PETER AND KAELYN WATCHED AS A FLOATING, SENTIENT CAPE TAPPED TONY STARK ON THE SHOULDER. Tony jumped, turning to the cape and saying, "Wow, you're a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?"

Slowly, Peter spun a web down from where they were hiding, revealing himself to Tony and announcing nervously, "Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty..."

"What the..."

"I know what you're gonna say!" Peter exclaimed before Tony finished his sentence. Kaelyn still hid in the rafters, not wanting to overwhelm Tony at first. She suggested the waiting, especially since she knew Mr. Stark was going to have an overwhelmingly negative reaction to both of them being on an alien spaceship.

Before Peter could even finish his sentence, Tony sighed, "You should not be here."

"I was gonna go home —"

"I don't wanna hear it!" Tony asserted, sounding frustrated, "Trouble comes in pairs with you, where's the other one? I know she's here."

Leaping down from the rafters and landing gracefully, her mask came off and her red hair tumbled over her shoulders as she smiled sheepishly at the man, "Hey, Mister Stark!"

While he looked at her disappointedly, Peter continued with his explanation as to why he was exactly where he wasn't supposed to be, "— but it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way..."

"And now I gotta hear it," Tony finished the sentence, looking annoyed at both of them, "Kaelyn, you're here to be the voice of reason and keep him out of trouble, not to be influenced by him."

She just shrugged, "Felt like having some role reversal?"

Tony just shook his head, looking at Peter who was still trying to explain, "We just kinda stuck to the side of the ship! And this suit is ridiculously intuitive by the way, so it's kinda your fault that we're here."

"God damn it," the man muttered. "What did you just say?"

Immediately, Peter stumbled over his words causing Kaelyn to giggle as he stammered, "I take that back! And now, we're here, in space."

Tony stepped closer to the two of them, "Yeah, exactly where I didn't want you guys to be. This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. This is a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend you thought this through."

"No, I did think this through," Peter argued as he grabbed Kaelyn's hand to keep her close.

"I know you didn't. Kaelyn, you're smarter than this. Both of you are. You guys could not have possibly thought this through."

"You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there's no neighborhood," Peter tried to defend with his final point, but he stumbled over himself per usual, "Okay, that didn't really make sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

Looking at the two kids nervously with thinly veiled worry behind his tired eyes, Tony sighed, "Come on. We got a situation." They walked over to the edge of the ledge they were all standing on and Tony pointed down, explaining, "See him down there? He's in trouble."

"What's your plan?" Peter asks, kneeling down, but Kaelyn has a feeling Tony doesn't have much of one judging by his tone.

Tony sighs, "Go."

"Um, okay," Peter sounds unsure, "Did you ever see this really old movie called Aliens? Well, I have an idea. So, like, space is a vacuum, right? So why not just open up a hole in the ship and let this guy get sucked out?"

Kaelyn looked at Peter and grabbed his chin gently with her hand, "You're lucky you're cute. Come on, let's get down there."

Tony landed on the floor beneath them, causing the alien to turn around, finishing his sentence saying, "...could end your friend's life in an instant."

Ever so quietly while Tony had him distracted, Kaelyn put her mask back on and gracefully leaped down behind him and in front of the 'wizard' they were rescuing. Not being bothered by the blades since pain wasn't really her thing, she did her best to pull them out of the man's face. It was easier than she planned considering the alien controlling them wasn't paying attention.

"I gotta tell you," Tony said through the suit, "He's not really my friend. Saving his life is more of a professional courtesy."

"You've saved nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

"Yeah, but the kid's seen more movies," Tony said while Kaelyn got the man out of the way and behind a beam while Tony opened his blaster and shot a hole in the side of the ship before the alien could even take another breath. Just like that, he was gone, but now the problem was trying to seal the hole before it took anyone else with it. The beam Kaelyn and the man were hiding behind broke free, but the man's sentient cape grabbed onto them while Peter shot a web to keep him and the redhead from flying into the void of space. However, the force was stronger as the web pulled Peter with it. As they were flying outside the ship, four spider-like legs protruded from Peter's back and held him from flying out of the ship, taking the man and Kaelyn with it.

Peter exclaimed, "Yes! Wait, what are these?" Using the legs, Peter used them to launch back into the ship, his web still attached. Once everyone was inside, Tony used frosters from his suit to patch the hole, space freezing it instantly and everyone fell to the ground, the tugging force now gone. Kaelyn would never take gravity for granted ever again.

"Hey! We haven't officially met! " Peter exclaimed, greeting the sentient cape, however it flew away before he could say anything else, "Cool."

"We gotta turn this ship around," the man they just rescued suggested.

Tony just sighed, looking lost, "Yeah, now he wants to run. Great plan."

"No, I want to protect the stone."

"And I want you to thank me," the man retorted, causing Peter and Kae to share a look. "Now, go ahead, I'm listening."

The man just scoffed, "For what, nearly blasting me into space?"

"Oh, my God, you two sound like an old married couple!" Kaelyn exclaimed as her suit retracted and she found herself in her regular clothes again. She smiled as she realized she was still wearing Peter's sweatshirt he let her borrow earlier that morning. "Why don't we just figure out what the hell these stones are needed for and how to get them safely back on Earth. I have a test tomorrow, Mister Stark."

"Who are these kids?" the man asked, but Tony just turned around to look at Kaelyn.

"Maybe you should have thought about your test tomorrow when you decided to stow away on an alien spaceship," he lectured, sounding like he was her dad. Actually, her real dad didn't really give a shit about her. He sounded more like Caden. Oh God, she hoped Caden wasn't too worried about her. Turning back to the man, Tony exclaimed, "Who just saved your magical ass? Me."

The man sighed as he walked up to Tony. "I seriously don't know how you fit your head into that helmet."

"Admit it! You should have ducked out when I told you to. I tried to bench you. You refused."

"Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you."

Tony looked at him and jeered, sounding frustrated and overall just lost, "And due to that fact, we're now in a flying doughnut. Billions of miles from Earth with no backup."

"We're back up!" Peter exclaimed as he and Kaelyn raised their hands.

"No, you're stowaways. The adults are talking."

Strange looked at all of them, shaking his head, "I'm sorry I'm confused as to the relationship here. What are they? Your wards?"

Peter shook his head, "No, I'm Peter, by the way, this is my girlfriend, Kaelyn. We call her Kae, though." Kaelyn simply waved.

The man looked at Peter's held out hand and introduced himself, "I'm Dr. Strange."

"Oh, we're using our made-up names. I'm Spider-Man. She doesn't really have a superhero nickname."

"No, I picked one! Well, Beth did!"

Peter was immediately distracted, "Oh? What is it?"

"Okay, okay, so we were thinking like Red Riding Hood because of the hair and the trust issues? I kinda like it," Kaelyn explained with a shrug before turning to Dr. Strange and nodding, "'Sup I'm the Red Riding Hood."

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Tony muttered to himself.

Dr. Strange ignored the kids in favor of looking over at Tony, "Stark? Can you get us home?"

"Yeah, I heard you," the man sighed, looking around as he pondered, "I'm thinking I'm not so sure we should."

"Under no circumstances can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos."

"Yeah, no shit!" Kaelyn exclaimed, now sitting cross-legged against Peter's legs.

Tony held up a finger to quiet her while Dr. Strange kept talking, "I don't think you quite understand... what's at stake here?"

"No, it's you who doesn't understand," Tony exclaimed, suddenly getting loud as he walked over to Strange, "that Thanos has been inside my head for six years. Since he sent an army to New York and now he's back and I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least, on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?"

Nervously, Peter began to play with Kaelyn's hair as they watched the two decide their fate. Kaelyn already knew she was in over her head, but the idea of going up against Thanos, a man who had been terrorizing Earth since she was eleven seemed like something that was going to blow her the hell out of the water. However, with Peter by her side standing behind Tony Stark, a man she fully believed in, she would never back down from a fight.

Finally, Dr. Strange agreed, "All right, Stark. We go to him."

woohoo this is much longer than i thought it was gonna be and considering it's only 1600 words that says a lot about my ability to write long chapters anyway shoutout to my love CARPEDlEMS for picking Kae's superhero name woo