Severed Trail

Prologue

Prologue

Unknown location July 22nd, 2018

"You think she's gonna like it?" Nat asked as she sat at the table built into the centre of the Quinjet sipping a beer as her short blonde bob hung on either side of her face.
"The cake? Oh yeah. She's gonna love it." Sam smirked as he looked at the 'Happy 99th birthday old lady.' Cake that was sitting on the table, his beard and muscles both larger than they'd been two years ago.
"I think the 99 candles may be too much." Steve insisted as he rounded the table. He looked down at the 100-pack of candles with a small sentimental smile as his blonde hair fumbled forward in front of his eyes. His grin faded and he sighed as he slicked it back over the top of his head while shifting to stand upright. Natasha eyed his clenched jaw through his beard.

"I wish you would just let me cut your hair," Nat said to him honestly.
"I thought you liked the hair and the beard?" Steve asked with a small teasing smirk as he leaned against the table and turned his attention to her.
"No." Nat corrected. "Darla and Bucky like the beard. I personally think it makes you look tougher than you actually are." She smirked teasing him.
"You know what Romanoff?" Steve grinned at her.

Suddenly an old cell phone ring that none of them had heard before filled everyone's ears, Nat was the first to realize what it was.
"Tony." She muttered quickly as she shot her attention to Steve then his eyes widened in realization. He pushed himself off the table and ran for the cubbie that was emitting the noise. He yanked out the duffle bag quickly and dug through it until he felt the phone vibrating in his hand. He pulled it out of the bag and answered it quickly.

"Tony?" Steve asked quickly as he pressed the phone to his ear. He knew that Tony wouldn't have called unless it was an emergency.
"N-No... actually it's Bruce," Banner replied from the other end of the phone. Steve furrowed his brows and put it on speaker.

"Bruce," Steve repeated looking at Nat whose eyes darted to Steve. "Where's Tony, what happened?" He asked. Knowing there would be time for asking him where he'd been later. Sam walked over to the controls of the jet and took his seat beginning to power up preemptively.

"I was with Thor and Loki-"
"Loki?" Steve asked in confusion.
"Yes, Loki! We were on our way to Earth with what was left of Asgard when suddenly our ship was attacked by this big purple guy named Thanos. He and his people came on board looking for the tesseract and slaughtered a bunch of civilians, Loki and I think this really nice guy named Heimdale who sent me back to earth. Look a-anyway Heimdale sent me to this place called the Sanctum Sanctorium in New York and I met these wizards named Wong and Dr. Strange. I told them we needed you guys because Thanos was on his way to earth so we went through a portal to find Tony and he and Pepper are getting married finally-" he paused to breathe and let out a sigh as Nat Steve and Sam looked at the phone worried and a little confused while they waited for him to finish.

"A-Anyway. Tony came back to the sanctum with us and then Dr. Strange and Wong told us about the infinity stones and how Thanos is pursuing them so he can wipe out half of the universe. Steve, the guy's delusional he thinks it's for the greater good and he's been killing off half of the planets he visits by hand for years. His followers came down and tried to get the time stone from Strange and then there was a fight and then they took him, Tony and some kid dressed like a spider to space and amongst the rubble I found the phone. This guy's not gonna stop until he has all six, and the only other one left on earth is the mind stone-"

"Vision," Nat said in a panic as she looked at Sam who started setting a course for Scottland.
"Nat?" Bruce asked in confusion after he recognized her voice.
"We'll get him, keep this phone on you. Head for the compound." Steve said before hanging up as the Quinjet began to lift into the air.