Spider-Son & Iron Dad two shots

Stark-Teacher Conference

Spooktober 03: Ice

Principal Morita's been working at Midtown School of Science and Technology for several years now. He'd like to say, in his time, that he's seen quite a lot— generations of students come and go, pop culture morphs and shifts, the lingo changes in the hallway as quickly as the fashion.

If you had asked him a year ago what the strangest experience he'd ever had working at Midtown Tech would be, his face would have contorted with a disgruntled frown. After all, just last year alone there was enough to leave him a weekly patron at the downtown bar.

For one, the infamous Academic Decathlon fieldtrip to Washington D.C.; a trip littered with accidents that cost so much money and would have cost so much more if it weren't for Spider-Man. For two, a supervillain that ended up being the father of one of Midtown's best and brightest, and to top it off at three— a Homecoming event ending with students taking selfies with one of the Vulture's cronies, webbed to a bus behind the school.

So yeah, you could say Principal Morita's job was stressful. It definitely warranted the hidden bottle of prescribed Xanax in his top desk drawer.

Despite this, what he really never expected, today or ever, was for the secretary to frantically knock on the window of his office. Her face was pale, eyes wide and looking positively startled.

He furrowed his eyebrows. Glanced at Peter Parker, the teenager sat in front of him with his hands fidgeting with his backpack, and back at the secretary. Finally he pushed his chair back from the desk and walked to the door.

"Yes?" He said, ready to put out whatever fire it was. His mind was thinking of the usual possibilities, students physically fighting in an Algebra classroom, a couple skipping class to hide in the bathroom, someone smoking in the band room, maybe even a literal fire started in the chemistry room, who knows.

"Sir," the secretary stuttered. "Um. You— Tony Stark is here to see you."

Principal Morita went still. He shook his head minutely. "What was that, Sherry?"

"Tony Stark," she said again, gesturing wildly to the front doors. "He's here to—"

The door swung open, and Tony Stark strode in with all the casualty and swagger that someone with a billion dollars to spend every day could have. He didn't look happy— the look on his face was cold enough to freeze the entire room as he walked up to the desk and squinted impatiently at the two standing.

Principal Morita thought of himself to be a sensible, confident, respectable man. He wasn't intimidated easily because he knew where he stood and he knew how hard he worked to earn it. That being said, he knew a pissed off parent when he saw one, and Tony Stark was the only person in his immediate vicinity that could afford to effectively put him out of a job. So sure, maybe he was beginning to sweat a bit.

"I'm here for the meeting," Tony Stark said plainly. It sounded bored, but there was a storminess in the way his eyes followed Morita and the spooked woman beside him.

"Meeting?" Sherry creaked out, a nervous smile on her lips. She put on a mask of faux calm and walked closer to the front, her heels hesitantly hitting on the carpet as she went. "Of course. Meeting for, um, who?"

"A student here," Tony Stark continued. He crossed his arms. "Peter Parker. He was pulled out of his seventh period, right?"

Unable to help it, Principal Morita's head swung around. The teenager in question, Peter Parker, was very obviously eavesdropping, watching them through the window of his office. He caught Morita's eyes and they widened— the teen quickly looked away.