First Light | Steve Rogers (Book Two)

Chapter Forty-Five: Merged

"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating here" Bruce chuckled, pushing a bowl of scrambled eggs towards us with his large, green hand. He had somehow managed to become both himself and Hulk, now appearing as a fractionally smaller version of the other guy.

"I'm so confused" Scott murmured, staring at him with wide eyes.

"These are confusing times"

The man frowned, "No, no. That's not what I meant"

Bruce chuckled as he poured syrup onto his pancakes, "I'm kidding. I know, it's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now!"

"Yeah. What? How? Why?"

"Five years ago, we got our asses beat," he explained with his mouth full, "Except it was worse for me, 'cause I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost... and then, we all lost"

Nat frowned as she looked up at him in pity, "No one blamed you, Bruce"

He shrugged, "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 the gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now, look at me. Best of both worlds"

A few kids approached us, staring nervously up at him. A girl cleared her throat as she took out her phone, "Can we get a photo?"

"One hundred percent, little person," he handed the phone to Scott, "Say 'green'"

Steve, Nat and I watched awkwardly as Scott took the picture and held the phone out to them. "Did you want to grab one with me? I'm Ant-Man" he offered.

There was a silence and I took a long sip of coffee, listening to the two begin to argue. Scott finally let out an annoyed huff, "I don't want a picture with them"

"Go on. They're happy to do it. They said they'll do it"

"Take the goddamn phone"

The kids finally left and I saw Nat stifle a chuckle. "Bruce," Steve interrupted before our friend could get too distracted, "About what we were saying"

His smile faded and he sank back into his seat, "Right. The whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside of my area of expertise"

"Well, you pulled this off," Nat noted, "I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible, too"

——————

We had somehow managed to convince Bruce to join our time heist, the four of us then heading to the compound to set things up. 

I was stood in the corner with Steve and Nat, watching as he and Scott finished putting all of the equipment together. My fingers anxiously drummed against my arm as a million possibilities ran through my mind. Most of them weren't good.

"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one," Bruce called, "Scott, fire up the, uh... van thing"

The doors to the van opened, revealing bright lights that began to gently flash. "Breakers are set," Steve called, "Emergency generators are on standby"

"Good, because if we blow the grid, I don't want to lose Tiny here in the 1950s"

"Excuse me?"

Nat smirked at the terrified look on Scott's face. "He's kidding," she chuckled as she glanced up at Bruce, "You can't say things like that"

"I-It was a bad joke"

There was a pause and Scott nodded, walking towards the machine. I frowned as I looked up from the nearest computer screen, "You were kidding, right?"

He shrugged quietly and leant forwards to whisper to me, "I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is"

The four of us looked up at Scott with forced smiles and Bruce gave him a thumbs up, "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 ten seconds. Make sense?"

The man shrugged dismissively, "Perfectly not confusing"

"Good luck, Scott. You got this"

"You're right," he nodded confidently, "I do, Captain America"

He was suddenly pulled back by the machine in the back of the van, shrinking away until we couldn't see him at all. Bruce flicked a few switches on the control board, "Three... two... one"

Scott reappeared. But it wasn't him. The suit had shrunk a few feet and a little boy's face was staring up at us. "Uh, guys?" he asked anxiously, "This doesn't feel right"

"What is this? What's going on?" I hissed, watching Bruce as he frantically pressed some of the buttons on the pannel.

The boy disappeared, suddenly being replaced with an old man. Bruce began to shake one of the monitors and the man shrank down until he was only a couple of feet tall. "It's a baby" Steve huffed.

"It's Scott!"

"As a baby!"

"He'll grow"

I rolled my eyes and stared at the complex design of the control panel, "We gotta bring him back"

Bruce nodded and gestured for me to move aside, "When I say kill the power, kill the power... And... kill it!"

Nat pulled a lever in the corner of the room. There was one final flash and Scott was pushed out of the machine just before it went dark, looking just the same as he had before whatever happened.

His eyes were wide with shock as he stood in front of us, rooted to the ground. "Somebody peed my pants," he murmured embarrassedly, "But I don't know if it was baby me or old me. Or just me me"

"Time travel!"