NINE I PROMISE

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"Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark?" Peter called out as they entered the compound. Lyra had figured that being a vigilante, Peter probably had some connections, however, she did not expect those connections to be Tony Stark. She marveled at the sight; she had always admired the architecture of Stark Industries. However, this compound was completely new to her. She had known that Stark had essentially packed up and left town, selling the Avengers tower to someone else, but she had never thought about where he ended up going.

"Hey, Happy!" Peter finally seemed to find someone that would help them, a gruff man who looked irritated the moment he heard the teenager's voice. How he had earned the name 'Happy,' Lyra had no idea. "Do you know where Mr. Stark is?"

The man sighed, jutting his chin in Lyra's direction, "Peter, who's this? You can't use your... internship to bring all your friends who wanna meet someone famous."

"She knows, don't worry!" Peter reassured, however, the man looked anything but secure once he said that. "We need Mr. Stark's help. Like, bad. Please, Happy?"

He looked at Peter for a while, his eyes flicking over to Lyra before motioning for them to follow him. "You know, kid, you really need to learn to keep your trap shut. No one was supposed to know and how many know now?"

"Just two!" the teenager whined, defending himself. Lyra fell into step behind them, feeling small in this place that was so huge and filled with people. "Besides, she found out by accident, but I would have rather had her find out then... yeah, it's a long story. Still, she's really good at keeping secrets, trust me. Right, Lyra?"

The girl chuckled, nodding as Peter looked back at her, "Yeah, yeah, I'm good at secrets."

"You better be," Happy sighed as he led them into a room where Tony Stark was discussing something with people who looked like they were just students, Pepper Potts by his side. As soon as the door opened and he saw Peter, though, he dismissed the people he was with, leaving just them in the room.

"Hey, kid, how'd you get up here?" Tony asked. "Who's this?"

"This is Lyra, she's cursed and we need your help," Peter explained in a rush, "Um, we need access to all your research on alien artifacts. Preferably missing ones, if you can. It's kind of a long story. Uh, Lyra?"

"No, I'm pretty sure you explained all of it," she added with a small smile as she stepped up to stand next to Peter, "Uh, nice to meet you, Mr. Stark, sorry to barge in here like this, I didn't even know Peter knew you, let alone... yeah."

The man let out a small laugh at this, saying, "How do you think he got such a nice suit? Come on, come with me. What's this about a missing artifact? A curse? Fill me in, this is the first I'm hearing of any of this. Peter, you're supposed to let me know when you wanna mess around with alien shit, you know this. Actually, you're not supposed to be messing with alien shit at all, but that's a whole other conversation that we will be having later."

"We didn't know it was alien stuff until like two days ago!" Peter exclaimed, "I promise! I would have told you, but Happy wouldn't respond to my texts!"

Happy received a glare from Tony to which he defended, "He texts me all the time, how was I supposed to know it was important?"

Tony didn't say anything as they entered a room that had shelves filing throughout the entire room and a few people sitting at computers with holographic projections in front of them. It was probably the coolest thing Lyra had ever seen in her entire life, she had never gotten to see technology like this up close. Even going to a wealthy school like Midtown, they didn't have this advanced technology.

"Don't touch anything," Tony instructed as he approached one of the women in a lab coat sitting at the computers, "Okay, what do you guys know about this artifact? Anything? Or are we just shooting in the dark here?"

"It was removed post-Civil War by Charles Jericho. I think it might have something to do with this symbol, all the women in my family are born with it and when they get cursed, like a birthmark, but when they get cursed it turns white and raises like scar tissue," Lyra explained, pulling up her sweatshirt sleeve. She had been wearing her mother's sweatshirt more often, but for the most part, it was to cover up the dark veins in her arm. She had been avoiding looking at that mark for so long and now she saw the edges of it lined in black, connecting to the dark veins of her arm. It looked sickly, like a part of it was dying. She gulped.

Tony held out his hand, raising his eyebrows at her as if asking for permission. She nodded and he grabbed her forearm, pulling it closer to his eyes before turning to the woman and saying, "Bee, can you pull up anything you can find on artifacts with this symbol? Look pre-civil war, that would be the last record we would have on its whereabouts."

"Sure thing, boss," the woman, Bee, nodded as she began to type things out. Files popped up one after another and Lyra had no idea how the woman could possibly be reading that fast, but her eyes were scanning the screen with an intensity Lyra couldn't match. She saw the star symbol pop up numerous times, but they were all varied and didn't seem to quite match.

After a moment, something lit up green and Bee began to explain, "Queen Vesta's diadem, marked with the star of planet Hestia. It went missing, cursed when she was overthrown and expelled from her home planet, her diadem along with it. No one knew where it went until 1792 when an explorer found it along the coastline of South Africa. Took it home, his wife died the next year so he brought it back to where he found it, no one else seemed to be cursed after that. Went missing in 1868, never to be found again."

"So putting it back, leaving it unharmed is what breaks the curse?" Peter asked, looking a the screen. He seemed like he could feel Lyra's nerves from a mile away, grabbing her hand and squeezing it tightly before letting go once more.

"Hestia is a coastal planet, it's almost entirely ocean, it seems like it just needs to be near water and not in possession of anyone. The only way for it to be fully uncursed would probably be for Vesta to take the thrown again, but she's presumed dead ever since her escape from prison so that's a no-go. Best bet is to find it and return it to the coast. However, it's been missing for almost 150 years so..."

"We're screwed," Lyra nodded, "Yeah, had a feeling. Great, just great."

Peter looked over at the girl with a pout, "But we know more than we ever did before! It's a start!"

"Bee," Tony interrupted, "Pull up anything you can find on Charles Jericho."

She followed instructions, pulling up more files, "Gave up exploration in 1869, died in 1871. Wife died shortly after. Looks like their last known whereabouts were... Maine. Small town on the coast, I have the last known address, but at this rate, it's probably a general store or something by now."

"Thank you, Bee, you've been a huge help, write down the address for me," Tony told her, taking the slip of paper from the woman and handing it to the teenagers. "Don't do anything stupid with this, don't miss school, and I expected adult supervision should you go to this place. You're welcome."

She watched as Peter pulled Tony into a hug, clearly catching the man by surprise. He hesitated, but slowly hugged back as Peter exclaimed, "Thank you, Mr. Stark! You won't regret this, I promise!"