The Final Initiative

38.

      The next few days after that went by slow. Tony, Bruce, and Rocket, were hard at work with the time machine, Natasha and Jessi were busy sorting out the infinity stones with Steve. Everyone on the team had jobs to do, and they weren't resting until it was done. From sun up to sun down, all hands were on deck to get this time machine functioning.

      Jessi kept a log of all that was being done. She'd walk around the compound with a journal, writing down the different tasks that were being preformed and who was doing what. She wanted to keep a record, almost like a diary of sorts, so that there was a sense of order "hey" she came to sit by Rocket on the floor as he was screwing in a few parts to the time device. He was hanging upside down on the bottom of the machine, goggles covering his eyes.

"Hey" he replied, not breaking his concentration.

"What are you working on?"

"The same thing I've been working on all week"

Jessi shrugged, writing a note down in her journal "Just trying to keep track"

      Rocket looked away from where he was working and pulled his goggles up over his eyes with his free paw "These are important screws that I'm putting in, pivotal to the time machine. It takes a lot of concentration" he placed emphasis on the last word.

"Ahh" Jessi nodded "like Neurosurgery"

"Yeah... whatever the hell that is. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to work"

      Jessi pursed her lips with narrowed eyes, clicking the pen that was in her fingers before jotting down one last note "Rocket is grumpy" she read out loud as she wrote on the paper. The Raccoon pretended not to hear that.

"We got to start coming up with teams" Steve said as he walked across the room with Clint beside him.

      Natasha was at the computer with Tony, and she came around to stand near the Captain. Jessi stood up from the floor, setting her book down on the table by the time device. She pulled herself on top of that surface of the table and let her legs dangle down "Nebula volunteered for the power stone, and Rhodey is going with her" Clint informed.

"That leaves time, space, reality, mind, and soul" Steve listed.

      "I can get the soul, because the rest of the stones don't sound as cool" Nat offered lightly, a humorous smirk on her lips.

"I'll go with you" Jessi said.

      "Jes, I think maybe you should be in charge of the time stone, considering you know more about it then any of us do" Tony pointed out from behind the computers. He had the temple of his glasses between his lips as he typed. Doctor Banner had just finished plugging up a few massive black chords to the back of the machine, and he was resting against the metal railing of the device as he listened to the plan.

"Good point" Jessi pouted, but didn't argue.

"Sorry, cool people only" Nat joked.

      Jessi gave a fake smile with narrowed eyes, imitating her demeanor. Natasha laughed at that "Alright, Natasha has the soul stone, Clint, are you up for going with her?" Steve asked the Hawk who nodded in response "Good, and Jessi's on time"

      "If the kid's going to New York in 2012, then so am I" Tony ceased his typing and paid full attention, setting his glasses over his eyes and crossing his arms "I call dibs on the Tesseract, and Cap, if you come along, I'll give you dibs on the scepter"

"Aren't I the one who calls dibs if I want to do something?" Steve asked.

      "You mean..." Jessi's eyes grew wide as she extended her bottom lip in a pretend sad expression at the Captain "you don't want to go back in time and spend time with me?" she asked in a quiet voice. Steve didn't seem all that impressed "breaks my heart, Captain Skinny Jeans"