Chapter 2
Stephen and Tony didn’t know how many days had passed in the spaceship or when they were going to reach their destination. The presence of Peter was a relief for them. The kid never stopped talking and wasn’t scared or worried like the two adults.
“Mr. Stark, have you watched the movie called Interstellar? In that, they travel through a black hole to reach our planet quickly. Let’s try that when we’re back. But it took so many years for him. Oh my god! Does that mean Aunt May, MJ, Ned, and everyone will be older when we get back?” Peter said, panicking.
“Kid, we’re not even sure we can return. I told you to go home,” Tony replied.
“But I want to help! I want to be a hero like you, Mr. Stark,” Peter insisted.
“I’ve told you before. I don’t want you to be like me. I want you to be better. You shouldn’t follow me everywhere and end up in danger,” Tony said.
“I’m not in danger. I’m with you. Also, I know you’re cool too, Mr. Doctor Strange,” Peter said.
The adults chuckled at that.
“The view from that side is amazing. Can I go and check?” Peter asked.
“Sure, go,” Tony said, smiling.
Peter ran to the other side of the ship. Tony watched him go with fondness.
“Who is he?” Stephen asked.
“He's just a kid from Queens,” Tony replied.
“He's not just any kid for you, right?” Stephen asked.
“No, that boy is something else. Spend some time with him, and you’ll know. The kid can make an impression on everyone. He’s too good for this world. And I feel guilty every day for bringing him into the chaos of the superhero thing,” Tony said.
“I didn’t know Spider-Man was a kid,” Stephen remarked.
“Mmh, he is intelligent, strong, and kind. But after all, he’s just a kid. I should have thought of that,” Tony admitted, feeling guilty.
“Tony, I don’t think he would have stayed away from this superhero thing, even if you hadn’t brought him. He has that spark within. You just made his way easier. You actually ensured his safety,” Stephen said.
Tony was surprised by Stephen's sudden care and called him by his first name.
“Doc, I didn’t know you could talk nicely. I thought you were all about arrogant, snarky comments,” Tony said, smirking.
“I can be anything. It all depends on the person before me,” Stephen replied, smirking back.
“So, I deserve your kindness, do I?” Tony asked.
“Maybe you do. You saved my life,” Stephen said.
Tony smiled at that.
“But you shouldn’t have followed me. You should have stayed on Earth. Your girlfriend would be worried,” Stephen said.
“Pepper? She is always worried. I promised her no more surprises. And here we are. There’s no bigger surprise than this I can give her,” Tony chuckled bitterly.
“I’m sorry,” Stephen said in a small voice.
“It’s not your fault, Doc. I can’t stay away from this. This is who I am. And Pepper… I hope she finds someone who can take care of her, who could be a normal husband and a father,” Tony said, smiling sadly.
“Tony, we will win this. We will go home,” Stephen reassured.
“Even if I go back, Pepper can’t forgive me for not keeping my word to her,” Tony said.
“Leave that. What about you? Is there someone waiting for you back home?” Tony asked, smirking.
“No one. Wong might miss me, but he will be happy that I'm not there to annoy him,” Stephen chuckled.
“And Christine...” Stephen paused.
“Who is she? Your girlfriend?” Tony asked.
“It’s complicated. We’re no longer together,” Stephen admitted.
“What happened?” Tony inquired.
“I was an idiot. When I was a doctor, I was an arrogant ass,” Stephen confessed.
“Are you sure you’re not now?” Tony asked, smirking.
“You should have seen me in those days. I’m doing better,” Stephen replied, chuckling.
“I wish I could. Okay, go on,” Tony encouraged.
“When I lost everything in that accident, I blamed everyone and everything for my fate. I took all my anger out on her. She left me. And then I became a sorcerer; there was no time to fix everything,” Stephen explained.
“Do you miss her?” Tony asked.
“Yes, I do. But I'm not romantically interested in her anymore. She was a good friend,” Stephen said.
“At least you didn’t make any fake promises to anyone,” Tony remarked.
Stephen chuckled at that.
“Mr. Stark, Levi and I were on the other side. The view there is breathtaking. Space is beautiful,” Peter said excitedly.
“Levi?” Stephen asked.
“Yes, the Cloak of Levitation is boring. This suits him. You like it, don’t you, Levi?” Peter asked, addressing the cloak.
The cloak responded affirmatively, flaring its lapels and attaching to Peter's back. The boy giggled at that.
“Peter, how old are you?” Stephen asked, amused.
“I will turn 16 in August. Or have I already? How long have we been traveling? Aunt May will kill me if I don’t celebrate my birthday with her!” Peter rambled.
Stephen chuckled at that.
“See, this is what I said,” Tony commented.
“I can see that,” Stephen replied.
“What are you guys talking about?” Peter asked, frowning.
“Nothing,” Tony said.
The ship was going fast and was about to land on a surface.
“What’s going on?” Peter asked.
"I think we're here." Stephen said.
"I don't think this rig has a self-park function." Tony said.
"Get your hand inside this. Then, we got one big dodge, so we gotta move at the same time." Tony said to Peter
The ship was going to crash.
"We might wanna turn, turn, turn.
Turn!"
Stephen made a shield around the ship, which protected it from crashing.
"You all right?" Stephen asked giving a hand to Tony.
"That was close. I owe you one." Tony said.
Stephen nodded his head.
"Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry." Peter said.
"I don't want another single, pop-culture reference outta you for the rest of the trip. Understand?" Tony said.
"I'm trying to say that, something is coming." Peter said.
An explosion happened.
Drax, Quill and Mantis entered the ship.
"Thanos!" Quill yelled and attacked Tony.
The cloak attacked Drax.
Mantis was going to Peter.
"Oh, my God! Please don't put your eggs in me!" Peter said webbing Mantis.
"Die, Blanket of Death!" Drax said struggling with the Levi.
"Everybody stay where you are, chill the F out... I'm gonna ask you this one time...
Where is Gamora?" Quill asked holding Peter and pointing gun
"Yeah, I'll do you one better. Who's Gamora?" Tony asked pointing at Drax.
"I'll do you one better! Why is Gamora?" Drax asked.
"Let him go, or I swear to you, I'm gonna french fry this little freak." Quill said.
"Let's do it. You shoot my guy and I'll blast him. Let's go!" Tony said.
"Do it, Quill. I can take it." Drax said.
"No, he can't take it" Mantis said.
"She's right. You can't." Stephen said.
"Oh yeah? You don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine. I'll kill all three of you and I'll beat it out of Thanos myself!" Quill said.
"Starting with you." Quill pointed his gun at Peter
"Wait what, Thanos? All right... Let me ask you this one time... What master do you serve?" Stephen asked.
"What master do I serve? Am I supposed to say Jesus?" Quill asked.
"You're from Earth." Tony said
"Not from Earth. I'm from Missouri." Quill said.
"Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit. What are you hassling us for?" Tony asked.
"So you're not with Thanos?" Peter asked.
"With Thanos? No! I'm here to kill Thanos. He took my girl. Wait, who are you?" Quill asked
"We're the Avengers, man." Peter said
"You're the ones Thor told us about!" Mantis said
"You know Thor?" Tony asked
"Yeah. Tall guy, not that good-looking." Quill said.
"Where is he now?" Stephen asked.
"He is at some made up place to build a new weapon to kill Thanos" Drax said.
"What the hell happened to this planet? It's 8 degrees off its axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place." Quill said.
"Yeah, we got one advantage. He's coming to us.We'll use it. Alright, I have a plan. It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. We definitely don't want to dance with this guy, we just want the gauntlet." Tony explained.
"Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Did you hear what I said?" Tony asked to Drax
"I stopped listening after you said that we need a plan." Drax said
"Okay, Mr. Clean's on his own page." Tony said annoyed.
"See, not winging it isn't really what they do." Quill said
"What exactly is it that they do? " Peter asked
"Kick names, take ass. " Mantis said
"All right, just get over here, please?
Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up? " Tony asked
"Star-Lord is fine." Quill said
"We've gotta coalesce. Because if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude... " Tony said
"Dude, don't call us plucky. We don't know what it means. All right, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan, except it sucks. So let me do the plan, and that way, it might be really good." Quill said
"Tell him about the dance-off to save the Universe." Drax said.
"What dance-off?" Tony asked
"It's not a, it's not a... " Quill stammered
"Like in Footloose? The movie?" Peter asked.
"Exactly like Footloose! Is it still the greatest movie in history?" Quill asked.
"It never was." Peter said.
"Dont encourage this, alright. We're getting no help with Flash Gordon." Tony said.
"Flash Gordon? By the way? That's a compliment. Don't forget. I'm half human. So that's 50% of me that's stupid, And that's 100% you." Quill said.
"Your math is blowing my mind." Tony said.
"Excuse me? But does your friend often do that?" Mantis asked looking at Stephen who was meditating.
Stephen was using time Stone and glitching.
"Strange! You all right?" Tony asked.
Stephen came back and gasped. "You're back. You're all right." Tony said holding him
"Hey, what was that?" Peter asked.
"I went forward in time, to view alternate futures... To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict." Stephen said panicked.
"How many did you see?" Quill asked.
"14,000,605" Stephen said.
"How many did we win?" Tony asked.
Stephen looked at Tony with fear and sadness and said.
"Two. But I can't talk about the future." Stephen said.
"Alright, let's plan this one. Let's see what can we do" Tony said.
Thanos entered the planet. Stephen was waiting for him sitting there playing with a stone.
"Oh, yeah. You're much more of a Thanos." Stephen said.
"I take it that Maw is dead? This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission." Stephen said.
"You may regret that. He brought you face-to-face with a Master of the Mystic Arts." Stephen said
"Where do you think he brought you?" Thanos said.
"Let me guess. Your home?" Stephen said.
"It was. And it was beautiful. Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution." Thanos used the reality stone to show the past Titan.
"Genocide?" Stephen asked.
"At random. Dispassionate, fair. The rich and poor alike. And they called me a madman. And what I predicted, came to pass." Thanos said.
"Congratulations. You're a prophet." Stephen mocked.
"I'm a survivor." Thanos said.
"Who wants to murder trillions." Stephen said.
"With all six Stones, I could simply snap my fingers.They would all cease to exist. I call that mercy." Thanos said.
"And then what?" Stephen asked moving towards to him.
I finally rest. And watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills." Thanos said.
"I think you'll find our will equal to yours." Stephen said.
""Our"? Thanos asked
Tony attacked from the above. Stephen, Quill, Peter, Quill, Gamora and Drax caught him from every side. Mantis sat on his neck and controlled his mind.
"Is he under? Don't let up." Tony said
"Be quick. He is very strong." Mantis said.
"Parker, help. Get over here. She can't hold him much longer. Let's go." Tony said trying to remove the gauntlet from Thanos' hand.
"I thought you'd be harder to catch. For the record, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh? Where's Gamora?" Quill asked.
"My Gamora!" Thanos said.
"Oh, bullshit! Where is she?" Quill said.
"He is in anguish." Mantis said
"Good." Quill said.
"He... He mourns" Mantis said.
"What does this monster have to mourn?" Quill asked.
"Gamora..." Nebula said.
"What?"
"He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone. She didn't." Nebula said
"Okay, Quill? You gotta cool it right now, understand? Don't. Don't engage. We almost got this off!" Tony said.
"Tell me she's lying. Asshole! Tell me" Quill said punching on Thanos' face
"Quill, stop it. You're making it hard." Tony said blocking him.
"Mr. Stark, I got it" Peter said taking the gauntlet off Thanos' hand.
"Now what?" Peter asked.
Mantis was trying hard to keep Thanos under control.
"Guys, do something fast. I can't hold him for long," Mantis said.
"I will kill him. For Gamora," Quill said, taking his gun.
"You can't do it alone. He is stronger than that," Stephen replied.
"Then how will we kill him?" Tony asked.
"Everyone, attack him at once. But Mantis has to move away from him," Stephen instructed.
"But he will wake up," Peter said.
"Yes, but we don't have any other choice. Keep the gauntlet away from him. Let's do it," Stephen said.
"Okay," Tony agreed.
Everyone got into position. Mantis moved away from Thanos's head.Thanos opened his eyes, furious.Stephen conjured a magical rope and bound him, while Peter webbed him from the other side.
"You're making a mistake. I'm right; you're all wrong," Thanos said.
"Do it; it's time," Stephen commanded.Tony, Quill, Nebula, and Drax attacked him all at once.
Stephen used all his magic against Thanos.After a while, Thanos was down on the ground.
"Is he dead?" Quill asked.The group moved toward the massive figure.
"You've made a terrible mistake," Thanos groaned.
"Shut the fuck up, you monster," Quill said, and shot him in the face.
Thanos was dead.