Journey Back To You // Spider-Man [Book 3]

twenty-four {Third Person POV}

Steve jumped down from the fire escape next to Avengers Tower and smoothly landed in the alleyway, finding Arya, Tony, and Scott in an abandoned car. All three of them looked defeated and troubled. "Yeah, we got a problem," Arya muttered from her spot on the passenger's seat. Her head was pounding as she could feel a bruise forming on her scalp. 

Scott scoffed. "Yeah, we do." 

They stepped out. "Loki managed to get the Stone and took off with it. We have no clue where he went," Arya explained, leaning against the hood of the car and crossing her arms. 

"How did that happen?" Steve asked.

"Hulk came busting through the door, knocking us over. I lost grip on the case and it fell open. Loki got the Tesseract and now they're gone," she elaborated. 

"Well, what are we gonna do now?" he questioned the rest. 

"Give me a break, Steve. We just got hit in the head with a Hulk." Tony sighed deeply. He had yet to leave his spot in the car. 

"You said that we had one shot. This, this was our shot," Scott started to ramble. "We shot it. It's shot. It was six Stones or nothing. Six Stones or nothing." 

"Scott, you're repeating yourself," Arya said, pinching the bridge of her nose to get rid of the headache. 

"You're repeating yourself! You're repeating yourself! You're repeating yourself!" 

"Scott!" Tony called. 

"No! You never wanted a Time Heist, but you went on board with the Time Heist," Scott argued. 

"I dropped the ball." Tony shrugged sarcastically, tired of arguing. 

"You ruined the Time Heist!" Scott stated. 

"Hey," Arya warningly snapped and Scott grumbled a few words, turning away. 

"Are there any other options with the Tesseract?" Steve asked. 

"No, no, no, there's no other options," Scott said. "There's no do-overs." He harshly pushed the car door shut. "We aren't going anywhere else. We have one Particle left, each. That's it, alright? If we use that, bye-bye, we're not going home." 

"Yeah, well, if we don't try, then no one else is going home either,"  Steve shot back. 

"I got it!" Tony called out after being quiet for the past couple of minutes. "There's another way to retake the Tesseract and acquire new Particles." He exited the car and walked toward Steve. "Little stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State." 

The muscles in Steve's face clenched as those words triggered something in his brain. "When were they both there?" he asked. 

"They were there at a... I have a vaguely exact idea," Tony said. 

"How vague?" his daughter questioned. 

"What are you talking about?" Scott asked. "What are we doing?" 

"I know for a fact they were there," said Tony, ignoring Scott. "And I know how I know." 

"Guys," Arya called, gaining their attention. "What are we doing?" 

"Remember that story I told you about Camp Lehigh?" Tony said and she released a breath, realising what their plan was. 

"Looks like we're improvising," Steve muttered. 

"What are we improving?" Scott asked, still completely in the dark. 

"Arya, Scott, get this back to the Compound," Steve stated, handing the Scepter with the Mind Stone to Arya.