Chapter 4: Plans

Elder Tony sat in the control room, staring at the monitors. His chair sat atop a pillar, surrounded by several holographic screens. It had once been the same room from which Ultron had controlled and monitored his empire. He stared at the feed from the boys last moments as the doors opened behind him to admit his wards.

"What have you found out?" Asked Gwen as they moved forward.

"According to Fiona Hardings, the doctor Toruun and Laura... Interviewed, this is the basic purpose for the machine." With the press of a button, a blue hologram appeared showing a small tunnel with wide ends and a narrow center. "It's a space-time tunnel that creates a bridge through the time stream. Basically, it's a time machine. However, it's not for this time stream."

"What does that mean?" Asked Griffin as she tilted her head.

"There are an infinite number of time streams," he replied as he pressed another button. The tunnel vanished only to be replaced by a large line. "Let's say that this line is our time stream. For every choice we make, a separate time stream is formed in which we made a different choice." With another press, they watched as a new line split off from the first, before doing it again, constantly replicating until there was a massive tangle surrounding the original. "When the boys traveled back, the time stream instantly branched off as a fail-safe so as to not harm this one, which is why no one remembers them appearing in history."

He paused as Pym spoke. "Why would it do that?"

"Because it would fundamentally alter the time stream. Let's say someone traveled ten years back in time to prevent a certain event from happening. Then, when ten years pass and it reaches the point in time where that person goes back in time, the event wouldn't have occurred and therefore they would have no reason to travel back and stop it. Because they didn't go back, they didn't change it and therefore the original future would once again occur. Time would be thrown into an endless loop, perpetually repeating the same two sets of events. The branching effect is the time stream's response to ensure that this doesn't happen. I suppose saying that the boys were transported to an alternate dimension which was further back in time would be a less complicated way of saying it."

"So how can we get them back?" Wondered Toruun aloud as she stared at the endless web that represented the time stream.

Tony was quiet as he pressed another button, causing two holograms to appear side by side. One was of the machine when it had been at full operation while the other was the blueprints that had been put together using the information provided by the scientists. The blueprints were incomplete.

"There is a problem," informed the old man. "Each of the doctors that had been enlisted to create the machine was only given one job, each one creating a small part that would eventually be put together and form the tunnel, like a puzzle. However, some parts of the machine were created by doctor Gordon, as well as several others who mysteriously vanished shortly after they finished their jobs. In other words, we don't have the complete schematics. Unless the machine was built to the EXACT specifications as the original, we won't arrive in the same dimension as the boys. We'll have to try and replicate the machinery with what we have and hope we get it right. Given enough time, I could probably figure it out on my own. Unfortunately, we don't have that long and with the boys' safety on the line, I'd like a second opinion."

"So what's the plan Geezer?" Asked Laura impatiently.

The old man smiled at her before he replied. "First thing's first, Torrun, Thor told you that the Bifrost was open to you now right?" She nodded. "Good. Then I need you to travel to Asgard and inform Thor that he may be missing something from his treasure room. Also, see if he can't find another power source for the device. It has to be something on par with the Tesseract or else it may not work."

She nodded before taking off out the door.

"The rest of you are on locator duty. We need to find three people who may be able to help us out. First off, Azari and Laura. You two head to Wakanda and speak with Queen Ororo. Ask her if she knows if doctor Henry McCoy is still alive and wether or not she knows of his whereabouts. If so, find him and bring him here. Pym, Griffin, it's time to see your dad and hopefully your uncle as well. Johnny Storm is currently in San Francisco, I want you to find him. Hopefully he knows where to find your uncle, Reed Richards. Gwen, I'm afraid you have the hardest job. You're going to try and find our old friend Bruce Banner. I, unfortunately, have absolutely no idea where he is so you're going to have your work cut out for you. I'm going to start working on piecing together the machine with my new best friend, doctor Hardings. Good luck."

000000

"Seriously? The Soldier? The Archer? You're kidding, right?" Chuckled Stark as he looked at them.

"I've been told I'm not very original," confessed James sheepishly.

"You can say that again," grumbled Francis with a hard look at his companion.

"Well, it doesn't really matter what you call yourselves I guess," said Tony, still chuckling. "Let's get passed all the lame introductions before 'the Soldier' here lets everyone know he's even more stupid. I suppose you're wondering why we're all here, seeing as we all kind of went out separate ways after the freak-shows from outer space blew out several blocks of Manhattan. Speaking of which, neither Loki nor Hulk apologized for tearing my building apart. I think I'm entitled to that at least!"

"Stark," said Steve with a glance.

"Right, right, off topic," the billionaire grumbled. "Well, recent events have led me to... Rethink that decision, what with S.H.I.E.L.D. really being Hydra and nearly taking over the world, and a race of ancient Dark Elves nearly wiping out all of existence. Thanks to Cap and Thor here for stopping said disasters. See, I realized that our information network needed to be updated. Take the Hydra thing, if Cap had called me in I could have suited up and the two of us could have taken them down with half the trouble and it wouldn't have been such a close call. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should come running back to each other for every little thing. I mean, if I called Thor every time someone tried to steal my tech and build a robot army we'd be having a legion of garden gnomes leveling London!"

"Garden gnomes?" Inquired Francis with a smirk.

"They can't be trusted," replied Iron Man with a serious look. "My point is, global threats are kind of an everyday thing for all of us. We can't come running to fight every battle together or we'll have a thousand and one other threats to try and take on all at once, but we can at least make sure we all know about them. I tried to reform the Avengers as an information network, that way then we can still face all the threats individually, but we won't have any problems getting together to deal with all the huge stuff."

"Impressive," said James as he studied the man. He felt a sense of respect for the man, so unlike the Tony that his godfather had described himself as.

That all crumbled with his next statement. "Well, that's really only a small part of it. The real reason I did this was so that I'd have an excuse to see Black Widow in a skin-tight outfit. Come on, you fought her right? What do you think, Red? Smokin', huh?"

Francis suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. Clutching his stomach, he peered at James through watery eyes as he spoke. "D-D-Dude! H-he j-just asked you i-if you t-thought t-th-that y-your m-"

"I'm well aware of what he just asked," interrupted the super soldier as he tensed, his cheeks going red. The white-haired boy collapsed onto the ground, rolling as he tried to gasp for breath.

The adults stared at them in unmasked confusion. "Okay then," said Clint uncertainly. "I think it's safe to say that they've completely lost it."

"Yeah well, I suppose that reaction must confuse you seeing as she's your girlfriend and all," commented Tony with a shrug.

Francis choked as James swung his gaze around to stare hard at them. "What did you just say?!" Asked the redhead.

"Um, that she's his girlfriend?" Said Tony, suddenly uncertain.

Francis moved to his feet and hurried to the glass. "She's his girlfriend? As in you-" he pointed at Natasha, "-and you." He swung his fingers around to point at Clint.

"Uh-huh," replied Clint as the entire group moved forward. For some reason, this whole couple thing really seemed to get to the boys.

The two turned to each other with wide eyes. "Oh boy, things just got VERY complicated," muttered James. If Natasha wasn't with Steve, then who was James's father? And for that matter, was Francis's mom the Black Widow? Did that make them brothers? Did they even exist?

These thoughts flowed through their minds as Francis whispered quietly. "We are not in Kansas anymore."

Tony opened his mouth to say something when red light began to flash and a siren blared loudly. A voice from nowhere spoke up as a screen appeared in the air in front of Stark. "Sir, we have a problem. Someone has broken into a schematic archive at one of our other facilities. They are downloading information at an alarming rate. The intruder also seems to be hacking into our mainframe. Also, someone has remotely hacked into your private files and begun coping and downloading information on several of your armor sets as well as some of your other projects. I'm beginning a lockout now, however the hacker has already gathered incredible amounts of data. They will most likely be able to duplicate your armor."

"You stop him. Romanoff, I need you to remotely isolate the intruder to keep him from getting anything too serious. Jarvis, plant a tracer on our hacker. I'm suiting up to deal with this guy."

"Sir, I have eyes on our intruder," said the disembodied voice as Stark turned, causing him to pause.

"Put it up," he said. A screen appeared in midair, showing a large, dark room at a point of view in the corner to the right of the entrance. At the far end sat a large computer, data flashing across the screen as it was downloaded in a small flash drive that had been hooked up to it. Standing calmly in the center of the room was a familiar, darkly dressed figure with a black mask covering his face.

"The Black Skull," mutter James as he watched the screen, which meant that the hacker was most likely Gordon. "Hey! Let us out! We can help you catch him!"

That caught their attention. "Why should we trust you?" Asked Clint as he cocked an eyebrow.

James met his gaze. "You have questions, so do we. That guy has all the answers. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. He is definitely our enemy."

Francis had ignored the exchange, watching the information flicker across the screen as the Black Widow tried her hardest to stop the download. A sudden flash caused his eyes to widen. "STOP!" He yelled, drawing all of their gazes. "Go back! I just saw something!"

Natasha hesitated, wondering if she should continue or do as the boy asked. Steve silently watched the boys, thinking hard, before he turned to Natasha and gave a small nod. Slowly, she began going back through, showing all of the information that had all ready been taken.

Francis watched it with hard eyes, praying that he was wrong. That is, until an image appeared. "Stop! That's it, there."

As James stared at the image, his eyes widened and his blood went cold. Slowly, he stepped back and slid slowly to the ground, horror settling in his bones. "Oh no," he whispered before raising his voice to address them all. "That's it. That's what they're after. Everything else is just a distraction to throw you off the trail."

Steve moved forward slowly, his eyes on the redhead. He felt the others doing the same, all of their attention focused on the pair. "What makes you say that?" He asked.

"Because that's all he needs," came the simple reply.

Steve turned his attention to the image. It appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary blueprint. "What are we looking at here Tony?" He asked as he gave it a more thorough study.

Tony hesitated. "It's just an assistance android that I've been working on jointly with doctor Henry Pym. It's like a robot servant for the disabled. They can run to the store or reach up to high shelves or push wheelchairs. It's just meant to make life a little easier. It's not dangerous. Granted, I was working on a variant for police assistance that was equipped with some basic Iron Man gear. Any one of us would be able to take it down, but it would be more than enough to stop your regular bank robbery. I thought it would decrease police death rates."

"Is that all?" Asked Steve as he stared hard at him.

Tony hesitated once more. "Well, I was working on a more improved version. I mean, eventually we're all going to settle down and try to start families of our own. I figured that it could pick up the slack, seeing as it would be kind of hard to fight with a kid and all. But I didn't want that data falling into the wrong hands so I locked it up in-" He froze before whipping around to stare at the screen, his face going pale. "Oh no."

"'Oh no'?" Asked Clint. "What do you mean 'oh no'?!"

"I wanted to keep it secure so I tried to keep it locked up in my private files."

"You mean the ones that just got hacked?!" Screamed Clint angrily.

"Yes, those ones. If he takes those designs, he could turn that little helper into a doomsday weapon. One as dangerous as Project Insight, at the very least."

Steve made a call. He turned and pressed on a button at the edge of the cell. "Suit up. Barton, get these two their weapons." He turned to them. "You say you're the good guys? Then prove it. Like it or not, we need all the help we can get. Are you in?" They met his gaze firmly and nodded. "Good." With that he turned and began hurrying out the door, calling to Tony as he went. "So does this doomsday weapon have a name?"

"Pym has some big, long name for it that I don't care to remember. I prefer to just call it Ultron."

End Chapter.

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