Now or Never

Chapter 20 ~ Not even for Peter?

I press the button to allow him inside the compound. I take off to the entrance as Scott pulls up and gets out of his van. I stare at him in shock, tears forming in my eyes.

"Nick, is that really you?" I ask as I step towards the man and poke his chest. Yeah, he's real.

Scott looks at me confusedly and I lunge forward, hugging the man super tight. Scott is shocked by my reaction at first but then his fangirl side takes over and he hugs me back. I hear footsteps behind us and I already know it's Dad, Nat, and Maximus.

We pull away and I wipe the tears that slipped from my eyes while Scott looks at all of us.

"What the hell happened?" Scott asks. "And when did you get a dog?"

We take Scott inside and explain everything to him that happened in the last five years. He then starts pacing the room.

"Scott. Are you okay?" Dad asks him, getting him to stop pacing the room.

"Yeah." He places his hands on his face, taking in a sharp breath before removing them. "Have either of you guys ever studied quantum physics?"

Dad and I look at Natasha.

"Only to make conversation." She says.

"All right, so... five years ago, right—right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope. She's my... she was my... she was—she was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there." Scott explains to us.

"I'm sorry, that must have been a very long five years," Nat says to him.

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours." He says to us.

Dad, Nat, and I share a bewildered look.

"Come again," I say.

"See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving." He goes over, picking up Nat's sandwich and takes a bite of it.

"Scott. What are you talking about?" Dad asks him.

"So... what I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm." He says with food in his mouth. "The only problem is right now we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did?" Dad, Nat, me, and even Maximus share a look. "I can't stop thinking about it. What if we could somehow control the chaos and we could navigate it? What if there was a way that we could enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit the Quantum Realm at another point in time? Like... like before Thanos."

"So you're talking about a time machine then?" I ask him.

"No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. This is more like a... yeah. Like a time machine. I know, it's crazy. It's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be... some way... it's crazy."

"Scott. I get emails from a raccoon so nothing sounds crazy anymore." Nat reassures him.

"So what? Is this gonna be like Back to the Future?" I ask.

"Exactly like that!" He says. I smile and high five him. "So, who do we talk to about this?"

The three of us, well four because of Maximus, share a look. "Tony." Dad, Nat, and I say in unison.

"Well, let's go talk to him," Scott says.

We nod and go to the garage, hopping in a car and driving off. Dad was driving, Nat in the passenger seat, and Scott, Maximus, and I in the back. We were driving in silence, mostly because many thoughts are running through our minds.