The Seventh Stone (Stony Marvel Story)

(Chapter 6)

"Now, I'm about to tell you something, and I don't want to dismiss it right away."

Scott stared at me for a long second before taking a sip of beer. "Depends on what I'm dismissing." I cracked my knuckles, shoving away any doubt I had before ramming up the question. "I think we need Steve to defeat Thanos."

Scott was still drinking. He mumbled something and somehow spat out beer in the process. I threw a napkin at him. "Im gonna need you to speak English here pal," I grumbled as Scott laughed. I looked down to what he was laughing at... which was the massive beer stain on my, may I add, very expensive shirt. "Oh for... CHRISTS SAKE," I jumped off and ran to the bathroom as Scott laughed harder.

Sometimes I regret the day I let Scott into the lab, I thought to myself angrily while attempting to scrub off the blemish. Sure, it had only been a week, but one week had felt like a lifetime.

The man was good for a laugh, but sometimes had a hard time taking things seriously. Whenever I attempted to bring up Steve, he would ask me all of these weird questions and I would simply call it off. He was smart, no doubt about that, but sometimes a true pain in the ass.

Although we had essentially figured out the machine and it's mechanics, it still needed a test run before being used to save the universe.

I was going to propose my test run until Scott blew up into Niagara Falls.

Groaning, realizing the blemish was not coming off anytime soon, I wiped off any remaining liquid and went back out. Scott was still laughing when I returned. "You should've... SEEN your face! I literally thought my head was going to be chopped off."

"It is soon if you don't shut up," I hissed, and he instantly went quiet. Just as I was learning his ways, he was getting used to mine. I sat back down on the bar stool, straightening my arms before continuing, "Anyways, in English for the love of god, what do you think?"

"About needing Steve to win? Definitely," Scott was about to reach for his beer again, but I smacked his hand away. He giggled at my annoyance. "So I was thinking..." I drummed my fingers on the table before saying, "I think for the test run I should go out and get him, to you know bring him back."

Scott just stared at me. No reaction registered on his face. "Hello... earth to Scott?" I waved my hand around his face, and he nodded slowly. "It's risky, but not more than usual... however, is he really THAT necessary to win?"

"He's literally a super soldier. With like, a fucking vibranium shield. You can't win without him, Scott, you and I both know it," I began to plead, and my missing for Steve must've been written all over my face. He gave me a sympathetic smile. "It's a big risk, Tony. You could be out there forever, just like Hope's mom."

"Who's mom?"

"Hope. She's this..."

"Never mind. I don't care." I cut him off as soon as his eyes lit up into two fast beating hearts. "Damn," he muttered.

"You believe me when I tell you that we need Steve, right?"

"I guess so, but I mean you would know, right? You guys were like best friends or whatever."

I bit my tongue, hard. "Or whatever. Steve and I were nothing close to best friends."

"Oh? Then lovers?"

"I ju- WHAT DID YOU SAY??"

Scott bursted into more laugher as my face gyrated into a scarlet paradise. "Never, ever repeat that line," I growled, and Scott nodded with tears falling from the crescents of his eyes. "You know, you are very difficult to work with."

"Yeah yeah at least I'm funny," he replied, giving me a ridiculously toothy grin. It was Steve happiness on steroids. Except, news flash, and no offense Lang, but Rogers did it so much better.

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"Steve needs to be brought back before we defeat Thanos."

"Impossible," Rhodey instantly threw his hands up in the air, the pen he was holding falling down onto the table. "Once we are in the quantum realm, we will have a very limited window to capture all infinity stones and reverse the snap. We wouldn't have time for a detour."

"Well, yeah," Scott nervously looked around at the rest of the frowning faces, "but it would be done for a test run, just to ensure that the machine is working." More silence until Nat spoke up: "It would be nice to have Rogers back to fight, but I have to agree with Rhodey on this one. We just don't have enough time."

"Who would go out there to take that risk anyway?" Bruce asked. "If it all fails, that person is never coming back."

"I wouldn't mind."

Everyone snapped their field of view over to me, a few steps down from the conference table, right near the large windows looking out at New York City. I had my hands gripping onto my masquerade mask. Most of the glitter had shed onto my hands, and I held it with a tight grasp.

"This life just isn't worth living without him here." I stared at the shimmer of the light, the way the moon shone vividly against the buildings and the stars twinkled overhead. I watched the world dance in miracles.

But it was not as bright as the night of the masquerade.

I turned back around to face all of them, twiddling with the mask in my hand. "Supersolider.. guys, we had a freakin SUPERSOLDIER on this team. Thanos would take one look at that powerhouse and be shuddered with fear. He was a fearless, reckless leader who wished for the best not only for us," I pointed out at the window, "but for the rest of them as well.

"You see that out there? That NOTHINGNESS out there? While we sit, mourning in our faults and mistakes, the what-ifs and all that crap, you all know that Cap would have figured out at least 20 solutions by now. That was just what he was meant to be: one hell of a leader.

"He taught us all how to be brave in our most fearful moments. You know how many balls it's going to take to face Thanos again? I don't know about you all, but I'm scared as hell. The dude threw a whole moon at me and felt no remorse."

I locked eyes with Nat, who bit her lip. Suddenly, Thor stood up, almost knocking the table over with his steps. "He can hold my hammer," he said.

All of us simply stared at him. Exasperated. "That was not part of the script," I held my hands up, the mask falling onto the floor. "That's not a part of convincing you all."

"Are you sure he can?" Bruce asked with wonder. "That night, when we were all messing around with it..." Thor started, and Clint gasped. "I KNEW IT!" He jumped up, doing a bit of a spaz dance with his arms. "HE GOT THE THING A FEW INCHES OFF OF THE GROUND AND THOR WAS LIKE...."

"Say it, mortal, and you'll wish you hid your bow," Thor snarled through his teeth. Clint sat back down quietly, tucking his bow next to his feet. "Does this help gratify my proposal?" I asked with a grin. Nat smiled back as Bruce replied, "I mean, Jesus Tony, if the man's strength is parallel to a gods, we are all fools for not bringing him back sooner."

The glitter took forever to remove from my hands. Water, soap, scrubbing did nothing to remove it.

Once I grabbed his hand, all of it shed off, like stars following a perplexing path.