Listen Children to a Story That was Written Long Ago...
The trip back to New York was spent in various ways by different people. Doctor Strange spent the time communicating with various Sanctums and being berated by Wong, much to the amusement of Loki, who was sitting beside a sleeping Thor and laughing silently.
Bucky was staring absently at the clouds out the window while Steve was sketching in his notebook beside him. Clint was on the phone with his family, Natasha occasionally leaning over to say hi to someone and laughing at things being said that no one else could hear from where they were. Sam was looking in dismay at the broken parts of his wings, upset about the damage no matter how many times Rhodey assured him that Tony would be able to fix them within the day. Wanda had stayed in Wakanda with Shuri where they worked to re create vision now that they had the machine, which the patrol sent to bring in Scott’s body had found in the forest.
Tony had been planning on taking a nap and then maybe looking through all the paperwork that had built up in his absence, but instead found himself being pestered by Peter for the kid’s suit back.
“Please Mr. Stark?”
“No, kid. That’s final!”
“But just imagine if I hadn’t gone out. We wouldn’t have nearly this many hostages!”
“I don’t care!” Tony shot back. “You will not be setting eyes on that suit for the next week, and that’s that,” he said, putting his headphones on and effectively drowning out Peter’s protests.
They were met by paparazzi when they got off the plane, everyone trying to get a shot of Peter’s face, which Tony had effectively kept covered by tightening the drawstrings on his sweatshirt until it closed over it. They quickly went from the airport to the tinted, bullet proof cars that were waiting for them outside.
They sped down the streets of New York and pulled into the compound, happy to find that Pepper and made sure that no paparazzi could get onto the property. Family was waiting inside, along with any friends who Pepper trusted enough to allow in. The reunions were bittersweet as Scott’s family was still in shock after the Ant-man’s death. Pepper said that they were welcome to stay as long as they needed, and T’Challa was having the suit sent back for Mr. Pym, though they all doubted that Pym would give it to anyone else.
Pepper presented the group with new contracts to make the alliance with the Sanctums and the Guardians of the Galaxy official. The Guardians had already taken off, but a copy had been sent to Quill beforehand, and they and all signed.
Thor and Loki agreed to stay for the celebrations, but would be leaving to go search for any surviving Asgardians. For some reason Thor thought that they’d be in Norway, which only Doctor Strange seemed to understand.
“Here’s to the new age of the Avengers!” Tony said, raising a glass.
“And to us all getting to retire tomorrow because there will never be another problem that will require our help ever!” Clint said, making the others laugh.
“You keep telling yourself that,” Natasha replied.
3049 (a very long time in the future)
Mr. Grendel's lectures were usually quite boring, but this one had the class’ undivided attention. Most talks about the Avengers did. Of course there still was a team of Avengers, and there probably always would be, but that first group always seemed to fascinate people the most.
“And so Ross was revealed to be working with the Hydra branch Nemea, and the America-Wakandan War ended, almost as quickly as it had begun,” Mr. Grendel concluded. A girl in the front raised her hand and Mr. Grendel gestured for her to speak.
“Is that why the Avengers are known as the ‘Conquerors of Nemea’?” she asked.
“Oh no,” he said with a chuckle. “The war with Nemea had only just begun for the Avengers. I hope you all were taking notes, we’ll be having a quiz on this next Thursday,” he instructed. “Then we’ll begin learning about the Battle of Queens.”
As the students filed out Mr. Grendel leaned over and grabbed a kindle from his desk and opened up the next textbook titled ‘The Age of Heroes’. The book was not particularly long, the table of contents only dividing it into three parts.
The Infinity War
The American-Wakandan War
The Hydra-American War
In total it would take about a month to get through as he had taught the class about the first two wars with different text books. The Hydra-American War would take a little while though as it was made up of many smaller battles and various government conflicts, but Mr. Gendel always looked forward to teaching it. He swiped forward through the first two parts and to the first chapter of the Hydra-American War: The Battle of Queens.