When Peter woke he knew he wasn't in his own bed immediately. Opening his eyes, he looked up at the ceiling, but that didn't really tell him too much. When he rolled onto his side, he knew from the bed itself and the furnishings in the room that he was in Tony and Pepper's bed. Then he faintly heard Friday telling someone in the other room that he was awake.

So, he'd done the sleepwalking thing, obviously. Looking at his watch, it wasn't too late in the morning – only somewhat past 8 am, but it did explain why he was the only one still in the bed. He wondered what had happened the night before, but even when he closed his eyes and tried as hard as he could to concentrate, he couldn't remember anything after he'd gone to bed. He'd just done some homework and went to sleep.

When he heard the door, he opened his eyes, and saw Tony, Pepper and Doctor Strange enter the room. Which really told him all he needed to know.

"What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything," Tony told him.

"What happened, then?"

Obviously it had to be something, or Strange wouldn't have been there. The plan for the day had been for him and Tony to drop Pepper at the tower and then go the sanctum to meet up with Strange and Wong. If the doctor was here at the compound, then he'd obviously done something.

Stark gave him a short summary of what had happened the night before and Peter closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I'm such a spaz…"

"What?" Pepper asked.

"You guys are nuts to put up with this," he said, opening his eyes and looking at them woefully.

"You're not doing it on purpose," Pepper told him. "Remember, I used to do it, myself…"

"You never woke up an entire base filled with people in the middle of the night looking for a dog you haven't seen since you were five…" he laid back and pulled a pillow over his head. "You should have just let me run into the river."

Stark leaned over and pulled the pillow away from him.

"That wasn't funny, Peter."

"I know. I'm sorry." He was, too. If only because now they all looked worried about him. "A perfect example of why we can't have me at the tower, though, right?"

"Yeah."

Pepper leaned over, too.

"We'll figure it out, Sunshine," she told him, running her fingers along his cheek. "It's just a matter of time."

He nodded, and sat back up, looking down at himself and trying to lighten the mood a little.

"At least I'm still dressed this time. Shirt and everything, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Shall we hold off on Wong's project for a few days?" Strange asked. "it's not that important, and if you're not feeling up to it…"

"I feel fine," Peter told him, shrugging. "Foolish and embarrassed, but I'm up to giving those relics a look over for you guys."

"First thing, though," Pepper told him. "You're going to go to your quarters and take a long, hot bath – with the jets on. Get yourself relaxed, and then meet us in the lounge for breakfast. Then you guys can drive me to work, and go check out Stephen's toys after that."

Strange rolled his eyes at having mystical relics referred to as toys, but that only made Peter smile a little – which was almost certainly Pepper's intention.

"Go get ready for your day," Tony told him. "We'll see you in the lounge in an hour or so."

"Okay."

"And don't ever let me hear you say anything like that river comment again. Understood?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

He got out of their bed on the side Pepper was standing on, and he hugged her before he left, trying to apologize for being so much trouble with the gesture. As if she understood, she held him close for a long moment before kissing his cheek and letting him go.

"Watch out for puppy poop," she warned him. "I hear they've been out on the loose already this morning."

He smiled at that.

"I should have worn shoes to bed last night."

He left and the three watched him go.

"Think he's okay?" Stark asked.

"You mean the river comment?"

"Yeah."

"He's fine, Tony," Strange told him. "We beat that sleepwalking thing once, we can do it again. That comment was from embarrassment and frustration, nothing more. I'm going to go find Natasha, and then I'll meet you guys at the sanctum."

"Okay."

"Before noon?"

"Definitely. We'll make him eat fast."

OOOOOOOO

The sanctum was as impressive as ever. Wong greeted Peter and Tony at the door before they even had a chance to knock – or ring the bell – and he led them up to the third floor library, offering them refreshments and making small talk. Peter was accosted by the Cloak of Levitation before he made the second step on the giant staircase, and happiness thrummed into his mind as it wrapped itself around him with as cheerful a welcome as anyone could ask for.

Strange and Wong seated Peter at their favorite table, and then had Stark sit off to one side, where Stephen was sitting as well. It was Wong's project, so he was letting the man run things, and would only observe and take notes. Tony was just an observer.

The cloak didn't move from Peter's shoulders, as if it understood that its job was to stick close to the boy and help him out if it became necessary.

"The first item is something of a control, Peter," Wong told the boy, bringing out what looked like a broach and setting it on the table in front of Peter. "We know what it is, for the most part, but want to see if it connects with you at any level. All I want you to do is concentrate on it and see if your sensitivities tell you anything about it. Then you just tell us what you're feeling. Sounds good?"

"Yeah."

The room went silent, and Peter looked at the object on the table. It was a little trickier than he'd thought, because the cloak was humming in his head, almost distracting him with its cheerfulness. He could feel the object was neutral – neither good nor bad – just there, but what kind of neutral, he wasn't sure. It didn't tell him what it did, either, or anything about its history.

The fact that Wong knew, though, gave the answer. Peter could feel the Mind stone on the periphery of his consciousness and the gem simply told him what Wong knew. The answer flashed like a statement in his brain.

"That's the Sun Ray Lode Stone. Neutral and worshiped by people in the 15th dimension for its ability to capture the power of its sun and cause light. Basically it's a flashlight."

Wong looked impressed.

"You got all of that from the relic?"

"No. The Mind stone. I think it probably got it all from you and passed it on to me."

Strange snorted, amused, but not saying a word.

Wong scowled at him.

"Fair enough."

"We'll only be able to learn anything new about things that you guys don't already know about."

Wong made a grumbling noise, but nodded, and moved the first item and replaced it a moment later with what looked like a crystal platter, about the size of a Frisbee.

This time Peter sensed that it was neutral, but with a leaning toward the good. When he concentrated on it, that was all he got. Nothing at all like the way the cloak communicated with him.

"Neutral good is all I can tell you. Sorry."

"It's more than we had," Wong replied.

He took that away, made some notes and brought out another plate looking item – only this one was bronze and had weird writing on it. And felt a bit toward the bad to Peter. It also gave him an odd tremble in the pit of his stomach that made him feel a little ill.

"Lawful Evil… not nice."

"Pull it," Strange told Wong, who nodded and did as he was told.

The first thing that they had decided was that if Peter felt anything negative from the objects they wouldn't try to learn anything more about them – to protect him.

"You okay?" Stark asked, unable to keep still.

"Yeah. I'm good. Really. Let's see the next one."

OOOOOOOO

He sat at the table for several hours.

Most of the items that were put in front of him were neutral, or even good, in some cases. A few were put in front of him that were not. These were rejected by the cloak even before Peter got more than a simple tingle. Wong learned to watch the cloak's initial reaction to decide whether the object in question could remain on the table to give Peter a chance to try and evaluate it. If it wrapped Peter up, Wong moved the item. Otherwise, the boy would stare at it, concentrating on deciding what it was for, or what it did.

He didn't get a lot from most of them, and none were so powerful that it hurt him to be close to them. Obviously, he could say good, bad and neutral. A few items he felt like they were trying to connect with him – that there was something right there, like when a person was trying to come up with a word and it was right at the tip of their tongue but just not quite there.

One odd looking pendant warmed up to him, almost like the cloak did. It felt somewhat lawful neutral and purred almost seductively at him into his mind, but when he reached out to pick it up, the cloak slapped his hand away before he could. The purring turned into grumbling, but it was still not angry, just felt disappointed. Like the thing wanted peter to hold it, and was upset that it wouldn't.

It was weird, but he couldn't tell them what it did – and the cloak wouldn't let him try again to figure it out.

"What was that all about?" Wong asked.

"I think it wanted to get to know me, but the cloak wouldn't let it."

"Evil?"

"No. Just neutral in every way. Not bad. Not really good."

Wong made a note and took that away and then a moment later came back with what looked like a rock. Brown and somewhat round – about the size of a walnut and smooth. It screamed lawful good at Peter, so cheerfully that the boy actually smiled and felt the cloak hum a reply into his mind.

Wong noticed the reaction, but didn't say anything, waiting to even write his notes until Peter could give him some way to describe it.

Peter reached for the rock, hesitating long enough to see if his spider senses would warn him off, but he didn't feel any kind of threat coming from the stone and the cloak didn't seem to object, either, so he picked it up and held it in his hand.

He felt a question in his mind.

Where?

The boy frowned, uncertain what it meant, and felt it repeated. Not urgently, just an idle question. This time he seemed to understand what it was asking – although he didn't know why.

He closed his eyes and pictured the Avenger facility, specifically the living area in his quarters. A moment later, he felt a waves of weakness and was suddenly standing behind the sofa in his quarters.

OOOOOO

"What the hell!?"

Stark and Strange both came to their feet immediately when the boy vanished from the library.

"Where is he Stephen?" Stark asked, already planning on taking advantage of the GPS spell that they'd created for the communication watches – the same spell that had told Strange where Peter was the evening before when he'd received the panicked cry from the boy.

Strange was already creating a portal when suddenly Peter was back, only now he was standing by the chair near the table instead of sitting. The portal vanished at the same time Peter sank into his chair, looking just a little tired.

"What happened?" Stark asked, crossing the space instantly and putting his hand on Peter to reassure himself that the boy was really there and that he wasn't injured.

"That was crazy."

"What was it, Peter?" Strange asked, also moving beside the boy.

"The stone?" Wong asked at the same time.

"Yeah." He set the rock on the table. "I picked it up and it seemed to be asking where I wanted to go. Next thing I knew, I was in my rooms at the compound. Then, I knew you guys would worry, so I told it to bring me back here."

"Aloud?"

"No. In my head."

"You're okay?" Tony asked, not convinced.

"Yeah. It didn't hurt me," he assured him. "I just felt a little weak for a minute – both ways."

"How do you feel now?"

"Tired," he admitted. "But I'm fine. Nothing hurts or anything."

"So it teleports…" Wong said, picking the stone up.

"Yeah."

"And it probably uses some energy from the person using it to move them," Strange added, silently holding his hand out to Wong, asking for the stone.

"What do you feel?" Wong asked him when it was in his hand.

"Nothing."

"I didn't, either."

"What's the point of making a stone that won't teleport anyone?" Peter asked. "Try visualizing where you'd like to go. Maybe it'll move you even if you don't feel anything."

Strange closed his eyes, and a moment later, he, too, was gone. Less than a minute later he was back in the room.

"Where did you go?" Wong asked, curiously.

"Peter's room in the compound."

Strange sat down on the edge of the desk, understanding why Peter had said he was tired. He was tired, too, now.

"Well," Wong said. "We don't know its name, but we definitely know what it does."

"Yes."

"Enough experimenting for today, okay?" Tony suggested.

They both looked wiped out, and he'd taken a scare he didn't feel like repeating just then.

Wong nodded his agreement.

"Are you hungry? The least we can do is feed you two."