thirty : i've got a feeling we're not in 2023 anymore

      AFTER TONY HAD COME BACK TO THE COMPOUND WITH A TIME TRAVEL SOLUTION, CLINT WENT FIRST IN TESTING IT WITH THE TIME TRAVEL SUIT AND PYM PARTICLES. When Clint had appeared back in the circle of the new time machine, Natasha wasted no time in rushing toward the man who was in some sort of shock. Everyone else followed closely behind.

      "Hey. Hey, look at me." Natasha put her hands both sides of Clint's head, trying to see if anything went wrong. But Clint stood up, looking around him in an after-state of the time travel. "You okay?"

      "Yeah. Yeah." Clint panted, Natasha dropping one hand and using the other to comfortingly pat his chest. "It worked." Natasha and Clint looked to each other before turning to the rest with shocked faces. "It worked."

      Clint threw something back to Tony, everyone breathing a breath of relief.

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The only problem with time travel, was that it was unpredictable. So, they had to make a plan that didn't have any unpredicted surprises. And that was easier said than done.

      The stones were in all sorts of places over time, and they needed to find the correct spots to travel to, or they'd be screwed.

      "Okay, so the how works." Steve began a hologram presentation of the Stones appearances, along with enemies that have tried to take them. "Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones."

Elaine snorted at the word "encounter", and Tony spoke her thoughts. "Or substitute the word "encounter" for "damn near been killed" by one of the six Infinity Stones."

Scott was like a schoolboy sitting so properly in his chair. "Well, I haven't.. but I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."

Bruce interjected, walking around since there wasn't a chair large enough for him. "Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history." Tony stated matter-of-factly, as if it was the most important thing. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?"

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint followed along.

"Correct." Tony nodded, a coffee in hand.

"So, let's start with the Aether." Steve decided. "Thor, what do you know?"

Everyone in the room turned to the God that was slumped back in a chair in the corner with a pitch black pair of sunglasses on his face. There was no response.

With the ends of her hair between her fingers, Natasha tilted her head beside Elaine. "Is be asleep?"

Rhodes responded sarcastically. "No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead."

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"Uh, where to start?" Thor dragged along as he took off the sunglasses. "Um.. The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before." He pointed an accusing finger at Steve. "It's more of an angry sludge sort of a thing.. so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that." He spoke while putting in eye drops. Oh, god. "Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves. Ooh." He made a spooky noise before chuckling in amusement.

Even Nebula looked annoyed.

"Scary beings. So, Jane, actually.." A picture of her popped up, which Thor instantly smiled at. "Oh, there she is. Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and then the Aether stuck itself inside her.." Steve tilted his head, and Elaine instantly laughed at his dirty mind. "and she became very, very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from.." Scott was smiling and nodding along like a cute little boy being told a bedtime story. "and we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see.. and I got to introduce her to my mother.. who's dead and, um.. Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so.."

As he rambled on, Bruce was mouthing for someone to stop him, but Elaine kicked her feet up on the table, sucking on a blueberry lollipop.

"Yes, these things happen, though. You know? Nothing lasts forever.. the only thing that—"

Tony quickly interrupted him. "Why don't you come sit down?"

"I'm not done yet." Thor gently pushed Tony away. "The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence."

Tony gave a few claps before patting Thor's shoulder. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?"

"No. I'd like a Bloody Mary." Thor gave an innocent smile before they finally got him to sit down.

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It was around 9 P.M, and everyone was starving. They ordered out the whole Panda's Express and filled their table with their takeout before eating and listening to Rocket's information on the Power Stone.

"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket was now presenting, standing on the table while Elaine ate her noodles.

"Is that a person?" Bruce asked.

"No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket clarified.

"Like a planet?" Scott asked, very excited. "Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space?" Rocket began ruffling Scott's hair while he sucked the noodles up. "You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."

Scott was unamused.

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"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula was now presenting her information on the Soul Stone.

"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked, taking notes like she was in class.

"A dominion of death.. at the very center of celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister."

There was a long silence, everyone dreading that trip.

"Not it." Bruce declared.

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Almost everyone was asleep or just left since they weren't needed anymore. Natasha was between Elaine and Tony, all of them lying on the table while Bruce was lying on the floor.

"That Time Stone guy." Natasha stated.

"Doctor Strange." Bruce specified.

"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"

"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat." Tony shortly explained.

"Nice place in the Village, though." Bruce pointed out.

"Yeah, on Sullivan Street?" Elaine twirled a pen between her fingers.

"Mm, Bleecker Street." Bruce added.

"Wait, he lived in New York?" Natasha asked, utterly confused.

"No, no. He lived in Toronto." Tony said.

"Uh, yeah on Bleecker and Sullivan." Bruce laughed at Natasha's confusion.

Elaine and Natasha both had the same thoughts. "Guys." Elaine laughed in disbelief. "If you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York."

Tony shifted in his spot, causing a ruffling sound to combine with Bruce sitting up in awe.

"Shut the front door."

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The hologram was now showing the stones and the place they were, with the name of the operation being: TIME HEIST.

"All right. We have a plan. Six stones, three teams, one shot." Steve finalized the announcement as everyone but Thor stood, the God eating a bowl of soup.

Elaine rolled her eyes, using her telekinesis to fling the bowl onto the floor, snorting at his reacting before they all got changed into the time travel suits.

This was really happening.

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The newly assembled Avengers walked in a group to the time portal, all of them prepared, but still nervous. They had to win.

They needed to bring everyone back.

Of course, Elaine felt a twitch in her fingers before a dark pit consumed her. She felt something bad. She couldn't push this away, but she could try to mask the horrible feeling in her gut.

"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams. You know your missions. Get the stones. Get them back. One round-trip each. No mistakes.. no do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives.. and we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."

"He's pretty good at that." Elaine heard Rocket say as very one got in their right spots.

"Right?" Scott scoffed in amazement.

"All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green." Tony perked.

With a few more words being thrown around, Elaine gave a smile to everyone as her fists uncontrollably clenched.

"See ya in a minute." Natasha smirked, the machine whirring as everyone secured their helmets.

Sucking them into the portal was uncomfortable and drained the energy from most. The flashing lights made Elaine want to burn her eyes shut, but she couldn't. She had to follow them into the right direction or she could get lost.

Flashes of her family watching TV in their small apartment blinded her vision until she finally felt solid ground again, immediately removing the helmet to breathe.

On the alien planet, everyone quickly retracted their suits, the nanoparticles retracting into their time travel devices on their hands.

Looking up, everything around Elaine was so beautiful.

But they weren't in their home anymore.