𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 , shuri udaku - discontinued

BRAINSTORMING

CITY OF STARS.
30. ❛ brainstorming. ❜

AQUARIA LEANED AGAINST a wall and let her eyes cast down. Everyone else was gathering in the main room where the time tunnel was. She was going to go but a part of her said not to. She didn't want to be given false hope and it seemed that's all everyone was trying to give her.

She knew there was a one-in-a-billion possibility that they could bring back Shuri, that they could bring back everyone. But what if they didn't? She didn't want to relive the pain of never getting what she loved back.

"It's going to work."

Aquaria jumped slightly at the new voice and turned around to see Clint Barton walking up to her with his time travel suit on. He passed a reassuring smile and walked up so he was standing by her side.

"How do you know that?" Aquaria questioned, looking right up into the man's eyes.

"I don't." Clint sighed, swallowing the lump in his throat, "But it has to. I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't."

Aquaria nodded, staying silent for a moment before speaking, "Did you lose someone?"

Clint nodded, sucking in a deep breath, "My family. You?"

"Some friends." Aquaria shrugged her heart aching when she thought of Shuri, T'Challa, Bucky, and some of her friends and family from Talokan.

The two archers stood in silence for a minute. Both obviously in pain but the sun setting down on their faces seemed to represent the hope slowly crawling its way into their hearts.

"Come on." Clint shook out of his daze, "Let's go with everyone else." Aquaria just nodded and followed the man to the platform.

Clint stood up on the platform while everyone was beside or behind the panel of controls. Bruce was tinkering with various buttons and tiny levers.

"All right, Clint. We're going in three..." Clint's helmet flipped over his face as Bruce counted down, "Two... One..."

The ground disappeared from under Clint's feet and he was sucked into the Quantum Vortex.

"Okay, bringing him back. In three, two, one." Bruce announced and flipped the switch and Clint reappeared with his face touching the ground and groaning in pain. His helmet flipped open and everyone rushed forward with Natasha in the lead.

She grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, hey! Look at me." Her hand moved to the back of his head. "You okay?" Natasha helped Clint stand as everyone gathered on the platform.

Clint panted, looking down at Natasha who placed a hand on his chest. In his hand was a baseball glove. "It worked."

Aquaria let out a small laugh of disbelief and turned to smile brightly at Tony Stark who smiled back as he grabbed the baseball glove.

"OKAY, SO THE HOW works," Steve announced out loud. Aquaria was laying down on a gray couch that she had all to herself and watched the group brainstorm ideas.

In front of the team was a hologram screen showing the different Stones. "Now we gotta figure out the when... and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with one of the six Infinity Stones."

"Or substitute the word encounter for 'damn near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones.'" Tony added, standing next to Steve with a to-go coffee cup.

"Uh, not me," Aquaria stated proudly, thankful she's never really encountered an Infinity Stone, or as Tony put it, 'damn near been killed.'

"Yeah, same," Scott said, glancing around at everyone. "I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."

"Regardless," Bruce clarified, walking around the table. "We only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each and these Stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history," Tony corrected with a nod at Bruce. "So, not a lot of convenience spots just to drop in." He slowly walked around the room.

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint mumbled, leaning against the far wall.

"Correct," Tony pointed, walking by him.

"So," Steve replied, the attention back on him. "Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?"

Everyone turned to Thor, who was seated at the back corner of the room. His body was slouched on the chair and his sunglasses were still on his face. He was oddly still.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked, brows furrowing.

"Pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey commented quietly.

Aquaria turned to the man and formed a small ball of water, chucking it right at the god's face. Almost everyone in the room either chuckled at the girl's impulsive way to wake Thor up or was in shock that she could do that.

Thor jumped awake with a groan. He lifted his glasses and wiped the water off his face, looking at the smug princess. He pursed his lips and turned away from Aquaria, drinking the rest of his beer before making his way to the front of the room. "Uh, where to start?" Thor drowsily asked, itching his brow line.

He removed his sunglasses, tapping them on the glass where the holographic pictures were. "Um, the Aether. First, it's not a Stone. Someone's called it a Stone before, um... It's more of an angry sludge, sort of thing, so..." he bent back, putting eyedrops into his eyes. "Someone's gonna need to amend that, and stop saying that."

Rhodey and Clint shared an uneasy look as Thor rambled to himself. "Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the Stone from the Dark Elves. Ooh...Scary beings. So Jane..."

A picture of Jane flashed on the holographic screen and Thor turned pointing at it. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane. She's... She's an old flame of mine. She, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and then the Aether stuck itself inside her."

"And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from and we had to try and fix Jane. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead, and um..."

Thor's vision blurred by tears, "Oh you know. Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so... These things happen though, you know. Nothing lasts forever."

Aquaria scrunched up her face, starting to feel bad about splashing water on his face. She turned to look at Clint who shrugged, though worry was written over his face for his friend.

Tony cautiously approached Thor. "Why don't you sit down?"

"No, I'm not done yet." Thor protested, moving away. "The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence."

"Awesome." Tony interrupted, clapping a few times, "Eggs? Breakfast?"

"No, I'd like a Bloody Mary." Thor smiled, looking at the group who stared back in concern and confusion.

"What's a Bloody Mary?" Aquaria whispered to Tony who rose his eyebrows.