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AN: Something different here, but I wanted to write something that gave the new Avengers a chance to shine in a particularly unconventional manner; hope you enjoy the results. Timeline-wise, this will be set shortly before 'Ant-Man' for the Avengers (I'll clarify why that's important when the time comes); it will become a crossover in a few chapters, but I thought I'd just classify it as an 'Avengers' story for the moment to make it easier to attract attention.

AN 2: For those who want to know, the title was suggested by my friend Nimbus, and means 'Time Flies, Infinity Dwells'

Tempus Fugit, Infinitas Manet

Sitting in his room in the New Avengers facility- a strange combination of office and apartment, but it somehow worked- Steve Rogers wondered when being the hero had become so complicated.

It wasn't as though things had been simple back in the Second World War, considering that he and the Skull had been augmented to the peak of human potential by a strange compound that nobody really understood and Hydra had been using a ridiculously advanced power source for their own weapons, but at least then everyone had known who the good guys and the bad guys were and been content with praising their heroes rather than judging them all the time.

Ever since that mess with the Hulk's rampage in Johannesberg and the destruction of Sokovia, people seemed to spend more time criticising and questioning the Avengers' abilities than appreciating the fact that they were fundamentally here to help. He wasn't asking for anyone to make a museum dedicated to them or appoint them as leaders of the world, but he just wished that they could get more appreciation than they were receiving at the moment…

The fact that the new team were still 'finding their feet' didn't help matters much, of course, Taking on Ultron and his drone army was one thing, as the 'plan' was a simple case of smash the drones and protect the people, but Wanda in particular needed more training before she could be completely counted on to back them up in a crisis. Her powers might be exceptional, but while she served as an… interesting… replacement for Bruce as their 'secret weapon'- not that he tried to think of any of the new team as explicitly replacing the original members- he felt that she could have potential as a more conventional fighter as well, if she was more willing to explore her own abilities in terms of hand-to-hand combat.

Of course, it wasn't fair to target Wanda as the 'weak link' in the new team; as he and Natasha had discussed, the new Avengers included some heavy hitters, but they just hadn't had much practise working together. Sam's experience helping them against Hydra gave him a leg-up over the others, but Rhodey still divided his time between working for the military and being an official Avenger, the Vision had a broad range of knowledge with very little actual experience behind it, and Wanda…

On some level, even as he wanted to work past it, some part of him still remembered what she had done to the team as a whole and Bruce in particular during their second major confrontation. The others had accepted that she had moved on from her past vendetta against Tony and the rest of the team, and she had been the one to ask to remain with them once the crisis had passed, but it was hard to find the time to work with her on something like that when her standard approach had worked out well enough so far.

Actually, when he looked back on their new team, Rhodes was the one that it was most 'difficult' to work with when organising training sessions, even if that wasn't any real fault of his. While Colonel James Rhodes was still officially a member of the United States military, his status as their only 'official' superhuman operative gave him a certain leeway even if he was now an Avenger as well, but he was still obliged to respond to requests for his assistance from various higher-ranking officials even if he had enough personal power to refuse if he felt that those orders were an inappropriate use of War Machine's firepower (Although it was a 'public secret' among the Avengers that this was mainly motivated by the military's knowledge that Tony could disable the War Machine armour if he didn't approve of its use). The end result was that Rhodey could sometimes be called away to deal with other matters that required his personal attention far more than the other Avengers, but he had assured them that he would make Avengers business his priority if the two ever clashed.

For the moment, however, Steve felt that what he really needed was the chance to get a better impression for how the Vision and Wanda in particular coped in a combat situation in a manner that he could assess; as it was, everything they'd done so far as a team had been too spread out for him to get a good feel for their capabilities as individuals…

His musings were cut short by a sudden yell that seemed to fill the facility, the sound shocking him even further when he realised that it was the Vision making the sound. Leaping up from his chair, Steve ran towards the source, arriving in the main hanger to see the Vision lying on ground, clutching at his forehead as Wanda and Natasha crouched over his fallen form.

"What happened?" Steve asked, looking urgently at the two women as he walked over to take a closer look at the android; the Vision seemed to be unusually disorientated, but he didn't give any sign that he had been injured.

"We don't know," Natasha said grimly. "One minute he was looking at the various aircraft, trying to determine which he would know how to pilot if the situation called for it, and then the stone let out some kind of… glow and he fell over.

"The stone did this?" Steve asked, his gaze flicking once again to the yellow gem-thing embedded in the Vision's forehead that had once apparently dwelt within Loki's sceptre. Thor had only been able to provide limited information regarding the origin and abilities of the various Infinity Stones, but what Steve had heard was enough to make him concerned about any possibility that they were dealing with another threat relating to it.

"Not… entirely," the Vision said suddenly, shaking his head as he reached up to touch the Stone that was the source of so much of his power. "The Mind Stone itself is secure as it has been since I was granted it; what happened was…"

"Was what?" Wanda asked, looking urgently at the android, showing the same anxiety that Steve was never sure how to interpret. "What did you sense?"

"I sensed…" the Vision began, trailing off for a moment before he looked at them with a new sense of understanding. "I sensed another."

"Another what?" Wanda aske, before her eyes widened in understanding as the Vision continued to touch his forehead. "Another Stone?"

"Correct," the Vision said, looking grimly at the youngest member of the team. "And it was on Earth."

"Oh no," Natasha said, exchanging grim glances with Steve.

Aside from the Vision and the scepter, their experience of the stones might be limited to when Loki opened a portal with the Tesseract and reports of Thor's encounter with the Aether in London, but Thor had told them enough about what the stones were meant to be capable of to make the other Avengers understand his concern about the fact that they were starting to be discovered so easily.

If another one was on Earth somewhere…

"Do you know where it is?" Steve asked the android urgently.

"I have a… sense of its presence, but I do not have its precise location; if I am to find it, I need to follow this sensation until I reach a target," the Vision explained, indicating the stone with an awkward wave of its hand. "Once we get closer to it, I am reasonably certain that I will be able to pinpoint its position; right now, all I have is an idea and nothing more."

"How far is it?" Steve asked. "I mean, can we just drive, or-?"

"A Quinjet would be preferable," the Vision replied.

"Right," Steve said, looking at the other three before coming to his decision. "OK, Rhodes is currently on a mission for his military contacts, and Sam's attending meetings with a few of his support group; if this is another Infinity Stone, we need to move quickly, but we don't want to hit it with everything at once. The four of us should be able to at least assess the situation and work out what to do from there, and so long as we leave them a message, Falcon and War Machine know who to get in touch with if things go against us."

"Agreed," Natasha nodded.

"It sounds like a good plan," Wanda noted. "Shall we go?"

"Immediately," Steve said, looking firmly between the other three Avengers. "Everyone, suit up and assemble at the Quinjet; after everything I've heard about these Stones, the sooner we have it in custody the happier I'll be."

As the Avengers split up to grab their equipment for the next mission, Steve could only hope that this mission would turn out to be as simple as he was suggesting; after everything he'd heard about the Aether from Thor after the Avengers had reassembled to hunt down Hydra, he wasn't entirely comfortable at the thought of what another stone might be capable of if its power was unleashed on Earth when the new team was still so raw…