I FEEL YOU || Sᴛᴇᴠᴇ Rᴏɢᴇʀꜱ

thirty three

Despair

And then we...we went to a man with a bigger brain.

Yeah, we met Bruce at a diner. But he was... He did a... He merged himself with Hulk? I don't even know how to explain it. Seeing it for the first time, a wild experience.

Scott already explained the situation. But Bruce hasn't commented on it yet. 

"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating." he said and pushed a gigantic plate towards me and Nat "Try some of that. Have some eggs." he added with a smile.

Scott was, of course, there to express what we all were feeling "I'm so confused." he said while staring at 'professor Hulk'.

"These are confusing times." Bruce said, very seriously.

"Right. No, no, that's not what I meant." Scott quickly tried to explain himself.

"No, I get it. I'm kidding!" Bruce laughed "I know. It's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now!"

Scott laughed awkwardly "Yeah! Wh...How? Why?"

"Five years ago, we got our asses beaten. Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost." Bruce explained.

"No one blamed you, Bruce." Nat assured him.

"I did." he admitted "For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now look at me. Best of both worlds!" he said with a smile.

Then I noticed three children making their way towards us. They looked very nervous. Very suspicious if you ask me.

Then the girl spoke up "Excuse me, Mr. Hulk?" she said nervously.

Bruce was quick to acknowledge her "Yes?"

"Can we get a photo?"

"Hundred percent, little person. Come on, step up." he said with a smile and held out the phone to Scott "You mind?"

"Oh, yeah." Scott quickly grabbed the phone.

 Bruce thanked him and then posed for the photo "Say 'green'!"

Scott smiled and leaned forward to give back the phone "Don't you wanna grab one with me? I'm Ant-Man." he added, very awkwardly might I add.

The children just awkwardly stood there. The whole situation was just - awkward.

"They're Hulk fans, they don't know Ant-Man." Scott nodded "Nobody does."

 "Wait, no, no, he feels bad. No, he wants you to...he wants to..." Bruce tried to...do something "You want to take a picture with him, right?" he asked one of the boys. The boy just shook his head vigorously.

"He's even saying no he doesn't. I get it. I don't want it either." Scott now tried to get out of the situation.

"But,  come on, the kid! But he...but you..." Bruce continued. I felt like the awkwardness had no end. I just did not want to listen to that anymore. 

I took a couple of fries from the plate and looked outside through the window. What a wonderful day it was!

Anyway, I connected back to the team when I heard Natasha calling Bruce's name.

"Bruce!" she continued as he *awkwardly* dabbed to those children "About we were saying..."

"Right." he nodded "The whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside my area of expertise."

"Well, you pulled this off. I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible time, too." she added with a smile.

And just like that, he was in.

...

We were now back at the compound, in one of the larger areas where Scott has brought his magic van.

"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one." Bruce said while looking through a bunch of buttons in front of him "Scott, fire up the uh... the van thing."

Scott opened the portal immediately.

"Breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby." I added as I stood next to Bruce.

"Good." Bruce laughed "'Cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950's."

All three of us just gave him a weird look. Like the Are you serious? look.

"Excuse me?" Scott said, terrified.

"He's kidding." Natasha cleared it up with a smile.

"Just... It was a bad joke." Bruce said, scratching his head. He was so lying.

"You were kidding, right?" Nat asked quietly once Scott made his way back to the van.

"I have no idea." he whispered back to her "We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is." he then spoke louder and gave Scott a thumbs up "We're good! Get your helmet on, Scott. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Makes sense?"

"Perfectly not confusing." Scott answered.

"C'mon Scott, you got this." I nodded to him. He sighed and nodded back. He was scared. So was I.

Bruce then pressed a button and Scott disappeared into the Quantum Realm.

"On the count of three." Bruce said "3... 2... 1!" he pressed a button again and S...someone came back from the van.

"Uh, guys? This...this doesn't feel right." the boy spoke.

I stared at the guy, my mouth wide open. I was...confused.

"That...who is that?" Nat asked. 

Bruce pushed a few buttons, trying to fix the problem "Hold on." he said, obviously panicking.

"Is that Scott?" Nat asked, squinting at the guy.

"Yes, it's Scott!" the boy shouted back.

The boy soon disappeared back into the Realm, but then an old man in the Ant-Man suit came back out "Ow! My back!" 

"What even--?" I tried to form a question "Can you bring him back?"

"I'm working on it!" Bruce yelled back at me. He pushed a few buttons again and another person appeared in front of us. This time I guess it was baby Scott.

"It's a baby." I stated the obvious.

"It's Scott." Bruce stated.

"As a baby!" Natasha yelled at him.

"He'll grow." Bruce said, like it was going to make things better.

"Bring Scott back!" Nat yelled again. I just...watched.

"When I say kill the power, kill the power." he motioned to me.

"Oh my god." Nat sighed as I ran-walked to the generator.

"And... Kill it!" Bruce said and I pulled the lever. Everything shut down and Scott, the normal one, came back out.

"Somebody peed my pants." was the first thing he said.

"Oh thank god." Nat let out a sigh of relief.

"But I don't know if it was baby me or old me...Or just me me." Scott continued.

Bruce held up his hands in a dramatic way "Time travel!"

It didn't work. We failed. Again. Another chance of getting my firends back, ruined. Why even bother to try again? Failure was the only thing I thought about, again. It crushed me inside, I hated it. I tried to hold my tears in. Tears of disappointment and despair. The ones I've been holding in since Tony refused to help us. But I couldn't do it anymore. So I ran. I ran outside, hoping fresh air would help.

"What? I..I see this as an absolute win!" Bruce yelled after me, like there was anything he could say to make me feel better.