Tony blinked his eyes. He got the distinct feeling he wasn't in Australia. He focused on his surroundings. He was used to seeing the room he was in from a completely different angle. He pulled his hand up to brush the fog from his face and realized he was hooked up to an IV.
"It's about time you woke up."
Tony twisted his head and groaned when he saw MJ. "Crap."
"It's nice to see you too Tony...". MJ smirked, she knew Peter was always cranky when he woke up after getting hurt. Maybe it was genetic.
"That's not what I meant. I'm remembering how I ended up here and if you're here that means Peter knows." Tony glanced around the room. He was somewhat hurt that his oldest child wasn't waiting for him to wake up. "Where is Peter?"
"Last time ILYA checked, he was going about 78 miles per hour on I87. I think he's headed into the city and if I had to guess, he plans on meeting up with Miles to work out some frustration on the Maggia." MJ studied the look on Tony's face. Regret was evident in his expression. It wasn't something she saw often from him.
"He's upset that I didn't tell him about the Ten Rings?"
"Upset isn't the word for it. There's a hole in the wall outside MedBay." She watched Tony process what she had said. Peter almost never got angry. It just wasn't in his nature. MJ had seen it a couple times over the years but this was the only time she had seen him like this and she had the definite impression he had already burned though most of the anger by the time she saw him. It was fear that had sent him running. "But, he left because he's terrified."
Tony scrubbed a hand over his face. "This is not that big of a deal."
MJ shook her head. "To him it is." She turned her head towards the door as it pushed open, fully expecting to see Pepper. Instead, she saw Nick Fury step into the room. Feeling stubborn, she stayed planted in her seat.
Fury glanced at the occupants of the room, somewhat expecting MJ to leave. When she didn't, he forged on. MJ had a clearance almost as high as Peter's. Between her position with SI and the fact that he knew Peter told her almost everything, granting her clearance had been the obvious solution. It let him pretend to have some semblance of control over the Avengers - new and old. "Three out of four." He waited until Tony reached out his hand and dropped two of the rings into it. "Rogers will be back in a little while with the third one."
Tony looked at the two rings in his hand. "Any injuries?"
"Sam, but he'll be fine. A couple of Strange's sorcerers got hit with some lightening but I think they'll live." Fury shrugged. "They're still tracking the leader of the Triad. They think he's left Hong Kong."
Tony nodded, hearing the words coming out of Fury's mouth, but was completely focused on the rings. He felt like he was missing something but he couldn't quite put a finger on it.
"MJ, Peter has the Iron Spider deployed and is currently in Brooklyn with Mr. Morales."
MJ shrugged and looked over at Tony and Fury. "I asked ILYA to give me an update every 15 minutes."
Tony frowned as the elusive memory rose to the surface. "FRIDAY, pull up the stills Peter isolated for the police." Stills appeared on the holoscreen mounted on the wall.
MJ looked over at Tony. She was used to the mental gymnastics it took to keep up. Peter did it all the time. "What?"
Tony shook his head as he looked at the pictures. "FRIDAY, blow up the shot of 'The Big Guy', focus on his hand." It was frustrating not being able to manipulate the images himself. The image enlarged showing a man's wrist and hand.
Fury walked over to the image. "Is that what I think it is?"
"FRIDAY, patch me through to Peter." Tony pushed himself into a seated position, ignoring the wave of dizziness that hit him.
"Karen is not responding to my requests. She seems to have isolated herself from my system."
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Miles looked over at Peter who was crouched next to him on the roof. "Are you sure you're ok?"
"I'm fine Miles. Focus on the bad guy."
Miles fought back a nervous laugh. Peter was far from fine. He knew it, but he sure as hell wasn't going to push him. "I still don't know if it's him. I just saw a picture of this guy in a magazine my mom gets and it talked about him going to the grand opening of this gallery. And it just kind of looked like our mysterious guy."
"So let's go find out if it's him." Peter stood up and flung a web that would take him to the building directly across from where they were currently watching. The event was starting to wind down. A few people were milling about outside, a few others were getting into Ubers. He landed in the side of the building and shifted so he could see into the windows.
Miles landed a little above Peter. "The woman in the green dress was with him in the picture in the magazine."
Peter searched through all of the remaining people he could see through the window. He was starting to think they were on a wild goose chase when he saw a larger man walking into his line of sight. He was aware that Miles had crawled down next to him on the building. The man fully came into view as he leaned over and kissed the woman in the green dress on the cheek. "Miles, I think that's him."
Miles let out the breath he had been holding. "Now what? There's way too many people around to try to engage with him here."
"Looks like he's leaving. Let's see where he's going." Peter triggered the stealth mode and disappeared. "You go high. I'll stay low and close."
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Tony pulled the IV out of his hand and looked over at MJ. "See if ILYA can patch us through to Peter."
"Karen has isolated all communication except for Mr. Morales."
Fury watched Tony swing his legs off the side of the bed, then turned to look at the door as it opened.
"What are you doing?" Pepper pushed through the door. If she were honest she wasn't surprised that Tony was already trying to get out of bed.
"Ok...it's getting a little crowded in here." Fury looked at MJ. "Let me know if you get through to him. I'll track down the rest of them and check on Rogers' ETA." He walked past Pepper leaving her space to corral Tony.
"Peter is walking into something unprepared." Tony held onto the side of the bed as he forced his feet to the floor. He knew the nanite compartment had been removed which meant he didn't have a suit.
Pepper pushed him back down onto the bed. "I get that it's Peter but for once in your life believe that other people can help too." She looked over at MJ. "Where is he?"
"In town with Miles." MJ slid her phone out and tried calling him the old fashion way, frowning when all she got was his voice mail.
"Is he in immediate danger?" Peter had succeeded in getting Tony back on the bed and looked expectantly at MJ.
"No. He's moving through Brooklyn." MJ looked at the map displayed on the face of her watch.
"Pep, he's going after someone he doesn't know is connected to the Ten Rings."
Pepper looked at Tony. "It's a good thing he's got four friends currently entertaining Morgan who will be more than happy to assist." She glanced over at MJ. "Can you grab Johnny or Bobby so Tony can explain what's going
