The team was scattered. In fact, no, the teams because apparently even space and high schools have their own heroes. Either way, the Universe's Mightiest Heroes were scattered to the wind. Across different planets, heck they could be in a different universe for all they knew. Each having their own knowledge of the mission and thus different missions. The Earth team had to keep Vision away from Thanos' children (As well as remove the mind stone) and the space team had to keep Thanos away from Earth.
Neither team was faring well.
Until they did.
They almost had him. They were so close, so damn close. Peter watched it play out in his brain like a movie. He could feel the gauntlet becoming easier to pull as the milliseconds ticked on, he could feel his cells buzzing with excitement at the prospect of they had almost won. Victory was quite literally in his hands!
Then he heard the panic in his mentor's voice. "Don't, don't. Don't engage. We almost got this off!" shit, shit! Peter didn't have time to filter any more distraction in, he had to get this glove off before Thanos woke up and it seemed like this other Peter was going to jeopardise it. Thanos' body shook. Pete guessed that Quill had hit him or something. 'No, no! Stop! Don't be an idiot' he screamed internally, trying to get a better grip. Peter felt Tony let go of the gauntlet and panic spread through his body as he realised– this was up to him! It was his mission to get this stupid thing off of his hand.
He couldn't fail.
"It's coming, it's coming, it's coming!... I got it, I got it!" Peter said quickly.... But he didn't because he should have fallen backwards with his effort of yanking it free– and he did because for a faint second he could feel the air rushing and collapsing behind him, like he was leaning against a boulder that had been moved– yet there was an obstruction and he was pulled in the opposite way–... then he felt the air leaving him as he was pushed backwards and landed roughly on the alien soil. He saw the antenna woman being flung away. "Oh, God," he said to himself.
Peter cast his web and went to rescue her. He was scared, he was tired and he was pissed. He understood that they weren't robots and that they had emotions, but they also had rationality... But they were heroes for God sake– and Quill was a fully grown man in charge of his own team! He couldn't have held back attacking him after they had gotten the metal glove off of the mad man. Peter kept thinking about that as he wrapped his whole body around the female alien. He readied the spider legs for the oncoming impact, even closing his eyes in anticipation, but that did not happen. "Oh come ON!" he couldn't help but shout; why was this happening all the time. Every time he went into free flow something stopped the normal trajectory. If he believed in fate then he would jump off a building with no parachute and the belief he would somehow be saved by a pigeon or something stupid; it seemed the universe didn't want him going splat any time soon.
"Hey– Kid– you alright?" and then there were frantic hands pulling him away from the girl and the young boy opened his eyes. His surroundings were completely different to that of five seconds ago and he went into overdrive mode. Was Thanos using the reality stone on them? Quill– The stupid idiot– had told them all about his encounter with Thanos on Elsewhere, how the room looked so real but it was so fake. "Kid- Pete!" he snapped out of his panic and came face-to-face with Tony. The man had his suit on but his helmet was retracted and Peter could see a conflict of emotions in his tired eyes. "Calm down, please, we have enough on our plate right now and 'hyperventilating teenager' is not one I want to add to the list," he said, running a hand down his face.
"Teen- teenager? Stark, that wouldn't be on the list if you hadn't have brought a boy into all of this!" came a frustrated voice.
Peter looked slightly diagonal to Mr. Stark and saw that it was Steve Rogers. He was looking a little worse for wear, longer hair, ragged beard and multiple cuts on his face. Peter couldn't even find the energy to defend himself. He blocked out the two men as they argued together and focused on his surroundings. Sometimes, whenever danger is approaching, he gets these vibrations, whenever there is something dangerous near? They aren't reliable and they don't work 6-times-out-of-10, but he wasn't feeling anything right now. "Where are we?" he asked curiously.
"I can't pinpoint our location," Vision stated, smiling at Wanda. He hadn't noticed her! "Something is making my... My head goes weird whenever I try to access the frame," he replied, smile gone as the pain went through him. The young witch immediately went over to him and drew him into a hug. Right now they could breathe. Right now they could draw comfort in their family.
It didn't install all of them with this thought.
Clint was talking with Natasha the whole time, his eyes were wide and panicked as he stared at the contraption around his ankle. "I- I- Nat! They can't know I'm not at home!" he said, frantic. "I- I've just gotten back with them! I didn't— This wasn't even my choice— do anything!" Natasha was silent as she rubbed his back, letting him spill everything as he calmly panicked.
"It will be— No, look at me— it will be all okay. If anything goes wrong then we can fix it," Natasha said softly, holding her hands to his face in hopes of grounding him.
The Watcher gazed upon them silently as they all did their own things. He didn't realise that bringing them all here would cause so much panic. Well, he did, but they weren't panicking that they were in a massive cinema. He thought they would love the chance to breathe after the Hell they have been through. "Urm- h- hi!" he called, revealing himself. The Avengers (and co) looked up and saw him on a balcony. It looked so out of place in this room. It looked like a human cinema, but up at the top wall there was a silver balcony in front of a door.
"And who may you be?" asked Rocket. He felt weird without a gun strapped to him. Probably what made him run into Groot's shoulder and stay there. "And where's my gun?"
The person must have done something because the balcony fencing parted and steps appeared. He walked down them, picking the pace a little. The group got on guard a little as he came closer, they saw he looked around Peter's age but they knew not to underestimate— Especially people that can teleport them all to a- a cinema. "Hi!" he said, "You can call me River,"
"What, in the name of a high school project, have you done?" Tony asked, crossing his arms. River rolled his eyes with a smirk.
"I'm not in high school Mr Stark," he replied, "I graduated last year," Tony frowned.
"You like... sixteen,"
"Seventeen," he answered, "Anyway. I've brought you here to kill two bird with one stone-"
"Why are you killing birds?" Drax interrupted, Mantis nodding frantically behind him. River paused, his mouth agape, before looking at the Guardians. They shrugged.
He cleared his throat, "I mean metaphorically,"
Drax nodded, his arms crossing. "So you were lying,"
"What- no!"
"Uh, yes. You said you were killing birds, you aren't. Therefore— Liar," Drax reasoned, a smirk on his face. River rubbed his face and held back a scream. He forgot this is how Drax was.
Quill was getting annoyed though, he stormed past and went in front of the teenage boy. "Ignore him; he is stupid ("Hey!"). What. Are. We. Doing. Here?" he asked, his fists clenching.
River 'Ooohed'. "There's that temper that doomed the universe!" Peter Q. froze, his eyes widened.
It was true then. Quill couldn't move. His whole body was on lockdown as he processed what this meant. His outburst had made them lose. He just... He couldn't help it. All these emotions were swirling inside of him. After everything he's been through since they picked up Thor. The fear, being strong for his team. The panic when Thanos took off with Gamora. He didn't have an outlet. It was just *boom boom boom*, next mission, next quadrant, small fight with Thor's team where he nearly killed a child. Then they had him. The massive a-hole was right in front of them and he couldn't help himself; finding out Gamora was dead was his final straw and with nobody there to pull him away... To help him when they could see he was not okay... Nebula was right there and she let him. Everybody knew that Peter Quill didn't exactly have the patience of a Saint. He didn't control himself. No filter and no control.
And then he hit him.
"I... I doomed the universe?" the mirth in River's body language disappeared as he took in Quill's defeated posture. "Oh... Oh wow," he took a seat. Head in his hands.
The room grew awkward as they knew what this meant. They failed. Thanos would have successfully gotten all— Oh shit. Eyes turned to Vision. He was being hugged and cried on by Wanda while he rocked her in comfort and whispered. Shit. Steve and Tony glanced at each other, their earlier debate over Peter long-forgotten as they knew what this meant. Every time they had won, it had been as a team. Against Loki, they won. Against Ultron, they won. Even when the team was Nat and Steve against HYDRA. They had won. Tony beat Killian because he, Harper, Rhodes and Pepper worked as a team. When they were fractured nobody won. In fact, a life changing injury happened because of that. (Nobody thought of the fact that all those times as team battles, Clint was on the winning team.)
"Clint," the archer didn't move from where he was sitting. He and Natasha had found two seats with their names on and the former was sitting with his head on his partner's shoulder as she tried to reassure him he would be fine. "Don't worry, nobody knows you're gone. Time is frozen for everybody in your universe," he explained gently.
Clint could have cried from relief but he clocked on— Finally— to the people he had never met before in the room with him. Natasha rubbed his shoulder as she angled herself to shield him, letting him cry without the shame he would feel.
One of the things she loved about him was that he didn't mind being vulnerable in front of herself or Laura. In fact, it was because of this she learnt to open up to him. One night, around a month after he had rescued her, he had woken up from a nightmare in their safe house. It was about his time before SHIELD, before the circus, and it sent him spiralling. While he may have woken up, Natalia could tell that he was still trapped. After that ordeal, it was her teen a few weeks later. Usually she would scream at him until he left her alone... But this time? This time she let him hold her as she cried herself to a stupor. Because he had been vulnerable with her.
And Laura, Laura's his wife. Clint is always vulnerable around her. She imagined they were like this way before marriage. Clint has always tried to be a positive influence on his family, to show them that emotions matter and that it doesn't make you any less of a man, or a woman, to show your feelings. Nat knows that that belief is something his son never forgets as he did when he was a teenager. He hopes his daughter knows that it doesn't make her any less valuable, doesn't make her weak, to show her feelings either. (As a little girl called Natalia did)
"Why are we here, young man?" Thor asked, he was still burning with adrenaline.
"Right...." he tore himself away from the DangerTwins. "There is a woman I am going to show you, she will also be here in a second with a couple of other companions. I can't stop what is about to happen... Not really, but I can show you about this woman so that you can learn to understand more about her before you meet. Now, the people I will be bringing will not be from your time but from 1995," this sent them all in tiny whispers.
With a click of his fingers, the teenaged boy managed to make four people appear. And a cat?
Three people (and the cat?) were strangers.
One of them they knew.
"Fury?" Most of the Avengers questioned. They didn't have a clue where he was. In fact, Natasha had tried to get into contact with him before they got to Wakanda with no luck.
"Where the fu—"
"Fury! There's kids here," Steve said quickly.
"- are we?" he finished, glaring at the man.
But wait...
"You have two eyes?" Everyone stared at Tony. "What? I've only ever seen the man with one," he defended. That Nick Fury had a gash just above his eye, it had butterfly stitches of sorts on it but heavily bruised. The blonde woman was wearing jeans, a white graphic shirt and a baseball hat. She looked weary, suspicious, her hands glowing as she looked around. The last two humans seemed to be a pair. The older woman had the younger one behind her, casual jeans and a shirt, looking aghast at the blonde.
Then there was the cat. The cat meowed softly and went in between the blonde woman's legs and she stumbled over it. "No, Goose!" she murmured, pushing it away. Goose hissed slightly and went to Fury, perching in his shoulder. "Where are we— Fury, is this your doing again?" she asked sternly. She held her hand out.
"What?"
The woman glared at him. "Your communicator; you obviously can't be trusted with it," she berated. They watched in amusement as the disgruntled man slapped the... Really old pager into her hand. The woman finally noticed that there were people staring at her. "You all look like shit," she commented dryly.
"Thanks," Tony replied with the same snark. "Who the Hell are you again?"
"I am Vers from the planet Hala," she explained.
The Guardians and Thor gasped/pulled the facial expression and stared at her, "Hala?" Questioned Rocket, his eyes wide.
The people from Earth looked confused. Why did they look so shocked... So, on edge? "Excuse our primitive Earth knowledge..." Shuri started, ignoring the look T'Challa gave her for her sarcasm. She was in a room full of unknowns and she decided to be inappropriate? "What is Hala?"
Thor didn't take his eyes off of the blonde woman. "It was the home of the Kree," he explained. "The Kree are a militaristic race from the planet Hala. One of the most technically advanced races in the galaxy. Politically, they are a powerful intergalactic state, controlling a vast fascist empire," Thor explained. Vers looked proud as this man described her people. (They are her people right? Being in that photo doesn't mean anything.) "Us Asgardisns don't have the best relationship with them," Vers narrowed her eyes. "Kree are not a nice race,"
"We are heroes," Vers defended, glaring at the lying man. "You have been told deceitful stories— No doubt by the Skrulls,"
River interrupted them.
"As... Riveting as this conversation is, we are short on time—"
"I thought you said that time has stopped?" interrupted Vision. River paused and closed his eyes, bringing his fist to his mouth. Some of the group laughed at the image. Vision looked between everyone before slowly taking a seat, Wanda laughed and sat next to him.
River cleared his throat. "As I was saying... Let's get started. Please can you all introduce yourselves first and I will give you a small bit of information regarding the timeline. When you have introduced yourself, find your seat,"
"Steve Rogers— Captain America," he stated, making hesitant movements towards his seat. Finally finding it.
"Tony Stark. Iron-Man," Tony was a lot smoother finding his seat. "Hey. Why am I on the middle row," he grumbled. He smiled though, when he saw who was behind him.
"I am Thor Odinson, King of Asgard and the protector of the nine realms!" he introduced and went to shove his hand in the air as if he had Mjölnir. "Oh, right. No hammer," he said sadly. He still wasn't used to not having it. Stormbreaker was adequate but it was no Mjölnir.
The scientist cracked a grin at the demi-God, knowing exactly what he was missing. "I'm Bruce Banner," he said meekly, slightly overwhelmed with the amount of people in one room. Especially people he didn't know. Now that they weren't mid-battle, he was also getting slightly freaked out over the sentient tree and talking raccoon.
"Aka the Hulk!" Tony called in a sing-song voice.
"A man of that size is called 'the Hulk'?" Nebula questioned, looking Bruce up and down. "Hard to believe," Bruce flushed red.
Natasha raised her eyebrow, "Moving on. Natasha," she... Somewhat introduced. She got a lot of looks to which she simply shrugged at. "River never told us we needed to use full names," was her defence, sinking into her chair.
"Hey! I'm Clint," Natasha rolled her eyes fondly at his extroverted personality.
"Such a goof," she whispered. "Hope your kids take after you in that sense— Well, hopefully one of them takes after Laura," she amended.
"Uhh hi! I'm- I'm Peter Parker and I'm Spider-Man. Can I just say it's an honour to meet you all and- and I'm sorry that I attacked a bunch of you in Germany," he said hastily, looking at everyone he remembered he fought. 'Do not get on the bad side of the Avengers, Peter,' he told himself. He quickly found his spot and relaxed a little when Tony turned and gave him a comforting smile. He loved seeing this side of Tony, different from the man on TV and the man he had been when they first met. "Mr. Stark, I'm sorry I couldn't-"
"You're not the Peter that holds the blame, kid. Trust me," Tony said, not letting him finish.
"I am Princess Shuri of Wakanda," Shuri said, followed by her brother's introduction as the King. The teenager went to her seat and found she as next to the only other person that appeared to be similar to her age. "Hi Peter!" she said.
Peter froze. She is a Princess. "Uh- h- hi... Hi. I'm Peter..."
Shuri laughed, "I know. You just introduced yourself and I just called you by your name," she stated as T'Challa sat down next to her.
He placed a hand on her shoulder, "Perhaps let's not terrorise the young boy," he said but a grin of amusement was evident on his face.
"Rocket. If you call me a raccoon I will gauge your eyes out," the... non-raccoon stated.
"I am Groot," and the pair found their shared seat.
"Drax the Destroyer!" the beefy alien said loudly, puffing his chest. "I don't like shirts," he added, sitting next to a reluctant Rocket.
"Nebula," the blue lady said as she was walking to her seat. They could tell she was the no-nonsense type. She also seemed to be something out of Cyberpunk.
"Scott Lang! Also Ant-Man,"
"Sam Wilson. Falcon,"
"James Rhodes, but you can call me Rhodey,"
The man with the metal arm was next, his hair tied into a bun. "James Barnes, but you can call me Bucky. I'm the White Wolf," and he sat next to Steve.
Fury made a noise, "Sergeant Barnes?" he questioned, finally snapping out of his shock that Steve Rogers was alive. "Barnes and Rogers, well I'll be. The two that gave their lives and they're right here in this room. What happened to you both?" he questioned, crossing his arms.
Bucky stiffened and didn't know where to look, how to breathe; what was he supposed to say? That he was turned into a killing machine? HYDRA got him? "It's a long story, Director Fury," Steve supplied. He also wasn't ready to talk about 70+ years as an ice pop.
"Director?" the man questioned. "It's agent,"
"Can we speed this along? I have Skrulls to find and a team to reunite with," the blonde woman interrupted, everyone could see she was getting antsy and her... Hand lit up a few times. "I'm Vers, as you know, with the Kree Starforce. That is Nick Fury and the cat is—"
"Carol," if they weren't slightly scared for their lives, the group would have laughed at the annoyed expression on the Kree ladies face. "You are Carol Danvers. Not this Kree person. I tried to keep my mouth shut but..." she trailed off. The group could see that she was keeping a girl behind her. The girl looked around ten years old. Bucky could see the conflicting emotions in her eyes, emotions that he could resonate with as soon as he saw them. Identity crisis.
Instead of replying, Vers/Carol sat at her seat.
River looked at the blonde woman, "What would you like us to call you? Whatever you choose, everyone has to abide by it. We don't want to make you uncomfortable," he said, looking at her with sympathy.
She clenched her fists.
On the one hand, she trusted Yon-Rogg. He is... Everything to her and he would never lie to her. (Right?) But on the other hand, she held the photo— The proof— that showed she was on C-53. But... Maybe she was undercover like Lawson... Mar-Vell. Maybe her Lawson is Carol.
"Vers," she said. Vers looked at the woman who had the outburst. "My name is Vers. What's your name?"
"Maria Rambeau, this is my daughter Monica," the woman answered. Instead of anger or confusion, Maria held sadness and pity as she looked at Vers, taking her seat next to her. Monica looked at Vers with big, sad eyes and a pout. She couldn't help but give her a quick hug and sit back down. Vers froze at the contact. It felt so unnatural and yet familiar.
"Wanda Maximoff," Wanda said softly, gently reminding the room what they were doing. "Scarlet Witch,"
The rest of the introductions were done to a full undertone, some feeling for the conflicted woman and some not wanting to disturb the peace.
"I was going to show you a future event that nobody has been part of, in fact it has just happened, just to give Vers and her team a break but... I think that I will go shreds in normal order so that her mind is at ease for her mission," River stated quietly, walking back up his steps.
They sat as the screen lit up, the words: CAPTAIN MARVEL gracing the screen.
—-
let's say i'm a lover of hurt/comfort XD
also if you want to visualise River:
random pic off pinterest^^