13 Chapter Thirteen

'My dad is my hero' is a phrase we've all heard, right? Or maybe have even said ourselves.

Steve's best friend was Carissa's hero. Not Bucky. She meant Tony. Tony was her hero. He kept me grounded. He said the words she needed to hear to get my shit her and only he could say them. Anyone else and Riss would've thrown a bitch fit. Tony believed in her when she had no one else. Tony was there for her when her dad wasn't. Tony would never let her fall.

The night Riss and Steve got in their nasty fight, she sat on Tony's porch, Morgan was three years old and taking a nap. She could see Pepper drying dishes in the kitchen through the window. She and Pep weren't close, they never got much of a chance.

"You've changed." Tony told the girl. "The Carissa I know would fight with her dad but would never take it so far as to leave."

He was right. She'd changed, grown up. She was nineteen at the time, her birthday had just passed. Snow had stopped falling, leaving his beautiful yard a clean white. She looked up from the mug of hot chocolate in her lap before replying.

"Once upon a time, Tony, you told me that Bucky wouldn't be proud of who I was, despite how much you were. You were right. He wouldn't have been proud of what I'd helped Peter with that day." They had both flinched at the mention of Parker. "But then I took a moment. Not only would Barnes have not been proud, but I realized that I was also letting Natasha down. That mattered to me. No matter what, I'm always disappointing my dad but Tash... I can't let her down."  That was all that mattered to her. Keeping Natasha and Tony as proud as she could. She did well with Tony, but always struggled when it came to Nat.

So now here they were, standing in the compound and fucking around with quantum physics. She wasn't sure exactly what had gotten her here. Was it hope? A false promise? Was there too much on the line? What if something goes wrong? All the doubt in the room weighs down on the girl as she takes in the emotion of her dad, Natasha, Bruce and Scott. Her heart was racing.

Scott fires up the van and Steve made sure the emergency generators were ready. Carissa wasn't sure what the hell was gonna happen but she took that as a bad sign. None of them knew what would happen next. The anticipation in the room swarmed her.

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

"That's comforting." Carissa comments.

"Excuse me?" Scott asks.

"He's kidding." Nat tells Scott. "You can't say things like that." She tells Bruce.

"It was a bad joke." Bruce tells Scott.

"You guys are fucked up." Riss whispers to the two of them. She forces herself to swallow, trying to drown out the emotions swarming her like angry hornets.

Natasha looks at the girl and back to Bruce. "You were kidding, right?"

"I have no idea. We're talking about space travel." Bruce replies.

Riss points at Nat. "I thought you were in on it." She whispers to her.

"Either it's all a joke or none of it is." Bruce continues. He turns to Scott. "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 ten seconds. Makes sense?"

"Perfectly not confusing." Scott says.

"Good luck, Scott. You got this." Steve encourages.

"You're right. I do, Captain America." Scott replies before being shrunken down into the machine.

"He's got a huge boner for you." Riss tells Steve.

Natasha laughs. "Gross." She says.

"It's true!" Riss says. Steve shakes his head at her.

"On a count of three...three, two, one." Bruce announces.

A teenage boy comes back through. "Uh, guys. This doesn't feel right."

"Oh, shit." Riss mumbles.

"What is this?" Steve asks.

"Who is that?" Nat asks Bruce.

"Hold on." He replies.

"Is that Scott?" Nat asks.

"Yes, it's Scott." The kid replies.

"Hey, Scott." Riss replies, waving. "How was last week?"

"Carissa." Steve sharply whispers.

"What? Just making conversation." The girl replies, dropping her hand. She gasps lightly as the anxiety in the room threatens to drown her. Her left-hand flies to her check, clutching her shirt lightly.

Bruce sucks him back into the van. Seconds later, he's replaced with an old man.

"Real funny, Bruce. Bring our Scott back." Carissa choked out. The room was growing desperate.

"I'm trying, Riss." Bruce replies. "Can I get a little space here?" He asks.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Steve replies, pulling Riss by her arm over to Tash. "Can you get him back?"

Natasha watches Carissa intently. Her face was flushed as she sucked in air through light gasps. She looked like she was choking.

"I'm working on it." Bruce answers.

Old Scott gets sucked back into the van, being replaced by baby Scott.

"Bruce." Carissa begged. She felt like she was dying. The mix of anxiety, desperation and concern drowned the blonde as she attempted to swallow the lump in her throat.

"I know, Carissa." Bruce replies.

"It's a baby." Steve finishes for Riss. She gasps more loudly than intended.

Are you okay? Nat asks her. Carissa violently shook her head.

"It's Scott." Bruce replies.

"As a baby." Steve says.

"He'll grow." Bruce says. The wave of irritation that flows through her dad was almost enough to puh her over the edge.

"Bring Scott back." Steve demands.

"When I say kill the power, kill the power." Bruce says.

"Oh, my God." Nat mumbles. She walks away from Riss, eyeing her as she does.

"And...kill it!"

Natasha pulls the lever as Bruce hits another button.

"Somebody peed my pants."

Upon hearing the voice, the emotions rush out of Riss. Her knees buckle, sending her to the floor of the compound.

"Oh, thank God." Riss says to the Scott they know. She gasps at the air greedily as new emotion envelope her. Everyone was relieved.

"Come on." Nat whispers to her, trying to pull her up. Riss didn't have the energy to get up yet. She shook her head at Nat lightly.

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

"Time travel!" Bruce yells. "What? I see this as an absolute win."

Steve sighs before walking over to Riss. "What happened?" He asks.

"You all tried to kill me." She replies. "Don't ever feel the same emotion at the same time again."

Natasha pulls the girl up, dragging her to the kitchen. Riss watches as Nat pulls the peanut butter from the cabinet.

Riss's mind races. They can't do this without Tony, she knew that.

"I like your hair up." Nat says from behind the counter. She shakes the jar of peanut butter. Riss shakes her head.

The blonde smiles. "Thanks." She replied. She looks down at the old ripped blue jeans and black turtle neck She had tucked in. My army green converse had faded from all the years. Her knotty blonde hair fell all the way down her back in a wavy mid-height ponytail.

"But I like it much better down." Nat finishes. She pulls a frozen pizza out of the freezer, shaking it at the girl for approval. Mushroom and pepperoni, Riss noticed. She nodded.

"I like yours in braids. I also like that color on you." Riss tells her, in regards to the red. She takes Nat's advice, pulling the army green scrunchie out. Her hair fell around her, a blanket like as usual.

"Thanks." She says. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. You?"

She shrugs. "You're back. Couldn't be better. We missed you around here."

"I missed you, too, Tash." Riss replies.

"Can we talk about what happened?" She asks Riss.

Carissa sighs, running a hand through her hair. "Have you ever gotten tangled in your bedsheets and panicked while trying to get out?"

"Are you asking me for sex advice?" Nat asked. Riss pushed a laugh through her nose.

"No. I mean when you toss and turn a lot. You get stuck in the sheets and you panic, even though you know you're okay." Riss clarified. "When you all had that rush of anxiety, it was like I was tangled in the sheet, but the lights were off. I couldn't see where it was stuck, I couldn't untangle myself. It was like being drowned."

"Is this one of those downsides?" Nat asks. Carissa nodded.

"I can move things with my mind, but I forget how powerful I am. I can read your minds, but once the door is opened, it's near impossible to close. I can feel your emotions so I can tell when you're happy and when you need a hug, but when you feel those intense emotions, it becomes overwhelming fast." Riss explains. Natasha nods.

"This is what Wanda's been dealing with?" She asks.

"Unfortunately." Riss replies.

"And now you're stuck?" Nat asks.

"All right, Princess Peach. Let's time travel."

The voice pulls Riss's attention away from Nat. "No fucking way. Tony?" The girl asks.

"I know it's not Sunday, but I absolutely had to see you." He says, a dramatic tone to his voice.

Riss smiles. "Hi, Tony. How's my little sunflower?"

"She's fine, upset she didn't get to tag along after I mentioned your name. Come help me with something." Tony says.

He grabbed a hose, handing Riss the back side of it before they started walking. Even with the two of them, it dragged. Tony didn't seem to care much.

"You're drifting left." Tony tells Thor. "One side there, Lebowski."

"Welcome back, Thor." Riss adds when she walks past him. He was drunk, it didn't take a mind reader to know that. He wasn't sure who'd said that at first, until he took notice of the petite blonde girl.

"Ratchet, how's it going?" Tony asks.

"It's Rocket." He replies. "Take it easy, you're only a genius on Earth, pal."

"Hey, Rocket." She smiles at the raccoon. "Play nice." The girl reminds Tony.

Tony raises his eyebrows. Riss laughs. Tony waves her off.

"Why don't you go be the light in another room?" Tony asks the girl. He had work to do and as much as he appreciated her help, he knew that she had catching up to do with everyone else. She hadn't seen them in two years. Tony spent that whole two years with her.

On her way back to the kitchen, Riss walks past the room they were testing the particles in.

"...Hot Tub Time Machine." She hears Rhodey say. She stops, backing up and turning into the room.

"I don't care what anyone says, Sebastian Stan looked amazing in that movie. Hey, Clint." She greeted.

"Hey, Riss." He replies before she walks back out.

She made her way into the conference room. The six infinity stones were splayed across the screen along with the assumed correlating Avenger.

Steve's picture lit up green. A man out of time.

Tony's lit up yellow. World's greatest mid.

Thor's was blue. King from space.

Natasha's was red, which Riss found fitting. The one closest to reality.

Bruce's was purple. The one with the greatest power.

Carissa was surprised to see her picture there. Hers lit up orange.

The team's soul.

She wasn't sure of how to feel about that. She wasn't an original Avenger. What about Clint?

As Carissa went to slip out to go look for Tony, he walks in.

"What is this?" She asked.

Tony just looked at her. "I wanted to see how the related to us." He replies simply.

"Tony, I'm not an original Avenger." She argues. "What about Clint?"

Tony snorts at the question. "You think he's the soul of this team?" He asks. Come on, you can do better than that.

That was all the explanation the girl got as the team filled into the room. They attempted to figure out where to find the stones. This was gonna be complicated, yes, but not the most complicated part. Carissa's mind was still reeling over what Tony had told her.

"Okay, so the how works. 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." Steve announces.

"Or substitute the word 'encounter' for damn near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones." Tony says.

"Yes, that one seems a bit more accurate." Carissa comments.

"Well, I haven't but I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott says.

"The stones are gonna be how we get her back." Riss tells him. A hopeful expression crosses his face. He nods, only getting it partially.

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each." Bruce says. "And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history." Tony corrects. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?"

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint says.

"Correct." Tony says.

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

"Dad, I think he's asleep." Riss mumbles.

"Is he asleep?" Nat asks.

"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey replies. Carissa smiles at what Rhodey said as an idea crosses her mind.

She picks up a pen that's sitting next to her on the table and throws it at him. It bounces off, landing on the floor in front of him.

"I'm up, I'm up." He says, standing. "Uh, where to start? Um...The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before." He finishes, pointing at Steve. "Um, it's more of an angry sludge sort of thing...so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that. Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether."

Riss leans over. "Can I go now?" She whispers into her dad's ear.

"If we have to suffer, you must, too." He whispers back.

"You're an asshole." She replies.

"You're grounded." He says. Their eyes never leave Thor.

"I'm twenty-one." She counters, finally looking at him with furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh, there she is." Thor says.

"We're missing the story." Steve whispers to her.

"Thank god. You're welcome." She replies.

Thor keeps going. "And so, I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from and we had to try and fix her."

"What the fuck does this have to do with anything?" She asks Steve.

"He's drunk." He replies. "He's just rambling."

"See, I can do the rambling when it's Tony." She admits. "He's funny."

"Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so..."

"I wonder why." Riss whispers to Steve. The blonde pair both started laughing softly.

"Why don't you come sit down?" Tony asks, trying to stop Thor.

"I'm not done yet." Thor answers. Carissa rolls her eyes dramatically.

Thor continues as Riss pulls her phone out. Steve could suffer by himself for a few moments.

To: Peter🕸❤️

Thor's plastered, talking in front of everyone in the compound. You would've loved it. Miss you.

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

"Is that a person?" Banner asks.

"No, Morag is a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket answers.

"Who the fuck names these planets? I wanna name a planet." Riss asks, digging through the takeout box in front of her. She looks at the chopsticks in her hand, thinking of Peter. She frowns at them.

"I don't think we should give you the power to name anything." Tony argues.

"Like a planet? Like in outer space?" Scott asks.

"I didn't know we still had baby Scott." Riss says in a baby voice. "Don't be stupid." She tells him, pointing her chopsticks at Scott.

"I like her." Rocket says before turning back to Scott. "It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna got to space, puppy?"

"The feeling's mutual." Riss tells Rocket when he's done fucking with Scott. Scott was easy to pick on. He left the door open for it and didn't stop them. Carissa went back to picking up the piece of garlic chicken she'd dropped twice already.

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula announces.

"I don't like the way that sounds." Riss mumbles, looking around the room. She dropped the chicken again, sighing to herself. She'd always struggled with chopsticks.

"What is Vormir?" Nat asks.

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

"Well, that got dark." Carissa mumbles. "Now, I really don't like it." She adds, finally popping the chicken into her mouth.

"Not it." Scott says.

"Yeah. Me either." Riss adds, chewing.

Everyone breaks to figure more shit out. Riss heads off one way with her dad only to soon regret that.

"I saw you pull your phone out." Steve says as they stood in the kitchen. Carissa's Styrofoam box still sat in front of her as she played with her chopsticks to get them just right. She always found herself in this kitchen, she noticed.

"Are you gonna do the typical parent thing and ask me who I was texting?" She asks him. She places her chin on her hand, holding her head up. Steve leaned backwards against the sink, turning his head to his left to look at her clearly.

He shakes his head. "No need." He says. "How often do you text Peter?"

She sighs, dropping her hand from her chin to pick her chopsticks back up. "Whenever something happens. Whenever I think about him randomly." She answers, giving up and just stabbing her chicken with one like a kabob.

"So, a lot, huh?" He asks in that concerned mom voice. He'd adopted that tone a little after her mom had died.

The girl nods "More often than I'd care to admit." She says, her words accompanied by the sound of her teeth scraping against her single chopstick.

Steve smiles a sad smile, dropping the subject. An idea popped into his head as he opens the fridge door, walking right out of the kitchen before she could see what he grabbed. She picked her food up, following after him.

They make their way back to the rest, a new emptiness inside of the girl. It was a drastic change from the way she'd felt earlier today and she wasn't sure what she preferred. She slid back into her seat at the table, waiting. Steve sat a chocolate pudding in front of her before he started talking. She smiles up at her dad, opening it as she picked up the dark green plastic spoon.

"All right. We have a plan." Steve announces. "Six stones, three teams, one shot."

Nice. Stressful. They suit up. She was teamed with Steve, Tony, Scott and Bruce. A team she'd never really seen coming.

"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." Steve says.

"He's pretty good at that." Rocket says when he finishes.

"I think he rehearses." Riss replies.

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

"Trackers engaged." Bruce replies.

"See ya in a minute." Nat says to Steve.

"Ready?" Steve asks his daughter.

"Do I even have a choice?" She replies.

The apparent answer was no.

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