1. chapter 1 (1/2)

tony stark

may parker trampled up the steps from another long day at work. i saw her from a distance and called out to her. "ms.parker?" she stopped at the mention of her name and looked up the stairwell followed by looking over the railing. she spotted me and pepper at the bottom of the steps and stopped.

i took off jogging to her with a wrapped present in my hand. today was my interns, peter parker, birthday. we decided to suprise him with a gift and a visit after school. pepper fell behind as happy joined her with another gift in a bag.

i met the single aunt on the steps. she smiled at me and held out her hand. we both shook hands, but she em

aced my fiancee, pepper potts.over the time they had bonded and created a beautiful friendship. "hello, mr.stark, pepper, and happy. what a suprise! you did get the invits to peters party, right? that's not until this saturday."

pepper spoke up before i could answer. "yes, we know. tony thought he would give peter an early present and suprise the kid on his birthday." we continued up the stairs to the 5th floor. the elevator wasn't working in the building. apparently, spider-man

oke it while fighting off some goons. the owner of the building was furious but told us spider-man drops in every week and pays a hundrend dollars to help fix it.

while we traveled up the stairs i thought of the things i was going to say to pete. obviously i was going to wish him a happy birthday, then give him the gift. next i would pull him in his room and ask about the elevator and where he was getting that money. my thoughts were cut off when we reached the door.

"peter should be home already. i told him come straight home after school since he dosen't have work today." may reached her hand in her over-sized

own purse. she felt around a little until she pulled her hand out, clutching to her keys.

the door unlocked with a loud click. she pushed it open while she slid her keys back in the bag. me and pepper locked eye contacted and started talking about our day while may stood in the doorway. she screamed.

my attention was turned to the apartment. my hapiness fell from my heart as i looked at the inside. the place was decorated in red. the walls were splattered with red paint at random. the table had a red table cloth tied with red ribbions to the chair. the table was also set with classic red platstic party plates and cups. red silver-ware. a knife, fork, and a spoon at each seat. red streamer doused the rooms with its presence. everywhere you looked was red except on the table was a black cake. "stay out here may. pepper stay with her. happy come with me, but be careful."

we coustiously walked in and observed the room farther. i walked to the table and saw the cake. writtin on top of it was "happy birthday peter!" a nice and casual saying on a birthday cake. but this cake was different because when i looked closer, the words were written in an unusual looking frosting. i dipped one finger in it. the weird frosting sat on my finger tip as i pulled it closer to my face. i smelled it first before tasting a small bit of it. it tasted like blood.

i pulled out my special glasses and put them on. "friday? you there?"

"always, mr.stark." the irish ai responded.

"scan everything in the room. take picture of everything i see. also, analyze this cake and put the results on the screen in front of me." the ai began her busy work as i sneaked off to peters room. his room was the exact same as the living room and kitchen. red paint, streamers, and decorations.

on the four corners of his bed was one ballon tied on the end. it didn't appear to have helium in them since they drouped down towards the floor. i made my way to one of them and poked it with my finger. it was definitly some kind of dense liquid. "good god, please don't let this be what i think it is." i whispered under my

eath. the results of the cake scan popped up before me. i immediately started reading them.

"the red frosting for the words was made by mixing peter parkers blood and vanilla frosting, sir." friday said in a hushed voice. "would you like to know the frosting

and?" i didn't even know friday was capable of doing that, but at the moment, i could care less.

happy entered the room. "may just called the police. they're on there way. peters highschool or friends haven't seen him all day. they're fileing a missings persons case." he left the room in a hurry. i sat in the room in silence. after a couple of minutes i gathered the nerve to pop one of the ballons. out poured the sticky, warm liquid. i whispered fridays name. she knew exactly what i wanted to know.

"it is peter parkers blood." if an advanced mechanical ai could have feelings this would be a wonderful time for comfort.

i left the room slowly from shock. may and pepper were em

acing as happy spoke to many police men. they all froze when i walked in. the only sound was small whimpers from may. "the ballons... they're filled with blood. the red frosting...is colored by blood."

pepper turned her head to me. he fearful eyes bulged in her head. we made eye contact for a

eif moment before she asked the question everyone was thinking. "is it...?" but she couldn't finish her sentence. the tears in her eyes and the lump in her throat prevented her from it.

i nodded slowly at the ground. "it's peters. all of it's peters." may wailed something alful into peppers shoulder. i caught happys lifeless expression of horror. maybe i shouldn't have told them that with may in the room, but i think she deserved to know the truth. after all, i have been lieing to her a lot for peter. the police officer called for back up. so did i.

some detectives showed up after rhodey and vision came flying to the door. "details. now." rhodey said as he limped through the living room.

"pepper, take ms.parker to the compound with happy. she can't be here." pepper whipped her tears from her face and helped may stand up from the floor. the crime scene was taped off and a crowd started forming outside the door. four officers blocked the view from the neighbors.

an older gentleman approched the three of us with a frown. "listen, iron man, vision, and war machine... it will help us a lot if you leave. this is a case for the police. not superheros."

i turned at him pissed and confused. "what? there is blood from a child that i have a personal connection to! we are not going anywhere. i want you to tell me everything you know about this. any similiar cases?"

"you're not going to ask for finger prints?" he growled.