Chapter Text
One week following the Blip
“Alright, this press conference concerns the blip, the subsequent snapping of Thanos, and any related deaths. A statement will be read before by Captain Rogers, and then the questions will be asked by press corps members. We have an understanding, yes?”
Christine Everhart stood outside the makeshift conference room in some skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, generously set aside by someone grateful to the team for bringing people back.
“There will be no speaking out of turn; you do NOT want to provoke an Avenger. Especially Banner.”
She continued. “You all are lucky Rogers is the one leading this conference, not Stark,” she said dryly, remembering the utter chaos that ensued when Stark said he was Iron Man over eleven years ago.
“Will Rogers answer the questions or just patronize me, though?”
“50/50 shot on that,” she said, noticing that the clock hit 9:50 am. Go time.
The reporters filed into the room, filling all five rows. Press teams were in the back and perimeters of the space, cameras at the ready. CNN, ABC, and NBC were all broadcasting live feeds.
At this time, answering these questions was as important as a presidential press conference. Maybe even more important, as the president from five years ago was blipped, and their return sent the White House into duress.
Some of the reporters had seen the Avengers in person; they sat at the front. Some reporters were excited about the assignment and wanted to do the best job reporting the facts, as many questions were circulating following the reappearance of half of the world’s population. Translators for various international outlets and a sign language interpreter were at the ready. Loafers tapped against the linoleum floor. Knees jiggled. Throats cleared. Water bottles were sipped. It was also strange to share space with twice as many people as there was last week. Personal space had to be adjusted.
10:00 am.
A lineup of people involved in the Battle of New York filed into the room, sitting on the platform in front of them, including Steve Rogers, Thor Odinson, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Carol Danvers, Sam Wilson, Scott Lang, Stephen Strange, and Wanda Maximoff, who looked slightly on edge.
Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff were absent.
Rogers cleared his throat and calmly stepped to the microphone.
“Good morning. As you all know, last week, approximately half of the world's population came back into existence following the blip, five years after the snap. The blip was caused by the Avengers; specifically, Bruce Banner. Thanos and his army were killed by Tony Stark. The initial snap, in 2018, was caused by Thanos to free up resources and improve the universe via genocide. His efforts failed, and we tried to rectify them. We hope it was enough to bring some solace to your families. I will now open the floor for questions.”
“Captain! Hi. Morning. Sources say hundreds of people were involved against Thanos at the battle of Earth. How did they get there, and were they blipped?”
Rogers gestured for Strange to answer, as he was on the other side of the portals when they opened.
“We, meaning me, Stephen Strange, and Wong, Sorcerer Supreme, and other sorcerors at various sites globally, opened portals to get people to New York in time. In layman's terms, we teleported them.”
“Doctor Strange, were you blipped?”
“Yes.”
“Then how did you know to get them to New York?”
Strange paused for a second. “I...had a hunch. I can’t explain all of the mechanics of it now, but I had a hunch all hands on deck were needed.”
The reporter was quiet, satisfied with the answer.
“So, out of the Avengers, Dr. Banner performed the blip. Why?”
Banner looked comical next to the tiny microphone as he prepared to answer the question.
“This state, this state I’m in, the one I induced myself to be in, is the result of gamma radiation. A similar kind of radiation emanated from the glove following Thanos’s snap in 2018 and from the glove used in the blip. The architecture of both gloves was similar, with positions to hold the six infinity stones. More stones meant more power was needed to snap. Thanos was a Titan, so his genetic code was slightly different than you and me. Different mutations in Thanos made him more resistant to extreme amounts of radiation, which is why....he was able to survive the snap-in 2018.”
Thor grimaced in his seat.
Banner continued. “Thanos snapped half of life out of existence. The um-- Avengers-- found him, interrogated him to get answers to our questions. He snapped the infinity stones out of existence. He had similar injuries to mine, but worse, and then--”
“And then I killed him,” Thor muttered.
“Yes. Odinson killed Thanos,” Banner said into the mic, reiterating what he said.
“Rogers said that Stark killed Thanos,” another reporter chimed in.
Bruce turned from the platform and whispered something to Rogers, who nodded. Something big was about to drop.
“The Thanos that Stark killed was from 2014. He time-traveled, based on the tech, mainly developed by Stark, developed to get the Infinity Stones, to 2023.”
“Tony Stark invented time travel?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus,” another reporter said, and the room borderline erupted.
More specific questions were asked to Bruce about the mechanics of time travel, as he was the one controlling the platform, which was partially destroyed following the attack by Thanos.
“Considering that time travel is possible now, what’s to stop a thousand paradoxes from happening?”
“Locking down access to time travel prevents this from happening. We don’t know the consequences of unregulated time travel. And we don’t want to find out.”
“Next question. Where is Natasha Romanoff?”
Rogers looked at Clint, who took the mic.
“Natasha-the Black Widow--Nat--gave her life for that soul stone. The orange one. The stone’s transactional.”
“Clarify what you mean by transactional?”
“A soul for a soul. A sacrifice for a sacrifice. Some bullshit that guy was saying.”
“So, inherently, you thought that your life was worth more than hers?”
“No, no, she gave her life for that stone. She--” Barton abruptly stopped talked and stormed out of the room. He never going to have enough to explain to that to reporter, to the world, what had happened.
“Okay, continuing on. Um, this is for Ms. Danvers.”
“Please, call me Carol or Captain, Ms.Danvers is not me.”
“Captain, you’re new to the Avengers. Why?”
“I had to lot to attend to. I’m not a core member of the team, nor am I trying to fill that void of being the only woman on the team, which I still think is strange, but I’ll help when I can.”
“Such as destroying Thanos’s fleet?”
“Yes. Exactly like that. But like I said, I’m busy--excuse me one second, I have another matter to attend to.”
“But wait, why couldn’t you have snapped Thanos out of existence?”
“Stark.......saw a window and went for it. Any of us would have done the exact same thing. Now, if you excuse me, I have to get to another planet, so I’m really sorry if you hear a sonic boom in the next 30 seconds,” Danvers said, getting up from her seat.
“Miss Maximoff, you faced Thanos head on, correct?”
“Yes. I wanted him to feel the pain I felt when he ripped that stone from my Vision’s head. After he rewound time and I destroyed that same stone.”
“The android?”
“Yes.”
“Do you feel you succeeded?”
There was a distant sonic boom as Danvers left the Earth's atmosphere. Maximoff continued.
“In his words, he didn’t know me, but he grew scared and rained down terror from his ships. Until Danvers showed up. I should have torn his head from his body, or his heart. Maybe then, he’d understand how scared I was in Wakanda.”
The room was silent. Noone knew what to say.
One lone journalist, with a really well tailored suit, stood to ask more questions.
“Sorry, when was the last use of the time travel portal? Someone had to put the stones back in their positions.”
Rogers stepped back up to the platform. The man out of time.
“I returned all six stones, four days following the battle of New York.” Rogers looked strangely sad about this, as he was probably thinking about something that happened while returning them. Whatever the thing was, he didn’t say.
“Steve--shit, sorry, Captain--”
Behind him, Scott Lang looked slightly satisfied that someone else got tripped up on the titles.
“I’m not Captain America. Sam Wilson is.” Wilson didn’t look surprised by him saying this, it looked like they had discussed it beforehand.
“Why are you giving up the shield?”
“I’m tired.”
“You don’t look tired. You don’t look a day over 105.”
Steve raised an eyebrow, “Believe me, I am. Sam will be a fantastic Captain America. Please direct any further questions to Sam Wilson.”
“I don’t doubt that he will make a good Captain, but still had additional questions for Steve Rogers, however.”
“Reports say that you held Mjolnir? Considering that that hammer is tied to inherent worthiness, why do you think you were able to yield the hammer following the fallout, and what caused the fallout, between you and Stark in 2016?”
Rogers was speechless for a second. “I don’t know. Concerning the hammer, I just did whatever it took to win the fight against Thanos. I just did whatever it took.”
She held up her finger for one more question. He obliged.
“With the hammer, and its ties to worthiness, were you always worthy, or was it something acquired over time?”
“I don’t think I can answer that question. Everyone’s good and bad. I just, got lucky. It’s more Thor’s thing than mine. From 1945 to now though, I don’t think I changed that much. I just possibly got more cynical.”
The room laughs, Steve manages a smile.
The reporter has a curious look on her face, like she’s withholding information. The cameras are still rolling. She pulls something from her jacket pocket.
“This is yours right?”
“What?”
“This compass, thing?”
“Let me see that,” he says, and she throws rather flawlessly throws it across the room into his hand. Usually, if someone threw something at a public figure, they’d have been arrested by now. But this isn’t malicious.
He opens it, this compass possibly as old as him, and looks at it. It’s definitely his, my god his face just crumbles for a second.
“How did you even--”
“I have my methods,” she says, and an American accent is replaced with a extremely smooth British one. She presses a button on the side of her neck, revealing her actual identity. Rogers’s jaw DROPS, which was notable, as man never looked surprised about anything.
“Last thing. You still owe me a dance,” she says, sliding past a few reporters and heading for the exit, throwing her presumably fake press credentials on the way out.
The cameras caught a blur of Steve Rogers sprinting for the door, and the press conference ended.