Story of Lion Man

Chapter 32

This is the thirty second chapter. Hope you enjoy it. And good news, I've added a cover to this story!

After that, everyone then walked towards the lounge to plan the next stage. Ryan was walking behind Rhodes when suddenly he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He stopped, looked leftwards to see it was Stark. "A second with you, kid." He said, gesturing with his left hand to the side. Ryan followed him a few steps away from the rom and then stood in front in front of him. "What is it?" Ryan asked, trying his best to hide his nervousness. Stark then pulled out a piece of paper from his trouser pocket with his left hand. "Call this a treat." He said, as Ryan took the paper with his right hand, held it in both and unfolded it. He looked and skimmed at it, and saw it had something to do with the Home Office back in Britain. "Pulled a few strings in England. Thats a full and complete pardon. For anything you did wrong, from Leipzig, to all damage you did in Scotland. As well as giving you freedom to... walk the Lion." Stark explained. Ryan looked up at him, and though he was grateful, he couldn't find the right words. "Thanks." Was all he said. Stark then touched Ryan's left and right shoulders with his right arm, then stared silently at him, then he started to walk away. "You're an Avenger now." He said as he left. It took Ryan a second then to comprehend what just happened, a smile forming on his face. He was just a young lad from England, having previously been bullied from time to time, and now he was officially an Avenger! An Avenger! He was now one of Earths Mightiest hero's!

After that, he sat down in a black swirl chair (that was facing forwards, towards Rogers and a set of screens with pictures of the 6 Stones) with the others to discuss what to do next. "Okay, so the 'how' works. Now we got to figure out the 'when' and 'where'. Almost everyone in this has had an encounter with at least one of the 6 Infinity Stones." Rogers began, though Ryan knew that excluded him. "Or substitute the word encounter for 'near damn being killed by one of the 6 Infinity Stones'" Stark added. "I haven't." Lang said. "Me neither." Ryan added, as he turned the chair he was in around to face the others. "I don't know what the hell your all talking about." Lang added. "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." Banner spoke. Ryan now knew that Pym Particles were what would make them shrink in this operation. "Our history. So, not a lot of convenient stops to just drop in, yeah?" Stark asked rhetorically. "Which means we have to pick our targets." Barton said. "Correct." Stark replied. "So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Rogers asked. They all then turned to look at Thor, who was sitting down silently. " Is he asleep?" Romanoff asked. "No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodes replied.

Eventually they woke Thor up and he went over to the screens. "Uh, where to start? Um... The aether. Firstly it's not a stone. Someone called it a stone before..." Thor began, pointing at Rogers. "Um...its more of , uh, an kind of angry sludge sort of thing. Someone's gonna need to amend that. And stop saying that. Here an interesting story about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the Stone from the Dark Elves. Whoooo!" Thor continued, in a spooky tone. At this stage, he was already boring Ryan, who then started to feel a bit drowsy, so he leaned his head back against the chair. "Scary beings. So Jane, actually, oh, there she is. So Jane was an old flame of mine. Uh, you know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and, and then the Aether shot itself inside her. And she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And, uh, we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, she and I, so I got to introduce her to my mother. Who's dead, and uh..." Thor continued, his voice then getting emotional. "Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating any more. These things just happen, you know. Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that..." Thor said, as Stark came up to him. "Why don't you come sit down?" Stark asked. "I'm not done yet. The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence." Thor said/finished, which made Ryan sign in relief, as Stark then clapped his hands in an unenthusiastic way. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" He asked Thor. "No, I'd like a blood Mary." Thor replied, which made Ryan snicker a little.

Next up it was the Power Stone, which Rocket described, standing on the table while everyone ate. "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket said. "Is that a person?" Banner asked him. "Morags a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket answered. "Like, a planet? Like in Outer Space?" Lang asked. "Yes, duh! What is he? 5 years old?" Ryan asked in his head. "Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. You want to go to space? You want to go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space." Rocket spoke, messing with Lang's hair, while Ryan was only just able to contain his laughter. After that, it was Nebulas turn with the Soul Stone. Ryan sat on the sofa facing Nebula, in front of Rocket, leaning back to block his view."Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." She said. "Where is Vormir?"  Romanoff asked. "A domain of death. At the very centre of celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister." Nebula answered. Silence then filled the room. Ryan, too, was silent; he couldn't find the right words to say. "Not it." Lang said. Soon, Ryan was lying on the table, with Romanoff, Stark and Banner. Ryan lied on the paper filled table, which slightly annoyed him, but he focused on the brainstorming, the others lying down on his right. "So that Time Stone guy?"  Romanoff asked. "Doctor Strange." Banner answered. "Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?" He heard Romanoff ask. "Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat." Stark answered. "That doesn't really answer the question, Mr Stark." Ryan said. "He had a nice place in the village though." He heard Banner say. "Yeah, on Sullivan Street?" He heard Stark ask. "Mm, on Bleecker Street." Banner corrected. "Wait, he lived in New York?" Romanoff asked, her voice full of curiousness. "No, he lived in Toronto." Stark said. "Uh, yeah, on Bleecker and Sullivan." Banner answered. Ryan's eyes widened as he suddenly got the gist of what she was going at. "Have you been listening to anything?" Stark asked. "Guys, if you pick the right year, there are 3 stones in New York." Romanoff explained. "3 Stones in 1 spot to drop in, during the same year. 2012." Ryan added, as he bent his upper body upwards, seeing Banner doing the same. "Shut the front door." Banner said.

After that, everybody gathered up. "All right. We have a plan. 6 Stones. 3 teams. 1 shot." Rogers explained as everybody turned (Ryan standing in front of and between Thor and Romanoff) to face something amazing. A few minutes later, everybody wore white and red time travel suits, Ryan in Lion Form. Though he had a very limited amount of Lion Serum, he was doing to do this his way, so he felt he had to be in Lion Form. They all then walked over to the platform of the machinery (except Banner, who moved to the control panel) in 2 lines. Once up the ramp, they all put their hands in the middle. "5 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. 1 round trip each. No mistakes. No do overs. Most of us are going someplace we know. That 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. Whatever it takes. Good luck." Rogers said, Ryan completely mesmerised by it, though he only showed by an impressed smile. "He's pretty good at that." Rocket said. "Right?" Lang asked. "All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green." Stark said to Banner at the control panel. "Trackers engaged." Banner announced. Ryan looked at Barton, who held Rocket and Nebula's shrunken ship, which was known as the Benatar, in his hands. "You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket asked, his arms folded. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best." Banner answered. "As promises go, that was bad." Rocket muttered. Ryan then watched Banner join them on the platform, pressed his left foraem with his left hand, which made a loud beeping sound. Ryan looked around, right and left, at the others. "See you in a minute." Romanoff said, before Ryan looked down at the platform floor. Then he looked down as he heard the machinery work above them. Then their helmets mechanically formed over their heads. A few seconds later, and then it looked as if the platform opened downwards, and a moment later, they all shrunk. Smaller and smaller they became, as they went into the Quantum Realm, and then to the past.

And that's the thirty second chapter done. Hope you enjoyed it. I really like the speech, btw. Hope the cover I just did is good. Wonder which team Ryan will go with? Well, I've been having some trouble coming up with ideas, but I am getting somewhere. So you'll see in the next chapter, which will be out soon. Please leave a comment.