To The Sun [3] Endgame

Ten

Chapter Ten:

Hazel had woken up extra early, had a shower and even put on some makeup before slipping into her new uniform. She hadn't felt that good in years, and she felt like carrying that feeling throughout the day while they collected what they needed to bring everyone back.

She kept her hair down, hoping that if she needed it out of the way she could just flip the hood up. She discovered while playing around with it, that there was a mask that slipped over her face within the fabric of the hood. It created a cool effect, and she didn't really want to take it off but the tad bit of makeup she had on her face protested against it.

Everyone was already downstairs when she finally got on the main level, and they all were heading into the next room. She followed them, only to see Clint in a new suit standing in the centre of a contraption.

"Is this another test?" She asked walking up and leaning against Natasha. "Since the other one went super well."

"Yeah but this is with Tony's equations."

"Oh."

She looked at Steve and flashed him a smile, but he only squinted his eyes and looked closer at her. "Are you wearing makeup?" He asked.

She shrugged, focusing on Clint who bounced on the balls of his feet.

"All right, Clint. You know the details, do you remember what I told you? You know what, never mind." Bruce mumbled, "We're going in 3, 2, 1..."

A helmet clicked into place around his head and a button was pressed, sending a blinding light throughout the room. When it subsided, Clint was gone.

"You are wearing makeup." Steve shook his head, "Where did you—"

"And she's wearing a new suit." Natasha chimed in, "Looks familiar."

"Tony designed it from your old suit and Peter's."

"Hell yeah I did." Tony called.

"Looks good."

Hazel shook her head, turning to Bruce. "How long until he's back?"

"I'll give him another minute."

She nodded, "What if this doesn't work?"

"It will." Steve said crossing his arms, "It has to."

"Bringing him back." Bruce mumbled.

Another light flashed and a shout echoed, and Clint was on the floor. Natasha ran up the landing and knelt next to him, everyone following her lead.

"Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" Natasha helped him up. He was on his knees as he nodded, "Yeah."

He pulled himself up, breathing heavily. He tapped what looked like a baseball glove against the women's shoulder, "It worked."

"It worked?" Hazel mumbled, "Did it really?"

Clint nodded tossing the glove at Tony who caught it with a grin.

"You did it!" She cheered at Tony, "I can't believe you did it."

"C'mon, Barnes. Where's the faith in me?"

Steve walked over and clapped Tony on the back, "Good job, man."

Tony nodded, a grin on his face. "Everyone in the board room in 10 minutes! We gotta rescue mission to plan."

•••

"Okay, so the 'how' works." Steve paced the front of the room. "Now we gotta figure out the 'where' and the 'when.'"

Pictures of each infinity stone were up on the computer screens, all showing a decent amount of information. Hazel watched carefully, listening to Steve intently as well.

"Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones."

Tony stood on one side of the screens while Steve found a spot at the other, when Steve trailed off Tony began speaking.

"Well, I'd substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed by one of the six infinity stones.'"

Scott shook his head, sitting on the opposite end of the table than Hazel. "I haven't. I don't even know what the hell you guys are talking about."

"Regardless." Bruce stood behind her, "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 just a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Tony nodded.

Hazel leaned forward, "So we just have to pick our targets."

"You're catching on, girl."

"Exactly." Steve snapped, "Then let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?"

They looked to the corner of the room where Thor sat leaned back in a chair, sunglass on and a beer in one hand, the other rested on his stomach. They waited, but he sat silently.

"Maybe he's sleeping." Hazel pondered, "Or just more drunk than yesterday. And the day before that."

"Thor." Rhodey approached him, "Buddy."

He awoke with a start, and his sunglasses flopped off his head. "The Aether!" He grumbled standing up, twirling his glasses in his head as he walked up to the screen showing the red mass. He itched his eyes, "Where to start! Ummm, the Aether, first, is not a stone. Someone's called it a stone before—" he pointed at Steve, who only scrunched his eyebrows and crossed his arms in return from the chair he took up. "Ahem, it's more of, a, um, angry sludge sort of a thing. So, someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that." He paused and leaned his head back, dropping eye drops into his eye. Hazel had no idea where he got the drops, but there they were.

"Thor, sweetie—" Hazel went to say, but the man cut her off.

"Here's an interesting story, though. About the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves." He made a spooky sound and wiggled his fingers at everybody, chuckling softly. Hazel and Natasha shared a look, the other women was trying not to laugh. "So, Jane... actually, oh there she is." A picture of a women popped up on screen and Thor stared for an awful long time at it before he coughed and continued his tale, "That's Jane. She's actually an old flame of mine. She... she stuck her hand inside a rock one time and- and the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick and— and very weird. So I had to take her to Asgard where I'm from, and we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time—"

Hazel stopped listening and took a look around the table. Tony had his head down but was still watching, Natasha had her mouth covered while Clint just looked confused. Rhodey looked uncomfortable, Steve's brows were scrunched all worried like and Scott, well Scott was nodding along with a dumb looking smile on his face, he seemed to be the only one interested. Hazel pulled herself up from her seat, the chair squeaking against the polished floor. Everyone turned and looked at her, Thor glared at her for interrupting.

"I am going to go somewhere else." She declared, "I clearly don't need to know every detail. When this meeting is over and everyone is ready to go, someone come and get me. I'm sure you can fill me in on the details quite quickly."

She walked around the table, and Tony's hand shot out and grabbed her by the arm. "If you leave me here, Barnes." He mumbled. She shrugged, "You created this, Stark. This is your punishment."

The man sighed and let go, pointing at the door. She grinned racing out, waving at everybody through the glass wall from the other side. She earned a glare from just about everyone, expect for Scott. Scott gave her a wave and a big smile.

Hazel had only known that man for a bit, but she decided she didn't want to live in a world without him and his absent minded expressions.