Stuck - The Legacy

Chapter 31 How to have a foolproof plan

"Ok, so. Does anybody have a plan on how to get in there or do we just keep staring at it until everything that we need flies into our hands?", Nate asked once they were all awake the next day. He was growing restless knowing the Avengers could find them at any time now if just one of the team used their powers or gadgets. Since he was the only one without both and therefore couldn't control any of that, he had to trust his team not to do something stupid, and well nowadays trust wasn't something he thought himself capable of having. 

When he said that the team looked instinctively at Allie. "Do you guys know how many times I've been in that tower in my whole life? Once. When I was twelf. You don't seriously expect me to know how we get in there, not to mention where the stuff is we need.", she said and looked over to Morgan. The other girl rolled her eyes and opened the tent. "All of you get back in there. I'm not discussing this in the open streets of New York City." The complied and sat down in a circle inside the tent. 

"Okay listen. I haven't figured out all the kinks yet but here's what we can do", Morgan started. "I go to my Job like normal. There I hack into the calendar of my mother and insert a meeting with Allie into her schedule. You go to the reception desk and ask to go to that meeting. You wait until she leaves her office, then you enter it. Under her desk is a red and a green button. Don't press the red one, that will trigger a silent alarm and the security team will enter the office faster than you can say FRIDAY. The green button reveals a little pad to insert a code. If I remember correctly my father changed it to spell 'Morgan', when I was born, because well nobody knows he has me. At least for now. If you type in the code there should be a door that opens to his secret lab. There should be a little Vibranium somewhere in there. Get that. I don't think there is anything else that could help us in there."

"Okay this is everything great but what if you're wrong and the password isn't 'Morgan'?", Allie asks. "Then contact me." She looks at her in her eyes very serious. "We need that Vibranium. There isn't any at the compound and it is necessary for the portal maker. Understood?" Allie nodded. 

"Nate, I need you to break into the penthouse.", Morgan continued. Nate looked at her surprised. "The penthouse? As in the most secure place in the whole building?", he asked, eyebrows raised.  "No it's not. As much as I love my mom there isn't enough security there, well to be fair it also doesn't seem necessary. When you enter and go in the door a little to the left of the elevators there is a stairway all the way up to heaven", she pointed upwards. Okay it's official she has lost her mind Nate thought. "Morgan, I know I was in the military and all but how fast do you expect me to climb those stairs? Do you know how many there are?" She rolled her eyes once again. "You can use your graphing hook arrow. You do know you have one that pulls you up automatically in that quiver, right?" "Right" He did not know that. "Sometimes I wish you put labels on the new ones" , he mumbled. She ignored him. "There is only one problem and that is the code you have to enter when opening the door to the penthouse, but don't worry tell me when you're up there and I'll open the door for you." Then she turned to the twins.

"You two need to enter the same staircase as Nate, but you go downstairs, it's about three flights so you should be able to handle it. I need titanium and plutonium. I hope you can find it. But it may take a while since it's the storage area. You both need to go, so that one can distract the workers down there, if anything happens. My badge should give you guys access through the door." "But if we have the badge, then you don't, how do you get to your work space?", Billy asked. "Let me worry about that.", Morgan replied. 

"Okay this all sounds great but aren't we forgetting the elephant in the room?", Allie asked. "And that would be?", Morgan replied. "FRIDAY" "Ah right. I can deactivate her for an hour, here and in the compound, so that my father is occupied on fixing her there, while we break into the tower during that time. But that doesn't mean all the other security is off. So you guys have to stick to the plan and if that doesn't work we have to improvise. As long as we make it out with all three materials and before one of us gets captured by the old team we should be good."

Improvise. Well that was something Nate didn't like. In his experience improvisation gets you killed. He knows this isn't war but he can't help but think the wrong move could change everything. Allie still didn't exist and he certainly didn't wanna lose her. Besides this all could alter the future as he knew it. Come to think of it he could make it so that he'd never experience all the trauma he had. But the butterfly effect would be to big to control so he better not change anything. He had a sister to lose after all.

The team decided that they would wait another day to set the plan into action and went to sleep pretty early so they could all have enough rest for the next day. Nate was sitting outside of the tent on the lookout, when Billy came out and sat down next to him. "You can go to sleep", he whispered. Nate looked at his wristwatch in surprise. 'Had it already been two hours?' He nodded when he saw that his teammate was correct, but he didn't move, instead he looked forward again. "Don't really think I can sleep tonight", he said quietly. Billy nodded. "Why don't you try anyway?" Nate didn't move.

"Have you ever been afraid of sleeping?", he asked instead. "Everyday", the other boy replied. "Really?", now Nate looked at him. "I don't think there has ever been a night where I didn't have a nightmare", Billy said. "First there were Tommys, then Mum and well mine. When we moved into the compound it was Nats, Tonys, Bruces, Steves and Buckys" "Now it's mine isn't it?" Billy breathed in heavily. "Yes", he said. "Sorry", Nate said, in a whisper.  "It's not like you can control what you dream." Nate didn't have anything to reply. 

"You know what could help?", Billy said after they'd sat in silence for a few minutes. Nate shook his head. "Talking to someone about it." Nate frowned at that. "I don't wanna burden anyone" Billy shook his head. "It's not a burden to carry. You clearly suffer from survivors guilt and some sort of PTSD you just have to tell someone. Your father or mother or even Cooper or Lila, they were all worried about you and they still are. You are a closed book and suffer in silence, but we all see that you're suffering. Or you could just tell me you know. I'd love some narration for everything I see every second night.", he shrugged. 

Nate smiled a little. "I'll try." There was the silence again. This time it felt more comfortable then before. "You should go to bed", Billy eventually said. Nate nodded and was about to climb into the tent when- "Wait who do you talk to?", he asked. "What?", Billy asked. "You tell me that to help with trauma I have to open up to someone, but you have your own trauma and I never see you talking about it." "I occasionally talk to my brother""mhm", Nate is not convinced. "how often?" Billy shrugged. Nate rolled his eyes. "Once a year or so then." He wasn't exactly asking. Billy stared straight ahead and Nate knew he was right. "Right, then let's make a deal: As soon as we're out of the past. We are going to sit together and I'll tell you everything you want to know if and only if you tell me your stuff?"

Billy looked at him for a few seconds and said:"Deal, now go to bed"