Part 3 - Chp 12
As far as final showdowns go, Tony is reasonably sure that it’s epic, even if he hasn’t seen much besides explosions, more explosions, the insides of a space whale (which really, he does not want to repeat), and then lots and lots of organic wiring he wishes he had time to really study in-depth.
The comms are a constant and steady stream of commentary, almost soothing in their terseness and regularity. There’s Loki, making sure that the less suited up and deity members of the strike force don’t suffocate or get an overdose of cosmic radiation with an excellent vantage point and insider knowledge, Steve’s rapid precise orders to adjust as needed, the shorter and less common reports from the rest of the strike force.
For not being nearly so big, they aren’t doing so bad. They may have to do with the handful of missiles Tony donated to the cause for the opening greeting, but that’s not the point. He’s not sure if they can win but at the least aren’t losing without a fight.
“First of three down,” Tony reports and yanks out the glowing core that Loki had shown him. It’s wet and squelches a bit in his hands, just lending a little more theory that the tech here’s all some strange biotech he’d love to study, but there’ll be time and a thousand other alien worlds later.
Hopefully.
***
Getting to the second node isn’t terribly difficult either, even if he has to stop to defend himself from time to time.
The third one is going to be the problem. It’s just along the edge of where the bulk of the battle is going down, not too far from where Thor and crew have engaged Thanos. That’s not the problem--that’s a good thing, that it’s so near Thor and Thanos’ showdown.
(He half wonders how Thor stands a chance if Loki doesn’t, where Thor is getting all that belief from, but now’s not the time because he pretty clearly holding his own against the Titan.)
The trick is going to be that he needs to take the last node out, crippling the neural hivemind the Chitauri have going on (communications, though Loki kept trying to make it sound like more than that), and be in the right place at the right time when--if--Thor manages to get those chains on Thanos.
He won’t have long--once Thanos is fully bound, he’s going to get whisked away to where the other Titans have been contained as the chains takes hold. It’s clever, making sure there’s next to no transport time for Thanos to get free.
He’s half hoping Thor might flub and only get it partially done the first try, if only because the window will be a little bigger then.
***
The problem with gods is they don’t particularly have to stick to one form. The problem with Thor is that his apparently crackles with a near blinding amount of lightning, all the electricity of a summer storm focused tightly into one being that looks like it might have wings and definitely has a battle cry that keeps Tony losing focus for the sheer joy of battle it floods his veins with.
It’s also obscuring his view.
He’s nearly chest deep inside the last node, fumbling for the last brainy core to rip out, when he hears a hawk’s high screech, gets a warning bloom of ozone on his tongue and hair standing on end even through the suit, and then there’s chipped rock going everywhere and Tony instinctively ducking his head and contemplating trying to crawl the rest of the way in as Thanos hits the ground right behind him.
Instead, he fumbles a bit deeper, hits something distinctly not wire, and yanks before scrambling out and getting farther away. He turns around and freezes.
Thor’s there, landing on the ground not even two or three strides from where Thanos is getting up. His red cape is flowing behind him like so much blood, and he rises from his crouch with the uncanny grace of a mountain lion. Lightning crackles from every inch of him, power rolling off him with every step and a broad smile on his features that’s vicious and hungry in all the ways Tony is so much more used to seeing on Loki’s face--but not the same either, a bloodthirsty promise of breaking bone for no other reason than he can.
(And at the same time there is a great hawk, gold and lightning crackling along red dipped wings, there’s a mountain lion stalking forward with a feral grin and blood staining its claws and mouth, forms blending and swirling into each other, and on the ground Thor’s shadow splits into all these and more and there is nothing human in the many headed and many winged beast that stalks his steps, that his form twists in and through, angelic in all its glory and all its horror.)
“Submit,” Thor says, leveling Mjolnir at Thanos with one hand even as the Titan rises again. In his other hand there are chains, silver and gold and starlight, coiling around his forearm like serpents.
Thanos laughs in his face.
It breaks whatever spell that has Tony frozen in place. He scrambles back and away--but not too far away.
In his ear, the others are utterly silent. Tony glances around, notices that all the Chitauri are on the ground--he’d thought it was the shockwave from when Thanos and Thor first hit the ground, but they aren’t getting back up.
With Thanos hitting the ground by the node—
Thor’s grin widens, he shrugs, and then he slams into Thanos again, a bolt of lightning arcing across the scant steps and a boom of thunder jarring Tony’s bones as the two connect again; it’s all so damn bright that Tony almost misses that moment when Thor catches one of Thanos’ incoming strikes with the chains, yanking his arm wide and headbutting him in the face.
Now now now hisses the godling in Tony’s chest. Tony moves without thinking, close enough so that he’s nearer Thanos, suit starting to pull away just enough that he can grab the arc reactor without thought to yank it out and throw—
“Tony!” Loki screams, and it’s all the warning he gets before Loki is ripping Tony back from following after the reactor in a panicked flail of realization.