Centuries | Endgame [8]

FOURTEEN

CENTURIES | ENDGAME
Chapter Fourteen
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THE AVENGERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER IN THE MAIN HANGER OF THE COMPOUND, ALL SURROUNDING ROCKET'S MASTER PIECE. Clint stood in the middle of the circular platform, prepared for whatever awaited him in the past. He listened closely as Bruce talked, preparing the programing and technology for the transport. "All right, Clint. We're going in three..."

Clint's helmet flicked on securely.

"Two..."

The machine sparked to life beneath his feet.

"One..."

As Bruce flicked the switch, the machine opened and Clint disappeared, shrinking from sight. Melissa gulped nervously, her breath harsh as she waited for her friend to return.

Laurel glanced over to Bruce expectingly from the steps up to the platform, a look of concern on her face. The concern was dismissed as Rocket and Allison waved a hand at her to brush aside the worry, convinced their work was successful.

Only seconds passed but it felt like an eternity until the platform opened up again and spat Clint out. He immediately fell to his knees, helmet falling back to reveal his sweat ridden face as he huffed each breath.

As the machine powered down, those around him hurried to his aid, Natasha not hesitating to rush to his side. Her hands tentatively grasped his shoulders before letting her arm fall over his upper back as to assure him nothing bad had occurred. "Hey. Hey, look at me," she called in a hurried tone, her hands tentatively cupping his face to let them make eye contact. "Are you okay?"

At first, Clint seemed to remain in a state of confusion, but his eyes quickly adjusted and he recognised his partner in crime. He looked around and quickly started to recognise everything and calm down. Slowly, he opened his crossed arms to reveal a small baseball glove. He glanced at Tony, throwing the glove over. "It worked."

Melissa lowered down to the group, eyeing the glove suspiciously before she let her eyes go wide with shock, lips parting in an attempt to express it. She found no words could what she was thinking.

"So, where do we go from here?" Laurel asked, arms wide as if opening the question to the group.

"We worked out where to go. What time periods give us the best opportunity to obtain the Stones," Steve answered quickly, a firm nod following his words. Laurel returned it, looking as determined as she had ever been. Knowing that Scott's insane idea actually worked gave her hope that they'd succeed. Hope that they'd actually be able to eliminate their failures and in the end, win. It was a nice change from her regular routine of sleep, drink, eat and repeat, with the occasional nightly vigilante job that she did to take out anger.

Suddenly, the hanger was taken over by a vibrant glow of yellow and orange. It was blinding for the split second it appeared, temporarily blinding some of the heroes. When it faded away, it left merely a blurred figure that had small sparks bouncing from their red unifrom.

Slowly, the hazy figure cleared and became recognisable to the stunned Avengers. The speedster offered a nervous smile, lifting her trembling hands to remove her mask and pull it to her neck. Her long hair hung over half her face, but she look almost the exact same as the last time they saw her. Vibrant lips coloured with rose red, smile that failed to reach her eyes with a small height and build compared to the other heroes.