undercover - Steve Rogers

chapter 55 - shut the front door

"All right, Clint. We are going in three, two." Bruce counted down as Clint's helmet went over his face and he braced to be sent off. "One."

The group stood behind Bruce while Steve held onto Lennox's hand, Thor stood to the side. Rhodey and Nebula stood behind Steve and Lennox while Rocket was on the other side of Bruce.

Natasha ran up to Clint when he came back he was on the ground calling Lilas name. Lennox she hurt knowing her brother was in pain but she was also pissed that he just abandoned her.

The rest of the team followed Natasha, "hey, hey, look at me. You okay?" Nat asked helping Clint off the ground.

"Yeah, yeah. It worked. It worked." Clint panted out.

★

"Okay, so the how works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones." Steve explained standing by the scenes that displayed the six stones.

"Or substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six infinity stones." Tony corrected Steve joining him in the front.

"Well, I haven't... but I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott commented cluelessly.

Bruce spoke up from behind Scott, "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." Tony added. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to drop in, yeah?"

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint said.

"Correct." Tony confirmed.

"So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asked Thor, the teams head turned looking at Thor who was slumped in the corner.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha questioned.

"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey said in response to Nat.

★

"Uh, where to start? Um... the Aether, firstly is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before. Um, it's more of an angry sludge sort of thing.. so someone's gonna need to amend that." He said as he put eye drops in his eyes. "Stop saying that. Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather many years ago had to hide the stone from the Dark elves. Ooh." He chuckled. "Scary beings. So, Jane actually, oh there she is. Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside of a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside of her. And she became very, very sick. And 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."

Lennox looked over at Natasha who sent her the same look of confusion and worry for Thor.

"And i got to introduce her to my mother." He stopped and sighed making his whole face drop, "who's dead and, um. Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so. Yes, these things happen, though. You know?"

"Thor why don't you take a break." Lennox suggested.

"I'm not done yet." Thor swatted Tony's hands away from him and Lennox sat back in her seat. "The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence." He laughed.

"Awesome." Tony clapped, "eggs? Breakfast?"

"No, id like a Bloody Mary." Thor replied.

Rocket was next to talk about a stone. "Quill said he once stole the power stone from Morag."

"Is that a person?" Bruce queried.

"No, Morags a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket raised his voice.

"Like a planet? Like in outer space?" Scott inquired.

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space." Rocket rubbed Scott's head mocking him.

Nebula was after Rocket. "Thanos found the soul Stone on Vomir."

"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked, writing down all the notes.

"A dominion of death... at the very center of celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister." Nebula nonchalantly added in response.

"Not it." Scott commented.

Natasha, Lennox, Bruce, and Tony lied on the briefing room talking about the time stone while the rest of the team took a break.

"The time stone guy."

"Dr. Strange." Bruce corrected.

"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"

"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat."

"Didn't he meet Thor and Loki before all this?" Lennox questioned from the floor.

"Yeah." Hulk replied, "nice place in the village, though."

"Yeah, on Sullivan Street?" Tony commented.

Bruce hummed, "bleecker Street."

"Wait he lived in New York?" Natasha asked.

"No, he lived in Toronto."

"No he didn't." Lennox cut Tony off.

"Uh yeah, on Bleecker and Sullivan."

"Have you been listening to anything?"

"Guys. If you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York." Natasha announced Lennox sat up.

"Shut the front door."