*TONY
I saw Cap climb down.
"Cap." I called. He looked behind and saw me and Scott sitting on the car. "Sorry, buddy. We got a– problem." I said.
"Huh. Yeah, we do." Scott said and I irritatingly rubbed my eyes and my head. Then, I opened the car door and looked at Steve. Scott went down the car and paced.
"Well, what are we gonna do now?" Steve asked.
"You know what? Give me a break, Steve. I just got hit in the head with the Hulk." Tony said.
"You said that we had one shot. This– this was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or nothing–" Scott said.
"You're repeating yourself, you know that? You're repeating yourself." I said.
"You're repeating yourself. You're repeating yourself. You know–"
"Dude." I said.
"No." Scott said.
"Come on." I said irritatingly.
"You never wanted a time heist, you went on board with the time heist–"
"I dropped the ball." I said.
"You ruined the time heist." Scott argued back.
"Is that what I did?" I asked angrily.
"Yeah!" Scott said.
"Are there any other options with the Tesseract?" Steve asked with no hope at all.
"No, no, no. There's no other options. There's no do-overs." Scott then, closed the door hardly. "We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that– Bye, bye. You're not going home." Just then, I remembered something about the Tesseract.
"Yeah, well if we don't try, then no one else is going home, either." Steve said.
"I got it." I said as I dropped the helmet on the car and went down the car and look at Steve. "There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State." I said and I slightly punched Steve's chest. Then, he got the idea and began to think. I signed him the 'what now' look.
"When were they both there?" Steve asked.
"They were there at a– I've a vaguely exact idea. If only Y/N was here. She knew it all so well." I said.
"How vague?" Steve asked.
"What are you talking about? Where are we going?" Scott said.
"I know for a fact they were there–" I said.
"Who's they? What are we doing?" Scott tried to interfere.
"And I know how I know." I said.
"Guys, what's up? What is it?" Scott said.
"Well, it looks like we're improvising." Steve said.
"Great." I said.
"What are we improvising?" Scott asked so confused. Then, Steve walked to Scott giving the Scepter.
"Scott, get this back to the compound." Steve said.
"Suit up." I said as Steve walked in front of me. We began to type on the GPS.
"What's in New Jersey?" Scott asked.
"0-4," I said.
"0-4." Steve repeated.
"Uhh, 0-7." I said.
"0-7" Steve said.
"Excuse me..." Scott said.
"1-9-7-0." I said.
"Are you sure?" Steve asked.
"Cap. Captain." Me and Steve looked at Scott. "Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back." Scott gave a massive nerve-wrecking speech.
"Thanks for the pep talk, pissant." I said to Scott. Then, I turn to Steve. "Do you trust me?" I asked.
"I do." Steve said.
"Your call." I said as I took a deep breath.
"Here we go." Steve said and we began typing the last two numbers and the suit engulfed us and we arrived at New Jersey.
After changing the suit, me and Steve walked inside the Military base.
"Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?" I asked.
"The idea of me was." Steve said.
"Right. Well, imagine you're SHIELD, running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?" I asked as I looked around.
"In plain sight." Steve said as we stopped and looked at the bunk ahead. I saw two men went inside the bunk. I doubled tapped the glasses, Y/N gave me, and saw the elevator down. Me and Steve went inside and used the elevator. Then, we saw a lady on the elevator. She was looking at us weirdly, I looked at Cap and went forward to cover his face. Just then, the elevator stopped and it reached my destination.
"Good luck on your mission, Captain." I said, keeping it professional.
"Good luck on your project, Doctor." Steve said and I walked out. I looked at him one last time and double tapped my glasses to find the Tesseract. Then, I walked and saw the Tesseract.
"Gotcha." I said and I saw a briefcase near me. I went to grabbed it and used my repulsor to create a metal burner for me to open the vault. Then, the vault opened and relax as I saw the Tesseract.
"Back in the game." I said and I grabbed the Tesseract and opened the briefcase.
"Arnim, you in there?" I heard a man's voice and I panicked. "Arnim?" The man said again. I closed the briefcase and saw the man looked at me. I widen my eyes and tried to ignore the familiar face. I walked to the other side and that man stopped me again. "Hey. Door's this way, pal."
"Oh, yeah." I said and I casually walked to that direction. Then, he walked near me.
"I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you seen him?" The 1970 dad asked.
"Yeah, no, Dr. Zol– No, I haven't seen a soul." I said and awkwardly hit the chair. "Pardon me." I said.
"Do I know you?" He asked. Yeah, your future son, dad.
"No, sir. I'm a– a visitor from MIT." I said as removed my glasses and put out my fake ID.
"Huh. MIT. Got a name?" He asked. Oh shit.
"Uh– Howard." Fuck! Why did I say that?! It slipped out!
"Well, that'll be easy to remember." Dad said.
"Howard--Y/L/N." I said.
"Huh. Are you somewhat related to Y/Father's/Name?" He asked.
"Uh. No, sir." I said.
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's alright." I said.
"You just have the same last name." He said and I nodded my head. Then, he went near me.
"Well, I'm Howard Stark." He said as he showed a hand to shake. I grabbed his hand, but he let me shake with his index finger.
"Hi." I said.
"Shake it, don't pull it." Dad said and I chuckled.
"Yeah." I said.
"You look a little green around the gills there, Y/L/N." Dad said. Oh, it's obvious.
"I'm fine. Just, long hours." I lied.
"Wanna get some air?" Dad asked and I began to analyze his face. Hate to admit, I also missed him. "Hello, Y/L/N." He said and I snapped out of my trance.
"Yeah. That would be swell." I said.
"That way." Dad said and showed me the direction.
"Okay." I said. Just then, I start to walk.
"Need your briefcase?" Dad said. Shit! I looked behind me and grabbed the briefcase from him. I smiled then, we walked. "You're not one of those beatniks, are ya, Y/L/N?"
Then, we went to the elevator.
"So, flowers and sauerkraut. You got a big date tonight?" I asked noticing what my dad's holding.
"My wife's expecting. And, uh– Too much time in the office." I looked at him and began computing from my birthday.
"Congratulations." I said.
"Thanks. Hold this, will you?" He asked as he let me hold his flower and the sauerkraut.
"Yeah, sure. How far along is she?" I asked very curious.
"I don't know– Uh–" He said and began to measure mom's bump. "She's at the point where she can't stand the sound of my chewing. I guess I'll be eating dinner in the pantry again." Dad said while fixing his tie. Y/N was like that whenever she's 8 month pregnant with the kids. I smiled big knowing what was the story mom told me why she don't like dad's chew sounds when she was pregnant with me. Now I know.
"I have kids, too. 2 little girls and 1 little boy." I said.
"A girl would be nice." Dad said. That's why he likes Y/N... "Less of a chance she'd turn out exactly like me." Dad said.
"What'd be so awful about that?" I asked.
"Let's just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interests." He said and patted my arm as he walked out of the elevator. We continued talking until, we're outside.
"So, where are you at with names?" I asked.
"Well, if it's a boy, my wife likes Elmonzo." Dad said. Yuck!
"Huh, Might wanna let that stew awhile. You got time." I said.
"Let me ask you a question." He asked and I stopped in front of him. "When your kids were born– were you nervous?" He asked.
"Wildly. Yeah." I said and nodded my head.
"Did you feel qualified? Like you had any idea how to successfully operate that thing?"
"I literally pieced it together as I went along, I thought about what my Dad did, and–" I slowly stopped and saw Steve showed me a thumbs-up.
"My old man, he never met a problem he couldn't solve with a belt."
"I thought my dad was tough on me. And now, looking back, I just remember the good stuff, you know. He did drop the odd pearl." I said.
"Yeah? Like what?" He asked.
"No amount of money ever bought a second of time." I said quoting what he told me before.
"Smart guy." Dad said. Yeah, you were.
"He did his best." Dad said.
"Let me tell you. That kid's not even here yet, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him." Wow, dad. Thanks. I thought. Then, he walked. I looked at Steve and tapped the briefcase.
"Good to meet you, Y/L/N." Dad said and he got the flowers and the sauerkraut from my arms.
"Yeah, Howard– Everything's gonna be all right." I said while handing his finger. I went near him and hugged him. "Thank you– for everything– you've done for this country." I broke the hug and I walked near Steve. Mission Accomplished.