As Bruce Banner rapidly approached the city of San Francisco, Shuri's voice appeared over his earpiece, informing him of the situation.

"Dr. Banner, it is chaos out there, sheer disorder. The citizens are losing their minds, riots are starting, panic increasing, it's very dangerous. I'd recommend bringing some blasters and something bulletproof to be on the safe side. Not to mention, the source of the quantum energy has moved now."

"Moved? Lang must be back now, fleeing the city," Bruce thought out loud.

"No, the energy is stationary for now, still within the borders of San Francisco. My apologies for not noticing the movement earlier, I was preoccupied by the arrival of Tony Stark."

"Wait? Tony's in Wakanda now?"

"Yes, he was in critical condition when he got here, with a blue cyborg carrying him," Shuri explained, quickly trying to dispatch his worries with her next words. "But we treated and stabilized him, he is just resting now. You must find that energy now, Bruce."

"Okay, I will," he replied, a steely determination flowing through him. "I'm only about ten minutes out now, you guys can see everything I can see, right?"

"Yes, we are monitoring the situation and the city closely."

"Good, then it's time for me to get back into the swing of things."

Bruce landed the sleek aircraft on top of a building to avoid suspicion, cloaking the vehicle before leaving. He wished he brought a pilot now to monitor the jet while he did his recon, but now he was just going to have to hope it wouldn't be stolen.

Glancing up at the San Francisco skyline, Banner saw then that Shuri's description of the metropolis hadn't quite emphasized how bad things were. Even from above, he could see numerous signs of gangs, vigilantes, and people lighting vehicles on fire for no benign reason, with no sign of police or any authority whatsoever. The Golden Gate Bridge gleamed in the distance, but not a soul in sight with all the crashed vehicles. It hadn't taken long for the city to collapse amidst Thanos's snap.

It looked like it would be a ghost town soon.

Shaking the apprehension that was reverberating through his veins, Bruce headed down the abandoned building he landed on, wearing a vest and pants with trace amounts of vibranium to enhance its durability, while also carrying a few of Shuri's favorite electrical blasters on hand. Fortunately, it wasn't too far of a walk to the source, only a few city blocks, which was definitely a manageable distance given the obvious lack of traffic.

He stood in front of a two-story building that appeared to be for an office, and Bruce couldn't help but do a double take when he arrived, rechecking the coordinates.

"Okay," he muttered, deciding that this building was at the very least some shelter. "Here goes nothing."

He knocked once, hesitantly, immediately provoking a response, as he heard footsteps bound down stairs. He noticed a peephole open, the person inside scrutinizing Bruce, to gauge if he was a threat. Bruce did the only thing he could think of: stare back.

The person's voice rang out then, giddy and slightly accented. "Alright, Kurt, he looks clean, I'm gonna let him in."

The door opened then, revealing the man who had just spoke. He was Mexican with a thin mustache and a full head of hair, which Bruce secretly envied him for. Being the Hulk for two years hadn't done wonders for his head. He extended his hand out to the Avenger, which he gladly took.

The man began talking in a flurry, Bruce having difficulty keeping up. "Welcome to X-Cons Security Consultants. I'm Luis and up there's Kurt. It's probably been a rough day for you, but here at X-Cons, we're always happy to help, ya know what I'm sayin'? Anyway, what can I get you started with?"

"Oh, uh… right," he said, still a bit flabbergasted at how vocal the man—Luis—was. This was not what he was expecting when he found out another potential ally could be hiding out here. "Listen, could we discuss this inside, it doesn't feel very-"

"Oh yeah, yeah, no doubt. I'm definitely getting a sketchy vibe out here, kind of like the time where my dad met those border officials when he got deported. We'll get you seated right away sir, don't you worry. Step right on in, you can leave your shoes and stuff right over there in the closet, we don't really use it much," Luis told him, pointing him to the right corner of the narrow entrance hall.

"Thanks" was the only word he could find in the moment, questions filling his brain. Who was this guy? How did the quantum energy wind up at his place? He didn't look like the hero type in any sense, more like a quippy sidekick. Or was he someone else entirel-

"Well, he is certainly talkative," Shuri's voice over the earpiece startled Bruce out of his thinking.

"I think you've met your match, Shuri," he mumbled back wearily, following the man upstairs.

She said something back to him, probably to retort his statement, but he didn't hear, distracted by Luis's new ongoing monologue. "… and of course, we lost some muscle recently, Dave was a great guy and all, but we're still glad to be in business, ya know? We might not be able to offer you a full 24/7 watch package between the two of us, but we'll work something out when we get there. For now, you gotta give me some details dude, are we talking about a perimeter, guarding someone in close proximity, or something on the low-low, off the records, that kind of thing? You see, that's the great thing about us, we got that versatility, whatever you can think of, we can provide."

Luis opened the door to his working area, a relatively standard office, nothing eye opening to say the least. Bruce was beckoned to a chair, Luis moving behind his desk, hands folded and clasped in a knot, looking at him expectantly.

Bruce racked his mind for a quick response, something that would get the man on track to get him the info he needed. "Yeah, it uh… it all sounds good and all, but I'm mainly here for someo-something else," he covered at the last second, not wanting to offend the man.

"Oh, for real? Cause you know, we just busted some black market dealers a few weeks, yeah, really shady fellas. We've got experience, and not just from our heists, you dig it? We're pretty legit, got mad connections, and definitely the best in the business. Some people don't even know this, but we helped the save the world a couple times, but it was covered up by the feds. But we're finally getting acknowledged, and you know, I gotta say, it feels kinda weir-"

"Uh, Luis?" a man with a thick Russian accent had interrupted the man before he could continue, much to Bruce's relief. He assumed this was the 'Kurt' he spoke of earlier.

"Kurt, I thought I told you to go watch her and the cameras we just installed, man," Luis didn't miss a beat in his response, he never seemed to falter when talking. Maybe he's the source of that energy outburst here, Bruce thought.

The man shrugged. "Eh, she can handle. Anyway, I don't think this man is client. He looks like one guy I saw in newspapers, what do you call them? Avenger, I think?"

Luis looked at Bruce up and down, his head doing a double take internally from the looks of it, until his identity finally registered. "Oh snap bro, I think you're right. He's that big guy, what do you call him? With the split personality, all mean and green like."

Bruce sighed, glad someone had at least recognized him for who he was. "Yes, I am the green guy Hulk. Also known as Bruce Banner, for what it's worth."

Luis seemed to grow even more ecstatic at the revelation, hopping up from the desk chair and pacing around. "BOOM baby, hot time, this place is about to take off if we've got Avengers coming to us now," he turned to Kurt at this statement. "Just when we thought we couldn't take a step up from working with the great Dr. Pym, now we got this!"

"I like it, great potential," Kurt said simply. "But he no customer Luis."

"Wait," Bruce intervened, having just processed what was said. "Did you say you worked for Dr. Pym, as in the former SHIELD agent Hank Pym?"

"It was short time, but good," Kurt said with a shrug.

"You wouldn't happen to know the Ant-Man, Scott Lang, whose tech was provided by Dr. Pym, would you?" he continued.

"Only like my brotha from another mother, man. Me and Scotty were pretty tight when we met in the big house, but then things really started to heat up when we decided to go on this steal something from Dr. Pym. Course that's when Scotty met him and his really hot daughter Hope, who he really got into it with after they saved the world together, all badass. Now, we were deep into the picture ourselves when they were tryna stay ahead of this dude with a knockoff Ant-Man suit, and we was all like, "We just busted into your place, and you're coming to us? Forreal?" and they were just like, "Forreal." So next thing you know, they got me posing as a security guard, looking all swagged up, and that's when I gave this guy my nasty-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, we don't need to get into that much detail, alright?" Bruce exclaimed, holding his hands up before Luis could finish. "I know how Scott started working with those two, I just need to know where they are right now, at this moment."

"Ohhhh, okay, I gotchu Mr. Banner, but see the thing is, that's a tough question to answer," Luis said, preparing for another long tale. "Cause after Scotty went off to tear up this airport with Captain America, Hope didn't even want to talk to him anymore, no one knew where she was at, until one day Scotty got this subatomic mind link with her momma, super wack cause he was watching his true love as a child playing around a house. Anyway, they kidnap him right before his house arrest's up, and he won't say it straight up, but he's feeling like, "C'mon guys, I'm still being watched by the Feds, they can't see me like this, but I'm still all heartbroken and guilty, so damn it's good to see you guys!" So then after they come to us for the second time, all weirded out by this Ghost lady, they head off to the woods, and that's when things start to get freaky. And I'm not just talking about between Scotty and Hope. Because Scotty actually ends up going through some interdimensional matrix shit, and that's when his mind becomes one with Hope's momma, and that's when he starts telling them how to operate all this quantum stuff. But then the Feds are back on him, and so he has to make a mad push to his house. When he gets back though, his conscience is trying to reach out to him, cause it knows he feels like he let them down and all that. After he got a damn good heart to heart from his daughter, it reminds of that time my cousin Ernesto told me to look up when my girl left me, super straight encouraging facts. Anyway, he breaks them out of that crappy prison the same way Hank did with him, pretty sublime if you ask me, y'know coming full circle and that kind of thing. But then everyone is trying to get Dr. Pym's lab with all his tech and stuff, so then me, Scotty, and Hope form this dynamic trio and band together like the Avengers. Now that's when I give that black market dealer I was telling you about my mean right hook, I noticed you don't like the word nasty, yeah because nasty can trigger some pretty weird thoughts, right? Right away though, things start to look bad, like real bad, but-"

"But then they beat all the bad guys, and won like every other hero we've heard of," Bruce finished, unable to stay quiet any longer once he realized the story wasn't going anywhere. He could hear Shuri and a few Wakandans chuckle mildly in his earpiece, amused by his agony. "Just… can you finish the story quickly, so I can tell mine?" He turned to Kurt, who was apparently very engrossed in Luis's story, standing ramrod and at attention before Bruce addressed him.

"Oh, uh, I'm no good with words, Mr. Avenger," Kurt half stammered, looking at Luis.

"Hey, no problem man, I think I stole the spotlight enough for one day already, you can try to impress the guy too," Luis said cheerfully, motioning for him to continue.

"Okay… okay, so Dr. Pym rescues wife from quantum universe, we all make bigger business after we catch criminals. And Scott kisses girlfriend, also important."

"Wait, that's it?" Bruce asked, relieved that the explanation had been curt, but feeling as though the story wasn't finished.

"Well no, not exactly, that was few weeks ago, now…" Kurt trailed off, looking to Luis, who for once appeared to not know what to say.

"Now we can't find Daddy," a girl who was on the verge of tears had walked out of the back room and into the conversation, stricken with grief.

"Kurt! I told you to stay with her!" Luis whispered frantically, as he rushed to calm her down.

"Who is she?" Bruce whispered, though he was pretty sure he knew already.

"Scott's daughter, Cassie," he replied quietly.

"Scott and Hope have a daughter this old already?" he asked in confusion, now that it was confirmed.

"No, she from previous marriage."

Ah. That makes a lot more sense, he thought as he watched Luis crouch down and pat her on the shoulders, talking to her gently.

"Hey, Daddy's not gone, he's just… busy right now. Hey, I promise, you'll be safe with us."

The tone in his voice was clear; these guys had no idea where Scott was. For an instant, Bruce considered leaving, though he pushed away the idea, given that Luis was comforting Scott's distraught daughter at the moment. He couldn't help but wonder: Did this mean Scott was gone too? Maybe. But then why would Shuri's device…

Once Luis had managed to keep Cassie in check with a few dumb jokes and a heartfelt hug, settling her into a chair behind the desk, Bruce decided to speak up. He didn't want to waste any more time.

"Listen, guys, do you or do you not know where Scott Lang or anyone else associated with him is right in this moment? Honestly," he asked, meeting each of their eyes.

"Well, you see, it all started when they took my van-"

"ENOUGH OF YOUR STORIES!" Bruce yelled, and he could hear some Hulk in his voice. This had frightened them all, especially Cassie, who proceeded to dart underneath the desk, whimpering. Kurt's mouth gaped open, frozen in place, while Luis become noticeably unsettled. Seeing this, he willed himself back to normal, the green fading from his skin. "Sorry, it's… with the world the way is right now, time is essential, we need every bit of intel we can get. If there's anything else you can tell me that happened within the past day or so that would clue us into Scott's location, tell us. Please."

"You-you never told us what happened with… with your st-story," Kurt trembled, still having not regained his composure from the Hulk outburst.

Bruce nodded, deciding it was only fair since he had just snapped at them while channeling one of the strongest beings in the galaxy. "We were fighting a being named Thanos who collected these things called Infinity Stones," he paused, waiting for an interruption from Luis, but surprisingly none came. "He had five of them and an army we defeated in Wakanda, thanks to Thor. The last stone was in our android Vision's head. We tried to stop him, but… he got it, snapped his fingers, and half of all life in the universe vanished into dust."

The room had a tense mood after Banner's take on the events that had led to the universe's demise at the hand of the Titan. Luis furrowed his eyebrows in thought, his face sagging slightly, Kurt seemed to enter a catatonic state, and Cassie's eyes widened, her lip quivering, the whole thing sounding like a horror movie come true to her.

"Okay," Luis eventually said. "Okay. We'll tell you our side of the story. Condensed."

Bruce gave a nod, indicating him to go on. "Scotty and the Pyms took my van, said they needed a base of operations for some tests they were going to run. A few hours, all I see are cars crashing, planes burning, it was the worst day ever. Ever, ever," Luis paused. "I called up Kurt who said he saw Dave vanish by the power of gypsies, told him I saw the same thing. Rushed up Dr Pym's lab Scotty said they'd be working on top of, only found the dust all spread out with the wind. I shrank down my van, waited till the streets were clear before taking the lab with me, told Kurt to call Scotty's ex, only she answered." He pointed to Cassie then, who merely nodded at the mention.

"So… that's it?" Bruce asked, failing to keep remnants of frustration out of his voice. "I mean, there was no sign of Scott at all, no indication of anyone even? Not even some sort of quantum energy?"

"Sorry bossman, that's all we have," Kurt said, making the slightest of eye contact with Luis as he spoke.

"Yeah man, they left nothing but a couple of car sets and my van. But hey, no worries, if we see anything else," Luis winked at Kurt discreetly then, "we'll tell you."

"Well… okay then," the Avenger sighed out of exhaustion before handing Luis a card. He just wanted to leave and be done with it by then. "If you see or hear anything else, give us a call, alright?"

"For sure man, we'll keep in touch. Don't worry about it, we're professionals, remember?" Luis replied giddily.

"Yeah, I got that the first five times you said it," he said, getting up to shake their hands. As he drew close, Bruce whispered quietly to the men, "Take good care of her guys, she's going to need someone to look up to with her daddy gone." Or at least don't drive her crazy with your long winded stories.

They both nodded in compliance, Luis unable to resist speaking up. "Of course man, I've always been good with kids, you know?"

He then moved to Cassie, who had some sort of aura to her, a strong resolve from the way she looked right in his eyes, bent but far from broken. But maybe she was just putting on a strong front for one of Earth's heroes. After all, she had just been crying a few minutes ago. Still, Banner figured he didn't need to say much, he simply put two hands on her shoulders and told her to strong while they searched for her daddy.

She nodded her head; two simple words being uttered in response. "I will."

Bruce headed back out to the city then, after checking to ensure the streets were relatively free of violence. Still, he kept the armor on as a precaution, given that the sun was starting to recede into the night for a city that seemed on the verge of anarchy hours ago. As he finished bundling up the stairs of the abandoned building to the top where his aircraft was parked, he decided to speak of the confusing conversation he had with the two men.

"Those two were certainly interesting to say the least."

"Gosh, are all Americans secretly like this in their spare time? Just talking on and on with no purpose?" Shuri said jokingly.

"Guess it's just in his nature," Bruce said, his mind drifting to how true her words were. "That was a pretty big waste of time."

"Well, they were able to confirm the suspicions that Scott and his associates were gone. Sufficient information in of itself. I have a feeling though, they may yet still hold useful intel."

"You think they didn't tell us everything?"

"Not necessarily in that sense. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you, but you just can't grasp it until you put the pieces together. Maybe something will come to them in a few days. But if they were withholding something from us, it would be logical on their part. Why reveal your whole deck in the first hand?"

Bruce gave that theory some thought before shaking his head wistfully. "I don't know Shuri, you heard the guy, he seemed willing to spill his guts just fine, looks like he's said everything he knows."

"We shall see," Shuri said simply.

Bruce dropped the topic entirely after that, as he set in on Hawkeye's whereabouts, hoping he could come out of this ordeal with at least one more Avenger.

"I didn't want to have to be the one to tell him."

A silence reverberated through the observatory area of the medical bay—a recurring theme for this group—Nebula willing her stoic face to not crack as Thor, Steve, and Rhodey all exchanged stares with her, processing what she had just said.

"Well, what do you mean?" Thor asked in return, noticing the apprehension of the other two in talking to the woman. "What did you tell the rabbit?"

"What do you think?" she replied coldly, her face slackening ever so slightly at the words. "I told him all his friends were dead."

Being the leader that he was, Steve finally decided to engage her, carefully choosing his words. "Hey, it's okay," he said calmly. "It's been a bad day for everyone. If you want, we can get you situated first if you don't want to talk about it…"

Nebula stared daggers at Steve for his dismissal of her words, her metal jawline clenching in frustration. "Did you not hear what I said, Terran?" she hissed with ferocity.

"Yes, I did," he replied, maintaining the even tone of his voice. "Do you want to talk about it then?"

Nebula snorted at the offer, talking about the hopeless situation wouldn't help one bit. "Forget it," she snarled, turning on her heel to leave. But she wound up bumping directly into Natasha Romanoff, who recoiled against the impact of the augmented woman.

"Sorry. Didn't know there was a cyborg here," the Black Widow said jokingly while getting up, looking at the woman up and down as if to make sure she was real.

It took all of Nebula's self restraint to stop herself from maiming the former agent with one of the deadly instruments imbedded in her fingers. She merely gave another one of her patented death glares before revealing the implanted, precise weapons. The whole group was on edge at this, but they had no weapons themselves in the moment, except for Thor, who didn't want to set off Nebula even more by calling Stormbreaker.

"I am not a cyborg," she said, venom in her voice as she looked at the four heroes. "I am an enemy of Thanos who wants to destroy every remnant of his existence and I will work with you." She retracted her implants at the statement, but this did little to dissuade the Avengers' suspicions.

"But that doesn't mean I have to put up with this," she added curtly, before storming away from the group and ascending the ramp to the main level of the building.

"Well, that was quite the exit," Natasha said, a frown appearing momentarily.

"Yeah, she doesn't really like us right now," Rhodey said with a sheepish smile.

"I'll be sure to keep my distance," the agent replied goodheartedly, but her voice wavered slightly anyhow.

Thor shook his head at the turn of events, everything that could've possibly gone wrong had happened. He knew he would have to mend some fences before the tension escalated further. He got the feeling that both of them needed their space right now, but he certainly couldn't just stand around and waste time bantering. Stark had been stabilized, since that was clear, he had no reason to remain in the underground medical bay.

"I'm going to head upstairs," he announced. "Maybe ease her up a bit, or at least find Rocket. See you guys around."

After the Asgardian made his exit, the three of them turned their attention to the prostrate Tony Stark lying on a metallic bed once more. He looked almost peaceful in this state, like the carefree billionaire playboy of before, before the prospect of aliens and Infinity Stones was considered even a remote possibility. But now… after all the torment and mental imagery, they couldn't help but wonder if Stark could come back from this, if he still had the will to avenge half the universe. Physical trauma was one thing, as most scars would eventually fade. The PTSD on the other hand, that would linger for a longer period of time, probably for the rest of Tony's life given the atrocities he-well all of them-had suffered. Still, Tony was the most stubborn man they knew, they all saw the will he displayed for better or worse. And even if he had no one else left to live for—which wasn't true since Pepper was still alive—he would always fight.

"Doc give you an ETA on when he'll wake up?" Natasha asked, breaking the two soldiers out of their hazy gazes at the unconscious futurist.

"Probably not for a day or so, maybe a little earlier," Rhodey replied, giving her a look. "What's on your mind?"

She didn't answer his question, instead countering with a question of her own. "You know what I saw the day we fought over those stupid Accords?" The two men shook their heads. "I saw a lot of people with strong moral values and ideologies, all fighting for the wrong reasons. A useless divide when both channels of the river lead to the same lake eventually. And what I saw in him in particular, was a man who kept trying to rectify past mistakes, but only dug himself a bigger grave. Good intentions and all."

Steve nodded, the words all too familiar. "I get what you're saying Nat. I've had the same thoughts cross my mind for the past two years, days of getting lost in that thinking. Looking back now, it all seems so far away, so irrelevant compared to what we're facing now. And I'm sure Tony's had the same thoughts." His eyes went glossy when mentioning Stark's name. "We'll just have to make amends now, put aside whatever differences we had. For everyone's sake."

"I just hope there's something left to salvage when this is all over. Something other than division and conflict," she replied with a note of sadness.

"We'll get there. One step at a time for now though," Steve replied, images of his last encounter with Tony resurfacing again. The shield, the secrets, vengeance, protecting Bucky and losing everything…

"Steve?" Rhodey waved a hand to him. "We're heading upstairs now, need to… strategize for that press conference some more."

"That reminds me, how did you get that press conference?" Romanoff remarked. "Weren't you issued a court martial after not arresting us?"

"Given the state of the world, the media figures they need some sort of comforting presence at the moment," he replied with a shrug. "By the way, have you made a decision on that yet?"

"I think I'll pass. The press can handle one enemy of the public, but two might be pushing it."

"Okay, looks like it'll just be us two then. Steve, you coming?"

He considered his options briefly: he could either continue staring at Tony for several hours or he could work on clearing his name amongst the public, the whole PR aspect of the fallout. The choice was pretty clear.

"Yeah, let's go," he replied, giving Stark one last glance before heading up with his fellow Avengers.

A/N: Sorry for this chapter coming out a bit later than expected! I was having a bit of writer's block, just trying to write decent dialogue and whatnot. This was the Luis chapter if you will, hope you guys enjoyed my spin on the best MCU character ever implemented. Not much progress made in this chapter, despite the length, this one's a bit more filler. Might end up rewriting it in the future tbh.

If you enjoyed it anyway, make sure you all review, follow, fav, share, and whatever else to help the story, because it helps a great deal for my self esteem and publicity. :P Also, if you have any ideas for future chapters, you can PM me with suggestions, I listen to every one! Next chapter will feature some Luis, Scott/Hope, and possibly Tony waking up depending on if I want to do a couple hour time jump. Until then,

-BasketballIsFun