Havoc | Peter Parker ¹ ✓

5 | scolding of a lifetime

"Yeah, and got dropped in a lake," Tony quips back. His tone sounds extremely parental, like she and Peter are children who need to be put in time out. She can't help but feel like she's being made to feel beneath this highly influential man. Just judging by his tone, she can tell that he is absolutely not pleased with the outcome of this scenario.

"How did you even find us?" Peter asks as a means to change the subject from the fact that they did, in fact, get dropped in a lake. "Did you put a tracker in my suit?"

"I put everything in your suit," the older man replies nonchalantly. "Including this heater."

Instantly, Peter's suit begins to billow steam, the warmth such a drastic change that she can feel it even from where she half-lays beside him. She feels a twinge of jealousy at his satisfied sigh. Noticing this, he slightly hesitates before scooping Lena up and wrapping his arms around her, sharing the heat. Her sore back digs into a jungle gym that they seem to be leaning against. But her freezing skin is extremely thankful for the improvement, and she feels her body begin to release its tension.

"A lake," Tony repeats more angrily as if his point hadn't gotten delivered the first time. "Your little friend could have gotten seriously hurt."

"Yeah, I know—"

"Little?"

"—but the guy with the wings is obviously the source of the weapons!" Peter finishes, one of his arms lifting to exaggerate his point. Cold immediately replaces the warmth previously enveloping her left side. "We gotta take him down!"

"Take him down, now, huh?" Tony echoes almost mockingly, as if the idea is laughable. It twists Lena's insides. "There are people who handle this sort of thing."

"The Avengers?" Peter asks almost excitedly.

"No, no, no," the man replies. "This is a little below their pay grade."

"Anyway, Mr. Stark, you didn't have to come all the way out here. We had that, and Havoc's fine. Mostly."

Havoc. So he hadn't revealed her identity to Tony. Lena feels a surge of gratitude for that; being on Tony Stark's radar is terrifying enough as it is. She doesn't need her alias to be known to him yet, either.

Tony pauses. "Oh, I'm not... here."

The Iron Man mask pops open to reveal a hollow inside. Nothing but gaping metal looks back at them, meaning the entire time Tony has been talking to them... he hasn't actually been talking to them. Even Lena feels the sting, but it's worse when she feels Peter's body deflate in disappointment.

"Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you two would be toast right now," Tony's voice says from the intercom in his suit. Which, now that she thinks about it, does sound low-quality, as if he's speaking from very far away. "Thank Ganesh while you're at it. Cheers." Then, addressing them again, he continues, "Look, forget the flying vulture guy, please."

"Why?" Peter fires back angrily, sounding very much like a little kid.

"Why?" Tony demands, sounding very much like an exasperated parent. "Because I said so!"

Lena twitches her lips in a rueful grin as his voice mutters indistinctly, presumably to someone nearby him. She can't believe he's asking them to stay away. He hasn't seen the threat, he doesn't know what the hell they're dealing with. He has no idea that they have enough alien technology to wipe out the entire state if they wanted to. And who knows when backup could come?

"Just stay close to the ground," he orders. "Build up your game helping little people, like that lady that bought you the churro."

Lena curiously tilts her aching head toward Peter. "A lady bought you a churro?"