Across the Stars 🕷 Peter Parker [3]

seventeen

Colin

So, as it turned out, the Avengers were getting the gang back together. Colin thought he heard Bruce mutter something under his breath about boy bands before he and Rocket headed off to get their old friend, Thor, back. Meanwhile, Natasha was going to find Clint Barton, who had gone rogue after the snap had taken his family from him.

Colin stayed back at the compound, deciding that he would be best suited at helping Tony get everything ready for their mission. Tony was standing in front of a holoscreen, provided by FRIDAY, mathematical equations dancing in front of him. Colin came up behind the man and sighed.

"Time travel, I can't believe you figured it out," Colin scratched the back of his head as he stared at the screen before them. "How did you figure it out? I thought you said it was a pipe dream?"

Tony shrugged as he began to move some of the numbers around, fiddling with them, as it were. "Dunno," He admitted. "It just sort of... came to me, I guess. Once I had eliminated all of the hitches that came with the Planck Scale and the Deutsch Proposition, and once I had accounted for the actual shape of the model... it wasn't that hard, really." He took a sip from his coffee mug while Colin just stared at him in shock. "...what?"

"You talk about figuring out time travel like it was no big deal." He shook his head with a small chuckle.

"I mean, once I figured out what I had to fight for... it really just came naturally to me," Tony replied.

Colin understood. When the fate of your child was hanging in the balance, there was nothing that a parent couldn't or wouldn't do for them.

"I saw his picture."

"Hm?" Colin looked at Tony, confusion on his face.

"Peter's," Tony clarified. "I was washing the dishes and I splashed a bit of water... everywhere, and on the picture I have of the two of us in the kitchen." He sighed, holding his mug close to his chest. "Once I saw that picture, Peter smiling like a goddamn idiot... I just... I couldn't..."

"You couldn't just sit by and do nothing if there was even a shred of a possibility of bringing him back." Colin nodded. "I get it. That's... why I never left this place." He looked around the room, suddenly remembering what he had lost in those five years. Not just his daughter, but his husband, too. "And sometimes I think, 'what was the point? Why did I stay here, why did I let myself lose what I had left...'?" He sighed. "Maybe... if I get her back... maybe we can start over... be a family again."

Tony looked at Colin and nodded firmly, clasping a hand on his shoulder. "We're gonna get them back," He said, a look of determination in his eyes. "All of them. Let's get to work."

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Bruce and Rocket came back from New Asgard with Thor. Though it had been a while since anyone had seen him, Colin was still shocked by how much the God of Thunder had changed. He was no longer wearing his normal armor, or even his normal civilian clothing. His hair had grown back out, though it looked like it hadn't been washed in several days, perhaps weeks. His beard had grown out, too, and also seemed to have been neglected. He had also put on several pounds, in the form of a beer belly.

Colin wasn't sure what Thor had been up to for the past few years, but whatever it was, he clearly wasn't ready to deal with it quite yet.

Natasha had also returned with Clint Barton, formerly known as Hawkeye. He apparently went by Ronin now, and had a whole new look as well. For starters, his hair had been shaved on the sides but kept long on the top, like a teenage boy's dream cut almost. He also now sported a tattoo sleeve.