╔═════════╗
𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑽𝑰𝑽𝑶𝑹
-𝒔𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏
╚═════════╝
╔══════════╗
eight.
experimentation
╚══════════╝
❝WITH OUR BACKS TO THE WALL,
THE DARKNESS WILL FALL. WE
NEVER QUITE THOUGHT WE COULD
LOSE IT ALL.❞
⋆
"CLINT, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it." Bruce explained as Nebula tinkered with the controls of the suit.
"Wait a second, let me ask you something," Rhodey piped up, standing beside Christina. "If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just go back and find baby Thanos, y'know? And..." He mimed tying something around the babies neck before pulling on it and choking; implying they kill baby Thanos by choking him.
"First of all, that's horrible!" Bruce exclaimed, holding out a hand.
"C'mon," Christina chuckled with a warning tone underneath. She cocked a brow.
Rhodey's shoulder's dropped. "It's Thanos." He looked between the two.
"And secondly, time doesn't work that way." Bruce continued, "Changing the past doesn't change the future!
"We go back, we get the Stones before Thanos gets them, Thanos doesn't have the Stones." Scott offered hopefully. Rhodey motioned a hand to him, looking up at Bruce. "Problem solved."
"Bingo," Clint mumbled, his voice an octave deeper than usual.
"No, problem not solved." Christina shook her head, looking over her shoulder at him.
"That's not how it works." Nebula hushed. Now it was Christina's turn to motion a hand to her, looking at Rhodey to further her point.
"Well, that's what I heard." Clint commented before Bruce leaned down at him,
"What? By who?" the scientist asked frantically, getting annoyed. "Who told you that?"
"Star Trek, Terminator," Rhodey listed, lifting his fingers as he spoke. "TimeCop, Time After Time,"
"Quantum Leap." Scott added, nodding his head.
"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time,"
"Hot Tub Time Machine." Scott pointed out again.
"Hot Tub Time Machine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure—"
"Ooh, Keanu Reeves...big fan." Christina mumbled to herself, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"—Basically any movie that deals with time travel." Rhodey finished his list.
"Die Hard?" Scott asked before his face scrunched up. "No, that's not one..."
"This is known." Rhodey said.
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true." Bruce remarked. "Think about it; if you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed to your new future!"
"Exactly." Nebula and Christina said in union, their voices strangely harmonizing.
"So Back to the Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott asked in disbelief.
"I'm sorry that saving the universe for the umpteenth time was your way of finding this out." Christina chuckled, stepped back to his side and sarcastically rubbing his arm in support.
EVERYONE gathered in the open room where the time tunnel was. Clint stood alone on the platform while everyone was beside or behind the panel of controls. Bruce and Christina stood, 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..."
In a flash, the man disappeared.
Lexi chewed her nails. "I hope he's okay..."
"Okay, bringing him back. In three, two, one." Christina announced before Bruce flipped the switch and in a blink of an eye, Clint reappeared with a cry.
He was on all fours, face touching the ground and groaning in pain. He helmet flipped open. 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 onto the platform.
Clint panted, looking down at Natasha who placed a hand on his chest. In his hand was a baseball glove. "It worked."
He looked up at the gang, waving the glove. "It worked."
Clint tossed the glove to Tony, who caught it with a determined smirk.
"OKAY, so the how works." Steve thought out loud. In front of the team was a hologram screen showing the different Stones with the title 'TIME HEIST' at the top. "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.
Christina frowned at his words, slowly rubbing Scott's bicep; the two sitting on one of the couches.
"Well, I haven't." 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 seat at the back corner of the room. His body was slouched on the chair and his sunglasses still on his face. He was still... Oddly still.
"Oh god," Lexi muttered, frowning deeper.
"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked, brows furrowing.
"Pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey commented quietly.
"I'm afraid to check." Christina responded, slowly looking Thor up and down.
Lexi walked up to him, bending down and looking over his face. When Thor didn't respond, she knew he was definitely asleep. Lifting her hands, she clapped sharply making Thor and everyone else in the room physically jump. "Up and at 'em Thor!"
Thor groaned and protested loudly, slurping down 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 that the holographic pictures were. "Um, the Aether. First, it's not a Stone. Someone's called it a Stone before, um..." he pointed at Steve, who in turn shot him a confused look.
Thor turned back to everyone. "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 her 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."
Christina's face scrunched up next, trying not to visualize it graphically in her head.
"And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from, and Amber is half-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..."
He shook his head, his greasy and dreadlock-forming hair swaying with it. "But, now I have Amber, or used to have at least...I miss her so much and I love her dearly." Steve raised his eyebrows as the casual confession. Thor sniffled, more tears welling in his eyes. "These things happen through, you know. Nothing lasts forever."
Tony approached him. "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. A sucker was in his mouth, cheeked to the side. "Eggs? Breakfast?"
"No, I'd like a Bloody Mary." Thor smiled, looking at the group who stared back in concern and confusion.
Lexi rolled her eyes, dropping her face into her hands. This was going to be a long day.