"Wait… he threw up in an elevator?"

"I am Groot?"

"It's a little car that – we've been on them, they just had different names…" Quill trailed off, looking at Ned, uncertainly. "You sure about this?"

The boy nodded, his eyes big and hopeful. Easily a match for Peter when he was at his most sincere.

"I won't throw up. I promise."

"Stephen gave him an injection," Peter told Quill and Rocket, who were watching Ned. It was a better option than a simple pill, and although Strange didn't guarantee that it would keep Ned from getting motion sickness, he did confirm there was less chance of it. "He said it should do the trick."

"Don't worry, Ned," Gamora said, walking over and putting her arm around the boy's shoulder and giving the others a challenging look that made sure they all understood that the kid was absolutely going for a ride in the Milano. "The ride is smooth. You'll be fine."

Ned's smile made Peter smile, but it was the way Gamora had pretty much put her foot down that made Pepper and Natasha grin, as well.

Behind the guardians, the ship was ready to go on her test run. All the systems were in line and in the green according to both Rocket and Quill. Of course, Tony had surreptitiously had Friday check the systems, as well – just to be on the safe side. The AI had given the entire ship a once over, checking the systems as well as storing all the data found on them (never knew when you might want to build your own spaceship, after all). Tony trusted the guardians – he did – but it was Peter and Ned, and Peter was always his responsibility and Ned was at the moment since his mother had entrusted him to the billionaire.

He didn't want to have to explain to her that he'd allowed him an unapproved flight on a spaceship and something horrible had happened.

"Thanks, Gamora."

"Are we ready, then?" Rocket said, giving in grudgingly.

In deference to the fact that there were several who wanted to go, and that they weren't needed on the test flight, Drax and Mantis weren't going. Groot wasn't, either – although he had been tempted so he could watch Peter and Ned's reactions to something that he'd been doing all his life.

"Yeah."

There were a lot of them going. More people than there were – technically – seats for them. Strange hadn't been interested at all, really, but Tony had requested his presence, simply because if something went horribly wrong, Stephen could use his magic to at least get the boys out and home, safely. Of course, Tony was going, as well, and he, too, was only really going to play chaperone. Unsaid to any of them – even to himself – was the fact that if something happened to Peter, he wanted to be there to experience it, as well.

For good or for bad.

"Let's go."

Rocket and Quill turned to head for the open hatch of the spaceship, followed immediately by Peter and Ned, who were practically wriggling with excitement. Behind them, Quill followed with Steve, Tony, Stephen and Natasha walking behind him and Gamora bringing up the rear.

Groot was standing beside Pepper, who must have looked a little worried, because he put a branch on her shoulder as if to reassure.

"I am groot," he said, patting her shoulder.

She smiled, and put her hand over the rough wood, once more amazed at what a person could get used to.

"Thank you."

Fury walked over to stand beside her, as well.

"Tony has it set up to keep the rest of the world from noticing?"

She nodded.

"The ship has a cloak – or whatever it is they call it – and it's going to keep anyone from actually seeing it or recording it as it leaves the planet and heads around the solar system. Tony is having Friday monitor the world web and wipe anything that might indicate anyone has noticed anything out of the ordinary."

Nick might have been amazed at the audacity of Tony Stark to think that he could monitor the entire world, but really, he wasn't. It was Tony Stark, after all. If anyone could control the web – even if it was only for a few hours – it was Tony and his amazing AI.

"We'll monitor things from the control room," Fury said, watching as the hatch closed. "Just to make sure we're not needed. They're just going to the sun, around it and then out past Pluto and back, right?"

"Just that," she agreed, making him smile. "Nothing big, right?"

"You realize when they get back you'll be the only woman on the planet who has a husband and a son who is, technically, an astronaut?"

"Not that I'll be able to tell anyone," she agreed. "But it'll be something, won't it?"

"Think of Ned," Fury said, smirking. "He can't tell anyone at all. Not even his friends at school."

"I know. But he wouldn't miss it for the world."

"We'll see how he feels about it all when he comes back."

They both remembered how sick the boy had been on the flight to Montana for Peter's birthday, after all, and when the engines on the ship fired up, were allowed to warm up – or whatever Rocket was doing to make sure it didn't stall at the beginning of the flight – and then suddenly left from the ground, shrugging off the camouflage netting that had been hiding it.

A moment later it hovered a hundred feet up, and then took off as if it had been shot out of a canon and was gone.

OOOOOOO

"Is he alright?"

"Yeah."

"I'm okay," Ned said, quickly. He looked pale and definitely a little green, too boot, but he hadn't lost his lunch, yet, and that was definitely a victory. "Just getting acclimated."

"You're doing great," Peter said, confidently. Confident enough that he was the only one sitting close enough to him that he'd be splattered if Ned suddenly erupted. "Did you look out the window, yet?"

"Portal," Rocket corrected. "Houses have windows; ships have portals."

"Not, yet."

"We just passed around your sun," Gamora said, walking over and taking Peter's spot to allow him a chance to go look, closer.

Peter moved out of his chair and went over to stand by Tony and Natasha, who were looking out a large portal, admiring the view of the solar system that neither would have ever expected. They smiled when the boy joined them, and Tony put his hand on Peter's shoulder.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah." Peter smiled at Natasha and then at Tony. "It's amazing. You're taking pictures for mom?"

He was grounded from his phone, after all, so he couldn't.

Tony had already planned for that, however, and had worked with Quill and Rocket to set up a couple of cameras, as well as a video set up that would allow Pepper to see everything that they were experiencing.

"Of course. How's Ned doing?"

Peter smiled, genuinely pleased that his friend was managing to enjoy any part of what they were doing, when he knew that he was so terrible at holding his stomach together when doing anything like they were. He was proud of him, too.

"He's doing good."

They all looked over to see Ned reaching for one of the airsick bags – but there was no sound of retching, which they'd all expected.

"Maybe good might be pushing it," Natasha said, smiling fondly toward the boy and noticing that Stephen was moving toward him, too. Probably to give him another shot of whatever it was that was keeping his stomach in control. "But I'll settle for okay, really."

"So will I," Tony agreed.

On the plus side, maybe by the time they were done with the flight, there would be a lot less enthusiasm for using an open fire to make s'mores that night.