Hoping for a Hero - part II of II [COMPLETE]

Chapter 8: Reviving the Coals

Convincing Banner to help us, thankfully, wasn't difficult. Obviously, his expertise wasn't quantum physics, but our choices were limited.

Together, Bruce and I set up the equipment and double-checked that they were in working order. "Everything looks good from here," I said as I closed the cover to a container that protected a bunch of wires.

"Okay, here we go," Bruce said. "Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the, uh . . . the van thing."

Lang opened up the trunk doors of the van and the quantum tunnel started up without a hitch.

"Breakers are set," Steve walked over to us. "Emergency generators are on standby."

"Good," Bruce confirmed, "because if we blow the grid, I don't want to lose, uh," he pointed a thumb at Scott, "Tiny, here in the nineteen fifties."

This caught Lang's attention. "Excuse me?" he asked. It became clear that he might change his mind if he caught on that Banner and I weren't confident we knew what we were doing.

"He's kidding," Natasha covered with a smile. She shook her head and laughed at Bruce, "You can't say things like that."

"I wish he was joking," I whispered to Steve. "We're really plunging into dark waters here."

He replied with a nervous smile and a long exhale. "It'll be okay," he reassured me quietly.

"You were kidding, right?" Natasha asked Bruce.

Banner whispered intently, "I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke or none of it is." He quickly turned to give Scott a thumbs up with a big smile. "We're good! Get your helmet on."

I prepared the program on the computer and filled him in, "Scott, we're gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Make sense?"

Scott swatted away the question with his hand, "Perfectly not confusing."

That's the kind of confidence we're looking for. Blind stupidity.

"Good luck, Scott," Steve said. "You got this."

Scott looked at him with admiration. "You're right," he smiled. "I do, Captain America." He then shrunk down to enter the tunnel and Bruce and I checked the computers a final time. So far, everything looked good.

"On a count of three," Banner began the count down. "Three, two, one." The look my direction was the cue to flip the switch.

When I did so, Scott returned as a teenage boy. "Uh, guys?" the boy asked. "This . . . this doesn't feel right."

Panic set in as my instincts took over and I rushed into action.

"What is this?"

"Who is that?" Natasha asked. "Is that Scott?"

I bent down and hurriedly opened the cover beneath the computers to reveal another set of wires. It took me a moment to distinguish each of their functions, but I didn't have time for a full analysis. Instead, I took an educated guess and hoped that I pulled and re-attached the correct one.

"Yes, it's Scott!" the boy cried before being pulled back into the tunnel.

When he exited again, an old man stood and complained about his back. Now, everyone was starting to panic. This was not part of the plan.

"Hey, Steve, I need you out of my space," I moved to access another computer he was blocking and my fingers flew across the keyboard as I typed in code.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Steve moved out of my way, "Can you bring him back?"

Bruce was fumbling around just as much as I was, "We're working on it!" One of the monitors was aggressively beeping so he resorted to the classic technique of hitting it. Contrary to what some believe, brute force can actually help sometimes.

I finished my code and at the press of a button, Scott re-entered the quantum realm. My heart was pounding wildly and it nearly stopped altogether when a baby appeared from the tunnel. The EPR paradox. I groaned aloud and slammed my fist against the desk. I should have remembered that before we started.

"It's a baby," Steve stated as if we all didn't recognize that.

"It's Scott," Banner said.

"As a baby!"

"He'll grow."

"Bring Scott back," Steve demanded.

Suddenly, it hit me. "Bruce, I have an idea," I went over to the grid and readjusted the levels. This better work. "Natasha, I'm gonna need to you kill the power on my word."

She quickly headed to the kill switch with an annoyed grumble.

After flipping a few more switches I shouted, "Kill it!"

Finally, Scott reappeared at his normal age and we all sighed in relief.

"Somebody peed my pants," he said. His arms were extended to steady himself after all of that motion. "But I don't know if it was baby me or old me." There was a short moment of silence as he still considered the source of the issue. "Or just . . . me me."

I looked at Steve and placed a hand on my forehead. "That was bad," I said.

"Time travel!" Bruce shouted with raised arms and a big smile. It soon disappeared as Steve shook his head in disappointment and walked away. "What? I-I see this as an absolute win."

"Bruce, that was dangerous," I looked at him sternly. "Of all the things that could have happened to Scott, those were the mildest effects. Steve's just realizing the number of things that could go wrong if we continue playing with something we don't know about. There are already too many deaths on his shoulders. Another one would break his back."

Steve left to grab some air outside and I needed some space, too. So, I headed upstairs to our flat. Away from the dangerous implications of our failure.