Chapter 23.
This is the twenty-third chapter. Hope you enjoy it. I am getting it done early because, like I said in the previous chapter, me and my family are going on holiday for a week or 2, so the next chapter won't be out for a while.
Upon arrival back at the centre, Thor having drunken the bottles he'd brought, Mark went around the centre and collected all the alcoholic bottles in the building, though he did save a few Beer cans just in case. Meanwhile, the others were busy working on the equipment for the plan to bring everybody back, which involved going back in time to get the Infinity Stones. Mark was still overcoming the shock of hearing about time travel, but felt it was worth a try. Soon, he was gathered with most of the Avengers to test the machine, standing on Thor's right, and in between him and Rhodes. Clint Barton, aka Ronin, formerly Hawkeye, stood on the platform in a white and red suit. "All right, Clint. We're going in 3…2…1." Banner announced before the machine activate, and Barton then went down into the machine. A minute later, he came back, lying on the ground, shouting "Lila!". Romanoff led the others, plus Mark, up the ramp onto the machine and knelt down to him. "Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" She asked, as she helped him up onto his feet. Mark then noticed he was holding a Baseball glove in his right hand. "Yeah. It worked. It worked." He said, first to Romanoff, then to Stark, whom he threw the glove to. "It's official. We're time travellers now." Mark muttered, grinning at what they were about to accomplish.
A few minutes later, everyone was gathered around table, with a few touchscreens filled with pictures of the Infinity Stones. Mark sat in the chair on Rocket's right, leaning against the table with his elbow on the table, his paws holding each other. "Okay, so the "How" works. Now we gotta figure out the "when" and "where". Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones." Rogers explained. "Or substitute the word encounter for "damn near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones"." Stark added. "That counts for me and Rocket. We and our… family, we were nearly killed by the Power Stone. Hard to think that's was 9 years ago." Mark said, remembering their encounter with the Power Stone, which was what the Orb had been, with a hint of sadness. "I haven't. I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." The man he'd met earlier, whose name was Scott Lang said. "Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for 1 round trip each. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Banner said, the Pym Particles being what made the suits shrink in order to time travel. "Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?" Stark asked rhetorically. "Which means we have to pick our targets." Barton spoke. "Correct." Stark said, pointing his left index finger at him. "So… lets start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Rogers said, staring at Thor, and then everyone else did, Mark turning his head rightwards to see Thor sitting silently in his chair, sunglasses over his eyes and can of Beer in his right hand. "Is he asleep?" Romanoff asked. "No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodes answered. They eventually got Thor awake and he then went over to the touchscreen about the Aether, or the Reality Stone. "Uh, where to start? Um, the Aether. Firstly, it's not a stone, someone called it a stone before. Um, it's more of a kind of an angry sludge, sort of a thing, someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that." Thor said weirdly, though Mark was already feeling bored. "And here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had the hide the stone from the Dark Elves. Ohhh. Scary beings. So Jane, actually… oh, there she is. Yeah, Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she struck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became sick, very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from and had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see, and I got to introduce her to my, my mother… who's dead, and um…" Thor added, his voice starting to get emotional, Mark remembering what Thor had said In the pod 5 years ago. "Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so… yes, these things happen though, you know? Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that…" Thor continued, Mark close to nodding off. "Why don't you sit down?" Stark asked, coming up to him. "I' not done yet. The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence." Thor replied, before Stark clapped his hands unenthusiastically. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Stark asked, trying to get him to stop. "No, I'd like a Bloody Mary." Thor replied.
After that, they moved on, next to the Power Stone, which was Mar and Rockets moment. And Mark was determined to make their presentation better than Thor. "Okay, the Power Stone. That's us." Mark said as he and Rocket got up onto the table top. "Okay, it's a bit of story, but I'll kept it simple. Basically, for thousands of years it was kept inside this grey metal sphere Orb. Then, 9 years ago, one of our, uh… guys, Peter Quill, who was a mercenary back then, got hold of the Power Stone, which also at around the time we all met. Eventually we found out what it was and how dangerous it was. After becoming a team, we put it into storage on the Planet Xandar, where it stayed for 4 years before Thanos got it. Quill never really spoke much of how he got it." Mark explained to everyone, walking around on the table in a circle. "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket added. "Is that person?" Banner asked. "Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket answered. "Like a planet? Like in outer space?" Lang asked, as if he was an idiot. "Of course, he means that, Scott. Didn't you go to school when you were little?" Mark asked rhetorically, standing on the other side of the table. "Oh, look, it's like a little puppy. All happy and everything. Do you want to go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space." Rocket said mockingly to Lang, petting his hair. "Basically, Morag was a planet, abandoned and deserted for centuries. I don't know why. And Quill was a man. About this high, brown curly hair, liked music." Mark continued, standing on the tips of hind legs and held his left arm high up, hoping it was around Quill's height. After that, he and Rocket sat back down in their chairs, then sat with some of the others on some sofa's while Nebula told them what she knew about the Soul Stone. Mark sat in between Lang and Romanoff, which felt a bit tight, squeezed and confined, but wasn't bothered. Mark also mentioned to everyone that until Thanos got hold of it, nobody had seen it in millions of years. "Thanos stole the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula began. "Where is Vormir?" Romanoff asked. "A dominion of death, at the very centre of celestial existence. It's… Thanos murdered my sister." Nebula answered, and silence then filed the room. "Oh, yeah. That's how Gamora died. And from what I know, she was Thanos's favourite." Mark thought sadly in his head, looking down at the floor."Not it." Lang spoke. A few minutes later, Mark left the room and lied down on the floor, and closed his eyes, getting a bit of shut eye before the mission. And that was the best sleep/nap he'd had in ages.
When Mark woke up, he found that the others had figured out the plan: the group would split into 3 teams; one team to New York in 2012, to get the Space Stoe, the Mind Stone, and the Time Stone, another to Asgard in 2013 to get the Reality Stone, and the last team to 2014, and then split up and go to Morag and Vormir. "All right. We have a plan. 6 stones,3 teams, 1 shot." Rogers announced, Mark looking in the same direction everyone else was looking at in silence. A few minutes later, everyone was each in a red and white time travel suit. Even Mark (who had taken off his bandanna for the suits helmet) and Rocket had suits of their own size. The time travellers then all walked in 2 lines towards the machine, then up the ramp. At the top, everyone extended their arms and hands close to each other, Mark on Rocket's left. "5 years ago, we lost. 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. That 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." Rogers said to them all. "He's pretty good at that." Rocket said. "Right?" "Man, that was a good speech." Mark thought in his head. Lang asked down. "All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green." Stark ordered Banner, who was by the control panel. "Trackers engaged." Mark heard Banner say before he turned his head rightwards and upwards to see Barton holding the Benatar in his hand, which had been shrunken by some Pym Particles. "You promise to bring that back on one piece, right?" Rocket asked Barton. "Yeah, we've had a good few years without that ship being damaged. And we've lost one too many ships these past few years as a group. Which was once." Mark added, muttering the last sentence. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Do my best." Barton replied. "As promises go, that was pretty lame." Rocket said, while Mark just shrugged. He then turned his head slightly leftwards and looked upwards as Banner joined them, pressed right hand and Mark heard be beep. "See you in a minute." He heard Romanoff say. He then heard a rumbling sound, looked upwards and saw the machinery of top of them was arranging itself, before he looked down again. "Let's do this. Let's get our family back." Mark thought in his head confidently before his helmet came all around his face, the front bit extended due to his muzzle. The main machinery then activated and glowed orange, before he felt himself literally shrink and flow down a glowing tunnel, feeling his stomach turn slightly from the strange but fast movement, going in the direction he was supposed to go. To the past.
And that's the twenty third chapter done. Hope you enjoyed it. Wonder which team Mark goes with? You'll see in the next chapter. Which, as due to me and my family going on holiday or a "Staycation", to the Lake District, in the North of England, won't be out for around 2 weeks. So please be patient. Hope it's a good holiday.