The Seventh Stone (Stony Marvel Story)

(Chapter 4)

My feet were light and careful next to Scott's loud, booming ones. I secretly wished he had taken more grateful steps: the continuous thundering got irritating after awhile. Leading him up the stairs, around my lab, and down a ride on the elevator, we arrived at the Avengers conference room.

Clint was drinking tea and reading a magazine. He looked up and nodded in my direction, pleased that Scott was happily bouncing next to me. "Call in a meeting," I told him. "We have to see if Lang has anything good for us."

"Nat went out to get Thor, he wasn't answering her calls and it was pissing her off," Clint replied, taking a long sip of tea before adding, "and I have no idea where Bruce is." I sighed impatiently. "Well, can you find them and bring them here? I'm already dealing with AntBoy."

"It's actually, uh..." Scott started, but I instantly put a hand up. "I don't really care what it is right now. I care more about putting the world back the way it should be." Clint snickered into his cup. "Can you PLEASE call in a meeting," I used the please word for Clint's benefits, and he beamed up happily. "Ah Tony, I would be delighted to call them all in for you." As he tapped random buttons on the phone, Scott pointed to the cup and whispered, "Is that secret Avenger juice?"

I spun right around. "Is that... you know what, yes, yes Scott because the world's mightiest heroes have AVENGER JUICE."

"You forgot secret. It has to be secret juice or else everyone else will get it."

"I'm about three seconds away from drop kicking your ass to the furthest planet from here."

Just as he was about to reply, Clint looked up from the phone and said, "Word is out. Everyone is setting up their holograms, and Nat promised she would try to be back in good timing. Apparently, a drunk Thor is much harder to work with than an angry Thor."

"What about Bruce? We can't have a high-tech science meeting without him," Scott asked, the first intelligent thing that came out of his mouth the whole time we were in this room. "Bruce was in the lab, and he'll be up in a minute," Clint replied, frowning at his empty cup. "Hey Tones, if you're heading over to the coffee maker can you make me more tea?"

I was actually not planning on drinking coffee: I had stored tequila near the coffee maker for emergency meetings. This mess was one hell of an emergency. "Oh yeah, sure." I threw the bottle of liquor back into the closet, cringing at the clatter it made.  As I prepped Clint's tea, Scott sat down and spun in circles around himself on the chairs. His enthusiasm, as much as I fought to admit, was contagious. As he laid out the plans stored in his pocket, Clint started playing music from a tape Thor stole from Quill a few years back. The man might have made one of the worst mistakes in history, but he was not an idiot for his music taste.

Bruce came into the room at a horrible sight of Clint and Scott spinning on chairs and me standing on the conference table twerking.

Maybe I had a little too much tequila.

But we had to celebrate if we could get the world back to the way it was, right?

There was another chance again, after all. To me, that is more than enough of a reason to party.

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"I really do think this we can do this." I was surprised by a clap on the back from Rhodey, who came around for the meeting. "Miniman did seem sure about what he had done, and could it really hurt to try again?"

"Agreed," Natasha added, pushing in her chair and joining us. The holograms flickered out and Clint was helping Thor to bed (man was tried from having to listen to something besides Fortnite videos for thirty minutes). Bruce sat across the table, tossing a coin up and down. Scott was happily rewriting out all of the information on a clean piece of paper.

For the first time in a long while, it felt like the way it used to, five long years ago. I smiled in spite of myself.

"You guys want anything?" I gestured to the large closet in the back, and Rhodey replied, "You got any booze? After sitting next to Thor mumbling about his liquor I'm in the mood." Nat laughed as Thor yelled, "I HEARD THE MAGIC B-WORD."

"I think you've had enough b-word for a lifetime," Clint lamented, dragging him out while Thor yelled back, "I AM A GOD I CAN TAKE MULTIPLE LIFETIMES." Clint slammed the conference room door shut. All of us exchanged amused glances.

As I poured liquor into the glass, Bruce peered over at Scott's egotistical work. "What does this mean? " He pointed to the mess of lines. "That is EXACTLY what I asked," I said, bringing over the glasses to everyone. "Well, I tried to draw the portal as I remember seeing it.." Scott began.

"THAT'S how you draw a portal?" Bruce laughed.

"I never did well in art..." Bruce continued to snicker as Scott turned bright red and scooted over to let the master himself take over. 

As the two worked on their science fair art project, Nat, Rhodey and I discussed the varies possible outcomes that could occur from what we wished to do.

"Thanos could already know we are coming. We don't know what other tricks this guy could have up his sleeve," Nat said before taking a long sip of tequila. "Is there any inside sources we could reach to maybe try and figure out what he would know during the time we would take the infinity stones?" Rhodey asked. "Not even sure if that's relevant..." Nat bit her lip, turning over to me. "Tony? What do you think? Tony..."

"We need Steve," I said flatly. "He would know how to take it from here."

"Correction, buddy. YOU need Steve," Rhodey responded with a light smile, but I threw him a nasty glare in return. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He added quietly, "I mean, you never stop talking about the guy..."

Bruce and Scott looked up to see the tension. "I'll take you to your room now, Scott." Bruce simply stated, getting up. The chair creaked under his large figure. As Scott got up, I shouted, "My lab, tomorrow, 10am. We have a lot of work to do if we are going to even consider bringing everyone back." He grinned widely, almost skipping while following Bruce to his sleeping container. Rhodey followed them out quietly, nodding a good-night to me and Romanoff.

"I haven't seen someone so happy since the snap," Nat sighed, watching them leave the conference room. I spun aimlessly in a circle on the chair. "There is a very large gap in this group, you feel it too, right?" I simply asked.

Nat hesitated before answering, "Yes. Every single day."

As a sudden reaction to our words, I slammed my fist down on the table, hard. It left a crack that ran to the other side. "Damn it Steve, DAMN IT." A tear started to roll down my cheek, and Nat got up to comfort me.

"Hey, Tony, it's going to work out. We are going to defeat Thanos, and he'll be back, and then everything will be..."

"Do you realize that, we actually need him to be here if we want to defeat Thanos? Am I the ONLY one who realizes this?" I instantly snapped back. "Me and him, we were a powerhouse team. I need his spark, his stupid energy, I just need HIM..." Nat looked at me sadly, and all I could do was wastefully throw my fist onto the table repeatedly.

"Let's get you to bed, Tones, it's been a long day." She swung an arm in my direction, and I linked on. She brought me to my room and hugged me goodnight, muttering something about if I needed her I could contact her.

Kind offer, but it was only a matter of time before I hit a dipping point from this.

So, I dragged myself to bed, not thinking anything of it. I did not even bother to change or shower, which was desperately needed. I simply laid in bed, counting random objects around my room and fighting the feeling.

That stupid, redundant, maddening feeling.

It was back, almost as strong as that night.

But not quite.