A Better Future For Us

Chapter 9

Peter and May got back to the compound around 5 in the evening. May had gotten Peter out of school for at least a month pretending that he had a broken leg from an incident and he needed a few more weeks of recovery. The school still required him to do homework so they would send him all his homework through email. For Peter, this was the best-case scenario. Even though they wanted him to do homework about topics he's already learned about, at least he didn't have to show his face to any of the teachers.

They found Tony sitting on the couch staring at nothing in particular. Peter knew something had changed, Peter glanced at May who just nodded and went to go to her room. Peter cautiously made his way to Tony and sat down.

"Steve and the other rogues are going to be here tomorrow." Peter nodded understandably. "I know it's irrational but I'm afraid to see Steve. At least Barnes is somewhere in Wakanda and I don't have to see him yet. It's not all water under the bridge but we have to get along which sucks."

Peter just nodded.

"This isn't going to be easy Tony, we're in the endgame now," Peter said looking over at Tony. "But if we work together we'll win. The first time Thanos came we lost because the avengers were gone. The second time we won, but it didn't feel that way. We lost so much. That's why I'm here now Tony, so the world doesn't face the loss that big. I need a team, not a group of people that don't work well together. You know Barnes had no control over what happened that night. If you need to blame it on anyone, blame it on Hydra. Yes, Steve didn't make the right choices in Siberia but you need to put that behind you and move forward or you'll always be stuck in the past."

Tony let out a shaky breath and nodded.

"You're pretty good at speeches kid," Tony said. "I think it's time to start preparing your plan. Let's head down to the lab."

Peter and Tony walked into the lab. Tony pulled up the holographic blueprints for the time machine and stared at them.

"Do you think this will really work?" Tony asked. Peter walked over to Tony and looked at them.

"They look identical Tony. They'll work." Tony smiled at Peter. Tony glanced down at Peter's hand which was holding the pager.

"You think it's time to call Mrs. Marvel?"

Peter nodded.

"We need to give her as much time as we can so she can get the other heroes from space."

Tony nodded.

"Alright then activate it, put it on the charger and let's start working on the time machine."

Peter took a deep breath and activated it.

They spent the next two hours working on the time machine in one of the airplane hangers in the compound. They had gotten a good chunk of it done when they heard loud, determined footsteps coming down the hall.

Peter raised his head to where the noise was coming from only to see the one, the only Captain Marvel walking furiously towards them. She raised her fists up which started glowing dangerously.

In a panic, Peter dropped his tool and raised his hands up. When the tool clattered to the ground Tony raised his head up and saw the predicament. Like Peter, he also put his hands up in surrender.

"Where is Fury," Carol demanded.

"He gave us the pager Mrs. Captain Marvel." Peter stuttered out. Carol gave Peter a curious look.

"Why would he give you two the pager?" Carol challenged.

"Uh maybe because Nick gave us the pager because there's a big threat coming to Earth and said threat can wipe out half of existence." Tony barked back. "Also he's from the future ask him," Tony said, gesturing to Peter.