Flame

Chapter 42

Clint thrusts his blade downwards into Akihiko's stomach as Nat and I approach him, silently. The body of the Japanese falls to the ground, Clint grabs the sword, and wipes it on his gauntlet, ridding it of the blood of Akihiko. He soon and grabs his mask, and slides it off his head, revealing himself as he turns around and looks at us.
"You two shouldn't be here." Clint tells us
"Neither should you." I reply as I take a few steps towards him
"I've got a job to do." Clint tells us
"Is that what you're calling this? Killing all these people isn't gonna bring your family back." Nat tells Clint who starts to look emotional, on the verge of crying.
"We found something. A chance, maybe..." I start to tell him but he only "Don't..." Clint warns
"Don't what?" I ask him
"...don't give me hope." Clint finishes
"I'm sorry we couldn't give it to you sooner." Nat tells him with a sad smile

"Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski." Tony calls to Thor who definitely isn't looking his best. "Ratchet, How's it going?" Tony then asks rocket who's working under the platform
"It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal." Rocket calls back, making me laugh before walking into a room where Scott, Bruce, Steve and Rhodey talking. Scott is in a white and red suit, similar to the Ant-Man suit.
"Time travel suit? Not bad." Rhodey comments as Bruce/hulk is touching the suit and something red in a glass tube is in his hand
"Hey, hey, hey! Easy, easy!" Scott warns him
"I'm being very careful." Bruce tells him
"No, you're being very Hulky." Scott corrects him
"I'm being careful." Bruce says again
"These are Pym Particles, alright? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We're not making any more." Scott says as he hold up the glass bottle
"Scott, calm down." I warn him as I walk over towards Rhodey
"Sorry. We've got enough for one round trip each. That's it. No do-overs. Plus two test runs." Scott says before he accidentally presses a button, and shrinks, and then grows back to his normal size. "One test run."

Now I'm in the testing chamber with Steve, Nat, Tony, Scott, Bruce, Rhodey and Nebula who's standing at a control panel, controlling the glass platform
"All right. I'm not ready for this." Scott says clearly nervous
"I'm game. I'll do it." Clint says as soon he's walking back in wearing the Quantum suit
"Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it." Bruce tells Clint who's taking position on the platform
"Wai-Wait a second, let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know, and..." Rhodey says as he makes a hand gesture suggesting that we strangle baby Thanos with a rope
"First of all, that's horrible..." Bruce says
"It's Thanos." Rhodey comments
"He's kinda got a point" I add in with a slight smirk
"And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future." Bruce says
"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved." Scott says
"Bingo." Clint adds
"That's not how it works." Nebula tells him
"Well, that's what I heard." Clint says to her
"What? By who? Who told you that?"
"Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time -"
"Quantum Leap -"
"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time -"
"Hot Tub Time Machine -"
"Hot Tub Time Machine. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel." Rhodey finishes as he and Scott list all the films
"Die Hard? No, it's not one..." Scott says
"This is known." Rhodey comments
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future..." Bruce carefully explains to them
"Exactly." Nebula adds
"So... Back To The Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott exclaims unhappy
"Alright, Clint. We're going in 3... 2... 1!" Bruce says and a helmet similar to Ant-Man's but white and more visible face pops on Clint's head, and he goes quantum. Soon Clint rematerialises on the glass platform, breathing heavily and sitting on the platform. Nat and I share a look before rushing over to him and kneeling down beside him
"Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?" Nat asks as I notice the baseball glove in his hand
"Yeah, it worked. It worked"