We were in the command room, ready to begin planning the Time Heist.
"Okay, so the 'how' works." Steve said. "Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones."
"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony remakes.
"I haven't." Scott said. "I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce said.
"Our history." Tony added. "So, not a lot fo convenient spots to just drop in."
"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint said.
"Correct." Tony replied.
"Let's start with the Aether." Steve said. The Reality Stone. "Thor, what do you know?" We all looked at Thor, who was sitting on a chair. He was wearing sunglasses, so it was impossible to tell whether he was sleeping or not.
"Is he asleep?" I asked.
"No." Rhodey said. "I'm pretty sure he's dead." Thor woke up with a start and made his way over to the holo-board.
"Where to start?" Thor said. "Um, the Aether, first is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a… an angry sludge thing so… someone needs to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves. Wooooo." He wiggled his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost. Natasha and I exchanged a very confused glance. "So Jane-" An image of Jane Foster popped up. "-Oh, there she is. That's Jane… she's an old flame of mine. She stuck her hand inside a rock this one time… and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my mother… who's dead." Thor was now on the verge of tears. "Oh, and you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen, nothing lasts for ever." Tony tried to get Thor to sit back down. "I'm not done yet, the only permanent thing in life is impermanence."
We all stared, very, very confused.
"Awesome." Tony said, trying to get Thor to sit down. "Eggs? Breakfast?"
"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you." Thor replied.
…
We had ordered Chinese takeout for lunch, and Rocket told us about the Power Stone as we ate.
"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket said.
"Is that a person?" Scott asked.
"Morag is a planet." Rocket explained. "Quill was a person."
"A planet?" Scott asked. "Like in outer space?"
"Oh look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Rocket said. He then imitated talking to a puppy. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space? I'll get you to space."
…
Back in the planning room, Nebula talked about the Soul Stone.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula said.
"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked, taking notes.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence." Nebula said. "It's where… Thanos murdered my sister." A slightly awkward silence fell in the room.
"Not it." Scott muttered, breaking the tension.
…
After a whole lot of planning, we were finally ready.
"Alright." Steve said. "We have a plan. Six Stones, three teams. One shot." We got into our time travel suits and walked towards the Quantum Time machine. Once we were there, we stood in a circle on the glass.
"Five years ago, we lost." Steve said. "All of us. We lost friends, we lost family, we lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the Stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."
"He's pretty good at that." Rocket muttered.
"Right?" Scott replied.
"Alright, you heard the man." Tony said. "Stroke those keys, jolly green." Bruce flicked a few switches on the control board and then walked onto the glass.
"See you in a minute." Nat said, smiling excitedly. With that, we shrunk and entered the quantum realm. We split into our different directions.
The Time Heist had begun.
…
I appeared in a small alleyway in New York City, 2012, right in the middle of the Avengers' battle with the Chitauir army. Tony, Bruce, Scott, and Steve appeared next to me.
"Alright, we all have our assignments." Steve said. "Two Stones uptown, one Stone down. Stay low, keep an eye on the clock."
There was a loud roar, and 2012 Hulk ran into the street that we were looking at. He was mashing literally everything in his way. Bruce facepalmed, embarrassed. I realized this was the first time he had seen the Hulk from someone else's point of view.
"Feel free to smash a few things along the way." Steve said.
"I think it's gratuitous, but whatever." Bruce said, ripping away his shirt. He smashed things sarcastically, making an odd growling noise. He lightly punched a car and threw a motorbike at a wall, wincing as it hit.
"Come on." I said, walking over to him. The two of us had been assigned to get the Time Stone.
Bruce picked me up like I weighed nothing and jumped onto the nearest building. I grimaced as he jumped form building to building, all the way to the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Bruce put me down, and I dusted myself off. I walked towards the roof door.
"I'd be careful going in that way." Said a voice from behind us. "We just had the floors waxed." I turned to see a bald woman in yellow robes. The Ancient One.
"Ma'am, we're looking for Doctor Strange." Bruce explained.
"You're about… five years too early." The Ancient One said. "Stephen Strange is currently performing surgery about twenty blocks that way. What do you want from him."
"That, actually." I said, pointing to her necklace that contained the Time Stone.
"Ah, I'm afraid not." She said.
"Sorry, but we weren't asking." Bruce said, walking towards her.
"You don't want to do this." She said.
"You're right, I don't." Bruce replied. "But I need that Stone, and I don't have time to beat it-" The Ancient One pushed him back with her hand, and Bruce's astral form came out of his body, which fell to the ground.
When she turned to me, I put my hands up in surrender.
"You don't need to do… that to me." I said. "We come in peace, we just really need the Stone." She sighed.
"Let's start over, shall we?" She said. I nodded. Bruce was still looking around, confused in his astral form.
"Don't worry, Doctor Banner, you are perfectly fine." She said. "Now, please explain the situation to me."
"We come from 2023." I began. "In our world, Thanos snapped half the world out of existence using the Infinity Stones. We are collecting the Stones, and we're going to fix what happened." She contemplated it for a moment, and I held my breath.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot." She said. What? Why couldn't she give it to us? Didn't she get that the whole universe was at stake.
She walked to the other side of the roof, and we ran after her.
"Please, please!" Bruce begged.
"I'm sorry, I cannot help you." The Ancient One said. "If I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I'm dooming my own."
"With all due respect, I'm not sure the science really supports that." Bruce said. The Ancient One created a projection with a long gold ray that simulated the flow of time.
"The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time." She said. "Remove one Stone and that flow splits." She flicked the Time Stone off of the projection, and a black stream flowed from the gold one. "Now, this may benefit your reality, but my new one… not so much. In this new branched reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world will be overrun. Millions will suffer. So, tell me, Doctor, can your science prevent all that?"
"No," Bruce said. "But we can erase it. Because once we are done with the Stones, we can return each on to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically, it never left."
"But you are leaving out the most important part." The Ancient One said, unconvinced. "In order to return the Stones, you have to survive."
"We will, I will." Bruce said. "I promise."
"I can't risk this reality on a promise." She said. "It is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone."
"Then why the hell did Strange give it away?" I asked. She looked shocked.
"What did you say?" She said.
"Strange, he gave it away." I emphasized. "He gave it to Thanos."
"Willingly?" She asked.
"Yes." Bruce and I said at the same time.
"Why?" She asked.
"I have no idea." Bruce said. "Maybe he made a mistake."
"Or I did." She whispered. With a wave of her hand, Bruce's Hulk body flew over, and Bruce's astral form went back inside his body. She then held the Time Stone in her hand.
"Strange is meant to be the best of us." She said.
"So he must have done it for a reason." I concluded.
"I fear you might be right." She said, handing Bruce the Time Stone.
"Thank you." I said. She faced me, and I saw an odd green light in her eyes.
"Once you let go, you will discover the true power inside of you." She said. Her eyes returned back to their normal color.
What did that mean? My true power?
"I'm counting on you." She said. "We all are."
We activated our Quantum Suits and flew through time, back to the present.
We all stood on the glass of the Time Machine. I looked around, seeing the recovered Stones. Thor had somehow gotten Mjolnir back as well, which made me smile. A little piece of the past.
"Did we get them all?" Bruce asked.
"You're telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodey said, smiling. I surveyed the room, my eyes sweeping the circle.
Then I landed on the empty spot where Natasha had been standing.
"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asked.
His silence was our answer.