Avengers: Endgame [4]

5

Later that day, everyone sat in the living room with all six Infinity Stones hologrammed in front of them.

"Okay, so the how works," Steve began. "Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones."

"Or, substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six Infinity Stones," Tony corrected.

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

"Regardless," said Bruce, "we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each. And these Stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history. Our history."

"So, not a lot of convenient points to just drop in, yeah?" said Tony.

"Which means we have to pick our targets," said Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, the man Natasha had recruited earlier.

"Correct." Tony nodded at him.

"So, let's start with the Aether," said Steve. "Thor, what do you know?"

Everyone turned to look at Thor, who - as expected - had fallen sound asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.

"Again?" Astra cringed in disgust.

"No, no, I'm pretty sure he's dead," said Rhodey.

Astra sighed. "Allow me." She was sitting at the opposite end of the table and was the furthest from him, but a spark of purple energy hit him in the chest and he stumbled awake, spilling his beer in the process.

Seeing everyone's stares on him, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"The Aether...?" Astra said pointedly.

It took a while to convince Thor to talk about the Aether, and when he did, Astra really wished they hadn't asked.

"So, where to start?" Thor began. "Um... the Aether, firstly, is not a Stone. Someone called it a Stone before. Um, it's more of an angry sludge, sort of a thing, so someone's gonna need to attend to that and stop saying that. Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the Stone from the Dark Elves. So Jane, actually - oh, there she is." Jane was hologrammed beside the Stone. "Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and then the Aether stuck itself inside her, and she became very, very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from, and we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see, and I got to introduce her to my mother..." He paused and his expression changed. "Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so...

Get a move on! No one else needs to hear about your love life! Astra thought irritably. She could tell that everyone else seemed to be thinking the same, except for Scott, who was the only one actually looking interested in her story. Astra put her legs up on the table and doodled random stuff in a notepad, not bothering to pay attention anymore. Everyone else just looked bored out of their minds.

"Yes, these things happen. Nothing lasts forever," Thor continued. "The only thing that-"

"Why don't you come sit down?" Tony walked up to him.

"I'm not done yet," said Thor. "The only thing that is permanent in life..."

Tony clapped his hands. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?"

"No," said Thor, "I'd like a Bloody Mary."

Finally.

***

That night, Chinese takeout was ordered and they continued their brainstorm.

"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag," said Rocket.

"Is that a person?" Bruce asked, scooping out of a tub of ice cream.

"No! Morag's a planet," said Rocket. "Quill was a person."

Scott looked speechless. "Like a planet? Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look, it's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Rocket patted Scott's head. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

"Is that before or after you got your powers?" Bruce asked Astra.

"Before." Astra looked at him. "Quill, Rocket, a few of our friends, and I escaped prison together and went to a place called Knowhere. Then this girl stupidly grabbed the Power Stone and triggered an explosion. I couldn't escape in time and the radiation caught me." Her right hand glowed purple.

***

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," said Nebula.

"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked as she took notes.

"A dominion of death in the very center of Celestial existence," Nebula explained.

"It's where Thanos murdered our sister, Gamora," Astra told them.

Everyone looked up at them, some with pity on their faces.

"Not it," Scott said out of the blue, trying to lighten the mood.

***

A couple days later, all their plans were finalized and they knew where they would be going.

The Stones and their locations were hologrammed in front of them. The Space, Mind, and Time Stones would be retrieved from New York in 2012. The Reality Stone would be retrieved from Asgard in 2013. The Power and Soul Stones would be retrieved from Morag and Vormir, respectively, in 2014.

"All right. We have a plan," said Steve. "Six Stones, three teams, one shot."

Everyone dressed in their time travel suits and walked together to the Quantum tunnel.

"Five years ago, we lost. All of us," Steve began. "We lost friends, we lost family-"

His words made Astra think of all her dusted friends. Quill, Groot, Drax, Mantis, and many more.

"We lost a part of ourselves," Steve continued. "Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the Stones. Get them back. One round-trip each. No mistakes, no do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives and we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."

"He's pretty good at that," Rocket commented.

"Right?" Scott agreed.

"All right. You heard the man," said Tony. "Stroke those keys, Jolly Green."

"Trackers engaged," Bruce called.

Clint held the Benatar in his palm, which had been shrunk using a Pym Particle.

"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Clint said dismissively. "Okay, I'll do my best."

"As promises go, that was pretty lame," Rocket commented.

Bruce walked onto the platform, rejoining the group. He pressed a button on his GPS tracker.

"See ya in a minute," said Natasha.

Everyone's helmets activated. The tunnel opened and the Quantum Realm sucked them in.