AN: I don't own the Avengers. Unfortunately. Also, side note: in this story, Clint married Laura and has only one daughter years later, so the whole farm thing in the Ultron movie didn't happen. This is after both movies.
"I don't understand what you're freaking out about, Thor." Clint said, leaning against the kitchen counter. "Heimdall saw something. What else is new?"
"You do not understand, Eye of Hawk." Thor insisted. "He has seen into the future."
"He can do that?" Steve asked, a little worried about where this was going.
"Apparently, capsicle." Tony shrugged.
"Thor, what does this have to do with us?" Natasha asked the son of Odin.
"Heimdall says he has seen only twenty years into the future. He says there is something we must see. He has sent me to bring you to Asgard with me so we can watch the future events."
"Woah woah-" Tony held up his hands in a stop everything gesture. "Not that that doesn't sound fun, but I'm meeting Pepper today, which promises to be even more fun, so-"
"We should all go." Steve frowned. "If Heimdall sees something in our future we need to know about, it must be really important."
"Couldn't it be dangerous to look at our futures?" Bruce asked, finally looking up from his newspaper. "Change the timeline or something like that?"
"It's possible," Steve agreed. "But it might be worth it."
"Indeed, friends, this is of utmost importance. Heimdall seemed quite agitated." Thor nodded.
Tony snorted. "Really? I thought that guy didn't do emotion." Then added, quietly so nobody could hear, "Kind of like Natasha."
"Great. Then we're going." Clint sighed. "I had plans today."
"Come, friends. Heimdall is waiting." Thor led them out onto the balcony, where they had open sky over their heads. "Heimdall! Open the bifrost!"
"Wait, not on my terrace-" Tony shouted, but the clouds over them were already churning. A blast of energy slammed down into the terrace, and then shot back up into the clouds. When the clouds cleared, the Avengers were gone, and a large round symbol was scorched onto Tony's balcony. He would be pissed when he got back and saw that.
*Meanwhile, in Asgard*
The rainbow light stopped, tossing the Avengers out onto the floor of a large dome-shaped room. Huge circles of gold were built into the walls and ceiling, the floor glowed slightly, and there was a platform with stairs around it in the middle of the room. Standing on the middle of the platform was Heimdall, wearing golden armor and holding a golden sword. He didn't move to acknowledge them.
"Heimdall!" Thor boomed. "What do you want to show us?"
"Your future is very grave, Odinson." Heimdall warned, finally looking down at the Avengers.
"We already came all this way, we might as well watch the stupid-" Tony griped.
"Please show us, Heimdall." Steve interrupted. Heimdall surveyed them for a moment, then nodded. He held out one gloved hand to the large round portal they had come through. The surface of it changed from rainbow to black, then changed to show them a picture, like they were watching a movie.
The Avengers glanced at each other, but sat down. Actually, it wasn't all the Avengers, just those who had been at the tower when Thor had shown up an hour ago shouting about Heimdall. Tony, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, and Steve (plus Thor, of course). The other Avengers were all training or on missions.
The magical screen showed a large busy marketplace. It was packed with people, and every now and then a small fight would break out. The shelves of the stalls looked almost bare, and people were handing over crazy amounts of money for bread and water.
The camera zoomed in on a teenage girl, probably around fifteen or sixteen. She had a red beanie pulled low over her hair, so that only a few dark brown curls escaped. She wore a black leather jacket, a Stark Industries t-shirt, torn jeans, and red-and-white converse.
"Hey, I like her!" Tony said right away.
"You're only saying that because she's wearing a t-shirt with your logo on it." Steve rolled his eyes.
"Exactly!"
The girl on the screen was walking through the crowd with her hands in her pockets, dodging people. She accidentally banged her arm into one man's side, and walked on with a quick muttered, "Scuse me."
"That was kind of rude." Steve frowned.
"Why aren't we watching our future selves?" Clint asked. "This is supposed to have something to do with us."
"Maybe this girl knows us?" Bruce guessed.
"It is the best answer." Thor nodded.
She turned around a corner into an alley, away from the crowd in the marketplace. A grin flickered onto her face, one corner of her mouth lifting up, followed by the other. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a leather wallet, and opened it, pulling out two twenties. Her grin widened.
"She pickpocketed that guy." Tony realized. "I didn't see."
"I didn't either." Natasha frowned. She was a trained spy-she should have been able to see a teenage kid pickpocket someone.
The girl glanced over her shoulder, before tossing the wallet onto the ground and stuffing the money into her pocket. With another glance over her shoulder, she jogged away down the alley.
The girl turned around different corners and streets, dodging cars and people. Once or twice she dove behind a parked car to avoid someone in a suit.
"It looks like she's avoiding someone." Clint observed.
Finally, she entered what looked like the neighborhood she was aiming for. It didn't look like a very good neighborhood; a car alarm and a siren wailed somewhere in the distance, a dog barked and a door slammed, the dirty walls were covered in graffiti, trash was abandoned in the street, and windows of the buildings the girl passed were smashed or boarded up. She finally stopped in front of an alley and turned down it, opening a door into the brick building to her left.
Inside, the building was just as run down. What might've been mold crept across the ceiling, a crack ran up one wall, the carpet had been rolled up and tossed on top of a pile of boards against one wall, and a rat skittered across the floor. Parts of the second and third floors were missing, leaving large holes. The concrete floor in the corner was cracked open, with a ladder leading down into a basement. Battered secondhand furniture was stuffed into the large dank building, and there were other signs that it was inhabited. Posters for rock banks and a couple of forties and fifties celebrities were hung on the walls. The mismatched rugs had a pair of shoes tossed on them, and empty chip bags sat on the counter of the kitchenette. "Honey, I'm home!" The teenager shouted suddenly, and way too loudly.
There was a crash from the other side of the warehouse, and a barely stifled curse. "Don't do that!" Someone shouted from the direction of the crash, as the teenage girl cracked up. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Alas, my plan to off you didn't work." The girl sighed, but failed to keep from grinning. She jogged over to the sound of the crash. Another teenage girl, probably fifteen or sixteen, was sitting on the floor with a post it note stuck to her cheek. She looked like she had just woken up, with her light brown hair tangled and messy, bags under her half-glazed over brown eyes, and had a rumpled look to her clothes. She wore baggy jeans and a white tank top with the American flag on it. The pickpocket girl frowned. "Did you seriously just wake up?"
"I pulled an all-nighter." The other girl yawned. The pickpocket smiled and crouched in front of her friend, tugging the post it note off her friend's cheek. "Oh, thanks."
"Anytime. Where is everybody? I scored today, I thought we could get shawarma."
"See? This kid is awesome." Tony said, scoffing at their eyerolls. "A stark t-shirt and shawarma? Do you need any more proof?"
"What are they doing living there, though? That doesn't look like a safe place for kids." Steve asked, frowning. "And I still don't see what any of this has to do with us."
"Be patient." Was Heimdall's only response.
"I think Jules is in the basement, working on… something. Abby is out somewhere, probably causing trouble again. I don't know what happened to Alex and Finn."
"Thanks, Lou." The pickpocket said. She held out a hand to her friend, and pulled her up. Lou shook her head, making her hair fall in her eyes.
"I need a shower." Lou sighed, glancing down at herself. "See you at dinner, Jo?"
"Count on it." The pickpocket, Jo, smiled. Lou smiled as well and jogged away towards a set of stairs. Jo stared after her friend for a moment, before shaking her head slightly and turning towards the corner of the warehouse. In the corner, the concrete floor had been blasted open with what looked like a sledgehammer, opening into a large empty concrete room below the floor. Jo clambered down the ladder leaning against the side of the hole.
The room must be being used as a lab. Three large workbenches were set against the walls, covered in metal parts and tools. The floor was covered with metal scrap, crumpled papers, chip bags, and soda cans. Tables and shelves were crammed into the room. The walls were covered with so many blueprints, notes-to-self, to do lists, and newspaper clippings, you could barely see the concrete underneath. The whole place was lit with flickering fluorescent lights duct-taped to the ceiling. In the middle of the room was what might be a metal operating table, covered in a white sheet. Underneath the white sheet was the form of a person.
"Is that a…" Steve stared at the white sheet over the table.
"I think it is." Tony scowled at the screen. "Okay, I'll be the first to say it. These kids are just messed up."
The girl, Jo, paused in front of a section of wall that was mostly bare. Hanging there, and given a wide berth by the other papers and posters, was an Avengers poster. On the poster, Tony had his helmet off and held out his hand like he was about to shoot something. Thor clutched his hammer. Slightly behind them, Natasha was storming towards the camera and Clint was holding his bow and looking at something off to the side. Steve stood on a car, holding his shield, and the Hulk was clenching his fists like he was about to smash. Even Fury was in the poster, holding his gun.
"So they're Avengers fans?" Tony said. "What do these kids have to do with us anyway?"
"Be patient." Heimdall warned. Tony and Clint both glanced over their shoulder at him, looking annoyed.
"We'll find out." Natasha said calmly.
"Please, man of iron and eye of hawk, just watch and we will find out." Thor said. Tony and Clint turned back to the screen.
Jo had a look of sadness on her face, the look you get when you're mourning someone close to you. She reached up and her fingertips brushed the arc reactor in Tony's chest. Her eyes brimmed with tears.
"Woah woah," Tony said, looking confused and surprised. "She acts like I'm dead."
There was a heavy silence.
"I mean, I can't be, right?" Tony tried again.
"We don't know that." Steve agreed finally, but he looked worried. "She might just not be able to find you, or maybe you two got into a fight? That is, assuming she knows you at all. You might be totally fine and she's fangirling."
"Jo?" Someone asked from behind Jo. She whipped around, pulling her hand down. A teenage boy was watching her from where he stood next to the metal operating table. He looked sixteen or maybe seventeen, older then Jo and Abby. He had curly dark brown hair and dark eyes, and wore a purple t-shirt and cargo shorts. Hanging around his neck was a thin silver chain, with a small round pendant hanging from it. A chinese symbol was carved into the pendant."Are you okay?"
"What's that symbol mean?" Steve asked, frowning at the screen.
"I don't know much Chinese, but I think that means peace." Bruce said uncertainly.
Jo nodded. She brushed a curl of dark brown hair out of her eyes and tucking it underneath her red beanie, turning her back on the poster. "I'm fine, Jules. Thanks. It's just, I got money for dinner. You hungry?"
The older boy, Jules, glanced at the shape of a body under the sheet. "I should probably…"
"You spent all day working on it, didn't you." Jo said, and it wasn't a question. Jules nodded sheepishly. "Jules, I told you, it can't be fixed. I want it to stay in the past. Please let it."
"It?" Clint frowned in confusion. "That isn't a person?"
"Or maybe it's just a person they don't like very much." Tony shrugged. Steve shot him a glare. "I'm just saying."
"C'mon, Jo, it's not even that badly damaged. We could fix it. We could use it to-"
"No." Jo snapped, cutting off Jules's argument. "I just… I want to forget about it. It was a mistake. There's nothing any of us can do. This is my life now, Jules, and I want to forget about my old one. It hurts too much."
"Show of hands-anybody really confused?" Tony asked, raising his hand. All hands went up, except for Heimdall.
Jules opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it again. "Okay, Jo. If you really want me to stop, I will. But I'm not getting rid of it."
"All I ask." Jo nodded. She turned, walking towards the ladder out of the basement.
Jules hesitated, but called after her. "Jo!" She turned. "You aren't the only one who lost everything on H-day, you know. The rest of us are as trapped here as you are, but the difference is? We're trying to do something about it."
Jules's grip on the side of the table tightened so his knuckles were white. Something seemed to be… wrong with him. Green splotches appeared on his skin, slowly spreading outward. He seemed to be growing larger, muscles bulging under his clothes.
"Oh my god." Bruce stared at the teenage boy on the screen in horror. "He's… oh my god."
"He looks just like you do when you change." Steve said. "How is this possible?"
"I've never been sure if the other guy is… well, genetic. There's a possibility that Jules can change because he's my…" Bruce trailed off.
"Your son?" Natasha asked, and for once even she couldn't stay totally calm.
On the screen, Jo had backed up until she had her back against a workbench. Her eyes were wide with fear. "Jules calm down. Jules, listen to me." Jules looked up at her, and his dark brown eyes had turned a murky shade of dark green. His teeth clenched, like he was in agony. He released the table with one hand, clutching at the peace pendant hanging around his neck. He took a deep breath, but the green totally covered his skin, and he staggered back. "Lou!" Jo screamed, groping behind her on the workbench for something to use as a weapon. "Louisa, it's Julian!"
"What can Lou do?" Bruce asked, almost bitterly. "He's changed. They should be running."
"Something gives me the feeling…" Thor stared at the screen. "That they will not."
Lou's face appeared at the top of the ladder. "What? What? Jules?"
"He's Hulking out." Jo said, not taking her eyes off Jules. Jules still hadn't moved, leaning against the wall and taking shaky breaths. He really did look like he was in pain, and flickers of brown in his eyes made it look like… he was fighting back against the transformation? "What do I do?"
Suddenly, the screen went black. "What was that?" Clint demanded, turning to Heimdall. "We have to see what happens!"
"You are done for today." Heimdall said flatly. "Return tomorrow."
"But-"
"Return tomorrow."
"It is alright, friends," Thor assured them. "We will come back tomorrow to continue." Heimdall waved his hand and the portal reappeared. Before any of them could argue, they were on earth again.
AN: thanks for reading. This chapter was really long. Please leave a review or follow/favorite.