Superheroes

Dreaded Force

Stiles' phone starts pinging. The first message is from Lydia. Her message is less asking what happened and more cursing him waking her up at such an ungodly hour. His Complication, it's handled, message probably does little to assuage her, but one issue at a time. As he responds to the second, from Malia, Scott walks in with wide eyes.

"Am I dreaming or did the thing we didn't want to happen just happen?"

Stiles scowls at Scott and tries to wiggle further under the covers. "It happened. I'll deal with it." He doesn't know how, but he will.

Scott holds up his hands in defeat. "Just checking. Are we dealing with it now or..."

"After sleep," Stiles says firmly, finishing up his messages and tossing his phone back on the nightstand. "I can't deal with this shit now." Scott shrugs and waves goodbye, shutting their bedroom door.

When Derek stays sitting up in bed when Stiles settles back, he flails. "What? I want to go back to sleep. If I try to deal with this shit now, I'm going to make things worse. Tell me I'm wrong." With a sigh, Derek joins Stiles fully in the bed. "That's what I thought. We're not under surveillance anymore, so we'll be fine."

His mantra of We'll be fine carries him through his morning as he gets ready. He already has texts from Steve, Natasha, and Barnes asking what this emergency 'super-important' meeting they're all invited to is about, since apparently, Stark let it spill that it had to do with Stiles. Stiles sends Scott, Kira, and his dad out for sight-seeing to get them out of the Tower. They are very aware of why they're being forced to sight-see for the day, but go along with Stiles' not at all subtle suggestion.

To stack the deck in his favor, he absolutely texts Darcy and asks if Thor is in the building. She says he is and that he's already mentioned this meeting and plans to be there. That makes him feel better.

When Stiles and Derek walk into the common area, Stiles rolls his eyes. It isn't a large gathering, which Stiles is both surprised by and thankful for. The whole scene reminds him of his first introduction in the Tower, except Fury isn't there to glower at them all and Thor is perched next to Dr. Banner with... a bowl of popcorn.

Fair enough. He's not sure if Thor's been hanging out with him or Darcy too much. Probably both.

Natasha doesn't look up from her phone from where she sits next to Clint, who looks like he's asleep with his eyes open again. Steve and Barnes are on the loveseat rounding out the conversation area, also looking unconcerned about the whole ordeal.

The only antsy room in the person is Stark. The rest look... bored.

"Great! The diabolical duo is here so we can get started. You may be wondering why I called you all here." No one answers him, but that doesn't deter Stark from steaming forward. Figuring this may take a while, Stiles nudges Derek toward the overstuffed armchair left open, taking the comfy cushion for himself since he knows the alpha wants to stay between Stiles and the 'threat'. "Friday?"

When nothing happens, Stiles snorts. His battle with surveillance is an open secret, but the fact that no one's surprised at the lack of answer from the AI is icing on the cake. Stark spins on his heel and glares at Stiles. "You can't dodge me forever."