Last Guest: I understood what you meant and I agree. If Fury had known about Ava, he would have brought her in on the Avengers Initiative. I think it was a nice side benefit but I don't think Hydra, in their arrogance, would have considered The Avengers such a big threat at that point in time.
Jinero: I would like to believe that, but EDITH makes it seem like Tony believed every word of what he said. I might.
Watson Smith: Glad to hear it. I might for Logan at some point, but unlikely on Into the Spiderverse, sorry.
Costan: At least twenty years pass between Captain Marvel and Endgame, more than enough time for Carol to develop as a character. Yet the only change in her personality seems to be that she has grown even more arrogant than she was before. Carol's inclusion to Endgame and phase three was a last minute move pushed by Kevin Feige. The Russos did not want her in Endgame; no one wanted her in Endgame except Kevin Feige. Carol's sudden inclusion to the MCU is a result of Kevin Feige's desire to score woke points, nothing more.
Kylo Ren: Doing entire shows in watch it fics has not worked out for me in the past, sorry.
Jason Hunter: Nope, it wouldn't.
Agent N: I have to disagree on Natasha's death, but I'll wait until I get to that point to discuss it in depth.
Loki: I think the problem with watch it fics is that the author always tries to do the whole script rather than just summarize it like I have. It burns people out, trust me. The only reason for me to add Pepper to this fic would have been to create dramatic tension between Tony and Pepper and I'm not one to add a character just for the sake of drama. If you'd like one where Pepper is present, there's a similar story by a friend of mine, Aragorn II Elessar, titled 'A Beautiful Journey'.
Guest: I'm aware, but even if that is the real Steve, which it very well could not be, it doesn't take away from his sacrifice.
The words 'Five Years Later' appeared on the screen.
"Five years? It took five years for us to find a way to bring everyone back?" Thor gapped as the past Avengers stared at the screen in shock.
"Worst five years of my life," Barton said a dark look on his face.
"Where were we during those five years?" Rhodey wondered.
"We tried to move on, key word tried. Only thing we could do," Barton said with a sigh as Lila and Scarlet looked at him in concern.
An empty stadium was shown followed by a support group led by Steve and there was a poster saying- "Where Do We Go, Now That They Are Gone?"
"Where do we go now that they're gone?" Natasha read.
"It was a support group led by Cap for those who survived The Decimation," Parker explained, to Steve's surprise.
"The Decimation?" Tony questioned.
"It's what the media called…what happened," Barton said hollowly.
A man said he had gone on a date for the first time in 5 years and had no idea what to talk about. Steve asked what they'd talked about and he said they'd talked about how things had changed, their jobs, how they missed the Mets, and then things got quiet as his date cried while they served the salads and he cried just before dessert.
Everyone stared at the screen sadly. No one so much as made a sound. The scene was just…it was difficult to watch.
The man said he was seeing them again tomorrow and Steve said that was great as he had taken the jump without knowing what would happen next and they had to take these baby steps to find purpose and be whole.
"You're not so bad at this," Sam noted and Steve smiled weakly.
"I learned from the best," Steve said simply.
"I went in the ice in '45 right after I met the love of my life. Woke up 70 years later," Steve said with a brave smile. "You got to move on. Got to move on."
"But can you move on from something like that Cap?" Rhodey asked and Steve smiled weakly.
"You do your best. Eventually, you make peace with it," Steve said and Scarlet barely resisted the urge to scoff.
"The world is in our hands. It's left to us guys," Steve said bravely. "And we got to do something with it. Otherwise...Thanos should've killed all of us."
"Still trying to inspire," Tony noted with a hint of admiration as Steve smiled weakly.
"It's all I can do now," Steve said.
In San Francisco, a van was kept in a storage facility with 'Lang' written on a small poster in the front. A rat crawled on a device on the van, which was none other than Luis' X-Con van.
"It's the van!" Scott exclaimed shocked. "But how'd it end up there?"
"After Hank turned it into a Quantum Tunnel, Luis didn't have any use for it. Plus, after losing you, Kurt, and Dave, X-Con went out of business. Luis got a job as a bartender. On the plus side, rent went down, so he could still afford the house. And he sent some money to Cassie every month, he checked in on her a lot," Lila said and Scott smiled.
"Good old Luis," Scott said gratefully.
As it crawled, the machine activated while the rat moved away. And then the Quantum Tunnel activated as Scott Lang in his Ant-Man suit was thrown out. He groaned as he cleaned the dust off him and removed his mask.
"Holy crap!" Peter exclaimed as the past Avengers stared at the screen wide eyed.
"Did that just happen?" Scott breathed.
"A rat saved you. A rat," Sam said in complete disbelief.
"And by doing so, saved the entire universe," Lila said and the past Avengers looked at her incredulously. "I'm not joking!"
"That rat is the unsung hero of the universe," Parker said seriously and they all laughed, the tension breaking momentarily.
He looked around in bewilderment, asking for Hope. Then the guard who was reading a book noticed him on the monitor with a board with 'Help' written on it. Later, Scott walked out of the area with a cart as he looked back at the guard weirdly before he continued walking.
"You do not appear to be aware of how much time has passed," Vision noted.
"Unless it wasn't that much time," Tony realized, looking at Parker, who nodded.
"Time works differently in the Quantum Realm," Parker said but didn't elaborate.
Scott walked through town, looking in shock at houses surrounded by overgrown vegetation before he stopped a kid on a bicycle, asking what had happened. The kid looked at him sadly and, wiping his tears, rode away.
Everyone either flinched or looked away from the screen. It was just another reminder of how they had failed and the trillions of innocent people who had paid the price for their failure.
Scott then came upon several big graves which had names of all those who had been snapped away.
"A memorial for the dead," T'Challa said sadly as they all felt hollow at the sight of a memorial that was usually seen for soldiers killed in action.
"God," Steve said as he put a hand to his head.
Sam put a hand on his shoulder, although he wasn't sure if it was to offer Steve comfort or himself.
In a panic, Scott started looking at the names, begging that Cassie wasn't among them. Then on one of them, he stared in horror as he saw his own name.
"We thought you were one of the casualties," Barton said as Scott stared in shock.
"That must have been a shock," Natasha said as they looked at Scott.
"I feel like Tom Sawyer watching his own funeral," Scott muttered.
Scott then ran to Maggie's old house, ringing the bell and banging on the door. And then, a teenage Cassie walked out, opening the door. She was shocked to see him and the two touched each other's faces happily, with her sobbing. "You're so big!" He said and she half-laughed, half-cried as the two hugged lovingly.
"Five years," Scott said, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I missed five years of my daughter's life."
Sam reached over and placed his free hand on Scott's shoulder as everyone looked at him sadly.
"I'm sorry Scott," Steve said but Scott didn't respond. He simply stared at the screen with a sad, wounded look on his face.
In the Avengers Compound, Natasha was cutting a peanut butter sandwich and holding a holographic meeting with Rocket, Nebula, Okoye, Rhodes and Carol.
"I'm in charge?" Natasha asked shocked at the fact that she was apparently leading the Avengers.
"After Thanos, Tony retired; Steve went to run his support group while Thor went to establish his people on Earth. Me and Banner…well, you'll see," Barton said with a grimace. "You kept the remaining Avengers afloat during that time. You were the only reason there was an Avengers left to lead."
"I always knew you could be a leader," Steve said as he smiled at the still stunned Natasha.
"Good job Nat," Clint said with a smirk.
Rocket said he and Nebula had boarded the warship Danvers had pinged but it was an infectious garbage scowl. Carol said they were closer as he said they smelt of garbage now.
"Ew," Wanda and Scarlet said in sync, crinkling their noses in the exact same way and everyone couldn't help but laugh.
"Well, you don't change much kid," Clint said with a chuckle.
Natasha asked Okoye about the tremors but she said it was a mild subduction under African plate. Natasha asked how they were handling it and Okoye said it was an earthquake under the ocean and they handle it by not handling it.
Clint eyed Natasha sadly, understanding. In a world where half of all life was wiped out, it didn't seem The Avengers were needed. But that was obviously something Natasha was having a little trouble accepting.
Natasha asked if Carol would be back next month but she said not likely as Rocket asked if she was getting another haircut. Carol said she was covering a lot of territory as what was happening on Earth was happening on thousands of other planets and he conceded it was a good point.
Everyone looked grim as the scene played out. The more they saw of this, the more their failure played on their hearts.
"All right. Uh, well...This channel is always active. So, anything goes sideways...Anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't...Comes through me," Natasha said.
Steve, Clint, Tony, Thor, Lila, and Wanda looked at Natasha proudly at this and she just nodded.
All assented and the holograms disappeared as Carol wished Rhodes good luck before disappearing too.
"Why do I need good luck?" Rhodey wondered as Barton grimaced while Lila and Scarlet each took one of his hands, trying to offer him comfort.
Natasha asked where he was and he said Mexico. The federales had found a room full of bodies of Cartel members. She said it was a rival gang probably but he said it was definitely Barton and said what he had been doing for the past few years made him not even want to find him.
"What?" Clint asked shocked as everyone looked to Barton in shock. "What is he talking about? What did we do?"
"After the Decimation, what happened to mom, Cooper, Nate, me and Wanda…you didn't take it well," Lila said gently as she looked back and forth between the two versions of her father.
"It started with a bank robbery," Barton said with a faraway look in his eyes. "Those first few months, I was on a drunken bender. To dull the pain or maybe to forget, I don't know. I was in a hotel room I'd crashed in the night before and turned on the news. Four guys with guns had robbed a bank a few towns over. One of them got a little trigger happy and shot someone, a woman, couldn't have been more than twenty five years old. She had a boy around Nate's age. She died before the ambulance even got there.
"I remember thinking how unfair it was that people like my family and Wanda and Fury and all those people had been wiped out but these killers were still here. Then I was just filled with this…rage. I managed to track them down after a week…and I killed all of them. Then I decided that, as long as I was still here, I was gonna make sure that no more innocent people were gonna die so senselessly. I became a second Punisher in all but name. Ronin they called me," Barton said and they all listened, rapt with attention. "That's how l lived up until this point in the recording. I'm not proud of it but…it's what I did. It's what I became."
Clint slumped back into his seat, looking horrified as Natasha and Wanda looked at him concerned. It was silent in the room, as no one knew what to say or do.
"All those people…" Clint railed off and Barton nodded grimly. "How can you be so nonchalant about it?"
"I've had ten years to make peace with it. I killed them all in cold blood because I wanted to. Because I wanted to make someone hurt as much as I was hurting. It still haunts me, I dream about the lives I took all the time…but it doesn't have to haunt you," Barton said as he looked Clint in the eye. "What I did doesn't have to define you. So don't blame yourself for my sins."
After a moment, Clint nodded, although it was clear he was far from convinced. Still, he appreciated Wanda's hand in his and Natasha's hand on his shoulder.
Natasha urged him to do it still and he went off too while she almost cried.
Barton and Clint both flinched, shame filling them at the pain they caused their best friend. Natasha smiled slightly, her hand tightening on Clint's shoulder in a silent show of support.
Steve then arrived, joking he'd offer to cook her dinner but she looked miserable already. She asked if he was here for his laundry but he said he was here to see a friend.
"Thank you," Natasha said as she smiled weakly and Steve nodded.
"What are friends for?" Steve asked simply.
She said she was fine and he said he'd seen a pod of whales while coming up the bridge.
"In the Hudson?" Tony asked shocked.
"Less people, cleaner waters," Barton shrugged.
"I guess there's a bright side to everything," Steve muttered, looking like he'd swallowed a lemon.
She was shocked he'd seen that on the Hudson and he said there were fewer ships and cleaner waters. Natasha said if he told her to look on the bright side, she'd hit him on the head with a peanut butter sandwich.
Everyone chuckles a little at Steve and Natasha's banter, the mood in the room lifting a little.
He apologized, saying it was a force of habit as he sat down. After a few moments of silence he said, "You know I keep telling everybody they should move on and... grow. Some do. But not us."
"You don't move on from something like this," Barton said with a haunted look in his eyes.
"Especially not us," Thor said grimly.
"If I move on, who does this?" Natasha asked. "Maybe it doesn't need to be done," Steve pointed out. "I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. This family. And I was... I was better because of it," Natasha said emotionally with tears in her eyes. "And even though...they're gone...Now, I'm still trying to be better."
"You are better. You don't need to try and atone for your past Nat," Clint told her and Natasha grimaced.
Natasha appreciated what Clint was trying to do, but he didn't understand. He had had a life before SHIELD and he had a life now, with Laura and the kids. She never had. His body count was nothing compared to hers. She needed to make up for what she had done, she needed to redeem herself.
"I think we both need to get a life," Steve said. "You first," She told him with a smirk.
Everyone chuckled at this as Steve and Natasha shot each other smirks.
Then the device chimed and Natasha activated the camera to see Scott waving and calling out to them, asking if anyone was home and reminding them of himself, saying they'd met a few years ago at the airport. He was the guy with the mask who'd gotten really big. Steve got to his feet asked in shock if it was an old message but Natasha said it was the front gate.
"Looks like I'm here," Scott noted. "But why would I go there?"
"Because you have a plan," Parker said with a grin but didn't elaborate.
Coming inside, Scott mumbled to himself as Steve calmed him down and he asked if they had ever studied Quantum Physics. Natasha said only to make conversation.
Everyone smiled slightly at Natasha's attempt at lightening the mood.
Scott said 5 years ago before Thanos, he had gone to a place called the Quantum Realm which was like its own microscopic Universe and they had to be very small to get in. He then mentioned Hope, trying to explain their relationship before saying she was supposed to pull him out.
Scott grimaced, able to understand why he hadn't defined the relationship to them. The loss was too much to bear, even knowing it hadn't happened yet.
Scott said then Thanos happened and he got stuck. Natasha said in sympathy that must have been a very long 5 years but he said for him it was 5 hours, to their shock.
"Son of a bitch," Tony exclaimed in shock as they all stared in disbelief.
"Told you time works differently there," Parker said with a grin.
"But…five hours?" Scott asked in disbelief.
"That's how we did it, isn't it?" Thor realized with a start and the future Avengers nodded.
"Just sit back and watch, it's about to get interesting," Lila said with a grin.
Scott said the rules for the Quantum Realm were different but then noticed the peanut butter sandwich and ate it.
Scott flushed as everyone laughed.
He said time worked differently in the Quantum Realm and if they found a way to navigate it, they could enter it at a certain point in time and exit at another, like before Thanos. Steve asked if he was talking about a time machine. He tried to deny but conceded he was, saying it did sound crazy.
"Now that we have time traveled, it sounds a lot less crazy," Natasha muttered.
"So, basically, Tic-Tac saved the universe," Sam realized as they all turned to the stunned Scott.
"I did?" Scott asked shocked.
"Not just that, but your plan also laid the groundwork for what's happening here," Scarlet said with a smile.
"People may not appreciate what you do, but without you Scott, none of this would be happening," Barton said as Scott sat there in stunned disbelief.
Natasha said she got e-mails from a raccoon so nothing was crazy anymore.
"It really isn't," Lila said dryly as they all laughed.
Scott asked who to talk to about this.
In a rather modest waterside cabin, Tony walked out and sat on the grass, saying 'Chow time' before calling out Maguna. And then he asked Morgan H. Stark if she wanted some lunch. And then a little girl came out of a tent with an Iron Man mask on her, pointing her had at him, sweetly saying he could define lunch or be disintegrated.
"I'm a dad?" Tony asked stunned, his throat suddenly dry as he stared at the screen in disbelief.
"Pepper became pregnant shortly after you returned to earth. About a year after Thanos, Morgan was born," Parker said as they all looked over at Tony.
"Son of a bitch," Tony said softly, thrown for a loop.
"Congratulations Tony," Steve said, genuinely happy for Tony.
Tony nodded still having trouble processing the fact that he was a father.
Tony told Morgan she shouldn't be wearing that as it was a part of a special anniversary gift he was making for Pepper.
"You're making Pepper a suit?" Natasha asked and Tony nodded, still in a daze.
"Looks like it," Tony muttered.
He then removed the helmet, revealing Morgan's face.
Tony stared at his daughter's face, a mix of emotions welling up inside. Fear, hope, joy, and anxiety chief among them.
He then asked how she'd found it and she said in the garage. He asked if she was looking for it. She said no but she found it. He lifted her up, saying he liked going to the garage too and that Pepper never wore anything he bought her.
"She's a cute kid," Wanda noted.
"You make a cute human Tony," Scott said and Tony simply nodded.
Then Tony saw a car stop as Steve, Natasha and Scott walked out. They all gave each other nods and later stood together outside the cabin.
"Me? You came to me?" Tony asked, finally snapping out of his daze.
"Who else?" Steve asked simply.
Tony explained to them what could go wrong and in Layman's terms, they wouldn't be coming home. Scott said he did but Tony said he'd accidentally survived and it was a billion-to-one cosmic fluke. He then said now they wanted to pull something and asked what it was called. "A time heist?" Scott asked. Tony sarcastically asked why they hadn't thought of this before and then said it was a laughable pipedream.
"I'm unusually resistant," Tony noticed.
"You're afraid of what could happen," Parker said simply.
"And not for me," Tony realized and the future Avengers nodded.
Steve said the Stones were in the past and they could get them, with Natasha adding they could snap their fingers to bring everyone back but Tony said they could make it worse. Steve said he didn't believe they would. Tony sarcastically said he missed the giddy optimism but it won't help as there was no logical way to execute the time heist. The most likely outcome would be their collective demise.
"Not if you work together," Vision noted.
Scott said they could follow the rules of time travel strictly like no talking to their past selves and no betting on sporting events. Tony asked if Scott had seriously thought up his plan to save the Universe based on 'Back to the Future.' Scott said nervously he hadn't and Tony said that was good as he had him worried.
"I think we've already smashed that rule to pieces at this point," Rhodey joked as Scarlet, Barton and Parker waved and everyone laughed.
Tony said that wasn't how Quantum physics worked as Natasha said, "Tony…..We have to take a stand." Tony said they had and now here they were. Scott said he knew Tony had a lot on line, with his wife and daughter but he had lost someone important to him and so had others.
Scott had a wounded look on his face as everyone flinched, remembering their loved ones lost in the Decimation.
Scott said now they had a chance to bring everyone back and he was saying he wouldn't even do it. Tony said he wouldn't. Then Morgan arrived, saying mommy had told her to save him. He lifted her, saying he was saved. He then told them he wished they'd come here to ask for anything else and invited them to dinner but Steve said he got it and was happy for him but this was second chance. "I got my second chance right here, Cap," Tony told him firmly before saying they could stay for lunch and then walked off.
Tony, feeling guilty, opened his mouth to say something but was cut off.
"It's okay Tony, we get it," Clint said as he thought of his family. "In your shoes, I'd probably be scared to."
"No one's blaming you," Steve said kindly.
Tony nodded, although it was clear he still felt guilty.
The three walked off, with Natasha saying he was scared and Steve said he wasn't wrong. Scott asked what they would do and Steve said they would need a really big brain. Scott asked if it was bigger than Tony's.
"Yeah, you might say that," Barton said with a grin that confused the past Avengers.
A fire was set in a building as the chief asked to get choppers was those trapped at the top.
"I guess even after Thanos, natural disasters are still a thing," Sam muttered.
"And a lot harder to deal with when half the emergency responders are gone," Barton said darkly.
But then a huge figure jumped in as the chief stopped the choppers. The figure ran through the fires and soon jumped out with a signal antenna, having saved the people by putting them on it. He landed and put it down, telling the people to get out. It was none other than Professor Hulk.
"It's Hulk!" Peter exclaimed.
"So Bruce figured out how to make Hulk come out again?" Natasha asked and the future Avengers exchanged uneasy looks.
"Not exactly," Scarlet said, confusing the past Avengers. "He explains it in a minute."
He greeted the chief and talked to him before getting a call from Steve.
"Why does he sound more like Bruce than Hulk?" Steve asked confused.
"Like Scarlet said, it's explained Cap," Parker said.
Later, Steve, Natasha, Scott and Bruce sat in a restaurant as Bruce ate and said it felt like only he was eating, asking the others to try some eggs. Scott said it was confusing and Bruce joked these were confusing times before saying he was kidding.
"Anyone else think he looked better the other ways?" Tony asked and all the past Avengers raised their hands. "Good, I thought it was just me."
Bruce said he knew it was crazy that he was wearing shirts now. Scott asked how and Bruce explained, "Five years ago we got our asses beat. Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First Hulk lost, then Banner lost and then, we all lost." "No one blamed you, Bruce," Natasha assured him. "I did," he said.
"Bruce always seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders," Steve said as they all felt sad for Bruce.
"Sounds like a couple of others guys I know," Natasha said pointedly as she looked at Steve then to Tony.
"For years I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure," Bruce explained. "Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now look at me," He gestured to himself. "Best of both worlds."
"It does seem that way," T'Challa noted.
"Except one thing we noticed after a time is that Hulk was gone. Bruce realized after a mission that doing what he did had essentially put Hulk into a permanent state of sleep," Parker explained to the horror of the original Avengers. "Bruce tried to wake him up but…Hulk was gone. The Gamma that created him essentially took him out."1
"God," Tony said as he put a hand to his face.
"Well, that's what happens when you try a solution when only one party has input," Lila said with a sigh.
"I'd recommend you convince Bruce to find another way," Barton said as he looked over at them. "Bruce told me once that, without Hulk, he didn't feel whole, like part of him was missing. For all the trouble he caused Banner, Hulk was part of him. He needs to accept it rather than fight it if he ever wants to live a normal life. Well, as normal as he can live."
Then a girl and two boys arrived, asking for a picture. Bruce agreed, taking the phone and giving it to Scott as they said 'green' while Scott took the picture.
"This feels…" Steve trailed off.
"Super cringey?" Scott supplied and Steve nodded.
"I didn't want to say it," Steve said.
Scott returned the phone before asking if they wanted a picture with him. He was Ant-Man. They were puzzled as he said they were Hulk fans so they didn't know Ant-Man.
"No one's got love for Ant-Man," Scott sighed.
"People don't always appreciate us, but we're not in it to be liked," Scarlet told him sympathetically.
Bruce said they could and even the kids said they would but after a long argument, Scott returned the phone as Bruce did a dab.
"I wish Bruce was here…so I could blackmail him with this!" Tony said and everyone laughed.
He then focused on the conversation again, saying time travel was outside his area of expertise but Natasha said he'd pulled this off and even that seemed impossible.
"Are you flirting with him?" Clint asked in disbelief as everyone looked at Natasha.
"Everyone needs a push," Natasha shrugged.
Later, Tony was washing plates in his house and as he cleaned some glasses on a rack, he found an old photo. He looked at it. It was of him with Peter, both of them messing by making horns on each other's heads.
Peter gapped as Tony looked away while Parker's eyes softened. Looking back, Tony hadn't treated him very well. But, on some level, Tony had cared for him.
Later, Tony was working on a model with his AI's help, saying this was one last sim, asking for the eigenvalue of a particular vector when to his shock, the model was rendered. He dropped to his chair in shock.
"Did I just solve time travel?" Tony gasped as the past Avengers stared at the screen in shock.
"It would seem so," T'Challa muttered, a look of shock on his usual calm face.
"Holy crap," Peter breathed.
"Well done Stark," Thor said with a smile.
"I knew you could do it," Steve said with a smile.
"Now we can bring everyone back," Clint said, a smile spreading across his face as hope entered his heart for the first time since the ending of the previous recording.
Tony simply stared at the screen, in a state of shock.
"Shit!" Tony said in shock. "Shit!" He heard behind him and turned to see Morgan sitting on the steps. He adorably pressed his lips and shook his hand, telling her not to say it. He asked what she was doing up and she said 'shit' again.
"You taught your daughter a swear word. Pepper is officially going to kill you," Rhodey joked and everyone laughed, even Tony, some levity returning to the room now that there was hope.
Tony said they didn't do that as only mommy could use the word after coining it.
"I'm sure Pepper will love to know she coined a swear," Natasha said amused as they all laughed.
Morgan asked why he was up and he said he had some important shit to do and she gave him a look.
"If you want to survive lady Pepper, you should stop using such language," Thor joked.
"I'll keep that in mind Point Break," Tony said dryly.
He said he had something on my mind and she asked if it was juice pops. He joked how it was extortion before saying he had that on his mind as he picked her up, saying great minds thought alike while looking at the model one last time. Later, Tony tucked her into bed as he wiped her face. Morgan asked to tell him a story. "Once upon a time, Maguna went to bed. The end," Tony joked and she said it was horrible.
"Just because it's short doesn't mean it's horrible," Tony joked.
"Nothing happens in it. You have many talents, bedtime stories are clearly not one of them," Scott joked and everyone laughed.
He kissed her forehead and said, "I love you tons." As he got up to walk out, Morgan said, "I love you 3000."
"She's cute," Scott said as Tony felt like his heart could burst.
Tony walked out; happily whispering how that was crazy and joked he'd sell her toys if she didn't go to bed. She laughed and went to sleep.
Everyone was laughing by his point, the scenes providing much needed levity after the last half hour.
Tony then walked out to talk to Pepper, jokingly saying it wasn't a competition but Morgan loved him 3000 and that she was somewhere in the low 6 to 900 range. He looked at the model again and asked what she was reading and she said it was a book on composting. He asked what was new on composting before saying he'd figured time travel out, shocking her.
"You're clearly not wasting any time," Steve noted.
"Question is how will she react," Tony muttered, remembering how often Pepper had pleaded with him to stop with Iron Man and the Avengers.
She said that was amazing and terrifying before Tony sat down. Pepper said they got really lucky while others hadn't. Tony said he couldn't help everybody but she said he could. "Not if I stop. I can put a pin in it right now, and stop," Tony said. "Tony..." Pepper said gently. "….trying to get you to stop has been one of the few failures of my entire life." Tony said, "I sometimes feel I should put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake...go to bed." Pepper asked, "But would you be able to rest?"
"No, no I don't think I would," Tony said with a faraway look in his eyes.
"So looks like you're in," Clint noted and Tony nodded.
"Yeah, looks like it," Tony muttered.
1: I'll be honest; I hate what they did with Hulk in Endgame. Right off the bat, doing the transformation off screen does not get them off to a great start. But we should have gotten an even split between Hulk and Bruce rather than Bruce in Hulk's body. And for all Bruce's talk of accepting the Hulk, he seems to have wiped Hulk out of existence and taken over his body. Plus, I found all the attempts to make Professor Hulk funny extremely cringey.