CopyCat | Bucky Barnes

80

Steve jumped down into the alley just before I did. Tony and Scott were already waiting for us, chilling in a partially demolished car. Tony had his hand over his forehead in concentration.

"Sorry guys." Tony said. "We got a problem."

"Huh," Scott scoffs. "Yeah we do."

"What happened?" I questioned. They clearly didn't have the tesseract with them.

"Where's the tesseract?" Steve asked.

"We, ran into some trouble." Tony muttered.

"We?" Scott asked.

"This was a two man job-" Tony argued.

"Well I'm not the one who gave it to Loki," Scott defended himself.

"Loki has the tesseract?" I asked.

"He's gone now." Scott muttered.

"He could be anywhere...." Steve sighed. "Well what are we gonna do now?"

"You know what? Give me a break, Steve." Tony sighed. "I just got hit in the head with the Hulk."

"You said we had one shot." Scott scoffed. "This- this was our one shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. It was six stones or nothing-"

"You're repeating yourself, you know that?" Tony told him. "You're repeating yourself."

"You're repeating yourself, you're repeating yourself." Scott mimicked him. "You're repeating-"

"Dude, come on!" Tony sighed.

"No." Scott protests. "You never wanted a time heist. You weren't on board with the time heist-"

"I dropped the ball." Tony finally admits.

"You ruined the time heist." Scott tells him

"Is that what I did?"

"Yeah."

"Are there any other options with the tesseract?" I interjected their argument.

"No, no, no, there's no other options." Scott says aggravated, then slamming the car door. "There's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it. All right? We use that...."

"What if one of us stays?" I asked. I turned to Steve. "If I give you my remaining particle you can get the tesseract, and still get back."

"No. No way." Steve refused without a beat.

"We don't have a choice, if we don't get the tesseract then everyone stays dead." I reminded him.

"And you're stuck here." Steve says. "No."

"If we don't do something then it won't matter if any of us make it back." I tell him.

"I got it." Tony steps out of the car. "There's another way to retake the tesseract and acquire new particles. Little stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."

"When were they both there?" Steve asked.

"They were there at a time... I have a vaguely exact idea." Tony says.

"How vague?" I asked cautiously.

"What are you talking about?" Scott asks. "Where are we going?"

"I know for a fact they were there." Tony says. "And I know how I know."

"Guys what is it?" Scott says completely left out.

"Looks like we're improving." Steve sighed.

"Great." Tony agrees.

"What are we improvising?" Scott asks.