In the time it took Pepper to go back upstairs and get on the elevator, he already had a plan. He told Jarvis what to do and then kicked back to watch.
He hadn't told Pepper everything, of course. He didn't need to. He just told her the essentials. He needed her to do him a favor, and that he didn't think Peter was being entirely truthful with them, and he needed her help to figure out what was going on. He'd told her just to go to him in the gym and wait for his signal, and she'd know what to do.
Pepper wasn't stupid; she knew there was way more to it than what he was telling her, and the way she narrowed her eyes at him told him everything he needed to know about how much she actually trusted his motives. But she was loyal to a fault, and regardless of how she acted, she did trust him, just not necessarily to tell her the full truth, which was only reasonable after so many years of working together. So she turned on her heel and left after warning him that whatever he was planning had better be worth it.
He was sure it was. He was also sure that she likely wouldn't know what to do when he set his plan into motion, but that's what he was banking on. He didn't need to see how she reacted. He needed to see how Peter did.
Peter, of course, was still in the gym and had no idea what was going to happen or what Tony had planned.
He'd been working at the punching bag for about an hour, after mentally eliminating most everything else in the gym. It was decked out with just about everything he could have dreamed of, but he was half-afraid to use any of it, lest he do something that he couldn't explain away. The treadmills, weights, most of the machines, even a mini obstacle course and one whole wall that was a rock wall - he couldn't do any of those, at least not in any way that would have an impact on him, not without giving himself away. He could toss around most of the weights in here like they were toys, and he wasn't sure he could keep himself from scaling the rock wall too fast, or running so long and fast on the treadmill his super stamina wouldn't be obvious. He liked to run almost as much as he liked to swing around in the air, and he could get lost in it if he let himself.
He was, however, used to controlling his strength, and so the punching bag seemed like the logical option. It was something he couldn't really damage, unless he accidentally hit it hard enough to send it through the wall or put his hand through it or something. But he'd gotten pretty good at controlling the strength behind his hands, so he wasn't too worried about it.
And so he'd spent the last he wasn't even sure how many hours here, going at the punching bag with all he could. It was hard to be able to let off steam as much as normal when he couldn't even go with it with all he had, but eventually he did start to feel the wear of it, if only because holding back his strength was almost as exhausting as going at it with his full power.
His stomach growled at him suddenly, almost harshly, and he brought his hand up to steady the punching bag before stepping back. Apparently, it was time to take a break. He needed to eat something again, at least something small, before his metabolism caused his stomach to eat him.
He turned around and started peeling off his gloves, but halted when he noticed Miss Potts stepping inside. "Oh, hey, Miss Potts," he greeted, suddenly feeling a bit awkward. It was ridiculous, since he knew he was allowed to be in here and it wasn't likely she hadn't seen a sweaty guy before, but… still. Maybe it was something about the look she was giving him that spelled trouble. "I, uh, didn't know you were back already. What's up?"
Pepper closed the door, walking in a few paces and looking around as if trying to see what he'd been doing before stopping in the middle of a sparring mat and turning to look at him. "I always try to be home in time to handle dinner, and my meetings finished up a bit early besides. I just thought I'd come check up on you." Was it his imagination, or did she seem almost as awkward as he did all of a sudden?
"Oh, I'm fine. I've been keeping myself busy just fine. Been doing it for years, you know, with May being the only one I live with and her working all the time and such." He tried to busy himself by walking over and putting the gloves away before turning back to her. "I actually was about to go change and get a snack, so-"
He stopped when a whirring sounded from across the room, followed by a high-pitched beeping. Pepper whirled at the same time as he located the source of the sound - a line of robots in the back corner. Peter had seen them when he came in and assumed they were basically robotic sparring partners, but he hadn't dared to mess with him, both for fear of exposing himself and fear of breaking them.
Apparently, they didn't need him to mess with them. They just came to life on their own.
This, of course, wasn't true. Tony had given the order to power them up from down in his workshop. But Peter didn't know that. All he knew was that he was now facing down what appeared to be a line of at least ten robots with glowing red eyes that had seemingly come to life on their own.
But the worst part wasn't even that. It was the fact they didn't focus on him.
If he had been alone in the room, or at least the sole focus of the bots, he would have pretended to be as weak and normal as he wanted them to believe he was, but he wasn't. Instead it seemed like over half the robots had focused on Miss Potts - presumably because she was closer - and that left him no room to hesitate or pretend.
He'd just have to hope she could keep a secret.
He threw himself between her and the line of oncoming robots with inhuman speed, his arm coming up to stop the first one as it swung some long piece of wood at him. They all appeared to be armed with different weapons, apparently all meant to be used for different types of training. Who left armed robots lying around, especially ones that randomly activated?
His interference turned the mass of them onto him, thankfully. He let his senses take over, ducking, swinging, trying to knock them all back, away from himself and Miss Potts, if he could. But every one he knocked down got back up, and it quickly became apparently that short of breaking them or turning them off, he wasn't going to win this fight without one of them getting clocked with one of these weapons they had.
He had no idea how to turn them off, though, and breaking them to pieces would be as much of a giveaway as his only other option.
And there was one other option. But if he used his webs, then the cat was definitely out of the bag. There'd be no going back, no chance of convincing them that he just had some freaky level of strength or combat training.
There was a yelp and a bang from somewhere behind him as one of the robots took a swing at Pepper. He couldn't be sure if it made contact or where it had, but he was sure that sound was her crashing to the floor.
Forget his cover. This was what he was supposed to do. If he didn't protect her - and if another superhero really couldn't handle the truth - then what was the point of any of it?
He nailed two of the robots in front of him with a roundhouse kick, then webbed them to the floor to keep them down. A few well-placed punches and blasts of webbing took care of three more as they came at him. He whirled as soon as he had all the ones out of the line of vision as possible, aiming straight at the one over hovering over Pepper as she scooted out of the way as quickly as she could. With the immediate threat webbed to the nearest wall, he managed to take down the final few with only a few movements and web them to the floor as well.
A sweep around confirmed they were all down, so he rushed over to Pepper, kneeling next to her. "Miss Potts? Are you all right?"
"Peter…" She was holding her shoulder, but otherwise looked unharmed, if a bit ruffled. "What the hell just happened?"
"I…" He swallowed thickly, looking down. "Look, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, okay? But please don't tell Mr. Stark. He'll freak if he finds out I didn't tell him and I don't want him to think I'm here because of this and I just-" He stopped, feeling his breathing start to come quicker. "I don't think-"
"Peter, calm down." She sat up, one hand still cradling her shoulder, but firmly placed the other on his, squeezing it gently. "Just breathe. I won't say anything if you don't want me to. I won't tell Tony."
He had a split second to feel like he could breathe again before the voice sounded from the door. "Won't tell me what?"
Peter froze again, feeling the panic rise in his chest. He slowly looked up at the older hero, wondering if he was going to pass out or throw up. Oh wait, he hadn't eaten in hours. Pass out it was then.
Stark's eyes swept over the mess once before landing on Peter again. His eyes were back to being cool and dark, but he looked almost… could he be amused? Was it possible he wasn't mad?
"Mr. Stark-" he tried, but the look in the older man's eyes as he met his was enough to silence his weak attempt.
"Nuh-uh. Hold it right there. I don't want to hear a peep out of you. Pepper-" He focused on his PA for a moment. "You alright?"
"Am I alright? I'm fine, Tony, but you, you're an ass." She pulled away from Peter, getting to her feet and wincing once.
"Tell me something I don't know," her boss dismissed the accusation, waving a hand at her. Then his eyes turned back to Peter, and the boy suddenly found he couldn't swallow again for how dry his throat was. "You-..."
He stopped.
They all froze at the same time. And whatever he was going to say was immediately lost as the building around them plunged into darkness.
For a split second, even Peter couldn't see anything. As his eyes refocused to the dark setting, his night vision kicked in. He looked around, slowly, looking for anything to explain the sudden darkness, any sign of what to do or what had happened. Instead he saw a frozen Pepper Potts, and an irritated looking Stark, still standing in the doorway.
For a moment, it was silent. Then Stark's phone rang, lighting up his pocket, then his face as he removed it and looked to see who it was. He let out a low groan as he answered it. "Rhodey…"
With his enhanced hearing, he could hear the other man's voice from here even without it being on speaker phone. "Tell me you didn't just lose it too."
"No, I'm out too," Stark confirmed. "Is it…"
"It's him, all right. How quick can you get into the city?"
Even in the dark, he could swear Stark's eyes flitted to him for a moment as if contemplating if he should deal with him before he left, even with the state of things. Then he sighed. "As soon as I get suited up. Ten minutes, tops."
"Good. Because this is looking like it's the biggest shutdown yet. Traffic, cellular, power, satellite, everything seems to be out. The only reason I could call you is-"
"Because you have one of my devices that run off my own towers and my security is the best in the world," Stark finished flatly. "Yeah, believe me, I know I'm great. You gonna meet me in town or not?"
"I'll catch up to you as quick as I can," Rhodey agreed. "Call me back when you're in the city."
"Will do." Stark hung up and let out a low sound that was somewhere between a growl and a groan. He flipped his phone so the light illuminated the distance between where he and Peter and Pepper where standing. "Pepper, you're going to need a backup generator. Set up a hub area; I don't know how long this will be out. You." His eyes fixed on Peter again. "Help her, and don't you dare do anything stupid while I'm gone. We will be having a nice long talk about this when I get back. Understand?"
"Yes, Mr. Stark," Peter whispered. It was all he could manage.
"Good. I'll be back as soon as I can." Then the light shut off, and he watched the older man's retreating back until he was gone. Only when he disappeared from sight and Peter could no longer hear his footsteps did he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
He felt Pepper's hand on his arm, and she squeezed it gently. "Come on, Peter. It'll be alright. Let's just get to work setting things up for the night, okay?"
He nodded silently, still feeling shocked as he let himself be led out of the room. He couldn't imagine this day getting any worse.
He had no idea how wrong he was.