What If... || Avengers: Endgame

Chapter Five || "That'd Be Horse Shit."

At a cabin in the woods, Peter Parker sat outside on a bench near a lake. He started to clap a melody. "Chow time!" he shouted while going to a small tent. "Maguna? Morgan H. Stark, you want some lunch?"

A little, brown-haired girl came out of the tent. Her small face was covered by a blue and silver Iron Man mask. She aimed a toy pulsar glove at him. "Define lunch or be disintegrated, " she demanded in a robotic voice.

Peter kneeled in front of her. "Okay. You should not be wearing that, okay?" He carefully took the helmet. It revealed her mischievous smile. "It was a gift from your dad to your mother."

Morgan shrugged. "Okay, " she gave in.

Peter patted her head. "There you go. Are you thinking about lunch? I can give you a handful of crickets on a bed of lettuce, " he proposed.

She tinily smiled and shook her head. "No."

Peter shrugged. "That's what you want." He pointed at the helmet. "How did you find this?"

"Garage, " Morgan answered. 

Peter frowned and asked: "Really? Were you looking for it?"

Morgan simply shrugged. "No. I found it, though."

Peter smiled as he got up. "You like going to the garage, huh? So do I, " he told her. She took his hand as they started to walk back to the cabin. "It's fine, actually. Your mom never wore anything your dad bought her" he added with a chuckle. Morgan smiled.

Peter's smile vanished when he spotted a black Audi pulling coming to stop a few meters away. The three women got out of the car. He sighed, definitely not looking forward to the discussion about to take place. He sent Morgan inside.

Hope explained her plan and saw Peter looking at her like she was crazy. "Now, we know what it sounds like..."

Sasha took the word. "Peter, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" she tried.

Peter crossed his arms. "Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Wanda, Sasha, and even Hope looked quite puzzled while Peter offered them a drink.

Sasha sipped hers. "Thank you."

Peter carried back on the explanation. "In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home, " he translated.

Hope shrugged. "I did."

Peter shook his head. "No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke, " he disagreed. "And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?"

"A time heist?" Hope proudly proposed.

Peter raised his eyebrows and sarcastically nodded. "Yeah. A time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"

Hope went on. "The Stones are in the past, we can go back and get them."

Wanda nodded. "We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back, Peter."

"Or screw it up worse than he has already, right?" he reasoned.

Sasha shook her head. "I don't believe we would. It can't get any worse, huh?"

Peter tinily smiled. "Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise, " he sighed.

Hope crossed her arms. "Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events--"

Peter frowned and interrupted her. "I'm gonna stop you right there, Miss van Dyne. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future?" he asked unbelievingly.

"No, " Hope quickly answered with a scoff.

Peter nodded and raised his eyebrows. "Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit, that's not how quantum physics works, " he spoke disapproving Hope's way of thinking.

Wanda stepped forward. "Peter... We have to take a stand, " she told him, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Peter sighed. "We did stand. And yet, here we are."

Hope crossed her arms. "I know you got a lot on the line. You have an aunt and a little girl to take care of. But I lost someone very important to me, a lot of people did and I'm sure you did too." Her voice got louder as her desperation seeped through. "And now, now we have a chance to bring him back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even--"

Peter nodded. "That's right, Hope. I won't even." He sighed once again. "You have no idea how bad I miss them, but I got a kid to take care of."

At that moment, Morgan left the house and jumped into Peter's arms. "May told me to come and save you." The three women stared in awe at the little Starks.

Peter chuckled and pecked her on the cheek. "Good job, I'm saved." He turned to Sasha, Wanda, and Hope. "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was..." Morgan whispered something in his ear. "Oh, and the table's set for six, " he added.

Sasha smiled sadly. "Peter, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance, " she tried.

Peter shook his head. "I got my second chance right here, Sash. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."

The three later walked back to their car. "He's scared, " Wanda knew.

Sasha shrugged. "He's not wrong, " she admitted as she got into the driver's seat.

Hope put her hands on her hips. "Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him." The others stared at her. "What, are we gonna stop?"

Sasha shook her head. "No, I wanna do it right." Wanda sat down next to her. Sasha looked between the two others. "We're gonna need a really big brain."

Hope pointed over her shoulder and frowned incredulously. "Bigger than his?"