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Morgan Stark knew her Mom would kill her… but she also stubbornly stated, for the record, that if she hadn’t wanted Morgan to do this, she would have kept her Dad’s lab and blueprints way out of reach. They were just lying around in the lab! What was Morgan supposed to do - not check them out? Like that would ever happen.
Besides, she wasn’t doing anything wrong, per se. She was only time-traveling a little bit. Kinda. Mostly, but also not. She was watching time travel, not actually using it. Yes, that was a better explanation.
Oh, and the second excuse for this was obviously that this was her Dad’s fault. He was the one who gave her the brains. And the stubbornness, as she’d so often heard her mother sigh over, if only nostalgically.
So, mind set, because she totally needed to do this for the high school project she wasn’t actually in high school yet to do, and also because she might have a teeny tiny burning need to see her Dad again - and not over-glorified as he tended to be in everyone’s stories except her mother and Uncle Rhodey’s - she pulled on the VR helmet she’d rigged to work in tandem with the modified time machine and grinned. “Fire it up, FRIDAY,” She announced.
FRIDAY, who couldn’t exactly alert her Mom because her Mom was over on the other side of the country somewhere, and Morgan had pulled some switches to make sure no cell signals were going out for the next ten minutes (after which FRIDAY would recalibrate and restart), sighed very humanly. “I do not recommend this course of action, Morgan,” The AI chided. “Time travel was sealed for a reason.”
“It’s not exactly time travel,” Morgan corrected instantly. “It’s kinda like a movie, except in 3D and real and happening in front of me- and I won’t be able to change anything, anyway.” She adjusted the VR helmet and rested her head back against the sofa she was sitting on. “Come on, FRIDAY! You know this is my last chance to see Dad in action!”
FRIDAY - again, very humanly - groaned in defeat, something Morgan was pretty sure she hadn’t known how to do until the last few years. “... Very well, Ms. Stark,” She said, and ooh, she was mad. Morgan was going to be paying for that for a while.
But honestly? So worth it.
The machine whirred to life, and before Morgan could even think a small Woohoo to celebrate her win, she felt a tiny prick at the back of her neck, and her sight blackened entirely.
For a few moments, she was in complete darkness, and she couldn’t hear, see, smell- there was nothing, really, and not for the first time, she admired how incredible VR tended to be. Her Mom had told her this was as real as it got, and though she hadn’t been allowed to use it until she was thirteen - and she had, on her birthday, under Mom’s supervision… oops? - she was glad she had been allowed to wait because there was still a tiny bit of fear in that unknown.
“Your breathing has quickened, Morgan. Should I axe the program?” FRIDAY asked. Probably hopefully.
Morgan made a face she hoped FRIDAY could see. “No,” She insisted. “I want to see this through.”
There was no reply, but then there was a small buzz, and light exploded out alongside the sound. She blinked and focused and found herself standing at the back of a room filled with people for a press conference, she was guessing. And on the stage stood Tony Stark. Her Dad. Morgan’s eyes filled with tears, and then her Dad began to speak.
“There’s been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the Freeway and the rooftop-”
Morgan startled and stopped paying attention. “This is that press conference, FRIDAY!” She hissed. “I’ve seen this a million times on the net. Why would you bring me here?”
“This was the safest place,” FRIDAY droned. “And, indeed, this was perhaps the one defining thing about the entire superhero industry.”
“What, my dad telling the truth?”
“Yes.”
Morgan clenched her fists, sighed, and then turned back to the conference, where she slid right back into listening, filling in the gaps she remembered so perfectly.
“Truth is…” He hesitated, staring at the card in front of him, the one he’d raised to look at, and that pause was a pause Morgan had memorized, and yet… yet, it was so much more. “Truth is,” He repeated. “I am Iron Man.”
The reporters descended into pandemonium.
The world faded.
“Thanks,” Morgan mumbled, but she couldn’t make herself sound sarcastic like she wanted to sound. “... Can we go look at more action stuff now, though? Nothing’s seeing us anyway. The shields are working.” Or Dad would’ve noticed the random teenager standing right in front of him and almost crying.
“... Very well,” The AI said, and they were off, jumping forward to the next big superhero event, where her Dad had to face Whiplash, an event her Mom never talked about, though that was only rivaled by her silence of the other solo Iron Man fight, which Morgan was totally going to watch, too. It was the final battle that they watched, safely far away, with FRIDAY reluctantly providing Morgan with zoom lenses, and it was incredible . Morgan hadn’t known how much she relished the really cool action, but she definitely got it from her Dad, who was fighting like a man possessed. And Uncle Rhodey, too! Who knew he was so cool?
She decided to skip the other heroes for now, knowing that it would take too much time, and it wasn’t like her Mom probably wasn’t on the way home already because ten minutes had most likely already passed by, and the AI should have alerted her by now. She’d convince her somehow - probably would have to go with Mom the next time around - but for now, she wanted an unblemished perspective on Iron Man… and her Mom would hundred percent censor it.
So after that fight with Whiplash, whose name Morgan didn’t know and didn’t care to know, FRIDAY pulled them into the 2012 Avengers fight in the middle of New York. That one wasn’t actually anything new, to be honest, because there were a million videos up on the internet anyway, not to mention compilations and security recordings and-
Well, at least it was fun to watch them beat up the alien, even if Morgan knew Loki had become a good guy later on.
It was the next battle where FRIDAY hesitated, though. “Morgan, your mother would not want you to watch this without her permission.”
“FRIDAY!” She protested. “We’ve come so far. Please?” It was the magic word because it was the only word she could say to make FRIDAY do what she wanted.
“It-” There was whirring, and the world began to come into focus again. “It is not something I can in good conscience allow you to watch.” But the AI could do nothing, not with ‘Please,’ and Morgan forced herself not to point out the reality regarding her ‘conscience,’ mostly because if it was any non-humanoid AI who discovered conscience on their own, it would be FRIDAY.
“It’ll be fine,” Morgan insisted. “I’m only going to watch Dad beat up the bad guys.”
… It was not fine.
Morgan saw her mother fall to her death, and she screamed.
“I am initiating shutdown!” FRIDAY said, panicked. There was no shutdown mode. The ‘please’ was still working. “Morgan, let me initiate.”
Morgan couldn’t speak.
Instead, she watched blankly, desperately, confusedly as her father lost her mother and threw himself into the fight with an abandon she couldn’t even imagine, all the while feeling a sick, sad feeling crawl to her stomach, wondering… if Pepper Potts was dead, then how-?
But her Mom wasn’t dead, and as the world faded, Morgan breathed a relief that she couldn’t even explain because the truth had been terrifying. Now she knew why her Mom never talked about this, she realized. Why no one talked about this.
“Morgan,” FRIDAY pleaded.
Morgan’s voice was hiccups with tears, but she shook her head as she felt her legs tremble and waver under her (even though she knew she was, in reality, sitting down). “No,” She managed. “I wanna watch.”
“Morgan…”
“Please, FRIDAY.”
There was no reply, but the AI did as it was told, and yet again, the world folded itself to melt into a new time, a new battle. The battle against Ultron, which was the event she was watching after the previous mess, happened without a word from Morgan. She barely watched it, her eyes glazed and her lips quivering. But she kept looking, and as the battle drew to a close, her heartbeat calmed. Her Mom was okay. She had been okay in the last part, and she was okay in the future, too. Hell, what she’d done had been amazingly epic! Her Mom was totally a superhero, too, and she just hadn’t told Morgan.
She was okay.
And Morgan needed to watch her Dad, who decidedly wasn’t. Not in her future. Not in his past.
Her gaze focused as the blackness receded again, and she blanched.
Modern history books had recorded the battle against Ultron with much heat, but one thing they’d recorded even more zealously was what had been dubbed “Avengers: Civil War”. Everyone from Morgan’s extended superhero family hated talking about it, even Uncle Sam and Uncle Bucky the few times she’d met them, and Uncle Happy, who wasn’t even a superhero.
And, looking at the torn-apart team of heroes in front of her, she could understand why.
The two sides were absolutely and painfully impossible to reconcile with the impossibly unbreakable bonds that she saw in her present. There was a tirade that Morgan listened to, friction between the two she could barely bear to hear, and an explosive reckoning as monsters clashed and sparks flew and–
And Spiderman stole Captain America’s shield? Woah.
Morgan’s shriek of surprise - no one had told her Spiderman was at this battle! No one told her anyone knew Spiderman, which was totally not nice; thank you very much because Spiderman had been her absolute favorite superhero for a long time, and everyone knew that! - was muffled by the ensuing battle, and though everyone was brilliant, terrifying, and amazing, her eyes were on Spiderman and how he totally took on Uncle Sam and Uncle Bucky, and she was definitely going to tease them about this.
Once her Mom stopped grounding her.
But the point still stood, and breathlessly, she watched the battle come to an end, barely reconciling with the obvious tension and fear in the air because her eyes were on Spiderman, who was the only one she hadn’t known was going to be there.
And then her Dad was at Spiderman’s side - her Dad knew Spiderman - and was clasping him on the shoulder and saying, “Good work, Pete,” and-
And Morgan stilled.
Wait, what?
“FRIDAY, stop!” She said.
The image froze. “Yes, Morgan?”
“What- what’s this, FRI?”
“I am assuming it is what it is shown as. Tony is congratulating Spiderman on doing a good job at the battle.”
“But-” Morgan stuttered. “He called him Pete. I thought no one knew who Spiderman was?”
There was a hesitation in FRIDAY’s words as she probably searched through her archives. “There is no recording or note in my data bank pertaining to Spiderman’s identity,” She confirmed.
“Then… what was that?”
“I do not know,” The AI said. “I do not remember this happening. My servers have a record of this conversation, but Tony said ‘Spiderman,’ not ‘Pete.’”
“Then this isn’t our universe?!” Morgan demanded. “But-” She cut herself off, mind furiously going over the calculations and the work she’d done, and the work she’d run by Harley and Shuri - without their knowledge of her actual intentions, of course, though they might have stitched the truth together - and she couldn’t even begin to find an error that might have prompted any of this.
“I… All the other information is correct,” FRIDAY said slowly. “So I do not think that is the case.”
Morgan blinked. “We need to watch more,” She decided. “FRIDAY, play this past the battle, and this time, follow Spiderman instead.”
“Yes, Morgan.” FRIDAY didn’t sound as hesitant as she’d been previously, and Morgan took that as a win.
They went through an airplane ride with a grouchy Happy who apparently also knew Spiderman, who was unveiled as ‘Peter Parker’ (Morgan winced silently and promised herself she’d go and apologize to the superhero about this unintended identity reveal when she was back), which meant something was wrong with Happy, too.
And then there was this supremely awkward car ride that Peter had with her Dad, and Morgan absolutely wanted to die because Peter was awesome even if he was awkward, and her Dad totally wasn’t getting it. He was very mean, actually, and if Morgan could, she’d have words with him.
And then Peter was back to his life in an almost run-down apartment with a really cool Aunt, and he was living his life.
Morgan sighed. “Well, one thing’s for sure,” She muttered. “Dad totally knew Spiderman, and so did Uncle Happy. I’ll be asking some very pointed questions when I get back.” She shook her head. “FRIDAY, can you fast forward to more important scenes? Maybe where my Dad comes in.”
Like a movie - which it was, now that Morgan thought of it, because considering the unalterable nature of the things she was watching, the only definition that applied was docu-movie - there was a flicker and whizz of sounds and light, and then the surroundings still again, this time showing dark skies and Peter Parker as Spiderman tangled in some monkey bars while Morgan’s Dad flew in the air.
They had this entire conversation about disappointment, and though Morgan gasped at the point where it turned out her Dad wasn’t even in the suit (he was in India ), the thing she just kept focussing on was the part where Tony knew Peter. If he knew Peter and Happy knew Peter…
The scene changed again, this time to the top of a building, and in front of her eyes, her Dad shouted at Peter and took his suit away. Morgan winced. Surely that was a bit too over the top? What had he ever done that was so bad?
… Or was this when Spiderman and Iron Man parted ways? Was this why no one acknowledged Spiderman?
But no, that couldn’t be. Uncle Happy had never once mentioned knowing Spiderman personally, and from the looks of it, he obviously had. Morgan had talked to Uncle Happy the most about the local superhero because he’d been the one who worked with him in a superhero costume, right? That was one thing Uncle Happy did remember.
But before she could vocalize the thoughts, the world shifted yet again, and this time, Peter was in front of Tony again, and it seemed like they were reconciling.
Morgan had to laugh at the part about being allowed into the Avengers being a test because it was obviously a test. All of the younger Avengers in her time had told her how they weren’t allowed to enter unless they were over 18. Well, Kamala had told her, and Cassie, America, and the others had only groaned in agreement.
Then Morgan’s eyes widened because her Mom had come out, and it wasn’t a test, and her Mom knew Peter, too.
What in the world was going on?
“The next big Spiderman interaction with Tony Stark in costume is during the Avengers’ battle against Thanos,” FRIDAY said. “You are not allowed to access any files regarding the war against Thanos until you are of age.”
Morgan scowled. “Please.”
“You are not allowed to access any files regarding the war against Thanos until you are of age,” FRIDAY repeated. “Tony created this caveat while recording his experiments for time travel, and you cannot bypass the coding.”
Morgan pouted, but honestly, even what she’d seen till now had been more than she had expected. And she had a mystery on her hands, anyway, so maybe she could convince her mother to show her the rest of her Dad’s history later. “Fine,” She said. “But Dad wouldn’t have made restrictions for Peter, right? Show me Spiderman.”
“There are no more interactions between Tony Stark and Spiderman that you can access. It seems Peter Parker was a victim of the blip as well.”
Morgan drooped. “Oh,” She said, then she brightened. “Wait, what about the rest of us? Has Peter interacted with Mom, Uncle Happy, or me?”
The world shifted and changed, and suddenly, Morgan was seeing her home again, and it was almost the same as her life right now, and there was Peter Parker, smiling sadly as he greeted, well, her.
Morgan really wanted to cringe at her proclamation of being the next president of Mars but smiled happily when Peter went along with it, and they headed off to play something or the other. She watched as the older boy remained attentive and kind and helped her through the entire overly complicated story game she’d constructed, adding his own tidbits and side stories to the mix. There were crownings and knightings and Spiderman cosplays, and Morgan understood just exactly why Spiderman was her favorite, even though, really, she didn’t remember knowing why, didn’t remember this happening, didn’t remember ‘Petey’.
She didn’t remember.
Her heart thudded painfully in her chest.
“This is all wrong,” She murmured. “If this really happened…”
“But it is highly improbable,” FRIDAY said, and she sounded slightly panicked. “There is no indication in my data about any of this being possible, anything about this Spiderman.”
“You said nothing else was different, that everything else in your memory is the same-”
“But if this person played such a huge role in your lives, I must have a record of it.”
Morgan swallowed weakly. “And I should have my memories.”
There was silence.
“D’you- Do you think this is an alternate dimension?”
FRIDAY’s silence was telling.
Morgan couldn’t bear to watch more. “FRIDAY,” She said. “Disengage.”
“Morgan…” The AI said.
But there was nothing more to be said, nothing to be done, and without any other interference, Morgan was back in her real world, ready to face the wrath of a mother scorned.
Hell hath no fury and all that.
(And Morgan had no energy.)
Miracles of miracles, her Mom didn’t ground her for life. There were a million disappointed stares, a few angry tirades, and new sessions with her therapist to look forward to, but apparently, her wanting to know about her Dad wasn’t exactly a surprise?
Plus, after her Mom had Mr. Pym, Uncle Bruce, Harley, and Shuri come and check out the tech Morgan had modified, she was uber impressed, too, because it was definitely a history-into-movie turner thing that even the adults thought was pretty useful. In fact, her Mom had mentioned ruefully it might just be the biggest discovery on this side of history. Way less stressful than actual time travel, too.
Except no one was going to out it yet, if only because the ethics of outing any person’s history were essentially overly complicated, and her Mom had confiscated it for the foreseeable future, and Morgan now had to take self-defense lessons. Uncle Rhodey had volunteered, so now she had every weekend at his place.
But the point was, nothing too bad had happened. And since the scientists had confirmed the time watch machine actually did record their time, Morgan had decided she needed to solve the mystery that had landed in her lap.
The Spiderman Conspiracy, she decided to call it.
The first thing she did, though, was an internet dive on Peter Parker.
It was… illuminating, mostly because she couldn’t find anything on him before the last few years. He was a literal ghost before his resurfacing near the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, and FRIDAY had confirmed that was the case through the types of internet dives Morgan herself couldn’t do.
That meant something had happened before that resurfacing, and Morgan was definitely going to find out what that was.
How could someone erase every part of their digital footprint from a time when digital was how everyone lived? When deleted items and temporary files had backups, and the internet never let anything go? When the person in question was bloody Spiderman?!
Pardon her language.
“Okay, FRI,” She said. “That obviously isn’t working out. What about Peter Parker since 2024? Has he ever approached any of us? And why does he pretend not to know us? Is he having the same problem?”
“I cannot say as to Mr. Parker’s memories,” FRIDAY replied. “For there is no record of anyone asking him in that context. However, in regard to his life since the beginning of his digital existence in 2024, Mr. Parker spent the first three years without much more than the clothes on his back.” Morgan grimaced as the AI continued. “He lived in a small apartment in Hell’s Kitchen and worked as a part-time photographer for J. J. Jameson–”
“Excuse me?” Morgan asked half incredulously. “Jameson is literally the biggest supporter of Death-to-Spiderman propaganda!” Her incredulity morphed into amusement. “Oh, I really like Peter Parker.”
FRIDAY’s voice was nearly as amused. “Yes, he does have a flair for irony,” She agreed. “Mr. Stark would have appreciated the situation if disapproved of certain parts of it.”
Morgan shrugged. “Okay, what about after two years?”
“Mr. Parker attempted to apply for university and was admitted with a full scholarship to Columbia for a double major in Biochemistry and Biotechnology. He graduated with honors and has since been working with an independent think tank run by a Dr. Olivia Octavius.”
“With honors?” Morgan asked, eyebrow raised. “But why didn’t he come work for Stark Industries, then? I know Mom’s been talking about how R&D has been lagging the past few years. I’m guessing biochem and biotech would be a pretty good combo.”
“Stark Industries did offer him a position,” FRIDAY said. “However, despite his lack of a job at that time, Mr. Parker did not accept.”
So he did know them! Or, well, at least something, if he was avoiding them.
… Did they really have a fallout, her Dad and Spiderman? Was maybe her Dad the reason Peter didn’t ‘exist’ before 2024?
But her father had been long gone at that point, and that meant at least a year’s worth of blank space that that theory did not work with.
“Morgan?” FRIDAY prompted.
Morgan sighed. “Yeah,” She murmured. “I think I better talk to Mom.”
“Yes,” FRIDAY agreed. “That would be best.”
“I’m sorry, you did what?!” Pepper Stark’s voice was so coldly furious that Morgan was reminded why, exactly, her Mom excelled as a cutthroat CEO of one of the most famous million-dollar companies in the world. “Morgan Stark, are you telling me you used your technology to spy on someone?”
Morgan wilted. “Mom–” She tried.
Her Mom glared.
Morgan hung her head. “Well, yes,” She said in a small voice. “I didn’t just look at my Dad’s story.”
She made a horrified noise in the back of her throat. “Morgan! Do you know how bad that is? You invaded someone’s privacy! Even worse, you invaded their secret identity! It’s one thing that you were looking for your Dad, but a random person–”
“But he’s not a random person!” Morgan burst. “That’s what I’m talking about! I didn’t go looking for him; he just– he was just there. He was with Dad and Uncle Happy and– and–” She swallowed. “And you.”
Pepper inhaled sharply. “What?”
Morgan nodded. “I saw Dad hanging out with him and mentoring him as Iron Man, and then Uncle Happy was also hanging out with him. Then you were there too, when Dad proposed in front of the media, because–”
“Because Spiderman refused to be an Avenger,” Pepper pointed out, but her voice was shaken, doubtful.
“Yeah, but he wasn’t Spiderman then,” Morgan insisted. “He was his civilian self. You called him by his real name, and you knew him, Mom. Dad and Uncle Happy knew him, too.”
Pepper shook her head. “That’s not possible.”
“It is–”
“Morgan, I don’t remember that happening, and I was there!”
“That’s why I wanted to ask! If something’s wrong–”
“If I may interject?” FRIDAY asked.
Mother and Daughter fell silent, and Pepper began massaging her forehead. “Go ahead, FRIDAY.”
“Morgan is correct,” The AI said. “I was with her when the events played out in front of her. I was not able to run all of the scenarios from when Spiderman interacted with Mr. Stark for her, either, which means the man had much to do with the final battle as well.”
Pepper’s breath caught, and her eyes flickered to the ceiling.
“Technically,” Morgan mumbled. “He was a kid then.”
No one spoke.
“... I don’t think I can believe this without proof,” Pepper said, finally. “But I don’t want to infringe on the poor man’s privacy any more than you have already done.”
Morgan flinched again, resolving an umpteenth time to apologize profusely to her favorite hero.
FRIDAY raised a metaphorical hand. “While it may not be palatable, I do believe learning what is going on would only be helpful, Ms. Potts. If there is a threat within this equation, we are already far too late. It would be better to deal with it sooner than later.”
“But still–” Pepper said, then shook her head. “Fine. We can start with my life. If there are any interactions with Spiderman that I do not recall, we can move forward. If not, the only privacy I’ll be impinging upon will be my own.”
“Very well,” The AI replied. “Should I contact Mr. Pym for added support?”
“No,” Pepper refused. “Call Harley and Bruce to see if they’re up for helping.” She hesitated, turning to her daughter. “But, Morgs, why did you already think there was something else afoot and not that maybe we had lost touch with him?”
Morgan recovered, shrugging like only a self-assured child could. “’Cause he’s my favorite superhero, and if you knew anything about it, I’d have known about it.”
Pepper’s mouth curled up into a smile. “Point,” She said. “Not bad, kiddo.”
Morgan beamed.