At Midnight

Infinity Stones

...in these days, safe is in short supply...

Fifteen agonizing minutes of complying to customer orders passed, conveniently at a point where most customers were already situated and off to their theater.

By that time of night, Cameron the Manager was inside of the theater, which saved us from keeping an eye out for him. To entertain the giant crowd, he was required to ask Marvel trivia questions and pass out prizes. He was not pleased.

With no one in line, Mara and I faced each other, game faces on.

"Where did I leave off?" I asked.

"Infinity Stones."

"Right. There's six: space, mind, soul, reality, time, and power. They belong to this glove that's called the Infinity Gauntlet."

"Does a bad guy have it?"

"Yes, his name is Thanos. His adopted daughter is actually on the Guardians of the Galaxy."

Clearly unimpressed with the name, Mara raised an eyebrow. "The Guardians of the Galaxy?"

"Think Avengers in space, for now," I said. "Thanos is working on finding the stones to complete the Gauntlet."

"Have any showed up in the movies?" Mara asked.

"Four of the six," I said. "One powers the Vision, actually."

A young boy from earlier showed up to the counter to refill his drink. I took his cup and tried to hurry, as he was in the middle of his movie.

"Well, if you use common movie sense, Thanos will obviously have to have the upperhand to make it a challenge for the Avengers. Maybe that means getting all the stones."

Mara's thought made my hand slip from the dispenser in shock, spilling liquid over my shoes, hands, and the floor.

"Hadn't thought that far ahead?" she asked, already moving to grab cleaning supplies.

"No, actually, I hadn't," I muttered, sliding past to hand the drink to the kid. "It's a good thought, though. You're learning quick."

Mara gestured for me to hold my hands out. She used baby wipes to clean my hands gently, careful not to rub too hard.

Stuttering in the beginning, before I calmed down from our close proximity, I explained, "Ant-Man is another person you need to know. He can shrink to the size of an ant, and control them. In the movie, which is actually, not the original Ant-Man, Scott Lang fought the Falcon, and that's how they met. Sam's going to recruit Scott for Cap's team. That's why he's in this movie."

"Sharon Carter is Peggy's granddaughter," chimed a voice from the counter. "Steve knows her, but not that she's Peggy's granddaughter. And she's fuckin' hot."

"Clifford already knows that, stupid," Holly said to her brother.

Cole punched his sister, then pointed at Mara. "Maybe she doesn't."

"I didn't, but still, don't hit her," Mara said. She moved her hands in a karate chopping motion. "Or I'll be forced to take action."

"Yeah, girl power," Holly laughed.

"So, what are you two doing here?" Mara wondered.

They pointed at the first theater.

"Right. Forgot you two are nerds," Mara muttered. "Well, we'll meet you in there."

Holly narrowed her eyes. "Don't you have to work?"

"It will be our way of quitting," I said, sharing a grin with Mara, as we'd been doing all night.

"Rebels," Cole said blandly. "Bye, kiddos."

Back on track, Mara asked, "How does Steve not know Sharon is Peggy's daughter?"

"Never mentioned her last name," I answered. "The Black Panther is a bad ass fighter who comes from a place called Wakanda.
Crossbones was in the second Cap movie, he's HYDRA."

"Is everyone in this movie?" Mara asked, pausing her action of shoving a box of Buncha Cruncha into her bra. "Because wow."

"Exclude Thor, Hulk, and the Guardians, then yeah," I answered. "What are you doing?"

"Preparing for our dash into the movie. You want anything? I've got room in my bra," she offered.

I shook my head. "I'll make a drink and we can share it."

"Sorry, I'm a real germy. I'll stay dehydrated, thanks," she said, wincing. "What about the X-Men? Spidey? Who's the guy with the mask who was rated R?"

"The X-Men, Spidey, and Deadpool are all Marvel characters, but they aren't owned by Marvel," I explained.

"What?"

"The same way Magneto couldn't be included in Avengers. It's because the companies won't give Marvel their characters back. Except, we worked out a deal with Sony, and Spidey is in this film. He's actually getting a solo film. Not an origin story, though, thank God."

"Why do you say that?"

Catching an Icee cup she tossed at me, I shrugged. "At this point, I'd probably shoot Uncle Ben myself."

"Spoiler much?" she said, pouting.

"Honestly, it's not. I have high hopes for this Spidey, but I guess we'll have to wait and find out."

"Our wait is over in five minutes, Cliff," Mara said after a glance at her phone. She grinned. "Did we do it?"

"No, we've got one last character," I said. "Daredevil."

"Ben Affleck?"

I stared at her. Quietly, pain in my voice, I whispered, "Out of all the great superhero movies in the world, and you choose to see fuckin' Ben Affleck as Matt? That movie was terrible."

"I had an Affleck phase," Mara said without shame. "This is a no judge friendship."

Internally dying at the mention of friendship, I tried to smile. "Netflix put a show for Daredevil. For now, you just need to know there's a chance that Foggy Nelson and Matt Murdock, lawyers, may show up. If they do, my mind will be blown."

"Okay. I got it," she said. Her smile grew again. "Are we good now?"

"I think we did it, Mars."

Equally as amused as I was at the random nickname, she repeated it. "Mars?"

"A planet ahead of us, a candy bar, and your new nickname," I said smoothly.

"I've never heard of a Mars candy bar," she admitted.

"You learn something new every day."