It's Above My Clearance Level

Look, I love this trope. I've read ALL THE FICS in this trope, and I needed more of it, so I wrote a fic.
I've never written anything before, okay? Go easy on me!

(See the end of the work for more notes and other works inspired by this one.)

Work Text:

It had been only 30 minutes, but to Peter it seemed like time itself had stopped just to spite him. Tonight was Thursday, one of two Tower Nights during the week. Tower Nights were, as the name suggested, evenings where he’d be picked up by Happy after school and taken to Stark Tower to work on various tech, including his own suit. He’d stay over and be dropped off to Midtown in the morning. One of his fellow interns had texted him about her current project and maybe she’d let him have a look at the -

“Mr Parker!” startled Peter into awareness. “Thank you for your kind attention,” smiled Mr Cobbwell. Peter smiled back sheepishly. “Class, I have just received a notice,” the teacher announced, waving the bunch of A4 sheets in his hand. “Our field trip has been scheduled for next week, and I have permission slips for all of you here. Now, there are rules and regulations, as always, regarding conduct of students as representatives of the school; in addition to those, there are venue specific rules this time. Everything is outlined in these forms. They will have to be signed by a parent or guardian and returned to me by Monday.”

“Where are we going, sir?” asked Sally.

Mr Cobbwell looked at the bored students and puffed himself up to make the announcement. Peter shivered slightly. “It seems we have been granted permission to go to Stark Tower!”

The class didn’t seem to share his excitement, although many of them sat up straighter and started whispering among themselves. Peter, on the other hand, sank lower in his seat. Ned looked at him in shock and Peter helplessly shook his head.

“Isn’t that really unsafe, sir?” ventured Luke. “That whole area’s, like, a major target for all sorts of–”

“Shut up, Mendes,” scoffed Flash. “Since the Avengers went upstate it’s been fine! What are these rules, Mr Cobbwell?”

“Well, there’s mainly health and safety regulations, so you can’t leave the tour group at any point, if you have a disability please mention it in the form, security badges are to be worn at all times – you need to submit a passport size photograph for your ID – phones are not allowed in certain areas, no hacking or stealing because that sets off alarms, and you can only update your social media once you’re done with the tour, just in case,” the teacher read out, to the groans of the class and the ring of the bell. “It's all written here, guys! Take a form on your way out, and remember – Monday latest!”

“Hey Parker, guess we’re going to your workplace!” called Flash, taking a form. “Can you ask your boyfriend Spiderman to come by this time?”

“Oh, he’ll be there,” muttered Peter. What was his life?!

Over dinner the next night, May brought up the field trip. “When I saw the email from your school, I couldn’t control myself,” she laughed. “What is your life, even?”

“That’s what I thought too!” Peter grinned. “I mean, I was really quite worried at first because, you know, but then I realised, no one at the tower knows except Happy and Mr Stark! And not like they’re gonna drop by! By the way, this is delicious, May–”

“I know, isn’t it? I got the recipe from Geeta, it’s not quite like she makes it but it’s good, right?”

“Totally, it should go in the book,” Peter assured her. “What is it, a korma?”

“You know, I forgot to ask her…”

The next Thursday morning saw Peter rushing to make it to the school bus on time. He’d had to double back because he forgot his ID, and then there was a dog walker with three (!!!) dogs and so of course he had to say hi to them all, and before he knew it he was running late.

“Harrington told me about your reputation, Peter,” grinned Mr Cobbwell, who seemed in high spirits. “You’re the last one here!”

“Sorry, sir, there was traffic!” replied Peter, rushing into the bus and finding the seat Ned had saved for him.

“You walk to school,” scoffed MJ from the seat across him.

Peter just grinned back.

“Psst,” said a voice behind him. Thinking it was Ned, Peter turned back, but saw Ned had turned back too, and Flash was smirking at them. “Hey Penis, I’m surprised you showed up! Thought you’d be conducting the tour for us – you know, since you’re an intern and all that.”

“Peter’s a STEM intern, man,” Ned snapped. “Stark Tower has proper guides to conduct tours.”

“Hey, Peter,” Cindy called out. “Do you know all the staff there?”

“No, not really,” Peter replied. “I tend to go there in the evenings, so I don’t really know the daytime staff. Plus I stick to my labs, you know?”

“A likely story,” scoffed Flash, but was mainly ignored.

Some days Peter burned to ask Flash about his dad’s car. He only wished he’d had the suit then, if only for recording purposes. It might’ve helped with the building, but you know. Mainly the video of Flash nearly pissing himself.

As they reached the tower, even the most nervous among the class were hyped up.

“Alright, class, we cannot halt for more than two minutes, disembark quickly and do not leave any belongings behind!”

Once they went through the first security checkpoint and were inside the large lobby of Stark Tower, the students were welcomed by a young man named Jack. He pointed out the toilets and gave them ten minutes to take pictures around the lobby, while he took Mr Cobbwell to sort out the badges. Most students gravitated towards the Iron Man suit display to take pictures. Since they were early, they were one of the first tour groups of the day, and there was barely a line.

Peter idly looked around, waiting for Ned to return from the bathroom. MJ was staring at him again.

“What?” he fidgeted self-consciously. Of all his acquaintances, MJ was the one he figured would deduce that he was Spiderman.

“I’m not staring at you. I’m wondering if I should protest against capitalism and market domination by one single corporation.”

“What are you leaning towards?” Peter asked, curious.

“Pepper Potts is the best thing to happen to this company, and maybe I should celebrate the shattering of the glass ceiling.”

“Yeah, she’s amazing!” Peter said enthusiastically. “She’s honestly superhuman, she handles SI globally AND has time to talk to people AND manage press AND Mr Stark–” he could have gone on, but Jack was calling the students back.

“Alright, I hope all of you have gone through the rules for the tour, those were NOT guidelines, and they have to be followed at all time. Mr Watson,” he nodded to Alex, “the Tower is fully accessible by wheelchair, please be with me in the front so you can see without your classmates blocking your view. If you require any assistance please let me know.” He handed Alex a badge and asked the class to come forward when their names were called out.

“Now, these are souvenirs, of course. You don’t need to return them, but be warned that once you leave the Tower they will be disabled, so please don’t wander off. If the card is used to access the Tower later, there will be consequences for you, so don’t go selling them on eBay!” he joked. “Abernathy, Camille!”

Once he reached P, Jack looked at Peter. “Where is Peter Parker?”

Peter raised his hand and came forward.

“It says in the system that you’re an employee, do you have your ID?”

Peter’s cheeks burned. “Yeah, I’ve got it.”

“Well you know the rules, man. Put that on!” Jack’s easy smile turned into wide eyes and an impressed look as he saw the red and gold colour of Peter’s badge. He whistled. “Dude, nice!”

Peter muttered his thanks and avoided everyone’s eyes. When the badges were done being distributed, Jack gestured them all to form a straight line to go through the second security checkpoint. “Okay, so as you can see, the staff entrance is towards the left hand of the reception, and visitor entrance is to the right. There is also a separate vendor and service entrance, and of course, two private entrances for residents of the Tower and VIP guests. Mr Stark also tends to use the penthouse balcony, or any window large enough to fit the Iron Man suit,” he laughed.

“Hey Jack, so Peter says he’s an intern here, but you don’t seem to know him?” Flash called out with a faux-curious smile.

“There’s, like, eight thousand people working here, man,” Jack answered. “And I just handle the tours, I meet other staff mostly during lunch or something. But an intern under 18? Never seen that. Our security system knows him though,” he shrugged.

“Does Peter need to go through the other security?” Mr Cobbwell wondered. “I don’t want anyone to leave the group.”

“Oh no, he can go either way,” Jack assured him.

Cindy raised her hand. “Why were you so impressed with Peter’s badge?”

“Yeah, I’ll get right to that in my introduction, let’s just get through security,” Jack smiled, looking a bit impatient. He demonstrated how the scanners worked, and waited on the other side. Security was stronger here, and burly men and women confiscated drones, spyware, EMPs, hidden cameras, and liquids that students had brought along.

When Peter walked through with his bag, a blue alert flashed on the panel. The security personnel curiously asked to see his badge, and waved him through without a fuss, sharing a look with Jack, who shrugged, equally confused. Despite being used to this, Peter breathed easy. Web fluid would have been hard to explain.

Once they were all through security, Jack gestured towards a table with water and juice bottles and told them to help themselves.

“Let’s begin our tour with some basic information about Stark Tower,” Jack began, holding his own water bottle in hand. “The Tower is the brainchild of our CEO, Pepper Potts, and is chiefly designed by her and our owner, Tony Stark. Opened in 2012, Stark Tower runs completely on arc reactor energy and is not attached to the city’s power grid. It was briefly sold earlier this year, but the deal was cancelled and Stark Tower is now host to the New York arm of Stark Industries. Miss Potts and Mr Stark have moved to the city full time, but for security reasons do not always stay here. The Avengers HQ has been relocated upstate.”

Peter had never been on one of these tours, and was surprised to learn these things. Miss Potts designed the tower? How was she a real person?!

“After the Chitauri attack in 2012 and then the reveal of HYDRA, security has been the primary concern for Mr Stark. The Tower is now reinforced with multiple layers of material that I cannot disclose, which makes it near indestructible aerially or internally. The airspace within 3 miles is monitored to identify potential airborne threats, and security has been beefed up internally to guard all staff and visitors. No one is allowed entry without a background check, and that includes you guys.

“Now I think the girl there asked about ID’s?” Jack nodded to Cindy. “So as you can see, you all have white badges. That means visitor. Tours for the general public were closed two years ago, so now it’s only educational tours, by the way. I, myself, have a purple badge, which means general staff. White badge holders have to be escorted by purple badges or higher, so if I bring my boyfriend to visit, he can’t wander off at any point.

“There’s a lot of different colours for specialised staff, like green for biotech staff, or cardinal red (“dark red,” he explained at their blank looks) and grey for engineering – can anyone guess why?”

“Colours of MIT!” Abraham called out.

“Correct!” Jack exclaimed, delighted. “Not many people guess that. I always hear Harvard,” he rolled his eyes. “So yeah, lots of security levels. Security has black badges, and what else – oh yeah, service staff has yellow. Anyway, so Mr Parker here–” he pointed at a dismayed Peter, “–has one of the elusive badges, he’s only the second one I’ve seen, honestly. Red is for close personal staff to either Mr Stark or Miss Potts, such as managers, PR agents, lawyers, primary assistants, etc. And gold is for all access! This guy here can go anywhere within the Tower!”

The class all looked at Peter in awe, including Ned, who already knew this. Peter noticed Flash was suspiciously quiet and was avoiding his eye.

“Why do you have that clearance, Peter?” asked Alex.

“Um…I can’t say?” Peter winced.

“Oh yeah man, I don’t think I have clearance to even ask, so I didn’t!” Jack (bless him) deflected the class’ attention.

“What colours do the Avengers have?” asked Betty.

“Yeah, we get this question a lot, but no one seems to know the answer to this,” Jack shrugged. “They take the private entrance, so their security is handled by the building’s AI, FRIDAY.”

This news excited everyone, and Jack had to clap his hands to get silence again.

“Yes, there’s an AI, yes, she has eyes and ears everywhere. Everyone say hi to FRIDAY!”

The class looked around, mostly at the ceiling, calling out greetings.

“Hello, Midtown School of Science and Technology!” chirped FRIDAY. “Hope you enjoy the tour. We’re excited to have you.”

After the excitement had died down a bit, Jack resumed walking.

“Who’s the other person?” Sally asked. “With the red and gold ID,” she clarified at Jack’s confused look.

“Oh, right! That’s Miss Pott’s personal assistant, Jameela. She’s being trained to take over a high position, I’m sure, but she basically tails Miss Potts and can cover for her in case of emergencies. She’s got her own underlings as well, and she’s badass, a goddess among men…but yeah sorry, back to the tour!”

Peter made sure to stick close to Mr Cobbwell, who deflected nosy classmates with a look.

Jack continued leading them through the museum on the first level, which was the history of SI and the company’s goals and side ventures. Peter tried to focus, but this stuff was really boring. The business minded students, however, were taking notes and asking insightful questions about growth and sustainability. He made his way towards the back and checked his text messages.

“So Parker,” Flash came up to Peter, trying to look nonchalant. “How’d you score this gig?”

“What do you mean?” Peter asked.

“Like, are you his secret lovechild or something? We all know Stark slept around, I won’t blame your mom – hey, I’m talking to you,” Flash hissed, as Peter walked away, furious.

After thirty minutes of the first floor and another thirty of the second (which housed the Avengers display), they took the elevator to one of the more exciting floors, Jack talking the whole way. Peter did not envy the guy, he couldn’t imagine talking so much.

“So floors three through forty are offices, and yes they’re mega boring but they’re necessary and valued! Floor forty one through sixty are labs, and that’s where we’re going!” Jack announced to the cheers of the class. “Yes, so we’re headed to fifty, which is robotics, here we are, please follow me, and remember to scan your badges!”

He led them through a hallway to a closed lab with ‘R3’ on the door, and pressed a button. Peter was thrilled; he spent quite a bit of time in R3, and was excited to show off a bit for Ned and MJ.

“My colleague Liam will take over from me now, I’ll see you guys in a bit. Enjoy!” Jack waved and handed them off to a handsome olive-skinned man in his 30’s. Peter could see some of the girls (and Jonah) straighten up and fix their hair.

“Hello, Midtown,” Liam welcomed them. The lab had been changed a bit, in order to accommodate the class. There were comfy seats arranged around a holo table, and at the entrance there was a large table to keep cellphones and bottles. “Please scan your badges, hand over your phones and bottles to the kind bot, and find a seat. Please don’t touch anything!” Peter was the last to enter, and Liam hugged him warmly.

“Are you staying back after the tour?” he asked. “We’ve got some fun planned, Boss might come by too.”

“Mr Stark’s back?” Peter asked, thrilled. Tony had been negotiating with the UN for what felt like ages, and had managed to get pardons for most of the rogue Avengers. This time, he had been advocating for Captain Rogers and Bucky Barnes to be allowed to return and a pardon to be granted to both. Peter knew how much these talks drained Mr Stark, who usually hid somewhere for a few days after each one.

“Yeah,” Liam replied, a bit quieter. “The news isn’t out yet, but according to Jameela, he did it!”

“WHAT?! OH MY GOD!” Peter burst out, all but jumping on Liam, who was just as excited and hugged him back, laughing. “Ohhhmygod can you believe–”

Mr Cobbwell cleared his throat. Peter looked around to see that the class was staring. He blushed and rushed to take a seat, while Liam went to the other side.

With a swipe of his hand, Liam activated the holo table. The class ooh’ed. For fifteen minutes, Liam enthralled Peter’s class with schematics, designs and photographs of the simpler innovations at SI. This time, the entire cohort was engaged, asking Liam about other work in robotics, his own projects, how one could be part of the company, and where there was most need in the field.

After half an hour’s discussion on robotics, someone finally asked about Peter and his contributions.

“Ah, I figured someone would ask, but I’m afraid most of what Peter does in the building is confidential and above my clearance level,” Liam admitted, pointing at his card with cardinal red, grey and blue stripes. “He’s usually at the lab on 81, and we see him maybe once every two weeks. I can tell you what he does here, if he’s cool with it?”

Once again, Peter had the attention of the whole class as they turned in unison to look at him. He nodded at Liam, too embarrassed to say anything. The class turned back towards Liam as he showed them some of Peter’s recreational work, such as TOAST-E (the communal toaster that now remembered everyone’s preferred toast choice), Rico (the bot that fed you when you were in the zone and couldn’t be bothered) and Squeeze (the cuddly bot that was basically a dog but didn’t need to be taken care of). The class clapped and some even patted Peter on the back after they saw a video demonstration.

“Okay, 15 minutes to have a look around, and off to the cafeteria,” Mr Cobbwell announced. Peter rushed Ned to his usual work area, where Squeeze was in sleep mode and charging. At Peter’s tap, the bot activated. They spent a few minutes playing with him before the rest of the class noticed and rushed forward to play.

“I think we can program him to recognise people without a need for a badge,” Ned suggested, watching the bot.

“Yeah, I can’t figure out how to do that and there’s unwritten rules about messing with others’ work here so no one else has done it either,” Peter admitted.

Logging into his account, Peter handed over the code file to Ned, and walked over to Liam.

“So what’s gonna happen? Are they coming here? Ohmygod, are they coming here? Will they BE HERE?”

“Calm down, Peter,” Liam grinned, but he was excited too. “I have no idea, Jameela didn’t give me much more than that.”

“But you’re her boyfriend, get some more info!”

“Hey, you know Boss personally,” Liam accused, “Why don’t you ask him?”

“I can’t just ask–”

“Uh huh, and I can’t just ask either!”

A bell dinged somewhere in the lab and Liam paused to consider what it could be for. Peter could hear Luke muttering, “This is it, we’re gonna die, it was an alarm,” and tuned him out.

“Right!” Liam remembered. “Time for you lot to go to one of the cafeterias for some brunch! Now remember, food’s free so go wild. Try the croissants, they’re my favourite!”

Peter’s class was cheerfully ushered out, back towards the elevators, where Jack met them again. They were led to 45, which housed the nearest cafeteria, spanning half the floor. The class was given forty minutes to grab some food and use the toilets.

Peter took this time to talk to Mr Cobbwell, who was in line for crepes. “Mr Cobbwell, is it okay if I stay back here after the tour, or are we doing anything back at school?” At his teacher’s hesitant look, he hurried to say, “Only, I come here after school on Thursdays anyway and it’s quite a waste of time. I can call my Aunt if you need her permission!”

“I don’t mind, Peter,” My Cobbwell said with a sad smile. “But it’s not up to me. There’s your safety to consider, and I don’t know any of these people. You’re a minor, and I can’t leave you here.”

“But I come here every week!” Peter protested. “You know my internship is real!”

“Like I said, Peter, I don’t mind it. But I am responsible for your safety while you’re here. How can I verify anyone’s identity here?”

“Yeah, um,” Peter was forced to agree, “Yeah, you’re right, thanks anyway, sir.” He walked back to Ned, who looked at him hopefully. Peter shook his head.

“Young Peter!” came a call from - well, everywhere all at once. Which could only mean one person.

“Mr Thor!” exclaimed Peter, surprised. “I didn’t know you were here! Oof!” he muttered as Thor enthusiastically patted him on his shoulder.

“Well I wasn’t, but a wizard made a portal and now here I am!” said Thor jovially, as if that explained anything. “I asked FRIDAY if anyone was here but everyone seems to have gone missing, but then she said you’re here, so…”

“Right! Great!” Peter nodded.

There was silence as both Peter and Thor tried to think of something to say. Peter could hear camera phone shutters and a couple of mumbled “awkward!” comments. The SI staff that was around was staring too, since the 45th floor never saw any Avengers action, being at least 5 cafeterias away from the former Avengers residence floors.

Thor looked around, and beamed at the children. “Are these your friends?”

“Oh, yeah sorry, I’m on a field trip with my class! It’s like sightseeing,” Peter explained, as Thor nodded sagely. “This is my friend Ned, and this is MJ.”

“Hello, Ned and MJ!” Thor waved.

“Whoa,” was all Ned could say, and even MJ seemed a bit starstruck.

“Mr Stark has arrived,” came FRIDAY’s voice from the nearest speaker. The news had a sudden effect on the staff, who rushed to finish their food and get back to work.

“Well then young Peter, I shall take your leave,” Thor smiled. He went up to a food counter where a lady silently handed him a massive tray of food. He held it singlehandedly and waved at the occupants of the floor with a grin.

“Bye!” “See you, Thor!” “Bye Mr Thor” chimed everyone enthusiastically. As soon as the elevator doors shut, there was a burst of noise as everyone shrieked and fawned over The Hottest Avenger.

“Ohhhhhmygod ohmygod ohmygodddd,” chanted Ned, pulling Peter’s arm so hard it hurt. “THE Thor knows my name! He said my name and said hello Ned and I have to call my mom she will DIE! I love you so much Peter you’re the best!”

Laughing, Peter decided to text May an update too.

11:40

THOR WAS HERE he said hi to me and everyone is so hyped!

I think he broke Ned

Mr Stark is here btw, I think he did it

11:41

Nice! I might drop in if he’s still around ;)

Did what?

Ohh wait, did he really do it?

OMG