Amanda Smith (The Avengers ff) #English

71.

So let's try it alone. Now we are in front of Scott's van with the time machine. He stands in front of it in his Ant-Man suit and waits for Bruce's sign.
"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one", he nodds and Scott opens the portal.
"Good luck, Scott", Steve says.
"You can do it", I look at him full of hope.
Bruce pushes the button and Scott disappears into the Quantum Realm.
He presses it again and suddenly a teenager in an Ant-Man suit comes back.

"Er, guys? Something's wrong here", says the boy.
"What happened?", I ask startled.
"Who...who is that?", Nat asks as Bruce presses a few more buttons and tries to fix the problem. Everyone panics.
"Is that Scott?", she asks.
"Yes, that's Scott!", replies the teenage boy.
He is sucked back into the Quantum Realm and appears as an old man.

"One second, make room for a moment", Bruce says simply.
"Yes. Can you bring him back?", Steve asks almost in panic.
"I am working on it!".
After a few moments, a baby suddenly sits in front of us. What went wrong?
"That's a baby", Steve looks questioningly at Bruce.
"It's Scott", Bruce says to reassure him. But it doesn't help.
"As a baby!", Steve says, now horrified.
"It grows again", why is Bruce so calm about it?
"Get him back!", I say seriously.
He looks at Nat.
"If I say power off, turn it off", he says.
Nat pulls a lever and everything shuts down. Now the normal Scott appears again.
"Time travel!", Bruce tries to lighten the mood.
Steve doesn't say anything to that, just shakes his head and walks away.
I follow him and stand next to him. We're just silent. I'm about to break the silence when a vehicle approaches.
It's Tony.

"Why are you making that face?
Let me guess: he turned into a baby".
"Among other things he did. Why are you here?", Steve asks.
He doesn't answer his question.
"That's the EPR paradox. Instead of sending Lang through time, you might send time through Lang. It's really dangerously tricky. Someone should have advised you against it", he pauses,
"Anyway, I managed it. A fully functional time-space GPS", he says. With this we should be able to choose which past we want to go to and when we want to return.
"We have a chance to get the stones, but I'll also say what my priorities are: bring back what we lost? I hope so.
Keep what I found? At all costs.
And... while trying not to get crushed, that would be nice too"
"Sounds like a deal", Steve starts to smile slightly.
Tony goes back to the car and pulls something out of the trunk, it's the shield. He wants to give it to Steve, but Steve hesitates.
But Tony can convince him.
"Thanks, Tony", I say quietly.
"Hey little one".
I just shake my head.
"You never change", I go back inside.

Nat searches for Clint, Rocket and Bruce head to New Asgard to get Thor and we work on a bigger time machine. In the meantime I train my strength and speed again. It's been a long time since I've used them, but now it's the time. Now we finally have the opportunity to make things right again, bring everyone back. I think of Peter again. I wish he was here, miss him so much.

The next day everyone is finally here.
Clint enters, wearing Scott's quantum suit and takes position on the platform.
Does this test work?
"W-Wait a second," Rhodey looks at us.
"Just one question. If it works, why don't we just find Baby Thanos and...?".
He gestures to strangle baby Thanos.
"First of all, that's cruel...", Bruce says in disgust.
"It's Thanos", he says innocently.
"... And second, that's not how time travel works. Changing the past doesn't change the future", I explain.
But the others think it's like the old movies. But this isn't science fiction, this is real.
"I don't know why everyone thinks that, but that's not true", I say.
"Think about it: when you go into the past, that past becomes your future. And your past present becomes the past that your new future can't subsequently change", Bruce continues.
"Exactly", Nebula says nodding.
Scott is finally realizing that movies like Back to the Future are just crap.

Bruce looks at Clint,
"Okay, Clint. In 3...2...1!". He shrinks and disappears, then comes back seconds later. It worked. Now let's start making our plan.