"Well?"

"I found someone."

"The originator of the light?"

"No. But the one I spoke with knew where Thanos was going. And that is where the Titan was destroyed."

"And?"

"It's a human world."

There was a ferocious scowl.

"Like the world of the magicians?"

"Yes, my lord."

The moon-sized eyes narrowed, dangerously.

"Then he lied to me," Dormammu said, more to himself.

"Almost certainly."

"The magician moves about in this dimension. I can feel him."

"Shall I find him and punish him?"

"No. You go find me this light progenitor, and bring the being to me. I'll deal with the magician."

The demon hesitated, and with good reason. Something strong enough to wipe out Thanos' army was certainly worthy of a little hesitation.

"It isn't an easy place to get to."

"But you'll go there. Find out who it is. Decide what kind of threat there is and request – if need be – that this person comes to me."

"Yes, my lord."

The demon didn't ask for help. It knew how to get into the dimension that it needed to be in – it just needed to find the right moment, and the right portal. Then it could find where it needed to go. Demons were extremely good at finding information, after all.

OOOOOOOOO

It was Happy who ended up driving Peter to school for practice once he was done at the tower.

Pepper was in a conference, and Tony was at the compound finishing up with Wong. Both of them told Peter that they could stop what they were doing and take him, but Peter said he didn't mind taking the bus. Which was usually not a terrible option, but it was for that day, because he would be late for practice – or at least not early enough that he could make sure everyone was good to go for the party that evening. Happy had stepped up, saying that he didn't mind, and Peter had appreciated it.

"Your mom's picking you up?" he asked when he'd stopped the luxury car in front of the school.

Peter nodded.

"She said she was. Thanks for the ride."

"Anytime."

"Are you coming, tonight?"

There was an amused smirk.

"A party filled with teenagers? You're a good guy, Peter, but I'd rather cut off my arm and beat myself over the head with it than spend an evening – especially Halloween – with a bunch of high school kids. No offense."

Peter smiled, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Non taken. Drive safe."

He got out of the car and Happy drove off with a cheerful honk. Peter was in a pretty good mood when he walked into the school, and frowned, feeling the slightest of warning tingles as the door closed behind him. He stopped, already knowing that the best thing for him to do was figure out what those senses of his were trying to warn him. A moment later, he found the once deserted hallway suddenly blocked by a couple of others. Both seniors, they were easily a foot taller than Peter was, and one of them weighed twice what he did. The two were football players, and not smart enough that they were in any of Peter's classes, so while he knew who they were, they weren't acquaintances.

"Parker…"

"Hey, Brian. What's up?"

They weren't acquaintances, or friends, but Peter wasn't nervous around them like he may have been only a year ago. Both of the older boys were bullies, he knew that first-hand, but he hadn't run afoul of either of them.

"We were in the cafeteria, earlier, and overheard some of your nerd buddies talking about your Halloween party."

"What about it?"

Peter wasn't surprised. It was a very rare thing for the kids on the academic decathlon team to be the envy of the school, after all. He wasn't there during the day, just then, but he had heard from Ned and MJ both that the party at the compound was being discussed by all of the kids of the team, eagerly, and there had been some dark looks tossed their way by the kids who weren't invited.

"You must have overlooked our invitations."

"Uh oh."

Peter ignored Alec, knowing that the ancient sorcerer could 'read' whatever the two were thinking, but it wasn't that hard to see it on their faces, really. He felt just a surge of annoyance at the way the two stepped just a little closer, clearly wanting to loom over him in as threatening a fashion as they could. Enough annoyance that he didn't bother to be polite, really, when he answered that unspoken challenge.

"Oh. Yeah, I didn't overlook them," he replied. "You guys weren't invited. Nerds only."

"Wrong answer," the other boy – the heavier one – said. "Maybe you should try, again."

Now he was honestly annoyed. He was going to be late for practice, and would have to put up with MJ being annoyed with him – and would have to admit that the reason he was late was a couple of dumb jocks. Peter was a good-natured guy, but he wasn't in the mood to deal with that. Of course, he was also well aware that if this turned into any kind of physical confrontation he was so much quicker than either of them that things wouldn't turn out well.

Which just made him more annoyed.

"I'm not in charge of the guest list," he pointed out. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm late for practice."

"Olson's going," the first said, moving to block Peter before he could slip around them.

That was MJ's new guy.

"He's an exception."

"We want to be an exception, too, Parker."

Peter sighed, looking around for an adult, to maybe tell them to move on and let him go, but they'd planned things pretty carefully for a couple of idiots. There were a few stragglers in the hall – and now those stragglers had stopped to watch, from a safe distance.

"Are you going to let me by?"

"Are you going to get u invites to your avenger party?"

"No."

"Then it looks like we do this the hard way."

Even as he said it, one of them reached for Peter, and found his hand grasping at thin air when the smaller boy dodged, easily, slapping the hand aside as he did. There was a collective sound of admiration from the small crowd, which was getting a little larger.

"Last chance," he was warned, and now the two were coming toward him, one from each side.

"You're not going to let this drop?" he asked. "I mean… you guys know who I live with. You don't think they taught me a few things?"

It wasn't the best way to calm the situation down, and he didn't need Alec to tell him that.

"Screw you, Parker," the bigger one snarled, angrily. "Your new daddy isn't here to protect you."

And he took a swing.

"Peter!"

The blow never landed, even with the sudden appearance of Ned, who threw himself into the fray without another word, launching against the guy who had swung at Peter and using his weight to knock him down. Peter had ducked under the strike, and grabbed the first guy before he could jump Ned from behind. An angry roar and another attempted swing, but then the boy found himself pushed backward, landing in a furious heap a few feet away.

Wondering how things had managed to escalate so quickly, he leaned over to pull Ned off the other guy and got an elbow in his cheek as he did.

"Hey!" he complained, wrapping his arms, tightly, around his friend from behind. 'It's me."

"Shit." Ned looked over his shoulder, and Peter saw that he'd been hit at least once, because the area around his eye was beginning to swell. "Sorry."

"Watch out."

Both bullies were getting to their feet, and they were angry. Peter had pretty much decided that he'd finish the skirmish as quickly as he could, without doing any more harm than necessary to do it. He went into one of the stances that Natasha had taught him, and waited, now more focused, and ready.

"What's going on?" a sudden voice asked.

The voice of authority. All four young men turned and saw Mr. Harriman walking over, with MJ right beside him.

"Nothing," one of the boys said. "We were talking to Parker about his party, tonight."

"Aren't you two supposed to be at practice?" the teacher asked the two older boys, pointedly.

They were both on the football team.

"Yeah."

"Get there, then."

The two scowled, but they left, walking out the front door and allowing it to close with a bang that echoed through the hall.

"Are you two alright?" Harriman asked.

"Yeah." Ned shrugged. "Those guys jumped Peter."

"Why?" MJ asked, looking both of them over, carefully.

"They wanted me to invite them to the party, tonight."

"As if," Ned said, rolling his eyes. "You should have laid them out, Peter."

"Yeah," one of the onlookers agreed, looking excited. "You should have kicked their-"

"Shows over," Harriman interrupted, shooing the kids away. "Get to wherever you're supposed to be."

There was some grumbling, but they did as they were told with a lot of excited talk and replays of the minor scuffle, which Peter was sure would grow bigger and bigger with each retelling.

"Almost certainly," Alec agreed. "Well done, though, to keep yourself in check."

Being in his head like he was, Alec knew better than anyone – maybe even Peter – just how much the confrontation rankled the young man, and how much he'd wanted to make it end, quickly – and without him getting an elbow in the face for his troubles.

"Are you alright?" MJ asked Peter, frowning.

"What? Oh. Yeah. I mean, it was Ned who elbowed me."

"Those guys couldn't have touched you," his friend told him as they started walking toward the class where they held practice. "You're like a ninja, and they're so slow. I could have taken them both down with a single-"

"Fighting id against the rules, boys," Harriman reminded them. "I don't want to see it happen, again, or there will be conversations with your parents. Understand?"

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"Good."

Peter shook his head, and hoped that this wasn't a sign of worse to come that night.