Snakebite | Avengers: Endgame [8]

Chapter 24

"You sure you don't wanna come?" Tony asked for the hundredth time. "I'm sure, Stark. Don't ask me again," I sighed. "You sure, you sure?" He asked. "Stark, I swear to god if you ask me that again, I'm going to take your suit and shove it up your ass!" I snarled. "Okay, it is clearly someone's time of the month," he said lowly. 

"Jesus Christ. I'm gonna go train," I sighed, walking out of the room as a car pulled into the driveway. I glanced over, seeing Nat climb out along with someone else. I raised my brows, closing my eyes for a second before seeing a smudge on my glasses. I pulled them off, extracting a glasses cloth from my pocket and cleaning the lens. As I put them back on, a painfully familiar voice rang out.

"Ellie?" I turned slowly, coming face to face with Clinton Francis Barton. "Clint?" I said, shocked. "I--I thought you we--" my hand balled into a fist, anger pulsing through my veins, and I socked him in the jaw. "Ow! What the hell?" He exclaimed. "Five years. Five years," I said quietly.

"Not one call, or text, or email. Not one signal to me that you were alive. No acknowledgment of the fact that you were alive. I thought my entire family was dead for five years, after getting back from the literal void of space where I almost died. What the hell did I do?"

"I thought you were dead! You weren't in the barn, you weren't in the house, you weren't in the field!" He argued. "Because I was in space after being dragged through a damn portal by Stark," I countered. "You could've left a note!" He snapped, and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

 "I do not have time for this argument. You're alive, great. There's a meeting in thirty minutes,"

-

"Okay, so the how works, 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," Steve said. "Or, substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed by' one of the six Infinity Stones," Tony added. "I haven't. But I don't even know what the hell you all are talking about," Scott said. "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 said. "Our history, so not a lot of convenient spots to just...drop in. Which means we have to pick our targets," I said, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms.

"So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" we all turned to the god who was slumped over in a chair, a beer in one hand and sunglasses on. "Is he asleep?" Nat asked. "No, no. Pretty sure he's dead," Addi said. "Gimme a sec," I stood up, going into the kitchen and fetching a glass of ice-cold water. I returned, sounds of amusement echoing from the members of the room when they saw the water.

I crept up, before turning the glass upside down and sending it all over Thor. He yelped awake, sputtering before being asked about the Aether again. "Uh, where to start...um, the Aether, firstly, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. Um, it's more of an angry sludge sort of a thing, so someone's going to need to amend that and stop saying that," I glanced at Nat with an expression that screamed disbelief. Everyone else has various levels of confusion, annoyance, and disbelief, except for Scott who kept up a smile for the drowning tale.

 "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, actually," a picture of a brunette woman appeared on the screen. "Oh, there she is. Yeah, Jane was, uh, a was an old flame of mine. Uh, you know she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick and so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from, and uh, we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see, I got to introduce her to my--my mother...who's dead, and, um, oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so...these things happen, you know, nothing lasts forever. The only thing that--"

"Why don't you come sit down," Tony suggested, going up but Thor batted him away. "I'm not done yet. The only thing permanent in life is impermanence," Tony clapped twice. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" he asked. "No, I'd like a Bloody Mary," we quickly moved onto the next stone after ordering Chinese takeout and dispersing it among everyone. "Quill said he and Yanvi stole the Power Stone from Morag," Rocket said, a picture of the purple Infinity Stone appearing.

 "Is that a person?" Bruce asked, his voice muffled by the food in his mouth. "Morag's a planet. Quill and Yanvi were people," Rocket said. "Yanvi doesn't sound like the most traditional name," I said, pointing at him with the chopsticks I had. "She was a Frost Giant raised by a Centaruian," Nebula supplied. "Like a planet? Like in outer space?" Scott asked.

"There any other places you can find full-sized planets?" I countered. "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 take you to space," Rocket teased. "Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," Nebula said. "What is Vormir?" Nat asked, writing on a notepad before looking up. "A dominion of death at the very center of celestial existence," she said. "Sounds pleasant," I said dryly.

"It's where...Thanos murdered my sister," the tone quickly died, everyone looking down. My family's faces swirled around in my head, but I quickly pushed them away. No one was dying.

-

"That Time Stone guy," Nat said. "Dr. Strange," Bruce supplied. "Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?" she asked. "Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from hat," I summarized. "Nice place in the village, though," Bruce said.

"Yeah. On Sullivan Street," Tony said. "Wait, he lived in New York?" Nat asked. "No, no, he lived in Toronto," Tony said. "Yeah, yeah, on Bleecker and Sullivan!" Bruce said. "Guys, if we pick the right year, there are three stones in New York," I pointed out as their voices melded together. "Shut the front door!" Bruce exclaimed, sitting up.

"It already is shut,"

-

"Alright, we have a plan. Six stones, three teams, one shot,"

a/n Again, I feel this is appropriate for this chapter. Also, I have seen clips of this, and I know the wig does come off at one point.