"You're doing what?"

Tony smiled at the incredulous note in the boy's tone. Not that he blamed him.

"I'm building a pumpkin chucker."

Which was what Pete had thought that he'd heard. He'd just been a little surprised, he supposed. When Tony Stark mentions that he's working on a project, the first thing that comes to mind is technology. And high-end technology at that. The image on the display that they were looking at wasn't high-tech, and it definitely wasn't a superhero suit. It sort of looked like a catapult.

"Why?"

"To toss pumpkins, Pete." His smile was still amused. "It's one thing to build the coolest suit in the world," he told the boy. "It's another to take on a project for fun. Something that I can do with the others. Especially when you can get them involved and allow them to have a good time with things. This project is low tech, so it'll keep the playing field even in case Ned and MJ want to join us. They don't have access to the same level of technology that I have, of course, but we still want them to have fun and have a part in things."

"Right." He liked that. He liked Tony Stark, Pete was deciding, and wondered what the Tony Stark in his reality was like. Not like this man, surely, since as far as Pete knew the Tony Stark where he was from didn't have any kids. He wasn't even sure if the man was married. "What do you want me to do?" he asked. "Help you with your design?"

The billionaire shook his head.

"That would be cheating. We're supposed to make our own. I was thinking that you could design one of your own and test it with mine by the end of the day. If it works – and if Stephen and Wong fix the statue thing and you get home – then I can steal your design as my own and none the wiser."

Pete smiled at that.

"And if I'm still here?"

"That's why I'm making one, too. Just in case." He gestured to the other side of the table – and the tablet that he'd pulled from the cupboard, just as they'd walked into the room. "Interested?"

"Yeah. It sounds like fun."

"It's supposed to be." Tony smiled. "I took the liberty of having FRIDAY pull up the designs for catapults and trebuchets for us to get some ideas on how they should look. Ours aren't going to be full-sized," he added, quickly. "Pepper already said they can't launch the pumpkins off the planet, so we're going to go for something a little tamer."

"Table top?"

"It has to chuck a pumpkin," Tony reminded him with a slap on the shoulder. "Not a walnut."

The boy smiled.

"Got it."

"And no gunpowder."

"Right."

OOOOOOOOOO

The day went by quickly.

Peter had several assignments that had been due and Pepper had made sure that she had a space in her day to spend time going over them with him. It was a commitment that she'd made when they'd decided that Peter would do his homeschooling at the tower. She didn't mind, though, and truthfully, she enjoyed having the one on one time with the boy.

They spent the morning together and he was cheerful since between Pepper and FRIDAY the comments on his work had been all positive. It was important to him that he did well. He knew that Pepper, especially, was using a lot of time to keep him caught up, and he wanted to make sure she knew that he appreciated it.

Pepper had a lunch meeting, but Peter already knew that – it wasn't the first time, after all. He was fine with spending his lunch in the cafeteria where the people who worked in the tower ate. Peter loved to people watch while he ate, so he tended to find a corner and do just that, while eating a burger and fries. The people at the tower knew who he was, of course, and while it wasn't – specifically – a rule that they left him alone while he was in the public areas, it was unwritten that they leave him to himself unless he were to speak to them, first.

Not because Peter wasn't social, but because Tony and Pepper guarded him like the only child that he was to them.

He was just finishing his pudding dessert when he felt a slight tingle of warning and looked up in time to see Stephen Strange walking into the cafeteria, his ultra tailored suit marking him as slightly out of place and causing some people to watch him as he stopped long enough to look around the room and find Peter, and then head his direction.

Not surprisingly, he didn't have his cloak with him.

"Hey, Stephen. How's it going?"

"Very slowly, unfortunately," came the reply as the sorcerer supreme seated himself with a sigh. There was a slight wave of the man's hand, and Peter felt a tingle of magic that he didn't understand.

"It's a spell to keep everyone around you from hearing your discussion," Alec told him, helpfully.

"We haven't found the figurine that Pete said he touched," Strange told the boy. "I have to admit; I'm surprised."

"It wasn't in London, or in China?"

"No. And they catalogue at least as well as we do. Wong is certain it isn't in our sanctum."

"So what do we do, now?" Peter asked. "May has to be freaking out, by now. And you."

"May for certain," Stephen agreed. "I'd like to think I wouldn't be panicking, yet. Worried, yes, but not freaking out, as you put it. Wong suggested that I ask you if you know where it is, in this reality."

"Me?" Peter asked, surprised. "How would I-"

He was interrupted by a sudden image in his mind. A vision of a well-lit room, and shelves and stacks of various items all around it. He'd never seen the shelves before, but it didn't matter. Another image came to his mind and his eyes widened.

He knew that face pretty well, actually.

"The Collector has it."

OOOOOOOOOOO

"What is that?"

"It's a pumpkin chucker."

Steve frowned.

"A pumpkin chucker?"

Tony smirked, turning to the boy who was standing beside him.

"Tell him, Pete."

Pete smiled, shyly, still not used to having superheroes chatting so easily with him. Crazy enough that he'd spent all morning with Tony freaking Stark showing him how to use his network to research different kinds of old time catapults and other siege devices to see how he might modify one for his own design, but now Steve Rogers was leaning against the table that they'd hauled outside to put their first prototypes on and was talking to him?

It was insane enough that he was still somewhat shell-shocked enough to reply, even as he scratched the ears of the young lab that he'd met the evening, before.

"Yeah. I mean. Kind of."

"More confidence, Pete," Tony told him. He grinned, feeling pretty pleased with himself – and impressed with the boy standing with him. Peter was incredible, and Tony had already known that, but Pete was clearly just as intelligent, and just as resourceful. In only a few hours, the two of them had both come up with their own individual designs for their chuckers, and with some raw materials had even managed to cobble together the first attempts. Not good enough to actually try on pumpkins, but definitely worth taking outside for the first dry fires. "When we're done, we'll fling a pumpkin a hundred yards."

"Why would you want to do that?" Fury asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at the two devices that were sitting on the table.

"Why not?" Tony asked, shrugging. "Jack has a million left over pumpkins at his farm, and there's something to be said for watching them fling through the air."

"You're doing it at the farm?" Steve asked.

"Yes. He's already invited us out, next weekend."

"And Pete?" Nick asked, looking at the boy before turning back to Stark.

"We're hoping he isn't still here," Tony said. "Not because we don't like him, but because we like May and we want to make sure she has him back as soon as possible."

Pete smiled. He didn't need the reassurance but he appreciated it.

"Well, it sounds like-"

There was a chirp from Tony's watch, interrupting them, and he frowned when he saw who it was.

"Stephen?"

"Hey, Tony. I need a minute of your time."

"Here?"

"Are you at the compound?"

"Yes."

"No. I'm actually at the tower. In Pepper's office."

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes. But I need to talk to you, please."

"Do I bring Pete?"

"That's up to you."

Meaning that Strange didn't need to ask the boy anything, but wasn't hiding anything from him, either.

"Are you making a portal?" Tony asked. "Or am I driving in?"

Stephen's voice was amused.

"I'll save you the drive."

"We'll be in my workroom in a few minutes," Tony said. "I'll call you when we're ready."

"Thank you."

Stark ended the call before Strange could hang up on him, and he looked at the boy.

"Want to see Stark tower?"

Pete looked excited.

"Can I?"

"I don't see why not."

"Because you already have one teenaged Peter Parker there," Fury reminded him. "We do not want to have anyone see two of them."

"Hmm…" Tony looked at Pete, and then at Nick, and he smiled. "You have the solution for that. You just need to loan it to us, for a while."

The older man's eye narrowed, but he didn't say no.