________________________________

to Steve, and erased it every time she typed it out. Finally, she took a deep breath, and sent a message.

I'm in.

She let out the breath she was holding, and drummed her fingers on her knee. She almost jumped out of her chair when her phone vibrated.

Knew you'd come through. Meet us at the compound.

She giddily stood up, going to get her things. In the kitchen sat Tony, deep in thought. She didn't know if she should tell him that she was joining the rest of the team, and feared he'd be betrayed. Worried of this, she decided to keep it under wraps.

"Hey," He spoke. "Am I making the right decision?"

Shit. Should she tell him?

"I don't know, Tony. Only you can decide that."

"Yeah, I guess." He mumbled.

She left him sitting there, going to grab a backpack. She packed a change of clothes, not knowing if she'd be at the compound for a while.

She snuck out of the kitchen door, taking one last glance at Tony. He was vigorously writing something down, but he was always doing that. She got in her car, and raced to the compound.

Once she arrived, she walked in to find Steve, Natasha, and Scott all sitting.

"We knew you'd come around," Nat smiled.

"As crazy as you guys sounded, it just might work." Alex replied.

They chatted for a few minutes before a fifth person entered the room. Upon his entry, Alex almost spit out her energy drink.

"What the fuck?"

There stood Bruce, or, at least half of him. He sheepishly smiled, like he was excited to see her but ashamed she didn't know about it sooner.

"You could say some things have changed," He spoke.

"Uh, yeah, you're all...Hulky."

"Thank you."

"Any other changes I should know about before we get started?" Alex looked around the room. "No? Okay, let's do this."

They set up Scott's van in the middle of the testing room, where they had plenty of room in case it, you know, blew up. Bruce began to fiddle with the buttons on his makeshift control panel. Scott suited up, and walked over to the van. After little deliberation, he was decided the test subject.

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

The doors to the van were opened, and the 'Quantum Tunnel' began to glow as it started up.

"Breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby." Steve walked over, stress evident on his face.

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

Alex gave him a look as Scott's ears perked up. "Excuse me?"

"He's kidding," Natasha assured.

"I-It was a bad joke," Bruce stammered.

"You'll be fine." Alex gave a nod.

"You were kidding, right?" Natasha whispered.

"I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is." Bruce panicked. He suddenly turned to Scott, offering a smile and 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. Make sense?"

"Perfectly not confusing." Scott chuckled nervously.

Steve stood tall. "Good luck, Scott. You got this."

"You're right. I do, Captain America." He gushed.

"Jesus Christ." Alex muttered. "Start it up."

Bruce pressed the buttons, and Scott evaporated right in front of them. A couple seconds, which felt like eternity, passed.

"On the count of three. 3...2....1!" Bruce punched the rest of the buttons.

Suddenly, a person in the same suit appeared before them. However, they didn't recognize who it was.

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

"What is that?" Alex deadpanned.

"What's going on?"

"Who is that?"

Bruce panicked and began to push random buttons.

"Is that Scott?"

"Yes, it's Scott!" Teenager Scott chirped.

Teen Scott gets sucked back into the Quantum Tunnel as the team begins to panic. When he comes back out, he appears as an old man.

"Ow, my back!" He winced.

"It's a bag of bones." Alex rolled her eyes.

"What is this?" Steve worried.

"Can I get a little space here?" Bruce gasped.

"Can you bring him back?" The team moved from Bruce's control panel.

"I'm working on it!"

Grandpa Scott was gone, and in place of him sat an infant. The team was dumbfounded as the child stared back at them with a vacant expression.

"It's a baby." Steve deadpanned.

"It's Scott," Bruce tried.

"As a baby!" Alex snapped.

Bruce motioned to Nat. "When I say kill the power, kill the power."

"Oh my god." Nat rapidly ran to the power box.

Alex crossed her fingers as Bruce punched more buttons. The Quantum Tunnel glowed, spitting regular Scott back out. Alex sighed in relief along with the rest of the team when they saw him standing there.

"Somebody peed my pants." Scott spoke.

Alex's hand slapped her forehead.

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

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

Steve shook his head, exiting the building. Alex walked over to Scott to help him over to the bathroom, and Nat just rolled her eyes.

"What? I see this as an absolute win!" Bruce's voice was heard back in the testing room.

"You okay, Scott?" She sighed.

"I'm fine. Quantum Realm travel is something I'm used to, but reliving my teen years? That was rough."

She chuckled. "Well, we're gonna take a recess and figure out what went wrong. Go ahead and change, and meet everyone in the board room."

He nodded, heading into the bathroom. Alex walked back to the room, dragging her feet. She was slightly frustrated that their plan wasn't appearing to be working, but then again, they were literally trying to time travel. She didn't want to be the one to say it, but only one person could help right now, and that was--

"Tony?" Her eyes widened upon entering the room and seeing him sitting there with Steve. "H-Hey, what are you--"

"Cut the crap. I know you're here helping. You think I don't notice when you leave the house?"

"I, uh,"

"It's okay. You had the courage to show up when I didn't. Although it took me a second, I'm here now." Tony spoke as Alex felt relief at his lack of anger.

"So, what's the verdict?" Alex grinned.

"I'll explain when we have everyone here. We're gonna need some more people to make this work. Is people the right term? What exactly are you guys?"

Alex looked over to the corner of the room where she realized Nebula and Rocket were. Rhodey walked in seconds later, nodding at the team.

"Fantastic." Alex marveled. "Clint?"

"Natasha is going to handle it. You, however, have your own task."

"And what would that be?"

Tony sighed. "You need to get Thor back on board."

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Alex traveled in a pickup truck along with Bruce and Rocket to retrieve Thor. She was amazed that the entirety of Asgard was now reestablished in the green countryside of Norway. The small town sat on a port, where the people now looked like locals, instead of characters at ComicCon.

They all stepped out of the car, perplexed at the sight.

"Kind of a step down from a golden palace for an Avenger highness and whatnot."

Bruce shook his head. "Hey, have a little compassion, pal. First they've lost Asgard, then half the people. They're probably just happy to have a home."

"Let's just find Thor and get out of here." Alex spoke.

She looked over to see 142 looking over at them, so she grinned and headed over to her.

"Long time no see,"

"You shouldn't have come." 142 simply said.

"Great to see you, Angry Girl." Bruce smiled.

142 looked him up and down, taking in his new form. "I think I liked you better either of the other ways."

"This is Rocket," Alex motioned.

"How you doin'?"

"He won't see you." She replied, eyeing Rocket without saying anything to him.

"That bad, huh?"

"We only see him once a month, when he comes for.." She nodded to piles of kegs and cases of beer. "..Supplies."

"It's that bad."

"Yeah. Best of luck. Where's the boyfriend?" 142 asked Alex.

"Nonexistent."

"Better off that way, hm?" 142 grinned.

"I've managed."

The group walked to the house 142 pointed out. It was small, but looked the same as all the others. Right before they went through the front door, something caught Alex's eye.

Leaning on the fence outside the house, stood a smirking man.

"I'll meet you guys in there, I'm going to call Tony." Alex spoke, her narrowed eyes on the man. Bruce and Rocket nodded, walking in.

"What could you possibly need right now?" She growled.

"Just wait until you see the idiot on the other side of that door." Loki chuckled.

"Can't be much worse than the one in front of me."

"Ouch."

"Is this going to be a regular thing? Because I'd like to opt out. I've got a serious mission to focus on now, and I don't need surprise visits from someone who is--"

She glanced over to see someone glancing at her, most likely disturbed she appeared to be talking to herself.

"--dead to me." She whisper yelled.

"I've got nothing better to do." He shrugged, inspecting his finger nails.

"Well, find something. Plenty of hobbies to choose from."

He pretended to think for a moment.

"No, I quite enjoy watching you fail."

She was practically fuming. "I wish you did vanish. Because, then, I could bring you back through all this, then kill you myself."

"We've been over this. You threaten to kill me, but we both know you can't go through with it. You love me too much." He winked.

"I'm through with this conversation, and I'm through with you." She stated.

"You'll be through with me when I say so." His voice dropped low. He reached out to her face, and she felt a gust of wind under her ear. He brought his hand back, grinning at her fluttering eyes. She cursed herself for falling into his trap, slapping her forehead when he disappeared.

She shook her head and entered the house.

"What the hell?" She blurted as she saw Thor.

"Clark!" He greeted, turning away from Bruce, who seemed to be trying to have a serious conversation.

"Thor, focus." Bruce spoke. "I get it. You're in a rough spot, okay? I've been there myself. You wanna know who helped me out of it?"

"I don't know. Is it..Natasha?" Thor drunkenly slurred.

"Just so we're on the same page, what are we talking about?" Alex spoke, walking closer to them.

"I'm trying to convince him to come, and you're totally ruining it." Bruce threw his hands up.

"Stop. Stop, okay?" Thor rips open a bag of mnm's. "I know you think I'm down here wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting to be rescued and saved. But I'm fine, okay? We're fine, aren't we?" Thor spoke to Miek and Korg, whom Alex recognized from Sakaar.

"This is a straight up cry for help." Alex muttered. "Listen, Thor. I get you're in a rut. But, I'm going to be honest with you. This is pathetic."

"Hey." Thor mumbled.

"So, you want to get revenge? Stand up, do a push-up or two--or twenty--and come with us. I'm desperate to get our team back. And I know you are too, okay? Please?"

Thor looked up at her,, and set his bottle of beer down on the floor. "That was kind of a bad pep talk."

"It's been five years since I've given one." She whispered. "Can you just work with it?"

"We need you, pal." Bruce added.

Thor shook his head, sulking.

Rocket crossed his arms before saying, "There's beer on the ship."

"What kind?" Thor's eyes lit up.

"Jesus Christ. I'm never giving you a pep talk again. You don't deserve my pep talks."

"To the ship!" Bruce happily sang.

"We've got a lot to catch up on, Clark." Thor said as he gathered his things.

"Yeah. More than you know."

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𝚑𝚒𝚒𝚒𝚒 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜

𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚊 𝚠 𝚊 𝚜𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝚞𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚝! 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢'𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜!

𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘, 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚕 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑???

𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚈𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚟𝚘𝚝𝚎