Infinity War (Charlotte Stark)

Ch. 2 The Elephant in the Room

Strange makes a portal in the middle of the room, and steps through. On the other side, I see my brother and Pepper.

"Tony Stark, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me." He says, then goes on. "Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way."

"Wedding?" I whisper to myself.

"I'm sorry, you giving out tickets or something?" Tony asks him.

"We need your help. Look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake."

"And who's "we"?" He asks. And Bruce emerges from the portal, behind Strange.

"Hey, Tony."

"Bruce." Tony says, surprised.

"Pepper." Banner greets her.

"Hi." She says to him.

"You okay?" Tony asks him. Bruce then give them a hug, not answering. And after everything we've been through, everything he's been through, I understand. Then I step out.

"Hey, bro." I say. He looks up with wide eyes.

"Charlotte?" Pepper says, Tony staying silent.

"Hi Pep." I give her a quick hug and turn to my brother. "We need to talk."

Tony, Bruce, Strange, and I step back through the portal. Tony doesn't take his eyes off of me.

"I guess I'll address the elephant in the room." I start, Bruce looks at me in confusion, but Strange and his friend Wong understand what's going on. "I'm sorry, Okay. For everything. But we need to put our differences aside."

"Why didn't you come back? Even just to say hi, you never once came to visit me." Tony says, giving me a look of pain.

"I did, actually. I checked up on you, multiple times. But I didn't think you'd actually want to see me."

"You're my sister, my family. Of course I wanted to see you. But you left, after what you did, what was I suppose to think?"

"Tony," I look at him in the eyes. "That's what I do. I leave. Life turns to shit, so I leave. Try to start a new one. Although, you didn't really give me much choice this last time."

"We could've figured it out. I could've fixed it." He starts to say, but I cut him off.

"Maybe I'm not meant to be fixed." I say, then turn to Wong. "Can you please explain to my brother what we're dealing with? I'm not in the mood."

He nods, and starts to use his magic to show the universe and give out of six of the Infinity Stones. "From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then, boom! The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals, hurdling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence. Space. Reality. Power. Soul. Mind. And Time."

Dr. Strange opens the Eye of Agamotto, revealing the Time Stone.

"Tell me his name again." Tony says as he finally looks away from me.

"Thanos. He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets, he takes what he wants, he wipes out half the population. He sent Loki! The attack on New York, that's him!" Bruce says.

Speaking to himself, my brother says "This is it...What's our timeline?"

"No telling. He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe! If he gets his hands, on all six Stones, Tony..." Bruce continues.

"He can destroy life on a scale hither to undreamt of." Strange states.

Leaning against a cauldron, stretching casually, lDid you seriously just say "hither to undreamt of"?" Tony asks.

"Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?" Strange asks.

"Is that what this is...?" The cloak of levitation then smacks Tonys arm. He looks to it, seemingly offended. "I'm going to allow that. If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?"

"No can do." Strange objects.

"We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives." Wing adds.

"And I swore off dairy, but then, Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after us, so..." he says, pointing to me.

"Stark Raving Hazelnuts." I say.

"It's not bad." Tony claims.

"A bit chalky." Strange disagrees.

"A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favorite." Wing says.

"That's a thing?" Bruce asks, looking over to me. I nod.

"Whatever. Point is: Things change." Tony changes the subject.

"Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. This Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos." Strange explains.

"And still conversely, it may also be his best chance against us." I state.

"Well, if we don't do our jobs." Strange interjects.

"What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?" My brother mockingly asks him.

"Protecting your reality, douchebag." I smile at Stranges response.

"Okay, guys, can we quick cable this discussion right now? The fact is that we have the Stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him now." I tell them.

"Yeah, that's the thing." Tony says, reluctantly.

"What do you mean?" I question.

"Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline."

"What?! Tony, you lost another super bot?!" Bruce exclaims.

"I didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving."

"Who could find Vision, then?" Strange asks. I glance at Tony before I respond.

"Shit. Probably Steve Rogers." Tony looks at me as I say Steve's name.

"Oh, great." Strange sighs.

"Maybe. But..." Tony trails off.

"Call him." Banner says, unaware of what happened a few years prior.

"It's not that easy. God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we?" Tony asks him.

"No."

"The Avengers broke up. We're toast." Tony says, sending me a glare.

"Broke up? Like a band? Like The Beatles?" He looks to me.

"That's what I was about to tell Thor and you before Thanos came and raided our ship." I tell him.

"You guys were with Thor? In space?" Tony questions me.

"It's a long story, but yes." I answer. Bruce then looks at me.

"What happened?"

"Cap, Char here, and I fell out hard. We're not really on speaking terms." Tony says, glaring at me again.

"Tony, listen to me. Thor's gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not." I tell him. Bruce agrees with my statement. Tony hesitates, but then pulls out the cell phone Steve mailed him.

He mutters to himself, "Flip phone." And scoffs. It seems as though he brings it everywhere, always ready to call us if he needed help. But before he can click the call button, he pauses, we start to hear unusual sounds coming from outside. "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would you?" He asks Strange.

Trying to look up at one of his stray hairs fluttering, "Not at the moment, no."

Tony and I look up at the opening on the ceiling and we see metal scraps flying by outside.