'Sir, Peter is calling from an unknown number,' Jarvis interrupts him from finalising the locations for the sensors in the hallways.

'What?' he scowls. 'Pete?'

'Hey, Dada!' Pete's face appears on his tablet. His eyes look wet.

'Pete, where are you?'

If he wasn't painfully aware of what a heart attack feels like he would swear he was having one.

'Dunno,' Pete's lip trembles and he sniffs. 'The man will tell you; the man knows where we are.'

His mind blanks as he stares at his son.

'Dada?' Pete gazes at him.

'I'm going to come and get you, baby boy,' he promises, 'everything will be fine.'

'Ok,' Pete smiles and disappears as the screen pans to the floor.

And then an unknown voice from off screen,

'Mister Stark?'

'What the hell are you doing with my son?!'


'Where is he?' he rakes their surroundings with his eyes. 'We can have only looked away for a minute!'

'I can't see him,' Clint shakes his head.

'He must be here,' he insists. 'Where could he go?'

'Steve, we've looked,' Clint shakes his head but keeps looking. 'We need help.'

'He must be...' he rakes his fingers through his hair in desperation as he searches desperately between the other shoppers.

'Steve!' Clint snaps.

'He can't have gone far?' he pleads.

'Steve,' Clint hisses, 'all it would take is one bad guy to recognise the kid and they'd know they're in the money. Can you imagine how much money Stark would hand over to get that kid back?'

His stomach drops,

'You really think he's... You think someone took him?!'

'I think we need to get the exits covered,' Clint gets his phone out.

'Not SHIELD; we can't risk anyone knowing he's missing,' he swallows heavily. 'Call Tony.'

'Can't,' Clint looks awkward. 'He blocked my number after I kept spamming him.'

'You did what to...? Never mind,' he shakes his head. 'Give me your phone.'

'Who are you calling?' Clint grimaces as he hands it over. 'Thor will be terrible in this situation, Tasha is away, Bruce would be even worse than Thor...'

'I'm calling my number...' he navigates Clint's phone contacts to find 'Rogers, Steve'.

'You think Stark will answer it?' he sounds amused.

'I'm hoping Jarvis will,' he bites his lip.

'You think the AI will answer your phone?'

'He knows we're together so he'll think it's odd if you call me...' he presses call and raises the phone to his ear.

Please let this work.

Please let Pete be ok...


'What are you doing with my son?' he demands of the empty screen and then hides his surprise when a young man appears.

'I didn't take him!' the guy blurts.

'What do you want?' he asks.

'Don't fire me!'

'You work for me?' he glares.

'He just turned up!'

'What?'

'And did something weird with my phone...'

'You didn't take him?'

'And I've closed the store and please don't fire me...'

'Where are you?' he asks again.

'The Stark Industries store at Columbus Circle,' he guy looks miserable. 'Please believe me?'

'Sir, the image on your screen matches employee details of a David Clarke,' Jarvis adds into his ear. 'No criminal record, no suspicious internet activity, no suspicious known associates. Tracing the call indicates his location as within the mall visited by Peter, Captain Rogers and Agent Barton.'

'Where are Captain Rogers and Agent Barton?' he demands.

'I don't know,' Clarke looks miserable. 'He turned up on his own.'

'I'm on my way,' he gestures for his suit. 'Do not go anywhere.'


'Voice mail,' he reports. 'Jarvis? Jarvis, it's Steve. Jarvis, we need to talk to Tony. It's really very important...'

'Steve, this is never going to...'

'Good afternoon, Captain,' Jarvis interrupts Clint. 'Sir is busy at this time. May I take a message?'

'We lost Pete!' he hisses desperately down the phone. 'Jarvis, bring up all the cameras covering the exits and the surrounding streets. Can you access the cameras inside?'

'Sir is aware of the situation, Captain,' Jarvis replies tersely. 'We shall update you when we can,' the line cuts off.

'He hung up on me...' he stares at the phone and then at his team mate.

'What?' Clint stares back.

'They already knew we didn't have him,' he feels himself curl slightly as if bracing for a blow. 'Someone must have contacted Tony. You were right; Pete was kidnapped.'

'Shit... Stark's on it though; he'll get him back,' Clint puts a hand on his arm.

'Tony is never going to trust me with his sons ever again,' he isn't really listening. He finds a bench against the wall and sits down with his face in his hands.


He quite likes the ice cream.

It would be better if Dada was here. It isn't fair that Dada has to work.

He's never seen this many people before. They all seem very busy and they all have a lot of bags.

Cap has his bag.

He looks at the shiny watches through the window.

Dada has better watches.

He has to pee.

There will be a toilet behind that picture of a man!

Reaching to wash his hands after is hard and he doesn't like the hand dryer; it's very loud.

A man helps him push open the door as he goes back to Cap and Clint.

He can't see them.

He stands still and looks through all the people.

Did they go without him?

He wants Dada now.

He starts walking; maybe he'll find someone.

Maybe he should find the window with the watches.

He can't find the watches either. The watches can't have all gone?

He sniffs as he looks around.

Oh! That says Dada's name. He can find Dada there, or maybe Jarvis if Dada's busy!

This door opens on its own.

'I want Dada,' he tells the man wearing Dada's name on his shirt.

He man looks at him, looks around and then back to him,

'Err, what?'

'I want Dada,' his voice goes funny as his lips sticks out.

'Right,' the man nods, 'ok. Who's your Dad then?'

He sniffs and wipes and his eyes.

'Hey, it's alright,' the man crouches down, 'what's your Dada's name? Do you know his name?'

'Anthony Edward Stark,' he reports with another sniff, 'of Stark Industries.'

The man stares at him, blinks and then says a very bad word,

'Stay here,' he gets pushed behind a desk and the man makes the other people in the shop go out of the door. 'Kid, I can't get the guards to put your Dad's name over the tannoy; there would be a riot.'

'I want Dada,' he hiccoughs and starts to cry.

'I'll call the Head Office,' the man gets out his phone.

The phone looks a little like Dada's phone.

'I don't suppose you know your Dada's cell number?' the man gives him a strange smile.

'No,' he sniffs and rubs his eyes, 'but Jarvis does.'

'Jarvis is a myth,' the man laughs, 'just an Easter Egg.'

'Jarvis isn't an egg,' he takes the man's phone.

'Hey be careful with th... What are you doing?'

'Jarvis can always find Dada.'

'How did you bring that up? I didn't install...' the man peers down at the screen as he connects the phone to Jarvis' home. 'Ok, now it just looks like the Matrix.'

'Jarvis, Cap went away and I want Dada now.'

'Peter,' Jarvis makes the man jump backwards, 'I am redirecting your call to sir.'

'Dear God!' the man says some more very bad words. 'You just got straight through to... Oh, he's going to think...'

'Pete?' Dada appears on the screen.

'Hey, Dada!' Jarvis is great at finding Dada!

'Pete, where are you?' Dada scowls.

'Dunno,' he sniffs. 'The man will tell you; the man knows where we are.'

The man makes a strange sound and Dada stares out of the phone at him.

'Dada?' he gazes at the phone...

'I'm going to come and get you, baby boy,' Dada promises, 'everything will be fine.'