Devastation And Drunken Thor
Stark woke early and took his time watching the sunrise, making breakfast, and drinking a mojito. Eventually, he sauntered down to the sub-basement and pressed his hand to the scanner pad on the cell wall. The wall retracted, showing his prisoner through the glass.
Douxie had been keeping his face buried in his hands the last few hours and rocking back and forth in the corner. His golden eyes shot up desperately searching and making contact with his captor. Tony felt the smallest twinge of pity as he saw the state the boy was in.
Douxie spent the night trying to keep the light from blinding him but gave up completely on the loud music blaring through the speakers. He looked exhausted, black rings under his eyes and hair mussed up. After nearly fourteen hours, he was desperate for it to end, but determined not to crack, not just yet.
Tony dialed down the music and cut the lights to half power. "Ready to talk yet? Or shall we listen to the entire 'back in black' album another dozen times?"
Douxie chuckled weakly " if your gonna torture me you'll have to do better than AC/DC."
Tony cracked a smile at this, the kid had good taste in music at least. "Douxie is it? Interesting name fits the whole 'dungeons and dragons vibe" Tony joked.
"So what'll it be today? 24 straight hours of Disney music?" Douxie asked.
"At least I'm not cruel enough to play the theme song to 'Barney And Friends" on repeat. Still got nothing to say then?" Tony sighed exasperatedly.
" Mr. Stark you have a guest at the main gate" F.R.I.D.A.Y. interrupted over the intercom.
"Thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y. put it on the mainframe." He said, pulling up a holographic monitor. Bruce banner stood at the entrance, no doubt coming by to put the finishing touches on the time machine, now a puddle of solid metal melted to the floor of the lab.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. let Banner in and call all remaining avengers to an emergency meeting in one hour. As for you-" tony said, jabbing a finger in Douxies direction "stay put"
"Wha- wait!" Douxie called after him as the wall retracted once more. He cranked the music and lights back up and headed upstairs.
Douxie threw up his hands to cover his ears again and retreated to the corner of the room to press his face into the wall to block out the light, his head throbbing painfully. He thought about Claire waiting for him back in Arcadia and about Archie. "At least they have each other" he let the thought bring him a small amount of comfort.
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The remaining 10 Avengers gathered in the debriefing room. "Now that we are all here I got some bad news." Tony started, jumping right into things.
"50 percent of all life has been wiped out of existence across the entire universe, what do we consider bad news these days?" Rocket said.
"How about losing the time machine we've been building to restore the missing half of all life in the universe?" Tony shot back.
There was an uproar as everyone spoke at once "what do you mean we lost it?-"
"How do you lose a giant machine-"
"What happened? Are we not going back in time anymore?-"
Tony let off an air horn he kept at the meeting table for this specific reason, startling everyone into silence. Thor jerked awake and nearly toppled off his chair, having slipped into a drunken stupor.
Stark clicked a button on the remote in his hand and a holographic screen materialized at the center of the table showing douxie crouched in the corner of his cell, his hands still clenched tightly over his ears.
"He goes by the name 'Douxie' and he claims to have been sent from the future to stop us from causing global devastation. Last night he broke into the warehouse and destroyed the time machine. He refuses to talk so I'm a little fuzzy on the details as to why we end up causing the end of days."
Tony clicked the remote again showing the footage of the break-in." The kid appears to be a wizard, I have his magic under control for the moment, but I'm not sure for how long."
Clint simmered across the table, arms crossed, a hardened expression on his face " I can make him talk. Just leave me alone with him for a few hours, I'll get the information we need." Clint suggested darkly. Out of everyone at the table, he had lost the most. His entire family, wife, and children were taken in the snap. He was a man with nothing left to lose and everything to gain.
"It's not that simple," Tony said wincing slightly at Clint's suggestion. " The intruder happens to be the male equivalent of 'Sabrina The Teenage Witch', he's just a kid."
"What would you suggest we do, make the time jump blind and hope the kid was lying? That's a lot to risk" Rhodey made a good point.
Bruce rubbed his brow in frustration "With the time machine completely lost, it will take stark and I several months to build a new one. In the meantime, we suggest Natasha use her subtle powers of interrogation on the kid and try to get him to talk."
Natasha nodded " what teenage boy wouldn't want to spill their darkest secrets to me" she smirked sadly, raising an eyebrow.
"Nebula and Scott, we want you to find out as much as you can about this kid in the present day. Try tailing him, but don't engage."
"Sounds easy enough," Nebula said from her corner of the room. Scott looked intimidated at being paired up with her.
Captain America stood at the window, looking out onto the tarmac in deep thought " what if the kid is right? What if our meddling with time causes complete devastation? We will need a foolproof plan."
"Agreed. I suggest whoever has had contact with one of the stones in the past makes a detailed record. You must pinpoint exact times and dates of contact. We only have one shot at this, let's get it right. Everyone in agreement?" He asked.
Everyone nodded except for Clint and Thor who had passed out again and was quietly snoring in his seat.
"Then meeting adjourned." They rose and headed in different directions.
Tony slammed down a heavy book on the table right in front of a sleeping Thor. He leaped from his seat shouting "GET HELP!"
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Future Arcadia
Arcadia Oaks was unrecognizable. Claire stood amongst the smoking rubble clutching her shadow staff tightly in both hands as if holding onto the last strand of hope.
Archie soared back through the shadow portal crashing at Claire's feet. "We destroyed the machine, but they got Douxie! We have to go back!"
"This wasn't supposed to happen, none of this was supposed to happen." Claire dropped to her knees hugging Archie close. Her clothes were torn, knees scraped and bloody.
"Jim, Toby, my parents... What do we do Arch? I feel so lost without them."
Archie felt her tears staining his fur. He purrs instinctively to comfort her " we will get them back, we will get them all back no matter what it takes..."