Wow, one day apart. This has to be a record. Anyways, enjoy! We have more of Tony and the avengers in here, so have fun reading about Tony Stark being a nosy bitch.

IDon'tOwnMarvel

I made it to his house and invited myself in without a care in the world, ignoring the hushed tone I threw over whatever conversation they were having in the dining room. I almost ran into Hope too when she stepped into the hallway in front of me.

"Who are you?"

Damn she's tall.

I shrugged. "Jack."

"What are you doing here?" She crossed her arms, looking quite annoyed with my existence.

"I'm working with Dr. Pym on some stupid grudge he has against his own company." I held my tea closer to my chest, still hoping that I might still have a chance with her. "I'm cool."

"It's alright, Hope, she's with me." Hank filled in, appearing behind me.

They fell into a brief staring contest, so I just backed out of the way.

"You're corrupting the youth now too?" Hope accused, making me want to shrink away a little.

"If it makes you feel any better," I chimed in gently, "I was already corrupt before I met him."

I inched backwards again when I wasn't acknowledged and ended up standing behind Hank when Scott walked in.

"It's not like that." Hank said, arms crossed too.

"Do you really not trust me enough that you have to employ the help of a third grader and wanted criminal?"

"He lets us help because we're expendable." I explained, still hoping my relationship with this woman might be salvageable. "He doesn't care if he loses some criminal and odd teenager."

Honestly, I didn't want to be super involved in this argument, and I don't think she wanted me involved either. She didn't regard my statement in the slightest, shaking her head and throwing up a hand in exasperation.

"I'm late to meet Cross."

Hope pushed by us and Scott on her way out the door, worrying me a little. TC would've been good emotional support here if he wasn't probably getting...cooked and eaten...by aliens.

I frowned at the thought before Scott spoke up.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

I shook my head to myself, taking a deep breath and then attempting to sip at my tea. Upon finding it empty, I wrinkled my nose in distaste.

"I'm working with the old man." I replied, walking past them both into the kitchen. "Do you have any tea?"

They both followed me in while I dumped out my old tea bag and started filling up my cup in the sink.

Scott raised his hand. "Uh...Dr Pym?"

Hank sighed a little. "You don't need to raise your hand, Scott."

"Sorry, I just have one question. Who are you? Who was she? Why is the scary kid here? What the hell is going on and can I go back to jail now?"

I faced them, leaning on the sink while my water heated in the microwave. The expectant look I gave Hank was finally returned when he gestured towards a cabinet above me.

"Tea's in the top cabinet to your left." He beckoned Scott with his hand. "Come with me."

The microwave dinged after they were out of sight and I ended up with black tea from the cabinet. I carried it to the table in the dining room and sat down, pulling up my computer to do another search on the transformer's universe from the comfort of Hank's fancy house. I had finished updating my private blog about the autobots (despite its lack of existence here) before Hope came right back in through the front door. She looked like she was about to go downstairs into the basement, only to stop and turn to me sitting at the table.

"You're still here." She looked at me cautiously. "Who are you?

"Jack." I replied again, putting on a smile. "You're really cool."

"Why are you working with him?" She demanded, gripping whatever was in her hand a little tighter. "You look twelve."

"I'm, uh- I got nothing better to do?" I shifted in my seat and looked away. "I'm...18."

She opened her mouth to say something else but decided against it with a shake of her head and went down the stairs into the basement. I would have followed, but I didn't want to be around for the fight she had with Hank. I had to have made the right decision because not long after she went down there I heard the argument.

A short while after that, they came back upstairs with a new kind of determination to help Scott not fuck up everything. We had the next few days filled with different activities to help prepare him for the main mission. I particularly enjoyed watching him slam into the door repetitively while in the suit. It got to a point where I almost wished that he wouldn't make it through, just so I could watch him continue to knock his head confidently on the door. Hope, though indifferent most of the time, still didn't really like me. I understood where she was coming from and why she was upset, but that didn't stop me from wanting her approval.

I was in and out of the house, coming back each morning from my apartment to monitor progress while also wondering what the others were up to. I'm not going to lie, missing Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and, yes, even Pietro, was a bit taxing. Thinking about them became an all too common past-time. I had really expected to enjoy the break away from them. Now I just wanted to be back at the compound, sleeping off Ultron and knowing for sure that I wasn't being spied on or in any kind of danger.

"When you're small, energy is compressed so you have the force of a 200 pound man behind a fist a hundredth of an inch wide, you're like a bullet." Hope explained, standing at the ready across from Scott. "You punch too hard, you kill someone. Too soft, and it's a love-tap. In other words, you have to know how to punch."

"I was in prison for 3 years," Scott scoffed, "I know how to punch."

Famous last words. I smiled, sitting up in my chair and setting aside my computer.

"Show me." Hope put her hands up and Scott gave a swift punch that didn't look too bad from where I was sitting. Hope didn't like it though. "Terrible."

Clearly hurt by the words, Scott challenged her back, holding up his own hand. "You want to show me how to punch? Show me-"

He got cut off when her fist connected with his face, making me cover my mouth to hide a laugh. Scott crumbled and fell back with Hope sporting a small smile at her victory. "That's how you punch."

Scott glared at my stifled laughs as Hank invited himself in looking around at us. "She's been looking forward to this."

"No kidding." Scott said, still holding his nose from the assault.

"Hope trained in martial arts at a, uh, difficult time." Hank crossed his arms with a nod.

Hope gave her father an annoyed look. "Oh, by difficult time, he means when my mother died."

"She died in a plane crash."

I was already feeling uncomfortable at the memory of my own parents, not to mention someone else's dead parents. I couldn't really know how she felt in full because she blamed her father for the death of her mother. Myself was the only person I really blamed for a while until I tried to convince myself it was out of my hands. There's always the lingering feeling that I could have done more. If I had rushed home from my walk, they would still be alive with me or we'd at least be together. Even that was wishful thinking though. Hope just hated her father, and I sort of envied the fact that she had someone around to blame aside from herself even though the situation was far from a healthy grieving strategy.

"It's bad enough that you won't tell me how she died, could you at least please stop telling me that lie? We have work to do." She snapped, then gesturing to Scott. "Alright princess, let's go."

He gave her a hurt look in return. "Were you going for the hand?"

"Could I have a go at it?" I spoke up, getting looks from all of them and feeling less confident by the second. "You know, until the little lady pulls it together."

Hope hesitated for a moment, looking to her father briefly before nodding. She nudged Scott with her foot until he moved out of the way into a chair.

Hank seemed genuinely curious as I stood to meet her, watching me carefully. I pulled off the sweatshirt, briefly forgetting about the partially visible burn scars on the back of my neck and shoulders. When I lined up with Hope, she only spared my shoulders a quick glance before we went at it. I blocked her first punch and used her arm to spin her around into a chokehold. She clearly wasn't expecting this, but countered pretty quickly. She used the fact that I was much shorter and weaker than her to twist out of my grip and then used my good arm to push me to the floor, pinning me there.

I tapped out and rolled over, out of breath with small giggles.

She only had the slightest hint of amusement on her face when she helped me back up.

"Thanks." I brushed myself off. "I haven't had a real sparring match since Mississippi."

"No problem." She nodded over my shoulder towards the disgruntled man. "You ready now, princess?"

I snorted and moved back to my seat with concerned looks from Hank.

I wrinkled my nose back at him. "What?"

"Nothing."

Hank averted his eyes again, looking back to the two others in the room.

Over the next couple of days I was able to get in a few matches with Hope when Scott was out of breath or too beaten up to continue. I think I might've actually been improving too after Hope stopped exclusively kicking my ass and gave me pointers. She was cool like that, and I was immensely proud of myself for having grabbed her favor at least a little.

All was well too until she grabbed directly over the wound on my arm and I sucked in a sharp breath from the pain. "Ah!"

She picked up on it quickly, letting go for me to shrug my arm back and wince over the ache it caused. Hope watched me for a moment before fully invading my space and pushing up my sleeve.

Then she sighed like an annoyed parent. "What happened to your arm?"

"None of your business." I shot back on instinct, then hesitating to correct myself while pushing the sleeve back down. I lowered my tone to maintain the friendship with Hope, knowing damn well that i couldn't just play angsty and annoying if I wanted to be taken seriously. "A guy with a knife last Tuesday."

"Did you ever get it looked at?" Hank called from the other side of the room, also peering to try and see.

Wouldn't have expected care from that guy, but I'll take it. I shook my head. "No, it wasn't that deep, so I didn't need to."

"You have scars on your shoulders too." Scott pointed out, earning a slap upside the head from Hank. He gasped at that in offense. "Ow!"

"Someone graduated pre-k." I huffed, pulling my hoodie back on. "Yeah, I do. Great observing skills, sport."

"Where are they-"

Hank slapped him upside the head a second time, shutting Scott up.

The slapped man gasped again from the hit. "Ow!"

"Yeah, there's still a thing called 'don't ask' in the criminal world." I rolled my eyes at them. "I will be taking full advantage of that, so keep your fatherly judgement and worries to yourself."

"Yeah, I'm really not…" Scott passed an awkward glance at Hank. "All that fatherly."

I laughed, making all three of them give me concerned looks. It was moments after that I realized none of them were making a joke. "You're not serious, are you?"

Scott shrugged lightly. "You can't exactly parent from the prison yard."

"Wh-" I blinked at him. "No. Don't say that. You don't believe that."

He gave me a funny look then. "What do you know about my parenting skills?"

"Well," I opened and shut my mouth, now knowing I had to choose my words carefully past this point with my feelings definitely hurt. "It's better than nothing, isn't it? I'm just really relying on you being a good parent, Scott. Don't do this to me right now."

"I barely know you."

Okay, that one hurt.

"I'm just saying." I tried to save it. "Maybe it's not the best sit-situation, but it's better than not being around at all. I'd rather have a dad who showed up once a week or once a month rather than a dead or absent one. And you're basically a superhero now, which means that you're making the world a better place for her. "

Hope passed a glance at her dad, making him look away while Scott just looked like he was processing what I said.

He had a small smile growing on his face though after a moment and looked down in embarrassment. "Luis told you about Cassie, didn't he?"

I smiled back at that, accepting that as a reason for my knowledge. "Yeah."

"Do you wanna see pictures?" He asked then, grabbing his phone off the table and coming over closer. "She grows like a weed. It's crazy."

"Scott, we have work to do-" Hank started, only to shut his mouth again when Hope shot him a look.

Scott got his ten minutes of showing me photos he had of Cassie in his phone. We sparred for a little longer after that with Hope giving me nicer pointers. She was surprisingly patient and I was very attentive, knowing that this was going to be some of the most valuable sparring information I got out of this world. Natasha would've made an excellent teacher too, but it was easier asking Hope for tips, especially since she didn't know who I really was.

The statement I made earlier about Scott's parenting did come back to bite me in the ass though, I think. That, or I was forgetting how this adventure went down in a 'scene by scene' portrayal. Either way, I had to do some counseling for Hank and Hope's relationship when I walked into the house one morning.

Hope marched past me with a glare, not acknowledging my existence as she streamed by. Scott followed shortly after, passing me a nervous smile and a pat on my shoulder while he followed Hope out of the house.

I then vaguely remembered a conversation that Scott had with Hope outside in the car as I made my way into the other room to find Hank.

"What are we arguing about?" I inquired, stopping respectfully in the doorway of the living room.

Hank looked up with a small sigh and then away again. "Hope still thinks she'd be better than Scott. It's true, she would, but I can't risk it."

I stared back at him for a moment, holding back from reminding him that Scott had something to lose too. "Yeah, I get that."

"How do I make her understand?" He asked back, looking defeated. "She's as stubborn as her mother."

I shrugged lightly, playing with my hands and leaning on the door frame. "Maybe mention why you're more willing to lose this fight than you are to lose her. It's pretty obvious that she just wants to be seen and noticed by you."

"Of course I notice her." He scoffed, " I love her more than anything."

I pursed my lips at that. "Well, Hank, I mean this in the least judgmental way possible, but you did send her to a boarding school immediately after her mother died. My parents did a similar thing after my sister died. Made me feel like she was the only one who mattered to them. Maybe without her...I wasn't worth having around."

He opened and shut his mouth at me before turning away and dragging a hand over his face. "I'm sorry about your sister, but they were probably grieving."

"So was I."

"Is that why you live in an apartment alone?" He asked then, completely changing the subject to me and making eye contact. "Because of these supposed parents of yours?"

"I was orphaned at sixteen, so, not really." I bit back the feeling of discomfort from talking about my own family. "Why do you know where I live?"

"I was curious." He moved over to his collection of photos on the mantle above the fire place. "Forgive me for finding a child criminal a little bit puzzling."

"You aren't forgiven." I turned to look out the window by the door where Hope was getting back out of the car. "That's an invasion of privacy. Good luck with your feelings, old man."

Hank shook his head at that with Scott and Hope coming back inside before he could refute that attack on his grey hair. He instead looked at the two entering the room and then back at me briefly. I crossed my arms at him, trying to imply that this was a good time to make amends.

He sighed and nodded at Hope. "Your mother convinced me to let her join on my missions. They called her the Wasp-"

I shuffled back closer to Scott and stood beside him specifically. He passed me a cheery smile when I stood beside him without an attitude.

"Hey," He whispered, nudging my arm. "Do you think Cassie knows?"

"Knows what?"

He shrugged lightly and looked away, "I don't know. What you said the other day?"

"Oh, that you're the world's greatest grandma?" I teased lightly, looking back at Hope and Hank. "Yeah, daughters always know."

"I was trying to protect you." Hank finished in a hushed voice. "I lost your mother. I didn't mean to lose you too."

"Now, this is awesome-"

I cut Scott's speech off with a slap upside his head.

"Uh, Ow!" He gave me a hurt look. "What was that for?"

"Sometimes you really have to keep your mouth shut." I shook my head at him, knowing that his intentions were not going to save him with whatever shenanigans he was about to pull.

He huffed a sigh to himself, rubbing the back of his head. "So unnecessary. I thought we were friends."

I never remembered what his full speech was going to be, but I knew that it ruined the moment, so keeping him from talking was the best choice.

"Yeah, friend's know when to shut each other up." I rolled my eyes, pulling him away by the elbow then. "Let's go, dipstick."

"Who raised you?" He demanded as i pulled him away. "They shoulda told you that hitting is mean. People don't like that."

"File it with the complaint's department."

We had only another day for Scott to get up to everyone's standards, and he matched that goal easily. After managing to do that, he was sent on a mission to retrieve a part that Hank had created in his Shield days. Honestly, I hadn't a clue what the piece was called through because he had spent so long explaining it with the most boring voice. I just zoned out, really.

The important part was when I remembered that this abandoned warehouse was actually the Avenger's Facility. That caught my attention and had me excited enough to sit around in the control room to watch Sam get his ass kicked. It was going to be a show for sure. You know, after the first two hours of him getting there in the first place. That part was boring.

"Uh, guys, we might have a problem. Hank, didn't you say this was some old warehouse? It's not!" Scott called over the screen. "You son of a bitch!"

I sat up upon hearing the new information and made my way over to the control desk. When I saw the Avengers Facility I laughed out loud, knowing all my 'friends' were in there.

"Abort!" Hank panicked, "Abort now!"

I just kept laughing, throwing Hope for a loop while she tried to determine what was so funny to me.

"Hey, give War Machine a kiss for me, wouldya?" I requested, holding back giggles while I watched the screen.

"It doesn't look like anyone's home." Scott replied, "Sorry to disappoint, Jack."

I snorted with the two people in front of me visibly freaking the fuck out.

"He's going to lose the suit."

"He's going to lose his life." Hope hissed back.

"Oh no, they're not that mean." I finally composed myself, watching intently. "Just a bunch of self-righteous waffles."

"Alright I'm on the roof of the target building."

Hope leaned forwards in her seat. "Somebody's home, Scott."

"It's the Falcon!"

"Oh my god." I was trying so hard not to laugh again. "Tell him The Emancipator says hi."

"Abort, Scott! Abort now!" Hank ordered again.

"It's okay I don't think he sees me."

"I can see you."

"He can see me." Scott enlarged on the screen and I could see Sam more clearly now. "Hi, I'm Scott."

Hope facepalmed with a disheartened tone. "Did he just say 'Hi I'm Scott'?"

Hank looked exasperated too and nodded.

I could only cover my mouth to keep from laughing.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked, clearly not in the mood to mess around.

"First off- I'm a big fan." Scott started easily, "I was supposed to tell you the Emancipator says hi-"

"The Emancipator?" The gears in Sam's head turned slowly before his lips twitched up in the smallest smile. "What do you want?"

"I was hoping I could grab a piece of technology just for a few days, and then return it. I need it to save the world. You know how that is."

Hank and Hope watched on in shock while I was just happy that Sam had recognized me without saying anything.

"I know exactly how that is." He turned to his radio. "Located the breach. Someone track Link, I'm bringing him in."

"Sorry about this!" Scott shrunk down right as Sam was about to grab him.

All I could do was laugh.

Hank was busy losing his mind and sitting helplessly as the fight ensued. I watched as Sam attempted to fight Scott off, but ultimately failed. Ultimately, it didn't end well for Sam.

"You seem like a really nice guy!" Scott took off as soon as he could get away from the guy, not looking back.

I could see the disgruntled look Sam had as soon as the 'intruder' got away. I just smiled and sat back down in my seat across the room, very pleased with the outcome of the fight.

After Scott was on his way back and out of harms way, Hope approached me. "You know the Falcon?"

I debated telling her anything at all, only to use my regular lie in the end. "We're friends from work."

She eyed me for a moment before dropping her voice a little. "You hacked into their facility, didn't you?"

"Not exactly." I built up a lie from there. "I've been hiding from Shield for the past two years. Keeps you on your toes and gives you enough time to slowly but surely steal any and all information they have on me. I'm pretty sure Tony Stark hates me."

"I'm pretty sure my dad will hate you if they find you hanging around us." She pointed out, stepping back towards the screen. "The last thing we need is Stark getting hold of this technology."

"Please," I scoffed, "I think that if I can dupe them at sixteen, my adult self will be just fine."

I got up to leave her then and wander back upstairs now that the fun part was over, taking my computer with me. Hope went back to monitoring Scott's trip back with Hank, so I was left alone to write an email.

'Hi Losers,

I successfully broke into the Avengers Facility with the help of a few friends. Just thought I'd gloat a little before I also tell you that Sammy was beat up by a man half an inch tall. Anyways, I've been doing fine. I think I've successfully backtracked any illegal behavior with crime fighting so they might cancel each other out and make me a morally grey side character in your lives. All in all, it's been a pretty fulfilling June and I'm considering not running off again until the next big fight. Tell Rhodey I miss him and send him my love.

Your delinquent,

Lincoln'

"I've got one more room to clear then we can leave." Tony reported over the coms, "Tell Cap to quit his whining."

"I can hear you." Steve deadpanned.

Tony blasted through the lock and pushed the door open, noticing immediately the guy cowering in the back and trying desperately to shove an article of clothing into a briefcase.

He held up his hand with a sigh. "Drop it."

Tony's command worked and the man was trembling as he released the sweatshirt and what looked like a phone clattering to the floor too. The sweatshirt fell gracefully in comparison, landing face-up with the outline of a dinosaur on the front. He smiled a little at that, knowing how overjoyed Lincoln might be to see her hoodie again.

"Nat, I've got a guy surrendering in the last room," He called over the mic, "Can you come pick him up for our monocular friend back home?"

As if on command, the door swung open again behind him and Natasha walked by without a care in the world. She handcuffed the man, then looked at the sweatshirt on the ground as Tony stepped out of his suit.

"That's probably Lincoln's."

"That's what I was thinking." Tony agreed, stooping to pick it up with the almost fully shattered phone.

He took them with him on his way out with his suit following in sentry mode. Eventually, he handed off the hooded sweatshirt to his suit before inspecting the phone to check if it was actually salvageable. Tony had to assume it was hers as well due to how desperate the hydra guy was to keep it.

"Now, where did they find this?" He mumbled to himself, not asking for a response, but getting one anyway from the resident bigot.

"We found it."

He moved on to the cracked phone with his newly freed hands. Could this be her phone too? "When would they have gotten this?" He mumbled, more to himself than to Natasha or the Hydra agent beside him.

"We found it. Hydra lebt-"

Tony had the suit raise a hand to the man's head and he instantly cowered away.

"Keep it in English please." Tony waved the phone at the man. "This your boss's iPhone? With the…'purple guy' phone case?"

"It belongs to the girl." He said, finally. "The seer."

"Oh, so it is Lincoln." He looked at Natasha. "Do you think it still works? Lincoln seemed to think that she had lost it when she fell through the portal."

Nat shrugged. "I thought that was your thing."

He looked back at the phone, inspecting the damage done. It actually looked like it was doing pretty well after being thrown through a portal 2,000 feet in the air. The phone case was perplexing, but scratched up enough that he couldn't quite make out what looked like a purple alien of sorts with a golden glove decorated with gemstones. Tony debated bringing it back to the lab in the tower, but figured it would probably make more sense to try and fix it at the facility she stayed in.

He got right to work on it as soon as they got back and was a little intrigued to find out that it was a future model of the iPhone that had yet to be released. That honestly just made it more fun to work with since it proved further that her existence was quite impossible. If he didn't believe her word before, this just slapped a bow on it all.

Tony started with taking out the surprisingly undamaged sim card and backing up anything it had in his computer before trying to repair the phone itself. Tony smiled when he found the sim card was untouched and held quite the plethora of things. He clicked on the folder for photos first, neglecting the apps and other parts. There were mostly pictures of a cat at first with a few 'memes' near the bottom. One of the 'meme's' (as he had been told they were called) held a distorted picture of a cat with just the word 'cabbage' written across in red text. That concerned him, but he found it best to just move on and pretend he didn't see it.

Several pictures were found of her and her cat as well as some screenshots from Pinterest and fan-art of himself and some of his co-workers. He only stopped short of scrolling when he found a picture of her smiling with another girl that shared pretty similar features with Lincoln.

Sister. Tony clicked away, but not before he noticed the T-rex skeleton hoodie and hat that her sister wore. He winced a little at that. "That's a little morbid."

He played a video next that immediately started off with a shaky camera and two hyper teenage girl screams.

"Morgan!" Ellie shrieked with giggles following her joy, the camera turning to show a movie screen.

"Look how freaking cute she is!" Lincoln added, zooming in on Tony holding a small child.

Tony blinked at the video in shock before pausing it and zooming in on the image. That was him. Who was the child?

"I can't watch this a second time." Lincoln looked like she was beyond unbalanced with her emotions, laughing and almost crying at the same time. "Ellie, I'm gonna cry. I can't do this."

"But look at Morgan!" Ellie pointed back to screen with the camera following to show Steve, Nat and some other guy in a chair. "Ahahaha! She's so cute!"

The video ended, but Tony really wanted to know more about this 'Morgan'. He especially wanted to know why he would just casually hold a kid. You know, unless he had stumbled upon a part of his future that had yet to happen.

Despite his ever-growing curiosity, he decided to shut down the thought and leave Lincoln's information alone past that point to just try and repair the phone itself.

"She better be Pepper's." He muttered to himself, trying to rid the idea of having a child from his mind.

His relationship was nowhere near stable enough for that kind of jump. Not to mention Pepper already being married to her work, same as him. He didn't know who this other version of him was, but there was no way he would be capable of raising a human child. His father was a perfect example of how well Stark's did with parenting.

Now with the phone, he'd be lucky to be able to fix it up before Lincoln returned. He hoped that the photos and backed up memory would be enough to make her hate him a little less. And he assumed that looking through said photos without permission would probably keep him in the 'hated' category of her mind, so he shut down the idea of looking for more information on her phone about the future.

He was halfway through detaching the screen from the phone when a ping from the computer got his attention again. Several people in the facility had just received an email from the very kid he was making gifts for.

Hi losers,

I successfully broke into the Avengers Facility with the help of a few friends-