3rd Person POV

"You invented time travel?" Ash asked Tony as they sat in the Lab being tested by him and Bruce to make sure they were fully healthy after being in a coma for 5 years before Rocket arrived to take the three of them, minus Tony, to get Thor.

"And it took ya o'ly 7 hours?" JJ asked as she messed around with a reflex hammer while Bruce was reading her blood pressure and noting it down on an oversized clipboard.

"Yep and yep." Tony answered both their questions before he grabbed a device that looked like a long, flat saber from the lab bench and told them while holding it up to the side away from him, "Alright, both of you, one at a time, blast this."

Ash complied with a raised eyebrow and fired a stream of flames at the device and was surprised when it took the heat and only glowed red for a few seconds before cooling back down. The handle where Tony was holding it beeped and he revealed that there was a small screen there as he read off with a mock nonchalant tone,

"Your fire's running a little cold by a few hundred degrees buuut other than that you're fine."

Ash side shrugged in understanding before Tony moved to stand in front of JJ and started to say,

"Now just-"

*Zap*

Before he was cut off by JJ shooting a bolt of electrical energy at the device making it spark up from where the blade was blasted off and Tony looked at JJ in a mix of annoyance and shocked disbelief as he finished his sentence,

"-let me calibrate this to be able to handle your blasts."

"Oops?" JJ held up her hands in apology.

"Well I can safely say that if you can do this kind of damage to a metal alloy with a melting point of 6,150 degrees Fahrenheit, your powers are working just fine. I see patience isn't something you both share."

The last comment made JJ moan out loud as she leaned her head back and asked,

"What's with everyone comparing me an' Ash? Just because we was born at the same time don't make us exactly the same."

"Not with that grammar either..." Bruce muttered out the side of his mouth before Tony noted,

"Hold up, you both are twins?"

"Nah she was born already a year older than me." JJ tried to wave off the question before Ash corrected her by saying,

"Actually now we're the same age so technically we could be called twins."

Making JJ look at her in question and Ash just told her,

"Sakaar."

And JJ made an "Aah" expression before going back to the point she made earlier,

"Seriously though, why does ever'one assume we're gonna be the same? Thor was the same way."

"Honestly aside from the whole you two's prophecy thing I wouldn't have guessed that." Tony casually spoke as he picked up the other half of the device now that it had been able to cool down.

"Whas he talkin' about?" JJ hooked a thumb in Tony's direction and Ash's eyes widened as she thought about how to explain the whole.. situation to her sister before she was saved by Steve announcing over the Compound intercom,

*The Benatar's approaching the atmosphere.*

Causing JJ to drop the matter as she yelled,

"Dad!"

Before running out the door leaving everyone else stunned before Tony asked Ash,

"Yeah how are you gonna explain the whole 'you're fated to save your entire planet' to Ms. Electric Express?"

"We're about to attempt time travel in order to bring everyone that Thanos snapped away back, can't we please just deal with one thing at a time." Ash spoke in a tone that seemed to be forced calm that could break into hysteria at any moment.

"Sure so for now," Bruce sent a stern glare over to Tony who held up his hands in mock surrender as he continued, "We just focus on one thing at a time."

"Alright." Tony shrugged unconvinced as he picked up the device pieces and headed to the Tech Lab to repair it while Bruce told Ash,

"Go on ahead, I need to grab our lunches real quick. It's gonna be a long trip."

The last part was said after Ash raised an eyebrow in question and she nodded before quickly grabbing her staff and having it shift to armband mode to head out.

After passing Nebula on her way inside, Ash made it outside where she saw JJ in the distance hugging Rocket and came out in time to have her core nearly jump out of her chest when Rhodey landed in front of Scott who dropped his lunch as he clutched his chest with a surprised,

"Oh, God!"

"What's up, regular-sized man? See ya when you get back kid."

Ash gave Rhodey a fist bump as he went inside and Bruce finally came out with their lunches and gave two of his tacos to Scott to replace the one he dropped before he and Ash caught up with JJ who was hugging the life out of Rocket and heard her ask him as she released him,

"Is that Quill's scarf?"

"Shut up." Rocket "pushed" her away before walking up the stairs into the ship with the Spark sisters and Bruce following and they took off.

As Rocket inputted the coordinates for Norway, Ash and JJ took their tacos from the box Bruce brought and started eating, JJ scarfing down five tacos in no time before reaching for her sixth and squeezing out four hot sauce packets over it like she had done with her first five.

"Hey! Leave some for me." Ash tried to grab a packet out of JJ's hand but she just smirked and held it out of her reach as she tried to grab it and laughed,

"I think yer packin' plenty of firepower 'nuff as it is."

Ash stuck out her bottom lip in a fake pout before she was able to snatch the packet away, giving a little 'ha' in victory until she saw that the packet was empty.

"Ha." JJ mocked back before looking through her belt pouches and pulling out a small red foil bag and holding it up with a sly smile as she told her,

"Let's see if these spicy poppers aged well."

"Heh." Bruce chuckled as he watched them share the spicy candies before Rocket came down from the cockpit after setting the autopilot on to tell him,

"I ain't never seen JJ this.. happy.."

"Ash either."

They both chuckled when they saw Ash blow out a small spout of flames from her mouth like a dragon after she ate a few of the spicy poppers and JJ waved the smoke away as she laughed at seeing her sister flap her hand over her mouth to wave away the smoke in her direction.

"After we save the universe an' everythin', what're they gonna do?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said they were s'posed to save their planet, yeah? Well they can't 'xactly do that if they're separated again.. and.. they're not gonna wanna pick sides on who goes with who.."

"You think they should go off of their own?" Bruce snapped quietly, his fist clenching at the thought of two kids, albeit aliens with powers, going off on their own while they were being hunted by someone who wanted to use them as weapons and the fate of their home planet rested on their shoulders.

"That ain't what I'm sayin'." Rocket answered dully before continuing, "I'm just sayin' they're kids, they shouldn't hafta worry about bringing their planet back to life. Why is it them anyway, aren't there like older ones of them who can do it?"

"We don't know anything else about what's to come for them but for now we should just focus on bringing everyone back and save 'planetary restoration' as a later problem."

"Yeah yeah's pro'ly best.." Rocket admitted before the ship's console beeped to let them know they were close to their destination but that there wasn't any open space to land close by.

"Looks like we're hitchin' a ride in." Rocket groaned as he landed a ship and they all disembarked, JJ and Ash still laughing at the latter's fire breathing show.

Once near the road, Bruce held a thumb out to a passing utility truck that had a big enough truck bed to fit all four of them as it drove them past a sign that read, "WELCOME TO NEW ASGARD, PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY." into a small port town where all the remaining Asgardians were seen going about their lives hauling crates of supplies or fish around before the truck stopped and they got off as Rocket commented,

"Kind of a step down from the golden palace and magic hammers and whatnot."

Making Bruce chastise him a bit as he told him,

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

"I'm just glad to see they're more or less in good spirits." Ash waved back to the young blonde girl she had helped five years ago as she was playing on the boardwalk with other kids.

"Why do ya talk all fancy an' proper sometimes?"

"Uhh-"

"You shouldn't have come!" They all turned to see Valkyrie standing close by with a rolled-up net at her side.

"Ah, Valkyrie! Great to see you, Angry Girl." Bruce greeted her and Valkyrie noted Bruce's appearance as she commented,

"I think I liked you better either of the other ways."

"This is Rocket." Bruce motioned to said being as he lifted an arm up in greeting,

"How you doin'?"

"You remember Ash."

"Glad to see you're not dead after all these years." Valkyrie smiled a bit at Ash.

"It's good to see you too." Ash smiled as she introduced, "This is my sister JJ."

"You're the infamous lost sister?"

"I ain't the one who was lost."

Valkyrie smirked her comeback before she turned her attention back to Rocket and Bruce as she told them seriously,

"He won't see you."

"That bad, huh?" Bruce winced before Valkyrie added,

"We only see him once a month, when he comes in for..." She trailed off to look at a pile of kegs labeled Stout and Beer as she emphasized, "...supplies..."

"It's that bad."

"Yeah."

Once they made it over to the house Thor was said to be living in, Rocket banged on the door a few times before just opening it and they went inside to see it was a mess inside and smelly too from the way Ash put a hand to her nose and Rocket grimaced,

"What the... Wooo! Something died in here."

"Hello? Thor?" Bruce called out and they heard a familiar deep voice yell back from another room,

"Are you here about the cable?"

Before they made it to the living room where they finally saw Thor, wearing casual sweatpants, no shirt, and with more than a few pounds gained since the last time they saw him.

"The Cinemax ran out about two weeks ago, and the sports were all kind of fuzzy." Thor spoke in a slurred tone as he grabbed another beer from an ice bucket.

"Thor?" Bruce questioned, still having a hard time believing it was really him.

Thor finally turned around to look at them all before exclaiming in joy,

"BOYS! Oh my God! It's so good to see you!"

Hugging Bruce and then pulling Rocket into his side for a hug as he play-growled,

"Come here, you cuddly little rascal! Grrr!"

"No no, I'm good. I'm good. That's not-That's not necessary!" Rocket tried to pull out from his hug as he was also noogied before Thor moved on to the girls,

"My favorite alien sisters!" He picked up each girl in one arm and hugged them tightly while swinging them back and forth as he lifted them off the ground.

"Too tight!"

"When's the last time you showered?!"

Ash and JJ yelled out before they were finally put down so Thor could tell them,

"Hulk, Ash, you know my friends, Miek, Korg, right?"

They looked to see the two of them sitting on the couch in the living room with gamer headsets on and Korg was wearing a floral shirt and had the gaming controller in his hand while Miek was chowing down on some pizza from one of the various pizza boxes around.

"Hey boys and girls!" Korg greeted them and Bruce held a hand up in greeting back as he told them,

"Hey guys, long time no see."

"Beer's on the bucket. There's some Kool-Aids in the fridges for you kids. Feel free to log on to the Wi-Fi. No password, obviously." He stopped when his attention turned back to the tv as he told Thor, "Thor, he's back. The kid on the TV that called me a dickhead again."

"NoobMaster."

"Yeah, NoobMaster69 called me a dickhead."

Thor took Korg's headset and started yelling into it,

"NoobMaster. Hey, it's Thor again. You know, the God of Thunder? Listen, buddy. If you don't log off this game immediately, I'm gonna fly over to your house, come down to that basement you're hiding in, rip off your arms and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR BUTT! Oh, that's right, go cry to your father, you little weasel!"

The whole time he ranted Rocket looked up at Bruce with a 'are you shitting me' look and JJ matched him with a raised eyebrow while Ash was just giving him a concerned look as Thor handed Korg his headset and he thanked him,

"Thank you, Thor."

"Let me know if he bothers you again, okay?"

"Thank you very much. I will."

"So you guys want a drink? What are you drinking? We have beer, tequila, Kool-Aids, all sorts of things." Thor asked them as he grabbed yet another bottle of beer and went over to Stormbreaker as it was hanging on a shelf and used it to open a bottle of beer.

JJ made a move to punch Thor with a flickering fist at the sight of her brother's gift being used as a bottle opener until Ash grabbed her fist and put a hand on her shoulder while shaking her head to not start anything.

Luckily, Bruce intervened by putting a hand on Thor's shoulder as he asked concerned,

"Buddy, you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine! Why, don't I look all right?" Thor asked jovially, unaware of the concerned looks everyone was giving him.

"You look like melted ice cream." Rocket bluntly declared and JJ choked on a snicker at that as Thor just laughed and asked them,

"So, what's up?"

"We need your help." Ash started and Bruce finished,

"There might be a chance we could fix everything."

"What, like the cable? *Burrp* Cause that's been driving me bananas for weeks." Thor asked, burping in the middle of his sentence from all the beer he was drinking.

"Like Thanos."

Just saying the name seemed to bring a haunting chill to the air around them and Ash and JJ held hands tightly at the bad memories that came up and Thor's smile disappeared as he grabbed Bruce's shoulder with a shaky hand as he used the other to point in his face as he muttered wavering,

"Don't.. say that name."

"Um, yeah. We don't actually say that name in here." Korg told them as he stood up from the couch and took his headphones off and Miek hid his face behind the slice of pizza he was eating at the angry tone Thor was using.

"Please take your hand off me.." Bruce gently brushed Thor's hand off of him as he coaxed, "Now, I know that... guy might scare you."

"Why would I be? Why would-why would I be scared of that guy? I'm the one who killed that guy, remember? Anyone else here killed that guy? Nope. Didn't think so. Korg, why don't you, tell everybody who chopped Thanos' big head off." Thor ranted and asked Korg and he answered with uncertainty,

"Umm... Stormbreaker?"

"Now, who's swingin' Stormbreaker?"

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

"I don't know. Is it... Natasha? Ash?"

"Well yes on Ash but it was also you. You helped me."

"Why don't you ask the Asgardians down there, how much my help was worth." Thor spoke dejectedly as he pointed out the window to gesture to the remaining Asgardians before dropping onto the sofa to say, "The ones that are left, anyway."

"I think we can bring them back."

"Stop. stop, okay? I know you think I'm down here wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting to be rescued and-and saved. But I'm fine, okay? We're fine, aren't we?"

"Nah, all good here, mate." Korg spoke up from the couch before Thor sat down on the couch next to him and Miek and told Bruce,

"So, whatever it is that you're offering, we're not into it, don't care, couldn't care less. Goodbye."

"We need you, pal..."

But Thor just shook his head and ignored him as he drank another beer and Ash looked at JJ discouraged and gave her a look that just screamed 'what are we gonna do now' before JJ's face lit up and she tapped Rocket's shoulder before jutting her head in Thor's direction with a slight smirk and he seemed to catch onto what she was saying by speaking up,

"There's beer on the ship."

Making Thor pause and put his bottle down before asking,

"What kind?"

"The strong kind." JJ folded her arms as her smirk widened.

"Then let's go already." Thor grabbed a t-shirt, sweater, and some fingerless gloves before heading out the door with the others following behind.

"See ya guys." Ash waved to Miek and Korg and they waved back before Korg shouted,

"Try not to bring him back even more scarred than before!"

Ash just nodded, not saying anything before finally heading out the door to the truck that brought them back to the ship and they flew off back toward the Compound.

While they were flying, Thor managed to get the beer he was promised and Bruce was upfront with Rocket as JJ was tuning up her boots and Ash was looking through something on her tablet.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" JJ questioned as she loaded the orbs back into their compartment in the heel.

"They're the blueprints for the.. time travel machine.. it still feels weird to say that, but I'm not a big mechanic so I'm not even sure if what I'm looking at is correct."

"Here lemme see." JJ held out her hand and Ash handed her her tablet as she scrolled through the plans and shook her head before saying, "Hold up, says here we're gonna need like 100 Megavolts of energy to power this thing and I'm pretty sure yer Earth tech don't make that much."

"Actually..." Ash looked away in thought before telling her, "We might have something..."

And standing up to go to the cockpit with her tablet in hand to tell Bruce and Rocket,

"Do you think we could make a slight detour somewhere?"

"Why?" Rocket asked and Ash held up the blueprints between the two adults as she explained,

"The machine's gonna need more energy than we can give it and we can't risk overloading a regular energy grid while we're using it if we hook it up to it, but I think there might be something we can use in Shuri's lab."

"Which is where?"

"Just fly us South, I'll let Nat know to let Okoye know we're stoppin' by really quick." Bruce told him and Rocket begrudgingly agreed and steered the ship to fly South as Ash went back to sit next to JJ as she told her with a smile,

"I know you didn't get a great look at it last time we were there, but I have a feeling you'll like Wakandan tech."

"Oh yeah?" JJ smiled with an eyebrow raised.

"Mmmhmm." Ash nodded as she looked out the window to see them making a slight turn to head South.

Short Time Skip

Once they made it through the city's holo-barrier and landed the ship, Okoye was there to greet Ash and JJ at the end of the ship's landing ramp.

"Molweni Lathitha kwaye Khanyiswa." Okoye dipped her head in greeting and Ash repeated the motion as she spoke,

"Molo umphathi."

"Whas's that mean?" JJ questioned and Okoye smiled slightly as she told Ash,

"I see articulation is not a common trait."

"No but she has a better eye for technology and we need the prototype energy amplifier Shuri made using my radiation-infused energy for the machine that just might bring back half the universe."

Okoye's smile disappeared and was replaced with a serious look as she told her,

"It should be within the laboratory repository area, all of the princess's inventions were put into storage three years ago. Do you still remember the way there?"

"As long as the lab didn't shift around." Ash partially joked as she beckoned with her hand for JJ to follow her and they walked through the lab and made it to the storage area where there were various shelves with inventions in see-through cases with number labels on them.

After using Shuri's password to unlock the door and deactivate the security system they got to work looking for the device.

"Found it!" Ash pointed to a case that contained a hexagonal prism-shaped device, the only issue was that it was on a shelf six feet above their heads.

"I got this." JJ jumped in place activating the magnetic levitation function of her boots and floated in the air right up to the shelf with the device and took it down from the shelf.

"Think you can make me a pair of those?" Ash asked her sister as she landed on the ground and jumped again to deactivate the function.

"I don't norm'lly do commissions but maaaaybeeee.." JJ drew out with a smirk as they left the room and started walking back to the ship, Ash pausing to look at an empty training room before continuing on and they both got back to the Benatar and resumed their trip back to the Compound.

Another Short Time Skip

Once the five of them made it back, they saw that Tony was already working on the machine and Rocket and JJ joined him with Ash going to the lab to make sure the amplifier was still in good working condition before hooking it up to the machine.

When it was deemed good to go, Ash was behind Tony carrying some cables to the machine before they almost ran into Thor who was just walking around aimlessly carrying another beer in his hand so Tony called out,

"Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski." Before calling out to Rocket, "Ratchet, how's it going?

"It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal." Rocket snarked back to him but JJ was seen hiding her chortles before she saw Ash walking with the amplifier in hand and hopped down from the platform to ask,

"So how's this doodad work?"

"I give a tiny bit of my energy and the critical reactor takes care of the rest." Ash answered dully as she turned away from the others and held the device between her hands to give it some of her radiation-tainted energy before handing it off to Tony and walking out of the room with her arms crossed and a downcast look on her face.

"Uhhh did she look a'lil.. I dunno.. sad to ya?" JJ asked Tony and Rocket as she welded a piece of the platform frame into place with her hand.

"She seemed fine when you both got off." Rocket commented nonchalantly.

"Here's the thing about Copper Top, she can be real sensitive about things that aren't even her fault: Lagos, Oregon, dealing with the stress of having to save your world with you, real guilt complex and all that." Tony explained effortlessly and with little restraint as he continued working on integrating the amplifier into the machine's power source and initiated a diagnostic before continuing, "She's probably wondering why she was spared and nobody else."

"Oh that's a load o' krutack!" JJ suddenly shouted and jumped down from the platform before storming off after her sister leaving Tony staring after her stunned while Rocket just got back to work like nothing new.

Ash had gone to sit on the top of the Compound on the edge of the roof staring off at nothing in particular until she heard some crackling noises and slowly looked behind her to see JJ standing there with electrical sparks popping off of her as her fists clenched.

"Can I help you?" Ash asked blankly with her face neutral.

"I'm not nobody!"

"What?"

"I don't know what ya think's your fault or some krutack like that but yer not doin' this alone!"

"You don't understand..." Ash gently patted the space next to her to signal JJ to sit and she did so before explaining, "All the Chrysintheans that lived.. got stuck here.. depended on us after our planet was destroyed-"

"But it wasn't destroyed!" JJ interrupted with a yell making Ash look at her in shock as she continued, "Planet's still there it's j'st.. dead.."

That bit of info made Ash's eyes light up with just the tiniest bit of hope before it was quickly snuffed out with the realization,

"But that means it's still up to you and me to bring it back to life.." Tears started to fall from her eyes as she choked out, "I want to deal with that later when all of this-" She raised her arms up to the sky as she emphasized, "-is dealt with cause what's the point in saving our world if there's going to be noone to live there but the longer we hold off on talking about it, the more it's going to hurt when the time comes to leave our families behind to get it done..."

"Woah woah, rein in that Rhinopus.." JJ gave her sister a rueful smile as she placed a hand on her shoulder to say, "Who said we'd have to do it alone?"

"We can't afford to put anyone in danger cause.. we have no idea what we're gonna have to do to bring our world back.."

"Welp," JJ swung her legs over the edge of the roof and started kicking them around mindlessly as she commented, "I'm pretty sure they're not gonna let us leave that easy.. so really what're you afraid of?"

Ash brought her arms up to hug herself as all her anxieties bubbled to the surface through her tears as memories emerged at the same time Shawna's words the last time she talked with her before she was killed,

'...one side of me thinks, you're just a kid and it shouldn't be your concern, but on the other hand it is about you and your people and sometimes kids make better decisions than adults despite what they'll tell you... I think you're mature and capable enough to, if it's absolutely necessary...'

"What if we can't do it? We're just kids even by Earth standards, people keep telling me we shouldn't have to deal with this and yet our world dictates that it's up to us..."

"Again I says, who said we're gonna do it alone? It seems like you j'st have real abandonment issues which I get, trust me, I was in a bad place before Rocket and Groot, my dad and brother, found me and took me in," JJ looked down at her yellow-gloved hand as she continued, "gave me a home, taught me to use my powers for all the people tellin' me I was too weak to use'em proper, we found others like us and became one big family, and now.. even though most of 'em are gone, I'm fightin' to get'em back cause I know I'm never gonna be doin' anything alone again... even if I really want to.."

JJ hopped up and turned to her sister with her hand outstretched as she asked,

"So what'll it be? Alone and sad or together and strong?"

Ash looked at her sister's hand before laughing softly and rubbing her eyes dry as she took it and let herself be pulled up.

"Together.. now and always.. no matter what.."

"Let's head back in, I'm sure the meetin's started now."

JJ summoned some orbs to form under their feet to fly them back down to the ground and through the halls to the lab room where everyone had already gathered after completing the time travel test run and Steve was announcing to everyone,

"Okay, so the "how" works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones."

"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for 'damn well near been killed by' one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony snarked.

"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott spoke up before they all noticed Ash and JJ standing there and Steve told them,

"Girls, you're just in time."

And they nodded at him before sitting down together on one of the sofas, Ash giving Clint a smile and little wave that he returned, before Bruce resumed the meeting with,

"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. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Tony brought up as Clint added,

"Which means we have to pick our targets."

"And make sure no disturbances are caused in doing so." Ash noted.

"Correct and correct."

"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asked him.

They all turned to said person who was sitting in a chair with sunglasses on and a beer in his hand and it was almost impossible to tell if he was even awake at the moment.

"Is he asleep?" Nat asked and Rhodey answered in a slightly joking tone,

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

JJ looked over to Ash with an eyebrow raised in an unspoken question and Ash tilted her head to look over at Thor before nodding, giving her the go-ahead to walk over to Thor and poke his arm sending a small but powerful static shock that forced him awake with a shrill,

"GYAH!"

He looked at JJ miffed before she snapped her fingers and pointed to the screens with a sharp,

"Info, Aether, go."

And Thor reluctantly complied as an image of the Aether came up along with a picture of a woman as he started to explain in a blurred tone,

"Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someone's gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..." He wiggled his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost, "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane," He pointed to the image of Jane, "Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead," Thor started to look broken and on the verge of tears, "and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever," At that point, Tony started to push him back to his chair but Thor protested, "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."

"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Tony asked him and he retorted,

"No, I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you."

And after a quick note from Ash about it being dinnertime and them all needing to eat, they all continued the meeting at the dinner table with everyone eating while Rocket began explaining,

"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag."

"Is that a person?" Bruce asked with his mouth partially full of Hunka Hulka Burning Fudge ice cream that he shared with Ash while JJ ate some spicy pad see ew.

"No Morag's a planet. Quill was a person."

"A planet? Like in outer space?" Scott asked excitedly.

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. ~Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space.~" Rocket asked Scott while mockingly rubbing his head and talking to him as if he were a puppy.

"You better hope you don't end up on our team." JJ elbowed Scott jokingly as she slurped up some more noodles before everyone minus the sisters looked at each other uncomfortably before Steve spoke up to tell them,

"You're not coming with us..."

"What?" Ash and JJ chorused in question.

"You both just got out of a five year coma, you shouldn't be straining yourselves."

"But we j'st got cleared health and power-wise." JJ argued looking at Bruce and Tony.

"Your power's still runnin' a little weak." Tony pointed to Ash with his plastic fork before moving to JJ, "And yours are uncoordinated."

"'Uncoordinated!'" JJ seethed insulted as she pounded her hands on the table and was about to stand up when Ash gave her a look that read 'you're only proving him right' and she sat back down grumbling and shoving another mouthful of noodles into her mouth to muffle the curses coming out.

"Can't we at least help with gear upgrades?" Ash asked, still wanting to help anyway she could.

"We do need 9 more Quantum suits made if we're gonna pull this off within the next few days..." Bruce pointed out before devising, "Alright you two can work on the suit creations and upgrades while the rest of us plan out when and how we're gonna get the Stones."

"We better get started then." Ash took one more scoop of ice cream into her mouth before standing up and signaling with her hand for JJ to follow her and she did so with some grumbling still about having to stay behind.

"You're gonna need this." Tony tossed Ash his Time-Space GPS and she caught it with both hands before showing a thumbs up as they walked out of the dining room through the halls of the Compound.

Once they made it to the workshop lab, Ash turned the place on with her hand scan before pulling on a lab coat and tying her hair back as JJ asked,

"Why're you so fine with bein' left behind?"

"One- because if this works, they'll be gone for not even a minute, Two- We are still recovering from our.. temporal comas.., and Three- Because honestly I don't want to have to deal with another unpredictable situation.. At least here I know what's gonna happen." Ash raised her arms up to gesture to the lab as the machines started turning on and warming up as FRIDAY'S voice announced,

*All systems are ready for fabrication.*

"Thanks FRIDAY."

"You're welcome Ash."

"A.I.? Nice." JJ nodded her head in appreciation as she went to the metal printing bench and pulled up the screen awaiting the device scan that Ash initiated and she got to work having the metal printer print the parts to assemble more GPS's for everyone's suits.

"Hey if everyone's gonna be travelin' through some tiny micro-verse, is it even safe for them to breathe and stuff?"

That made Ash stop typing in the command to have the durable fabric for the suits being produced as she thought,

"We might need to add in some kind of protective layer that'll allow internal regulations."

"I think we might have somethin' aboard the ship for that. Hang on." JJ ran out the door that connected the lab to the staircase that led down to the lawn where the Benatar was parked and Ash got back to typing before she heard a rumble and saw that the ship shrunk with JJ running back as she told her slightly out of breath and holding up a hemispherical device,

"Holographic space suits, they're for helpin' us breathe in space, think they'll do the trick?"

Ash took one of the disks and had the computer scan its internal structure as it isolated the compatible components they'd be able to take out to put into the suits,

"Yeah these'll work." Ash smiled and held up a hand for JJ to high five and she did, giving her a little static shock that didn't faze her but made her loose bangs puff up a bit as she told her sister wistfully, "Glad you're here.."

"Me too.."

"Now I'm thinking for Rhodey we could probably just add the GPS and space suit components to his armor."

The two of them continued working all night and most of the next morning, only stopping when their dads told them they needed to take a break to eat before telling them the good news that they finalized how and when they were going to get the Stones.

After a few more hours of finishing up the suits and a night's sleep, the next day they all got ready for the big moment where they'd all use the Quantum Tunnel Platform.

Everyone had gotten into their suits and were heading to the Platform where Bruce and Ash were doing some final calibrations and JJ was next to the amplifier to make sure its power flow was still stable before Steve called everyone together to make his motivational speech,

"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost our people... 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. But it 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." Tony gave Steve a look as he continued, "Whatever it takes. Good luck."

"He's pretty good at that." Rocket admitted to Scott and he replied in an excited tone,

"Right?"

"All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green." Tony told Bruce before adding, "You too Atomic Fireball hehe been waiting to use that one for a while."

Ash gave him a raised eyebrow smile before Bruce announced,

"Tractors engaged."

And the two of them gathered with the others as JJ was handing Clint the shrunken Benatar and Rocket was asking him,

"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best." Clint told him unconvincingly and Rocket mumbled,

"As promises go, that was pretty lame..."

"Don't screw this up, Dad." JJ smiled softly as she kneeled down to hug Rocket who just dangled in her grip at first but scoffed and put his arms around her neck after a few moments to tell her,

"We'll get'em back, don't you worry..."

Meanwhile Ash had managed to pull Bruce and Nat into a hug as she told them,

"Please be safe..."

"C'mooon us versus the past." Bruce scoffed and Nat flicked Ash's hair into her face as she told her,

"I think you know the odds are in our favor."

Regardless Ash hugged them tighter as she told them,

"I love you both.. Dad... Nat..."

They looked at each other a bit stunned, Nat with a tiny bit of disappointment, before they hugged her back as Nat told her,

"We love you too kiddo..."

"Always will.." Bruce added before they had to pull apart to join the others on the Platform and Nat smiled at the others as she told them,

"See you in a minute."

Before Ash pressed the button to initiate the launch, the structure overhead shifted around as everyone's helmets formed around their heads, and they shrunk down to disappear in a flash of multicolored light.

Be safe...

Ash and JJ thought together as they held hands and awaited their parents' return in the coming seconds.

7006 Words

AN- Guess who finally got to see Thor Love and Thunder last night and loved it but who's family either got bored with it or fell asleep during the movie? This geek right here! ^-^ / -_-

Sorry for the extra delay but my job's been really mentally and physically draining and it's not even paying me as much as I'd hoped so I've been stressing about how I'm gonna pay for next year's tuitions alongside other things DX

I'm still trying to maintain my goal of finishing the Endgame segment before the year's over and there's about five chapters left after this one so I'm still hopeful and trying to pull through on that ^^

Also, I'm planning on releasing other new stuff; some new and revised OC Files, more art content on my Instagram and Deviant Art accounts, and I've been drafting a possible third segment for my Lego Ninjago story series and might need OC's if you'd like to submit them on my message board so keep an eye out for all of that if you're interested ^^

Until the next chapter, Bye!