"I'll go gather materials to build a new time-travel wristband," said Tony. "You follow him. Whatever you do, don't let him disappear."
Steve grabbed Tony's arm with a frown. "You seriously plan to take him back to the future?"
Tony replied flatly, "What else can we do? Did you forget you don't have a wristband anymore? That kid's smart, clearly had this whole thing planned out in advance. We have to be prepared for the worst. If we can't get the Tesseract or the Pym Particles back… taking him with us might be the only way home."
"But, " Steve started to protest.
Tony cut him off gently. "Cap, I get what you're thinking. Look, even if we bring him back with us, once we use the Tesseract to save everyone, we can always send him back here. He's just an ordinary guy, after all."
"Like returning the Infinity Stones?"
"Exactly."
With their strategy agreed upon, they quickly split up, Tony went off to collect materials for a new wristband, while Steve tailed Rory in hopes of retrieving the Tesseract or the Pym Particles.
Rory hummed to himself, cruising into downtown Trenton in his jeep.
After weaving through a few turns, he parked on the curb, checked the rearview mirror, and slipped into an old apartment building.
As soon as he entered, Steve emerged from the shadows of a nearby alley.
Carefully following, he stepped into the same apartment lobby, but there didn't seem to be anything suspicious. Just a regular, worn-down building.
No sign of Rory anywhere.
Then, clack!, a door slammed upstairs.
Steve rushed up the stairwell.
Just as his boots hit the second floor landing, a door on the first floor creaked open behind him. Rory peeked out, eyes glinting with amusement.
"Knew you'd try something sneaky."
While Steve investigated upstairs, Rory slipped out the back and ducked across the street, entering a half-finished, abandoned construction site.
Inside, he pulled a hidden latch, revealing a concealed basement hatch. Climbing down the narrow ladder, he arrived at his personal hideout.
This was Rory's secret lab, built after arriving in this timeline. Originally, he'd planned to research the Tesseract here… until Captain America and Iron Man showed up from the future.
But now, his plans had changed. If he could leap forward in time himself, what was the point of sticking around?
Rory grabbed a Browning M1911 off the wall and strapped it into a shoulder holster. Against Iron Man or Cap, the gun was basically a toy, but he had other uses in mind.
Then he rigged a small, high-speed explosive using whatever was lying around.
Next, he studied Steve's time-travel wristband.
To his frustration, the band was seamlessly built, crafted from nanotech by Tony Stark, with no clear seams or disassembly points. The screen interface allowed date, time, and destination settings for temporal jumps.
One tap of the screen, and, shoom!, the signature white quantum suit from the movie materialized onto his body.
"Holy crap… this is badass."
It looked just like a standard skintight suit. Another tap, and the suit retracted back into the wristband.
After running a few tests, Rory stashed the bomb, doused the entire lab with industrial-grade alcohol, and climbed back to ground level.
He struck a match.
Whoosh.
Flames erupted behind him as he walked away, never looking back.
Because he was a man. A real one.
Back on the street, Rory spotted Steve wandering nearby, clearly searching for him.
"Hey there," Rory called out cheerfully. "It's late. You still not resting?"
"Uh… just looking for a place to stay."
Rory smirked, choosing not to expose the obvious lie.
After a beat, he smiled. "Want to crash at my place tonight? Think of it as your reward for bringing me to the future."
Steve opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly caught a whiff of something acrid. He turned and saw fire blazing inside the abandoned construction site.
"You set a fire?!"
Rory just shrugged.
Steve dashed inside, determined to contain the blaze before it could spread to nearby buildings.
But once inside, he realized the temperature was high, sure, but the fire wasn't expanding. It was mostly burning underground, and would likely extinguish on its own.
Still, whatever Rory had done in that basement, Steve didn't like it. The guy had now been firmly stamped in his mind as trouble.
When Steve finally came back out, Rory was long gone.
Two hours later…
Whoosh, CLANG.
Tony landed in front of Steve in his Iron Man suit and tossed over a brand-new wristband.
"Cap, do me a favor. Don't give this one away, okay?"
Steve's mouth twitched as he caught it. "You didn't say anything when I gave the last one to that kid."
Not that he'd wanted to give it away, they hadn't exactly had a choice.
"So where is he?"
"No idea."
Tony raised a brow. "Now that's not very 'Captain America' of you. Can't even keep tabs on a civilian?"
Steve shrugged. "Well, if he were a corpse, I guarantee he wouldn't have slipped away."
Just two cranky old men grumbling at each other.
"I think I know where he went."
Tony looked toward the road, eyes narrowing toward the abandoned barn where they'd last seen Rory.
Suiting up again, he didn't even bother saying goodbye before grabbing Steve and flying straight there.
Moments later, they landed just outside the barn, right as Rory stepped out.
"Hey! I thought I'd have to wait till morning. You guys got here pretty quick."
Tony ignored the banter and eyed Rory's right hand. "Kid, mind telling me what you've got there?"
Rory raised his hand. "You've already guessed it. Yup, bomb. Wrapped around the Pym Particles. One press and… boom."
Both Tony and Steve immediately tensed, afraid he might slip and trigger it.
"Relax," Rory waved them off. "You don't see me nervous, do you? Why are you two sweating bullets?"
"And the Tesseract?" Steve asked calmly.
Rory pointed to a nearby well. "Down there. As a show of good faith, I'll give that to you. But the remaining Pym Particles, I take those with me."
"Deal," Tony agreed without hesitation.
"Tony, what if he, " Steve began, but Tony gave him a reassuring look.
A few minutes later…
Steve emerged from the well, soaking wet but holding the Tesseract. Rory handed Tony the rest of the Pym Particles earmarked for the return trip.
"Well, gentlemen… I suppose this is goodbye. I did say I'd go to the future, but I never said I'd go to your future. So… see ya!"
Rory had no intention of trapping Cap and Iron Man in this timeline. Nor did he want their future to be destroyed. That's why he gave them the Tesseract and just enough Pym Particles to get back.
As for himself?
He planned to go time-hopping, solo.
He set the wristband coordinates: New York, 2008.
Without a second thought, Rory hit the switch.
Fwoosh.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished.
Steve exhaled. "I knew it."
Tony smirked. "Relax. I designed that wristband. He's not getting away that easily."
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter