Chapter 4

"What is this?" Bruce asked, looking at the information Tony had brought up on the TV screen. "Some kind of…energy reading? A huge fluctuation, which makes sense given the portal but…with the time stamp, the portal was already gone."

The group noticed Thor joining them and gave quick hellos without looking away from the screen; Peter was the only one who noticed Loki standing beside Thor. Peter was seated at the dining table, working on some work for school. He was also sort of avoiding the team. Not that he'd admit it to anyone.

"How ya been big guy?" Tony asked, lowering himself onto the couch beside Bruce, eyes fixed on the screen still.

"Very well, thank you Friend Stark. I was busy helping Loki in catching a rogue wizard. Luckily Loki was able to follow the trail of his magic."

"Much like you all seem to be doing." Loki said, alerting the others to his presence. Tony jumped from his seat at the voice. Steve looked up from the report he'd been given by SHIELD; he was reading it on his tablet. Far more convenient than stacks of paper.

"Loki!" Clint shouted. "What the- I mean hi but, what the hell?"

"What did you mean?" Peter asked. "About us looking for a wizard."

"The energy readings on your screen; they are very close to how your machines would read magical energy. Usually, magical energy used by a wizard of some sort."

"…A wizard? She doesn't really look like a wizard…" Tony mumbled, then noticed the looks of confusion on Loki and Thor's faces. He played the footage for them, while Steve told them what had happened.

"How did you even get the footage?" Clint asked.

"The suit had rebooted itself, thank god, while I was catching my breath on the roof I happened to land on. Very strategically. It had gone into surveillance mode while I was out of it."

"Surveillance mode?" Steve asked.

"If it determines a threat is nearby while I'm out of commission, it notifies one of you guys."

"Well we didn't get anything, so…either the suit couldn't notify us…" Steve said, and Tony finished.

"Or it didn't think it needed to. Correct."

There was a pause of silence from the group. Peter packed his homework away then leant back in his seat to stare at the girl on the screen. She looked normal enough. Long hair that was either black or very dark brown, glasses and…well, that was about it. Then he noticed it.

As she turned back to run down the hall, he noticed the glint of light against glass as her glasses fell off her face, and headed out of shot towards the ground.

"Uhh...Mister Stark?"

"Hmm? Sorry, what's up Peter?"

"No it's…you're fine, her glasses fell off."

"…What?"

"When she turns, you can see them kinda…fall away, they must've been loose on her face-"

"Holy shit, he's right!" Clint shouted, interrupting Peter. "Kid, think about what you want for dinner, our treat tonight. Let's go have a look!"

Tony had to admit, Clint's positivity about it was…contagious. He found himself grinning, at Clint and at Peter hiding his face in his hands. The kid still got embarrassed around the team, especially when one of them noticed him. It was easier to hide it as Spiderman, much harder to conceal himself as regular Peter Parker.

Later they found themselves at the building again, in the little alley that ran beside it. It was later in the day now, so they needed extra torches to provide enough light to see properly. Tony wasn't wearing the suit – not yet – he had his suitcase in case something happened. Scott found them; he was there checking over damage to equipment.

"What…are you guys doing in the alley?"

"Scott! Lang! Hey, how have you been?" Tony asked, a little startled by the man's voice.

"…Fine, just checking out the damage. What are you up to?"

"Just searching…for…clues?" Tony offered but had to admit, they really didn't know what they were looking for. "All we know is there should be a pair of glasses here and they aren't here so, we're a little stuck."

"None of you wear glasses, that I know of…not out in the field anyway. OH&S you know? Why didn't you ask for camera footage?"

"OH&S…camera footage?" Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Occupational Health and Safety, and yeah, we've got cameras outside and inside. Do you want the footage?"

"Yes!" Tony shouted, pleased the investigation could continue.

"Alright well…I'll email it to you? No, too big of a file. I'll get you the recorder box, saves having to move files over." Scott said then disappeared into the building. The team moved back to the main street, where Scott found them a few minutes later. He handed what looked like a cheap VHS machine to Steve.

"Lang-"

"It's a VHS case, the actual recorder is inside. Doubted anyone wanting to steal from us would take that." He explained, cutting off Tony. "Should have footage from the last…week at least, maybe two."

"Thank you, Scott." Steve said, holding out his hand.

"What…are you guy actually looking for? If you don't mind me asking." He asked, nervously taking Steve's hand and shaking it. Holy shit this is Captain America's hand. Don't freak. He managed to let go in an acceptable time frame and stopped himself from freaking out. A job well done.

"We think we may have found who helped your daughter but, we only have a short clip of footage." Steve explained. "Hopefully this will help figuring out who she is."

"Oh. Good, I still have her sweater."