Tony Stark stepped out from the cabin that stood near the lakeside and breathed in, letting out a long exhale. As the birds chirped in the tree above him and the sun shone heavy in his eyes, he made his way over to the recreation area and found it to be infested with an intruder. A tiny playhouse, a colorful tent, amongst a collection of toys, dolls, and crayon drawings.
He pursed his lips at that, as he began to look around everywhere, except for the place where he knew she'd be, ''Morguna?!" he called out, clapping his hands tree times as he took a seat on a a small chair that was standing by the campfire pit, "Morgan H. Stark. You want some lunch?''
A young girl, looking to be about 3-4 year old came out of the tent, wearing the gold and blue Iron Man mask, "Define lunch or be disintegrated.''
''Okay, You should not be wearing that, okay? That is part of a special anniversary gift I'm making for Mom." Tony said to his daughter, taking the helmet off her head, revealing her mischievous smile.
''Okay." Morgan said in response.
Tony fixed her hair that was a bit messed up after he took off the helmet, "There you go. Are you thinking about lunch? I can give you a handful of crickets on a bed of lettuce.''
''No." Morgan shook her head.
''That's what you want." Tony stated, as he held up the helmet to show it off to her, "How did you find this?"
''Garage." Morgan replied, innocently, playing with her fingers.
"Really? Were you looking for it?" Tony asked her.
''No. I found it, though." Morgan answered.
"You like going to the garage, huh?" Tony said as he reached forward, scooping his child into his arms as she wrapped her arms around her fathers neck, "So does daddy. It's fine, actually. Your mom never wears anything I buy her."
They started walking towards the house, but Tony stopped in his tracks just a second after when he saw a ship approaching his house, before it landed in an area that was allowing it to land. He locked his gaze with the first person that walked out of it, it was the first Avenger himself, who was followed by Natasha Romanoff, Peridot, Azurite, Garnet, Jasper, Shi'ra and Amethyst.
His heart stopped when he saw that Scott Lang was the last one to step out of the ship.
His shocked expression didn't last long, as his daughter cried out, "Auntie Peri!"
Tony let her leave his arms as he set her down on the ground, allowing her to run forward. His daughter ran past Steve, Natasha, Garnet, Azurite, Amethyst, Jasper and Shi'ra and practicall slammed herself into Peridot.
"Morgan!" A grin grew on the green gem's face as Morgan embraced her tightly.
Shi'ra leaned to Azurite and Jasper and whispered to them, "It's amazing how a few year old child is almost taller than her."
Azurite and Jasper gave it a quiet chuckle, Peridot would have glared at them if she wasn't hugging Morgan, instead she asked the little girl', "How are you doing?"
Morgan's smile faded from her face as she asked the green gem in confusion, "I didn't know you were coming today. Are you going to test it today again?"
"Well..." Peridot bit her lips, at how innocent and confused Morgan sounded. She shook her head. She looked up at Tony standing behind his daughter, and finally smiled back at Morgan, "Me and my friends here need to talk with your dad about something. It is quite a story."
Tony kneeled next to his daughter and whispered to her, "Go to your mom. Now."
Morgan looked up at his serious face, then at Peridot's and finally at everyone's else before fleeing into the house.
Scott Lang everything Tony needed to know, trying to convince Tony that he, a man who everyone was sure to die in Thanos' snap was sitting there in the flesh and blood before them. Explaining the Quantum Realm situation, and his time within it, Scott was further able to explain the true meaning of what the Avengers were present on Stark's residence for. Tony sat alone upon his cushioned chair on the front porch of his home.
It was when he brought up the idea of time travel.
The possibility of undo the Snap, to bring everyone they lost back.
''Now, we know what it sounds like..." Scott said as he was nearing the end of his explanation.
Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve spoke up.
''Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony stated.
Steve, Nat, Scott, Azurite, Jasper, Shi'ra, Garnet and Amethyst all looked puzzled, only Peridot seemed to have a bit of an idea of what Tony just told them about.
Tony gave a drink who said in response, "Thank you."
''In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home." Tony explained.
Scott blinked as he pointed out, with confused expression on his face, "I did.''
''No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a..." Tony paused for a second, "What do you call it?"
''A time heist?..." Scott declared, doing his best to hide his pride in coming up with a theory of the actual time travel.
''Yeah, a time heist." Tony shook his head, "Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?''
''The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them." Scott remarked.
"We can snap our own fingers." Natasha stated.
"We can bring everyone back." Amethyst added, sitting on the floor, "Everyone that we lost, we may be able to see them again."
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony pointed out, glancing over at Steve.
"I don't believe we would." Steve stated.
Tony sighed, "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.''
''Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel." Scott stated, "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events..."
Tony held up his hand, stopping Lang from saying more, "I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"
Scott's earlier pride caused by his discovery vanished and it turned into embrassment, "No."
"Good. You had me worried there." Tony stated, ''Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works."
"Tony..." Natasha sighed, "We have to take a stand."
''We did stand. And yet, here we are." Tony's voice shook for a bit.
"Tony, this may be something we've been waiting for five years. We all lost someone close to us that day, but now this is our chance. We bring them back, Steven, Pearl, Lapis, Connie, Spinel, Bismuth, Quill and most of his crew, Falcon, Strange, Maximoff..." She paused, debating with herself if she should mention this person or not, "...Peter... They may return, we will be able to see them again, to talk with them, to hug them. I know that we should move on from this, but..."
When Peridot didn't continued, Garnet spoke up, as everyone's eyes went over to her, to see the fusion walking over to Stark, "I think what Peridot is trying to say is that we can't move on from this. I've tried... we all have... but there isn't a day that goes by where I wish we could go back and change what happened.''
Tony stared up at the fusion, as Scott's Lang's voice which was getting louder with each word, selling out his growing desperation to the Iron Avenger, " I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even...''
''That's right, Scott, I won't even. I got a kid." Tony stated as if it was planned Morgan ran up to her dad who picked her up and put her down on his lap.
''Mommy told me to come and save you." Morgan stated.
Tony smiled and poked her nose, "Mommy told me to come and save you." He turned to face everyone, humans, gems and kratais alike, "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for six.''
''Tony, I get it." Steve said, "And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance."
Tony shook his head, "I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."
Morgan got off her father lap and went over to Peridot, "Auntie Peri. You staying for lunch?"
Peridot gave her a small smile in response, "I'm sorry, but now I'm busy with something."
"Oh..." Morgan frowned, "Maybe another time, when you won't be busy?"
"Of course." Peridot nodded her head.
"And then we will watch Camp Pinning Camps together?" Morgan asked.
"If that's okay with your dad." Peridot answered, glacing over at Tony.
Morgan ran back to her dad and began jumping up and down while shouting, "Please, please, please, please!"
Tony looked over Morgan's head, then looked down into her eyes, "Of course."
"Yippe!" Morgan cheered, as she ran back into her house.
It wasn't long before everyone said their quick goodbyes to Tony, headed out back towards Azurite's ship.
''He's scared." Nat stated.
Steve shook his head, "He's not wrong."
''Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?" Scott sighed.
Steve shook his head again, "No, I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain.''
Scott blinked and pointed incredulously at Tony's house, "Bigger than his?"
----
The entire group had been sitting in a Denny's for a meal, or rather one of them was here for a meal, the others didn't want to eat. A group of humans were bustling about, either situated on the various tables or working within the diner itself. They were all sitting by one table at the end of the place, because it was the only one that could fit all them. Everyone were looking at Bruce, who looked like a completely new person now. They all seemed to be pretty situated with it, everyone except for Scott Lang who was simply at a loss for words at the sight of Bruce Banner.
At the sight of the Hulk.
At the sight of both.
''Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating." Bruce spoke up, pushing the plate towards Amethyst and Jasper, "Oh, Amethyst, Jasper, you like to eat don't you, c'mon have some eggs.''
"No thanks, dude." Amethyst shook her head.
"We already ate something, not that long ago." Jasper added.
"Alright." Bruce stated with a shrug of his shoulders.
Scott blinked a few times, he knew that five years was a long time, but it didn't made him even less confused, "I'm so confused..."
"These are confusing times." Bruce said, seriously.
''Right. No, no, that's not what I meant." Scott stated.
''No, I get it. I'm kidding!" Bruce dropped his serious act, "I know. It's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now.''
''Yeah! Wh...How? Why?" Scott said, awkwardly, having no idea what to say to Bruce.
"Five years ago, we got our asses beaten. Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost." Bruce began explaining.
''No one blamed you, Bruce." Nat said to him.
"That's right. What happened back then wasn't anyone's fault. We all tried out best to stop it from happening." Shi'ra added, sitting between Azurite and Garnet.
'' I did. For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now look at me. Best of both worlds..." Bruce continued, but was stopped when he was approached by three children. Two boys and one girl.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hulk." One of the children, a girl asked him.
Bruce turned to look at the three children, "Yes?"
"Can we get a photo?" A girl asked him, her smartphone offered to Bruce.
Bruce smiled at her and other two children in response, "100%, little person. Come on, step up." He took the phone from her and held it out to Scott, "You mind?"
"Oh, sure," Scott replied, taking the phone and holding it out to take the picture.
"Thanks." Bruce said to Scott in response, then he turned to the children all of them smiling wide, as Banner declared, "Say... green! Greeen! You get that"
Scott nodded, offering the phone back to the children, "You want to grab one with me? I'm Ant-Man." The children looked at each other confused, until Scott finally figured it out, "They're Hulk fans, they don't know Ant-Man. Nobody does."
''Wait, no, no, he feels bad. No, he wants you to...he wants to..." Bruce said as he glanced down at one of the boys, "You want to take a picture with him, right?"
The boy shook his head vigorously, which Scott didn't fail to notice, ''He's even saying no he doesn't. I get it. I don't want it either.''
Azurite glanced down at the floor, cringing at the awkward situation, "This is so awkward..."
Shi'ra burried her hands into her face, "Yeah..."
Azurite and Shi'ra weren't the only ones noticing how awkward this situation was as well, but unlike Azurite and Shi'ra they stayed silent and glanced away from the situation, waiting for it to end.
''But, come on, the kid! But he...but you..." Bruce continued, trying not to make Scott feel left out.
Scott shook his head, "I don't want a picture with them."
Bruce leaned closer to the children and whispered to them, "He's gonna feel bad." He quickly turned back to Scott and told him, "Sorry. They said they'd do it.''
Scott shook his head again, "I don't want it anymore.''
''No, no...you feel bad." Bruce stated.
''Just take the goddamn phone." Scott pleaded.
The girl took the phone back, "Thank you, Mr. Hulk.''
''No, it's great kids. Thank you very much." Bruce stated, "Hulk out!"
Steve rolled his eyes, "Bruce."
"Dab!" Bruce exclaimed awkwardly.
''Bruce." Steve started again, trying to return to the topic they were here for.
"Listen to your Mom. She knows better!" Bruce shouted to the kids as they walked away.
''About we were saying..." Peridot spoke up, as she crossed her arms, growing tired of this entire conversation.
Bruce nodded seriously, "Right. The whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside my area of expertise.''
''Well, you pulled this off." Natasha stated, gesturing towards Banner's body, "I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible time, too."
Banner bit his lip as he turned to Scott, "Scott. If we're gonna figure this out, I'll have to check out that Quantum Tunnel you mentioned earlier."
"So you're saying you can do this?" Amethyst asked, a very hopeful expression on her face.
Her expression faded when Bruce shook his head, "Never said that. But I'm willing to give it a try."
Amethyst's hopeful smile returned to her face.
At least it seemed like a good start...