Chapter 36 - Unable to Determine Location

At first, Peter was a little confused. He didn't know if it was arrogance or sheer incompetence that was the Rogues' problem. Maybe they thought themselves invincible and didn't care all that much about people tracking their movements. Maybe they just lacked the general knowledge when it came to technology and the internet that they didn't realize the breadcrumbs they were leaving behind. It had been over a week that they had popped up in Northern America for the first time and since then they seemed to be omnipresent, a constant looming about every community.

Mr. Stark had been busy dealing with Secretary Ross, so Peter had spent less time in the lab and more time on patrol. He also seized the opportunity to let May dote on him a bit. He made sure to help her prepare some of the meals, spend time with her after, just determined to ease her mind when it came to all the things she feared might change between them. They celebrated his birthday a good week after the Rogues had popped up for the first time. Wednesdays were internship days and he was kind of disappointed that Mr. Stark was too busy with whatever Ross had thought of this time. At least May couldn't complain about him spending his birthday at the Tower. She had come home early, around noon. Luckily he had immersed himself in Rogues-research and wasn't out patrolling or his efforts to appease May after the blowup the week before would have been for nothing.

"Is everything alright? Usually, Taylor tries to get you to work more hours rather than less."

She pressed a kiss against his temple in greeting. "Oh, it was nothing. Some security scare that ended up people overreacting, but the bar and restaurant had already cleared out. He knows that we have plans for your birthday and Josh will be fine on his own for the afternoon."

Peter frowned. "What security scare?"

She waved him off. "Someone thought they saw something which turned out to be nothing, but you know how things are right now."

That he did. He had the police show up on no less than 10 occasions the previous week while he was trying to help people. Some of those officers were alright, but he had been shot at another three times by over-eager cops. One incident had even brought out that damn police chief again. He had thought that things were improving and most people did welcome his help, but a lot of them were still on edge. Who could blame them? He sometimes had a hard time telling who was on which team, who was a threat and who wasn't and he was in the middle of the whole mess.

There wasn't much he could do about it except figure it out himself. Mr. Stark refused to even talk about anything related to the Rogues. Peter couldn't really blame him either, not after what the Rogues had done to him. Maybe he could blame Mr. Stark a little for excluding him entirely, but Peter was working on that. He'd prove to his mentor that he was ready and capable to stand up to them. That Peter had his back.

Peter's birthday turned out to be a great day despite all the underlying struggles around them. They went to his favorite Thai place and despite Peter's nerves, things went smoothly. Ned didn't make any suspicious comments about not seeing Peter enough, neither did May. They went to the movies after and he honestly couldn't even remember the last time he had been to the cinema. It's not that May didn't have a point about his social life suffering from all the crime-fighting and interning he had been doing over the last months, but he couldn't just think of himself. He had responsibilities. Responsibilities he had shied away from before at an enormous cost. If he hadn't maybe Ben would have still been there to celebrate his birthday with him.

May would never understand that though. Hell, if Mr. Stark had his reservations about letting Peter in on the big stuff, how would May ever cope with this? That was his lot to deal with and what kind of hero could he ever hope to become if he couldn't even deal with those domestic squabbles?

When they came home from the cinema, May went to bed and Peter sat around doing nothing in his room for a bit. He didn't feel like going to bed yet. He had contemplated going out on patrol but it was just too risky with May at home, just in case that she might want to check up on him. The day hadn't been all that emotional even with Ben not there with them. May had gone out of her way to keep things positive but he had felt the strain so he was sure that she had as well. His desk screamed of the investigation work he had done into the Rogues and he didn't want to think about that for this one night either. Instead, he just lay down on the floor and looked up to the ceiling, made an effort to clear his mind for once and relish in the good vibes of the day. From time to time, he checked his phone for new messages but there were no new notifications. Some kids from school had sent text messages in the morning or left comments on his social media accounts, but there was nothing from the one person he had been secretly waiting to hear from. He had more important things to do, of course. Peter was just an intern after all, he had to start reminding himself of that. He had to stop interpreting more into their bond than was actually—

There was a quiet knock on his window and Peter sat up like an arrow. A small drone was hovering on the other side of the glass, not unlike the surveillance spider-drone he had learned the emblem of his suit could turn into. He quickly jumped to his feet and opened the window. A small parcel was tied around the drone, swinging back and forth underneath it.

"Hi there," he breathed out nervously.

The little bot chirped, not unlike U or Dum-Y would.

"Is that for me?"

His hand reached for the parcel after another chirp from the drone. It took off just as Peter had loosened its cargo. He settled back onto the floor and carefully untangled the brown wrapping paper and found a black box inside with a note on top.

Happy Birthday.

– TS

Lip caught between his teeth, he put the little note aside and looked for the release to open the box. It unfolded into different layers displaying a 32 piece lightweight, non-magnetic, titanium tool kit.

"Shit..." he mumbled under his breath. He took out the smallest flat screwdriver and turned it over in his hands. It was fashioned in the same design as Mr. Stark's own tools. There wasn't even a brand name on them. Peter had always assumed they were custom made. He put the screwdriver back and picked up his phone instead.

You're insane. It's way too much and you know it.

He waited a second trying to come up with something meaningful to add but settled for a simple.

It's amazing. Thank you, Mr. Stark.

He didn't have to wait long for a response.

Need to live up to my eccentric reputation. I've worked hard for it.

Then a second message popped up.

I'll see you on Friday.

Peter let himself fall back onto the carpet, eyes at his spot on the ceiling. He was absolutely looking forward to getting back into the lab. Those hours working with Mr. Stark had always been fun but he found it harder and harder to stay in the room for it. More often than not he was distracted thinking about the Rogues. It's not like he wasn't aware that Mr. Stark was completely capable and much more experienced in these things than he was, but he was still only human. He might act like he was invincible but he wasn't and nobody least of all he himself seemed to appreciate that fact.

It turned into a sleepless night, riddled with questions he couldn't answer and scenarios he had no solutions for. Peter wanted to do something, wanted to help somehow and the frustration of his ineffectiveness was keeping his brain from shutting down and sleep to come. He gave up at about 3 am and planted himself in front of his laptop, blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He had looked at that data what felt like a thousand times. He just couldn't find the line to connect the right dots.

It wasn't until the next morning when he expanded his inquiries to more than just the US targets that he got suspicious. There were sightings including photographic evidence and sometimes eye witness accounts all over the globe. They were trying to hide in plain sight. That much became very clear to Peter. Instead of actually hiding and letting the authorities figure out a pattern when they did get caught, they were opting for a chaos theory that actively aimed to veil their true targets.

He went for a different approach after that realization. If he would go for the chaos theory, he'd try to draw attention away from those places he'd really wanted to target. There were a couple of areas that they seemed to avoid at all costs. One of them was New York City. That might be a clue for one of two things. Either they were trying to avoid Mr. Stark or they were trying to draw him away from the city.

It took Peter another week until he figured out another clue. There had been a couple of false alarms in town, both of them in Brooklyn. Well, there had been more than a couple of instances where people had thought they might have seen the Rogues and in the end, it turned out to be a prank or someone just angling for a bit of attention. But Peter could pinpoint two specific occasions that were waved off as fake that he wasn't all too sure. There was little reliable information available for either of them but Peter had direct contact to a potential eyewitness.

"So, that security scare you talked about the other day." He had his eyes on the plate in front of him, speaking between bites. "Did they ever find out what really happened?"

May just shrugged. "It was nothing, Peter."

"But you said people left so they must have been really freaked out by something."

She sighed. "I really don't want you to get all invested in this, Peter. It's bad enough that you work in such close proximity to someone like Tony Stark."

His stomach cramped at the reference and the plain dislike May still harbored for his mentor. He couldn't blame her. She didn't know how different from those people Mr. Stark really was. She would probably adore him if she only knew how much the man was really looking out for Peter.

"I'm not invested in this at all. Just curious what happened."

"Nothing happened. Someone thought they had recognized one of the spies and it turned out to be the wrong person. Not even the right hair color. Everyone freaked out for nothing, the end. Are you going to eat that or do you just want to push it back and forth on your plate a little more?"

He looked up at her, his cheeks stinging with the feeling of being caught. "No, I... I'll still eat that."

"Alright then." May got up from her chair and carried her empty plate to the kitchen. "I gotta get going. Send me a text when you get back Ned's, alright?" She gave his hair a quick ruffle before she made her way out of the door for work.

Peter piled the rest of the food onto his plate and headed for his room. There was a bit more research waiting for him before he was going to head out to patrol.


##


There were times in life that sucked more than others. This was one of those times. Tony didn't really know if he was ever going to get out of this vicious circle between the corrupt higher-ups in the government and the unrelenting stubbornness of Rogers and his little friends. Just when he had thought that he could have some breathing room, things just went downhill. While D.C. had been a bust for Ross and his agenda, that didn't really help Tony all that much. He had stalled long enough not to put himself in that awkward position of actually having to fight Captain America in the US capital where who-knew-how-many random people could stream the event live on social media.

Without his shield and without most of their weapons the Rogues had been less of a threat but unfortunately for Tony's stress level, while the shield was still safe in his lab, they had managed to get their hands on some of their equipment. Apparently, that had untied a knot in their plans. Dozens of sightings had been reported in North America as well as in Europe and Asia. Tony first assumed that they were looking for something, but the more information from these incidents became known the clearer it became that they were mostly focused on small missions. Hostage situations, organized crime. Most locations and targets aligned with the data FRIDAY had stored on the intel that Rogers and Romanoff had been focussing, when they weren't chasing the Winter Soldier.

They were still Avenging. And there was nothing Tony could see other than the fact that he was still the one dealing with the fallout for it.

Vision had stayed in D.C. for the past week, dealing with Ross. Officially, he was acting as a mediator between the Avengers - or what was left of them - and the government. Tony sure was grateful to him for offering to go, especially with how hard the past months had been on Vision. Many of the conflicts between the team had been built on emotional grounds. Betrayal. Deceit. Pain. Vision was still learning about all that. It was his biggest weakness in dealing with people but at the same time made him the best asset that Tony could wish for in the capital.

People didn't understand the android, misinterpreted his analytical make-up as purely a weakness. Had Vision been dependent only on himself, it definitely would have been, but the way the government officials, aids and advisors disregarded Vision's growing humanity, made them susceptible to one major mistake: they let down their guard around him. Their arrogance made them think they were oh-so-clever with their highbrow quips and jabs at Vision's expense. They were too arrogant to know they should fear Vision or at least Vision's perfect memory. He could recount every conversation to Tony word for word and Tony knew exactly how to read the undertones and what the underlying meanings of the sloppily hidden insinuations were.

Of course, there was the added danger that long time exposure to these idiots in D.C. would have very likely made Tony snap and just punch one of them in the face. Or two. Likely Ross. Both times. Vision was a safer option for the team. He was getting close. He would figure things out and bring Ross down. That was step one to his steep way out of all this mess.

"Is he not going to get in trouble if he needs to lie to them?" Rhodey was holding onto the wooden railing of the physical therapy equipment Tony had installed at the Compound.

Tony's face was pressed against the ground, recalibrating a couple of connections on Rhodey's left leg brace. "Nah. He doesn't really have to lie." He rolled himself over to the other side. "He knows that he is not allowed to tell them anything about what we talk about because it's confidential. If they were to ask him he just says that and they have to deal with it. It's actually a bonus because he will just tell them the same thing in the same tone no matter if they ask what I had for breakfast or what the new schematics for the updates on the Quinjet are. Alright, try it again."

Tony got back to his feet, still a little rusty himself but he had nothing to complain about considering what Rhodey had to go through because of him. Rhodey turned, hands both gripping the railing on either side of the walkway and carefully put one foot in front of the other. It was on the fifth step that he lost some of his balance and toppled forward but Tony was right there, ready to break his fall.

"I got you, just lean back a bit... there you go."

Carefully, Rhodey let himself fall back and came to sit on the ground. His breathing was heavy, his shirt drenched with sweat. "That wasn't too bad, was it..."

"It's nowhere near where it's going to be, buddy. I promise it'll be so much better once we have everything—"

"Hey..." Rhodey squeezed his arm tightly and shook his head. "You don't have to do that, Tony. You don't need to sell this to me. I trust you."

Tony huffed out a doubtful laugh and went to get some water for his friend.

"We will get there when we get there," Rhodey called after him. "And if for some reason it shouldn't work, we'll just try something else." He took the water gratefully and swallowed half the bottle in one go, still somewhat breathless from the exercise. "How are things with the Spider guy?"

Tony shrugged. They were what they were. The kid was antsy to get out there and prove himself and Tony did his best to hold him as close to the ground as possible.

"Pepper said he was at the Compound while you were out of it."

"You're chatting with Pepper a lot, aren't you..."

"Only to complain about you, Tones."

He took the empty water bottle out of Rhodey's hand and binned it before he helped him to maneuver back into his wheelchair.

"That sounds like something I should get offended by."

"I'm serious, Tony. If Ross finds out you work with that dude, shit's gonna hit the fan. They could order you to round him up and you'll have no choice but to go after him."

He shook his head, grateful that the way he was pushing the chair Rhodey couldn't see his face. That was the worst-case scenario. It wasn't like he was micromanaging the kid for fun.

"He won't find out."

"Well, what if he does? Can't you just get the guy to sign the Accords?"

"Nope. Not gonna happen. He's not even in the Accords jurisdiction and I'm not gonna force that piece of shit onto anyone if I can help it. As long as he sticks to his neighborhood, Ross doesn't get to care about him."

"What if they find out about Germany?"

"They won't, Rhodey. Plus, we're close. We'll get Ross before any of this even becomes an issue."

The data he had been able to compile with Vision's help was all circumstantial so far. He had partial intel on illegal bribes, human rights violations, the active manipulation of factual government protocols so they would support Ross' version of the Accords. Tony still needed that missing link that would bring all of this together, but it would only be a matter of time and he would find the essential lever to get Ross fired. Well, worst case fired, best case arrested and thrown behind bars. And it would be Tony's pleasure to personally fly out to D.C. and put those cuffs on the asshole himself.

With Ross out of the way, the corrupt system uprooted and eradicated, Tony would be able to concentrate on the real battle that was waiting out there.

Two weeks since the initial incident in D.C., Ross still haunted his day to day life. He was desperate to find Tony colluding with the Rogues, just looking for a reason that Tony would break the Accords and be at his mercy. With every little scene that the Rogues were involved in, Ross grew more and more insufferable. He called, sent Tony across the country and even across the ocean just because he could.

They had been on this particular call for a good 20 minutes and Tony was desperate to hang up, but the Rogues gave the secretary every ammunition he needed to hammer his propaganda through. They played right into the asshole's hands and Tony had a hard time keeping himself out of the line of fire.

"How many times, I don't know where the hell they are, Ross. I certainly won't fly to India to find out if those sightings have been real. It's a waste of my time."

"You are bound by the Accords, Stark! You have to do as the UN tells you to."

"Only in the event of an active threat."

"The Rogues are an active threat!"

Tony grabbed the edge of his workbench, desperately trying to keep a lid on his temper. "And when we find out where they actually are, I'll intercept them on grounds of the UN mandate."

"Listen, Stark, if you think I'm an idiot and you can just keep me in the dark about your little side project, you're terribly mistaken."

Tony resisted the urge to bite his lip and rub a hand across his face in order to shake his frustration with this idiot.

"You keep me way too busy with your treasure hunts to leave any time for side projects. It hardly leaves me with time for my actual day job."

"Your ego will be the end of you, Stark. You really think I don't know what you're doing with that Spider guy?"

Tony's stare was fixed on the projection of the asshole in front of him. "I assure you, Ross, I have no control over the Spider guy. He's a vigilante. He does whatever the fuck he wants. And last time I checked, delivering burglars and bicycle thieves to the police wasn't a crime."

"Come on, Stark. You really thought I wasn't going to find out that you sent your guy out to look for the Rouges while you stall me?"

"Excuse me? I did no such thing!"

Well, he certainly hadn't sent Peter places. If anything the opposite was true.

"I already have a team on the way, so you don't have to pretend to be all coy about this."

The hair on Tony's neck actually rose as a wave of dread rolled down his back. What the hell was the asshole even talking about? Quickly, discreetly he typed out a couple of lines for FRIDAY, making her display the current location of the kid, eyes firmly on the secretary.

"You should know by now that coy isn't really part of my repertoire, Ross."

FRIDAY had a short message plop up in the corner of the projection for him.

"Unable to determine location."

No, that... that was impossible. The suit was tracking Peter's every move. He looked back up at the projection of the secretary of state, the smug smile on his lips, defying arrogance in his eyes.


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(author's note: Thanks so much for reading and all the lovely comments.

This chapter in its original form had gotten a little long so I split it up. That also means you can get excited for possibly another update over the weekend ;)

I love how much you guys are theorizing. It gives me a real kick and it's so hard not to say anything that would spoil what I have in mind.)