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"Slow down, slow down! I'm totally not kidding,"
The park, just on the outskirts of the inner city of New York, was bustling with people in early afternoon. Families out for walks, couples relaxing and having picnics, plenty of bike riders and joggers thrown about. Among them were Tony Stark and his fiance, Audelia Motter, jogging side by side through the crowds of people as Deli laughed at the comments coming from her best friend's mouth.
"You're totally rambling-"
"I am not-"
"You've lost me-"
"Just, hear me out," Audelia gave in as Tony placed a hand on her shoulder, bringing them to a stop in the middle of the park as she turned to look back at him. "Look, you know how you're having a dream, and in the dream you gotta pee?"
"...yes?"
"Okay, and then you're like, 'Oh my god, there's no bathroom, what am I gonna do?', 'Oh! Someone's watching,' ''m gonna go in my pants,'"
"Yes..." Audelia trailed off, still completely lost on where this was going. "Then when you wake up in real life, you actually have to pee. Everybody has that, Tone."
"See, that's my point!" Tony grabbed onto her hands, trying to find the right way to phrase what he was about to say. "Apropos of that, last night, I dreamt, we had a kid. So real. We named her after your mother. Uh, what was her middle name?"
"Morgan. Elizabeth Morgan Motter," the woman held a small smile as she looked at Tony, realizing where he was going with this. "So you woke up, and thought that we were expecting?"
"Yes," Tony breathed a sigh of relief, looking at her hopefully. "Come on, tell me I'm right. Aurora would love a little sibling to torture with obscure internet facts."
"And as much as I want to give her that and have a child with you, we are not," Deli let out a small chuckle at the defeated look on Tony's face. She grabbed hold of his hand as they began to walk a little bit down the sidewalk. "Tony, I would love nothing more than that. But I'm not as young as I was when I had Aurora, there are more complications now."
"Audelia, you're barely a day over forty,"
"No, I actually am over the age of forty which makes getting pregnant and incredibly high risk," she sighed as she mulled over the idea for a moment before turning to Tony, tapping the detachable arc reactor sitting on his chest. "If you really wanted to have a child, you definitely wouldn't have done that. We're retired."
"I'm glad you brought this up, 'cause it's nothing. It's just a housing unit for nano particles," Tony then made a gesture at the necklace hanging around Deli's neck. "You're one to talk, making that!"
"This is a necklace, and nothing more," she laughed, swatting away his hand with a shake of her head. "Pepper bought it for me for my birthday, even though you would love to be right and think my suit is hiding in here. Point is, Tony, we're retired. We said we were done."
"I know," Tony grabbed onto her hands, running his thumbs over the backs of them as he looked into her eyes. "I had the surgery. I'm just trying to protect us. The future uses, and that's it. Just in case there's a monster in the closet, instead of, you know..."
"Shirts," Deli finished off with a smile. "We have shirts in our closet. No more surprises, Tony. No more of this."
"No more surprises," he conceded, smiling down at her. "We're gonna have a nice dinner tonight. Show off this dazzling ring on your finger to the world. Right? And we should have no more surprises. Ever. I should promise you...but don't think I will."
Deli let out a laugh as she pulled Tony into her, connecting their lips as they savored the moment together, a moment that they had been fortunate enough to share together over the last two years.
After the events on the beach, Tony and Audelia officially announced their retirement from Iron Man and Imperial. They still lived at the compound and worked with SHIELD, managing the teams and the missions as well as assisting Pepper Potts Porter (which Tony would hilarious to say out loud, and had resorted to calling her 'Triple P') in the management of Stark Industries, but their superheroes lives were through as they hoped the world wouldn't call on them again.
They had their rough spots, that was for sure. They had their fair share of fights, which was normal. It took awhile to completely unpack the baggage of the true nature of Elizabeth Motter and Howard and Maria Stark's deaths, the baggage left behind by the fight in Siberia, but they found their way through it.
Audelia tried on multiple occasions, and failed, to contact Steve and Natasha. She did everything she could to try and contact them, including stealing the phone he had left Tony for emergencies. But she never made it through, and the longer she was apart from Steve the more she began to resent him deep down for that day. She loved him, he was one of her best friends, but she realized coming out of the other side the stupid and selfish choices he had made and forced upon her. Yet she still tried, time after time, to speak to them just once.
Tony and Audelia just wanted the peace of their kiss to last forever, and it did. Until it was interrupted by a strange noise to their left. They turned at what sounded like sparks, eyes widening at the sight of a glowing portal in front of them, a man stepping through. He worn red and blue robes of some store, a glowing green stone hanging around his neck as he looked at the pair with determination in his eyes.
"Tony Stark, Audelia Motter, I need you to come with me. Oh, uh, congratulations on the engagement, by the way,"
Tony stared at the man, dumbfounded for a moment, before finding his voice.
"I'm sorry, you giving out tickets or something? Who the hell are you?"
"Stephan Strange," Audelia answered instead, looking at the man in awe as she tried to get everything straight in her head. "He...he worked with Nathan for quite awhile, a doctor. He worked the Battle of New York, too. But you went missing after your car accident, and now..."
"There will be time to explain all that later, but we need your help. Look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake,"
"Oh yeah?" Tony challenged the man. "And who is 'we'?"
The pairs breath caught as Bruce Banner stepped out of the portal behind strange. The once strong and determined doctor looked... broken, scared.
"Hi guys,"
"Bruce..." Deli's voice trailed off as Bruce walked forward, falling into Tony's arms. Tony caught him, looking down at him in shock as Deli stepped forward, placing a hand on their friend's shoulder as they looked up to Strange, realizing that their moment of peace was long gone now.
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"From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then, boom! The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals, hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence,"
Deli looked up in wonder at the imagery that Wong had created. They stood in the middle of the sanctum, as Stephen called it, getting their explanation.
"Space. Reality. Power. Soul. Mind," Stephen looked down at the necklace around his neck, opening it to showcase the glowing green stone inside. "And Time."
"Tell me his name again," Tony finally spoke up as Bruce stepped forward.
"Thanos. He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That's him,"
"I knew our years of peace were coming to an end," Deli spoke, turning to look at Bruce solemnly. "What's our timeline?"
"No telling. He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands, on all six Stones, guys..."
"He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of," Stephen commented.
Tony scoffed, leaning on a cauldron next to him and he stretched his legs. Deli rolled her eyes, knowing he was only doing this because he was nervous.
"Did you seriously just say "hitherto undreamt of"?"
"Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?"
"Is that what this thing is-" the cloak around Strange reached out by itself, hitting Tony on the arm as if to chastise him. Deli and Tony looked on in surprise. "I'm...going to allow that. If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?"
"No can do," Stephen chimed in and Wong jumped in.
"We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives,"
"And I swore off dairy, but then, Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so...."
"Stark Raving Hazelnuts...a bit chalky,"
"A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favorite-"
"People! Let's get back on track here," Audelia called out, stopping the conversation before her as she sighed in frustration. "We have this stone, and Thanos doesn't. We know where this one is, unlike the other ones."
"Just call Vision?" Bruce chimed in, looking between his two friends in confusion. "He has teh Mind Stone."
"That's the thing..." Tony commented, trailing off. "Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline."
"What?" Bruce was absolutely dumbfounded. "Tony, you lost another superbot???"
"Vision is more than that, Bruce," Deli tried to reason. "He's evolving, becoming more. Unfortunately for us, the only person right now that could find him is probably Steve."
The scoffs of both Stephen and Wong were heard as Bruce just looked around confused, turning to Tony.
"Call him,"
"It's not that easy. God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we?" Tony stepped up to Bruce. "The Avengers broke up. We're toast."
"Broke up? Like a band, like...the Beatles?"
"Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms,"
"Tony," the man looked over to his fiance as she bit her bottom lip. "Thanos is coming. This right here...this is it. You two have your differences, but we need him Tony. You need to put this past you and call him."
Tony struggled with the idea for a minute, looking around the room, before grumbling to himself. He turned away, taking the burner phone out of his pocket and moving into the contacts. The noises outside made him stop before he could make the call.
Everyone stood still as the noise in the distance, so loud it was like a siren being heard from miles away. A small breeze flew through the room, sending a shiver down Deli's spine as she looked at Tony, who looked at Strange.
"Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would you?"
"Not at the moment, no..."
With one looked up to the broken skylight, they could see the pieces of debris flying through the air. The distant cries of citizens has Audelia and Tony looking toward the door.
The gave one look over to the other, knowing that this was it. This was what they knew in their hearts were coming, before moving toward the door together.
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Guys...it's here. This is the beginning of the end...