"You're really going to let him show Pete around?"
Clint's surprise was obvious, but Nick just shrugged.
"The kid isn't a secret plant from HYDRA, or something," he reminded them. "He's from a different reality – and he's basically Peter. I trust Peter with all of the secrets in our private little base, so I'm not worried about Pete spouting off things that he shouldn't once he gets home."
"Oh."
"Besides, we are keeping him away from the high security areas."
"But mainly just to keep him from getting into to trouble," Natasha added with a smile. "It is Peter, after all. No sense tempting fate by turning two of them loose someplace that could cause an issue."
Tony smiled at that, and Pepper looked at him.
"I'm surprised you're not with them," she said.
They all knew that he loved Peter. An extension to that would be Pete – even if the boy didn't know him. Pepper was already drawn to the guy, and she didn't know him, either.
"I'm trying to keep him from being too overwhelmed," Tony admitted. "Bad enough that he's in a crazy different reality, but he doesn't know me in his. Hanging out with Ironman? Probably more than he needs, just now. I figure we can let Peter ease him into this world a little."
"What are you going to do if Strange can't figure out how to get him home?" Clint asked. "Adopt him, too?"
"We're not there," Tony said. "Stephen's going to do everything that he can to figure this out – and he has Wong helping."
"Not to mention the Stephen and Wong in the alternate reality," Natasha added. "That's a lot of magic IQ, right there."
"I wonder if the mind stone is going to help out…?" Pepper mused.
"Pete probably doesn't have the mind stone in his consciousness in his reality," Tony said. "And probably doesn't know Vision, if he doesn't know me."
"I wonder if the alternate Stephen has figured out to keep the time stone from Pete," Clint said, doing a little musing, as well.
They all were, really.
"Well, if not, we can send that little nugget of information home with him," Nick said. He stood up. "I'm going to go take care of some things. Is Peter going to school, tomorrow?"
Tony frowned, looking at Pepper.
"What do you think, momma?"
"He's caught up," she said. "And I want to keep him caught up. If Pete is still here, in the morning, we'll decide what to do, then."
"Peter can homeschool from here, couldn't he?" Natasha asked.
"He can," Tony said. "But he has academic decathlon, tomorrow, too. Can't do that from a distance."
"And we're not going to take Pete, obviously," Pepper added.
"Obviously." Nick shrugged. "We'll figure it out. Hopefully, he'll be back home, safe and sound – and maybe a little better for having met the avengers."
"It's hard to think of a reality where he hasn't," Clint said, shaking his head.
"I know," Tony agreed. "It's crazy."
OOOOOOOOOO
"They're really going to let you show me around?" Pete asked as the two boys walked out of the lounge.
Peter shrugged.
"Why not? Who are you going to tell?"
"Everyone," he replied. The boy grinned. "May, anyway. And Dr. Strange and Wong. They'll be interested."
"They were, here, too," Peter said. "But it was only fair, since Stephen let me and Tony explore in the sanctum."
"He did?"
"A little. I've been everywhere but, but Tony gets distracted by something and that's where he ends up stopping, for a while. What's it like learning magic from Stephen?"
"It's interesting. And exciting." Pete raised his hand, and there was a bit of a lit making it glow. "I feel the magic differently than he does, so he's trying to utilize that in my training. And they're teaching me how to fight. Him and Wong, both. Because magic isn't always about waving your hands."
"And fighting requires discipline, that you can carry over to magic.'
Pete smiled.
"You've heard that?"
"From Stephen. He and Wong have done some sparring with me – to give me more diverse partners."
"So we're probably pretty evenly matched."
"Definitely. Do you feel the attacks coming before the other person moves?"
"Usually. Or before they land, for sure. You?"
"Yeah. And a magic attack, too. You know what spell is coming so you know how to counter it."
"Right." Pete shook his head. "That's crazy."
"It is," Peter agreed. "I'll show you the jet, first, before it gets dark. Then I'll take around to the other major areas. If it isn't too late, we can do the simulator if you want – or find something else to do."
"Thanks." He pulled out his phone. "Can I take pictures?"
Peter hesitated, and then shrugged.
"I don't see why not. Nothing I'm showing you is classified, or anything." He grinned and pointed at the phone. "Is your password nedistheshit?"
"Yeah. How did you kno- never mind."
They both chuckled.
"Dr. Strange gave it to me," he said, holding up the phone. "For my 16th birthday. It has a magical tracking ability, so I can't lose it, and if someone steals it, it will simply come back to me."
"That's awesome." Peter hesitated. "What else did you get for your 16th birthday?"
The other boy's smile was cheerful.
"A new car. Did you get it, too?"
"Yeah." Peter hesitated. "May was planning on giving it to me, but she didn't have a chance. I found it when Tony and Pepper took me to the bank to settle things with the safe deposit box. How did she give it to you?"
"Hid a little matchbox with the key inside in a cake." Pete turned on his phone and pulled up a picture, showing it to Peter. There was a cake, shaped like the car, and a happy birthday Peter inscription in red icing. "She showed me the video, later," he said. "After I got over the excitement of the car."
"The video's pretty amazing, isn't it?" Peter asked, wanting to know what the other he thought of it.
"It's incredible." Pete smiled. "I'm going to do something like that for my kids," he added. "If I have any."
"He knows about the sterility," Alec told Peter. "May had it figured out before he even met Stephen and Wong, but Stephen confirmed it, once they met."
"So am I. It's something I watch every day, almost. I know it by heart."
"Me, too."
"Do you have your license?" Peter asked, curiously.
"Yeah." He put the phone away and pulled out his wallet, showing it to Peter, who then showed his own. "I have a special addendum to it," the other boy added, pointing. "It lets me drive in the city, even though I'm too young to, officially."
"That's cool," Peter said, impressed. "How did you get that?"
"You don't have it?" Pete asked, surprised.
"No. I drive all over around here, though."
"You'd think that with you being Tony Stark's son, and Spiderman, and all, you'd be able to get one, too. I did, and I don't even know Ironman."
"How-"
"Wow…"
They'd left the rear entrance of the compound, and in front of them on the flight pad was the Quinjet. It was shiny and sleek and pretty much a magnet to Pete. Like it had been Peter the first time he'd seen it. And pretty much every time he saw it, still.
"This is the Quinjet," Peter told him, slapping the hatch release. "We can go in, but I think everyone would frown if I let you fly it."
"Have you?" Pete asked, walking up the ramp and looking around, with his phone out capturing the interior.
"A few times," Peter told him, trying not to sound like he was bragging about it. "Not landing, or taking off. Just while we were in level flight."
"That's awesome."
Peter grinned.
"Right?"
OOOOOOOOOO
"You did what?"
"We didn't do it," Strange said, quickly. "It was a freak accident."
May didn't look at all mollified.
"Where is he?"
"In an alternate reality," Wong replied. "We're just not sure which one – or how to find it."
"Yet," Stephen added. "We'll figure it out."
"What if he's someplace dangerous?" she asked, clearly worried. "What if he's in trouble?"
"We're sure it's a parallel reality," Wong told her. "Which means there is certainly one – or both – of us there," he explained. "If he showed up on our doorstep, the Wong and Strange there will help him. Just like we would if he showed up, here."
"And if it isn't?"
She didn't look at all comforted.
"We think that it is," Stephen said. "We're all working on this, May. I just thought it would be better to let you know."
Her arms went around herself.
"But there isn't any way to know that he's alive…?"
"Not at the-"
He was interrupted by a sudden vision. A picture in his mind as plain as day of Peter standing inside the belly of what looked like an airplane of some kind. A small airplane. Military, most likely. There was a glass panel – or maybe plastic – in front of him, and when the boy moved, his reflection in that panel moved, as well. And Strange saw that there was another Peter standing beside him, also moving. Then the image was gone, as suddenly as it had arrived.
The sorcerer supreme looked at Wong, who was looking like someone had hit him in the back of the head with a board. Then he looked at May.
"Did you see that?" she asked, eyes wide and hopeful.
"A vision of Peter?" Strange asked.
"Of two of them," Wong said.
"Yes."
"Well, maybe that answers that question," Strange said, also feeling a surge of hope.
"I want him back, Stephen."
"I know, May. We're working on it."
Hopefully there were more of them working on it.