Heya! Feeling much better this week – thank you for all the warm comments and encouraging notes. I appreciate you all.

So, we're into part 2 now. This is where the events of the MCU start to seep into our previously-quiet story – slowly at first, but much more ardently as we get going. And, as warned before, I'm making changes. Sometimes huge ones. The butterfly effect is in full swing here. Which is part of the reason I kept writing after I'd satisfied my original Karate Kid kick – there are just some things in the MCU canon I needed to fix for my own peace of mind.

One shows up in this chapter. I really sympathize with Steve, I do. But all or nothing is rarely if ever the right way to approach information, especially when it's sensitive. (See me after class if you want to hear me rant about SHIELD through the lens of my degree in international relations and poli-sci with a concentration in and a thesis on espionage. I have THOUGHTS.)

Anyway. Here's your periodic reminder that this story is for entertainment, and so are the comments. Everybody play nice in my comments, okay? Don't make me send my beta in to troll you all some more.

The song for tonight is "Stronger" by The Score.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Like A Missile

Peter woke under an unfamiliar pile of blankets. He blinked, the events of the night before slowly coming back to him.

I'm in Avengers Tower. In Tony Stark's penthouse guest room. Because Mister Carbonell is Mister Stark!

He yawned and looked around for a clock.

"Good morning, Mister Parker," came JARVIS's voice from above. "It is currently ten forty-five in the morning. Your watch and phone are in Sir's workshop. I believe he intends to upgrade both."

"Oh. Um, good morning, JARVIS." Peter stretched. "Where's Aunt May?" The spare room had an absolutely huge bed approximately the size of a car, so even though they had shared it for the night, he hadn't bumped into her at all that he remembered.

"Missus Parker is with Miss Potts in the living room."

Peter sat up. "Guess I better figure out where my clothes went." He smiled — he had borrowed a big t-shirt and pair of boxers from Mister Stark for the night, and having them was oddly comforting.

"Missus Parker and Miss Potts acquired a few things that belonged to Sir for your use. You will find them on the chair to your left. Toiletries are available in the bathroom as well. Is there anything else you require, Mister Parker?"

"No." Then. "Um, can you see what I'm doing in the bathroom?"

"I have audio function in case of emergency, but no visual."

"O-okay. Don't listen, please."

"Unless you ask for me or prove to be in physical distress, I will not acknowledge or register any other activity."

Peter wasn't entirely convinced, but he figured he could trust JARVIS because Mister Stark had programmed him, and that meant a lot. Still, Peter scooped up the clothing on the chair and brought it with him into the bathroom so he could do all his morning things and change in relative privacy. The pants were big on him, but they were comfortable, stretchy pants so he just rolled them up at the cuffs. The socks were thick and plushy, and Peter immediately loved them.

Ready to face the day, Peter emerged from the bathroom and, feeling guilty about the vaulted ceilings, designer furniture, and his weird status as a guest, he made his bed and folded up what he'd slept in to leave it neatly on the dresser. The room was bigger than half the apartment in Queens, and as much as Peter felt okay being here — it was Mister Stark's, but Mister Stark was Mister Carbonell and Peter'd always been welcome with him — he still remembered all the rules Aunt May and Uncle Ben had drilled into him about being considerate when in someone's home.

Peter made his way into the hall and very nearly bumped directly into Mister Stark on the way.

"Hey, Pete." Mister Stark smiled. He had trimmed his beard slightly, not into his signature look, but enough to be noticable, and he seemed less stressed than the night before. "Did you sleep okay?"

"I slept great, Mister Car-Stark." He wrinkled his nose at the slip. "Did you sleep? Miss Pepper said last night that you hadn't slept the night before at all."

"Actually, yeah." He ruffled Peter's hair. "Funny how having everybody in one place made it possible for me to drop off for a few hours."

Peter had a feeling there were a bunch of things in there Mister Stark hadn't said. He knew he and Aunt May and Miss Pepper had gone to bed before Mister Stark or Mister Hogan, but he had also overheard a promise from Mister Stark not to stay up all night. Peter was glad he hadn't. He knew perfectly well that Mister Stark often didn't sleep regular hours in Queens, and eventually it made him sharp and riled up. Never mean, never scary, but just...not himself. Peter liked him better when he was himself.

But he still had questions, so Peter peered at him. "You trimmed your beard. Not a lot, but...did you do that in case you have to wear the armor again? Because before, it looked like a lot of hair to cram in your helmet."

Mister Stark blinked at him, then laughed. "Kid, sometimes I forget how quick you are, and then you do that. Right on all counts." He tugged at the beard. "It's surprisingly uncomfortable to jam all this stuff into the neck of the suit."

That made Peter smile. "But you didn't cut it all off. So you think you might not want to. So...you might come back to Queens sometimes?"

"Right now, I'm not looking farther ahead than the next couple of hours," Mister Stark said. "But when this is over? We'll talk. Now, you hungry?"

"Very."

"Let's get some grub and see if we have any new info, then." And he steered Peter back to the kitchen.

"Tony," Miss Pepper called from the living room as they went by, "we have another update from Nat."

"Still safe?" Mister Stark wanted to know.

Miss Pepper followed them into the kitchen.

"Seems like it. She emailed from the same house as before, so he hasn't blown their cover yet. They're going to go get some intel from someone inside SHIELD they're pretty sure is Hydra. As soon as they know what's happening, they'll reach out again."

"Hi sweetie." Aunt May appeared from behind Miss Pepper and gave Peter a hug. "I'm glad you slept in. You needed it."

That reminded him that it was, in fact, Monday. "I guess you're not going to work until this is over? And I'm not going to school?"

Aunt May shook her head. "For now, it's too dangerous. Hopefully this will all clear up soon."

And Aunt May traded a look with Miss Pepper and Mister Stark that Peter couldn't read, but he could guess. There were a few things he was sure they had left out when they were telling him what was happening, but those things probably meant that the bad stuff was bigger than they wanted him to know.

Well, Peter could wait. He was curious, of course, but Aunt May wasn't likely to fill him in if he asked. Mister Stark, however, might — as long as they were on their own.

"Happy took a team to the apartment," Miss Pepper was saying. "They'll pack up some clothes and other stuff for you two. If there's anything you wanted, Peter, just let me know and I'll text him."

Peter shrugged. He didn't care what clothes they brought him, really. And there were lots of things he cared about, but nothing he needed to get by for a while. Anything really important, like pictures of Uncle Ben or other family stuff, he figured either Aunt May would have asked for or wasn't worried about.

"What do we do in the meantime?" he asked.

The adults traded looks again, and Peter was probably going to get tired of that. But it was Mister Stark who smiled at him.

"How would you like to come hang out in my lab after breakfast?"

And that made up for everything else — by a lot.

Peter had seen a few pictures from the inside of Tony Stark's labs; sometimes he posed with things for photoshoots, after all. But walking into the most famous workshop in the world with Iron Man himself was something else. Peter didn't know where to look first — at the row of in-progress Iron Man suits, the worktables, the fabrication units…

Until a bot rolled right up to him.

"Dum-E, be nice," Mister Stark said at once. "This is Peter. Mess with him and I'm sending you to work as a barista downstairs."

Peter had seen pictures of Dum-E, too, but the bot in real life was different. "Oh wow. Hi, Dum-E. It's nice to meet you! Do you shake hands?"

The bot's claw extended to Peter, clacking open and closed. Peter gripped one of the prongs and gave it a quick shake.

Suddenly there were two more sounds of wheels rolling and a pair of other bots appeared.

"These are You and Butterfingers," Mister Stark said. "Dum-E is the oldest, and the dumbest. You tends to stare at walls. Butterfingers has problems with the reliable completion of tasks." But he was smiling as he said it. "They've been really clingy lately since I haven't been around as much."

"I guess that's because you were in Queens," Peter said. He greeted You and Butterfingers, too. "I'm sure you guys were lonely." He looked at how Dum-E was watching him. "They're smart, right? Smarter than Crawl-E?"

"Much smarter than Crawl-E, but several orders of magnitude below JARVIS," Mister Stark confirmed. "He tries to run herd on them. It works sometimes."

"Sometimes is an accurate assessment," JARIVS said. "And less so lately."

"All right, kids." Mister Stark clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "We have actual work to do, so everybody put on your thinking caps. No, Dum-E, that was not literal, but I will get out the dunce hat if you deserve it, don't think I won't."

Peter laughed.

"J, how are we doing on getting deeper into SHIELD-slash-Hydra files? Tell me they're not keeping you out."

"I have made some progress, but have yet to penetrate the 'Project Insight' mentioned by Captain Rogers."

"And the harder it is for you to access, the more likely that's going to be a problem." Mister Stark nodded. "Okay. I'll come give you a hand. Pete, hacking isn't really your thing, but…"

"I can just watch," Peter said quickly. He would rather be here in the lab than anywhere else in the world. Who wouldn't?

Mister Stark's smile told Peter that he understood. "Okay. If you get bored, JARVIS might be able to set you up with some little stuff. He's integrated into the workshop back in Queens, so he knows exactly what you've learned and how good you are."

"Indeed. In fact, Mister Parker has as steady a hand as yourself and a far greater likelihood to take appropriate safety measures," JARVIS said, "so I may request his aid in building a few components to save you the trouble, sir."

"And if you get really bored," Mister Stark said, grinning fully at Peter and Peter knew he probably looked like an eager puppy but he could not help it, "you can play catch with the bots. They're really bad at it."

But at first, Peter just wanted to look around. "Is it okay if I just…?" he waved.

Mister Stark nodded. "J will keep you out of anything dangerous. Otherwise, yeah, the floor is yours, kid."

And Peter could tell that Mister Stark was a little uncomfortable, nervous even. Probably because he had lied to Peter about who he was and he was still scared Peter would be mad. But how could Peter be upset? Mister Stark had saved him. Had taught him. Had helped him. Had...become a part of his family.

(Even if that word scared him. And it really did.)

Honestly, if Peter had known he was Mister Stark and not Mister Carbonell, would Peter have been as comfortable with him? Would Peter have dared ask for help building and programming Crawl-E? Would Peter have asked him to read to him when he was sick?

Probably not. Because Mister Stark was Iron Man, and he was far beyond the needs and wants of a kid from Queens. But Mister Carbonell had been there, and Peter was glad.

So he made sure to smile at Mister Stark and put his feelings into it. "Thank you. I promise to be careful."

"You're never anything else. Okay, away with you. JARVIS, pull up what you've got." And he strode to one of the worktables. Holographic worktables.

Peter almost gave up on exploring the lab right then and there to stare at the holographic interface instead. But then Dum-E nudged him and wanted him to come look at...was that a blender? And that led him to some of the suits on the wall. And the half-completed bits lying out in front of them. And the arc reactors sitting in a case to one side.

Peter had no idea how long he wandered the lab before JARVIS spoke aloud.

"Sir, there appears to be a battle occurring in Washington DC which involves both Captain Rogers and Miss Romanoff."

Mister Stark looked up at once. "Put it on the screen and let the others know."

Peter stepped up close so he could clearly see the masked man attempting to kill Captain America and a person he recognized belatedly as Miss Rushman from the science exhibit.

Mister Stark seemed to suddenly remember he was there. "Uh, kid…"

"No." Peter lifted his chin. "I'm not going to let you tell me I can't see this. They came after me and Aunt May. They want to hurt you. I'm part of this now."

Mister Stark sighed. "I'm going to regret this when May bites my head off."

"I'll protect you," Peter promised with half a smile.

"My hero." Mister Stark gripped his shoulder and they stood together, watching as JARVIS strung together footage from various traffic cameras, security cameras, shaky social media footage and one very brave reporter on scene.

"Who is that guy?" Mister Stark asked.

JARVIS answered, "The man fighting alongside Captain Rogers is Master Sergeant Samuel Wilson, a former pararescue and arial pilot, and the owner of the home from which Miss Romanoff sent her two emails. The man attacking them has not yet given sufficient opportunity for facial recognition."

A few minutes later, the mask came down, and Peter saw it as clearly as Mister Stark. As clearly as Captain America in the street.

"That's...that's his friend, isn't it?" Peter asked, shaken.

"Facial recognition affirms the individual to be Sergeant James 'Bucky' Buchanan Barnes, formerly of Captain Rogers' unit and assumed killed in action." JARVIS paused. "There is no record of him in the modern era."

"I'm thinking that when Hydra went underground in the forties, they took Steve's buddy with them," Mister Stark said, more to himself than Peter. "How he's not ninety years old, I've got no idea. But he's fighting toe-to-toe with Cap, and that means they did stuff to him."

"It looks like Captain America is trying to get through to him," Peter whispered. "But he doesn't remember? Can that really happen?"

"Aw, kid." Mister Stark pulled Peter tight to his side. "A lot of bad things can happen when people are evil. These guys...they're the original villains. Destroy-the-world kind of villains. I'm sure they have ways of twisting good people around until they don't know who they are or what's right anymore."

Peter swallowed and leaned close to Mister Stark. "Can't we help them?"

"No." He shook his head. "They came after you to get to me. They want me to stay out of it, but they might also want my tech. Right now, what's in the Tower might be the difference between them having what they need to take over the world or not. I've got to stay here to protect it."

"But there might still be something we can do," Peter said.

"As soon as Cap or Romanoff give me the high sign about what these guys are planning, I will do anything in my power," Mister Stark vowed. "Or when we crack this Project Insight thing."

"Sir," JARVIS said, "I have noticed some odd movement from SHIELD. It seems that the members of the World Security Council are en route to the Triskelion. Their arrival is timed for late this afternoon."

"Whatever they're planning is happening soon, then." Mister Stark's jaw went tight. "Come on, Rogers. I know Barnes is your buddy, but there are bigger things at stake here. Kick his ass, then make friends, will you?"

But a few minutes later, they watched the three get arrested. "JARVIS?"

"You are correct, sir. Those agents are from SHIELD."

"Which means Hydra." Mister Stark swore. "I got to bust them out. Get a suit ready."

"Mister Stark?" Peter was seized with fear. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I'm sure." He turned and put both hands on Peter's shoulders. "But, right now, I need to get them out before Hydra does something to them. I can be there in minutes if I leave right now."

"Sir," JARVIS said, "I have a communication incoming. It is the same frequency that Agent Coulson once used to override my functions."

"Peter, get behind Dum-E," Mister Stark said at once. "JARVIS, try to keep visuals off, but if they override you, keep the kid out of view by any means necessary."

Peter, his heart thumping in his throat, raced for Dum-E and crouched down behind him. If someone could override JARVIS, did that mean they were still in danger here?

"Understood, sir." There was a pause.

Then a new voice spoke. "Before you go charging anywhere, how about you give a dead man a minute?"

Peter had his head down, so he couldn't see the face Mister Stark was making, but he could hear the tension in his voice.

"Prove to me right now that you're who you say you are."

"You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mister Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet."

"So, you're not dead." Mister Stark let out a breath of relief. "Honestly, not all that surprised, Nick."

"No, I don't suppose you are. But we'll all be dead by sunset — you, me, that kid you think you're hiding from me, everyone — if we don't step up right now."

Peter shivered and he heard Mister Stark start moving.

"I'll prep a suit. I can be there in — "

"Hold up. I don't need Iron Man right now. I need Tony Stark. I need you to pull a miracle out of your butt again the way you always do. And I need you as a failsafe. Because if we can't save the world from here, then you're going to have to do it for us."

Mister Stark was pacing slightly, no longer striding towards a suit. "Been playing the ace in the hole thing for two days and it hasn't really gotten us anywhere."

"No. Because Hydra thinks you're scared enough that you'll stay in your Tower and let them take over the world from DC. What they have failed to consider is two things."

"That I've got more tricks in my Tower than they know what to deal with?"

"Yes, that's where you're strongest right now, especially against what they're planning. But also, you have everything worth protecting right there beside you. And I know you, Stark. You'll do your best work with that kid looking at you like his personal hero. And I need that hero. Because if we screw this up, there's no future for us or him or anyone like him ever again."

-==OOO==-

In Tony's defense, he didn't mean to forget about Peter still being in the lab.

Once Fury confirmed that Maria Hill was retrieving Steve, Romanoff, and the new guy, and that they would pool their information when everyone was together, Tony spent the next several minutes re-encrypting the call with Fury until even JARVIS couldn't hack it in a thousand lifetimes; then he doubled the encryption so they could add video to the call.

Then Tony wasted about ten minutes mocking Fury for faking his death when he still looked like death warmed over, which Fury did not appreciate — which was why he was doing it.

It was a little less fun when Cap's team showed up and Romanoff had been shot, but Tony still managed to get Steve to make a tired wave in his direction.

"Didn't expect to see you," Steve said.

"Yeah, well, I had good reason to get nosy."

That was enough for Steve's face to morph into horror. "SHIELD knew about the Parkers. Did they…?"

"They're fine. We got to them in time and they're here in the Tower." He leaned forward. "Which is why I would like to know how exactly Hydra is back after being dead for more than a few generations."

While Romanoff got her bullet wound looked at, Steve introduced Sam Wilson and proceeded to explain about the bunker in New Jersey, Arnim Zola, and Hydra's embedded presence within SHIELD. Tony had only a little information to add from what JARVIS had uncovered, but knowing that Hydra went back to the very beginning put a lot of the problems he was having in a new context. He wasn't trying to break through internal SHIELD security after all; he was trying to break through Hydra security in hiding within SHIELD.

"Don't sweat it, J," he said while the folks in Maryland checked on Romanoff. "You couldn't have known that some creepy forties doctor stuck his brain in a giant tape deck."

"It certainly would not have entered my thinking, sir."

When Fury's contingent finally gathered together, they laid out the details.

Tony felt like throwing up.

"Let me...just so we're clear." He was pacing again. "Hydra took my tech to build three flying superweapons and loaded them with an algorithm that you authorized, Nick, which targets people based not on actual, legally-sanctioned determinations of guilt, but people's social media kitten-favoriting behavior, and kills them from thousands of miles away. And if they launch those things and they hit three thousand feet, every single good person with an internet connection is going to die. Did I get that right?"

"Pretty much," Steve said.

Tony swore. "Okay. What's the play, Cap?"

"We have to bring them down."

Tony gave him a look and turned to Maria Hill. "As someone actually technically inclined, do you have a better plan than 'sink their battleships?' Tell me you do."

"The helicarriers each have a local server blade drive that coordinates the satellite input with the firing mechanisms. If we can swap those out, we can change the targets to a predetermined manual setting."

"Still not signing on for extrajudicial murder here," Tony said.

"I was thinking more along the lines of having them shoot each other out of the sky," Hill said.

"Okay, that I can work with." Tony ran a hand through his hair. "Not sure I can hack the satellites from here, but I can try. Or...wait. JARVIS, if we put a pile of extra thrusters on the Mark 48, can it achieve orbit?"

"The thrust required should be readily possible if the suit is empty. With you inside it, the chances of a successful launch and reentry are minimal."

"Yeah, no, I'm not adding astronaut to my resume today. But theoretically we could launch a suit and take out at least one of those Insight satellites, right? That might also disrupt the network enough to buy us some time."

"I will begin the calculations to identify the most vulnerable and necessary node in the satellite network. It is possible I may be able to interface with it via a suit. If not, explosions are always terrible for technology."

"Thanks, J." Tony looked back at the group — he was very much being stared at. "What? This is why you called me, Nick. Failsafe. You guys go fight the flying pirate ships in person and I'll fight them with ones and zeroes. If you can't bring them down in time, either I'll knock the satellites out or take them over."

Nick Fury was smirking. "That's exactly why I called you."

Tony shook his head. "Well, you're not an idiot. Now, if you'd tried to deal with this kind of threat without me? Then you'd be an idiot, and we'd be having words."

"Deserved." Fury returned his attention to the people around him. "As for the fight on the ground, we have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left…"

Steve interrupted him. "We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD."

Fury frowned. "SHIELD had nothing to do with it."

Tony could see how angry Steve had become. "You gave me this mission — this is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised, you said so yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed."

"And got shot for it," Tony felt the need to point out.

Steve ignored him entirely, focused on Nick. "And how many paid the price before you did?"

Tony saw Nick Fury, the original spy badass, flinch slightly. That was like anybody else throwing themselves on the ground to beg forgiveness. "Look, I didn't know about Barnes."

But it was not enough to mollify a very furious Captain America. "Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that too? SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes."

"Yeah…" Tony spoke up. "Rogers, I think you've got a good point, but you're into throwing the baby out with the bathwater territory here."

"Look, Stark."

"No." Tony met Steve's eyes and held them. "Listen. You're ticked. I get it. I'm ticked, too. And uncovering every slimy, dirty, awful thing Hydra has ever done to the world is actually a good thing. Countries need to know who was behind influencing their elections or assassinating their leaders. Drag them into the light and put it on the internet for all I care. But you can't do the same thing to all of SHIELD."

"Why not?" Maria Hill was watching Tony carefully.

And Tony realized this was a test. For whom, he had no idea. But here he was, and having stuck his neck out, he'd have to stick it out a little more.

"What are you thinking, Rogers? Steal all of SHIELD-slash-Hydra's secrets and make them public?"

Steve nodded. "Something like that. No more hiding behind a badge."

"Okay. Then what about all the tech that SHIELD has, everything it acquired from Hydra back in the day? Inventions from Howard Stark, or Hank Pym, or me? You want to teach any ten-year-old with a computer how to replicate that stuff?"

Steve was surprised. Tony saw it as a tactical advantage, and he charged into it.

"And what about the people? People like Romanoff and Barton? We're still assuming Barton isn't Hydra, right?" he suddenly felt the need to ask.

Natasha shook her head. "He's SHIELD. I would bet my life on it."

"Good enough for me." Tony nodded. "Look, there are stars on the wall at the headquarters of the CIA for agents who have died in the line of duty. And more than half of those have no names on them. Even fifty or sixty years later, it is literally too dangerous to let our enemies-turned-allies-when-they-feel-like-it know the names of people who spied for us, or ran ops for us. How many spies' families would be caught in the crossfire, Cap? Spouses, kids, grandkids? That some fanatic, or worse, some government agent, would come kill in retaliation for a job SHIELD did in the fifties?"

Steve's face had lost that implaccable line and Tony could tell he was thinking.

"Hydra deserves to be dragged into the sunshine and burned like a cheesy vampire. But if you salt the earth and drag SHIELD with it, not only are you going to single-handedly expose thousands of people and their civilian families to danger, but you will be guilty of the most successful act of terror in the history of this country."

Wilson rocked back. "Terrorism?"

Tony stared at the man. "What do you think happens when all our secrets, even the ones worth keeping, are searchable on Google? Like, it's one thing to point out when the DOJ are unethical or the DOD is running human experiments. It's something else to share the nuclear codes or out our intelligence assets in foreign countries. And if you don't think SHIELD has literally all of that data, you haven't been paying attention."

Natasha nodded. "We've executed traitors for selling a handful of state secrets. I've executed more spies than I can count. Tony's right, Steve. We have to do this strategically. There's a difference between whistleblowing and actually endangering national or international security without making any distinctions between good and evil."

"And I would like to think that at least some of what SHIELD has been doing since you went into the ice is good," Fury said finally. "Can we compromise? We'll download the entire dirty history, but only drop what needs to go public."

"I can get you set up with a connection to JARVIS," Tony said. "Once he gets his hooks into the system, he'll have it all. And he can help us sort it out and protect what we need to keep quiet."

"Fine." Steve's shoulders fell. "But I want...I want to see what we're hiding. All of it. And if there are things in there that I don't agree with…"

"Then we'll get you a blog and you can post it yourself," Maria Hill said. "You do know what blogs are, right?"

"Yes, I know what blogs are." But finally Steve was looking like he might be settling back into himself.

"So." Fury straightened his shoulders and looked like he was almost relieved to settle back into being in charge; Tony wondered what might have happened if Cap got his way with the whole indiscriminate-release-of-classified-info plan. It would not have been pretty. "We've got less than four hours before the World Security Council arrives at the Triskelion, which is when this thing goes live. Stark, you know what you're doing?"

"When do I not?" He said it, then realized he'd opened himself to commentary, and quickly added, "Yeah, yeah. You all go punch helicarriers and crack server security and I'll do the real work of preventing a worldwide genocide."

"You make it sound so glamorous," Natasha said, quirking a tiny smile.

"JARVIS has a connection to you now, so coordinate with him for whatever you need. He'll keep me in the loop. But if we're done doing the roundtable, I have actual building to accomplish if you want me to get a suit into space in under four hours. Call if you need something or if you get any more stupid ideas. End call."

"Sir," JARVIS said. "I believe I should inform you that Mister Parker — "

And that was when Tony realized he'd forgotten that he was not, in fact, alone as usual. That the kid was here in the lab.

"Peter!" He interrupted JARVIS and strode over to where all three bots were not at all subtly gathered together to provide a child-sized hiding spot. "Peter, are you…?"

Dum-E actually wheeled in front of Tony while You and Butterfingers closed ranks even farther.

"If you three do not get the hell out of my way and let me get to my kid, you are going out the nearest window and that is a promise!"

Butterfingers bolted to the other side of the lab, You followed upon noticing that Butterfingers had abandoned him, and Dum-E rolled back and forth in distress.

"It's okay," came Peter's voice. "You don't have to protect me from Mister Stark, Dum-E. But thank you."

Finally Dum-E got lost and Tony could see Peter sitting on the floor with his arms around his knees. But he wasn't crying, even if his eyes were a little wide.

"Kiddo." Tony leaned on the nearest table. "I really didn't mean for you to hear all that."

"I know." And Peter actually managed a smile. "But I wanted to hear it, so I'm pretty glad you forgot about me. And I won't tell May if you don't."

"Yeah, no, we're not doing that. I am trying so hard not to find out what it feels like when she breaks my nose for being a bad influence on you." He sighed. "Are you okay, Underoos?"

"I guess." Peter shrugged. "It's scary, what they're talking about. Hydra and wanting to kill all those people. Can they...I mean, can they really?"

Tony knew he should probably lie, and at the same time knew he couldn't. He'd been lying to Peter for months and he was not in a hurry to do it again. Besides, the kid was being brave, and that should be honored.

"If they succeed? It's possible. But they won't."

Peter nodded. "Because you and Captain America will stop them."

And there was that Peter Parker trust shining in his eyes again. Tony swallowed reflexively against the feelings it pushed up into his throat.

"That's the plan," Tony said.

But Peter stood up and faced him. "Are you scared, Mister Stark?"

"Me?" Yes. I am so scared. Because if Steve screws up, and if I do, then more people are going to die in five minutes than I ever killed with my weapons before now. Because your name is probably on Hydra's hit list. Because I don't know if we can pull this off. But I know what happens if we fail. "It's not going to be easy," he finally said.

"Then tell me how to help," Peter said. "Even if I just bring you a snack and keep Dum-E from getting in the way. It's...even if I can't do anything else, I can do that much. And this seems like one of those things where every little bit helps."

Tony let out a breath. Fury had said he needed Tony, the Tony who would do the impossible to protect people like Peter and Pepper and May. And with the kid standing there, looking so determined and unafraid, Tony understood what he was talking about. Fury was no slouch at motivation, after all. And this was all the motivation Tony could ever need.

Hydra came after my kid. And they're going to keep coming unless we take them apart. It starts with a satellite and ends with all their dirty laundry in the public eye.

I've ruined people for less. For threatening Peter and May and Pepper, for shooting Fury and Romanoff, I'm going to put them down until there isn't even one left on the face of the planet.

"Okay, mini me." Tony put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Come on. Let's go save the world."