"He's in the elevator?"

Ned nodded. He was sitting at a large round table that had the American flag as a small centerpiece, letting them know that it was where their team was going to have lunch. The other tables in the room were decked out with the proper flag for each team and there were two tables along the far wall of the room that were being manned by some of the convention center staff, making sure that all of the food that was being served was piping hot (or cold, if it was supposed to be) and making sure that those guests that were being entertained were being taken care of properly.

So far it was as amazing as Ned had tried to tell Peter it was. The food was great and there was a lot of it, and the teams were all being treated as first class guests, rather than a bunch of high school kids. None of them knew it was a distraction, really, and none of them cared to find out.

"Yeah."

"By himself?" MJ asked.

She wasn't the only one listening to him, though. The entire team was – including Harriman and the other faculty chaperones who were with them – had listened to his announcement when he'd sat down next to the empty chair that he'd been saving for Peter.

"No. With a bunch of salesmen."

"Does Mr. Stark know?" Abe asked. "He could go Ironman and just blast through the wall or something."

MJ rolled her eyes at that – but she was amused, too, because she knew the other kids couldn't get enough of the fact that they all knew Ironman, personally. She liked it, too, of course, but she was better at hiding that.

"They're not going to have him come in and blow the wall open," she said, before Flash could reply. "The convention center wouldn't appreciate all the damages that it would cause – and doing something like that might hurt Peter, or one of the other people in there."

"Yeah." Ned agreed, of course – and had probably run all of the options through his mind. "Tony knows. He has to. Even if no one called him to let him know, he could have heard when I called Peter. His AI can probably even hack the security camera in the elevator, so they're probably keeping an eye on things, now."

"It's an elevator," one of the Chinese students who was sitting at the table next to theirs and was close enough to have heard the conversation said. "How much trouble can he get into?"

The members of the team looked at each other, uncertainly – all of them remembered the elevator in DC, too – even those who hadn't actually been in it at the time.

"Tony's watching things," Ned assured them. "He's fine."

"He might miss the next round, though," MJ said, practically. She looked at Flash. "If he can't make it, you're going to be up."

The older boy nodded, giving her a cocky and confident smile.

"Who better?"

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Everyone watched as the young bodyguard hung up the elevator phone.

"What did he say?" Varsto asked, impatiently.

He was getting tired of standing around.

"It's an electrical short, they think," the man reported. "They have people coming to fix it, but they said it might be a while."

"How long is a while?" King asked.

"They didn't say." He shrugged. "I think they were afraid to say. It doesn't sound like it's going to be a quick fix."

"We could pry open the doors," one suggested, pointing at the metal doors of the car. "If we're close to the floor, we could probably just crawl out."

"Not very dignified," opined one with a shrug of his own. "But better than sitting here."

"Yeah." Varsto was the one giving orders, Peter noticed, but none of the other men seemed to be afraid of him, or at least they weren't acting like they were. "Tony? You and Ray."

The two men stepped forward, while everyone else moved out of the way, and Peter found King pulling him back by a grip on the back of his shirt.

"Watch out, kid," King told him, acting as if he didn't know that Peter could pry the doors apart without any help.

"He's doing a good job of hiding the fact that he knows you," Alec told Peter. "Don't mess it up."

"Right."

Peter dutifully stepped back and watched as the two men – both who were much bigger than he was but probably not all that much older than him – stepped up to the door and jimmied them apart. Everyone found themselves looking at a concrete wall.

"Well, shit…" the one on the right – Peter knew he was Tony, now – said. "We're between floors, completely."

"Looks like we might as well get comfortable," Varsto said, looking around. It wasn't like there was any place to sit, though. "Tony? Call and make sure the guys know what's going on. Tell them no one makes any decisions more important than what to have for lunch until we get there, alright?"

"Yeah, boss."

He pulled out his phone and Varsto looked at Peter.

"You're not claustrophobic or anything, are you?"

Peter hesitated.

"I don't know. I've never been stuck in an elevator, before."

"Well, don't freak out, okay?"

He genuinely seemed interested in Peter not getting scared. Maybe mobsters weren't so bad?

"He's dangerous as they come and ruthless," Alec assured him. "But he also doesn't want you to freak out. Mainly because he doesn't know how to deal with any scene you might make if you do…"

Peter nodded, more in response to Alec than to the mob guy.

"Yeah. I'm good. Really."

"Good." The mob boss looked around, again, and then looked up. "Ray? Call the people in the lobby. Tell them if we're going to be here for too long, they need to see if they can get some folding chairs or stools to us – see if they can send them in through that hatch on the roof. I'm too old to sit on the floor."

He was also far too large to fit through the hole, so going out that way obviously wasn't going to be an option.

"Will do, boss."

OOOOOOOOOO

"What do we do?"

Tony shook his head, but his eyes never left the display that showed Peter still standing in the elevator, tucked back against the wall somewhat in front of Joel King.

"Nothing we can do, really," he replied to Pepper. "Not without outing Peter in danger."

"He's in an elevator with a bunch of mobsters, Tony," she reminded him unnecessarily. "I'm pretty sure he's in danger."

FRIDAY had easily identified all of the men in the little car, and while they knew King wasn't a threat to their son (probably) they were aware, now, that the others were all under suspicion of assorted crimes ranging from racketeering and extortion to grand larceny and murder, outright. It was a tinderbox waiting for a spark, and Peter was right in the middle of it.

"I know, Pep. FRIDAY says that it's not a play on any of the guys in the elevator. It's a malfunction. She can't fix it because she isn't wired into the system and it would take far too long to even try to get her into it. An electrician specialist has been called and the company dispatch has assured the convention management that she's on her way."

Pepper sighed, also looking at the display. Peter didn't look stressed at all, and that was a little comfort for her. His spider senses must not be acting up, because she knew how he looked when they were.

He didn't even look worried.

But she and Tony definitely were.