Peter POV:
The Malibu mansion shimmered against the Pacific horizon, a glass citadel where wealth and genius converged. For me, it wasn't luxury. It was a battlefield where I had to win Tony Stark's trust and get him to give some of his toys.
I followed J.A.R.V.I.S's guiding voice through the cool marble hallways until the living room doors slid open. Tony was there, lounging with a scotch in hand. Pepper sat beside him, posture sharp, eyes already measuring Peter like she was tallying his impact on the Stark household budget.
"Kid." Tony raised his glass. "Didn't know it was Bring Your Own Apocalypse day. You didn't RSVP."
I didn't crack a smile. I set a sleek holo-projector on the table. The machine hummed, spilling the room with ghostly blue light. Towering walkers, impossible alloys, swept-wing aircraft bristling with weapons.
Pepper's brow furrowed. "Peter… what is this?"
"My insurance." I said evenly. "And the reason I'm here. I need a weapons manufacturing license. Stark Industry's old weapons factories. The aircraft production lines. And every record of Stark's historical weapons designs. Especially your one-piece forging tech and the crystallization processes you pioneered for turbofan blades using Tungsten, Titanium, Tantalum, Rhenium crystallization."
Tony sat up, frowning. "Let me get this straight. High school science fair Peter Parker shows up at my house, demanding my vault keys, factories and metallurgical secrets like it's a Costco membership card." He swirled his drink. "Kid, Stark Industries doesn't do weapons anymore. You know why? Because guys like me made shiny things go boom and a lot of people didn't make it home because of it. Not exactly the legacy I'm trying to franchise."
I didn't blink. Instead, I tapped the console. The designs vanished, replaced with jagged bursts of encrypted chatter, dancing across the map. Tags lit up: Wakanda. The Puerto Rico Trench.
"Recognize it?" I asked.
Tony's smirk wavered. "Quantum cryptography chatter. Theoretical framework exists but no working example."
Peter nodded. "From two places. The heart of Wakanda and Talokan, buried in the trench and in myth. Civilizations. Advanced. At least a century ahead. And they're hiding. Hoarding the world's only vibranium deposits."
Pepper's lips parted. "Peter… are you absolutely certain?"
"Seventy percent certainty. Thirty percent speculation. Enough to move."
Pepper glanced at Tony, but he just gestured with his drink. "Okay, humor me. Give me the history channel breakdown. Wakanda and… Taco Bell?"
"Talokan." I corrected, deadpan. "Wakanda cloaked itself from the world for centuries. They watched colonization, slavery and wars but never intervened. They built their empire on Vibranium. Cities. Weapons. Medicine. All hidden under an illusion of poverty."
I flicked the projection. A map shifted, now to the Atlantic. "Talokan is older. Descended from ancient Yucatán tribes who turned into aquatic mutants through a herb which had its biology altered due to the effects of Vibranium in order to escape the Spanish Conquistadors and Smallpox. Found the Vibranium deposit in the depths of the ocean. They became something else. Stronger. Faster. Hidden beneath the waves. Every myth of sea gods and monsters? They line up with their energy signatures. They're not myths, they're just hidden."
Pepper leaned forward slowly. "You're saying there are two civilizations advanced, armed and watching us right under our noses?"
"Exactly." I said. "And if they decide to step out of the shadows, we won't stand a chance without preparation. I also have reasons to believe that Talokans are hostile towards the surface in general."
Tony stared at the map, then threw back the rest of his scotch. "Jesus. I thought I was paranoid. Turns out I was an optimist."
I swiped again. The EXO-45 Patriot Mk. II bloomed into the air, a towering machine bristling with weapons.
[Image]
"Miniature pinch-fusion reactor as its heart. Railgun-plasma hybrid cannon on the right. Variable missile pod on the left. Tempered Lithium Triteride armor, theoretically can't even be damaged by Vibranium. Integrated point-defense lasers."
Pepper gasped softly. "That's… terrifying."
"And this," I said, shifting the display again. A sleek craft unfurled. The F-302 Mk. II.
[Image]
"Cold fusion core. Nose-mounted lasers. Special missile systems. Quantum radar. Integrated E-warfare systems. Inertial dampeners. Meta-material skin rated for Mach 7 at eighty-thousand feet which doubles down as radar absorption material capable of absorbing 99.9% of all frequencies including Quantum and also serves as radiation shielding. Air-breathing engines with rocket boosters for orbital maneuvers and achieving escape velocity. Rocket engine for space navigation. Distributed maneuvering thrusters double as VTOL and STOL."
The fighter rotated lazily in the air, glowing like a dream out of reach.
Tony stared, sunglasses slipping down his nose. "Kid… this isn't blue-sky dreaming. This is leapfrogging entire generations of tech. You've got DARPA drooling into their coffee somewhere and they don't even know why."
I didn't flinch. "I didn't build them yet. But I will. Because if Wakanda, Talokan or anything worse forces humanity's hand… we'll need more than capes and shields. We'll need parity."
The silence that followed was heavy. The ocean roared outside, a reminder of just how small we were.
Pepper looked at Tony. "He's right. If even half of this is real…"
Tony set his glass down, fingers drumming on the bar. For once, the quips seemed to drain from him. He looked at Peter, his eyes sharp. "You're asking me to hand over my factories, my tech, my mistakes. That's a tall order. So here's the deal. You get what you want. But I get something too."
I raised a brow. "What?"
Tony smirked though his eyes were still grim. "That little quantum cryptography toy of yours. The one that can listen in on Atlantis and Wakanda. I want it. Encryption, analysis, the whole package."
I considered, then slid a drive across the table. "Done."
Tony took it, spinning it between his fingers like a coin. "You sneaky little bastard. You walked in here knowing I'd fold."
I smiled. "I walked in knowing you'd recognize the stakes."
Pepper let out a long breath, tension easing from her shoulders. "Then it's decided."
The holo shut off, leaving only ocean light spilling through the windows. For the first time in years, Tony Stark looked like he'd glimpsed a future that wasn't his to shape and it terrified him.
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