"Can you see me?"

"Yup."

"How about now?"

Tony rolled his eyes, even though no one could see it behind his mask – and because they were on the rooftop of one of the taller apartment buildings in Queens.

"You put your hand over your eyes, son," he pointed out. "That didn't really do much to make you invisible, did it?"

"To you, maybe not," Peter said. "To your new scanners…"

"Not them, either."

He deactivated the helmet of his suit and walked over to the edge of the rooftop, looking down at the city while leaning on the safety barrier. Nothing was going on, despite it being a Friday night, and the little borough of Queens was fairly silent. Of course, it was a lot less dangerous, now, than it had been only a year before. Not because of Peter going around as Spiderman – which did do some good, of course – but because the only criminals that did business there, for the most part, now, were petty ones.

People were still mugged, occasionally, and there were still stolen cars, purses and the usual prostitutes and minor drug deals, but the really serious stuff had vanished, for the most part, when the Russian mafia had pulled their people out – and had then made it clear from somewhere very high up in the organization that it would be a mistake for a different crime syndicate to decide to move in and fill the vacuum left by them.

No one understood it, but for some reason Queens was under the protection of the mob. Well, some people understood it, but there were only a few, and none of them were letting on what was going on.

Peter came swinging in and landed quietly beside him, making no sound as he walked over to stand beside Ironman.

"It's pretty quiet."

"Yeah. How's school going, so far?"

"Not bad."

"Anything I need to know about?"

"I'm going to drop PE and pick up a microbiology class."

Tony rolled his eyes. That wasn't news to him; Pepper had told him Peter was thinking about it when he'd met her and Peter in the garage. In case he decided that he wanted to be a doctor, or something. Tony decided that Peter was spending too much time with Stephen.

"Tell me again why you signed up for PE in the first place?"

The boy blushed.

"MJ had to take it, so I thought I'd keep her company."

"But…?"

"She decided to switch to gymnastics."

Which wasn't a class that Peter could really find interesting, Tony knew. Not to mention, if he were seen swinging on a bar, or doing flips, it might make people think of Spiderman – which wouldn't do.

"When did she do that?"

And how had he missed that tidbit of gossip?

"Today."

Oh. He changed the subject.

"Have you given any thought to what we discussed, earlier?"

Peter shrugged.

"You know her best. What do you think she'd want?"

"She told me that she doesn't want anything too extravagant and that we absolutely cannot go anywhere – like we did for yours. Aside from that, it's open season, really."

"No puppy, or anything like that, though?"

"Right. She doesn't have time for a pet – and if she wants to cuddle something furry, she finds Nutmeg, Jack or Ironpig."

It was usually Nutmeg, though.

"We're going to make her dinner, right?"

"Yeah. But we need something big to fall back on. Just in case that goes south."

They were both silent, well aware that it was entirely possible that coking Pepper a birthday dinner could very easily go wrong. They'd burned down a cooking school, after all.

Peter started to say something else, but then looked up into the night sky, seemingly distracted.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Thought I saw something…"

Tony activated his suit helmet.

"Friday? Anything up there we need to know about?"

"Nothing showing up – satellites aren't picking up anything."

Since Peter was receiving the same information from Karen, Tony didn't bother to repeat it. He disengaged the helmet, once more.

"Is your gut telling you anything?"

"No."

"Is Alec?"

Peter smiled, keeping his mask activated, even though Friday would have told them if there were any surveillance cameras in the area doing any recording. It was just easier.

"Nope."

"Let's head home, then…" Tony told him. "Unless you think we need to stay out and wait for the bar rush?"

"No."

OOOOOO

"Well?" Pepper said, looking up from the book she was reading when Tony walked into their bedroom. "How fares the city?"

"Things are pretty quiet," he told her, sitting on the edge of their bed. "What are you reading?"

"This is called a book. There's no display, and it doesn't talk to you, but if you turn the page-"

"You think you're clever, don't you?" he interrupted, leaning over and kissing her.

She smirked.

"Yes. I spend too much time with you, probably."

"You don't spend nearly enough time with me," he told her, sincerely, which made her smile.

"How was your test?"

"The new scanners are great. Shuri's too smart for her own good, sometimes."

"People probably said that about you all the time when you were sixteen…"

"It was true."

"Peter's home, safe?"

"Of course he is, momma."

"Did you ask him about homecoming?"

"We had other things to discuss. Secret things."

"My birthday?"

He gave her a confused look.

"Is that coming up?"

"Tony…"

He looked at his watched, and made a show of doing some mental calculations.

"Let's see… it's September, now… and your birthday is in February… right?"

"Something low key," she told him, ignoring him and returning to her book.

"Of course, low key," he assured her, kicking his shoes off and sprawling on the bed beside her. "It's not like we're going to hire a circus, or anything."

"I mean it. Something with the others is fine, but not half of the city – and no trip. I want to spend it in my own bed."

He smiled, his expression turning just a little naughty.

"Well, if that's what you want…"

Which made her shake her head, and make a show of hitting him with the book in her hand.

"You think you're so smooth…"

"Sometimes."

She had to admit that he was – but not to him.

OOOOOO

"So…?"

Gamora looked at Rocket and Peter – who were both looking at her, expectantly.

"What?"

"There are billions of people on this planet, Gamora," Peter told her – in case she hadn't figured that out for herself in the short time that they'd been lurking just out of range of the numerous satellites. "And probably half are named Peter. We're going to need to know a little more than that if we're supposed to save the right one."

"I don't know anything about him."

"You dreamed of him," Rocket reminded her. "Where does he live?"

She scowled.

"I'm not sure." But then, suddenly, she was. The frown faded, and turned into an odd expression – even for her – and she looked out the display at the planet that was spinning, lazily, below them. "Does New York mean anything to you?"

Quill nodded.

"Yeah. Of course." He tapped a few keys on the display and a well-lit continent came into the screen, which was then zoomed in on and became a well-lit cluster of lights near a large body of water. "What else do you have?"

"It's not the city," she told him. "It's north." She concentrated on something only she could see – or hear – and leaned forward, a little, toggling the control panel, further, until the very large city turned into a very small cluster of buildings – with a river on one side and trees on the other.

"It looks military," Drax said. "Good. This Peter child is probably a soldier."

"Our kids aren't soldiers," Quill told him. "Not until they're older."

"Why would he be living on a military facility, then?" Rocket asked. "Drax is right; that place screams military – or something like that. Police, of some kind?"

"I am groot…"

"Not all military places are surrounded by fences, Groot," Rocket said, looking over his shoulder at the tree, who had been looking at the screen, as well. "Some have other forms of defense…"

"We should just land and find this boy."

"And tell him what?" Quill asked, sarcastically. "Hey; you're in danger. How do we know? Because this woman who you don't know – and yes, we realize that she's green – had a dream about you…"

"We should just go," Gamora said. "This was a bad idea."

"No. We're here, now," Peter said. "We'll figure out where the kid is, and do a little alien abduction, or something, bring him here, see what he knows about what might have him in danger, tell him not to do whatever it is and then pat him on the head and send him back to bed. Easy as pie."

Rocket looked at Quill.

"How is pie easy?"

"It isn't," Drax said, shaking his head. "I always get the crust too thick. I gave up a-"

"It's an expression," Quill interrupted. "Just… scan the place and see how many kids there are, so we can figure out which one is Peter. Then we'll grab him."

"Just like that, huh?" Gamora asked, her own expression verging on sarcastic.

"How tough could it be?" Peter said, giving her his cockiest look. "He's a kid."