Whiplash- Book 4

Chapter 25

Later that day, out by the Lakeside, you, Tony, Steve, Thor, Clint, and Bruce all mourn Natasha.

"She was one of the first 7..." you whimper as you lean into Steve, who sat on the bench.

"Do we know if she had family?" Tony questions as he looks out into the water.

"Yeah. Us..." Steve says as he rubs your back.

"What?" Thor asks, confused.

"I just asked him a question..." Tony trails as he walks over to you and helps you stand up to him. He wraps his arms around you as you put your arms back around him and cry into his chest.

"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right? So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together," Thor says with anger.

"We can't get her back," Clint says as he turns to Thor.

"Wha-what?" Thor asks, with a brow raise.

"It can't be undone. It can't," Clint says more forcefully.

"I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being. Okay? We're talking about space magic. And "can't" seems very definitive don't you think?" Thor laughs dryly as he explains how they can bring her back.

"Look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?" Clint asks, raising his voice, making you cry harder. Tony rubs the back of your head.

"Now that's my point..." Thor tried to say but Clint begins yelling.

"It can't... be undone. Or that's at least what the, great floating guy had to say. Maybe you wanna go talk to him? Okay? Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him!" Clint yells at Thor.

Clint's anger is quickly replaced with grief as he looks down to the ground.

"It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that *enter explicit language* stone. She bet her life on it!" Clint says sadly, making your tears flow harder. Tony kisses the top of your head as he sways back and forth with you.

In a burst of anger, Bruce grabs a bench and hurls it clear across the lake. His anger spent, he turns to the others with a resigned look on his face.

"She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to.." Bruce says with a sigh.

"We will," Steve says as he looks up, his single stray tear coming into view..
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Later, inside the Avenger's Lab. Tony carefully uses a machine to place the stones in the gauntlet he made, while Bruce and Rocket watch from beside him.

With nervous precision, Tony manipulates the machine and carefully places all six stones into the gauntlet. The room was deathly quiet, with worry something might go wrong.

"Boom!" Rocket shouts, making Bruce and Tony jump. The two groan at Rockets joke as he snickers.

When the gauntlet was finished, Rocket moved it into another room, it inside a glass box. Everyone surrounded the new gauntlet.

"All right. The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?" Rocket says as he looks up at his fellow team members.

"I'll do it," Thor says stepping forwards, raising his hand in the process.

"Excuse me?" Scott questions.

"No way, sorry," you say as you push Thor back, away form the glove.

"It's okay," Thor said as he patted your shoulder.

"No, no, no, whoa" "Stop" "Stop" "Wait a sec" "Hey, hey..." multiple answers were heard amongst the team.

"Wait, wait, wait, Thor, just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet," Steve said as he put a hand up to him, telling him to stop.

"Oh, I'm sorry. What, were you just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?" Thor asks, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"We should at least discuss it," Scott shrugs as everyone agrees with him.

"Look, us sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty," Thor says a she points to himself.

"It's not that..." Tony trails as Thor hushes everyone.

"It's... stop it! Just let me..." Thor says as he tears up.

"Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something great.." Thor said with a sad face.

"Look...It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you you're in no condition," Tony said as he pointed at the gauntlet and then at Thor.

"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor says as he makes a fist and shakes it.

"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey asks, you snicker.

"Lightning," Thor corrects as he looks at Rhodey.

"Yeah," Tony says with a small eye roll.

"Lightning won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me.." Bruce trails as he walks towards the convo.

"You saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive,"

"Bruce.. I can't lose another person right now. Please let's think this through..." you say as you clear your throat.

"I agree with Y/n, how do we know you'll survive?" Steve agrees as everyone looks at Bruce.

"We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma," Bruce says as he takes a long look at the dangerous gauntlet.

"It's like...uh...I was made for this," Bruce says as he swallows and pierces his lips together.

Meanwhile, with no one noticing, Nebula 2014 snuck out of the room and towards the Quantum portal. She types in the date and activates it, bring Thanos' mothership to the future.

With the team, Bruce prepared himself to put on the gauntlet.

"Good to go, yeah?" Tony asks as he opens the glass container.

"Let's do it," Bruce says as he takes the gauntlet off of the little stand that held it up.

"You remember... everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years," Tony says with a nod.

"Got it," Bruce says as he takes a deep breath.

Everyone backed away from Bruce, suiting up in their uniforms. (By the way, you still wore the same uniform you had in Civil war) You, on the other hand, just tried to lower your crop top and stood behind Tony, who held up a shield.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., do me a favor and activate Protocol 8," Tony says from inside his helmet.

"Yes, boss," Friday says as the whole Avenger facility goes on lock down, a metal like door covering every door and window.

"Everybody comes home..."
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1126 word count. Until the next chapter my hero's😘😘 -Kay😜