As soon as Peter truly nodded off, his head resting against Tony's shoulder, Tony slowly stretched out his arm and put it around him. He started snoozing himself, but soon Bruce strolled into the room, arms crossed tightly over his chest. A rare frown was tugging at his mouth.

"Hey, buddy," Tony said with a sleepy yawn. "What's up?"

"Why are you napping with the patient?" he snapped. "I thought you were all about giving him space."

"Well, he just woke up," Tony admitted sheepishly. Bruce's eyebrows shot up.

"What? Like, awake awake?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you get me?!"

"Well, Happy was going to get everyone else, but the kid fell asleep. I'm guessing Happy got distracted by the vending machines again."

Bruce sighed and ran a hand through his peppered hair. "Look, Tony, just because he was responsive doesn't mean this whole thing's over. We don't know the extent of his powers, or how well they work."

Peter's eyes shot open. "I think they work pretty well," he commented. Tony jumped up from the bed and pointed at him.

"Have you been fake-sleeping the last half an hour?"

"Mostly."

"Argh!"

"Boys!" Bruce clapped twice. "Pay attention! We need to run some tests. We don't know how Peter's powers are working."

"Seem to be going in a positive direction," Peter said groggily, rubbing his eye.

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Well, apparently radiation poisoning's a good thing now."

"Not if you have quantu--"

Tony held out his hands and shushed them. "I'm going to stop the science geek-out before it happens."

Bruce rolled his eyes and went over to Peter's beside, checking and adjusting some of the machines. "How you doing, champ?" he asked as he unplugged something from the wall, sticking it into a different machine.

"Okay," Peter responded. "How long was I...?"

"Two weeks." Bruce squinted at a small screen and tapped a few things.

"Oh."

"Hey, you took a hard one, kid. I'm surprised it wasn't longer."

Tony tilted his head in confusion. "But I thought you said that--"

Bruce whipped around and gave him a look that sent the words drying up from Tony's mouth. So he didn't want Peter to know he was concerned.

"Peter, do you know how your powers work?" Bruce asked, pressing a button on a machine and adjusting it. He gently pulled a needle from Peter's arm.

"Not really," Peter yawned, with an attempt at a shrug. "I'm really strong and I'm sticky. And I can punch bad guys and sense scary stuff."

"Scary stuff?" Bruce asked with a smile, holding his tablet out over Peter and having FRIDAY scan him. Peter nodded, yawning again as his head slumped against the pillow.

"Yeah, scary stuff. 'N I can...do cool flips...'n stuff..."

As he nodded off again, Tony kissed the top of his head before following Bruce out of the room.

While they were heading over to Bruce's lab, Happy rushed over.

"There you are, Happy, I was wondering where--"

"Sorry, boss," Happy panted. "But I was held up. See, there are two kids here. They claim to be the sons of Evil and they have something for you, but my guards are holding them right now so they don't try anything sticky. Did you want us to take them in or did you want to talk to them?"

Tony's mouth was hanging open. "Uh...Evil has a family?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, sure, I--I guess I could see them."

Happy gave a nod and started leading them to security guards holding back two kids who looked old enough to be teenagers, but dressed like toddlers. One was really tall and gangly, wearing a propeller hat and a bright yellow raincoat. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky! The other was short and pudgy, wearing a shirt with dinosaurs on it and light-up Dora the Explorer shoes. Tony didn't want to know why they even made them in that kid's size.

"Tony Stark, your highness!" the short one babbled earnestly, bowing low to the ground. His brother did the same, making the propeller hat fall to the ground.

"What do you boys want?" Tony asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Come to deliver a gloating message from your sadistic father who put my son in a coma?"

"No, sir!" the short one cried, looking a bit confused. "But my Daddy didn't go anywhere near your family, because he told us so. He only fought you 'n Spider-Man."

"Moving on," Tony said quickly, biting his tongue. It'd just slipped out of his mouth. "If you aren't here to deliver a message from your father, then what are you doing here?"

"Well, we brought something, all right," the tall one explained, scratching his long nose. "But Daddy dun't know 'bout it."

The short one nodded earnestly. "We felt bad for conspiring with him and figured we'd turn in some stuff that might be useful."

"Like what kinda stuff?" Tony asked, heart pounding. The short one gave a nod to the security guard, who was holding a bulging sack. He dumped it out across the floor, sending all sorts of gadgets scattering. Tony spotted rolled-up blueprints with the Saberling logo on them, Chitauri-looking weapons, and a blood-encrusted knife. Tony kneeled and picked it up, fingers trembling with rage.

He wasn't angry with the boys--they seemed like okay kids. Not exactly sweet little angels, though.

"Mind telling me what this is?" He pointedly looked up at the short one, who seemed the smarter of the two. He nodded eagerly, hopefully only scratching the inside of his nose.

"Yup! That's Daddy's old knife, your highness. Never told us what it did, but he never let us touch it."

"And he lets us touch a lotta stuff," the tall one snorted. The short one elbowed him.

"Thank you, boys," he managed, dropping the knife back to the floor and regaining his composure. "This was very grown-up of you."

The boys shared excited looks, then did quick bows. "We humbly thank you, your honor."

The guards escorted them outside, where they gleefully high-fived as they skipped away.

"You're just gonna let them go free?" Bruce asked confusedly. Tony stared after them, a smile flickering on his face. He believed everyone deserved a second chance--even the sons of villains. Stupid villains.

After all, he knew firsthand that you didn't have to live by your dad's rules--you could be your own person.

"They're just kids," he said simply, shrugging as he bent down to retrieve the items. "And if I know anything, you don't have to be the person your dad is."

***

"It's the power stone."

"What?" Tony was having a hard time containing his frustration, so he decided to take it out on a paper cup sitting next to him.

"It's unlike anything I've ever seen before," Bruce breathed, squinting down at the holograms displayed on his desktop. "It's raw, unfathomable, pure power."

"And it's purple," Tony piped up, spinning around in his swivel chair. Bruce grabbed at it absent-mindedly without glancing away from the screen.

"Yes..."

"But how did someone transfer an Infinity Stone into a puny knife?" Tony asked as he stood, moving closer to look at the hologram too. Bruce gritted his teeth and shook his head.

"Not transfer--the stone isn't in the knife. Someone...how do I put this...gave the knife the essence of the power stone."

"Huh?"

"Like...like Wanda and Pierto Maximoff," Bruce tried. Tony could practically see the gears turning in his head. "They didn't each have half of the mind stone, but a little bit of its essence in them. It didn't take away from the stone's power at all, but sure it gave them a whole lot of power."

"So...can the knife be destroyed?" Tony wondered aloud. "I mean, since it's not the stone itself."

"Tony, I don't think you should be worrying about the stone. You're lucky Peter survived, let alone wasn't blown into next week!"

Tony sighed and crushed another paper cup. "But...how?"

Bruce's eyebrows went back to their usual wrinkle as he brought up everything he could about the power stone. Tony skimmed it with an increasing heart rate--power, power, blah blah blah, burns the wielder, blah blah blah, more organic stuff has more power...blah blah blah.

Tony was getting more frustrated by the minute. "So a random dude sticks it in a knife? Why?"

"I'm not sure, and that's the problem."

"Will..." Tony gulped. "Will there be any lasting effects on--on him?"

"Tony, I'm not sure. But..." He sighed. "The essence isn't there anymore."

"What do you mean, not there anymore?"

"Well, it's a bit hard to explain, but the part of the knife designed to retain the stone's energy is totally depleted. Just enough left for me to detect the traces."

Tony's mouth went dry. Pepper had told him that Peter's chest had looked a little purple, but they had just assumed that it was still bruised. Was he going to turn into an alien or something?

"So---so will he turn into a purple alien? Have magic powers?"

"I'll repeat myself: I'm not sure."

"Well, how can you not be sure! It's your job!"

"Tony." Bruce gently shook his arms. "Peter will be okay. Whatever kind of stuff was in that power stone, it must be out of his system by now. Otherwise he'd be dead."

"Did the radiation in his blood balance out the power from the stone or something?"

"Maybe. It's hard to tell. The point is, he's fine now, and he's going to be."

Tony nodded, forcing a smile.