Whatever it takes.
Kate Bishop certainly didn't expect to join the Avengers this early. She was only focused on bringing her mentor back from going kamikaze, not... bringing what Kate and Marcus lost.
She steps into the compound, noticing Thor first (who had a cool beard and longer hair back in 2012) and then Professor Hulk. Kate walks in, trying not to feel the pressure of now being an unofficial Avenger. It was difficult. She only dealt with street villains like Madam or the Tracksuit maffia who always says, bro. She made a huge jump in supervillain fighting as she could hear War Machine and Spider-Man (or is it Peter and James?) argue with Professor Hulk about killing baby Thanos, which admittedly made her giggle.
She goes and sees Clint in the quantum suit that Scott was wearing not too long ago. He stares at Kate and Kate stares at him back. Kate turns her gaze away and misses her mentor frown at the action, "Changing the past doesn't change the future." Professor Hulk scolds towards James and Scott.
"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved." Scott says with a cute smile and shrug.
"Bingo. Solved." Clint adds in.
"That's not how it works." Peter and Nebula cut in, both went to stare at each other before Peter chuckles and Nebula just gives him a quick smile.
"But that's what I heard," Clint argues.
"From who? Where?" Professor Hulk pressures.
"Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time," Rhodey answers, counting with his fingers.
"Quantum Leap."
"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time!"
"Hot Tub Time Machine!"
Kate saw the dumbfounded looks Peter, Nebula, and Hulk had and nearly laughed.
"Hot Tub Time Machine. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel." Rhodey finishes with his arms crossed, "I take no questions."
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future..." Hulk explains.
"Exactly." Cuts in Nebula.
Kate, Scott, Clint, and Rhodey were all confused. It didn't make sense in her mind because of all the loopholes, but she didn't argue with it. She wasn't a scientist, just a person with remarkable archery.
"So... Back To The Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott asks, his tone carrying sadness.
Kate just shrugged, not wanting to argue with scientists like they all just did. It was like watching Bill Nye argue with skeptics who didn't believe in Climate Change before the dusting happened. They still didn't believe it but Bill Nye's last words before he got dusted was, "BELIEVE IT YOU DUMB FUCKS!" It was hilarious, yet sad for Kate to witness one of her childhood idols disappear within a snap.
Hulk ignored his question and turns to Clint, who suddenly has a helmet on, "Ready, Clint? 3...2...1!"
Clint disappeared and just like that, he came back. He wasn't composed anymore, but rather breathed heavily and sits in disbelief. Kate runs to her friend and gently cups his face, "Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" She asks, and Clint who turned to face her had suddenly a changed glint in his eyes.
"I...I'm fine. Got something for you." Clint says and drops something in Kate's hand. It was her old purple sunglasses.
Kate looks up at Clint in astonishment, hugging him tightly, "I can't believe you got it! Where did you find it?"
"Under the rubble in its case." Clint answers and stands to look at Peter, "It worked... It... worked."
Kate turns to Peter who had a winning grin on his face, "YES!" He says and jumps excitedly. When he jumped though, he landed on the ceiling. Kate loudly laughed.
"Can someone help?" Peter asked and everyone ran to get a broom.
-
After getting Peter down, they were in a room with some hologram displays, Peter, Steve, and Hulk standing in front of the remaining Avengers to plan and execute their mission.
"Okay, so the "how" works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones." Steve starts them off.
"Well, I'd substitute the word encounter for the longest words of damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones," Peter adds in after Steve.
Kate didn't manage to even get near an infinity stone nor even heard of them. She was just here because she did the old 'lie-on-my-resume-and-still-got-the-job' trick. She now assumed Scott did the same thing as her because he asked, "I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."
Kate guessed Hulk had a thing for avoiding Scott's indirect questioning due to Hulk continuing speaking, "Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."
"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Peter declares.
"So, that means we have to pick our targets?" Clint asked.
"That is right!" Peter answers.
"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asked.
They all turned to Thor, and due to his glasses, it was impossible to say if he were asleep or awake. He had his hand stuffed in his pants, and he smelled of booze. "Is... Is he asleep?" Kate asked with a slight chuckle.
"I think he's dead." Rhodey said, convinced.
But, he wasn't dead. Kate thinks he just got distracted as Thor magically wakes up and immediately takes a stand when he saw the first infinity stone on the hologram. He pulls his shirt down to cover his belly and began to speak, "Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... and angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..."
Thor wiggled his fingers and Kate didn't know how to react to that. She honestly hoped little lightning sparkles came out of that, "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane," Thor moves to the side and puts his arm under the picture of Jane, who was confirmed to be dusted, "Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead..."
Kate winces and looks around. Scott was listening, Peter had his mouth open and eyebrows raised, Steve looked stoic, Rhodey and Rocket had the same expression of amusement and Nebula was listening in as well. Clint was taking notes and Kate took the pen and pad away from him to write for him since Clint doesn't write the best and can't understand his handwriting when needed.
"Thanks." He whispers.
"Not a problem." Kate replies, just as quiet.
Kate looks up and sees Peter getting Thor, "You did great, Thor. Do you want eggs? Breakfast?"
"I'd like a Bloody Mary, please." Thor says confidently and with a smile.
-
They all came back from McDonald's with their breakfast meals and coffee. Clint continued to feed her while Kate was taking notes on what the Raccoon was saying, "Quill said he stole the power stone from Morag."
"Morag?" Scott questions, "Like a person?"
"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket answers.
-
Now, it was Nebula's turn. She was talking about the soul stone and how she interacted with it- or rather how Thanos did. "Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." She said. Kate was on her sausage and writing on her 3rd page when she was confused.
"What is Vormir?" Kate asked.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my sister." Nebula finished darkly, looking around the room. A little awkward silence falls upon them and Kate wished she hadn't asked that.
Luckily, Scott didn't appear bothered by the air, "Noted."
-
Everyone was out except for Kate, Peter, and Hulk. Kate and Peter on the desk, while Hulk was laying on the floor, all of them surrounded by papers. Kate didn't even know them but they felt... cozy. "That Time Stone guy..." Kate mutters, remembering Peter talked about the man who had the time stone and gave it to Thanos in trade for letting both Tony and Peter live (which only one of them survived).
"Doctor Strange." Peter answers.
"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?" Kate asked.
"Neurostuff meets rabbit from a hat." Peter returns.
"Nice place in the village, though." Hulk says.
"Yeah. Sullivan Street."
"Hmm... Bleecker." Hulk rebuttals.
"Wait," Kate says, sitting up, "He lived in New York?"
"No. He lived in Toronto." Peter replies sarcastically.
Kate began to grow excited. "Guys, if you pick the right year, THERE ARE THREE STONES IN NEW YORK!"
Hulk and Peter sit up in surprise, "Shut the fucking front door." Hulk says, his mouth turning into a grin.
"Careful, Brucie, Cap may not like your language." Peter teases.
-
While Steve was discussing the plan, Peter was using resources to build an IronMan suit and a Black Widow suit. There was a chance. Peter thinks to himself. He bites his lip and focuses on making the IronMan suit the best it can be. He puts in blasters, FRIDAY, mini-missiles, battering rams, anything he can think of. He didn't know why his spidey-sense was telling him to watch out for danger when any threat like Thanos and his children were dead. But, he had to build it. Didn't know why, but he had too.
For the black widow suit, he built a baton with the highest voltage, her suit would be padded with nanotechnology and would be programmed to carry anything that included guns, sword, knives, or even discs which contained poison that could neutralize the opponent within seconds. He also managed to put in stealth mode which would make Natasha and her suit invisible and added in first aid which featured little spider-robots that can almost heal any wound she gets.
He already made everyone a suit for battle. Everyone but himself. While FRIDAY was finishing up the coloring and adding in the features, Peter was working on his spider suit and his version of the gauntlet. The gauntlet (which is pretty slim but can fit any sized finger) is red and black, having six little pockets for the infinity stones and had his signature Spider-Man sigil on the palm. His Spider-Man suit which was very well, almost the same as the Iron-Spider was black and red. The web capacity improved and he added in more combinations (foam webbing, invisible webbing, a web shield, more lasting webs, etc.), the spider-claws would be more effective at stabbing opponents, taking away weapons, blocking, and helping him land in high places, and finally the most effective ones:
- Take Thor's lightning blast
- Take hold of the gauntlet (and if that were to backfire, his suit can merge with all of the infinity stones. Just in case.)
He sighs and wipes the sweat off his forehead, "FRIDAY, is there any DNA I can use for Black Widow and IronMan?"
"Yes, there is a hairbrush that old boss use to use under a table to your left and you can use yourself as DNA since there are no signs of Black Widow DNA besides yourself."
Peter huffs, "Blood?"
"Blood," FRIDAY confirms, "Or your hair."
Peter goes to the table and reaches under to find a brush with Tony's hair and uses scissors to cut a snip of his curly hair. "Goodbye," He said to his hair and FRIDAY puts two tubes out for both of the suits.
"What would you like for me to do, Boss?" FRIDAY asked.
"Put the DNA inside the suit," Peter commands, "And when they come back, make KAREN alert me and fly both suits towards them, is that okay?"
"Is it most certainly, boss."
FRIDAY went to work and the first done suit since he started was his own since he needed it. He puts it on and looks at himself. He puts up finger guns and smiles beneath the mask, "Lookin' good." He says to himself.
Peter goes out and sees the team. His heart clenches. He was an Avenger.
"Spider-Man, why aren't you matching with us?" Kate asks with a smug smile.
"I forgot you guys had on red and white, sorry." Peter answers.
"Horrible decision, if I do say so myself," Thor adds.
Peter rolls his eyes before smiling and joining the rest of the Avengers. Steve speaks, "Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win." Peter looks at Steve with eyes gleaming in hope since seeing Benjamin was alive, "Whatever it takes. Good luck."
"He's pretty good at that." Rocket says.
"RIGHT!?" Scott asked excitedly.
Peter can guess that Scott was a fanboy of Captain America, "Stroke those keys, jolly green!"
"Tractors engaged."
"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket asked, referring to the Benatar in Clint's hands, which Peter avoided looking at.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best." Clint says and Kate slapped him on the chest, "Ow."
"As promises go, that was pretty lame." Rocket insults which in result Clint stuck his tongue out and Kate pinched Clint's ear, "Ow! Ow! Ow!"
They all looked at each other, hopeful smiling thrown at each other. This was it. Peter thinks to himself. The fight of their lives. The fight of his life. He closes his eyes and lets flickers of memories surround him. The internship, the hug his mom gave him, Aunt May telling him he stinks, Gwen and Harry, Benjamin, and this... this new family.
He opens his eyes and watched as everyone's helmet came on. He can hear the portal beginning to turn on. Peter looks at Nebula and nods in her direction. The best 'we can do it' sign he can make to reassure his best friend.
Whatever it takes, Steve said. Peter will live up it. He'll do whatever it takes to bring his old family while having the new one. "See you in a minute." Peter says with an excited smile.
They all hit the button on their suit and proceeded to shrink and enter the quantum realm, from his point of view, he can see every group that was spilt up going into different intervals. A different time in history. He was with Steve and Scott going to 2012, while Kate, Clint, Nebula, and Rhodey were going to 2014, and Thor with Rocket going in 2013.
He only hopes his family can come back in one piece as they land in New York. Timestamp 2012. Alien Invasion.