Chapter 4: The Lab Beneath the Mask
The sky was pale with the first hints of sunrise by the time Spider-Man slipped back into Queens.
No more rooftop speeches. No more carefully chosen words.
Now it was time for action.
He landed silently in the alley behind the apartment building, then used the back entrance to climb through Peter's bedroom window like a ghost. The city hadn't woken up yet. But his mind was roaring at full speed.
The vlog had gone viral. The tide was shifting.
But he knew it was temporary.
Sooner or later, someone would dig deeper. Beck might be gone, but his files, followers, and contingency plans were still out there. And there were always others—SHIELD, Fury, the remnants of Damage Control. The real question wasn't if they'd come knocking, but when.
"I need to be ready."
And for that, he needed something more than a messy bedroom and borrowed tech.
He needed a base.
A real one.
Not the kind that Peter Parker could have built—but the kind a strategic, calculating, dangerously intelligent Spider-Man would need to stay ahead of the world.
He took off the suit, placed it on the charging platform he had rigged from leftover Stark tech, and sat at the desk. Then, he slid on the EDITH glasses again.
"EDITH," he whispered, "access deep-level Stark archives. Priority: secondary bunkers, off-grid facilities, remote labs. Filter for anything Tony labeled as 'failsafe,' 'experimental,' or 'classified to successors only.'"
The interface flickered.
"Accessing hidden cache. Six suitable locations found. Displaying list."
A holographic globe spun in front of him, pinpointing the options:
One in the Colorado Rockies — underground vault, high power draw.
A hidden module beneath an old Stark warehouse in New Jersey.
An orbital satellite lab.
One in Sokovia — off limits.
Another beneath a decommissioned Stark weapons site in Nevada.
And one… in New York.
Under Manhattan.
He zoomed in.
"Location: beneath Stark Tower sub-level 8. Codenamed 'Ark Core.'"
A smirk tugged at his lips.
"Perfect."
It was time to make that place his.
But first, he had to deal with something closer to home.
Voices filtered in through the hallway.
May.
And MJ.
He froze.
Their tones were hushed but urgent. Something was off. He grabbed a hoodie and stepped out of the bedroom, just in time to catch Aunt May in the middle of pouring coffee while MJ stood near the window, scrolling anxiously through her phone.
They both turned when they saw him.
"Peter," May said gently, "you didn't answer your phone. Are you okay?"
MJ looked at him sharply. "You vanished last night. Again. After all that... after the video."
He gave a tired smile, keeping his voice just the right amount of Peter-ish. "Sorry. I needed air. It was... a lot."
"That's an understatement," MJ muttered. "Half the world thinks Spider-Man's a murderer, and the other half thinks he's some kind of digital ghost."
"You're not okay," May said quietly. "You've been... different lately. Since you got back from Europe."
He looked between them, and for a moment—just a moment—his defenses softened. These two had been the closest people in Peter's life. MJ's sharp eyes. May's kindness. The warmth here was real.
But he couldn't let it in.
Not fully.
The MC inside him had goals, risks to manage. No loose ends.
"I just need time," he said simply. "The news... everything that's happening... it's hard to breathe."
MJ hesitated, but she nodded. "Just don't shut us out."
He gave her a faint smile. "I won't."
That was a lie. But a kind one.
Back in the bedroom, as the door clicked shut behind him, the warmth faded. It was replaced by focus.
He pulled the EDITH interface back up.
Time to act.
"EDITH," he said, "connect to the Ark Core sub-network. Initiate security breach. I want full access. And start prepping schematics for personal lab configuration—modular AI interfaces, high-density computing rigs, medical nanotech, and suit fabrication pods."
"Acknowledged. Authorization complete. Access granted."
A map unfolded on the screen—corridors, elevators, fail-safe systems. The place had been dormant since Tony died. No one had touched it. Not even SHIELD.
"Mine now."
Later that evening, after sunset, he suited up again and slipped out into the night. He took the fast route—webbing across rooftops, gliding on wind, silent as thought.
An hour later, he was standing in front of an unmarked service elevator in the bowels of Manhattan. Stark Tower was now owned by someone else, but the sub-levels? Forgotten. Hidden.
He activated the hidden panel. EDITH unlocked the security.
The elevator dropped over a hundred feet in seconds.
When the doors opened…
There it was.
Ark Core.
The lights flickered on in sequence—rows of sleek black panels, dormant robotic arms, advanced modular bays, sealed server racks.
It was part science lab, part war room.
And now it was his.
He walked across the room, brushing his hand over the control console.
"Let's get to work," he muttered.
With EDITH synced and his own mind already buzzing with ideas, he began planning Phase One:
Create an alternate Spider-Man suit—stealth mode, AI-enhanced.
Develop a multi-layered identity cloaking system using Stark's bio-phase tech.
Build data scrubbing protocols to erase facial traces from any public footage.
Design non-lethal crowd-control tools in case of riots or military escalation.
Construct satellite uplinks for global monitoring.
Establish deepfake simulation algorithms to feed the media false narratives if necessary.
This wasn't paranoia.
It was preparation.
"They wanted a genius-level threat? They just handed the keys to one."
The world had started a war against Spider-Man.
And Spider-Man had just gone underground.
Not to run.
To rebuild.
To rise.