BANG//Marvel

VII.IV.: To Find a Genius Crazy Enough

"Now, we know what it sounds like..." Scott sigs after he spent the last ten minutes explaining his janky plan to Tony on the patio of his cabin.

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve adds, looking at the genius with hope.

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" All of them give Tony a puzzled look. "In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

"I did."

"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?"

"A time heist?" Scott grins, proud of himself.

"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"

"The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them."

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back." Natasha says.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"

"I don't believe we would."

"Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise.

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?" Tony frowns, horrified look on his face.

"...No."

"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works."

"Tony... We have to take a stand." Natasha places her hand on Tony's arm but he shrugs it off.

"We did stand. And yet, here we are."

"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even..."

"That's right, Scott, I won't even. I have a kid." Tony growls and glares at them. Suddenly a brown haired little girl runs up to them from inside of the house.

"Mommy told me to come and save you."

"Good job. I'm saved. I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and the table's set for seven."

"Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance."

"I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch." Natasha and Steve shake their heads and turn to walk back to the car. "Liam, come with me for a sec." Tony says and the leaving party turns to look at him with confused frowns.

"Don't leave without me." Liam tells them and walks with Tony. They walk to the garage where Liam gapes at the equipment inside. "Ever the engineer, eh?" He laughs as Tony rummages through some drawers.

"How are they?"

"Hmm?"

"The fingers."

"Oh." Liam looks down at his hands. "They're fine. Need some oil here and there, but they're fine." Liam hums and Tony turns to look at them with a tiny screwdriver in hand. While inspecting, Tony's face screws up in confusion.

"What are you talking about? They look like they're about to fall off."

"What? No, they're not that bad." Liam tries to pull his hands away, but Tony's grip is unyielding.

"Hang on, let me pull up some blueprints." "Tony." "We can make some adjustments," "Tony." "...maybe use some different material and-"

"Tony!" Liam stops him. "If you want to help me out you can stop by the compound sometime," Tony is already opening his mouth to protest but Liam's next words stop him. "...and help me out with my brother's and Pietro's motorcycle."

"What?"

"They built it for me in Wakanda and Thanos slammed it into the ground the moment I took it on the first joyride. I can't get it running again. Not alone."

"Liam, I-" Liam places his hand on the other man's shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance.

"Hey, we miss you too, Tony. Don't think you can't come to us because of this."

***

"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating. Try some of that. Have some eggs." The familiar voice of Bruce Banner speaks from the large green body of the Hulk.

"I'm so confused." Scott stares.

"These are confusing times." Bruce chuckles.

"Right. No, no, that's not what I meant."

"No, I get it. I'm kidding! I know. It's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now."

"Yeah! Wh...How? Why?"

"Five years ago, we got our asses beaten. Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost."

"No one blamed you, Bruce." Natasha smiled.

"I did. For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now look at me. Best of both worlds..." Bruce grins and throws out his hands. Three kids suddenly shyly approach Bruce.

"Excuse me, Mr. Hulk?"

"Yes?"

"Can we get a photo?" After that, Liam tuned the conversation out. He searched for his wallet and grabbed one pill of aspirin he had there. And swallowed it with some water. Natasha glanced at him with a raised eyebrow and he reassuringly smiled at her.

"Just take the goddamn phone." Scott grumbled as he was giving the phone back to the kids.

"Thank you, Mr. Hulk."

"No, it's great kids. Thank you very much. Hulk out!"

"Bruce." Steve tries to get the man's attention.

"Listen to your Mom. She knows better."

"About what we were saying..."

"Right. The whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside my area of expertise."

"Well, you pulled this off. I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible, too."