A/N: The fun side of playing in Marvel's world is that there are just so many characters to play with. You need a distraction for Tony and Davis...pull in a new character. It's entirely possible I've done this too often at this point. I counted the number of characters involved in the three stories and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 77 - and those are the ones that actually play a role. I think I mentioned another 20-30 in passing. I may try to make it an even 100 :-).

Apologies in advance to anyone who actually knows how to play poker. The first scene makes it blatantly obvious that I don't play!

The Cajun voice stood out in the sea of Australian accents. "I'll see your 1,000 and raise you 2,000." He brushed the edge of his cards as he collapsed them in his hand, pushing the stack of chips towards the center. He had to keep reminding himself that he wasn't here to win. His job was solely to keep the man sitting across from him distracted. So far he had piqued his interest. He'd win this hand and then let his opponent win the next hand. If he had to guess, he'd say he'd need to play another couple rounds and then lose in spectacular fashion which would allow him to bow out. It was a simple plan.

"Mr. LeBeau, you certainly know how to keep things interesting." Warbeck Cameron leaned back and studied his opponent. He had been interesting to watch over the last week as he won and lost his way across Sydney's casinos. Giving a final glance at his cards he pushed a stack of chips forward. "Let's see if your hand is worth the amount sitting on the table." He thought it probably would be but it didn't bother him. He'd probably win the money back in another hand or two. The man sitting across from him seemed to enjoy playing even more so than winning. Plus, if it got too out of control, he could always just kill him.

xxxxxxxxxx

Peter glanced around the common area. They had prepared rooms for their galactic visitors when they returned, knowing that eventually they would be making an appearance. Carol and Sam had rooms ready as well. Peter could see their guests relaxed in various groups in the common area. What Peter didn't see was his dad, who has been missing since they had left the hanger to find something to eat. Slipping out of the room he headed down the hall towards ops. He triggered his suit before rounding the corner where he knew cameras would pick him up. Engaging stealth mode he disappeared before he came into view of the cameras outside ops.

The room was soundproof, even to him. He wasn't entirely sure how he was getting into the room until he spied Maria Hill walking down the hall. If Maria was here it meant Fury probably was too. And if both of them were running ops it meant that everybody was in the field...everyone but him. He slid through the door after Maria and jumped up to the ceiling. He settled in and finally had a moment to take in the screens. There were four main screens. He could see Nat in Wyatt's transmission feed. The Eiffel Tower was in the distance which meant the river they were by was the Seine. He looked at the screen next to it and saw Rhodey's and Sam's HUD on a split screen. The terrain was rocky. If he had to guess it was somewhere in the Middle East or Russia. The next screen had the name "Pryde" at the bottom corner. He has seen Xavier's interfaces enough that he recognized it. He could see Dr. Strange and Wong through her view. Based on the other sorcerers in the background he assumed they were in Hong Kong. He looked at the last screen and saw the familiar Iron Man viewpoint imagery on the screen. The surroundings didn't look familiar but Davis and Bobby were both with him.

He felt a set of eyes on him and looked down and saw an orange fluff ball staring at him. He had no idea where the cat came from but he definitely got the feeling that the cat could see him.

"You do realize Tony left strict instructions that you were to stay out of this."

Peter switched off the stealth mode and flipped off the ceiling. The orange cat wove himself around his legs. "How did you know I was here?"

Fury didn't move his eyes from the monitors. "Goose doesn't stare at random things. Besides our guests, you're the only one not out."

"Ok, so now that I'm here, fill me in on what's going on." Peter crossed his arms and tried not to smirk down at the purring cat that had jumped on the back of a chair and was head-butting him. He thought he detected a smile from Maria as she forced her attention on the screens. "Why are we running four simultaneous ops and why do they require so much fire power?" He left off the rest of the question...'and why wasn't he included'. He assumed it had to do with everyone's ridiculous belief that he needed a break.

Maria glanced away from the screen. "Because they're going after the Ten Rings." She saw a look of understanding pass across Peter's face which she thought just steeled his frustration.

"Turns out the Ten Rings originated off Earth and refer to ten actual rings that grant the user access to a power that is only slightly less dangerous than the Infinity Stones." Fury glanced over at Maria. He had actually been on Tony's side about leaving Peter out of it.

"Where are Wanda and Vision?" Peter scrutinized the screens and had a good idea who was in each group. He was a little surprised to see Dr. Banner with Sam and Rhodey. He assumed Bucky and Steve were there as well.

Maria swiveled her chair around. "Guarding Pepper and Morgan. Peter, that's how serious Tony takes this. You weren't there before. You don't know what he went through. Keeping you out of it is how he keeps you safe." She knew he was going to protest so she turned back around and pressed her hand against the earpiece. "Luc just pulled up."

"I can take care of myself." Peter muttered the response and watched the screen. A vehicle had just pulled up to Nat's position. "At least give me a headset."

Fury reached over and picked up a spare headset, handing it over his shoulder to Peter. "You are not running these ops. They're all in blackout mode so there's no two way communication. You are observing only."

Peter nodded and slipped the headset on, cycling through the channels to get a feel for everyone's position. He landed on his dad's channel last. He couldn't remember the last time he had heard his dad on an op without being at least in the vicinity of him.

"FRIDAY, scan for security measures."

Peter watched his dad and Davis clear a walkway overlooking a larger room. It looked like some kind of card game going on below but from the vantage point Peter had from the Iron Man view, it seemed like Davis and his dad were well hidden by the shadows. Peter thought his dad had retracted the suit while they were out in the open. Hot rod red didn't exactly scream covert and the stealth mode for the Iron Man suit still had enough kinks that Peter didn't think his dad would use it on an op yet.

Peter glanced over at the screens again when an explosion caught his eye. Rhodey and Sam apparently thought going in hot was the way to go. He left the audio on his dad but watched the screens as everything unfolded. The explosions caused by Rhodey and Sam were met with a significant amount of resistance. He caught sight of muzzle flashes on the ground and hoped at least some of them were coming from Bucky. He glanced through the other screens. So far there weren't as many fireworks going off get. Nat seemed to be talking to their target and the Hong Kong group were still waiting on something or someone. His eyes flicked back over to the screen showing the Iron Man HUD images that had switched to night vision. His dad and Davis had moved into a darkened room.

"Where does he keep it?"

"In an ornate silver box about six inches wide."

His attention was drawn back to the first screen when Maria tapped her headset and started typing on a keyboard. She pulled up satellite imagery of Afghanistan. Peter stared at the screen that had previously been lit up by explosions and gunfire. It had gone completely black.