Brooklyn Boys|Marvel x Male OC

37 - Running Tests

"Mornin', Marty." Tony smiles as I walk into the kitchen the next morning.

"Good morning," I return, "where's-?"

"Uncle Laurie!" Morgan runs over to me excitedly.

"There she is," I laugh, hugging her then picking her up, "how are you both?"

"I'm good." Morgan smiles.

"I'm alright," Tony replies, "I was thinking of going back to the compound today."

"First time in five years?"

"Yeah. I figured we should probably help Steve after figured it out last night."

"Sounds good," I nod and sit Morgan on one of the chairs then go back to Tony, "you're pretty confident then?" 

"Always." He smiles.

I go back into the spare room and into the spare clothes I bought with me – I was going to ask Tony if I could stay over anyway – which are: white shirt, red tie, light-brown waist coat, blue blazer, black trousers, black shoes and my brown trench coat.

Tony and I go to his car twenty minutes or so later and head back to the compound.

"You sure you want to do this?" I ask Tony as we drive through New York.

"Yeah," he smiles, "I've been saving people for the last... fifteen years, so, I thought why not."

"It's been too quiet without everyone around," I state, "I stayed with Steve for a bit then went back to the compound. Nothing has felt right over the past five years."

"We've gotta do this." Tony smiles confidently.

"We gotta do it." I nod.

Within an hour or so, we arrive back at the compound. Tony speeds down the driveway while Steve is standing by the entrance to the warehouse. When we get there, Tony stops a little bit in front of Steve then slowly rolls the car back so the window is level with Steve.

"Why the long face?" Tony asks as I wave to Steve from inside the car, "let me guess... he turned into a baby."

"Among other things, yeah," Steve replies as I get out the car and walk round to him, "what are you doing here?"

"That's the EPR Paradox," Tony chuckles, ignoring Steve and getting out the car, "instead of pushing Lang through time, you probably ended up pushing time through Lang. Someone should've cautioned you against it."

"You did." Steve sighs slightly.

"Did I? Thank God I'm here..." Tony continues as I leave the two of them talking and go inside.

"Natalia!" I shout at her from across the room.

"Laurie!" she shouts back and runs over to hug me, "I missed you."

"You saw me literally yesterday."

"Shush." She chuckles.

"Bruce," I turn to him, "hey."

"Hi." He smiles.

"Wh- what happened to you?" I asked, confused by the combination of the Hulk and Banner.

"I decided to look at the Hulk as the cure and not the disease," he begins, "after eighteen months in a gamma lab... here I am."

"Well, you look great." I smile.

"Where's everyone else?" I ask as Tony and Steve join Nat, Bruce and I.

"Rocket, Nebula, Rhodes and Lang are outside," Steve states, "Bruce and Rocket are going to Tønsberg to find Thor, and Nat... I need you to get Clint."

"I'll try my best." She nods and leaves the room. I leave the group and follow after her.

"Nat, wait," I say, "do you want me to come with you?"

"I'll be ok, Laurie." She reassures.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." She smiles.

"Take care of yourself, ok?" I ask.

"I will. Don't worry."

~

A day or so after, the group are back together – including Thor and Clint. Tony, Rocket and I are working on the time travel machine as Thor walks over with Tony.

"Ratchet," Tony shouts to Rocket, "how's it going?"

"It's Rocket," he corrects Stark, "take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."

"Good luck with convincing him of that." I laugh.

"How are the others?" I ask Tony.

"Rhodes is testing the time travel suit with Scott and Banner at the moment," he replies, "so, I guess good."

"Do you mind if I go and check on them?" I question.

"Not at all." He smiles.

I nod and leave the warehouse to go to where the others are. Scott and Bruce are arguing at the back of the room while the others are wandering around.

"You're being very Hulky." Scott states in a frustrated tone.

"I'm being very careful." Bruce responds in the same tone.

"These are Pym Particles, alright?" Scott begins, "ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is all we have."

"Scott, calm down." I say, trying to stop the argument.

"I'm sorry," Lang sighs, "we only have enough for one round trip each. That's it. No retakes. Plus... two test run-"

He cuts himself off by accidently clicking the button a disappearing, then reappearing a second later.

"One test run," Scott corrects himself, "ok, I'm not ready for this."

"I'll do it," someone says from the doorway, "I'm game."

"Clint." I turn to him.

"Hi."

Bruce hands the suit to Clint and he goes to change. When he returns, we prep him for the test run, warning him that he might feel a little weird at first.

"Let me ask you something," Rhodes says to Bruce and I, "if we can do this, then why don't we just go back in time, find baby Thanos and just... you know."

"That's horrible!" Bruce says in reaction to Rhodes miming of strangling baby Thanos.

"It's Thanos."

"Time doesn't work that way, Rhodes," I say, "changing the past doesn't change the future."

"Why can't we go back, get the stones before Thanos gets them, then he doesn't have them. Problem solved." Scott suggests.

"That's not how it works." I say again.

"That's what I heard." Clint states.

"What? By who? Who told you that?" Bruce questions.

"Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time, Quantum Leap, A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time, Hot Tub Time Machine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure- basically any movie that deals with time travel!" Rhodey argues.

"Die Hard? No, it's not one..." Scott chuckles.

"I don't know why everyone believes that, but it's not true," Bruce comments, "if you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. Your former present becomes the past. Which can't be changed by your new future."

"Exactly." I say.

"So, Back To the Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott asks.

"Alright, Clint," Bruce changes the conversation, "we're going in three, two, one."

With that, Clint disappears for a brief second then returns exactly the same as before, though he's holding a baseball glove.

"Hey, look at me," Nat rushes over to him, "you ok?"

"It worked." Clint hugs her.