Time Bomb

Chapter 27

Clint did his test run and it went smoothly. Shortly after that, everyone was gone. They pressed the buttons on their time travel watch things that Tony made and away they went. I stayed in the room. Waiting for them to come back. Even though I have no idea when they will be back.

After about an hour, the machine started whirring and they all came back. Except Nat. Clint dropped to his knees.
"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asked. All Clint could do was shake his head. Oh no... she didn't make it. I jumped uk in the platform and went to Clint's side, kneeling with him. I put my arms around him and held him to me. I could feel his body tremble as he tried to hold back his tears. We all stood and kneeled in silence for Nat. Another person lost. I felt tears grail down my own cheeks but I've gotten so used to it, I don't even make sounds anymore.

After awhile we all went outside for some air. Standing out on a dock. I stood beside Clint who is leaned against a wooden post, everyone else is standing close by or sitting on a bench.

"We can get her back. We have the stones now." Thor said suddenly.
"Can't get her back." Clint mumbled.
"What?" Thor asked.
"It can't be undone. It can't." Clint said louder this time.
"Look, I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being, okay, and we're talking about space magic, and can't seems very definitive." Thor said, stepping closer to Clint.
"Yeah, look. I know that I'm way outside my pay grade here, but she still isn't here, isn't she?" Clint said, getting louder.
"No, that's my point." Thor stated.
"It can't be undone! Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say! Maybe you wanna go talk to him! Okay, go grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him! It was supposed to be me. Sacrificed her life for that goddamned stone, she bet her life on it!" Clint yelled this time. I grabbed his arm and pulled him over to me and away from Thor.
"She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to." Bruce spoke up, staring out at the water.
"We will." Steve said quietly.

For a little while longer, we all stood there silently. Clint glued to my side to help keep him calm. Clint and I went back to the compound first, everyone else followed closely behind. We all ended up in the lab where Tony and Rocket strategically placed all the stones into the Iron Man gauntlet.
For a moment, a couple of the guys argued over who was going to snap their fingers but it ended up being Bruce. Seeing as he's been exposed to so much gamma radiation, he believes he can handle it better than anyone else. He put the gauntlet on his hand slowly and began screaming in pain as the power from each stone searing into his veins.
"Banner, talk to me! You okay!?" Tony said loud enough for himself to be heard over the screams.
"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Bruce said and groaned as he put his fingers into position to snap. Don't quickly put up a shield in front of himself, Clint and I. Steve held his shield in front of himself, Scott suited up fully, including his mask, and I didn't get to see how Thor was defending himself before Bruce snapped his fingers and we all got smacked into the walls behind us.
We came back to pretty quickly and took the gauntlet off of Bruce's hand. Tony used some sort of solution from his suit to coat Bruce's arm.
"You alright?" I asked, kneeling by his side. He turned his head to look at me and smiled weakly.
"Did it work?" He asked weakly.
"We don't know yet." Thor said as he too kneeled beside him. I watched as Bruce's eyes focused on something in the sky and as soon as I looked up to see what he was looking at, there was an explosion.

"Come on, honey! We gotta get out of here!" I heard Tony's voice and felt someone shaking me. I blinked my eyes open to see Tony, Clint, and Steve all surrounding me.
Clint helped me to my feet but before I stood all the way up, I grabbed hold of the gauntlet.
"Can't lose this." I said as I cradled it in my arms.
"You and Clint get that thing out of here. Cap, come with me." Tony said and pulled Steve with him in another direction.
Clint and I ran down what looked like sewer tunnels, trying to find a way out when we heard a growling noise behind us. We both stopped and looked closely down the tunnel. Not seeing anything, Clint took an arrow and shot it down the tunnel. It had a light attached to it and revealed a bunch of those alien dog things that a bunch of us fought 5 years ago.
"Run!" Clint yelled and we both bolted. Occasionally he would turn around to shoot a truck arrow. We came to an opening above us and he used a grapple arrow to pull us both up while he used a sword to cut down any of the ones that tried to follow us.
We got to the top and fell to the ground, taking a breather for just a moment.
Nebula appeared above us and offered to take the gauntlet. She's been with us since a bit before Tony came back so I trusted she would take the stones to safety.
"Father, I have the stones." Nebula said, causing both Clint and I to look at her, ready to attack until she pointed a gun at us.
"Nebula, stop!" Gamora said as she came around the corner with another Nebula.
"Oh what the fuck.." I said and let my head fall to the ground.
"So now we have 2 Nebulas' and now a Gamora from the past when Thanos already killed her in our timeline.. man I can't keep up." Clint said quietly to me. Nebula and Gamora talked for a moment but when bad Nebula would give up the gauntlet, good Nebula shot her. Clint quickly grabbed the gauntlet that had fallen to the ground and clutched it to his chest.

"We should probably get that thing somewhere safe now." I said and got to my feet.
"Oh really? You think so?" He said sarcastically and stood up himself.