Annabeth Chase and the Avengers

Chapter 13

Meanwhile, in Tokyo..

In Tokyo, there was chaos.

A hooded man had destroyed an entire gang, and they all lay dead upon the ground, littered with so many bodies you couldn't see the tile for a dead man.

The hooded man now stood over the dead body of his most recent victim, killed mere seconds before. Rain poured down the streets of Tokyo all around him, mourning for the deaths of so many, as evil as they were. 

Natasha stood behind him, an umbrella in her hand. The hooded man pulled off his hood and mask. 

It was Clint Barton.

"You shouldn't be here." He called, his voice barely audible over the pouring torrents of rain. 

"Neither should you." Natasha said.

Clint turned around, his face gaunt. "I've got a job to do." 

"Is that what you're calling this? Killing all these people isn't going to bring your family back." 

Silence.

"We found something." Natasha said, striding slowly towards Clint. "A chance, maybe."

"Don't." He shook his head.

"Don't what?" Natasha asked, puzzled.

"Don't give me hope." 

The beginning of tears welled up in Natasha's eyes. "I'm sorry I couldn't give it to you sooner." 

Clint bowed his head.

Hesitantly, Natasha took his hand, gripping it tightly.

-*-

Annabeth

Annabeth was supervising the construction of the Quantum platform, she had decided to call it; when Thor emerged, and he was slow-walking in front of Tony, wearing dark sunglasses, while sipping some sort of alcohol. "On your left!" Tony called, lugging the pipes behind him. Thor moved over so Tony could get by. "One side there, Lebowski!" He added.

"Ratchet, how's it going?!" Tony called to the raccoon, who was busy hammering some stuff down under the platform.

"It's Rocket!" He called indignantly. "Take it easy, you're only a genius on Earth, pal!" Tony looked taken aback.

Annabeth smirked.

She made sure everything was in order, before going to check on Hulk, making sure he didn't blast Scott into bits.

She entered the room, where Nebula and Hulk were making final preparations and changes to the suit. Rhodey entered just behind her. 

"Time travel suit. Not bad." Rhodey commented.

Hulk slipped a vial of Pym particles into the suit. 

"Hey! Easy, easy!" Scott cried.

"I've been very careful." Hulk assured him.

"No, you're being very Hulky." Scott retorted.

"I'm being careful!" Hulk shouted.

"These are Pym particles alright? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it! This is all we have! We're not making any more!" Scott cried, holding up a vial.

"Calm down, sorry." Rhodey said.

"We've got enough for one round-trip each." Scott snapped. "That's it, no do-overs. Plus two test runs." He fumbled around with the Pym particles vial. "Oh!" He shrank, then came back. "One test run." He corrected.