Observer POV:
New Avengers headquarters
Steve, Tony, and Thor were standing outside the facility, watching the sky, while looking for something to happen. „The rules have changed," Steve commented, stirring up the conversation that had just settled.
„We're dealing with something new." Tony responded, looking over at Thor, as Steve continued, „Well, the Vision's artificial intelligence."
„A machine," Tony replied,
„So it doesn't count."
„No. It's not like a person lifting the hammer."
„Right. Different rules for us."
„Nice guy, but artificial."
„Thank you."
Thor smiled, savoring the moment with his friends, „If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone. It's safe with the Vision, and these days, safe is in short supply," he stated, before closing his eyes and enjoying the sun.
Both of them looked at each other, „But if you put the hammer in an elevator..."
„It would still go up."
„Elevator's not worthy."
Thor chuckled and finally looked at them, „I'm going to miss these little talks of ours."
A smile grew on Tony's face, „Well, not if you don't leave," but Thor only sighed in response.
„I have no choice. The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That's not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us. But once all these pieces are in position..."
„Triple Yahtzee?" Tony quipped, getting ignored completely, as Steve faced Thor, „You think you can find out what's coming?"
„I do. Besides this one, there's nothing that can't be explained." Thor said as he patted Tony on the shoulder.
Suddenly, the sun went dark, and before their eyes, the Liset appeared. It turned around, opened up its ramp, revealing Rhino.
He glanced at Thor, who gave Steve and Tony a final nod before heading in. "Send a Postcard," Tony shouted, but got ignored.
Rhino just looked at them, shook his head and headed inside while the ramp closed up behind them the ship already beginning its ascend.
„That man has no regard for good Humor. I'm gonna miss him though. And you're gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manful tears." Tony said as they walked towards the road, where his self-driving car was already getting in position.
„I will miss you, Tony," Steve responded, halting next to the Car.
„Yeah? Well, it's time for me to tap out. Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book and build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up."
Steve smiled, „The simple life."
„You'll get there one day." Tony responded, but Steve just avoided his gaze and looked out into the distance, „I don't know, family, stability. The guy who wanted all that went in the ice seventy-five years ago. I think someone else came out."
Stark turned to get into his car, but looked back one last time, „You alright?"
„I'm home," Steve responded as he gazed over to the cadets doing their morning routine, making Tony smile as he got into the Car and drove off.
„You want to keep staring at the wall, or do you want to go to work? I mean, it's a pretty interesting wall." Steve said, walking in on Natasha, as he headed inside the complex.
„I thought you and Tony were still gazing into each other's eyes. The goodbye ceremony already over?" she asked, looking over her shoulder.
„Well… as planned, they are heading off-world to gather information. I can't believe this is the World I woke up to," Steve responded, a sad smile forming on his face.
„Alright then, how do we look?" she asked, while heading over to him.
„Well, we're not the '27 Yankees," Steve said while handing her a tablet.
„We've got some hitters," she responded, while gazing over the documents.
„They're good. They're not a team," he responded, leading to an evil smirk appearing on her face, „Then let's beat 'em into one."
They barged through the door, heading straight into the hangar, facing the gathered crowd. Agent Rhodes was in his War Machine suit, Vision still in his usual attire, Sam in his Falcon suit, and Pietro in his running gear.
Steve analyzed the situation and recognized that he had much to do, „AVENGERS!!!"
Up in Orbit, Thor was gazing out of the Window while playing around with Mjölnirs handle.
„We really should go. Why does this take so long?" Thor asked, already bored out of his mind.
„We have a last visit on the agenda before we can head out," Rhino said from his kneeling position, as the Liset suddenly began to move and head for its destination.
„Sure, let's do that, it's just maybe the whole Universe at stake, but why hurry?" Thor grumbled while sitting down.
After a short while, the Liset headed for the atmosphere, before decelerating and getting ready for landing.
As Thor walked off the ramp, he looked around in confusion, then finally asked the question on his Mind, "What exactly are we doing on this Mountain?"
Before Rhino could respond, an Orange Portal opened up before them and scooped them up before they could even react.
The next second, they were already in another location, surrounded by bookshelves and ancient artifacts.
Thor wanted to ask many questions, but before even a single sentence could come out of his mouth, a door was opened, and a bald Woman, followed by Wanda, stepped into the room.
"Here are the copies of the books you requested. I hope you have a safe journey," the ancient one said as she went over to Rhino and handed him a small pouch.
He nodded, took it, looked inside, and then signaled Wanda to step next to him. She was now wearing the usual apprentice attire of Kamar Taj, looking like a proper sorcerer, even though she was a witch.
The ancient one gave Thor a friendly smile, as he looked around the room in interest, touching many things he wasn't supposed to,
"And you are sure that you have to go already. I don't mean to undermine your authority as her Tutor, but we at Kamar Taj have a lot of experience with teaching young prodigies like her and…"
„Thanks, that's going to be fine," Rhino interrupted her as he motioned towards the wall, signaling her to open the portal.
The ancient one let out a sigh before waving her hand, the portal appearing and sweeping over the three of them, returning them to their prior position atop the mountain.
„I just really hope this was the right choice," she said into the empty room, before heading for the courtyard.
Atop the mountain, the Liset opened up its ramp, and the group headed in before closing up and heading off for the jump point.
Rhino sat down in a meditative position, his body slumping as Tenno appeared next to him that instant. He threw a smile at Wanda, then headed over to one of the tables and slumped down on its chair.
Wanda looked over at him in awe, analyzing his Master robe with a glint in her eyes. It was like a newfound respect for him had awakened inside her as she learned about Kamar Taj and what the rank of a Master entailed.
Thor leaned on the faction console, playing around with the options for a while before speaking up.
„And these friends of yours, they really have information on one of the stones?" he asked, looking at Tenno, unconvinced, „some random outlaws?"
„I know they have. As I told you already, we had found a map, supposedly leading towards one of them. But even our Client said it was highly probable, not being a valid one anymore, so as I said, I wouldn't bet on it."
„Better than nothing," Wanda tried to lighten up the mood, but Thor only sighed and looked out the Window again.
Tenno gazed over to her and motioned for the pouch next to her. Wanda understood and reached inside, her arm going further in than it should physically be possible, till even her shoulder nearly vanished.
After a bit of digging around, her face lit up, and she pulled out a book that in itself was already bigger than the pouch. It was a copy of the book of legends, but instead of normal legends, these were ones from the magical community.
After flipping open the page with the bookmark, Wanda began to read, while a red hue of energy began to form around her hands.
Tenno rolled his eyes and went over to her, sitting down next to her on the ground and looking her in the eyes, till she returned the gesture.
„First lesson, no magic while reading. Yes, this is just a legends book, but habits tend to stick, and for some rituals it's enough to think them out loud while Energy is in the vicinity."
She nodded in understanding, and the energy dissipated as she went back to reading.
„Operator, we are approaching the Jump point. I would advise the biological lifeforms to get ready for transit," Ordis reported through the ship's intercom.
Tenno nodded and spoke up, „Ok, both of you get ready for a wild ride. I don't feel any of this, but I know from others' experiences that it won't be fun, so you'd better get ready."
Thor just scoffed, not moving an inch, while Wanda took her book and sat down on a chair, watching out of the window in anticipation.
After a few seconds, Ordis voice could be heard over the ship's systems, as Tenno went over to Wanda and gave her a reassuring smile, "Reaching jump point position in 3, 2, 1… Jump Imminent,"
The last thing Tenno witnessed was Thor staggering a bit, seemingly regretting not sitting down, before he lost connection and found himself back in the Orbiters transference chair.
He opened up the airlock and was just about to do some stretches for his tense muscles, as suddenly and completely out of nowhere, a man in a Motorcycle outfit appeared right before him out of thin air.
Tenno reacted immediately, as he pulled up his arms while conjuring two Eldridge Pistols, and pointed them directly at the Man's face.
But instead of fighting back like he thought he would, the man with the silver helmet just flung both of his arms straight up in the air and opened up his mask, trying to speak.
He looked pretty funny, now that Tenno had time to appreciate his outfit. A silver helmet, with two antennas pointing upwards, while the rest of the suit was colored in red and black, with a bunch of tech strapped around his waist.
The Obvious Human man in front of him seemed very confused by his inability to speak and slowly started to freak out.
Tenno stopped conjuring one of his pistols and instead cast a spell with his free hand, connecting their minds as, "AAAAAAHHHH, PLEASE DONT SHOOT, PLEASE DONT SHOOT!!!" came rushing into his mind, the connection already active.
"STOP THINKING SO LOUD!!!" Tenno Mentally yelled back at him, shocking the strange man in turn, and stopping his train of thought for just about a second.
Tenno took back a step and held up his free hand, gesturing for him to calm down,
"Ok, hey, I'm Tenno. Who are you and how did you get here?" He asked, incredibly confused about the whole situation.
"Oh, sorry that I didn't introduce myself, how rude of me, Mr. Space Wizard man with a glowing gun, I'm very sorry. Cool outfit by the way, I really like what you are going for right here, but maybe a little out of place for the spaceship surroundings we are finding ourselves in here…" he began as Tenno interrupted him, "Your Name… and how did you get here… Please!" he thought firmly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm just overwhelmed with the whole situation at hand right now, you know I was just fighting a big bad Villain in the bedroom of my daughter, where he threw a giant train at me… wait, or was it me who threw the train…" he trailed of again, before Tenno forcefully stepped forward and stuck the gun to his forehead.
"WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU GET HERE!!!" Tenno practically yelled into the man's head.
"Oh, sorry, I'm Scott Lang, and I've got here by shrinking myself… a lot."