Like You'd Know How It Works

Chapter 3

Peter's feet landed on the ground with a thump. He brushed off bits of bark from his suit and straightened his back, facing her. Nebula still had her arms crossed in front of her and her unblinking eyes didn't leave him even for a moment. The intensity of her stare made his hands sweat, but this was too important. He hadn't talked about anything Quantum Realm related outside of that hospital room.

"I don't understand how you even know... you... you weren't even in the room."

"Lang told me about your efforts."

"Lang?"

"The Ant."

"Yes... Yes, I know who he is." He shook his head in confusion. Why would he care?

"Good. We are operating within a narrow time frame here, so if you want to do something about your dead father, fast action is of the essence."

Peter bit the insides of his cheeks, his back stiffening. If he wanted to... Of course, he wanted to! But none of these other fucking morons did! "I... I don't even know how any of it works. Only... only what they told me after... after..." He cleared his throat. "Only the gist of what they did... of what happened."

"We have until tomorrow night to figure out the details then. The day after that they will be returning the Stones. They want to destroy the platform when they are done, therefore eliminating the access we have to the Quantum Realm."

Peter's eyes shot up at her. "Tomorrow night? Are you kidding me? I... I don't know anything about this! How am I supposed to do that?"

She gave her head a slight tilt again, her black eyes still fixed on him. "I'd suggest you start right away." She waved her hand at him. Peter frowned and turned. His eyes wandered over to what she was pointing at. The Stark's family home. "Stark figured out how to use the Quantum Realm right in there. I assume there are records. He will have left some form of access for you. The man was well prepared."

He whirled around, staring at her. "You want me to break into Mr. Stark's home? Into his secure files? In the middle of his wake? Are you insane?"

"I don't want you to break in. I want you to walk into the house and simply access the files he has left behind."

Well, yes. She had lost her mind. How on earth... "What makes you think he'd give me of all people access to any of this? He wouldn't even let me access the blueprints and underlying code to my own suit! He... he didn't let me... Whatever. That whole house is probably armed to the teeth with every possible security feature imaginable. If anything, I'd probably get tazed just trying to open the front door!"

"Have you tried?"

"To break into his house before? No!"

Her eyes still unblinking, fixed on him, were unnerving, to say the least. "To access files on his system."

Peter shook his head in frustration. "No... yeah... I mean, I guess I did. Ned even..." He frowned, the wheels in his head starting to turn. Ned had been able to access the suit and when Mr. Stark had found out he had taken his suit. After that when Peter started going to the lab, they had worked on the suit together, him and Mr. Stark. Sure, sometimes Mr. Stark had to leave to take care of some things and then it was just Peter in the lab with the files right there, but... well, FRIDAY was watching him the whole time. She... she would have told on him had he tried anything Mr. Stark hadn't wanted him to do. There was always some sort of supervision for Peter, because... well... it was him.

"It is quite striking how much you do act like your father." He looked up at her, trying to pull himself from his trip down memory lane back into the present. "You have adopted a lot of his mannerisms, but I would suggest that you try to shed this internalized inferiority that you seem to have taken on as well. Both of you somehow got this notion that you are not good enough to be trusted. Not worthy enough to be fought for and loved as fiercely as you are. Your father dropped everything and traveled through space and time on a quest to bring you home. And you think he didn't trust you to access some files?"

Her arms dropped to her side as she stepped closer to him. "We have a rendezvous with Lang in about 4 hours. That should give you plenty of time to get into Stark's files and get back to the city." She held out a piece of paper.

Peter hesitated. This... this was insane. He didn't even know her. Where the hell did she get this confidence that he would manage to do any of this? "What if you're wrong? What if the files are gone or if I... what if I just can't get them?"

"Then we'll take it from there." She stepped up closer to him and shoved the piece of paper into his hand. It was an address, somewhere in Queens.

"What if it's not good enough to get him back?" he whispered.

"What if it is?"