The card game was winding down when Wong made a sudden, surprise, appearance in the lounge. He didn't materialize there; he wasn't as common a visitor to the compound, but he'd been there often enough to know that the small conference room near at hand was usually a good place for a sorcerer to pop into and avoid being in the way – or sharing previously occupied space with someone.

Especially on a weekend.

His entrance into the lounge wasn't missed by anyone – except Groot, who had his eyes only on the video game he was playing – and Strange frowned, since he could read the other man's expression far better than the others. Wong was definitely looking concerned as he walked across the room to the table where Stephen, Tony, Pepper and Natasha were seated playing cards, while Peter Quill was pretty much sprawled in a junk food induced coma at the next table over.

The others were still playing darts; Drax, in particular, was enjoying the game, not recognizing it for the game that it was, since it seemed to be a competition to him more than anything. They looked over at Wong's arrival, but didn't stop their game.

"Problem?" Strange asked.

"Information…" the other man said, shrugging. He looked at Tony and Pepper. "Information that almost certainly pertains to Peter – but might not, and I don't want to worry you, if there is no cause."

"What is it?" Pepper asked, feeling a flare of worry.

Of course, that wasn't anything new, really. The more recent concerns were so much more frightening than worrying about her boy sleepwalking, and if he was safe driving to a different city by himself.

Wong sat down, and pulled a scrap of paper out of his voluminous pocket, handing it to Stephen, who looked at it.

"A scroll?"

"The London sanctum keepers just delivered it to us," Wong told him – and the others. "I asked them to look for any references to the infinity stones back when we first learned of the Mind stone's connection with Peter. They came up with that, recently, and thought we might be interested."

Tony looked over at the scroll, but he couldn't read the script on the paper, and it looked insanely old.

"Can you read it, Stephen?" he asked.

"Yes." He was reading it and they knew him well enough to know that it was unsettling. He sighed, and looked over at Pepper, first, before looking at Tony. "It's old. And at that, it's a copy of a copy of countless copies of it."

"What is it?" Natasha asked.

"A prophesy. At least, that's the word I have to use."

He looked at Wong who nodded his agreement.

"That's what it is. No question."

The quiet conversation drew the others to the tables, as well, and had pulled Quill's attention as well as Mantis, who had been watching the card game.

"What's going on?" Steve asked.

Tony looked at him, and then back to the sorcerers.

"Stephen?"

"My translation would be 'The child is going to come. The stones will know him, and he knows them. Guard him well, because the Titan will come for him and he alone can hold the stones and save the universe."

The room was silent.

"My take is a little different," Wong said into the silence. "I would say it says that only he will wield the stones to protect the universe."

"You think it means Peter?" Tony clarified, looking at the two magicians, and then at the paper Stephen was holding.

"I can tell it does," Stephen told his friend. "There's a postscript – and it's directed specifically at you."

"Me?"

"Yes." He looked at the paper. "The battle will come to your home. Don't hide your son, man of iron, or the universe will fall."

Tony stared at him.

"And…?"

"That's all it says," Wong told him. "If there's more, then it wasn't passed on through the copies over the millennium – but scribes are careful by nature and they copy these kind of things with care, even if they can't read it. There's no doubt, though, that you're the man of iron in this, because they specifically mention that the wielder of the stones is your son, Tony."

Natasha scowled.

"There could be some other kid out there somewhere that can feel the stones like Peter does. Maybe someone whose dad is actually made out of metal because that's how they all are. You said it's old. Maybe this thing already happened."

"Or maybe it's a load of horse crap," Peter Quill said, adding his own two cents worth into the conversation. "There are all kinds of prophecies out there – and a lot of them here on earth, even. None come true. It's just religion and people trying to get you to do what they want you to do –"

"My father is called the Mad Titan," Gamora said, interrupting him. Her expression was bleak and scared. Which told all of them that she was already of the belief that the paper was real. "He's going to come here…"

Tony looked at her, and now they could tell that he was sure of it, too. His expression, however, wasn't fear – well, yes, maybe a little fear, for Peter and for the others – but his eyes suddenly hardened, and his jaw clenched. He stood up, because he was suddenly far too restless to sit.

"Fine. He's coming. And he's bringing an army. Then we'd better be ready for him."

"But-"

He looked at Pepper.

"We've got this, honey. We've even battled alien armies, before." He looked at Stephen. "No timeline, though? The Titan will come to your home September 29th?"

That brought a tight smile to the sorcerer's expression.

"No."

"How would someone know about Tony being Ironman a billion years ago?" Steve asked. "If this thing is so old, then…" he shrugged.

"It is pretty specific," Wong agreed. "Probably to make sure the warning wasn't ignored once it was seen. If you're not a believer in gods handing out visions to their followers –"

"I'm not," Drax replied.

"Then I'll posit that Stephen isn't the only one to ever wield the Time stone. A look into the future, maybe? A warning to those still to come?"

"How doesn't matter," Tony said, firmly. "We'll have to wait to hear what Carol found out. If he has one stone, it'll give him a taste for the others – and I'll want to know what that particular stone's specialty is, too. So we know what he might do with it. If coming to my home means that he's coming here, then we're outgunned and we're going to need to make some changes to the security protocols that we have in place. Which I intended to do, already."

"Like what?" Pepper asked.

"First, we're going to get a shield."

"Like Wakanda's?"

"Right. And we need to talk to Vision, because I want him and Wanda to know what's going on so they can decide whether they stay in Europe, or if they come here, where they'll have back up."

"Or where they can back us up," Natasha added. "That's a lot of firepower, right there."

"True."

"Do we tell Peter?" Pepper asked, looking up at him, her face still pale, but her expression resolute, taking courage from him.

"You don't have to," a voice said from the entrance, making them all look over at the boy, who was standing at the doorway. "I know."

Tony gestured to him.

"Come here, son."

Peter walked over to them, and they could all tell that his face was pale (it always was, of course, but more, now) but his expression wasn't fearful, either.

"How did you find out?" Pepper asked.

"I was in my room talking to MJ and saw him."

"In your room?" Mantis asked, frightened.

That actually made Peter smile, and he shook his head.

"No, if he'd been in my room, you all would have heard me scream like a little girl." His expression clouded. "It was probably him, though, I've dreamed of him a few times, now, and this time he was looking at a piece of paper, and talking about finding the child who can hold the stones."

"Does he know where you are?" Gamora asked.

"I don't think so." He frowned. "I'm not a child, though. That paper can shove off."

Which made a few of them smile – and maybe he'd intended that all along, to keep them from all panicking.

"Probably it's set that way so you aren't mistaken for an adult; to make a distinction," Strange pointed out.

"Not to mention," Wong added. "It does give us a bit of a timeline." The others looked at him, confused, and he shrugged. "Peter's not going to be a boy – or a child – much longer. Since it says child, we know it's probably coming before his eighteenth birthday."

"That's still a year and a half off," Pepper said. "How do we know it won't be a year from now?"

"We don't, I suppose," Tony conceded.

"If he finds out where I am, then he's going to come," Peter told them – and Gamora nodded her agreement. "I could feel it and Alec agrees."

The room was silent, all of them looking at him – and even Groot had looked up from his game; his expression concerned.

"Then we'd better get started," Tony said, finally. "Because the new shield is going to take some time to configure."

"That's where we start?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. It's where Peter and I start. You need to make a couple of calls, Steve, because if he comes to the compound looking for Peter, we need to make sure his army stays at the compound. An hour south of here are millions of innocent people who don't want anything to do with aliens and infinity stones, and we need a line of defense between them and here – and that's going to have to be the military – because SHIELD can't do it, alone."

"We're not going to have a repeat of the casualties in New York when Loki came," Steve agreed. "I'll talk to Nick, first, and see what he wants to tell them."

The atmosphere in the room was resolute, now – at least with the Avengers. The guardians didn't look quite so confident. But they didn't say anything; even Drax being aware that the fight was something they would assist with, but they didn't know anything about the area, and the people, and they couldn't make any recommendations when they didn't know what was available.

"I'll advise the other sanctums," Stephen said. "A battle lost here would quickly spread the Thanos' army to other parts of the globe, and we'll be better off containing him and making our stand, here. The others will agree."

"We're going to want to talk to Thor, too," Clint added. "He's got a stone on Asgard. He needs to know what's happening so they don't get blindsided."

"Yeah." Tony looked at Wong and Stephen. "A portal to Asgard? If you're willing?"

He wasn't ready to trust the Bifrost too close to Peter, just yet.

"Who's Thor?" Gamora asked, curiously.

"An ally," Tony said. "I'll make sure you have a chance to meet him." He looked at the others, and his hand came to rest on Pepper's. "We can do this. We've done it, before – and with a lot less resources and allies."

Natasha nodded, and the others followed suit. They'd still need to hear what Danvers found out, but they could get started.