In the brutal aftermath of the Snap, Tony Stark chose to retire fully from heroics, marry Pepper Potts and have a daughter, named Morgan. Despite losing his allies and half the universe to Thanos, Tony began to feel a sense of peace in the five years that followed. He hadn't spoken to any of the remaining Avengers in years although he kept tabs through his own means. That all changed when Tony saw Steve, Natasha and Scott park near his house. Tony saw a look of persistence he recognised all too well in Steve's eyes. Tony sighed. He was not looking forward to the proposition that was going to take place.
Scott explained his plan as smoothly as he could although it was peppered with irrelevant titbits and side tangents much to the growing exacerbation of Tony.
"Now, we know what it sounds like..." Scott concluded.
"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve optimistically asked.
After a pregnant pause, Tony looked at them and casually answered "Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?"
The trio all look puzzled. As smart as they all were, quantum science was barely any of their specialities.
"In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."
"I did." countered Scott
"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?"
"A time heist?" Scott said trying not to let his pride show
"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"
"The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them."
"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back." Interjected Natasha, catching Steve's contagious optimism
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony shot down.
"I don't believe we would."
Tony looked at Steve as he said that line. He nearly smiled as he started to recall the full extent of their long and complicated working relationship.
"Gotta say, sometimes I 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 would be our collective demise."
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel." Countered Scott. "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events –"
"-I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"
"…No."
"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works."
"Tony... We have to take a stand."
Tony took a long hard look at the former Captain America and Black widow and where once he felt pride to stand amongst them, there was only resentment.
"We did stand. And yet, here we are." Tony spat with increasing bitterness as he continued "Earth's mightiest heroes ripped apart like wet paper, more split now than ever before, Romanoff lost her arm, my buddy got his spine crushed in the armour I made to protect him, Cap's half the man he used to be, you don't even want to know what happened to Thor-"
"-I know you got a lot on the line." Scott interrupted. He was curious about what terrible thing happened to Thor but decided to concentrate on his main focus "You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did." Scott's voice became louder as his desperation became more evident. "now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even..."
"That's right, Scott, I won't even. I got a kid."
Right on cue, little Morgan Stark ran to her dad who picked her up and gave her a tight embrace.
"Mommy told me to come and save you."
"Good job. I'm saved." He turned to the trio and Scott thought he could see a hint of a tear in Tony's eye. "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for six."
"Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance." Steve reasoned calmly
"I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch. Don't worry you can share Morgan's plate"
Natasha cracked a smirk but politely declined. The three walked back to the car and got in
"He's scared."
"He's not wrong."
"Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?"
"No, I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain."
"Bigger than his?"
It was debatable whether his brain really was bigger then Tony Starks but at the very least he was the next best option available to the trio. It was time to talk to the next Avenger: The Superhero Formerly Known as The Incredible Hulk.
