Stark breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, that’s the Reality Gem secured. One down. Just five more to go.”

“It’s safe for me to be holding this, right?” Black Widow asked, clutching the dark red gem as gingerly as one might a bomb.

“Safer than if Thanos finds us and we’re not holding it. If we can figure out how to use it, we might be able to use it against him if he shows up. Try using it on me. It can be a warm up.”

“And do what with it?”

Stark shrugged. “I don’t know, use your imagination. There’s no limit to what that thing could do. It could turn somebody into a potted plant or a gummy bear or-”

The gem glowed in Widow’s hand, a pulse of sickly red energy washing over reality.

Black Widow patted her growling stomach. Reaching into the packet, she pulled out the last Iron Gummy (Now With Extra Wriggling!). It was important to keep your blood sugar up on missions like this. The gummy stood in the palm of her hand, poking inquisitively at its gelatinous belly with its blunt paw-like hands.

“Okay, safe to say the test worked…” it said in a tiny voice.

“Test?” she asked. She loved the talking flavour of gummies - those ones were the juiciest.

The gummy craned its rubbery body to stare at the light filtering through its transparent torso. “Whoa. No organs. How am I even alive right now?” it pondered.

She took it between thumb and forefinger, pinching its tummy firmly so that its feet bulged out below and its head bulged out above like an overfilled balloon. She released the pressure and it sprang back into shape.

“Whoa! That didn’t feel right!” the gummy exclaimed. “Ok, test over. Let's turn me back into Iron Man.”

“What’s an Iron Man?” she frowned.

She lifted it to her mouth. Her white teeth spread wide into a chasm. The gummy raised its hand defensively only to find its repulsor hand cannons were now nothing more than bubblegum flavoured gelatin. She felt the tiny bear wriggling as it landed on her tongue. Sealing her lips, she plunged it into darkness, rolling it around the wet, dripping cavern of her mouth, pushing it from one cheek to the other, coating it in saliva. She took her time, savouring its sweet taste. Her hot tongue crushed it against the roof of her mouth. Finally she pinned the tiny glob of mashed gelatine between her teeth, biting down slowly, her incisors carving it apart.

She crunched the empty packet of Iron Gummies (Now With Extra Wriggling) into a ball and tossed it. She continued to chew, mashing and pulping the delicious treat until it was nothing more than a rainbow-coloured, squirming wad mixed with her saliva.

Her tongue pushed the mass to the back of her mouth and she swallowed it.