"We know the how, now we need to figure out the when and the where," the team listened intently as Audelia spoke, turning from the screens behind her to face the team, Steve and Tony right by her side as she looked around at everyone, determination written on her face.
"Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones," Steve spoke.
"Or, you can substitute encounter with damn near killed by," Tony interjected as Deli shot him a look.
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history," Bruce interjected as he paced the room, shaking his head at the mere thought.
"Our history," Audelia commented. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in."
"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint concluded as Tony snapped his fingers at him.
"Correct,"
"Let's start with the Aether," Steve turned to look at their Asgardian friend. "Thor, what do you know?"
The entire team turned to face Thor, who was sat in a chair in the corner of the room. Sunglasses covered his eyes, what sounded like snores flowing trough his mouth.
"Is he asleep?" Natasha questioned as Deli grumbled under her breath.
"No, no I'm pretty sure he's dead,"
With a partially awake Thor now standing in front of the hologram screens as the rest of the team sat around, waiting for his information, they all already knew they were in for quite the journey.
"Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..." as Thor began to make spooky like noises, Nathan shot Deli and Tony an incredulous look, which matched the look on their faces as well. "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane- Oh, there she is. That's Jane... 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... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead, and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever-I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."
The entire team sat, dumbstruck at what they had just witnessed five years of depression and drinking could do to a guy, even a god. Audelia wasn't even sure if she paid attention to half of what he said, not that she could remember any of it anyways.
"Awesome," Tony commented, standing up and trying to drag the half drunk god from the screens. "Eggs? Breakfast?"
"No, I'd like a Bloody Mary,"
Hours upon hours of gathering information, the team settled around one of the conference tables for lunch while Rocket stood in the center, diverging everything he knew about the power stone to the group.
"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag," Bruce shook his head, raising his hand as if in class. Audelia only shook her head, stealing a fry off of Tony's plate as he shooed her away, instead accepting the fry that Natasha held out to her.
"Is that a person?"
"No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person,"
"A planet? Like in outer space?" Scott chimed in as Rocket fake cooed at him, walking toward him and ruffling his hair.
"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space,"
◾◾◾
Audelia was tired, and understandably so. So, when Nathan got Pepper and the girls on the phone and handed it over to Deli and Tony, they didn't even waste a second in taking a break from the madness to focus on them.
Nathan made his way back to the conference room, taking his seat beside Natasha and Steve as they shared a smile, focusing their attention on Nebula as she explained the whereabouts of the elusive Soul stone.
"Thanos found the Soul stone on Vormir," she told the group, an image of the barren planet appearing on the screen before them.
"What else do we need to know?" Natasha questioned, writing away on her notepad as Nebula swallowed the lump in her throat.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister,"
The room fell quiet for a moment, as if they were all taking a moment of silence for Nebula and Gamora, before Scott ruined it.
"Not it,"
"How do we get the soul stone?" Nathan threw in, watching as Nebula turned away for a moment. He sighed, giving her a minute before continuing. "I know this is hard, but we have to know. It's the only way we can ensure we get it."
"To take the stone, you must lose that with which you love," she finally explained after a moment. "A soul for a soul. Platonic, romantic, it doesn't matter what kind of love. You have to lose someone you care about to take the stone."
The room fell silent once again as Nebula excused herself, leaving the team to ponder the idea of the sacrifice that had to be made.
The clock struck two in the morning as Audelia laid on top of a group of table in the conference room pulled together, just staring up at the ceiling above. Tony and Natasha laid on either side of her, also staring up at the ceiling as Bruce laid on the floor next to them.
"That time stone guy, what kind of doctor was he?"
"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat," Tony commented as Deli sighed, glancing over at Nat.
"He used to work with Nathan before he became all...magic guy,"
"Nice place in the village, though," Bruce added on as Tony hummed.
"Yeah, Sullivan,"
"Wow, you didn't make a Bleecker Street joke-"
"Wait, he lived in New York?"
Tony scoffed, throwing a paper ball up at the ceiling.
"No, Toronto. Were you even paying attention?"
"Guys, if we pick the right year, there's three stones in New York,"
The room fell into silence before Deli, Tony and Bruce all shot up, looking at Natasha with wide eyes.
"Holy shit,"
New York had the Space, Mind and the Time stone. Asgard held the Reality stone, while Morag and Vormir held the Power and Soul.
"All right, we have a plan,"
The team was gather around the common room, Deli hand wrapped tightly in Tony's as he squeezed it back, Steve turning to look at everyone.
"Six Stones, three teams. One shot."
◾◾◾
Alright I will tell you all this: throughout the course of this book, there have been two people that have guessed what's coming next correctly the first time...