Believer [Peter Parker]

50 - Test Run

"Captain Rogers," Dylan Hart said.

"Do I know you?" Steve asked.

"We met a couple of years ago," he said. "I knew Ella Ross. I came and tried to help when..."

"Oh, right, I remember now," Steve said. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, Hannah called me," Dylan said. "She told me to come here."

"She did?"

"Yeah, she -" he stopped.

Dylan turned around. He and Steve heard a deafening noise, interrupting their conversation. A car came speeding towards the entrance. When the car stopped, Tony and Hannah got out.

"Please don't ever do this again," Hannah said.

"Alright," Tony said. He turned his attention to Steve. "Why the long face? Let me guess, he turned into a baby."

"Among other things, yeah," Steve said. "What are you doing here?"

Tony went to the bag.

"That's the EPR paradox," Tony said. "Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky. Dangerous. Somebody shoulda cautioned you against it."

"You did," Steve said.

"Oh, did I?" Tony said. "Thank God Hannah and I are here. And Dylan. Regardless, I can fix it," he held up his right hand, with a device on it.

"A fully functioning Time - Space GPS," Dylan said, impressed.

"It is," Tony confirmed. "I just want peace," he made a peace sign with his fingers. "Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it."

"Me too," Steve said.

"We got a shot at getting these stones," Hannah said.

"Yeah," Tony said. "I've got priorities: bring back what we lost? I hope, yes. Keep what I got? I have to, at all costs. And... maybe not die trying will be nice."

"Sounds like a deal," Steve said.

Steve reached out his hand to shake in the deal, in which Tony replies in the same way.

Tony reached back into his trunk to pull something else out, a Captain America shield. He goes to give it to Steve, who hesitates.

"Tony, I don't know," he said.

"Why? He made it for you," Tony said. "Plus, honestly, I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes it sledding."

Steve takes it and fits his arm into the shield.

"Thank you, Tony," Steve said.

"Will you keep that a little quiet?" Tony asked. "Didn't bring one for the whole team," he hesitated, "...we are getting the whole team, yeah?"

"We're working on that right now," Steve said.

***

Tony, Hannah and Dylan entered Avengers Compound.

"Is that Thor?" Dylan whispered to Hannah.

"It seems like it," Hannah whispered back. "It looks like him."

"Drifting left," Tony said to Thor. "On the side there, Lebowski," he said to Rocket, who's working on something underneath a glass platform. "How's it going, Ratchet?"

"It's Rocket," Rocket corrected. "Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."

***

The Avengers were all in a room with hologram displays, sitting around a table. Tony, Steve, Dylan, and Bruce were pacing at the front, clearly leading the planning of the mission. Hannah sat at the table.

"Okay, so the 'how' works," Steve said. "Now we gotta figure out the when and where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones."

"Well, I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones," Tony corrected.

"I haven't," Scott said. "I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each," Dylan said.

"Yeah," Bruce agreed. "These stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history," Hannah said. "Once we do this, the timeline will change, right?"

"Yeah, it depends on how we change it," Tony said. "Also, not a lot of convenient sports to just drop in."

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint added.

"Correct," Tony said. 

"Let's start with the Aether," Steve said. "Thor, what do you know?" 

They all looked to see Thor sitting on a chair with his sunglasses on. It is impossible to tell whether he is awake or asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey said.

Thor woke up.

"Where to start?" Thor asked. "Umm... the Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... and angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago...my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..." he wiggled his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost. "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane," an image of Jane Foster popped up on the screen. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane... she's... an old flame of mine... she... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... and, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead," Thor started to look broken, and seemed on the verge of tears, "and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever," Tony started to push him back to his chair, "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."

"Awesome," Tony said. "Eggs? Breakfast?"

"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you," Thor said. 

Hannah looked at Thor sympathetically, knowing full well what it's like to lose the ones you love.

***

The Avengers sat around a table, eating a meal, and Rocket is pacing on the table in front of everyone.

"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag," Rocket said.

"Quill? He?" Dylan questioned. He looked over at Hannah.

"Remember when I told you about my cousin who disappeared?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah," Dylan nodded.

"That's who Rocket is referring to."

"You're related to Quill?"

"Yeah," Hannah said. "I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing."

"Don't be too thrilled about being related to him," Rocket said.

"Is Morag a person?" Scott asked.

"Morag is a planet," Rocket said. "Quill was a person."

"A planet? Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look, it's like a little puppy," Rocket said, "all happy and everything," Rocket started to speak to Scott like he's a puppy. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."