"Into space. Past Jupiter. Toward whatever took down Thor and Hulk and Carol and T'Challa."
"When you list it like that it sounds worse."
"It is worse," Peter said, but there was no accusation in it, just a kid doing the math and not liking the answer.
Tony studied him for a second. 'This is the part where I find out if the last however many months actually took,' he thought. 'Whether he's ready to hear this next part without me having to spell out every piece of it.'
"While I'm gone, this team runs itself," Tony said. "Same as it's been running since Wakanda. Peter, you're still lead. David, you're still backup command. FRIDAY has full authority to loop in Fury or Peggy if anything gets past what you can handle solo, no ego required on anybody's part if that happens."
David, who had been quiet near the back of the group, nodded once. "Understood."
"I mean it about the ego thing," Tony added, looking specifically at Peter now. "You did good work in Wakanda. Real leadership, not just holding the title. But there's a difference between running a diplomatic mission with backup two comm-crystals away and running actual crisis response with your mentor somewhere past the asteroid belt. If something's bigger than you can handle, that's not a failure. That's just information. Use it."
Peter swallowed and nodded. "Got it."
"I know you've got it," Tony said, softer now. "That's why I'm not worried."
Kamala raised her hand like she was in a classroom, then seemed to realize what she was doing and put it down again halfway. "What if something happens to you? Out there. What's the protocol for that?"
The room went quieter than it had been a second before. Tony felt several sets of eyes land on him at once, waiting.
'Good question,' he thought. 'Better than she probably realizes.' He kept his face easy, kept the answer light without making it dismissive, because dismissing the question would have told them more than answering it honestly.
"The protocol is you keep doing exactly what you're already doing," Tony said. "You protect people. You back each other up. And you trust that I've got more contingencies stacked up than anyone in this room has patience to hear about." He paused. "But nothing's going to happen to me. I've got some very motivated reasons to come back in one piece."
That got a small laugh, mostly from Kamala, who seemed satisfied enough to let the question go. Anna, standing near the back with her arms loosely crossed, didn't look fully convinced, but she didn't push either. She'd learned a long time ago that some reassurances were more for the room than for the truth of the thing.
"Stark Industries," Riri said, changing the subject before it could sit too heavy. "That's covered too, right? You built something for that."
"Handled," Tony said. "J.A.R.V.I.S. runs day-to-day operations, Pepper's overseeing the business side same as always, and I don't need to personally babysit a company that's been running itself fine for months already. That part of my life doesn't need me right now. This does." He gestured loosely around the room. "This does too, but you've got it covered."
Pietro, who had been unusually quiet for him, finally spoke up from where he'd perched himself on top of a supply crate. "You should take me with you."
"No."
"You didn't even think about it."
"I thought about it for exactly the amount of time it took you to finish the sentence," Tony said. "The answer's still no."
"I'm fast."
"You're fast on Earth, where the ground exists and gravity behaves. I don't know what's waiting for us out there, and I'm not about to find out with your sister's twin brother as the test case."
That landed harder than Tony meant it to. Pietro's expression flickered, something briefly serious underneath the usual restless energy, and Tony realized a half second too late what he'd actually said out loud.
"You saw Wanda already," Pietro said. Not a question.
"Yeah."
"How is she."
Tony considered how much to say. 'Not my story to tell fully,' he thought. 'But he deserves something honest.'
"Training hard. Missing the old routines more than she'll admit." Tony hesitated, then added, "Ask her yourself sometime. She'd probably like hearing from you more than hearing about you secondhand from me."
Pietro's jaw tightened slightly, some old guilt working under the surface, but he nodded and let the subject drop.
X-23 spoke for the first time since arriving, her voice flat and quiet enough that the room had to settle to hear it. "How many people are you bringing."
Read more chapters, 30 days ahead of Webnovel Updates on Patreon marvelstark