Despite attempting to convince Rhodey and Pepper he could face Leonard alone, both of them refused. Pepper insisted on staying on the phone and Rhodey hadn't let Tony out of his house before he had suited up as well, so Tony was now joined by his own little team. His own little team who, despite what Tony assumed were their best efforts, were not actually helping.

With a large warehouse in front of him, Pepper's voice in his ear, and Rhodey's nervous questions echoing around him, Tony was finding it impossible to think. In front of him was a black screen that he assumed needed some access code to work. Of course, blasting the door off its hinges was always an option, but if there was a chance that Peter would be punished for such an action, he wasn't going to do it.

"Okay!" Tony interrupted them both suddenly and silence fell. "I'm gonna need you to be quiet because I need to focus and you're not really helping."

They both apologised softly.

"I'll just mute myself," Pepper murmured.

A few seconds later, FRIDAY confirmed Pepper would no longer be able to communicate with them until she un-muted herself.

Finally able to think, Tony turned back to the blank screen in front of him. Just as he blinked, the screen came to life. Rather than a four-digit code like he'd expected, an equation appeared. Below it was written Answer = _ _ _. Well, at least he knew the answer was three digits.

Tony only needed a couple of seconds to calculate it before he was punching in the code. After entering the numbers 6 16—Peter's birthday—the lock clicked and the door slowly swung open.

"That's creepy," Rhodey said, watching the door apprehensively.

Tony shrugged and ploughed through the door and down a hall.

"Where are we even going, Tony?"

"Heat signatures on the third floor," Tony told him, hurrying to where FRIDAY was providing five heat signatures, one registering as Peter Stark while the other four appeared unknown even though Tony knew who they were.

"What's the plan?" Rhodey asked.

Tony didn't actually have a plan, but he didn't feel like now was the best time to inform Rhodey of that fact.

"Just do what I say when I say it." Rhodey raised an eyebrow at him. "It's too hard to explain; you'll just have to trust me."

"Alright," Rhodey muttered warily.

After flying over several flights of stairs, they came to an abrupt halt just outside the door Peter was behind. Tony took a deep breath and was about to walk in when a screen flickered to his right, catching his attention. As he turned to look at it, he saw Peter sitting precariously on top of what looked like a strange podium. What was most terrifying to Tony was that he couldn't see how far the ground was beneath him.

"Leave the suit, Stark."

Tony didn't remove his eyes from the screen, so the voice repeated the command.

"Leave the suit behind and we won't drop him."

Tony didn't think twice before climbing out of the suit, leaving it fully functioning and open right behind him.

"Tony? What are you doing?" Rhodey hissed. Tony waved him off, determined to get Peter home safely no matter what.

"Good," the voice said gently, "Now leave your friend behind and come inside."

Rhodey tried to object, but Tony gave him a sharp look.

"You follow the plan," Tony demanded before walking through the door and leaving Rhodey behind.

Rhodey sighed as the door latched behind him. Whatever Tony's plan was, he got the feeling it wasn't well thought out.