Another long chapter for you all for being patient. Happy reading and boycott T. Rycbar

IDon'tOwnMarvel

"That was completely irresponsible and dangerous! You've jeopardized everything!"

I felt my heart racing at the aggressive approach from Hank, but made sure to maintain a composed stance while Scott got chewed out. I found it best to just try to shut down a little and avoid noticing the yelling at all. Luckily, there wasn't so much yelling after Scott pulled out the piece that Hank had wanted and placed it on the table, causing a hush to fall over the previously angry man.

Hope looked over at the piece and smiled a little in awe. "You got it."

Hank looked flabbergasted and a bit defeated, but took the piece anyway and mumbled out his compliment. "Well done."

Scott smiled too. "Did he just compliment me? He did, didn't he?"

"Sounded like he did." I gave Scott an amused look, coming back out of that previously spaced out state.

"I was good, wasn't I?" Hank smiled up from the small device.

"Uh, how about the fact that I fought an Avenger, and didn't die?" Scott asked, looking around for praise from us.

"Now, let's not dwell on the past. We gotta finish our planning." Hank waved him off, turning to leave. He stopped short in the doorway. "Darren. How the hell did you get in here?"

My smile fell with the other two adults in the room stiffening. Hope turned to Scott wide-eyed and desperate after Hank closed the door.

"He'll kill him." Hope mouthed, making me freeze up in fear.

Does Darren come by in the regular plot? Did I forget something? What did I change? Panicked tears almost came to my eyes while I felt a pit of sick churning in my stomach. Oh no, no, no. What did I forget? What happens?

I looked around as if my journal might be in the room before deciding to make a rash decision. Scott was pulling on the suit when I grabbed a mug off the counter and pushed into the room after Hank like it was no big deal.

"Hey, Pops, do you actually have mango tea or is it just green-" I stopped short in the room, looking between the two men and putting on my best acting skills. "Why do you casually disappear from the kitchen and then multiply? Is that a rich guy thing? Who's this?"

"Pops?" Darren looked at me skeptically.

"I asked a question first," I crossed my arms in the most teenager way I could manage. "What's this, a trafficking thing? I come to try and meet my bio dad and he brings his 'friends'? I can fight you. I have a taser...somewhere."

Darren gave me an apologetic smile and offered out his hand for me to shakewhile Hank looked internally horrified. "Darren Cross. I thought I heard chit chat in the kitchen. I used to work with your bio dad."

"Yeah, 'cause that totally tells me you're not a threat." I mumbled, letting him shake my hand anyways with my memory running on full drive to try and figure out if this was a thing that happened. I let a small smile slip onto my face then. "Wanna hear the story? It was wild."

"You know-"

"So I'm Caroline Stills, right?" I started quickly, picking up speed. "And I found out through my mom's suicide note that my 'dad' was acutally my step dad. Turns out, she slept with this dude seventeen years ago and now here I am. It took me the longest time to find him and his name was literally on several buildings. I felt so dumb. Plus, he's like a million years old. Either way, I'm super excited to have a parent, even if he wants nothing to do with me half the time."

He smiled back awkwardly at that, clearly not wanting to chat about me and turning back to Hank. "You don't ever introduce me to anyone. It's like you're ashamed of my existence."

The plans for our heist were slowly being rolled up on the table and I mentally relaxed upon knowing that Darren would at least not know what we were up to.

"It was nice to meet you, Caroline. My condolences for your mom." Darren addressed me briefly, then looking to Hank again. "Is this why you've been on edge lately?"

Hank gave me an awkward look too. "Yes, I would have said something. It's just been pretty hectic. Caroline, why don't you go get some green tea instead. I'll be with you in a minute."

"Oh no, it's quite alright." Darren held up a hand, standing up straighter at that. "I don't want to intrude. I'll see you at Pym Tech right?"

"Right."

I waved at the leaving man with a big smile. "Bye, Mr. Cross!"

The second that door closed, I dropped the smile from my face and rolled my shoulders back with a grimace.

"What were you thinking?" Hank hissed, snapping his head to look at me.

"That I didn't want you to end up as one of his impromptu test subjects." I frowned and then gagged to myself. "Good god that felt disgusting. Ugh."

Hank went quiet and just looked at me, shocked.

I rolled my eyes and went over to the closed plans and then handing them to him. "You're welcome."

He followed me back to the kitchen in baffled silence until we met up with Hope and Scott again. Scott was the first one to talk. "Kid, that was nuts."

"Who did you become?" Hope asked.

"An annoying responsibility." I hopped up onto the counter to sit. "I made it just awkward enough to make him uncomfortable with the dead mom and then threw in the enthusiasm to drive him away. I'd say it worked. I sounded batshit."

Hope shook her head at that before taking us back to the real problem at hand. "He's baiting you. We have to call it off."

"We're all taking risks." Hank replied casually, clearly thinking about something else at the same time.

"What if he saw me here?"

"He didn't. There's no way."

"How do you know that-" Hope was cut off by the ringing of her cellphone. We all looked to her as she picked it up. "Darren, hi."

I rolled my eyes for the hundredth time that day and ignored the conversation until Hope hung up. I spent that minute wondering if maybe I wrote something down about this day that I left in my journal at my apartment. This was going to be really embarrassing if it was supposed to happen and I was just there causing problems.

"He's adding full body scanners to all entrances and closing exterior vents." Hope tucked her phone back away. "How are we gonna get Scott inside?"

"What about the water main?" I shrugged, crossing my arms and proud that I remembered the scene where he surfed on ants in a drain to get in. "You can't add security to that."

"The pressure's too strong...unless," Scott looked at me, eyes flashing in excitement. "Unless we decrease it."

Hope wasn't quite sold on the idea though.

"Somebody would have to reach the building's control center to change the water pressure." She pointed out, "I mean, Hank and I will be beside Cross, and the illegitimate daughter can't do much alone. How are we supposed to do that?"

"Wow, rude," I huffed back. "I thought you wanted me as a sister."

"So we expand our team." Scott continued with a smile, "What do we need? A fake security guard on the inside to depressurize the water system, somebody else to hack into the power supply and kill the laser grid, and a getaway guy."

Hank finally realized what he was trying to say when he caught sight of my widening grin "No, no, no. Not those three wombats. No way."

About an hour later they were coming through the door, one by one.

Luis caught sight of me when he stepped through and smiled. "Ay, it's Jack!" He tapped Kurt's shoulder and pointed at me. "That's so wild, dog, I thought she had kicked it out of town for sure after Scott."

I giggled despite my near-constant state of 'professionalism' around them. "Hi guys."

It was nice to see them. I didn't have to be constantly professional around them. It was like having a bunch of brothers that didn't ask personal questions and kept everything lighthearted. Hank, in comparison, was exhausting to be around.

"Ayy! What's up?" Dave pulled me into a quick hug. "You dipped out of nowhere!"

"Yeah sorry about that." I pointed with my thumb back at my new friends. "I had to work for this crazy old man and then Scott showed up and started making googly eyes at the pretty lady."

Luis had already hugged Scott and was talking to him at light speed.

Dave sniggered. "I wonder if I could get some of that."

"Sorry, Davy Jones, she'll kill you 8 different ways." I chuckled back. "She's crazy when it comes to martial arts."

When I looked over at Hope, she seemed quite pleased at my assessment of her.

Dave nodded at me. "Thanks for the heads up."

Kurt gave me a quick once over. "Hello, Jack."

"Hello, Kurt."

I smiled at him and he only gave me half a smile back before following the others into the room.

"Thank you for the coffee ma'am. It's not too often that you rob a place, and then get welcomed back." Luis was chuckling at this turn of events. "Because we just robbed you!"

Kurt and I were caught in a staring contest from our seats, so I wasn't listening to what the others were saying after that. At one point Hank called us over to look over the floor plan of the building. I was finally having some real fun. Sure, Hank gets shot, but he lives. Everyone will be okay.

Except maybe those Hydra agents in the helicopter. I mused briefly. They're asshole white supremacists though, so if anyone can die, it's them.

The next few hours were filled with rigorous planning and a moment of panic between the guys when they saw Scott shrink. Kurt was incredibly wary around Scott after that, claiming it was the work of gypsies. I had to remind him that it wasn't a very polite thing to call someone. Hope also did slip something into their tea, but I didn't intervene due to the fact that she was probably not the kind to kill the help. After they all fell asleep (probably from whatever was in the tea), I was also pretty tired myself. Whatever Scott and Hope were talking about went over my head, and shortly after Hope left to go back to her apartment, Scott saw me watching him from the couch.

I wasn't watching him specifically, to be fair, but it probably looked like that. Really, my exhaustion was just making me think back on depressing subjects in my life- like my lack of best friend.

"What?"

I half shook my head at him, snapping out of my thoughts to actually look at him. "Nothing."

"I figured you would've fallen asleep by now." He sat down on the couch beside me. "You know, since it's past your bedtime."

"Dude, I'm 18." I stifled a yawn and leaned forwards a little to scrub my face with my hands and then leave it resting in them. "I don't have a bedtime."

He furrowed his brow at me in concern. "You really don't look 18."

"First off- What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I looked up again, sitting back relaxed on the couch. "Second- Don't worry about it. It's probably a side effect."

"Side effect to what?"

"Existing. My tragic backstory." I crossed my arms over my chest to try and curl up further into the comfortable couch. "That of which you'll never hear."

"Huh." He moved aside one of the floorplans so that he wasn't sitting on it.

I took in the moment of silence and closed my eyes. "You should go see her...Your daughter, that is."

"Why?" He shuffled a little to get comfy too on the couch beside me.

"Probably 'cause you're risking your life tomorrow. It'd be nice to remember what you're still here for."

"You're oddly insightful." He said, looking at me now.

"Hank thinks so too."

"So, what about you?"

I opened one of my eyes to look at him skeptically. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you have someone you want to see?"

I closed it again with a tired sigh and shook my head. "Nah."

"Parents?" He tried, watching my reaction carefully.

"Dead."

"Extended family?"

"Dead. Stop it." I opened my eyes to glare at him now.

"Everyone?" He looked at me incredulously. "That's ridiculous. You have to have someone."

"I had a best friend...but I lost him too about a month and a half ago." I hugged myself a little tighter. "So no- no one."

"Sorry...about that." He shuffled again in the beat of awkward silence. "You've got the wombats."

"Yeah. They're nice." I looked at him again. "You should go see your daughter. You've only got a few hours. And I also would like to sleep, so fuck off."

"You're real grouchy when you're tired."

I pointed in the general direction of the door. "Go. Quit stalling, grandma."

I couldn't see what he was doing in response, but I felt him get back up off the couch and leave. A few moments later, the front door opened and closed. Though I was fully aware of the old man listening in from the kitchen, I didn't say anything about it. I was too freaking tired. Finally, and after a few minutes of shifting to get comfortable, I settled down enough to let myself sleep before tomorrow.

We were off the next day after several hours of preparation and a forced pit-stop at McDonalds for food to bring with us.

Sitting in the back of a van and watching over the security stuff with Kurt and Dave was pretty boring at first too. Kurt and I worked on a few things from the safety of the van after I declined Hank's offer to take me in with him for added cover. He was probably just covering for himself in case Darren got trigger happy, but I really didn't want to risk getting in the way of that interaction, especially because they did start shooting at one point. I guess he figured that with a child at his side, there would be less of a chance he would be killed. Honestly, it wasn't the worst idea, but I kind of had to stay to make sure that when Dave and Kurt were arrested, someone would be able to turn off the laser grid.

Kurt was outside the van putting up cones when I saw something that made my heart stop.

Oh no. Immediate tears came to my eyes at the sight of him with my chest tightening up in panic. Don't open the boxes. Don't open the boxes.

"We came with a special treat for you today."

Chest burning in pain with my lungs choking for air...buzzing in my ears...the thick scent of burning flesh in the air…

I could smell it again as I fell back away from the window on my ass, terror racng down my spine. "No, no, no, no."

"Jack?" Kurt caught my shoulder with a firm hand, crouching in front of me after shutting the van door behind him. "Jack, what happened?"

"I don't wanna do this." I whimpered, pulling my legs up to my chest. "Winnie's here."

"Who?" Dave watched us from the front seat with a great bout of concern. "Quit bugging out, girl. What's wrong with you?"

"Jack?"

I shook my head at the voice in my ear. "Stop it. Please."

"Someone find out what happened to Jack." Hank ordered, not sounding like he was having a good time. "Everyone else keeps focused."

"No, Kurt, tell me what's going on." Scott spoke over him as the voices then faded out into nothingness. "What's wrong with-"

Without much warning other than the fear running amok in my system, I found myself almost immediately just staring at the boxes in my head. They sat rotting in this long-forgotten room for a while, and now I was looking right at the aftermath of neglect. It was like I could hear what was happening in each of them as mold dripped down their sides and ate through the cardboard. One in particular had split down the side with its memory contents spilling out onto the hardwood floor.

"I can watch her." A faded and distanced voice stated, echoing through the room and making me turn to look at the door it came through. "Jack? Dudes, she looks baked."

I paced over to the door, stopping right at the entrance and trying to debate the best way to go about this. They'd already seen me freak out, so there was no turning back from that. I could stay in my room for the rest of the adventure, but that would be risking the chance that my disruption was enough to make Scott hit the laser barrier on his way in. I was risking a lot of things by just avoiding my problems. Not to mention, this was an incredibly embarrassing situation.

I looked back at the boxes warily. They're fine there, right? It can't be that bad to ignore them just a little longer. What's the worst that could happen?

"Jack?"

I blinked at Dave and then shook my head, feeling eerily more calm than when I left, but significantly more sick. I felt bile rising in my throat then and panicked, shoving him aside. "Move."

"Shit." He followed my stumbling out of the van as I hacked up whatever was in my stomach on the street beside the van. Dave turned right back around at that with a small gag of his own. "Oh, gross. She's clear."

I caught my breath again outside, building up the courage again to peer around the other side of the van to see if the Hydra agent was still out there. He was not. The safe assumption would be that he was inside already with his buddy and sickening grin of malicious intent. I went to touch my earpiece to let Scott know I was fine, only for it to not be there. Taking a deep breath, I made my next move to climb back into the van while still a little shaky on my legs from the nausea.

"Water?" Kurt offered, gesturing to a bottle on the floor that I gladly scooped up.

"Thanks."

"What the hell was that?" Dave demanded, "You contagious or something?"

"No," I shook my head, sipping the water to rid my mouth of the taste of bile with my hands shaking a little. "Just fun memories. Can I have my earpiece?"

Dave handed it over while I sat again at our computer set-up and watched Hank pull up to the entrance of the building. A few moments and several nervous glances later, Dave finally found something else to pay attention to.

"Psh. Got a Crown Vic right outside over there."

Kurt squinted. "Is this a problem?"

"Considering the Crown Vic's the most commonly used car for under-cover cops, man." Dave deadpanned, "Yes, this is a problem."

"Fuck, it's Paxton and his detective pal." I whispered to them. "I know that guy."

"Oh no." Kurt breathed, watching the two cops run after Hank.

While Scott butchered the name for bullet ants and annoyed the shit out of Hope over the coms, the three of us in the van watched the scene unfold in front of us.

"Signal decoy in place. Mean pretty lady did good, Scott."

Okay, I guess Kurt isn't watching. I passed a look back at the guy with his eyes glued to the screen before deciding to join him.

Kurt looked up just then, seeing Dave climb out and then panicking. "Dave! Dave!"

I watched in amused shock as Dave made a beeline for the police car and got right in like he owned it.

"This is also not part of plan!" Kurt called after him as Dave turned the cop car away from the building and took off in it, making the two cops abandon Hank in favor of their hijacked car.

"Oh, sick." I grinned with a small chuckle, still feeling that residual exhaustion and nausea from before and hoping that it might dissipate soon. "Nice one, Davy."

If only a nap were a good idea right about now.

"Problem solved." Kurt said, turning back to the computers.

I was sitting at the small desk, but ended up just getting up when Kurt pushed me aside more as if I was bothering him.

"Arriving at second position." Scott reported easily. "Alright, top speed, Ant-thony! Let's go...Proceeding to command position."

Several minutes later, Dave returned with a big grin. Scott continued to report back at us while we giggled a little in the van about the stolen cop car.

"Did you see that?" Dave asked, getting a mildly tired nod out of me when I grabbed for another sip of water.

I was halfway through a gulp when Dave's elbow hit the horn on the wheel, replaying that amazingly awful custom horn. All three of us froze in quiet shock for a moment, just looking at each other while hoping that there was some chance the officers hadn't heard.

I shook my head at him finally with a small groan and turned back to the computers, trying to see if I could get the laser grid offline before they showed up. I didn't want any chance that Scott might get fried, after all. That would be…very bad...for so many reasons.

"Servers are fried." I relayed to Scott while Kurt was quick to join me for phase three. "Data backup is completely erased."

"Heading to the Particle Chamber."

There was a loud banging on the side of the van that made my heart skip a beat with a jerk of fear running back up my spine. It had to be the result of my previous visit to the room with the boxes. I was a bit more jumpy than usual. And somehow also tired…and sweaty?

"Anybody home?"

Kurt grabbed his computer and dove to the floor with me in close pursuit.

"Good boy Ant-thony!" Scott cheered to himself, "Final position. Guys, how are we looking on that laser grid?"

"Almost!" Kurt said in a hushed tone, watching the screen like it was going to run away.

Dave shook his head with his own internalized stress. "No, you're not."

Let's try Plan B- Panic. I decided, taking off my baseball cap and shoving it aside behind the equipment.

"San Francisco PD!" Paxton banged his fist on the outside of the van while bile rose back up in my throat from just the sound. "Open up!"

I pulled off my sweatshirt and fully allowed the panic from the noises and stress to build tears back in my eyes. Today's mystery mouse-ka-tool was going to be trauma and bottled up emotions.

Dave looked over at me quickly, fully alarmed. "Um, Jack? Jack, why are you taking off your clothes?"

Kurt looked over at me too as I sat down as far away from them as possible and pulled off my second layer, putting it with the first behind the equipment. I was just in a white t-shirt now and boxer-briefs. I did keep my sweatpants tight in my hand though so I could keep them with me in the event of an emergency.

"Dave, what is kid doing?" Kurt hissed, looking pointedly at his partner.

"I didn't do shit!" Dave squeaked back. "She just started stripping!"

My knees were pulled up to my chest and tears blurred over my vision slightly. The ragged breathing was brought back too as soon as my earpiece was taken out and tossed aside.

Dave grabbed Kurt's shoulder desperately. "Can't it go faster?!"

"Dude, seriously!"

I started whimpering and holding myself as pitifully as possible. They both looked over at me in a fast panic.

"No, no. Don't do that!" Dave winced, looking between me and the computer while freaking out on his own. "It's fine! STOP CRYING!"

"You can not yell!" Kurt shot back at him. "She will only cry more if you yell! Why do you yell?!"

"You're yelling, man!" Dave gave him a small shove. "Turn off the lasers!"

Right as he got those words out, the back door swung open and Paxton had his gun on us. "FREEZE!"

I clutched myself tighter, but kept half an eye on the screen in front of Kurt when they pulled Dave from the van. Kurt must've seen something in my expression too because he gave me a desperate look as he was dragged out.

Paxton dropped his anger for quick sympathy. "Hey, honey, why don't we come out now? It's safe, I promise."

I sniffed and wiped away my tears, looking up at him and also giving the screen a passive glance.

'97%'

"I want my mom." I whimpered, holding myself tight and choking on the last word. "Are you gonna take me to my mom?"

Paxton nodded with the softest expression on his face. "Of course. What's your name?"

"Melanie-" I pointed at Dave and Kurt while scooting closer to the computer. "These- these- MEN took me away. They said they were gonna feed me to Baba Jaga if I didn't listen to them."

Kurt gasped at that in appall.

"Baba Jaga." He pointed to himself, looking at the other cop with a shake of his head. "Never. I would not."

I pressed the space bar at the same time that I was offered a hand to slide out of the vehicle, hopefully having turned off the lasers at the right time. Dave kept quiet, still a bit shocked while I stepped out shakily. The pitiful act didn't hold up when Paxton looked back at the two guys on the ground though and I was quick to bend his wrist back. I brought my knee up between his legs when he wasn't looking, crippling him into bending over with a gasp.

Both the men on the ground winced too with quiet groans of their own. I bolted as soon as Paxton was briefly incapacitated and took off down the road with my pants in hand.

Kurt laughed out loud behind me. "Run!"

I did take the good advice as I continued around a corner quickly and only slowed when I saw I wasn't being pursued by anyone. Stopping only for half a second, I pulled the pants on and took out my phone to make a call.

"Hey, Happy." I smiled a little when he picked up. "Can you send me an address and maybe a taxi?"

It was a bit easier pulling up to Cassie's house when Happy ordered me a taxi to my location to Cassie's house. It was truly amazing what one could do with access to top-tier technology and a lot of money. Right now, that truly amazing thing was taking the child out of the general vicinity of a laser fight.

Granted, the whole endeavor with the taxi and calling happy took a bit longer than I would've liked, so by the time I showed up, I was a bit worried. No one was there yet, meaning that as I pulled myself up the side of the house while regretting every decision in my life up until this point, I was a bit hopeful.

"You're not Scott."

I looked up quickly from where I'd tumbled in through Cassie's open window and looked directly up at the Yellow Jacket. I had to admit, that suit was the sort of things from nightmares with the yellow glowing eyes, slightly pointed helmet at the chin, and sharp mechanical arms attached to the back. That thing definitely had the capabilities of shish kabob-ing me right over a grill if it wanted.

"N-" I looked between him and Cassie, pulling myself to my feet. "No. Oh no. I'm early."

"Caroline, was it?" Darren faced me more then with that disgusting villainous intent. "How would you like to help send a message with me? I know of a few people that might miss you."

"Oh, me too." I nodded, putting my hands on my hips awkwardly. "You-You know. Look, I got- I was just looking for, uh, Cassie, so if maybe I could take her with me and then you could fight…Scott…properly? Yeah, that'll be fine. Cassie?"

I beckoned her over and she looked like she was fully ready to get up and come over to me before one of the four legs attached to Darren impaled the bed in front of her to keep her in place.

"No," Darren approached me then, backing me into a wall and making me wonder when the fuck Scott was supposed to show up and why he wasn't here already. "I'm starting with you."

"Oh boy." I looked to Cassie quickly. "Cover your eyes, kiddo."

She listened and dove under the covers of her bed when Darren's gloved hand wrapped around my neck. The course fabric scratched at my skin and throat with his arms charging up behind him in preparation.

"Come on, come on, come on." I looked to the window, hopeful for that last minute save that wouldn't come. Then, I had to make a hard choice. "Oh, fuck me in the-"

I gripped both my hands around his then and charged myself up quick, much to Darren's shock. Very much despite the sudden appearance of Scott on the other side of Cassie's bed, I stood my ground, glowing a deep purple. Darren didn't think to move away in time as I pushed a current straight through his arm and suit, the purple energy frying the mechanics on his back and forcing him back a step before he dropped unconscious.

Scott flipped off his mask at that with a stare before pointing at me quickly. "Wh- Can- WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Daddy?" Cassie peeked out from under the covers again, getting a relieved sigh from the man at the same time as he was quick to scoop her up.

"Jack?" He made a 'you better fucking explain' face at me while I cringed and looked back down at the body, blue lights flashing outside.

"Oh no," I shook my head at him, coming back to the reality of the situation and realizing my mistake. "You were supposed to fight him. I'm so sorry. Shit!"

"Shit?" He hissed, covering Cassie's other ear. "Why were you purple?"

"I just-" I looked around in a mild panic, already terrified at what this would change. "Oh my god."

"Okay, kid, relax." He paced over to me from across the room. "Have you always been able to do that? The flipping…purple thing?"

I shook my head again. "No, shit- What were you supposed to do here? This was important, I know it."

"Cassie!" Paxton called from downstairs, his footsteps ascending quickly.

"Go." He nodded at the window before setting down Cassie and looking at her. "Go downstairs to Jim, okay? Daddy's gonna handle this. I'll come see you later, alright?"

She looked back at Darren briefly before he nudged her along and she actually listened, running back out of the room into the hallway.

"Out the window now." Scott pressed a button on the Yellow Jacket suit next, shrinking it with him and giving me no other choice than to listen or get caught again by the police officer step-dad.

I climbed back out the window and dropped down behind a bush as more cop cars pulled up.

"Okay, this way." Scott appeared on my shoulder with Darren held up against his side. "Neighbor's yard."

I took a deep breath before running over to the fence and hopping into the neighbors yard. Scott gave me directions to the adjacent street where, sure enough, the van was there waiting.

"Oh, no, he's waking up." Scott grew back to full size with Darren.

The villain gained his footing in record time, looking pointedly at me. "OH you-"

I squeaked in panic and delivered a quick electric punch to his chest, knocking him back down on the ground. He was out again. The back doors of the van creaked open with both Kurt and Dave staring too.

"Okay, what is that?" Scott asked, out of breath as he flipped off his mask. "What- how did you do that? Is that new?"

I opened and shut my mouth, looking back at him anxiously before taking a step back.

"Jack?" Kurt stared at me, wide-eyed. "You are wizard?"

"No, wait." I waved a hand at him, making both him and Dave close the doors a little more on themselves for protection. I winced at that before turning back to Scott and squeezing my eyes shut to think. "Shit! What are you missing?"

He just stared at me quietly while I paced in a circle.

"Okay, um," I bounced on my heels. "You went subatomic and broke apart Darren's suit…you got out by using one of the growing disks…you- what did you- Dreams!"

He jumped a little when I pointed at him. "You have a dream later about Hope's mom! Goddamit, that's the whole other plot!"

And I ruined it? I felt my chest get tighter at the idea. "Oh my god, I ruined it. What do I do? Fix it? Tell them?"

"Tell us what?" Scott asked, watching me spiral in a pit of horror at the change I made.

"I'm thinking, Scott!" I snapped, then backing down immediately. "Oh, no, I'm sorry. Please just…don't be mad at me. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin it! I panicked!"

"Kid, kid," Scott caught my shoulders then and looked between my eyes. "What is the purple thing?"

"I don't know." I admitted with a small defeated shrug. "Energy…or some shit? It's hard to explain without you then asking me, like, a million questions. And I'm so tired already, why did I have to fuck it up?"

I scrubbed my face with my hands then. "Oh my god."

Scott watched me for a second longer before wrapping me in a tight hug and making me immediately tense from the contact. "Okay, I don't care. Thank you."

"Thank you?" I repeated, frowning against him and wondering if this was a dangerous situation to be in. "Why 'thank you'? I broke something in the timeline. That's not a thank you thing."

Scott doesn't kill the people he hugs, right? He's a sweetheart.

"For Cassie." He added, resting his head on mine. "Just…thank you for being there."

"I broke the timeline, I think." I whispered with tears coming to my eyes next as I slowly allowed myself to un-tense in his arms. "Hard to explain- but that was not supposed to happen."

"Doesn't matter, kid." He squeezed me a little. "You got the big evil guy."

"It really does matter though." I hugged him back finally. "So, I need a really big favor from you, Scott."

He did not agree with my request though.

"Here?" He asked incredulously. "I feel like you don't know what you're saying."

"Subatomic." Kurt repeated quietly, still hiding partially behind the door of the van from me. "That is…bad. Correct?"

"Yeah," Scott gave me a funny stare, looking between my eyes. "It's suicide."

"It's not.' I shook my head. "It's so important, dude. You have no idea how much rests on this moment. Or…that moment when you went subatomic."

"I love how everything you're saying is past tense." Scott waved a hand. "Like, it already happened."

"For me." I ran my fingers through my hair. "Again, you really just have to trust me."

"Yeah, that's the thing. I really don't." He deadpanned back.

"Ay, so what's going on?" Luis asked, appearing in the back with Dave and Kurt suddenly.

"Shut up, Luis." I pointed at him before turning back to Scott with a whine."Come on! The timeline, Scott! Think of the fucking timeline! I told you you can come back. Just use the little growing disk on your utility belt."

"What if I don't though?" He argued, "I've got a daughter, okay? I'm not gonna put my life on the line just because of some stupid timeline alternative."

"No, no, no," I pulled a lie out of my ass quickly. "I know the future, right? I can just rewind the time and make it so it never happens if it doesn't work. But it will, so I won't have to."

"You can change the time back too?" Scott asked, gesturing skeptically with a finger. "With the…purple light show thing? Or are they separate?"

"What's the purple thing?" Luis questioned more, looking between us. "I'm sorry there was a...radio drama on in the front. I got hooked."

"Jack make purple lighting with hands." Kurt explained with a nod from Dave. "Now bad guy is dead."

"He's not." I held up a hand in their direction with my eyes still on Scott. "And separate. I have two super powers."

"Lucky," Dave muttered from the van, also still hiding with Kurt. "Hey, how do I get one of those? I'd like to be able to run super fast like that, uh, cheetah boy."

"Cheetah boy." Kurt confirmed with a nod, looking at his friend and gesturing. "With the blue."

"Yeah, like that." Dave nodded too, looking back at me.

"Okay, we're having a serious conversation, guys." I gestured between myself and Scott before grabbing the guy's arm. "Please, Scott? I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."

To be fair, when he nodded in agreement and sighed, I did feel a bit bad about lying. But, there was always a greater good, and Scott getting cold feet did not ever benefit that greater good. I needed to fix things and I needed to do it fast.

Scott took a few deep breaths before messing with the buttons on his suit and giving me one final look. "You'll turn that time back and stop me if this doesn't work, right?"

"Uh huh," I nodded, tucking my hands in my pockets. "I'm not stopping you now, which means that it went well, right? So go and count to ten once you get there. Then come right back."

"Okay," He shook his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Don't worry." I took a step back. "You're basically an avenger now because this will save people in the future."

He shrank then after flashing me a quick smile and I watched him disappear into nothingness on the ground. Kurt and Dave opened the doors up a little more as a separate car pulled up to our location with Hope and Hank. This was going to be hard to explain to them too.

"Yo, how long does this take?" Luis asked while I stared hard at the place where Scott disappeared to.

"How long for what?" Hank asked, looking over at us while Hope was quick to pull off Darren's helmet and discard it aside.

"Jack said for Scott to get small." Kurt pinched his fingers close together, getting immediately worried looks from both Hank and Hope. "Tiny, even."

"Scott?" Hope shot back up to look where I was staring. "How small?"

"Subatomic." Dave filled in easily with horrified looks from both the newcomers.

Hope looked at me quickly and hissed. "You convinced him to go subatomic?!"

Hank took a step back at that while I shook my head and shoved her back a step. "It's important, trust me."

"He can't come back from that! Scott-"

The man grew back up in an instant and flipped off his mask with heavy breaths and a wince. "Oh god."

"Oh my god." Hope took a step back too, coming back down from her own panic while i smiled at the success of the mission.

"Alright." I grabbed his wrist and forced a high five with my other hand before moving over to the van. "My work here is done."

"Was it sup-supposed to be…" Scott gestured vaguely with a hand, breathing hard. "Wiggly?"

"Sure," I shoved past Dave and Kurt, grabbed my hoodie and hat, and then slid back out onto the ground while the two avoided me like the plague. "Whatever man. I've got other places to be."

"You could've killed him!" Hope turned her stress on me with a glare. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry, isn't he a grown man?" I shrugged it off, pulling out my phone again. "He can make his own decisions."

Hank tilted his head a little. "You could argue the competence levels are uneven."

"No, Hope, it's fine." Scott shook his head. "She can change the time or something and make it not happen. I was safe."

Hank dropped his head in defeat while Hope just stared in disappointed shock.

"Okay," Scott acknowledged their lack of faith in him with a nod. "Honest. She does this cool purple energy thing too. Jack, show them. I'm not stupid, okay? It was a calculated risk."

"I don't know what he's talking about." I pointed, backing up more. "He's crazy. Lock him up."

"We saw the purple energy." Dave confirmed for him. "She knocked out that yellow guy."

"Like Jedi." Kurt added with Dave shaking his head to correct him.

"No, like a Sith lord." Dave gave him a disappointed frown. "You slept through them didn't you? You know, sometimes I've just had it up to here-"

"Okay, Scott, let's get you back somewhere safe." Hope put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure we're gonna need to run some tests."

"For his brain too." Hank muttered and then gestured to Darren. "Take the suit, Hope. I'll call in a tip and have the police come pick him up."

"No, guys, really!" Scott pointed at me. "She's got super powers. Like the Avengers!"

"Scott, please." I frowned at him in a concerned manner. "Are you feeling okay? Can we add hallucinations to his list of symptoms?"

"Are you coming back with us?" Hope asked, getting a shake of the head from me.

"No, I think I've got other things to do." I dialed for Happy on my phone. "I'll get a ride. Thanks for this, guys. Take care of Scott, okay? I'm worried about him- Hey, Happy, I need a ride."

"Again?" He grumbled, sounding like he was standing up a second time. "Jesus, kid. Can you sit still for ten minutes?"

"No," I looked back at a blabbering Scott and covered the bottom part of my phone, addressing him only. "Hey, sit tight for a bit, okay? I'll have my boss send you an application through the network."

"Application for what?" He hissed back.

"Stop confusing him." Hank chastised, waving me along with an annoyed look. "You'll ruin my data if you stress him out more."

I pointed at my phone for Scott with a nod before continuing down the road, much despite his desperate attempt to get my attention back.

"Jack, Jack!"

"I've got your location." Happy relayed finally, "I'm sleeping now. Leave me alone and call Tony if you need to keep bothering someone. He's still up."

I got hung up on and parked myself by a tree while I waited for my car. It had the energy of a successful night as I could still feel the weight of exhaustion from the panic attack hitting me. It hit a lot harder as soon as I sat down at my apartment too. I didn't even bother with dinner as I curled up on the couch and begged to any god that might listen that my fix to the timeline held. Everything should be fine, but that didn't stop me from burning up in anxiety over it on the couch.

Everyone hates that feeling of being so exhausted that you can barely move, only for your mind to be running a mile a minute. It wasn't fair. I did a good job. I deserved a good night's rest.

My phone was pulled out eventually and I went to text Steve with another thing on my mind.

Me- 'Hey, I saw Winnie while I was out working today. Can you tell Tony to see if he's still in San Francisco?'

Steve- 'Yes, I can do that. When are you coming back to the compound? - Steve Rogers'

Me- 'Soon. You really don't have to sign your name. I can see it already on the screen.'

I smiled a little at that, snuggling up more under the blanket on my couch.

Steve- 'Right. I'll be waiting for you.'

I snorted. Steve really needed to work on his tone while texting.

Me- 'Goodnight, Steve.'

I shook my head and rolled over on my couch, abandoning my phone after getting a similar text back from Steve. Ultron felt like forever ago. Maybe this was the correct wait time to make things feel better. Winnie's appearance was not to be brushed off, of course, but surely Tony would take care of it for me if I asked nicely.

"I don't believe it." I shook my head. "That can't be right, Tony. I know he's there."

"He's really not, kid." Tony looked back at the computer. "Sometimes people just die."

"No, because he doesn't." I jabbed my finger at the screen. "He doesn't get to. That's not fair."

Tony gave me a sympathetic look. "I don't know what you want me to say here. I thought you wanted this-"

"Yeah, but not-" I took a few fast breaths. "Not like that. That's not fair!"