Back Before the Start of Us (on hold)

The Accident

A/N: I do not own Marvel or the characters that come with it that belongs to the amazing Stan Lee.

Notes: Here is a list of the characters that I have created and their ages to make the story easier to follow:
James Rogers - 15
Katia Rogers - 13
Lena Rogers - 8
Nate Barton - 15
Leo Stark - 15
Morgan Stark - 13
Tatum Odinson - 14
Charlotte 'Charlie' Barnes - 14
Noah Barnes - 14
Imogen 'Immy' Barnes - 6

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Avengers Compound - 2035

"Urgh that party was so boring!" Nate laughed, pushing through James and Leo and running further up the corridor with a loud "Whooooo!!!"
"Hey shut up dude you're going to get us caught!" Leo whisper shouted, catching up to Nate and smacking him hard upside the head.
"Ow! What was that for Stark?!" Nate shouted, quieting down to match Leo's volume.
"To shut you up Barton."
"Look both of you just shut it, the whole point of us sneaking out of the party was not to be caught and sent back there immediately." Katia said from behind them, giving the three boys a pointed look that perfectly mirrored her mother.
Both Leo and Nate shut up instantly, withering under her stare but James, who was used to it by now, just rolled his eyes and said, "Chill out sis before you have an aneurysm."
"Hilarious." Katia said sarcastically, turning her attention back to Morgan.
The large group of kids were wandering aimlessly through the S.H.I.E.L.D compound when Immy came skipping to the front of the group saying in a singsong voice, "What we doing?"
"Whatever we want Immy bear." Charlie said from near the back.
"I wanna go look at Uncle Tony's suits! And Uncle Bruce's inventions they are really cool!" Lena said rushing to the front next to Immy.
"Well I think that can be arranged мужика!" James said enthusiastically, sweeping Lena up into his arms, hauling her over his shoulder and racing off down the corridor with Lena kicking and laughing wildly.
The others ran after them laughing too. Tatum and Noah followed slightly slower afterwards with matching eye rolls and smiles at their friends' craziness.

They reached Tony and Bruce's lab quickly where James put Lena down and they all checked that the coast was clear before walking into the room.
The lab was large and sterile; white tiled floors and white painted walls with a long stretch of a white working table running the length of the room almost cutting it in half. The back wall was almost all glass, looking out into the enclosed courtyard below which was completely deserted so there was no risk of anyone spotting them from outside. It wouldn't have mattered though as the glass was slightly tinted making everything outside seem darker than it was; from the other side, it was completely blacked out.

The room would have been too eerily similar to a hospital with its bright fluorescent lighting and too white surfaces if it hadn't been for the clutter.
Wooden shelves littered the walls, some of them leaning under the weight of books, beakers and random objects. Half finished projects lay haphazardly along the table with papers and blueprints scattered in between.
All along the edge of the room was a bright white continuous worktop and on it were more random things, from bunsen burners to beakers and from toasters to teabags. The whole room screamed TONY. Trust him to not keep anything tidy.

In the corner of the room along the same wall running the length of the room as the door they were all stood in there was a door stood wide open to a storage cupboard. Once again, messy shelves flooded the space but the floor and the walls were still concrete - dark grey which was a stark contrast (A/N pun intended) to the rest of the lab. In the far end of the cupboard - which was more of a small room - was a strange looking machine with a weird platform and a pad with lots of buttons and switches. Nobody paid any attention to it however, as Lena immediately ran to the back of the room where, in a specifically designed gap in the continuous worktop, stood the case which held the latest suit that Tony was working on.

"It's so cool," Lena gushed, gazing up at the suit with a look of pure wonder on her face, "I wish Uncle Tony and Uncle Bruce would let me help out in the lab."
"You're too little at the moment," Morgan said as she stepped forward to stand next next to Lena, "my dad only let me in the lab once I was 11. That's not that far away for you."
"Three years is forever!" Lena groaned, grumbling her way along the table, stopping to look at the numerous creations on her way.
"Hey where's Immy?" Charlotte suddenly piped up, breaking free from the back of the group.
"I don't know, where did you last see her Charlie?" Katia asked as everyone started to look around.
"Well she was right here and- "
"Found her!" Tatum shouted over Charlie.
Charlie let out a sigh of relief as she made her was over to where Tatum was stood next to the storage cupboard.
"Imogen, what have mum and dad told you about running off?" Charlie said sternly to a sheepish looking Immy in the middle of the cupboard.
"Mummy and daddy said not to. Charlotte." Immy replied sassily as the rest of the group gathered behind Charlie.
"But look!" Immy said, tone much brighter, pointing to the strange machine with the platform and buttons and switches at the back of the room.
Just then, there was a shout from the corridor outside the lab.
"Kids! Come out come out wherever you are!" Tony.
"Don't taunt them Stark or they may never come out." Clint.
"Look the lab's lights are on they must be in there. Told you I'd find them." Tony's voice gloated.
"And when you find them you'd better hope they're all still in one piece." Natasha threatened.
"Yeah I really don't know what made you think leaving the lab unlocked was a good idea." the voice of Bucky was half serious, half jesting but definitely getting closer.
'Shit,' James thought, 'once they find us they're going to kill us.'

Just then, whether by some ill fated stroke of luck or a prank mercifully sent down by Loki, the machine behind them hummed to life. A couple sparks flew and the platform began to turn. The whole group turned around in one terrified synchronised spin and they saw Immy standing next to it with wide eyes.
She had been playing with the buttons and the levers while they all had their backs turned thinking that they did nothing.
Now she had proved herself wrong.

From out in the corridor, Tony felt it before he heard it. He felt the air shift in the way he always used to feel it before a fight. It felt like something was going to go seriously wrong. When he heard the hum of the machine coming to life he just crossed his fingers and prayed that he wasn't too late as he sprinted the last few yards into the lab. The others, clearly confused, ran after him and as he came to a jolting stop in the middle of the storage cupboard the others crashed straight into his back. They all started to complain at once about his sudden halt in movement but he wasn't listening. The kids weren't there. He had seen the blinding flash from outside the room and he could see the platform's rings slowing down their spinning. That could only mean one thing: the kids were lost somewhere in another time. He let out a dry sob, somewhere between a whine and a cry. The kids were gone. And it was his fault.

The platform started to spin faster and faster and the whirring hum only grew in volume. Charlie reached forward to pull Immy back but before they could all run out of the room, a bright light erupted from the machine and it all went black. The last thing any of them heard was the frantic pounding of feet and a strangled sound of despair before the world slipped from their grasps.