"So the finals are set?"
Peter nodded, holding up his phone so he could sprawl on the hotel bed and still be able to talk to Shuri.
"Yeah. Put away your brackets. We're going up against Japan."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah. It starts after lunch – at 1pm."
"Will there be many spectators?"
"There won't be a bunch of parents," Ned told her from his bed, where he'd been listening in on the conversation since it wasn't anything personal. "Obviously. My mom is coming, though, and I know Abe's folks are planning on being there. They wouldn't, normally, but this is a bigger deal, right? They'll want to be there to cheer for us if we win – and hold our hands if we lose. The other teams will watch, and their teachers and some others. Are you going to be able to come?"
The young princess nodded.
"T'Challa says that I may – as long as Natasha is willing to coordinate the security – and I sit next to Tony and Pepper. He is going to contact them on my behalf."
Peter smiled at that. Yes, he supposed it was a little crazy (and maybe unfair?) that he was going to be able to have his girlfriend in the crowd watching the finals, but he didn't feel guilty. Only happy that he was going to be able to see her in person. And maybe introduce her to some of the new friends that he'd made in the other teams.
"That's great," Ned said, before Peter could. "Can you come for lunch?"
"No." She smiled at the invitation, though. "I would not want to become a distraction before your match. Dinner, perhaps?"
"That would be great," Peter assured her. She would be a distraction – even if he told her otherwise, so better that she come to dinner, really. "Let me know if you need me to do anything."
Shuri looked pleased.
"I will do nothing of the sort. You should concentrate on your next match, rather than on me coming to watch. Otherwise you will lose and Ned will blame me."
Ned grinned.
"I wouldn't blame you, Shuri," he told her. "Just Peter for being distracted by a pretty face."
Peter rolled his eyes but noticed the time in the corner of his phone display.
"I have to go, my sweet," he told her, sitting up. "I have an important meeting."
She raised an eyebrow.
"With a pretty girl?" she asked, cheerfully, clearly not concerned. "Should I be jealous?"
"With a teenaged boy," Ned answered for Peter, amused. "And not as cute as you are," he added. "Or as interesting."
"Oh?"
"I'll tell you all about it, tomorrow," Peter promised. "When I see you," he added.
She nodded.
"I will see you, tomorrow."
The call ended, and Ned watched as Peter rolled off the bed and went to the drawer of the stand beside the bed.
"You're going to meet Nico?"
"Yeah. Better to give this to him, now," he said pulling his grandfather's lighter out. "In case things get awkward after the match, tomorrow."
One way or the other.
"Can I come?"
"Sure. You can take a picture of me giving it to him – in case his family would want something like that."
"They might."
"True."
OOOOOOOOOO
"He really thought you had him killed?"
Tony nodded. He and Pepper were in his office, again, but now Stephen was there as well. All of them were having coffee, having met up to discuss getting Shuri to the convention center the next day to attend the academic finals. They were waiting for T'Challa to call, and while they were waiting, Tony had brought up King's visit – and what the topic had been.
"He certainly made it sound that way. Like I had somehow overheard a threat to Peter and had decided to just off the guy with a thought, or something."
Strange frowned at that.
"You don't have something that can give a man a brain aneurism, do you?" he asked, only half joking. "No ultra secret tech, or something?"
Tony smirked, not at all offended by the question.
"It hasn't really been on my list of things I'm anxious to develop, no."
"Tony is enough to give someone high blood pressure and anxiety," Pepper said, a hand on his knee telling him that while it had been true in the past, she didn't feel that way, now. "But you have to be around him for a while."
Stephen smirked at that, and at the way his friend rolled his eyes.
"Was there a threat?" he asked, curiously. "To Peter, I mean?"
"Funny you should ask," Stark replied. He reached over and tapped a display on his desk, and there was suddenly an audio of a conversation. Three men, and Strange didn't recognize any voices – although he knew the names from recent events. And he definitely did hear the name of the boy they were discussing. Of plans to find a way to own him, and then exploiting him and his intelligence. And then the sudden demise of the one who had been suggesting it. "That's Nicholai Varsto," Tony told him, unnecessarily. "Making his own plans for Peter's future."
"Friday was recording them?"
"No. The room was bugged – not by SHIELD – and Friday found the recording. Apparently one of the mobsters is spying on his bosses and is looking for a way to take over some of their business interests. It's pretty convoluted and has nothing to do with Peter so I'm not really too interested, beyond making sure that Joel King stays in charge of things here."
Stephen frowned.
"Because he keeps Peter safe when he's out doing his thing…?"
"Right. Why mess with the status quo? But this up and comer doesn't have anything to do with the threat made to Peter, and he's too small a fish to mess with the pond that he's swimming in, so he isn't a concern of mine. But the conversation was definitely something worth listening to, wasn't it?"
The sorcerer supreme couldn't help but agree.
"The timing was pretty remarkable," he said. "I can understand why King would think you had something to do with it."
"He gives me more credit than I can really claim," Tony said with a slight shrug. "But Pepper was thinking that maybe someone else heard the threat and acted on it. Eliminating it before there even was one, really."
Strange looked at Pepper, who shrugged, and then he echoed the motion with one of his own.
"Or something," he said.
"Right. That would be a mind stone thing, right?" Pepper asked. "Knowing the thoughts of someone and seeing what they're capable of doing?"
"Yes. I would agree." Stephen leaned forward, slightly. "I'd say you're right, too, that it was the power stones that dealt with this man before he really became a threat to Peter. I don't know that the mind stone could have killed him – it might just be able to know the thoughts of people. But the power stone is a possibility as well, since we already know the stones can act in tandem."
"The mind stone heard the problem and the power stone dealt with it?" Tony suggested, and he looked just a little pleased at the thought, Strange noticed.
It was understandable.
"That would be my guess," he replied. "It certainly makes things interesting, doesn't it?"
"That it does," Pepper agreed.
"What-"
"Incoming call from T'Challa," Friday interrupted.
Tony smiled.
"We can finish this discussion, later," he said. "Let's turn to happier matters."
"Agreed."
