Chapter Text
The last thing Dr. Ryland Grace expected to be doing on a Tuesday afternoon was picking up a hiking staff and fending off drones, but Tuesdays had always been a little difficult to process.
The day had started off normal enough. The alarm went off on time. Water was the right temperature for his shower. He even got to pet the neighborhood cat, which always made his day better.
That's when things started going downhill.
The coffee shop had run out of vanilla syrup. How does a coffee shop even run out of vanilla syrup? So instead of his usual vanilla late, he had accepted a hazelnut. It wasn't bad. He certainly wasn't going to blame the barista for it.
When he left the coffee shop, his bike had a flat tire. It wasn't something he couldn't handle, it just took a bit more time than he had planned. Still, this wasn't completely insurmountable.
The car door that opened on him while he was biking past was frustrating. Grace had flown over the handlebar and slammed into the window of the car, only to get berated by the person who had caused him to do it in the first place. And when he managed to get back up, he found that his front tire was bent.
Still, he was close enough that walking the rest of the way wasn't going to put him too far behind. Getting home in the evening would be a task, and he'd have to figure out how to get the bike fixed or find a different way to work. He was so focused on that train of thought that he managed to trip and fall down the stairs after he'd locked his bike.
Tuesdays were always a little difficult, but this one had managed to really prove itself to be truly challenging.
Grace was in the middle of his fourth period biology class, writing on the board, when he was startled by the sound of breaking glass. He turned around just in time to see a drone fly through the window. An armored drone. This wasn't a run of the mill hobbyist drone.
The school was under attack. He didn't hear any alarms, but that was procedure. He looked at the students and nodded. The drone was doing a search with a scanner. While it was occupied, Grace locked the door. He didn't want anyone working with the drone to come into the room. The students started pulling their desks together near his desk and built a barricade large enough for them to hide behind it.
Soon enough, the drone zeroed in on Grace and scanned him. Several lights flashed across its surface, and a few moments later, three other drones flew in through the windows, breaking them.
Grace looked at his students and saw they were all behind the barricade. He moved to do so, and the drone set off a high-pitched alarm that dropped him to his knees and forced him to cover his ears. As soon as he stopped moving, the alarm quieted. Grace looked around quickly for something he could use and found the walking staff he had brought in a few months ago when he needed to move the ceiling tiles. He grabbed it and stared at the drones.
As long as they just hovered, and didn't threaten his students, he'd watch.
One of the drones fired a laser, and Grace yelped as it struck him. He swung the staff and connected with the drone. The momentum drove it into another drone. The first one fired again, but it was slightly off course due to Grace hitting it, and it accidentally hit a second one, causing it to explode. Several pieces of hit metal flew off, and one struct Grace in the shoulder.
The drones started to emit a sound that Grace didn't like.
That was the bad news.
The good news was that he only had three drones to deal with.
The news wasn't great, but three drones were still better than four.
He really hated Tuesdays.
---
Peter hid behind the barricade. He couldn't get to his suit, and he was forced to watch his favorite teacher fight off drones. MJ looked at him, and he shrugged. Quickly taking out his phone, he texted Mr. Stark.
Drones attacking school
can't get to suit
He stood up and tried to come from behind the barricade to help Mr. Grace. He was stronger, and his reflexes were faster; however, Mr. Grace didn't know who he was. To Mr. Grace, he was just a kid.
The drone noticed first and fired a laser towards him. Mr. Grace slammed his walking stick on that drone, then turned to him and hissed, "Get back, Peter!"
Peter could tell the man was tiring. He already had three laser burns on his arms, and several lacerations from the drone that exploded. He was breathing heavily with exertion, but he wasn't giving up. Peter admired him for this. But he was really frustrated.
Why were these drones here?
He took his phone out again and snapped a picture of the drone just as Mr. Grace slammed it with his staff. He sent it to Mr. Stark.
Please hurry, Mr. Stark.
This wasn't right. Mr. Grace was a teacher, not an Avenger. He shouldn't have to defend students against attack from some sicko.
---
Tony was in a boring meeting with investors. He looked at Pepper, who was conducting the meeting, and wondered why he needed to be here. She was the CEO. He just did his own R&D projects, and if it turned out useful for Stark Industries, he sent it over.
His phone buzzed.
Tony frowned. Shit.
Tony stood up. "Sorry everyone. Pressing business elsewhere." Then he left the conference room without any further explanation.
"Friday, kid's in trouble. Can you tell me what's going on?" he said as he ran to the elevator.
"Linking to Karen now, stealth mode."
The image Friday displayed was bad. Barricades, kids hiding behind them. Drones flying above and being swatted at with…
"Is that a walking stick?"
"Yes, Sir."
"What kind of presence is on scene?"
"None, Sir."
Tony's stopped in his steps as he approached the garage. "What? None? The school is on lockdown and law enforcement isn't on the way?"
"The school is not on lockdown. This incident is isolated to the room Peter Parker is presently in."
"Notify law enforcement, Friday. Then notify the school to evacuate that building. It looks like Hammertech, or something like it. We could be looking at explosive devices."
Tony tapped his wrist and the Mark XVII wrapped around him, and moments later he took off towards Peter's school. He couldn't help but wonder why this specific classroom. Had someone tracked the technology that Peter had and linked it to Stark? Was this a coincidence? Why was this specific classroom under air assault?
---
Grace was tired. He'd disposed of two drones, but there were still two remaining. Two drones that kept firing lasers at him and at the students barricaded behind him. He'd been hit a few times, and he could feel that he was bleeding pretty badly. He was having a hard time focusing. The sooner he finished dealing with these drones, the sooner he could lay down.
"Everyone okay? Anyone hurt?" Grace shouted as he swung on a drone.
"We're fine."
"Please take cover, Mr. Grace!"
"Mr. Grace, I can help," Peter shouted.
"No. Stay back," he shouted, swinging. Another laser fired, this one burned the edge of his glasses and one of the arms broke from the frame. He felt a little blood flowing down his face from where the laser had hit the frame.
Grace swung in the direction of that last beam and was rewarded with a very loud crash as he struck the drone in the center of the casing causing the drone to fly into the other one. The final drone was still airborne but was flying erratically, which worked for him because he was swinging erratically. Grace could barely see. Blood was coming from somewhere; his glasses were gone. And he was fighting to stay focused.
Someone screamed.
"Status!" he shouted.
"We're fine. Just some books fell. We're fine," Peter said.
Grace took another swing at the drone, and it exploded. He didn't think he'd actually hit it.
Grace looked towards the flash of light and mumbled, "That's new." Before he could register that the final drone had fallen, he caught the glint of metal approaching. He readied his staff, fully prepared to strike as soon as it was within range.
"Whoa whoa, Mr. Grace, that's Iron Man. You got them all," Peter shouted just as Grace was about to swing.
All?
Oh good, Grace thought before collapsing
---
Tony looked at the students, then commanded. "Everyone, get out. Now." He gave Peter a pointed look as he looked like he was about to stay.
He'd already seen the school emptying as he arrived, so he wasn't concerned about anyone else being in the way.
With that, he bent down and picked up the unconscious teacher who he'd witnessed fighting off drones, despite multiple injuries.
"Friday, identify," he said as he carried the man out the window and flew down to the ground below before lying the man on the grass.
"Captain Dr. Ryland Grace, sole survivor of the Hail Mary mission. Leading authority on Astrophage and Taumoeba."
Tony stepped back. He looked back at the classroom, just as the drones detonated. This was a targeted attack. He saw press vans arriving, almost before law enforcement and emergency services vehicles arrived. When they found out who exactly had been involved, the press was going to turn this into a nightmare. He could see the headlines now: "Savior of the Stars Puts Students at Risk" despite the absolute fact that the man had almost killed himself to protect those kids, and the only one injured was him.
He made a decision. He wasn't leaving this man to those vultures. Tony picked him back up and flew off to the compound. "Friday, make sure our med team is prepped and ready. Patient inbound."
---
Grace opened his eyes. He heard beeping, but the room itself was a blur. Glasses. Yes, he'd lost his glasses. His students!
He tried to sit up, but as he did, he was able to feel every burn, every slash, every cut. His scars from the Hail Mary felt like they'd been re-ignited.
"Whoa, easy there, Doc," someone said.
He looked over just as Tony Stark, the Tony Stark, Iron Man, billionaire, etc came into his field of vision. His eyes widened as he recognized him.
"Dr. Stark?" he said.
"Call me Tony," he said, raising his eyebrows and focusing his attention on Grace. "And you are Captain Dr. Ryland Grace, sole survivor of an interstellar mission to Tau Ceti, and the man responsible for the lovely spring we're enjoying this year."
Grace blinked.
"Um, you can call me Grace, or Ryland," he said.
Tony winked. "I'll probably stick with Doc. The real question is, what is a man with your experience and credentials doing teaching high school? They should have paid you enough that you could retire on a beach somewhere and never have to do anything again."
"I like teaching."
Tony smiled at him. "One of my interns is a student of yours."
"You take high school students as interns?"
"This one is extremely smart. The kind of smart that gets in trouble if it doesn't have an outlet for curiosity."
Grace laughed and nodded. "Been there,"
"Done that," Tony finished, laughing aside him.
"Do you know how my students are?" Grace asked, worry lacing his voice.
"You can relax, Doc. The only one hurt was you. Everyone got out before the drones exploded."
"The drones exploded!!" Grace yelped.
"Right, you missed that. Yeah. Your classroom is toast."
Grace started shaking. "How many-"
"Ryland, the only classroom that was impacted was yours. The school wasn't even on lockdown because no one knew. It was just your class."
"Just my -" he stopped. Just my classroom. My students. Me. "They weren't after the students," he whispered.
Tony shook his head.
"I am putting the other patients in danger," Grace said.
"No, you're not."
Grace looked at him. "If whoever sent those drones was after me, they'll know I was admitted to a hospital and try again."
Tony chuckled. "And that's why I didn't take you to a hospital, Doc. Until we figure out who is after you, and why, you're staying out of the public eye."
Grace laid back and closed his eyes, taking a few calming breaths. Then he opened his eyes. "If the school wasn't on lockdown, why did you come?"
"I told you I had an intern in your class. He texted me."
Grace grinned at him and laughed. "Your intern called Iron Man?"
"Consider it a perk of the job. It's a good thing though, because if he hadn't a lot of people would have been hurt. I was able to alert the school to evacuate and avoid your room. And once I dispatched the last drone, and withstood an attack with a wooden stick, we were able to evacuate you and your class. Impressive work, I must say."
Grace blushed. "That explains why one of the drones blew up like that." He paused. "How long have I been here?"
"A few hours. Speaking of my intern, he is out here hovering. And no, he didn't know you were Space Grace until a few hours ago."
"Oh gosh" Grace muttered. "Please tell me he isn't calling me that."
Tony chuckled.
"Yeah, he just thought you were Mr. Grace, biology teacher extraordinaire. He never stops talking about you."
"Why did you tell him?" Grace asked.
"Oh, I didn't. Unfortunately, this little stunt exposed your identity. And since you're technically missing, Eva Stratt is having an international crisis."
"Fudge." Grace didn't want to talk to Eva. She was just going to tell him she told him so. He had had to fight so hard to get to teach. She didn't think it was safe for him, that there were too many people out there who wanted to contain him, own him, control him. "She's going to gloat."
"She doesn't strike me as the type. Trust me, I am so I'd know," Tony said with a wry grin.
Grace looked at him, slightly confused. Was Tony flirting with him? No, that wasn't likely. He was certain he was misreading him.
"So, Stratt or the kid," Tony asked.
"The kid. I don't think I'm ready for Stratt."
Tony chuckled. "I didn't get hurt and I'm not ready for Stratt."
Grace laughed. "You may not have gotten hurt, but you did technically kidnap her lap dog, so…"
"oh, so you're Stratt's lab dog?" Tony asked.
"It was once said, before she shot me into space. I had been her number two." He paused. "Not sure what I am now."
"Doc, I'm going to want to hear that story, if you'll tell me. But later." He paused. "Yo, kiddo, come on in."
---
Tony waved Peter into the room.
"Mr. Grace, or Dr. Grace. I'm really sorry we weren't calling you Dr. Grace. Wow you were up in space and met an alien and that's just…"
"Kid," Tony said.
"Sorry. It was just a lot to take in, Mr…Dr. Grace."
"Please call me Mr. Grace, Peter. I'm not working in a lab at school. I'm just a teacher," Grace said.
Tony watched as the man looked Peter over. "You're sure you weren't hurt. You're okay, everyone's okay?"
"We are all fine, sir. Got everyone out before the explosion."
Grace nodded his head. "I'm glad. I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if one of you got hurt, especially when it was my fault."
"No, it wasn't sir. Tell him, Mr. Stark!"
"I have. Doc here just takes on more responsibility than he should."
"Like you?" Grace said, looking at him.
Tony just grinned and tipped an imaginary hat to him. Maybe he had actually recognized Tony had been flirting with him.
"Thank you for calling Iron Man, Peter. It's a good thing you did. I had no idea those drones were incendiary devices."
"Speaking of that, Mr. Stark. I did actually get some pieces from one of the drones Mr. Grace smashed. Not sure if it will help you source it, but," he pulled a piece out that looked like part of a CPU with some RAM circuits on it.
Tony grinned. "Great job, kiddo. Now I can actually try to figure out who made these to get a read on who was trying to neutralize the Doc."
As soon as he said that, he saw Grace's face. He paled. Neutralize was something you did to a threat.
"And no one knows you're here," Tony said. "You'll be safe here until we can figure this out. If you want, I can send someone to your place to get some of your things for now."
Grace shook his head. "If they know where I teach, they know where I live. They might have it under surveillance."
Tony nodded. "So are you ready to call Stratt?"
Grace shook his head.
"Any chance we can make it so everyone thinks I died in that explosion," he asked. His voice had dropped so low it was almost imperceptible.
Tony and Peter both looked at him. He gave Peter a look, and the kid understood it immediately. He waved goodbye to Grace and left the room. Tony went to the door and locked it so no one could come in.
"Friday, make sure this room is on lockdown and secure. No eavesdropping."
"Room secure, sir."
Tony sat down next to Grace. "Now why would you want to do that?"