Augments, and one to hunt Symbiotes. I understand the need to protect yourselves, but you put all of humanity at risk. Master Mold and the Sentinels outgrowing their programming proved that.” Charles added.

Ross clenched a fist, “and if you lot hadn't started throwing your weight around.”

Tony sighed, “So, while it's nice to watch you two fight like girls, why exactly am I here?”

Peter looked at Charles, "This is your show, but I guess why, and why I'm here."

“Indeed. We need help. We have a shortage of materials and manufacturing. We are self-sufficient up to a point. I am involving the government so the technology does not come as a shock.”

Charles slid a tablet over to Tony and a file to Coulson. “Sorry, yours is just a brief. Mister Stark needs the technical files.” Coulson shrugged and flicked it open.

Tony grinned, “See, I knew you had more. I’ve seen the specs for the base you have, I just wasn't allowed up. So spill.”

“Right, So, Mr Stark,” Charles began but Tony shook his head.

“Tony. Only he has to call me Mr Stark,“ and Peter laughed

“Sure, Stark, sure. But business.” handing over a tablet Tony whistled as the schematics popped up in 3D.

“No wonder you threw the government out.” He expanded over each section. “This is the design I worked on last year, with a partially organic interface,” Tony's brows furrowed. “Cloned cells? “ He tutted. “Arcstar. Switching to my arc reactor should up the integration point five per cent." He flicked to the next page "Okay, so you cloned some cells and stuck them with a power source into a big jar. What am I really looking at?” Tony had a lot of doctorates, but genetics wasn't one of them. Which was why, he guessed, they were calling in Bruce Banner.

“They copy an Augments powers. The interface allows us to copy and store almost any ability, and replicate it.”

Tony frowned and looked at the schematics again. “You realise how stupid this is? You could make Death Ray or, “ he smirked as he nodded, ”the portals, it’s a power, and the moon base, Erik right? And you couldn't use arc tech because you needed someone already involved, so you asked Liv.” Tony looked over at Peter, “I'm heartbroken, you could have asked me, I wouldn’t have told.” 

Peter laughed, “Sure, and right now we’d have Tonyworld on the moon, blaring lights and sirens at Avalon.” 

Tony smirked, “Only you get Tonyworld Pete, I like everyone else.” Tony leant back and flicked the tablet off. “So, what am I here for? You have working models, or you would ever have shown me that could be done.”

Charles smiled, “Investment. We need more help on Avalon. While Peter is brilliant, and Liv is inventive, we need things done on a faster time scale. You are equal and have the manufacturing we need." Charles sighed. "And we need someone with experience working with the Military and the Government. This technology, with a few alterations, is one of the things on offer to smooth things over.” 

Tony smirked at Peter, “So you need me?” 

Peter shrugged. “I dont care, everyone knows you've been doing this longer than me. I'm the new kid on the block, the prince, but even I'm not gonna deny you're the king.” He couldn't. Stark had manufacturing plants all over the world, even after quitting Stark Industries. Peter may have gotten a lot of labs from Killian but they were still outsourcing most things.

“And we are willing to allow you access to our systems, and space on Avalon. Once we expand, we can offer a completely isolated moonbase.” Charles smiled and raised an eyebrow, “If you ever feel you need an evil lair.”

Tony laughed. “Moonbase? Sign me right up. But um, lawyers. Not helping to suddenly have a kajillion sieverts of radiation fry my base if you get mad at me. I want not just the tech to make these, but the samples to build my own.” He gave Peter a pointed look. “I got burned before, and not again.”

Peter huffed and shrugged, “Yeah, it was terrible. Stealing someone's stuff and getting caught. How awful for you.”

“Please, this is a joint venture, and we want everyone to agree,” Charles added.

Coulson smirked and shook his head, “So, everything seems to be above board, is there anything else?”

Peter laughed and pulled out his own folder. “I do have one more thing.” He set out pages from it, it wasn't a big presentation as he'd been caught short. He had a general outline and a basic funding chart. It was a start, but it needed much more work.

Peter smiled, “A school. I’ll rent, buy, whatever, the old Shield Academy. It’s large enough and isolated. We can set up classes for kids to learn how to control their powers. Let them learn what it means to be Enhanced. And get anyone who’s different away from potentially dangerous situations.”

“That's all and good, but,” Tony waved a hand at the four, “why am I here?”

Peter laughed, “So no Iron Man Academy?” Tony raised an eyebrow. “No Iron Man pilots, sponsored by Tony Stark. Flying his suits, taking over when you can’t, or just happy leaving War Machine to run things?”

Tony leaned back and shrugged. “Okay, so I'm now interested, but military, government?” 

“I have to agree. Super-Soldier Formula isn't being handed out to school kids,” Coulson said.

Ross sat glowering with his arms crossed, and he agreed. Right now the Gamma Troopers got minimal doses until they proved they could handle it. Giving it to kids was dumb and dangerous.

“And yet it is. See. Gwen and Liv here came across a very interesting problem, and Bruce and Blonksy helped prove it.” Peter flicked open the folder and handed a copied page to everyone. “That is the report. It's a summary, but Liv can provide you with the full thing. It's just uh, pretty heavy reading.”

Coulson frowned and opened the folder on the right page, “Is this real?” Peter nodded, “damn.”

Ross huffed, “What?” He hated science mumbo jumbo, and it grew worse when he became the Hulk. If he couldn't smash it, he got someone else to read it and explain it to him.

“Anyone exposed to a Formula, even if it's removed, will pass that on to their kids. So me, you, Coulson, Fury, anyone. Bruce, you, Blonsky, all your little gamma guys and gals. Everyone.” Peter explained.

Ross frowned, "Well shit. Really?”

Peter nodded. “Even better, you have two Enhanced parents and the odds go up. Add gamma and it gets worse. This isn't about Augments anymore, we dipped our toe in the gene pool and caught a big shark. Anyone taking MGH is worse, it really screws with someone's G-Code.”

“G-Code?” Coulson asked, and Peter looked over at Charles.

“Gene Code. The parts of the genetic makeup that make us augmented or enhanced. It's more than just the X-gene. We’ve identified over twenty distinct gene sequences activated during Enhancement. Not all do, and the more that light up you might say, the more powerful the individual is.” Charles looked over at Peter who nodded. “While I cannot say I'm one hundred per cent happy with it, we’ve developed a proper genetic scanner. It's a single drop of blood, and it can tell you who is going to be Augmented, and what classification they will be.”

Coulson sighed, “That’s a headache in itself. We’ve already got activist groups saying we need to isolate the powered, and now this? The president will blow his top.”

“Better now than in ten years when kids shart blowing up schools, or worse,” Ross said.

While Peter hated it, he was inclined to agree. “We need to set things in motion now. It will only get worse, and we need to protect the younger generation. We chose to get our powers, they didn't.”

Coulson flipped the folder closed, “but still, this is big. And while I think a school isn't the right answer, we have to do something.”

Peter nodded, “This isn't about us anymore. We’ve got Russia, China, and every major power doing their own version of this. Even Europe is standing up and taking notice of what we're doing, and it's not pretty.”

They all knew. The Sentinel program had generated a lot of ill will amongst the Augment community. A lot of governments were now trying to sweet-talk the powered, as they wanted their own powered teams. Most were recommending any powered individual stay away from the US.

“So, I'm in. The Tony Stark School of Enterprise. Kinda catchy, need a big sign though” and Peter laughed,

“Yeah right, it's bad enough looking at the monstrosity next door. Aegis. The school’s name is Aegis, and considering I’ll be paying for most of it, I get to name it.”

Tony tutted. “Yeah, billionaire, philanthropist. Who made you the richest man in the world?” 

Peter raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Shuri, because while you are worth what forty billion, Shuri is worth about five times that. And that's not Wakanda, that’s Shuri. So yeah, Billionaire, Philanthropist, Inventor, oh and Polyamory champion of the world.”

Tony tutted but hid a small grin. He hated him for that but had to respect him as well.

“Well, Aegis sounds define, but as Director of Shield, isn't that awfully close to our name?” Coulson added.

“Augments, Enhanced, Gamma, Institute of Study. Or Industrial Studies. Different enough.” If things went well, it might even be Sorcery. Kamar Taj was great if you liked living in Nepal, but not every student wanted to leave their family. A school legitimising Sorcery meant they could do that.

Coulson tapped a finger on the table, “fine, so how are we doing this?”

“I figured we allow adults with qualifications to teach there. Let each branch involved recruit straight from day one. Ross, your Thunderbolts or Gamma troopers, you wanted to separate them? Then here's your chance. Make them pass boot at the academy, then recruit them into the military. Full psych profiling as well. We make sure nobody is unstable and provide counselling to those who are. We want a generation of healthy and well-balanced Augments. Not scared kids hiding from the red menace who chased their uncle around fifteen years ago.”

“Red menace huh?” Ross snorted, “I guess I asked for that. I agree, but we dont sign until we see an actual plan. Blowing smoke up our asses in a presentation isn't a well-thought-out budget meeting. I want more than one page saying this is a good idea.”

Peter smiled, “and I agree. Which is why, in a month you’ll get just that. But as long as Coulson agrees to lease us the building we can start, which is why Stark and Charles are here. We have some things to discuss.”

“I understand,” Coulson said as he stood. “But to warn you, I think the president will say yes. It wasn't just our image that took a hit, expect this to move and move fast, expect lots of ass-kissing and photos. If you weren't famous before, you will be.“ As he looked Peter up and down. “Maybe hire a tailor and a wardrobe consultant. Tony can help you, even hungover he’s always impeccable.”

“Why Phil I am a happily engaged man, but if I ever decide to swing that way, I’ll call.”