***New York(2012)|Sanctum Sanctorum***
Maddie and Ava's bodies laid unconscious against the parapet of the roof seeming as though they were just napping.
The Ancient One paced back and forth while Mad and Ava waited in their "ghost forms".
"No. No, it can't be done." She finally said before walking away.
"Ma'am, Please. Please!" Ava begged her as she and Maddie both followed her.
"I'm sorry, I truly am, but I can't! If I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I'm dooming my own."
"Ma'am, with all due respect, I'm not sure the science supports that." Maddie said calmly as he could while blocking the woman's path.
Seeing that these two couldn't be convinced with words, though not for lack of trying on both ends for different reasons, she decided a different approach.
Thrusting her hand out, she created a projection of a glowing straight line. And circling this line were the six Infinity Stones.
"The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time," she began to explain, " remove one of the Stones," she flicked the projection of the Time Stone away and from it's spot, a dark, menacing line emerged away from the straight glowing line, "and that flow splits... 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 would suffer. So tell me, young brawn, can your science prevent all that?"
Maddie stood there stumped as he contemplated this scenario. The wise woman had definitely painted a vivid picture of what could happen if they took the Time Stone, but what could they do? Then, an idea came to him.
"No...no, it can't... but what if we could erase it?" When he said that, a look of confusion but curiosity came to the Ancient One's face. "We could return the Stones to each timeline at the exact moment it was taken, so that, chronologically, in that reality..." Maddie took the Time Stone projection and brought it back to the line and placed it back in its original slot. Once it was back, the projection of the dark new reality line slowly disappeared.
"-it never left.." Ava said, understanding Maddie's idea as she watched the dark line disappear.
Seeing this, the Ancient One began to walk away again. Theoretically, this idea could work, but there was something else. "Yes but you're leaving out the most important part... in order to return the Stones, you would have to survive."
"We can, we will! I promise." Ava said, stepping up.
The woman scoffed at that. "I can't risk the safety of this reality on a promise. It is the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone."
"Well then why the hell did Strange give it away?" Ava retorted.
Hearing that, the Ancient One froze in her tracks before turning and looking directly at Ava. "What did you just say?
"Strange, he gave up the Stone to Thanos."
"Willingly?"
Ava nodded.
"Why?"
Since she wasn't there, Ava could only go off what she was told by Peter. "To spare a life... he said that there was no other way."
The Ancient One took a breath as she realized that this changed things, a new path had presented itself.
With that, she flicked her wrist in the direction of the unconscious bodies of the two, making them rise and float towards them until they reconnected and Maddie and Ava were back in their bodies again.
Once again shocked by this, they patted themselves all over to reassure themselves they were real and really there again.
As they did this, the Ancient One did a slow gesture with her hands which opened the Eye of Agamotto, revealing the glowing Time Stone within.
Taking it out she held up green Stone to the two.
"Strange was meant to be the best of us. If he said there was no other way..."
"Then it had to be for a reason," Maddie concluded.
"I fear you may be right... Maddie, Ava... I'm counting on you." she said, placing it in Maddie's large green hand. "You and your friends... we all are."
The two Avengers looked at each other and then back to the Ancient One and they both nodded in understanding.
***Stark Tower***
Downstairs in the lobby, an elevator opened and out walked Tony Stark and Thor with Loki and a few SHIELD agents right behind them. They walked and entered the lobby of they building, passing the receptionist desk and two more SHIELD agents standing there.
However, those weren't really SHIELD agents. Rather, they were actually Peter and Harley in disguise.
Peter spoke up on the coms. "Okay, we are in position. We've got eyes on the prize."
"George Shrinks, you copy?" Harley called to the shrinking member of their team.
"Haha, very funny." PJ replied sarcastically. "Bombs away!"
The Waspling dropped from Tony's head, down to his shoulder, and then dove under the hem of the shirt. It was a freefall until he made it to the glowing arc reactor and grabbed on. As he held on, he had already made a few observations. "Wow!"
"What's up?"
"This guy goes heavy on the body spray! I think that's AXE or something."
Back by the desks, Harley snickered at that. "Makes sense. He had that same smell when he came to Tennessee."
"Okay, focus, PJ. We're on the clock here." Peter said.
Underneath Tony's shirt, PJ readied himself and held on. "Got it. I'm going in!"
With that, he shrunk even smaller and slipped into the arc reactor.
Meanwhile, on the outside of Tony, he, Thor, and the SHIELD protection agents were still walking until they were halted by another party of people blocking them. The person in front of them, a very important looking older man in a grey suit, stepped up.
"May I ask you where you're going?"
"Uh, bit of lunch and then Asgard." Thor replied. "I'm sorry, you are?"
Tony leaned over to Thor and explained it to him in an undertone. "Alexander Pierce. He's the man, one of the folks behind Nick Fury."
"My friends call me Mr. Secretary. I'm gonna have to ask you to turn that prisoner over to me."
"Ah, Loki will be answering to Odin himself." Thor said in contradiction.
"Oh, he's gonna answer to us. Odin can have what's left. And I'm gonna need that case, that's been SHIELD property for over 70 years."
On of the men with Pierce reached for the case, ordering Tony to "hand it over" but Tony pulled it back and pushed the agent back.
Back by the desk, Peter and Harley saw the situation escalating.
"All right, move it, Peej! Things are getting crazy up here!" Peter said.
"You promise me he won't die?"
Within the 2012 Tony's arc reactor, PJ held a glowing spark plug-like mechanism in his arms, ready to disconnect it from it's socket.
"You're only giving him a mild cardiac dysrhythmia." Peter said.
"That doesn't sound mild! Seriously, I don't wanna be the one to kill Iron Man!"
Back up top, things were getting more hectic.
"I need the case." Pierce again said.
"I know you got a lotta pull. I'm just saying-" Tony tried to say.
"Okay. Then give me the case."
The Secretary had then reached for the case and even grabbed Tony's arm, resulting in more agents reaching and attempting to grab it. But he still didn't let go, trying to push them back, Thor helping him too.
"Do it, Lang!" Harley said through his teeth.
"PJ, you need to pull that pin, now!" Peter exclaimed.
"Here it goes!" PJ said, hoping the outcome wouldn't be bad. And then, he pulled the plug.
Up top, whilst in the middle of a struggle for the case containing the Tesseract, Tony's arc reactor flickered and his breath hitched. He felt a shock go through his body as his limbs went lip and he slowly went down.
"Stark?" Pierce said, a worry in his tone as he saw Tony fall.
"Stark! You-your chest machine!" Thor too called to his friend, concern apparent.
As Tony hit the ground, he dropped the case which no one was currently worried about or paying attention to at the moment... or were they?
Peter and Harley had to resist the urge to run to the man who would become their mentor and watch from their positions. "Medic!" "This guy needs some help!" the two called out.
PJ, having exited Tony's arc reactor and from underneath his shirt, ran up to the case and kicked it with his ant-sized boy, making it slide across the floor all the way to Peter and Harley. Once it reached them, Harley discreetly picked up the case and the two headed for the stairwell behind them. "Ok, we got it!"
"Good job, PJ. Head to the alley."
Suddenly, Peter began to sense something wrong and it was coming from the door.
"Look out!" He said, grabbing Harley and jumping in front of him.
the door to the stairs burst open and out stomped the Hulk, sending Peter and Harley flying back and the case with the Tesseract as well.
"NO STAIRS!" Hulk roared, aggravated from being forced to take the stairs.
As he roared and grumbled, people ran away from him in fear. However, the case with the Tesseract had opened on impact to the ground and the Cube itself 'CLONKED' out and landed at the feet of an Asgardian prince. Not Thor though. No, rather it was his still bound brother, Loki.
The Trickster God looked around and saw no eyes on him. Seeing this as his chance to escape, he reach down and grabbed the Cube and held it between his cuffed hands before a portal opened behind him and was pulled through.
Whilst he escaped, Thor, the Secretary and his men were still tending to Tony on the floor.
"You'll be fine, Stark. Stay with us!" The Asgardian prince said to his friend before an idea came to him, "I'm going to try something, okay? I have no idea if it's gonna work."
With that, he placed one of the blunt ends of Mjolnir on the arc reactor and tapped it, sending a tiny lighting strike through. The energy from the lightning worked as Tony's breathing returned to normal and his convulsing ceased.
"HAHA, YES!" Thor roared with glee.
Tony groaned as he slowly sat up. "Ah, that worked a treat. That was so crazy!"
"I had no idea if that was gonna work."
Tony smiled at his friend in thanks before their prior concern came back to him. "The case."
Thor too remembered. "The case. It's, uhh... Where's the case?" As the prince looked around for it, he also began to notice the absence of another... his brother! "Where's Loki? Loki!"
As Thor yelled for his brother, two young Avengers groaned as they laid on the floor after being practically hit and thrown by the Hulk.
"That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" PJ, still in his shrunken state, asked as he stood on Peter's chest.
"Oh, we blew it." Harley said with pained frustration.
Back upstairs, Jamie was making his way through the halls with the scepter still in hand. An alarm was blaring and he was starting to get a nervous feeling. Like something was going wrong, or that something was about to happen.
"Peter? Harley? PJ!" He whisper yelled into his com, trying to contact his team, "What's going on down there? Please tell me you found that Stone."
But as he turned a corner, Jamie's worries were confirmed at the sight in front of him.
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" Jamie mumbled to himself.
For right in front of him was... him? Well actually, it was the person he was impersonating. Captain America. His father.
Seeing his father in front of him made Jamie feel a little happy. But he was also nervous because of the setting this was.
"I have eyes on Loki. Fourteenth floor." The Captain stated into a com-link in his ear.
'Oh great,' Jamie said to himself. 'He thinks I'm Loki... well, I guess I can see how he would think that.'
Loki was known to take on the appearance of others. And Jamie just o happened to be doing that right now... perfect timing.
Calmly as he could, Jamie slowly set the case with the Scepter down and spoke to his father. "I'm not Loki. And I don't wanna hurt you."
Not exactly the first words you'd want to say to your father after having not seen him in ten years, but what could he do about it.
Captain America gritted his teeth before running up and swinging his shield at Jamie, to which the young Captain came up and blocked it, making the two shields CLANG like swords as they collided with one another.
Jamie then pushed back and blocked another swish of his father's shield, and another before being kicked away by a roundhouse kick. This shouldn't really have surprised him that his father was such a good fighter, but he was. Plus, Jamie wasn't fighting to kill or apprehend, he was fighting to disable. And that fact that he was fighting his father... well, it's only natural for him to want to hold back.
"I can do this all day," his father stated with grit.
As Jamie picked himself up, he let out a worried laugh. "Pretty good line." he said to himself.
Once up, Jamie threw the shield at his father, and he too threw his. The two bounced off each other and fell to the floors below whilst the two Captains came at each other, one throwing the punches and the other defending himself. It was a rough match, and soon the two accidentally kicked against a glass barrier of the walkway they were on, also kicking the case with the Scepter off as well, sending it down to the floor below where it broke open on impact.
But the two Captains fighting became intense as the real Steve Rogers grabbed Jamie and tried to trip him, which resulted in both of them going over the edge. The hit multiple things as they fell. Glass awnings, and even a few flights of stairs before they finally landed on the ground and shards of glass pooled around them.
If it hadn't been for the serum in their bodies giving them enhanced endurance, their bones would either all be cracked, broken, or something worse.
A compass fell from Jamie's pocket when he landed, one with a picture in one side of it. But not just any compass, it was the compass that belonged to his father. An item that had survived the War and the Ice with him into the 2010's. Now that his father was gone, Jamie now had it and had put in a picture of his parents, Steve and Natasha.
The 2012 Captain America saw the compass, immediately recognized it as his and grabbed it before jumping to is feet. Inspecting it, he noticed that the picture he had of Peggy Carter was no longer there and had been replaced with a picture of him and- "Romanoff?"
Why was there a picture of him and Romanoff together in his compass? And why did they look so happy together? The questions swirled in his mind as he looked to his impersonator who had just regained his footing.
"Where did you get this?" he asked with venom in his voice.
Instead of answering, Jamie looked to the now exposed Scepter next to him and reached for it. But his Super Soldier father swiftly stomped down on the weapon before looping his arm around Jamie's neck, trapping the young Captain in a chokehold.
The caught Jamie by surprise as he immediately tried to free himself, but to no avail as Captain America took him to the ground, still holding tight.
As he struggled to get out of the chokehold, Jamie's fears began to take charge. The fear of dying here in the past, not seeing Nikki again, of being hurt or possibly killed by his father who doesn't even know he's his father! That'd make anyone scared.
In a moment of desperation with not many other options, Jamie wheezed out the only words a scared boy would say to his father in a situation like this.
"D-Daaad!...pleassseee!"
His voice had come out slightly warbled but understandable, the sound of his real voice peeking through a little. The words and the voice change caught Captain America by surprise, so much so that he quickly let up on the hold, allowing Jamie to gasp for breath.
"What did you just say?"
Using this as an opportunity, Jamie quickly elbowed the Captain, grabbed the Scepter and prodded his chest with the blade of it just before he could attack again. The power from it entering him and sending the soldier to sleep.
Now with a moment to breath, Jamie sighed with tiredness and relief as he took back his compass and pocketed it as he stood. He looked down to his unconscious father and noticed the position he was in, his butt right in the air. Seeing this brought back to mind words that Harley had said earlier, words he seemed to understand now.
"Dang, those are America's cheeks." He laughed a little and shook his head more as he looked around to make sure no one was around. Seeing no one, he knew he'd have to go before anyone did show up. Before he did, though, he knelt down and patted his father's shoulder. "Sorry, Dad. I'll bring it back. I promise."
With that, he stood up and ran.
***Alley***
Jamie had made his way out of the Tower and to the alley that the Space Stone part of the team had planned to rendezvous at.
He came down the fire escape and jumped down to the alley floor and looked around for his teammates.
"Jamie! Over here, Cap..." He heard a voice, Harley's voice, call to him.
Turning in their direction, he saw Harley and PJ sitting in a banged up car that had the windshield completely gone and Peter laying on the roof of it on his back.
"We blew it, man." the Iron Lad said.
"What do you mean, what happened?"
"We got Hulked."
"And both the Tesseract and the Loki of this time are now gone," Peter said as he rolled backwards off the car and onto the ground, "We're screwed."
"So we can't try again?" Jamie asked, trying to bring some optimism up.
But Peter shook his head. "No, this was a one shot deal. We only have enough Pym Particles for one more trip and that's either home or we'll be stuck somewhere."
The sound of a car door slamming caused the the older ones to turn and see PJ with a frown on. "This sucks!" He exclaimed, folding his arms over his chest. "I wish my grandpa was here...If he was here, he could make us more Pym Particles."
Hearing that, a thought flew into Peter's mind. "Wait..." Looking to the young Lang, he walked up to PJ, knelt down and held him by the shoulders. "What'd you just say?"
Confused at Peter's current mood, PJ looked to Harley and Jamie behind him, but the two were dubious as well.
Regardless, he repeated his last words. "Uh, I wish my grandpa was here. If he was here, he could make us more Pym Particles.."
As those words were said, the wheels in Peter's head began to turn and he thought back to something he'd read a while back while doing some research.
He stood from his spot with PJ and began to pace, thinking hard about this potential new plan.
"Pete, what's up?" Jamie asked, curiously.
"Pop quiz question," the Spider-Man replied, walking over to Jamie and looking at him face to face. "What was the name of the army your dad trained at before becoming Captain America?"
Jamie thought for a second before quickly answering, "Camp Lehigh."
"Exactly! And after he was thought to be dead, Howard Stark found the Tesseract in the ocean and it was taken to a secret location during the early days of SHIELD."
"Camp Lehigh?" Harley said, hoping he was tracking well
"Right!" Peter pointed and nodded at Harley for his spot on answer. "Now some time, I'm not exactly sure when, but some time in the 70s, PJ's grandpa, Hank Pym, was stationed there and was working on experiments at the time. One he already excelled in was-"
"-the Pym Particles!" PJ jumped in, seeing where this was going.
"Exactly! So what if we could go there at a specific point in time, and we could get both the Tesseract and more Pym Particles... what do you think?"
Amongst the others, the idea sounded pretty good. In theory, it was solid. But of course, there was a certain obstacle.
"Sounds good, but, how do we know the exact time where... or when, I guess, that we'd have to go?" Harley asked.
Now that was a question. One Peter and Jamie were slightly unsure on, but not PJ.
"1975, that'd be a good year," he said proudly, "that's when he was in the middle of constructing a new Ant-Man helmet."
The three older Avengers looked at him in surprise with that extra detail he served them.
"How do you know that?" Jamie asked.
To that, the young Lang shrugged and kept his smile up. "I read my grandfather's notes all the time, and he wrote that down one time with the year he did it in too. Do your research, guys. It helps."
They all laughed at that and Harley patted his younger friend on the back for that last comment.
"Okay, so 1975 it is." Peter said.
They all nodded in agreement, synched up their TT-GPSs, and readied themselves.
"On three, ready?" Peter said, looking at them. To which they all nodded. "One..."
"Two," Jamie said.
"THREE!" PJ jumped in, pressing his.
The others pressed theirs and they were all transported the another point in time. As for their friends who went after the Time Stone, they would be meeting up with them soon enough back home.
Okay, okay, okay! PHEW!😂😂 This has been a fun chapter to write actually. 💯💯 I tell you, re-writing these scenes with the younger Avengers, it really is fun, putting in a kid or a young adult's reaction to these situations. I really enjoy it and I can't wait to do more.
Hope you guys liked the chapter 😁😁, sorry for the wait though. Been working on some original novels of my own and that takes up some time, but I'm still here promise.
See you guys in the next one! 👍 👍
