Everything was a bit more organised once Tony had turned up. There was a sense of action, that they were really doing this. Emil could feel it and he could barely stop bouncing. There was a jitter in his veins, half hope and excitement, half anxiety and panic. They had a chance. He had a chance. It was slim and barely more than a glimmer, a half lit spark at best. But that was the best spark of seeing Peter again. Of seeing his dad, May, Shuri, T'Challa, Ned, MJ, Sam, Wanda. It was a chance of seeing them come back.

The first thing they did was call everyone. They were unable to reach Carol, but Nebula and Rocket replied. Rhodes responded as well, but Okyote was stuck in Wakanda. She was the best they had at leading he country now, she had other things to attend to. But she offered to lend a hand if they needed it. Natasha had left to Japan to find Clint. She had insisted on going on her own and they trusted her to bring Hawkeye back. If there was a man who wanted a shot at this, it would be him.

Emil was sat out on the green outside with Scott. They were on a stone bench leaning against the walls of the building and looking out across the grass towards the glimmer of the sea. The man was trying to eat his tacos under the bright sun. Emil glanced at him and the man paused with the tack raised halfway to his mouth. His face was contorted in a ridiculous expression.

"What?" He asked. Emil shrugged and looked away. Scott sighed and put his taco back in it's wrapper. He looked Emil up and down, brows furrowing as the fully took Emil's appearance in. "Look kid. How old are you?"

Emil shrugged again. "I don't really know. I'd guess about seventeen or eighteen".

"How do you not know your age?" Scott asked dubiously. Emil gave him a look and he blinked in comprehension. "Oh yeah. Child assassin. I remember. But, shouldn't you be older. The last time I saw you, you were around fourteen and that was years ago. Add the five years I missed, then you should be in your early twenties". Scott looked Emil over. "Twenty one or two", he guessed. "But you still look the same, apart from the hair cut". He pointed at Emil's head. Emil raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well I lost a few years too", he muttered. Scot patted him on the shoulder consolingly.

"I'm sorry kid".

The conversation faltered off into awkward silence.mScott raised the taco back up to take a bite. He was interrupted by the roar of an engine from above as a dark shape glided over the building. Emil stood up eagerly as a familiar spaceship lowered on to the grass. The wind from the boosters blew all of the filling from Scott's taco, tugging at Emil's clothes and making his eyes water. Scott looked at the empty shell sadly.

"Nebula, rocket!" Emil waved as the landing doors opened. Nebula, in all her blue skin glory, sauntered out. Her face did not smile upon seeing Emil, but there was something in her black gaze which was fond. Behind her, Rocket was stood on the ramp. He waved his paw at Emil in greeting.

Scott stared as Nebula walked past. Emil kept pace with her as they headed inside.  She barely glanced at Scott's wide eyed face. "Rhodes", she said into her wrist com. "Be careful upon re-entry. There's a idiot in the landing zone". Emil snorted at her deadpan tone.

"I missed you", he stated. "No one does sarcasm as good as you". He fell into step beside her as a whoosh signalled Rhodes' entry above.

There was a metallic thump as Rhodes landed on to concrete behind them. Emil turned around and smiled at him. "Evening regular sized man", Rhodes grinned at Scott as he walked past. He caught up with Nebula and Emil, metal suit clanking as he walked.

"Hey Emil, how are you?" Rhodes asked. He and Emil fist bumped and the man threw an arm around the teen's shoulders. "Back from space I see".

"Yeah been back about a week", Emil replied as they entered the building. The group walked through the building to the office rooms and lounge where Tony and Steve were waiting. They passed Bruce on the way. The green giant handed Nebula and Rhodes a taco each before going out to meet Rocket. Emil crunched in his hungrily.

Steve and Tony were in the meeting room facing a large holographic screen. Both of them turned as they walked in. "Hey Rhodes, good to see you", Tony said as he and Rhodes shook hands. His metal suit folded back so that it was just incasing his legs as he and Tony bumped shoulders.

"Rhodes, Nebula", Steve nodded at them both.

"Cap", Rhodes nodded back.

"Angry blue", Tony waved.

"Stark, Captain", Nebula stated, crossing her arms. "I trust this mission is important". She gave them her usual angry blank stare. Tony swallowed and lowered his hand.

"It is highly important", Emil grinned as he stuck his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.

"Right", Tony nodded at Emil's words. "You guys ever heard of time travel?"

Emil smiled as Tony and Steve launched into the story of Scott and the details of the plan. With the others here and the Avengers assembling, Emil could not shake the anticipation crawling in his veins. Things were finally moving ahead. In what direction, he didn't know, but things were finally moving and it was great.

—

With more people helping, namely Rocket, the time travel machine was built within a few weeks. Tony and Bruce had some fancy name for it that way too many long words. Emil and Rocket called it the loop de loop. Scott still referred to the whole plan as the time heist. Steve and Thor called it the time machine. Everyone else didn't care. (Natasha and Nebula referred to them all as infants a few times and rolled their eyes).

After the relatively straightforward process of building the actual time machine was over, there came the hard part of the actual planning. So far it had been theoretical. Bop back in time, collect the stones, bring them back to the future, some one snaps and boom, people! Now they actually had to create timelines of the times and places the stones had been recorded and try and find a pattern between them all. Luckily, or unluckily (as is was what got them into this mess in the first place), they'd all had contact with all of the infinity stones at some point or another. They each took turns to tell their stories and try and make sense of the timeline. It was a bit difficult with the whole different galaxies and stuff but Rocket was pretty up to date with the earth concept of time.

("So how long were you guys fighting these things for?" Rocket asked as they watched footage of the battle of New York.

"About two to three hours", Natasha replied.

"Why didn't you just blow up the mothership?"

"We didn't know that was a thing", Steve pointed out. Rocket chortled.

"You didn't know that was a thing. The chitari are like the shittiest army in the galaxy and you didn't know that was a thing", he laughed. Tony flicked him on the ear.

"Ouch")

There was the space stone. A stone of deep blue that powered the tessaract. The object which had given both Emil and Carol their powers. It was the thing that allowed transportation and brought Loki to earth, causing the battle of New York. This was the one which was the most traceable. Most of its time having been either on earth or on Asgard. (Emil had offered what he knew about the Tessaract but he didn't know very much. The constant switch between shield and hydra was very confusing).

("So it fell into the sea where Howard stark found it years later and gave it to shield", Steve explained.

Everyone nodded. "So why did you crash the plane?" Rhodes asked.

Steve looked at him. "Bombs".

"Yeah but why didn't you just, I don't know, jump out before it crashed?"
Steve sighed.)

Then there was the mind stone. The yellow stone which had come from Loki's sceptre and had been used to create vision. It had been apart of Vision. Apart of his mind. Destroying it had nearly killed him. Only for Thanos to rewind time and forcibly rip it from his head. That had killed him. (Everyone got sad when talking about vision. Emil thought of Wanda).

The time stone was the third stone to be taken from earth. It was a green stone used by the wizard supreme, Dr Strange. It had apparently, according to Wu and the remnants of their order, helped them in defeating a powerful reality eating demon. This stone was hard to track. They only had knowledge of it belonging to the sorcerers, which before Thanos, they didn't know existed. (Bruce had some info on the matter but not much and no one knew how to contact Wu).

(Was their base in Shanghai or New York?" Steve asked.

"I don't know, both I think", Bruce shrugged. "Good place in New York until I crashed into the staircase".

"Out of all the buildings you fall into, you just do happen to hit the wizard", Tony muttered.)

The fourth stone was one only Thor had experience with. It was the reality stone, otherwise known as the Aether. It was a dark red stone that could also sometimes be a liquid. It had apparently lived inside the body of Thor's ex girlfriend, Jane foster, and there had been a big battle with the dark elves over it. (Thor had gotten off topic when telling that story, burped a few times then cried).

Rocket and Nebula took over telling the stories of the last two stones. The mind stone, a deep orange, and the power stone, a deep purple. The power stone had been found by Quil and had apparently caused a fight between a man's blue guy (Emil wondered why all the angry, bad aliens were a,ways blue) called Ronan and the guardians of the galaxy. Apparently it had all ended in a dance off. Nebula then took over the story of how they found the souls stone on a planet called vormir. It was there where Thanos had murdered her sister, Gamora.

——

"You know", Natasha wondered out loud after two days of constant planning. They had gathered all the information. Empty Chinese boxes were stacked on one corner of the table. Note paper and pens littered the flat surfaces, decorated in writing and scribbled drawings. There was one with a very detailed sketch of the metal plates and designs of Nebula's face next to Emil's notebook, along with various other drawings of the rest of the avengers.

Natasha, rocket and Tony were sprawled our across the massive meeting table, pillows under their heads. Bruce, Steve and Rhodes were on the floor. Thor was snoring in an armchair in the corner, black shades hanging off his nose. (Emil still hadn't gotten used to the beer belly and massive beard. It was quite the change from all the pictures of hims before. Emil had only met him recently. The god seemed very sad). While Nebula, Clint and Emil were still in office chairs. Clint had his feet up on the desk next to rocket as he dozed. Nebula had her head on her arms as she rolled a pencil around. Emil was half asleep, all long bony limbs tucked in as he listened to his earphones. (It was a Cavetown playlist. If Peter was still here, he would say that Emil was a lemon boy).

"If we get the year right, then there were three stones in New York at the same time".

There was a clatter as Bruce knocked a pile of notebooks over. He sat up and looked around the room. "Get out of town".

"Yeah look", Natasha held up her notes. "2012. The battle of New York".

"Does this mean I can go to bed now?" Emil asked with a yawn.

Unedited