dakota stark, tony stark, and pepper pots were in the park, enjoying a calm stroll. "i'm totally not kidding." tony said to pepper, stopping by a tree.

"you're totally rambling." she replied.

"no. i'm not." he insisted. "look, you know how you're having a dream, and in the dream you gotta pee? and then you're like 'oh my god, there's no bathroom, what am i gonna do? oh, someone's watching, i'm gonna go in my pants.'"

pepper nodded. "right, and then you wake up, and in real life you actually have to pee."

"yeah, everybody has that." dakota said, folding her arms across her chest.

"right! that's the point i'm trying to make." tony said. "apropos of that, last night, i dreamt, we," he gestured to himself and pepper, "had a kid. so real. we named him after your eccentric uncle. uh, what was his name? morgan? morgan!"

pepper nodded. "so you woke up, and thought we were.. no."

"i had a dream about it, it was so real. don't you want a little brother?" tony asked dakota, who raised her brows in response.

pepper shook her head. "if you wanted to have another kid, you wouldn't have done that." she tapped tony's arc reactor.

"i'm glad you brought this up," he said, "'cause it's nothing. it's just a housing unit for nano particles."

"it's not helping your case." kodie said, patting his shoulder.

"no, no, it's an attachment, it's not a-"

"you don't need that." pepper said insistently.

tony shook his head. "i know. i had the surgery. i'm just trying to protect us. the future uses, and that's it. just in case there's a monster in the closet, instead of, you know.."

"shirts?" dakota asked, watching as he turned his head.

"she's right." pepper agreed. "you should have shirts in your closet."

"yeah. you know what there should be? no more surprises. let's have a nice dinner tonight, no more surprises. ever. i promise you." tony said, leaning in to kiss pepper.

just as he promised for no more surprises, a portal appeared infront of them. out stepped a man, clad in a large cape. "tony and dakota stark," the man said, looking at the both of them, "i'm doctor stephen strange. i need you to come with me. oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way." he said to tony and pepper.

"i'm sorry," dakota said, crossing her arms over her chest, "you giving out tickets or something?"

strange didn't appear amused. "we need your help. look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake."

"and who's 'we'?" tony asked.

from behind dr. strange emerged none other than bruce banner, who the starks hadn't seen since the events in sokovia. he walked to tony and dakota, giving the both of them a desperate hug.

"you okay?" tony asked as bruce collapsed into his arms, getting no response. he looked over to dakota, then back to dr. strange.

"what's going on?" dakota asked the man.

⎊‎⎊‎⎊

at strange's wizard place, wong used magic to outline the objective. "from the dawn of the universe," he said, "there was nothing. then, boom. the big bang sent six elemental crystals, hurtling across the virgin universe. these infinity stones each control an essential aspect of existence."

strange named off the stones, the magic progressions of them lighting up. "space, reality, power, soul, mind, and," strange opened the eye of agamotto, the necklace he wore, revealing a stone, "time."

dakota stood from her seat next to tony, crossing her arms and approaching strange and wong. "these are the stones thor told us about." kodie mumbled as she looked at the images. she turned around to look at her father. "before sokovia. one of them is in vision."

"tell me his name again." tony said, attentive from his seat.

"thanos." bruce reminded him, walking towards dakota and tony, who had stood up. "he's a plague, tony. he invades planets. he takes what he wants, he wipes out half the population. he sent loki." dakota looked up, raising a brow. "the attack on new york, that's him."

dakota bit her lip, looking over at her father. "what's our timeline?" she asked.

"no telling." bruce shrugged. "he has the power and space stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. if he gets his hands on all six stones, tony..."

strange cut him off. "he can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of."

tony leaned onto a cauldron, stretching as if he was about to go on a run. "did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamt of'?"

"are you seriously leaning on the cauldron of the cosmos?" he retorted. his cloak reached out to smack tony, surprising him.

tony shook his head, offended, as he straightened himself. "if thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?" he gestured to the necklace on strange's neck, and dakota shrugged, agreeing with her father.

"no can do." strange replied.

"we swore an oath to protect the time stone." wong said. "with our lives."

"and i swore off dairy," tony replied, "but then, ben & jerry's named a flavor after me, so..."

kodie shook her head, looking over at her father. "it's hazelnut, literally no one likes hazelnut ice cream. except for hazel, but that's only because she thinks it's named after her."

wong nodded his agreement. "a hunka-hulka burning fudge is our favorite." bruce turned to him in confusion, and then looked back to dakota as if to confirm that it was a real thing. bruce had missed a lot while he'd been off-planet.

"personally, i like the dakota dough. it's a great cookie dough." kodie added.

"whatever," tony said, "point is: things change."

"our oath to protect the time stone cannot change." strange told tony, getting back to the topic at hand. "this stone may be the best chance we have against thanos."

dakota shrugged. "or, alternatively, his best chance against us."

"well, if we don't do our jobs." strange said.

tony turned to the man. "what is your job, exactly, besides making balloon animals?" he said in a slightly condescending tone.

"protecting your reality, douchebag." strange replied in a completely calm manner.

"i can't tell whose sarcasm is better." dakota said, looking between the two.

bruce only shook his head. "okay, guys, could we table this discussion right now? the fact is that we have this stone, we know where it is. vision is out there somewhere with the mind stone, and we have to find him now."

"yeah, that's the thing.." tony said awkwardly.

"what do you mean?" bruce asked.

"vision turned off his transponder two weeks ago." dakota told him, sitting down on the steps with her head in her hands. "he's offline." she confirmed, looking up again.

bruce turned to tony. "you lost another super bot?"

"who could find vision, then?" strange asked, looking among the group.

dakota thought for a moment before looking at her father, slightly worried. "probably steve rogers." she said, watching as tony groaned and shook his head. "dad, just call him."

"call him." bruce repeated.

"it's not that easy." tony said, forgetting that bruce hadn't been there for any of the events of the past few years. "god, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we? the avengers broke up." he informed him. "we're toast."

bruce appeared let down, thoroughly surprised. "broke up?" he questioned. "like a band? like the beatles?"

"like one direction." kodie confirmed, standing up and approaching the group. "we're not really in contact with cap, and they're not on speaking terms." she gestured to tony.

bruce furrowed his brows. "thor's gone." he announced, his voice breaking. "thanos is coming, it doesn't matter who you're talking to or not."

dakota watched as tony pulled out the flip phone steve had mailed him. he brought it with him almost everywhere, as if he was always on the brink of calling steve. her gaze shifted from him to the doctor in front of her. she was then distracted by a distant rumbling. "hey, strange, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would you?" she asked.

strange looked up at the fluttering pieces of hair. "not at the moment, no."

dakota looked up at the opening in the ceiling, watching as debris flew by outside. biting her cheek, kodie followed her father outside, watching as chaos erupted in their surroundings. people were running all over the place, and as a woman fell, tony helped her stand up.

"f.r.i.d.a.y., what are we looking at?" dakota asked.

"not sure." the ai replied. "i'm working on it."

tony turned to strange. "you might wanna put that time stone in your back pocket, doc!"

"might wanna use it." strange replied, already working his magic. dakota made her way down the street, stopping as she saw a circular ship just floating over bleecker street.

"that might be a problem." she mumbled, bringing her hair up into a ponytail.