𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃

22. 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹: 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲

     THE FIRST ATTEMPT WAS AN ULTIMATE UTTER FAIL. Something obviously didn't go right, even having another big brain like the smart Hulk, but even Steve knew that whatever happened back in the building, that wasn't supposed to happen.

     Scott ended up becoming one of the guinea pigs for their experiment. It went sideways when the man first returned as a kid, then as an old man, lastly a baby, and finally back to his normal self; it didn't sit well with Steve because he knew they needed Tony with his brain for their time travel heist, without him, it'll put a strain into their plan and make it more difficult for them to continue.

     It was a stressful first day, not having many people to join and not getting the right formula of succeeding in completing the process of time jumping.

     Standing outside for fresh air, Steve huffs silently to himself as he needed to clear his mind and not become too worked up about what previously had just happened. Sure, Bruce may be smart enough to go through the different stages of Scott's life, but this wasn't his level of expertise, so Steve didn't hold it against his friend. He and Natasha were still hopeful that Bruce would get it figured out to get a little closer to their goal to time travel, but it was difficult when no one wants to volunteer.

     Off in the distance, the sound of an engine roars alongside the screeching tires dragging across the ground; it was like the driver was on a race track and burning rubber. They turned sharply on the truths, practically drifting skillfully, and all Steve did was watch as the car came closer, seeming to know exactly who that is, but also wondered if a certain someone is tagging along.

     The blond hero doesn't move from his spot, not even when the car was speeding right towards him, tires still screeching, the car pulls up right in front of Steve. The car stopped a little too late because he's suddenly reversing just a bit until his window is right in front of Steve. He merely watches until the driver stops, rolling his window, and hasn't said a word.

     There was a short pause of silence. Steve looks at Tony and then notices a figure beside him; the figure moved forward to show her face, and Steve nearly broke his facade as he held back the small smile.

     "Why the long face?" Tony wonders in a teasing way, though Steve has a feeling that the man most likely already knows why he's not looking so happy. "Let me guess, he turned into a baby."

     Darcy hums humorously, a stifled chuckle from her throat when Steve looks away, sighing because yes, Scott did, in fact, turned into a baby, and it was such a stressful moment.

     "Among other things, yeah," the hero glances at his two friends. "What are you two doing here?"

     Darcy doesn't respond, but Tony does, but he doesn't respond to Steve exactly. "It's the EPR Paradox," he starts, exiting the car as Darcy does the same and exits from her side of the car. She walks around towards the trunk. "Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky. Dangerous. Somebody could have cautioned you against it."

     Steve's features soften because there was the Tony he knows and sometimes can't stand, but also he was glad to see this look back on his friend, it was long overdue, and they needed back their intelligent friend, who often thought of himself.

     "You did," the blond hero points out. Just his features spoke how happy he was to see Tony and Darcy here. Steve misses the guy.

     "Oh, did I? Well, thank God I'm here. Regardless, I fixed it," Tony raises his hand to flash the little GPS contraption that he had designed specifically for this job. Steve's smile only grew. When he turns his gaze over to Darcy, the woman also lifted her hand where she has the contraption on, and she grins until her eyes were practically squinting. Darcy nods. "A fully function time-space GPS."