They drove to Stark's lake house... I remembered the last time I was in a car with them on a mission I ended up almost dying. So I chose to fly instead. I gave them plenty of a head start, and then made sure to not get ahead of them when I actually began my trip. They arrived first, Steve getting out of the car first. I landed beside him on one knee before standing up and my suit retracted into the Housing unit. Tony stood there with his daughter Morgan in his arms. I smiled slightly at the kid "Hey there Kiddo" She grinned "Uncle David!" I let loose a small chuckle. Tony gave me a smile, and the rest a nod. While I had not been bugging Tony over the years.. I had visited my old friend a few times, enough so Morgan knew me. Tony then took her inside and brought out drinks for us.
Scott told him the plan. Tony then said "Quantum fluctuation messes with the planck scale which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" I smirked "I could have told you all that." Tony gave me a quick glance before saying "In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home." I nodded "Well I did tell them that." Scott then said "Well I did" Tony then said "No, you accidentally survived It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you want to pull a.. what do you call it?" Scott then shrugged "A time heist." Tony sighed "Yeah a time heist, of course. Why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because its laughable, because it's a pipe dream." Steve then said "The Stones are in the past, we can go back and we can get them. Bring everyone back." I pursed my lips. "Wow Steve.. That actually might work.. Time line speaking at least. We don't change the past.. Just the present. Of course.. We would have to have everything go off without the slightest error.. Planned perfectly AND return the stones to their places in time or risk an even darker timeline." Tony pointed at me "You took the words right out of my mouth Sparky." I looked down at the name, remembering Percy... then Cap said "We wouldn't mess things up." Tony then said "I got to say I sometimes miss that giddy optimism, However high hopes won't help if there's no logical tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise." Scott then said "Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel." I looked at him "What are those, pray tell?" Scott sat down and said "Easy, No talking to our past selves-" "Done that" I said "-no betting on sporting events." Tony then said "Okay, enough of that, I'm going to stop you right there Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on back to the future? Is it?" he then responded "No." "Good, you had me going there cause that was horseshit. That is not how quantum physics works" Natasha then said "Tony, we have to take a stand." He then replied "We did stand. And yet, here we are." I then said "And I got to say.. The timeline is a much more dangerous foe than Thanos." Scott then said "Tony, I know you have a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. Look at your backup over there, David. He lost his best friends, brother and his dragon. Now we have a chance to bring her back.. To bring them back. Now you're telling me you won't even " Tony interupted "That's right Scott.. I won't even. I can't. As much as I want to bring everyone back.. I can't risk what I have. I'm sorry"
Morgan then ran out "Mommy told me to come and save you." Tony hugged her "Thank you, I'm saved. I wish you were coming here to ask me something else. Anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys, I just.. Oh look, Table set for 6." Steve then interupted "Tony, I get it. I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance." Tony then said "I got my second chance right here Cap. Can't roll the dice on it. Not even for you guys. If you don't talk shop you can stay for lunch." He then walked inside. We left.
Walking to the car Tasha said "He's scared." I nodded "I'm pretty scared too." I then placed an arm around her shoulders "I understand what he means about a second chance.. This being his second chance. You are my second chance.. Being Iron Thunder without the mask is my second chance.. Yes my being will never be whole again... but I don't think I want to trade you to have everyone back.. I know it's selfish but.. You make me as happy as I can be.." Steve then said "Tony is not wrong." Scott then said "Yeah but what are we going to do? We need him, are we going to stop." Steve said "No I want to do it right. We're going to need a really big brain." Scott then said "Bigger than his?" gesturing at Tony's house. I nodded "In pure size at least."
We called Bruce and met him at a dinner. Cap and Scott sat on one side of the booth, Tasha and I in another, her cuddled into me. The Green guy himself ordered large portions of food and was chowing down. "Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating here." Scott then said "I'm so confussed." Bruce agreed "These are confusing times." Scott replied "Right, no, no That's not what I meant," Bruce then said "Nah I get it, I'm kidding! I know, it's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now." Scott then stammered "but..but..how...how..why?" Bruce then said "5 years ago we got our asses beat. Except it was worse for me 'cause I lost twice. First Hulk lost then Banner lost and then, we all lost" Tasha then said "No one blamed you Bruce." I nodded "The only reason we were able to put up a small fight was because you warned us, you gave us the chance to save ourselves.. Everything after that was on us." Bruce then said "I blamed myself. 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. Eighteen months in the gamma lab, I put the brains and the brawn together and no look at me, best of both worlds." A couple of kids came up asking for a photo with him, I smirked as they took it. Scott then said "Do you want one with me, I'm Ant Man." I chuckled "We really are throwing the whole secret identity thing out the window aren't we?" This lead to a funny exchange as the kids didn't know who Ant Man was, they instead turned to me and said "Mr Iron Thunder sir.. Could we get a picture with you as well?" I threw Scott a quick smirk "Sure kids." I then stood up and tapped by arc reactor, my suit forming over me. I pointed an open hand at the camera and the kids mimiced my pose. The photo was taken and my suit retracted. I sat back down with Natasha "You are loving the fame aren't you?" She murmured, I rolled my eyes "It is nice to be recognized for a change." I left it at that.
"Bruce, about what we were saying?" Steve said. Bruce said "Right, the whole time travel do-over? Eh guys, its outside of my area of expertise.. Why don't you just call on some of your time traveling buddies David?" I shook my head "Oh no, not a chance I am about to go to the Legends, virtual time cops, asking for help to break time.. No way, its got to be you." Natasha then said "Well you pulled this off, I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible too." Bruce then said "Fine, I'll try." And so it had begun.
Bruce moved back in to Avengers Facility. I barely helped, in fact I was nervous as hell. What we were trying to do.. What we needed to succeed in doing.. Had such a small chance of going right. The Legends... a band of time traveling heroes whom fixed time left and right, experts in their field, they still screwed up time all the time. Hell the Time Bureau created by Rip Hunter was created to fix time that was broken when the Legends fixed reality... what we wanted to do could go wrong in so many ways. We could kill all of humanity.. We erase people out of existence. Everything we had gained back over the past 5 years would be gone. Lives that were lost.. Would be lost for nothing. Tony could lose Morgan... I could lose Natasha... However I could gain so much more.. I could keep natasha.. I could get Zeus back.. Percy, Eragon, Jason. Natasha and I could retire and go to Alagaesia like I had originally planned after Thanos, the world would have its Heroes, its new Avengers. We could adopt children, or she could help train new Dragon Riders.. I could take her to explore Alagaesia.. Eragon and Saphira could come too.. It would be just like old times... It was settled.. I had to do this. It was worth the risk.