Soulful | Book 2 of 2| Starks daughter x Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 21

Thor was back and so was Clint, we were getting ready to test the machine, Tony and I were putting some finishing touches on it. We carried tubes down the hallway Thor was walking along side us opening a beer, "Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski," Tony said to Thor as we walked past him. "Ratchet, How's it going?" He asked Rocket who was working under the machine.

"It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal." Thor belched.

"That was a solid 9 Thor," I said.

"Yes," Thor called out.

"Are you rating his, you know what never mind," Tony said. Rocket jumped off the machine,

"I'm done," he said.

"Great, 'cause we just finished," I said. I saw Clint dressed up in one of the suits we had made, he walked over with Nat, Rhodey, Steve, Scott, and Nebula. "Clint, are you testing it?" I asked. Clint nodded.

"Damn, good luck," I said.

"Thanks, Aj," Clint reached over and gave me a hug, "I'm sorry that I haven't been there for you or Nat, and I'm really happy for you two."

"Thanks, Clint," I said. Clint walked up to the machine and stood on it. We all went over to the controls,

"Alright, Clint. We're going in 3... 2... 1!" Banner said, and Clint was gone. "9... 8...7...6," I couldn't believe how fast it was going, "3...2...1," Clint was back, he was on the ground breathing heavily. Nat ran over to him, and we all followed her, he was gripping a baseball glove,

"Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" Nat asked. Clint stood up

"Yeah, it worked," he held up the glove, "It worked," he threw the glove at Tony.

Clint got changed and we went to the lab I was sitting next to Nat and Rhodes. Tony displayed all the stones on the screen, we had been talking for a bit.

"Okay, so the "how" works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us have had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones," Steve said.

"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones," Tony said walking in front of the screen.

"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about," Scott said.

"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 said.

"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in," Tony said.

"Which means we have to pick our target," Clint said.

"Correct," Tony said.

"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asked, a red stone appeared on the screen, and we all turned to Thor. He was sitting on a chair with his sunglasses on, I had no clue if he was awake or asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Nat asked

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead," I said. I walked over to Thor and lightly shook him he jolted awake. Steve repeated his question and Thor got up to the screen to answer it.

"Where to start?" Thor started, "Umm, the Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of an angry sludge thing," he was so drunk it wasn't even funny, "So, someone gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves," Thor wiggled his fingers to imitate a ghost, "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane," An image of Jane Foster popped up on the screen. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane, she's an old flame of mine she, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from."

"Yeah no shit," I whispered to Nat, she waved me off,

"And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother," Thor paused, "Who's dead," he looked upset and like he was about to cry, "And oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever," Tony started to push Thor back to his chair, "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence." Tony clapped,

"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Tony said.

"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you," Thor smiled then went back to his seat, I walked over to him,

"Nice job," I said, to hopefully lift Thor's spirits in some way.

-----------------------------------------------------

Words:781 

Ok so I'm back again I am done with work so I'll have a ton of more time to write before school starts back up.