C179 Spooked

Want to read ahead of what I've posted so far? Go to my patreòn and get early access chapters.

As of tonight, the patreòn will be 4 chapters ahead.

https://www.patreón.com/AlienWarlord

Get on Discord https://discord.gg/JhVeZn5)

——————————

"Call Killian and set a meeting." Peter says after a moment of thought.

"What am I supposed to say? I can't even remember the guy..." Tony asks as his finger hovers over the call button.

"Hmm..." Peter hummed as he came to a realization. "What are we doing? You don't schedule your own meetings. You can barely take care of yourself."

"Hey!" Tony shouted in indignation.

"Jarvis, please contact Tony's caregiver and have her set up a meeting between Aldrich Killian and Tony." Peter instructs.

"I'm informing Miss Potts as we speak." Jarvis answers, knowing exactly who Peter was talking about.

"..." Tony looked slightly embarrassed.

"Make sure that she doesn't mention anything about the Avengers or Iron Man. Make it sound like Tony has a project that Killian would be interested in. If we can get him to come to the tower, then that would be the best scenario possible." Peter explains.

"What if he sees through our little ploy?" Erik asks.

"Then we go searching for him at his and every AIM-related property." Peter says with a shrug. "He can't hide for long."

"Miss Potts is calling his number as we speak." Jarvis says as security camera footage from the lower floors of the tower appears, showing a live image of Pepper.

A ringing sound played through the speakers as Pepper moved the phone to her ear.

"Hello? Who's this?" A man answers as the ringing stops.

"Hello, is this Aldrich Killian?" Pepper asks in business mode.

"Yes, who might this be?" Killian replies affirmatively.

"Pepper Potts with Stark Industries." She reveals what seemed to surprise Killian.

"Huh? What can I do for you? It's been over ten years since I've seen Stark." He asks with an upset tilt to his voice.

Killian attended the Bern 2000 conference on New Year's Eve, 1999 in Switzerland to present his think tank, Advanced Idea Mechanics, when he met Tony for the first and only time.

He was overjoyed upon meeting his idol, Tony Stark, and expressed being a fan of his work. Soon enough, Killian asked for Stark's support in his project, only to be shunned and ignored by the latter in favor of paying attention to the beautiful Maya Hansen.

After enough insistence, Tony gave in and said he would meet Killian on the roof of the building to talk, but sadly he never showed up.

Killian would later learned that Tony ditched him in order to bed a woman. The same woman that later came to work alongside him.

As New Years approached, Killian waited hours on the roof alone for his hero to arrive, thinking that Tony could be running late, as he is a very popular and busy man.

Though that train of thought slowly faded away until he realized that Tony had deliberately ignored his proposition.

Humiliated and depressed, he peaked over the edge of the building and briefly contemplated committing suicide. This scenario reminded Killian of the hellish years he had spent barely surviving high school bullies.

Though in the end, he didn't have the courage to take the leap.

Afterward, Killian's lonesome presence on the roof caused him to relish in his state of anonymity, in which he decided to work on his own and create an expansive and covert business for himself, AIM.

"What did you do to this guy, Tony?" Charles noticed the anger in his voice, though he wasn't the only one.

"Why does it have to be me that did something?" Tony asks as everyone looks at him unbelievably. "..."

"Well, Mr. Stark wants to set a meeting between the two of you at your earliest convenience." Pepper explains.

"The great Tony Stark wants a meeting with a plebeian like me?" Killian asks with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "What does he want? I'm afraid that I don't have any star-struck women for him to take advantage of, nor do I have any female family members that he can drag to bed."

"Wow, he really hates you..." MJ says as she looks at Tony, wondering what he could have done.

"..." Tony felt uncomfortable as he couldn't remember who this person was or why he is being hated so much.

"That sounds like Tony... I apologize for any incident that may have occurred in the past." Pepper apologizes for Tony on reflex, as she has grown used to doing this since her first day on the job. "Though from my understanding, this is an official meeting between Stark Industries and AIM."

"No offense Miss Potts, but tell Stark to shove his meeting up his a*s." Killian says crudely and uncaringly. "There was a time that I would have gladly met and worked with him, but those times are long gone."

Before Pepper could even say a word of reply, Killian hung up the phone, abruptly ending the conversation. Looking up at the security camera, Pepper shrugged with an expression that said 'I tried'.

As the TV went black, everyone's gazes turned to Tony, who sat there with a stumped look on his face.

"Don't look at me..." Tony sighs in exasperation. "Obviously, I did something to hurt his feelings, but I have no idea what that might be."

"It sounds like he wanted to work with you." MJ says her thoughts.

"And you did something to ruin it." Peter says with a nod as he turns to the TV. "Jarvis, did you track the call?"

"No, sir." Jarvis replies negatively. "The location was constantly scrambling to different areas around the world."

"Alright, then it's time for plan C." Peter says surprising everyone in the room.

"We're already on plan C?" MJ asks in confusion.

"Yep, Jarvis get me a list of every property owned by both Aldrich Killian and AIM." Peter orders.

"One moment, sir..." Jarvis says as he goes silent.

...

Minutes later, a long list of properties appeared on the screen.

"List compiled, sir." Jarvis says.

"Good work..." Peter says as he looks over the list, which turned out to be much longer than he originally thought. "While we deal with this, Jarvis, I need you to do your best to track Killian and anyone that works alongside him. Also, be on the lookout for any facilities that could be related to AIM but weren't registered in their name."

"I'll do my best, sir." Jarvis replies and gets back to work.

Going over the names, Peter splits them up based on their vicinity to each other, creating five separate lists.

"Okay, we'll break into teams headed by each of us and start hitting these properties immediately." Peter explains as he hands over a list to each council member. "Feel free to recruit any of the Avengers for help and build your own team."

"I'll take Silk." Fury says as he snatches his list and walks to the door, waiting there for her to follow.

'Does he know?' Peter and MJ thought at the same exact time.

Peter didn't really mind if Fury figures it out, which is why he didn't go the extra mile to disguise MJ's voice.

He knew that sooner or later, Fury would need to know about their relationship and hero personas. Though the question is did he figure it out, or is he just trying to investigate the newest hero in town?

"Uhh... I'm not an Avenger." MJ tried to weasel out of going along with her father.

"No, it's okay." Peter says, smirking under his mask the entire time. "Go ahead."

Peter knew that he was currently playing with fire, but he just couldn't help himself. It was too entertaining of a scenario for him to let pass.

Receiving a short look from MJ, who didn't know how to refuse anymore, Peter watched in silence as she reluctantly follows her father out of the room.

"That was a risky move..." Tony whispers as he passes Peter on his way to go and form his own team.

'Yeah, but it's interesting and she'll have to work with Fury at some point.'

—————————————————

"...tell Stark to shove his meeting up his a*s." A tan white man who appeared to be in his thirty's says as he admired the view from one of his many penthouse apartments.

He has slicked back perfectly kept blonde hair and wore a form fitting Armani suit alongside golden rings and an expensive looking watch.

[Insert picture of Aldrich Killian here]

Ending the call, Killian stared at the city in thought for a moment before turning around. Behind him stood two armed guards, each of them enhanced by the Extremis formula.

"We're leaving." Killian orders as he had a bad feeling about his recent call. "Bring the cars around and call in more men. We need to up my security."

A/N: 1500 words

👉DONT FORGET MY STONES!👈

[just do it... 😓 I'm too tired to come up with some random scenario or threat today...]