Chapter Text
It was a simple enough hack, as far as Peter was concerned. The system was clearly built by millennials to protect against millennials. Nobody had considered guarding against a bored teenager on a decrepit library computer.
Break into some poor, unsuspecting worker’s computer - simple enough algorithm. Log their keystrokes. Plant the bug. Don’t trip the system. Watch and wait.
Peter tapped his foot impatiently, pulling out some homework to pass the time. He only had to wait for the worker to trip his bug, then he’d have a real foothold in the servers. Just far enough to access the public website, maybe peek at some blueprints if he was feeling particularly reckless.
Watch the ip, wait for them to access the servers. Get shit done. Or not. It’s not like the school is going to fail him when he could pass any of their exams without breaking a sweat.
Peter’s stomach growled. He still had to track down some dinner for the night, not to mention somewhere to camp out. For now, though, the only thing that mattered was the hack. That, and calculus homework. But mainly the hack.
Catch the login, decode the transcript. Mess with the location, close enough to approximate the offices. Stroll through the cyber-security like it’s a baby gate -- no, scratch that, baby gates are annoying. Stroll through the cyber-security like it’s the school exit on a Friday afternoon.
Peter smirked as his screen flashed up the classic Stark Industries homepage - shiny blue edit button in the corner. He had expected it to be easy, but this was almost underwhelming. Still, mission accomplished. Peter scrolled down to the ‘about’ page, and scanned for the anomaly.
“Here at SI, we are moer than happy to provide the public with the best technology available.”
The spelling mistake had been bothering Peter for weeks. Once he had seen it, he couldn’t un see it. Sure, he could’ve emailed someone about it, but hacking was far easier. Not to mention more fun.
moer
more
Perfect.
With a contented sigh, Peter logged out of the website builder and lowered his location encryptions. He leaned back in his chair and admired his handiwork, the Stark website now proudly displaying their mission statement with no errors. His job was complete. Peter shoved his calculus homework back into his backpack and heaved his bag over his shoulder, waving to the librarian on his way out.
Even before he finished at the library that day, Peter had known that going home wasn’t an option. It was a Tuesday, which meant Mr. Hadley would be in a particularly bad mood, and Peter didn’t have the stamina to deal with that. An old, abandoned building would have to do for the night - that, or staying out on patrol all night. Not like he hadn’t done both before, afterall.
(Sure, it probably wasn’t healthy, but Peter wasn’t exactly known for his self preservation.)
Before he knew it, Peter found himself at Delmar’s. It was his favorite sandwich place, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that his stomach had led him there.
“Hey, Mr. Delmar,” Peter called as he strolled into the bodega.“I’ll have a #5, smooshed down real flat.” He pulled a crumpled twenty out of his jeans pocket; he made money doing odd jobs around the city and on the internet, just enough to keep him going. He was far from well fed, but he was surviving just fine.
“Coming right up, Mr. Parker,” Delmar said, beaming as he began to prepare the sandwich. Peter had found the man’s constant smiles and bubbly laughter annoying when he was younger, but now that he was 15, he saw it for the true miracle that it was. Not many people could see as much of the world as Mr. Delmar had and still smile.
Peter exchanged polite conversation for as long as he could manage, before paying for his sandwich with a polite nod, and slinking back out to the streets. He leaned against a dumpster to eat, right where he felt at home. It smelt vile, but Peter was hidden, and he was safe.
(To be fair, it was probably the least safe place that he could have been, but Peter felt at home in the shadows. He took any sense of home that he could get, lately.)
Peter sighed. It had been a less-shitty-than-usual day, but he was still exhausted. He longed for a cozy, warm bed more than anything else, but such a thing felt like nothing more than a distant dream these days. Still, he was surviving, and he was Spider-Man. As long as he had Spider-Man, everything would be okay. Right?
***
For a billionaire, Tony thought about money far more than he wanted to. Sure, he never had to worry about spending too much, but Pepper couldn’t handle all the finances alone. The company still had his name on it, which meant that it was his responsibility to figure out at least some of the taxes. Didn’t make it any less boring, though.
Needless to say, Tony was far from disappointed when Friday piped up with a convenient distraction.
“I hate to disturb you, Boss, but it appears that our website’s servers have been accessed by the PR staff.”
“Not that I’m not thankful for the interruption, Fri, but aren’t they supposed to be able to access the website?” Tony asked, turning his head towards the ceiling as if his AI had eyes that he could have made contact with.
“They should, Sir, but today is not a scheduled maintenance day, and no employees have logged emergency circumstances. There appears to be light encryption on the location of access.”
“Now that sounds good, baby girl. I’ll get right on it.” True to his word, Tony pulled out his laptop immediately, pushing the stacks of forms to the side. They could wait; he had a particularly smart hacker to find. Not just anyone could break into SI, afterall, though their servers could definitely use an update.
By the time that Tony tracked the source of the breach, the hacker was long gone, leaving only one trace of their existence. A spelling error. They had fixed a spelling error, of all things. They had access to the most powerful company in the world, yet they only fixed a spelling error. Quite frankly, it was humiliating.
It would just be wrong for Tony to let this go unpunished, and the sooner the consequences the better, right? If he happened to procrastinate his work as a side effect, then that would be completely and utterly unavoidable.
By the time that Tony emerged from the swaths of messy code and surprisingly intact firewalls, hours had passed. All he had managed was to trace the signal to a public library - whoever this was had some real dedication. Tony didn’t care about consequences anymore, he just wanted to offer the hacker a job.
A quiet but firm knock interrupted his thoughts, followed by an indignant cough. Pepper. By the sound of it, he must have missed the first knock or two as well. Shit.
“Uhm, occupied,” Tony called, running a hand through his tangled hair. He hadn’t brushed it in almost a week now. Whoops.
“This is an office, not a bathroom. I know you’re in there, Tones.”
Double shit.
“Oh, Pepper!” Tony exclaimed, figuring that feigning ignorance would be his safest bet. “What are you doing up at this hour?”
“It’s 6 AM,” Pepper deadpanned as she walked into the office and took a seat across from Tony.
“I… definitely knew that,” Tony said, his gaze flitting down to glance at his watch. Pepper looked thoroughly unamused.
“Of course. Can I assume that you were at least busy with the paperwork that I gave you?”
Tony glanced at the papers spread across his desk, trying to hide his cringe.
“Well I was going to get it done, until Friday so rudely interrupted me with an emergent situation. A hacker, actually, which is definitively more important than paperwork.”
“Did they do much damage?” Pepper asked quickly, her frustration melting away. Tony laughed nervously.
“Well, they fixed a spelling mistake.”
For a moment, Pepper looked like she was going to berate him yet again, but then she just sighed. Tony made a mental note to buy her some flowers later; she certainly deserved them.
“Just get it done, Tones. I can’t do everything. You know this.”
“Of course, Pep. I promise I’ll get it done,” Tony insisted. Pepper looked far from convinced. “Y’know what,” he continued, “I think I’ll be able to focus better at the library.”
There was most certainly no ulterior motive involved.