Season 4 Episode 22

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Clint was standing on the quantum tunnel platform, which was in the middle of the hangar. This was a much larger version of the quantum tunnel from Hank Pym's van that Scott had used to travel to the quantum realm. Around him, Rocket, Bruce, Nebula, Rhodey, Steve, Abigail and Thor stood in front of the controls that operated the platform. Bruce flipped a switch and the whole system began to hum. "Okay, Clint," Bruce initiated the process. "We're launching into ..." Clint pressed a button on his suit and the helmet encircled his head. "Three ... Two ..." The floor in the center of the quantum tunnel platform disappeared all at once, revealing the spinning quantum tunnel below. "One ...", Bruce completed the countdown. Immediately, Clint shrank further and further until he fell through the portal into the quantum realm, no longer visible to the human eye.

Abigail blinked once, and in the next instant Clint was back in the hangar of the Avengers headquarters on the quantum tunnel platform. The tunnel closed beneath him. He was on all fours, gasping for breath as his helmet deactivated. "Lila!" shouted Clint once again. Natasha ran to him, followed closely by Tony, Scott and Rocket. "Hey. Hey," she tried to calm him down, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Hey, hey, look at me."

"Wha..." Clint was completely disoriented after traveling through time. Natasha put a hand to Clint's cheek and patted his chest comfortingly. She noticed he was holding a baseball glove. "Are you okay?" she wanted to know. "Yeah." He showed her the glove. "It works." Clint lifted the glove and tossed it over to Tony. "It's working," he repeated. They could make it. Abigail couldn't believe what she was hearing and threw Natasha a huge smile while she threw her arms around Steve's neck.

The air seemed to crackle in the Avengers' conference room, and the feeling of accomplishing their goal hung in the air. Holograms of the six Infinity Stones hovered over the table as the Avengers sat down to make their plan.

"Okay," Steve took the floor. "So, the how works. Now let's figure out the when and the where. Just about everyone here has had to deal with at least one of the six Infinity Stones." He pointed to the holograms. The graphics showed the Space Stone, the Power Stone, the Reality Stone, the Time Stone, the Soul Stone and the Mind Stone. "Or, rather, let's say everyone has been nearly killed by one of the six stones," Tony objected in his characteristic manner.

"We only have Pym particles for one round trip for each. And these stones have been in a lot of places over the course of
of history," Bruce said. "Our history," Tony specified. "There aren't many suitable points in time we could go to." Clint narrowed his eyes. "We have to choose our targets well."

"Correct," Tony confirmed. While he let the others do most of the discussing, he had decided that only he could lead the mission to success. "So ... Let's start with the ether. Thor, what do you know?" asked Steve. He turned to Thor, who was still wearing dark sunglasses and sitting in a chair in a corner of the room. He held a beer can in one hand and had the other tucked into the waistband of his pants. "Did he fall asleep? ", Natasha inquired uncertainly.

In fact, Thor wasn't dead and was giving a far too long and in places embarrassingly confusing lecture over the airwaves. When it just wouldn't stop, Tony took the floor. "Why don't you sit down," he couldn't take this sad stammering any longer. "I'm not finished yet. There is nothing more constant than impermanence," Thor concluded. Tony clapped his hands, stood up and put a hand on Thor's shoulder. "Genius," Tony praised Thor. "Eggs? Breakfast?" "No," Thor replied, "I'll have a Bloody
Mary." Thor sat back down and Bruce sighed. This was going to be a very, very long meeting.

The power stone followed and Abigail remained silent until Nebula reported on the soul stone. "Thanos found the soul stone on Vormir," she began. Scott and Natasha sat on the sofa near the feeder and Natasha busily took notes. Steve stood off to the side a bit and Bruce paced the room. "What is Vormir?" inquired Natasha, trying to absorb any information that might be relevant to this mission. "A realm of death right in the center of Celestial existence. That's where Thanos murdered my sister," Nebula replied in a completely emotionless
voice. "And we just accept that?" wanted to know Abigail suspiciously. "Do we really want to send people from our team to such an unknown and possibly dangerous place? We know practically nothing about this planet." Silently, Steve agreed with her but what choice did they have? "There's just no other way, unfortunately. But don't worry you won't be coming anyway. I'll go you stay," Natasha ordered caringly but Abigail didn't want to hear her concern. "I'm not staying here!" she argued but it was no use. By the time Natasha, Tony, and Bruce disappeared into the office alone for the meeting, Abi had hatched her own plan.

Never in a million years would she let Natasha go to an unknown and maybe even dangerous place and just sit around twiddling her thumbs herself.

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