Chapter 15
"Yulia! Wake Up!"Nat yelled into my ear.
"I'm up! I'm up!" I yelled suddenly awake.
"Why German?" she asked as she handed me one of her hoodies, "Anyway, Cassie's dad's back. You missed an interrogation, and he ate my sandwich. But right now you need to get dressed we're going out until we get back you need to do some school work."
"HYDRA and why can't I come with you?" I asked fully sitting up, "and if I'm staying I'm borrowing some of your old ballet gear."
"Sure and because this is an adult-only mission and Tony doesn't like you," she told me.
"OK, but I can't guarantee anything."
*All you wanna do
All you wanna do baby
I think we can all agree I'm a ten amongst these threes*
"Hello, Yulia here," I said picking up my phone.
"Hey, Yulia. Do you wanna come to this sweet cafe? I'll send you the directions. You can use my motorbike and you need to leave the house at some point," Nat said through the phone.
"Or I could you know fly there," I said to her.
"OK, little one, I'll see you there."
Once I'd flown to the cafe I saw Nat, Steve and Scott waiting for me.
"Time heist? Really?" I asked Scott when I landed and we walked into the cafe.
"Not the best name but it could work," Steve told me.
Once we'd gotten into our conversation with Bruce things got weird.
"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating," Bruce said pushing a plate of eggs toward Scott, "Try some of that. Have some eggs."
"I'm so confused," Scott stated.
"These are confusing times," Bruce said back to him.
"Right. No, no, that's not what I meant."
"No, I get it. I'm kidding! I know. It's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now," he said jokingly as me and Nat laughed.
"Yeah! Wh...How? Why?" Scott asked him while Steve smiled into his coffee and I got my milkshake.
"Five years ago, we got our asses beaten. Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost."
"No one blamed you, Bruce," Natasha told him.
"They should blame me," I muttered, which Nat heard glaring at me and Scott stared at me.
"I did. 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 a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now look at me. Best of both worlds..." Bruce said raising his arms at the end while three kids walked up behind him.
"Excuse me, Mr. Hulk?" The girl said to Bruce.
"Yes?" He responded.
"Can we get a photo?" she asked him.
"100%, little person. Come on, step up," he told her handing Scott the phone, "You mind?"
"Oh yeah," Scott told Bruce.
"Thanks," Bruce told him, turning toward the kids, "Say 'green'!"
"Green!" They exclaimed.
"Did you get that?" Bruce asked.
Scott handed me the phone to give back to the kids, "Don't you wanna grab one with me? I'm Ant-Man."
"Uh oh," I mumbled.
"They're Hulk fans, they don't know Ant-Man. Nobody does," Scott said mainly to himself.
"Wait, no, no, he feels bad. No, he wants you to...he wants to... You want to take a picture with him, right?" Bruce tried to convince one of the kids to take a photo with Scott.
"Stranger danger," The boy muttered as they tried to walk away.
They continued to bicker until the kids scuttled away.
"Bruce," Steve said, "About we were saying..."
"Right. The whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside my area of expertise."
"Well, you pulled this off. I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible time, too," Nat told him.
"You're right. Fine, I'll help. But I need an assistant with some knowledge of physics," Bruce said turning to me.
"No. I'm a child Bruce."
"It'd give you something to do aside from wandering around trying to find new abilities and mourning," Nat said.
"Fine but no more Russian ghost stories. They're starting to get to me," I told her. "And I'm going home."
"So after 2 hours of sleep over the past two days me and Bruce present to you a time machine, maybe," I said to Steve, Scott and Nat as they walked into the hanger.
"You should get some more sleep," Steve scolded.
"Let's try this thing," I told them.
"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the uh... the van thing," Bruce said.
"Breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby," Steve said double-checking them.
"Good. 'Cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950s," Bruce said as everyone stared at him worriedly.
"Excuse me?" Scott asked.
"He's kidding," Steve said turning to Bruce to mutter, "You can't say things like that!"
"Just... It was a bad joke," Bruce said to him as I grimaced moving to stand next to Nat.
"He was kidding, right?" she muttered to me.
"I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is," I told her in return.
"We're good! Get your helmet on, Scott. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Makes sense?" Bruce said to Scott.
"Perfectly not confusing," Scott said to Bruce putting on his helmet.
"Good luck, Scott. You got this," Steve said trying to motivate him.
"You're right. I do, Captain American," he said before he disappeared down the tunnel.
"On the count of three. 3... 2... 1!" Bruce said back to all of us.
"Uh, guys? This...this doesn't feel right," Scott, well teen Scott said to us.
"He's younger than me!" I said aloud.
"What is this?" Steve asked.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked.
"That...who is that?" Nat asked.
The Bruce pushed a bunch of buttons trying to fix the problem.
"Hold on," Bruce panicked.
"Is that Scott?" Nat realized.
"Yes, it's Scott!" Teen Scott said just before being sucked back into the tunnel only for an old man to appear.
"Ow! My back!" Old man Scott said.
"What is this?" Steve asked yet again.
"Can I get a little space here," Bruce said as I got ready for an explosion of some kind.
"Yeah yeah. Can you bring him back?" Steve said moving next to us.
"I'm working on it!" Bruce yelled frantically pushing buttons until Scott was sucked back in yet again.
"It's a baby," Steve said seriously.
"It's Scott," Bruce said.
"As a baby!" Steve yelled.
"He'll grow," Bruce tried to look on the bright side.
"Bring Scott back!" Steve yelled.
"When I say kill the power, kill the power," Bruce told Nat.
"Oh my god," Nat said rushing to the power.
"And... Kill it!" Bruce yelled. Then Nat pulled the lever and everything shut down.
"Somebody peed my pants," Scott said as he got spit out of the machine.
"Oh thank god," Nat and I said in unison.
"But I don't know if it was "baby" me or "old" me...Or just "me" me," Scott said to all of us.
"Time travel!" Bruce said raising his and my arms as I grimaced yet again while Steve shook his head and walked away. "What? I..I see this as an absolute win!"
"I'm getting tacos, want any?" I asked heading toward the kitchen.
"I'll have some," Scott said following me and Nat.
"So we need someone to go get Thor and some others," Steve said to the team.
"I'll go, I want to get out of here," I volunteered.
"She can come with me and big green guy," Rocket said.
"Cool," I said.
"Not cool. Yulia are you sure?" Nat asked.
"What do you want me to do, become the teams tailor?" I asked her.
"Fine you can go," Nat said.
"Awesome," I said.
We piled into the back of a pickup truck from the middle of nowhere Norway. When we finally arrived at New Asgaard I hopped out before Bruce could to avoid the spring back of the truck.
"Kind of a step down from a from a golden palace for an Avenger highness and whatnot," Rocket said looking around.
"Hey, have a little compassion, pal. First, they've lost Asgard, then half the people. They're probably just happy to have a home," Bruce said spotting his friend.
"You shouldn't have come!" Valkyrie shouted at him.
"Ah, Valkyrie! Great to see you, Angry Girl," Bruce said.
"Hey Aunt Val," I told her in in Ye Olde Norse that she taught me when she and Carol had spent some time together.
"Hey, Yulia. I think I liked you better either of the other ways," Val said to Bruce and me.
"This is Rocket," Bruce told her, "And you seem to know Yulia."
"How you doin'?" Rocket asked.
As she eyed him she said, "He won't see you."
"That bad, huh?" Bruce asked.
" We only see him once a month, when he comes for... supplies," She said to which I took an opportunity.
"If he drinks that much then I as a child should stay here with Valkyrie, Bruce," I told him to which she laughed.
"Fine, Yulia. It's that bad," Bruce said.
"Yeah," Val told him, "I'll look after Yulia for you, I know Nat is terrifying to you."